Flativity #1: Milford Sound

Kia Ora! :)

I know its a while ago since I wrote the last post, but Uni was quite stressful in the last two weeks and some assignments were due. Nevertheless: Work hard, travel hard... So thats why we decided to do our first flativity (Flat - Activity) last weekend. I do not know if I told you yet, but my 4b Girls are awesome, two Kiwis and two Americans in our cute (and cold) flat. As, for what reason ever (because it is incredible!!!), the Kiwi Girls also did not visit Milford Sound yet, we decided to go there. For the ones that are not familiar with Milford Sound: it is a fiord in the south-west of NZ, so a `just` 6 hours drive from Dunedin. But I will start at the beginning...

We started on Friday afternoon. First grocery shopping (I mean you never know what can happen in one weekend, so we bought a bunch of sweets, snacks and of course wine), then the first highlight: Waihola. The hightlight here (and I could not stop lauging for ages) the city sign which says: No hospital, no doctor, one cemetery! But hey we survived. After that we stopped at some villages for some pictures and of course toilet breaks (with 5 girls this can be quite stressful :D). But what I love the most: Just sitting in the car and watching New Zealands landscape and nature. No place is boring, everything is so impressive. In the evening we arrived in Te Anau, this is the biggest city before Milford Sound, but still 2 hours before that. We checked in and went out for dinner, and just had an relaxing and funny evening at the room.
At the next morning we started quite early as we wanted to do a 3 hours return hiking tour before actually going to Milford Sound. On the way to the starting point we stopped at the Mirror Lakes, as you might can imagine... The lake was really like a mirror! I never saw something like that before, the reflection was perfect and so beautiful, have a look:

The water was so calm and clear, amazing! After that we reached the starting point for the Key Summit Walk. The weather was unfortunately not the best, it was rainy a little bit, but we decided to start and have a look if it is getting worse. But we were lucky, the weather was stable and the view on top was stunning. But I just realised that I have to train moooooore, oh my god! My calves are so weak :( but as you believe or not I am walking a lot and (hold on...) fast here! So I am getting there :D The hike was amazing and we did some pictures on top and walked down again.

Lovely 4b girls 

After that we did a small stop at the Humboldt Falls, huge waterfalls (or better say high, but quite thin), but nevertheless very impressive! But as it was starting to rain harder, we decided to drive to Milford Sound directly. In order to get there, you have to drive through a small tunnel (okay small for me, but for the Americans it was huuuuge - seriously it was like 3 minutes in the tunnel :D).
When we arrived the first shock: They told us because it should rain quite hard over night that the tunnel might be closed for the next days... So there was the possibility that we getting  stuck in Milford! But no risk, no fun... And as you might imagine now, nothing happened in the end ;) As it was quite late, we decided to do the boat tour tomorrow and just did s mall tour to the `village` and cooked dinner afterwards.
On Sunday we went on the boat to go into the Sound.

It was amazing, even though the weather was not the best. In summer it must be even more impressive, but the good thing about the rain was many, many, many waterfalls... EVERYWHERE! So cool :) The boat trip was quite stormy and rainy, prove is here:

But it was worse it! It was so windy that some waterfalls did not reach the water, the water was blown away before and it looked like the waterfalls was going up again. Never saw something like that... Amazing!
After the boat trip we went straight back to Dunedin as it was a 6 hours drive.

So the first successful flat weekend with amazing girls, a lot of laughing, cool places and a cold afterwards.  
I am off now to Tonga... I little but of sun and warmth for the next week. So I will report after the week.
See ya guys :)

To tell, or not to tell - that is the question

Weeks have passed and stuff has happened. That about covers it for today’s post, I think… 

Well somehow I feel like my mom won’t be quite satisfied with that. And, yes, I do have to take that into consideration now, because one of my supposed friends sent her the link to this blog. If I ever find out who exactly is responsible for that… Alright, as I said in the past couple weeks a lot of things have happened. Some are fine, some probably shouldn’t be mentioned, and some that I don’t want to talk about.

