Zoo and Fun!

Samstag 26 Mai - Zoo - Today I didn't expect to do anything just sleep, learn some german and laze around the house. BUT Roy's host family invited me to the Zoo with them as they were performing in a musical concert at night there, I'd never been to the Rostock Zoo or seen them perform so I jumped at the opportunity. Roy and I were so excited just walking around the Zoo with his host siblings, Gabi and Caro. We saw so many new animal we didn't know existed, so crazy, like the possum/koala/bear thing. We feed goats and laughed at the flamingos drinking water, its so retarded.

 Then we all went and met up with Luca (my host brother) and watch their parents play in a classical concert. Some songs which caught our attention were songs from Dumbo, Harry potter and Star wars - so brilliantly performed! After the concert we bumped into Francy, Anna and her mum (the American/Germans) and their American exchange student - very cute. Overall a really nice day and night, just lots of fun. 



Sonntag 27 Mai - Fun! - At night Roy and I met up with the Ribnitz gang again, but this time they had a new member, Lauren - Katie's sister from US, so I as excited to party with them. We met up at a friend's apartment and had pre drinks,  then we went to the club named "Fun", everyone warned me about it saying it was really bad and full of under aged people.. but i loved it with Katie and the gang :)
Dancing and speaking German with school friends as well as hanging out with the exchange students was amazing.

School Italy trip

Dienstag 15 Mai - Today I did a presentation for my English class about UK and Australian stereotypes. The presentation involved warm scones with jam and cream, a powerpoint, hand out and a funny little speech that went with it - my class couldn't wait for my presentation as my scones were stinking out the room, but in a good way. Thank goodness mum taught me well and I pulled off my first batch of scones :) everyone loved them and they also loved when I intimidated the "Aussie bogan" voice. Sadly I forgot to take photos, but it was a success. 


Samstag 19 Mai - Fussball! After my hattrick last weekend everyone had high expectations of me.. and unfortunately the pressure got to me and I didn't play fantastically. Though Enno (host dad) and Luca (host brother) came to the game and supported me which was quite adorable of them. The end result was 3-3 draw - not so bad.
After the game I got a call from Roy telling me that I had to go to Ribnitz Damgarten (the town Katie lives in) tonight and sleepover because Caro (Katie's host sister) and Johannes have invited us over for a bbq and to watch the Chelsea vs Bayern UEFA Champions League Grandfinal game. So by 7pm I was in Ribnitz and met up with Roy, Johannes and Caro. We had a really nice dinner with soooooooooo much food! Johannes dad was lovely and seemed like a typical German father. After dinner we all rushed to the TV to watch the game.. it ended up being 1-1 draw then in extra time no goals so it went to penalty shooting and Chelsea won 4-3. I could help but giggle a little bit when looking at all the disappointed German faces in the room. After the game we had a little walk around Ribnitz, but it was cut short as I felt extremely sick. In the morning Roy and I rushed back to Rostock as his family had a concert to attend, and I needed to pack my bag for our school Italy trip in the afternoon.


Sonntag 20 Mai - ITALY - At 7pm ecolea Internationale Schule headed off for a week trip to Italy = Venice, Verona and Lazise. The bus trip was pretty much hell... 12 or so hours in a bus over night sitting next to Roy with his boney shoulder (rookie error by me) though once we had a break stop I literally begged Laury if I could sit next to him, so after that sleep came easily. 


Montag 21 Mai - ITALY - By about 10am we got to our campsite, it was the worst possible weather; cold, heavily raining and no blue sky - such a let down. Everyone was so disappointed with the weather and to top it off we didn't get breakfast, so Distchi, Sohpie, Roy and myself walked around the "small" town to find a supermarket. After about an 1 hour of walking in the rain and following stupid Italian street signs we still hadn't found a shop (also since they have siestas in the middle of the day so shops are closed).. we ended up being late back to camp and then walked back into town with all the others, still pouring rain. By about 2pm we found a supermarket and bought the essentials to make dinners for the next few days. Once back to our bungalow I fell asleep and Ditschi/Sophie kindly dried my clothes with a hair dryer haha, so adorable! We made spaghetti for dinner, watched a German movie and played cards then went to bed as no one had a good sleep on the bus.

