Translation (taken from the Lonely Planet German phrasebook): Good day! How are you (inf.)? Have you had unprotected sex?
Okay, maybe so that's not the typical German greeting, but hey, I'm still getting the hang of it.
(Note to potential men wanting to use Geschlechtsverkehr in a pick-up line: It is the medical term for sex. As my visitors so kindly pointed out, if you ask a girl for Geschlechtsverkehr, chances are, you won't get any.)
This past week has seen the Swiss invasion of Victoria, and we have had the pleasure of hosting Claudio and the aptly named Victoria from Basel, a town at the border of Switzerland and Germany.
It was always going to be a very interesting visit right from the outstart as we had no idea what they looked like, so K and I went to Tullamarine with only their flight details in our hands - Air NZ. Arriving 09:40.
I will not detail here how we finally met them up, but let's just say they were cleverer than I was, and had Googled my picture online. (If you search for my name on Google, you will see my picture on N's blog, and also some other hits that will take you to pictures of orangutans.)
They stayed for about seven days, and we had the pleasure of showing them around and trying new things for ourselves.
Amongst our whirlwind tour of Victoria (the state, not the girl) was:
Yum cha at Plume in Highpoint (with Claudio happily eating chicken feet!)
Dinner at Soul Mama's
A walk along Williamstown
Lunch at Rose Garden's
Vic Market where they went crazy at the deli section
A drive along Brighton beach, finally catching the beautifully painted beach storage houses
Dinner at Bismi's followed by icecream at Balha's pastries
Gelati at Il Dolce Freddo, several times!
Pizzas at pizza @ metro (Pizza by the metre)
I think that the highlight of their visit, though, was the trip to Healesville Sanctuary, where we spent at least an hour just looking at koalas, which was their must-see itinerary here in Australia.
Heals-ville: (From top left, moving L-R) A kute koala; a dumbfounded dingo; me in a previous life - a lazy lizard; the heartbreaking pictures of ailing kangaroos in the Animal Hospital; a real-life python, mercifully on someone else's hand; the same python being affectionate; a skink (what a cool name! Right there is my first child's name - Skink Cheok!); the wonderful Birds of Prey show.
After I managed to pull them away from the slothy koalas -
[hK's Quick Fact of the Day: Koala comes from the aboriginal word meaning 'No water.' ie. 'I was going to take a shower but koala.' (That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.)
But seriously, they get all their water from chewing on eucalyptus leaves.
You are not allowed to cuddle koalas in NSW and Victoria, but you can do so in Queensland. Because they are beach-surfing koalas. (I am absolutely making that last line up, but I hope you have a happy visual of a koala on a surfboard in your head!)]
- and we managed to see the other attractions such as the majestic Birds of Prey show, visit the Animal Hospital to look at all the poor animals affected by the bushfire, see the enigmatic Lyrebird (which could mimic the sounds of everything - machine guns, chattering monkeys, different birds - a liar bird, if you will) and also attend the revolting Reptilian show.
Fact: Snakes are not slimy to touch.
They are slimy to lick.
The beautiful beach houses of Brighton; the cheeky Claudio and Victoria.
Claudio and Victoria were really easy to get along with, and we shared many laughs despite the seeming language barrier. They even got us all gifts, W, K and myself (I got the German phrasebook!) and they baked us this wonderful thank-you cake on the night where we cooked at home. (I made my specialty - stepping out of the kitchen and not getting in the way of K cooking up a storm! Hee hee!)
It was with heavy hearts that we said our Auf Wiedersehn's, as they had the rest of Australia to see before heading off to Asia. They took a train up to Sydney, armed to their teeth in Mamee packets (which we introduced them to!) and goodies from the deli visit in Vic Market.
I will sign off with some helpful German phrases:
If someone offers Gehen wir ins Bett! (Let's go to bed!), it is always helpful to tell them you have a Kopfschmerzen (headache).
Wo sind die Schwulen- und Lesbenkneipen? (Where are the gay venues?)
As you can see, Ich bin nicht high. (I'm not high.)
Promise.
No comments:
Post a Comment