Beautiful Beach House

At the beginning of each month I want to show you places where I’d rather be at that very moment. As you know I am constantly either travelling or dreaming of travelling and I want to share my favourite bars, restaurants, hotels, cities and countries around the world with you. And I am looking for your recommendations for my next trips.

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Today I want to show you a beach house which I have rented for my birthday weekend two years ago. It is in Australia, near Melbourne, close to one of the most beautiful National Parks in Australia – and I think probably the world: Wilsons Promontory. If you want a sneak peak of the park, have a look here, at its abundance of animals here, at its amazing beaches here and the landscape after the bushfire here.

But today I want to talk about a beautiful beach house on the other side of the bay. It is located in the little town of Walkerville North, but you can hardly see any other house due to the lush vegetation around the house. Actually I have to admit that Walkerville is not a town, it is hardly a village. So make sure to refuel and bring all your food and drinks with you. We found it a bit hard to buy coffee which we had forgotten. But on the other hand, who need coffee when you can sleep as long as you want to ;-)

It is the perfect spot to get away from the buzz of Melbourne. It is just a 3 hours drive to the south-east. You can either take the scenic road close to the coast (which is a bit longer) or the beeline inland.

The house accommodates easily 6 people – it has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a huge living room with open kitchen, dining table, TV, fireplace and a broad terrace. The view over the sea really takes your breath away!

And because of the view, because of the sun and the wind which tasted a bit salty, we spent most of our weekend on the terrace. We set up a hammock and took our turns in dozing in the sun. In the evenings we heated up the barbeque and stayed outside until Pirate, the one-eyed possum payed us a visit.

The most important part of a beach house is, of course, the beach or the sea. And both of them are beautiful at Walkerville North. True, the sea is always cold – it is Bass Strait after all and the next landmass to the south is Antarctica. – but it is not as rough as it can get at other points on the southern coast because of the bay. And the beach is wonderfully quiet, deserted at all times of the day (even on weekends), full of shells and close to the Cape Liptrap Coastal Park.

Where: 12 Waratah St, Walkerville North, Victoria, Australia
phone: Richard 0438-864252 or Sam 0418-878911 email: here

Highlight: 180degree view of the sea and Wilsons Promontory NP across the bay, possums and birds visiting you on the terrace

More photos, information and ideas: Blue Waters Beach House Accommodation, Wilsons Promontory NP

Happy Australia Day!

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Happy Australia Day, mates! Please have a cold beer & something straight from the barbie for me. Enjoy the warm weather and the day off. Here in Berlin it started snowing again. Miss you, dearest Australia!

My first snow...

... in 3 years!

I woke up this morning and the roofs were white. The clouds were full of more snow. And I felt like a little child. SNOW!!!

I love Australia, but in the long run, I just couldn’t live without this:

Happy winter to all of you!

Things I wear for the first time in 3 years...

... because there was no use for them in Australia:

picture found here

picture found here

At the moment I enjoy wearing them as much as I enjoy eating German ‘Wurst’ and bakery specialities again. I am not sure, however, that I will feel the same a few winter months on ;-)

See ya, Melbourne!

Hello and goodbye – Shopping

Hello and goodbye – Fashion

Hello and goodbye – Seaside

Hello and goodbye – Mountains & Cities

Hello and goodbye – Savoury & Sweet

Hello and goodbye – Breakfast

Hello and goodbye – Hip Suburbs & Midnight Snacks

Hello and goodbye – Shopping & Waterways

Hello and goodbye – Skyscraper & Parks

Hello and goodbye

We are off to Germany in 10 DAYS – 240 HOURS – 14400 MINUTES....

This week and a half will be crazy with packing boxes, saying farewell to our Australian friends, cleaning the apartment, getting the little one ready for her big trip... Crazy organisation and moving stuff!

Emotionally I am ambivalent.

One the one hand side I am so happy and excited to go back to my family. To my friends who know me for decades. To my country. To my Berlin. To people who speak the same mother language than I. To food that I have missed. To stores in which I haven’t shopped at in 3 years.

On the other hand I am sad to leave Australia. My new friends. My Melbourne. My travel adventures. My job challenges. The place that really has been home for the past 3 years. My fresh seafood.

I am afraid I won’t have much time to post on this little blog of mine. Therefore I have prepared some Hello-Goodbye posts for the next week. To show you all the things I look forward to in Germany and all the Australian things I will terribly miss.

Great Ocean Road

We had a wonderful trip to the Great Ocean Road. It was cold and rainy, but our apartment had a fireplace and we had lots of hot chocolates and hearty soups. So it was actually a very cosy family get away.

Everything was much easier than expected with the little one and this mini trip gave us great confidence for our big trip to Germany in two weeks. She slept even better than at home (her first all-night-sleep ever – 7 hours, woa!), she didn’t seem to mind the new environment, she kept her appetite and loved the wind and the salty air on her face. A real beach babe!

