I can't write in both languages, I am sorry!

It is impossible to keep up with writing the blog in two languages, so English speakers, please use http://notesfromanothercountry.blogspot.com and translate in an online engine such as http://translate.google.com

I am really sorry, but there is simply too much to see and do to waste time in front of the iPad for 2+ h every day...

Or just look at the pics I upload there...

Sep15 In and Out: Argentina to Uruguay

The flight I had feared for a long time due to its duration wasn't that bad in the end. I slept 8 out of the 12.5h. The sunrise above Brazil - well above the clouds - was unbelievable! Those are the advantages of an overnight flight. In any case you can see the sun rise. :) Maybe worth becoming a pilot. 

Enought of praising the sun, The forecasted temperature for Buenos Aires is a freezing but sunny 50F/ 10C. Just like summer in Germany this year. 

In the end I don't care. I bought my ferry ticket to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay a couple of days ago and am therefore not only leaving Buenos Aires again today but also Argentina. Of course I will be back once Yvonne gets here in a couple of days.

But first I will fulfill another dream, which is to see Montevideo. On the way there I am stopping in Colonia. 

Back to the plane. We are landing after a spectacular view of Buenos Aires. What a big city!

Our parking position next to a jumbo from Lufthansa leaves me smiling. The engraving is: "Fanhansa" - not very nice of us to be flying exactly that plane to Argentina, but also nothing we can do about it now. :)

Immigration passes with no issues and I am grateful for free Wifi. After cleaning up a little in the bathroom I am ready to enter South Anerica once more. I have a couple of hours to kill in Buenos Aires before my ferry to Uruguay.  But all my thinking about what to do with my luggage in the city for a couple of hours were useless. In Argentina it is not the immigration that leads to huge queues, it is the customs control. Every piece of luggage is being scanned before leaving the secured area. This takes time. The queue goes back and forth through the whole baggage hall and I estimate about 1.5h until I can possibly reach the scanners. Another issue is that my "active queuing" skills are basically gone and tons of Latinos pass me this way. I remember fast and so I just turn around and move a little to the left which gets me into the queue that is coming back from the end of the hall. The huge family doesn't even notice and so I safe at least 30min. :)

Considering that they don't even look at the scan, the effort they have with the scanning is immense. 

Just before the exit I see some bus booths and get myself a ticket to the ferry terminal without having to get cash. 

The outside is as cold as I feared and I am glad that I didn't forget my softshell jacket on the plane this time, I desperately need it.

Queueing for the bus - this will turn out to be my favorite activity in Argentina today - I start a conversation with a Spanish guy who wants to take me to Bariloche for skiing. Tempting but it would totally ruin my plan for this week, the only plan I actually have for the whole trip so far. And also I am a bit scared to get back on the skis for the first time after I broke my ankle in someone else's boots. I'd rather try with my own in the Alps when I am back. I refuse the offer and exit the bus at the brandnew ferry terminal where I am greeted with something familiar: a Milka stand.

On the second floor my Argentina entry stamp gets its brother the Exit stamp and their neighbor an Uruguay entry stamp right away. So my first visit to Argentina lasted less than 2h, but I will be back. 

And here we go, the next long queue. My chances for a window seat are so small that I don't even bother queueing for so long and take a seat in the comfy chairs until most people are on the boat. 1h of boat sleep is almost as good as on the plane and is only being disturbed by German honeymooners discussing their travel plans for everyone to hear but for sure nobody to understand except for me.

The hostel is only 5 min from the terminal. My body is longing for some movement and so I carry my stuff there, the big backpack on the back, the small one in the front. 

I have a room to myself for about 3 min before Sarah enters. She is from California and traveling SA since about 5 months. We have a lot in common. :) My travel companion for today! I am glad. We start our common time with Chivito, the Uruguayan national dish. 

The city walk after is finished fast. Colonia is very tiny and within 1h we've seen most of it. From the lighthouse we have a great view and can even spot Buenos Aires in the far distant. We find the Street of Sighs, don't know the story that goes with it, but we got the picture now. 

Armed with homemade icecream we look for a spot to watch the sunset. 

