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Guatemala – ¡adelante!

 

…Christina!

 

“Hm?”

“Did you try to call, again?”

“Euhm..no.”

“Do that.”

“OK.”

“Did you ask at the reception?”

“Hm…”

“Go and ask them.”

“Hm.”

“Go!”

“OK…”

“Can you be ready in 15 minutes?”

“Mhm…”

“Christina!”

“What?”

“You have to be ready in 15 minutes. organize your stuff. We’re going to go salsa dancing. And you come with us.”

“OK.”

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Nicaragua

Nicaragua: Coco Loco

I’m kinda nervous.

No, not a job interview (bitch, please!). Nor an upcoming flight, or anything else that normally makes my pulse race. It’s simply, because the electricity is gone. Actually, i’m not that restless just because it is gone. That happens from time to time in Central America. It’s more, because I don’t know why. Not knowing the cause, makes it hard to fix the problem. At least, to fix it for longer than short term.

„Tranquila“, the brown-green, calming teddybear eyes of my Nicaraguan colleague give me this look, which is a mixture of “trust me, everything’s gonna be alright” and “man, what the hell is wrong with her, why is she so nervous?”. So, all normal, all good. It will come back. They’re doing some repairs on the electricity line, at least that’s what people say.

And yet, I am still too not-Nicaraguan to sit down, read a book and keep calm till it comes back. No washing machine. No fan. No Wifi (biiig issue haha). How long will the fridge keep cool…? I start cleaning windows to fight against the restless, worrying mannequin that keeps on drawing worst case scenarios in my head.

What if…? – „Tranquila!“

End of the story? The electricity came back. It was due to some work on the line.

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Australia

Australia Part six: At least once in a lifetime…Sydney!

“Look, there’s people walking on top of the bridge”,

Bec says. I squint and, through the golden strings of the setting sun, the super tiny, black mannequins up on the Harbour Bridge in Sydney start to move.

I can’t believe it.

I simply can’t. I can’t believe, that contrary to other travel lists, on mine, Sydney was not very present. I actually can’t even remember, why. Why am I here, then? Well, because my flight to Central America is going from here. Pretty low argument, huh?!

But now, I am definitely in Sydney, leaning on the metal railing, the Harbour Bridge in front of me, the Opera House to my right, its white orange-peel like shape gleaming in a golden light, giving this building even more mystic volume. It’s sunset. And it’s just overwhelming to be here.

And even better: I am with friends 🙂

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Australia

Australia Part Four: Byron Bay

First of all – I found it!

It has been a bit like searching the needle in the hay. There’ve been moments, when I thought it was hopeless and I was going to leave Australia sooner, than planned (not that I had a deadline, but three weeks would have been very short). I thought it was maybe me, just wanting too much, being too picky, or – even worse – not able to enjoy travelling any more. It took me many hours of wandering around, from place to place, of worrying and being in this „man, what’s wrong here?“-mode.

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Australia

Australia Part Three: Happy New Year, Brisbane!

How I feel

in that moment, when I am standing at the rooftop terasse of my hostel in Brisbane, my arms leaning over the cold metal ceiling, my shiny eyes staring at the fireworks that announce the new year and are supposed to abandon all bad ghosts of the old one, is just very, very hard to describe. With every golden-glittering sparkle, that floats in never-ending silky lines from the black sky all the way down to the river, where it’s gently being reflected, an endless row of goosebumps evolves all over my skin – and it’s definitely not cold.

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Australia

Australia Part Two: Where’s the (Surfers) Paradise?

It’s right before Christmas.

We’re on our way to a city named nothing less than “Surfers Paradise”. I know that it won’t be the tiny cute, hippie-flaired village I was dreaming about (thanks for the warning, Google). But still, I see Anja and me going for a surf in the morning, taking walks through the nice city center, relaxing in hammocks through the day and being sourrounded by heaps of nice and chilled people, who would celebrate through the holidays with us.

Well.

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Australia

Australia Part One: The (Mel)bourne Identity

I wake up, not really knowing where I am.

Confused, a bit panicked, I squint around me, trying to figure out what had happened. Ah, yeah, plane. I am sitting in a plane. Middle row, middle seat. It’s loud. It’s dark. My mouth is dry like the desert. People around me are snoring or staring on their touchscreens, half-asleep or at least hypnotized, slowly bringing one cracker after another to their mouths. I feel the need to make sure that I didn’t slobber on my seat neighbors shoulder. No, no stains. At least nothing visible. Would be too late, anyway. I can hardly believe what just happened: I fell asleep in a plane. For longer than just one minute. Me, who is still suffering from this “I get wet hands and say silent prayers every time it gets a bit bumpy” kind of flight anxiety, even after many years of travelling. How could that happen?

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USA - Hawaii

Hawaii – Waaauw, O’ahu!

To be honest,

I was not so sure what to think about our Hawaii-stopover on the way to Australia. Which sounds indeed a bit ridiculous, because Hawaii is supposed to be very beautiful and known for its perfect surf waves. But I couldn’t help it: everytime I thought about what I had heard so far (“Waikīkī is nothing less than a big city, you won’t like that…”), together with all the clichés (people just go there to celebrate honeymoon…), there were a few of this mean little stings coming up in my stomach region, causing this special kind of nervousness, like before taking an exam that you know you didn’t prepare for good enough.

Sometimes, I even got afraid I would find myself stuck in a weird world, surrounded by only honeymooners and skyscrapers, with a little red know-it-alls devil sitting on one of my shoulders, grinning and saying “told ya…!”. And seriously, the Waikīkī Skyline you get to see in Google Earth, doesn’t really help to calm you.

But fortunately, like so often during this wonderful trip, I again learned, that, to finally know whether a place is as bad as forecasted, there’s nothing else you can do but finally go there and discover it for yourself. NOTHING!

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USA Roadtrip 6 - Florida

Florida: We made it!

First of all:

How can two months of travelling pass SO damn fast? I don’t know what to say. So, I’ll just try to write it down.

Over two months on the road, over 5.000 driven miles and 10 states – U.S.A. extreme. I walked, I looked, I stunned, I laughed, I sang (mostly in the car with Anja), I ate (good-very good-omg), I slept (sometimes more, sometimes less), I chilled, I got exhausted, I organized, I drove, I partied (always with Anja ;-)), I met incredible people and made new friends, I wrote A LOT, and got my own, personal travelling highlights. Of course, there were a few downs (which I think is even necessary and important, if you go on such a long trip), but these are easily to be outnumbered by all those, sometimes more than overwhelming, giving you goose-bumps for the rest of your life kindish ups.

It has been an amazing time.

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