shots shots shots and schnee!

So here we are again. I would apologise as always for being later in my blog, but it is becoming such a habit now, that technically it could be seen as on time. Either way, I haven’t been procrastinating study, so I haven’t been writing the blog weekly. Actually I think at this point I have been writing it fornightly. Whatever, you will live.
Right now I am sitting on a train through the beautiful alps in Germany on my way to Stuttgart. I won’t get ahead of myself, and I will start the story at the beginning. I just wanted to let you know that I am somewhere amazing, and you aren’t. I am exceptionally kind like that. Oh, we just crossed a beautiful river and the green meadows flecked with yellow buttercups are enclosed between beautiful snowcapped Alps. Jealous? Am I rubbing salt into the wounds? You’re welcome!

So let me back track two weeks to when I left Thailand and arrived in Barcelona.

I arrived later at night to Sant Cugat (where I would be staying for the next week and a bit, that was situated just outside of the main Barcelona city. I was staying here with my penpal of about 5 years, Aitor, as this is where he studies. I got up the next morning, freezing cold (ahem, pretty sure someone told me Spain was supposed to be warm? Also pretty sure that that someone is a liar whose pants will shortly catch fire). It was so nice however to jump into an amazingly warm shower first thing in the morning. While Aitor headed off to class (haha sucker) I walked to the train station and headed into the middle of the city. I was still absolutely freezing thanks to coming from Thailand and only sporting shorts and tshirts, so my aim of the day was to go and buy some winter suitable clothes (even though its nearly summer here….come on guys, get onto that!) I wandered around the Plaza de Catalunya and managed to find somewhere to buy jeans, jumpers and warmer tops. Success!! And the rest of my day was spent buying a european sim card for my phone, as well as searching for a suitable adapter since mine was too ‘big boned’ to fit into the power socket. And back home I went to hang out and laugh at the fact that I wasn’t the one still studying 24 hours a day.

The next day I went into the city once more. I decided that since I was travelling alone, the best way to see the main sites and gain information, without getting myself lost, was to buy a two day ticket on the Barcelona Bus touristic, which is the city’s ‘hop on, hop off’ bus tours. I decided that today would be spent gathering information about each of the stops on each different route, and then the next day I would tackle the stops which I had decided would interest me. It was also a good idea since my camera battery decided to give me the middle finger as it died. So, I could hardly take photos of the stops and monuments. I drove all around the city listening tall the fascinating facts about the city and it’s peculiar architecture.

I have decided that this Gaudi dude is a serious weirdo. And by weirdo I mean exceptionally cool. Who else’s architecture looks like dragons scales or the waves of the sea, or a gingerbread house (you know, apart from the witch out of Hansel and Gretel). Still my favourite area to drive through was the Barri Gothic, the old Gothic styled buildings. I sat in the plaza watching people walk by as an older Spanish man sat beside me and struck up a conversation. I was a bit chuffed to try out my terrible Spanish, and we managed to have a conversation about where I was from, how long I was here for etc etc. Until he then brought out a photo of himself as a 25 year old from his wallet, and asked me if I had a boyfriend and kept touching my face telling me that I was pretty. So…needless to say I made up a boyfriend, an excuse and said goodbye. Why do I always get the old men hitting on me?? Come on!

The next day the plan was to do the same except this time I worked out which stops I wanted to see. In the morning I went and saw the Sagrada Familia. This was quite an impressive church. The stone carvings on the outside were incredible, but my favourite was the inside of the church. The stained glass windows let in the right amount of light that the church was awash in rainbow colours, and the ceiling had a very interesting design that I couldn’t even describe to you even if I tried my hardest.

