New York Trouble (ongoing)

Posted on March 2, 2006 by fox

Place to Crash
The hostel is getting very boring actually, they are building a common room, but it won’t be finished until the end of the month. Also it’s not a very touristy time in New York, probably because it’s cold, snowy and layout of the city makes wind your number one enemy.

TV
No change so far …

Flat
I saw the craziest flat today. I was on the Upper East Side, which should have made me suspicious. There just aren’t any cheap flats on this side of town. To get to the flat I had to go to the very east of Manhatten, almost at the riverside and close to under the Queensboro Bridge. The entrance to the flat looked weird already, as if somebody had taken a small flat and split it up into two even smaller flats. And that’s basicaly what happened. The flat was barely 12sqm. There was a living room of about half of the flat, next to a kitchen which had two small humansized storage areas above it. Two of the four people in this flat actually slept up there. It looked like these weird Tokyo living stuff when you know what I mean. My room was around 4 sqm with a loft bed and a tiny window where I could see the water.
The room was $850 a month.
The is truly crazy.

Job
You gonna be kidding me, Part 4.

Life
People Asking me for directions so far: 5 (I have to look very New York I guess).
I did some leftover sightseeing, namely the UN. A job there would be nice …

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New York Trouble (ongoing)

Posted on March 1, 2006 by fox

Place to Crash
I found out that hostels in New York City are actually cheaper than flats (scared now?). That’s why they all have a 14 days stay limit …

TV
Improvement here. A flirt with the hottie running the hostels night shift gave me access to the employee’s TV, meaning I have 5 channels more (3 non-Mexican). I know I’m bad, but I’m addicted, so I’m not responsible for my actions (always a good defense in court).

Flat
Loft in Brooklyn. Apparently spanning like two floors and is home to 10+ people. Or something like that. The guy showing me around was cool, but apparently the flatmates will be mostly French and Spanish … flashbacking into bad memories from Shanghai. Amazing party-ready rooftop, but my room is kinda strange … has a complete wall and ceiling mirror plus a very thin wall and an extra exit. And expensive (for Brooklyn). Still looking …

Job
You gonna be kidding me, Part 3.

Life
Ok, it’s getting weird, another two people asking me for directions today. Spend the rest of the day looking for a some restaurants I remembered …

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New York Trouble (ongoing)

Posted on February 28, 2006 by fox

Place to Crash
Still hostel. It’s actually here, which is cool, because I know the Upper West Side from crashing here three times before. It’s not big, but has (paid) Internet and … yeah, that’s about it.

TV
Mexican Soaps are kind of fun. Only Mexican Soaps are not fun. That’s even worse than not having TV. For a TV addict like me, it’s like taking a quarter hit and waiting to get high. No chance … but you still try …

Flat
First flat in Brooklyn. Two DJs are living there already. Cool. They were happy about me being German, as “most music we play is from there”. Nice. They also have a cat, which is a plus. But the room is a bid expensive, and has only like glass doors to the living room … not that great. Plus it’s a bit to far away from Manhattan actually …

Job
You gonna be kidding me, Part 2.

Life
Spend the day just walking around Manhattan. A black dude was asking me for directions, which means that I either look competent (rather not) or don’t look like a tourist (which is cool).

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New York Trouble

Posted on February 27, 2006 by fox

Ok, my favorite part again: starting a new life. Always a lot of fun. 😉
I split up my post from now on to emphasize my key problems.

Place to Crash
Hostel. New York Hostel.
Meaning: Small, dirty, falling apart, expensive – cubed.
But I was lucky. I got a bed in a two bed room (former studio for poor guys) with the other bed empty and a TV!!!!!
Which brings us to problem number two.

TV
I have a TV. That’s actually more then I expected the first weeks.
Problem: I only have two channels, one is a 80s comedy channel, the other one is Mexican soap operas. I think I have to go back to a pack a day or something …

Flat
I actually went to see a flat today almost right from the airport.
It’s up in Harlem (cool), not bad in size (+), cool roommates, but a couple (-) and a dog (big -).

Job
You gonna be kidding me …

Life
I just ARRIVED …

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New York

Posted on February 27, 2006 by fox

For anybody who doesn’t know, as of today I’m living in New York. 🙂

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India Final

Posted on February 9, 2006 by fox

Ok, some final, end-of-story, out-of-there kind of thing about India.

Nature

Beautiful, diverse, a lot to see … basically like other tourist places on earth, too. Face it, people don’t spend most of the money they make in a year to look at a parking lot with brick walls around. Still breathtaking.

Historic Stuff

Except for the Taj Mahal every thing looks pretty run down, is a building facility or nobody cares about. Still, lot to see. India has been invaded so many times by so many different people that you can see a shitload of stuff.
I loved it (but I’m a history freak, so I don’t count 🙁 ).

