14^th of October.

Woke up in 16 Murray Drive, Melbourne. We said our teary goodbyes to the Tomlin family who had looked after us for ten days like their own family. Australia is FAR away… But so is Finland if you look at it from here. Then we were picked up by older Tomlins who kindly gave us a ride to the airport. As it was once again pouring down rain, it was most appreciated. It’s somehow miraculous that someone on the other side of the world would do such a great favor to us, but sometimes the world amazes – there has clearly been that up in the air in the last two weeks.

I then decided to try and figure out how long our day was going to be, and more importantly, how long was our *flight* to Honolulu. After careful calculations, I came to the conclusion that the time difference is 21 hours, (or three, depends how you want to look at it) so our day was to last 45 hours. I doubt the day will ever be longer than this. We started from the future and went back to the past. You might think that no one noticed… What does it matter which day it is? But there you would be wrong. In the evening we realized that my husband’s credit card had been canceled, because he had made the suspicious purchase of buying supermarket dinner for us in Honolulu *before* he bought a jacket in Sydney… This is what happens when you do the day twice. Better to use cash, I am telling you.

After the long airport complications and flights from Melbourne to Sydney and Sydney to Honolulu, we arrived in the past at 9:30am, on the same day as we had left. This was my first entry to America, so I was expecting a whole good two hours of customs at least. Instead, we were through in ten minutes after the plane landed – which was amazing considering that we also had bought Kangaroo and Alligator Jerkey, which qualified as a meat product and needed to be declared. They laughed and thanked us for showing the items and we were through. Seriously the quickest immigration so far…

Our hotel is the Aqua Aloha Surf and Spa near Waikiki Beach, which I chose because it had complimentary internet in the room. We were blessed to get a room at 10:30am, after which we showered and head for lunch. It’s a good feeling to be back in the warm again, even if this is our last time on the trip… We managed to burn our noses through the sun cream, thanks to the ravaging sun that points almost directly at you.

We had Japanese for lunch and headed to see Waikiki Beach, after which we decided to walk to see the ‘Iolani Palace. This was the residence of Hawaii’s king and queen in the 19^th century and the only royal (monarch) residence in American soil apparently. Two monarchs governed from ‘Iolani Palace: King David Kalākaua and Queen Lili’uokalani. We took the self-audio tour around and it turned out to be really good and informative.

The King Kalākaua was a modern man and had travelled around the world (first monarch to do so) and collected modern items such as a flushing toilet and the telephone. There was even the electrical light installed into the Palace much before European equivalents. He ruled with his queen Kapiolani, but they had no children, so when the king fell ill and couldn’t get the remedy even from San Francisco, he died and left his sister, Princess Lili’uokalani in charge. The events on her time of power were quite contradictive, because a small group of influential men in court took her out of power and enprisoned her in one of the rooms of the Palace for eight months. This was done against the current President of United States as well, but unfortunately monarchy was never re-established in Hawaii. President Clinton did a public pardon for these events of the power taken from Queen Lili’uokalani without any legal right. This was a second museum that had a very guilt-driven story to tell. Perhaps the like that around the Pasific Ocean.

As far as what I think about Hawaii after the first day: It’s clear that Waikiki is a holiday resort for tourists, which we are not accustomed to see, but in anycase welcome the constant 7-11s and cheap food. When ordering food, or paying for services, one must remember around here that 15% is the current tip. It may look like things are cheap, but add tax and tip and they are suddenly expensive. It’s also a country built for private cars. I was actually surprised to find pavements to walk on in the centre of town. We are determined to survive without the hassle of renting a car, paying for the petrol and parking as well. Not to mention the stress of reading a map. So I think we’ll try some of the tours that the hotel offers for at least Pearl Harbor and the Polynesian Cultural Centre.

