Shop shop shopping…?

Friday 27th - Hong Kong

Waking up with gusto (Ingo again) and a little bit of resistance (Me) We were up and ready to go at 9! Packed up and everything so we checked out (but asked if we could store our luggage there for the day) and headed out to do some serious shopping,,, or so we thought,

When we got to town everything was closed. Well duh, nothing opens here till 10, we knew that! so breakfast it was! We went to a very quick and very efficient breakfast place with very false advertising images :/ So when we left and it was past 10 (and still nothing was open) we decided to get a drink from McCafe. Caramel Frappe and Iced Coffee later we thought we'd try again. Ingo was super keen to check out the prices of iPhone's and iPad's so we headed (back) to the multilevel Computer shop of a lifetime (oh bliss.) When we got there it was still not open! So then we thought we'd have a look around at some clothes shops.

I'll tell you one thing now, I don't know where those people go that rave and rave about the cheap shopping in Hong Kong, but Ingo and I just could not find it anywhere! Everything was basically the same price as in NZ and the one shop that had shirts and suits for cheep only did because it was having a sale (by "it" I mean the 4 stores of the same name within 15 minutes of each other) and they were a complete shambles with nothing good left anyway :s So completely dissatisfied Ingo bought the one shirt that he found that actually looked good, and then it was back to the hostel to pick up our bags and head to the airport where we'd be ridiculously early and be able to try our hand at shopping again!

I was wrong (the airport express on the MTR is awesome in Hong Kong btw we were taken right to the door of the terminal - however we had to walk half a mile underground just getting from where you get off one train and get to the airport train) the shopping was not easy in the airport.

I managed to get a new mascara and eye liner pretty reasonably but that was all and then it was through to our gate and on the plan home :) 

Now it's saving time for the next adventure ;) 

Sweaty with sore feet

Thursday 26th - Hong Kong & Macau

attractive isn't it?
I almost didn't get out of bed this morning (yup this morning! I've finally managed to catch up with this blog!) I think it's the heat, but Ingo was showered and ready to go (or so we thought...) as I was only dragging my head off the pillow. But get up I did and then packed all my stuff into my bag, told Ingo that he really shouldn't leave his passport here, and we set off for the ferry to Macau.

We got all the way down the lift in the hostel building when Ingo realised he didn't have the map! So we went all the way back up the 8 floors, Ingo couldn't find the map (is it in your pants from yesterday pocket? no don't think so) when I saw it on the table. Yes just sitting in plain sight on the table ;) So then we went back down. "Get your octopus card (awesome thing the octopus card, much like snapper but the whole transport system and subway is so much better here that it's ten times better then snapper) (another thing, why are all these transport cards named after sea creatures?) out, so you've got it ready" Says I, "oh shit. I don't have it" says Ingo. "where is it then?" "uh... I think it's in my pants pocket" :| you can imagine how much I laughed at him for that one! Anyway we were finally on the subway and then we started walking in the direction Ingo pointed stopped for a spot of lunch (traditional sandwiches ;) and then realised that we were actually on completely the wrong side of the city!! So back to the station we'd just exited, and then changed lines once to catch the subway to the ferry harbour.

When we got there we were trying to find the way to go to buy our tickets and get on board, when there were all these advertisements about Macau this other country... and I say to Ingo, "did you bring your passport? because it looks like this isn't just an island of China type of thing..." So we find a travel agent, "Do we need a passport??" "Yes." well. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing! Poor Ingo was so angry with himself! Talk about the worst organisation of the century ;) and this from the German! not the easy going NZer ;) So we had to take the 2 connecting subways back to the hostel and then Ingo realised that actually, the ferry terminal that's closer to us is actually the better way to go. 5 mins later and we were there!

Just over an hour ride and we were in Macau :) Talk about nothing going very well! We lined up for a good 15-20 minutes and then we were told we were supposed to have filled out an arrival card :/ So back we went to fill it out and then finally we were through! Phew, What a mission!

Macau was just as frigging hot as Hong Kong :/ As soon as we got out of the terminal (and had got our hot little hands on a map) we head off to find the centre of the city (Country? Island?) We went off one way but it looked like we couldn't get up easily so around we turned and back the other way! We wandered through the city, past a couple of not so flashy casinos, until we found all the massive ones, the Wynn, MGM Grant, plus a couple more which names I can't remember. They were massive! (for a person who's never been to vegas) and sooooo over the top! I couldn't believe how much wasted space they could create :s and sooo icy cold! It's a wonder people aren't constantly suffering from colds and runny noses the amount of times in a day that their body has to re-adjust to a new temperature.

After wandering around the lobby's and sneak peaking into a few of the more impressive looking casinos, we decided we would have something to eat. We went to leave the latest casino (the Wynn) when all of a sudden it was pouring down with rain!!! From no where! blue skies to stormy rains, weird! And not up and down rain either, so our brand spanking new umbrella from the markets was hard-pressed to keep us both dry as we walked from street to street.

We wanted to try Portuguese cuisine and eventually found a cute little off the radar place that had a special with soup + main + soft drink for a cheapish price and it wasn't too bad food either :) We then walked and walked ad walked all over half the country (Ingo said it sounded better to say half the country then "only half the city" ;)) Looking for different sites. We saw a couple of little temples, and an old European church ruins (the biggest in Asia) the Ruins of St Pauls, we went to a Chinese garden in the middle of the city that was quite cute and filled with those awesome giant leaves that nothing can stick too! We saw heaps and heaps of stuff and had walked for miles, that barely neither of us could stand, so we started walking towards the terminal hoping to get a taxi on the way, but we ended up walking the whole way back with no taxi (Ingo refused to flag one down, he wanted to find one that was just sitting around waiting for us :/) A ferry was just about to leave which meant no sitting around waiting, and soon we were back at the hostel :) No shopping for us that night! far too sore feet!

(Interesting note: I was up to date with my blog but then I got side-tracked with sleeping so finished it on the plane and subsequently am now publishing this back in NZ :s)
So a nice early night to get straight into the shop shop shopping tomorrow :)

The Stop-Over

Wednesday 25th - Hong Kong!

After a miserable flight where I couldn't make myself sleep (and prevented Ingo the luxury as well) we made it to the stinking hot and muggyness that is Hong Kong! Found our hostel with minimum fuss and went straight to bed and straight to sleep!

A couple of hours later Ingo was up and awake with a vengence! I was quite happy to stay asleep, so I tried my hardest to stall us but no, wasn't going to happen so I dragged myself up ;) We set off only with food on the mind we wandered around and around until we found somewhere to eat.
Hong Kong's pretty crazy! lights and stuff everywhere! and people everywhere too. The restaurant we found sat the foreigners a little separate from the regulars haha ;) But the food was good - pan fried dumplings (Kelly, they were the best ever. You should be jealous right now), and then we shared a plate of fried rice (because Ingo confused the waitress while he was trying to order his dish, by bringing up the starter again, and then when she didn't know what he was talking about he said, 'don't worry, that's fine' and subsequently she didn't write down or bring him his beef hot plate) but we were also given tea which I think was some sort of green tea, but not too sure.

After dinner we went walking again and made our way to the harbour. Unfortunately the laser light show that's on every single night of the year was cancelled for the two nights (and only those two nights) that we're here for so we miss out on seeing that, but the view across to the Hong Kong mainland skyline is pretty amazing! Coloured lights everywhere :) We wandered along the whole harbour line and then decided we'd go to the night markets. Ingo had to lead us there because I was completely lost.

A long seemingly endless street of market stalls the night market was! I got myself a black pashmina for $6 and we got an umbrella that closes up like a bottle (much to Ingo's disappointment we noticed one later that had the apple logo on it) and then walked up and down looking at all the (excuse the phrase) useless crap that people can buy! I wanted to get a new hambag but it doesn't really make sense buying a bag for bag's sake as none of them were that great. So we left with our few trinkets and headed back to the hostel :)

Last Day in Deutschland :(

Tuesday 24th - Hundheim - Frankfurt - Germany no longer

We woke up too late for breakfast, but we had planned to cook lunch so up we got, packed and then off to the grocery store to A. stock up on chocolate and lollies to bring back, and B. pick up some lunch stuff. Then back to start cooking. I've made this sound a lot cruisier then it actually was :/ We were a little bit strapped for time, and we only just got the cake made when Petra, Theo and Karolin arrived for lunch!

We made a salmon and spinach lasagne (by "We" I mean, I chopped the salmon and put the cake together, Ingo did everything else ;) ) and a scrummy yummy rafaello cake which was a pre made base, with mandarin marmalade (or any kind of marmalade, we actually just used tinned marmalade mashed up) spread over that and then crushed up rafaello white chocolate truffle thingees mixed with quark and vanilla sugar and sweet cream all mixed together and spread thick (like one inch thick) over the top, with rafaello halves decorating the top - yum. Sooooo delicious!

After lunch it was time to go :( So we said goodbye to Theo and Karolin as they went off to work, and then Petra drove us to Hahn to catch our bus. It was a bit sad, especially for Ingo and his mum, but we'll be back!!!

