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Monday 25 February 2013

DuBYE and off to SEEdney =)


I know it’s been a while since I last posted something on this blog – and after several people addressed me asking where the next post was, I guess it’s now finally time to get you up to date.

Leaving Dubai was a sort of relief really. The United Arab Emirates – as far as I got to know them – are a particularly traditional country with regard to their values and morals but want to be a country of innovative technologies, wealth and prestige – a country that has attained some sort of global modern spirit. It seems that Dubai is a city caught between the devil and the deep blue sea – quite literally. Even those two days in Dubai gave me a feeling of being at the mercy of the national authorities. The impression you get is deceptive and the temptation to behave like you would at home is big. That, however, could get you in big trouble. The sharia law plays a big role in the U.A.E. and even though I wasn’t faced with issues such as sleeping in one room as an unmarried couple, I felt the subliminal judgement that you can even see in the local people’s eyes. In short: Dubai and the U.A.E. – a place on earth to be regarded with suspicion even though the sights and the part of its culture that is available to tourists may suggest a modern society.
On the way out, we were running late by two hours. When we were finally up in the air, it was only one last glance back at Dubai (although it was a pretty amazing one) and then on to Sydney.

Dubai from above, taken out of the Emirates A380 during after take-off

World's Tallest Building - Burj Khalifa

Ahead of me was the longest flight of my life so far. Nonstop duration of the flight: 13 hours and 45 minutes. And again, I had some of the most interesting people sitting next to me. An elderly couple – he, originally from New Zealand, and she, born in Kenya to English parents and speaking fluent Swahili, were on their way to Auckland to visit friends there. They had lived in New Zealand, England, South Africa and Kenya setting up a restaurant, owning a pub or simply living the day. Their children were scattered all around the globe and with a daughter of theirs running a travel agency in Dubai, they had connections on every continent. All in all, the time went by quite fast – the food was good and opulent as always, this time with a dinner and a breakfast. Emirates offers a selection of juices ranging from orange and apple juice to tropical juices such as pineapple or mango!
And flying on the Emirates A380 was definitely an experience of its own! More legroom, less noise and a nose, landing gear and tail camera which was very cool since we were flying in the direction towards sunrise.


Emirates Personal Screen in Nose Camera Mode

The Blue Mountains from above
Having arrived at Kingsford Smith International in Sydney, I had to go through immigration – only that it was quicker than in Dubai while there was about double the amount of people waiting. And there I was… in Australia’s biggest city and – with roughly 4.6 million inhabitants – the biggest city I have ever lived in.

At the Opera House - a must on the first day, never mind the jetlag!
Bondi Beach, Sydney's most famous beach
And probably the most expensive one, too! A one-way ticket to the city costs $17 for a 10-15 minute ride on the Metro. Other expensive things include cheese ($6 for 150 g – and that was the cheapest Cheddar available) and other groceries (paying $27 for some toast, yoghurt, cereal and cheese is just ridiculous) as well as transport ($44 for a weekly ticket – that would be roughly 888.40€ for the semester ticket we’re used to in Germany – only that this ticket can only be used within the CITY of Sydney and not within the entire state of NSW) – and not to forget: rent! Single rooms are available from $220 per week, that’s 690€ per month. For a single room. In a flatshare. At the other end of town. Let’s just make this note: living in Australia has its price.
Thankfully, I was welcomed by Laura, a fellow student of mine from Germany who had already arrived a few weeks earlier. I don’t know what I would have done without her help – so THANK YOU so much! And I have to say… the Australian Wine Festival did a good job in helping me feel at home, too.


Wine and cheese and life is good =)

Now, I’ve already been here for a week and I’m starting to get accustomed to the Sydney way of life. I have to admit that the first couple of days were very hard – not only as far as the jetlag is concerned, but also due to getting homesick. I know I have chosen this path on my own and I am pretty positive that it was the right decision but nevertheless: home would have been more convenient because it would have meant less of an effort. This way, however, I was stuck in a 6-bed dorm with 5 other people I didn’t know, in a far from tidy hostel right in the city centre of a megacity 20,000 km from home.