I used my free time to take a long hike through Surco, Barranco and Los Chorrillos. Surco is a typical part of Lima, alternating between nice houses, run-down shacks and beautiful small parks. Sometimes you will see all three of those in less than a minute walking. The parks always have a couple artists doing their thing, but only few people seem to notice since Pokemon Go made its way over here, too. PUT YOUR PHONES DOWN, GODDAMMIT!

Barranco is a district right on the ocean. There is a fantastic ocean-view walk and Barranco also sports a ton of nice little bars and clubs (some of which we already tried out). In general it is one of the most artsy barrios with graffiti on nearly every house and lots of nice buildings to look at. Barranco might be my favorite part of Lima so far. Los Chorrillos is the southern frontier of Lima. There you can find the fishing boats and lots of nice viewpoints. On top of a hill on the outer edge of Los Chorrillos I found a planetarium and the “Cruz del Sur” which is huge and lights up at night. You can see that thing from the whole coastline. A bit further down the road they erected a Jesus statue very much like the one in Buenos Aires, just a bit smaller. I guess they just aren’t as devoted as the Argentinians ;-)

Last week was the first with courses in the university. The courses do seem manageable but you actually have to do homework assignments all the time. What the Fuck Usil (name of the university)!? I came here to mostly have a good time and travel on the weekends, not prepare presentations the whole time. Other than that uni started out good. The people are nice and we went to a couple parties together to celebrate the start of term. All the clubs and bars here have a tendency to play Salsa and Reggaeton. So I better learn Salsa if I wanna fit in. Too bad the salsa class in Usil is already full. Good thing then, that I am the most obvious “Gringo” of all, so there’s enough specimen of the female persuasion that are quite willing to teach me. Timeframes are a bit different here, though. If you leave at 5am the parties are still raging. This, of course, brings with it a chronic lack of sleep. But I’m only here once, so I say let the good times roll!

Next up, the stories I really shouldn’t write about in a public space. I won’t. Deal with it.

As for what I don’t want to talk about… For one Lima is not what you’d call a safe city. Especially at night. Several of the international students have already “lost” their phones or wallets. The taxi drivers aren’t the most trustworthy people either. There are stories of drivers bringing people into deserted alleys where their partners wait to rob the passengers. Me and Roberto (roommate) already got ready to jump a guy when he drove us all over the place, just not in the direction of our house. After we pointed that out to him and told him exactly where to go he obliged, though. Turns out the idiot just didn’t know where the address was (or at least that’s what he told us). Anyway, you never know…   One of my friends here was almost mugged right in front of us (That’s really all you need to know about that). Anyway, don’t let your guard down. Ever.

Back to more relaxed topics. I already mentioned Roberto, my roommate from Puerto Rico. Joining us in the house are two Mexican girls, two Mexican guys, a Spaniard, a Colombian girl, a girl from France. Since me and Lisa are the only ones who don’t speak Spanish as a native language I landed in the perfect spot to improve my language skills. All of my roommates are pretty cool. We go out quite a bit and if we’re in the house we’re really only doing one of two things. Cooking, talking and listening to music in the kitchen, or watching movies in the living room. The cooking part is pretty awesome since we have two chefs here (Roberto and Gabi, the Colombian). And now it’s time for me to make lunch. So while the others show off their impressive cooking skills I’ll just go ahead and hope I don’t burn my spaghetti…

                                                              

                           

 

Welcome to Vancouver (Island)!

