First work, then fun

Wow, it has been already 3 weeks since the last post. My apologies! Huh and now it’s so hard to look back and think what has happened, but I’ll try to write down everything J

Now already a little bit more than 2 weeks ago I got a job in an Italian restaurant as waitress. The job search was hard and long, but finally I had some success and after the training/testing day they decided to hire me. The restaurant where I’m working is the oldest Italian restaurant around and it has been here in Surfers since 1970’s. If you would like to know more about this place then visit this page: http://www.nicolinis.com.au

The beginning there was pretty hard, because on my first day I even didn’t have time to get to know the menu and had to start serving tables and it’s a really big challenge if you don’t know what kind of food and wine people see on the card. At least everything worked out, customers understood my situation, said a good word about me and I got this position J

The funny thing about this job is that hiring me was actually a mistake J yes, a mistake! The owner was meant to call an Italian girl to come for a training day, but by accident they picked up my resume and gave ma a call. Like I have always said, everything happens for a reason and probably I was just meant to end up in this restaurant….

A night out with people from work . Our team is pretty international - Estonian, Italians, Brazilians  and Check

Couple of weeks ago we decided with Lucas to open our unit for couchsurfers, because this community has helped both of us a lot during our travels and we just want to give something back to this fellowship. So far we have hosted already 3 people- 1 girl from Slovenia, 1 girl from Germany and a guy from Portugal. I have to say that its really interesting to see how differently people act staying at your place and this experience has taught me how to be and how not to be next time J

A week ago when the Slovenian girl stayed over, we caught up with Dave who we know from Whistler as well and he took as pattleboarding. I didn’t expect much from this thing, but it was actually more fun than I expected!

Dave

With Polona

In last weeks I have been able to go for 2 road trips. One of them was up to Mount Tambourine to see the beautiful view from the top of the mountain to the coast line. It’s a beautiful area with wineries, distilleries, cheese factures, different restaurants and nice shops.

The second road trip was west from the coast. We hit the road late on the evening after I finished work to go to the backcountry, because I really wanted to see wild kangaroos. The more backcountry you go, the more wildlife you should see... But I wasn’t lucky again, I think I have to stop looking for them and they I’ll see them jumping around everywhere.

We did the road trip during Anzac day, what is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand on 25 April every year to honor the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought during World War I. It commemorates all those who served and died (around 8000 men) in military operations for their countries.  In the morning when we got to Goondiwindy, we got to see a little bit a dawn service and a small town’s parade. It was really nice to see how they remember people who died and fought in the war in different cultures.

It was really nice to see all the backcountry, mountains, cotton fields and much more.

Enjoying the view

Lunch break

Don't let distance get in the way. Hold on to your friendship for it will be there forever. 

With Alix

Anzac day parade

Remembrance day speech

Lost in the middle of the cotton field

And now on top of the cotton ball

Hard to believe that Oslo nd New York are basically on the same distance

Didn't find kangaroos, but got to see lamas 

Huge agaves, hope that my parents plant what they have had for their whole marriage will grow that big one day as well !!

Miss and love you a lot, my dear friends!!

road trip

Last week has been really interesting and pretty surprising, because I ended up going for a road trip. Easter here in Australia means school holidays for kids and long 4 day weekend for people with office jobs. Thanks to that I was able to hop in Lucas’ car and see a little bit surrounding, because he is more than happy to show me around and go to the places where he has never been as well. Because we still don’t have wash machine in our apartment then our first stop was Ipswich to drop off our dirty laundry at his dads place J

The road trip ended up being much longer than we planned et the beginning. In 3 days we drove through more than 2000km, but got to see a lot as well. We decided to avid the extremely busy highways and take the back road what meant 300 extra km. The highways get jammed and slow down to 40 km/h during the holidays, because everybody tries to take out the most of the long 4 days weekend – on the back road we were at least moving all the time and I got to see Australia’s countryside, because so far I have seen only big cities and beaches J Another reason why I really liked the idea to see the countryside was my big hope to see wild kangaroos, but unfortunately I saw only dead ones on the side of the road what have been hit by the car… Even Lucas was very surprised that we saw none, but its always like that when you are looking for something you never find it/them and when you are not looking, then you can see it/them everywhere!

Lucas' new car

A random stop in Blackbutt

A quick lunch stop 

Over the weekend I got to see Bundaberg, Agnes Waters and Town of 1770, Bribie Island, Hervey Bay and a little bit of Brisbane.

