... thoughts after 8 months in Australia

The cat (as I call it, but not everyone thinks this resembles a cat) - by Yarra River in Melbourne

Hey all,

I thought that I would share some things after my now 8 month long stay in Aussie, mostly in Melbourne ...

- Aussie as a country is easy to live in, people are nice and especially
the ones in Melbourne are much nicer than the Sydney people :), the laid back style is something I like and getting used to now.

- Weather and the changing seasons is obvious, can't even compare to the cold and dark winters in Sweden to the winter down in Melbourne, with 10 degrees in July it's winter time here and people are putting on clothes as if it were -20, looks funny to me. The Melbourne weather can be summed-up by this quote by Kerry Greenwood - who´s an Australian author " ... if you don´t like it, just wait half an hour and it changes" :)

- Riding a bike (push bike) to work isn't so common here, my colleagues are still saying that I'm brave and such a good sport girl who takes the bike to work every day, even in rain! To me it's just normal, nothing out of the ordinary since I'm always on the bike home in Lund as well :).

- The working hours here in Australia are between 9 to 5 and not 8 to 5 as in Sweden, almost everybody finishes after 5pm and most of my managers are working from home in the evenings and weekends. Working part time is quite common as well, especially if you have a family since the child care in Australia is expensive and bad.

- Saying good bye to someone - "see you later" - I'm still getting comfortable with saying this, when I reply back "maybe I'll see you" I can get a strange look :), why can't people just say 'see you' or just 'good bye'?

- All the signs in traffic and in the streets or along a path are so ridiculously funny - for instance if there are 3 men working on a bridge repair the sign below them will say "Caution, Working men above" . I'm collecting funny signs from Australia since I came in February, have some good ones .. how about this one?



This a common sign along Great Ocean Road, there are many tourists driving here and accidents do happen.

- Bike trails are not so common, the one I use every day along the river Yarra is a good one since it's separated from the cars. The common sense in traffic when there is a bike among the cars is non-existent, the cars don't even bother to slow down and let you pass or if you're in the way trying to cross over, they just horn on you and scare the shit of you. I think I'm going to be an aggressive biker when I go back to Sweden after my Melbournian bike-experience. Oh, one more thing about bikes ... when you´re passing somebody on the bike track you´re supposed to say "passing" or "on your right". I´m still getting annoyed when somebody is passing me, I don´t like to be a slow bike rider and still don´t like the "passing" word. Will have to accept this I think!

- The Aussie slang isn't so difficult, I'm used to the most common words by now, "barbie, brekkie, fair dinkum, no worries, see you later, hey mate, see you in a soup, she'll be apples" and many more. I'm learning new words every day and I've put up a long list on my wall at home so I can practise them. My favourite word at work is 'due diligence' (meaning: investigation of business/person before signing a contract) - it's a such a beautiful word I think.

- The food shopping is something I really enjoy here, there is so much to choose from, too many options of food, so many brands and the quality differs from product to product. I think the food prices are quite high, well ... when I payed 5 dollars for a kilo of apples I thought that this would probably cost me 2 dollars in Sweden. It´s strange, I still think of the Swedish prices here, 5 AUD is nearly 35 SEK. The bananas are very expensive at the moment, 3 dollars, that´s just ridicolous ... but I still buy them because I love bananas!

Will come back with some more reflexions after my year in Australia when I´ve seen and experienced more!
Spring is here now, spring is from September to November ... a bit strange but very okey for me :)

Adventurous September

The Staircase down from Mt Bogong in the Victorian Alps, where are the stairs?


Hey ...

Yep, this month have been a bit adventurous in Melbourne and the
surroundings of the big city...



I've been baby sitting the 3 Swedish/Aussie kids in South Yarra, Phillip 2, Joanna 5 and Freya 7 years old. I'm always having such a good time while I'm playing and reading them bedtime stories. Last time I even had the privilege to bath them all, 2 in the bathtub and one in the shower ... funny kids. When I had all 3 kids packed like small sardines in Joanna's bed I had a very content smile on my face and read them all a beautiful story in Swedish/English.

