Departure
The last working day is done, the apartment is delivered and the car is packed. The day we've longed for so long has finally come. From today on we will leave our home for a long time to get to know other parts of the world.
We look back on an intensive and emotionally demanding time. We are very much looking forward to everything that is waiting for us in the wide world and we know that our dream has now become reality, but the many goodbyes from all our friends, families and also from our cat Eniac were not easy for us.
May 29, 2018 - we are woken up this early morning by the shrill sound of the mobile phone alarm clock. The four hours of sleep were not enough to get rid of the humming skull of the night before, but we still manage to get into the driver's cabin, drowsy asleep. But the planned start is delayed by another hour, because among all the things we had to do subito before the departure, the downloading of the navigation maps was forgotten. Anyway, we have time now...
At 6.00 o'clock it is then however so far and we take (thanks to REKA checks found when clearing out the apartment) the first kilometers under the wheels. And so we chug along, sometimes at the side of humming trucks, sometimes through wildly romantic plains until we arrive punctually at 8.00 o'clock the following day at the airport in Hamburg. Airport? Yeah, that's where we pick up Ke and Beat, who keep us company the last days before we board the cargo ship.
In the afternoon my parents and on Thursday Matze's fellow students "Circu of tröscht" join us, which completes our farewell committee.
Thank you all for the great time. You made our definitive departure from home a lot easier!
VEHICLE DISCHARGE
At least two working days before the actual departure of the cargo ship, we must hand Baloo over to the forwarding agent at the port. We will do this on Thursday, one day after our arrival in the Hanseatic city. Our destination is Dessauerstrasse 10 (Terminal O'Swaldkai). Together with my parents we fight our way through the dense city traffic to the mentioned place of the event. Well dressed with a light vest, we go into the building, draw a number in the waiting room (like at the post office) and wait until it appears on the display (faster than at the post office). Then we have to go upstairs to a counter where we have to show the lady behind the plexiglass our passports and give the chassis number of Baloo. She immediately presses the delivery receipt into our hands and Mathias (unfortunately only one person is authorized to enter the harbour area from now on) can drive Baloo behind the barriers. After registration a rough inspection took place with logging of the existing damages at the vehicle. All it took was the key and all the witchcraft was done within 45 minutes. Too late it occurred to me that I forgot my Stetson on the furniture in the car. The criterion that the vehicle has to be empty of sight when it is handed in is probably not interpreted so strictly, but nobody was interested in the fact that there was still something there.