Travelog for: Finja

Well... we were finally there... well no, not really Sydney is a HUGE city full of smaller suburbs, the actually city of Sydney is pretty small which is just the CBD, which is what everyone sees, the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, all that fun stuff... lots of huge buildings and very expensive shops... :-) Kind of like Rodeo Drive in Hollywood... lots and lots of expensive shops and tourists...


Sadly, we weren't able to visit that - Sara and Daniel had an appointment at a dietician and allergist for their son Andrew at the now famous hospital RPA (Royal Price Alfred Hospital) - why is it famous you might ask? Because it's got a TV show on every Thursday... Sara enjoys watching it... it's got some pretty crazy stuff from what I've seen of it... lol...


...that's mainly what a lot of Sydney looks like, very similar to Orange actually... very old looking buildings... Sydney is a mix of old and new buildings... as you can see...


...we were also very very close to the Sydney CBD, we got to see the Sydney skyline while we were driving but it was quite hectic driving around Sydney, especially this close to the CBD, you take one wrong turn and your in a different suburb and lost...



...now, you might wonder what that strange looking tower is in between the bigger buildings... it's called the AMP Tower, also known as the Centerpoint Tower, it's right in the middle of Sydney... you wouldn't have any idea, but people walk along the top of it, it's called the Sydney Skywalk... Sara honestly thinks people are crazy, there's a part with a walkway that's clear so you can look straight under you... so creepy! Then again, Sara's not fond of heights...

...but as you can probably imagine, Sara had a good time navigating their way to Camperdown, without one wrong turn (without using the map even)... then when we got there... we couldn't merge... so we drove into another suburb and got lost... so there was a lot of this:

If that doesn't look scary, I can guarantee you it is... haha... well, I'm back in Orange now, safe and sound it was quite a long day... we're going to Bathurst on Wednesday though for some mystery shopping, and some more kangaroo searching... and maybe a bit more, we shall see won't we? :-) I hope you enjoyed my trip to Sydney! :-)

Today we took another trip to Bathurst it's a 45-minute drive from Orange, and that's where Sara always sees the kangaroos, and where thousands of people flock each year to see the famous Bathurst 1000 races each October... well, Sara decided since we were going in again it was time to visit the famous race track...


So here I am in front of the famous sign (on the side of the mountain) and the entrance of the track, which people can drive on all year round, and actually some people have to drive on to get to their house... funny isn't it? :-)


There was this really strange noise behind us while Sara was taking photos of us in the above photo... then she turned around and there were two magpies making some strange noise... after thinking about it for a little bit she realised it's still around the breeding season for them and they're very good about swooping you when you get close to their nest.. thankfully none of that happened, but it was pretty strange...


Well, there was another thing to see before we drive on the track... something new to the "Motor Racing Museum" right next to the track... it's a statue that's of the late Peter Brock who was famous for driving the track and winning 9 times... he's known as the "king of the mountain"... here's the statue...


...and here we all are in front of the statue...


Well... now it's time to finally see the track for ourselves...




















So as you can see it's quite the track... and to know people go around that at around 200 to 300 kilometres per hours is crazy... especially in that "drop" downhill, it doesn't look like it, but it's quite steep around the mountain... and then the straight at the end, people get really fast up that... there's a speed limit for most people on the track, a lot of people walk the track or ride bike on it every day so you have to be careful around the corners especially... but that definitely was quite the experience... well next thing, were going to have a search for kangaroos...

...there was a lot of the kangaroo crossing signs around...

...but sadly there were no kangaroos to be seen this time... I'm just glad we got to see some on Monday! It was so hot today, it was actually 8 degrees above average for this time of year in this area... so it was extremely hot and apparently the animals thought so too... oh well! I'm glad I at least got to see some while I was here! Well, I hope you enjoyed my trip to Bathurst, I'll write again soon! <3

Well... my time in Orange has ended... I've moved onto bigger and better places... well maybe not better - hehe - I had quite a fun time here and I'm glad I got to spend a lot of time with Sara but it's time to move on and see more of the world! I'll update again when I get to my new host mom! Miss you! <3

Hi Mum, here I am in overly sunny Queensland ready to experience a very hot Christmas.
My host Mumj has been unwell, but I have been having a wonderful time with the other friendly Toy Voyagers staying here.

We have decorated the tree and I have been having so much fun.
I can't wait till Santa arrives. Only 4 more sleeps and counting down.

