Philipp's TravelBlog

I am currently on surfcamp for 5 days at SpotX in Arrawarra, about 560km up the east coast from Sydney.

On Friday I will move on from here to Byron Bay.

This is a really cool place. Surfing is awesome, the food is great, the group is not too big. I’m really enjoying it here. The only bad thing is the freezing temperature in the evening and at night. During the day I surf in shorts, I really dislike the wetsuit. I want to feel the water on my skin and I have the feeling that I surf better without it.

I will write a more detailed blogpost including photos on Friday when I am on the bus. Cya!

I got up at 8am, had a quick breakfast and finally checked out at the hostel.
The girl at the reception was one of my roommates 🙂

With my 25-30 kilos of luggage I walked the 2 km to the Wake Up hostel at central station: more »

This was a chilled day. Started out at the lounge and skyped with Sara for about 2 hours, then went back to the hostel for lunch.
After lunch I did the washing – I had one machine load of clothes. Easy done, no problem. I spent the rest of the day watching series and packing, because the next day I would finally leave this hostel with the way too many germans.
In the evening Nicole and I went through her photos from the last 2 days, sorted bad ones out and finally burnt everything on DVD for her.
Not even 2 weeks yet and I have > 2,000 new photos on my harddrive 🙂 plus the ~500 from Nicole.

I finally said goodbye and went to bed.

Today VividSydney started right on time at 6 pm. The city was illuminated in unbelievable beautiful ways.

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After 9 days I still haven’t got my atm/bank card. Everyone else who opened their accounts at the same time have gotten their cards 2 days before. more »

Here is an update on my mobile situation.

Here in Australia I will use the GlobalGossip simcard as my primary number. You can reach me at 04145 34340 respectively +61 41 45 34340.
This gives me really cheap rates for calling and texting. 9 aussie cents for german landline, 30 for german mobile, 15 cents for a text message to anywhere in the world 🙂

I have my german simcard in my old phone. I can receive texts for free, so for germans texting me – use my known german number, but don’t try to call me on that, as I won’t answer. The roaming coasts are too high.

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Today the wetter was alright again, and I had a great planned unplanned day in this city.

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This morning I switched from my 4 bed dorm into a 8 bed dorm. The reason is that the first 8 nights included with my package are over, and I now have to pay for the stay. While a 4 bed dorm is 35$ per night, an 8 bed dorm is “only” 23$.

This also means I finally get away from the Germans (I hope) and get to speak more english.

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After the harbour cruise, Nicole and I went to the Sydney Aquarium, which was a lot bigger than we had thought.
It was good, but I find the Manly OceanWorld more impressive.
But then, the Aquarium had some weird creatures Manly doesn’t offer.
Just look for yourself: more »

We met at 10am for the cruise. We walked through the botanic gardens past the Opera House to Circular Quay, were we went on a small ferry.
While “cruise” indicates a calm and relaxed movement to me, it was indeed a speed ferry. Not exactly what I call a cruise, but great fun 🙂
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