Farewell and Beginning

A bɔra kɛnɛ kan: 16.08.2019

Sunday morning 2:00 am, the backpack is packed, the last beer is drunk. When at 4:00 am the lights came on in the whole house, I knew we would soon be heading to Berlin. The journey was pleasant and passed quickly. Upon arrival at the airport, we looked for each other and waited for the line at the check-in counter to get smaller so that we could finally be assigned our seats. The nice lady assured us that she still had 2 seats available at the emergency exit. We were very happy and shortly after that we said goodbye to our families. The farewell was a funny mixture of sadness and uncertainty as to whether we could smuggle our food and drinks into the airplane (it was listed as strictly forbidden on the internet). We were almost through the security check when a gloomily looking woman called out: 'Hello, young lady, please come with me.' That couldn't be good. After Tanja had emptied her entire backpack, there were still some restrictions and a police officer was called for assistance. Tanja was suspected of smuggling explosives. While I found the whole thing very amusing, the families already looked at us mysteriously from a distance and probably thought that something was wrong with our cargo. Upon arrival on the airplane, we immediately noticed that we were not sitting at the promised emergency exit, but in normal seats, with only 10cm of legroom. Although it was very cramped, the 12h20min went by quickly and shortly after that we arrived at the Singapore airport. There we exchanged some money and took the Sky-Train to another terminal, to the Butterfly Hall. It was very beautiful there. Afterwards, we ate 2 Asian soups with rice in a small side restaurant (unfortunately they didn't taste good at all). In a small supermarket at the airport, I noticed that the beer cost 9 dollars per can... This shock would be repeated in Australia. Arriving on the plane again, we noticed that we were sitting three rows apart, but thanks to a kind woman, we were able to sit in the last row and fell asleep immediately. Arriving in Sydney, we picked up our backpacks and walked to our hotel. The next morning, we took the train (1h30min, for 6 dollars) and the bus to Terrigal, where we were supposed to work for 2 months. Our bosses and the people there are all very nice. The beach, the flora, and the water look very beautiful and we hope that we can soon do some travelling as well. The last 3 days, we only bought the bare necessities for food (like canned food, some fruit, vegetables, cheese, and spread) and became 200 dollars lighter. Now I have written much more than I actually wanted to write. We hope that all the pictures are of good quality and that you are well. See you! :)

Jaabi