the surprise

ok, since some of you guys wished i had gone into detail with the surprise in istanbul, thats what ill do, then...
most of you knew it, though... =) to be honest i was always afraid that SOMEONE would let something slip in a comment or so, so i checked the comments really often, in case i had to delete one that had valuable information... =)
anyways... it was my nanas 70th birthday on the 17th of june, where 18 of us (my whole family, aunt and uncle from brasil, aunt and uncle from south africa, my sister and her boyfriend from south africa, aunt and uncle from swityerland, my grand parents, of course, and my nanas siblings with their husband and wife... so you see, a veeeeeery long list!) were invited to go to istanbul for a 'little' celebration. it was bloody awesome!!! and, of course, it was wonderful to see all my family again. but, like i said, nobady, apart from my nana and later on my grand dad as well, knew i was coming as well. in january everybody had to let my nana know who was coming. i told her i wasnt at first (because i still would be in aussie, duh!). then, only like 10 days later, i changed my mind. =) that was in january. so ever since then i have been torchering myself, not to let ANYTHING slip so noone would suspect anything... but there were technically so many clues that could have given everything away... like my nana sending an email to everyone saying there will be 18 people in total... just random stuff like that... but, everything went well - phew!!!
all of them got picked up at the airport and brought to a boat (in our programme it said 'boat' but it was more of a ship than a boat, it was gigantic) to do this one and a half hour cruise on the sea, right to our hotel... and i was there, waiting for them on the boat... i had arrived directly from sydney the night before, completely exhausted after like 38 hours of traveling. anyways, i was really exited and i had to wait for aaaaaaaages until they finally arrived. i was waiting on deck. my mum and my sister came up first and my mum looked at me once, didnt react, a second time (this time a bit longer, but still, no reaction) and then she only actually got it the third time when i came walking towards her, arms wide open and a poker smile on my face... it was AWESOME!!! =) all of my family (both my two sisters and my mum and dad) had to cry, so i can really say mission accomplished, aye?! =)
thats it. victory.

istanbul

ok, so as most of you know, i went to istanbul one month sooner than my family expected to surprise them... it was my nanas 70th birthday which the whole family celebrated by going to istanbul for 4 days... bloody awesome!!! it was wicked and fascinating and we probably ate enough food to last us a lifetime... everything from boatcruises (more like a ship - it was huge!) to mosques to churches and palaces... really amazing and the size of istambul is just incredible... basically ill just let the photos speak for themselves... =)
enjoy the very last post on this blog, since im already back home in switzerland right now...
thanks =)

sydney

havent written for ages, i know... just couldnt be bothered, to tell you the truth... most of the time im just hanging out, actually enjoying not having to do anything for a change. after workin in nz and everything...
hmmm, let me see... yeah, most of the time im watching movies, reading my book or listening to gorgeous music. nice! and then occasionally i get the chance to get a ride... for example to manly beach... ah, right, last weekend there was the manly food and wine festival which we had a look at on saturday... the atmosphere was really cool... and of course: the FOOD and the WINE!!! =)
i still havent done the ultimate must in sydney... the opera house and the harbour bridge. ive driven over the harbour bridge and ive seen the opera house poking out beyond the palace gardens downtown, but i havent had the photo shoot with them yet... =) which is a shame since it started raining yesterday and now its even colder than before... nice.
in general, i really expected it to be warmer than it is - im freekin freezing my ass off here! and the guys dont have central heating of course, but they dont even have individual heaters - nice!
ah, right... havent even told you where im staying... =) a girl i was pruning with in kaituna valley in nz organised this place for me... since sydney is so bloody expensive (a night costs like 35 bucks), she asked her cousin if i could stay with him... bingo. so at the moment im staying with him and his 4 room mates. 5 guys alone in a house - is that a good idea?! =) i was actually pretty surprised when i first arrived here how clean it was, but then they told me they had a house inspection the same morning... so, there you go... havent seen as much cleanin since then! =) so ive done heaps of it, but i really dont mind...
just last night we had a bit of a last minute improvised birthday party for one of the room mates... brad. not a big thing - we were only 4 people - but still, we did our best to have a cute little get together. was awesome! krista (a friend of theirs) was stalling time with brad while shane (one of the room mates) and i were in the kitchen, trying to cook as fast as possible. we got good wine, a gorgeous cake and groceries rather late, so we had to hurry... did mashed potatoes with mushroom sauce, spicy capsicum in the oven, garlic bread, schnitzel and gravy... pretty alright, aye?! =) it was great, and all of us really enoyed it... but it was so much fun cooking while having music fully turned up...
so the evening was a full hit and after a couple glasses of wine we were all good for bed... =)
ah, right, one more thing to tell... the very first day i arrived here from nz one of the guys dropped me off at george st... THE main street in downtown sydney... and basically EVERYTHING was on sale! doom on me! ive got no freekin clue how im gonna get this stuff home! no more space in my freekin suitcase! well, ill just have to find a solution to that dilemma... =) in the meantime, take care folks...

cheers