Climbing skills are now improving, after an indoor lead course I took one weekend where I had to fall, I learned that it's good to fall as you climb. Now I'm less scared to fall, which is good. Met some new climbing people who I now go climbing with on Thursday evenings @ the HardRock in the city.

Running 2-3 times a week is something I've been doing now for a while ... so I decided to sign up for the Melbourne Half Marathon in October, which will go on the 10-10-10 :). Exiting to run my 3rd half marathon, will see if I can beat my time from Stockholm last year.

Salsa dancing has been off my list in September, don't know why, just don't have time to go out dancing like I used to before. Went dancing with Sara to Ormond Hall on the 11th of September, which goes once a month. Had a good time and was dancing non-stop for almost 3 hours ... so I still have the rhythm in me and I still prefer Cuban salsa, yep :)



After being in Australia for 7 months I just had to go and see a footy
game, Australian Football League, AFL, so I went and saw St Kilda playing against Western Bulldogs on the big MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) during the final series of AFL. I did my home work so I knew the rules, enjoyed the game and I was cheering for the Saints = St Kilda. They wan after a psychological tough 2 bad quarters and the bulldogs were defeated. The Saints will be meeting the Magpies (Collingwood) in the Grand Final. Go Saints ...!


At the big MCG - Melbourne Cricket Ground

The Saints won!

On the early Sunday morning of the 19th of September I went with MUMC (Melbourne University Mountaineering Club) to Mount Alexander (should be named Hill Alexander since it's only 750m over sea level) and climbed there during the day. Found it difficult, hard climbing but fun at the same time. Didn't do any leading, just top rope climbing.


Sean on the way down!

Adventure came on the last weekend in September when I went with MUMC, a group of 10, to Mount Bogong for a leadership skills weekend. The supposed leader turned up sick by the club rooms on Friday when we took off from Melbourne so there was no leadership training involved ... had a very good time anyway with the devoted hikers on the way up and down the mountain in the Victorian Alps. On Saturday we took the 4km straight up spur track to Mt Bogong via Mitchell's hut where we stopped for a lunch break and than after some discussions left 2 members of the group behind us, since they were too slow and would not make it to the next hut in time. The 8 of us
took off, 4 with snow shoes and 4 without, in the hard wind and 5 meters visibility to go up to Cleve Cole hut. Took us 3 hours to get there and I've never been happier in my life when I did see the hut clearing up in front of me. The hut was worth the hard hike in the wind, it was warm inside with an open fire and nice people greeted
us there. Slept like a princess after dinner on a comfy mattress in my warm
sleeping bag! On the clear blue sky of Sunday morning began the hike down the mountain, with a short adventure to a water fall in the area ... went up to the summit of Mt Bogong where I climbed up to the top top, 1986 meters over sea level - was on the same level as the clouds :). Took the Staircase down, slided in the snow on the way down, had lunch by Biviac hut, dinner with the whole troop at Ovens pub in Oven and was home in Melbourne by midnight! What a weekend!


Waterfall-Ingrid, easy climb down and hard one up to the top.


The whole troup by Cleve Cole hut on Mt Bogong :) From the left: Mitchell, Emma, Yassi, Alistair, Heather, me, Tanya and Jess, two missing on pic, Ellen and Steve who we left behind at Mitchells hut


Me on top of the top of Mount Bogong, 1986m!

Last day in September I attended a traditional Swedish pea soup dinner with pancakes and punsch at the Swedish Church, felt like being home in Lund again :). Was happy to walk home the barely 100 meters to my bed :)

Well, and on top of all the things I've been doing this month - I've been working too, all good at work, enjoying the speed and learning, will be a SPOC from next week, single point of contact, for all the contractors conversions, nice :).

At the moment I'm without a flight ticket in Australia since I've cancelled and sold my flight ticket to Singapore... the plan was to stay in Aussie for 7 months, changed my mind since I'm the manager of this trip and now I'm staying for one year to the end of my visa :).

