On my way to Melbourne I got my favorite 17K seat again, so my flight was quite comfortable. The woman at the check-in looked at me a little funny though when I requested not something like an emergency seat, but a specific seat-number. She'll get over it eventually... The view the flight gave me was great! During the night I could look out the window and see a sky with more stars than I've ever seen before. They seemed to go all the down to the horizon. When the sun rose it was like having this ball of fire come closer and closer to us, and the aircraft-wing seemed like it was in flames. An incomparable light-spectacle...

The flight landed delayed because Melbourne Airport was so busy that we had to cruise in circles high up over the airport for a little while, which was nice because the sun had just risen and you could see Melbourne and it's surrounding areas very well. Getting out of the airport was easy, for me at least, Desiree, the other German girl, had to go through a different exit after picking up the luggage and got right into a drug control with dogs and everything. What a nice and warm welcome to Melbourne...!
The 'Skybus' took me to Southern Cross, one of the two big train stations in Melbourne, from where I took a train to Williamstown, on the other side of the Melbourne Bay, where my new couchsurfing-host Andy lives. I tried texting him because he had said he could pick me up from the station, but smart as I am I had forgotten to find out the Australian phone code, so I ended up walking to his place, which wasn't that far. When I got there I had to face the next problem: No doorbell. And no working phone number. So I went into the pub downstairs, which luckily just had started to open, and they were nice enough to hand me the phone. Andy had just gone shopping, but I didn't even have time to get comfortable under a tree on the other side of the road before he got back.

He took me to his beautiful flat and made me feel at home instantly! He made (and still makes) fun of me for only being in beautiful Australia for 3 weeks, and shortly afterwards we were looking at flights to go to Alice Springs to see the Ayers Rock. They are thanks to Qantas and no competition extremely expensive, at least 800$ return, so that's not really an option, and the train isn't much cheaper and takes literally forever. Driving wasn't really an option either as we found out later, since I'm nowhere near 25 yet. Guess I'll have to do that another time, but just trying to figure out a way to get me there was very fun!
Then we went for a little run on the beach, lunges and stretching included, which was incredibly beautiful with the sun above and the water next to us. Salmon and baby-broccoli for dinner. And then I got the chance to introduce him to some bands like Enno Bunger and Boy and Kings of Convenience and Jack Beauregard, which now all have found their way into his iTunes-library...



The next morning we got up early (or to describe it better: a time I'd consider early...) so we could be at the river by 9 to get the last punt (a little boat, like a ferry just for pedestrians and bikes) across to the city. We cycled along the river, which was beautiful, and ended up in a little cafe right next to it, where I had the best hot chocolate on earth. It's best comparable to liquid chocolate pudding, but more chocolaty. To die for...! Back in the city I bought a helmet, since they are compulsory for all cyclists in Melbourne. In general cyclists in Melbourne have a funny way to dress, lots of them wear real cycling clothes and these flamboyant neon-colored vests. And as I saw today, some even put little plastic sticks into the holes of their helmets so birds can't attack them. Makes you want to look at least 3 times before you actually believe what you see!
Andy showed me around the city and some great parks and we went to the Victoria Markets, where they sell everything from fruit over meat and fish to rolls with Bratwurst and Sauerkraut.
All day long the weather gave me a great taste of what Melbourne weather is like, and changed at least four times from blue sky with sun to a black sky and pouring rain. Quite exhausted after a good day of cycling about 30km we took the punt back across the river and had a wonderful dinner.