I had such an awesome time in Germany (and Prague and Vienna) :D met so many awesome people that Ingo knows, and finally got to meet the rest of (well a lot of) his family, and heaps of his friends, caught up with a couple of people and basically had a really really wicked time :D

Back to Home Base :)

Monday 23rd - Hundheim :D

and the night train ride was not so fun :( We hopped into our cabin with six beds and crossed our fingers that no one else would hop in too, success!!! we were alone! however in hindsight it would have been better if we'd had a full cabin then, because getting woken up after only a couple of hours to 4 guys hopping in, and then promptly falling asleep, and then snoring like freight trains mixed with chainsaws mixed is not fun. Earplugs had no hope of helping, and it was friggen hot. So we both lay awake in the dark counting the seconds go by :/ It was then train switching time and then - bliss! - back to my home away from home :) (and Ingo's actual home ;)) where we were picked up from the station by Petra and Theo, who had both taken the day off to spend time with us :)

When we got back to Hundheim we had some breakfast (scrummy yummy!) and then went straight to bed! which was all we really could do, as - speaking for myself at least - I was ready to collapse! and then after a nice long 2 hour snooze and shower and hair wash we were ready for the day!

We all went for a wander around the wildlife park that was nearby, which had so many deer!!! I've never seen that many deer in one place before :D they were so sweet! and cheekey some of them! We were given 2 bags of food at the start of the walk, and the ones that weren't too scared would come right up and stick their noses right through the fence! Not as bad as the goats though! They would try and take the food straight from the bag! and they had no sharing skills what-so-ever, so the fat ones got fatter and the little ones stayed little :s hehe. We also saw a little goat that had only recently been born, and was still a little wobbly on his feet :) very cool! Just as we were coming close to the end of the trail it started pooring with rain so we got to the cafe just in time and went in for a drink. There was also a small gallery/museum there so we had a look around there too :)

Then it was back home to get ready for the annual Kirmes :D

It was the last night of the 3 day festival and it was also the night they have preformances from different groups and Karolin (Ingo's youngest sister), Kristina and Nicole's (who I'd met previously) dance group were preforming too!!! So I was looking forward to seeing that :)
When we arrived there were people everywhere! Ingo was saying that he doesn't think he's ever seen the tent that full before! But what was really cool was how many people I recognised :) Friends and family of Ingo's that I'd met before - heaps were there and we talked to a few of them before the show started.

The first act was a boy who pulled off some pretty awesome Michael Jackson moves - and I don't think he'd had any proper training so that was pretty clever. Then there was a group of younger girls that Nicole trains, followed by group after group of dancers - awesome! :D The last group to preform were the Dog City Girls (the group I know people in!) and they were super cool :D Especially considering they'd only practised it with everyone present the once the previous afternoon! It's cool cause it's a slightly different dancing style to what I do, with lifts and cartwheels - almost 'bring it on' styles, and looks super fun!

Anyway, after they'd finished Petra and Theo finished up for the night, and Ingo and I stayed on. We talked to so many people! and I tried my hardest to keep it in German ;) Kristina also pulled us up for a boogie which was awesome fun (although I'll have that song -which name I can't remember- in my head for the rest of my life after it was played about a million times!) and I got to meet a couple of new people that we hadn't had time to meet up with before, so all in all a very fun night :) We got home at about 3am. Phew!

Tourist Time

Sunday 22nd - Hot hot hot München!

I'm going to brag and brag about the beautiful weather in Munich, first because it was awesome at a high of 31 today, second because it's only 11 in Wellington at the moment, and third because that's what a summer holiday's supposed to be! :p

We had a nice long sleep in to start the day, and when we finally got our a's into g, we had missed breakfast and were heading into the lunch period! Off we went to go to the Viktualienmarkt...

...that was closed! Mum's constant "nothing's open on a Sunday" growing up (when things were open ;p) actually applies here! No shops are open on Sunday! crazy! haha but kind of nice too, so after walking into the most definitely not open market we whipped to the closest cafe for some Apfel Strudel for me, as I hadn't tried it yet (after so long in Germany as well!) It was scrummy yummy with home made vanilla sauce nom nom noms!

Simon met us halfway through our meals and helped Ingo finish his, then we were off again with so much to do and see on our last day!

We started off with a trip to Olympia Park which was awesome! So massive! with amazing curved glass roofs undulating across the entire space. Before we made it up there though, we were side tracked by the BMW Museum which had very nice toilets Anthea and I found, while the boys manned it up.

Out side the museum and amongst all the olympic structures were market stalls so not everything is closed on Sunday's ;)

We wandered around the Park for a little bit, but decided that because I'd hiked a mountain before we didn't need to climb the hill that's made from WWII rubble and waste, so we took our leave.

Our next tourist spot was a church (so much for all churched out eh?) that Ingo had read had burnt down in 1995 so they'd built a new one, that was essentially a glass box that the whole front facade could open out - very cool! When we got there the massive doors weren't open, just the normal doors so in we went. It was a very classy looking church - very minimalist and very modern. The organ pipes were arranged in a square and there were wire frame cubes kind of like a defragmented grid form, arranged around the altars and some of the pictures.

From the church we went past the university that Sophie Scholl and co. went to, so we went past the memorial in place for her, which was cool for me to see, having just learned about the story through the movie. We then walked through the fairly substantial uni grounds to get to the surfers wave, which is essentially a canal/river that's about 7 metres approx. wide where they've built this barge thing underneath so the water flows in an ongoing wave so surfers from all over line up either side and take turns to see how long they can last and if they can attempt any jumps. Simon was telling us that apparently 1 drunken person a year dies in this thing :/ because the current is so strong!

From there we headed to the English garderns which is the size of a few hundred rugby fields put together (slight exaggeration but seriously massive!) and there were people everywhere! and heaps in bikinis wandering around a massive park. There were huge trees every where and hugh open spaces, the same strong current river runs through it and on one side you're allowed to sun bath nuddie, and then smack bang in the middle is a massive beer garden, the second biggest beer garden (in the world? probably) that seats over 700 people (if I remember correctly) and you get your food and beer in a fenced off area and pay for it all on your way out, then go find yourself a seat.

We stayed there for a good amount of time just absorbing the atmosphere - very cool :D Then realised that time was getting on if we wanted to see the glockenspiel chime and so we headed back through the gardens and went to sit down and have a couple of happy hour cocktails while we waited for the 9pm chiming of the clock.

Which was a bit of a let down :( We were promised so much! but I think that the later chimings of the clock are not the full version and so we only saw a part of it, there was no clock people murder or anything like that - however there was this really awesome street band who were playing remix's of classical pieces and they were so cool!!! They are called konnexion Balkon. I've definitely seen my share of awesome street musicians here - a lot of them are a far cry from some of the wellington peeps, but at the same time there' not a lot of room for a full band plus some to be all muso-ey on the narrow non-plaza streets of Welly!

Then it was time to say goodbye :( first to Simon who's stop was first, and then Anthea. It was very much a see you when we see you kind of goodbye, which happens when people are all over the show, but it was super cool to hang out with them and catch up!

On to the night train! 

All Churched Out ;)

Saturday 21st - a full day of München :D

It was straight into tradition as soon as we were ready to go. Off to a beer garden around the block from Anthea's place (named by Anthea "the jungle garden" very fitting as it indeed felt like you were in a bit of a mish mash of jungle with an odd assortment of decorative sculptures and installments) to have some Weisswurst and Weissbier for breakfast - very Munich of us :D. Yup beer for breakfast! just after we'd brushed our teeth! The sausages for brekkie were yummy but the beer was a little hard to stomach - I don't think I'm cut out to be Bavarian :s - and the bread was delicious!!! freshly baked and still warm! plus I had my first very own Brezel. Yum! 

After brekkie we walked down to the river to have a look see, very nice, you wouldn't think you were in a city area :) loads of people chilling out river side, and cycling along, and then it was off to see the main drag in the city before we headed off to the lake for some swimming and sunning - finally!!! We'd told Anthea about our experience with the most garish church ever and she then said she would show us a church that she thought would beat it. So after we looked in a couple of shops, we met up with Simon just outside the church and then went in. She was right! it was absolutely amazingly over the top - I've never seen so much tackiness all in one place! It was pretty cool - there were golden skeletons and Golden babies vomiting golden sunbeams. One of the statues was holding golden chains to it's baby angel slaves who had golden collars - very odd decoration! and then again all the different colored marble you could imagine and the twirly columns. Wow.

Having taken all that in, we were all pretty ready for a break from the site seeing so off we went to catch the U-Bahn to the lake. One of the people we met last night, Jane, was also keen to come along and when we got off the train she'd been on the same one! So the five of us went up and got some ice cream while we waited for the bus to take us to the lake. Man it was hot! a high of 29 degrees that day! (I decided that the good weather had to have been mine and Ingo's doing, as they informed us that the summer in Munich so far had been pretty crappy up till that point)

The lake was awesome! like a beach with grass - although not as clean :s I skipped the first swim, happy was I to just be able to soak up some sun, and when I went in for the second excursion I almost got right back out again, man it was freezing!!! But with the threat of Ingo and Simon ready to splash anyone chicken enough not to go right in I quickly dipped down, didn't make it any warmer like they'd promised but at least the threat was gone :) Jane had also come super prepared with some chocolate biscuits of which I think I devoured most :/ Simon coming in a close second, apples and some crackers, and so we had ourselves a fun wee time down at the lake. I'm no browner thanks to the summer season being all but over, the sun wasn't that strong, and with the sun smart kiwi attitude I had some sunblock on so there wasn't really that much hope for me :s but oh well! I tried! After we finished up at the lake, we took the same path back and then we said goodbye to Jane. 

