26-10: Resumé (?)

A month has gone by since I returned from my seven-month tour around the world and there is hardly a day when I don't think about the great time I had. During the first week I was happy to be back in my home town, seeing my friends, seeing my family. But then I felt the big issue with Berlin and its environment: I missed the ease of just hopping into the car and drive to somewhere awesome. It was too easy in New Zealand. Petrol prices were affordable and beaches, jungle, volcanoes, trails etc was an hour away max. With this great opportunity there came the advantage of just breaking out of the common cycles. Get out of town and get distracted by all the astonishing facettes of mother nature. Even in Auckland itself it was easy. You get back from work, put on your running shoes and jog onto one of the countless volcanoes from where you have amazing 360 degrees panoramic views on the Auckland area, on the Pacific and the Tasman Sea from the same spot. Here in Berlin I have the Kienberg with its view on the dull eleven-storey buildings of Marzahn-Hellersdorf.

Most of all I miss the ocean near me. During the last seven months the water was always only a few kilometres away from me: Hong Kong, NZ, Hawaii, California. I miss the opportunity to just take the bodyboard and ride a few waves.

I have spent a lot of money during this half year, but it was absolutely worth it. I got the long awaited opportunity to improve my English. I could witness life in some of the most interesting spots of the world. I could finish my "pre final thesis". I met lots of different people from all over the world and I could extend my horizon, which by the time I left Germany only reached to the borders of Europe. Europe is very heterogenous but nothing compared to what the whole wide world can offer you. All I knew about foreign cultures was second-hand knowledge from school, books or movies. Experiencing it first-hand made it real.

When I try to think about bad experiences I cannot really remember anything major. There were small things which in the end are nothing compared to the good time I had. I can't even count them as bad experiences. Almost getting ripped off in Macau is shocking in the first moment, but now it is just an adventure. Getting stuck with the car on a lonely beach in NZ with the tide coming in is horrible when you have to go through it, but if everything turns out fine it is another story to tell. Almost collapsing on the Las Vegas Strip was almost exciting (strange, I know). For most people it is part of the Las Vegas experience. Causing two (really small) car accidents within two hours is very annoying but... Okay, I think this was a horrible day. Trying to get my digital camera fixed by a Panasonic technician who tells me in the end that it would cost as much as a new camera is not cool. But causing two accidents on the way to the service center to get the broken camera back is even worse.

This was part of one month in New Zealand which I didn't enjoy. I had to finish my work at the University of Auckland, but it turned out that the extent of the project increased continously. This resulted in working seven days a week ten to twelve hours a day for a whole month. I didn't enjoy that time, but it was necessary. I regarded it as price that I had to pay for the huge opportunity of travelling through the world. It rained all the time anyway, so I couldn't really do anything else than working.

One more thing: I wrote something about the pros and cons of travelling alone or in a group. Here is another pro for travelling alone: It helps to find yourself. You think a lot, for example about your future plans, about your personality and about the actions that are necessary to change things for the better. I definitely got some insights. An semester abroad really changes some things.

Hm, it seems that I can't put together a real resumé, just random thoughts. Whatever, here is the next one: When I try to think about the best days of these seven months or when people ask me what was the best stop or the best moments, then I can't decide. On almost every day which I travelled there were special occasions and it is impossible put together a Top Ten or something similar. Anyways, here is a selection:

-The day where I experienced overcrowded Kowloon in the morning and the solitude of Lamma Island in the evening, just a few miles south

-Getting soaked in Abel Tasman

-Eat breakfast with gold diggers

-Dolphin swimming in Kaikoura

-The solitude and beauty of Milford Sound

-Searching for a Subaru Parts Dealer on the lonely west coast of the South Island

-Sitting in the cold stadium of Christchurch and shiver like I never did before

-Driving through the night of NZ

-Experience a lively night in Wellington

-Getting smashed by huge waves on the west coast near Auckland

-Sleeping in the car anywhere no matter what the conditions are

-Nights out at Viaduct Harbour

-Getting up at half past three in the morning to cheer for the German soccer team

-Doing the same to accompany my Italian friends and secretly smiling about the Italian style of watching soccer

-Getting stuck with the car on a lonely NZ beach

-Relaxing in a hot pool at 8 in the morning in Tauranga after a great night

-Sandboarding at the northern tip of the North Island

-Watching for orca killer whales on a beautiful morning

-Have a relaxing beer in superb Kingslander, best sportsbar in the world, only a block away from my house

-Getting home from uni and just sit on the veranda with my flatmates

-Relieve the mind from thoughts about work and while jogging up volcanoes

-Having the joy to have to care completely for oneself

-Live and interact within an awesome multiculture: Auckland

-Floating in the water at a lonely beautiful Hawaii beach until a jellyfish stung me

-Floating on my bodyboard together with a dozen other people close to sunset at Waikiki beach while bands are playing on the shore

-Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

-Driving a Ford Mustang through lava fields

-Sleeping on a Hawaiian beach

-Cycling with a bike over the Golden Gate Bridge

-Doing a proper american road trip

-Hiking through Yosemite

-Hike up a mountain lion-infested mountain with nothing but a half litre water bottle in the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada

-Getting boiled in the deserts of California

-Gambling in Las Vegas

-Enjoying the vastness of Arizona

-Hiking through GC

-Driving 650 miles in one day and not getting tired of it

-Doing a world tour with everything that belongs to it

I could go on and on, but it just doesn't matter. I have written a detailed blog about most of my experiences and I am happy about it. I will always be able to live through it again.

Next plan: Visit Jon and Vinnie in London. I hope that works out.