HURRAH! Here I am ready to write another entry.

It has been a crazy few weeks. Homework is starting to really pile up as the semester comes to a close. It's hard to believe I have only got about a month here now. I've written up a list of everything I want to see and do in Berlin before I go, and have crossed off a few as well.

I took myself off to see Charlotte's Web (Schweinchen Wilbur und seine Freunden(I know, the title sucks in german)) about a week ago. It was really good. I can recommend you all go to see it. I'm pretty certain noone else in the cinema had ever read the book, cos even the adults were gasping with surprise.

Last Thursday was a maniac type of day. I had a physio appointment in the morning (I'm paying for my health insurance and am therefore also using it), which was followed by a lovely lunch of leftover pumpkin and spinach risotto thanks to my playing host to Dana the night before. I then headed out to a little place near Wannsee funnily enough called Haus am Wannsee (I'm not translating that, you can understand what that means without me).

This was the villa where all of Hitler's nearest and dearest sat down to brunch, cocktails and planning the elimination of the jewish race. Of course Hitler himself could not possibly be there himself... It was a really good little museum, way too much information to read at once. I skipped a fair it of it. Unfortunately they were setting up for some kind of press meeting or something of the like in the room where the conference actually took place, so i couldn't get a good look there.

Here is a lovely view over the Wannsee itself near the villa. As you can see it was a miserable day. I had intended to head to the Gruenewald train station, which is imfamous for being the station from which the Berliner jews were shipped out to the various concentraton camps, but due to the weather and the unexpected length on my visit to Haus am Wannsee I decided to head straight into town for my next adventure of the day.

I had to write an article on the reopening of the Bodemuseum (big museum, full of sculptures) for my media class, and as entry is free after 6pm on Thursdays I decided to visit then. I did intend to visit the museum anyway, the assignment added to my impetus. SO I trudged up to the centre of town and then walked from Hackescher Markt to the Museuminsel (museum island, literally, that's all that's there) in the bucketing rain and gusting wind. Thankgoodness for my trusty raincoat, plastic pants would have been a good idea as my pants were dripping when I arrived. I had a really good look aroud as part of a tour group. Unfortunately they decided to close early so that the staff could get home before the storm really hit, so we got kicked out earlier than I would have liked. Still really awesome. In case you haven't heard, a hurricane hit europe killing 34 people including 10 in Germany. This Thursday is when it hit...

On the weekend I went swimming, and locked myself out of my apartment in the meantime. I left my keys inside, and my door doesn't have a knob you can turn on the outside. Luckily for me I have cool neighbours, with tools. They simply unscrewed the face plate from my door knob and opened it that way. It's kinda scary how easily someone can break in, but there's always lots of people about in my house, so I'm not worried.

Otherwise I've just been bumming about and doing homework. Philadelphia was on TV last night, Lionel you would have loved that one. What do you call 1000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?.. A good start!

Anywho, I need to do some work...

Hi all. I don't have any pics to upload, but I thought I'd let you all know I haven't died or anything, though I felt like it last week. I've been crook and therefore haven't been out and about much, but am all better now and plan to make up for it in the next week or so.

Well here it is, I'm back and ready to tell you all about my adventures, which i'm sure will make one Ryan Mason very happy.

I spent Christmas with my friends in Freiburg. The same people I stayed with during my exchange in year 12. It was soooo cool to see them once again. We had lots of fun discovering that 2003 to 2006 is 4 years.

Here are Anne and Joerg in the bell tower of the Freiburger Munster (cathedral). My god was that a long way up! My legs were killing me. It was a very narrow old worn staircase too, I didn't exactly feel very secure going up there, but it had an awesome view.

Here I am ice skating in the neighbouring city of Emmendingen. We (Anne and I) felt so unco with all of these kids doing spins and ticks all around us. That is until three men came onto the ice who simply tried to walk on the ice, rather than skate. That was so hilarious and made me feel much better about my ice skating skill or lack thereof.

Anne, Myself and Joerg atop the Kandel mountain. Barbara loves this mountain, she is always going on about it. Unfortunately fog in the valley meant that we could barely see it from home, but it was beautiful and sunny up here. I'm pretty certain this was on Christmas eve. The valley was filled with fog, it felt kinda weird looking down into all of that soup. There was also a falconer up there giving his birds a stretch, which was pretty cool to see.

Me (blinking) beside the Luchtenborg family christmas tree. Those are real candles. I helped to decorate this tree, and the tree of Anne's Grandparents who live in the house behind them. There was such a big mound of presents under that tree it was hard to walk in next to it for this photo. I got some chocolate from Anne's Grandparents, books from her parents, and a book and some tea from Anne and her sister Britta. Everyone loved their presents, especially Joerg who had wanted a VB tshirt since visiting Australia in 2004.

The ruins of some 2000 year old Roman Baths we visited in Badeweiler on Christmas day after lunch. Amazingly well preserved, although they had sat under mud and rock for the large part of that time. the roof is there to protect the ruins, not the visitors. It was still freezing cold and amazingly humid. There is a big day spa situated right next door which makes use of the same springs the romans used.