Day 38/63

We spent Monday by driving to Hillsville, where Tomlins family members have a big following. We also got to see the retired grandparents’ huge new place there – they moved from England this spring and were looking at downsizing… This however, is not the ozzie way, they got a huge four bedroom villa for their investment. The elder Tomlins seem very happy about their turn of life and move to Australia – they certainly don’t seem to miss Europe at all. That’s what’s going on with everyone we’ve met that have immigrated to Australia. They never want to leave and claim that they miss nothing of the poor weather Europe. There is a thought. So if you ever heard someone describe Australia as the promise land – they were not pulling your leg, mate.

We drove mainly to Hillsville to visit an animal sanctuary called ‘Healesville’, where they have got roos and other wobblies in very natural conditions. We saw a Koala dining with her youngling on her back, which apparently is very rare. The Kangaroos were a bit lazy and just slackering around, until it was food time and suddenly they were very active. We could touch them as well… Feels like a dog’s fur, for your information.

We also scouted the Tasmanian devils, which really look like small angry, black things, something like a cat, but fat. Like a mopsi, but evil. We saw iguanas, but the wombats were asleep. Echidna how ever were quite active and so was the cutest thing there: the Platypus. So many animals that I had never seen for real…

My time in Australia has been very well spent, I feel. It was weird to be in a country again, where you understand the language, where people understand what you are saying… And the culture feels somewhat familiar. Of course there would have been so much more to see, I’d love to see Uluru and Tasmania, so definitely, I’ll be back some day. When it was time to say goodbye to the Yimmlies, we were all quite sad. Ten days goes much faster than you think. Time to move on, see other continents and other adventures.

When you are travelling around the world, it’s not only your body that needs to adjust into the constant change – the mind is even slower adjuster. But I suppose that’s a good thing. These days will not escape my thoughts for many years to come, I’m sure.

Day 36-37/63

It was a beautiful day in Melbourne, so we went for a walk in the Botanical Gardens. These gardens hold an especially dear place in the hearts of the family that we are staying with, because they got married here around ten years ago. My husband was there in best man duty which made visiting this garden like a must place for us.

Australia is all about gigantic trees. In Finland, on average you can put the arms around a tree and put your hands together. That’s a normal tree. In here the bark is huge and leaves spread around with branches really wide. They also have a wide variation of flowers, plants and animals that I have never seen in my life. The gardens are spread on a huge area in the city centre, definitely worth it for a walk with family, perhaps a picnic with kids, too.

Afterwards we had a nice wander around Williams town, which is a sea shore area, on the other side of the bay (looking from where we are currently based in the Wattle park). This area has lovely boutiques, bakeries and cafés… All you could want really. Reminded me a little of Naantali harbor, but of course that is much much smaller. There is even a Titanic themed restaurant where you start to drown during dinner. Honestly, what is it with melbourneans and weird dining habits?

We had a baby sitter booked for the evening, but unfortunately none of us could face another night out, so we stayed in and watched television like a bunch of muppets. Well needed time to chill out, because on the next day we had some more fun coming to our way.

The Sunday started with lovely coffee and scans at the Borensztejns’. They have an absolutely gorgeous house with high pillars and high rooms, you know the houses in Gone with the Wind before the war? Pretty much like that. We were on our way  to a charity auction, where they raised money by selling pieces of art that the artists had donated. This was officially my first auction, which turned out to be an interesting occasion. Too bad the painting that I liked the best and the Tomlins would have quite wanted, went for a really high price. For us it’s easy: We don’t have walls anyways… I can’t even hang out my own pictures… And there is always need for new shelves… But in case there would have been something great that no one else wanted, then I can see the auctions being really good places for bargains. However, I am sure you need to go a serious load of stressful ones where someone buys you off on something you really wanted. I could see some incredibly rich people there, just buying some pieces off to possibly show that they can. If I ever have money, I swear that that’s not the way I’m going to be using it. Life is actually perhaps easier when you are not loaded. Possibly because you have needs and wants that you can work for and goals to achieve there. I was reminded once again, that I am really blessed to live my current, occasionally very poor life. I am sure glad I could afford to take this trip, but I am also glad that I need to go back to work straight after…

Okay, the morning after you’ve been to Dracula’s, you are going to feel in your head. You might have vague memories of having started your own dance styles in the late morning hours and definitely you’ll feel like it was time to stop drinking before 2am.

