Szilárd VAJDA's blog

Till now I just wrote about my personal experience in this spectacular voyage Down Under. Right now is time to thank my hosts for their hospitality, kindness, patience and indulgence. Csaba and Maria immigrated last year to Australia and right now they live in Sydney. The unknown story is, ... I purchased for them the tickets to Australia and we started our new life stage at the same time. They went to Sydney, Australia, I went to Dortmund Germany. Such an interesting coincidence, isn't it?

They are really nice people and unfortunately we can not see each other more often. However, this year we are lucky as they will be back in Europe for Christmas and the New Year celebrations. I just left them a couple of hours ago but I already miss them. They are really good friends of mine.

Thank you guys! You are just simply great!

Ps. Csaba and Maria set up a blog about their longer journey in Australia. Unfortunately the posts are in Hungarian but you can write them in English and probably you will get a quick reply.

The 3 weeks are gone and I am almost back in Europe. I am at the moment at Abu Dabi, UAE waiting for my flight back to Frankfurt. It was hell of a journey. I flew from Sydney to Brisbane, from Brisbane to Singapore, from Singapore to Abu Dabi and finally from Abu Dabi to Frankfurt and of course I will take the train to reach Dortmund.

It was really a nice voyage in an unknown country with so many nice impressions starting from snorkeling to at Port Douglas, to the walks in the Blue Mountains and the nice beaches around Sydney, the animals, the Aussies and those funny road signs all over. It was a lifetime experience and I suggest you dear reader to go there and see for yourself. Australia is a beautiful country, totally different what we have seen so far here in Europe.

Definitely, I have so many things to tell, to write, to think but sure you will read some of them here in this blog. Now more time is needed to cover the hole story.

Unfortunately, these 3 weeks are almost gone so it is time to go back in Germany. Today we will visit some beaches (Bondi, Coogee) and tomorrow I will fly back to UAE and finally reach the final destination: Germany.

Yesterday we have seen something really nice. The Sydney Opera was like this. It happens once a year to have such a light show in some spots in the city. Yesterday was such a night and I was there. Lucky me! ;-) Isn't it?

Yes. We haven't seen each other for 20 years. Now this has been changed. She lives here in Australia but we were playing together when we were kids back in Marosvasarhely, Romania. She was really nice and jump in plane and here she is in Sydney. It was really nice to discuss all those topics back from our youth. It was really a nice experience!

Ps. I hope there are still some old friends like her.

Nem vagyok egy ekszer maniakus, de az eljegyzesi gyurumet nagyon buszken viseltem, de ennek mar sok-sok eve (7 ev). Azota mar reg lekerult a kezemrol es mas gyuru azota sem jart az ujjamon. Ma azonban talaltam egy erdekes gyurut es most ujra van gyurum. Amint latom ez sem lesz hosszu eletu de tetszik. Delfinek vannak a gyurun es a gyuru szine valtozik valoszinu a test homerseklete utan. Hol fekete, hol zold, hol turkiz. Szoval erdekes, es eddig meg ilyet sosem lattam.

Ui. Sok ferfival ellentetben en nagyon nagy orommel viseltem az eljegyzesi gyurumet es ugy erzem, hogy nagyon fontos egy kapcsolatban egy gyuru. Manapsag sajnos csak a nok viselik a gyuruket, a ferfiak minden fele kifogast keresnek, hogy ne keljen viselniuk semmifele gyurut.

I hope you know what I am talking about. Australia. Sydney is beach all over. I visited some of them and I will still visit some others but there is nice water, sand and beach all over. Amazing place I have to tell you. Come and see for yourself!

Nem is tudom hany eve nem volt ennyi szabad idom, mint most. No persze a meses helyek itt Sydney belvarosaban, a sok park, a kikoto es minden ... Talan ez tesz nosztalgikussa. Volt idom setaim kozben es sikerult egy kicsit elszakadni a munkatol es a mindennapoktol es gondolkodtam. No persze azert ne akarjuk az elet ertelmet megtalalni, mert nem fog az oly konnyen menni, de neha kell egy kis kikapcsolas, mikor is tobb idot lehet forditani sajat magadra.

Nem tudom, hogy sikerult, de eppen Edda jutott az eszembe.

