World Album: May 2009

London:
My first hostel, in London.
This took place in-between the 2nd and 3rd year semester of my HND/BA in art and design – Animation, Wales, England.

I was looking for work in London, why London? Well…. London was the place to find a lot of animation studios in one area. I knew that there was another year till I finished my Bachelor. But I decided to try out the real life adventure of finding a real job, or at least to see how an animation studio looks like, anyway.

Arrange to come and visit an animation studio were cool and the most interesting thing to do, than finding some sort of accommodation. I had to live somewhere. I knew nobody there lived in London, so I had no other choice than to find a hostel, which was the immediate cheapest place. I only had to live there for a few days anyway so it wouldn’t matter.

While I studied in Wales, I shared with 7 people, but I had my own room, and shared bath, kitchen and dinning room. So I was getting a room with only 4 people, including my self, which was luxury to me.

It took another 2 years before I ever came near a hostel again. I went to live in a Danish youth hostel in London for 2 month. (The youth hostel is only for Danish people - Danish YWCA) http://www.kfuk.co.uk/

My English language, were ok at that time and I was ready and eager to go elsewhere in the world, so I applied for Working Holiday Visa to Australia. It took 1 ½ month and before I knew it, I was on my way to Australia.

Australia:
Here I was, standing outside Brisbane train station looking at the hostel I was going to stay in. There was a lot of noise from the pub down stairs. I was about to start my new animation job and this was the last thing I needed, people making a lot of noise, so I moved a few days later.

For the next month I was moving from place to place, 1 week here and 1 week there, around the Brisbane area. Why did I move around so often? Well…..........My income depended on how much footage I was doing and beside that I got to explore the different areas of Brisbane and I knew that the animation company “Liquid animation” was going to move, so I was waiting to find out where we were going to be.

Roughly a month after, “Liquid animation” moved to the new location and so did I. There was a hostel “Somewhere to stay” http://www.somewheretostay.com.au/ west end, Brisbane, close by.

It was a nice and cosy place and I stayed there till I found a flat and that took another month. 3 month later I was back at the same hostel in west end, because the flat I was in, was too big.

From I arrived in Brisbane till I moved out of the flat, 6 month was gone by so quickly. Finally after all that, I found myself a perfect studio apartment with a garden, balcony and a huge pool and it was cheap too.

Fraser Island: 4 days trip.

I met a Danish friend at the Danish club http://www.danishclubbrisbane.org/ in Brisbane and we decided to go on a little holiday to Fraser Island. (The world's largest sand island).

The journey takes approximately 3.5 to 4 hours to drive from Brisbane City to Hervey Bay/Fraser Island.

But first we had to see some whales, so we went whale watching http://www.whalewatch.com.au/ from Hervey Bay.

The day after we went to Fraser island.

The little adventure of ours, included a 4 person’s cabin + sightseeing.

We were sightseeing every day in this little 10 seated bus and we got along really well with the 6 tourist there were on this bus ride as well. http://www.fraserexplorertours.com.au/hervey-bay-2day-tour.html

Before the end of this fantastic trip it had covered basically everything of socialising, travelling, sightseeing and eating. I remember clearly, that I hoped it would never end…. but it did end.

Brisbane to Cairns: 2 weeks trip.
Around a year and 2 months later in October 2002, I was going on a 2 weeks holiday with a friend. From Brisbane to cairns and guess what…………I stayed at hostels again.

We took the bus from Brisbane to Bundaberg. That hostel we found in Bundaberg was probably the only one and it wasn’t that nice. It was packed with people. We stayed only for 1 day, arrived in the morning, saw the Bundaberg Rum Factory in the evening and left the next morning, that was it…. there was not much too see in Bundaberg anyway.

Our next destination Airlie beach “Backpackers by the bay” rated 4star

http://www.backpackersbythebay.com/ were a really cool place with a huge pool and great view to the sea. The hostel is within 5 min. walking distance to cafes, shopping and nightlife.

Have a look at the pictures under Labels to your right. Australia, Brisbane to Cairns. A great activity to participate in while visiting Airlie Beach is sailing. Fully qualified crew that have had years of sea experience take you on an unforgettable journey around the Whitsundays most spectacular locations.

So a sailing trip it was, a 3 days trip on a 103 years old ship called “The Defender” sailing around the Great Barrier Reef, Whitsunday Island. http://www.tallshipsailing.com.au/tall-ships/defender/index.html

This included Breakfast, lunch and dinner, snorkelling, swimming, fishing, walking along secluded beaches and much more….One evening, while sailing, there was no wind, it were dead silent, just the lights reflecting the water. A crew member was playing and singing old Irish songs on his guitar, how wonderful that was... To finished off the trip we all, on this trip, had dinner in one off the restaurants at Airlie beach.

One week left to go and we headed further up north to Cairns. So we went on the world longest Sky rail, between the coast of Cairns and Kuranda, through rivers and rainforest of 7.5 km, Botanic garden and going back to cairns with the trail up trough the mountains, over 37 bridges and trough 15 tunnels. Further more we went on a bus trip to Cape tribulation and daintree, river cruising - seeing crocodiles. 5 days gone by and it was time to head back to Brisbane, with the tilt train.

New Zealand:
The job that I had in Brisbane was finishing up and I went to New Zealand in November 2003, living 3 days in Auckland city at a hostel and the next 8 months at “The Brown kiwi” http://www.brownkiwi.co.nz/ The Brown Kiwi is a two-storey 1900’s colonial villa, located in Ponsonby, Auckland’s trendiest, multi- cultural inner city suburb. Sleeping a maximum of only 32 guests and is one of Auckland’s smallest and most fabulous budget accommodations with a friendly atmosphere. The city centre is only 5 minute bus ride or an easy 20 minute walk.
Now you probably wonder why I lived at a hostel for so long! Well… I liked it. I am that person there adjust to any environment. I shared with 3 people and they stayed just as long as I did. I think that the best hostels in the world is New Zealand’s BBH hostel (world traveller accommodation NZ.) http://www.bbh.co.nz/

A month after I arrived in NZ, it was at Christmas 2003. The friend that I met at the Danish club, came to see me and we went 2 weeks down the south island. All the hostels we stayed at were BBH hostels. My trip went something like this: Auckland – Christchurch – Dunedin – Queenstown and back to Auckland. We took the train from Auckland to Christchurch with ferry connections from Wellington – Picton, .