Time to Relax: Lake District

In the weeks leading up to our little Lake District holiday there were discussions about having too many people in the holiday house we had rented out. Chris emailed them and they said that we would be kicked out if we were caught with more than the allowed four. We had 9. The discussion ended up being the laissez-faire Aussies vs those that don't normally do this thing. It ended up being fine, as I knew it would, because as if they were ever going to come check on us.

29th - The trip started out on the wrong foot as we got on the wrong train. But we just got there a little bit later than we planned. When we got there it was pouring, we trudged through the streets of Ambleside for about half an hour or so. I had my massive suitcase because not worried about the weight or size restrictions of aircrafts I packed my doona and pillow into it which was actually quite heavier than I anticipated. We found the place and the house was gorgeous, just like the entire town was. Small houses made of stone along cobbled streets.
The first night Chris and I cooked tea and then we all watched euovision. As it was cold I made banana tea for everyone - imported especially from Istanbul. Eurovision was actually quite entertaining, or at least we made it entertaining. However, the voting process just was way too long for us. We watched it for a good 3 hours or so but it just kept going, all the countries just vote for the countries that they are closest too and for those like England that aren't as European or close relationshipally always miss out. At least generally speaking, but the best act most definitely did not win.



30th - In the morning Chris found a reletively short hike for us which was really nice. It only lasted a few hours but was really hilly so we were all stuffed after it. As bodies of water seem to be a novelty for North Americans Chris and Evan felt the need
 We came back and watched Lord of the Rings for two reasons; in honour of Amber being New Zealandish and knowing barely anything about the movies, and since there were 9 people on our hike we named ourselves the fellowship of the ring. I was Legolas. While we were watching this Evan and mitch went fishing with their £5 fishing rods. They didn't have bait and when they asked near the river the guy replied 'there ain't no fish around here mate'. So he bought a scone and used that. Much to our dismay, shock and horror they didn't catch a thing, but bought fish sticks on the way home which I threw to him so they could say they caught it.


31st - That day we lost Mitch and Emma and were joined for the day instead by Katie and Emily. Mitch had an exam on the 2nd and I don't know what Emma's reason was. But it was good that Katie and Emily could join us, enjoyed hanging out with them some more as our time in Leeds was coming to a close. Chris Anastasia, Amber, Evan and I met them down at Bowness near the lake. We hired a row boat and rowed around the lake for 2 hours, it was just lovely and very picturesque. Evan Chris Ana and I all shared the rowing.

That night amber made her amazing curry and we did the rounds of a few bars. In the morning we left as it was rainy and not real pleasant. We had planned to do another hike but as it the weather was awful, and I had a million and one things to get done in the next few days before Summer Ball I didn't mind too much.

Last Week in Leeds

There are so many things I can't believe right now. My time in Leeds over. The friends I've made I won't be seeing every day. I also can't believe I'm already in Poland, starting a 5 week trip around Europe. It's a bit ridiculous. Since getting back to Leeds after lake district it was pretty well go go go. We got back in the afternoon on Tuesday, Evan's birthday. We went to the Eldon to celebrate which worked out perfectly as it just so happened to be our Tuesday night there.

Wednesday was organising day. Well, a bit. I Skyped the parents and worked out how I was getting home and then met Amber in town to look for some shoes as my globes from home were dying. The afternoon was spent packing and getting my room ready for my departure. That night we met Kayt's parents at Balti King after which we went to Gatecrasher...finally. I don't know how many Times I'd promised Emma I would go. I tell you what though, I would hate to be a hot girl in one of those places, always getting hit on by drunk guys, I'd say some love it though. Most of us left about 1:30 but Mitch, Amber, Faye and I stayed til about 2:30. It was awesome, I almost left with everyone else but last minute changed my mind and as I did the good music started. We're talking classic and indie rock rather than that rubbish top 40 crap club music.

So I got to sleep about 3:30 and set the alarm for 8 to pick up Chantelle from the train station. Yay for sleep. It was a really nice day, the sun was out and it was warm. I took her through the markets and Victoria quarter and up through Millennium Square. Had a coffee at Opposite Cafe (Opposite the uni) then met Evan at the Eldon for lunch. Not long after, the others joined. We then sat in Hyde park for a bit and went home to meet Evan (Flett) and Steve.