Szomoru hireket hallani otthonrol. Nyugdijak csokkenese, az allami szferaban dolgozok fizetesenk 25%-al valo csokkenese, tamogatasok megvonasa es sorolhatnank. Nem hogy nonenek a gazdasagi mutatok, hanem csokkennek, es a bizalom is egyre csokken es nemsokara szerintem eluralkodik a panik es a felelem az embereken. Elkepzelhetonek tartom, hogy a 90 evekhez hasonloan elindul egy uj Exodus es sokan kivandorolnak, de ha nem is, rovid tavon biztosan tavozni fognak az orszagbol. Megertem a donteseiket. Eltelt 20 ev es oda jutunk, hogy nem jobban elunk, hanem rosszabbul es minden nap csak egyre bizonytalanabb. Hogy legyen igy jovo kepunk, hogy vallaljunk igy csaladot?

Ugy erzem, hogy Romania az utobbi 20 ev egyik legkegyetlenebb idoszakat eli, es ezek az intezkedesek (melyeket reszben jogosnak itelek meg, habar azt mar megkerdojeleznem, hogy miert kellett ide eljutni) igencsak ranyomjak a belyeguket mindenre es mindenkire.

I do not really know how to start. Probably this entry will be a quite an enthusiastic one. I am planning to describe my snorkeling experience at Low Isles, a wonderful island in the Pacific surrounded by corals, fishes, turtles and a nice blue water. We sailed away from the harbor early in the morning with the ship Sailaway IV with Steve the skipper and two lovely ladies. Sunshine, nice weather and good company. There were about 20 people on the boat. For more details about the boat and the family business of Steve look their website. Just in order to have a rough idea about this site, Low Isles is near to Port Douglas a lovely touristic city.

After sailing in the sunlight about 1h we arrived near to Low Isles this small paradise in the middle of the ocean. You can walk trough in 5 minutes and you can make a tour in 8 minutes. So you can imagine about the size. The island is part of the Great Barrier Reef where all those lovely creatures live near to the surface. After some safety regulations and some basic sign language course we started to explore the nearby of this island. Can you imagine? Corals everywhere, different type of fish and you listening how you are breading trough your mask. Amazing. Total freedom. You and the nature and nothing else.

You are snorkeling on the water surface, looking right, looking left and discovering new wonders all over. There was none of uninterested spots. I discovered a huge turtle and I followed him/her. Simply amazing and I had this feeling of total freedom. You, the water, the corals the underwater animals and the abyss. I have not experienced such a feeling before. Amazing, wonderful, lovely! I was always in love with the ocean but from now on this love is getting more intense.

After the lunch we started the second snorkeling session but that one was on open water not on the island anymore. It was a bit scary as near the boat we spotted some huge fishes and some sharks. Yes, there were sharks in the water, reef sharks. Of course these sharks are harmless. Everybody lost the enthusiasm but it was not my case. I just let my instincts to guide me trough the water. I have to admit for a couple of seconds I have been in the same water perimeter with those reef sharks but they just disappeared in the abyss. I was swimming near to the shore and I have had the most beautiful lifetime experience. I found a huge turtle and that huge and lovely creature was swimming calmly beneath and we shared this nice company for a couple of minutes. The turtle was like a guide for me. Honestly, I do not know about the turtle, but for me it was something amazing. Nobody was there, just the turtle and me, the corals and the ocean.

Of course I was the last one coming on board but I could have stayed for hours and explore the reef. It is not my first snorkeling experience but definitely it was the magic one. I decided to go for diving next time I am back in Australia.

Ps. Special thanks should go to Steve and the other crew members for this amazing lifetime experience. I hope some day I can come back to Port Douglas and Low Isle and meet those lovely people again.

This new blog entry is coming from Port Douglas about 3,000km north from Sydney at the Eastern Coast of Australia. It is just amazing. I haven't seen such a landscape before. The Pacific Ocean, the trees and the ambiance it is just the perfect match. It is wild and impressive. Simply amazing. I am really sorry but I am not always able to describe what I have seen. It is totally different what I have seen before.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with Nemo and Franklin but at this time I am going to visit them in their natural habitat. We are going for a sailing and snorkeling with turtles. Can you imagine?

Ps. Right now I am going to sleep. During the whole flight I was working on a camera ready version of one of my papers, so not even now I can not forget about working. However, from now on nothing can stop me to focus just on VACATION! Bye dear Reader!