Dienstag 22 Mai - VENICE - The weather was a bit better when we woke up, bright and sunning, warm but still raining! This helped everyone's esteem for the long day ahead as it wasn't extremely cold. After a long bus ride and an awesome boat ride we were in Venice. Once on land we meet up with our German tour guide and she took us around Venice, since Roy and I had pretty much seen it all we were reminiscing on Euro tour the whole morning being like "remember when.." instead of listening. After the tour we got to biggest slice of pizza I have ever eaten for about 2 euros, so oily yet so amazing. The group naturally spilt up after that and I ended up going shopping with Distchi and Sophie, it was a cute afternoon. By 4pm we'd seen everything and we were ready to go, Venice really isn't that exciting, yes it is beautiful but there isn't much to do. Once back on the boat and heading back to our hotel we were organizing the night. When in our adorable bungalow we made dinner, this time it was pumpkin soup and then we were going to play a game with the teachers, but Roy, Annika and myself ended up discussing the meaning of life and just chilling in a room. Later that night we stayed up until 1am as it was Janine's birthday and then went straight to bed. 

Mittwoch 23 Mai - VERONA - The rain had stopped and the weather was beautiful! For breakfast we sat in the sun and were soaking up the warm like lizards, amazing... i've missed the sun so much!! At about 11am we were in Romeo and Juliet's town waiting for our tour guide for about half an hour, though it was ok as the sun was lovely.

 Finally our tour guide came and he was so Italian, wearing leather head to toe, literally. We walked around Verona to the Colosseum (where Roy and myself played gladiators), Juliet's balcony and statue, and some Italian markets - so pretty! 

In free time we just had a look around and it was simply beautiful, not full of too many tourist and actually showed some of the real Italy. In the afternoon when back at the campsite we all went swimming in the sea, even though it was absolutely freezing, I really enjoyed it with everyone laughing and sun baking together. 

At night Ditschi made us spaghetti and we had a cute dinner all together, then shared a bottle of wine with the teachers for Janine's birthday - very nice. Later in the night we went down to the sea, walked around, talked and drank together - pleasant night. 




Donnerstag 24 Mai - LAZISE - Today after a late breakfast we walked to a little Italian wharf  and go a boat to the ancient town of Lazise. The sun was so amazing that we were all sun baking in the front of the boat and just enjoying life in Italy :) The view of the ancient city from the boat was truly spectacular with its castles and extremely old streets looking out from the crystal clear blue water. One in this old paradise we all treated ourselves to some amazing Italian ice cream, i got peach and watermelon, simply amazing!! 

A small group involving; Annika, Francy, Roy, Daria, Karo and myself, roamed around the town - our walk involved the sightseeing of the castle, shopping and eating pizza. I bought the coolest summer hat and earings, so happy! After our little day out we got back onto to boat and headed back to our campsite. By 5pm we were on the bus heading back to Germany :( since the weather was great and everyone was getting along really well we wanted to stay longer but that was never going to happen. I made another terrible mistake and sat next to Roy - worst sleep of my life and worst bus ride ever. 


This was one of the most amazing trips as I saw more of Italy and became closer with the most adorable people at my school :)

Changing host families!

I thought the week after Euro tour would be extremely depressing.. but it was surprisingly one of the best weeks :)


Freitag 4th Mai
After the most amazing 3 weeks of travelling... I went to school and surprised everyone as they thought i'd be back a week later. It was a normal day until I found out from Roy, not from my host parents, that I would be changing host families, to the Zeug's, on the weekend.
In the afternoon I went to a Rotary "grill" (bbq) and spoke German the whole night with Rotarians and their family members, it was great! I had a really long conversation with Anne Sandmann (the nicest women ever) and literally the first things she said to me was "when are you coming to live with me?" - I was so happy and excited when she said that, I'd love to live with the Sandmann's! I got caught up with the excitement I almost forgot I had soccer training.. so after an intense training I went back to the grill and talked more but this time in English with a Rotarian's daughter as she wanted to practice her English - It was really cute. There was a little confusion between my old and new host families about when I was moving but then it was all cleared up and the special day was Sunday.

