Christchurch, early morning in the hostel. I woke up at 6 o’clock to watch the game, and probably I was responsible for wakening up the rest of the hostel. Oh, what a game.
Right after the match there was partys and celebrations going on outside on the streets of Christchurch, it felt a bit like home, I never expected this kind of celebrations here in New Zealand. A lot better then I experienced it in Perth.
For the rest, I’m really pleased that Vinnie is flying in today and joins me. I’m looking in the meanwhile for a campervan, got a quote of 34$ per day from spaceships (www.spaceships.tv), they look alright, and the price is quite good. Wicked Campervan seem to have an offer of 20$(!) a day, have to check them out later.
I like Christchurch. Relaxed city, friendly, and I don’t know why, but I feel a lot safer walking in the streets here then sometimes in Perth (esp. Northbridge). Maybe it’s also because the police here doesn’t carry any weapons? This, in my opinion, says a lot.

Hi, just arrived in Christchurch. Had a spectacular flight in, with fantastic views over the Southern Alps. The weather is nice here, but quite cold (13 degrees max). I hope to catch up with Vinnie tomorrow, so that we can leave on tuesday and start our travel.
I just wanna use this here to say thanks again to all my friends back in Perth, especially Ian & Lynn for taking me to the airport last night!
Don’t have much time now, Internet is quite expensive here, so more info will follow in the next few days!

Mmh, a bit bored tonight, also a bit tired after last night’s football match. So, as I didn’t do anything special today (apart from visiting my friends Franca and Toni to say goodbye) I thought I could write down some names of people I met during my travels and what role they played in my travel, in my life.

Vinnie: Yes, a person like him you don’t get to met very often in your life. We travelled together from Perth up to Darwin and down to Adelaide, had a great time, great fun and although sometimes different opinions, I’m so happy to have met him. The two months together with him have been some of the best here in Australia, and I’m so glad that I’ve the opportunity to travel New Zealand together with him. He has a strong personality, is really confident in what he’s doing and has a great way to approach people. I hope this friendship is for a lifetime.
David & Jenny: My former hostfamily, when I rang them up in December, they straightaway invited me to there home, I spent Christmas with them, and I could live in there house in Perth while I was here. Such lovely people, they definitely contributed a lot to Perth, so that I could enjoy it as much as i did. I’m specially happy that David &Jenny introduced me to a lot of there friends, which I know can call my friends. Great that they introduced me to people from Jenny’s church, where I have now a lot of friends. And, thanks so much that I could stay in your house while you were travelling overseas!
Malcolm: Always up for a good laugh, yes he was my bycycle mate. Had some good entertaining rides with him, and I’ve to say, my level of fitness improved over the last couple of months. He took me last saturday up to the hills, had a good bike ride there, the surface was pretty rough and with David’s fairly old bike my body was well shaked afterwards.
Lynn: Yes, she is a remarkable girl. I’m now here for 10 minutes, and still don’t know how to describe her. I was so impressed by her personality, her intelligence, the way she approaches people and how deeply religious she is. And I should not forget to mention how beautifu she is. More then 30 minutes past by, and I still didn’t find the right words about her. I think she is a person with so many positive things, where you could write for ages but don’t know where to start. There are thousands of little things who make her a magic person.
Glen: Yes, my work mate. I was mainly working with him at radio rentals, supporting him and he for sure made me the work enjoy. He is the perfect example for a typical Aussie, a sort of Paul Hogan. A guy always up for a joke, but I wouldn’t change with him. He lives together with a wives he doesn’t love, but he likes her, because ’she is ugly but she doesn’t complain and is not as crazy as all the nice-looking bit***s’. Well, I can’t understand this point of view, but if it makes him lucky….
Mike & Kelly: I met them at a game evening, and they became really good friends of mine. They live right next to me, so I quite often popped in there place for a cuppa and sometimes stayed longer for dinner… Thanks guys! I hope I can see you one day in Tibet (or obviously you come and visit me back home in Italy!).

The list is not yet finished, but I’m really tired now and most probably this post is full of mistakes. I publish it anyway, and will continue to expand it tomorrow (and to correct, where necessary).

Nearly dawn here in Perth, what a feeling. My heart is racing, what a glory for Italy! We are off to Berlin, and I believe, no one can stop us now!

ITALY 2 - GERMANY 0

To be fair, Germany had a great match, but Italy totally deserves this victory. Brrrr, I’m to excited, I can’t go back to sleep!

