Well, somewhat unbelievable to myself, I am back in the USA! Honolulu, Hawaii to be exact, in a somewhat "Groundhog Day" fashion, since right now this is my second Saturday the 10th. Woke up on the 10th in Sydney and had to hang out for over 10 hours at the airport, then flew to Honolulu over night and thanks to the International Date Line, arrived at 9am the same day!
The flight was pretty horrendous, by the far the worst of my whole trip. It's a 9 hour flight, of which 3 hours were super-bumpy, and all that in a plane that must be one of the oldest in Qantas' fleet. Remember how projectors used to have these 3 giant bulbs, one for each color? That was the in-flight entertainment, projecting on a screen about 15 rows away from me. So, I watched "Crazy. Stupid. Love." by listening to the audio, and every time a new voice would come I would crane my neck to see who the actor is :)
But, all that, and of course the resulting jet lag, can not bring down my spirits, because I'm in Hawaii! I took a quick walk to the beach today and it was goooorgeous. Provided the weather is good tomorrow I will rent a surfboard and just try to mimick what the others do. Probably with hilarious results, but I don't care.
So, what have I been up to since last post? Last post was still from New Zealand, and since then I went back to Australia. With a quick layover in Sydney I went essentially straight to Cairns, where other than lazing in the artificial lagoon (hmmmm :), the big activity was of course checking out the Great Barrier Reef!
Initially I was just going to snorkel it, but on the ride there they made such a strong pitch for scuba diving that I went for that.
Horrifying!!
Well, at least the first 5 minutes of it. Problem with this introductory scuba dive is of course that they want to maximize the time of you actually seeing the reef, so they have to compress the introduction to scuba to the minimum. We got a 15 minute intro on the ride there about the dangers of scuba (bursting lungs, punctured ear drum, the Bends) and the basic skills (equalizing pressure, reinserting regulator etc.), and once we stopped they put the whole gear on us and made us do all those things in 5 minutes while underwater, holding on to a bar outside the boat. Not surprisingly, more than a quarter of the people who attempted it bailed out and got back into the boat.
But, once you got it figured out, it was awesome!! See pictures in the album. I don't think there's a way around of me actually getting a certification at some point, it was just too much fun.
Then, coming back to the hotel and checking my email and Facebook, it was time for some incredible serendipity. I have the following message in my inbox from Verena (for those who don't know, a friend I know from Boston, who now is a bush doctor in Papua New Guinea doing Medicines Sans Frontiers):
"Hi Ralf I am back in Australia, are you still here? Any chance you are close to Cairns?"
Turns out one of her friends got rather sick and they emergency-flew her from Papua New Guinea with a charterer plane to Cairns. Verena as her doctor came along, with the result that both of us were about 100 feet away from each other without knowing it. Blame Facebook for all woes of mankind, but due to FB we met up an hour after I saw the message and had some good mojito at the beach front :)
So, another chill day later (turns out you shouldn't fly a day after scuba diving because your blood still has a lot of nitrogen in it!), I returned to Sydney again. Holy crapola, Sydney is expensive. I mean, everybody knows Australia is expensive, but Sydney is the New York of Australia. Because of that I booked, with gnashing teeth, 2 nights in a youth hostel. I was kinda done with youth hostels since Singapore, but I figured I'll manage for those 2 days. Well, I survived one night, and then found a cheap hotel room. Australian youth hostels are essentially bars with beds. So, people were smashed and running around with beers everywhere, and played frisbee at 1am in the hallway.
Well, that's really it, and barring any phenomenal event that I will need to share with you guys during the week, the next post will most likely come from Boston, and thus be the final one! Kinda weird at this point. The entry to Hawaii already had a distinct "now it's over" feeling to it.
( direct photo link )
Cheers,
Ralf
The flight was pretty horrendous, by the far the worst of my whole trip. It's a 9 hour flight, of which 3 hours were super-bumpy, and all that in a plane that must be one of the oldest in Qantas' fleet. Remember how projectors used to have these 3 giant bulbs, one for each color? That was the in-flight entertainment, projecting on a screen about 15 rows away from me. So, I watched "Crazy. Stupid. Love." by listening to the audio, and every time a new voice would come I would crane my neck to see who the actor is :)
But, all that, and of course the resulting jet lag, can not bring down my spirits, because I'm in Hawaii! I took a quick walk to the beach today and it was goooorgeous. Provided the weather is good tomorrow I will rent a surfboard and just try to mimick what the others do. Probably with hilarious results, but I don't care.
