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Ist Wombat Happy?

Out of breath, arrived Adelaide Airport around 23:00 ish #Knapp before my 35th birthday. #Going Vintage 🙂 Schwager and his sister picked us up, stayed at Cool’s family. The question of ‘what do you want to do tomorrow’ immediately answered with wash all our clothes from Uluru haha #Priorität

We only stayed there for about two days before moving into a cabin at Brighton Beach Caravan Park, a lovely holiday spot in Adelaide that was generously sponsored by the family, vielen lieben Dank 😀

We did a handful of very family friendly activities such as:

  • went to the beach ~ an unfortunate mishap occurred: I tripped then fell! Aua! It’s a major event when you fall down in your mid-thirties. I had to apply “Deep Heat” balm and compress my foot with an ice pack haha
  • had dinner at a Beach Club with my new best friend Chicken Salt, saw sunset, celebrated Schwager birthday
  • visited Chinatown to do some serious TimTam shopping haha

The absolute highlight for me was our visit to Cleland Wildlife Park, it was super WOW! There is a Wombat sanctuary AAAAAA, my Stadt-Wombat will finally meet his family! We got to hand-feed many animals:

The Wallaby

At the entrance, there were so many wallabies. They eagerly walked right up to us. We fed them enthusiastically until we had to stop to save some food for the other animals.

The Kangaroo

They were all over, very chill and approachable.

Dom had been eyeing one specific kangaroo. He carefully approached it from behind and then ~ just like that, he crossed one from two major item off his bucket list: hugging a kangaroo! I was honestly amazed. For someone who usually absolutely hates getting dirty, he didn’t care at all, he perfectly positioned himself to make it happen. I guess a man will always do whatever he thinks is truly important, regardless of his past rules hey 😉

The Koala

Mrs. Cool waited in line so we could take a photo with a koala. She was amazing at coordinating, if we had been just a few minutes later, we would be further down the line. We didn’t hug the Koala because it will be at a much later hour plus need an extra fee. Therefore only patted, petted and saw it.

The Dingo

Hmm… let’s just leave the Dingo alone, shall we?

The Emu

Emu was very genau, terrified me a bit haha! If I didn’t overheard Mr. Cool advise on keep my palm completely flat, perhaps Emus will ‘pick’ me.

The Kangaroo ~ other species

Before the park ends, there is a massive kangaroo sanctuary filled with tons of them. However, they seemed completely stuffed and weren’t interested in our food at all. Had I known that, I would have given all to the wallabies and first Kangaroos instead!

The Wombat

As for the wombats? Well, they are nocturnal, so of course they were fast asleep during the day, and their enclosure was closed.

Stadt-Wombat is sad 🙁

That was until Mr. Cool asked, “Do you want to hear a wombat snoring?” What?! Wombat is here?? Let me see! Awwwwww my heart, such a cutie!

My Stadt-Wombat was genuinely had a good time, at last he got to meet a real wombat, crossed his final major item off his bucket list.

Was he happy? I think you can easily tell from all the photos, he was smiling from ear to ear! 🙂

Thank you Australia, for all of your incredible wildlife.

Most of all, a massive thank you to our wonderful Australian-German family for hosting us, spoiling us and taking such amazing care of us. I had a truly spectacular time. The holiday felt a bit surreal—it was our longest trip yet, but somehow it still felt way too short.

If only Australia weren’t so far away, I would fly over every single year. Hab euch lieb <3

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I’m a Water Bottle – Part 3

Lucy immediately checked on me: 你昨天进去了吗, 怎么样睡得着吗? I replied the very unfortunate night that I couldn’t even closed my eyes for longer than one hour. She commented: 你太紧张了，没关系的. Na ja, this is what you’ve got when you illegaly stayed #Constantly self-conscious.

Okay, so what did we do on Day 3? Welcome to our 3L Water Bottle Day! We tackled the 5-hour Kings Canyon Rim Walk.

How many liters did I actually finish? Barely 1.5L, haha! I think the 3L requirement is meant for the groups that start their walk around 10:00 AM or later, when the heat gets dangerous. We, on the other hand, started our hike at the exact same time as the day before 05:20 AM and finished by 10:00 AM-ish.

The absolute hardest part of this hike is the infamous “Heart Attack Hill” stairs. The steps are made entirely out of natural stones, so they are definitely not DIN-normed! 😉

Once you get past that, the pathway was pretty flat #Very walkable. Passing rock formation after rock formation, hit lookout after lookout, simply amazing!

