For weeks already I wanted to feel the relief that I felt when I boarded the flight Frankfurt -Bahrain this morning although the relief was clearly tainted by the sorrow of saying good-bye. Getting on that plane meant mentally abolishing the worries associated with statistical research, which was haunting me in my dreams (why don't these numbers add up?), surviving an interview for a scholarship, extending my PEERS - research deadline and the horrible cold and short days predominant in Maastricht.
After a painful farewell from my family (and much harder) Sarah, I got on the plane to Bahrain, where I grabbed several empty seats on which I fell asleep almost immediately. It may sound mean but I was happy to escape the oral odor of my seat neighbor. An interesting thing to note on the plane was that besides the usual maps that show where you are, they also let me know where Mecca was at any given moment, apparently for prayer. I was very excited about my almost 8 hour stop-over in Bahrain since I have always been wondering what the petro-dollar-over-saturated Gulf States look like. After thorough research of the lonely planet guide I stepped off the plane, bought a 15 euro visa and was warmly greeted by 20 centigrade warm weather which was rounded off with a nice sea breeze. At that point I didn't regret at all having left the airport. A very-well educated taxi driver (who has travelled many more places than I and knew more about the riots in Egypt than me) took me to downtown Manama.
However, at that point I started to be disappointed. At 8pm there was absolutely nothing to do but shopping and eating. The souqs were familiarly Arabic although much cleaner and calmer compared with those of Morocco, Turkey and the Palestinian Territories, which I was familiar with. Since I had no intention of buying anything, it felt quite annoying to be urged to buy something at every shop that I passed. But well -- that's a cultural experience I guess. To me the stereotype proved true that there was little more to do than to consume, so I delved into my favorite kind of consumption: food! The Indian food that I had was authentic, delicious and dirt-cheap.
Bahrain at night is actually quite picturesque. Apparently they spend millions to light up their skyline, which is as impressive as any in the Gulf States (see pictures). The best place to take pictures would have been the highway but it is quite impossible to take any decent shots at night from a moving car. After 2 hours I returned to the airport with the feeling that Bahrain didn’t really get a fair chance to show off because of the unusual time. For future trips I consider it essential to have at least a few hours at daytime and/or to get in touch with a couchsurfer in advance. 
Next Stop is Thailand and luckily an old Thai friend, Victor, will host me while I am in Bangkok and Tilmann, who coincidentally came to Thailand at the same time as me, will meet me on Koh Tao.
