Goodbyes

And so it is time for me to fly home, a sad day :(
From my last post ive been out with friends, had a couple of kiwis over and also been ice skating! Ice skating is not for me, a very stressful sport where one must concentrate to the max!
The kiwis also came over and we had a great night comparing pictures from both our travels in nz and germany!
The last few days at school have been quite fun but it is sad to leave everyone. I didnt really even get the chance to say goodbye to everyone :(
On my last night here we had a few close friends around and that was nice but it was hard to imagine that i wont be seeing everyone again for a while! I will come back though i want to! It just costs a lot and thirty hours in a plane is so boring!
A thank you to anyone who has read this blog, i hope it has entertained you because i certainly enjoyed writing it!
Cant wait to tell you of my travels in person!
Love char xx

Only Five Days Left

My blog has not been updated in so long so I thought I better sit down and do that now! So only five days left and I can't believe it, it really does only feel like the second week?!
Since going to Berlin I have been back at school. School is sometimes fun but I am often driven to counting cars or trying my hand at artistic doodling. I have done a presentation about our beautiful country four times now. Each time I have shown the class a video of the Haka, with similar reactions from all, laughing and slight shock. I think its so unusual for the Germans to see something like that, I guess I am just so used to it!
On the last Sunday of our holidays we met April (another Kiwi) and her German sister Annika in Heidelberg! It was really nice, and we went and saw the beautiful old castle.
Last weekend we went to Stuttgart and visited the Mercedes-Benz Museum, it was a pretty cool museum in fact! Cars have advanced so much since the 1800s. I even saw Princess Di's Crimson Mercedes and the Pope-Mobile. We caught up with April and Annika again too which was cool!
On Sunday we went to the Black Forest (ironically due to the snow, it was white) to Mummelsee, a cool little landmark with picturesque landscape and a lake! In fact the lake was frozen! We ate Black Forest Gateaux which was not so impressive as it tasted like the cook had thrown half a bottle of alcohol in the mix. After Mummelsee we went to Baden-Baden which is a town with lavish designer shops and Casinos in the old town setting. It was really pretty. The town was founded due to the Hot water springs which are used for the old fashioned Baths there. It still has many of its older buildings as during the war it was not bombed as it had no factories.
This week has been pretty relaxed at school, as for both Monday and Wednesday we finished at 11.15. This left the rest of the day to us, on my request we went shopping in Karlsruhe! There are many similarities in the fashion here in Germany and in New Zealand so I have been striving to find unique things. Some things are cheaper here like nail polish, watches and perfume (all of which I have bought haha) I managed to buy a new winters jacket for 20 Euro which is total BARGAIN!!
I have also bought a lot of choc and lollies so hopefully these don't weigh my bag down too much on the way home!
Looking forward to the weekend ahead!
lots of love and will see you on my return,
Char xx
Ps pictures are spaghetti eis (ice cream shaped like spaghetti), mummelsee, me at Baden Baden, me infront of the Karlsruhe pyramid and also infront of the Mercedes museum!

Berlin

I got back from Berlin last night! It was a blast! So much to see, and I really only saw a snippet of what Berlin has to offer! From here to Berlin is about 650km and so quite a long drive. We left early in the morning and stopped in Nürnberg foot see the old city. The old town is built within city walls and has a castle overlooking the city. We went to the castle which was cool, it was a sunny day but there was a bit of a nippy wind around. I also saw Nürnberg's oldest house, from 1338, it was a bit lopsided haha! After looking at the castle we walked into the centre of town, saw the square where the famous Christmas markets take place and grabbed some Lebkuchen (gingerbread famous in Nürnberg) before continuing then finishing our trip to Berlin. It was getting dark when we got there so I didn't really know where we were in relation to the centre of town.
The next day we got up and headed into the centre of town, firstly to the Brandenburg gate. I really liked the gate, I'm not sure why, but I think it is a very cool piece of history. And to think that I have now been there! We then walked down Unter den Linden towards Museum island. On the way we saw a million euro Bugatti car which was pretty nice, however I didn't like the color scheme! (red and blue) once we got to the 'island' we went to the Berliner Dom, which is a pretty cool cathedral. It was very pretty and ornate. We lit candles in the church and also looked out across Berlin from the dome walkway. Feeling a little hungry we stopped for lunch before moving on to checkpoint Charlie. I first saw a bit of the wall here. The old US inner city border looks so different from its past. We also went to 'Topographie des Terrors', a museum about the Third Reich and the Nazis. It was quite interesting but just shocking. There is a big part of the wall here (70m) and its hard to imagine what like would've been like to live in confined East berlin. We went back to Kreuzberg where we were staying, had dinner and then went to bed!
The next day we went to Postdamer Platz, which is another area which has changed significantly since the wall came down. It is home to the modern part of town, a few small high rise buildings (Berlin is very flat) and also another section of the wall. We looked at the wall, which had chewing gum all over it, yuck! Then we took Europe's fastest lift (8.5m/s) to the top of a building to see another view over Berlin! Next stop was the Charlottenburg Palace, what a name! Haha a very cool palace with lavish interior including more porcelain decorations! The name, Charlotte is obviously important in Berlin, and so it should be hahah! Just kidding! For lunch I at my first Currywurst. It was pretty good, but so filling! After touring my castle we headed on to KaDeWe. This is a big department store renown in Berlin. It is like Harrods but so much more expensive, you really cannot buy anything unless your rolling in the dosh! So many designer brands. I bought some chocolate just to say I'd bought something haha! We went out for dinner this evening and ate the most delicious Italian!
Our final (half) day in Berlin started early, we needed to get to the Reichstag at 8.15! The Reichstag is the German Parliamentary buildings. We passed security and had a good tour of all the interior before we went to the dome thing at the top, here you can walk around it and see yet another view of Berlin. It was pretty cool but also pretty cold, the wind was the coldest it had been in Berlin! I went souvenir shopping before we headed back to the apartment to pack up. We left Berlin at around one maybe two? I dunno and we got home at just before ten having stopped at a Mexican restaurant on the way, the food was delicious there!
Only a couple of days then it's back to school!
Char xx

