off to the mounatins...

...were now in an internetcafe, it closes in 20 minutes. we had today a shopping day like i hate it, but it was a successfull day: we bought all things we need (sleepingbags, shoes for flo, ponchos, TIMS (a registration foreigners have to make before leaving to mountains)), now everything is ready and we leave tomorrow morning - if we finde place in the bus!! theres  a festival now in nepal, everybody goes to visit their family, so its gonna be busy!

we will go north of kathmandu, to langtang, then back, maybe into the villages around and then a seven day trak back to kathmandu. we dont know how long its gonna take, but dont worry if you dont hear for a long time... we heared its so beatiful up there...so maybe we gonna stay longer!

in our route is no 5000 mountain, the passes are just below. the closest one woule be ganja la, but we were said not to go there because people dies there before...and thats definately not what were gonna do!!

so, looking forward so much to that... bis in einigen tagen

namaste nepal!!

view from the plain...its mountains on the horizon, not clouds!!

 

 

 

i left istanbul, and in the plain met ben from beligum who has been in nepal a few times before!  in shariJAH, next to dubai we spent the night at the airport, flo came there as well (he was in dubai for 2 days). when we startet to play backgammon suddenly many nepalese people came, set next to us, wanted to learn the game or just watch us play! it was for us a funny experience, because people back at home would not do that - maybe too shy! and this situation, so many people so close, so interested, mad me shy!!
in the plain i set next to ben, and he said that we will fly in the same hight as the mountains in nepal and we will see them - if there are no clouds. i woke up from the sound  "fasten your seatbelt" because we would start to go down. as i looked out of the window i was disappointed because all i could see were a few clouds - untill ben told me its the snow covered mountains on the horizon...it was really incredible!!!
when we arrived we had to apply for the visa. flo and i chose the 90 day visa - just in case! the other one would have been only 30 days! we had to pay 100 dollars, on the bill it was written 100 US dollar and then in words "one hundred us dollar only". quite sweet that "100 dollar" written means "100 dollar only"...!
when we arrived we wanted to get our bags, but mine as well as bens didnt arrive. we went to the place to tell them our bags didnt arrive. all people who came from istanbul with the plane to sharijah and then kathmandu were there as well plus at least 25 nepalis!! unbelivible, so many didnt get their luggage! but today we got it, so its fine! also funny how easy we could enter the airport...and we left it without our bags were checked. it was the same in sharijah, all nepalis and other nations had to cue (kein plan ob man das so schreibt, anstellen!) for ages, but we and a hand full of "westeners" could enter through the staff controll... so we got special treatment, also a bit strange!

dal bath, typical dish with rice and vedgetables and our first nepalese food

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

street in kathmandu

kathmandu is full of small cars, motorbikes, rikshas, bikes and people. its verry noisy since they use the horn all the time to warn the person in front. but we are already more ore less used to that. the streets are sometimes good, sometimes in quite a bad state, so we decidet even for walking its better with shoes than flip flops because some dangerous wholes are everywhere. and its really dusty, but monsun season will finish only in 1 week...i really wander how it is when its not raining for months...
by the way a typical conversation on a market in these days is like " where are you from?" "Austria" "ah...austlalia, melbourne?" "yes" (so many people dont know our country and i forgot to buy the "no cangeroos in austria" t-shirt at home!, so sometimes im australian now if they dont understand)... "you want to buy this" "no thank you" "but its beautiful, its cheap" " thanks, i dont need" "but i make a good price my friend" "but i dont need it" "but its really cheap, good quality..."

wholly man baba

today we did some sightseeing, durbar square and so on. its many temples and shrines, buddhistic and hinduistic ones. its really beautiful. many people, especially women, are dressed very colourfull in the city, and at durbar square we also saw some sadhu monks like our friend on the picture, the wholly man baba. we started to talk, interesting things like "where are you from" and so on, then he asked if we wanted to take a picture. we asked how much it would be (already knowing you have to pay because they dont own anything but still need to eat, even though wholly!). he said we can give as much as we want (true, he didnt say as little...!). so we gave him 100 rupees each (100 rupees = 1 euro) but he said he wanted more. we told him that he said "as we like" and were not willing to pay more...we could not really understand what he said afterwards, hope you guys are all fine at home?! nobody verflucht?? funny detail: i was wearing a cap, for this picture i took it off and laid it behind me... when we went away it had some things on it - so i just thought "wholly shit...!!"

güle güle (to my voice)

güle güle is the way to say good bye in turkish... it is what the person who stays ın the place has to say. and since i stay but my voice left me it is correct...at least i hope!! today my throat is bad and the voice gone. but maybe thats better because then i cant talk to so many people and explain them why i dont need to weight myself on the street, why i dont want to eat at their place or why i dont need their parfume, spices, clothes or whatever. feel a bit sorry for the people who try to sell things on the street to me because they dont know that i would not even take them if they were for free... the less i have the less i have to carry! and i realızed i packed quıte good since i had to go to a laundry shop after 4 days already to wash my clothes...!

the fenabahce match was good, but for me it was a bit scary... you know how footballfans can be. they were 'singing' and everybody had to join. they stood there and really forced you to do what they do... and i as a blonde person felt a bit lost! but it was good! beer is vorbidden in the stadium, but you get döner, ayran (a joghurt drink) and sunflower seeds! it took flo and me one halftime to finish a pack of these seeds wıth 40 gramm! man nimmt sie mıt der schale in den mund beisst sie auf und spuck dann im idealfalll nur die schale wieder aus und hat den kern im mund... i guess you get better over the time with more practice!