And what a room it was that I was put into: three lads from Ireland, one from France and a girl from Sweden. The Frenchman was visibly relieved when I started speaking French to him and it was really nice to hear something different than English or German for once. The Swedish girl worked in a bar until late so there was not too much of a conversation taking place there – although it was fun to not tell her I understood some Swedish. My lord did she swear a lot! Oh yeah, and then there were the three Irish lads – four after the French guy left – who liked a good whiskey at night and a nice beer the next morning – despite their bad hangover from the whiskey night. It seemed to be normal to start playing the guitar at 12.30 am “but only for a half hour” (imagine the Irish accent here) which was to say: “for as long as nobody complains”. And so, they went out to a pub, coming back at 2.30 am accompanied by a gang of girls one of which stayed the night – in the bunk bed underneath mine, with the Irish guy. And all that was to be heard of them for the rest of the night was kissing sounds and intense breathing. The rest is left to the reader’s imagination. However, I hope it is now self-evident why I wanted to leave asap!

The happenings in the hostel gave me an even higher motivation to find another place to stay – and so, I looked for rooms, apartments and flat shares on the internet and in the university database. And what I found was a room in a family home where I’d be staying with a mother and her daughters who are, however, out and about for most of the time. The house is huge, located just off Kings Street in Newtown which is a 10-minute bus ride away from my university and only 20 minutes from downtown Sydney. During the viewing, I felt at ease right away: a large living room, a big (and of course fully equipped) kitchen, a backyard with a porch and a barbecue and of course: two pets. A cat and a dog! I was really getting anxious that someone else might move in but today, I finally got the call that – if I was still interested – this could be my new home for the next year! What a relief… Now I’m looking forward to moving out of the hostel on Wednesday.

And the orientation week starts tomorrow – so there’s plenty of new stuff happening at the moment… and plenty of new photos to look forward to!

I guess I’ll keep it at that for now – I’m sorry there are just a few pictures in this post but there are lots more to come I can assure you!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned – the adventure has just begun! ;-)

Yours,
Chris

Monday 18 February 2013

مرحبا من دبي! - Hello from Dubai


Hey it's me again, this time from the United Arab Emirates  =)

After a mere two days in Germany, yesterday was finally THE day. However, leaving everything behind that had become so dear to me during the last three years in Paderborn was everything but easy.
One last pizza (gotta have some good German food before leaving!), one last hug and off through security. Both the plane and I were waiting at the gate for this premiere - my first ever flight with Emirates! And I have to say I loved it - the legroom, the service, the food, the design, the attitude... the only thing I didn't like was the descent towards Dubai - note to self: never fly if you have a cold :-(
The lovely lady who was sitting next to me and I had lots of fun playing games on the Entertainment System and although she was well advanced in age, she seemed to be as enthusiastic about it as a little child. Anyway - that meant no sleep whatsoever for me! Had I known what kind of a day would still be ahead of me then, I wouldn't even have bothered getting off the plane... 

Dubai International Airport is quite a fancy structure. For those of you who have seen this picture before:

Dubai International Airport - taken from: 24x7 Global News
(http://www.24x7globalnews.com/2012/07/highest-passengers-record-at-dubai.html)

It is really like that - even at 6 am which was when I arrived. At first, I have to say I wasn't even the slightest bit thrilled - neither by the airport, nor by the city that we by-passed on the Metro. Smog or sand covered the whole skyline in dust, the temperature was already up to 24 degrees in the early morning and the Emirates ground personnel was far from being supportive and friendly. Then - one hour of standing in line at immigration, waiting for a government official dressed like a Sheikh to grant you admission to the city and the country. Then - pick up your bags! – It seemed to be an endless odyssey. The Dubai Metro is probably the cleanest metro I have seen in my life! It was so clean that you could have a child play on the floor. When I had finally found my hotel, I was told that I couldn’t check in until 2 pm – but what could I do to kill 6 hours of time? The Deira City Centre Mall is located opposite my hotel so I thought why not go there and browse through the shops? But as you never know where life takes you, I was asked by an Indian tourist if I could take a photo of him in front of the mall. And since he was going to go on a hop-on hop-off bus ride around Dubai, he invited me to join in. His name was Chris – actually Krishna – but since he lived in Washington D.C. he was used to being called Chris. When we got on the bus, I had no idea how long this would take. In a physical constitution reminiscent of a vegetative state, I got to see all the important sights of the 1.8 million metropolis on the coast of the Persian Gulf. Here are some of the sights for you to take a look at:

Dubai City - Beginning of the Tour

Beach views

A traditional Dubai Mosque

The Burj Al Arab Hotel

The Atlantis The Palm Hotel from a distance

Entering the Palm Jumeirah

Dubai Mall - View from the Main Entrance

International customers in front of the Dubai Mall Aquarium

The Burj Khalifa - highest building on earth!

In front of the Burj Khalifa

Dubai - traditional and modern at the same time!

When I got back to the hotel at about 3 pm, I was longing for a bed. And what a bed it was, too! A double bed just for myself, on the 9th floor with spectacular views of the Dubai skyline. This hotel would have earned 4 stars at least, in Germany. But here in Dubai, it had to settle for two stars! What a luxurious standard of living…
Dubai in general is a thriving city of luxury and extravagance. The most common cars here seem to be Mercedes Benz, Jaguar and Bentley, the shops in Deira City Centre Mall offer nothing but the best brands and every two minutes, you can see an Emirates aircraft taking off or touching down at Dubai’s airport. It seems to me that the Emiratis have taken the best out of every country and united it under the roof of their malls. You can find German breads, French pastries, American Starbucks, Canadian Second Cup and Tim Horton’s, Italian gelaterias, Spanish tapas bars and lots of Asian cuisine in every food court! Even a Rainforest Café, Caribou Coffee and enormous aquariums seem to be standard. The coolest thing about this is, however, that all names are transcribed into Arabic – take a look:

Nordsee - in Dubai! Arabic letters say: "Nurdsi" =P

Tim Hortons - Arabic letters say: "Tim Hurtnz"
The Arabian smells and tastes were interestingly different from what I was used to – along with the obvious absence of manners. Whereas Canadians stand in line at a bus stop, everyone over here seems to try to jump the queue, no matter how often they are pointed out the end of the queue. Kissing and holding hands in public is frowned upon – in publically accessible buildings such as malls it is even forbidden. And this is talking about man and woman – same sex relations are strictly prohibited by the law in the U.A.E.!
At the end of the day, the humid air and the difference in temperature – from -10°C in Canada to +25°C in Dubai – took their toll. My cold has gotten worse and along with the lack of sleep, everything has become so wearisome that a good night’s sleep was indispensable. And in doing that, I broke my personal record of non-stop sleeping: 21 hours without waking up.

When I woke up this “morning”, it was already past 5 pm and the sun was already setting. What a good opportunity to enjoy the views from my hotel room and write a new post for my blog:


My view at sunset =)
Tomorrow, I will board my next flight to Sydney – my home-to-be for the next year.
Take care everyone and look forward to news from Australia!

Yours
Chris

Tuesday 12 February 2013

Québec City & Good-bye Canada

Hey everyone,

I can't believe it's already been 10 days since I've arrived in Canada. Time just flies!

I arrived in Québec City yesterday, after a three-hour bus ride. François picked me up from the bus station and took me for a drive around the city. I've never seen anything like this - Québec City is very historical and seems very much like a medieval European town. In my opinion, it is very similar to Edinburgh, Scotland as far as the architecture is concerned: small, very homely shops and cafés lined up along the streets, squiggly signs above the entrance doors almost like in Harry Potter's Diagon Alley and a castle enthroned high above the narrow streets.

Québec - Centre-ville
The Castle
François also showed me the Montmorency Falls that are 84 metres high (275 ft) and thus by 30 metres higher than Niagara Falls (84 m / 275 ft)! The cool thing is: there are staircases for visitors to view the falls from a variety of different angles. So we went down the stairs to find that the entire waterfall was frozen - but take a look yourself:

La Chute Montmorency
And today, another premiere awaited me - crossing a large, frozen river (the Saint Lawrence River) by boat. It kind of feels the same as going through big waves - although it's quite freaky to hear the ice get crushed below. And besides, the current of the river was so powerful - what an incredible experience.