The rest of us went over to Simons place for a quick beer, on the way stopping at a supermarket for some supplies, where we saw a poster advertising a round the world trip stopping in; Fiji, LA, New Zealand and Auckland! haha they listed Auckland as separate ;) very funny) Ingo had a couple of friends he knew from his Uni studies; Sebastian and Eva, who he wanted to meet up with, so Simon told us about this place to eat near his place and we arranged to meet them there. They arrived and we ordered, I didn't really get the chance to talk to them during dinner, the table was long and narrow so it was kind of hard to talk to anyone but the people immediately opposite you, but we had a good time, and afterwards Sebastian and Eva came back to Simons with us for a drink which was cool :) They're really cool people and their english was awesome (with me, Anthea and Simon all with minimal German skills it made sense to stick with the English - although I think Simon and Anthea's aren't as bad as they say ;))  

Then back to home base for a relatively early night :) 

We bought the Sun!

Friday 20th - Munich

The train ride to Munich was not too bad and i think I got a lot of naps in which helped catch me up a bit ;) I've found I need to sleep so much more because I'm doing so much more then normal! When we arrived at midday we sent Anthea (one of our friends who live in Munich) a message to let her know that we'd arrived as we were staying with her :) She then met us at the Bahnhof station that was close to her work and we all went to a bakery for lunch. I'd told Ingo while we were tourist-info-researching on the train, that I'd be happy to lie in the sun, swim and basically hang out and chill out, as I was feeling a bit "churched out" as I put it ;) but Ingo was worried then that we wouldn't do any tourist activities, so we agreed on not too many but definitely some ;) 

Anthea then gave us the key to her place and sent us on our way so she could get back to work (these unlucky people who have to work while we're holidaying ;) ) with excellent directions we found her place in no time and despite the BBQ smell (which I actually found quite comforting) her teeny place was very sweet and cozy and we were quite happy to hang out there till the evening shenanigans. While I showered and made myself feel like a civilized human being again, Ingo did the same by way of a brand new haircut ;) and then we were ready!

When Anthea came home she introduced me to the traditional garb I would be wearing for the evening and in true Bavarian style I donned the loaned Dirndl on (had to make a few minor adjustments by way of stuffing with socks. Yes. That's right. I stuffed my bra with socks haha) and was ready to go! We were heading off to Hofbräuhaus (very touristy we were told) to meet up with Simon (another friend) and to meet some of their friends (none of whom were native Germans!) Everyone came decked out in their Bavarian outfits and Simon considerately bought along some for Ingo swell including the very swauve hat ;) I had my first experience trying to lift one of the 1 litter mugs of beer (I have no idea how the waitresses carry 1 in each hand, let alone 5 in each hand!) and we all jumped up and clinked glasses when the beer drinking song (the tune of which is still stuck in my head) came on :D When I'd finished my 2nd 1 litter Radler, Someone poured some of their beer into my glass and I think that was the end of me! Not because I was drunk, just because I was so unbelievably full of liquid and bibles my stomach had expanded by 3 times it's size and was so sore!!! We went to another bar with a tree in it after, but it was small and squishy and I really did feel like I was going to explode so Ingo and I went back to Anthea's to go to bed :)

Anthea has this awesome double air bed that's massive and has a mini vacuum built in so in 4 mins flat it was all up and ready to go, not too bad for comfort either :) So we were able to get a good nights rest.

Finally some time to enjoy the sun! 

Walking - Napping - Napping - Walking ;)

Thursday 19th - Can't get enough of Vienna :D

Waking up early so we could get the best of breakfast before going back to bed for a sleep in was he original plan, but after eating we were both too awake to try sleeping again so we decided to start the day off. The showers were unable to be made warm without waiting half an hour for them to heat up (the only downer of the hostel) which was a bit of a bummer but I managed to brave it and then we were off to the U-Bahn to catch a train to see the Hundertwasser Haus and the KunstHausWien.

The Hundertwasser Haus was amazing! Full grown trees on the roof, and in true Hundertwasser style, minimal straight lines, different bright colours, broken colored tiles and a miss match of bricks and ceramic tiles. It is a very cool place, but unfortunately because it's also the residence of a few people there's no going inside so we just had to make do with looking all around the outside with Ingo photographing every part that he could ;) - Funny story; This was Ingo's tourism destination, I was looking forward to it most definitely, but Ingo was really really excited, so when we arrived and it was made apparent that his "so-much-better-then-[mine]" camera was still at the hostel sitting innocently on the bed, forgotten, he had to resign himself to using my half rate (apparently) pink camera (I gave it over to him, rather then suffer the consequences of not taking the correctly compositioned photo's ;) But he got some good shots I think, even with the second rate camera!

We then watched a short film with Hundertwasser himself where he was describing the decisions he made for his architecture and what he was trying to achieve, but we didn't watch the whole film because the person that made it decided it would be a good idea to put a fish eye effect throughout the entire clip so that you can't see the detail in the proper proportions anyway and it was mildly frustrating to the both of us ;)

So we carried on down the road to the KunstHausWien, which houses Hundertwasser's artworks and creations. But we figured for 10Euro's each it was a bit steep to see a whole lot of images that we'd just seen in all the gift shops so we decided against it and instead went through into the cafe/beer garden for some kaffee und kuchen. Note for other travelers: we were told afterwards that the KunstHausWien is actually quite cool and interesting so next time we won't be leaving it out :) The cafe/beer garden was awesome, trees and vines everywhere the whole place was Hundertwasser styled with colored glass top tables - very cute and very cool. 

After the Hundertwasser extravaganza we decided to wander around a bit in that area. We hadn't planned on going up the giganormous ferriss wheel, but we could see it across the river (The Danube) so we decided to go have a look see.

When we got there we discovered not just a ferris wheel, but a whole massive huge carnival park!!! There were soooooo many rides and things to do! plus traditional carny style game booths and food carts!!! But the coolest thing was that it's open all the time, an school holidays were over! so there were hardly any other people around! :D Candy Floss was first on the wish list :D and I managed to get through a large portion before it was confiscated by my minder and thrown in the bin (you'll ruin your dinner! haha not quite but just about) then we just enjoyed all the sites until we came across (from a distance as the height was noticeable from a wee way away) a possible alternative to the ferris wheel! I can't remember what it's called, but you sit in pairs, and there are about 20 double seats that hang from chains around a tower that's about 120metres high and then you get taken right up to the top, where they slow it right down and you dangle your legs 120metres off the ground while viewing the city from above! It was so cool! no photo's though, we were bait afraid of losing the contents (not to mention the camera - half rate tho it is) should we accidentally drop it ;) But it was ten times better than being holed up in a ferris wheel cabin with 15 other people that doesn't even go as high, so we were pretty happy with ourselves.

Then a bit more wandering around which led me to discover the nicest (probably mainly due to the lack of people but meh) public toilets I've ever been in! Not anything exciting design wise, but it looked pretty fancy, and opposite each cubicle door was a separated handbasin, with it's own soap, hand towels and rubbish bin. How toilets should be! And not half as expensive as the ones at the Bahnhof's!

After all the excitement we were about ready to crash, but there was still so much to do and see so we caught the U-Bahn to the Naschmarkt which is a permanent market with every cheese, meat, mederterrainian salad ingredients, and spices known to man - I've never seen so many places selling every kind of olive imaginable before, we must have walked past about 8 different stalls just with olives! and we stopped at a turkish stall and had falafel pita pockets for lunch. I think at this point we were both starting to get a bit of heat stroke, because it was such a beautiful day with next to no clouds, and so hot!!! plus all the walking mixed with the lack of a much needed sleep in, anyway I was starting to drag my feet and there was still Schloss Schönbrunn (a palace second in size only to the French Versailles) so onwards we went back to the U-Bahn and onto the next stop!

When we got to the Schloss Schönbrunn grounds I decided it would be a good idea to have a sit down for a wee bit first (as I was nearly at collapsing stage at this point - and it's not a good idea to try sight-seeing when you're struggling to keep your eyes open) so wee sat down and promptly both fell asleep! haha on a bench at the second largest palace!!! oh dear! but it was much needed and well received so after our half an hour nap we were ready to wander around! We decided to stick to the palace grounds, as the rooms wouldn't be that exciting (I can hear my interior design tutors telling me off for that decision) but the gardens themselves were worth a good couple of hours wandering so we didn't feel we had enough time (or money) to do both and the weather was so beautiful! So we bought an ice cream each and started a-wandering :)

There were squirrels everywhere!!! and so many trees and separate gardens and water fountains and a massive bird cage for pigeons and statues everywhere!  Amazing! I had also had the brilliant idea to get out the brolly (we were ready for any kind of weather) and use it as a sun-brella to stop myself from fainting in the heat (so weak!) and that did the world of good :) So it was quite a sweet and fun time wandering the gardens together :) Plus I got rewarded for all the funny looks I got from having an umbrella up on such a beautiful day, when I noticed that a group of ladies who had been quite pointedly talking about me and my umbrella as we walked past, pulled out their umbrella for some shade! So now I've added onto my little European fantasy of riding my one piece bike in a pretty dress with my basket on the front, flowers, puppy and fresh loaf of bread, with a sun umbrella :D poor Ingo! hehe

After our little garden tour we caught the U-Bahn back to the hostel for some much needed rest before dinner. While sitting in the courtyard garden reading one of the other guests at the hostel started playing the piano inside so the sound was drifting out to us - and they were really really good! We chatted to a couple of people who were sitting outside as well, and then when the piano finished a group of guys bought out the guitars and started sing a longs :) very cool! 

