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Tons Less Lonely Girls

There were tons less lonely girls on the 4th of October at Merkur Spiel Arena Düsseldorf 🙂

That evening was purely made for Millennials, you could feel their energy from miles away. We looked a bit like KKK with our white clothes haha #Other option was baby blue color.

There are some tempted shirts or hoodie, however the price was ridiculous. My Beitrag for the 125€ ticket was certainly enough. Were already inside the arena 50-60 Minutes before the show starts.

Read the “announcement” between Food Stalls about the delay, it will start at 20:30 instead at 20:00. In reality it started like 20:40-ish…. hmmm…. did they discounted us one song? #Did the math 😉

What an iconic way to open with “Larger Than life” + their surf board and close with “Everybody” + Fireworks. You can’t do wrong with those ultimate songs.

The songs I never missed to watch their video clip in MTV, now I could see them live. Decades goes by, yet we never really moving on, still remember all their lyrics like it was yesterday <3

The concert had helped me with my jetlag, how about my Wombat? You knew exactly who have fun, who was more like “what am I doing here?” haha FYI no one forced him to come, I would still go with or without him. Of course it was more beautiful creating this memory with my Womwom, thank you for joining me 🙂

P.S: Our way back to Dortmund took circa 3 hours pfff longer than their performance. Speaking of Millenial Era, I cannot repeat it, for my next Millennial nostalgic tour, I have already booked an AirBnB 😉

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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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Whats to Wear? – Part 2

Our last day at Mamacita’s place, before moving to Ibis Sydney Airport Hotel, started with a very warm ~ honestly, leaning toward scorching morning. Deciding to leave our jackets behind, we headed out for the day. Aside from Alvin, who are my schoolmates who lives in Sydney? Betsy, my second-grade primary school friend from Lampung, and Mario, my high school friend from Bandung!

We could only meet Betsy during her lunch break in the Barangaroo area. Hey, I’m actually familiar with that place! We had ramen and bubble tea.

During lunch, Betsy mentioned that Bondi Beach was actually close by and had a direct bus. Oh! Well, then why not?! She also suggested Coogee Beach, but we just wanted a quick look since we didn’t have that much time.

Then, the weather shifted. Our outfits were the biggest mistake ever! The moment we stepped off the bus, unstoppable cold wind greeted us. There was barely anyone at Bondi, we didn’t even bother walking along the coast. Just take us back to the city, please!

Proceed to Doms fav place in Sydney, what else other than… Chatswood! Waited until Mamacita got back to the apartment. Even though we stayed inside the Glam pancake restaurant, the wind kept coming.

Receiving a text saying they were back home was such a huge relief. However, she still needed to work and couldn’t check her phone, so we waited another 20 minutes until Carlos finally saved us from freezing to death haha.

After packing our luggage, we had dinner with Mario at D’Penyetz. Thank you, Mario for treating all of us! He reassured me many times: „It’s fine, you treat me back when I go to Europe“ Yes we’ll do, I jampe-jampe him for sucess, rich, prosperous, healthy, happiness and so on and so forth 🙂

With that, our City chapter comes to an end. Next stop: the real wilderness!

Whats to Wear? – Part 1

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Leg Day

Continuing from Whats to Wear? – Part 1 we managed to arrived Circular Quay with 1,5 hours time buffer. Since Wombat loves Tiramisu so much, I wanted him to get a second opinion at Bar Totti ~ a spot Queencha introduced me to. To see how it compared to the one Carlos showed us at Grill Americano. The verdict? He wasn’t convinced, still prefers the first one.#Ah well, I tried 🙂

Headed to Sydney Bridge Climb meeting point, registered ourselves, of course we met another Wombat Plushie. While registering, the employee told us the climb will take about 3 hours, what?! I’ve done Brisbane’s Bridge Climb Vitamin B – Part 2 ~ granted, it’s a smaller bridge, I think it was only half the time of Sydney’s although the Bridge wasn’t half the size of Harbour Bridge.

Here, the indoor briefing and safety introduction alone took about 45-50 Minutes.

We booked our climb at 16:45 I think either 16:30 or 16:45 in late September was perfect: we caught the last bit of daylight, watched the sunset then got to see all the city lights.

The only hard part was the first and last 10 minutes because of the steep stairs. It was tiny bit „scary“ when the sun was still out, you look straight down at the water below. Once the sun set, you couldn’t really see the steps clearly anymore ~ ofc headlights were provided.

The walkaway after the stairs was pretty flat. Your eyes stay fixed on the surrounding views anyway, you can’t really look down unless you just want to stare at concrete and steel hehe

Photos were an extra 60 AUD on top of the ticket entrance that were already cost 450 AUD, originally we didn’t want to pay for it… in the end we couldn’t resist because they turns out very beautiful, especially this Gold one <3 Regardless the cost, we both were very delighted for this experience.

Afterward, we headed back to Chatswood to meet up with Mamacita. The commute took so long, by the time we arrived, almost all the restaurants were already closing. In the end, McDonald’s was our only option! We met up right as they finished watching Resident Evil movie.

What a massive leg day, hey!

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Whats to Wear? – Part 1

After a tiring but incredibly satisfying day at the Blue Mountains Wilderness Teasers, we were blessed with a sunny Saturday to head over to Manly Beach. Initially, we all planned to go together, however Mamacita and Carlos opted to stay back, rest, run their errands. So, off we went on the bus!

