{"id":61994,"date":"2017-05-17T23:12:35","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T21:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.misterunique.de\/?p=61994"},"modified":"2025-05-22T09:04:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T07:04:27","slug":"o%ca%bbahu-the-grab-bag-or-the-heart-of-hawaii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.misterunique.de\/?p=61994&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"O\u02bbahu \u2013 The Grab Bag or the Heart of Hawaii"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost everyone knows the greeting \u201cAloha\u201d, the city of \u201cHonolulu\u201d, or the famous beach of \u201cWaikiki\u201d \u2013 but what on earth is an \u201cO\u02bbahu\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To be honest, that name didn\u2019t mean much to me either \u2014 at least not until I started planning my trip to Hawaii. And then it hit me like a coconut falling from a tree. \ud83d\ude42
O\u02bbahu is the name of one of Hawaii\u2019s many islands \u2013 in fact, it\u2019s the beating heart of Hawaii. While it\u2019s only the third-largest island in terms of area, it\u2019s by far the most populated.<\/p>\n

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Aloha Hawaii \u2013 I\u2019ve arrived!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It was already dark when my plane touched down on the island. But even on approach, the city lights gave me a sense of just how big Honolulu is. It looked like the entire southern coastline was glowing. They don\u2019t call this the most beautiful and compact city in all of the U.S. for nothing. And it\u2019s home to one of the most stunning \u2013 and definitely one of the most iconic \u2013 city beaches in the world: Waikiki.<\/p>\n

But when I landed shortly after 10 p.m., I couldn\u2019t fully take in the beauty around me \u2013 partly because of the darkness, and partly because I was absolutely exhausted. We weren\u2019t just 11 time zones away from Germany \u2013 we\u2019d been awake for 26 hours and had flown halfway across the world. Just think about that for a second: Hawaii is smack in the middle of the Pacific, basically a speck of land in the vast nowhere. For 5,000 kilometers in every direction, there’s nothing but water.<\/p>\n

And there we were, standing at the baggage carousel, waiting for our suitcases. It\u2019s always the same game. A slight tension builds with the nagging question: Will our bags actually come out of that dark hole?<\/em> Only once they appear can the vacation truly begin.<\/p>\n

What fascinates me most about long-haul trips is the sheer contrast: stepping onto a plane in the morning in cold, rainy weather back home \u2014 and stepping off a few hours later into tropical 26-degree heat in Hawaii\u2026 and all that in the middle of November.
I absolutely love it.<\/p>\n