On the boat... :)
This will be my last post from Canada since I will be heading back to Montréal tomorrow morning to catch my flight back to Germany.

I would like to thank François and his family for inviting me to Québec City - donc merci beaucoup de votre hospitalité, je me suis senti vraiment à l'aise chez vous et merci encore pour les repas si délicieux! Si jamais vous voyagez en Europe (ou en Australie), j'espère que vous allez me rendre visite - vous êtes les bienvenus!

A huge thank you also to Hannah Lafer who invited me to come over to Canada in the first place! I had an awesome time in Montréal, Toronto and Niagara Falls with you and it was so good to meet up again after such a long time! Un grand merci également à Annie et à Émilou de m'accueillir si chaleureusement dans votre coloc - je vous remercie encore de votre patience avec moi quant à l'accent québécois =) And as for you: let me know if you're travelling to Australia or Europe! / Et vous aussi, faites-moi signe si jamais vous venez en Australie ou en Europe!

Thanks everyone for sparking the longing for another country in me! If there's one thing I know for sure, that'll be that I will definitely come back to Canada one day! =)

Monday 11 February 2013

Toronto, Tremendous Waterfalls and Taxi Drivers

Finally, here it is everyone – the promised post from Toronto, Ontario!

Toronto is Canada's biggest city with about 5.1 million inhabitants. Whereas Montreal seemed more like a medium-sized town to me – just by the atmosphere – we're looking at some big city life down here! Skyscrapers en masse, illuminated billboards and advertising and big-city traffic along the shore of Lake Ontario. But let's start from the beginning...

On Thursday, we got up early to catch the bus connecting Montreal with Toronto. A 6-hour bus ride ahead of us, we took packed lunch on board and made ourselves comfortable in the spacious double-decker coach.

Roadsigns along the way ...

I'd always thought that the Quebec-Ontario area was the more densely populated part of Canada but my gosh is there a lot of fields along the way... Being used to the -20°C of Montreal, arriving in Toronto almost felt like summer: only -4°C, no chilly breeze, no ice-cold face and fingers. Our hostel here is the cosiest backpackers inn I've ever been to (so if you go to Toronto one day, do go for Canadiana Backpackers Inn!) with seperate houses, heated rooms and excellent service. Once we'd unpacked our bags it was already quite late so we just went for a stroll around town and discovered the many brummagem shops of Chinatown. By the time we'd eaten dinner, there were about 10 cm / 4 inches of fresh snow covering everything around us... so much for the summer feeling!

Winterly Chinatown, Toronto

Still wearing my Québec hat, I started to feel uncomfortable as people started to look at me funnily and tried their best to communicate in French. I don't know where Canada's official bilingualism headed to but it's definitely not to be found here in Toronto. So I figured François is right in saying that my hat could serve as a reminder for Ontarians that Quebec is still there =)
When we got up this morning to leave for Niagara, we found the entire city dipped in white... and this stuff is nothing like the „icing sugar“ that Germans like to talk about when it's snowing. By midday, the „icing sugar“ layer had grown to about 40 cm / 16 inches and it was still snowing – while we were on our way to Niagara Falls. The heavy snowfall and the fog made it hard to get to the bus station in time since we'd been wasting our time with burning toast in the morning. After this unsatisfactory outcome of making a „quick breakfast“, we reached the bus stop and off we went. Scheduled travelling time: 1 hour 45 minutes. Yeah right... After 4 hours and 20 minutes, we arrived at Niagara Falls Bus Terminal. But unlike our fellow travellers, we didn't have to catch a flight from Buffalo, NY which was another 50 km / 31 miles away. And since our fellow traveller was only 12ish, we learnt a looooot about Hockey and American Football.
Niagara Falls welcomed us with more snow. The bad thing: it was so snowy and foggy that we could hardly see the falls but only hear them. The good thing: there was hardly anyone there besides us. 

