It has been a long time since I have last updated my blog with some news from my life in Australia, but today is worth a post… why?
Well, I have skydived for the first (and not last) time in my life and I must say that it was AWESOME.
I have done my skydive in Wollongong (NSW), about 1.5 hours from Sydney, Australia. The company who operates this “adrenaline provider” is Skydive The Beach Sydney. The instructors are great and very professional and last but not least they know exactly how to chill you out.
Once we got at the check-in and received the proper clothing we were transported to the airport (approx. 20 min). The flight to the 14,000 feet (4.2km, terminal velocity 200km/h) lasts about 25-30 minutes. Thereafter, as soon as a small green light turnes on, you jump out! The free fall lasts 60 seconds (for me were like 10 seconds) and as soon the parachute is open, you still fly for about 5 minutes before landing.
It is very difficult to describe the emotions, sensations, fears, speed and the adrenaline rush you get it, with only words. Therefore, some pictures and the two videos below suit perfectly for this purpose.
Well it is time to stop using powerless words… enjoy the videos and the pictures.
See you on the next update from Downunder.
An institute (JILA) at the University of Colorado is trying to understand what really happens in a black hole. They managed to render/simulate a relativistic visualization of a black hole, this is the result, enjoy.
Inside a black hole
Tags: black hole, inside black hole, JILA, relativistic visualisation
Sydney Skyline at sunset
It’s time to upload more pictures from Australia, check them out (some by Tommy and Antonio) here….
Finally I have got some time to write a brief resume on my trip during the Australia Day long weekend… I took the Friday off (January 23rd) and with a friend we flew to Brisbane. The flight was at 7 o’clock in the morning and we landed at about 840am. Brisbane has a time lag of 30 minutes.
Afterwards we took a shuttle bus to Surfers Paradise (approximately one hour South from Brisbane). The weather was not so great when we arrived but shortly after the sun came out and after settling down in a nice room on the 20th floor of the Esplanade road in Surfers, we went straight to the huge and amazing beach where we stayed a couple of hours.
Surfers Paradise is a typical touristic town: many shops, quiet dirty, many pubs, night clubs, restaurants, entertainment parks, etc… One or maximum 2 days are absolutely enough, but as said, the beach was awesome (here some pictures).
We left Surfers Paradise on Sunday 25th and went back to Brisbane. Such a beautiful city. If it would have a proper beach (according to the Australian standards), it would be my favourite city in Australia. Clean, green, not too big, modern and very “tropical”. It has very nice promenades for astonishing walks and jogging.
The same evening we booked a tour to Fraser Island, about 3 hours driving North from Brisbie. The best decision: in Brisbane was raining and on Fraser we had blue sky all day. The Isalnd is about 120km long and 20km wide. It is all of sand and has the biggest rain forest that grows on this kind of terrain. The coolest thing is to drive at 100km/h on the main road on the beach! It’s llike an highway but on the shore for many kilometers. We bushwalked in the rain forest and after we had a picnic and a bath on the breathtaking lake McKenzie (pictures). We visited further unforgettable spots before going back to the mainland and driving from Hervey Bay to Noosa and then towards Brisbane. Time passed so quickly even if we woke up at 5.30am and returned at 9pm!
The last evening in Brisbie was a short one unfortunately, the flight back to Sydney was at 5am!!!
Some pictures of the unforgettable journey to the Gold coast have been already uploaded and can be found here. Enjoy.
Some pictures (click on the image) of the long Australia Day weekend on the Gold Coast (Brisbane, Surfers paradise and Fraser Island). Enjoy!
Tags: Brisbane, Fraser Island, Gold Coast, Surfer Paradise
