Goiânia

So I finally did arrive in Goiânia.

It was a long way to get here, but I made it. And Sao Paulo International airport now officially is the most boring airport in the whole wide world. I mean, seriously. The Goiânian airport on the other hand is just very small. It reminded me a little bit of the airport in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Just one little house, two belts and a walking way where you walk from the plane to the baggage claim, all across the airport.

I was really tired, so I really didnt see much of what was going on. I was picked up by Georgia, the girl who organizes my relocation, and Ismael, a guy that comes from Goiânia and that also helps me around and shows me everything.I went to the hotel and slept.

The next day I met Ismael and Georgia and we did a city tour for the whole day. They showed me all the different areas and places and we stopped for coffee and had a long chat in the sun. It was really nice. The city reminds me a bit of cuba's and mexico's little cities that I have seen. A little run down on one hand, on the other kinda charming. It is very green but then again, the buildings are sooooo grey. I dunno. It is safe and seems nice, and I think I could live here. Its a big step away from europe though. In many ways. The streets arent as cosy nice and pretty as what I had in madrid, but the living conditions in a condo with pool and everything are above all standards I could ever afford in Europe. A little weird, that feeling.

We had lunch at a place that serves local food and it was very very yummy and a lot! Food, I think, is really important in this town... They have so many little restaurants and at night they all go to the burger places...

We also went to the mall to get me a brazilian sim card and to see whats going on there... basically, we just had a very nice, relaxed day of walkind and driving around, seeing things and talking about everything... They are really two very nice people.
Also, we went to this one place where they have nearly 60 different sorts of fruit icecream. I tried one, but I was still full from lunch...

There isnt really much more to say, except that I had a great day but am tired from the wierd heat/humidity and that tomorrow we will go house hunting. That is really a very exciting part, as the flats I am going to look at are going to be really nice and big and with a pool for the condo!!!
Crazy, crazy, so much luxury! Tomorrow then I will also take pictures... I didnt today, I kinda forgot...

Well, as you can see from my post, I am really tired... I look over it and its a little all over the place... Ah well, maybe tomorrow I know more things to say... :)

Visiting Brazil

So, it is finally official... well, I still don't have a ticket, but after weeks of begging and organizing and making people find a way around stupid rules, we all together found a way and now I am officially allowed to fly to Brazil for the wekk 23rd to 29th of March in order to attend a couple of regional meetings where I will be able to meet my future boss and colleagues. It also finally gives me a chance to visit the place where I will be moving in a month and a bit... So I am very excited about going really, though, I am a little scared as well... but who knows... its gonna be great, I hope, and why shouldn't it be?! Hahaha, yeah, I am really kinda trying to keep me on the positive road here... not that easy all the time...

So I received most of my vaccines last week, but I gotta go back to get a second and third rabies vaccine, but it isnt just rabies: it's against vampires :P That's what they call the little bats that live in the countryside and regularily dive down onto cows and sheep in order to push their teeth into their meat and to suck out some blood. And well, sometimes, the cow turns out to be human... ooops... kinda scary, isn't it?

That's all there is to say about Brazil for now, but I will tell you more as soon as I have actually been there ... :)

And, just as a little sidenote, I couldn't resist to open the chimney and to blow air into it to get the fire a little more going, and as a result I have to clean the floor now... ah well...

Pictures of the Past

I spent my weekend in Bremen, where my aunt and uncle as well as my Grandma live. I went there because my Grandma is now nearly 89 years old and she is getting very very forgetful. Meaning, if she knows who you are its already very good.
I wanted to see her before I go to Brazil as in this age, you never know what happens. So it came that I spent some hours drinking tea or coffee with her and saying all the same things over and over again. Sad somehow, great on the otherhand.

It is just so very sad to see that she always feels lonely. Even if you spend many many hours with her together, as soon as you are out of the door she will feel alone and think, forgetting about the visitors she had earlier, that noone cares or comes to see her. The thought of her feeling so alone makes me sad and crazy.

On the other hand, she seems to feel satisfied with her life and the world around her. She does not complain about more than being lonely and she arranges her life as good as she can. That makes me proud. It makes me proud because she had a rough life the first 20 or 25 years. Her mom died early and she was sent to a very strict boarding school which she hated. As soon as she could leave she left to Paris to study french and become a translator. She came back to Germany when World War II had started and her hometown Nürnberg had been bombed. There she stood, a young girl with a suitcase in front of the empty burnt down house of her parents.
Later, her younger brother and father were killed at the war-front and she had many more years of horror and war to live through.
My grandma married my grandfather, however, she was not good enough for her mum(ster)-in-law. Not even with a grandchild for her parents-in-law she was good-enough, as it was only a girl. It was only a couple of years later that things changed, but then they really did and I think my grandma had an amazing live with three great children and a wonderful husband. They lived in Hamburg, Caracas (Venezuela), Munich and Frankfurt; and the appartment in Spain was (and is still) always filled with family. Probably these great years made up for the trouble she had encountered, resulting in that satisfaction that she seems to have regardless of her lonelyness and her fading strength to walk around or to remember things...