Reaching the Garden of Eden means your hike is 75% complete! We got 20 minutes to take it all in before we had to keep moving toward the exit.

Most people ended their tour here, I would have done the exact same thing had our flight schedule cooperated. We had to stay one more day because flights to Adelaide don’t operate every day.

After the hike, there wasn’t much to do besides packing up, heading back to our very first campsite. “Ate” our last sunset in Northen Territory of Australia.

Matthew hast left earlier, which meant Dom got a cabin all to himself. I was definitely going to slip inside! still wanted to wait until Ryan was completely out of sight, until Lucy cut in: „He is dead tired, just go now“ I ended up falling asleep inside my swag for about 30 minutes before finally making my move to Dom’s cabin.

Day 4

No more waking up at 4:30 AM, for our last day, it was 7:30 AM! Heaven! After breakfast, we were dropped off at the cultural center, where we hung out, had lunch with Lucy and Phoebe until it was time to catch the shuttle bus to the Ayers Rock Airport. I also said goodbye to the Polish couple Monika and…. husband 😉

Thank you so much, Alice Springs + Uluru! What an absolute once-in-a-lifetime experience. Having never camped before, I’m thrilled my first time was in the heart of the Australian wilderness. I’m also so proud that my Wombat powered through it all!

I am so grateful:

  • to be guided by Ryan ~ good luck at your new Job
  • to have met Lucy & her family ~ I completely agree with you that “sometimes the most unforgettable trip is the worst one.” I certainly won’t forget this one! Don’t get me wrong, not that this trip was the “worst” it was just very different from what I’m used to. I was also so entertained by your “almost divorced Philippine trip” or “almost lost your daughter in Budapest trip”, though I’m hoping none of that will happen to me! “Knock on wood
  • to have met my small sister Phoebe ~ thank you for your 月饼
  • to have met Monika with her Bali’s vision ~ perhaps we see us there next year

This adventure was so much more fun, felt so much lighter and will forever be embroidered in my memory because of you all. Whenever you travel to Europe, please contact us! Hope to see you again, perhaps when we visit Australia next time. All the best, take care <3

Phoebe’s next flight to Sydney ended up being delayed until the following day, so she had to stay at the airport hotel. For us, our connection was still technically „possible“. I was told to check with the ground crew in Melbourne the moment we landed. We almost didn’t make our flight from Melbourne to Adelaide, but all that sprinting through the airport wasn’t in vain.

Good evening Adelaide!


Link for our Tour:
Uluru Tour with Kata Tjuta & Kings Canyon (Swag) | Adventure Tours Australia

I’m a Water Bottle – Part 2

Quote from Lucy: If you want to go camping in Uluru, this is perhaps the only option. Look at that, we have two doctors family, even they were on the same ‘crappy’ tour as us haha! #This woman is gold!

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I’m a Water Bottle – Part 2

Remember how I was woken up by the cold wind? Turns out it’s not so bad, as we had to start breakfast at 04:30 AM #Shocked! When I booked the tour, it definitely didn’t mention anything about waking up before 4:00 AM. By 05:10, we were already on the bus. At 05:20 AM sharp we left to catch sunrise.

Walk started, our lack of preparation caught up with us ~ we didn’t bring flashlights! Therefore had to constantly pace ourselves with the people in front of us, like Thiago and two Chinese ladies who hadn’t spoken to anyone yet. Maxim asked, “Is there a possibility that you saw my son up front?” I told him yes, he was leading the pack. He added “Ahh, so annoying”. Thiago was damn fast, well… he is a 15 yo anyway.

As the light started to change (read: sunrise), Wombat urged me on: “Come on, it will be over in ten minutes, we better hurry!” Many people had already overtaken us. Fast forward a bit, managed to catch the sunrise just in time! #Sehr knapp!

Good morning, Ayers Rock! #You Rocks!

Afterward, we walked around to see its different sides ~ it’s definitely not all smooth rock. The walk went faster than I expected, taking only about 2 hours.

We then met up with Ryan for a snack before starting a guided walk just to an area next to it. He did the explanation without waiting if all of us already gathered, obviously I was the last one, didn’t hear much of it #Sad pfff

Then we headed off to our second campsite. Ryan mentioned this site was more remote, yet somehow we had Wi-Fi there… hmmm what a 矛盾 😉 I had a huge relief Dom had upgraded to a „Business Class“ aka cabin otherwise he would be awake all night. Ryan arranged he shared the cabin with Matthew.