In Bundaberg I caught up with Triin, Henri, Kadiriin and Kristo. Triin is a old family friend, who I unfortunately haven’t seen for at least last 3 years and that’s the reason why it was just so nice to see on this side of the world again. We got to Bundaberg on the evening and did BBQ at their place. For the first time in my life I got to try kangaroo meat and I have to say I really liked it, but it’s like with every other kind of meat – you like it or not. Kangaroo meat is done on the BBQ almost the same than stake and it has to be bloody in the inside and definitely not too grilled, because that would kill the flavor.

Next day we left pretty early in the morning to go and see Agnes Waters and Town of 1770. This place was Captain James Cook’s second landing in Australia and his first in Queensland, hence the Town of 1770 being referred to as the birthplace of Queensland. Captain Cook was the first one who though Australia is actually a nice place with beautiful nature and landscape, because the previous explorers said its just a desert here and the climate is too hot to live in. And Agnes Waters is just a nice beach town with nice restaurant and cafes.

At lunch time we got back to Bundaberg, had lunch with the Estonian crew together and chatted for another hour. After that we went to see the famous Bundaberg Rum Distillery. The rum factory started producing rum in 1888 from sugarcane and is now one of the biggest export article from Australia.

During our road trip we got to see Hervey Bay and Bribie Island as well. I definitely wanna go back to Hervey Bay in August because it is whale watching capital of Australia and that’s the month when you can see the most whales, because then they are moving their babies up north to warmer waters.

With Triin

Henri is sneaking on the background :)

Kadiriin and Triin after their first kangaroo dinner

View from the top of the hill to the place where Captain James Cook landed

Lucas having fun with Captain Cook's street sign

Hugging a big bottle of Bundaberg Rum

Over the weekend we drove more than 2000km and what’s the coolest part about it is that it was all free for me J Yes, I have been extremely lucky again and all the gas for the car gets paid by Lucas’ company.  I still have no job, but still can’t really complain about my life J

I cant really complain about the climate here as well, because it’s much warmer here than back home J During the day the temperatures are between 25 and 30 and at night time it goes down to 18C right now, so basically the autumn here is like the summer back home. And one reason why this city where I am living is called Gold Coast is that they have 320 days of sunshine every year.

Hugs and kisses!!

Surfers Paradise

So Surfers Paradise! Yes I really do live here in Australia on the Gold Coast place called Surfers Paradise J  The beginning here was really hard, because I had to find a place to move for couple of next months, but it even wasn’t half that easy as I expected. That’s just crazy how hard it is to find an empty 2 bedroom apartment here and when you find it then starts the most complicating parting – dealing with real estate agents! Yes you heard right, because they just don’t wanna work here and make money. The first real estate company couldn’t move their ass at all and didn’t work so I just gave up and started looking again. At least I was lucky then and found an awesome unit on 2 floors, with 2 bedrooms and a big living room/ kitchen area, with a pool on the backyard. The house is only 2 blocks from the beach and 4 blocks from city centre, what means it is really convenient to walk everywhere and enjoy the surrounding.

If somebody is interested then my new address is: Kadi-Riin Leisalu, 12/34 Remembrance Drive, Surfers Paradise QLD 4217, Australia

I moved in to the apartment with Lucas, who is from Australia - I met him during my travels in Whistler where we lived and worked together. He just bought a company down here and was looking for a new place to stay as well, because the house what he owns in Ipswich is too far away from work, but we got most of the furniture from there what was just awesome J because it’s a lot cheaper to rent an empty apartment than furnished.  

And when somebody wonders if he is my boyfriend or something, then I have to say no, because he is just a friend and we are sharing the apartment where both of us have own bedrooms.

The entrance and stairs

Lucas' bedroom - still a little bit empty....