We had dinner plans at a cozy looking local restaurant so we got changed and then went into town to find it. It was very small but very nice and not touristy at all! so we were quite happy to sit down to eat. I ordered the Wiener Schnitzel a traditional Vienna dish and Ingo had Goulash something and mine was scrummy yummy!!! not the same as Schnitzel in NZ that's for sure! We stayed there for quite a bit and then we wandered back to the U-Bahn (and would you believe I led the way most of the way!!!) and then went back to the hostel and straight to bed :)

The next morning it was all go go go to get all packed up and washed and ready for our train ride to Munich

A day of culture, music and art

Wednesday 18th - Vienna day 1

I love Vienna! :D

The sleeping train dropped us off at the right stop thank goodness! and we both managed to get at least 3 hours sleep. So we walked to our hostel - right around the corner from the main Bahnhof and U-Bahn! to try to see if they would let us check in at 6.30 in the morning. Sadly no, so we put our luggage in one of their lockers and had some breakfast at the hostel while we tried to decide what we were going to do for the day.

Important note: Hostel Ruthensteiner is AWESOME and if you're ever in Vienna I recommend that you stay there - but book in advance as they were fully booked the whole time we were there!

Ingo got a bit stroppy with me that morning - I think maybe I'd pulled the "you be my tour guide" chain a bit too much - and told me that I HAD to read the info and I had to choose some things that I want to do ;) So I got all organised and picked a nice long list of things that I thought sounded pretty awesome and then the two of us tried to work out the best way.

One of the tour guides we had on loan from Ingo's parent's had this walk around the city that you could do so we decided that, since it incorporated a few of the things we wanted to see, and also led us to a couple of the places we wanted to go to, it would be a great place to start!

So we caught the U-bahn into the centre of the city and started off at the Stephansdom, another old baroque gothic church that was stunning! There were horses and carts driving people all around the city and tourists everywhere! From there we wandered down a few tiny streets with hardly any people and found some nice spots and as Ingo tried to follow the map of the walk we came across the next church the Jesuitenkirche which was pretty boring looking actually, and we thought, 'is that it?!' and just as Ingo was about to walk away I was said "well we've come this way to see it so we may as well go inside!" and it was just as well we did because we came across the most incredibly OTT church you have ever seen ever! Anything you could put into a church was in there - it had marble in every colour available, straight marble columns and spiralling marble columns, gold leaf on everything!!! Balconies wherever they could possibly fit and statues and frills and trills on every single surface. Even the chairs were over the top! The organ looked like something out of a bad sci-fi horror film that would command people and send them to their doom - it was awesome!!! haha and we almost walked straight past! talk about a juxtaposition!

We found an couple of cool looking statues and water fountains and were struggling hard to keep our feet working and our eyes open, so we found a small patch of grass and fell asleep on the grass for half an hour :)

When we woke up we carried right on with the walking tour which took us to a main plaza that was surrounded by massive large buildings with domes and horses and carts everywhere! We walked through one of the arches and into another plaza where we found a map that led us to the Schmetterlingshaus (house of butterflies). It was basically a giant greenhouse of plants and waterfalls, a staircase in a tree trunk and a small bridge. There were some massive butterflies and when we first went in 2 kids were standing near the entrance with a large blue and black/brown butterfly flying around them and it landed on the boys hand! so cool! but then of course I was obsessed with getting one to land on my hand. Sadly it didn't happen, although the butterflies themselves were pretty cool!

We then walked from there around the gardens that were right my there and sat down amongst the locals for another wee rest ;) It was pretty nice! schön! :D and there were people with guitars, and people with BBQ's (Grill) and people drinking beer! in public! and not having to hide it or getting told to poor it out! just civilised drinking on a sunny afternoon :) very cool ;)

From there we went a wandering towards the Museum's Quartier to go to the modern art gallery MUMOK (MUseum von MOdern Kunst(Art)) We passed a brass (I think) statue of Mr Geothe and as a tip of the hat to my German language courses at the Geothe Institut I had a photo with him :) We then made it to MQ and sat down at one of the cafes for kaffe und kuchen and then made our way to MUMOK. The plaza in the MQ is awesome - there are these bright colour bench like things everywhere and there were people all over them just chilling out in the sun! so cool! The museum's main exhibition was by Brigitte Kowanz. She had covered the walls in mirror's including these 2 wardrobe like spaces, and then within the room there were individual boxes which were made out of what I'm guessing must have been window/mirrors as they had fluro tubes in shapes and words on the boxes that were then reflected throughout the entire box. Some very cool effects! The rest of the gallery work was a bit blah, whole canvas's of solid colours and cardboard boxes in a pile, that kinda thing, which is really neither mine or Ingo's thing so we didn't linger too long :)


Caught the U-Bahn back to the hostel and were finally able to check in so we went straight to bed (it was now something like 4pm) and slept for a couple of hours so that we would be fresh for our evening activities.


Woken, showered and fresh we ventured out for our planned evening activities. First off to the Haus der Musik, a relatively new (2 years old) museum dedicated to the great composers and the sciences of sound ;) I again highly highly recommend this museum! It was fantastic!!! In the very first room they had classical music CDs that you could sit and listen to, and to be honest I could've stayed right there for the rest of the night! But I'm glad we didn't as there were games you could 'compose your own music' with and points where you could hear different things happening to your voice as you control them, you could make your own sounds and then put them all together and I had a play with being a conductor with my very own orchestra! Awesome!!! They had seperate rooms with the history's of a select group of composers; Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin to name a few... which were set up to the composers style and period, with their music playing. It was so very cool! But not really photographable naturally as it's dedicated to sound ;)


We were also very lucky with our timing as Vienna has a summer festival at this time where they have a giant screen set up outside in front of this beautiful old building, and then seats all around it. They play a different Opera, Ballet or Symphony every night and there are food stalls and tables further out which sell all amounts of different types of food (and beer) including an Aussie stall (which we avoided ;) ) We ordered the Kase Fleisch Kase and some Wurst (I'm getting used to writing all noun's in capital's the true German way now ;) ) Bier, and then off so sit and watch a modernised version of Aida (which I'd never heard of :s) that was in Italien with German subtitles and not easy German either! So Ingo had to keep translating the hard bits for me :) Then we went back to the hostel so that I could ring mum for her birthday :)


Great first day in Wien!

Walking walking walking - that's tourism

Tuesday 17th - Prague (the second)

We had not much of a sleep in as we had to pack up and check out of the hostel by 10am. So once we'd decided on the plan of attack for the day we set off.

First to the main train station to put our luggage into a storage locker for the day, (poor Clare had to carry her backpack around with her all day :s) Then it was food time (we could tell from the noises - we were all pretty hungry!) we caught the U-Bahn across the river and then went in search of a place again courtesy of the LP Prague city guide :D It was called cafe Savoy and it was a flashy looking place but not too pricey so Ingo ordered the French breakfast, I had grilled chicken and vege's and Clare went for the dumplings (I think she was in search of the best dumplings while in Prague ;) ) Clare and I also had hot chocolates, that came out with a teeny espresso cup and a metal jug of the most chocolatey hot chocolate Ive tasted to date. My grilled chicken was divine! (yes. I just said "divine") and Ingo was pretty satisfied with his meal... Clare's dumplings we all decided were, not bad, but weird hehe they were cheese  dumplings with sweet apricots in the middle and chocolate sauce, sour cream, and sugar and cinammon toppings to choose from - very strange combinations! but we hung out there for a bit and helped ourselves to the nivea hand cream available in the bathroom (very flash) before we headed off to the Prague castle.

We caught the tram there and then walked up the cobblestone path to get to the entrance, awesome views of Prague from there! Once we'd made it inside it was again more of a village then an actual castle. With a couple of churches and lots of shops and cafe's and restaurants, plus the main palace-ey type building (interesting note - I'm writing this on a German keyboard layout so for every ten characters forward I have to go two back to get rid of the ä's and ö's which are where the ;'s and : keys should be, not to mention the z-y swap around... so whenever you see a z or a y you have to understand that I had to type 3 keys in total to get the correct result :p) anyway... a lot of the oldness of the buildings had been ruined a little by the repairs which in a bid to try to fix up the crumbling blocks had just smothered them in plaster completely covering the old sandstone (or whatever it was) blocks and block work :( The main church was pretty cool though. I tried to take a photo of the front facade but in the end had to take it in pieces as I couldn't get far enough away! The inside had lots of awesome stained glass windows that we were pretty impressed by and So Much Effing Gold covering E.Ver.Y.thing. no wonder the church is so powerful - all that wasted (incredibly beautiful and amazing) worth that could have been utilized in so many more productive ways!!! but as Ingo pointed out - all that wasted capital now brings in millions more to these citys in the form of tourists deep pockets.

