Voula, Athens.
// August 4th, 2008 // Comments Off // travel
Currently in Athens, we just got here today from HAMBURG. We have been flying everywhere and the lack of sleep comes to mind!!! 
To start at the beginning:
We were in HONG KONG – it was a long and pleasant flight but we finally arrived. I just wanted to check everything out once we got outside – the heat was so overpowering – we jumped into a taxi without a second thought.
Everyone speaks English in HK so it was no problem getting around. Although our taxi driver didn’t seem to understand what hotel we wanted to go and dropped us off a street away!
We were able to find our hotel easily enough but for me – the heat was far too much to bare. It was so humid, I was sweating profusely & felt as though I might COLLAPSE.
We finally reached out Hotel and I was pleasantly surprised. It was nicely decorated. Although, these things do come second nature to me – I’m not one of those ‘walls were disgusting peach colour – never staying here again!’ pricks you see on TRIP ADVISOR!
Everything was so cheap. At first, I recall feeling a guilt because we had gone to a 7Eleven and bought three packets of chips, chewing gum, two beers and two smirnoff reds for HK$85 which is roughly AUD$11! Taxis were incredibly cheap. To THE PEAK which was a good half an hour from our hotel was $18 roughly. In Perth it would have cost an easy $35+.
The Peak is really so beautiful. During the day, the grandness of it all really leaves you in awe. And at night, it becomes incredibly romantic as lights from the building have the power to bring the day back into HK. It’s almost like being in VEGAS but not so in your face.
Roger and I bought new phones for most probably record cheap prices. Mine was roughly $700. Still don’t know how much exactly but it was still cheap. A totally impulse buy but who cares?! I had got money back from the ATO so I wanted to spend it after I felt a weight was lifted.
The shops in HK are awesome too. Ridiculously huge but of course, nothing to be found in them!
One thing that struck me was the sheer weirdness of walking. Here’s a story – Roger and I are at a shopping centre at The Peak. There are at least 5 escalators to go up to the top. We step on them with ease. Roughly 75% of HKer’s begin a ritual of holding on to othe rail, hovering their uneasy foot over a moving step, isolating a single targeted step and attempt to put both feet on them to continue their journey. Untl next time.
It’s not just the walking but the LACK OF SPEED. People walk as thought they have until next year to get home. It can be frustrating – but also for locals. one woman was too busy pushing her way through a slow moving crowd that she failed to see a face-height sign and SMACKED her face right into it. CLASSIC!
But oh, I am not done. Roger and I were at yet another shopping mall when we stopped in the middle – unsure of where to go. Finally we begin walking again, only to have a woman cut in front of me so close that she tripped over my walking foot! As in, the next step I was taking so that I could walk as a normal person does! I was annoyed at first but gained a sadistic satisfaction when I saw her trip and her arms flailed in the air.
THINGS TO REMEMBER IN HK.
- in summer, bring SUMMER CLOTHES! my stupidity lead me to believe I would need ‘warmer’ summer clothes.
- HK is shit for clothes shopping.
- you can street drink (+++)
- HK is good for electronics
- never go to any mall that has no one inside. Chances are, it is shit.
- just ask for a fork. WHO CARES???
- ignore buddhist bitches
- wifi is everywhere
- there is no internet cafes in the city, are on the island.
- expect people to push in front of you.
- taxi it everywhere
- alcohol is cheap
- don’t use hotel internet.
From HK, we flew to London. A 13 hour flight and my ankles did not well. It was an incredibly irratating flight. A dumbass at the front who insisted on keeping his seat and the empty seat next to Him back the entire flight. Parents constantly walking around with their babies, thinking they are the best in the world and that everyone should look at them and coo. Little stupid kids who can’t pee in the actual toilet and pee on the floor instead. People who don’t know how to remove a paper toilet seat cover from the toilet after they go and leave it for me to carefully lift off and bin it. A dickhead behind me who did not know how to properly fold and secure his tray table and leap me out of my extremley light sleep anyway. Just a shiteous flight. But I did enjoy the awesome movies! I watched Batman Begins again. I really want to see the Dark Knight again!!
So we get to London and it seems easy enough to get around. However, it feels daunting to me and I am intimidated. We get to our cheap ass (not really. it was expensive but it was CHEAP! Get me?) hotel and my guts are churning – bad. I constantly felt like i needed to fart or shit. Uncomfortable. Roger had to go out to drop off our valuables to Helen ready for WACKEN. Whiles I was lying on my bed. In a weird, humid apricot room. I wished that my guts would stop churning.
When it was time to go to bed, we slept in thisthis tiny double bed. I barely moved all night.
We were getting up early to get to Hamburg. The flight was quicky and painless and we got to our hotel easily enough (after a random guy told us the wrong way to go!). By this time I was already intimidated by the language.
We were unable to check into our room and so we wandered around a bit. And things are for sale so we wandered around a bit. Things are so different there. I almost felt embarrassed for people who come to perth for a HOLIDAY?! For what?!!!
The next day was spent shopping for WACKEN. We ran around like mad dogs trying to get everything ready and trying to remember things from a list we never wrote down. We had to check out by 12 that day and bet at REMEDY RECORDS by 2pm for our shuttle bus to WACKEN which is why the running around was required.
(P.S – before I forget – shit was cheap in hamburg too).
Fast forward to 2pm on July 31st. We are sitting on a bus with 30 other people dressed in black, army pants, studded belts and black hair (mostly). Some people know them as freaks but we are NOT.
On the bus, there were 3 extremely annoying guys from the United States who continuously put a bad name to themselves by being extremely loud, obnoxious, chewing gum loudly and saying “like” every second word. I am glad I will never see them again.
I had felt guilty and sorry for Roger as he had to lug around a huge ass bag containing all our clothes and the blow up mattress wehich weighed a tonne because it was one of those really thick ones. When it was inflated, it came up to my knee.
I DO NOT KID.
We walked around for roughly 15 minutes to find a place to set up our tent which would be our home for the next two days.
Do you even understand me now? Because this is how incoherent I was for the next few days. I look back at Wacken now and all I seem to remember is some sort of awesome blur. I was in awe. I was at the biggest metal festival in the world. 80,000 other metal heads amd 3 days of awesome bands, camping, beer, german food and other cuisines, toilet vouchers and 3am piss runs. Sleeping in a fucking tent that was so restricted in room thanks to the blow up mattress but it was joy so WHO CARES!.
Wacken – I don’t think that I can really capture what it felt to be there. To this moment I am still in awe and shocked. The weather was way too hot on the first day and pissed down on the second.
We got a sweet spot to see UNEARTH and it pissed down with rain so bad that my underwear was soaked. REALLY.
For now I must leave as Roger is starting to feel lonely.
Kalinichta.
