Changes/Transformations

Well, a year ago I started to chase my biggest ever dream: going as a backpacker to Australia.
It was the best decision I have ever made and it became to be the best year I have ever lived and just cannot imagine it to be better!

I have met the most wonderfull persons who just made the experience perfect!

When I started in Brisbane I met Justin and Paul at my first job and they just made the time in Brissie so much better!

After leaving Brisbane I did a road trip with Fanny and Monica!

Left Monica and right drunkard Fanny..

Later, on my way up the coast i met a lot of people who would become important for me later:
Felix and Korbi in Noosa, in Airlie Beach Matti,Luke and Sam&Yvette.

Sam and Yvette just showed me the real Aussie/Bogan life style and made my month in Cairns unforgettable.

Meeting those lads on the Whitsundays

Reunion with Sam in Cairns!

So when i left Cairns to go to Sydney Felix and Korbi asked me to come to their hostel to live with them. Matti and Luke were also there and Sydney probably just became the best time of my year!
We five were just the ultimate party crew and we did so much crazy shit there I already miss!

On the day I arrived in Sydney Korbi showed me the city

A day in the zoo with Felix

Blue Mountains with the boys! The weird looking ginger is Luke

Matti being happy/drunk (again)

Christmas edition photo with Matti and Luke

Boat party yeah!

Good bye selfi with Korbi and Felix when they left Sydney...

Isn´t this just the ultimate party picture?

 

Celebrating the Aussie Day like real Aussies: drunk in the park

Ultimate party crew !

Tasmania. Here I met Grischa and Cenan who still enjoy the Australian sun, currently in Perth. Our road trip just had all you could ask for!

From left: Cenan, me, Grischa

At some point I decided to go to New Zealand and I just met so many amazing people there I just can´t mention them all so I´ll only mention Matt and Michael who just were great company on my trip!

In the middle Michael a real mate let me live in his apartment for a week when i visited Adelaide! And on the righthand site Matt!

The outback! This was definitely one of my favourite parts as well and it just couldn´t have been so awesome without Jani and Emily!

Jani, me and Emily

Last but not least: Timo, Karl, Emma&Jenni in Bali. Crazy, totally crazy people but I love them!

Karl, looking a little bit sad again...and Timo the hardcore fan

Yeah this is how we sleep!

Emma is the rotten girl, 2nd girl from the left and Jenny is the beautiful girl on my righthand site.

I met so many amazing people so next time I´ll leave Germany to explore the world I´ll have to make some visits!(Also Bavaria...but not sure if that´s still Germany though...)

When I came to Australia I didn´t really had an idea on what I should expect and what I quite should do though... but to me it seems I mostly did just the perfect decisions! On the one hand I worked and this was probably the perfect way to enjoy Sydney: over months on the weekends and of course New Year! On the other hand i travelled, I partied, I LIVED! Incredible and unforgettable memories were made during that stage of my year.

So was this year just fun for me or did it actually give me something?
And the answer just can be YES! Despite the fact that I am quite very good and fluent in English now I learned how to live! And I don´t mean to celebrate and do cool stuff. I actually learned to live the real life. I never had to pay for my bed, my food or other essential stuff in my life and having all those costs it changed the way I think about money. What is a small or big amount? I clearly would define them totally different now.

Moreover my personality got a makeover as well gaining more confidence and other things... but not too much since my friends and family still could identify me and my behaviour!
This year was clearly the most awesome year I have ever had and it made me think of doing something like that again during my studies and afterwards.
So this post finishes everything so I hope you enjoyed reading! See ya soon!

City of the Lion

Eventually I made it alive to my final destination, the city of the Lion.
As you surely already guessed right that I was talking about Singapore. Well done!

This is gonna be a very brief post so no worries.

First of all I again had troubles with my damn arm and since I have an insurance I decided to go to the doctor to make sure I'm not gonna lose my arm. So being there the service is really professional!
But then the shock: more than 100$?! Like seriously? But hey: Love you, insurance!

But now:
Just telling that this city is incredible!
There are districts of heaps of Asian cultures.
For instance there is a Little India, Chinatown, Malay district,...

Street decoration in the Malay district

A mosque in the Malay district...

A Hindu temple in Little India

They all offer you the highlights of their cuisines and I tried them all!

Also worth a visit is the colonial district to see the old colonial buildings from which the British used to rule the city.

However the highlight of your Singapore visit is gonna be the Marina Bay.
It's probably the most beautiful skyline I have seen so far.
Lots of modern glass skyscrapers, the magnificent Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the bay itself form a stunning view and I can't spend enough time just sitting at the bay and enjoying that view.
Great to see the sunset there as well though...

Marina Bay, the heart of the city...country...whatever...

Just infront oft the Hotel is a collosal mall.
3 stories and so big they created an artificial canal in the mall to get around by boat!

Another highlight are the super trees in the Garden by the Bay.
Especially beautiful at night when they glow in different colours and during the light and sound show which occurs twice a night.

All in all a very futuristic and unbelievably clean metropolis!
Sad to leave now but happy to see my family and friends again soon!

