I am in Hawaii, for the third time. I have been here for a whole week already, but luckily I have two more to go! Tomorrow I will go to Maui, for the next 5 days, I have never been there before, so I am excited to experience something new.

After barely getting back in to USA on the border with Canada last Thursday, I got on a plane from Seattle to Hawaii. The border people in uSa are incredibly strict, and very rude! I was questioned for 15 minutes about every single stamp in my passport, and how much money I have in the bank, what my work is, how can I afford going to Hawaii for 3 weeks, and whatnot. I understand they need to ask questions, but they could be a little nicer about it!

I landed in Honolulu on Thursday night, and Maiken & Sam came and picked me up. Seeing as Hawaii is 3 hours behind Seattle/Vancouver, i got even more jetlagged, and it took me some days to get rid of it.

Friday was spent walking around Honolulu with Maiken, Hawai'i's capital city. I had actually never been there before, and it was a nice American city, for a change. They still do have a lot of homeless people here, who are very intimidating. The other day this guy walked around yelling "I will kill y'all! f***ing motherf***ers!", standing in the middle of a heavily trafficked street. But all in all, it is a nice city, I guess it helps a lot with palms trees swaying in the wind, but still, there are nice buildings here, and a nice harbour, and it is pretty clean.

Saturday, Maiken and I went for a hike up in the jungle. It was pretty cool , and we got up to a wonderful lookout point, where we could see all the way over to the other side of O'ahu. The landscape and jungles here remind me a lot of other Polynesian islands. The jungle reminds me of Cook Islands, the coastal road of Samoa, and the mountains of American Samoa. I just love these islands! In the evening we went to Sam's rap show,and hung out with American army people.

Sunday the weather was quite crap. It is after all the rainy season here, so it does get pretty windy and sometimes rainy. It hasn't been too bad though, but it can be quite overcast some days. We went out for a drive to the eastern part of O'ahu and the windward coast. It is really beautiful, and quite cool to look at the volcanic landscape. We went to a nice little beach, Lanikai, and had a snorkel in the water. It was pretty windy, so the water was not so clear, but we did manage to find a turtle swimming around. So we swam with it for a little while. We didn't touch it or anything like that,a s it is against the law, but it was very cool to swim with a turtle!

Monday was a slack beach day. Maiken's apartment is 20 minutes walk from Ala Moana beach park. A nice little beach which never seems to be too crowded, and also not too touristy, like Waikiki. I love having some beach days once in a while,a nd just relax and enjoy the sun and palm trees! In the evening we did some shopping at the Ala Moana center, just across the road from the beach. It used to be USA's biggest mall, so we didn't go through that many shops. We need another day to do that. Anyways, I can't shop much, not much space in backpack!

Tuesday I decided to go into Waikiki again. That is the tourist hot spot, where all the hotels are and where I have stayed the two other times I have been here. There is not really anything to see there, but the beach is nice, and it is fun just to have a walk around. Maiken met up with me later, and we spent the afternoon just walking around, and sitting on the beach a little while.

Yesterday, which was Wednesday, I went to the other side of the island to go to the Polynesian Cultural Centre. I was there 6 years ago, and it is probably the best touristy thing I have ever been to anywhere in the world. Maybe it is because I am very into the Polynesian cultures, but I think it is fantastic. they have a whole park deidacted o the Polynesian islands, and a little village for the countries of New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, Fiji and Tahiti. They all have different shows that last for about 20 minutes, where they show you different customs and dances from their country. I always get stunned by the Tahitian dances, the girls wear the grass skirt, and the drums go really fast while they shake their booty like no one else! It looks so cool and I definately want to learn it. I also like the New Zealand warrior dance, the guys all look so macho and tough! It was a little bit boring being there alone though, I will admit that, as it is a couple or family thing to do. I stayed for buffet dinner and the evening show, which was amazing. Lots of dancing and a fire show, which just made me sit there at the edge of my seat worried that one of them would lose their firey stick!!

Today I have also been at the beach again, just relaxing as I have done lots the past week, and will do lots the next 5 days in Maui. I hope it will be good there and that there won't be any Germans in my room!

Aloha!