Brrrr, cold. As soon as the sun is gone we go back to the hostel to get our jackets. Back on the street we notice that this tiny town is completely deserted now, noone is on the streets and it is hard to find an open bar to get a drink. It is much easier to find a smoke, the weed smell is everywhere. 

One sangria, a nice conversation and here I am in bed. The shower can wait until the morning. It is way too cold.

Stop2: Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

Sep14: The beginning of a looooong trip

Flying around the world is definitely something I wanted to do with Star Alliance... I simply love most of their airlines and I have been collecting miles there forever. When I checked for affordable tickets, the only ones which could include the Easter Islands were One World, because only LAN serves that tiny remote island. Since it would have been significantly more expensive otherwise, I chose to fly with them. At least they don't have Aeroflot in their alliance. :)

But they do have BA, which is not as bad as their airport, I thought. 

Well, since last night I tried to check in online in order to secure a window seat for the 14:35h flight to Buenos Aires tonight. But even this afternoon at 3 pm I was still "too early" for check in and the website told me that I could only check in 24h before the flight. Well,... 

By this afternoon I had of course quadruplechecked the date and year of my flight. :)

In the end I got to check in like an old lady at the counter with my passport and everything and even scored a window seat on tonight's long flight... So only the Terminal 5 hatred is still there and even that is fading. It is actually nice here and aside from not working power plugs my experience is much better than last time when I was stuck here for 36h in a 2inch/5cm "snowstorm".

Coming back to the tearful good bye... No, I won't get into that. I told Grandma she will just have to count down the days, which she gladly accepted once she figured out that it is not that long. Today is the 14th and I will come back on the 20th... Piece of cake! 

I don't know what was wrong with people today... They boarded and deboarded abnormally slowly. Maybe it was because there were only tourists or was I just too excited to get on the plane and then out again? To get everyone on board in Munich took more than half an hour. 

Some people were extremely busy checking every row number all the way from 5 to 28 where they were actually sitting. Maybe someone mixed in 28 before 12... You never know...

At least here in Terminal 5 all is the same. I am sitting in Lisa's and my favorite restaurant where hours and hours were spent years ago and it almost seems cool... Or is that the A/C?

Enough with the jokes...

Thanks Dad for driving me to the airport... The soldier in the storm :)

Oh, and I will attach pictures of "the owl" still to get a name. That is a gift from my Godchild Eva and I am taking her around the world, showing her things.

Stop No1: London Heathrow - GB check!

Ready - Set - Go

Every great journey starts with a good espresso...

Flight No 1, Munich to London Heathrow - not my favorite airport and definitely not my favorite Temrinal: 5, the one where my sister and I got stuck almost 6 years ago for more than 24h because of an inch of snow, which shut down not only the airport, but all public transport and basically all life in the UK. But I won't be thinking about that. I am on my way to another what I am sure will be a great adventure...

Packing gets easier the more often you do it and so I was done very fast last night and only had to make few choices... Maybe the decision making was made easier becuse all my belongings are crammed in a room in my parents's house. This is not exactly I imagined the second half of the year to be when I started 2014 with crutches and metal in my ankle. And here I am at the beginning of 14 weeks, 12 flights, 9+ countries and many memories to be. I couldn't be more happy for the way things turned out. One of my dreams will come true... When I am back in Germany just before Christmas, I will have literally surrounded the world. This means I will have the longest imaginable flight which leaves Tahiti at 7 am and gets me into Auckland at noon the next day after an only 6h flight.

Not stopping by in the US on this trip is intentional. I spent most of July there already, meeting friends and hanging out at their great lake houses where I met more friends... And I saw "boyfriend", so all is good for 2014. :) But I will be back, no worries.

My trips to Sweden and Portugal would definitely be worth a couple of entries here... They were tucked in between the US trip and the unpleasantries of moving out and putting my life into boxes.

And then there was family time first with my sister and newly acquired brother-in-law in MUC and last week at home with my parents and Grandma... Cleaning out the attic and finding my childhood safely stored up there including all letters I got made me laugh for a couple of days... OMG...Schmuddelbuddel :)

I won't look back in time, but strictly forward now...

14 weeks... 1direction: West, 1 mission: expand my horizon

Stay tuned...