Had a BBQ today at my american friends place, to celebrate the independence day. Less then 5 days to go, I shouldn’t think of this, it makes me sad. I should rather look back and enjoy the time I had, the time of my life.
Tonight the game, I’m getting up, obviously, I hope we win. If not, let us get at least a good game.

I’m entering my last days here in Australia. When I’m leaving on sunday the 9th of July, I spent exactly 9 months here in Australia. What to say about this country, where I travelled almost 20,000km, met a lot of people and experienced a culture which is linked closely to England but has here eyes wide open to the Americans? Could this be a place to live for longer, maybe for ever?
Let me get a bit poetical, if you don’t mind. When I first came here (I arrived in Melbourne), I didn’t really like it. Everything was so similiar to Europe, Melbourne is like any European city, but without having any charm (to me). I crossed the Nukllarbor Plain with a few friends, and that was definitely the first highlight. What an experience!
Arrived in Perth, and I felt like home. I’ve been to this city before, everything was quite familiar, and although a lot of people out there will disagree, I like Perth. I went for 4 weeks on a farm, an experience which was not always easy, but certainly one I wouldn’t miss. The 3 weeks spent in Manjimup, where I worked on a vineyard was really exciting, despite I didn’t like the work which was hard. It was there when I rang David& Jenny up (my former host family from february, when I did my English course). They invited me to stay with them for Christmas, had a good time, and did never feel lonely (I heard Christmas it’s really hard for a lot of travellers). Spent 4 fantastic days after Christmas on a yacht out on Rottnest Islands, New Years Eve was celebrated with my german friends in Cottlesloe.
First week of the years spent in David’s and Jenny’s house up in Geraldton, really good, fantastic tour out on the Abrolhos Islands, good relaxing.
Returned to Perth, I had so much luck to get into an union job so that in 4 weeks I saved up more than 4,500$ which allowed me to start travelling with Vinnie around Australia (I’m not going into details, the details are what the rest of the blog is all about).
I returned to Perth after Easter, spent a few week together with David & Jenny, before they left for America and let me live for free in there house. Wicked! I started working for radio rentals, had always a really good laugh at the job and did go to work mainly to have fun rather then for the money. David introduced me to a lot of his friends, and I saw a lot of them during the last 2 months, while Jenny introduced me to the church he goes to (haha, that was funny for me for the first time as catholic going into …I think an anglican church) and where I’ve met a lot of nice people.
Overall, the last two months have been really good and I really enjoyed it, but was always looking forward to catch up with Vinnie again in Christchurch.
So, since last week I’m sure I’ll be sad when leaving Australia. I’ve met Lynn (I did mention her before, did I?), and she’s a really special person and I really like her. We met nearly three month’s ago at a game evening at Mike’s place, I remember very well when we had a chess game: I kept offering her a draw (in my opinion no one of us could have one the game), she kept refusing it, and… she won! That really impressed me, she’s not only beautiful but also intelligent. Anyway, I didn’t go out with her until a week ago, we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant and had really good fun. Last sunday we watched a movie before I drove her to the taekwondo lesson with her brother, where he invited me to join in. Really good, except my muscles are soar today.
So, if someone would have asked me ten days ago, ‘Is Australia a country where you could live forever?’, my immediate response would have been ‘no’. Don’t ask me know, it’s amazing how your mind can change on just meeting the right person. Lynn had, has and will always have a special place in my heart.

Ok, sorry that this post become so long, I hoped you enjoyed reading it anyway.

Some time ago someone (can’t remember who it was) asked me about the Australian music and what’s going on. While in the 90’s the center of Australian Music was definitely in Brisbane, over the last few years a vibrant music scene developed in Perth. I listened to some of there albums, and here you get a list of groups, which are probably not yet famous outside of Australia, but in a short while, they for sure will:

• Eskimo Joe: boy, they’re good! Keep an eye out for them, there last single ‘Black fingernails, red wine’ is a number one hit in Australia and the same-titled album is even better! This is there 3rd studio album, while Girl was not a big hit, ‘A song is a city’ did better in the charts, but only there last album will make them big in Europe as well.
• End of Fashion: A teenie band in the style of Bloodhound Gang, New Radicals and Weezer. But much better! I really like there songs, especially ‘The Game’, ‘Oh yeah!’ and ‘She’s love’. I’m not sure, it might be that there album is already released overseas.
• The Sleepy Jackson: they are different, very alternative. Luke Steele, the lead singer, is a real genious, and although they didn’t have that big commercial success here in Australia, they’re very well known in the US.

I could keep going and extend the list, but this 3 groups are definitely my favorite ones. Well, check them out asap.