First Day of Adventure

This is the park just round the corner from me. It is an absolutely amazing place with a nice circuit round the large pond in the middle. The willow trees everywhere are amazing. Needless to say I spent sometime just meandering through it, and I'll probably be back there later this evening for a run.

Also just round the corner is a bakery, supposedly one of the best in Hamburg. And I'd have to agree purely on the length of the queue going out the door. I haven't yet sampled the Schockoladen Crossiants I purchased yet.

I also went for a stroll into town to see the law school and find where my German language course will be. It so happens that the Botanical Gardens are on the way. It's a stunning place to walk through with so many different paths to take. It made my day to just be there. Best part is that it's right next door to Bucerius (the law school) so I'll be having lunches there hopefully, resting on the grassy shores of the ponds, sitting under a tree in its welcoming shade.

I then moved onto the city centre after locating where my classes will be. There was some kind of bicycle race on that blocked the streets round the Alster (I think that's where I was; photo on left). Needless to say that alot of people, alot of sun, and alot of heat were not the most attractive combination. So I slowly made my way back home.

I strolled some more through the gardens, taking more in. It's really a wonderful place. I think it's my new best friend. They even have a Japanese garden (see right). Reminded me alot of my fourth form trip to Japan in their summer. Though the Japanese gardens we went to were huge, the general feel was the same. I found it quite reassuring, familiarity and all that I suppose.

On the way home I came across some random things. The first of which is that I live about a 10 minute walk from the luggage store were Kat had to buy new luggage last time we were here. The second is that a cafe was playing "The Never-ending Story" as its bckground music. Weird. Made me laugh.

The other thing I decided upon on my way home was to try and find two things: a cheap second hand bike (because everyone is biking, and although I enjoy an hour long walk to law school, there'll be days where I just can't); and a guitar (I need to find something to stimulate and entertain me during the hottest parts of the day when I need to find cover). If anyone happens to know where I can pick up either of these, let me know.

The other weird thing is that I haven't spoken more than three sentences to anyone today. The good news is that it was all in German, and everyone understood everyone else. So I'm proud of that little achievement. But I still feel like I'm bursting with words unvocalised. I feel sorry for the next person who I meet speaking English (that could very well be you Felix).

So to help fix this situation, I'm going to practice my German phrases and see if I can't teach myself some new ones.

Otherwise, you could just call. Just remember the time difference.

The Apartment

So I've finally manged to find an internet connection, and it's in my new apartment. This place is amazing by the way: 3 minute walk to the shops and underground, about 3 stops by the U-Bahn to the city centre and law school, and its a quiet neighbourhood. To make things better, my room is huge, and there's hardwood floor everywhere. My kind of house.

In terms of contact details, if you feel the urge to send me stuff or visit, please make sure it's all:

c/o Elsner
Lapstroweg 16
20255 Hamburg
Germany

This is important, as otherwise there's no distinction between the apartments and your carefully wrapped care packages will not arrive; nor would you be able to ascertain which buzzer to press. But do please be aware that my flatmate returns from Greece on 25 August, so I don't know what the official story is with visitors just yet.

As you can probably guess, I've only now been able to put my travels in transit onto the blog. So to get a quick run down of what happened when: I left New Zealand at Thursday 1550 NZST, and arrived in Hamburg Saturday 0900 NZST. That's into 40 hours of travel, and I do not recommend it.

A huge thanks to Wiebke for picking me up from the airport and Jan for taking me from the hostel to my apartment. You guys rock.

It's lunch time, and I'm about ready to eat when I want to eat, not when the airline decides.

Guten Morgen (sic)

Welcome to my very first morning in Hamburg on this adventure (those of you keeping track should know that I’ve already been here before, but that’s another story). Before we get into the activities of today, let’s delve into the occurrences of last night.

First off, Germany is hot right now. Very hot. It was almost too hot to sleep last night. Almost. 40 hours of travel won out in the end.

Secondly, this hostel was so damn hard to find. Wiebke and I spent over an hour looking for it, getting lost, found, and lost again. We ended up driving through the Reeperbahn numerous times, and yes, I will go there in the near future. More so because in a weekend in September there’s a Reeperbahn Festival. Party in a red light district! And apparently Thursday nights are cheap or free nights for students.