Sonntag 6th Mai

Today I played my first soccer game!! It was a six a side game at the oppositions home ground and it was pretty horrible. I only played about half the game and my skills were really bad/I just couldn't keep up. My team ended up losing 1-0. Though I was really happy to play as I finally felt like part of the team. Mid afternoon the family came over and we had a little cute lunch so I could say goodbye to the Magdanz family, it pretty nice but at the same time I was extremely excited to move families for a new experience. Late afternoon my bags were packed, about 4 bags might I add, and I was ready to start a new section of my exchange with the Zeug family. As soon as I stepped into the door Luca, my host brother, greeted me with a big hug as did Enno, my host dad, that made me feel so relaxed  and happy, it was so nice. From that point I knew I was going to love it here.

During the week I had the normal routine of school and soccer, plus now bike riding since I live a little way from the train station. On Wednesday I started helping my English teacher with her year 10 class, it went pretty well and I felt useful as I taught them all a new word "thus" :)


Freitag 11th Mai 

At school sport I nearly died as we swam over 2kms.. but I needed to live as Annika, a school friend, was having a grill party or better known as a gathering, which I was really excited for. Over the night we shared punch, Caramello koala's and pretty much had a massive feast. It was a small group only about 8, mostly school people minus Johann and a guy from Hamburg. It was extremely chill and relaxed I really enjoyed the night even though I felt a little sick. I was meant to sleepover but since I was a little silly and didn't think about how to get home or how to get to soccer in the morning, Johann kindly gave me a lift home. Overall fun night :)


Samstag 12th Mai

Today I had my second soccer game which was also a small seven a side game. In the first 20 minutes the score was 1-0 the other teams way, and I hadn't stepped on the field yet.. very frustrating. But for the last 10 minutes of the first half I was put on the field as a forward, to my surprise I scored a goal making it 1-1 at half time. After half time I stayed on a got 2 more goals, such a shock, and by the end of the game it was 5-1 our way, amazing! After the game as my team were chanting "go andy, go andy, go andy", extremely embarrassing, and some team mates were talking about how I always have to make a hattirck - pressure much. The game made me feel really happy and very tired but my day wasn't over yet.. at night I went with my host family to a benefit concert in which my host mum helped organize. At the concert I met up with Francy, a girl from school, and her friend Anna, a born American who lives in Germany, they kept me entertained. The concert consisted of classical music and almost made me fall asleep but still the musicians were very talented and it was a nice night.

Bis Bald!

Europareise (Euro tour)

So here is a very summarized version of Euro Tour as I really can't explain everything, because it was 3 weeks filled with high levels of fun and tons of emotion which you can only really understand if you had gone through it too. Euro Tour involved 90 exchange students from all around the world coming together to explore a little slice of Europe (Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and of course Germany). The trip went from the 15th of April to 3rd of May, travel was accomplished by bus and in every country we spoke our own special tongue Dspanglish (Deutsch, Spanish and English). A Finnish friend, Noora - one of the most lovely girls and now a close friend, creatively summed up exchange and Euro tour in one photo, I think this picture explains it a lot better than words.

But I know everyone would be very upset with me if I left it at that so I'll try my best to let you into the three craziest weeks of my life so far.


Tag 1 - Sonntag (15 Apr) - A&O Hostel Dresden = Berlin/Dresden
Katie had slept over the night before Euro tour so we could travel together to Rostock main station, it was cute. 5am straight for a 10am arrival in Berlin, despite the earliness we were beyond excited and did not shut up the whole way to the station. Once on the station we meet up with the "Rostockers" (4 other exchange students from our area) and our excitement grew. Our train to Berlin was excruciating slow because all we could think about was hugging all the exchange students and feeling at home again. Literally once the train pulled into Berlin we all sprinted to Maccas, where a bunch of exchange students we being beautiful and social. After killing Will with another crushing Australian hug, and said hello to old and new faces we were all ushered and split into 2 buses heading to Dresden. It took 3 hours to get to Dresden and once there we attended an extremely boring tour but Dresden was very pretty though it just looked a lot like a German town to me. An hour later we were in the hostel, we got given our rooms, had a basic dinner, then received an introductory lecture from the leaders where we were given our rotary tshirt, jumper, name tag and diary. After the meeting we wandered the streets of Dresden to find something to do or somewhere to go on a Sunday night, and naturally we ended up in Maccas. One odd thing about Maccas in Germany is that it sells beer on tap.. so most exchange students tried it - none for me, beer sucks still.   