Here I am in Basel, Switzerland. I went on a day trip ther with Anne, Joerg, Britta and Britta's boyfriend Gerald. Being Switzerland this city was untouched by the bombing of WW2. When the sign above the door says it was built in the 1300's, the house was built in the 1300's. A very beautiful medievil city. Francs suck. Everything is sooo much more expensive in Switzerland. There was an awesome Kandinsky exhibit on though, which was fantastic to see. We also went rock climbing during my stay, went to the movies to see Little Miss Sunshine (in german of course) and met up with some of Anne's classmates from highschool, including some I knew. We went to a youth church service at the catholic church on Christmas Eve (even though Anne is protestant). They sang some english language popsongs as part of the service, I'm certain they had no idea what they were actually singing. An alright service I guess, but I would have much preferred a traditional service over this attempt at being cool.

I left the Luchtenborgs on the Thursday after Christmas, exactly one week after my arrival in Freiburg. I discovered I hadn't taken any photos of Britta or their parents during my stay. I had a very interesting train ride back with 5 stoned swiss germans, whose german was absolutely impossible to understand. Nice blokes, but i would have preferred a little more sleep.

Lionel arrived on the following Saturday, shame his lugage didn't arrive til Monday. We went into townto get him a few essentials, went ice skating, visited the wall at Potsdamer Platz etc. Nothing particularly exciting as everything was shut on the Sunday and Monday. New Years Eve was spent with Dana, Paul, a guy called Lars, the Scissor Sisters and about a million strangers at the Brandenburger Tor. In case you saw any footage, the chick in the white coat next to the guy in the black beanie is me... I let Lionel take the NY photos with his fancy new camera, cos it takes much better night shots, so I'll skip straight ahead to Paris.

The Arc de Triomph. Our first destination after dropping off our bags at our Parisian hotel. It is truly awe inspiring. I'm just so glad I didn't have to drive on those roads. Apparently you are not covered by your car insurance company whilst on the roundabout around the Arc, it's that crazy. There are no lane markers...

Lionel (who has promised to get a haircut) in front of the Champs Elysees street sign, we walked the entire length of that road down to the obelisk at Concorde square, where we got onto this thing:

One lovely large ferris wheel. The little cabins were open air, so you could quite easliy jump out if you so desired. As always I was somewhat nervous for about the first half way up, but then was fine. There was an italian family in our cabin with us. They spoke a tiny bit of english, no french and no german. I could remember enough italian to comment on its being very cold, but otherwise nothing. Seriously, when am i ever going to need to say that a little butterfly is flying past... We spent the most part of the evening just wandering around Paris, through the gardens, past big fancy looking buildings with french flags sticking out the top of them, along the Seine. Once again, Lionel's camera is better at night shots.

In the morning we headed to the Louvre, to discover disgustingly long queues, we decided to come back another time. The queue you can see in this picture keeps on going out of shot, and continues inside the glass pyramid for about the same distance. Rediculous. We elected instead to go via the Pont Neuf,..

And the Palais de Justice (Lionel was very excited to see the french high courts, but once again rediculous queues quashed that desire),

On our way to the Notre Dame cathedral.

There were no stupid queues here, just beggers. We went inside for a look around. It is a very large, grandious church. You can understand how people are moved by such surroundings. Shame the church doesn't give some of it's money to the beggers out the front...

We then headed, via a crepe, up to the top of Montmartre to see the Sacre Coer church. Relatively young in cathedral terms, this beauty was finished around the beginning of the 20th century. It is a truly devine location, with views all across Paris. Of course all Baz Luhrman fans out there will know of one other famous landmark in Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge.

It was a little disapointing really, I expected more sparkle or something. There was certainly a lot of sparkle in the surrounding streets. We had to walk through the red light district to get there Lionel made me promise not to take any photos which might be used as evidence to say he had been there. We just walked through very quickly, though some of the shops were very in your face and couldn't be totally avoided.

That night we went up to the top of this grand old lady. We stood in the queue this time, even though it meant waiting almost 2 hours. The sun was still up when we started waiting. Such a beautiful view over Paris at night was to be enjoyed by all. Photos didn' work, so you'll all just have to visit it yourselves.

The next morning we headed out bright and early to the Palais du Versailles. Amazingly we didn't have to wait too long to get in, and did a lovely tour of the old palace. A large portion of the Hall of Mirrors was being renovated and was therefore covered up, but you still got the main effect. There are so many sculptures and fine paintings adorning it's halls. It would truly have been a grand residence in its day.

Just as remarkable were the gardens out the back. Entry to the gardens is free. Lionel and I have resolved to return to these gardens during the summer some time. We are sure it would be even better then.

That afternoon we headed back to the Musee du Louvre. We didn't bother taking photos again this time around, and just went inside. (Entry is free on Fridays after 6pm for anyone thinking of going). Unfortunately we weren't in Paris for a Friday night, and therefore had to pay. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and Psyche and Amore anoungst others. We even went down into the basement to see the middle ages foundations of the original Louvre buildings.

The next day consisted of packing up and checking out. Lionel accidently took our room key with him, and now has to send t back. I saw Lionel off at the train station and negotiated my way to the airport all by myself. French bureaucracy is so frustrating. It's no wonder they can't win a war, they're like the Vogons from the Hitchhikers Guide. Hilarious from the outside, but you don't want to have to deal with them.
Anywho, I'm now back in Berlin. Classes start again this evening, but I'm a bit crook so I'll wait to see what the doctor says about my attending tonights class. I think this entry is well and truly long enough now.

In case I didn't say it to you before, I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Years.

Love to you all.