Over and out for September!

Busy August

Another month is gone and time is really going so fast down here in Melbourne, don't know why the time is just flying away ... been away from Sweden for more than 7 months now.

Sydney - Harbour Bridge from Neutral Bay

First week of August was exiting, not so much because of work, all good there, but because I flew up to Sydney on Friday the 6th of August, took a day off from work and had a long weekend up in the big city. The most exiting part was the running race "City2Surf" which is the biggest race in the world, counted by the amount of participants - over 80 000 people completed the race on Sunday the 8th of August and I was one of them too :). The run was 14km, not too bad (the most common comment in Australia haha) and I had a fun time running with the big crowd. The famous Heartbreak Hill wasn't that terrible, just a bit, my legs were fine - specially after the free 15 min leg massage on Bondi Beach.

Yep - happy me after the race (girl from Melbourne took the photo, small world :)

In Sydney I stayed at a Russian guy's place, in Neutral Bay, 2 nights of couch surfing (actually sleeping on his spare big mattress on the floor). Alexander was a nice guy, who also did the run on Sunday morning, and his apartment had the most amazing bay view ... look at this view :)

If I could pick and choose a spot like this in world, so close to the water, no cars and no other noises ... I could definitely live here!

On Saturday I did a long walking hike from Neutral Bay to Manly, don't know how long it was, but the weather was gorgeous with clear blue sky and quite warm as well and I couldn't resist the long walk :). Good to see Manly again, got all nostalgic and I went up/climbed up to North Head to my favourite spot by the rocks looking down on Manly and the ocean ... left my heart in Manly ...


Met up with Grant in the evening and we had a delicious dinner in the city, close to the Circular Quay. Good time and good company :-)

On Sunday after the run the most weirdest thing happened to me, a really catch 22 in Sydney :) - the short version; my phone died after the race, the flight was delayed by 2 hours and I had to wait at the airport for almost 4 hours, my iPod died at the airport, had no book to read and on top of all this I lost my ear plugs so I couldn't manage to sleep on the flight back to Melbourne ... what a day ... will never forget this day for sure! Funny story for the future!

The following 3 weeks in Melbourne were full of job, running, baby sitting 3 kids (Freya 7 years, Joanna 5 years and Phillip 2 years) to a Swedish/Aussie married couple in South Yarra, went to see Los Van Van (the famous Cuban salsa band), met some new friends through CouchSurfing at a cool music party in Malvern, saw the penguins on the St Kilda pier, biked home from work one Friday and the police was looking for somebody along the river (felt like being in a movie with a chopper hovering over my head), attended a dance workshop in the city and learned new moves (Zouk, Broadway Jazz and Bollywood Dance) .... will soon sign up for a Zouk class :) and maybe even perform with the class in November.

On the weekend of 20 to 22 August I went up with MUMC (Melbourne University Mountaineering Club) to Mount Feathertop, which is Victoria's second-highest mountain. The hut was up on 1625m, and we (37 of us) did the annual Midnight Ascent which practically meant walking in the dark up to the top of the hut. My walking group did the steep 6.5km to the hut in 4 hours and 20 minutes :), good time considering the other groups of 5 and 6 hours each. It was a cold weekend and wet one too, lots of snow and phenomenal good food on Saturday evening. My most memorable thing from the mountain was the leech (blodigel) I had on my cheek ... take a look at this ... no worries, I did survive but I was a bit scared I must admit :).

Leech was killed with lots of salt and buried in the cold snow!











On the last Sunday of the month I went out to Werribee to see my "Swedish family" and to say hi to them all. I was happy to see them and the kids, Savanha and Oden, 6 and 4 years old. We went for a bike tour down the Werribee river and the kids got tired of biking after 2 hours and I ended up caring two bikes and walking with two tired kids along the bike track :), that was tough, fun and I must have look quite funny too :) On the way home I got the best comment in my life, from Oden: "You're pretty Ingrid" ... I smiled and asked what he had said but he got all embarrassed about it and didn't want to say it again, boys haha :) ... kids are the honest small persons in the world and it feels so good to have the privilege to be around them and be in the present time with them and not analyse life to much. Thank you S, O, Sue, Rudolf and Ida for a lovely Sunday!