Friday: the most hectic day I had in Leeds by a big margin. I set the alarm early to go meet Emily at her place to finish booking our trip. I came home and got ready for some company to pick up my luggage. Once that was done I felt a lot less tense. I walked downtown and met Chris on the way and bought some stuff for the night. People started arriving at North Hill about 4:30, at which point I will still packing up my life. I needed my room to be cleared out by the time we left at 6:30. The evening was really cool, we had champagne and took some nice photo's of us all looking hot. All the girls looked so gorgeous as you can imagine. Chris did a great slideshow of the semester which of course cannot go close to capture all the memories we've created. We finished on a high with Chris and my 'band' A Common Wealth playing Yellow by Coldplay and then an encore was demanded so we threw together a mashup of Journey's Don't Stop Believing and Ke$ha's Tik Tok - two of our theme songs.

At Summer Ball there really isn't a lot to say except that it was practically a small music festival. We had a ride, bought some beers and Jager, and danced to the DJ. The second last band ended and at 1:45 and we had to wait and hour and a half for Florence to come out. The crowd was SO pissed, seriously, every new song the DJ played everyone started booing. She was really good though, but it was so hot up the front after waiting for so long so Ana, Amber and I didn't stay long. We got a drink and moved back to the side.

The night ended smoothly, we got a coach quickly and got back to anas to get our stuff. The taxi pulled up and we said our goodbyes. It was just like something out of a movie. It was so sad, many a tear was shed, I'm going to miss our little group an incredible amount.

Amsterdam - The Unending Lava Days

April 17

So today was meant to be the day I went home. My flight was due to leave Brussels at 10, Scott and Amy were meant to meet me at the train station, we were all meant to then go to a football match then have dinner and I would catch a train home in time for the Oztley run organized for Dan's presence in the country. None of this became a reality. The Oztley run has been postponed, Dan will miss it and a bunch of my friends are still stuck around various parts of Europe.

It was a massive mish to actually get to the hostel. At Amsterdam Central Station I couldn't figure out how to buy a ticket to where I wanted. After about half an hour of looking purposely confused and no one approaching me to help, I finally asked someone. It was a 20 min metro ride out of the city and had to wait about half an hour under a bridge for the hostel shuttle that I wasn't convinced was coming...yeah not sketchy at all.
So I got to 'Lucky Lake Hostel' at about 4 and was absolutely amazed with it. It's a caravan park, but it's a hostel. Since I was here on my own I also made a point of talking to people. I met these 2 gay guys from Alaska who are a bit hilarious. They overuse the words "right" and "totally" all the time, it's so American.

Not much actually happened today, I pretty much spent the day relaxing. I went for a walk to the lake (!), read on the hammock, and after my 2 cheese toasties for dinner I just hung around the common area chatting wih the people who came and went, mostly other staff who were off duty as they all live on site. All of whom were smoking weed, hey it's Amsterdam, would you expect any less?
The thing I love about this hostel is it reminds me of home a bit. The cool, brisk air feels like when you wake up camping in spring, the sun is out but it's a bit cold. But you don't mind because it's going to be a warm day. I had leftovers of a chap called Laurie and Irish Rob made me a hot dog. Seriously, how good is the hostel culture of some places!

April 18

So today I actually went in to town. I started with the New Europe walking tour starting at Dam square, first stop: The Red Light District, which was originally developed around the Old Church (Oude Kerk). Outside the church there was this hilarious hand on boob statue/plaque on the ground. Apparently the city it removed it at one point and the locals got upset so they put it back! The tour then went on to the oldest Buddhist temple in Europe, completed in 2000! Onward past the Niewe Kerk (New Church), Begijnhof (which is a well-preserved sanctuary for Cathlic nun-like women), the Dampkring (New Europe's favourite coffee shop) and ended at the Anne Frank House Museum. After the tour, since I had nothing better to do and no one to meet I had lunch with the guide and others from the tour and this dish sausage and mashed potato dish. I met a girl called Shannon who is being a nanny in Paris and enjoyed talking with the guide who was from Brisbane. Yay! A familiar accent! I had a pretty chilled out night - just relaxed at the hostel (something most people there are used to) and just chatted with everyone. Had an easy dinner then laid on the hammock for ages before bed. But not before checking my current adventure status.

At this time I was still tossing up whether or not to try and get a train home, just wait for a flight, or make my way literally from one side of the continent to the other for Anzac Day in Gallipoli. I have a flight to catch Saturday morning from London to Istanbul but that's another story right there!

"Serbia is practically a suburb or Turkey, we can walk from there!"