November 5 The last day

Thanks to the Pisco Sour I sleep long and then spend most of the morning trying to get all my things into the luggage and make it airplane safe. At exactly 12 - checkout time - I am done and ready for some breakfast. So I leave the luggage at the hotel and find myself a Starbucks.

I see the tourist bus company and I am tempted. I have all day to spend and haven't really seen Lima.

So I get a ticket. The bus leaves at 2:15pm and I am supposed to be there 10 min early. No issue. 

I read, write the blog and have good coffee. Somehow my mind is set on 2:30pm and so I show up there at 2:20 to see the bus depart. Here goes my afternoon. This was the only one.
I take a cab downtown to look at the historic part of Lima and end up in front of a building that could be the government. There is a marching band coming around the corner and marching inside the courtyard, so I am watching. They are rolling out red carpets and appear to be very busy. The street gets closed off and it seems like something big is happening. So I am sticking around. 20min, 30min, 45min, 1h... Nothing is happening and I am leaving. The area around this building is really nice.

I do some last minute shopping for the christmas tree. :)
After dinner I go back to the hotel and the taxi driver is already waiting for me.

In Lima airport I meet Carolina and Paul from the Inka Trail again. On the plane I fall asleep right away. When I wake up, I will be in the US :)

This was definitely one of the most adventurous vacation I ever did. It was a lot of fun and the experiences I made were unbelievable in the most positive ways.

Nov 4 Cuzco to Lima and Goodbye Arzu!

And again we are up early. The mess in the room is still big and our taxi to the airport is coming at 6:40. We hardly manage now to get everything inside our bags, but still we are outside and ready to get back to sealevel in time.

The airport is crowded with people and we are not sure whether we will manage to get to the front of the line before check-in stops. Luckily we find 3 self-check-in machines and we try to get boarding passes. For me it works, but Arzu cannot be checked in. So I wait in line at the baggage drop off and she is trying to find someone to help her. The lady tells her to go to counter 69, but in the 25 min she is there, there is nobody helping the about 20 people in line. When I am almost at the front, she joins me again and then she gets a boarding pass without any issues. Puh, that was close. We were already thinking about how to get to Lima on a different flight.

Once we land, Arzu is breathing the nice humid air of the sea, she is very happy and I have to admit that also my body also enjoys the amount of oxygen it is getting all of a sudden.

We grab a cab and let us drive to my hotel. It is in Miraflores, but the street is under construction, so we have to drag our things through the dirt for the last couple of meters. The room is not ready yet, but we can leave the luggage. First I need to find a laundry service and I am once again crazy bag lady. I could wash the stuff myself, but would be stuck there all afternoon, so I decide on the luxury service of having them do it for me - like I did all my vacation. I never had the chance to do it myself so far.

We have lunch and then want to do some shopping. I need some fancy shoes for a meeting in Boston on Wed night and Arzu can always shop :)

We go to Larcomar, one of the coolest shopping malls in Lima with a view of the ocean. Unfortunately it is very misty and so we don't see much. There are mostly small shops and lots of restaurants. So we are done fast without finding anything. We go to Starbucks and research other malls, let the taxi driver drive us there and are amazed. This is huge and has more than what we are asking for. After some fruitless attempts I find boots and am very happy. Luckily our luggage is already full, otherwise we could spend a lot of money here.

Going back to Larcomar, we pick a nice restaurant with a now clearer view of the ocean and celebrate Arzu's last supper... With Pisco Sour, the Peruvian national drink. I think we have more than what is good for us, stupid happy hour :)

When we get up and go to the hotel, we are both drunk!

Arzu gets in the taxi to the airport and I try to find the laundry service again where literally all the clothes I am not wearing, are. Luckily. I find it and luckily I didn't bring any money with me or I would have gone for a haircut right then and there, which might have looked funny, a drunk non-Spanish native trying to explain what she wants.

Nov 3 Inca Trail Day 4

The wake up knock on our tent is at 3 am :( NOT MY TIME!

I am not even really awake when we pack everything and go to breakfast. Omelette and coffee, but it is way too early and I cannot even think straight. We head down to the gate, which opens at 5:30 and are the second group to be there. I try to sleep again on the bench, leaning against the rock behind, but it is awfully cold although I brought my sleeping bag inlay to keep me warm. All through my attempts to sleep I can hear Israel and the Canadians talk and talk and talk. 