some things are funny like that people sit on the street with a weighing machine (soll waage bedeuten!) and you can see wheater you should eat another dürüm or better not. (thats my ınterpretation, but ıts really for people to see how much they weıght...dont know about you, but i never before had the feeling that when i walk on the street i need to know my exact weıght) other people sell tissues...actually everybody is selling something...its quite a busy city! and its good to leave it again tomorrow! flo is already in dubai, i arrive there tomorrow night at 9 and on wednesday we leave at 7 in the morning to kathmandu!!! hope i wıll be fit again cause thats gonna be more cold!

here in this internetcafe i cant upload pictures, im sorry... because i know thats probably the most interresting!

i will no go for a dürüm and one ayran for together 1 euro... and will write from nepal again... where the journey REALLY starts!!

by the way, döner and dürüm taste different then at home...but i guess its more like it sould taste what you get here! and: i met 2 turkish gırls here who are from salzburg, from lehen!!

so its time to say hoşçacal (good bye whe you leave!!) to istanbul soon

fenabahce...auf gehts

jetzt klappts doch mit den fotos!!

typischer ausblick in istanbul

flo und ich vor der blauen moschee

spice market



kurz einem türken das auto hochgehalten!

 es ist leider etwas kälter als gedacht, und ich bin ein bischen krank... wie befürchtet nach den stressigen letzten wochen. aber es is ned so tragisch!! weil ich halsweh habe hab ich mir heute einen schal gekauft, in schwarz gelb, passend zu den vereinsfarben von fenabahce istanbul! heute gehn wir dort ins stadion,  ein ligaspiel. da werden wohl lauter leute mit schwarzen haaren sein, und ich sicher ned auffallen!! aber das ist alles nur training für die nächsten stationen, wo wir (vor allem aber ich) noch mehr exoten sein werden. aber auch hier werden wir teils relativ komisch angeschaut...naja, what ever

teils ist istanbul so wie erwartet, an jeder ecke ein döner / dürüm stand...teils aber auch ganz anders, z.b. sind nur ganz wenige frauen verschleiert...zumindest in den touristischen gegenden! wenn man aber ein bischen davon weggeht ist das auch anders!

die blogeinträge werden sicher mit der zeit viel weniger werden, aber jetzt is es nochc so einfach mit internet im hostel...and i will switch to english because of the peolle i meet...fourtunately they dont speak german, but are interested in the blog as well!! but on the other side it would be good german course for them! and i hope that my family and friends back at home all understand english!!
sorry already for the grammer and spelling mistakes, hopefully my english is gonna be better the longer im travelling!

yesterday i had a good experience, i was asking a guy who works in our hostel where i can get a "rain cap" for my big backpack (to keep monsum out of my clothes!) and i asked him if he understands what im looking for...his response was "i am also a backpacker" - and i realized again that this is what i am now... not a student, but a backpacker...sounds great!!

ok, we gotta go, have to eat, cross the bosporus to get to the asian side of istanbul because thats where fenabahce is lokated...and the game starts in 5 hours!! im exited to see how thats going to be...

istanbul...

wir sind gut in istanbul angekommen, eine riesen stadt mit vielen tollen gebäuden und menschen!

gestern gabs zum frühstück verschiedene kleine speisen (wie tappas). ein älterer türke war gegenüber an unserem tisch und hat die ganze zeit mit uns "geredet". dann hat er mir ein stück brot gegeben, und als ich fertig war noch eines, jedoch hat er das "innenleben" des brotstücks selber gegessen!! ...naja, vielleicht eine situation, bei der man dabei sein muss damit es lustig is...

gestern habe ich noch einige besorgungen gemacht, u.a. auf der strasse eine stirnlampe gekauft...der typ hatte fast nichts zu verkaufen, aber meine stirnlampe!!

jetzt gehts dann in die stadt, hagia sophia, blaue moschee und so sachen anschauen... und immer wieder sind flo (mit ihm hab ich studiert und reise den ersten monat oder so mit ihm) und ich der meinung, dass istanbul ganz ok zum start ist, die reise aber erst in einer woche mit dem flug nach kathmandu so richtig beginnt... und wir freun uns beide schon sehr darauf!!

so...erste probs gibts auch: wollte grad ein paar bilder hochladen...hat aber ned geklappt!! udn da flo checkts a ned... hätte ich bei vorazki mal besser aufpassen sollen!!!

übrigens: ich will ned viel zeit im netz sein, drum wird im blog kein großer wert auf eine schöne sprache oder rechtschreibung oder so gelegt (sorry mama!!) es kommt was kommt...!

so, bin raus

auf gehts...

nach jahren des träumens und wochen der planung gehts jetzt um 14h15 los... unglaublich!

eigentlich ist es ja schon gestern losgegangen, die erste nacht in der fremde is gut überstanden... das erste bereiste land heißt deutschland, die leute sind relativ freundlich, das wetter ehér bescheiden und die bewohner tragen lustige trachten!! und alle gehen auf éine große wiese um gemeinschaftlich zu trinken...naja, andere kulturen halt!

hier in dem blog werde ich in unregelmäßigen abständen berichten was ich so erlebe, und freue mich wenn es ein paar von euch interessiert! jetzt gehts wie gesagt zum flughafen, dann eine woche nach istanbul, von dort aus über dubai nach nepal...

ich muss los... bis bald