Hey folks,
I think it's time that I start participating in this blog to get you out of the boredom, just kidding dear colleagues;)
It is about 72 hours ago that my journey started it already feels like a month. Let's start right at the beginning.
I read all the problems with flight, visa and stuff like from fellow students so even me got a bit nervous about it. But lucky me everything went fine. I arrived after around 11 hours in the plane in Vancouver. As usual I did not book any accomodation before traveling, maybe the next I rethink that. I was not able to find a suitable place for me and needed the help of a nice lady from the customer support at the airport. Finally we found a bed for me so after around 22 hours without sleep I was able to get some rest. I spend some hours in Vancouver but not enough to tell you a lot about it, it seems that it is a quite active city, but not too crowded. I liked the many different kinds of restaurants and all in all it seems a very open minded flair. But don't mind I'll travel to Vancouver definitely again and report afterwards.
Yesterday I went to Nanaimo my home for the upcoming four months, as I am able to learn ou of my mistakes I booked a hostel from Vancouver ;) By travelling to Nanaimo I experienced the first highlight of my journey. The nearly two hour ferry crossing from Nanaimo to Vancouver is breathtaking. I love the sea and also mountaineous regions, having both in one picture is like eastern and christmas in one day:) I can't wait to take the ferry back to Vancouver, but I also sweared to myself to make it one time with the seaplane, that must be outstanding!
Talking about Nanaimo it seems like a really calm city. By now there is not that much going on, I guess it is because it is holiday and all the students went back to their home town. Never the less the harbour is really nice with a lot of sailing boats and stuff. Downtown is packed with little shops, restaurant and cafes - trendy. But what I like the most about it, there are a lot of protected areas in the city. So you will always have the chance to find a green space for you. Additionally many of those parcs have someting special, like pitches, playgrounds, lakes and stuff like that. It reminds me a bit of cologne but the "extras" are much better.
I also went to the Vancouver Island University, short VIU, already. It is a huge university. Such a big campus, but right now empty. I saw around 20 humans... The rabbits took over that place. These lazy, little, cute fellows are chilling in the sun, eating green gras and are not even a bit shy. I might get one and take it home with me :P
All in all pretty good time by now, even tough I am having problems finding a fixed place to stay. That is not that easy, so wish me luck for the upcoming days, hopefully I'll write the next post out of my own room.
Stay tuned!
Leon/Canada

PS: I do not have a camera and the new smartphone I want is out of stock right now, but be aware that you will get pictures very soon :)

Roadtrip #1

Hey everyone,

Greetings from the cold and snowy Dunedin. Unfortunately winter came back yesterday and it is so cold outside, that I just decided to do a lazy day and stay at the warm flat. So I have time to tell you about my amazing roadtrip last weekend!

Even though the first assignments are coming soon we decided to leave Dunedin in order to travel around. We were with 5 people, one Swiss guy, one Norwegian girls and one Norwegian guy and Daniela and me! So a cool international (European) group. Crazy how many differences there are even between Germany and Switzerland. But we found that that the German and the Norwegian language is kind of similar... what is kind of weird, but hey... `Rotkohl` is still `Rotkohl`! Good to know :D

So last Friday we rented a car and our first stop were the Moeraki Boulders. Nobody really knows how they got there, we just found out that they roll (why ever - nobody knows) over from the hills before the beach. But nevertheless their are quite famous, so I must-do for typical tourists...  Because our group, especially Nico (Swiss guy), is typical touristic... Making thouuuuusand pictures of the same landscape, it took him ages to get on perfect picture, and I am not talking about his attempts to make 360 degree pictures. Incredible how people can only watch at these amazing, stunning views through their smartphones... You see: I felt like Asian tourists (no prejudices! But hey, just the IPad was missing). Sorry Nico if you read this: you know I love you!

After that we drove to Oamaru, a small but pretty city north of Dunedin. But as we had to hurry up in order to drive to Timaru where we booked our Motel we just spent an hour there. The only thing I can tell you about Timaru is that they have a great Chinese restaurant with a delicious all-you-can-eat buffet. Best thing ever! In the evening we played cards (and wow, we played the game ashole... I did not play it for ages, but it is such a cool game... Especially as the King! What a was of course ;-) ).