New Stuff

Which new stuff? 😉 … Serious, most of the country looks like stuck in the 60s or like Afghanistan before the war (as seen in documentaries). Still places like Delhi and especially Bombay look so modern, the contrast freaks you out.

Indians

Ok, I can say I met some very friendly and some very cool Indians. That said, I also met Indians that freaked me out. I mean, when somebody starts a conversations with “You are from Germany, that’s were Hitler is from, right?” or “You are German, that means you are better than others because you are Arien” you kind of stand there with your mouth open staring in the air like an idiot. I also don’t really get the nationalistic ads on TV. Example, Pepsi spot: A couple of young dynamic cool guys and girls bungee jump, hang out, dance, salute the Indian flag and wave to some army tanks. Drink Pepsi.
Apart from that and the annoyance level, Indians are cool.

Enlightment

I know now why so many people are calmer and relaxer after they have been to India. That has nothing to do with religion or meditation or crystals and this kind of stuff. Basically after being in India, the rest of the world cannot annoy you anymore.
I can now sleep on a metal bench in a park while it is raining, a guy with a jackhammer is working right next to me, I haven’t eaten in days and a midget is poking my arm.
India in a nutshell.

End Thoughts

Would I go back to India? For sure. Would I do the same trip again? Hell no. I was banging my head so often against the wall I might have suffered permanent damage. There are some really cool places in India. But also some of the worst I’ve seen.

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Proven-subjective statistics

Posted on February 8, 2006 by fox

Most probable lies

3. I have a girlfriend in Norway/Schweden/Finland/Germany/Italy/etc.
2. I’ve been to your country 3 times. Berlin, beautiful city …
1. My taxi meter is broken.

Highest amount of drug dealers per square meter

3. Delhi (in front of every shopping mall)
2. Goa (any beach shack bar)
1. Bombay (every street corner; triple that on busy streets)

Highest annoyance factor

3. Jaipur (You can’t just remove the price tag after I’ve seen it already.)
2. Delhi (I don’t want to buy, sell, travel, drive anything or anywhere.)
1. Fatehpur Sikri (I DON’T WANT A TOUR.)

Coolest places

5. Rishikesh (enlightenment now)
4. Darjeeling (mountains, quietness, tea)
3. Goa (dope, beach, parties, dope, hippies, booze, dope, …)
2. Bombay (doesn’t fit into India like Shanghai doesn’t fit into China)
1. Diu (like Goa before family, kids fun and all this crap started)

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Getting out of there

Posted on February 5, 2006 by fox

In about 12 hours I’m back in the civilized world (meaning Europe).
After one year in Asia I’m really looking forward to it. 😉

Arrival in London: 6pm (GTM)
Arrival in Berln: 10pm (MET)

Wasting time at the airport again.
(Bombay Airport this time)

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Goa

Posted on February 4, 2006 by fox

What can I say about Goa? It’s great. The cities have a cool Portugese aura, the beaches are cool and more natural not like these crappy ones in Spain or Italy. You have nice beach bars everywhere. Everybody smokes stuff.

For those who haven’t heard of it, since 2001 is a ban on outdoor music between 10pm and 6am. So no parties all the time. There are Goa parties but you have to find them and they aren’t that often. I wasn’t lucky – couldn’t find any. But apart from that, the perfect place to finish my trip in India …

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Getting to Goa

Posted on February 1, 2006 by fox

…was the most horrific trip so far. I had a ticket for second class (first class was full). When I arrived in my wagon all doors were closed. When I finally found an open door, a group of people tried to throw a guy with a long beard out of it. The train was already starting to move, so I jumped in the door pressing everybody back with my backpack. At least I was on!
Inside were about 10 people in an empty wagon. They formed a human chain at the door to keep the guy with the beard and me from moving away from the door. There was a screaming discussion going on between them. Somebody tried to explain me something on the line of that this is there private wagon and we are not supposed to be here.
But I had a ticket for this wagon, seat number 108.
Unfortunately the wagon had only 99 seats.
I guess that is bad planning by the railway guys.
After another half an hour of discussion they opened the locked door to the next wagon and throw me and the beard guy out. I guess these people must have been religious nut cases or so. I mean the beard guy was obviously Muslim and I am white.
The next wagon was full by Indian standards (meaning no free space anywhere). After another half an hour we found the Deputy Ticket Inspector assigning us new seats. After finally sitting down and getting rid of my backpack an angry Indian appeared demanding his seat.
Again finding the Ticket Inspector, getting a new seat.
The new seat was already occupied – by a guy who also got this seat assigned by the Inspector.
We finally found the Head Ticket Inspector. He had 30min discussion with the Deputy Ticket Inspector and the Second Deputy Ticket Inspector who apparently all assigned the same seat to three different persons.
When I finally got a free seat and could sit down about 2 and a half hours were gone.

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