Catholic coffee

Four Catholic men and a Catholic woman were having coffee.

The first Catholic man tells his friends, “My son is a priest, when he walks into a room, everyone calls him ‘Father’.”
The second Catholic man chirps, “My son is a Bishop. When he walks into a room people call him ‘Your Grace’.”
The third Catholic gent says, “My son is a Cardinal. When he enters a room everyone says ‘Your Eminence’.”
The fourth Catholic man then says, “My son is the Pope. When he walks into a room people call him ‘Your Holiness’.”

Since the lone Catholic woman was sipping her coffee in silence, the four men give her a subtle, “Well….?” She proudly replies, “I have a daughter, slim, tall, 38D breast, 24″ waist and 34″ hips. When she walks into a room, people say, “Oh My God.”

New EPSO tests

The EPSO tests are changing as of March 2010:

http://europa.eu/epso/discover/news/news15_en.htm

EU knowledge is out, abstract reasoning and situation judgement are in!

Films seen throughout the trip

During the trip, we went on a film watching spree (mostly on the planes):

1. Sherlock Holmes
2. Avatar3D (at Sydney’s IMAX!!!)
3. Inglourious Basterds
4. Public Enemies
5. Fred Claus
6. Batman
7. Elizabeth
8. Fantastic Four
9. Australia (D)
10. Brothers Bloom (D)
11. The Queen (D)
12. Borat (D)
13. The Good Shepherd (D)
14. Surrogates (D)
15. The Informant (D)
16. Generazione 1000 € (D)
17. El secreto de sus ojos (D)
18. Le Petit Nicolas (D)
19. 500 days of summer (C)
20. The Other Boleyn Girl (C)
21. Whip it (C)
22. The Golden Compass (C)
23. Music & Lyrics (C)
24. Sideways (C)

List of famous Australian actors:

• Nicole Kidman
• Hugh Jackman
• Cate Blanchett
• Geoffrey Rush
• Mel Gibson
• Russell Crowe
• Naomi Watts
• Guy Pearce
• Heath Ledger
• Eric Bana

Singapore

After an 8h flight, we arrived at the amazing Changi Airport in Singapore.
Since we had a 10h stop here, we had a free foot massage (or two) and surfed the web on one of the many pc’s with free internet access. Plus, we checked out the nation-wide (=metropolitan) free wifi service!

Cairns

On the first day relaxing at Cairns’ awesome artificial beach. Dinner at “Fetta’s” Greek restaurant.

Second day, snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef with “Reef Experience“. Saw fish and corals of all possible colours, as well as a sea turtle.

Third day relaxing again, recovering from the previous day’s sunburn (despite copious amounts of sunscreen). Dinner at “Fettuccina” Italian restaurant (great).

On the fourth day, trip to the Daintree rainforest, view of the “4 mile beach”, swim in the Mossman Gorge (Dimitris only), visit to Hartleys crocodile adventures.

Things we didn’t like about Hides Hotel Cairns

• On check-in the room had a strong smell of insect-repeller (poisonous)
• The air-conditioning points right at the bed, rendering it useless
• The cleaning lady made incredible noise going through the corridor in the morning, missing the point of the “do not disturb” sign we put out
• There’s only one towel per person, and the shower valves are outside the shower!

And this is supposed to be a 3.5* hotel where we have the “superior suite”!!!

Brisbane

The “AirTrain” from the airport to the city stops ridiculously early at 20:00, like there’s no more flights after 8!

The Novotel is matched only by Silq Bangkok in luxury (and is probably the largest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in).

On the first day we took the Gold Coast train to Surfers; we were pretty lucky with the weather (predicted light rain turned out to be windy but sunny).

Australia Zoo on the second day: koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles, dingoes, rainforest birds, you name it! Had a photo holding a koala, too!!! However, while the zoo closes at 17:00, the last (courtesy) bus leaves at 16:30, arriving at the train station at 16:35, when the next train is at 17:30! 1 hour wasted! Should have rented a car!!!

Last day in Brissie we saw the Shrine of Remembrance, St Stephen’s cathedral, the Queen St mall, the South Bank, then took a CityCat all the way up and down the river. We missed the city hall’s 3-year closing by just 4 days! And the XXXX brewery guided tours where fully booked for that day

And a pleasant surprise: the AirTrain station at Domestic Airport has free wifi!

Sydney, round 2

On the 1st day we ran some errands (wash clothes, buy shoes, cut hair), had a $9 steak, then met our Croatian friends down at Darling Harbour. No time to see the maritime museum, we walked down to the Sydney Tower, but there was a 1h queue, so we moved on to the Victoria Galleries and Martin Place. We then split and went to watch the awesome Avatar3D at the even more awesome IMAX Sydney.

On the way back we stopped at the 3 monkeys pub for a schooner, and were both asked for ID at the entrance

On NYE we went to the Taronga zoo (the “zoo with a view”), then took place at the Rocks (18:30) to see the fireworks.

On New Year’s Day we went to mass, then Sydney Tower + OzTrek. After lunch, the Hyde Park Barracks Museum (very interesting insights on Australia’s convict history).

At the airport, Chiara was randomly checked for explosives!

Notes:

1. Sydney buses are not very tourist-friendly; you can’t buy tickets on the bus, there’s no vending machines at the stops, and it’s hard finding shops that sell the tickets. Thessaloniki is way ahead!
2. Why would an airline tell their passengers “the flight is slightly delayed because an engineer is checking up on a technical fault”?

Ayers Rock & Alice Springs, round 2

On the 440km, 5:30h drive to Uluru we saw 124 dead kangaroos/wallabies on the roadside.

The route seems interesting for the first half hour, then it feels quite monotonous, except for the tradition to wave at oncoming drivers (Chiara bemoans that almost no one waves unless you wave first, and even then not all wave back, but I still think it’s cute)

Check-in at the hotel, jump into the pool, eat lunch, catch some rays.

On the second day, visit Uluru, didn’t do the 4h, 10km “basic walk”, just the Mala and Mutitjulu walks, plus the Culture Centre. Drop a suggestion in the suggestion box that there should be 1-day tickets in addition to the 3-day ones.

Drove over a dead kangaroo’s head on the way back to Alice Springs. McDonalds for the free wifi, then Red Ochre Grill for a plate of: kangaroo, camel, emu and barramundi!

Alice Springs, round 1

Things didn’t start well: getting off the plane, they had us waiting outside the terminal entrance (with lots of annoying flies) for 10 minutes for no reason and w/o any explanation, until some guys started banging angrily on the windows…

Then the Europcar agent told me that for $36/day I could lower my liability from $3300 to 0; I accepted, she (looked more like a he) charged my credit card, then told me roof damage, damage under the car, damage done driving backwards and something else (don’t remember) were not covered! “Shouldn’t you have told me this earlier?” “If you want I’ll refund your money!”

Driving on the left, with an automatic gearbox is not as hard as you think, it takes about 60″ to get used to. The hotel is definitely 2,5-3*, but clean and the reception and bar personnel are very polite and friendly.

Alice Springs downtown (Todd mall) seems deserted but for the few Aboriginies staring at you, and a few giant cockroaches here and there; the pubs however are quite full… Had burgers and a couple of beers, then went to see “Sherlock Holmes” (great performance by Downey Jr, but you’ll need subtitles).