The next stop was the Park Guell. Remember the gingerbread house I as telling you before? Yep, well this was it. And inside the park was splattered with mosaics of all colours, and ofcourse packed with tourists all adding to the colour of the park. I sat and ate my lunch here surrounded by the trees and flowers, in a quieter spot of course. There was a man playing the guitar nearby adding to the ambience. Afterwards I headed back on the bus towards the Poble Espana. This is an old Spanish village that is filled with cobblestones and character. I allowed myself to stroll around the small streets and peer into the windows of beautiful stores filled to the brim with handmade crafts. I walked into a store filled with handmade masks, and I spent quite a lot of my time in there. For those who know me, know that I love to collect beautiful masks. There is something comforting about being able to hide behind a mask and be someone else for a short amount of time, and behind that mask is the inhibitions and stresses of reality. It’s a time to escape into fantasy. Either way, they are usually exceptionally pretty. I toyed with the idea of buying a black lace mask however my money situation did not allow me to do so. Sigh. So instead I treated myself to a truffle at a small chocolate café hidden down an alleyway and a gelato later as I sat and watched people walk by, imagining what they were thinking, who they were, and where they were from.

I finished up my day by going to the Barri Gothic and getting lost in the streets that wrapped around the old buildings. It’s nice not having a particular plan and allowing yourself to just explore what is around you, and not stressing over time. It’s nice to just be somewhere. It’s nice to just explore. I ended up coming out into la Rambla, a street in the city filled with human statues and stalls and restaurants. There is also an abundance of pickpockets here, so I held tightly onto my belongings as I watched the human statues. Yes, I have an unnatural dislike and possibly fear of human statues, as long as I am not too close to them I appear to be ok. But honestly, how can anyone sit or stand so incredibly still for so long. It is unnatural, and then suddenly they pounce out of nowhere!! My next few days were a mix of aimless wandering and relaxing at home, catching up on emails and organizing placements and accommodation as I continue on my journey.

I decided one night to book into a hostel in the main city that takes its guests out dancing and to the bars. Done and Done. Actually the day I booked into the Sant Jordi hostel it was Sant Jordi’s day in Spain. Basically it is like Valentines day, the boys buy girls roses and the girls buy boys books. The streets were packed with people selling roses and books, I hadn’t seen the city so busy!! The hostel was situated near the Sagrada Familia, and I sat outside in the courtyard just enjoying relaxing. On the top floor of the building (people’s apartments) a guy sat with this guitar singing at the top of his lungs unaware that there was an Australian girl curled up in a beanbag listening to his music. I sat there as the sun went down, and ended up talking to a Canadian that had come out to use the skateboard ramp. Who knew that Barcelona was apparently huge for skate boarders. Well, I know now!

The funny thing about this hostel is that they had specifically hired someone to take the guests to party 6/7 days of the week. What a job! There weren’t many people from our hostel going out, however Sant Jordi has about 6 hostel locations in the city, so we joined up at a bar with a heap more people. I made friends with these Korean girls who were very excited about life and provided me with much amusement, as well as another Canadian guy who was being a bit creepily flirty. The bar we headed to was the Gato Negro (Black Cat) which has about 600 different kinds of shots. Some on fire, some with whipped cream, marshmallows, absinthe and a myriad of others. The Korean girls and I ordered several different shots each trying out a new one when we saw others enjoying them. We had the boyscout (toasting marshmallows in the flame then dunking it into the shot) finding nemo (finding a smarty in whipped cream on top of the shot, without using your hands), the black widow (basically black absinthe and some other lethal alcohol) as well as many more. Hey, at 2 euro a shot, they were so cheap!! We mingled with many people, and became friends with a guy from Amsterdam, as we headed to the dance club.

It was so much fun inside the club just dancing with everybody, I had a couple of dances with some locals who bought me a few drinks before I ran back to the Korean girls, and finally ended up dancing like a lunatic with my new Amsterdam friend. We decided that since no one knew us we could dance however we wanted to and not care.

Eventually the dance floor cleared that we thought it was time to go home… was it our dance moves? Who knows! We wandered back to the hostel before I realized that we were actually staying at different hostels and this wasn’t where I was staying! Thankfully another guy from my hostel was there (even if it was the creepy flirty Canadian guy) and I said goodbye to my new friend and sat out the front with Canadian guy and California guy who I had met earlier in the night. We all chatted for a while before walking back.Thankfully the metro had started up again (since was after 5am) so we could take transport back to the hostel, but I spent a good amount of time brushing off the Canadian guy from “arresting me for being Australian”. Yep, stop touching me and trying to flirt through role play. It ain’t gonna happen, give up!! Bleugh. Although honestly he was harmless and easy to distract by pointing elsewhere.

