Shop shop shopping…?

Friday 27th - Hong Kong

Waking up with gusto (Ingo again) and a little bit of resistance (Me) We were up and ready to go at 9! Packed up and everything so we checked out (but asked if we could store our luggage there for the day) and headed out to do some serious shopping,,, or so we thought,

When we got to town everything was closed. Well duh, nothing opens here till 10, we knew that! so breakfast it was! We went to a very quick and very efficient breakfast place with very false advertising images :/ So when we left and it was past 10 (and still nothing was open) we decided to get a drink from McCafe. Caramel Frappe and Iced Coffee later we thought we'd try again. Ingo was super keen to check out the prices of iPhone's and iPad's so we headed (back) to the multilevel Computer shop of a lifetime (oh bliss.) When we got there it was still not open! So then we thought we'd have a look around at some clothes shops.

I'll tell you one thing now, I don't know where those people go that rave and rave about the cheap shopping in Hong Kong, but Ingo and I just could not find it anywhere! Everything was basically the same price as in NZ and the one shop that had shirts and suits for cheep only did because it was having a sale (by "it" I mean the 4 stores of the same name within 15 minutes of each other) and they were a complete shambles with nothing good left anyway :s So completely dissatisfied Ingo bought the one shirt that he found that actually looked good, and then it was back to the hostel to pick up our bags and head to the airport where we'd be ridiculously early and be able to try our hand at shopping again!

I was wrong (the airport express on the MTR is awesome in Hong Kong btw we were taken right to the door of the terminal - however we had to walk half a mile underground just getting from where you get off one train and get to the airport train) the shopping was not easy in the airport.

I managed to get a new mascara and eye liner pretty reasonably but that was all and then it was through to our gate and on the plan home :) 

Now it's saving time for the next adventure ;) 

Sweaty with sore feet

Thursday 26th - Hong Kong & Macau

attractive isn't it?
I almost didn't get out of bed this morning (yup this morning! I've finally managed to catch up with this blog!) I think it's the heat, but Ingo was showered and ready to go (or so we thought...) as I was only dragging my head off the pillow. But get up I did and then packed all my stuff into my bag, told Ingo that he really shouldn't leave his passport here, and we set off for the ferry to Macau.

We got all the way down the lift in the hostel building when Ingo realised he didn't have the map! So we went all the way back up the 8 floors, Ingo couldn't find the map (is it in your pants from yesterday pocket? no don't think so) when I saw it on the table. Yes just sitting in plain sight on the table ;) So then we went back down. "Get your octopus card (awesome thing the octopus card, much like snapper but the whole transport system and subway is so much better here that it's ten times better then snapper) (another thing, why are all these transport cards named after sea creatures?) out, so you've got it ready" Says I, "oh shit. I don't have it" says Ingo. "where is it then?" "uh... I think it's in my pants pocket" :| you can imagine how much I laughed at him for that one! Anyway we were finally on the subway and then we started walking in the direction Ingo pointed stopped for a spot of lunch (traditional sandwiches ;) and then realised that we were actually on completely the wrong side of the city!! So back to the station we'd just exited, and then changed lines once to catch the subway to the ferry harbour.

When we got there we were trying to find the way to go to buy our tickets and get on board, when there were all these advertisements about Macau this other country... and I say to Ingo, "did you bring your passport? because it looks like this isn't just an island of China type of thing..." So we find a travel agent, "Do we need a passport??" "Yes." well. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing! Poor Ingo was so angry with himself! Talk about the worst organisation of the century ;) and this from the German! not the easy going NZer ;) So we had to take the 2 connecting subways back to the hostel and then Ingo realised that actually, the ferry terminal that's closer to us is actually the better way to go. 5 mins later and we were there!

Just over an hour ride and we were in Macau :) Talk about nothing going very well! We lined up for a good 15-20 minutes and then we were told we were supposed to have filled out an arrival card :/ So back we went to fill it out and then finally we were through! Phew, What a mission!