April 19

The ash cloud saga continues! After breakfast I got back on that hammock for quite a while, it's seriously the best thing ever.I spoke to mum and dad on the phone for about 25 mins, thankfully they paid for it and we decided to wait to go back to London. After this I went in to town, walked around a bit but didn't see or do much. After the walking tour there really wasn't a whole lot of sights left to see. So I just took in the culture. I made some tea and relaxed some more - an increasing trend which I am enjoying more and more here. I've been reading the news and they are hoping to open some of the airspace tomorow so I'm hopeful I'll get home and back out to Turkey.

April 20

Due to the reletively unsuccessful nature of my trip in to town yesterday, I decided to have a relaxing day at the hostel. I had a book and I had my iPod and I had a hammock and the days were sunny - what more c ould I want? At some point during the day I hired a bike from the hostel and rode to this nearby town called Abcoude. I had to ride along the highway and the cross over on a bridge but was worth it. This tiny town was really cool and had a population of only about 6400. I explored the town, saw some small churches then rode through it to a park on a small lake where I ate a picnic lunch. Came back a few hours later and the rest of the afternoon was my own!

April 21

Success! I checked my British Airways flight this morning and to my surprise it had not been cancelled. T his was very good news. I was scheduled on a flight back to London tomorrow afternoon, but this turned out to be a much larger task than I first envisaged. But we'll get to that. I ambled back in to town the only way I knew how...slowly and made my way to the Heineken brewery by 1pm. This was by far the coolest brewery I'd been to, and I'd been to a few. It started off with a history of the beer of course including labels, bottle shapes and significant people then showed us a replica of what the vats in a factory would look like with people giving out sample of what it tastes like at each stage. We then moved into a modern looking room where a guy taught us all how to drink a Heineken properly, but what I was thinking was "free beer!" After this there was an interactive video where we were taken on a journey from

the perspective of the ingredients from start to finish of the brewing process. This including a slight spraying, extreme heat and a rocking floor - very cool! The last thing was they had all these pods for you to lay in and watch their ads over the years and then of course, ended in the bar.

After the brewery I walked over the Anne Frank House and was going to go in but decided not to. Why you ask? Well..... I was really tired, and it had been an expensive day already and there was a really long line and I thought I was going to come back with Mitch, Evan and Steve (which I didn't). Yeah maybe I should have just gone in.

When I got back to the hostel I took some photos of the most amazing hostel I'd ever stayed in and started saying goodbyes and thankyous to all the staff who had all been so friendly and helpful over the past 5 days. As I was only booking one night at a time my bed had been taken for this night, so I decided to treat my self to a caravan which was double the price (still only €37 but you know...). It was really cute and cosy and loved having my own room for the last night of my wild adventure riding the magma. Tomorrow is going to be a big day.

April 22

Today I checked out of the best hostel in the world and began my long journey home to Leeds. This included the hostel shuttle to the metro station - train to Amsterdam Central - train to Brussels - train to Brussels airport - plane to London - 2 underground trains to Kings Cross to get a train to Leeds and finally, a cab to the Eldon where Kayt, Emma, Mitch and Evan were waiting for the winner of the Amazing Race! This is because Ana/Amber and Chris/Josh were also coming back today from their volcano extended adventures. Ana and Amber got stranded in Greece - when their flights were cancelled they got a ferry to Crete indefinitely,

and as for Chris and Josh they got a bus to Copenhagen... yeah this volcano really ruined everything didn't it...

As Team Number 1 in the Amazing Race my prize was a celebratory Irish Car Bomb with Mitch and Evan. Half a pint of Guinness with a shot of Baileys in it and then bomb a shot of whiskey, so good! We walked home later that night for one nights sleep before heading off the next adventure with Kayt: Anzac Day adventures in Turkey!

Alone in Brussels

They say the early bird gets the worm but all I got was a flight. This was another tiring day as it involved a ton of walking on 4 hours sleep. The Grand Place seemed like the obvious first stop which was honestly a bit meh. Sure it was good architecture and all that but it's all just starting to mould in to the one memory now. Next stop was lunch to form some kind of a game plan, at which point I decided the the Maneken Pis should be next. The statue is quite hilarious. It's a little kid taking leak (and it's a fountain). It's also smaller than you'd expect (that's what she said), but still definitely worth seeing.