Tag 2 - Montag (16 Apr) - Hotel Duo Prag = Dresden/Meißen/Prague
In the morning after breakfast we headed into the buses and took a 2 hour tour of Meißen. The town is very historical, typical German, with churches, castles, "the best beer" and old houses. After the tour a group of us ended up in a gelato bar and got toasties and hot chocolates, very random. After lunch we jumped back on the bus and headed towards Czech Republic! 3 hours later and about 200 spanish songs later (we ended up getting on the bus with majority of spanish people- they sing a lot!!) we were in Prague :) After getting settled and having dinner we had free time, where everyone split once in the city into smaller groups. My group consisted of majority Americans and Canadians, then myself and a French guy, Maxime, we ended up in a music bar. As Maxime and I were the odd ones out we stuck together and chatted, I found out he was a scout in Paris and I literally died a little bit inside. Since we had a curfew we headed up early to get to the hotel at 12pm. Before bed I went to Katie's room for a debrief of her night and I ended up staying longer than expected along with some other girls; long story short leaders checked rooms, Katie lied about how many people were in the room, I hid extremely well and didn't get caught but there were still 5 other girls that got caught so Katie got a yellow card - not a great start. 


Tag 3 - Dienstag (17 Apr) - Hotel Duo Prag = Prague
Today we explored Prague with a 5 hour tour, lucky in English, and also free time in the afternoon. I stayed with Katie and we had a little Czech adventure together trying to spend all my KC (Czech currency) at a little market and buying ice-cream. We also ended up in maccas where funnily enough we meet some retired Australians on a tour. After a little chat with them Katie told me "thank goodness your accent isn't as strong as that otherwise we could not be friends" - they came from Darwin and NT way. Once back at the hotel we had dinner, chilled then hopped back on a train to go see a black light theatre play. It was extremely weird but pretty awesome, it involved people wearing black (not seen by the audience) moving different objects on staged which interfered with the actors. After that a group of close friends went to a dodgey Czech bar and just chilled.


Tag 4 - Mittwoch (18 Apr) - A&O Hostel Wien = Vienna
The drive from Prague to Vienna took around 4 hours, and after almost bursting my bladder we arrived mid afternoon. There was a mix up with rooms so we were waiting for over an hour, That was ok though because we bumped into other rotary exchange students from France who were on a Euro tour as well, so cool. After chatting for ages with the other exchangers our rooms were sorted I was put into a with majority Spanish, one French (Laurine) and one Brazilian (Carol). After dinner we had free time as usual so we got ourselves a map and headed out to find a fun place to relax. An hour of walking later we found an interesting pub/club which ended up being English, named Charlie P's. It was extremely full due to a Bundesliga game being played upstairs so we headed downstair and found a table. I made friends with the Brazilian bartender so we got really good cocktails, yes! Once again our curfew made us come back early but lucky did because we were confused about how to get back, a really nice Austrian guy named Marlin saw our confusion and helped us. Once back at the hotel everyone was pooped but I couldn't sleep so I went to the lobby and found Maxime, we ended up playing cards for hours - no room checks that night thank goodness.


Tag 5 - Donnestag (19 Apr) - A&O Hostel Wien = Vienna
Today started off really shitty as one of the boys in my group, Jonah from Alaska, got sent home as he was caught with weed. Everyone was extremely upset and frustrated with Rotary, we thought they'd give me a second chance but no. The day got slightly better when our bus went to an Austrian castle with beautiful mazes and gardens. I hung out with Roy, Katie, Will and Maxime all day it was wonderful! We ate enormous pretzels, played in the rain, go lost in mazes, chased squirrels and just had an overall great time - I love those guys all so much. At night again we had dinner in a restaurant which made me feel unwell but I battled through it and in free time went out to again to Charlie P's as Marlin the Austrian guy was meant to meet us. Of course he didn't so we were pretty bummed and ended up having a few drinks then going back to the hotel to play fussball and pool. 


