traveling

So, here's the deal: Do never, and I mean NEVER! make an attempt to plan a journey to China without a credit card within only 3 days.

The first day, everything went fine and I bought a train ticket which brought me closer to my goal. The second day, the booking of the hostels was confirmed - no problems either. Wow, this is amazingly unproblematic. What else do I need? Yes, a visa for China.

This morning I set my alarm (for my standards) relatively early. After having had about 5 hours of sleep in bright light due to Joel's obsession with Heroes I woke up at 7 am and made my way out of bed to the next bus stop and caught the 40M that also collected Louise at her stop and together we drove at slow pace towards the Chinese embassy. At 20 past 8 and some HK$1000 richer, we arrived and saw the humongous line in front of the building. Oh, I almost forgot how user unfriendly the application for the Chinese Visa happens due to the Olympic Games...Firstly, it requires a copy of the ticket that shows a date when you actually leave China - very welcoming. Secondly, you have to have copies of the payment confirmation of hostels you are planning to stay at. Thirdly you need to fill in a form - the actual application, including a photo of your beautiful countenance. As soon as you have acquired these items, the application happens rather quickly. I walked up to the counter, gave my material to the civil servant and was ready to go. EASY!!! The whole process of standing in line plus the quick actual application took us 2 1/2 hours.

Afterwards, we bought some big boxes for sending stuff back home and drove back to the halls. After 15 minutes I checked out again and went to Uni to see Sam for one last time. After the goodbye, I went to the library to study but could not uphold the resistance for very long and soon found myself sitting in front of one of the numerous computers, checking for plane tickets. To my great dismay I noticed that the fares for flights had increased about 100% compared to yesterday. After countless, hopeless attempts to find out the cheapest flight I gave up and joined Emma downstairs. Jordan passed by and saw my useless attempt and gave me the address www.elong.com to book my ticket which was a brilliant idea especially since they provide a 60% discount on all economy flights. Thus, I started booking. HA! I had made the bill without the host (I love word-for-word translations from German). As soon as I typed in my Dad's credit card details, it denied me to continue my booking since my name is only partially the same. Shame. Now I got really pissed off and Emma calmed me down by giving me the number of her travel agent. The price now will be HK$1100 which is still a considerably good deal. HA! update: My flight is booked! I am going to China on Friday!!! ICH FASS ES NICHT!!! (for my English friends: "I grab it not!!!")

END!