Ein Ösi in Abu Dhabi oder Nationalfeiertag auf Arabisch, 26.10.2011

Nationalfeiertag in den Emiraten! Ein ganz neues Erlebnis, denn plötzlich ist der Nationalfeiertag gar kein Feiertag mehr, und dadurch, dass er 2011 auf einen Mittwoch fiel, hieß es "ganz normal arbeiten".

Trotzdem blieb er nicht ganz unbemerkt, da ich mich schon zu Beginn meines Aufenthaltes in den Emiraten bei der Österreichischen Botschaft in Abu Dhabi gemeldet hatte, und dadurch automatisch auf den Emailverteiler der Auslandsösterreicher gesetzt wurde. Den Angemeldeten dieser Liste werden gewisse Einladungen zuteil: zu deutschsprachigen Gottesdiensten, zu Tagungen, und eben auch zur Begehung des Nationalfeiertages.

Dazu hat die Botschaft uns Österreicher ins Crowne Plaza auf Yas Island eingeladen. Das liegt in der Nähe des Ikeas von Abu Dhabi, also ein paar Kilometer außerhalb der Stadt.

Nachdem ich keine Lust hatte, alleine dort aufzukreuzen, und dann niemanden zu kennen, und ich auch die Möglichkeit hatte, eine Begleitperson mitzunehmen, hab ich kurzerhand einen Freund gefragt, ob er mitkommen möchte. Nachdem Stephan aus Deutschland ist, habe er sicher nur geringfügige Verständigungsschwierigkeiten...

Gesagt, getan, und so machten wir uns nach Dienstschluss auf den Weg. Für Stephan war es etwas weiter, da er erst mal den Weg von Ras Al Khaimah nach Dubai zurücklegen musste. Zum Glück war er clever genug, verschiedene Outfits mitzunehmen und so konnten wir uns dann in Schale werfen.

Also lüften wir mal das Geheimnis, und sehen wir uns an, wer mich da begleitet hat:

Leider hatte ich zu dieser Zeit kein Navigationsgerät, und meine Ausdrucke der Routenplaner waren nur sehr bedingt nützlich, da die Emirate ja bekanntermaßen ständig irgendwelchen Straßenprojekten unterworfen sind, was sich in diversen Umleitungen bemerkbar macht. Dadurch kamen wir - den Zeitplan sowieso schon eng berechnet - um einiges zu spät zu der Veranstaltung. Zum Glück wurde uns kein Strick daraus gedreht, und wir kamen rechtzeitig zum Buffet. Was es da nicht alles gab! Ich hab mich gleich des Lachses angenommen, der sehr prominent auf dem Vorspeisen-Buffet lag, und auch die Linsensuppe (während des Ramadans kennen- und liebengelernt) habe ich nicht verschmäht. Die Weißwürste waren zwar nicht wirklich typisch Österreichisch, aber zusammen mit dem Sauerkraut haben sie trotzdem gemundet.

Und dann kamen wir auch schon zur Nachspeise: eine Österreich-Emirate-Torte!

Leider war bereits jemand vorwitzig genug, und hatte sie noch vor dem offiziellen Anschnitt seziert...

Auch die "Humtata"-Musik durfte natürlich keineswegs fehlen, und so wurde uns ein wenig heimatlich ums Herz:

South Africa, 17.-21.10.2011

I admit! I didn't care too much about my blog in the past few months, and the more time passes, the bigger the effort to roll up everything that happened in between...

So yes, even though this entry will be appearing in May 2012 (inshallah), the topic is the oldest one in the backlog of 7 months: South Africa.

How did I get there? I happen to be one of the fortunate people who work for an international company which still affords the luxury of having trainings combined with the touch of an incentive.