Oden with his bike

Savanha with her flowers on top of her head

July in and outside of Melbourne

It´s wintertime down under, not that this is winter for me, the cold in Sweden can't be compared at all with the Australian winter. The Aussies are freezing and putting on gloves and hats (and their UGG-boots) when it´s 10 Celsius degrees, funny but very true, and entertaining for me to see :).

During the first weekend in July I went to the IceHouse down in the Docklands, here in Melbourne with Sean, kinda cool place, expensive and full of Saturday free people. In my head it was supposed to be cold inside so I was prepared with clothes ... but I was wrong, the heating was on (not on the ice but in the air), strange to see people in almost no clothes ...


Went up to Lake Mountain with some of MUMC's members on Sunday the 4th of July ... didn't do any cross country skiing, too expensive and I can borrow the skis from the club next time ... so next time :). Took a long walk in the snow while the guys were skiing ... very weird to go in snow in July ... but so fun!


No, it wasn't that cold, maybe 0 degrees.


Up on the summit, 1433 meters!

The second weekend in July I did a long hike in Wilsons Promotory National Park with Sean, in the south-east of Victoria, 300km from Melbourne. What a hike, pretty amazing, what ocean views and all the kangaroos and wallabies along the hike. I didn't know that I could walk so much during one day. First day = 20km and on Sunday I guess 30km along the coast and back to the car by Tidal River.

Well, the hike is not over yet ... still a couple of km to go to Roaring Meg and later on the South Point!


A scared wallaby along the walking track... I kept going with a smile on my face!


Close to the South Point of the mainland of Australia, cool place!

Besides the hiking I've been working as a waitress at Java Grill on Bourke Street and been to a couple of interviews at Manpower after work. It took me 3 interviews, one at Manpower and 2 at IBM for finally getting the work I wanted to have :). Thanks God I don't give up so easily! Had to quit my waitressing job on the 21th of July, my Greek boss Maria wasn't happy but she understood me. I'll always remember her words; - You can move on Ingrid, I envy you, I'll stay here! She is completely right, I can move on easily, this year is the move year for me...

The first running race for me in Australia was the "RunMelbourne" on the 18th of July, 10km around the city and the Botanical Gardens. Had to go up early on Sunday (apparently all big running races in Australia are starting early Sunday morning, just accept it, yep). Good race and an OK time, 52 minutes I think.

Yep, me in the running outfit :) a very focusing Ingrid

One more hike took place in July, this time to Cape Otway by Great Ocean Road, was walking along the Great Ocean Walk with Sean on the 24 and 25th of July. Had great time there, some wet and cold surprises during one night when it was raining heavily and the tent was put in a slope witch made the sleeping bags and mats all wet ... I was freezing so much that I practically longed to get up early in the morning :). The sunrise was so gorgeous by Blanket Beach ... look below!


The most memorable thing from the Cape Otway hike was ... the koalas in the wild .. all of a sudden there was a koala up in the three above my head and eating eucalyptus leaves. My first encounter with the koala was a good one :) .. and yes, they do look very soft :)


On the 26th of July I started to work @ IBM down at Southbank, in Melbourne city as a Resource Coordinator in a HR department. Fun work and quite challenging the first week since we (4 coordinators started on the same day) had no laptops for a week! Will be working now for 6 months, so no more travelling, not long ones at least to next year February. Saving money now and will travel in Aussie in January and February next year! But the weekend hikes and short travelling will be on, that is for sure :)

June in the country down under - still in Melbourne

New update of June ... this is a picture from St Kilda, one of my favorite places in Melbourne, gorgeous view of the city and the harbor from here. On the pier you can spot, when it´s dark, the smallest penguins you can find in the southern hemisphere, just around 30cm tall, really cute and they make a weird sound too.