Tag 6 - Freitag (20 Apr) - A&O Hostel Wien = Vienna
In the morning I facebooked Georgia (an Aussie girl who moved to Vienna about 2 years ago) to see if we could meet up, as today we had the longest period of free time - but no reply. At around 10 we headed to the UN Organisation in Vienna and had a little tour, it was pretty cool but nothing insanely special. Literally 5 minutes after the tour finished Georgia called me and we organised to meet in the city later. So again our group wandered around trying to find something cool, until we found an old camera shop - Katie literally died of happiness. I wasn't too fussed until I saw I bright red old film camera and flash for 3 euros, Katie convinced me to buy it and said she would teach me all about how to use it - I'm pretty excited. Straight after my great buy Georgia came to the shop with her sister Haley, my day was awesome so far - it was so good to see her I didn't realize how much I missed her! We had coffee with Georgia and Haley, and also received some entertainment - a fight between a tour guide and a drunk man which involved police pointing guns at them, very odd.. "Welcome to Vienna" Haley said after the commotion stopped. Once the excitement died Georgia took us on a personal tour of Vienna where we ended up lying in a park surrounded by old buildings soaking up sun and the atmosphere - amazing. At night all the exchange students went to see the opera, a weird experience which was slightly enjoyable. Since we were in the city we met up with Georgia again and she took us to an Austrian shisha bar, pretty cool. I'm so glad I got to see Georgia, even if it was only for a few hours, we've organised for her to come visit me and said that we would travel together in the future :)

Tag 7 - Samstag (21 Apr) - Hotel Frank Venedig = Vienna/Venice
Italy here we come!! This day was literally just travelling in the bus, i'd say it was about 8 hours - but it wasn't exactly boring as I was sitting next to Maxime discussing scout camps and such, and also drooling over the views of the Austrian Alps. We arrived in Venice late afternoon and just sorted out our rooms, unpacked and relaxed until dinner. So much food! First a serving of pasta, ok good. Then a meat dish with vegetables, ok. Then cake, ok my gosh sooo full. By the time we leave Italy i'm sure all the exchange students will have gained "Rotary kilos". Tonight Rotary actually had organised for us to go clubbing which seemed really awesome until we were out the front and heaps of 12 year olds walked in. So we bailed and Katie, Maxime, Dener (a Brazilian) and I went to an Italian bar and talked.


Tag 8 - Sonntag (22 Apr) - Hotel Frank Venedig = Venice
We got up pretty early today so get ready for a full day in the sinking city of Venice. After a bus trip and a boat trip we finally made it to the city. First up the group was split into buses, our bus had free time first. Maxime said he'd been here before and he knew some cool places so we naturally followed him, bad mistake. We were lost in Venice for about 2 hours (it was a good type of lost as I bought some leather shoes) just walking around the narrow streets, looking at canals, in touristy shops and just getting frustrated with eachother. To top it off it started raining, then more heaving rain, then it got faster then it started to hail. So we ran into a "tax free" Italian restaurant and had huge pizzas. After lunch we were worried we wouldn't make it back for the tour since we were lost, but it turned out that we weren't extremely far away. The tour consisted of riding with a water taxi to the entrance of Venice, it was gorgeous! Once there we walked all throughout Venice say many Italian balcony's, flags and bridges. By the end of the  of the day my feet we destroyed. We got back to the hotel at 6.30pm, had dinner and I was almost ready for bed but Corey (an American friend) had some fire lanterns which he wanted to send off from the beach, so i joined him and the others. Sending the lit lanterns into the sky was so magical, and to top it off I was surrounded by the most amazing people, exchange students.


Tag 9 - Montag (23 Apr) - Hotel Pacific Rom = Venice/Rome
Today was my 3 month anniversary of exchange!! It started off really dull as we travelled again for 8 hours, with hardly any sleep, to get to Rome. Once we arrived there we celebrated with some Italian gelato, soaking up the Vatican buildings and then enjoying some wine with a small group of exchange students, amazing! My time in Rome started off really good as my cabin was perfect :) I was with Noora from Finland and Rachel from Taiwan (both extremely cute and nice).


