In general travelling by bus or train is quite convenient and for us students also cheap. The drawback is that often the buses come late or don’t come at all. What I really like about the public transport and buses, is that the bus drivers are on a good mode most of the time. They tend to joke around and are willing to help; you might even end up having a discussion with the driver about the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Finland’s first factory in the Eurovision song contest like I did.  After leaving the bus people tend to thank the driver. That is something what makes a nice touch and I have heard in small towns somewhere far in Finland.  So who cares if the bus is a bit late of its timetable if you can have a nice chat  whit the Aussie driverJ<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

No-worries attitude and mateship are strongly preached among Australians. Especially the no-worries attitude has made me wonder, is it something you always have, or is there something what makes Australians loose their temper? <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

This is a story that happened on the second weekend I was here. Normally it takes a bit more than an hour to get from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Brisbane to Robina train station, but that time the trip took much longer. After a day in Brisbane we went to the central station and were told that there was problems whit the electricity and we would have to take another train and then continue by bus to Robina. The train trip began and we stopped on every small station instead of stopping on the 4 major stations and naturally this took a lot of time. Eventually we were at the last station and changed to a bus. The best part was, the bus driver hat never driven this route and had no idea where the remaining stations were. We went back and fort and the passengers had to help him find the way and this repeated itself on every four stations. At least the driver admitted he had no idea of the route and apologised on behalf of the bus company…Somehow we managed to get to the last station and there we had to wait for the bus for 30 minutes more. It took us over 3 hours to get home instead of 1 hour 20 minutes.  When the driver let us out of the bus the passengers thought that the trip had been a reason to worry, at least

As a Finn I should be used to cold weather or at least that is what people tend to think. I will tell you a secret; I hate when it is cold and rainy. One of the reasons I came to Gold Coast was that there is approximately 290 days of sunshine per year. During these 30 days, I have been to the beach twice and it has been over 23 degrees maybe 5 times. What are the odds? The locals say it has been to coldest spring for decades. Does this mean that the summer will be the warmest for decades too?

I have been told that having over 35 degrees is nothing unusual during summertime. When it gets over 40 degrees, even I might admit it’s a bit too hot. Well you can’t do anything about the weather, but let’s just hope that the sun will shine when we go surfing on Saturday!

I will stick to the animal theme for one more day. I have nothing against the animals of Australia but the line goes there, when you see a huge cockroach in your flat for the fourth time during few weeks. It has become our flatmate Garth’s job to get rid of these disgusting creatures, I won’t touch them…

Here are two pictures of our already dead friend, hopefully he won’t invite anymore of his friend to join the party.

Last weekend I spent couple of days in Sydney. Like all proper tourist I hade to make a visit to the famous Bondi beach during my stay and I did it on the last day which was Saturday.

I have heard that you should be aware of the sharks when you go swimming but I never took it that serious. So around 2.00pm there was an alarm and people were asked to live the water immediately. They were talking about sharks but it was the next day when I was told that there had realy been sharks and they had made it even to the evening news… here is an article from the local newspaper Sydney Morning Herald....


Sharks force swimmers out of water at Bondi

September 23, 2006 - 5:12PM

Hundreds of swimmers were called out of the water at Sydney's Bondi beach today after two sharks were spotted close to shore.
Bondi lifeguard Dean Gladstone said shark alarms sounded a warning to the 30,000 people on the beach soon after the sharks were sighted about 2pm (AEST).
Lifeguards on two jet skis, guided to the sharks by the NSW Police helicopter, kept watch on the sharks that came to within 50 metres of the beach, he said.
Mr Gladstone said the two sharks, possibly whalers, were chasing a school of Australian salmon before disappearing into the deep.
Swimmers at the iconic beach popular with international travellers, where temperatures soared today, were allowed back into the water about 2.30pm (AEST).
"People slowly went back in. Some said they were never coming to the beach again," Mr Gladstone said.
A lifeguard on a jet ski will patrol the water for the rest of the day.
AAP


So that was my first trip to Sydney. During that trip I learnt not to underestimate the warnings of local people…I took few photos from the beach, but unfortunately we didn’t see the sharks!