I moved in my small apartment at the church on Friday the 4th of June ... I´ve been working as a waitress in the city, attending and helping out at the Swedish Church, fixed an Aussie bank account and card, did a photo shoot for MBC Australia - which is a film producer company - didn´t get me a job but I had fun during my first photo shoot ever :).

During the Queens Birthday weekend (11-14 June), which was a long weekend here in Victoria, I was outdoors climbing with MUMC (Melbourne University Mountaineering Club) by Mount Arapiles, north west of Melbourne, past Horsham and Ballarat, almost 4 hour drive. Had a good time climbing, a bit scary and fun at the same time. The most memorable and best climb was the one with the crack, where I did a lot of asclimbing and the step over from one side to the other at a hight of 75m. Well I made it to the top and look how happy I was and proud as well :)




Jepp, I did see some kangaroos, the second time for me, here at Arapiles, this one was a close encounter and I was thrilled to see kangaroos so close and the one to the right was watching me the whole time, wonder why?

There is no place like home, but since Melbourne is my new home at the moment I had the privilege to host two guests, Rachel and Carl (brother and sister, I met Rachel when I was on Fiji) came to visit me from Sydney for a few days, from 16-20th of June. We had fun together, many good laughs :). We went climbing one day at the HangRock and Rachel and I enjoyed ourselves on the wall, while Carl was less amused I think :). They headed off to Tasmania, or Tassie (as the aussie people say here) early Sunday morning and what I know and seen pictures from Rachel´s blog, they had a wonderful time there.

The last Saturday in June I was off climbing again with MUMC, Sean and Josh, this time to Mount Beckworth, just outside of Ballarat, the weather was bad with sun one minute and rain the other, quite chilly too and I only did one proper climb that day. The coolest picture was this one...



The traditional midsummer activities were celebrated at the Swedish Church, on Sunday with an excellent "Midsommar-dinner" included all the dishes I´m so familiar with from home; herring, eggs, potatoes, Janssons, sav blanc and some snaps of course :)



The joy was big on Tuesday the 29th of June when I came home from work, the biggest package I´ve ever seen, this year so far, arrived from Sweden. My mum sent me some clothes and other surprises ... Thank you Mum!

April and May in Melbourne

Well, it´s been a while ago, about time to update the blog with some pictures. Some of you have asked me what I´ve been up to since I left Sydney.

Basically I´ve been in Melbourne, took the train from Sydney on the 29th of March. The train took about 11 hours and the view was amazing, kangaroos, lots of birds and nature passing my eyes.



Stayed in Werribee (35 km from Melbourne) for 10 days at a Swedish family, friends of my mum, celebrated Easter here with my new "family".


Moved in to the city where I stayed close to St Kilda for 5 weeks in a shared apartment with an Italian guy, Luigi. My job hunting was tough and I almost gave up and was on my way to Tasmania, but I finally found a waitressing job in the city on Bourke Street, through my Swedish friend Lovisa, so I´ve been working there since mid May.


I even bought a push-bike, so I don´t have to commute via train to work, it´s a convenient way of getting to and from work along the Yarra River, gorgeous view of the city from Toorak where I´m staying and biking downhill all the way to the city and uphill home to St Georges Road up in Toorak. I´m staying, since May, at the Swedish Church, where I´m renting a small apartment, everything is included in the rent, WiFi, electricity, heating and it´s a save and beautiful place to stay in Melbourne. The house is called "Toorak House", is an old government house which served as a Victorian Government House between 1854-1876 and later on it served as a Women's Australian Air Force hostel. The Swedish Church bought the property in 1956.Will stay here in Toorak a couple more months I think.


While I was on the job-hunt I was dancing salsa 2-3 times a week and meeting interesting people and joined in a few CouchSurfing events in the city. It´s always good to meet new people!




1. Me with Garfield and Charlie, two kittens at a CouchSurfing barbecue in West Brunswick, Melbourne, in April.
2. Lunch-meeting with some new friends in CBD, Vietnamese restaurant.
3. Salsa at the Hilton South Wharf in Melbourne, what a cool place to dance at!