We spent quite a while there and then started getting bone tired from all the endless walking! We also had gotten lost (Ingo will dispute this but I still maintain that he had no idea where we were - such a massive jumble of buildings and grounds) Plus it was getting time for Clare to head off to make her flight so we headed off for the cable car to see the views and ride it down the hill. If I'd known we'd have to hike a mountain to get to the cable car I would've told them both to meet me at the bottom ;) but really it wasn't that bad I'm just exaggerating as I was soooooo tired of walking by then! but we got there and better yet, it was included in our day subway/tram passes! so whoop! we got on the front section of the cable car and then I sat down and missed most of the views (typical Verity lazy style) but it was nice to not be walking anymore :) We all caught the tram to the subway and then we waved Clare goodbye as she boarded a different train to us :( But it was super awesome to have her spend the time in Prague with us so thanks Clare!!! :D

Ingo and I then went to the main train station and booked our tickets for the night train to Vienna or Wien then went back into the citz and  wandered (yep, more walking) over to the not so special bridge to watch the sunset go down behind the bit more special Charles bridge ;) but then got cold so we went and sat down under some trees for shelter. It was too cloudy for a good sunset though so we headed back to the train station and chilled out while we waited for the train.

I must say, that I did really enjoy Prague, there were some amazing things there to see - and sooo much history and good jazz clubs (highlight for me!) ;D but I was quite relieved to hop on that night train... Might have been the guide books all warning about pick pockets, or the general attitude of the police officers from the night before, but I never really felt at ease in Prague, one hand always on my purse, people always invading your bubble (seriously. does no one else feel the need to have their bubble of personal space?!?)... plus sleeping on a train! whoop whoop!
 

All that Jazz

Monday 16th - Prague
We managed to have a fairly ok sleep in and then it was all go go go! I was quite happy to let Ingo and Clare sort out our plans for the day (I'm a follower that's for sure ;) ) but as we were all clearly thinking about food we decided to head to the centre of town for some fodder.

It was a hot day. Stuffy and hot, with a bit of a blue sky to start off with. We wandered around for a little bit, clicking a few photos here and there (some of which I'll have to get off Clare cause her camera is aWEsome!) then we managed to somehow stumble upon a vegetarian restaurant that woohoo! comes recommended by lonely planet! (I'll take this opportunity to commend Clare and her little lonely planet city guide - Ingo absolutely loved it and it defo had all the good spots in it :D) Anyway we all had a burrito thingee that was scrummy yummy, and a selection of salads from the buffet salad bar, I also got a ginger beer that was a bit of a kick.

After lunch we started our search for the old town of Prague (I'm still not 100% sure why it's classified as that - but it has all the major sites there so good place to start) and when we found a nice little alleyway that also said took you  through to the old town we were quite pleased with ourselves!

Through the alleyway took you into a massive plaza square thing that was ALL cobblestones (in fact the way we remember it the whole of Prague was cobblestones) and this was where we would find the Astronomical Clock (after some argument/discussion and a quick peek into the guide book, Clare and I conseeded that yes Ingo was in fact right it IS called Astronomical not Astrological or Astrononomical ;) ) Where we waited for it to ring (there were hundreds maybe thousands of people there to do the same - but as stated in the LP more something you have to do then actually that amazing haha, but quite quirky to see the "skeleton of death" (name courtesy of debate) pull the chain that rings the bell, while someone stands at the top of the tower waiting to play the trumpet in time. There was a giant statue of Chzek Reformer Jan Hus, and huge old buildings, one of which another Gothic church (they're Everywhere!) with windows that were alone in height over 15metres!

The currency in Prague is hard to get used too. The first amount of money I got out was 2600 kroner and we worked out that 100 kroner comes to around about €4 but it's still a bit weird to hand over a 2000 note when you're buying lunch!
We then went to the Jewish cemetary and bought a pass (for 300ck each) that allowed us into the cemetary and also into 5 synagogues. The first was a 2 (3?) level synagogue with names written in neat lines within every wall. The last name and letter of the First names were in red, and the rest in black with dates either of birth and death or just the year they died. There were over 70,000 names and all were Jewish people from Prague who had been killed in WWII, and it was incredible seeing how many people from one city were lost. There was also childrens art work recovered that were done in different times leading up to the War and during that were interesting to see what the children were experiencing through that time.

We then went through the cemetary in which the last person buried there was in the 1700's and the gravestones were amazing! all crumbling and falling over with the words barely visible on some and then others still quite clear. Some were tiny and others were massive and they all jutted out at strange angles probably due to the fact that there were 11 layers of people buried there! Incredible! We think that they must have had to keep bringing in new soil to keep packing them all in - which sounds awful but I think they just all wanted to be buried there - so much history!

We came out of the cemetary a wee way away from where we'd started and wandered through another synagogue, but we could barely stand anymore so we decided it was time to go.

Walking around we were trying to find a traditional Chzek place to have dinner but it was tricky when we were all still suffering from our not-so-great nights sleep and our ridiculously travel sore feet, but we got there eventually thanks to Ingo's navigation (I'd never really tried to help and Clare had given up by then as well - so much easier to let someone else do it!) and sat down to some potatoe dumplings (Clare) and Pork (Me) and Pork dumplings (Ingo) It's safe to say that Clare and Ingo enjoyed their meals a lot more then I did - just a tad too hearty for me! But it was a cool experience and a nice atmosphere :) Plus we were full off the delicious saugsage soupy entree we had :)

It was then time to subway back to the hostel for some quiet time before heading out on the town ;)

We knew we wanted to go see Frank Ghery's dancing house so we took the subway straight there and then spent a few minutes trying to get the perfect shot. It definitely looks a bit more impressive in photo's that in real life :/ but still a must see so we were happy!

We then went to find a live Jazz bar that Ingo had read about to see what was on. It was in a kindof underground old wine cellar or something that was an awesome cozy atmosphere so thirsty Clare and I got cokes and Ingo a beer and we went and found a table. It was awesome!!! The band were amazing and I got a couple of recordings to prove it! Their name was the Jakub Urban Quintet for anyone who wants to try find them on the interwebs (and you should)
Ingo then decided that because we were in the home of Absyinth we most definitely can NOT leave without having some so he got us each a "shot" as in a 1/2 a cup each :s and after one quick sip I almost gagged! It was soooo strong!!! man oh man! Definitely was not going to finish that one!

When the gig finished we wandered around the city looking for a pub to have another beer in. We found a nice place and sat there for a good hour or so then went to try and find our way home.

Because it was now 1.30am the subway wasn't going anymore, and we had no idea which trams went past our hostel and from where they left either so we walked and walked trying to find a tram stop. Ingo had a fair idea of where we were but at one point when we couldn't find our way we saw 2 policemen standing talking to a taxi driver so we decided to go over and ask. This turned out to be a mistake. At first Ingo asked them if they spoke English and they didn't even acknowledge that we'd spoken to them, then when he pointed to the map to ask how we could get to the tram stop one of the officers got right in his face and said "goodnight." Ingo didn't hear him properly and was asking what street we were on, when the taxi driver pointed and told us that it was over there. Then the policeman said again "goodnight." It was frightening (for me) It was like he was wanting us to get aggravated. But the worst was that I've just never ever thought that a policeman would be like that when all you're doing is asking for directions! Talk about living a sheltered life! Made me feel a bit sick really :(

Which is a shame because apart from the arrogant and a-hole-ic qualities of the 2 policemen we encountered, it had been a really awesome night

So Yay for Prague! Shame your policeforce suck!

(we ended up catching a taxi home after clarifying the price was 250ck and then when we got back the driver put his hand out so I put in 240 (accidentally) and then he said "240?' so I was like "oh sorry!" and gave him the 10 extra, then he shot Ingo a dirty look as we were getting out and I said "what was his problem?" and Ingo said "I dunno! since we gave him more then what he said it would cost", and I said "no, I gave him 250" which was when Ingo said "oh the meter said 280" well now I felt terrible! I couldn't even see the meter so I had just thought the price we'd agreed to at the start was what I had to pay :s So if you're out there mister taxi driver we're super sorry!!!!!)

Long Day, Long Night!

Sunday 15th - Journey to Prague
The early morning was not easy due to our late night :s but I forced myself up to pack my stuff together for the next 9 days (approx) of my first Europe holiday ;) then a quick breakfast with Petra and Theo, made our packed lunch and a quick shower before it was in the car and off we go! We headed out to the train station at Idar-Oberstein and then I had my first experience on a German train! I was impressed. And this one wasn't even one of the fast ones! just the "regular" ones! but it was faster and way way way quieter then any NZ train I've ever been on before!
Then at Frankfurt train station we changed to an ICE which was pretty smooth sailing ;) (and as Ingo informed me, this wasnt even one of the NEW ICEś) so I was kind of disappointed when we got to Nurnberg and had to change to a bus for the remaining 4 hours of our journey :( But the bus was a double decker and we were right near the front so it wasn´t too bad :)

When we arrived in Prague, it was around 6pm. Ingo (who is now classed as my tour guide) had all our subway connections figured out so away we went! Very easy rational subway system in Prague - but kinda old looking and grotty :s

We found our hostel ok, and chilled out for a bit, while we waited for Clare to arrive... she was originally due in at 10.55 so we had a beer each and settled in. At 11.30 when Clare still hadn´t arrived I started to get a bit worried :/ so at 12.30 when she still hadn´t arrived I decided to go down to the reception area to find out when they were open til and wait down there. Ingo came with me.

