Happy new year !

I know it’s coming late, but happy new year! 2017 was great, 2018 will be greater. Looking back I would say it’s been a wonderful year.

You know, first of all I met my girlfriend (I knew her before, but in 2k17 it was official), the I finished school, which I see as my greatest achievement so far! Then, as some may know, I traveled to Australia for some time and saw the firework in Sydney harbour (which is a goal on its own). I made a lot of new friends in that 3 months, which means a lot to me. I hope I’ll see them again, although I am not really sure about that. However, I had an amazing time in Australia, I’ll never forget that experience, for sure!

I hope 2018 will be as successful as 2017, maybe even better. May all your wishes come true, some of mine did already!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas has finally arrived. That time of the year everyone’s looking forward to. The time of families, harmony and love.

What’s a typical Christmas everybody loves? Right, a warm Christmas inside, but a cold one outside. Well, here in Australia it’s both, a warm Christmas inside and a warm one outside. It doesn’t really feel like Christmas at all. Our families are at home, celebrating a usual evening on 24th. But we don’t.

We cooked ourselves some dinner, played Christmas songs to get into the mood at least a little bit and watched a movie.At least I’m here with my girlfriend and another friend, that makes it a little bit better than being completely alone.

Anyway, have a Merry Christmas and lots of love from Down Under.

SierraBravo out.

Christmas in Summer

Christmas in Australia is very special to me. It’s the first time celebrating christmas in summer. The feeling is strange to me, just because of thr high temperatures we have right now. You know, back in Austria we usually have snow in December. It gets dark very early (around 4pm) and the mood is a completely different one. Everything seems so idyllic back at home. 

But not here. In Australia it’s hot in December, summer has just started here. The feeling of christmas is not really given. No christmas songs in the radio, long hot days in the beach, not really what i am used to.

There are some decorations on houses, but not many. Some public squares in the city are decorated as well, but still, the flair is totally missing. This might be one of the strangest christmas eve’s i’ve ever had.

We’ll spend the 24th in Byron Bay. Maybe we will do some surfing, we’ll see. It’s also the first christmas without our families, which is a little bit sad, but still an amazing experience!

Visit the Reef before it’s gone!

Everyone knows the Great Barrier Reef. The biggest Reef on earth, located along the coast of Queensland, Australia. Some even say it’s so big that it is visible from space.

Due to climate change, the reef and its corals slowly extinct. Plastic and other rubbish in the sea increases the speed of extinction.

I’ve just finished my Open Water Dive Certification, which i did in the Great Barrier Reef. I learned a lot about the ecosystem and the fish which inhabit the corals. It was am amazing experience diving down the rocks, swimming next to big and small fish. It was astonishing!

Luckily we visited a reef which still was very colourfull. I heard that there are already many spots in the outter reef which look like coral cementeries. Dead corals loose their colour and turn grey, and there should be a lot of them.

Although the Australian government tries to save the reef, there aren’t many contributions to that. Supermarkets don’t care to waste amounts of plastic. It looks like they don’t care what’s happening with their environment.

Visiting the Great Barrier Reef is not the problem, the problem arises when you leave your rubbish there. So if you’re interested in visiting the reef, do it now! 

Best spots to visit it? Cairns, Airlie Beach & Mission Beach are located not far from beautiful reefs.

Stay tuned.

Why you shouldn’t climb the Ayers Rock

First of all, it’s called Uluru, not Ayers Rock! I just did that because most people only know the english name of the rock. The real name Uluru comes from tze local Aborigines, the Anangu.

So here’s why you shouldn’t climb Uluru. Well, as you maybe know, this giant rock is the biggest monolith in the world. What you see above the surface is only the ‘tip of the iceberg’. It goes deep down into the ground.

It’s sacred to the Anangu, because it once was their home and many stories are connected to Uluru. You also wouldn’t want someone to walk around on something, that is sacred to you, right?

Another reason is the heat. Uluru is located right in Central Australia. That means 40°+ every day in summer. So climbing the rock gets pretty dangerous. In addition to that, the path up there is very steep, which makes it even harder to climb it.

The other side of Australia

Everything you hear about Australia is great. It has a unique wildlife, beautiful cities and even more beautiful landscapes. Whenever Australia comes in your mind you think of something like warm wether, 100km long beaches and the Great Barrier Reef. But that’s only half of what it really is.

Who doesn’t know Uluru? The ‘Ayers Rock’. Where it is? In the middle of nowhere, i really mean it, there’s nothing. The nearest bigger town is Alice Springs. And that’s what the city is like:

As we arrived i was shocked. The was so silent, i heard nobody talking to each other, noone was laughing. The whole situation felt really strange and i was a little uncomfortable. Aborigines sitting everywhere, drinking their alcohol. They watch every step you make, won’t let you out of their sight. It really felt strange. I heard about stories that they would just sit around all day doing nothing, which is totally fine by me. But they look at you as if you would be from another planet. As if they haven’t seen any ‘white’ people before.