Tag 10 - Dienstag (24 Apr) - Hotel Pacific Rom = Rome
The start of today was hectic, our leader, Kristin, fell over and broke her foot so everyone was running around like chickens without heads. But we found our way to the Spanish steps where we had yet again another tour which ventured around Rome including the Trevi Fountain - it went for 3 hours or so. More gelato was eaten and then we had free time of course. The regular group; Katie, Roy, Will, Corey, Bub (thai guy) and Yogi (indian guy) adventured together and found the Colosseum - very overrated, extemely touristy and busy but cool. After walking for ages we called it quits and went back to the hotel early to chill. When in the hotel I was surrounded by bogan Aussie accents and coincidentally there was a private school from Perth staying in our hotel also - after chatting with them for about half an hour, I realised how unfriendly and annoying a bogan accent is so I politely left leaving Roy making fun of their accents. At night we wanted to have a "when in Rome" experience and go to a gay bar but unfortunately with our curfew rule we couldn't make it back in time, so instead we ended up playing drinking games and chatting - very emotional night.
Tag 11  - Mittwoch (25 Apr) - Hotel Pacific Rom = Rome
Our third day in Rome first involved waiting in the boiling hot sun for 2 hours to see one old guy called the Pope. Over 5000 people did the same, so the atmosphere was pretty cool as we sang songs and tried not to die from the heat. Once I had a glimpse of the Pope I was ready to leave but no we had to wait for him to say the same speech and read the same verse in 10 different languages. After being in the front of the Vadican with Popey for 2 hours, I was about ready to cry. But I was saved once again by the Italian gelato which made everything better again. After revitalizing Will, Bub and I trekked it into the Vadican and saw the fantastic views of Rome, the Pope's house/garden (insane) and the Sistine Chapel - all were fantastic but really just showed how much money the Vadican has and really doesn't need. After an intense day and a last gelato, double scoop, we all headed back on the bus for a night drive to Innsbruck.


Tag 12 - Donnerstag (26 Apr) - Hotelanlage Edelweiss = Innsbruck
Once in the beautiful town of Innsbruck which overlooked the Austrian Alps, a small group and I decided we couldn't survive 7 more days without washing clothes, so we ventured to find a washroom in the city. Since in Austria they speech German we easily found one (in italy we had many problems of miss-communication). After being satisfied with our clean clothes we took to the streets and looked for lunch, half of the group craved doner kebab's and the other not so we split, unfortunately Roy and Katie disappeared. Oh how I had missed doner!! I think it was the best one I had ever had. Once we were all extremely happy with our lunch we wandered around perving on all the very attractive people (Innsbruck is a University town) and shopping a little bit. At night we wandered into the forest below the Alps and soaked up the atmosphere, amazing!

Tag 13 - Freitag (27 Apr) - Ferienhotel Alpspitz = Innsbruck/Nesselwang
On the bus again to the region of Bayern, Germany!! I felt a small feeling of relief once in Germany, it was bizarre that I felt comforted. After this small realisation of how much I already love Germany we arrived at a castle "Schloss Linderhof", one of King Ludwig II famous castles. The castles wasn't so amazing, as it was rather small but its grounds were fabulous as it was surrounded by the snow peaked Alps. When at the hotel the group was split, some were in a big hotel and some boys (our boys) were put in another about 5 mins walk away and close to soccer field/skate park which the boys overused. Tonight I was pooped so I had a "girls night in" with Noora my roomie. 


Tag 14 - Samstag (28 Apr) - Ferienhotel Alpspitz = NesselwangToday we explored the Disney castle (literally Walt Disney got his ideas of the design from this castle) named "Schloss Neuschwanstein". It was sooooooooo magical, apart from half of it being under construction and covered in scaffolding :( For lunch we had a real German experience by eating Bratwurst and listening to a German pipe band who wore lederhose. In the afternoon we trekked it up the Alps and had a massive snowball fight, so fantastic! Then we went tobogganing down the mountain, amazing! and of course at the bottom we treated ourselves with ice cream - but it wasn't as good as the italian gelatio. At night we partied at the boys cabin and I taught everyone the Australian drinking game "Kings cup", they all loved it and we had loads of fun. 