At 2am when she still hadn´t arrived I was really worried! silly us for not getting her flight info and no one had a working phone either so it was all just ridiculous planning but I was most definitely not a happy chappy at this point - imagining all the awful things that could possibly have happened to my friend! Plus it was raining like there was no tomorrow and thunder and lightning to boot! (anyone rational would have seen by this comment what was most likely to have happened) We´d found a flight that was due in at 10.55 that was delayed by 50mins, but still that flight was leaving from Louton not London and if it had been that she would still have arrived by then.

So we decided to go to bed and then try figure out what to do in the morning :( Ingo was confident that Clare with her travel smarts (experienced traveler) would know what she was doing so we went to bed. And I tried to sleep, I may have dozed for a few minutes at any rate, but at 3am when there was a knock on the door I jumped up and raced to unlock the door - dropped the key a few times :/ and then finally got the door open to a soaked and not very happy Clare! :D I was stoked! YAY!!! phew!

Turns out even Clare hadn´t known what was going on and had thought they were coming in for landing at Prague... which was taking a bit long... a bit too long, then they finally land, only to be told that actually could everyone please stay in their seats as they are not in fact in Prague, but actually in Germany! Germany!! Where in Germany?? well Clare still has absolutely no idea. They all had to stay on the plane seated in some tiny private looking airport until around 1am ish when they finally took off again and made it into Prague. Phew.

So when we´d calmed down Clare went to bed and we tried the sleep thing again :)

Another "Lazy" Day

Saturday 14th
We had a nice bit of a sleep in to start the day off finally! But not all was going to be easy going for both of us ;) Ingo got up and went to help his dad clear out a basement of a house they own in Morbach, while I tried to (unsuccessfully) catch up with my blog (unsuccessful as I'm now writting this on the 17th :s) and then tidy a few bits and bobs up :)

Petra (Ingo's mum) then took me up to the next village to see a church that one of the once village residents built. It's actually a nice wee story. A man (Peter Weber) who was serving in WWII lost both of his legs so he prayed to Mary to get him home and promised he would build a church if he made it home. So with no legs he built a very small and quite sweet little church up a nice little hill that looks down into the village below, and he dedicated the church to Mary, to thank her for bringing him home. And now whenever someone asks Mary for something that is then granted they put a plaque up on the wall that says thank you or thank you for your help etc. with the date or just the year on it (no names). So it was quite special :)

Then we went to past the local swimming pool which was very nice :) outdoors and with 3 different sized pools, on our way to the church where Ingo had his communion. Where we were unable to get in as the doors were locked which is a shame, because I asked Petra if this church had an organ and when she said yes I then told her how I'd wanted to play the organs in all the other churches we'd been to but I was never going to be allowed and she said if it had been unlocked we could have asked at this church and they might have let me! (PS all this conversation was in German :D probably not very good German on my part but still!) We then drove down to meet the hardworking men, but they'd already packed up and gone home - which I think means that they were slacking off ;) but not really because when we got back, they were both hard at work with Ingo mowing the lawns! I couldn't believe it! REAl mans work! ;) hehe so I took a photo (for prosperity reasons) and then Karolin arrived for lunch :)

After lunch I had a few minutes to recover from the massive intake of food before Ingo's friend Martin arrived, and then we sat on the porch with coffee and cake and Ingo and Martin caught up. Not long into that and Ingo's friend Daniel and his partner Francie arrived and more cake and more drinks were brought out :s you can imagine the pain this was inflicting on my stomach! So we sat outside for a couple more hours before we had to say goodbye as we were heading off to pick up Karolin and Ingo's friend Enrico (popular boy Ingo is)...

...To drive to Trier to meet Kristina (who I'd already met in Wellington so was awesome to catch up again!) and Georg (pronounced Gayorg sort of - my phoenetical spelling isn't that great) :D We decided after a quick discussion to have Flammkuchen for dinner as i hadn't tried it before, so we trekked around the corner to a Flammkuchen restaurant with a beer garden out the back. Well this was an experience!

After ordering our drinks and dinner we waited... and waited..... and waited..... Finally Kristina called over the waiter and asked where our drinks were and he mumbled something (translation lost) and then her dinner came out (no others) and then a while later out came our drinks. Then while the waiter was trying to hand them out he managed to lose grip on his tray and two large glasses of beer went splashing all over Georg (Enrico was fast and whipped out to the sideand managed to get away) and despite that he managed to get his jacket off in quick-smart time the beer was too fast and had already completely soaked through his shirt and all the way down his back, plus all over the seat :/ So he whipped off to get changed. While he was gone the food finally arrived, well when I say the food arrived I mean everyone else's (Kristina had got hers so much earlier then the rest that she was already finished) except mine! And they were all luke warm at the hottest :s and we had to ask them to keep Georg's hot as he was still not back. Just as Georg got back we'd decided to move inside as it had started to rain. Once inside Kristina asked them to bring out Georg's food - turns out they didn't have it anymore and had to make a new one, and mine? well looks like they'd never made it in the first place so when we'd finally all eaten we'd been there a total of 2 hours! Enrico I think felt that he had to reassure me that most definitely NOT all German restaurants were like that, but I already knew that :) plus the food and the beer were still pretty good, and the company was awesome :D

But then we had to race off to the arena to watch the Gladiator fighting show that was on - good timing on our part to have our holiday in this month! The storyline was based around Hercules and I think (language barrier) that it was set after Gladiators were no longer allowed to kill each other, so the Arena's weren't making money anymore and Hercules showed up and basically paid the owner of the Arena to let him and his gladiators fight to bring back the popularity, then there was something about a play (a play within a play) and I then started to get sleepy so was hard to keep track, but it was really well done! We then all trekked into the city centre to have a beer. I think we got home around 2am in the end, which was probably the latest we could handle as the next day it was off to Prague!

Destination Frankfurt

Friday 13th - this fact totally escaped me until the next day and I'm pretty sure I wore black (I must have, 2/3rds of my wardrobe is black) but don't think my luck was off anyway ;)

We decided not to leave as early for Frankfurt as we had for the other 2 cities as the bus ride was only an hour and a half, and we needed some "chill" time hehe. (seriously. feet, neck, back and legs are all no longer speaking to me) So we caught the 11 bus again from Hahn airport.

We already had decided that our main attraction for the day was the Senckenberg Museum, so that Ingo could relive his childhood dinosaur fascinations :) It was pretty cool I must say! There were lots of replicas of skeletons, but the T-Rex skeleton is the original as in that was actually a dinosaur an age and a half ago! and as far as museums go, the layout of this one is quite good - not so straight forward as to be boring, but not too complex that you have no idea if you're coming or going either :) pretty cool exhibition layouts too - sorry, studies coming out of me atm - and then the replicas they had of just about ALL animal and bird life (alive and extinct) from I can't remember what beginning date :s were pretty awesome! Kiwi's there as well (thank goodness, because on a small stylised map I'd previously seen they hadn't even bothered to put New Zealand on there :s) Heaps of precious stones, prehistoric fish and footprints, all whales and their respective sizes and diets, and plant life - although by the time we made it to the plant life section of the museum we were both pretty museumed out.

So we decided to do a little bit of shopping. Which turned out better for Ingo then it did for me (as he managed to find a new pair of shoes, and 2 jumpers while the one skirt that I found and liked enough to show him, I was talked out of because of the price (36Euros) :/ So I told him that in Hong Kong I'm shoppng alone ;) The mall that we were shopping in attracted our attention, because the whole roof and half of the front facade is made up of glass triangles that undulate (very organic) into a hole in the facade that continues down through the entire 5 levels. At the entrance there's an escalator that unsuspecting shoppers (us) jump onto and then quickly realise that it doesn't go up just one level, no, it goes up all 5, so you have no choice but to go through each level on the way back down (as there's no 5 level down escalator :s) but the whole interior is very organic and the one level down at a time escalators were in a nice triangular layout that you could just keep spiralling down if you didn't want to shop on a particular level - very cool.

I've also now tried "Nord-see" Ingo's favourite sea food restaurant in Germany and had a fillet baguette which was very yummy all though no where near big enough :) My stomach has stretched since we've been here and my usual quantities of food are no longer enough.We thought that by catching the 8.30 bus home we'd be able to get back a little earlier but the bus driver took a detour to avoid a blockage that went pretty back roads through some tiny villages and we didn't end up home til around 10.30-11 ish, but Ingo's parents were still up, so we had a beer with them :)

Total Tally: over 5 small Villages of which Hundheim, Trabach, Bernkastel-kues are a few of, 4 Cities, and 3 rivers (Main, Rhine, Neckar) phew. Oh! and 2 countries (Luxembourg for 10 minutes totally counts ;) )

Apologies

Photo's coming later! having issues with Internet connections, coordination of cameras and images, and now only have the use of hostel computers for a wee while!
(and now back to updating blog as am 3 days off so far!)