Isle of the Gods

My second last destination was the isle of the gods, commonly known as Bali.
Expectations: sun, beach, party, diving & surfing.
Reality: sun, beach, party, diving & surfing.

What more could I want at the end of my amazing year? Holiday from my vacation!

I had to leave my hostel in Bangkok at half past 3am in the morning to catch my flight and therefore the plan for the day was to just arrive and take a nap and do not party. But as it is plans never really work out. I immediately met people at the airport and we shared a taxi to our hostel. Then we obviously had to grab some food first to prevent starvation and eventually we ended up at the beach. All together it was so awesome that we decided we had to go out that night. Things got even better when we met even more people to go out with and they told us that there is a happy hour in a club called skygarden where you get free cocktails between 9 and 10 pm. We made it there at 9 and let the fun beginn. Take a cocktail and while drinking it queue on for the next one. It was a dangerous game we played but we played it well. In other words we got completely shitfaced and had an awesome night out. Just the next morning I woke up and I found out that I have peeled off quite a lot of my skin of my big toe and my toe was covered in blood. Moreover I had no idea how we got back but apparently we have been on the back of some random guy's scooter. Well at least I had no hangover which was ridiculous. That day I had a shuttlebus to bring me north to Ubud. Small town with shitloads of temples and a monkey forest which later turned out to be great fun.

Here in Ubud I met a lot of people and on the next day 8 of us decided to rent a scooter and explore the island.

The gang on tour!

When we just wanted to start one Brazilian girl lost control of her scooter and drove into a field that was 1.5m below street level and she even flipped over. I really want to have her guardian angel because she just got some bruises and nothing else. Even the scooter was still fine and we could go on like planned.

Beautiful! Rice terrasses...

Selfi-time!

We drove north to the vulcano and we had a stunning view. Driving a scooter is so much fun but we were quite slow since the girls were a little bit scared.

The next day 5 of us were left and we wanted to rent a scooter again. But in end the 3 girls of us decided they wanted a taxi instead so only Timo and me rented a scooter. Since we were without the girls we could drive way faster and the max speed was 110km/hr. So we first went to the monkey forest in Ubud. We got some bananas to play with the monkeys and the were everywhere. They will just climb or jump on you to get to the bananas. Once I didn't let go of my banana and the monkey just peeled the inside of the banana out. Cheeky little creature!

Next stop was the elephant caves a little further. Not to bad as well but nothing too impressive.

Some altars for some gods I just don´t know...

At last we wanted to see the famous temple which was very far away in the north west but was a must see!

The game of Thrones!

We again finished the trip in the night and driving in Bali in the night is dangerous cause the streets are crap and you can't really see the deep potholes. So after some almost-accidents we made it home safely. The next day me and two amazing Irish girls, Emma&Jenni, left Ubud to go to marvellous Gili Trawangan!

As you obviously can scry I was gonna have an awesome time there consisting of beach, sun and PARTY!
Yeah Gili T is known as a great party island and that's what we did!
Going out every night and finish the week off with a full moon party but more about that later.

One day after us Timo arrived and he brought an engliah mate with him, Karl.
The group of us was complete now and very promising.
Since Timo and Karl stayed at another place we only met up with them in late afternoon so I spent most of my days with the girls and you seldom meet people as fun as those girls are.
Emma is just completely insane and Jenni has got the habbit to go into the sea with electronic devices which ends up quite funny for everyone but her.
-"Oh no I went into the sea with my phone last night!"
-"Don't take your iPod touch with you to the party Jenni! You're gonna crash it in the sea as well!"
-"Nah won't happen this time."
Next morning: "God damnit! I went into the sea with my iPod and it's broken now..."
One word: priceless...

One day I actually spent diving and I probably had my best dive so far.
Seen many many turtles, sharks, octopuses, lionfishes....

The day of the full moon party the girls eventually left me and we were all sad about that but they wanted to see Java and I wanted to surf in Kuta. Gonna miss ya girls!

So only me and the boys left to have a good night out.
Well that evening didn't start to bad tho we had a good predrinking and met some people to go to the party with and it was all in all good fun. Just at one point (probs about 3-4am) a damn scorpion stung me in the finger so I had to go to the doctor to see how much time I had left before I die of the poison. However it was a quite a weak poisoned scorpion and they said it'd be fine and I could return to the party what I did. Let's continue!
The day after the party I actually managed to gety ferry back to Kuta and Timo and Karl were about to follow me the day after.

Kuta is just sick! We managed to get an apartment quite close to the beach and the main road. We almost everyday we did the same: getting up late, go to the beach and surf til 5pm. Then we went to a club called Skygarden because they had a good all u can eat BBQ and free flow beer for 5$! After that back to our apparent for chilling or a nap. Be back at skygarden at 9pm because them starts the one hour freeflow of cocktails! And after that just keep on partying!

Karl, me, Timo : best party crew!

Well...nothing to say here...the clubs in Kuta are a little...how can I say...different...

How we sleep after a long night out!

You see them everywhere offering you mushrooms and even give out cards...seriously?

I just love Bali! But after one week in Kuta with Tue boys I had to leave to fly to my final destination!