Macau was just as frigging hot as Hong Kong :/ As soon as we got out of the terminal (and had got our hot little hands on a map) we head off to find the centre of the city (Country? Island?) We went off one way but it looked like we couldn't get up easily so around we turned and back the other way! We wandered through the city, past a couple of not so flashy casinos, until we found all the massive ones, the Wynn, MGM Grant, plus a couple more which names I can't remember. They were massive! (for a person who's never been to vegas) and sooooo over the top! I couldn't believe how much wasted space they could create :s and sooo icy cold! It's a wonder people aren't constantly suffering from colds and runny noses the amount of times in a day that their body has to re-adjust to a new temperature.

After wandering around the lobby's and sneak peaking into a few of the more impressive looking casinos, we decided we would have something to eat. We went to leave the latest casino (the Wynn) when all of a sudden it was pouring down with rain!!! From no where! blue skies to stormy rains, weird! And not up and down rain either, so our brand spanking new umbrella from the markets was hard-pressed to keep us both dry as we walked from street to street.

We wanted to try Portuguese cuisine and eventually found a cute little off the radar place that had a special with soup + main + soft drink for a cheapish price and it wasn't too bad food either :) We then walked and walked ad walked all over half the country (Ingo said it sounded better to say half the country then "only half the city" ;)) Looking for different sites. We saw a couple of little temples, and an old European church ruins (the biggest in Asia) the Ruins of St Pauls, we went to a Chinese garden in the middle of the city that was quite cute and filled with those awesome giant leaves that nothing can stick too! We saw heaps and heaps of stuff and had walked for miles, that barely neither of us could stand, so we started walking towards the terminal hoping to get a taxi on the way, but we ended up walking the whole way back with no taxi (Ingo refused to flag one down, he wanted to find one that was just sitting around waiting for us :/) A ferry was just about to leave which meant no sitting around waiting, and soon we were back at the hostel :) No shopping for us that night! far too sore feet!

(Interesting note: I was up to date with my blog but then I got side-tracked with sleeping so finished it on the plane and subsequently am now publishing this back in NZ :s)
So a nice early night to get straight into the shop shop shopping tomorrow :)

The Stop-Over

Wednesday 25th - Hong Kong!

After a miserable flight where I couldn't make myself sleep (and prevented Ingo the luxury as well) we made it to the stinking hot and muggyness that is Hong Kong! Found our hostel with minimum fuss and went straight to bed and straight to sleep!

A couple of hours later Ingo was up and awake with a vengence! I was quite happy to stay asleep, so I tried my hardest to stall us but no, wasn't going to happen so I dragged myself up ;) We set off only with food on the mind we wandered around and around until we found somewhere to eat.
Hong Kong's pretty crazy! lights and stuff everywhere! and people everywhere too. The restaurant we found sat the foreigners a little separate from the regulars haha ;) But the food was good - pan fried dumplings (Kelly, they were the best ever. You should be jealous right now), and then we shared a plate of fried rice (because Ingo confused the waitress while he was trying to order his dish, by bringing up the starter again, and then when she didn't know what he was talking about he said, 'don't worry, that's fine' and subsequently she didn't write down or bring him his beef hot plate) but we were also given tea which I think was some sort of green tea, but not too sure.

After dinner we went walking again and made our way to the harbour. Unfortunately the laser light show that's on every single night of the year was cancelled for the two nights (and only those two nights) that we're here for so we miss out on seeing that, but the view across to the Hong Kong mainland skyline is pretty amazing! Coloured lights everywhere :) We wandered along the whole harbour line and then decided we'd go to the night markets. Ingo had to lead us there because I was completely lost.

