A Continent, a Country, and a different World

Australia - The Red Continent - as part of the Commonwealth has the Queen of England and an democratically monarchy (just proved to be wanted by the AUSSIES).

And they have the sweetest accent I've ever enjoyed. G´Day Australia!!!!!!!

The capital isn't Sydney nor is it Melbourne - its a small city in between called Canberra! National language is ... ENGLISH !!!!! And the Australian Dollar (AUS$) = 100 Cent is the national currency.

If you enjoy the Country by car - don't forget to drive LEFT!!! "Where you seat THERE'S the middle of the street!!!!" - Its true around the world in every Country. And you have to drive a lot due to the country size of  about 7,700,000 sq km (ca 3 000 000 sq miles).

Some things you must see:

If its your first trip to Sydney - DON'T miss the beautiful view from the AMP-Tower. Its the highest structure in the southern hemisphere (324.8 meters or 1,000 ft). You also have to visit the aquarium, the botanic garden, "the Rocks" (with all his bars and pubs and old Buildings) - Sydney was born here. The party life is concentrated around Kings Cross. Sydney also conducts there one of the worlds biggest Gay events - the "Sydney Mardy Gras". And Sydney is - for sure - FAMOUS for its beaches. Take a bath on Bondi or Collaroy. You also can get a ride on the Monorail, to the new Olympic stadium, Chinatown with its Chinese Gardens, or you climb the harbour bridge. Sydney is one of the cleanest cities I've ever visited. Even the busses use natural gas instead of fuel.

The next stop was Canberra. Is it REALLY a CAPITAL?????? Its such a green city! To get the best view all over this tiny capital you have to go up to the TELSTRA-Tower. In Downtown you can find interesting places such as the ANZAC-Memorial, Captain-Cook-Fountain, the old and the new Parliament Buildings. This amazing fountain shoot its water 150 meters high with up to 200 km/h and a footlight of 6,500 watt mark its way at night.

After I left Canberra I got through Australia's wine region and into the outback. Try to visit one or wineries and you will find out how good and inexpensive the Aussie wine can be. The next town was Coober Pedy - an opal mining town - were you can find the only underground hotel, and underground church and lots of apartments build into old mines.

And don't forget to visit "Uluru" better known as "Ayer Rock". It is the most holy ground for the Australian aborigines. The center of there "dream world", the home of there ghosts and spirits. And  you can still climb. About 20 km away, you can find an other rock formation, called "The Olga's". My most northern point was Alice Springs in the middle of this beautiful continent.

But then I had to go back. The desert was closed because of some flooding!?!?

But as Schwarzenegger already said: "I'll be back"!!!!! - some day, to see more of this land. The best fly I've ever had was coming up. Take of on March, 1, 1999 at 8 pm and landing the same day at 2 pm in L.A. (USA).