Heidelberg - My fairy town :D

Thursday 12th
Another early morning! But I was very excited as I had high hopes for Heidelberg :D I'd asked Ingo a while ago what city was close to his parents that was my definition of a "Fairy Town" ie. a town that looks like it comes straight from a fairy tale, but that was still big enough to not be boring, and he came up with Heidelberg.

And I must say when the bus first pulled into the city I at first felt a little bit let down. But I wasn't going to let that get in the way of my day, so straight to the Tourist Info centre and passing that saw my first impression of a city with a lot of bikes and bikers. A lot. There was a whole bike park full of bikes! everywhere! and Ingo was telling me how all the bikes will be old so that they don't get parts stollen so since then I've been pointing out every new bike I see just to prove him wrong ;)

The weather wasn't that great again but still warm, and we'd seen that there was the possibility of a summer storm which I was excited to see - real lightning! So we started our wanderings...

...and there are Trams and buses ANd the U-bahn (underground trains) in Heidelberg! and then we walked in (what I'm sure was NOT) the direction of the city centre (but Ingo assures me it was) around a couple of corners straight smack bang into the middle of my fairy tale town! :D :D I was sooooo happy! It was/Is perfect! with a market square and a little church and vines big trees and old cottage like houses :D

So, I informed Ingo, I've found my future neighbourhood haha ;)
and then we went into the little church after eating our home packed lunch, and I tried to see if Ingo would ask if I could play tHIs churches organ but he wouldn't :s Just as we were coming outside it started to rain, so we put up the umbrella and started walking down the road, and then the rain got heavier and heavier so we ran to the nearest tree and cowered under that with the umbrella up me in my jandals (it was still warm) and it just didn't stop! It was hilarious! I said, "we're going to have to stay here for aaages!!!!" but then we decided to make a move, and as soon as we started out from under the safety of the tree, the rain started to lessen off :)

When we found the main stretch of the city again I was stoked to find that it too - the main shopping street! - didn't disappoint my fairy tale town. The buildings are all old and beautiful terracotta coloured or sandstone and trees and vines all down the street. It's a pedestrian only street so there were tables out with big umbrellas and heaps of people wandering, a couple of mid street stalls and lots and lots and lots of teeny side streets that lead to either the Rhine on one side (I just caught Ingo out on the whole what river is where thing so I hope I haven't gone and got it wrong now :s) or up into the hills on the other, with little shops and cafes and secret garden type spaces :)

We went to the university to have a look and the building is again years old and awesome, plus I think that added to my ease of the city, having all the students around, kind of felt like a Wellington from another world :)

I also went to buy some stamps and Ingo made me ask the shop assistant myself how much it costs to send a postcard to New Zealand and ask for how many stamps I needed, so after a little bit of rehearsal i went up and asked! :D and she answered me in German! slowly, she definitley knew I was not a natural German speaker but still in German! she didn't resort to English! and so I bought my stamps and posted my post cards (we'll soon find out whether or not I was understood as well as I hoped :s it was such an achievement! :D

Then we walked up the 303 stairs (that's what the sign said, turns out it was more like 330) to get to the Castle and Palace the "Heidelberger Schloss" which was overwhelmingly huge. (I keep trying to come up with new adjectives to describe these places, really the only way is with a WOW. and that just doesn't do them justice!) We wandered around for a good hour or so there, but easily could have been longer... Again they seem to block off all the parts that look really interesting and cool, but we saw one couple walking below us through an arch walkway that looked cool and then spent 20mins trying to find the place! We never did, so I think that we'll have to definitely go back some time soon :) It also had quite a few places that were off limits just because they were trying to stop it falling apart, so hopefully one day it those areas will be safer and explorable. It was essentially a city inside the walls, and they'd built a stairway down into the grounds around (as none of the doorways out from the inside were in accesible areas) and I had to explain to Ingo how "yes, the staircase is new, because otherwise what would have been the point in building all these massive eff-off walls if they were just going to be like to their enemies; 'nope! only joking! you can come in, here we've put in this nice easy to access stairway just so you can get right on into our castle/palace'" :/ I got a look for that one ;) hehe!

After the palace we wandered down one through some random streets as I learnt Ingo's number one rule for traveling: never go back the way you came, then you'll never see anything new. Practical advice. And was amazing some of the houses (houses!) that people live in - more like their own little mini years old castles - awesome! Made our way back to the main city centre to find a place to eat.

Ingo was adamant that I had to try a traditional German dish so I ordered Kaesespaetzle which turns out is very similar to macaroni and cheese! :D so I was happy! it was a bit different though, with noodle-y things instead of the elbows and no bacon or tomato - instead it had dried fried onions with it nom nom noms!

After dinner (and beer naturally) we slowly made our way back to the station to catch our bus back again to home base.

Summary: Love Heidelberg, want to go back. Awesome day :D

Köln

Wednesday 11th

We had to get up friggen early to drive out to Hahn airport so we could catch the bus to Köln (Cologne). We got dropped off at the Bahnhof (train station) which was HUGE. There were people everywhere and lines upon lines of platforms! Crazy! We then made our way to the Kölner Dom which is the biggest Gothic church in Germany (i think). Unfortunately photos will never ever do it justice. The detail that went into that thing, I think it took (and rightly so) decades (centuries? - I'm not so good with the facts :s) to actually finish and still they haven't finished fixing it up and repairing it. Inside you loose where you are it's that massive and you spend so much time looking up at all the different heights of arches and the windows are amazing and the organ! Wow. I kept saying to Ingo, "they should let me go up there to have a look! and maybe play it!" but no, although I think they should have times where you can hear the organ being played because it was seriously magnificent (who even uses that word anymore?)

Der Kölner Dom 

So it might not look like it, but the left is at least 14 stories high (I think)

We walked around it for a wee while, but all the people (oh man all the people) were starting to get on our nerves a bit - I think they should make private viewing times for me so I can get that eerie 'this building is centuries old and so many ages have walked here before me' feeling, yep that's right - just for me! hehe ;) So we decided to go down into the crypt and then up the tower and then be on our way. 

The crypt was a lot newer, or maybe just a lot more repaired and I think is still used to bury some of the Bishops in when they die… The last entry was in 1980something and there was still room on the plaque for more entries so I'm not sure, but that's what it looked like…

Up the tower I got excited :D We had several options of how high up we could go, and I wanted to go up the highest we could so we set off up the flight of 533 spiral stairs! After 264 Stairs (I counted) We got to one of the bell towers and just missed the 11:45 Bells, but we figured the 10 minute wait till the 12o'clock bells was worth the wait so we leaned against the balcony and waited…. at 3 minutes past 12 I was upset :( looked like no bells! and we could hear all the bells in other towers and other churches going (there are about 12 churches in the city centre of Köln alone!) but then just as I was about to give up, one of the bells rung! The set up was one MASSIVE bell in the centre I think 2.5 metres high maybe? 2 going down in size on our right (you could walk right around the bell tower) and then 2 more slightly smaller ones on the left higher up with the 3 smallest ones underneath those. only the 3 closest to us on the left went, and not with their original construction instead, with a mechanical donger that hit them on the outside :/ and there were some Brits beside us who kept saying, "just wait for it, that big one's gonna be a beat when she goes" or something like that, and they were so let down when it didn't! (although I was sharing their disappointment ;) ) 

We didn't end up going any further up, Ingo claimed his knee was giving him grief :p hehe.

So we wandered around the city for a while and I continued to get more and more lethargic and exhausted! I had picked 3 sites that I thought I'd like to go see and all were on opposite sides of the city and we kept missing turn offs. But we continued our aimlessly wandering. It was hot and humid and overcast and my feet hurt and I was thirsty - all those wonderful things that come from traveling huh? Ingo also much to my frustration decided he hAD to go into globetrotter only 4 stories of outdoor gear :/ and when you're a little bit grumpy, a shop that's massive that you have to follow someone around in is not the most enjoyable activity ;) but it was an amazing interior :) 

We did manage to find a museum that had been built on old ruins but they charged a bucket load to go in and had absolutely no signage so we decided we could appreciate the combination of the new building built onto the old ruins much more from the outside anyway :) 

 So we sat down and had a minor nap in a park and watched a couple of children playing on the playground. It was nice :) and when we felt refreshed we stumbled upon an old Roman styled church that had only 2 other people in it so my eerie old church craving was satisfied! Ingo lit a candle and we wandered around, there was a crypt in this church as well but only open at certain times (which we'd missed because of my need for nap, but if we hadn't stopped for nap we may not have found it so them's the breaks) and only open for meditation and prayer so we wouldn't really have been able to go in snapping away anyway.

This church was perhaps a fifth of the size of the Kölner Dom yet it too had a massive organ up high (never to be used as there was an ordinary upright piano down at the side of the church :/) 

On our way back to the city centre we found a tiny pub called the Hänchen (I think) and it was so cute! there were fake vines all over the ceiling with fairy lights and dark wooden wall unit with blue and white kind of like delft tiles and we had a beer called Kölnesh which you only get 200ml in a glass (but it's cheap) and you can buy it by the metre or the metre squared, so that's 11 glasses of 200ml for a metre (based on the height of the glasses) or 121 glasses! phew that's a lot of beer! and people actually buy that much! Crazy! 

