“The Gold Coast is the Pebble Beach of Queensland”

Good morning to you guys. Susi just sent me a short update about her trip and what she got to see. So Susi, how sweet is it down there? All Susi’s Down Under posts will be gathered in this tag archive: Susi’s Down Under. — READ ON!

My trip started on the 2nd of March in the morning. I had a 22 hours journey in front of me, including a 13 hour-stopover in Taipei (Taiwan) for my connecting flight (How to handle a connecting flight?). I used this time to walk around in Taipei. I also had a private tour guide. Jimmy Chen from Taipei. I randomly met him in the streets and he insisted on showing me around in the city (and also on paying for everything). It was very exhausting because every 5 meters he wanted to take a picture of me in all kinds of positions.

In Brisbane I was picked up by Vera and Ken. These two are some friends of mine who offered me to stay with them for one week. I had an awesome time with them. Vera and Ken live on the Gold Coast (Paradise Point).

The Gold Coast is the Pebble Beach of Queensland (Philipp knows since there is this fabulous area in Northern California from our first trip together to the US).

The first day Vera and Ken showed me the life and the beaches of Surfer’s Paradise. They also took me to a subtropic and to a tropic rainforest (I can’t really tell the difference between them, you have to see it on your own, so make sure you check out the Gallery.) Plus, I spent one day at Sea World, watching a dolphin show, a seal show, polar bears, shark and a lot of other fascinating animals.

One secret tip for traveling along the Gold Coast is “Sanctury Cove.” It’s an artificial cove in a very nice resort (We also used the resort facilities but pssst). The most people are going there to get married.
Besides discovering the nature of queensland I also got to enjoy some Australian culture. The Australin Army marching band (I think I was the very youngest at this concert, the average was about 50 years) with its Scottish “Dudelsäcke” (Susi, the word for this is bag pipes, I, Philipp, have to know - Scotland ‘07) were great. At the Ormiston House in Cleveland I could see how rich people lived in the 1860s. One of Vera’s and Ken’s friends had his 70th birthday so I could also join a typically Australian anniversary party.

A short note on the people here: The Australians are very friendly and out-going. And yes, some of them have a bloody accent. But most of them imigrated from other countries like Great Britain, Macedonia, Germany or any states of China. Thus, they speak very clearly.

Visit the first part of my gallery (Susi’s Down Under ‘08 Gallery). Here is a short preview of what’s waiting there…