In any case, I think my personal Yimly and I are so pathetic alcoholists now a days that we had it much better than the native Yimms. Our brave host took us for a tram ride to town to pick up his wife’s car as well as to pop at the Victoria Market to do some grocery shopping for the barbeque in the evening. Even the guidebook to Australia that we bought said that the native specialty food-wise was barbeque.

Victoria Market is a huge complex of all kinds of food and tat sellers hurdled up on its own large block of space in the centre of Melbourne. There is a vegetable and salad open air market and the lovely butchers’, cheese and olive sellers are in a hall market. All that beautiful and exotic food, none of which I can particularly get away with bringing home… Yimms bought me some Kangaroo salami, so that I could have a taste. Kangaroo tastes pretty much like a richened beef – quite chewable, but my husband complaint of the smell of it. We had lovely big bratwursts and sour kraut for lunch and then when it was finally time to pop and buy me a pair of shoes, I was attacked with the Australian Fashion police, who commented on my shoes:”I like your shoes” (I was wearing socks and sandals… Thanks to it being bloody cold and me not having real shoes with me) “All Europeans wear shoes like this, it’s the newest thing”, I said and went on to buy a pair of trainers. A month without socks had ended.

We then took ourselves and the groceries back to the lovely family Barbie, in which all the family was invited. I had been told a lot about the Borensztejns as well as the Tomlins, and they turned out to be a lovely crowd, filled with laughter and children running around. Dani had been cooking all day and the feast was very deligious. I got to meet Mrs. Borensztejn who told me of her trip to Poland, which had not gone so well… I got thought what is the difference between football and Rugby by two younger Borensztejns. I talked with Mr. Tomlin the elder, who looks scarily like Dumbledore from films 2-> when he speaks at you. And most of all, it felt like being with my own family. It’s incredible to discover the warmth of such a big number of people, on the other side of the world, all curious to meet you, like I was suddenly coming into the family. And I was. The Tomlins will always be our family.

Day 34/63

After three days of working from the bed of Agatha Tomlin, I was ready to get back into sightseeing. Small break from the world never harmed anyone, but I also wanted to see Melbourne. Our lovely host Simon, better known as Yimly, Yimford, Yimms or Ugly, took us downtown for a lovely day. We parked the car at the harbor and took the tram to the equivalent of the Southbank, where we then loitered off like three muppets.

We came across the EUREKA! Building which is the current tallest building of the city. This one was only completed in 1.6.2006!  We decided to take the elevator into the Skydeck 88^th floor. The tower is the world’s tallest residential tower when measured to its highest floor. From the tower, it is easy to understand Melbourne. It’s a city built around a big bay. So big in fact that it takes my Shorinji Kempo friend Rob Gassin a whole day to ride around it by a bike. This is called ‘Around the Bay within a Day’ race that the melbourneans do every year.

This is also a city of sports. Competitive sports in particular. They have at least three different arenas, one coming up as well.. Like two wasn’t enough. One is for football, one for rugby and so on. I am not into these sports, but I was delighted to see a bunch of blue tennis courts and to realize that the Australian Open is held right here in Melbourne. It’s always on during the night if you are a Finn, so I never actually get to watch it. That I think is the reason that I never realized the city it was based in either.

We had lunch in the Federation Square before mazing our way around the centre of Melbourne, past the Flinders station to a tram that took us back to Yimm’s car. This concluded my first tour in the centre of Melbourne. Of course it’s marvelous! So much better than Sydney!