The first two days consisted of presentations, meetings and long working days and the evenings we usually spent close to the hotel, as Johannesburg is not considered a safe city and we had been advised not to leave the hotel without our tour guides. I can not judge the actual situation, as I - for once in my life - followed the advice, but we had a bus tour through SOWETO (the SOuth WEstern TOwnship, a district of Johannesburg), which was making me feel both, scared, and wondering how people can actually live there. The houses were basically bigger "shoe-boxes" - very simple accommodations, with tin-roofs covered with stones:

It really is a poor district. In the same area there is also a museum located: the Apartheid museum. It draws your attention to the subject fromthe very beginning: your ticket is assigned randomly to be "blankes" (white) or "nie-blankes" (non-white) and you have to take the entrance according to your ticket. I entered as "nie-blank".

Inside the museum it was not allowed to take pictures, but I captured a glimpse at the very beginning:

Most of my colleagues rushed through the museum and some even ran the risk of being kicked out as they were taking photos inside the museum, but I let them all pass and then concentrated on the topic. I found the exhibition well-prepared, and especially the part on the black children, servants and workers in the mines touched my heart and made me swallow my tears.

After the museum we drove on through the country-side until we arrived at Pilanesberg, a national park. On the way we stopped for souvenirs, small hand-craft items made of wood or stone. I got an elephant - a present of a colleague and friend of mine.

Upon arrival at Pilanesberg we just checked in and dropped our luggage at the little villas, as we had to return to the reception to have our first game drive. And we were rewarded with our first sighting: a huge herd of elephants crossing our path right after the entrance.

The first representative of the "Big Five" (elephant, lion, leopard, rhinoceros and buffalo):

And the rest was to follow:

right in front of our car....

The youngster of the herd even tried to challenge our car :-)

The next sighting was a herd of hippos, which are very shy and therefore not often to be found outside the water.

At the lake we could also find a multitude of colourful birds (left alone the trillion of mosquitos and other insects). One of them was the Cape Weaver, a beautiful yellow bird which builds ball-like nests attached to the twigs of bushes (see upper left corner of below picture).

One of my favourite shots shows an African Darter.

And a general impression of the landscape during sunset:

The next day started early: at 5:00 we were supposed to gather at the reception area to have a quick coffee and some cookies to kick off the day and to have our first early-morning game drive. Since the days get quite hot, the animals usually hide in the shade during the day, and move around only during early morning or late afternoon.

The learning of the first early-morning drive was: you can never put enough clothes on! It was freeeeeeeezing and most of us - being used to a really hot climate - were trying to wrap in everything available, even if it was only canvas made of plastic:

But in return we got rewarded with another member of the "Big Five": rhinos :-) - don't let them get angry at you. We had been told that especially the black rhinos can become very aggressive and then you don't stand a chance as they are very fast runners even though they look rather chubby and slow. We were also able to spot a leopard from the very distance, but the buffalos were hiding successfully.

The zebras, which we could not spot the other day were mingled with a herd of giraffes, as the giraffes can see well, whereas zebras hear well - or the other way around, I can not remember!

A shot of two of the most common animals in the park: impalas. They had been everywhere, but with everything that is available almost "unlimited", it was not appreciated very much by my camera and this is the best shot I could find...

Another very common animal of the park is the wildebeest. It is not very pretty, but I still liked it. It usually migrates in comparably huge herds.

During the night-drive we also discovered a group of another member of the "Big Five": lions. We first watched them using red light as they would not bother as much as with white light.

Of course, the white light enabled us to take better pictures - at least that was the case with my small pocket-camera.

They are lazing around just like any domestic cat :-)

... stretching is the same...

and sharpening the "tools" is also in scope.

One evening we had a bush-dinner in the national park and if the voices, the drums and the dancing hadn't scared off all wild animals, the rangers certainly would have done that for us. It was weird, to know all these wild animals are all around us and we can just not see them.

Another day we found a jackal sitting on the track - very quiet, but it neither seemed really scared, nor sick, and the next day it was gone.