Sunday: On Sunday I went down to the reception and booked my room for another night. And then got an email about 10 minutes later telling me I had a place to stay! YES! I had written to Francois (a friend of Etienne, a couch-surfer from Hannover, who momentarily lives in Singapore) a couple of days before, hoping to be possibly be able to stay with him, but he had been gone and had just then read my email. So I cancelled my bed at the hostel, packed up my stuff and brought it down to the reception and happily went to the Singapore Botanic Garden. They are a huge park with different themes in different areas. There's is The National Orchid Garden, the Heritage Trees, and a lot of walks that have certain plant types as a theme. It's a huge garden, beautiful and very well designed. Especially the Orchid Garden is wonderful, they have SO many different kinds there, and even a cool-house for those that wouldn't survive in the heat. I spend several hours there, just wondering around and getting lost in this green hell that made me think I was in a different world. Listening to Nils Frahm, soaking up the sun and just enjoying the moments... In the end it started to rain, so I went back to Chinatown and to the food courts and just was really courageous and bought a bunch of things of which I didn't know what they were - because most of signs were in Chinese, and those symbols looked, well, rather Chinese to me. So I sat up on a road-crossing and watched the cars go by under the lampions while eating delicious and not so delicious food.
Then I went to get my backpack and took the metro to a bus-station where I met up with Francois, who came by car to pick me up to go to his apartment.

Francois and his wife HoJin life in an apartment that the company Francois works for provides for them. In Singapore you can't just rent an apartment unless it's for at least two years or more, so you have to get something different. In their case: a suite in an apartment complex that actually is more like a hotel suite. You have a breakfast buffet in the morning, a large pool, a gym, everyday somebody comes and cleans and changes your towels and even gives you shampoo in the shower. All in all, it's a very nice place to stay at. They even had two bedrooms, so I had one for myself. Good thing the company pays it though,
otherwise these suites would just be unaffordable... It's kind of the same with the car, the company provides it, because cars in Singapore are expensive. For a lot of businessmen it's actually cheaper to just take a taxi every day (and those are not cheap!) instead of just getting a car themselves. In Singapore, a good Golf GTI is kind of seen as a good status symbol. Yes, a Golf. But only because with taxes and import costs it's about 3-4 times as much as in Germany. No need to talk about a Porsche...
We ate a delicious salad and some brownies from Korea for dinner and then I crashed, partially because the night before at the hostel, I didn't sleep a single minute...


Monday: The next morning I went for a nice breakfast downstairs with HoJin. They have a wide variety of fresh fruits, salty thins like omelets and tater tots, and little biscuits and fresh juice. There were quite a lot of families with little kids (or rather just the mums in track suits trying to keep their three kids seated at the table, with rather little success...) as well as some lonely guys in business suits.
I took the free shuttle-bus that is part of the apartment-deal to a stop close to the MBS and walked the rest of the way there, getting a good view from the other side of the Bay. Lots of the streets where either closed down or had construction sites at the side, because they were setting up bleachers everywhere for the Formel 1 (?). They even built a little soccer field on a platform on the bay that I first though was a helicopter-landing-space. Whether you really need such a thing or not is debatable I guess...
I bought a ticket to go up to the 'Skypark', the visitor platform of the Marina Bay Sands, and then took the elevator. Nothing special, one could say, but in this case, because you cover such a great height in such short time, it's more than just a normal elevator-lift. The pressure change is so drastic that it can pretty hard on your ears, same as loosing great height in an airplane very quickly. The guy next to me made a really funny face when he noticed it, and then tried to take a discrete look around to see how everybody else was doing. Since I was the only other person around and the pressure-change didn't bother me much, he must have felt kind of weird... :)

Afterwards I gave Little India another try, but in my eyes it didn't seem much nicer than during the night when it was raining. Lot's of people who try to talk you into buying things in a quite aggressive manner, something I absolutely despise, and not that much else to do other than buy things. I much preferred Chinatown!
In the evening I got tired and went home and watched a very old and just as pointless movie witch Richard Gere together with Francois and HoJin, in which he plays a sneaky bad cop. One of the only times I fell asleep during a movie...!


