roadtripping // bendigo, victoria

Everybody loves a good roadtrip, right? Well at least we do! And sometimes time out of the big city is very much needed. Thankfully, Victoria offers beautiful country towns close to the big smoke. So you are never far away from a day spent outside of town.

A couple of weekends ago we hopped in our car, coffee (to go) ready, guidebook in hand, eager for exploring. We drove 90 minutes to the North, reaching Bendigo just in time for a nice, sunny afternoon stroll around town. Bendigo is actually one of the largest towns in Victoria and has been an important boom town after gold was disvocered during the 1850s. The architecture is fantastic, there are still many gold-aera buildings like the former Post Office or the Shamrock Hotel.

You find the pretty Rosalind Park just next to the city centre - here you can climb the lookout tower to have a great view over Bendigo! I especially loved the conservatory - filled with amazing flowers and colours!
 

You also find hundreds of bats in the trees of the Rosalind Park - I have never seen anything like this and we were pretty mesmerized and (at the same time) horrified. They were loud. And smelly. But somehow cool. I have seen many bats flying around Melbourne when the sun sets, but I have never seen so many of them, in trees, during daylight.


We checked out the Chinese quarter and museum (Bendigo has a strong Chinese heritage as many of the gold diggers where Chinese), but I loved the secondhand bookstore we found along the way the most. Check out this place filled with books. A dream come true!!

As for the food we had a burger at our favorite burger joint - Grill'd Burger! Yum - "Simon Says" (thats the name of the burger btw) is my all time favorite!


However, we actually missed the most famous sights of Bendigo that day: the Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo Pottery and the Central Deborah Gold Mine.

Well, just another reason to return!! Right? Right! *K

upcoming travels - sri lanka

After lengthy discussions, internet research and more discussions, we finally decided where our travels will take us next summer (as in December)!! We have always been much more relaxed when it comes to deciding where we should go, as there is normally a favorite destination waiting to be explored.

This time it was different - we have to take our 3 week vacation (out of 4 weeks annual leave) over Christmas as both our offices close during that time (summer holidays in Australia plus Christmas means less work / business). That is the time when everybody in Australia is on leave, so you can image flight prices to be incredibly high....

We had Hawaii on the agenda (too expensive), Indonesia (rain season in December), Japan (its winter over there), Nepal (also too cold), South America (too expensive). So all our favorites didn't work.
We finally pulled a map and looked for anything "close" to Australia where we would find beaches, culture, good food, wildlife. And hey, there it was - Sri Lanka!! After a bit more research we liked what we saw and it was set - Sri Lanka it was!! Flights were booked and we are ready to go. If only we didnt have to wait for 7 more months.............

So in the meantime I am getting excited about surf beaches, train rides along tea plantations, wild elephants in national parks and yummy curries!

Have you been to Sri Lanka? Do you know anybody who has and who has shared their pictures on the world wide web? Please let me know!!

Where are you heading next? Any exciting plans? *K

postcode 3065 // fitzroy

  The city of Melbourne is a big puzzle of different suburbs - west, east, north of the river, south of river. All of them have a quite distinct feel and atmosphere, some grungy, some posh, some modern, some maritime. We have Little Vietnam, Chinatown, Middle East and Little Italy. I love that about Melbourne - every weekend you can go out and explore another part of the city! So I made a personal goal to visit (and shoot) as many suburbs as possible during my stay here in Melbourne and share them with you! Hope you like to explore a bit more of the "local" Melbourne through my viewfinder :)

Today on the list is Fitzroy.

Wikipedia tells me that Fitzroy is located 2km in the north-east of the CBD. Its one of the oldest but also smallest suburbs of Melbourne. It used to be really industrial, but most of the old factories and warehouses have been demolished for new housing. Fitzroys heart and soul is certainly Brunswick Street which is a long strip of cafes, quirky shops, pubs and street art. 

I love to spent an afternoon strolling down Brunswick Street, having coffee in the sunshine. On Nicholson Street you find great furniture shops like Great Dane. On Gertrude Street and Smith Street you find more lovely shops and more pubs as you can count.



And then there is the street art. If you love street art as much as I do, it will be the perfect place to spend an afternoon roaming the many backstreets and laneways of Brunswick Street and discover many hidden gems.

Fitzroy is very close to the city, so you can either walk or take the tram to get there. For me the area is so quintessential Melbourne - good coffee, great local products and shops, streetart galore and always something to explore and discover.

Whats your favorite neighborhood in your town, and why?

Have a great weekend, Kristina

Here are other suburbs I already covered: South Melbourne and Richmond

| western australia | the green pool

I am still going through all my pictures of Western Australia to write about places I loved the most during my trip with my parents and today I would like to show you my favorite beach of the many beautiful beaches we passed - the Green Pool near Denmark.

Denmark is a small town at the Southern coast of Western Australia, about 450km to the south-east of Perth. When you drive to Denmark from the Margarete River region, you pass through amazing stretches of marri, karri and red tingle forest. The eucalypts are stunningly beautiful and the drive was spectacular. We stayed 3 nights in Denmark, mainly hanging out at the beautiful beaches that surround the town - our favorite being the Green Pool and Elephants Rock

The water has the most beautiful colour, but - don't be fooled - it is really cold!! Such a pity as I dread cold water... Instead I tucked my toes in the warm sand, took walks along the beach, climbed on rocks and took long afternoon naps.... Take me back, pretty please!!

This morning we only had 5.5 degree - my walk to the office left me with freezing hands and hurting ears. I think it is time to get the winter clothes out!! With this coldish weather I dream even more about summer and days spent on the beach!!

On a different note, head over to Miller Memoires and check out my guest blog about careers in travel - I share some insights to what I do professionally and how it helped me to move abroad for work! Enjoy - and do take some time to roam through Laurens blog, her travels in Taiwan are amazing!! Happy Monday, *K