Christmas in hot Australia was lots of fun.
They eat icecream with their plum pudding and have a cold meat and salad Christmas Dinner, but even though it was strange for me, I really liked it that way.
I opened presents under the tree with the other Toy Voyagers and shared a bonbon with new Toy Voyager Banyo, who is a little bear like me.

Happy New Year!!!
I went to the beach for new years day and I had such fun in the sand with the other voyagers.

Next day I went to a teddybears picnic.

On a dull gray but still hot day, I went for a long walk to town and Riverlink.
I had a nice morning at the park there overlooking the Bremer River.

I have been having a very hot time in January but it has been lots of fun.
I went to Crizle's birthday, and went for a walk in the Australian bushland, then on Australia Day I was at a party to farewell Hartz before he left us.

Hello!
I arrived in Hamburg a few days ago and needed some time to rest from my long journey. I was welcomed by Jenny and some other TVs who are already staying here. Nanu the cubandSynapse are really nice guys and have to tell a lot of stories.


Today another TV arrived here. It is Super Groverfrom Australia.


We went to see the harbour today but I will tell about it in the next entry.

Bye,
Finja

Hello again!

Today we went to see the harbour of Hamburg. This is perhaps the most famous part of Hamburg and was really excited to visit it. We went there by public traffic and when we left the station we had a great view over the harbour. There was some snow in Hamburg these days which is really untypical. And we had grey weather with some more snow and rain which is typical for Hamburg.

There were some bridges down to the ships and we went along one of them.

But it started to rain heavier by then and Jenny decided to show us the old tunnel underneath the river Elbe and the harbour from the other side of it.


As the rain had stopped then we had a little picknick in the snow and watched some ships going by. The yellow one is the ferry to the musical "The Lion King" which is located in the harbour. But the ferries are used for normal trips when they are not needed to carry visitors to the theater.





As it was really cold I was glad when we arrived home. I enjoyed the trip to the harbour and I hope I will see more of Hamburg soon!

Bye,
Finja

Hello!
Jenny took us out to show us some more of Hamburg. We went to the city centre and then we saw the town hall of Hamburg.

We went on to see the Alster and come along the "Alsterarkaden". There were many birds there and at the Alster.


I hope to see some more of Hamburg before I have to move on but next week the university starts again for Jenny and she isn't sure if she will find the time to take me around soon.

Bye,
Finja

Hello!
A new TV arrived here about two weeks ago. He is called Mister Snow and he has been to Alaska before he came to Hamburg. We made a trip with Jenny to a forrest called "Sachenwald" last week. It was really beautiful because everywhere we could see the first signs of spring and everything was green again. We enjoyed some time next to a lake.


Then we walked through the forrest until we came to a place called "Garden of Butterflies" but they have a lot more to see there. First we went into a glasshouse were we saw a chameleon and a lot of beautiful fish.


After this we finally went into the house were the butterflies were living. It was really warm inside and a lot of butterflies were flying around. The most beautiful was a big blue one but he never sat still so we couldn't make a photo with him. It was generally hard to get a photo with a butterfly so we took some photos with the nice plants and you can see the butterflies more in the background.



But we were lucky and this beautiful butterfly sat still quite long.

Around the houses there was a great garden and we spent some time with relaxing there.




The last thing we watched before we went home were these rabbits. They enjoyed the sun like we did.

When we arrived home we were really tired and went to bed early.
This is my last update from Hamburg as I will go to Hong Kong now. I am really exited about it but it will be a long trip.

Bye,
Finja

Hello, I arrived in Hong Kong with Cloudy yesterday,
but after Pinki's DAD received the package,
he put us in the drawer and fotgot to tell Pinki's MOM untill this morning!!

He is quite a forgetful person.......@_@


When we came out from the envelope, we saw Zera,
she is so enthusiasm, wagging her tail and spining around.

This is a sunny day, when Pinki and her mentor is napping,
Pinki's MOM take us to having sun bath.

Pinki's MOM said we will go out for dinner tonight,
and will see the Symphony of Lights at the restaurant,
looking forward to have the great journey.

New friend arrived at Pinki's home this morning,
who is it???

Wow ))))) This is a Leopard names Spots.

Welcome Spots, let's play together. ^0^

Although we were late for the Cheung Chau Bun Festival,
Pinki' MOM had kept buns for us.

On the top of the bun there is two words「平安」 on it,
「平安」means safe and well. ^^

When we eat the bun, we will all be safe and well in 2009.




The Symphony of Lights' show @ 16-May-09