Tag 15 - Sonntag (29 Apr) - Jugendherberge Regensburg = Munich/Regensburg
We left the Alps and headed towards the heart of Bayern, MUNICH!! It was such a shame that we were only in Munich for 4 hours, but we still achieved a little bit like visiting BMW world and the Olympic station, we also bumped into other exchange students on our small walk. One exchange student was Alana, an Australian girl in my host district who lives in Munich, it was so amazing to see her and have a little catch up. At night we soaked up eachothers awesomeness, that is all.

Tag 16 - Montag (30 Apr) - Jugendherberge Regensburg = Regensburg
Today we visited the viking museum called "Walhalla" with its beautiful views. Then we had a tour of the small city and of course had free time. So we walked around and found a place to have lunch which turned out to be a Mexican restaurant, we were there for about 2 hours, it was amazing just talking with awesome people and enjoy the sun. At night we sat by the Regensburg river with a large group and enjoyed the night together, naturally listening to the spanish guys singing.


Tag 17 - Dienstag (1 Mai) - A&O Hostel Berlin = Regensburg/Berlin
After waiting about 3 hours beside the river on the road for Kristin (injured leader) who went to the hospital, we were finally on our way to the heart of Germany, BERLIN! We got to Berlin in the afternoon, then we attended a "goodbye" party with the Berlin head rotary guy and the oldies (old exchange students) got certificates, pretty boring. After the dinner, we all wanted to stay together but naturally we didn't.. a group of about 20 went to the Brandenburg gate and chilled. When it got to about 11pm people started to head back to the hostel, but Felipe (Chilean), Christine (American) and Trish (Canadian) decided to party on as this would be our last night in Berlin which we could. We ended up in "matrix" club where we met two guys, an Aussie and a Kiwi, on a Contiki Europe tour - it was really fun. Near the end of the night/morning we also met some guys from Denmark so we partied with them a little longer. An exhausting travel later we made it back to the hostel and out the front we found Jonah (the guy that was sent home) with some exchange students talking. I literally tackled him, i was so glad to see him - I made a really good friendship with him in the short time he was with us. So the rest for the morning we were just talking and falling asleep in one of our rooms.


Tag 18 - Mittwoch (2 Mai) - A&O Hostel Berlin = Berlin (LAST NIGHT)
Today we walked around, went to a Jewish museum and then had free time. So my group went and got doner, chilled and did a little bit of shopping. At night all the exchange students went to "Tiergarten" - a really beautiful park facing a river - and just soaked up all the time we had together.. even some other exchang students from other organisations came, it was amazing!!!

Tag 19 - Donnerstag (3 Mai) - GOING HOME :(
 The saddest day ever, knowing that i wouldn't see almost every exchange student ever again after spending the most amazing 19 days with them was horrible. I've never hugged anyone so hard before.. it was so intense. Since i had a group train ticket i had to leave Berlin in the morning with Roy, Katie and 3 other exchange students, it was an extremely quick goodbye. On the train we lost one exchange student and acquired his bag.... we still don't know what happened to him. Once at home I was literally depressed even though it was good to relax and sleep I just wanted to be with exchange students, the best people in the world.


THE FRICKEN END!
 i'm not uploading photos as there are way too many, but just look at facebook if you are interested :)



 

A month of extreme travelling

I know I haven't blogged in a month and I'm sorry for all those people that have been waiting but I've literally just been having the time of life. In this period of time I have met the most amazing people, travelled around Europe, met up with old friends and experienced something extremely unique - EXCHANGE. Words really can't describe what I have experienced in this month, so much has happened and so much has been learnt - I really think I found myself when travelling or it just made me really confused about life..
This past month has been the most exciting time of my life so far because;1. I got to travel with my parents and feel extremely relaxed,
2. I went Dusseldorf and visited Corinna (a German who did exchange at my Australian school),
3. I go to go on the most amazing trip around Europe with my extended family (exchange students),
4. I got to see Georgia (an Aussie who moved to Vienna years ago),5. I made life long friends from all around the world.