In between the game drives we spent our time in the garden of the Lodge where we had been staying. The "boys" were playing soccer, the "girls" were chatting and/or tanning, some of us were even working and some were "monkeying around":

The same afternoon an elephant appeared in our "garden of eden" and people were queuing to get some nice shots done:

After all, I think I also owe you some pictures of the lovely accommodation we were staying in:

The wonderful villa I shared with one of my favorite colleagues, had a nice bathtub as well as a shower outdoors! I admit it was a weird feeling to go outside for a shower at night, but I totally recommend the experience :-)

Urlaub auf Sardisch, 12. - 21.09.2011

In meinen Wien-Aufenthalt im September hatte ich auch meinen wohlverdienten Sommerurlaub mit Michi eingeplant. Mit ihr habe ich schon eine Woche in Dubai verbracht, und bin danach in Wien immer noch zusammengeklebt. Das waren gute Zeichen dafür, dass ich es auch einen Urlaub lang "mit ihr aushalten" würde :-).

Nachdem ich noch nie in Sardinien gewesen war, und ich auch gehört hatte, dass man dort super klettern kann, hatte ich gegen den Destinations-Vorschlag nichts einzuwenden und hab den Abflug herbeigesehnt. Nach mehr als einem Jahr ohne Urlaub war ich wirklich reif für die Insel! Auch klettern solle man dort gut können!

In den Reiseunterlagen stand, man müsse beim Quartier einen Tag vor Anreise anrufen, um die Reise zu bestätigen. Gesagt, getan, ich habe auch gleich die Reisezeiten durchgegeben, kein Problem!

Nach unserem kurzen Flug und der Abholung unseres Mietwagens (ein süßer kleiner Lancia Ypsilon) ging es also nach Cannigione, unserem Ferienort an der Nord-Östlichen Küste Sardiniens. Bei Ankunft beim Büro zur Übergabe des Quartier-Schlüssels war es in etwa 9 Uhr. Mit Verspätung kam auch ein mürrischer Sarde daher, der erstmal anfing, Räder, Postkartenständer und sonstige Dinge des täglichen Bedarfs für Touristen herzurichten. Dann fragte er nach unserem Anliegen. Was, Schlüssel wollen wir haben? Jetzt? Um 9? Normalerweise wäre Bezug der Appartements zwischen 17 und 18 Uhr... Damit traf er auf eine völlig verständnislose, übermüdete Renate, die sich eigentlich nur umziehen und dann zum Strand eine Weile schlafen gehen wollte. In einer Mischung aus Englisch, Spanisch und eingeflochtenem Italienisch machte ich ihm klar, dass ich gestern extra angerufen habe, um das Quartier zu bestätigen, und dass ich ja nichts dafür könne, wenn der Flug so früh wäre. Er könne uns ja auch ein Appartement geben, das noch nicht gereinigt worden war, und wir würden nur mal unsere Koffer abstellen, uns umziehen und uns dann in Richtung Strand vertschüssen. Nein, das wäre jetzt nicht möglich, wir sollen in einer Stunde wiederkommen.

Na gut! Eine Stunde ist ja keine Ewigkeit, und besser, als bis zum Nachmittag zu warten. Also ein wenig gen Norden gefahren, um Bademöglichkeiten abzuchecken und auch die Gegend ein wenig kennenzulernen. Bis nach Palau sind wir gekommen. Dann haben wir beschlossen, dass wir jetzt eigentlich umdrehen könnten, weil wir ja in einer Stunde zurück sein sollten, und auf dem Rückweg zum Büro noch die ersten Notwendigkeiten einkaufen könnten. Gesagt, getan! Nach erfolgreichem Shoppen sind wir halbwegs gut gelaunt wieder zum Büro gekommen, um dort zu hören zu bekommen: "Sorry, ich kann euch kein Appartement geben, denn mein Kollege ist noch nicht da." Das war zuviel für mich! Wer mich kennt, weiß, dass mit mir in übermüdetem Zustand nicht zu scherzen ist, und dass ich bei Zusicherungen mit Zeitangaben kein Pardon kenne. Nicht, wenn ich sogar 1.5 Stunden weg war, um sicher zu gehen, dass bis dahin das Quartier verfügbar ist.