There were signs everywhere warning us to beware of dingoes and King Brown snakes. I wasn’t really afraid of the dingoes… I mean, what are they going to do, eat all 11 of us? #No way. A King Brown Snake however is a different story! Checked the ground, my swag and my sleeping bag multiple times. Placed my Swag so closed between Thiago and Phoebe, no space spared for King Brown snake!

During the trip, I got to know a Shanghainese lady named Lucy. She had upgraded her mother (who was 70+ years old) to a cabin with two beds. Lucy slept in there 偷偷的 while her husband and son slept outside in swags. Lucy whispered to me, “Behind you is an empty cabin, just go in there. No one needs to know!” I asked Phoebe if she wanted to sneak in with me, however she was too lazy to move.

At first, I tried to sleep in my swag wearing my thick sweater and long leggings to prepare myself for that freezing 3:00 AM wind ~ Alice Spring is not my last stop, I couldn’t risk of getting sick! Resulting I felt too warm inside my swag. I couldn’t sleep, finally decided to sneak into the empty cabin.

I couldn’t sleep there either! Every time I heard footsteps outside, I was wide awake. To make things even creepier, I could hear a pack of dingoes howling like in the distance, which kept me tossing and turning all night. Perhaps I was just terrified someone would find out, even though Lucy had assured me, “How would they know? We all sleep and have to wake up at 4:00 anyway. Just wake up a bit earlier and slip back out, 就好了 don’t be so strict!”

Sleep-deprived, nevertheless ready for Day 3 🙂

Link for our Tour:
Uluru Tour with Kata Tjuta & Kings Canyon (Swag) | Adventure Tours Australia

I’m a Water Bottle – Part 1

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I’m a Water Bottle – Part 1

Wombat came out from his bath singing his brand new rap song: Im a water bottle, Im a water bottle, you can shake me because Im not cola fanta sprite, Im a water bottle hahaha inspired by water bottle #Clever ball.

Because the start time of our Alice Springs / Uluru tour didn’t really line up conveniently with the flights, we decided to fly into Alice Springs a day early. I have to say, the airport really has character, very unique! Just a quick tip for anyone traveling here: if it’s only two of you, better take shuttle bus, which costs 23 AUD per person. We assumed a taxi would be cheaper since it will be to a destination, they don’t care how many passengers are inside #Not true! It cost us 56 AUD, not to mention we actually had to call them. Since both of us only had eSIMs, we had to ask our Good Samarita: Joe.

Made it to Greet Hotel Alice Springs (formerly known as the Diplomat Hotel), headed straight to Coles to buy four 1.5L bottles of water after being convinced by our receptionist, Rishma. She said we needed to drink 3L a day. The air is so dry, you don’t actually feel thirsty, which is why she often sees tourists fainting on the side of the road. We don’t want to be that tourist, do we? After that, we popped into Kmart to buy a backpack for Dom, then I had a massive lunch at an Indonesian restaurant #We are everywhere!

Later that evening, while walking toward the main road, we suddenly heard someone shout, “Dominik!” There was no one else around us, they must meant my Wombat. We turned toward the voice, it was Joe & his gang! What a nice gesture he still remembered us 🙂

  • You made it to the hotel! said him
  • Ah yeah, the guy from the airport! followed his friends ~ whom I later learned were named Reese and Oliver
  • I replied: Thanks to you Joe, for being right there when we needed you! 🙂

We chatted for a bit. They were visiting from Brisbane for a work trip. When I told him what our evening plans were, he immediately advised against it: “No, kids, don’t walk around here. It’s better if you just eat and sleep.” #Message received.

Day 1 – Ryan from Adventure Tours picked us up at 06:20AM

The day kicked off with solely one pickups after the other, followed by a 6.5-hour drive toward Ayers Rock Airport. We made a few stops, but nothing major since we’ll see them again on the last day. Curtin Springs was a hit for anyone wanting alcohol, though I was way more excited to see “Fuluru” (#Fake Uluru) before we headed to the campsite for lunch.