And then through the city we found a Lego shop which was awesome, and a Maggi store and cafe - entirely dedicated to Maggi! who would've thought?! Anyway I might have to get Ingo to fill in some of the gaps, I think from there we wandered back to the bus stop, and then were on our merry way… but memory is starting to fail me - we've just done so much! - So I'll leave it there for Mittwoch!

It's the little things... :)

Tuesday 10th

A day of not much, where we just chilled out for the morning, then biked to Ingo's grandparents house for Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake :D) with his Aunty and Uncle and Johanna and Christopher (cousins) and as I was showing Johanna how to make an origami bird out of her serviette, and while I was trying to tell her how to do it I said, "mien Deutsch ist niche so gut" (my German is not so good) and she said, "Doch! Es ist sehr gut!" (It is very good!) Which was really really sweet :)

After the ridiculously up hill bike ride (don't listen to Ingo ever if he tells you there's only one small hill, he lies.) past the local cemetery where we went to visit Ingo's Oma and Opa Schommer who's candle is looked after and was still burning brightly :) back to home base the crowd from the afternoon coffee and cakes came over for a grill (BBQ) for dinner :) where Johanna and Christopher (and mum and dad) gave us each a stack of Milka chocolate blocks wrapped in cellophane which was sooo sweet :)

Cooking on the Grill

The Inch plus some steaks that Ingo had been promising me

After dinner we went for a beer with 2 of Ingo's friends Camilla and Haiko where they told me that the bar we were in had a back area where the smokers used to go but then it wasn't used as much so they swapped it and now the main bar is for smoking and the back room is for those who don't want to sit in the smoke :s haha but the whole place stunk of cigarettes so I'm guessing not many non-smokers go there anymore ;) It was quite late when we got home but excluding the bike ride in the middle it was an easy day :)

And while we were having this lovely relaxing day I got to thinking about the things that are different over here. Just a few things that I want to mention more for my memory then anything else ;) Like how the traffic signs are all similar but a little bit different - the arrows are longer and skinnier and their signs are yellow and black instead of green and white. How some of the traffic lights go backwards (red-orange-green) weird! hehe! All the houses as in homes are 2 stories at least, and probably have a basement as well, and the trees are Massive! Everywhere! Hugely tall trees, that are all over the citys as well as in the Villages.

The steaks we had on the grill were 5cm thick - no jokes! and the cakes and biscuits aren't half as sweet :/ which I'm still getting used to haha I've had a few that were delicious! But some of them I think, hmmm… with like an extra half a cup of sugar in the mix this could really be yummy! 

I'm now having a bit of trouble with the right hand side driving, at first I thought it was fine, but when I look into cars that are driving past I have that moment of confusion where I'm like "where's the driver?" or if a car's coming towards us from the right around a bend I'm like "oh crap! We're in the wrong lane!!!" bizarre feeling!

One thing that is continually upsetting me is the scratches and vivid and pen marks, you know the stupid kind that's usually all over old wooden primary school desks and public toilets, well here it's all over the walls on the insides of beautiful historical churches and castles. It makes me so cross! that people come and deface all these amazing things that should be treasured! and then you have to pay so friggen much to see some of these places yet they can't stand a couple of staff members around the place to keep an eye on things :( I mean seriously. Get a life people, no one cares if you "love rodent" in 1998 (fictional name) or if you "was here 2010" so sad.

It's also crazy to see scaffolding on heaps of these places, as Ingo said "in constant state of repair" which I suppose is where the money goes so a good thing :) But totally ruins a photo opportunity! ;) 

I love the cobblestones! absolutely love them! even in jandals! and the cities here could really do with those awesome people that we have in Wellington that walk up and down with their pushable workstations in yellow fluro vests, scooping up the rubbish, emptying the bins, etc. Because one thing I notice is all the bits of rubbish just lying in the streets - and it's strange when they're so much further along then NZ with the recycling! It's awesome, just about every rubbish bin has 3 or 4 compartments, plastic, glass, sometimes paper and then everything else - genius! 

Anyway a bit of a bitsy post ;) still more to come!

Tage Drei und Vier :D

After the clean up mission we lazed about in the sun in the backyard so now instead of dead white i look slightly less dead white ;) and no sun burn!
In the evening we went to a local wine festival in Kesten with Mona, Petra and Theo and Timo (a school friend of Ingo's) which was pretty cool :) lots of food - but I avoided eating for as long as I could because I'm SO FULL! Every meal is huge and delicious! it's a wonder anyone stays skinny in Germany!
There was also loads of little wine places (naturally) and street music (as in ladies singing and a brass type band, not as in hip hop :/) and it was all decorated with lights zig-zagging above :) very cozy at night.

the wine fest with brass and fairy lights and vines :)

Mona, Timo, Ingo and I

After we left the wine fest we drove to Bernkastel-Kues which while was very touristy was also really beautiful and old! sooooo old! A few of the buildings had markings up them to measure the heights of different times the Mosel has flooded as we were walking past a pub called "Bitchen" (the beer they sell mainly is called Bitburger and it's slogan is "Bitte ein Bit!" (please a Bit[burger])) Some friends of Petra and Theo's called out and so we went in for a couple of Beer's with them :

German Pub - this guy was the fastest beer pourer i've ever seen!

 The next day Ingo and I drove to another village (they're all over the place!) called Traben-Trarbach and walked around for a bit, crossed over the Mosel and had a look around then went back to the car and unloaded the bikes. We then rode to Kröv, crossed the bridge and then rode back (about 20km). I had to keep reminding Ingo though, that we were on a lEIsurely bicycle ride, not a cycling race :/ haha and when we got back Ingo went to ride over the bridge so I yelled "Nein Ingo! Where are you going?!" and then he had to get me to count how many bridges we'd crossed so far that day, before I worked out that we had to go back over in order to get back to the car :s
We then drove to Bernkastel-Kues again where we met up with Timo again and another friend of theirs Jörg. Both are really lovely and cool people (shouldn't be surprised really ;) ) and after we got ice creams, we had very funny times trying to find the Mosel :s speaking in German and English (their English is twenty times better then my German even if they've hardly spoken it for 9 years!) I told them all I would've been better to hire a tour guide then rely on people who've lived in the area to find the way ;) but we eventually did find it again and walked along the river edge for an hour, so all up spent a good 3 hours with them :)
We were both absolutely knackered when we got back :)

Jörg, Me and Timo

Today (Monday) Ingo, Mona and I drove out to the closest city Trier, to be tourists for the day. When we first got there we wandered around a bit then went to Porta Nigra which is one of the original gates to the city when it was Roman from like 150AD anyway OLD. massively massively old! amazing! we then wandered around a little more, Mona had to buy some clothes for her trip soon to Vietnam and Cambodia and Ingo wanted to go and see the guys from the Firm he used to work at so we walked their and they were super cool too! (seriously I should be used to it by now!) haha. They're a design company that does graphic, new media, website and interior design and their stuff looks awesome! they gave me a new promo pack that they were putting together :) but they were super busy so we didn't stay long.

Porta Nigra

We then walked to the Hauptmarkt the Main market square and from there to die Dom und Liebfrauen (the cathedral and church of our lady) I complained to Ingo that the photos I'd been taking all day just don't do the size and scale and just awesomeness of everything justice, but here's some anyway to try…

Hauptmarkt

Dom and Liebfrauen

inside Der Dom

looking into the courtyard where Bishops are buried

Then had lunch at a Pizza place - yum yum! again massive. but their were bees flying all around which made it a bit difficult to eat comfortably. After lunch we walked to the Imperial Bath ruins which were again old and amazing. (It really doesn't sound as good when I'm trying to spit out all the stuff we did but truly amazing!) From there we walked directly to the Kurfürstliches Palais (Electoral Palace) but couldn't get inside, but it's original design was supposed to be connected to the Basilika which was open to public so we wandered in there. The inside looked very new so we read up about it and turns out it was originally built twice the height, then was damaged, built up again and made more frilly, damaged again so only rebuilt to half its height, then the inside was completely trashed again (the poor ole building!) And now sits fairly plain and very Roman looking in its current condition. Phew.
Then a cool drink in the square - very nice :) and saw my puppy!!!! the first one of the day!

Bath Ruins

in the square

Puppy!!!

From there we went back to the main centre and did a little bit of window shopping and I bought my first 2 German books! (I think the age recommendation is for 6-7 year olds but even that may be being a bit generous :s) and I saw anOTher one of my dream puppy!!!! so I took a photo ;)

Back to the car and then we decided to go to Luxembourg. Yep that's right. Just bowl on over to another country. Another Country!!!!! It's crazy!!!! no passport on me I got a little scared, but you just drive through! no people! no border checks! just some lights and a few signs. Wow. so cool!!! haha we didn't go far tho, just to the shop inside the Luxembourg border where everything's cheaper ;) Then home again and later sausages in bread with Ingo's Aunty and Uncle and cousins (aged 10 and 13 I think) who are down from the North of Germany :) Good times!