University of Hanover Australia 2015

A colorful day: politics, work and sightseeing in Sydney (K. H.)

On the 6th of March we went to Deloitte, a company which provides audit, economics, financial advisory, human capital, tax and technology services. On our way to its office we visited the Parliament House of New South Wales, a beautiful building where you can read some interesting facts about the country's history especially about its participation in the First World War.

After this history part we learned something about the current development in Australia. One of our English teacher's, Richard Varela, former students who comes from Germany and has worked for Deloitte for around nine months told us, together with a colleague, about some media which they are developing for the Commonwealth Bank. Furthermore we discussed the pros and cons of using such devices and other media e.g. social networks, which was really interesting.

After these activities in these places we enjoyed our time under the blue sky of Sydney. We went by ferry to Luna Park which took ten minutes and where we took a lot of pictures. Our "photo-addiction" because of the wonderful views continued after we arrived on the other side of the water and while we walked over the Harbour Bridge. Afterwards we went through The Rocks, the oldest part of the city, where you can see the rest of the barack's sandstone walls with some oversized furniture in them. We finished that colorful day by sitting in a nice pub, walking through a market in China Town and eating a tasty meal in a Chinese Restaurant.

The Beach Tour and the Queen Victoria Night Market (Rita Lichtner)

The next day we took the Beach Tour which is included in the 48 hr. City Tour ticket. Because we had to wait for the bus, we decided to take a look at the Ian Potter Center, which is where the City Tour starts. The center contains different kinds of art and is a nice way to kill an hour.
The Tour Bus First took us along the Albert Park Lake to St. Kilda, where we got off the bus and went to the St. Kilda Pier, next to St. Kilda beach. If you are lucky, you can see penguins at the pier, some of them live there, but we were not. Nevertheless we had a great time at the beach and took great pictures of Melbourne's skyline. Afterwards we spent some time at the beach enjoying the sun and the water. Following that we took the bus to our next destination, but unfortunately we could not hop off anywhere else because it was the last bus. However, we did not waste the evening and went at first to the library and then to the Queen Victoria Night Market. The Night Market contains a mixture of stands with food, clothes, jewelry, souvenirs and much more and it was definitely the best way to say goodbye to Melbourne.

City Tour and Melbourne University (Rita Lichtner)

To see most of the town without walking everywhere we took the City-Tour-bus with the option to hop on and hop off any time. The tour started at the Ian Potter Center and it is supposed to last two hours if you do not leave the bus. But we chose the opportunity to hop off and visited some nice places, including the University of Melbourne. The university has a big campus with buildings in many kinds of shapes, from many different eras and was, as it is supposed to be, crowded with students. It was very interesting to see these students from all over the world in their natural environment. To get information about the buildings we used a self guided tour on a tablet.
After the visit to the university we continued with the tour trough the city which ended at the "Melbourne Star", a Ferris wheel from which you can take a look at the city and the ocean

Skydeck 88 (Rita Lichtner)

The Skydeck 88 or also called "Eureka Tower" is the highest building in Melbourne and the highest residential building in the world.The first thing we liked about the tower were the giant golden bees, which is a good representation of public art on private development. For us they were just bees which were worth taking pictures of.
You could imagine that getting to the 88th floor of a building would take you some time, but the elevator of the Eureka Tower proved us wrong. Within a minute the elevator went from level one to level 88 and we could feel the movement in our stomachs and our ears. The we got out of the elevator, took a look at the city and "eureka"! The view was amazing. Tiny buildings, tiny cars and tiny people and behind all that the ocean. You could spend the whole day just looking and taking pictures. We did not have the whole day, but we certainly took enough pictures to last a lifetime.
And afterwards we took some more: at first funny pictures in a photo booth and then some professional photos in front of a green screen, where the add a background so it looks like you could fall off the building.
On the 88 floor of the Eureka Tower you also get the opportunity to use "the Edge". This is a cube made out of glass which moves out of the building, so you can take a look at the city through a glass floor. But we did not do that because it seemed to expensive and we had already had enough "eureka" for one day.

Melbourne - The Arrival (Rita Lichtner)

We arrived in Melbourne on the 28th of February. We moved into a nice apartment right in the middle of Melbourne City, next to China Town. My first impression of the huge buildings was ambivalent: respect, excitement and astonishment - all at once. On the one hand you could see the opportunities this city offers you, on the other hand you feel small and captured. But this did not minimise the excitement about seeing a great, famous city and meeting great people. Because that is what Australians are - great people. Always polite, always friendly. You can ask anybody anything and even if you do not ask, the come to you. They ask you where you come from and what you are doing in Australia, then they wish you a nice day and leave you with a smile on your face.

12 Apostles (Florian Ebert)

After we got back our luggage we drove with our rental car along the Great Ocean Road to Port Campbell. On the way we made a short stop to sea the beach at Anglesea. Big red coloured rock formations characterised the beach. Here we had also our first contact with the pacific ocean by walking in the shallows.
Finally we continued our trip and came to the small town of Lorne. There we stopped for a bite to eat and walked along the streets.
In the late afternoon we arrived at the 12 Apostles and looked down to the beach from a viewing area. Unfortunate the weather was not so good and we decided to return the next day to look at the 12 Apostles in more detail.
In the evening we arrived in Port Campbell and moved into our apartment. After a short walk to the pretty nice harbour we fell asleep after a long day.
The next morning we drove to the 12 Apostles which is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park. Because of their proximity to one another and their history they became a popular tourist attraction.
After an unhappy breakdown with our car - a flat tyre - we arrived nonetheless in the afternoon in Melbourne.

The Flight (Florian Ebert)

On 25 February 5 students from the Leibniz University Hanover started on a four-week trip to Australia. They were accompanied by a teacher from the language center of the university (FSZ).

It was a very long journey which demanded some endurance. We started in the evening from Frankfurt Airport and flew to Dubai Airport. Although we had to stay there for approximately 5 hours we could not leave the airport for a short city trip.
After this we flew with the 'big bird' Airbus A 380 directly to Melbourne. The flight was over 13 hours. However, we arrived in Melbourne in the early morning of 27 February tired but happy.