With some free time before reaching final pick up at the airport, we strolled over to Ewing Lookout ~ are we back to Dom’s old apartment? haha

While we were there, a Polish couple approached us and asked, “Guys, is it possible that you were having lunch yesterday at Indonesian restaurant because I heard you guys speaking German to each other but then you spoke Indonesian to the waiter?” Turns out, they were there too, sitting at the very next table! What are the odds? #Big, as the options for eating in Alice Spring wasn’t that much 😀

Our first stop after picking everyone up from the Ayers Rock Airport was heading to a lookout at Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). Mind you, there were many flies flying straight to our face.

For our last stop of the day, we enjoyed some snacks while watching the sunset many meters away “in front of” Ayers Rock.

Afterward, we drove back to the campsite for dinner and set up our sleeping arrangements. I chose a swag because it was the cheaper option and when I googled it beforehand, it didn’t look that bad since it had a built-in net. In reality, it really wasn’t like the pictures!!! It was basically just a rolled-up mattress on the ground. We all had sleeping bags, but the swag got so dusty due to we were literally sleeping directly on the 地上

We found a clear spot on the ground and all slept next to each other. In total, we had 12 people sleeping out whereas 12 people in.

I actually managed to sleep soundly until 3:00 AM, when I was suddenly woken up by the freezing cold! Dom, on the other hand, had had enough, he decided to upgrade himself to “Business Class”

The one of lifetime Erfahrung continues…..

Link for our Tour: Uluru Tour with Kata Tjuta & Kings Canyon (Swag) | Adventure Tours Australia

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Free At Last

Flash back to a time where I thought I lost my glasses? http://marlynpraseli.com/2022/10/16/marlyns-spectacles/

It is now for REAL! I lost it! somewhere in Sydney…. there are three places of possiblities. First when I had brunch with Alvin and Aldrich in PCP, second when I had lunch with Mom in Spice I am, third when I was on the way from Spice I am to Paddys Market (that’s all on the same day). I only wear my glasses in the morning, afterwards I was wearing my sunglasses, supposedly my glasses was always in my bag or in the hotel (although it’s less likely….)

Continued… picked my Mom up from Central Station, took a Taxi to Ibis, proceed to Spice I Am Thai’s resto, walked to Paddys Market then meeting with Betsy. When Betsy and I were inside, I wanted to see the Menu that was on the wall, this is the moment where I want to change from sunglasses to real glasses…. hmmmm where is it? it’s not on my bag, didn’t pay attention if my bag’s zipper closed completely or not. Anyway didn’t think much of it, thought it could be on my room somewhere.

Back to Ibis, glasses is nowhere to find, ok it’s missing, I’m positive about it, went back to PCP asked if someone see that or if it’s in the toilet, 0 squared. Reported it to my friends, not sure if they are happy that this time it’s gone for real as they were the one who actively sought my glasses last time hihi

I was quite dysfunctional on my last two days in Sydney, relying only with sunglasses, need to go back before dark, I’m not Alicia Sierra who wore sunglasses in the evening #fanatic fans of La Casa de Papel

Good bye my Marc by Marc Jacob’s glasses, wait! it’s not mine from the first place, it was Aggy’s haha she gave it to me back then couldn’t remember when, I guess in year 2018 or 2019. Aggy worked previously in a glasses shop, sorry Aggy I lost it. But I did have a good adventure of 4+ years with your glasses from Shanghai to Dortmund also any places in between 🙂

It’s time for me to move on to a German Brand, Mister Spex! Chose a 4 modes to test it at home:

Do the eye test, waited for one week delivery #believe me for German standard it’s already fast.

From 30.03.2023 on, me and my Lisa-Marie Schiffner will have a new adventure!

I wanted to have a Rosa Farbe for some reason plus pair it with Gold is not bad hey 😉 I realized it’s the same color as my Moti’s tumbler, we both wear cardigan too #matchingggg

Missing my niece, at this moment she’s currently sick, get well soon baby K #hugs and love from Germany XX

*Koala icon from Flaticon Australia icons created by Freepik – Flaticon

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The Triumph Of Making New Friends

After being turned down by Thorben and Aggy- they chose to do archery because they both will play on the league wohoo then the one that wasn’t get drafted for the league which is me and Gordy we went with one of travel agency to do a day trip to somewhere located in Suzhou… supposedly (I mean, I don’t even bother to search where was the location and nor does Gordy hahaha) to do “paint ball” BBQ and “hike”.