On Saturday we just spend half an hour in Timaru, in order to say: We were there! Then we drove further to Lake Tekapo. I was so excited because it is a very famous place in NZ. But of course, when we arrived there it started to rain and it was freezing cold... What else! But nevertheless the place was awesome, we used the time to have lunch in one of the restaurants and did some quick pictures.

Next stop: Lake Pukaki! I can tell you, this is the typical New Zealand place to be. A huge, pretty Lake in the middle of mountains. And guess what? The weather was suddenly better, that's actually very crazy here. The weather can change so fast, I am not used to that. From raining as hell to no clouds and sun! So here my favourite picture until now! I really felt in love with that place, but as you might can imagine, Nico was just looking through his camera.... Not sure if he saw all this beauty :D

Next Stop was our hostel at Mount Cook. This is the highest mountain of NZ. We spend the evening in a pub where we watched a Rugby game, also a must-do here. It is still very aggressive for me, but I think i am getting used to that pretty soon. And they do not hurt themselves (badly), I have no clue how this is possible, but that gives me a better feeling :D

On the Sunday, our last day of the roadtrip, we first did a short hike to the Tasmans Glacier where you can see Mount Cook. As it is winter, you cannot hike up there unfortunately, but we wanted to see him: you know: in order to take thousand pictures and eliminate it from the bucket list.
After that we started to drive back to Dunedin, as we needed still 5 hours to get home. On the way we stopped at the so called Clay Cliffs. It was just a sign on the road and we decided to just check it out  because nobody of us had heard of this before. But this was one of the best decisions of that weekend. If you know the movie 127 hours you could imagine how it looked there.  It was amazing, even though it was fucking cold and icy there.... But hey with hat and gloves is everything possible!

There is actually a really funny story about the Gorge , but as we did not made it there on that roadtrip I will tell you about it later on.

In the evening we arrived in Dunedin and we're all dead. I went to bed at 8 I think, feeling like a grandma... But it was worth it!

Looking forward to the next weekends to discover NZ.

As you would say it here and I know the German summer is not that good at the moment: Stay warm and see ya soon!

FREEDOM!!! *Warning very very long post*

Hola Muchachos!

I am already writing from Guadalajara which was actually not my plan. My days in Michigan have been amazing and I had honestly no time posting due to every day changing accomodations and activities. But first let me give you a summary of my cutie little immigration problem in Rome with these overfriendly people from Delta.
So my plan of "only getting the freaking boarding pass" wasnt actually working out. When I wanted to get him, I had to answer some security questions before and it already stopped by answering on "do you have a flight ticket back?". Of course I had, but it was not as easy as I thought. I booked a flight back because it was cheaper, but i wont take it (logically). I definitely knew that I dont need a Visa for Mexico because I am less than 180 days in the country and for the USA I had the usual ESTA. But in short: An entry to Mexico does NOT mean an exit from the USA (because I was staying there for some days and not only transitting). So this gently sympathetic friendly cordial asshole-like (sorry) man from Delta with far too much hair oil honestly told me at 10:40 am (11:15 was the flight) that he couldnt let me step into that plane without showing a Visa for Mexico or a flight back within 90 Days. Due to the fact that my flight from Mexico to Cuba is in December, its far too long for a stay indirect in the USA. So the only thing you probably now think is 1. Shit 2. Shit and 3. Shit. Yes, thats right. I even thought all three things at the same time. But I had to act somehow so the only choice was booking a flight within these 90 days so these friendly warmly hearty people of americans let me enter this country.
And so I sat there, in the corner like a homeless person, booking a flight home while hoping this plane wont fly without me. After 10 minutes and 680 euros later, I showed them my confirmation and just waiting for getting my boarding pass which continuously lied next to me. But not in my hands. Sad story.. All they said was "sorry but I need the ticket number" - And this small number you can find on a second mail you receive from the travel intermediary, it can take hours. Triple Shit again. "So I booked a flight for 680 euro with million information in this mail and you tell me it is not enough?" "Yes."
At this point I gave up somehow, because it was already 11:05 and every passenger but me was waiting for these sexy stewardess instructions. At 11:07, when another woman said it is too late now and called someone to know when the next plane is going (tomorrow!!!), I received the second mail. I thought im in heaven honestly. I bunged the phone at their desk with a "here take all info you need!!! Is it too late??" Dont ask me why, but they only said "why didnt you say you have a return ticket?" "I HAVE one but i wont take it i told you..?" They spoke some blabla and let me run to the bus which took me to the plane. I couldnt believe it because I already saw myself sleeping at the airport and this really like a homeless person. But I was in there, and the only thing that was waiting for me was the immigration. My trauma of 2013 when i forgot the street number of my accomodation. But to keep it short, everything worked out there and i finally saw Lisa... yippieeeeeeehhhhhhh :) Freedom for now! at least 10 days! Besides of every day searchings for regulations and permissions about staying in mexico and the USA i could also enjoy my time with my cousin.

