The last post from HK

I have about 14 hours left in Hong Kong. Feels surreal.

New Year's eve was pretty memorable, I went on a 4-hour boat trip with about 20 other exchange students, saw the midnight fireworks from the sea, and met up with Jenny and Inka afterwards in Wan Chai. Last year I made a promise in Salzburg that this year I would celebrate the new year better than the arrival of 2012, and I guess I succeeded - in a way at least. :D

A happy bunch of people from the boat trip :)

Yesterday we spent the day in New Territories with Jenny and Inka because they wanted to see some local lifestyle, and in Kowloon or Hong Kong Island the atmosphere is totally different than when you get a bit more to the north. One of the best coincidences of my whole exchange happened there: while we were sitting on a bench in a random spot outside a mall, listening to Ruudolf from tiny speakers, my classmate Verline showed up randomly, and I don't know which one of us was more surprised - probably her. After the first surprised shock she asked if we wanted to visit her home nearby, and of course we said yes. I had been there once before, but my friends got a huge kick out of it, seeing indoors of one of the endless blocks of flats. Verline gave us Chinese calendars as a small memory and we were amazed by the Nuuskamuikkunen in the living room again. That was probably the best part of the day.

Yuen Long district + Inka and Jenny posing

Otherwise yesterday was quite terrible emotionally. In the morning I walked with Sandra to the bus station where she took her bus to the airport, and it was one of the hardest goodbyes of my life. The fact that you can never know when you'll meet again is the worst, it makes it very different from those goodbyes when you know you'll be back. When walking away from the Hung Hom station alone, crying my heart out, I got the weirdest feeling of Hong Kong being empty to me after Sandra was gone, so I felt kind of ready to leave myself as well, and at the same time I was so sad to know that the whole experience was over. Only some posts ago I was writing about all the things I won't be missing about Hong Kong, but at this moment right before leaving, I can't help but feel extremely sad. Kathi left for China one hour ago, I'm sitting in our room, old local people are doing their morning gymnastics in the park and I can hear their music through the window. Hung Hom looks so normal, just like any other morning, and all I can think of is that hey, I am leaving today, don't you people know?? Like every day, everyone is going for work, walking to school, but nobody down on the streets has any idea that there's a Finnish girl sitting on the 6th floor in front of her computer writing about them and feeling sorry for herself because of leaving this fantastic city. Funny how my mind has been changing so much during the exchange, at times being so ready to leave already and at times feeling like I wish I could stay here forever... Hong Kong has become one of my absolute favorite cities in the world. Would be great to come back one day.

Anyway, tonight we'll continue our travels to the Philippines, where I'll try my best to get over Hong Kong as soon as possible and start enjoying the new adventures. Yesterday my Fjällräven backpack's zipper broke and I had to throw it away. Another end of an era, it had served me well during the last three years, and I'm afraid there will never be another backpack as meaningful as this one was :D

Probably the next time I'll be posting I can share some beach photos and more positive thoughts with you all, now I'm just tired and overwhelmed from all this.

Goodbye Hong Kong, I will miss you so much.