A long seemingly endless street of market stalls the night market was! I got myself a black pashmina for $6 and we got an umbrella that closes up like a bottle (much to Ingo's disappointment we noticed one later that had the apple logo on it) and then walked up and down looking at all the (excuse the phrase) useless crap that people can buy! I wanted to get a new hambag but it doesn't really make sense buying a bag for bag's sake as none of them were that great. So we left with our few trinkets and headed back to the hostel :)

Last Day in Deutschland :(

Tuesday 24th - Hundheim - Frankfurt - Germany no longer

We woke up too late for breakfast, but we had planned to cook lunch so up we got, packed and then off to the grocery store to A. stock up on chocolate and lollies to bring back, and B. pick up some lunch stuff. Then back to start cooking. I've made this sound a lot cruisier then it actually was :/ We were a little bit strapped for time, and we only just got the cake made when Petra, Theo and Karolin arrived for lunch!

We made a salmon and spinach lasagne (by "We" I mean, I chopped the salmon and put the cake together, Ingo did everything else ;) ) and a scrummy yummy rafaello cake which was a pre made base, with mandarin marmalade (or any kind of marmalade, we actually just used tinned marmalade mashed up) spread over that and then crushed up rafaello white chocolate truffle thingees mixed with quark and vanilla sugar and sweet cream all mixed together and spread thick (like one inch thick) over the top, with rafaello halves decorating the top - yum. Sooooo delicious!

After lunch it was time to go :( So we said goodbye to Theo and Karolin as they went off to work, and then Petra drove us to Hahn to catch our bus. It was a bit sad, especially for Ingo and his mum, but we'll be back!!!

I had such an awesome time in Germany (and Prague and Vienna) :D met so many awesome people that Ingo knows, and finally got to meet the rest of (well a lot of) his family, and heaps of his friends, caught up with a couple of people and basically had a really really wicked time :D

Back to Home Base :)

Monday 23rd - Hundheim :D

and the night train ride was not so fun :( We hopped into our cabin with six beds and crossed our fingers that no one else would hop in too, success!!! we were alone! however in hindsight it would have been better if we'd had a full cabin then, because getting woken up after only a couple of hours to 4 guys hopping in, and then promptly falling asleep, and then snoring like freight trains mixed with chainsaws mixed is not fun. Earplugs had no hope of helping, and it was friggen hot. So we both lay awake in the dark counting the seconds go by :/ It was then train switching time and then - bliss! - back to my home away from home :) (and Ingo's actual home ;)) where we were picked up from the station by Petra and Theo, who had both taken the day off to spend time with us :)

When we got back to Hundheim we had some breakfast (scrummy yummy!) and then went straight to bed! which was all we really could do, as - speaking for myself at least - I was ready to collapse! and then after a nice long 2 hour snooze and shower and hair wash we were ready for the day!

We all went for a wander around the wildlife park that was nearby, which had so many deer!!! I've never seen that many deer in one place before :D they were so sweet! and cheekey some of them! We were given 2 bags of food at the start of the walk, and the ones that weren't too scared would come right up and stick their noses right through the fence! Not as bad as the goats though! They would try and take the food straight from the bag! and they had no sharing skills what-so-ever, so the fat ones got fatter and the little ones stayed little :s hehe. We also saw a little goat that had only recently been born, and was still a little wobbly on his feet :) very cool! Just as we were coming close to the end of the trail it started pooring with rain so we got to the cafe just in time and went in for a drink. There was also a small gallery/museum there so we had a look around there too :)

Then it was back home to get ready for the annual Kirmes :D

It was the last night of the 3 day festival and it was also the night they have preformances from different groups and Karolin (Ingo's youngest sister), Kristina and Nicole's (who I'd met previously) dance group were preforming too!!! So I was looking forward to seeing that :)
When we arrived there were people everywhere! Ingo was saying that he doesn't think he's ever seen the tent that full before! But what was really cool was how many people I recognised :) Friends and family of Ingo's that I'd met before - heaps were there and we talked to a few of them before the show started.

The first act was a boy who pulled off some pretty awesome Michael Jackson moves - and I don't think he'd had any proper training so that was pretty clever. Then there was a group of younger girls that Nicole trains, followed by group after group of dancers - awesome! :D The last group to preform were the Dog City Girls (the group I know people in!) and they were super cool :D Especially considering they'd only practised it with everyone present the once the previous afternoon! It's cool cause it's a slightly different dancing style to what I do, with lifts and cartwheels - almost 'bring it on' styles, and looks super fun!

