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Sunday, May 9, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Time to move on
My dear New Zealand,
It´s time to go our seperate ways. Correction, it´s time for me to move on and leave you behind. This should come as no surprise to you, as it was clear from the beginning that you and I....just weren´t made for each other. I know we both tried hard, and every now and then it seemed to work, but every time we got back to the same point of just not knowing how to make each other happy.
Let´s face it, you like the foreign girls with hiking boots and tons of other sensible gear, and if they have a German accent, even better. And sometimes you tend to go for the other extreme: ten-inch heals, too much make-up, not enough clothes, Kiwi twang. I am neither, and I can’t change just for you.
Still, I am glad I met you and spent some time with you. You’ve shown me things that I had never seen before and were breathtaking (sometimes in a literal, sulphurous way, but beautiful nonetheless).
I’ve met some really great people through you, who I will surely will keep in touch with, and one of my best nights in the past 6 months was spent eating, drinking and playing silly games with your family in Dunedin.
Needless to say, I always loved exploring the fiords and climbing the peaks in your Southern regions, leading me to heavenly views. But other times, you made me feel lonely, prevented me from earning enough money, you bored me, you made me spend too much. I guess we just never really understood each other.
It’s not you though, it’s me. I am a product of Europe, as much as I like to think I’m not, I am. A product of the smallest, most crowded, least wild, part of Europe. You can take a girl out of the city, but...well, she’ll miss it! I do love nature and hate cities that don’t have enough green, but I need a good balance and I didn’t find that with you.
Nevertheless, these months with you have given me new insights for the future and I am very grateful for that.
So now, as I am getting ready to leave you, I feel tired and a little sad, but mostly, relieved. Relieved that I have decided that enough is enough, and that I am moving on to something bigger and better. Or smaller and better, who knows.
As these things go though, I am sure in not too long I will start looking back and see more and more good things about you. And after a few years I will have forgotten the bad stuff and will probably long for you sometimes. So who knows, maybe in the future we can have a little rendez-vous again. An adventurous, fun, let’s-go-crazy-and-spend-all-our-money kind of thing. Good but short, because you and me where never meant to be together forever. So many others do feel that way about you though, so I am sure you will be far from lonely.
Well, goodbye, take care, and don’t let those Germans mess with you!
Love,
Elsbeth
It´s time to go our seperate ways. Correction, it´s time for me to move on and leave you behind. This should come as no surprise to you, as it was clear from the beginning that you and I....just weren´t made for each other. I know we both tried hard, and every now and then it seemed to work, but every time we got back to the same point of just not knowing how to make each other happy.
Let´s face it, you like the foreign girls with hiking boots and tons of other sensible gear, and if they have a German accent, even better. And sometimes you tend to go for the other extreme: ten-inch heals, too much make-up, not enough clothes, Kiwi twang. I am neither, and I can’t change just for you.
Still, I am glad I met you and spent some time with you. You’ve shown me things that I had never seen before and were breathtaking (sometimes in a literal, sulphurous way, but beautiful nonetheless).
I’ve met some really great people through you, who I will surely will keep in touch with, and one of my best nights in the past 6 months was spent eating, drinking and playing silly games with your family in Dunedin.
Needless to say, I always loved exploring the fiords and climbing the peaks in your Southern regions, leading me to heavenly views. But other times, you made me feel lonely, prevented me from earning enough money, you bored me, you made me spend too much. I guess we just never really understood each other.
It’s not you though, it’s me. I am a product of Europe, as much as I like to think I’m not, I am. A product of the smallest, most crowded, least wild, part of Europe. You can take a girl out of the city, but...well, she’ll miss it! I do love nature and hate cities that don’t have enough green, but I need a good balance and I didn’t find that with you.
Nevertheless, these months with you have given me new insights for the future and I am very grateful for that.
So now, as I am getting ready to leave you, I feel tired and a little sad, but mostly, relieved. Relieved that I have decided that enough is enough, and that I am moving on to something bigger and better. Or smaller and better, who knows.
As these things go though, I am sure in not too long I will start looking back and see more and more good things about you. And after a few years I will have forgotten the bad stuff and will probably long for you sometimes. So who knows, maybe in the future we can have a little rendez-vous again. An adventurous, fun, let’s-go-crazy-and-spend-all-our-money kind of thing. Good but short, because you and me where never meant to be together forever. So many others do feel that way about you though, so I am sure you will be far from lonely.
Well, goodbye, take care, and don’t let those Germans mess with you!
Love,
Elsbeth
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Just put that pig in the bag and relax
Tonga-time: why hurry when you're ahead of the rest of the world anyway?
Maartje and I have known each other since we were three and we thought it was time for an adventure as far away from home as possible.
So why not try something different and travel to Tonga without doing any research or bringing a guide book? Why not indeed, so travel to Tonga we did.
Air New Zealand was once again great, providing us with food, drinks, and in-flight entertainment that works straight away, not just after take-off. And this is essential if you want to watch a two hour movie during a two-and-a-bit hour flight.