Holidays

So Austria for a week was magical!
The south of Germany is also very pretty (maybe it was the nice blue skies we had) as I saw it on our road trip to Nesselwängle. We made a few stops including at a lookout towards the alps which was absolutely gorgeous, another stop at Basilika Birnau which is a church situated on the bank of the Bodensee (lake constance) and also a stop at Friedrichshafen where we caught an amazing sunset. The further into the alps we got the more snow there was! However it was dark so we couldn't see a lot. We had a pizza for dinner in Nesselwängle, there was so much snow around and even icicles hanging off my window!
On Our first day on the slopes I decided to give snowboarding a go! I think it's so hard, balancing and having both feet strapped to one board! Ahh! I improved over the next few days but managed to hurt my ankle several times along the way. Being out in the snow is quite exhausting I think even if we weren't doing a lot. At the end of the day we adventured back thought the snowy fields to our hotel, it was great fun! The next day I yet again tried snowboarding, still finding it pretty hard! We also took the chair lift to the Krinnenalpe which is 1530m above sea level. That is probably the highest I've been on land? I think? The view was wicked and enhanced by the blue sky. We had a hot choc with cream at the top before heading down the mountain. Hot choc is the best with a squirt of whipped cream on top! Tobogganing down the mountain was definitely one of my highlights! I got a bit of speed and didn't even fall off even though the conditions were a bit difficult for me, someone who had never seriously toboggan'd before. After I think two rounds of tobogganing down this long course we decided to call it a day. Kathi and I walked back to the hotel again! At night we went and watched a ski demonstration which was quite cool but hard to describe.
The next day we went cross country skiing because I really want to give it a go and boy is it hard work! Hahaha we also walked to Alpengasthof Adlerhorst at an altitude of 1350m (the valley lies at about 1000m) here we ate Kaiserschmarrn ( a pancake cut up and served with apfel mus and jam) and soup! The view was also wicked. All this walking made me totally knackered haha! It was snowing!
The next day it was snowing even more and we made a trip to Schloss Linderhof, a castle of King Ludwig II (same king who built Neuschwanstein). The interior of this palace was incredibly ornate and its structure is similar to that of Versailles which the king admired. It even has its own hall of mirrors. (I could be a tour guide I think) I really liked the ornate porcelain that was used for some of the candle holders. After we nearly froze in the palace (still had its lack of heating from the 1800s) we headed on to Garmisch Partenkirche! This is a big alpine village which held the winter Olympics in 1936 and a few ski championships since then. We went and looked at the ski jump! Which was totally mint. The fact that people have the nerve to hurtle down the slope then jump off is pretty crazy! There is a ski jump comp on there today (1st jan) We then drove back to Nesselwängle, we went out for dinner and I had beef schnitzel and chips, nom nom! And also Almdudler which is the Austrian soft drink, but I'm not sure what it tastes like!
The next day (Saturday) we headed home which was new years eve! I'll write another update for that in another post, because I need some photos. .
Char xx

Off skiing!