Anyway, after they'd finished Petra and Theo finished up for the night, and Ingo and I stayed on. We talked to so many people! and I tried my hardest to keep it in German ;) Kristina also pulled us up for a boogie which was awesome fun (although I'll have that song -which name I can't remember- in my head for the rest of my life after it was played about a million times!) and I got to meet a couple of new people that we hadn't had time to meet up with before, so all in all a very fun night :) We got home at about 3am. Phew!

Tourist Time

Sunday 22nd - Hot hot hot München!

I'm going to brag and brag about the beautiful weather in Munich, first because it was awesome at a high of 31 today, second because it's only 11 in Wellington at the moment, and third because that's what a summer holiday's supposed to be! :p

We had a nice long sleep in to start the day, and when we finally got our a's into g, we had missed breakfast and were heading into the lunch period! Off we went to go to the Viktualienmarkt...

...that was closed! Mum's constant "nothing's open on a Sunday" growing up (when things were open ;p) actually applies here! No shops are open on Sunday! crazy! haha but kind of nice too, so after walking into the most definitely not open market we whipped to the closest cafe for some Apfel Strudel for me, as I hadn't tried it yet (after so long in Germany as well!) It was scrummy yummy with home made vanilla sauce nom nom noms!

Simon met us halfway through our meals and helped Ingo finish his, then we were off again with so much to do and see on our last day!

We started off with a trip to Olympia Park which was awesome! So massive! with amazing curved glass roofs undulating across the entire space. Before we made it up there though, we were side tracked by the BMW Museum which had very nice toilets Anthea and I found, while the boys manned it up.

Out side the museum and amongst all the olympic structures were market stalls so not everything is closed on Sunday's ;)

We wandered around the Park for a little bit, but decided that because I'd hiked a mountain before we didn't need to climb the hill that's made from WWII rubble and waste, so we took our leave.

Our next tourist spot was a church (so much for all churched out eh?) that Ingo had read had burnt down in 1995 so they'd built a new one, that was essentially a glass box that the whole front facade could open out - very cool! When we got there the massive doors weren't open, just the normal doors so in we went. It was a very classy looking church - very minimalist and very modern. The organ pipes were arranged in a square and there were wire frame cubes kind of like a defragmented grid form, arranged around the altars and some of the pictures.

From the church we went past the university that Sophie Scholl and co. went to, so we went past the memorial in place for her, which was cool for me to see, having just learned about the story through the movie. We then walked through the fairly substantial uni grounds to get to the surfers wave, which is essentially a canal/river that's about 7 metres approx. wide where they've built this barge thing underneath so the water flows in an ongoing wave so surfers from all over line up either side and take turns to see how long they can last and if they can attempt any jumps. Simon was telling us that apparently 1 drunken person a year dies in this thing :/ because the current is so strong!

From there we headed to the English garderns which is the size of a few hundred rugby fields put together (slight exaggeration but seriously massive!) and there were people everywhere! and heaps in bikinis wandering around a massive park. There were huge trees every where and hugh open spaces, the same strong current river runs through it and on one side you're allowed to sun bath nuddie, and then smack bang in the middle is a massive beer garden, the second biggest beer garden (in the world? probably) that seats over 700 people (if I remember correctly) and you get your food and beer in a fenced off area and pay for it all on your way out, then go find yourself a seat.

We stayed there for a good amount of time just absorbing the atmosphere - very cool :D Then realised that time was getting on if we wanted to see the glockenspiel chime and so we headed back through the gardens and went to sit down and have a couple of happy hour cocktails while we waited for the 9pm chiming of the clock.

Which was a bit of a let down :( We were promised so much! but I think that the later chimings of the clock are not the full version and so we only saw a part of it, there was no clock people murder or anything like that - however there was this really awesome street band who were playing remix's of classical pieces and they were so cool!!! They are called konnexion Balkon. I've definitely seen my share of awesome street musicians here - a lot of them are a far cry from some of the wellington peeps, but at the same time there' not a lot of room for a full band plus some to be all muso-ey on the narrow non-plaza streets of Welly!