So there I was up in the air (which was also the name of the movie that Maartje watched, what a clever title), between New Zealand and the Kingdom of Tonga, watching the hardships in the life of The Young Victoria, accompanied by Schubert's music and Dutch actors speaking English with German accents. Ah, it was wonderful. And not altogether as different from Tonga as you'd think: unsealed roads, women in beautiful dresses, pigs running around freely, and quite a few white men speaking English with German accents.
Anyway, as I said, we were unprepared, and after a taxi ride during which we probably asked the driver a whole bunch of stupid questions ("Do you have crocodiles here? Or monkeys?". "No crocodiles, but a lot of monkeys sitting around watching tv and doing nothing all day"), we decided to walk into town to find something to eat. Unfortunately it was dark and we couldn't find the town centre. We asked the Chinese people that ran the little store that we did find, but they didn't speak English. So, stepping over the dead cat in the gutter, we returned home and went to bed.
The next day it all looked better and we found the centre and a nice cafe. Amazingly Tonga is still free of fastfood chains, no McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, nothing, which adds to the charm. They do have Coca Cola of course, and Heineken, though both are frequently past their sell-by date.
In short, we walked around (and sweated), cycled (too far), hitchhiked (and made a friend), went swimming at a beautiful beach (where we were the only ones), drank watermelon juice (delicious), waited (for everyone and everything, but mainly for the ferry), saw dolphins (from the ferry), were amazed (at how friendly the people were, and how big the guys), went hiking (to a look-out that we never found because the guide got lost), and relaxed (at a resort where we could hear the waves from our bed and once again had the whole beach to ourselves).
Other things I discovered:
1. Tongan bananas and pancakes taste good
2. Eating Vegemite (with lots of Vit.B) and liberally spraying myself with Off! doesn't repel the Tongan mosquitoes.
3. An open sea ferry ride at 5.30am without breakfast makes me feel horribly seasick, and
3a. I can't vomit while the captain and his friends can see me and
3b. once the worst of the nausea has gone down, it's pretty nice to sit out on the deck surrounded by living pigs in potato sacks that are being transported from one pig-inhabited island to the other.
All the Tongan girls wanted to find Maartje and me a nice Tongan husband, but we politely declined and boarded our plane back to New Zealand as scheduled.
New Zealand: where every backpacker speaks English with a German accent. Typical, you go to the other side of the world and run into your neighbours.
Maartje and I have known each other since we were three and we thought it was time for an adventure as far away from home as possible.
So why not try something different and travel to Tonga without doing any research or bringing a guide book? Why not indeed, so travel to Tonga we did.
Air New Zealand was once again great, providing us with food, drinks, and in-flight entertainment that works straight away, not just after take-off. And this is essential if you want to watch a two hour movie during a two-and-a-bit hour flight.
So there I was up in the air (which was also the name of the movie that Maartje watched, what a clever title), between New Zealand and the Kingdom of Tonga, watching the hardships in the life of The Young Victoria, accompanied by Schubert's music and Dutch actors speaking English with German accents. Ah, it was wonderful. And not altogether as different from Tonga as you'd think: unsealed roads, women in beautiful dresses, pigs running around freely, and quite a few white men speaking English with German accents.
Anyway, as I said, we were unprepared, and after a taxi ride during which we probably asked the driver a whole bunch of stupid questions ("Do you have crocodiles here? Or monkeys?". "No crocodiles, but a lot of monkeys sitting around watching tv and doing nothing all day"), we decided to walk into town to find something to eat. Unfortunately it was dark and we couldn't find the town centre. We asked the Chinese people that ran the little store that we did find, but they didn't speak English. So, stepping over the dead cat in the gutter, we returned home and went to bed.
The next day it all looked better and we found the centre and a nice cafe. Amazingly Tonga is still free of fastfood chains, no McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, nothing, which adds to the charm. They do have Coca Cola of course, and Heineken, though both are frequently past their sell-by date.
In short, we walked around (and sweated), cycled (too far), hitchhiked (and made a friend), went swimming at a beautiful beach (where we were the only ones), drank watermelon juice (delicious), waited (for everyone and everything, but mainly for the ferry), saw dolphins (from the ferry), were amazed (at how friendly the people were, and how big the guys), went hiking (to a look-out that we never found because the guide got lost), and relaxed (at a resort where we could hear the waves from our bed and once again had the whole beach to ourselves).
Other things I discovered:
1. Tongan bananas and pancakes taste good
2. Eating Vegemite (with lots of Vit.B) and liberally spraying myself with Off! doesn't repel the Tongan mosquitoes.
3. An open sea ferry ride at 5.30am without breakfast makes me feel horribly seasick, and
3a. I can't vomit while the captain and his friends can see me and
3b. once the worst of the nausea has gone down, it's pretty nice to sit out on the deck surrounded by living pigs in potato sacks that are being transported from one pig-inhabited island to the other.
All the Tongan girls wanted to find Maartje and me a nice Tongan husband, but we politely declined and boarded our plane back to New Zealand as scheduled.