The first day we've been to an Outlet in Auburn Hills and did some shopping. Before starting our Trip, we had two lazy days at the house (especially the pool) to get cool with the jetlag - busy adventurous days are waiting for us!
So we started with driving approx. 3 hours to Port Austin which is located more in the north of Michigan (they live in the South close to Ann Arbor). We wanted to go kayaking but unfortunately it was too windy :( instead of that we went to a small beach, but really sad we couldnt see the Turnip Rock (a very very big stone in the lake).

But we still had amazing things planned and so we went on to Grayling where you can hike up to a pyramid point. This view was amazing !!!

And compared to the attraction that was coming up this hike up to the pyramid point with view on Lake Michigan is a joke. The so called Sleeping Bear Dunes is a dune-path where you constantly go up a dune hoping the next part is the last one. But it is actually a never ending dunes-story i thought. Surprisingly it had an end, and you can not imagine how proud we have been to make it till the end (the water). Because many people just stopped and turned around when seeing the sea far way.. but not with us! I didnt really wanted to see the lake, it was more turning into a personal conflict with myself going to a physical limit i havent been a loooong looong time... Just fyi: Lisa is running marathons and i am ähm... not. These hikes were rising like crazy, but doesnt look like it on the pictures :D 

From there we only drove to the motel and while Lisa had to run for her marathon training the only thing i did was going to bed.

The next day we went to Mackinaw City / Mackinac Island also close to Lake Michigan. Definitely worth a visit! The Island can be circled with a bike you can rent and all you see is beautiful nature!

 The Village on the Island

Prepared Street for Bikers. There are no cars permitted!
After Mackinac and some souvenir shopping we went to Holland the next day. Just as it explains this city has many places which are similar to the Netherlands. We visited a dutch village, a windmill village, the beach, and a dutch restaurant which unfortunately hadnt had the famous frikandel speciaal. It is staged authenticity at its finest and so you often really thought you were in the Netherlands!

We spent two days there, but the best is yet to come: Chicago. Ive been waiting for this the whole time because this City only can be great! We took the train in the morning and let the car in Holland, it took 3 hours to go there. Two days fully packed - let it begin!
So what did we see? The John Hancock Center (Chicago from above), the Navy Pier, Cloud Gate and Millenium Park, the Buckingham Fountain, a boat tour, the Soldier Field Stadium and went through many streets downtown Chicago. Mostly by feet, still having the miles from the Sleeping Bear Dunes in my legs (autsch).
IT WAS ABSOLUTELY GREAT !!!!

 The Navy Pier from above

Chicago 360.

Small Sarah in big Chicago! Cloud Gate.

Finally Chicago's Skyline... isnt it wow?

We experienced so many places so that i best could explain it in pictures and i hope you even read to this point haha! Im gonna miss the time in America and with my cousin a lot but im ready for a new adventure, hopefully without any more problems in immigration ;)

Entonces: Viva Mexico!
See you soon :)
Sarah