I met some interesting characters at the hostel, among them two Brazilians – Raphael and Enrique, who were crack ups. Others I met were Daniel and Ben, two Germans up from Mainz checking out the universities and night life.

Currently I’m sitting in the paved courtyard of the hostel, overlooking the river and its ports. There’s this dense haze on the horizon, and the light breeze is bringing waves of heat. The humidity is high, but not uncomfortably so. You can smell the moisture on the air.

Every moment just seems to resonate that this is what I should be doing, there’s no sense of regret, remorse, guilt, or change of heart. Every pulse breathes in these moments, and I know that this is my place, right here, at this time. I can’t fully describe this feeling, except to say that it’s like an ache from smiling too hard: even though there might be some consequences later, you just can’t stop smiling.

Smile and the world smiles with you.

Lost in Transition: Eternal Queues of the London Kind

Heathrow. Fun. In that sarcastic way. I’ve endured about an hour in the security clearance queue, and then about an hour and half in the Flight Connection Counter queue. Turns out that Barcelona is closed, and British Airways are missing half their crew because of thunderstorms in the region stopping flights into Heathrow. This is a recipe for waiting, pure and utter waiting. Ever seen that TV show “The Airport” where there’s just some idiots trying to do things they should have done a long time ago, like buy tickets. Well I’ve seen one, in fact two. And they are the most annoying people in airports as they have no clue, will not listen to instructions given to them and think that there’s something special about them that requires special attention and that their demands be met.

I have, however, never stopped smiling since leaving Wellington. Not one tear has been shed, not one regret contemplated. I know that this is what I want to be doing, and this is exactly how it should be going.

I’ve got a further two hours to burn while waiting for my flight to Hamburg. I can’t face shopping at the duty free stores as it means I have to lug around my gear in this heat. I’m just going to stay here in the nice air-conditioned seating area until someone tells me to move on.

Did I mention it is 30 degrees here? At 6 pm? And yes, every female aged between 15 and 30 is wearing short shorts, and everyone is wearing jandals. Blast this intolerable weather….

Lost in Transit 2.5: The Airport’s Cut

Well now the gate has changed numerous times from one side of the airport to the other. Not too bad if it’s Wellington Airport, but Hong Kong has eighty something gates of which walking between numbers 20 and 40 takes 15 minutes – with the travelators. Needless to say I’ve had my exercise for this journey.

To add to things, there are announcements about alerts with the baggage so some flights have been moved and delayed. Looks like it might be the luggage on my flight. I might refer you to Fight Club at this point, where our anti-hero has his baggage destroyed at the airport:
“Bombs these days don’t tick, they vibrate. But don’t worry, nine out of ten times it’s an electric razor.”
“What’s the tenth time?”
“Vibrators. It’s not ‘your vibrator’ it’s ‘a vibrator’, we’re not allowed to infer ownership”.

That kind of sums up the mood right now. So frustrating it’s farcical, comical, and deeply funny. At least to me. And no, I don’t own either of those two items.

I have met though a lovely group of elderly ladies ranging from a variety of backgrounds but all come from New Zealand. We all had a great time tracking down what is (at this moment) our departure gate.

Each airport is full of its own thrills and spills, so here’s hoping that Heathrow doesn’t provide the last laugh. I’m still smiling, and intend to keep it that way.

Obstacles are you what you make of them.

Lost in Transit II: It Ain’t Half Hot

I’ve safely touched down in Hong Kong after an overnight flight from Sydney. It was after waking up at 3 am local time (5 am Sydney, 7 am NZST) that I realised the more expensive option of travelling through LA might have been easier. I love the cheap airfare I got, but upon realising the time zones I have to travel through and the direction in which I’m travelling I came to the sudden conclusion that cheaper is not always the best.

Nonetheless, I’m getting to see cities (or their airports) that I’ve never seen before. Hong Kong is stunning. First impression when landing was the light. There’s just massive amounts of light pollution. Landing here at 5 am local time seems to look like about 9 am NZST, it’s that bright. The next thing that took me were the boats on the harbour, the reflection of their concentrated lights is something with an innate beauty in it from afar.

