Tricked Ya! It's Cologne Part 2!

Happy Belated Christmas Everyone!

Hope it was a great one. I"ve been meaning to write a quick blog about Christmas but haven't really had much of a chance. I've been keeping myself reasonably busy and I like to write long blogs if you haven't noticed. Perhaps I should start keeping my blogs short and sweet. We will see, we will see.

So, something I realised I forgot to talk about in my last post cause the video took so long and I got too frustrated and just sorta cut it out without even finishing writing everything I wanted to say was about buffet breakfasts. One thing that is key to my heart is BUFFET BREAKFASTS. (Something to remember should you wish to woo me lol) Being treated to all that I can eat when I've just woken up while on holidays? That's the dream, that's THE DREAM. All my life, all I ever wanted to have was a buffet breakfast at the place I've stayed at - and for some reason, that always managed to not happen. It would be advertised that - yes, we have buffet breakfast - and then you turn up, and there is not one. It is a sad day when this happens. Mind, I have not stayed in hotels very much at all so it's realistically probably only happened once or twice. I did however have a buffet breakfast in Japan and it was wonderful. And I have now had a buffet breakfast in Cologne Germany.

How was it? Well, one thing I can say is it was tasty! But boy, Germans, and the Dutch and probably the rest of Europe as well sure do eat a lot of cheese and bread. There was a great variety of cheeses, and breads, and juices, tea, coffee, fruits, and bacon and eggs. I was quite happy and here are some quick photos of it because buffet breakfasts are important and need to be documented.

Also very important. I saw this crazy statue man who honestly looked like he was made of stone but when you put money in his bowl would do crazy moves like a ... I dunno, stone would move if it could move. He was pretty awesome. Like he would do crazy soldier swings and clack his shoes which were super clacky. I found him a little scary but I gave him money and got a photo of him like the dutiful tourist that I am.

Oh and cause it was quite cold in Germany, we went to a bakery and got some Hot Chocolates which was quite quite tasty!!!!!! 

OH dear, this christmas blog turned into Gent Part 2. I think I'll start a new post about Christmas now to make this all a little less confusing. MY BAAAD.


EDIT:
The hotel we stayed at was awesome but weird. They had heaps of paintings of feet everywhere. It was a little bit creepy LOL

COLOGNE GERMANY XMAS MARKETS

Guess what my jealous people, I have been to Germany!!!!!!!! GERMANY!!!!! Yeah, we just casually drove there on the 23rd Dec to go check out these small-time Christmas Markets, you know? It was about a 2 and a half hour drive. And ok, the markets were AH-MAZING!

It was hard to get photos again cause christmas lights don't always translate right on camera. Someone tell me how if you know! But I did take a few videos for you guys to enjoy! And I put them together roughly... it's just to give you a taste of the feel. We went to two different xmas markets. The first is the really super crazy one with all these lights and it's very festive but more commerical and the second one if a little more dark, and quiet, and halloweeny with purple lit trees and a nice vibe! It is common to drink hot gluwein - mulled wine - which you get in mugs you need to buy but then you can return and get the money you paid for them back. You can see that in the video - we ended up keeping the mugs we got from the second markets cause they were less crazy. The first ones if you see in the video were rather too colourful... the other market's mugs had like kissing dwarves. A much better improvement!

Cologne if you know anything about it is super famous for their giant cathedral called the DOM CATHEDRAL,. And man it looked pretty nuts and menacing with the christmas lights. Look it up but here are a few photos around the place for you.

I Am Sterdam! Exploring continued

Meerrrry Christmas Everyone!!! I understand that it is boxing day down under, but here - the Europeans apparently celebrate Christmas twice. Today, the 26th, is "Second Christmas Day" so - if you had a really crappy christmas and want to redo your day yester - come on over here and relive the joy and merriment once again!!!! So how was everyone's christmas'? I heard it ended up being quite sunny down in Australia. I'm sure you are wondering what my white christmas was like? Ah. That is to come. I have missed a few days on my blog and thus would like to go through my last few days in a more linear fashion in order to not confuse myself and of course, most graciously, others. I am ever the polite and thoughtful individual am I not?

So going back again to Anne Frank Day, which I believe to be the second day of me being in Amsterdam. I did some epic exploring on my own - looking around the city, attempting to find the Anne Frank House and basically familiarising myself overall with the place. It's such a well layed out and unified city, all the architecture is so stylised in that classic look and all the canals just really frame the place so well! The city is divided into like a kazillion canals which parallel and criss cross each other and so everything is just basically built around them with bridges going over them - GREAT PHOTO OPP. I'm sure everyone who goes to Amsterdam gets a photo like this.

