Wacky-World

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed of not feeling totally amazed by being on the other side of the world. People speak english…I have seen that. The houses look like those I had seen in the US and in the UK…so no jaw-dropping either. Life seems so comparable to all I knew…and I had hoped to feel something special being that far away.

Today, this changed. We were walking across the Harbour Bridge and I tried to get my directions straight, thinking that we probably are heading northbound and the opera is in our east. Always double-check your assumptions when risking to walk for quite a way in the wrong direction, I was glad I did. Since it was around 11 and bright sunshine, the sun would have to be somewhere behind me if I was heading north. I looked back. No sun. Strange! I looked right and left. No sun. (Can you imagine how strange it feels to have a blue sky and looking for the sun? 😉 ) And then, suddenly, I realized that on this side of the equator, the sun is in the north at lunchtime. I looked up and there it was, bright and shining. It’s probably hard to imagine, but I got goose-bumps from realizing that a fact that had been one of the most absolute in my life so far, had just changed.

The sun, we learned, can never be north of you. Yes, it can. It doesn’t matter if life is very comparable to ours back home. Now, I’m so amazed of being on the other side of the world!!!

One of the public ferries going in front of the Sydney Opera House

Today we did get some mileage down and I got a good first impression of this great city of Sydney.

Crossing the very large Harbour Bridge and having a look from high up over Sydney Cove and the majestic Opera House, I could understand why it is so well-known across the world. It’s such a sight!

We took the ferries to move along the Harbour and went into the hinterland to the Olympic Stadium on this fast catamaran. Standing in the breeze, looking at the changing neighborhoods of Sydney and enjoying the sun and 20° weather is great. At the Olympic Stadium, everything is ready for the Convention. It looks exciting!

To finish the day, we went out eastbound to the Tasman Sea at Manly Beach. The water is still warm enough for us to walk in there for more than 1 hour. Knowing that I cannot be considered being a Penguin in this respect, this does mean something. Besides, it’s winter in Australia. This was also the case, that we had a sunset very early. When we arrived at the beach at 16:30, the sun had already set and at 17:30 it was pitch-black. Since we still had 20° out, it felt like around 11 at night at the French riviera.

Coming back on the boat, we had a splendid view on the light installations and projections on the Opera House. In Sydney, they have a light festival going on these days and since it was so dark, the lit up Opera House contrasted impressively against the black sky. On our way home from the Quay, we go to see, feel and interact with even more and very interesting and inspiring light installations.

After an almost 12 hour flight, I’ve safely arrived in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

Even though the weather in Frankfurt was rainy, we had a great view from the Czech border almost to the end.

It was impressive flying over Ukraine for two reasons. You can feel how huge and scarcely populated this country is. The second reason is that from 10,000 meters, cities like Donezk look like many other cities but knowing that there are violent fights going on, makes it special. Since I was watching a Hollywood movie while flying over Ukraine, I was reflecting on our daily problems and theirs. It’s impressive how some people have to fight because they long for freedom and others because they’re afraid of freedom.