The final thing I noticed about Hong Kong is the heat. It’s 5 am here and a cool 27 degrees. It feels like there’s about 105% humidity. I’m not a huge fan of wet heat, and it’s making me feel rather uncomfortable. Give me a New Zealand dry summer any day of the week.

I’m still struggling to find an Internet connection. I did manage to get on the one and only functioning computer in Sydney International Airport. I have faith in Hong Kong’s technical prowess to provide something a bit more….helpful.

In the meantime, I’ll entertain with lessons learnt from a half full flight to Hong Kong:
-A man of 6’2” cannot lie comfortably across 2 seats
-A man of 6’2” cannot stretch out comfortably in a Cathay Pacific seat
-Cathay Pacific window seats are designed so that a man of 2’6” rather than 6’2” can look out of it without causing serious strain to his neck
-It’s a long way from the tray table to your mouth, and food invariably gets lost on the way
-Sleep will always come just when you need it
-Americans are loud. Very loud. Business class Americans are the loudest.

Anyways, onwards and upwards.

Lost in Transit

Now I know why these airfares so cheap: I’m being forced to wait at each airport while in transit for at least 3 hours. I hear you say: “But surely Michael, you have many means of entertaining yourself during this downtime?” My response to that is simple. Airports are temporal vortexes. There’s just something about airports that suck the seconds out of every hour, every minute, every tick. It scares me.

What scares me even more is that in an airport of such quality Sydney suggests of itself, there is only one computer that has Internet access. One out of twenty-four computers that provide free Internet access is actually working. And sadly this computer is ALWAYS taken. To make matters worse, you CAN access the Internet from your own laptop for the small measly price of AUSD 14 per hour. I mean come on….

So this little ensemble has been put together while waiting in Sydney, hoping that Hong Kong has something close to free Internet access.

To make matters more interesting, the flight to Sydney was on a little cramped plane. I’ve flown in bigger going from Wellington to Blenheim. And they didn’t offer any candy for the descent. Air New Zealand rocks my socks in that department.

To console myself I went duty free shopping for confectionary and chocolate. It all looked so tempting, and expensive. I did, however, succumb to the delights of Bassett’s fruit allsorts (don’t worry Miranda, there’s actually no fruit in them).

In all honesty though, I’m still very much upbeat about this whole adventure. I haven’t cried once saying good-bye to friends and family. Though I almost came close saying goodbye Kat, possibly because I’m travelling without my travelling buddy.

Anyways, to round things up quickly:
-Qantas: bad, Air New Zealand good;
-I’m having a pretty good time, though it ticks by slowly;
-Sunsets in Sydney are amazing (or at least this one was). I didn’t get my camera out in time to capture another one for your collection Miranda, so I apologise);
-I arrive in Hong Kong at the pleasant hour of 5 am. Help me.

Toodles, and I hope no one’s world has crumbled upon my departure.

Contact details

If you're paying attention you'll notice that the time stamps are for Germany and I'm still in NZ, so yes, I can't sleep. But I do, however, have some good news that will help me sleep...

I've just had my contact details confirmed. My address is:
Lastropsweg 16
20255 Hamburg
Germany
And my home phone number is:
+49 40 59466682

Alternatively you can probably send stuff to the Law School and I should get it:
c/o International Office
Bucerius Law School
Jungiusstrasse 6
20355 Hamburg
Germany

I'll send round an email with this to everyone in case you're not reading the blog (tut tut tut). Plus, I have a sneaky suspicion that I'm Flat number E, but I'll triple check that and let you all know.

I stand on the precipice taking the final breathes before I leap, and it feels good.

Pack Rat

Under one week to go, and I admit it, I'm feeling nervous. And tired. Lack of sleep does that to a man.

I am, however, reliving the fun times of ALSA and Melbourne everyday. It was a fantastic time, and thanks to all those people I met, even my own team mates, you all made it a great time. I can't post all the photos I want to, so just hit me up on Ringo and I'll send them your way. Huge thanks to Miranda for putting them all together.