Niagara Falls - or at least the part we could see =)

Hannah and me at Niagara Falls
The Niagara River was completely frozen except for the waterfalls themselves and there was snow flurry all around us. To feel a little warmer, we went to Tim Horton's which is a Canadian equivalent of a less-fancy Starbucks or Canadian Second Cup. The cinnamon rolls were divine – the coffee was okay but it didn't knock my socks off... so just bear that in mind for later: Starbucks coffee is way better than Tim Horton's coffee.
Back in Niagara (the town), we didn't pay attention to the time and since the taxi we called just drove past, we were in big trouble. 3 minutes left to catch a bus back into civilisation that runs every other hour and we were at least 20 minutes walking distance away from the Bus Terminal. This delay should, however, bestow one of the most memorable moments of the trip on us such as the taxi ride of a lifetime. Our taxi driver, sparing of words, was conversing with a colleage who was obviously of Indian origin. And here's an extract of the conversation:
[A: Indian driver, B: Our driver]
A: “Hey buddy!“
B: “Hey. Sorry I have customers.“
A: “Okee but what 'bout coffee?“
B: “I'll bring you coffee when I'm done here.”
A: “Okee. How 'bout Starbucks coffee?”
B: “Yeah okay.”
A: “But I don't want Tim Horton's coffee, do you hear me?”
B: “Yes okay. Starbucks.”
A: “Yes Starbucks. I want tat coffee tat tastes like Christmas okee?”
B: “Okay. Yeah, once I'm done here.”
A: “Okee. You're my best buddy! - But if you bring Tim Horton's coffee...” (admonitory tone)
B: “Okay got it. Starbucks.”
A: “Okee you're a good man buddy! I take you to India one deey.”
B: “Yeah right.”
A: “And you can come over and meet my family, too. I have kids. Do you have kids?”
B: “Yeah.”
A: “My wife is tirty.”
B: “Your wife is dirty?”
A: “Yes and I am tirty-two!”
B: “And you're dirty, too?”
A: “Yes. But you bring me Starbucks coffee – no Tim Horton's!”
B: “Yeah okay.”

As hilarious as this taxi ride was – we missed our bus by 7 minutes in the end. But as travelling with Hannah always means good luck, we found another bus driver who checked our tickets and said “Let me see. Do you know what we'll do? I'll take you two on my bus and we'll get you to Toronto!”
Awesome! You simply gotta love Canada! <3

Back in Toronto, we took our time to explore the city the next day. We met a French guy from Toulouse at breakfast so we invited him to just come with. Hannah went to the Royal Museum of Ontario whereas we enjoyed a perfect day at the CN Tower. This was probably one of the best views I've had in my life so far – but also one of the most expensive. The fee they charge you at the Eiffel Tower is a drop in a bucket compared to the $50 we paid for a 360° view of Toronto and Lake Ontario. Luckily, the sky was clear and the visibility from the height of 447 m was just amazing.

Downtown Toronto
The $50 view!
Water, ice and sunlight - magic moments in Canada!

The CN Tower was the highest building of the world for 34 years. What a downgrade from “World's Highest Building” to “World's Highest Wine Cellar”... Back on the ground, we went for a stroll along the Harbour Front promenade which was covered by a thick layer of snow.

At the CN Tower

Snow, snow, snow =)
In the afternoon, we had tickets for an event you simply cannot miss out on when in Canada: an ice-hockey game! The Toronto Marlies defeated the Chicago Wolves 4:2 – the Ricoh Coliseum filled with 5,400 people seemed to be obsessed with the game. Although I didn't know anything about the rules of the game, I thought it was way more entertaining than soccer – players getting smashed in the corners of the rink, the cheering crowd and the speed of the game just gave me what I would describe as pure excitement. 

Ricoh Coliseum - Toronto Marlies vs. Chicago Wolves

After the game, we walked all the way from Ricoh Coliseum back to downtown Toronto to catch a ferry to the Toronto Islands. At the ferry terminal, we were invited by a local who lived on the islands to come over to his place for a cup of coffee and/or dinner. Hannah told me that this was very common in Canada and that people do actually accept these offers. Apparently, Canadians like to invite strangers... something that a European like myself has to get used to. The man insisted that we take a later ferry back but as we wanted to get back to the hostel, we didn't even get off the ferry on the other side but took the same boat back since we just wanted to get a spectacular view of Toronto's skyline by night.