Tuesday started out like the day before, with a great buffet. Afterwards I went to a Supermarket with HoJin and ate some Chinese Noodles at a little restaurant (very different from the ones they sell in Germany though, not the box-type, but on a plate with tomato on them and a soup kind of liquid). Helped out some Germans who were trying to figure out what to eat and were kind of scared of the food. They ended up having the same thing as me, kind of in the way: If she is German and she likes it, we must like it! Way to be open for new things...
When we got back I didn't have much time left, so I packed up my things, said goodbye to HoJin and Francois, who had luckily just arrived, and the had nothing else to do then to take the comfy shuttle-bus that took me straight to a metro station in a mall (where it seemed like the shoppers had never seen a backpacker before...) which took me straight to the airport. There I met Desiree, another girl from Freiburg in Germany, who'll do work&travel in New Zealand as well. I managed to get her sign up on couchsurfing, which before she had thought would be a crazy thing to do. We spent some time on the airplane together as well, which was quite nice. Maybe I'll see her again in NZ or here in Melbourne, I don't know yet.

Things I saw/ learned/ experienced/ ... :

•  Most couples I saw in Singapore are what I'm just gonna call "pure". Both western, mostly tourists, or both Asian. Whenever I saw a "mixed" couple, it was the man who was western looking, never the women. It's not a big deal, but it did kind of strike me as remarkable...
• Before I came to Singapore I was told that people would take pictures of me, or even ask me to take pictures with me. That has never happened to me. Not a single time. (Though I am in a lot of shots of other tourists I suppose...)
• Singapore is a nice city. I like it, and I liked it's diversity. But there was nothing that drew me to it and made me want to stay, like some other cities like Barcelona or Paris do, even Dubai a little. Visiting was nice, but I don't think I would ever want to live there...

After over a week without any updates from my side I'll try to make a little resume of what happened during my time in Singapore (at least of the things I still remember, which is not that much really. I sometimes take pictures of things that should never be photographed just so I know what to write about later...not sure if I'm supposed to be embarrassed of that.

FRIDAY: On my first morning in Singapore I had breakfast at the hostel, because it was included and therefore free. That's really all the good I can say about it, because it was really just very lame. Toast with either peanut butter or apricot jam, and plain cereal. But there was a coffe-latte-chocolate-cappuccino-milk-...-machine and that made up for it a little bit.
I stayed in the hostel for a while sending couchrequests to lots of people (in vain, as I should find out later) and sleeping a little (or rather a lot) because I hadn't slept the night before on the airplane and because there were people in the hostel who came home at 4 in the morning and decided it was time for all others to get up when going to bed themselves...
When it was almost dark, around 6.00pm, I decided to not completely waste an entire day and went to visit Chinatown, which conveniently started right in front of the hostel-door (and to it's right, left, and at the back of it.) I guess Chinatown in general is always quite colorful, but for the next month there is a special 'festival' going on, so they hung a lot of colored lamps above the streets and I imagine some other things that I didn't notice because I've just never seen it any different. I visited a little Hindu-temple at the end of Pagoda-Street, the main street in Chinatown (main street meaning: only for pedestrians, with what seemed like thousands of restaurants, souvenir shops and even a duty-free shop for perfumes (yes, duty-free... ! ! !). I had to take my shoes off (they kind of stood out next to all those tiny other pairs...) and even paid the 3$-tourist-fee (voluntarily payable, because they let us take pictures. For videos it was double.). There was not much to see though, because it was rather empty and in all the religious areas tourists were "kindly asked to stay out". (On almost every sign around here, in the hostel as well as on the streets, the "kindly" ask you to do stuff. "Kindly" wash your dishes, "kindly" label your food before putting it in the fridge. I labeled my banana kindly, very kindly even, but only so I wouldn't squish it...)
Afterwards I went to 'Little India', which is only 2 stops away from Chinatown. When I stepped out of the station it was raining, or rather pouring. I decided not to care and wondered around anyway, but all the shops were closing and it was rather dark and unpleasant, so I left. Having gone back to Chinatown it had stopped raining (just my sort of luck...) and I walked around some more and accidentally got to a spot where I wanted to go anyway. "Clark Quay", THE party location in that area and also quite famous all over Singapore as it seems.