Nach 30 Minuten Diskussion und meinem offensichtlich zur Schau gestellten Willen, solange im Büro auszuharren, bis wir ihm so auf die Nerven gehen, dass er uns die Schlüssel gibt, hat er schließlich den Reiseleiter angerufen, und ihn gebeten, mir die Sachlage nochmals zu erklären. Dieser war leider ebenso unfreundlich wie inkompetent, worauf ich dann kurzerhand aufgelegt habe. Nach 15 Minuten Ausharrens mit versteinerten Mienen (Michi war es bereits sichtlich unangenehm), hat der Vermieter endlich aufgegeben, und gemeint, wir sollen ihm folgen. Von gutem Benehmen war keine Spur mehr! Mit einem Affenzahn ist er durch die Straßen gejagt, dass wir ihm kaum folgen konnten. Schließlich sind wir dann doch auch bei unserem Appartement angekommen, und konnten uns einrichten. Der Urlaub konnte beginnen!

Juhuuuuu! Urlaub!

 Frühstück - Inbegriff von la dolce vita!

Und Urlaub machten wir! Jeden Tag haben wir mindestens einen der vielen Strände erkundet. Von feinkieselig (abgeschürft vom Insel-Granit) bis zu sandig war alles dabei. Ein paar malerische Felsen im Wasser in Ufernähe vervollständigten das Bild und bildeten zusammen mit dem türkis- bis dunkelblauen Wasser die perfekte Kulisse!

Strand von Tanna Manca

Die Ziele für unsere kleinen Ausflüge lagen meist im näheren Umkreis unserer Unterkunft. So besuchten wir Porto Cervo, eine kleine Stadt mit richtig ansehnlichen "Schinakln", den Liscia Ruja Strand (einer der endlosen Strände der Costa Smeralda), oder auch Luogosanto, das kleine Bergdorf weiter im Landesinneren. Im Prinzip besteht diese Ortschaft nur aus einer Kirche mit kleinem Dorfkern, aber die Anordnung und die Zufahrt haben mir wirklich gut gefallen.

Luogosanto

Palau, ist eine recht betriebsame, in den Hügel gebaute Küstenstadt mit regelmäßigen Fähren zu den umliegenden Inseln wie Korsika oder La Maddalena.

Palau

Nach La Maddalena (und in weiterer Folge auch Caprera) hat es uns natürlich auch gezogen! Die Strände dort waren ebenfalls sehr abwechslungsreich, und dort habe ich einen der schönsten Meereszugänge für mich gefunden: wir sind auf von Meer, Sand und Wind ausgewaschenen Steinen gelegen, und über eine natürliche Felstreppe konnte man ins Wasser gelangen. Wirklich fein!

 La Maddalena

Was mir auch sehr gut gefallen hat, war Capo Testa, eine Halbinsel voll mit "kraxelbaren" Felsen! So schön! Es war wie eine gleißend helle, runde Mondlandschaft.

Nicht unweit des Parkplatzes gab es einen kleinen, steilen Weg zu dem vermutlich schönsten Strand, auf dem ich mich bisher gesonnt habe: kieseliger Sand eingebettet in steile Wände aus Granit und Schiefer, in den prächtigsten beige-braunen Farben, dazu die ausgewaschenen Felsen rundherum - traumhaft!

Natürlich haben wir auch die Nuraghen, altertümliche Behausungen der Sarden noch vor Christus Zeiten, besichtigt. Nachdem Michi von meinen Eltern schon die unterschiedlichsten Nuraghen-Bilder zu Gesicht bekommen hatte, beschränkten wir diesen Kulturteil auf ein Minimum, und auch von den Gigantengräbern haben wir uns nur das bekannteste der nördlichen Region angeschaut: Tomba Coddu Eccju.

 Stanahaufn I: Nuraghe von außen

Stanahaufn II: Nuraghe von innen

Stanahaufn III: Tomba Coddu Eccju

Dafür sind wir bei unserem Stop in der Regionalhauptstadt Arzachena mitten in ein Stadtfest hineingekommen, mit Lorbeer-Kranz-Weihe in der Kirche und anschließendem Umzug mit Blasmusik durch die Stadt. Sehr fein!

