Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Barcelona - Passeig Isabel II, 6 - our new home











Hey all,

just a quick one... since we are her now for more than 10 days now, which have passed by like nothing, I thought I conserve the following pics forever..

Our new flat - or as some people say: living like good in spain ;))

The pictures might give the place too much credit, since it has been run down a little, but its still a ridiculously great place soo close to the harbor, beach and life in Barcelona.

We live together with Martin, Fish and Bean now (3 other IESE students) and the occasional visitor (the guys are all singles ... )

Enjoy and talk soon... with news from the pink panther party in London over the weekend...


Saturday, January 9, 2010

Tasmania - Freyzinet Peninsula


Just lost the post... sad now.. no words ;(
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Tasmania - Falls Festival


This morning, I wasnt even sure where to start... there are soo many things and on this one, I could tell stories for hours again... but yeah, looks like we are getting through on a very high level, though..

the falls festival spin off from the bigger sister in Lorne, Marion Bay is secretly the nicer venue... located in the hills with views on the ocean and access to the beach, the 3 day festival into new years was one continuing wondering of why people would do it... why, why, why..
I tried to understand, talk to people, try it out myself... but i am as clueless as I was before..

well, first of all, I do admit I am getting older! true, we went to the festival knowing 2 out of 30 bands.. (a quick internet research revealed that bands like the yeah yeah yeahs, grizzyly bear, hilltop hoods and seasick steve are the hype at the moment) and true again, moby (the one I knew) was just bad. Plain! Lets just not even start with it... biggest surprise and new discoveries for us: seasick steve, emiliana torrini, art vs sciene, Lisa Mitchell and comedian Arj Barker. But yeah, yeah and yeah.. its like i didnt know them before and now i couldnt care less... the new york trio seems to me as wrong as the clothes people wear... screeming doesnt help, if there is no message you have to convey... and excessibely using the expressiong mother f***** in lover songs... is just not my style.. and - no judging- I do feel sorry for those who need to express their feelings in a similar way...

back to the thing... the return to the 80th, the leggins, the sunglasses.. the weird colors, the forced individualism, where everybody tries to beat the others by looking even worse, ending in a freak show of people who - tyring to be different - all seem the same, just badly dressed (in terms of clothes)...
I dont get it.. I thought, after the 80th everybody agreed that the style was as poor as post war architecture... something you shouldnt return to if you have other choices...

So while I was wondering, the temperature reached an 10 year record high of 38,5 degrees, the beach was closed due to a jelly fish plague and the relief materilazied in the form of an tank truck that offered a public group shower orgy of the finer type... the first wet t-shirt contest I have seen, where the girls screemed and ran towards the water rather than away from it... olé

so, "use your flippers to get down" and happy 2010!
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Tasmania - Bruny Island


After the hike is before the hike, as the Romans say... we finished the overland track, basically to pick up our new car and drive aroudn tassie.. but ended up hiking up to 7h per day anyway...
stunning costal scenery was challenged only by man made things like stone man beach, random mobile phone reception while waiting for the next ferry and fruit picking/fresh made fruit ice cream close to hobart (sorell).
Another highlight was one night at the penguins, at the ithmus of bruny island we spend 1,5 h watching a whole lot of fairy penguins coming back form the sea to feed their babies... and i mean hundreds of them...

ah, and waht do you do with a shark that you accidentally fish with your fhishing net (upper right corner)... you throw it back in the water, at the beach, of course...
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Tasmania - Overland track


Some impressions from the hike...too many crazy moments!!

Crazy in love coucourchis,
crazy bad weather at the beginning, with crazy wind and fog and rain and coldness
crazy summits and vistas
crazy people, mainly from canada and germany
crazy hut life after the hikes, sitting around the tiny heater
waterfalls, lakes, rocks, rainforest...

and of course our favorite quote from one of the log books: "John Chapman forgot to mention, that evil roots are the devil!"
also high on my list was the mac pac sales guy, looking at my shoes after i told him I dont think to buy gore tex boots: "you are one brave young man, mate!"

what I am talking about are the tracks, only sometimes on boardwalks, most of the track still goes through muddy, wet ground, with heaps of mudwholes and in the foresty areas millions of roots (wet) on which you try to get forwards...