Ok a quick update!
Christmas has been and gone! Onthe 24th we had a day of preparation and so on, we made churros in the mornig which were totally delicious! We went to church in the afternoon, it was unusual hearing the familiar story in a different language! But nevertheless, cool! After church we had fish fondue for dinner which was really different but really cool. We had tuna, shrimp, red snapper and seeteufel(really weird looking fish), the red snapper was delicious! The fondue was more like poached fish but it was good! After dinner, we had to go to our rooms while the christ child came! Perfect time to skype mum, dad and tom to wish them a merry christmas! A bell rang to signal we could come out and so we did, presents under the candle lit tree! Super cool! After opening our gifts we had a small supper and just chatted! The next day, Christmas, was spent with food preparation in the morning! The realtives came over and we ate! Red cabbage, dumplings and venison with a brilliant gravy/sauce! After letting the stomach settle we were back for round two! Dessert, the most amazing pannacotta with berry coulis, so good! i certainly felt like a few buttons had burst! Haha today we are going on a ski trip to austria! Should be wicked, ive never done much skiing so it will be different for me! Nesselwängle is where we are going if you are interested!
Hope you all had a lovely christmas! And sorry that its been hard to post comments up on this blog! I thought it was easier!
Charg xx

The days leading up to Christmas

So this week has been pretty busy for me! Tuesday was a great day as I woke up to snow! Schnee woooohoo! Finally! It was very pretty and very quiet, we walked to the train, as shown in the photo, and it was cool! It snowed practically all morning! I went to speak to some younger students (14/15 year olds) about New Zealand! I had prepared a lot bunch of pics on a power point but the computer wouldn't work so I just had to talk! It was hard, particularly trying describing the beautiful landscape! Anyway I'm presenting after the break to some people in my year which will hopefully be better! On Tuesday evening we had our concert! Haha it was a bit of a laugh but glad its over, sorry I don't have a picture from the night! On Wednesday after school we went to Laura's and hung out, it was good, and we just chilled. On Thursday we had liturgy at school, which I really did not understand! Only the 'Our Father'. We ate these nice sponge cream things a boy brought for the class in chemistry and then could go home! Chilled as! We headed to Karlsruhe in the afternoon with Julia for a spot of shopping! I bought a green scarf ( as seen in the pictures) I love it! The streets were quite busy but nevertheless the Christmas spirit was around (and not dampened by the light showers!) Friday! So we started the day of with a run, oh man it was so good, I needed to do some exercise! Really badly! During the day we made biscuits and decorated them with Laura when she came round. I used the New Zealand and Kiwi shaped cookie cutters! It was wicked! At night we dropped a few presents to Kathi's friends (however only Michelle was there). While at her house we watched the Brazilian song ' Ai se eu the pego' by Michel Telo. Watch it if your up for some cheesy Portuguese music that gets stuck in your head! Haha! Christmas here is celebrated today (24th) so its different to home, I'll experience it and then give you the down low on my next blog update!
Lots of love,
Merry Christmas to you all,
Frohes Weihnachten!
Charg xx

Weekend #2

I'm just going to write a quick blog entry to let you know what's been happening. I've been pretty darn busy! School has been school, really looking forward to holidays which start in the mid of this week. We are still practising for our singing concert which is on tuesday. Dreading that but it will be quite a laugh! Yesterday we went to Durlach tower and Karlsruhe! The tower was really cool, we took a cable car up to the top and then took the stairs to the look out on top of the tower! It was a bit blustery up there, but it reminded me of home :) the view was amazing, the Rhine valley is incredibly flat and we could see things that were 50 km away (including a nuclear power station) I have some pictures! After this we went to the centre of Karlsruhe by s-bahn, it's like a tram but fast like a train! Haha Karlsruhe was buzzing and we got some langosh at the Christmas market before heading on to look at the schloss (palace) it is very pretty and I rather like the old grandeur of buildings here. Karlsruhe, thanks to an old earl, fans out from this palace. There are 32 streets off it, all at even intervals. Apparently it was so that if you were anywhere in Karlsruhe you can see the palace (and think of the vain earl) haha! We had a look out from the top of the palace and you could see the fan shape! We saw many people returning from a football game, which I assume they lost since everyone looked so glum :( we left the palace and went to a conditorei overlooking the Christmas markets. I really could not stomach much more food but we had a hot chocolate and shared some cake. Later we went out to a dinner party at a friend of the family's house. It was really good, five of us young guns played monopoly while the adults 'mum-danced' (not like my mum though; she's got the moves like jagger) haha it was quite amusing. The fam also had a cat so I tried to charm her! Their son had been to New Zealand so it was cool to find out about his stay in our country. The food was totally delicious! Nom nom nom :) we resumed our game of monopoly but didn't finish coz we had to leave. It was two in the morn! Hahaha! We are heading to Strasbourg today, and I am very excited. Later I'll update you on my time in France. Pictures are: Kathi and i at the look out on the tower, me infront of the palace, the view from the palace and Kathi and i mucking around in the palace museum! Turns out this entry has not been so quick! Haha
Char xx