Carlos had recommended trying Anita Gelato, yummy! The weather in Sydney has been so unpredictable lately that bringing a light jacket is always the wisest choice… unless you get lucky with a truly warm Saturday. We came completely unprepared too, our swimsuits sitting safely at their apartment, on the other hand… I didn’t want to deal with changing clothes, showering afterward… it’s just too 麻烦 😀 A simple stroll along the coast was enough and honestly exactly what we wanted. The water is still cold #Brrr

Dipping our toes done, back to the pavement. We did a bit of shopping: I found a beautiful environment-supporting bracelet while Wombat picked up some fun new pins for his Crocs.

Carlos also mentioned the Lighthouse at Watson Bay. We checked the time… we could still manage it if we left Manly… now! Had a clear mission: find it, we caught a glimpse of it from the ferry, it turned out to be quite far, considering we had less than one hour + still needed to have lunch.

Our clear mission quickly became “blurry” 😀 Satisfied with seeing the lighthouse from a distance, we chose to have a proper lunch: Oyster, Calamari and Fish & Chips #Nomnom It was there that I was introduced to Chicken Salt for the very first time! Oh my goodness, it is absolutely delicious on Pommes!

With the few minutes we had left before catch the ferry, we strolled to the end of the garden which only took 3 minutes. While looking up, we spotted a skywriting marriage proposal! Who were the couple? Couldn’t find them anywhere…

Stadt-Wombat don’t jump please, we are queuing for our free Ferry back! #Sydney Ferry was on strike. Mamacita reminded us to start waiting 20 minutes before the Ferry was scheduled to arrive because the officer will stop taking people once it’s full and we had a Sydney Bridge Climb Reservation we absolutely couldn’t miss!

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Wilderness Teasers

While we were still in preparation phase, Dom looked into a day tour from Sydney to Blue Mountain. I remembered it taking forever to get there by public transport some longgg time ago. That experience didn’t need to a repeat, did it? Jein 🙂 We repeated, especially when Carlos offered to drive us! I was so surprised and incredibly greatful he was willing to do that. Needless to say, my Wombat was thrilled.

We confidently planned an 8:00 AM departure. Reality check of 2 Mexicans and 1 Indonesian, result: obviously didn’t manage to leave anywhere slightly close to that time haha we left the premises around 10:30 AM.

After 1,5 hours drive, we “arrived”. Since the Blue Mountains is a massive area, our GPS brought us to a completely different section than the one I had visited before. We were totally lost, had no idea where to park ~ had to be aware of the Park Ranger, the lookout trail was about 6km up hill into the unknown…

Mamacita and Carlos were the hero of our day, they decided to drive another two hours to the Three Sisters in Katoomba ~ the classic Blue Mountains spot we all actually knew. Thank you so much, guys!

Shortly after arriving, hunger struck. Since Carlos and Mamacita had just been there few months ago, they left to the town center while Wombat and I stayed to explore.

On our way to lookout „Three Sisters and Honeymoon Bridge“ , we noticed two children observing a spider web + their dad observing them…. Leute, it’s a redback spider #One bite then it’s over. With this, my Wombat chose to retire from the wilderness, he associated himself with Stadt-Wombat now #He is takut!

Wait… Still need to continue to the lookout hey! The Honeymoon Bridge trail went wayyyyy down, but I had seen enough from where we were, so had Wombat.

We tried to “hike” to the waterfall, following a sign that promised a 30-minute walk. Fast forward 30 minutes later a new sign told us it was still 20 minutes away! Sure, we walk slow and take photos, yet the math wasn’t mathing…

Meh, let’s end it right here right now before we even more lost, on top of it: we cannot forget that Sydney is still 3 hours away. We called it a day by having a hard-earned dinner at the RSL. As if it’s not enough, we had our dessert bubble tea in Chatswood, finally making it home around 11:00 PM.

Huge thanks to Carlos and Mamacita for being the ultimate hosts ~ we couldn’t have done this road trip without you! <3

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Let’s Go to the City Today!

Murray Bus safely delivered us to Sydney! While Mamacita still at to work, we explored a bit of Sydney on our own. Following Sissy’s recommendation for a yummy Indonesian lunch at Medan Ciak ~ haha all Indonesian Food we had at her’s was clearly not enough for me, we headed to Darling Harbour to catch sunset. Soon, it was time to meet Mamacita, took train from Barangaroo Area. My Wombat still not a Stadt Wombat yet, every time he spotted water, he wanted to jump right in 😉 #Thinking about Wilderness

As the evening grew chillier, that didn’t stop us from grabbing Messina gelato together.

I opted for Bubble Tea while the other tree chose Robert Brownies Jr. All their flavours were so creative!

The following morning, we tackled the quintessential Sydney highlights: Harbour Bridge and Opera House 🙂 Were blessed with beautifully warm weather, a welcome contrast to the cold front just 24 hours earlier.

Wombat macht Wombat Sachen #Easy boy! Just as he contemplated tasting the harbour water: quick turn around, smile for the camera,

and off we strolled toward the Opera House 🙂

After lunch, we popped into Uniqlo to stock up on warmer layers. We had arrived in complete “spring mode,” forgetting that Australia was just finishing their winter. Shopping sorted, it was time for an unmissable catch-up with my primary school classmate ~ who else other than Alvin!

Wombat loved Kangaroo Burger Schwager’s made, so he was eager to try another kangaroo dish aka Steak unless it’s not a Steak, it’s a Loin 🙂

24 Hours later we will visit Blue Mountain with Mamacita! There, my Wombat can finally get a glimpse taste of Australian wilderness 🙂 Let’s see how it goes!