Btw, I did get gore tex shoes in the end, and "gaitors", both highly recommended to necessary! I also got Kati, but that is a longer story, which I will get into later and in more detail ;))
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Tasmania - West Coast


Random thoughts (from upper left corner):

Echidna - Ant eater, looks like an hedgehog but is nicer since more special and doesnt exist in Germany ;)
Leaving Melbourne harbour on the spirit of tasmania
Hobarts most famous fish restaurant
Some beach on the north coast
flowers
Environmental fighting boat
Caterpillar

....

and the crazy monster santa penguin, some shadows in the west coast's massive sand dunes, sunset beach spins, coffee at the nut in stanley, and the gorge in launceston....
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Tasmania - Wildlife


Tasmania wildlife was, in short, dissapointing. However, we had our highlights, especially about 1h with this Pademelon baby and its mum. Soooo sweet. Apart from that we saw the odd Echidna, 1 or 2 wombats, heaps of wallabees and a really big Tiger Snake. All in all rather few animals for being so remote... but yeah, in exchange the weather was fine.. so what...
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Tasmania


So here we go, xmas vacation, a trip to the islands off the island off the island. The tour around remote Tasmania, Bruny Island, the Tasman and Freyzinet Peninsula. To get an idea what happened, I uploaded the map, as most people I talked to so far werent too familiar with Tazzie (fair enough).

1) First part was the relocation of our nice and almost too perfect Apollo 3 berth campervan from Melbourne, with the "Spirit of Tasmania"-ferry to Devenport (in the North) and then via Stanley down the west coast to Strahan and the most beatiful sunset-dunes of Tazzie. From there to Hobart to finally drop of the car with 800km instead of the allowed for 400km ;( - but hey, we have done the west coast, have you??

2) Second stretch was hiking. Getting to Cradle Moutain via Launceston by bus, and then 8 days on foot down south to Lake St Claire (Derwent Bridge), almost 90km, in 8 days. They call it the overland track, I guess because it goes over land, instead of e.g. flying?? From there with the bus back to Hobart for xmas eve.

3) Picked up our new home on wheels, a high tech minimalistic campervan from Budget, some people with little imagination would call it a transporter, since it came with ample space but nothing like bed, kitchen, sink, fridge or other luxury items like second battery. However, the pickled frog backpacker in hobart supported us with a full on luxuary mattress, we had our camping stove and borrowed a cooler from Coles. Voila! Off to Bruny island in the south of Hobart for 3 days and the to the Tasman Penisula.

4) Highlight 4 was the Falls Festival in Marion Bay, which is between Sorell and Triabunna at the east coast. 3 day rock and alternative music, beach and new years eve with crazy thunderstorm.

5) Walkind out, is how I would say in German. Cooling off, after sport, getting your shoes out and run a little for the fun of it. The 2 day overnight hike on Freyzinet Peninsula felt like it. The lazy bunch arrives at Coles bay to see teh world famous Wineglass bay to be surprised that they actually have to walk up the hill to a lookout for 45min to take a photo of it and another 45min down to the beach for a swim... well, we thought, too easy, lets walkt around the whole Penisula, camp out at the free bushcamping sites right at the beach and come back over a 700m high mountain and approach the beach from the back... and it was sooo worth it!!

Jepp, thats 3,5 weeks in short. I will also upload some pics, but its 700 again, and after hard work i got down to 200, so i had to squeeze it again and will give you 4 collages of many beatiful memories... watch them in full size!!!

m*
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Thursday, January 7, 2010

Back to Barcelona



Hey all,

just a quick note while we are in Melbourne on the way to catch our flight to Barca...
We had a terrific time in Tasmania. The island is soo remote that you are pretty much on your own even in high season!! Also, we were totally lucky with the weather, having had only two days of rain in 3,5 weeks, including the hottest day in Tassie in the last 10 years (38,5 ºC).
Among the Highlights were of course the 8 day overnight trek from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Claire (Overland track), the Falls festival and hiking along Wineglass bay on Freyzinet Peninsula. Fotos are to come soon, and many more stories as well ;))

The sad news are, that we feel like we missed out on xmas and new years. Being surrounded by beaches and warm weather is nice, but doesnt feel like xmas at all. We did miss, the cold and our families, hanging out eating too much and playing board games for three days is just the right thing to do at this time of the year.

And celebrating new years with 17ooo people on the Falls Festival, watching the ocean and a crazy lightening storm will be an unforgettable memory, but is not the same as being with friends, going crazy in Berlin or whereever, but going crazy with your friends..

Its that what makes us looking forward to the next step on our long journey... its getting closer to yall again.. looking forward to barcelona and the IESE crowd, meeting most of the homies in London in pink and also getting some of you to visit us in Barcelona maybe, since we only have 4 months left to offer that opportunity.

Anyway, before I start crying, I might as well catch my flight.. Hope yall doing fine, had a great start into 2010 so far and that we catch up soon!!!

Love, peace and ice cream,

M&K*