"Clark Quay" seems to be a little world by itself. It's part of the river that runs through Singapore, but seems a lot like it's a little bay, especially at night. On the one side there is a big mall and some fancy restaurants, on the other one a huge bar/restaurant/club/party-scene, kind of located in a circle, and since it was a Friday night the place was packed. I got some Singaporean ice-cream and licked my my way through the crowd, taking pictures and soaking in the atmosphere. Further down the river there were more restaurants, only for seafood, one next to the other. They had aquariums outside so you could pick your crab or whatever you wanted and then eat it later on. I wonder if the guests get to name their food too before it has to crawl from the death-row to the kitchen...
Back at the hostel I had gotten a new room for the next night, a different one because the other bed was booked. It was female only, up in the attic, with a lot more space and single beds instead of bunk-beds. Nothing to complain about! The hostel btw had the welcoming name of "5FootwayInn". I don't know what it stands for, but it sure felt like the beds could have something to do with it, because my feet were sticking out...! It thus took me quite a while to fall asleep...



Saturday: Same breakfast story, but smart as I am I had bought some fruits the day before, so I had at least some banana and apple to top the cereal with (plus banana & peanut butter should be a compulsory break-fast dish anyway...!). I found out that there were so many Germans at the hostel because they were actually a group: The "Sinfonisches Jugendblasorchester Baden-Wuerttemberg" (a symphonic youth-band). They are on an Asia-Tour and are giving concerts in lots of different cities, one of them Singapore. I'm pretty sure they also went to the orchestra-competition I went to with my school orchestra a few months back. The world is so small...

Later that day I went to the 'Gardens by the Bay', a lovely big garden with lots of different kinds of plants, right next to the Marina Bay Sands. They have some 'fake-trees' there as well, which are connected with a bridge, the 'Skywalk'. I wanted to buy a ticket as it was getting dark and everything was beautifully lit, but apparently lots of other people had the same idea as me and they stopped selling tickets so the walk wouldn't be overcrowded. It was beautiful to see from the ground as well though, the 'trees' have little light-bulbs in them and look like a star-covered sky. Guess I'm in a lot of pictures now...
The gardens are directly connected the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Mall, which, just like the MBS, is huge, and where only high-end stores are located: Gucci, Chanel, Dior, Ferrari,... Solely Louis Vuitton apparently though it wasn't good enough, so they got a separate little building outside on the water. Just walking around in the mall is quite impressive, but it also gets boring quite easily if a single bag at a certain store costs more than all the money you have saved up to spend on your trip. I must say, I much prefer my trip...!
One thing about the mall was really astoundingly though: The toilets. Usually not a topic I would want to discuss on here, but they really have some of those 'standing'-toilets in the womens bathroom, just like in France at the auto-stops. Imagining a women in +10.000$ outfit using one of those made up for the long line I had to wait in before!
The Light and Water Show 'Wonder Full' in front of the mall started slightly afterwards, and even though being reasonably late, I got a very good spot right in the middle. The show was ok, but for me, the constantly analyzing human-being that I am, a little weird. Basically what they do is to project short movies on water that is sprayed into the air by a fountain under very high pressure, so that a "screen" is produced. So far, so good, I like the idea very much and to see many pretty colours reflected on and in water easily pleases my dear brain (or frontal lobe, or thalamus). But was was shown on the water to the audience was nothing more than what seemed to be a pretty, but quit  random collection of movies of children. Little, cute, pretty children (and some adults), but without a theme or any logic behind it. It doesn't say anything about it on the website either, only that I "won't want to miss out on this exciting, free showcase of stunning visual effects with interweaving lasers, video projectors and giant streaming water screens". But it was free and colorful and a nice ending of my day at, in and around the MBS.

I went back to Chinatown, was grateful for the opening-hours of the local food court, got fruit and some unknown but tasty bread and had dinner on the terrace at the hostel. I was still couch-less, but figured that I'd  just have to stay at the hostel for my time in Singapore. The guys at the reception must have thought I was a freak, since I went down there every morning before 12.00 to prolong my stay for just one more night...


