well another huge flight on the wonderful Singapore Airlines today. 12 hours to Frankfurt, Germany. I think Singapore has one of the best airports, in the world very fancy, nice warm inviting atmosphere. and they have a place where there are foot massage machines, so you can just sit there and get a brilliant foot massage while you wait to board, soooo good!!!! Frankfurt airport is really clinical and harsh, to compare the two airports would be like jumping on white fluffy clouds with angels and then falling and landing in a place were there is no smiling allowed, no retail relaxation and keeping vigilant alert of the customs people in scary german military uniforms.
I was so tired!! It was so weird to hear everyone speaking in German, all the signs are in German, i dont understand anything. I only just made it onto a train to Augsburg, after pronouncing it wrong several times when trying to get a ticket. i didn't fancy trying to find a hostel in Frankfurt. I HATE trains, so tired, so sick. i got to Augsburg finally... woke Ka up when i rang her to come pick me up from station, cos i arrived a day early. YAY!! so good to see her, but it is soo freezing here.
Wed Jan 25
While i am in Germany I hope to learn a bit of the language, and see some really cool
cathedrals and eat some german food. Today Ka and I walked around the Augsburg shops a bit, all wrapped up in big jackets, with hats and gloves, i would say this town is really quaint the side streets are all cobble stoned and the buildings are small and have vines growing up the walls. They drive on the other side of the road!!! It is doing wierd things to my internal bearings We went to St Mary's Cathedral, was quite cool, early Gothic architecture, really amazing intricate paintings and decoration, and we had coffee in a cool German cafe. German/Barvarian dumpling for dessert :) Thur Jan 26
Today we drove to Neuschwanstein Castle (Nu- sshwan- stine). It was about an hour and a half drive, we got a little lost though.... Snow is covering everything, so white and they sky is always grey. I had a butter pretzel for lunch, quite good, chewy... i would recommend. Apparently this is a very very famous castle. King Ludwig II built it only about 150 years ago, he only lived in it 172 days before he died mysteriously at 40
years of age. I think he was murdered, and he was insane. It is the castle design that the Disney Castle is based on. The castle was never finished, still about 80 unfinished rooms and nobody has lived in it since then, but it is set up for tours etc. The rooms that we went into were very beautiful, byzantine type religious murals covering everything, lots of gold. and very colourful. I went to youth group with Ka and her friends, it was all German, except we sang some English songs. I fell asleep! EXTREME jet lag.
This is what speed we got up to on the autobaan (motorway) If you cant see that, its 180 km/h and the temperature is -5deg at midday. 
ok, this amused me a lot.at every off ramp on the autobaan
is an ausfahrt sign (ows - fart). it doesnt translate as exit, but offramp, but theres never any clear sign telling you where it goes to...
Fri Jan 27
I did a little more shopping and looking around, Ka's homegroup was in German. Its hard not being able to understand the German language, I feel very overwhelmed sometimes. It is not that common for Germans to speak much English even though they learn it at school, some of these people find me quite amusing, its odd for them because i cant understand them, and some jump at the chance to try out their english, some think my accent is cool. Well thats wierd because our accent is awful according to some singaporeans, and i think i agree upon hearing them trying to imitate it! Its certainly not as graceful as the British accent.
Sat Jan 28
This morning I went with Ka to her friends 18th birthday brunch, it was really cool. well it was just lots of food and people, nothing big. Germans celebrate the 18th birthday, it is more important than the 21st. Quite differnt from us, who make a huge deal out of our 21st's. There was lots of breads and cheeses and spreads, Germans like lots of bread and pasta. I really like butter pretzels and i also like quark (kind of a yoghurt cheese type spread) We went to a nightclub in the evening. All i can say is German cigarette smoke stinks really really bad. Quite awful...enough to enduce vomiting! And the music was dreadful, and there were so many people. It is not like dunedin where you can bar hop if you dont like the people or music, because the clubs arent that close together and you have to pay to get in.
Sun Jan 29
Well i went to a German church this morning, it was quite intersting, though i didnt understand it. They sing the same songs as we do back home, except in German of course, so i sang the english versions :0 And now i am on a train to paris, where i am meeting lucy and jono. It is an 8hr trip. But it is quite intersting to see the countryside, the towns are really cute and snuggly. the snow is starting to melt in some places, i hope this means spring is coming soon. im lucky to be getting two springs this year!
