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!