Umzug mit Blasmusik, Arzachena

Und auch das Naturerlebnis kommt nicht zu kurz - hier unsere nächtliche Besucherin an mehreren Tagen.

Alles in allem: Sardinien im September ist eine gute Urlaubsdestination mit relativ sanftem Tourismus.

Crazy in Love with Gracey Grey, 16.08.2011

Gracey Grey is my new car and we already had a long road to go...

It all started with several test-drives of 4-wheel drive vehicles. Hyundai Tucson could not convince me even though it apparently offered a nice value-for-money. It was accelerating only very reluctantly and even though I am a girl and I don't need a car to show off at a red light, I still want to have some power behind my gas pedal ;-). And just one Airbag in total was not talking safety either.

Kia Sportage was in my price-range, but I don't really trust the brand.

Mitsubishi Pajero and Honda CRV were way above my limits, and were therefore not my preferred option either.

Ford offered a good deal with Ford Escape, which was easy to drive, nice acceleration and all features that I required such as fold-flat back seats, AUX-plug and of course all wheel drive - all within my financial restraints. Unfortunately it looks a bit clumsy from the outside and the interior design was limited to the basics. Let's be honest! It looks like the cockpit of an airplane.

After all these cars I also looked into various used cars, but funny enough the big 4-wheel-drives often can not fold flat the back seats. Why is that important anyway? Well, I intend to explore the countryside and I thought it might be a good idea to simply sleep in my car, comfortably stretched out on a camping mattress in the trunk of my car, cuddled in my sleeping bag.

And then I test drove the Toyota RAV 4. A lovely car! The only downsides: no AUX-plug and unfortunately way above my budget! I was very upfront with the salesman, and told him my budget. He felt very sorry for me, but unfortunately there is only as much of a discount he could offer me. I even thought about buying one of the used cars with low mileage he offered me, but then I reconsidered and just thought: "the perfect car is yet to come!" And yes, a few days later the same Toyota salesman called me and told me they had got another shipment of the 2011-model, that they would sell off at a very discounted price: exactly the price of my budget - what a coincidence! It didn't come with cruise control at that price, but what the heck!

Since we had found a solution for the missing AUX-plug to hook up my phone to play my favourite music, the deal was closed! I made a down-payment and two days later (when the amount for salary, housing and car loan had finally arrived on my bank account) I paid the outstanding balance.

The salesman told me it would take about four days to get the car to the shop and to equip it with tinted windows and the rust-protection that I had ordered. After a week I still hadn't received a call to pick up my car. Wondering what was wrong, I called Emad, the salesman and inquired about the delivery of my car. "Uh, we have some problem with the stock because the stock that was visible on the system was marked as old stock, but in fact it is the new model, and we can't give it at such a low price! We need special approval for that... or maybe there is another car of the old stock that we can give you" Ok, well, I am willing to wait for two more days for either a special approval or an "old-stock-car"!

Two days later still no call. I was worried, and called Emad. Emad was off - sick-leave. He had tried his best to find another 2011-car for me, but now the only option was to wait for the approval of the low price for the 2012-model. If everything went according to plan, I would receive a 2012-car!!!! I was excited as a kid before Christmas :-).

And on August 13th the relieving call: I will get the Toyota RAV4 2012-model at the special pre-agreed price (approximately 20% off the list price)!!!!!! I could pick it up in two days! Unfortunately it was not ready for the drive to my climbing tour with Dominic, but still I was very, very happy to finally have the confirmation that everything will be alright.

Now, finding the name was the real challenge! After Margie, my beloved scooter, she is my second vehicle, but my first very-own car. Amongst the SUVs that I had tested, the RAV4 was the most graceful car, so I figured it has to be a girls name. Friends came up with all sorts of names like Homer (as loving memory to Marge), Kamat (after my favourite Indian restaurant), Ravi ("sun" in Hindi), or Audrey. I liked Audrey, as I have a picture of Audrey Hepburn wearing a silver dress in mind. And since the car would have a dark-grey colour I saw an analogy...

