Melbourne - arrived

Hi all, sorry for the upload spam... but there was a little to catch up with... however, first people got confused whether we are still or back in Lao... so here is the answer: NO.
We finally arrived in Melbourne, its all good and we actually really like it here.. We found ourselves a nice place.. Uni is sorted out and seems to be fairly ok (mon-wed) and everything else is yet to discover:

new numbers are out

+61 ***ask her*** (Kati)
+61 449204145 (Matt)
and the new home you can find below...

olé

Melbourne - BBQs and festivals

Melbourne is crazy... and we love it.. so far its been really good. There are soooo many things to do and look at. Hepas of cafés markets, art and exhibitions, BBQs just in front of your house and all neighbors are coming... open air festivals and street parties... beer is a little expensive here... but apart from that.. we have sooooo much ahead of us... i love it!

Melbourne - McK and AFL

Kati got all excited about the sport and it didnt even take one week to get a chance to get her hands (or her new suit) dirty...
McK vs BCG and some Lawyers, charity AFL friendly match to support the start of teach first Australia: Great job Kati!!!

Melbourne - AFL season ending

Since the season is ending, we went to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to watch one of the Semifinals Collingwood vs Adelaide
[kati: Oh, and the sport is footy, yes, the field is round, yes, those are poles like in rugby, yes, there are our rather than two... the funniness continues in that you can kick or PUNCH the ball, but NOT THROW it... and even though it's oval, you must bounce... and the throws from the side are done by referees which throw backwards... it's GREAT CRAZY STUFF!]

Melbourne - All about café

Melbourne is even more café than Berlin... I think
[comments kati: please note that the picture below is of our very own fire place which is in our room... ahh... chai tea and crackling wood :-)
and also note the fooood besides the coffee! this place is one for foodies! the yummmmmmy sin of a chocolate fudge cake above, and the pumpkin-feta-walnut-quiche below... yums!]

Melbourne - New home

Abover: Our temporary accomodation above Royal Derby hotel, Brunswickstreet, great location but maybe a little loud... however, cheapest double in Melbounrne we found

And this here is finally our new home:
122 Faradaystreet, 3053 Carlton,
(we have the 1st floor room with the both windows, balcony and private chimney)

Togean Islands - The hosts

Jaffa (boss)

Mardi (a little everything and crazy in a nice way)

Seiful, the organizer (left) and the coconut boy, whos name i never understood (really crazy...)

Togean Islands - Boats and jetties

On one of the sknorkel trips

Katupat jetty life

the Fadhila cats and me building a catamaran

I asked the owner of Fashila Cottages why there werent any sail boats, constant wind and no waves... everybody considerably poor..
he said since they could afford old honda 5hp outboard engines, there are no sail boats anymore, but they used to be everywhere...
and he came up with the idea to build a catamaran for his tourists, so he can rent it out on a daily basis... littel entrepreneurship olé

Togean Islands - Our islands

Home beach at Fadhila

conquering the smallest islands of the togeans next to Atoll1

In front of Bolilanga

Every evening happiness ritual, fresh coconut and sunset at our jetty... at some places its simply right to be in love...

Togean Islands - High visibility waters

Being sourronded at 270 degrees of Sulawesi main island, the Togeans only get rough sea when teh wind comes from the east... which doesnt happen very often. Therefore the visibility under water is incredible... and you can see that already from above...

Togean Islands - Gipsy (Bajo) Village

Boat trip to the Bajo stilt village - view while arriving

We chartered a little boat to go the Bajo village. 2h each way plus some snorkelling on the way back makes up for a good day trip. The village is particulary popular due to its crazy people... everybody wants to be in the picture.. actually the compete doing stupid things in order to get your attention... well, on the other hand, here we had an opportunity to take some people pics, which we avoided before to not be unpolite...

Togean Islands - Animals

We had up to 7 Lion Fish living at our Jetty... pretty impressive and poisoness fish

One of my goals, to finally get this mysterious coconut crab on the blog.. for growing up to 1m the ones we were shown by local crab hunter were very small (the siz of a palmtree... or maybe 30cm...)

occasional dolfins, olé