Here's some highlights:
- Catching up with Grace at the aquarium.
- Having a blast on the dance floor.
- Wayne and Sheryl-Anne.

Admittedly there are better ones, but most of other photos may require consent...you know who you are.

As for my imminent departure, I'm packing and repacking everyday. I think I've covered most things essential. Feel free to make suggestions, you never know if it's the one thing I haven't thought of. But remember that I only have a baggage allowance of 20 kilos. Still won't stop me from carrying 10 kilos in my hand luggage (Yes, Kat, that's how much it weighed and you made me carry it).

It does look as though I will spend my final days in a drunken haze. I'm catching up with people every day and night until I leave. Hopefully someone has enough sense to suggest coffee, I don't think I'll be in a state to refuse what ever is put infront of me.

Onwards and upwards.

If you want to see me off, my flight leaves Wellington on Thursday 15:30 pm. It's a flight to Sydney, so I'll be at the airport from 13:30 pm I think. Attendance is optional.

And I must thank one person for the quote that has gotten me through some tough times this last week: "Whomever said sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain". Thank you.

Life changing times

So Melbourne turned out to be one of the best times of my life. Good times, Good people, Great stories, Interesting photos.

Melbourne also offered time to reflect. Both events and people got me thinking and reevaluating where I was in life. I discovered that I enjoyed being a pirate. In fact I very much enjoyed being a pirate, or that might have been all that free alcohol.

Also turns out that what I thought looked like a Professional Tenpin Bowler, people thought was an Adult Movie Star. Might have something to do with the costume rather than the behaviour I swear. But a good time was hard regardless of the looks we recieved in Central Melbourne.

Apart from the goodtimes, there was also the sobering times. Sadly I was the only person who never suffered a hangover. I put it down to good genes, though I left my best pair in New Zealand.

But on a more serious note, there was real time for reflection and so it was upon my return that the difficult decision to end my current relationship. It was a difficult step to make, but one I'm sure of now. It sounds evil but I feel happier, have more energy and everyone has noticed the difference. I don't regret doing it, just the timing - breaking up with your girlfriend after she picks you up from the airport is not the gentlemanly thing to do. And for that I am sorry.

More interesting news, last night we had a great dinner with the Moot Family at One Red Dog. It was a riot. A cheap riot too thanks to Fin and Martin with their Entertainment cards. I promise to post some photos as soon as I can.

As for today, I had coffee with Anna and Bridget. They leave on Monday for the UK. Indefinitely. It was so good to see you Anna, and I'm going to miss you, but we WILL catch up when I'm over there sometime I promise. It was hard to see you off, and I did cry a little. But this doesn't mean I'm gay, though I do appreciate your efforts as I'm sure the gay male population does to.

Before we get to bogged down and depressed, a brief outline of activities planned to celebrate my departure is contained below:
-Board games and German beer with good friends tomorrow. Drunken backstabbing is the best kind of back stabbing.
-House warming for Petra and Andrew. Should be great fun to see all the moot family again.
-Visit from Dunedin friends. At this stage it looks like some friends from Dunedin may come up next weekend for a little celebration. Should be great fun.
-Catch up drinks with ALSA team members. Relive those glory days, and glorious photos that are yet to surface (Charlotte, Josh, Kat, Kate and Tracey) I know they're
out there.

So expect lots of photos and stories before I go. Life is around the corner.

Side tracked

I'd thought I'd give us all a little sidetrack. I'm currently in Melbourne for another law competition which will take all week with a bunch of stressed out law students. It's kinda rubbing off on me.

Good thing we have a Black Tie Ball tonight, a Poker Night tomorrow, a Pirate Themed party the following night, a cocktail party in an aquarium, and a formal dinner at an old Theatre. It's just like I remember Vienna: stress, nerves and the appeasing of said ailments with liquor. Lots of liquor.

Currently writing up some submissions, but this is far more entertaining, and the thought of getting into my flash hotel suite for a nice hot shower.

Hopefully I'll provide details of the ongoing week and the sidetrack saga this has become.