There's me and my sister while she looks super stylish wearing a fur stole!

Anyway, It's hard for even a photo to do it justice really. And you've probably noticed already, there are a lot of bikes. Everyone rides bikes here and cars drive pretty stupid. People also drive on the right side of the road which is trippy and the road markings are all incredibly confusing. Zebra crossings have traffic lights and even when they say go, cars still go. But mainly, you need to look out for bikes cause roads are predominantly made up of bikes, trams and then cars swerving in between them all.

As I was heading off, it was a very chilly day. I made it my goal to find myself a pair of gloves and some earmuffs - having rather sensitive ears. The cold wind makes me get a ear-ache that is super annoying. It took me forever to find the shops however and when I finally did, I was buggered and wet cause it had started raining. Still, I got myself some kinda cool black "100% leather" gloves. Not sure if they are, but they are like a soft suede leather or something - faded leather suede-y stuff. If anyone can imagine that? All the earmuffs were too fluffy for my standards so I left it there.

After coming home to recooperate and find a map of the Anne Frank House, I was back out again. From the Anne Frank House, I made it my goal to find this place called the Bulldog Hostel which was a place I needed to try and reserve for my trip around Europe later on in July. It's a pretty awesome hostel/hotel - which its roots in marijuana and has a very quirky culture to it.

It turned out that this particular hostel also happened to be smack bang next to the Red Light District haha and on the other side of the town, so I walked past canal after canal, counting them as I had on google maps before I left, and finally - as it started to get dark - FOUND IT! (it gets dark at like 4 here)

I was super hungry so I got some dutch chips, which apparently is super touristy. They asked if I wanted sauce, I couldn't understand any of the sauces except cheese sauce. So I got that. And honestly, it was so much cheese and it was so gross.It looks like only a bit in here... but gosh. I ate a few and felt so sick! Full orange cheese like in America it was. And yeah, but hey! It's what you do in Amsterdam. I'm going to try a different sauce next time....

All of Amsterdam is covered in lights around this time. It's hard to get a decent photo but like all the streets have lights hung along them and so do the buildings. Like massively. It's all very festive and fun to walk under. Here's some terrible photos of that.

At night, I checked out more of the red light district with Angela, but only VERY BRIEFLY on our way to the china town area to have some dinner. I think I saw enough :P I should be going back again to give myself a proper experience later on though apparently. We also had a few cocktails. This is a grasshopper - which tastes like a "8 0'clock mint.. chocolate and mint"

Oh you might not be able to see them, but I saw my first SWANS ... in the red light district!!!!!!!

Still to come, my trip to Cologne Germany to see the Christmas Markets and Christmas Day!

Anne Frank House

Just got back from a crazy big day of exploring Amsterdam on my own and getting lost in this crazy place which is all river canals and little cobbled streets - like literally row after row after row with intersecting more rows and more rows. It's pretty awesome! It started rather wet-ly - it was raining and I didn't have an umbrella and I could not find for the life of me how to get back to Angela's apartment to get another one.

Once I finally did get back, I hopped on Skype for a bit then was back out again - umbrella in hand and my new gloves (as my fingers were really cold) - heading for the Anne Frank House Museum. It was actually really cool and I got to walk through the annexe that Anne Frank describes in the book and read things from it. For once! A museum which I actually know things about! It was so interesting! And Sad. But a good experience all in all.

Also I found this BEER BOOT STEIN - dylan, helen and bill know about this!

 Anywho! I'm super pooped from walking the entire city all day. So that's all. Just a quick update. But I bought two postcards from the Anne Frank House (WITH STAMPS!!! although the stamps seem to be just normal ones) and will post them to the first two people to comment on this blog :)

Farewells and Flying into Amsterdam

Alrighty, so hey I"m in Amsterdam and things are going pretty well I reckon! I'm sitting in Angela (my sister) and Michel's apartment right now at their kitchen table with a crazy cat who keeps swiping me stalking the place and trying to scare the crap outa me. And I'll tell you what - it's working!

