Category: Live from Android
Välkommen till Malmö!
Copenhagen
I absolutely adore this city and I love my friends here. Spent the entire day with Maria yesterday until Leonie joined us after midnight, just like the Cicirella she is. (get it? Cinderella + Cicirello.. haha) and we stayed up talking until 5am.
Today, I visited the UN house, said hi to friends and my old office, had lunch, had catch-up’s and felt extremely nostalgic about the whole thing.
Do you know the little peacekeeper? He has been at Copehagen’s UN House with his owner for a while now and really wants to see Mozambique, so I took him with me across the bridge to Malmö.
And here I am now. In my city. Driving home on the right side of the road. With Wifi. Without a Swedish phone number but with a million errands to run. And friends that I can’t wait seeing. Very busy and very, very happy!
Green Rabbit
So my amazing, sweet, beautiful and killer-smart Maria picked me up from the airport and has just left me to sleep for two hours (which I really need) before we go out to indulge in all the Copenhagenness around here.
Instead of sleeping, I am here in this amazing apartment with designer furniture, strawberry showergel and super gadgets, enjoying the eclectic choice of decoration so much that I instantly decided that I want to live here.
But.. where is the owner of this green little rabbit? :(
British Airways, bacon and sunrise in London.
Written at 8:15am
My friends in Johannesburg took me for a braai where we had great food, met nice people and where my lips got painted red by great South African wine.
Long journey + fur allergy + red wine -exhausted, I boarded the aircraft where I was seated between.. a teenage American missionary and a young Slovakian mother with a hyperactive 1 year old. There were no seats free anywhere else.
I know I could have used the opportunity to ask the kid a million questions about Christianity but I mainly focused on keeping the baby busy and listening to the wonders of Anouar Brahem on my iPod. I asked myself how long it will take until they remove the 1million ‘no smoking’ signs from airplanes. The girl with the baby said it probably was meant for Spanish people “because they smoke everywhere” which wasn’t what I meant at all by my question. So I kept thinking about random details I couldn’t discuss with my travel company, and trying to stay warm.
Because this British Airways flight proved to be the coldest flight I have ever been on. People were wearing hats, winter jackets and blankets over their heads. So I asked a steward if the aircon was broken. “No, a person fainted before.” he said and left. Gaaah.. so I went angry, annoying, demanding Caroline and walked over to another attendant, starting off with an African: “Hello mister, how are you doing?” quickly realizing that he found that completely irrelevant, and continuing to “I’m sorry, I don’t want to be rude, but this is the most unpleasant long distance flight I have ever been on.. Are you actually saying that an entire Boeing 747 has to suffer for 11 hours because of something that probably wasn’t even heat related and that surely won’t be affected by slightly more human conditions?” This man was much nicer and even turned that aircon knob a little. I still kept my jacket on though as the temperature never really got to human levels. I have said this before, I really lose it when I’m cold.
On the flight, I also finally watched “A single man” – a movie I have been listening to the Abel Korzeniowski composed soundtrack from for months. A very touching, real and beautiful movie, really. And watching it next to the missionary guy made it a little bit more fun, I really wish I had been in the mood to discuss homosexuality with him.
London offered a beautiful sunrise and I switched to my Angolan and Mozambican playlist. I am already feeling nostalgic about Africa, and I am still not realizing that I will be seeing my mother soon. Maybe because I’m spending a night in Copenhagen first and don’t want to spoil that by looking forward to what comes next. Or maybe because this was all decided so suddenly and being busy at work hasn’t allowed me to connect emotionally to the fact. Or maybe because I’m tired and everything seems to be working against me now, I’m generally just really hoping I will get my bag.
Another British Airways flight now, London to Copenhagen.
I know I’m in Europe as the 12 year old Danish girl has a little infobox about “how to masturbate better!” in her youth magazine. Just got a bread roll with a piece of extremely slobby bacon in it and became vegetarian in a split second. Got a mini bread packed with wet cheese instead. Most people just gave the thing back when the stewardess came to collect the trash. I can’t believe I will be flying with this airline on my way back.
