Week 2 - My arrival to the banks of Swan River

Perth’s central part with the tall buildings and its parks are quite extraordinary. Everyone is incredibly friendly and the culture is more relaxed compared to the more stressful way of living in Sydney. The shops close earlier than in Denmark and the international financial crisis has yet to hit Perth. They continue to build giant buildings for banks and mineral companies.
Perth’s and the rest of WA’s welfare are caused by the mineral rich underground, where gold and iron can be found. With Perth as an example it can be concluded that the possession of gold is beneficial in financial times like these. People here believe, however, the crisis will come, but I think they wouldn’t notice it because of their laid back attitude and way of living.



The first two nights after my arrival from Sydney, I stayed at a relative good hostel. I moved because it was then fully booked to another, but really crappy one. So I was desperate to find my own, like many other students, but I have now found a place. A house with four other people staying there that I’ve only met for five minutes, but they seemed alright. I’ll move in on Wednesday, meanwhile I live on a college next to the university. My search for a room started out as a bit of a nightmare, but several other exchange students I’ve spoken to still haven’t found a place yet.

The University of Western Australia (UWA) is located in a incredibly beautiful park. The whole area is taken from an American film and they have really tried to impress us with the “magnificent old buildings”, which are more than 100 years old - WOW.



The other international students had a tendency to go with people they already know from home, but they have opened up a little more gradually. I meet all the other exchange students the day after my arrival to Perth, for a session where we received information that would help us settle into life her in Perth more easily. There wasn’t much time to socialize except a small lunch break. A better change for socializing was given the day after when we went to The Hillarys boat harbour a popular tourist destination close to Perth. Hillary’s contains popular restaurants, shops and activities and is also home to AQWA, the Aquarium of Western Australia, where you can see all 12000 kilometers of Western Australia’s coastline in one place, and animals from seahorses to sharks. Everything was closed when we arrived, so we passed the time on the beach, talked about our traveling plans to different places near Perth during the semester. After the opening of the aquarium and two hours of exploration of the Western Australia coastline I was convinced that shall take a diving license down here and I’ve already found the place. There I’ve the opportunity to take the mandatory courses during the weekends that will keep me busy.
In the afternoon we went to Perth’s number one tourist attraction, Kings Park and Botanic Garden a huge park in the center of Perth and its outskirts touches the UWA campus. There are great panoramic views of Perth and the Swan River. There were no Koalas, but signs saying “watch out for snakes”.
We ended the day in Fremantle which has a history dating back to the mid-nineteenth century (not long compared to European standards, but for the “new worlders” it is pretty good!). Fremantle is a popular place to eat and have a drink in the evenings.
The day after we signed up for our units – I’m only enrolled in two units but they are equivalent to 30 ECTS points together. Next time we meet again I’ve an understanding of the main aspects of cell behavior that lead to tissue formation and homeostasis from embryogenesis through to disease and ageing and much more I hope. The units I’ve taken are taught jointly by the disciplines of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Physiology.
We finished the day with a little barbeque after another session about the life in Perth it was nice and relaxing to “throw prawns on the Barbie”.
Saturday we went surfing at Scarborough beach and the water was carpet bombed with surfers. That wasn’t enough to scare my away from my first dip in the Indian Ocean and it sure wasn’t the last time. The afternoon we passed in a wildlife park that wasn’t so spectacular compared to Taronga Zoo in Sydney, but great way to have a chat.

We were a few that went out as well in a popular suburb called Northbridge. We found a Pub serving the local beer. We left already at one o’clock caused by the lack of sleep and the worries of everybody regarding their own housing situation.

Week 1 - In Sydney with Katwoman

On the Danish web pages we read that the terrible forest fires in Victoria have reached your headlines. It was absolutely terrible and when the wind was in south, we could smell the fires from the northern suburbs of Sydney but they couldn’t be compared with the fires near Melbourne, so mother don’t worry!

This week Katrine showed me most of Sydney – It’s nice to know where Katwoman will live the next few months. We've been out walking on the cliffs at Bondi, and I was impressed with all of Sydney’s beautiful beaches which are accessible by public transportation from the city center. I would still say that the beaches in Portugal are just slightly better, but they are also world class and incomparable.

Sydney offers fantastic opportunities to take amazing pictures of the harbour area where the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge are located. This means that I have hundreds of photos of the Opera House and the bridge. Sydney has something so unusual for a metropolis: a quay used by thousands of commuters every day. Looking at the Opera House, and as a friend of several sailors, I can see the beauty of arriving by sea.



Last Saturday Anne, Katrine and I went on a trip to the Blue Mountains. The name Blue Mountains is derived from the characteristic blue haze seen from a distance. The trip was absolutely fantastic and we had the funniest guide, which also managed to throw us some quality information in between all the jokes! Sunday we went to the famous Taronga zoo. We saw the obligatory Koala, but I still direct my eyes towards the crowns of the eucalyptus trees in the hope of the real thing (People keep telling me, there are no koalas in Perth, but I will keep looking…). But since 14 of the 15 most venomous snakes reside on this continent, I also have to keep an eye on my feet and surroundings. The snakes they exhibited in Taronga though weren’t that active but napping when I was there.



All in all a fantastic week as tourists here in Sydney while we looked for accommodation for Anne and Katrine. Anne stayed temporarily with an Australian friend while Katrine and I had been living at a hostel until Anne’s colleague, Line, suggested that we stayed at her apartment in Hyde Park.
We celebrated crown princess Mary’s birthday with Danes living in Sydney at a place called Sleep in – which was the place where our crown prince couple meat each other – nice place by the way.

Katrine and Anne finally had success in their search for housing after they had visited several places, which did not meet the ladies’ standards or ladies in general. They have now found a nice little apartment by the world-famous Bondi Beach, but there is no "rice included”. Something more than a few landlords offered (a sign of the growing Asian population in Australia).

Before my departure to Perth we went on a trip to Katrine’s University. It was impressive with brand new buildings, small lawns where you could enjoy the weather and great sports complexes, and much more. Can’t imagine Katrine ever sees half of the university before her stay ends. She will be busy this semester before we meet up again, in the middle of the Australian desert; it is rather romantic, if you are using both halves of the brain. I miss her already.

The flight to Perth was 6 hours, but then I had not just crossed a country but a whole continent and three time zones. Perth is the capital of Australia's largest state Western Australia (WA) with a population of 1.7 million living within 100 kilometers of the city center. The area of WA is 2 million square kilometers and the total population in the whole state is 2 million. For this reason Perth is described as the most isolated city on the planet with the nearest city more than 2000 kilometers away...