In the evening, the Yimms had gotten a baby sitter to Agatha and Dophin boy who are the kids, and we the grown ups had booked something called ‘Dracula’s’. My husband assured me that this was exactly the best possible thing we wanted to spend our time and money on, and as he knows me very well, he was not wrong. Unfortunately for you, dear readers, what goes on in Dracula’s, stays in Dracula’s. No pictures allowed. But if you are ever in Melbourne, this is not something you want to miss. Remember to book in advance… I have to say that the only thing that comes close to this much fun is the Sitsit, a private party that my friend Tino organizes every year. Yam-Yam!

Day 30/63

On Sunday morning we got a flight from Sydney to Melbourne. I was seriously educated on the way, that I shouldn’t say anything positive about Sydney to the Melbourneans (or vice versa). They apparently have some rivalry going on between them, up to the point that they had to build an artificial city to be the capital because they couldn’t agree which one would be the better one.

In Melbourne we are staying with my husband’s old friend and his family’s house. And there he was this old friend, meeting us at the airport. He was easy to spot as his chemistry with my husband is on its own level… They used to be flatmates in their twenties and had spent countless hours playing Resident Evil together. Somehow they’ve even created their own language in the process. So I was not surprised as his wife yelled: “Yimms!” when she saw my husband. I have never met this family before, but they started instantly feel like meeting family members of my own.

The hospitality of this family has completely surprised me. Not only had they made their incredibly posh house spotless, but also cooked a really complicated dinner involving barbeque and two stages of sauces… They have even gotten a hotel for their cats while we are staying, since I am heavily allergic to that sort of furrballs. They’ve got two very well behaving children, the eight year old daughter had done a research project *for fun* about Finland, just because we were arriving. I am sure I didn’t feel this special even at my own wedding!

I have been told, that Melbourne is a city much more gorgeous and posh than Sydney, so I am looking forward on finding that out for myself as well.

Day 29/63

It was pissing down from the sky all morning, so we decided to head for the museum of Sydney. History of Sydney is a very interesting, but partly sad story. Highlights include James Cook finding it and claiming it for the British after which they decided to send a bunch of ships to this land, far far away. The museum has a big whole section on mutiny on the Bounty, which is a story that I suppose everyone knows. Captain William Blight was in charge of the Bounty, not letting the convicts even speak to each others and treating them like factory workers. He was left in an open ship, sail away on the sea, which he somehow managed to navigate and was later on pardoned in Brittain on the loose of his ship the Bounty. He later became the governor of New South Wales, but he was not popular even then…

We listened on the stories from around that time in the shore, one of which stuck to my mind. It was a local, aboriginal woman’s story of nails. The men of these ships hadn’t seen women in months, so the locals traded two nails to some services in the bedroom. With the nail they could open a coconut, build a house or kill a man. All very useful functionalities. Better the nail, better the service, apparently.

After Sydney was established as a port, they soon started to build the bridge over the harbour and of course send goods to China, India and Europe. There is a whole section on the trams of Sydney. They used to have a big network of trams built after the war, but unfortunately as the cars started to become more popular, the network was dissolved and the trams were burned. Funnily enough, because of the global warming and more environmentally safe options of travelling being in fashion right now – they are planning to get a new tram network.

There is currently only a monorail, which is more like one circle line of a metro, going around in the air. It seems to be focusing on tourists, but markets itself as a fast and clean way to get to lunch as well… We took a ride around the harbor and centre, just to shield ourselves from the rain, really.

It was Saturday night, so we had tickets to the ‘Mikado’, which is a operette, a humoristic musical about the Japanese society, written in 1885 by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. As far as musicals go, it was alright, nothing really fancy, but of course part of the experience was that we got to see it in the Sydney Opera House. Lovely experience and you can really feel the Scandinavian influence in the Danish architecture. It’s very much like Opera/Theatre halls in Finland (from the inside)… But of course it’s one of a kind miracle from the outside.