So, what have I been up to since last post? Last post was still from New Zealand, and since then I went back to Australia. With a quick layover in Sydney I went essentially straight to Cairns, where other than lazing in the artificial lagoon (hmmmm :), the big activity was of course checking out the Great Barrier Reef!
Initially I was just going to snorkel it, but on the ride there they made such a strong pitch for scuba diving that I went for that.
Horrifying!!
Well, at least the first 5 minutes of it. Problem with this introductory scuba dive is of course that they want to maximize the time of you actually seeing the reef, so they have to compress the introduction to scuba to the minimum. We got a 15 minute intro on the ride there about the dangers of scuba (bursting lungs, punctured ear drum, the Bends) and the basic skills (equalizing pressure, reinserting regulator etc.), and once we stopped they put the whole gear on us and made us do all those things in 5 minutes while underwater, holding on to a bar outside the boat. Not surprisingly, more than a quarter of the people who attempted it bailed out and got back into the boat.
But, once you got it figured out, it was awesome!! See pictures in the album. I don't think there's a way around of me actually getting a certification at some point, it was just too much fun.
Then, coming back to the hotel and checking my email and Facebook, it was time for some incredible serendipity. I have the following message in my inbox from Verena (for those who don't know, a friend I know from Boston, who now is a bush doctor in Papua New Guinea doing Medicines Sans Frontiers):
"Hi Ralf I am back in Australia, are you still here? Any chance you are close to Cairns?"
Turns out one of her friends got rather sick and they emergency-flew her from Papua New Guinea with a charterer plane to Cairns. Verena as her doctor came along, with the result that both of us were about 100 feet away from each other without knowing it. Blame Facebook for all woes of mankind, but due to FB we met up an hour after I saw the message and had some good mojito at the beach front :)
So, another chill day later (turns out you shouldn't fly a day after scuba diving because your blood still has a lot of nitrogen in it!), I returned to Sydney again. Holy crapola, Sydney is expensive. I mean, everybody knows Australia is expensive, but Sydney is the New York of Australia. Because of that I booked, with gnashing teeth, 2 nights in a youth hostel. I was kinda done with youth hostels since Singapore, but I figured I'll manage for those 2 days. Well, I survived one night, and then found a cheap hotel room. Australian youth hostels are essentially bars with beds. So, people were smashed and running around with beers everywhere, and played frisbee at 1am in the hallway.
Well, that's really it, and barring any phenomenal event that I will need to share with you guys during the week, the next post will most likely come from Boston, and thus be the final one! Kinda weird at this point. The entry to Hawaii already had a distinct "now it's over" feeling to it.
( direct photo link )
Cheers,
Ralf
------------------------- Deutsch ----------------------------------
Hallo alle,
obwohl ich´s selbst fast nicht glauben kann, ich bin wieder in den USA! Honolulu, Hawaii um genau zu sein, so´n bisschen wie in "Und täglich grüßt das Murmeltier", denn mittlerweile durchlebe ich meinen zweiten Samstag den 10.12. Bin in Sydney am 10. morgens aufgewacht und musste dann für 10 Stunden im Flughafen abhängen, bin dann über Nacht nach Honolulu geflogen, und dank der Datumsgrenze über dem Pazifischen Ozean, bin morgens um 9 des gleichen Tages angekommen!
Der Flug selber war superscheiße, mit Abstand der schlechteste meiner Reise. Ist erstmal ein 9-Stunden Flug, von denen 3 voller Turbulenzen waren, und all das in dem wahrscheinlich ältesten Flugzeug der Qantas-Flotte. Ein Anno Knick Projektor am Ended der Kabine (ungefähr 15 Reihen von mir entfernt), einer von denen die noch 3 riesige Lampen haben, eine für jede Grundfarbe. Und so hab ich dann "Stupid. Crazy. Love." nur mit Audio geguckt, und jedes Mal wenn ne neue Stimme kam musste ich mich verrenken um dne Schauspieler zu sehen :)
Aber, trotz all dem bin ich natürlich superhappy, denn ich bin in Hawaii! Bin heute kurz zum Strand gegangen, und der ist suuuuuperschön. Wenn das Wetter morgen gut ist, werde ich morgen ein Surfboard mieten und versuchen andere Leute nachzuahmen. Wahrscheinlich zum Amüsement der anderen, aber mir egal.