Hall upstairs

My bedroom

Living room 

View out of the living room window

With Lucas

Gold Coast is the sixth most populous city in Australia With a population of approximately 600,000 people, but the suburb Surfers Paradise where I live has around 20 000 people. When you get down here then you are not surprised why people love to live here, because the beach here is 57km long and when you have a look along the beach then it just keeps going, going and going…. It just like never ends J

Beach safety is here very well under control I reckon, because the lifeguards are really everywhere along the beautiful sandy beach, you are allowed to swim ONLY between the flags and everything is under control and checked all the time, but the reason why it is so strict over here are most unlikely sharks… And yes some shark attacks still take here place couple of times in a year, so let’s hope that I’m not going to be the next one J

Surfers in Surfers

My new hometown for a bit - Surfers Paradise

Sunset

No flags = no swim

Local bird Ibis

But Job? No I still don’t have a job, because I have been to busy looking for an apartment and getting some furniture in the empty apartment, so I actually really started looking couple of days ago and haven’t found something, but I haven’t lost hope and have a smile on my face.. so something just has to come up soon J and it will! 

Oh blow the winds o'er the ocean, And blow the winds o'er the sea, Oh blow the winds o'er the ocean And bring back my Bonnie to me!

I stayed in Sydney until Sunday the 11^th and during my last days there I got to go for beautiful walks on different beaches, experience Sydney’s nightlife in Manly and even held an Estonian dinner party J

 We went with Lucas and his roommates to world famous Bondi beach on Saturday morning, what was beautiful beach with white sand and surf waves, but on my opinion it was nothing really special – just a normal crowded beach close to the city.

Estonian dinner party

Last piece of cake, what disappeared couple of seconds later :) 

Partying in Manly with Alix and Lucas

Bondi beach

A beautiful walk from Coogee towards Bondi

During the week I was looking for rideshares at www.gumtree.com.au, because I thought it will be a cheaper opportunity to get to the Gold Cost than by bus. I have to say that I was extremely lucky, because I found an advertisement where a guy was looking for people to help to transfer the boat from Sydney to the Gold Cost and they picked ME out of hundreds of people J Another reason why I was very lucky was that this sailing trip was for free and included free food, living and transport for the whole time. Here in Australia one 3 days long sailing trip cost usually around 750$. J

So, on Sunday night I jumped on the 40 feet long racing boat to start my travels towards Gold Cost. We left Sydney at midnight and had over 350 nautical miles (648km) in front of us. After sailing 60 nautical miles (111km) with against wind we decided to turn in to Port Nelson and wait there for couple of days the wind to change, but unfortunately we got stuck for 5,5 days.

During this time I got to know our crew better and was able to discover the area. There were all together 4 of us – Greg (63), who was the captain and has over 40 years sailing experience and during this time he has even sailed couple of  times around the world, Bob(61), who has a lot of sailing experience as well and is building his own sailing boat right now to travel with his wife around Australia for 6 years, Garion (20) from Netherlands,  was another backpacker and found this rideshare opportunity at Gumtree’s as well and didn’t have much sailing experience and of course me too. J Always when Greg has to transfer the boat from different racing spots to the new place he likes to have some inexperienced young people on the boat, because he likes to see the passion and excitement in their eyes and to give them this sailing opportunity.

Our joker Garion from Holland on the yacht :)

Dolphins swimming next to our boat on the way to Port Nelson. Just AMAZING!!!

Good life on the boat :)

Bob, me and Captain Greg

Day at the beach while we waited the wind to change

Harbor where we were stuck for almost 6 days

On Saturday early morning we were able to get going again and then the adventure really began J The trip from Port Nelson to Southport lasted all together 45hrs, what means that we sailed through day and night. Even I had to learn how to steer and because I was surprisingly good at it then I had to steer the whole time 2 hours on, 2 hours off, what was cool at the beginning, but not so nice after 40 hours, because its very exhausting to do it in sunshine, heavy rain, huge waves, with strong wind and at night time. The wind was up to 35 knots (18m/s) and the waves up to 5m high… and I have to say it wasn’t even close to stormy sea back home, because ocean definitely is way different than calm seas in Europe.

But the actual reason why I can say it was one of the best experiences in my life so far is that I got to see dolphins at sunrise and many times during the day, saw full moon and falling stars being out on the ocean, bioluminescent plankton made all the water around us shine and sparkle when we sailed through it and much more J What an experience!!!! Just awesome, have nothing else to say....

Its just so hard to put it in words how amazing it was J because when I would try to describe it then it wouldn’t be even comparable to that what it actually was!

Beautiful sunrise

And the next sunrise was with dolphins!!!! Wow

Me sailing on the rainy afternoon

Our Lambourdini :)

 And now I’m on The Gold Cost and look for an apartment and job on Surfers Paradise. Hopefully I’m still lucky and I get everything figured out so soon as possible.