Before I drove home yesterday, we sat at her little coffee table and looked at old and very old pictures from my family. Cute pictures of me, my sister and my cousins; pictures of my young dad and his sisters; pictures of my grandparents. She didn't recognize to much and kept confusing my cousins or me with my dad when he was little, but yet she enjoyed looking at all those pictures I think.

In the end I found a picture of my dad, on the balcony of their appartement in Hamburg-Altona, being nearly two years old. His blond hair goes all the way over his ears, he smiles, wears a bib overall of cord-rows and a white longsleeve shirt underneath. He looks exactly like a girl. Like me. We put a picture of me, age one and a half, next to it. I smile, my blond curly hair reaches my ears and I am wearing a rose-couloured cord-row bib overall and a white longsleeve shirt underneath. If it wasn't for the black/white vs. coloured, one could exchange the picture from 1955 with the picture from 1986 easily.

Madres

I am flying back to Madrid today, only for the weekend though.
Wonder if its still gonna be the same. I mean, not much time has passed since we were all really living there and a lot of my friends are still there working, or looking for jobs in this weird time of crisis...
When I was in Canada I had to write this thing called "inner monologue" for English and I wrote it about leaving Canada and hoping to return "home" when I come back for graduation. I got a 100% for my little piece of poetry, however, Ms. Artiss, my English teacher at the time said to me: My dear, I left England when I was small and as much as I wish it would come true, in fact you will never return "home" whenever you left a place. You will always have to stay for a while and make it home again..." She was damn right that smart lady... But nevertheless, Canada stayed at least like a second home to me and I feel comfortable being there.
Madrid, I hope, will stay the same.
Germany really didn't. I feel home and visiting at the same time having to build friendships completely new and trying not to be too sad when I am forgotten to be invited for parties etc.
I think knowing that I will leave to Brazil soon makes it worse.

However, lets stay positive: I gotta catch a plane and keep playing jet-setter. Madrid, party-city, I am coming!

Hungry for Spicy Food

After coming back from Angkor Wat and my nap, I did not have dinner as I was tired out and the heat and especially the humidity made me lose any appetite.
When I finished my tea this morning and set off in the city the heat was still too much for me to take and to eat in it. Yet, when I arrived at about 12:30 in the middle of Siem Reap the smells got me hungry and full of appetite despite the weather around me.
I sat down in a little soup restaurant with fans, which turned out to be viatnamese and served wonderful spicy food.
On the table next to me sat a girl and we started talking. She comes from Canada and is on her way for two years now, teaching English in school times for a couple of months up to half a year and then moves on to travel until the money is gone (which is when she starts teaching again). We had a really nice talk and later went to the market together to stroll through the various stands of cloths and (fake?) jewllery.

Later on, Kim (thats the canadian girl's name) left to go to the gym. She had already lived in Siem Reap for two weeks now and enjoyed the city and her volountary work.
Myself, I still wanted to rent a bike to see some more parts of the city. I followed all rent-a-bike signs i could find, however, I never found the store that goes with it. Maybe, the few bikes these rental services have were all ready gone and I was too late. I don't know.
Anyways, I decided I should see some more of the city and set off by foot. It didn't take too long for me to realize, that the visit of the temples was not only mindblowing but also heavy leg training (from all the stairs) and my muscles right above the knees were so sore, that I could even feel it when walking camly and really not any stairs or slopes, after I had walked for a while. I kept going but after quite a while decided to sit down in a cafe and to have a nice break over a cold lime juice, just watching the Cambodian People folowing their usual saturday precedures. I enjoyed it a lot. People Watching here is very different than on the terrace of El Lateral in Madrid, where it is mostly about making fun of expensive dresses that make the ladies look like saussages or about the parking skills of girls, whos hair is never the less perfect (eh, Amber?).

As the plan to go to the concert is still standing, I am back now to take a shower and to get everything ready for tomorrow morning.
Later on, I might go back to the city to meet up with Kim again who said she would be in the Banana Leaf bar this night, in the famous pub street. Maybe I can get Martin the swiss guy to come with me, as he is wanting to do some voluntary work and to stay here some longer. Kim could maybe help him with that (yeah yeah, its all about the networking, as always... ;P)

Last but not least, I read the email today that York's wife gave birth to a little baby girl named Rubi! Welcome to Madrid, little one; happy birthday! And Congratulations to Luly and York, the proud parents :)

A Calm Day

The eight hours of temple sightseeing really were enough. I spent a calm evening yesterday night here at the hostels garden and chatted with a Portugese and a Finnish guy over a couple of Angkor and Lao Beers. Lao Beer by the way is really yummy. You should try it! :)

Today I woke up at nine, went down to the garden and sat there with a couple of Germans and Swiss people to talk about travelling and about Asia in general. I ordered a tea, thinking of a green tea or something, but I received a Lipton Tea. Thought that was wierd.