Then it was time to say goodbye :( first to Simon who's stop was first, and then Anthea. It was very much a see you when we see you kind of goodbye, which happens when people are all over the show, but it was super cool to hang out with them and catch up!

On to the night train! 

All Churched Out ;)

Saturday 21st - a full day of München :D

It was straight into tradition as soon as we were ready to go. Off to a beer garden around the block from Anthea's place (named by Anthea "the jungle garden" very fitting as it indeed felt like you were in a bit of a mish mash of jungle with an odd assortment of decorative sculptures and installments) to have some Weisswurst and Weissbier for breakfast - very Munich of us :D. Yup beer for breakfast! just after we'd brushed our teeth! The sausages for brekkie were yummy but the beer was a little hard to stomach - I don't think I'm cut out to be Bavarian :s - and the bread was delicious!!! freshly baked and still warm! plus I had my first very own Brezel. Yum! 

After brekkie we walked down to the river to have a look see, very nice, you wouldn't think you were in a city area :) loads of people chilling out river side, and cycling along, and then it was off to see the main drag in the city before we headed off to the lake for some swimming and sunning - finally!!! We'd told Anthea about our experience with the most garish church ever and she then said she would show us a church that she thought would beat it. So after we looked in a couple of shops, we met up with Simon just outside the church and then went in. She was right! it was absolutely amazingly over the top - I've never seen so much tackiness all in one place! It was pretty cool - there were golden skeletons and Golden babies vomiting golden sunbeams. One of the statues was holding golden chains to it's baby angel slaves who had golden collars - very odd decoration! and then again all the different colored marble you could imagine and the twirly columns. Wow.

Having taken all that in, we were all pretty ready for a break from the site seeing so off we went to catch the U-Bahn to the lake. One of the people we met last night, Jane, was also keen to come along and when we got off the train she'd been on the same one! So the five of us went up and got some ice cream while we waited for the bus to take us to the lake. Man it was hot! a high of 29 degrees that day! (I decided that the good weather had to have been mine and Ingo's doing, as they informed us that the summer in Munich so far had been pretty crappy up till that point)

The lake was awesome! like a beach with grass - although not as clean :s I skipped the first swim, happy was I to just be able to soak up some sun, and when I went in for the second excursion I almost got right back out again, man it was freezing!!! But with the threat of Ingo and Simon ready to splash anyone chicken enough not to go right in I quickly dipped down, didn't make it any warmer like they'd promised but at least the threat was gone :) Jane had also come super prepared with some chocolate biscuits of which I think I devoured most :/ Simon coming in a close second, apples and some crackers, and so we had ourselves a fun wee time down at the lake. I'm no browner thanks to the summer season being all but over, the sun wasn't that strong, and with the sun smart kiwi attitude I had some sunblock on so there wasn't really that much hope for me :s but oh well! I tried! After we finished up at the lake, we took the same path back and then we said goodbye to Jane. 

The rest of us went over to Simons place for a quick beer, on the way stopping at a supermarket for some supplies, where we saw a poster advertising a round the world trip stopping in; Fiji, LA, New Zealand and Auckland! haha they listed Auckland as separate ;) very funny) Ingo had a couple of friends he knew from his Uni studies; Sebastian and Eva, who he wanted to meet up with, so Simon told us about this place to eat near his place and we arranged to meet them there. They arrived and we ordered, I didn't really get the chance to talk to them during dinner, the table was long and narrow so it was kind of hard to talk to anyone but the people immediately opposite you, but we had a good time, and afterwards Sebastian and Eva came back to Simons with us for a drink which was cool :) They're really cool people and their english was awesome (with me, Anthea and Simon all with minimal German skills it made sense to stick with the English - although I think Simon and Anthea's aren't as bad as they say ;))  

Then back to home base for a relatively early night :)