New Zealand: where every backpacker speaks English with a German accent. Typical, you go to the other side of the world and run into your neighbours.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Connected
I've got a laptop again. After serious in-depth research of about 3 hours I decided to just wave the credit card and splash out. No, that doesn't mean I bought something fancy, it means I bought the cheapest available netbook, but that's still a MAJOR splash-out for me these days.
Anyway, after two months without a computer I've gotten used to not having one, and I am not really sure what to do with it anymore. But I trust it will all come back to me soon. Next up is finding free WiFi, which on a Sunday in a sleepy Christchurch suburb (by the beach!) seems pretty much impossible. But since the library is open again tomorrow and I've got the whole day to myself, a new blogpost might just be on the horizon.
Next dilemma: do I take this laptop with me to Tonga or not...? Ah, life is full of difficult choices.
See ya tomorrow!
Anyway, after two months without a computer I've gotten used to not having one, and I am not really sure what to do with it anymore. But I trust it will all come back to me soon. Next up is finding free WiFi, which on a Sunday in a sleepy Christchurch suburb (by the beach!) seems pretty much impossible. But since the library is open again tomorrow and I've got the whole day to myself, a new blogpost might just be on the horizon.
Next dilemma: do I take this laptop with me to Tonga or not...? Ah, life is full of difficult choices.
See ya tomorrow!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Riches to rags
So turns out a lot of you are the generous type and gave me money to donate to the Liliane Foundation, which is really great to see. As checking to total balance involved me checking my bank account and I had the feeling that would not make for a pleasant day I have been putting off getting back to you. But apparently ignoring your problems doesn't make them any smaller (damm, I was doing such a good job!). What does help then? Confronting them? Let's try something a bit more buddhist: acknowledge and accept. Yes, acknowledge that my funds are dwindling, that people gave me lots of money, and accept that I cannot use that money for myself.
Ah, if only I were that strong!
Only joking (though it was very tempting I must say): the grand total is 160 euros (none of that worthless NZ dollar shit in this case), and I just transferred all of it to Liliane. Thanks to all of you who contributed, and as you know I believe good things come from doing good things, so watch out! Either way I'm sure we've helped a few kids get a slightly better life.
As for me, yes, my finances seem to have fallen off a cliff. A cliff with a beautiful viewof Queenstown, the lake and the mountains, but it was a bit of a drop nonetheless.
But whatever, who's interested in my finances anyway. Acknowledged, accepted, next! (This next might be a phone call to the parents...)
In the way the world seems to work though, I've been meeting exactly the people I needed to meet, giving me guided tours, massages, meals with parents and haircuts, not to mention positive energy, insights and stimulating conversation. So it's safe to say I've finally shaken off my Auckland depression (brought on by a variety of events better left unmentioned) and am now floating around in a state of bliss.
Until I remember I have no money that is, but that is a situation I can and will work on, and which will sort itself out soon. Queenstown is full of super low-paid jobs for money-deprived travelers like myself and I managed to get one of the best-paid ones around, selling clothes at Quiksilver. Only 12 days until payday, yahoo!
In the meantime, I hope that everyone that has been making me feel happier has gotten something back from me in one way or another or will do so in the future. I mean, watching that Swedish film where someone gets raped in the ass was so enjoyable, I'm sure my friends in Dunedin were delighted I talked them into seeing it and now feel culturally enriched. If not, I'll buy you some beers next time I'm there!
My laptop died so it's been a bit more difficult lately, but I hope to blog again soon...
Ah, if only I were that strong!
Only joking (though it was very tempting I must say): the grand total is 160 euros (none of that worthless NZ dollar shit in this case), and I just transferred all of it to Liliane. Thanks to all of you who contributed, and as you know I believe good things come from doing good things, so watch out! Either way I'm sure we've helped a few kids get a slightly better life.
As for me, yes, my finances seem to have fallen off a cliff. A cliff with a beautiful viewof Queenstown, the lake and the mountains, but it was a bit of a drop nonetheless.
But whatever, who's interested in my finances anyway. Acknowledged, accepted, next! (This next might be a phone call to the parents...)
In the way the world seems to work though, I've been meeting exactly the people I needed to meet, giving me guided tours, massages, meals with parents and haircuts, not to mention positive energy, insights and stimulating conversation. So it's safe to say I've finally shaken off my Auckland depression (brought on by a variety of events better left unmentioned) and am now floating around in a state of bliss.
Until I remember I have no money that is, but that is a situation I can and will work on, and which will sort itself out soon. Queenstown is full of super low-paid jobs for money-deprived travelers like myself and I managed to get one of the best-paid ones around, selling clothes at Quiksilver. Only 12 days until payday, yahoo!
In the meantime, I hope that everyone that has been making me feel happier has gotten something back from me in one way or another or will do so in the future. I mean, watching that Swedish film where someone gets raped in the ass was so enjoyable, I'm sure my friends in Dunedin were delighted I talked them into seeing it and now feel culturally enriched. If not, I'll buy you some beers next time I'm there!
My laptop died so it's been a bit more difficult lately, but I hope to blog again soon...
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