In the end I found my very own name for her: Grace, as she is a wonderfully graceful car, and the name goes well with "grey", which somehow became her last name... And now I am crazy for Gracey Grey!

I am looking forward to many adventures with her and hope she will be my reliable partner in all situations!

P.S: The missing AUX-plug is no longer a hold-up for unlimited love - yesterday we simply changed the stereo unit and now she has a 6-CD-changer, a bluetooth connection to the phone and an AUX-plug for my music to offer :-)

Climbing The Sentinel, 16.08.2011

When I told my close friends I would be going to Dubai, the first question would usually be: "Are you sure?", followed by the prejudiced statement: "but there isn't anything to climb!?"

Well, of course I did some research! And before telling my boss that I would go there (for initially half a year), I had checked out if there are at least any artificial walls where I could keep up with my favourite sports. Yes, I certainly could live without climbing, but I guess it is like losing one finger: you would survive, but you would always miss it.

One of the search results was "The Wall" where I went sporadically at the beginning of my stay, but this is just the tip of the iceberg! There is so much more out there - waiting to be discovered, conquered, loved!

I had met Dominic at The Wall. He is climbing instructor and has years of experience. Thinking of it... I got years as well! Anyway, he got more years - and some trad climbing gear. Translation for non-climbers: trad(itional) climbing is when there isn't any route bolted, and you still don't want to do a free solo (for whatever reason...). You would bring along gear called "nuts", "aliens", "friends" etc. which basically serves one purpose: one end you would (try to) attach safely to the rock using small cracks or gaps and the quickdraw on the other end would take care of the rope you are attached to. In below picture you would find mentioned gear in the front.

And then you let the fun begin!

I actually wanted to treat myself for my birthday, but unfortunately Dominic had been scheduled for that day already. Therefore August 16th had to serve instead - for my first outdoor-experience in the U.A.E. and trad climbing in general. Because here the bolted routes are rare and if there are, they are usually ridiculously short (as far as I could see from my climbing guidebook).

So we headed to Ras al Khaimah (RAK), one of the mountainous El Dorados of the U.A.E. RAK is located approximately 90 km north from Dubai, so it is a good hour drive. As mentioned earlier, it is Ramadan, and therefore not all of the gas stations offer nicely smelling, fresh coffee. Only in RAK we finally found one to meet our cravings.

Dominic guided James towards the mountains and we came to a full stop on a small parking spot beside the street - no real shade anywhere close. The thought of a heated car after our climbing adventure made me feel uneasy already, but "kalas"! And so we put on our harnesses, filled up our backpacks with water and started the approach: 100m of sweat-draining altitude made me feel that my endurance had completely vanished... What a shame!

Dominic started leading the route and soon after the chimney he disappeared behind the rock. I would only feel him being connected through the rope. It is strange - you exactly know what the other one is doing just by feeling the rope in your hands. Never leave too much slack, but don't pull down your partner either! I really like belaying. It is a way of watching the other so attentively you almost know the others' move before they actually perform it. And it makes it even more interesting when your partner is out of sight and can't hear you. Then it is down to trust.

We were so concentrated that we didn't even realize we hadn't taken any photos until Dominic came to the first belay point. Below snapshots were taken in the second pitch.

Since I had never done any trad climbing in the past, my role was limited to seconding. That can be challenging enough - especially when you fear you can't pull out the gear that was placed so neatly in a crack, that it is hard to remove. Or you feel the rope being pulled upwards. To me this is not a feeling of being safe and sound, but pure stress. I know from experience it is hard enough to pull up the weight of the rope, no need for further exercise. That's why I tend to climb as fast as I can get while still concentrating on my feet.

 

And at some point you are at the top and you feel as free as a bird, even though you are bathed in sweat and dust.

Contemplating the perfect scenery...

 

And checking out the routes for the days to come.

Oh, what a perfect day!