I then followed the map to La Chappelle, Place du Grand Sablon and the Palais Royal. Opposite the palance is the Brussels Park which I walked through to Federal Parliament. Soon enough I was back in the city centre where I had my first Belgian waffle and oh my goodness it was that good. It's self service as well...or at least I think it was...none of the others seemed to be but the guy didn't stop me.

By Emma's recommendation I caught the metro to the Cantillon Brwery. It's a very grassroots, family owned brwery who brew gueuze and fruit beers or something. It tasted really good...but not like beer at all. I then came back and had a nap before going and cooking tea. It had been so long since I had actually been full

April 14 - The day I went to another country for the day: The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

But first we made a stop in a small town called Dinant. We shelled out an extra €7 to go up to this fortress and have a tour. It was a bit odd because the tour was given in both French and English. The guide didn't speak English too well but that's ok, until I can speak French fluently I can't complain. On the tour we saw... well I don't know, it wasn't that interesting. There were some old guns then this room that was on a 20 degree slant. So trippy. Apparently Adolphe Sax the inventor of the saxophone was from Dinant, and they claim it for all it is worth!

We got back on the bus and in another hour we arrived in Luxembourg City. The country itself only has about 400,000 people you can imagine the city will also be small... it was tiny. Katherine and Sandra (the girls I met) walked around for a bit while the older people had a 'cheap' meal. I bought some headphones as a souvenir as mine were breaking and our guide gave us a small tour. After that we had an hour of free time and after 20 minutes...we were done. Our guide found us sitting down and showed us a park/valley where I took some nice macro photos and then it was time to go home.

Luxembourg is really not worth going to except to tick off another country from 'the list'. However, it did make a good day trip and I made some new friends. The girls are both from California and are on exchange in Sussex. At night I invited them out for a drink and kind of accidentally took them to a football bar. I was drawn there with €1 drinks and luckily there was a DJ upstairs. I would have felt heaps bad just sitting there with the football on.

April 15

So, plan for the day: hire a bike and ride the suggested walking routes on my map. A very good plan if the machine accepted my card. So instead I caught the metro to the beginning of the European section tour. In hindsight it may have been difficult riding through an unfamiliar city full of cars but I'm sure I could have made it work.

It began underneath a glass skyscraper in a very poor section of the city. I walked through some markets and soon enough was in "the heart of Europe:" a roundabout, around which all the important EU buildings are. I walked through Parc du Cinquantenaire to another Arc du Triomphe lookalike and on to the European Union Parliament, which is a very impressive building. I tell you what too, it's so refreshing to see some modern looking buildings. The last three months has just been historical building after historical building, not that that's a bad thing though.

Next stop was the comic book museum...wait no, not yet, it's closed for lunch for another 20 minutes. Once in there I learnt that entry was €6, a bit steep I thought. After messaging Emma to see if it's worth it, and she said no I decided to do a Peter Durbin and sneak in for free. The lady at the desk was too busy collecting money from other suckers to notice one poor tourist sneaking past. About an hour in there more than wrapped it up and it was definitely not worth €6!

I then caught the train over to Brupark to see the Atomium, a model of an atom enlarged to 58 billion times its size. Unfortunately the security was much tighter here and I couldn't sneak in to anything. Of course by this stage I was stuffed and came back to the hostel and chilled out for a bit. Walked up the road for a quick feed and back to write this entry. During this time a Californian guy called Josh Choi came and introduced himself to me. He's traveling on his own is also stranded by the volcano.

April 16

The single most stressful and frustrating day of this trip. By now the only thing on the news and on Facebook is talk of the Icelandic volcano eruption yesterday that has sent a cloud of volcanic ash above the UK. I got a message from Scott the night before saying his flight had been cancelled and won't make the football match we had tickets to. At this stage my flight was still scheduled so I went off to Bruges hopeful that I could still get to the game and at least scalp their tickets or something.

Bruges is very picturesque. Every street is cobblestone and is lined with medieval houses. It's kind of one of those places that is famous and very touristy, but there's nothing to actually do there. I thought it was a bit boring but I think that's just because I on my own. I had a really map with the things to do on it. It took me to a museum or 2... one was pretty meh, but it only cost €1 so was a good time filler.

I got back around 5 and this is where it gets interesting. checked my flight status: cancelled. Crap, what do I do now? I was due to fly out in the morning. I'm madly asking anyone on Facebook what they about Eurotrains. I learnt that Eurostar had jacked up the price to £223, they're not silly.