Toronto by night
And this morning, it was good-bye Toronto! We're back in the bus and only half an hour away from arriving in Montreal... And at least for me, that means: eat, pack, sleep and get back on another bus tomorrow morning to visit Québec City, the last section of my trip to Canada before heading back to Germany.

Take care everyone - look forward to Quebec City fotos!

Thursday 7 February 2013

Montréal - Plateau, Poutine and Polite People!

Âlloooo tout le monde :)

I'm back... with yet another post about Montreal before heading on tomorrow morning.

Yesterday and today, we had some more time to explore the city with its sights, cafés & restaurants and incredibly friendly people. I thought Germany or Sweden were accurate with their tradition of "standing in line" for something. But guess what... Canadians stand in line at the bus stop and no one even dares to push to the front. Bus drivers kindly say "Thank you" when you scan your ticket - thank you as in 'Thank you for choosing the bus'. I read in a tourist guide that in Montreal, over 70% of the population travel around town by bus or public transport making it one of the most environmentally friendly city in the world! Might be that no one wants to find a parking spot at -20°C... This city seems to be designed for the cold: underground tunnels connect subway stations to shopping malls and universities so that passengers get to spend as much time below ground level as possible. Because the thing is: the Montreal Métro stations are heated! And just for a minute I let my mind wander and thought about "The Hobbit" and the dwarfs' mines...

Métro Montréal
The "Université de Montréal" has its own subway station as well. Actually, there's more than one station since some of the university buildings are spread all around town. So you might have to go from one lecture to another by Métro...

Université de Montréal

The reason why Montreal came to be named Montreal is the "Mont Royal" ("Mont Réal" in Middle French) which is a hill in the heart of the city. Apart from the fantastic views on Montreal and its landmark, the Olympic Stadium from 1976, the Mont-Royal and Plateau areas offer some of the most amazing architecture and cultural events such as live music in cafés, pubs and restaurants. 

Panoramic view of Montreal

Frozen waterfalls, Mont Royal
The very down-to-earth atmosphere made me forget that I was in the second biggest agglomeration in Canada with another 3.8 million people...
A culinary highlight of the day - no actually of my entire stay so far - was trying "Poutine". Poutine is a dish typical of Quebec made with french fries and curd cheese, topped with brown gravy. I had mine with mince meat, mushrooms and sweet peppers and I absolutely LOVED it! I've never eaten anything like it but anyone who says Quebecers don't know how to cook doesn't know anything about good food!

Poutine!!!

Downtown Montreal is rather modern (as opposed to Mont-Royal and Le Plateau) with its skyscrapers, shopping malls, restaurants and outlet stores. It is, however, quite striking that you hear more people speaking English in the streets of modern Montreal than in the rather traditional parts of the city where people getting on the Métro speaking English simply don't fit in! It actually seems rather arrogant to speak English in a predominantly French-speaking public, so I can understand why French-speaking Quebecers eye English-speaking Canadians - or even tourists. It's just a subconscious feeling...

Downtown Montreal

Stop sign
Souvenir shopping was of course a must - and while we were at it, we bought frozen yoghurt. Flavour: New York Cheesecake and s'mores!! Didn't think too much about the fact that the yoghurt had the same temperature as the air outside but I guess that's just crazy things tourists do =) And another thing only tourists would do is buy an Aviator's hat saying "Quebec" on the front... but oh well!

-20°C - inside and out =)
And a visit to the Olympic Stadium as well as the "Biodôme" with different climes of the American continents was another high point. From a felt -20°C (or as Quebecers say: "Osti qu'il fait frette!" / "Frikkin' hell it's cold!") into tropical rainforest, on to a Laurentian Forest climate and subpolar temperatures - a journey of the extremes:

Olympic Stadium and Biodôme


Parrots in the rainforest section
Otters in the Laurentian forest section
Lynx
Porcupines on trees...
Fish from the Gulf of St. Lawrence
Tomorrow in the early morning, we'll catch a bus to Toronto so yet another long journey to look forward to. And yet another post to expect - about Toronto, icehockey and Niagara Falls!

So long - I hope you had fun reading through the pages!
Stay tuned,

Yours
Chris