The enthusiasm was not that big anymore, probably it was not Sydney but rather the fatigue however, I wanted to visit all the coins of the city and feel Sydney instead of just visit Sydney. You know bread the city ...
So after exchanging some currency in a bank I took the train (like the Schnellbahn is Germany or HEV in Hungary) and headed to Town Hall. Of course you should not expect something like in Paris or Aachen but still a Victorian building and a nice one. A even visited a church and had some nice discussion with the guardian of the temple about the British heritage here in Australia.

It is really interesting how in between these skyscrapers you can find some old building. You can find some shot here. After a nice walk in the business district I did like all Aussie would do. Go in a park and have some rest. I went to The Domain park and I did exactly the same. Lying on the grass, relax, looking for the birds, people, etc. It was really something amazing. A new experience. A good one I have to tell.

After this relax session I enjoyed some good food in a food court at Martin place the center of the business district. Of course the final destination before attending a Yahoo7 event was the Opera and Harbour Bridge. It was really a life time experience to sit there and enjoy the sunshine and the view. You should also try this felling.

It is totally different from all the cities what I have seen before. It is a megalopolis with a nice mixture of population coming from different countries with different cultures sharing similar values.

Definitely, Kevin Rudd was right. Australia is more an Asian country and it does not have anything in common with Europe and USA. Of course, the language is English and quite an understandable one for me but still ...

Unfortunately, I can not spend more time writing some nice sentences ( there would be many I suppose) but I would like to offer you some nice pics. These are my first pictures but there will be following many more.

That was yesterday. I have not had any sleep for more than 40h. At the end I was a bit dizzy but you can imagine. Yesterday I arrived to Sydney.

My friends were waiting for me at the airport. We just drove home get a breakfast and went for a BBQ party in one of those many parks around Sydney. I have seen a wallaby and some bird and totally different flora. It was Mother day as well, so it was even a challenge to find some free BBQ place and parking space.

Everybody was outside and enjoying good weather, food and company. We did the same. Some other three families have joined and we have spent a nice afternoon. At the end I was not that nice anymore but 36h without sleep, you know it is not that easy. However, I managed somehow. We went home we discuss some issues about today and I went to bed. Right now, I am after 10h of good sleep, so: Sydney, here I am.

Ps. I have some pictures already but I will post them soon.

Yes. I am going there. I kept a low profile on that because it was not that important. Right now it is. For the next couple of weeks I'll be in Sydney, Australia.

Right now I'm at Abu Dabi International Airport. It is damn hot crowded and I do not like all this sand all over. Probably that's what they have here. Oil and sand. A strange mixture but however they are just simply rich. Anyway, I prefer Europe.

The next blog entry will be probably from the airplane or already from Sydney. We will see. From Frankfurt to Abu Dabi there was a nice flight I got 2 seats so it was luxury I would say. The start was quite good. The train from Dortmund to Cologne was 1h late so I thought it can happen I will be not in time for my flight but everything just turned fine. I found another train, I reached my train from Cologne to Frankfurt and right now here I am.

I am really sorry to comment again and again on this topic but it seems the problem is more serious than I thought.

Yesterday, the bishop of Porto Alegre (Brazil), Dadeus Grings — a conservative priest stated: "Society today is pedophile, that is the problem. So, people easily fall into it. And the fact it is denounced is a good sign," It is more than offending w.r.t. the modern society. Yes indeed, pedophilia existed from ancient times but the Church wanted to ban this and tried to hide this behavior. Right now they can not do it anymore as we do not live in the dark ages. Unfortunately, many of these pedophilia cases are reported from inside the church, committed by the clerics. This should really not happen but it does and right now I can state that there is a serious problem inside the Catholic Church.

The priest who made other controversial declarations in the past regarding the Holocaust also mentioned "For the church to go and accuse its own sons would be a little strange," so it means the clergy can do whatever they like as they are above law.

I think there is really something going on inside the Church. Such declarations can not come out from a high official of the Vatican. Definitely, there is a moral crisis in the Catholic Church and it seems they can not handle anymore the situation.

I am really sorry for all the Catholics as their Church is not anymore the place for respect, love, indulgence, understanding and hope but rather a place for debauch and characters considering themselves above the law. I still hope nobody will loose his/her faith in God but right now everybody will understand that the Church is not that Church mentioned in the Scriptures.

"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and gates of Hades will not prevail against it" (Mat 16:18)
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