At 5 it gets light out and when the gate finally opens, everybody starts running like mad. Although it is not going uphill, it is hard to keep up and I feel very rushed. There is no time to take off even a hat and put it in the backpack, let alone a sweater. This would mean to be run over by the groups coming from behind. At one point I have to stop though because I am hot and here we loose contact to the group. So Arzu and I walk with Carlos and start enjoying some of the views along the way. He also helps us with the Gringo Killer steps, the last steep part up to the sungate. When we get on top, there is nothing to see, only clouds. I take off my ski underpants and we keep running. Now things seem to have slowed down for everybody. Israel, Fiona, Mike, Arzu, Carlos and I are walking together and then in between all the clouds Carlos makes a comment: This is Machu Picchu!

And there it is... Still hard to see, but clear enough to make me stop and be amazed. Israel is trying to ruin this moment with talking, but I choose to ignore him and enjoy the moment all by myself.

3 days of walking are forgotten. This is simply amazing!

We keep walking to enjoy the view from up close before all the day tourists come, but once we get there, there are already people running around in the ruins... But it doesn't matter. We made it!

I quickly change my t-shirt to feel a little more fresh - nobody is looking :) - and we take some pictures before we head to the official entrance to eat our snacks and then re-enter for the tour Ruben will guide us through.

I am a little overwhelmed by all the people. After four days with only the group there is now a lot of stress and hectic here at the entrance. I can hardly manage to walk through the masses. 

Once back inside we look for an Inka sofa (one of the terraces) :) and Ruben explains how Machu Picchu was found only 102 years ago by an American Yale professor with the help of a Peruvian farmer. 

After 2h of learning more about Machu Picchu and the Inkas we have time to explore on our own. The sun is out and so before we go anywhere, we lay on a rock. Then I go up to the temple with James and Jon while Arzu watches our stuff. There are only a couple more steps, so no big deal. The view is great but when we want to go down the guard shows us to the back and we have to make a huge detour to get back to Arzu. Oh well, what are a couple of steps more after 4 days of constant walking?

We explore some more, but nothing is as cool as the view we had this morning, where you could see it all.

Walking out to go to the bathroom and have a cappuccino is painful. Our legs hurt from walking down all those steps in the past two days. But we are strong and manage those last meters :)

Sitting in the coffeeshop with a cappuccino in our hand, we realize that we did it! And we are proud, so proud of ourselves! Who would have thought after my panic attacks in the night before we started that we would sit here, all sweaty but superhappy?!

We take the bus to Aguas Calientes to meet everybody for the last lunch and also get our dufflebags. The town is a typical tourist trap. There are shops and restaurants everywhere and everybody tries to drag you in to sell you something. I buy the last postcards for the Grandmas and Arzu is looking for a t-shirt but has no luck.

We go to the restaurant and the second everybody realizes there is wifi, we are all online to tell the world that we did it :)

Carlitos is leaving early and Isi is still on the mountain, but everybody else is there for a last common lunch.

It starts pouring and we realize that it is the rainy season after all. I skype with Mum, Tulli and Lisa and can see my Mum's relief that I made it back safe and sound.

Then we loose power and it is not coming back until we have to leave for the train station to go back to Ollantaybambo.

We get out our ponchos one last time and waddle to the station, which is very well hidden behind a market you have to walk through.

We board the nice tourist train and I finally try Inka Cola, the neon yellow bubble gum soda. Well, I guess there is a reason it never made it worldwide :)

In Ollantaybambo we switch to a bus, which should be faster than the slow tourist train. On the bus we play a fun game all the way to Cusco.

One asks a question and gives an estimated number. Then everybody says higher or lower and needs to reveal the information. Example: How many pieces of Llama clothing did we buy in the group? How many languages do we speak? How many people have we kissed on this trip?

This is a fun game and we learn a lot about each other. 

In Cusco it is the final Goodbye. Arzu and I give the duffle bags to Ruben and only have plastic bags now. We look funny. Arzu is wrapping her things in her poncho and so we walk through the city, get me a sandwich and make it to the hotel by 9:30. Arzu is asleep at 10, I shower, download the pics and fall asleep as well.

What an amazing experience!