Surfer at Bells Beach

Cold Climate Rainforest near Lorne

Amazing Johanna Beach

Australia’s Next Masterchef

The decision is made.

Australia’s Next Masterchef is:

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Callum, however, is my “Masterchef of the hearts”. I was amazed, how well he handled the pressure and how genuinely happy he was for Adam. And he is ‘just’ 20 years old. I reckon he will have a great career as a chef, even if he just became second.

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I cannot believe it. It is over. What am I going to do every night? For almost 4 months I spent every night from 7.30 to 8.30pm with the Masterchefs. I don’t know whether that’s loyal or sad. But hey, first I was heavily pregnant and now I have a little one so my entertainment options are somewhat limited. And it wasn’t just stupid TV, it really was educational.

Things I have learned in this season of Masterchef:

1. That you should put the oil onto the meat before frying it not into the pan.

2. How to make an easy but yummy chocolate brownie. Find the recipe here

3. What to make with fresh fennel – a yummy orange-apple-fennel-salad

4. How to judge whether prawns are fresh or not.

5. That showing passion makes you so much more likeable (it is true, Claire!)

Neither here nor there

Sorry, I know it has been a bit quiet around here recently. The reason for this is not my cute little bundle of joy. She is still incredible good - feeding well, sleeping good, being a happy baby unless there is wind in her little tummy.

No, the reason for me spending time away from my blog is that my lovely husband and I realised that we will be really moving to Germany in just 5 weeks. Aaaaahhhh! Therefore we spent the last few days putting together immense To-Do-Lists and throwing ourselves in getting them done: booking flights, applying for Vicky's passport at the embassy, organising the shipping of our container, starting to sell everything we don't want to take with us, meeting people we might not see for a long time,... I don't want to bother you with all the details, but it is a lot.

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But since we have also got a lot done in the last couple of days and feel very organised now, we decided to take the weekend off. So here I am sitting in front of my laptop with a beautiful cuppa (cup of tea), my lovely husband is still asleep and the little one is 'playing' on her baby quilt next to me. It is cold and stormy outside and life is good.

Wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Art Saturday

Today Andi and I headed to the city. For a bit of art window shopping. We really want to buy an original aboriginal piece of art before we go back to Germany in August. Something that will always remind us of the amazing time we spent down under. Of Australia’s unique landscapes. People. Traditions. Animals. Plants. Colours.

After being to a couple of galleries, it became clear to us again that Aboriginal art is not one but a multitude of different art schools. There are many as there are Aboriginal people and languages and environments.

Colourful & Abstract: Bush Yams by Evelyn Pultara

Monochrome & Minimalistic: Salt on Mina Mina by Dorothy Napangardi

Earthy & Folky: Uwalki Tjuta by Mitjili Napurrula

The next one is our favourite. Unfortunately it is a bit expensive. Worth every penny, but I am afraid we have to win the lottery before we can afford it. Still, just a pleasure to look at

Kangaroo Hunter by Kurun Warun

In general we had a wonderful inspirational day. It is amazing what art can do to you. Filling your heart and head with colours and thoughts and images.

Earth Hour Saturday, 27 March 2010, 8.30pm

http://www.earthhour.org/

Less than nine hours to go here in Australia until Earth Hour. How exciting!

What’s that?
Earth Hour is an environmental initiative that started 3 years ago. In the first year more than 2 million homes and businesses in Sydney turned off their lights for one hour to stand against climate change. The word about this action spread quickly and the year after people and countries across the world took part. Last year it already was the world’s largest global climate change initiative.


Why I love it?
The reason, why I absolutely love this initiative, is that it is so powerful in its visibility. What is the NY skyline without lights? What is our life without lights? It really makes me think very carefully about how I use electricity and what can be done throughout the year (not only in this one short hour). After taking part in this initiative last year I finally installed energy efficient lights throughout my apartment. It was an insanely easy thing to do and I have no idea why it took me so long.

What I also like it that it brings people closer together. I have heard of neighbours getting together with their candles. Friends organising candle-lit parties. Although I haven’t managed it to organise something myself, I still want to make this event something special. So I am thinking of going to the beach and watch the city lights slowly go down. At least I hope that enough Melburnians will take part in this initiative so it will have a visual impact.


What to do?

Switch off all (electronic) lights from 8.30pm to 9.30pm! No matter where you are around the world: 8.30pm your local time. So no TV or computer lights allowed either. Lit the night with candles only.

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Register your commitment here! That helps to show how many millions of people took part in this awesome event.


Enjoy the darkness! Hopefully you will be able to see lots of stars once the city lights have been turned off.

Picture from here

Take some photos of the light-less night! And share them with the rest of the world here .