Also, was hab ich in der letzten Woche gemacht? Das letzte Post war ja noch aus Neuseeland, und danach bin ich wieder zurückgeflogen nach Australien. Mit nem kurzen Zwischenstopp in Sydney bin ich nach Cairns weitergeflogen, wo ich dann abgesehen von Abhängen in der Lagune (hmmmm :), natürlich mir das Great Barrier Reef (Korallenriff) angeguckt habe!
Ursprünglich wollte ich nur schnorcheln, aber während der Bootsfahrt haben die uns so erfolgreich das Tiefseetauchen (Scuba) nahegelegt, das hab ich dann auch gemacht.
Furchterregend!
Naja, die ersten 5 Minutes auf jeden Fall. Das Problem mit so nem Einführungstauchen ist, daß man natürlich so viel Zeit unter Wasser verbringen will wie´s nur geht, und deswegen war die Einführung dann dementsprechend kurz. 15 Minuten Einführung auf der Hinreise über die Gefahren (Lungenriss, Gehörschaden, Taucherkrankheit) und was man können muss (Ohrendruck ausgleichen, Regulator unter Wasser wieder rein etc.), und als wir angekommen sind wurde uns direkt das ganze Equipment umgeschnallt und wir hatten dann 5 Minuten Zeit umd das alles auszuführen, während wir uns unter Wasser an einer Stange außerhalb des Bootes festgehalten haben. Nicht überraschendweise haben mehr als ein Viertel der Leute aufgegeben und sind wieder zurück ins Boot.
Aber, sobald man das raus hatte, was das super!! Siehe Fotos im Album. Ich glaube ich muss auf jeden Fall einen richtigen Kurs mal machen.
Am gleichen Tag, abends im Hotel, hab ich dann meine Email und Facebook gecheckt, und es war wohl Zeit für einen Riesenzufall. Ich hatte ne Nachricht von Verena in meiner Inbox (Verena kennen ich aus Boston, die ist aber zur Zeit in Papua Neuguinea als Teil der Doktor ohne Grenzen):
"Hi Ralf, ich bin mal wieder in Australien, bis Du noch da? Gibt´s ne Chance daß du irgendwann in Cairns bist?"
Stellte sich heraus, eine Mitarbeiterin von ihr hatten einen medizinischen Notfall und musste deswegen per Privatjet von Papua Neuguinea nach Cairns geflogen werden. Verena als ihr Doktor kam natürlich mit, mit dem Resultat daß wir 30 Meter von einander entfernt waren ohne es zu wissen. Man kann sagen was man will über Facebook, aber durch Facebook haben haben wir dann ne Stunde später am Strand mit nem Mojito gesessen :)
Noch einen Abhängtag dazwischen (man darf für 24 Stunden nicht in einen Flieger nach Tiefseetauchen weil man noch Stickstoff im Blut hat!) bin ich wieder zurück nach Sydney. Und mann, Sydney ist echt sauteuer. Alle sagen ja daß Australien teuer ist, aber Sydney ist das New York Australiens. Deswegen hab ich dann zähneknirschend 2 Nächte in ner Jugendherberge gebucht, obwohl ich eigentlih seit Singapur keinen Bock auf Jugendherbergen mehr hatte. Eine Nacht hab ich dann geschafft, und hab dann ein billiges Hotel für die zweite Nacht gefunden. Australische Jugendherbergen sind im Endeffekt Kneipen mit Betten. Überall laufen Leute blau mit Bier herum, und um 1 Uhr morgens wurde noch Frisbee im Gang gespielt.
So, das war´s eigentlich, und insofern es nicht irgendwas gibt das ich unbedingt während der Woche mit euch teilen müsste, wir das nächste Post wohl aus Boston kommen, und damit wohl das letzte sein! Ein bisschen seltsames Gefühl. Die Einreise in Hawaii hatte auf jeden Fall ein "So, das war´s" Gefühl.
( Fotodirektlink )
Bis denne,
Ralf
Why do I feel a little down after reading this post? I guess cause Ive so much enjoyed reading your updates! Maybe you should always write a blog. ;) Have a great time in Hawaii!!
ReplyDelete