Back in Heidelberg with a lot to tell. However, I’m not sure that I will manage to get all of it in this entry. But since pictures say more than a thousand words there should be plenty of blah-blah in the gallery after I have uploaded ~300 pictures.

Well, where should I start... I guess I’ll just start in Heidelberg 2 weeks ago. So we were 4 guys who had decided to spend a weekend in Paris. I thought that since you can go to Paris from Heidelberg with train in just 3.5 hours it was for sure worth going, so I booked some tickets and two nights in a hostel a couple of months ago, after convincing Alex, Julian and Bhargav to join. The Idea was simply to do the ‘classic’ tourist run in Paris. We left Heidelberg friday at 1300 and had booked 4 beds in Aloha hostel (which was kind of ironic, since I booked the hostel before I knew I had to leave early from Paris to go to Hawaii... more about that later). Well we left from HD and after a nice train ride we arrived at Gare de L’est in Paris around4 o’clock. From the train station we went directly to Sacre Coeur to start our tourist stuff. Of course it’s beautiful and nice and ... but what really made me happy was the small wine café we found in Montmatre behind the basilica. Since we didn’t get that much to eat in the train we were a bit hungry and then we were of course thirsty for french wine. So we found this nice café where we could enjoy some good food and wine in the sun - and at that moment I knew that the weekend would be great. Afterwards we went to the hostel to check in and get rid of hour luggage. After having gotten rid of our luggage we grabbed our walking shoes and went to the Eiffel tower to enjoy some more vine and some cheese - after all we were in France. An damn the Eiffel tower is breathtalking when you see it in real life, and especially when you are on the square beneath it - it’s incerdible!! When we finished the vine we found a restaurant and got some late dinner. Unfortunately we had to be back in the hostel before 2 a.m. if we wanted to get in before next morning at 6 a.m. So we after dinner we left for the hotel.

Next morning we got up early because we wanted to ‘climb’ the Eiffel tower. When we arrived the cues were not that long so it took us less than an our to get to the top (taking the stairs to the mid level and the elevator from their to the top). And again breathtaking - this time the view from the top. After the Eiffel tower got a tick mark on my ‘what-to-see-in-Paris-plan’ we walked to the Arc de Triomph... check. We then walked down Champs-Élysées (check) to the place de la Concorede (check) and Louvre (check). Since the time we had was limited we only Alex went inside Louvre, whereas the rest of us continued down the Seine to Notre Dame (check). Also beautiful but in principle like every other big cathedral... but yea nice. Before we continued to the Parthenon (check) and the Jardin de Luxembourg (check) we stopped  in yet another café to satisfy our urge for french wine. On our way back to the hostel I bought a real french baguette just because I could :D

When we got back it was almost time to go out for dinner. We went to a restaurant near the Seine and Notre Dame, which unfortunately was quite bad. The foir gras was okay but the main course was embarrassing close to something you get in the summer at the beach in Grease, which can be good there, but not in a restaurant in Paris... and the creme brulee for dessert was awful - even though the waiter warned us we didn’t think a chef could fuck a creme brulee that much up... well next time I think I listen to the waiter , but why serve it when you recommend the customers not to take it??? Well we got something to eat which was we wanted. Afterwards we went out for one drink - I only by 1 drink when they want 11 € for 20cl!

When we got back to the hostel at around 2 o’clock the other guys went to bed, which I would also have done if I didn’t have to take a shuttle bus to Charles de Gaulle because I with a 2 weeks notice was sent to a workshop in Hawaii which started monday morning. This unfortunately meant that I lost the sunday in Paris, Mettes birthday in DK and a diving course in DK as well. But it’s hard to be negative when you are going a week to Hawaii - right? Well the time passed, my shuttle arrived and I went to the airport. From there I flew to Frankfurt where Mario joined me for the flight to L.A. and then on to Honolulu, Hawaii. The Flight(s) was(were) very long - especially when you start out without having slept the night before, but in the end I think it helped me not getting jet lag. ‘cause even though there is 12 hours time difference between europe and Hawaii I didn’t have any jetlag - opposed to Mario who was hit pretty tough by ot the first couple of days. Well we got to Hawaii - or to be correct O’ahu where we were attending a workshop at the institute for astronomy at the university of Hawaii.

Monday through friday we spent from 8 morning till 17-18 in the afternoon in a cold air conditioned dark auditory. Since this was actually the purpose of the journey we couldn’t really complain, even though it is kind of weird (almost) not seeing the sun when your are at Hawaii. Of course we got an hour or two of sun in the evening, and we really enjoyed the warm evenings dining at the beach - excellent!! But we were looking forward to the weekend where we had no plans... well no working plans that is, ‘cause plans we had enough of.

Friday afternoon when the workshop was over Marion and I put on our Hawaii shirts and fake flowers which we bought the night before and went on a mission: We wanted a piñe collada in a pineapple - we were after all in Hawaii ;) we managed and enjoyed it in a peaceful moment on the beach listening to the pacific ocean ... yeah that was not bad. When we finished the pineapples we had yet another dinner more or less on the beach. After a couple of cocktails we went to bed, so we were ready for saturday. Saturday we got up early, had a american breakfast of all-you-can-eat pancakes. Afterwards we jumped on the bus to the north shore where some of the best beaches were suppose to be. And indeed the beaches up there were excellent. They were taking out of catalogue... Damn! We spend the whole day on the beach until sunset. The sunset was also almost supernatural - I really missed Mette. Sorry Mario, but your are not quite the same ;) When we got back to Waikiki (which was the tourist-Honolulu-suburb we lived in) I was pretty exhausted, probably because of the sun, so more or less went straight to bed.

Sunday was the sad day of leaving, but we had the whole day there since our plain didn’t leave before 2100. Therefore we decided to spend the day in  Pearl Harbor - the only real must-see at O’ahu I guess. Pearl Harbor was pretty cool. We wet to the USS Arizona monument build on top of the USS Arizona battleship sunk by the Japanese in ’41. It was kind of weird to be on top of a ship which went down with more than 500 souls inside... but I guess that’s more or less the same as being on a graveyard. Afterwards we went to the USS Missouri which is one of the battleships that survived (that is was rebuild/restored after) Pearl Harbor and stayed in duty until ’92. Most of the ship was open for tourist, and made into a huge museum so we spent 2-3 hours just exploring the ship. It was really cool and can for sure be recommended if you find yourself in Honolulu some one day. After being fried a long day in the sun we went back to the Hotel, had a sandwich and a shower before we were taken to the airport by the shuttle bus. The flight back went over L.A. but unfortunately we had to land in Chicago between L.A. and Frankfurt to change plain. Well before we were thinking ‘unfortunately’ but when we got on the plain in Chicago we were pretty satisfied. When we were waiting to board the plain we were called to the counter, where they told us that the plain was pretty heavily booked so they had upgraded our tickets to business class - if it was okay with us... Yes please :D So from Chicago to Frankfurt we got champagne as welcome-on-board drink, a 3 course meal, own tv where we could choose the movies ourselves,  huge chairs which could be turned into beds at night, etc. etc. I’m not sure I would pay the price in the future, ‘cause it is probably pretty expensive but for free - Yes please :D After a night in heaven (more or less) we arrived safely back in Germany early tuesday morning.

Damn a tough week - Paris tourist raid, Workshop and Hawaii relaxation... It’s hard being me!

(I’m to lazy to put pictures in this way to long entry so have a look at the picture site instead!)

Mahalo and aloha

Kasper