Most of them have struggle fitting into society i heard, so that’s why they would drink all day. I read a lot about Alice Springs and that there are some problems. But i never thought it would be that weird in real life.

Cheap traveling – how to save money on your trips

You wanna go to another country? Somewhere special, like Asia or any other exotic places? And at the same time you want to save as much money as possible? Here’s how i manage to travel with little money.

Accommodations
Whenever you go anywhere for a longer time, you need a place to sleep. Hostels are a good way to meet new people and most of the time they offer comfortable beds. You don’t really enjoy privacy because there often are 6 to 8 beds in a single room, but that’s something you have to sacrifice.

 AirB&B is another way to save money. People invite you to stay in their home for way cheaper prices than in hotels. Most of them are very friendly, they even cook for you or let you use all of their stuff to make your stay as nice as possible.

And then there’s couchsurfing. The App helps you to find couchsurfers and hosts all over the world. You don’t need to pay them anything most of the times. You get in touch with locals, which is quiet good. They can show you places that usual tourists don’t know.

I’ve tried all of these types and i am really excited about all of them so far. I have only met friendly people. It’s a good way to make new friends and it gives you the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of other cultures.

Sightseeing

For most attractions we have to pay. But some attractions are cheap or even for free. It always depends where you are. But there are many ways to see some things for little money. If there are major attractions, well yeah, they might always cost something. But there are a lot of things that you can visit for free, you just have to find them.

Currency

Depending on the country, currencies can be for your advantage. There are many places that are definetely visitable and cheap. Asian amd African countries are beautiful to see and the exchange rate is on your side.

Flights

For journeys far away from home the costs are obviously higher. The most money you have to spend on flights. Sometimes they are expensive, yes, but most airlines offer last minute discounts to fill the seats in planes. Often there are good prices for that, as well.

So i hope i could help you a little bit with my experiences. Saving money is in the interest of all people i guess. 😋

Traveling with drones: my experience

Traveling with drones becomes more and more popular right now. Nowadays RAV’s are a common thing to use to take nice shots of everything, because you can see things from different angles, which sometimes make them look more impressive.

Drones & Airports

I heard that many people are afraid of taking their drones to another country because of strict controls on airports. And so was I. So I called the Airport-Information to ask them if I’m allowed to take my drone with me. And they told me some important stuff.

• It depends on which country you are traveling into. Usually there aren’t any problems. But different countries have different rules about drones. If you’re traveling to the US e.g. there are stricter rules than in Australia. So make sure you find out what you’re allowed to do there.

• Drone and its batteries have to be in your carry-on baggage. Almost all airlines follow this rule, except Emirates. They want you to put the drone itself into your big luggage, but the batteries into your carry-on. Because most drone batteries nowadays are Lithium-Batteries. They are very inflammable, that doesn’t mean it happnes a lot, but in worst-case you can erase the fire easier on board.

• always make sure you know which laws are valid in your destination country. Some places have stricter regulations than others. Australia is very chilly about the laws, unless you don’t fly your drone in National Parks or wherever they don’t allow it, you’ll be fine. But in Austria or Germany you need a license for that. If sou get caught flying your drone illegally, the government yill charge you high fees, so take it serious!

I’ve been traveling around Australia with my drone and so far I haven’t had any complications. In Munich where I departured, they just quickly had a look on my batteries but that was it. If you stick to the rules, everythings gonna be fine.

Stay tuned!

Australia Day 8 – The real Adelaide!

So that we finally get to know the real Australia, the real wether comes along. You know, everything the world knows about Australia is hot weather and venomous animals. We had 38°C today, so we’re getting there.

What to do on such a hot day? Relaxing on the beach. We almost did that the whole day. We also dropped our car off, so now we have to get everywhere by public transport.

In the evening Adam showed us the ‘real’ Adelaide. You see so much more when you stay with locals, it’s astonishing. We had a nice walk along the harbour and the beach at sunset, which was pretty cool. 

Australia Day 7 – What to do in Adelaide

It was a 4 hour drive from Robe to Adelaide. The city is very beautiful. The CBD is surrounded by a park, which is very unusual, because most cities have the park in the city centre and not the city centre in a park. We stay here for 4 days at a guys place. His name is Adam and he seems pretty nice. We drove up to Mount Lofty, where you have an amazing view over the city and further out into the sea. 

We were in a chocolate factory in the afternoon and later we did a vine tasting. Why we did that? Well, first, Adelaide Hills are famous for their vine. They have a huge collection of Austrian ones. And they really tasted lovely. Second, we wanted to make Addam a gift for hosting us. We also had our first ever handmade ice cream, which tasted awesome!!! If you ever have the chance, go to ‘Scrolls’ in Adelaide.

Later we went to the cinema. Murder on orient express. Pretty cool film i guess. Don’t know yet, because this blog has been written right before the movie starts.