Other than that, I didn't do much so far. It is just so nice to hang out and chat, and to let the experience sink in.
Maybe I will go and rent a bike to go down to the lake, and tonight I want to go to a free concert in town. Thats all the plan.

Tomorrow my driver will pick me up at 5:30am to go to the airport, where my plane leaves at 7:something... Even though the airport is so tiny, one is supposed to be there an hour early, but luckily I have my iPod and a book :)

Thats it for now, i guess...

The Temples of Angkor

I did really get up at 4:30am... me! Can you believe it? I hardly can... hehehe
But it was worth it.

At 5am, my driver showed up and we set off in the dark towards the temples of Angkor. Somewhere in the middle of the street were huts to buy your ticket. It comes with a picture, so that you cannot share it.
After one has passed the booth, one keeps on moving on everyday streets and routes which are used by the people, who live in the villages between the temples, all the time. It doesn't feel at all like a museum site, but rather like a temple city, where people have these temples in their live, because they are there for ever, but not because they are something special.

At dawn, I sat at a lake on a little old stone plateau to watch it. The dawn was wierd though, the sky never turned orange nor did one see the sun rise really. It was just light so quickly.
On the other side of the lake was the first temple I saw. I felt like a crazy scientist or lara croft when I wondered through the calm temple in the jungle, as I was the only one there. I had it all to myself, cause most tourists start in the opposite direction to see Angkor Wat at dawn. Me, on the other hand, I listened to Kati and did it the "wrong"way, which was exactly right.

Of course, there were kids again, trying to sell braceletts, coffee or other things. Here, in this surrounding they were a bit annoying, even though they only followed me around outside of the temple itself.

The second temple was Ta Phrom. This is the so called "jungle temple" where trees have grown all over and through the massive walls and stones. Here, they filmed Tomb Raider, but even though I was alone (except for a so called guide) it didnt feel like the first temple. There were too many signs and construction sites to rebuild the temple. However, I liked this temple the most from the small ones, it is just very special with all the trees and the early sunlight.
Funny enough, one of the carvings displays a dinosaur. I wonder how they did know... or who played a very big joke, cause there is really no evidence for the dinosaur to be carved in at any different time than the gods shown in the reliefs.

I went on and saw a couple of more small temples which are not really necessary to mention, but of course, they were beautiful as well. One thing is to mention though: One of the temples was to be climed at own risk, and the stairs are really crazy. As narrow as ten centimetres and high as maybe 35cms... really hard to climb, and horrible to get down. I only climbed the first two levels.

The next highlight was in the City of Angor Thom. Next to another small temple there was a bigger one which is fully under construction right now, to rebuilt a huge reclining buddha. As one couldnt really enter it, they put up huge walls with explanations on how the re-construction works. It was actually started in the 50s, stopped in the war, and only restarted in the mid 90s.

Right in the middle of the City is the temple of Bayon, which is another really beautiful temple with many many towers which have huge faces on them. Unfortunately, I met a lot of tourist groups here (mainly japanese and english, by the way) which took a little of the charme and the some chances for amazing pictures. Still, I thought this was so beautiful that I sat down in the shade for a while and listened to the various guides, whenever I could understand them.

When I went back to search for my driver, I went to get a water. They couldnt change my ten dollar bill (I even think they didnt think it was real) so I gave them my last Riehls. I also wanted to eat something and so I sat down in the place where my driver had a quick meal as well. The girl there spoke english very well, she was about ten I guess, and assured me she could change it for sure. The food was yummy as always, and in the end she gave me nearly all small dollars and one dollar in Riehl, so that was really good.

The last temple I saw was of course the huge and beautiful Angkor Wat. Before one enters it, one has to walk a huge 200m causeway over to big mashes, then go through a 200m wide building used as gate with an entrance so big that an elephant could go through, and in the end another 150 Causeway before one reaches the terrace in front of the temple. Here, I had the post card view on the temple, really, with the five towers sticking out.
I entered and was surprised that there were hardly any tourists left in the building. The bas-reliefs in the galleries are so carefully carved and so detailed, it is amazing.
In the second floor i got a nice few on the towers, but unfortunately, the third level was closed off.
In one of the hallways I sat down for a while to read about Angkor Wat in my book and to take a sip of water. It was very calm and nice.
On my further way through the temple, I passed several buddha statues with golden scarfs and some with candles where people had prayed.

Somehow, the real feel of the temples isnt really possible to be described in words, especially not on a blog while being here, as time is limited. Maybe the pictures can tell more, and in the end I can always sit down with everyone who wants to hear about it and tell the stories over a glass of tinto (which I miss, really) on the terrace :)

After Angkor Wat, I drove back to the hostel. I had been looking at temples for over eight hours, even though I only did the "small"round. I felt smelly and stinky and tired, from waking and sweating in the incredible heat at noon. Luckily I had sunscreen with the number 50... I would have burnt myself otherwise.

I showered, took a nap while it rained heavily and now I will go and get a drink :)