Sooo here are some pictures to give you an impression. Sorry about the ones that are not upright, they were on the computer but the website changed it...

Tuesday started out quite sucky and ended up turning into the one of the best nights of my life. But first things first...
It was stupid hot again, no surprise there, so I went to the Dubai Mall, the biggest mall in the world as I was told. People in America told me the Mall of America was the biggest. Way to confuse the poor tourist-me. Whichever it is, the mall is amazing. And by amazing I mean chic, and shiny, and huge. And by huge and mean: gigantic! They have everything you can imagine and more (and more, and more, and more, and...). I strolled through there for a while, looked at some people diving with sharks and whatnot in the Aquarium IN the mall, which is, how could it be any different: gigantic. Bought some candy at Candylicious, and was overwhelmed by all the products they have. Compared H&M prices to Geramany (It's more expensive here. Weird!). Went to the gi......wait for it......gantic supermarket they have there and found Baguette de la campagne and mango-juice, which made me and my tummy quite happy. And then I went to the entrance to the Burj Khalifa, which is in the mall as well. This tower actually deserves the word skyskraper and with it's 829,84m it is the world's tallest structure, according to wikipedia. One of the must-dos in Dubai. I had reserved a ticket online 2 days before - or so I thought. When going to the online ticket reservation point, I was told they didn't have a reservation for my name, and they even checked my credit card, but apparently no money had been charged. Bummer! I was left with two choices: Either by a ticket right then and there for 4times the price (85euro), or leave. So I left, went into the sauna outside and enjoyed the fountains for a little bit while amusing myself by looking at all the people curling up in what I would call unhuman poses to take a picture of their friends in front of the Burj Khalifa. Made up for the disappointment a little ...

When I got home I didn't feel so well and took a nap. Manu offered me to join him at a restaurant where he met up with some American flight attendants, but I stayed home, feeling slightly sick and still disappointed because I didn't get to go up in the clouds. But after about 2 hours of rest I was bored and felt a little better, so I decided to stop being boring and start being awesome instead and joined Manu and the others who were just about to go to a couchsurfing meeting in a hotel bar. There were about 30 people from CS, most of them either travellers or expats, like so many people who live in Dubai. A lot of them left shortly after we arrived though, because it was a week-night and already past 10.00pm. So with a group of about 10 people we went to a different bar, and to continue quoting Barney here, I must say that the only word that properly describes it was: awesome! On the 43rd floor in the "Level 43" Rooftop Lounge in the 'Four Points by Sheraton Sheikh', a bar that is closed for the public during the day but open for everyone at night. You can walk around almost 360* all the way, high up in the air. Definitely better than anything George Cloony ever did up there!
Especially the flight attendants were very entertaining and fun, and one of them, Andrea (the only one of the group who is actually a couchsurfer), did some belly-dancing. She has been doing it since she was 3, so she was really good at it too. We were kind of the only ones up there, so it was almost a private show. Almost, because there was one other guy. He came (up there), saw (the belly-dancing), and conquered (one of the lounge-chairs with a straight view on the dancer). You could literally (gotta love HIMYM!) see the saliver running down his chin. When she was done dancing he even cheerfully applauded. The only thing missing was him walking up to her to give her some money. Maybe next time...
After the 'Level 43' Bar we all went back to Manu's place for some drinks and more private (belly-)dancing. It was almost 5 when everyone left. Since Manu hat to work in the morning that meant it would be a short night for him. Not for me though!