So continuing on.. after Easter Mum, Dad and myself travelled by train to the modernistic city of Berlin.

Sonntag 8 Apr to Dienstag 10 Apr - BERLIN BABY. Once set up in an apartment in East Berlin we have trekked around Berlin from mid afternoon to night so we decided to get all the touristy things first; The Wall, Brandenburger Tor, Check point Charlie etc. Since we were there over the Easter weekend, so many things were closed but we managed to still enjoy Berlin. Unfortunately I don't have many photos from Berlin as Dad was the photographer, but these photos below sum up everything :)

On Monday we got a little bit lost trying to find the canal tours, so we were walking around like chickens without a head until Mum overheard an Australian voice in a crowd, and found a free "Alternative" walking tour with a cute Australian guy. We walked around the old east German streets looking at street art and artists squats! It was an odd experience but heaps of fun ending up on a beach by the river Spree at the YAAM (Young African Artists Market).

The guide told us about and "Alternative" pub crawl in Berlin which is run every night! It cost 10 EUR which included entry to the clubs/pubs and 6 shots along the way! He gave us a voucher that gave use an extra free shot! Mum was a party pooper and stayed in for a quiet night, so Dad and I went wild. It started at 9pm and we got home at about 2:30am! It was lots of fun with Dad listening to his youth stories and just soaking up some quality time with him :) though the clubs/pubs were quiet because of the Easter holidays, such a shame. My favourite bar was a table tennis bar, we played some intense games there. Dad was amazed that I could handle all the shots(7) plus we had a cocktail and a flaming Absinth shot, and a Kebab, I am very proud of myself actually.

On Tuesday we had a little trip to a concentration camp just outside of the heart of Berlin. It was a real eye opening experience and also extremely sad because so many tourist were there taking photos of what once was many peoples lives. 

At night we went to the Olympia Stadium to watch a football game, Hertha Berlin vs Freiburg (relegation match). Mum and Dad received the ultimate German experience for dinner; Bratwurst and Pommes (chips), they loved it. It was an intense game with Berlin going down 2:1. Great night with the folks :)

Mittwoch 11 Apr to Samstag 14 Apr - DUSSELDORF/ KOLN.
After saying goodbye to Berlin we arrived in Dusseldorf mid afternoon. Once I sorted out details with the landlord (in German) we settled into our cute German apartment, about half an hour later I was hugging my best German friend, Corinna - so lovely! After an emotional meeting we all went out to a local pub in Corinna's town with her parents to watch the Dortmund vs Bayern Munich Bundesliga game. The pub had great food, great atmosphere, and our table was right in front of a huge plasma TV! Bayern was defeated 1 Nil to Dortmund :)

On Thursday we wandered around Dusseldorf in the "Old Town", had lunch with Cori and Melanie (another German exchange student), the girls helped me get my first german hair cut, we did a bit of shopping, and coffee drinking with Corinna, and then dinner in a "Brewery" with Corinna's parents.

On Friday we took a 20 min ICE train to Koln, which reached speeds of 250km/hour! We spent the day wandering around the "Old Town" again, went to the Lindt Museum where Mum and I had a very rich "Hot Chocolate". We also found a great "Nutcracker" shop and bought a few pieces, I was very tempted to by a Kooko clock, but unfortunately they cost about 300 Euros. I gave Mum and Dad an experience of a lifetime for lunch as we ate Doner Kebab's in the old town square, so delicious. Then back on the ICE for Dusseldorf.

Mum and Dad were extremely tired so they had a quiet night at home whereas I partied with Corinna for an overdue "girls night out"! We had dinner and drinks with two of her friends then Corinna and I partied harder in the most German club/pub I have ever seen. We met two nice German boys and danced a lot, we ended up getting back in at 4am - such a great night with my German sheila.

The next morning after Corinna had slept over we quickly made Rachel (Aussie best friend) a birthday video and then headed back on the train - Mum and Dad went to Amsterdam and I went back home to Rostock. A 6 hour train ride later I was home and packing again for a 3 week Euro tour - my life is really hard.

Euro tour goss coming soon, peace out!