Anyway, we finally got back safe and sound and I crashed in bed. I spent most of the next day back at Aitor’s lounging in bed. It’s nice not to do anything. Finally it was time for me to say goodbye to Aitor and Barcelona as it was time for me to head off to Germany. Yay Germany. I hopped on a plane filled with German Soccer Hooligans and headed to Memmingen Airport, Germany.

We flew over the Alps covered in snow, and I couldn’t help thinking about cookies and cream icecream. The dark trees from above scattered in the snow just reminded me of cookies and cream icecream. Mara (one of the girls I met in Manila) picked me up from the airport and we caught up on our way back to her house in Oberstdorf. She lives at the foothills of the Alps, in a cute little German town. I absolutely loved it. Wherever you looked around you, you could see the snow towered over you on the majestic cookies and cream mountains. The houses were traditional German looking with the white paint and dark brown trimmings.

She took me to the Café that her parents own and she runs with was nestled in amongst the mountains and a stream. It was so beautiful as we sat there eating a German pretzel (woohoo!) and drinking a drink that reminded me of ginger ale. It actually wasn’t so cold here and I could get away with jeans and a tshirt sitting under the sun and admiring my surroundings. She then took me to show me the hotel her family owns. I didn’t realize that the hotel was so fancy! There was a gym and amazing spa/pool area and the rooms were huge and amazing. Pretty sure I want to live there now!!! We headed back to her house where I met her family (who are all so lovely by the way!) and we sat around watching the quality television that was Germany’s next top model. Just as quality as ANTM ;) eating of course, haagan dazs icecream (sorry, couldn’t help myself!!)

The next morning we headed out into town. We went to the hairdressers where Mara went and got herself a haircut by the most talkative lady I have ever met…well, maybe not the most, but she sure could chat away. Even though she knew I couldn’t really speak German she would still continuously ask me questions that left me with a blank expression. With Mara’s new hair we headed home to have a delicious lunch with her family that her Grandmother cooked. Om nom nom… Then to the schnee! For those of you with rusty German (as mine is) the Schnee is the snow. And I loooooooooooove snow!

We headed in the cable car up the mountain (of some German name that I currently can’t think of…Nebelhorn I think) Into the cookies and cream alps. It was amazing, and I felt like a child excitedly waiting to play in the snow, particularly wanting to face plant into the untouched snow. As we reached the top you could see the alps stretching out around us in all directions, and strangely enough it wasn’t cold. I ended up taking my jacket off and walking around in my tshirt, soaking up the sun. There was balcony with deck chairs where you could lie and enjoy the atmosphere and views while enjoying the sun bite into your skin. We spent quite a while doing this before we went for a walk through the snow where I could indulge in throwing a few snow balls at nothing in particular.

Then finally we headed back down to go to dinner at the family’s hotel. And can I say, it was so delicious!!! I had zucchini filled with a pesto polenta and parmesan type of sauce with a olive and tomato paste type thing. Either way, whatever it was it was seriously yummy. After dinner we headed for a walk into town where we stopped at a street party, celebrating 20 years since the opening of this café. We got a free champagne and enjoyed having a bit of a boogy in the streets to some traditional famous German songs while watching older couples dance in the street, and an English boy dance the beautiful dance of a drunk man while yelling out what he thought were the made up German words. From here we ended up at the local Irish pub (no matter where you go, you can always be sure that you will find an irish pub!) where we had deep and meaningful chats about the world and crashed into bed.

The next morning while Mara headed off to work, I wandered around the small town, looking for nothing in particular and managing to get myself lost even though it was a small village. It seemed quite like a maze to me. Eventually I found my way back to the hotel and headed over to the café with Mara’s dad to see Mara before I left. We realized the time and Mara and I had ten minutes to head back to her house, grab my bags and drive to the train station before my train left. So while shoveling down a pretzel, we zoomed home and grabbed my bag. Mara had to get back to work, so her sisters boyfriend drove me and my bags quickly to the train station. We ran and just made the train, and he asked if it was ok to buy my ticket on the train rather than at the counter. Thankfully it was ok, and I said my goodbyes to Oberstdorf. And thus, here we are. Meeting up with Hanna for a few days with her and her family  win!!!

Until next time my lovelies, Peace! B xoxox