On Wednesday I slept till noon and then, apart from some walking-around, I searched for a couch in Singapore, since I still hadn't found anyone. Sent lots of neatly personalized requests advertising my brownie-skills, but no luck. For dinner I went to 'Paul' with Manu, a french restaurant with prices that can easily be compared to european standards, but since it's French that's no surprise. The 'Salade Nicoise' and the olive bread were really good though, and for desert we went to a different place where we had Mango-Cream. It definitely lived up to what Manu had promised me. Went home to pack up afterwards and then it was ttsg. Took the metro to the airport, making sure I knew at which Terminal to get off. And then took the wrong one of course. Terminal 1 seemed slightly depressing and there were a lot of people with big, taped packages on very little space. The Teminal-bus took me to T3, which was bright and shiny and a lot more appealing. Forgot to ask for an Emergeny-Exit-seat at the check-in although I had it written on my hand. Got a McSundae, a McFlurry and an apple-pie at McDonald's and tried to access the airport internet for half an hour - needless to say that I didn't have any success.
The flight was pretty great though. I had a seat in the first row after business-class (just the right amount of leg-room in seat 17K!), and because only about half the seats on the airplane were taken the seat between me and the elderly guy at the aisle was free. Found him to be quite entertaining, because even with his LV-shoes, fancy Prada glasses and Blackberry, he just couldn't figure out how to use the remote for the movies. Evaluated between helping out and keeping my live-entertainment, I'll leave it up to you to decide which one I chose...

Having arrived at the airport in Singapore, I checked if I had any couchsurfing-invites. I did not. For about 2 hours I tried to find someone and then gave up and booked a hostel that seemed nice while not beeing too expensive. Now I'm at the 5FootWay-Inn, a cute little hostel in Chinatown. About 15euro a night, 6-room-dorm, free breakfast, free wifi, and everyone here seems to be either German or Chinese/Japanese. I met an American though who introduced himself with "Hi, I'm Ted." (I had quite a hard time trying not to start laughing!) He talks like he usually does radio-commercials, all fast and smooth, and I now know all about his trip and how he saved money in Bavaria by staying in a 100-bed-dorm-tent and how he fled to the upper bunkbed because ants tried to take over the lower one. Hopefully have a couch for tomorrow, otherwise this seems like a nice place to stay at for a while...

Right now I'm eating German pick-ups thanks to my dear brother, and am trying to figure out what to write on here. It's actually quite fun, so I'll probably update a lot as long as I have internet and some time. It's quite detailed at times, but since this is mostly for me anyway that shouldn't bother anyone...! :)

Walking around Dubai at this time of the year isn't much fun though. Hit that wall again today when stepping outside. When I'm inside I either forget that it's actually wawrm outside, or I keep telling myself that it can't be as bad as I remember it, that I'm just overexaggerating. UnfortunatelyI'm proven wrong every time...

Went to the souks today, the markets. First along the creek to the textile market. Put my foot in the water for refreshment, it was like stepping into a bathtub. At least afterwards my flipflops made entertaining squieky noises.
Then I took a little boad to cross the creek. It's actually the only way for pedestrians to get across, so on my boat there where only locals, and being the only girl, I stood out a little, but just a tiny bit! :)
Then there was the gold souk and there was supposed to be a spice souk, that I didn't manage to find. What I found though were men of all shapes and sizes starring at me shamelessly on the streets. Again not a lot of them talked to me, but after a while I just started to feel like a walking piece of meat. When cars with tinted windows start slowing down next to you it just gets kind of creepy. It was too hot outside anyway though and so I took shelter in a metrostation and then went to the Dubai Marina.

The Dubai Metro is quite amazing! There are no drivers and the stations are so clean and shiny. Nothing compared to the ones I know from Hannover where there are people drinking beer on the train, shouting at you, or scratching the windows. Here everything is neat and organized. Manu gave me a metro card that I can fill up like a prepaid phone card. You swipe it everytime you enter and then again when you leave a station, this way the RTA (Dubai metro/ general public transport) knows what to charge you. So far I haven't paid more than 6AED for any trip, which is a little more than a Euro, and at one time I was one there for more than half an hour.
Every train is seperated into the "Gold Class" (for the decadent metro users :) ), then there is a little part just for women and children, and the big rest is for everyone to use. One of the reason the system of order and cleaness works is because there are fines for everything. Even chewing gum on the train is considered and eating violation (no food+drinks on the trains and in the station), and will be fined with 100AED (= 20 euro). That would be quite an expensive gum... And there are guards everywhere to make sure people comply to the rules, and serveral information points at every station to help you out, and ticket-machines that actually work! Everything is airconditionned, of course, and I found the metrostations to be an interesting place when you just want to cool off for a couple of minutes.