I've been instructed by Angela not to touch him, not to look at him and to ignore him but it is a little bit hard when he jumps on the table that I'm sitting on, walks up to me, and literally lifts up his paw and slaps me in the face! No joke. He did that. And when I go to the bathroom, he stands in front of the toilet door and won't let me out, when I try, he swipes at my legs! So yeah, basically, we are pretty good friends now - that just about sums that up.

Pretty funny that this is my first proper blog about being in Europe and the first thing I do is talk about cats. I guess I really am a cat person. Well, I definitely know I'm not a dog person haha. And the thing is, this cat, Pofertje (not heaps sure on the spelling) is just like a dog, a super protective of his house dog, except with cat claws. Good combination? I think so! Ok ok, I'll stop TALKING ABOUT THE CAT. I'm sooo-rrry! You want to know about my trip and how I got to be in house beautiful little town you might have heard of called, "Amsterdam."

Well, the flight itself was long and relatively uneventful as far as a plane trip can get. There wasn't any hijackers on the plane or anyone smoking bongs in the toilet. I was even fortunate enough to not have to sit next to anyone annoying or fat! And that is always a bonus right?

It started I guess at the airport and saying bye to everyone. I'd been pretty good until then, well mostly, because I was trying my best not to think about leaving but I guess it was pretty hard when I finally came to realise that it was definitely happening and nothing was actually going to stop me from getting on that plane and leaving. I was showered with more love than I could have expected by my friends and family which made it even harder to go. It's funny how nice people treat you when you are about to leave the country isnt it? haha

<3

My friends were especially amazing and had put together like a big box of letters for me to take which were to opened at various steps in my trip e.g. Anything from "When you get to Europe" to "The First Time You Use A Swedish Toilet (Use When Toileting). OOoooh There is a giant clock like Big Ben, or not like Big Ben, near Angela's house that is going off right now. It is 9:30am. I wonder how often it goes off. MMmm, so anyway, as far as getting advice from my friends (something I often need in some situations), I am now pretty much covered. I wouldn't have otherwise known how you use a toilet, you know? On top of that, they also got together to take some photos and gave me a portable frame, a dvd they made (mystery dvd I will watch once I am in Sweden) and magnets of photos of themselves. I also got given lots of things I could use on my trip individually from friends like first aid kits, scarves,a leather bracelet that I didn't steal from the neck of an alcohol bottle in the store, sleeping masks and of course, worry dolls! They are TOO CUTE! So thanks everyone who has supported me and helped me, and made me feel so very special as I am embarking on this amazing and long-awaited trip. I love you guys and really appreciate everything you guys do for me!

Oh and here's one of the letters I read on the plane about emergency exits (helen)

Right, so the plane trip. I was on Emirates.They are a pretty good airline I have heard and they have awesome on board entertainment. The costumes that the flight attendants had to wear were pretty cool! Aw, I don't think I got a photo of it actually. It was like a flat circle hat thing with like a shawl coming out on the side. Very glamourous and elegant I think. And oh gosh, I'm telling all of this completely out of order, aren't I? Um, where was I before? Oh right, I was saying bye to everyone at the airport. And that was pretty sad. I had my polaroid camera which my friends got me which I took a few photos as well as a million on my digital camera. There were tears and hugs and I can tell you it was pretty hard to walk through that damn departures door. But off I went, and went to get myself security checked.

Now, I know I'm pretty dodgy so I shouldn't have been surprised that I was the one after seeing about 15 people go through not frisked who got picked to be security checked. Have you ever been felt up by an angry woman? I have (proud face!) They made me turn out my pockets and I explained why I had like a big stash of tissues in there. She also went through my bag a little and waved her stick thing around me. I looked pretty bemused. It was all a little silly. And then I went through to the Duty Free area and I was like HECK YES, I can go get some money back, claiming back on Duty Free for my laptop. My beautiful laptop which is an ASUS btw. PRODUCT PLACEMENT. Only to realise, crap! I ended up last minute deciding to pack my laptop in with my check in luggage cause I could only have 7kg of carry on and my laptop weighs 3 and now I don't have it with me and therefore cannot get my $150. LAME. So very lame. Maybe I can get it on my way back. Wait, no I can't. Damn. Oh well, there goes $150 Smackeroos.