I decided to walk up to the train station with Josh and see what I could learn there. Yeah...Eurostar trains to London sold out until the 18th. I then checked coaches, no dice. We got a kebab and walked through the red light district. After a stressful night I needed some fun. So Josh and I headed to Celtica bar and got lost. I maintain that if he just let me lead it would have been fine but I digress. We got there, got a cheap drink and sat down with these 2 guys who literally spoke as much English as I did French. It was awesome because I got to use all the basic French you use when meeting people. They were hilarious and almost sold Josh some pot. He wanted hash though...whatever. We moved to an ared called Delirium, it was very, very cool. It's this area of 6 bars, each specialising in a different drink and each were packed. We went to a beer one (with a selection of 20 odd), then a cocktail one, then absinthe bar. We also met this really hot Italian girl who Josh was shamelessly hitting on. She got our Facebooks but we'll never see her again.

I really wanted to get out of Brussels because there's nothing more to do there so I jumped on to trusy Hostelworld and booked a hostel in Amsterdam. In amongst all the chaos I also ran out of credit on my UK phone. When I tried to top up I realised I had no money in my UK bank account and Vodaphone only accept UK cards. So it was all happening.

German Adventure

8 April

"The Führer would be very disappointed" - Evan

Our first day in Munich began with the new Munich free walking tour, this tour was probably my favourite one I've done. For such a young country it has a lot history. It started in Marienplatz where we watched the Glockenspiel, a 15 minute "show" of figurines moving around the clock. The best part about it was listening to our guides slag it and telling us to watch the tourists hold their cameras waiting for something exciting as it's just bells for the first 6 minutes or so. We didn't even stay for the finale. Also In this square was the new and old city halls. Ironically, the old city hall was actually rebuilt more recently than the new city hall. Michael then took us to Frauhenkirche and told us the story if the devils footprint, however it ended anticlimactically as the footprint was just that of the architect.

The funniest thing I learnt on the tour was that during Oktoberfest, the Australian embassy moves from Berlin and rents out a small part of the British embassy in Munich for the 2 weeks. This is because in Germany the law says you need to carry ID with you all the time and so many Australians lose theirs (maybe due to slight inebriation) and you would need it to get to the embassy in Berlin. Aussie Aussie Aussie!

After the free tour the four of us walked to the English beer garden which was absolutely gorgeous. It's this massive park and in the centre is for some reason a Chinese tower and a beer garden. It was such a nice a warm day and I felt just like a local with my beer and white sausage. On the way back we stopped and had a lay in the park with he hundreds of others.
That night we embarked on the new Europe Beer Challenge. It was the first new europe pub crawl that I have actually thought was worth it. The Edinburgh one was pretty good, we got a fair amount of drinks included in that one. But this one was actually a tour as well. We went to four bars, one of which was the only beer and Oktoberfest museum in the world. Michael recommended good beers for us to try and told us a bit about it.
The tour started at the Munich main train station near our hostel, and our first beer was a roadie. It was so good catching the train and walking through the street with a beer in hand...legally. The next bar we had a wheat beer which was vey different but quite nice - I think it was a Paulaner. I've since decided wheat beer is the best. Then it was the museum, another one, then a quick walk through the hofbrauhaus before our last bar: the Euro Youth hotel bar. At the end of the night we were all awarded Beer Challange survivors membership cards, and Chris won the Beer Challenge or something by speaking in the most convincing Irish accent - since Michael was Irish. I met this novocastrian girl as well on the tour, the first one I'd met while being overseas, or at least the first I've really spoken to. She was from Eleebana so of course she knew all the landmarks round Belmont and that. She even knows where the Squids Ink was which I think was the most exciting thing.

9 April
Today was the day ventured into the Bavarian countryside and found a small dwelling commonly referred to as Neuschwanstein Castle. It is the castle that the Disney castle is modeled off in the Bavarian alps. The best bit about it for me was the fact there are these 2 castles on top of these hills out in the mountains. The insides of them, while impressive, was similar to all the other castles I've seen. Like Versailles. It's all very ridiculously intricately decorated and over the top. If it were me I totally would decorate it less because I reckon it would be really annoying to have every wall in my house so busy. You'd never sleep because there would be so much action happening on every wall and floor!