We were about 27 people on the group and I only know Gordy and so does he and he asked me on the bus “Are you ready to make some new friends?” and I ‘enthusiastically’ said “yeahhhh” ahaha then we both know what does that “yeah” implies to 😉 therefore we have kind of our own competition of how many new friends can we make, not that the numbers matters the most but at least we will try haha

The ride took us for about 2 hours, and I was so sleepy because I am on the way to get cold, I got runny nose and I sneezed every time and Gordy he went to KTV the day before until maybe around 2am, he said he was sleepy but I don’t think he sleep on the way. I mean this is not a sleepy person would do… pffff…

And then we arrived to the “paint ball” and BBQ place, the weather was awesome! I was able to only wear a shirt! This place was kind of hill or something, you can walk around or you can play the paintball which is what we do but it’s not the real paintball like I was expected. It was only bubble water gun, no color and even if you got shoot you still can play it just pretend that you don’t get shot, and we don’t even wear the full body costumes, only the body protection and a color shirt to differentiate which team we are playing. So this wasn’t exactly what I signed up for but yeah we already there anyway, and while on this hill there was a plant that when you touch them they will stick to your pants, so…. after the game I got this seeds all over my sports pants which is not very favorable 🙁 but I still had fun in some way 😉

Then it was a noon time, it’s time to eat! In this BBQ I met Elle and Wesley! Elle and I bonded because of the seeds that was all over my pants haha, she’s helping me to pick it one by one aawww 😉 but me, Elle, Wesley and Gordy we didn’t really do proper BBQ because the smoke was everywhere! like we need a gas mask to do so haha so we just put our food and then go behind the tree or somewhere else to hide from the smoke.

When the tour guide said that we can add some more food then we add more bread, corn, beef from the so called pantry andddd! while I was eating my corn, I saw something wasn’t quiet right, and I asked Gordy “Gordy, what is this? Is this what I think it is?” and he said “It’s a bug”, Wesley and Elle did what a supportive person would do especially when they were not the one that ate that “It’s protein, it will be healthy for you” and I stopped eating the corn after that 🙁 but I continue by eating the other food ahaha. From all 2 hours of our BBQ time, Elle only made one bread haha that she was very determined to cook it by her own because she was so busy hiding from the smoke 😀

Next destination is only 5 minutes by bus from this hills, we went to what so called “hike” but I know it wouldn’t be a real hike, more like a brisk walk with steps and so on. Gordy was expected it to be less people but I think the people on the hike was OK, not super crowded. Two guys was trying to talk to Gordy but because they can’t speak English so I had to translate it in between, and when he asked “帅哥来自哪里?” Gordy said “加拿大” and they said “Oh your Chinese is so good” while to me they just said “Yours are OK” I was like heloooooo, I was the one that doing translation the whole time, he just said one word! and I said mannnyyyyy….. pffff white privilege hahaha and with this it’s motivated me to go hike either faster or way slower to make some distance from them hahaha and long story short we lost them 🙂

The hike was actually pretty good and when we reached the top the view is amazing! and the temple itself its very nice decorated! thumbs up! When we kind of reach half of the top, I tried to sing “The Climb” from Miley Cyrus but then Elle said “It took me a while to realize what song it is” haha I know my voice is not like Mariah Carey but pleaseee hahaha

I was soooo happy when I arrived at this temple, and after the tour guide said that Gordy can use his drone then this is when he had his bonding time with Wesley haha and the picture from the drone is amazing, this temple is surrounded around the greens! *Slide for more awesomeness!*

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On this drone video, you can see that Gordy caught a group of birds flying around the temple.

Well well well, then it is the time for us to ride back to Shanghai, I think most of us slept on the way back. When we arrived we wanted to have dinner at Bar Centrale because it was BOGO pizza but we need to wait for more than 1 hour so Gordy decided to go to Barbarian and I was so heartbroken that I cannot eat the pizza 🙁 but the food at Barbarian was so good as well, me and Gordy had the proper BBQ skewers while Elle and Wesley had a burger, Elle said she doesn’t want to have BBQ again and she ordered a salad as a side dish just for her dignity 😉 haha.

In the end, Gordy revealed the question to Elle and Wesley, a question that “Will we make a new friends from this trip?” and they were laughing. Gordy, I think we did make new friends with them 😀 and this make the whole drama of eating corn with worms, getting seeds all over my pants, the torn was stuck on my finger, the very uncomfortable feelings on my leg was worth it 🙂

Gordy won the what I called “moment of truth” we need to see whose the one that got added on wechat first haha and Wesley added him first but he was humbly enough to say “it was my drone that won the moment of truth game” Way to go, champs! 😀