So on the plane, after finally finding my seat, I sat in the wrong seat at first and then was duly booted out of it by the rightful owner of that seat. Man, plane seats are confusing and the crew weren't really helping me find my seat! I found I was sitting next to a couple, a red head guy and an asian lady who didn't talk much. And also, didn't go to the toilet much. I was in the aisle so that suited me. The asian lady only went like ONCE! The whole trip! The guy didn't at all. I went like 3 times cause I was making use of the free beverages thing...teehee teehee. But they got off at Bangkok so it wasn't THAT long to there. That's right, we stopped at Bangkok. Weren't you meant to stop at Dubai, you say? Why yes, we did that too. Two stop offs with people getting off and on on both! Talk about really milking a flight Emirates. Getting a lot of value out of the one trip. People had actually even been on the plane before I got on in Sydney, it had already been in New Zealand Christchurch. Maybe this is a normal thing that planes do that. I guess it is. But it was the first I'd ever known about it.

My, this blog is getting long. I should probably move on if I'm ever going to get out of here and get out of the house and actually see a little of Amsterdam. The plane food was pretty alright. For dinner I had a roast chicken with potatos, gravy and vegies and a nice sorta rice salad thing.

Sorry the picture is so dark. It was dark on the plane and I can't be bothered to whip up my awesome photo shop skills right at the moment. The screens we had to entertain us had a lot of features. I could watch movies, tv shows, apparently could text and call people from the plane but it didn't work,  I watched Crazy, Stupid, Love which was only ok. And I watched a bit of Up and then I think I had a bit of a nap. Oh, the screens also let you see your progress and all this other information like seeing downwards and forwards camera views from the plane and stuff.

Oh and this was the crazy bangkok cleaning crew who just marched on the plane when it landed and people leaving for Bangkok got off. They cleaned the plane as if it was new and couldn't speak English. I tried.

This is the Maccas in Dubai Airport

This is some pots in Dubai Airport

You probably can't read that but it says FINAL BOARDING and I nearly missed my plane from Dubai thanks for it being so sucky and long and silly and me not being able to find a computer anywhere to send a message to

And this is a very unhappy me back on the plane after hating Dubai Airport but also happy cause I got a 3 seater all to myself FINALLY!

Some views from the plane: AMAZING

travelling over Middle Eastern countries and first sight of snow!

EVEN MORE SNOW

JD AND COKE ON THE PLANE? Yes Please!

First views of Holland after getting through the super thick cloud cover

Me looking tired after landing in Amsterdam

Angela outside her apartment in Amsterdam!

And that's all for now. It's not 10am and I wanna go for a wander around the city and potentially go visit the Anne Frank House cause it's just around the corner from my sister's apartment.

Thanks for reading! 

Hope you guys are well in Aus!

IM IN AMSTERDAM

Hi Everyone!

I finally made it to Amsterdam. The plane trip was interesting-ish but mainly it was long. But hey! I'm on the other side of the world now! I've got lots to tell you guys about and photos and stuff to come. But I'll save that for later.

Just letting you know - I'M HERE!!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D yay!

Just a quick update with 13 days to go!

Wowwweee!!!! There is less than 2 weeeks until I'm off! I am kinda going off my nut trying to get everything that needs to get done done! Argh!

That's why I haven't written in here in a while. I did add a clock though! It shows what time it is in Sweden haha so you won't need to memorise time conversions.

So the last few weeks have been fairly action-packed. I've been working a lot, and any spare moment outside of it, beginning to find all the loose ends of the ropes I need to eventually begin to start to tie up. I really should be starting to tie all my loose ends now though! So am madly scrambling to find all them ropes! Dammit though, they keep on evading me!

In other news, my spanking new laptop is now here and boy, is it lovely! I am using it right now. I admit, after four years on a Macbook Pro, I am not used to using it and having never used Windows 7, I am pretty confused. I am getting there. But I have no doubt that making the transition from my crappy mac to a b-e-a-uuutiful PC will be well worth the hassle. Yes, that's right - I love PC.

My real estate issues are still yet to be sorted out but I am still intending to basically move out at the end of next week. My visa is half sorted and if you are wondering, no I have not received my acceptance letter in the mail yet! Lol. I give up with it. I've managed to get a digital copy anyway so whatever. OH and I have also booked my flight to Sweden. I will be over there from Amsterdam on the 6th January! I plan to stay in a hostel in Uppsala for a week in a 6 bed dorm mixed with people I don't know. It should be an interesting experience haha - I'm sure you will hear a lot about it.

That's all for now.
Cheers for reading haha and when I'm off I'm sure it will be much less whinging and more bragging - .... oh who am I kidding, I'm all about the whinging!

Currently listening to: Kill The Director by The Wombats