I enjoyed Mikado, however, I think it’s a bit cruel towards the Japanese… I mean, whose name is “Yam-Yam”? And did they really come up with stupid rules like “if the man is executed, then the wife must be buried alive?” Perhaps. Musically, I didn’t think much of it, but visually it was good. Specially the entrance of Mikado and Katisha is a very massive and interesting. I would say: If in Sydney, one should really do the Opera. But see what is on – perhaps it’s something more exciting than this one.

Day 28/63

It was the day I bought socks. For the first time since leaving Finland about a month ago, I really felt like needing socks. The wonderfully sunny and warm Sydney turned into a cold and rainy place over night. Our mission was to see some of the downtown and head for the Chinatown. Our doodle took us first to the post office where we sea mailed 5 packages to Finland. Three months it takes apparently. I shall have many birthday presents in January then.

Sydney is built like London, the streets are similarly named, St.Mary’s cathedral looks like a copy of Westminister Abbey and the park along is called the Hyde park. There is a large fountain in the middle of it, a gift from the French for all the aid in WWII. So, like Hyde park, but green and fountainy. We walked past the park to the museum of Sydney.

The bottom layer of the museum is focusing on the aboriginals and the way the imperialists tortured them over the years. It’s a very guilt driven show with stories of the Dreaming and how they were forced into saying that it means the same as the Christian religion. The aboriginal children were also taken from their families to stop them from knowing anything about their religion and origins. The white people just assumed there was nothing spiritual going on *just because they couldn’t see any althars*… There is a mother with his son in the museum, trying to explain to him why the black men are in chains around their necks in the picture… He says to her: “Because they were bad!”, and she says: “No, no. They hadn’t done anything. We did that to them without a reason”. She me very proud to be white in the white world at that moment.

After the aboriginal Dreaming, we go back in time to the attic, where they have not only constructed massive skeletons of Dinosaurs, but also some fluffy predators of the Megafauna, great big extinct animals of Australia. The megafauna were the biggest and slowest animals in the environment. These kinds of animals were very vulnerable to hunting, but not to climate change… However, the extinction of megafauna was most extreme in places where humans arrived as already skilled hunters. Breathtaking monsters really… I am much more impressed with them than the dinosaurs. The latter ones you always wonder – did they actually make that skeleton out of the found bones or did they just put together some pieces of plastic.

We head for lunch in China town, or what we thought was the Chinatown. This is one of the best 20dollar lunches we’ve had. Later on we find the gates to the real Chinatown and stumble onto Paddy’s market, just down the Chinatown street. This market is pretty much like the tat shows in China, but without the constant hassle of ‘Looky-look’ and such yelling at us. This is why we are happy to spend perhaps two hours browsing the market. I bought myself some work clothes, an aboriginal top and painting, road signs as well as a dress to the opera. My husband bought four shirts. I call this good days work of shopping.

We popped into Kinokuniya, the big bookshop, only to discover that our friend who we were meeting for dinner, was there. It’s a small world even on the other side of the planet.

Day 27/63

Here I am, down under. I am sure my husband and I have never been so happy to see civilization in our lives. We dumped our luggage to wait for a room in our hotel, the Menzies in Sydney and got on with the sightseeing. This is my first ever day in Australia and I wasn’t even out of the taxi when I realized that these people are very, very happy with their lives here, far away from Europe.

It was supposed to be the only sunny day during our three-day experience in Sydney, which meant that we really wanted to take all the pictures possible and do museums and things later on. We took a walk through the beautiful botanical gardens, on the spot where the convict boats first landed on Sydney and started to chop through the trees. Of course the bark and the size of the trees itself was so huge that they could only chop out a layer, after which it all crew back. Some of those trees are still there, impressively.

For a European, this is an alien location. It’s also my second other continent, so in the same way as I felt when landing to Xi’An (my first encounter with Asian soil) in 2006, I felt the presence of another world. The trees are huge. The birds are all alien looking and even the bats are out there – on broad daylight! After a while, touring around the garden we got the first look at the Opera house, which is a gorgeous sight, and I bet my life it looked much better to me, after a week in the dodgy Shanghai with all the mud and the junk all around.

