Looking at the stars naked

Saturday

After making a perfect set of pancakes last morning, I left my stuff at the hostel to drive to the fleamarket I read about. For this I had to go back to Kahului which really only is streets and shopping malls. It definitely was the better choice, to book a hostel in Waikulu. The market was huge and turned out not to be a fleamarket, but a normal market. I bought a huge cucumber-mint lemonade and strolled around the place. I love coffee and everybody I know loves coffee, too. So I stopped at a little stall where two people sold coffee from the island. The lady and I started talking and I told her that I was reading about that coffee. Turned out she was born and raised in Berlin, spent her holidays in Sorge, which is near where I come from, and moved to the states 30 years ago. Now her husband and her grow coffee on the edge of Haleakala. I bought a lot of coffee.
I bought the biggest Avocado I have ever seen, too. It is still hard as a rock, so I will need to carry it around the island a little big longer.
After the market, I went to Iao Valley from where you have a pretty nice view over both cities – Kahalui and Wailuku. Kahalui – unlike up close – looks nice from up there. I was hoping for some nice trails, but apparently they are all closed at the moment.There was just the walk up to the lookout accessible, from where you can see the Iao needle, a green covered volcanic remnant. The trail is made of 130 steps and the sign at the bottom says that you should allow a 30 minute walk. Surely they meant 30 minutes return, with heaps of time for pictures and to enjoy the view. It is 60 steps to my apartment and when I come back from my parents, the car filled with food and other things, I usually do not allow myself 30 minutes when I run up and down, up and down. But this is mostly because I always have to use the toilet really urgently when coming back and I see no point in getting off my shoes to use the bathroom (german habit) and put them back on afterwards to unpack further.
After that I went back to the hostel, to get my stuff and drove to Olowalu. I needed three tries to find the entrance to the campground. When I arrived I could feel, that now the holidays start.
I watched the sunset sitting on the beach. That felt perfect already, until suddenly a whale family appeared in front of me. I went to bed at half past seven and fell asleep reading. Oh, the jetlag.

I misunderstood the website’s info about the kitchen usage. While I thought it is for everyone to use, it is not for the campers and tentalow tenants. That came as a surpise as all I had campingwise was my pocket knife, my new lunchbox and a plastic spoon that I got from the lady behind the Foodland fried chicken counter for my yogurt.
This camp is just great. In the evening you can see old couples playing cards with their head lamps on. I too brought a headlamp that came in handy when I needed to use the toilet at 2 a.m. This headlamp has been very useful before, when me and Matt hiked Mount Fuji and decided to stay for the sunset and to not get up at 3 a.m. to be at the summit for the sunrise with all the other 200 people in our hut. We didnˋt think this through properly and forgot, that staying for sunset means, that it will be dark afterwards. It was very stormy and rainy too then and as it turned out, Matt had forgotten his headlamp. I still don’t know how we managed to get back to the hut without any broken bone. The others were not able to get up to the summit the next morning, because the storm got worse and it rained badly. So much for that little sidestory.
I did some research about snorkeling and kayaking tours around Lahaina and only found out yesterday that the best rated agency is right in front of my tent. They were completely booked out, but when I talked to the guy at the beach he was able to squeeze me in for Tuesday. Yay!

Monday

I was lazy, today. I walked to the Café near the campground which was closed the day before to have the worlds best eggs benedict ever… and I’ve had many! There was raw tuna on the muffin. I couldn’t empty the whole plate with two eggs AND breakfast potatoes. I haven’t eaten anything since then and it is 6 p.m. now. After that I lay at the beach and read my Hawaii revealed travel guide which I got recommended by one of the girls from work. It really is better than the other guide I bought. I made some plans for the next days on Maui. Time goes by very quickly here. Maybe it is because I am still jetlagged and go to bed at 8 p.m., wake up at four but then snooze until 8 a.m.

I moved into Lahaina Beach House today where I will stay in a dorm. The place looks very nice and Guyton the host is very friendly. After I came back, the other three girls had moved in too. It is a nice crowd at the house with Australians, Brits, French and Germans. We sat in the kitchen and talked until 10 p.m.. But that did not change the fact that I woke up at 4 a.m.