Waiting...

After the farewell party was over, we turned our focus to clearing out the apartment and getting ready to go. We set out to hire a van to transport everything to various destinations, but unfortunately, no company would accept Nick's drivers license as proof he could drive a van. So Jo ended up being the sole driver of a Mercedes Sprinter.

We started emptying the apartment by taking a few loads to the dump where the workers seemed endlessly amused to see us rock up with Jo driving with Nick & John as passengers. Perhaps they'd never seen a woman driving a truck before?

Once everything was out of the apartment we could focus on the next task - packing and repacking to ensure our bags were within the weight limit for each airline. With a budget of $50 / person / day, airline fees for excess baggage could wipe out a couple of nice days on the beach in Thailand.


With everything packed and the apartment empty, we turned the place over to the landlord.  It looked very strange empty.  Here's a short walk through:

Then began the waiting for our imminent departure. We spent our last evening with Sam, Neven, and Woody kicking the "balla" with Woody & enjoying a BBQ in the garden. During the evening Nick had to fill the whiskey flask he received as a departure gift from the Hamburg Whiskey Club (of which he was a proud founding member). Naturally the whiskeys needed to be tasted to refresh the memory and ensure we were taking the right one on the road ;)

On Wednesday afternoon, we said our dreaded last tearful goodbyes and hopped in a taxi to the airport to start our adventure.

- Nick and Jo