The reason why the Opera house is a shape of shells, was cleverly picked up by the Danish architect who designed it. They say that when the British first came with their convict ships, they met a sea of shells on the shores as the aboriginals had been piling them up there, presumaply after eating what was inside. We picked out our tickets for the ‘Mikado’ for Saturday night.

After the whole breath taking sight of the attraction number one in Sydney, we decided to head for a lunch in the Rocks. We browsed through the shops in the harbor area… The Australian tat is basically: Boomerangs, Digeridoos, Aboriginal paintings and patterns on clothes, bags, coasters and fridge magnets. Australians seem to be even slightly more obsessed with magnets than the rest of the world.

I find their language to be difficult to understand. It’s the vowels that does it for me. But I am trying to get a hang of it. It’s so strange to be in a country where suddenly everyone understands what you are saying… And you have to use knife and fork instead of chopsticks. We got a pub lunch with some fish’n’chips just to make sure we are back in the mother land… Or at least somewhere that was conquered by James Cook for the British.

We had a well-needed nap in the hotel before making a lovely trip to Manly with one of the ferries that leave from the harbor. Manly is a small piece of land between two beaches and you can tell that it’s a wild, beach lifestyle there. The sea was too cold for me and I didn’t bring a towel anyways, but at least I can say I went a beach! The Australians were canooing and surfing away. We had a gorgeous Indian for dinner – but forgot what you should remember: Restaurants have a BYO policy (Bring Your Own) for wine, so you bring it and they make you pay a small fee to cork it. I know it’s weird, but I can see how that is much better than spending a fortune in a restaurant for booze.

Just one day in Australia, but I am already, totally in love with it. Everything they say about it is true: People are just happy. Pure and simple. They are like Europeans, but they have evolved. You know how Allan Ball took the Sookie Stackhouse novels and created True Blood – that’s what I mean. Take the good parts, dump the shit ones and make an entire big world around it.

As we are going to three countries that demand visas, I thought I would start this process early.

China

I’ve been to China before in 2006 and the procedure is simple: You need to have a real one page visa included to your passport, this means sending your passport (or taking it to) the Chinese embassy of Helsinki.  Along with your passport, you need to send a passport picture of yourself and the form of application. The fee of the visa in 2009 was 40euros. You will be asked questions like “Do you have aids or leprosy?” (if yes, then don’t even think about coming to China)  and you need to provide your plane tickets.  Also, if you are a journalist of any sort, it’s probably best to mention it… Just tell them that you are a tourist. You never know with the Chinese, their paranoia is quite world known. The visa is valid for 3 months after you get it, so be sure to book it in the time frame of your trip. The bonus of 2009 is that you cannot send the passport and application in with a mail, so make sure you have a relative in or a visit coming up to Helsinki.

The bunch line is: Finland – Because life is not difficult enough!

Australia

For Australian visas, there’s plenty of websites that try to charge money for it. Better to use just the immigration services of the Australian government.  If you are just visiting and not immigrating or working there, then you should get eVisitor Visa for free. They also email it to you, so no big trouble getting one immediately. It  allows you to travel to and from Australia any number of times over the next 12 months. On each visit to Australia you can stay for a maximum of three (3) months.

USA

Well, I’ve never been to America before, but I have been told what to expect. Apparently, if you visit Canada while coming from and going to USA, it doesn’t really count like leaving the country… Thank goodness. You can find out pretty much all you want to know from from the US embasy in Helsinki.  There is a Visa Waiver Program which allows you to enter ‘without a visa’ for business or tourism, but only if you are eligible meaning that you don’t have a disease, criminal record, swine flu or other barrier of entry. Of course you also should not have had anything to do with the nazis or helping them. At the end, it’s a pretty easy procedure. They accept you online. Of course I am prepared the customs to be quite nasty. The day that I will arrive to the american soil, will also be the longest day of my life, lasting something like 47 hours. It’ll be something to write about at least I suppose.