In the last few months we made too many pictures but we have not updated our photo gallery so often.  To solve this problem we had the idea: why not regularly post one of our pictures on the blog?

Today we were very sad: Attila`s bike was stolen last night from the staircase. He went to work but came back very soon with the lock -cut across- in his hand and said calmly: `at least we do not need to sell it anymore  (when we move)`…

So what to do? Write a message on the wall like `hello, do you know who has taken my bike?`, as that `Germany-fan` guy did from the house some months ago searching for his jacket? It was stolen from the car park where he left it and it was a very important jacket for him because he had sewn the German flag into it after some kind of German football victory in the past…

Or call the police to ask them making a research in every flat in this district? Hello, haven`t you seen anyone in the dark last night during the heavy rains with a stolen bicycle? It doesn’t make much sense.

I wrote a message on Twitter, but at this stage it did not help.

So I made a quick research on Internet and found this website of Bicycles Network Australia and its forum about stolen bikes which seems to be the only effective solution. We can register our bike there and see what happens. Maybe somebody will find it or at least if the thief wants to sell the bike maybe the buyer checks this website first. Who knows? But if you have a better idea how to find this bicycle, tell us, we would be very pleased!

When something is stolen from you - whether it is an important object or not - it is very frustrating and makes you nervous but also very empty for a while. It was yours!

Sydney is not a bad place to live and we are lucky because in this suburb we don`t feel the public safety or security to be as bad as it is said to be in some westerns suburbs. But being naive and leave the bicycle in the open staircase was not so smart.  After this we will not leave things in `unsecure places` ever. And maybe we will also tell this story to our friend who uses to leave his kayak sometimes on the street on his car, saying that `a lot of people use to have kayaks in Sydney, they won`t steel mine`…

But for now we upload this photo about the Ferris wheel from Luna Park in Sydney. It symbolizes some kind of nostalgic feeling. Ups and Downs…Generally I do not like fun-fairs.  And this park called Luna Park in Sydney also has not changed this feeling. It was almost empty every time we were walking by-maybe just because it was always raining as well…But the view must be scenic and nice from the cabins: the Luna Park is located on the harbour side in the north, just next to the tremendous Harbour Bridge, and you can see the Opera House on the left as well. Great place to visit!

We will also post a picture of the bike, in case you might see it somewhere, just let us know ….

So about the bicycle:

Type: Merida Dakar; Colour: black; mountain bike, 26 inch wheel, 21 inch frame.

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The first thing we felt after arriving in Sydney, was that we really wanted to know everything about this country. We wanted to learn the way people live their life, how they are thinking, and about their culture and habits as well. One of my friends suggested reading Down Under by Bill Bryson, which was actually a really good idea. Meanwhile more of our friends - mainly non-Australians either - were also talking about stories told in this book. It is a relatively well known and popular work of Bill Bryson both among Australians and among travelers. Unfortunately we have not read other books of him yet, but we certainly can recommend you this one. Bill Bryson has a good sense of humor, and gives quite a lot of information about places and the local life, general habits, etc. You feel as if you were there and as if he tells exactly the same as what you felt in those places/situations.

If you wish to laugh while reading about his journey through Australia - from Sydney through Perth to Darwin and Queensland, etc. - then take this book and start it. We are looking forward to your opinion and we are curious to hear your stories too.

Here are some quotes to get you in the mood:

“But then Australia is such a difficult country to keep track of. On my first visit, some years ago, I passed the time on the long flight from London reading a history of Australian politics in the twentieth century, wherein I encountered the startling fact that in 1967 the Prime Minister, Harold Holt, was strolling along a beach in Victoria when he plunged into the surf and vanished. No trace of the poor man was ever seen again. This seemed doubly astounding to me - first that Australia could just lose a Prime Minister (I mean, come on) and second that news of this never reached me.” (p. 15.)

“This is a country that loses a Prime Minister and that is so vast and empty that a band of amateur enthusiasts could conceivably set off world`s first non-governmental atomic bomb on its mainland and almost four years would pass before anyone noticed. Clearly this is a place worth getting to know.” (p.18.)

“Five hundred miles from any real town to east or west, a hundred miles from he nearest paved highway to the south and over a thousand to the north, Cook (pop. 40) exists solely to water, fuel and otherwise service the trains that pass through. Beside the track stood a sign that said: `No Food or Fuel for Next 862 Kilometres` - rather a daunting thought, what?” (p. 61.)

“But all of these are as nothing compared with the delicate and diaphanous box jellyfish, the most poisonous creature on earth. We will hear more of the unspeakable horrors of this little bag of lethality when we get to the tropics, but let me offer here just one small story. In 1992, a young man in Cairns, ignoring all the warning signs, went swimming in the Pacific waters at a place called Holloways Beach. He swam and dived, taunting his friends on the beach for their prudent cowardice, and then began to scream with an inhuman sound. It is said that there is no pain to compare with it. The young man staggered from the water, covered in livid whip-like stripes wherever the jelly-fish’s tentacles had brushed across him, and collapsed in quivering shock. Soon afterwards emergency crews arrived, inflated him with morphine, and took him away for treatment. And here’s the thing. Even unconscious and sedated he was still screaming.”(p. 84)

(Bill Bryson, 2000: Down Under)

• Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He is a best selling author of humorous books on travel, the English language and on Scientific subjects. Some of his famous titles are “The Lost Continent”, “Made in America”, “Notes from a Small Island” and “A Short History of Nearly Everything”. Down Under is also published as “In a Sunburned Country”.
• More information can be found on the official Bill Bryson website, or on Wikipedia

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