The Dubai Marina is a huuuge complex consisting of what seems to be a 100 sky-high hotels and banks, all directly at the beach, or 2nd and 3rd row for the poorer guys. Of course Paris' family didn't settle for anything less than first row, and now there is a nice little complex with about 10 floors and countless Porsches and Audis in front of it. The hotel seems quite small though when comparing it to the rest of the Marina buildings.
I also went to the beach...and left. For me, beaches are a little windy, and the water is cool, and refreshing, and you just want to lay on your towel and enjoy the sun and love life. Here  is Dubai-beach: Hot desert-like winds, and water that has about body-temperature. Yaaay. Not. The water and the sand are amazing though, light blue and white, and in the 'winter' it must be a dream to just lay there and get a little tan while watching spoiled rich guys having Jetzki-races right on the shore.

Bought some food, fruit mostly (a quarter of a huge, very tasty watermelon for 1e) and then ate that stuff for dinner with Manu. Afterwards he took me for a little tour in the heritage village, where they preserved ancient-Dubai for tourists like me to prove that Dubai was and is actually more than just a huge collection of shiny skyskrapers. Had some nice talks with Manu about god, the world, him and me and then it was 1.30am in no time. Bedtime now...


Things I learned/ saw/ experienced today:

• Garbage-cans can be pretty.
• Mentos 3D Fruity Fresh Strawberry-Apple-Raspberry Gum is the most disgusting gum I have ever tasted.
• Don't leave and tissues in your pockets when washing your clothes, unless you want to be cool and look like it just snowed at 40*C.

A few hours ago I arrived in Dubai. The flight was great, every airline should be like Emirates! And it's not even that expensive. I got chicken something, banana toffee, some sort of salad, a roll and Mango(!) juice. And I watched "The Lucky One". What a waste of time, sorry Zac... Emergency-seat leg room was great, not sure if I'll ask for it again though. With that much open space and no window seat there was nothing to snuggle up against, like the front seat, and my neighbor didn't seem like the right choice either.

The big backpack survied everything just fine, the blue garbage-bags did quite a good job. Broke the belly-click-thingy (?) on my little on though, stepped on it. Silly me...!
Got through check-out alright, the sun was just rising, I tried to find m. y way to the metro - in short: life was good! And then: I got hit! Hit by what seems to be 300+% humidity. I know I complained about humidity in Hannover, but this is a completely different story! It feels like being in an outside-sauna, like stepping into a damp rain forest, to sum it up: IT IS HELL! But apart from that, Dubai is a great city from what I've seen so far, riding, almost flying, on a metro about 20m (?) across the city with a bunch of guys in suits at 7 in the morning.

Found my way to Manu's (my host) appartment easily, he gave me a great description. Nice appartment, and it is airconditionned, like just about everything in Dubai. Went to sleep for a few hours shortly after arriving, and then had porridge (?) for breakfast/lunch and talked to Manu about my trip and Dubai and lots of different stuff. He gave me a cellphone with prepaid card and a metro card, which I can put some money on, it's all quite cheap. He's really nice and gave me lots of advice. I'll leave soon to go to the Dubai Museum and some markets for spices, textiles, and gold. Apparently sellers there will try and guess my nationality and then talk to me in my language. I'll try and pretend I'm American, I'll see how that works. Tonight it's libanese food with Manu and then we'll be meeting an austrian couple that stayed with a couchsurfer-friend of his.
Friendly advice from Manu: You'll meet a lot of nice men who'll offer to show you around. If I was you, I'd politely decline. Sounds like a good idea!

