Teil 13.

So the summer is finally in full swing and I am loving it! Chilling by the lake drinking Sekt, avoiding revision..... definitely a winner :) However a week of 36 degrees every day was not ideal. So we realised that with under a month to go, we still hadn't done many of the tourist-y things in Trier! So we took it upon ourselves to hit up some museums. We visited Karl Marx's birth house which has been converted into a pretty impressive museum! Above is a pic of me and Karl, one of the mini statues from the installation at the Porta - very tempting to take one but i'm not sure we'd get away with Karl sitting next to us on the bus :/  After a tiring morning of museuming we tried out a new cafe/restaurant that Josh discovered. It's such a wee find, hidden away in a pretty court yard off of the beaten path.

Sammy modelling our new favourite spot in Trier :)

 Actually, I think that this photo was taken whilst we were out at Trier Altstadt Fest, which was a pretty good day - wine cocktails, food and shopping :) The entire city was littered with stages, music, stalls - and a general party! The Germans certainly know how to do festivals! They're completely different to the kind of dirty, muddy festival we seem to adore in England - there are no porta-loos and even though everyone is drinking from about 10am, there are no drunken louts roaming the streets causing trouble - something i do not miss at all!

Any how, we still haven't seen and done everything we would like to in Trier and Sammy and I leave in less than two weeks! The thought of leaving is so sad! I'll really miss Trier, such a great place :) I fear that my chronology is completely to shot in this post, so some things may not make sense - I suppose that's what happens when you forget to blog for a while :/ At some point in the last 4 weeks we visited Cochem for the last time. The weather was glorious and we needed a day out of the city, a bit of time to chill before hard core revision began. It was exactly what we needed; we didn't really do anything major, just bumbled around the town, had a look in the Dom - which was a hidden gem! We'd been past it many times before but had never been inside.

The prettiest stained glass window!

  After a hard day of enjoying the sun and drinking coffee we felt that we were in need of a gin and tonic.....probably the hardest drink to source in Germany! So instead i was furnished with a Hugo ;) my new best friend :D

It struck us, as we sat and watched the world go by, that we only had four weeks left! A scary  thought!  So enjoy it we shall!!! Especially when you're surrounded by views such as this....

Cochem is almost certainly the prettiest town I've ever visited! And it turns out that property is relatively cheap.....retirement plan = sorted ;)

It's now only 13 days until i fly home :( and i've got so much to do in that time! Still four exams, need to pack, clean out the flat and move out! However, Sammy and I are leaving at the same time so it shan't be too bad.....would be much better if i didn't have to leave at all! It really has been the best 10 months of my life!!! I've met some great people, experienced so many things, been driven crazy by the strange Germanic ways and oh , yeah, studied a bit :P There is so much more that i wish i'd had the time to do, but at least it gives me a reason to come back! I'll have to enjoy the next two weeks and make the most of this gorgeous German sunshine!!!!! Bis gleich x

Teil 12.

Our  'the uni gave us a week off for Pentecost so we went to Nuremberg'  trip :)

The wonky bridge :) It looks far better in the dark!

Once again, Catholicism prevails and we had a week off of uni :D I believe that Pfingsten is technically only on the Monday, evidently the Germans just fancied a week off. Not that i'm complaining! So we booked ourselves into a hostel for three nights and explored the beautiful city.

Teil 11.

Whilst loading some photos onto my mac, i found some piccys from our Eurovision/Hallveig's last night..... had no idea they were there so always a nice surprise :)

I do believe that this was taken before the angry barman came over....

And whilst hiding from the angry barman.....

Josh will probably have something to say about this one ^^^^ but it kind of sums up the evening :) Good times!

xxx

Teil 10.

                                                        EQUALITAET!

A little later than i had hoped, but a wee catch up on the last weeks or so :) Rather enjoyable week by all accounts, an impromptu visit to town ended up in taking part in an equality demonstration against homophobia and trans-phobia. Schmidt-Z, the local 'gay club/youth group/counselling group' had organised a peaceful demonstration in the Hauptmarkt. We all met at the Porta Nigra and walked a loop around town, holding hands. We later wrote messages and attached them to balloons and set them free after a small speech and moments silence to remember those who have died for the cause.

I love this photo! It really captures the moment, shame it wasn't a prettier day. It was great to have been a part of it all :) The theme continued.....Saturday night was of course Eurovision! I've never been a fan really, but Schmidt-Z was, of course, showing it and I'm not exactly one to turn down alcohol and a jolly old time :D So we hit up the club and, to our dismay, had to sit rather silently, watching it. It turns out that Germany are HUGE Eurovision fans and take it very seriously! I guess the fact that we were in a gay club had something to do with it, but the entire city were out in support! They had scoring sheets and everything! A few (very expensive) gin and tonics and glasses of Sekt later, we found ourselves right at the front of the club in front of the screen playing a wee drinking game, very loudly i might add, and were stopped abruptly by a very angry barman! It was a great night but i'm not sure i can say the same about eurovision, not really my cup of tea lol Although, the Finnish entrant caused a bit of a stir! Very fitting, it's a shame they didn't win. Unfortunately, it was Hallveig's last night in Germany :( luckily she went out with a bang! We're all going to  miss her, but she should be coming to Essex next year to visit :D one can only imagine what we'll get up to!!! I wish i had more to say about my studies, but i don't :/ i guess my mid-terms are coming up, but i'd barely call them exams! Perhaps my finals will prove to be more interesting and taxing!

Ciao! xxx

Teil 9.

In order to escape the clutches of Trier for the day, we took a wee trip to Heidelberg :) Twas grand! Although getting up at 6am is not the one. We were at the Hauptbahnhof for 7.45am only to find that we couldn't use our tickets until 9am. eurgh! So we took a dander into town and got breakfast, have to admit that i've never been in town that early before (unless i'm on my way home that is :/ ). It was surprisingly refreshing, although i shan't be doing it again anytime soon lol So we headed off to Homburg, our first stop...

Teil 8.

So I'm still catching up on what's been going on since i've been back (and i'm trying oh so hard to blog more often!) and there's so much to write about! But there are a few things that have caught my eye and are definitely blog worthy. Firstly, it's the 130th anniversary of the economist and philosopher Karl Marx, whom was born in Trier. Therefore there's an installation at the Porta - 500 mini red Karl Marx statues. Quite a spectacle, especially when one God of a human being arranged them so they are doing the conga :P

Now, they are not nailed down, which, if they were in England, would have all disappeared by now! I do believe someone was caught wandering down the street clutching one, and when questioned as to why they took it, they claimed they merely wanted to decorate their flat with it! I have to admit, as soon as i saw them, i wanted one! You can buy them for 300 euros each, but no. The student inside me wants to steal it haha

Happy birthday Karl :D

Teil 7.

PHOTO UPLOADER IS WORKING :DD Ok, so here are some photos i wanted to upload in my last post.

Yes, we were dressed as smurfs! Dom (left) and Alex (right) handed in their Dissertations that day and a celebration was necessary. However, we quickly learnt that leaving the night out in Dom's hands is not a good idea :/ he soon whipped his smurf costume from halloween out and painted himself, and us, blue! It was a grand night, although being blue, it meant that you could see where we had all been :/

Oh, i forgot to mention our wee trip to Southwold over Easter :) It's my favourite place on the East coast, somewhere we frequently visit. This particular day was so pretty!

The famous Southwold Beach Huts, of course!

The poor Norwegian guys ( whom we met that night through a friend), thanks to me they didn't exactly make it into the club :/ Not that i remember this! A perfect advert for England! 'Visit England and end up sitting in security for hours on end!' - who could resist?!