Joburg
To those of you who check in here to see whether I managed to survive my trip and the cold morning at Johannesburg bus station – I did. It actually wasn’t too bad at all.
I had my blanket and spoke most part of the night with the 23 year old South African guy next to me. He recently managed to get his girlfriend pregnant and has got some problems, so he is thinking about changing his name and escaping to Mozambique to “start something” – as in a little shop selling whatever. He will, of course, go get the girl and the baby if everything goes well.
He asked me what I do but had never heard of the UN or anything like it so it was an interesting task explaining that to him from scratch in basic English. He thought the idea sounded like something that will never work. Also, he doesn’t vote because he doesn’t trust politicians and he didn’t have a school desk when he was a child. He has a VISA debit card though and he showed it to me, but he doesn’t really understand what it’s supposed to be used for so he just carries it around.
Today, he knows how to read and write, but mostly he just sings. His big dream is to own something one day, maybe a car, or other things. “Because life is good when you can own things.”
While we were in the bus, the guy called his girlfriend who has been waiting for him in Pretoria for two months. “Hey, come out, I’m outside your door!” he said and hung up, and when the girl called back five minutes later, he wouldn’t answer. “Na, I’m just playin’ wit her. Is not sirias.”
I arrived at Park station a bit late which was great because I didn’t have to wait for my train. Remember the ladies room i posted a photo from in April? So, it was horrendous then but looks completely different now. Beautifully refurbished with many more toilet booths and super fresh – except that… “Sorry, you can’t wash your hands.” And why? Because the pipes and some other parts were stolen. “And darling, you should see the men’s room! Everything got stolen there in just a couple of weeks.” laughed the lady responsible for handing out toilet paper. “You can’t put these rolls in the booths, they will disappear immediately.”
There you have it. A little bit of welfare, plus poverty, corruption and low standard – and the way these four factors neatly connect and loop their away into frustration.
As you already know, I’m not a huge fan of Joburg. I am, however, a very big fan of the friends that picked me up from the train station. Remember Axel that I introduced you to in February? He’s got a friend now. Her name is Selassie. Such a great name.
And me? I’m on WiFi for the first time since forever, thus the photo-bomb and jibberish. Sorry!
(I still don’t understand that I will be in Copenhagen and Malmö soon.)
Crossing the border
The Calm before the Cold
Delivered my work on deadline. Packed my bags. Ticked everything off of my to do list. Called friends. Had lunch. Painted my nails. And now? Now there’s nothing left but the sun and an embracing calm.
I’m in limbo and I can’t really do anything, you know this feeling, right? When you just have to empty your mind and wait. God, I can’t wait for the busride!
Might change my mind later as the 10h bus will drop me off at the following scenario: 4.30am in the morning. Dark. Minus degrees. Packed with thieves… and I’m all alone. Eish!
Bringing my sleeping bag for the bus. I can handle many harsh conditions. I can sleep on the ground, go days without really eating, walk around with 30kg on my back.. But what I really can’t handle, at all, is cold. God, I hate cold, it’s impossible for me to function normally, sleep or do anything when I’m really cold. Johannesburg bus station at 4am will thus be a challenge, and I don’t even have a proper jacket.
But right now, at this moment, I’m still in the sun – 30 degrees here today. Thank you for warming me, Maputo, I like you too.
Something in the Air
Note
I got this note for my birthday in 2007, one of many birthdays to come that I would be celebrating abroad, far from my closest one’s. I had been living and studying in Warsaw for only four months at that point, but I had already met beautiful people that I stay in touch with until today.
The note is a kind of Carpe Diem shout out in Polish telling me to “Take what’s best from life!”. It’s simple and straightforward, and it was given to me at a point in life when I was still in the phase of dreaming big and not really knowing what I wanted to do with my life.
Five and a half years later, I still keep the note in my wallet. Not to be reminded to take what’s best from life – but to be reminded about the years that have passed and that I actually have been doing so since. And that good friends can be found at any time and any place.
Okay, that’s all for today’s cheesy feel-good entry, I can’t take myself seriously anymore. Haha, have a great Sunday!