I took a nice walk to the Dubai-Museum, where they exhibit lots of stuff about earl-Dubai. Takes about 40min to go through, short but informative, just as it should be! Didn't go to the markets yet. Wen't to a supermarket and bought bananas and apples and some juice for about 2euro. Later Manu took me to a libanese restaurant that was in a high-end mall. We sat next to a kind of pool with little fountains in it, the 'Dubai sports' tv presented Bayern-Stuttgart on a huge screen nearby. Apparenty people from Dubai (Dubaians? Dubaianer? Will have to find out...) are really into soccer. We shared the food, 3 different plates, Humus, a salat, and something we could neither remeber the name of nor identify by taste. It came with delicious(!) flat bread that was filled up right away before even being empty and a little platter with vegetables.  Fancy restaurant, good food, nice atmosphere usually = high cost. Not here. We paid 13euros (stupid keboard, I want my proper euro-sign!) for everything. I'll probably eat out a lot while in Dubai! :)
Austrians didn't come, but some other cs-friends, all reall nice and amazed by what I'm doing. One of them accidentally took Manus phone when he left, meaning a half-an-hour search, some phonecalls and another visit by the friend at around midnight. Manu's dry comment: "What a fun night!"

Will get up early (for those who don't know me that well, early meaning about 8.30, NOT 5!) tomorrow though. Also booked a ticket for the Burj Khalifa on Tuesday at 4.00pm, Manu said 5.00 was best because of the lower sun and because the fountains start at 6.00. Guess I'll have enough time to make some new friends up there, or torture some guards, or read or do god knows what.


Things I learned/ saw/ experienced today:

• My camera lens fogged up when stepping OUTSIDE.
• Random men on the street only stare at me, only one guy talked to me, which is, according to Manu, very little attention. He suspects they might be intimidated by my height. I like it! :)
• Even in Dubai I can't escape German soccer. It'slike a plague, it's everywhere...!
  
• I'm in love! There, I said it, now it's out. I'm in love with my mac. It does what I want while looking pretty, thus being perfect. Now I have a little netbook. No offense Fred, but this is crap. No keyboard light, small screen, crappy mouse-pad, and all the unnessary extra-sybols I so didn't miss on my almost minimalistic mac. And I acutally have to log into my email accounts instead of just hitting the "receive"-button. Mac, if you can read this: I love you, I miss you, I want you back so I can hold you and touch you and push your buttons. Forever in love, Toni. <3
• 
  

Stayed uo way to late last night and slept only about 5 hours. I really need to start taking care of things a little earlier. Was a little stressed before the departure to the station to go to hamburg by train, so much left to do, so little time. Sorry to those who got yelled at! ;)

Mother and brother were so nice to come with me all the way to Hamburg (and then go straight back home :D ). There were no train delays and we got to the airport quite early. Little stop on the terasse to watch some planes start, and then to the check-in. There was only one BIG problem: I had bought a travel-bag for my backpack so it woudln't get toooo damaged by the airline. Right now it's protecting my carpet at home. I forgot it. I'd like to blame it on my brother, but since he was only trying to be helpful I guess that'd be kind of mean! :)
We solved that problem by putting the backpack into two huge garbage-bags we had bought at the Hamburg-train-station. The lady at the check-in was even nice enough to get us some tape! Hopefully the cover will keep my new, shiny, beautiful new baby, thus my backpack, clean and safe. I'll see... That means though that I've to find a travel-store in Dubai and get a new Flight-cover. Yay me... -.-

Now I'm at gate C05, waiting for them to let us board. And thanks to mobile-debitel I even get one hour of free internet that I can very well use to write on here, thanks debitel! Once boarded I'll even get an emergency-exit-seat because the lady at the check-in arranged it for me (and my dear family reminded me to ask! :) ), so the flight should be quite comfortable. I also got a free "Die Zeit" newspaper for the flight. I love Emirates already! :)

I'll read my newspaper now, so I don't seem more like a computer-addicted nerd than I already do. Will try to post something once I get to Dubai and arrived at my host's appartment...