This is the end...

Friday the 13th til Wednesday the 18th of March: After I settled in at my hostel in Singapore, located in Chinatown, I got to know two lovely ladies from Australia and New Zealand, that I went out with to Clarke Quay. With drinks and entry into the clubs being very expensive, we took advantage of a good cocktail deal at a bar. The waiter was very nice and gave us a "code word" to get into one of the clubs for free... and it worked! The music there was pretty awful though, so we didn't stay that long. Glad we didn't pay the 30 dollar entry fee! The next day we visited Little India together and enjoyed the street art and some very good indian food. In the evening I visited the Gardens by the Bay. The two domes with exotic gardens and the waterfall were so beautiful. After dark I went to the big trees, where they had a light show, accompanied with classical music. Wonderful! Unfortunately the girls left that evening and the next day, but the lovely Naz, who was working at the hostel, has a great talent for connecting people. So through him I got to know a Canadian, that I spend some time with. We explored some more Singapore nightlife by going to a live music bar. On Sunday I visited the National Museum and learned a lot about Singapore's history. I also walked through Fort Channing Park and enjoyed the sunset from there. The next morning I got chatting to a Scotsman and went out with him for some more live music in the evening. But even in Singapore, nightlife on a Monday is limited, so at around 12 everything closed down. As a Berliner I was a bit irritated 😋 The day I had spent going to Sentosa Island. It's a short cable car ride from the Harbour and it was very nice. I hiked through the forrest and chilled at the beach. In the evening I watched the light and fireworks show Wings of Time. It was lovely and very empty, cause of the lack of tourists due to Corona. Upto now I had not been worried about the virus, but it was becoming a bigger and bigger problem. On my last day, after I checked out, I went for lunch in Little India with Naz and some other travelers. Some of them were very nervous, because they were trying to reschedule flights or find new ones after theirs had been canceled. I checked my flight every hour and was relieved that everything seemed to work out fine. I met two German girls flying out at the same time as me (around 1:00am Wednesday morning), one was even on the same flight as me. So we went to the airport together, enjoyed the tropical garden and the light show at the Jewel (biggest indoor waterfall) and we're able to get on the flight just as planed. Very lucky! The flight was quite uncomfortable. It was a bit strange because 2/3 oft the plane was pretty empty, but the back was very crowded. Great idea when a contagious virus is going round 🙄 So after we were in the air, people started changing seats. They announced one should ask the staff first, so me being very German, I asked and was told I couldn't. Me saying that almost half of all passengers already had, did not impress the unfriendly stewardess. So I just sneaked to a free row later, when the lights were off. They passed me several times but didn't seem to mind (like with the other 30 or so people who had done the same), but just after I had finally fallen asleep, a stewardess woke me up to tell me I was not allowed to change seats. 🤬🤬🤬 I was soooo pissed, it's so hard for me to fall asleep on planes. And she didn't tell anybody else. Sorry, but that was just plain mean. Cramming people in a plane like that when it's at least half empty is unnecessarily shitty under normal circumstances, but considering the need for social distancing, it was irresponsible. So if you can avoid it in the future, don't fly with Scoot. I arrived in Berlin at 7:40am local time the same morning. I originally had a welcome dinner planed with some of my friends, that had to be canceled for obvious reasons 😭 Instead we had a Skype wine evening, which was fun. Also my flat mate was lovely, welcoming me back home and making food for me the next couple of days 😍. So now it's back to the real life and it's a bit more real then I had hoped. Looking for a new job will not be easy under these circumstances and working as a speech therapist in my old practice, til I find something new (which had been the plan), won't be possible because most patients canceled. But I have wonderful friends and family who support me and I hope it will all work out in the end. Thanks to all of you, who followed my travels from home, gave me tips and stayed in contact. And thanks to all the lovely people I met along the way. It was so great to make all these connections, learn about other countries and cultures and make the beautiful experience, that wherever you go, there might be some twats, but there are always much more friendly and wonderful folks! I hope we stay connected. Take care and be kind. ❤️❤️❤️