Back on the mainland

Finally the car is repaired and running again, and now it's high time for me to head back to Sydney. The trip I had originally planned for about 5 weeks has already become 7 weeks, and it's gonna be another week till I reach back "home".

I would have liked to take the night ferry this time, but all was booked out, so I took the day ferry on Sunday. The cruise, again, was boring and everyone aboard the "Spirit of Tasmania" seemed to be frustrated by having to sit around for 10 hours with nothing much to do. This time, the sea was a bit rougher, with rain gushing. When the ship had finally landed in Port Melbourne, night had fallen. I didn't feel like doing much more driving that day, so I spent another night at my friend's place. The kids cheered me up a bit because they had such great fun with the glow-in-the-dark sticks I gave them.

Because I had lost so much time, and also because the weather is now nasty again with cold wind and rain -- autumn is clearly coming -- I decided that I would cancel my earlier plan of going a bit further west to see the Geelong, the Great Ocean Road, and the "12 Apostles", but instead, get on my way directly back to Sydney along the coast road.

By the way, yesterday Summer Time ended here, and so now the time difference to Germany is now only 8 hours instead of 10.

Oh, and while I'm writing this long posting, let me take the chance to have another rant. I'm pissed by the road safety signs they put up here along the highways in Victoria. While you are driving, every 5 minutes they bash another sign in your face telling you to "rest, revive, SURVIVE", "have a powernap NOW" "a microsleep KILLS in seconds" etc. I understand that these signs help to save lifes. But you would think it might be sufficient to remind the driver perhaps once per hour instead of every 5 minutes.

And if these signs weren't bad enough, in between they chip in signs about speeding and alcohol. Fair enough. But do they have to be worded so aggressively, as if you had already done a violation? "Think you can speed and won't get caught? Think again." -- "Slow down, stupid." -- "This is 3 standard drinks. (showing 2 bottles of beer) Only a little bit over? You bloody idiot."

Perhaps I'm a little too sensitive. After all, I should know that this is a cowboy country where "bloody bastard", when said with a smile, is a friendly mode of address. But: there is no smiley in these signs. To me, they show what the state (i.e. those who represent the state) thinks of its citizens: they are ignorant, law-breaking and irresponsible.

Note that I don't say that I'm not a bloody idiot. It may well be so. Above all, I should have had a second independent inspection before I bought that car. Never trust an inspection that was done by a friend of the seller, even if he is a certified mechanic.

Oh, and by the way, I think that grammatically it should read "These are 3 standard drinks", but I'm just a foreigner who doesn't know any better.

End of rant. So now I've seen Tasmania. And I have the feeling that I won't like the mainland too much anymore after this. When I flew back from Melbourne to Launceston last week, I had the chance to see both places from the air, and it's such a difference. Tasmania is just more beautiful because there, the people have found a compromize between using and exploiting the land. I talked to someone in Tassie about it. He agreed, but assured me that the rest of Australia does have its pretty "pockets". "Just in Tasmania, you find beautiful places, kind of, everywhere." In other words, you don't have to travel 300 or 1000 km, as on the mainland, until you reach the next enjoyable "pocket".

Another thing I learned is that if I liked Tasmania, I would love New Zealand. Just not, perhaps, in winter. So if I want to go there, I might want to wait until the next spring.

And the last 2 months taught me one more thing. You know, when I was still in Germany, I had tried to find out whether I would like Sydney better or Melbourne. Each city has its own character and pros and cons. But now I know that I wouldn't want to live in either place. I just feel too stressed in such a big aggregation of people. It's the traffic, the noise, the too-much-urbanization. A town where I am to feel comfortable in would need to have a population between 2000 and 100,000 at most.