So inside the castle, for whatever reason, they don't allow photography. Not just flash photography but all photography. But there's an easy way around this...you just wait til the guide has left the room before taking your snaps. Easy. Or so you would think. I was just going about my business happily taking photos, I let my guard down and put the flash on because I couldn't get the shot. Some knob in our group (not an employee) pipes up and goes "oi, no photos" then gave me some speech about it ruins things or some crap. I totally disregarded it but at the same time made sure he had also left the room until I took some more. Right at the end he catches me taking one and yells out "OI!" but it was too late, I'd taken it and didn't care. What a douche.

That night we stayed at Regina's who is a friend of Yazmin's. Funny story - yes, another Yazmin gem. So Yazmin was traveling with Emily, they were meant to keep traveling and end up in France or something because they got mad cheap flights from there. But Yazmin got sick and wanted to hang around or go back to Leeds or something. Either way they split up in Munich and Emily decided to join us to Berlin, she found her own way there and we had a ridiculously early flight to catch. Instead of staying at the airport Regina (Yazmin's friend) invited us 3 to stay at her place...but Regina wasn't there with us. So effectively we stayed at a friend of a friends place, who didn't stay with us. She let 3 people stay at her place whom she had met the day before.

April 10 - what is it with Europeans and gigantic arse pillows
So Chris and I got up ridiculously early at Regina's, we set the alarm for 3:45 in the AM, which I think wasn't even early enough, that or we had the train timetable wrong because one didn't come in time so we caught a €50 taxi to the airport, because you know...that's just the kind of money we have to splash around. On the plane I fell asleep before takeoff. We met up with Stephen again at the hostel and met his friend Kevin and a whole bunch of other people in the hostel. This hostel is very different from all the others I've stayed at. It's very small and has a very personal feel. It's privately run by Arthur and is has a random theme of Hawaiian.

After settling in and a couple of coffees we set off to the Brandenburg gate, going via the Jewish new synagogue. From the gate we took the new Berlin 'Third Reich' tour, which was absolutely incredible. It was all about Germany during Hitler's reign from 1933-1945. It took us past us past the Reichstag (German Parliament) and plenty of WWII memories, including the Jewish Holocaust memorial which is a large square with thousands of stone blocks protruding the ground. It's purposefully ambiguous to leave it open to interpretation.

The tour then went past the site of the Führer's bunker where Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. It's now just an insignificant car park. Also on the tour was the Luftwaffe HQ, the only Nazi building not to be bombed in the bombing of Berlin and ended at a section of the Berlin wall.

After the tour ended we hit up Checkpoint Charlie, the checkpoint controlled by the US. This was probably the best tour I did in Berlin...maybe. It was so fascinating learning about Berlin and Hitler during the Nazi regime, so much so I spent a few hours that night reading Wikipedia articles on this and other related articles.

April 11

Today was the day for the free tour. Unfortunately it covered many of the same things as the Third Reich tour, but it did go into different details. It went to the Holocaust memorial, the carpark, Checkpoint Charlie, Book Burning memorial, Luftwaffe HQ and more. It culminated on the steps of the Berliner Dome with an epic tale about the day the wall came down.

We then met back up with Emily, Stephen and Kevin who were at museums and went into the Dome, which was of course incredible. We took a bit of a detoured walk back via the Rathaus (town hall) and the TV tower at Alexanderplatz. That night we chilled out in the room again and went to a wine bar where you only pay as much as you feel necessary. We hung out with a guy from the hostel called Arlan. He was a very interesting character who makes his own sidetrance "music" and believes UFO's are people the future trying to help us.

April 12

Our last day in Berlin began at the East Side Gallery: the longest section of the wall still preserved (1.3km) which has been painted. I took so many photos of them as they were all pretty amazing. This led into our third New Berlin Tour, the Red Berlin tour. This took us through what it was like living in Communist East Germany (DPR) between 1945 and 1989. We had this incredible guide from Bulgaria who escaped to the States 30 years ago. He told us stories of paranoia and of the Stasi spying on people and CIA spying on the Stasi. Chris and I went to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, which I think has been bombed and not been rebuilt. Next to it was a Jewish synagogue. It's built as a square and inside the light shines through all these blue tiles. I loved it because it was something new and different.

By this time we were stuffed and headed back. Found a random Vietnamese restaurant with some people from the hostel and tried to have an early night but as usual failed miserably.

So that wraps up Germany off to Brussels now all on my lonesome. Chris is heading to Stockholm and Emily stayed on in Berlin because she's loving it. She ended up staying there for about 12 days because of our good friend the Icelandic volcano.