Hanging out

(This is Nele and I in Dresden at the end of October)

Sitting in Nele’s room. We are now listening to the book of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on Nele’s CD player in German. Nele is lighting her fire, she is so meticulous. It’s good to watch. I am so disorganised and random when I light my fire, but Nele is so ordered. She scrunches up her newspaper, rips her card board, lays out her kindling; then organises her wood from smallest to largest in neat little piles on her floor. I should add, before she begins she cleans out her oven perfectly, all the ashes out of the oven and from around the door, and sweeps up any ash on her floor before she lays out her piles of cardboard and wood. I wish I was that careful. I watched Jenny chop an onion the other night, it was perfect. Every piece was the exact same size, or close to it; fascinating. I would like to say that am going to make a concerted effort to be more careful in other areas in my life, but I probably won’t. 

I have only just applied to graduate. (Qualified Youth Worker now). But I haven't done my tax yet. No excuse, other than laziness.

Now that the fire is lit, we are not quite up to the part of the book where he blows up Uncle Vernon’s sister. She has now swept up all new dirt and ash.

When we were in Edinburgh, about 4 and a half months ago, we went to the café where J.K Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, maybe the first few books. The café overlooks an old graveyard. She had enough money to buy a cup of coffee a day. The café staff would let her sit there all day, with one cup. If you walk around the graveyard, you can see some of the names of the characters in the books.

There is a graveyard next to the castle here. Nele and I are going to break in and have a look this afternoon. Before it gets dark here; which is soon. This whole area changes when night falls. I am not fond of night time here. It is far too dark. Dusk is the worst I think, the sun goes down around 5pm, however recently, most days the mist has drifted in about an hour, an hour and a half earlier.

Walking from the castle down to the kitchen at dusk is my least favourite activity. The batteries in my torch are failing. I have more, somewhere I think. The torch really is just for the steps. There is a light next to the steps, on the side of the small building. However we only have it lit when there are groups here. This makes absolutely no sense to me. When the groups are here, they don’t use those steps, unless they are sleeping in the castle. But why are they more important than us? The steps get really slippery too.

In the past week I have fallen up the stairs three times and down once. My knees tell a story in blue, purple and red marks. I was running to the treffpunkt the other night, to join Nele in ‘making sport’ and it was pitch black, the first door I tried to open was locked, and I ran to the next one, and didn’t see the step, and fell really hard. About a week before that I was carrying my wood and coal up the steps, and tripped on my slippers and hit my face into the step. Great one. That was a really shit day, not coz I’d cut my lip, but I started to cry- boo hoo. Nele brought me a tub of ice cream, wrapped in a tea towel- I didn’t realise it was a tub of ice cream and found it a few days later, melted- grose!

I have just spent the weekend in Warsaw. Next weekend Nele and I are heading up to a town called Stralsund, I think it is near or on the Baltic Sea- that’s going to bring a new meaning to the word cold. We are going to visit her Grandma, who said she would make some cake for us, YUM! And go Christmas shopping. It will be a bit of an event heading up there, there are no shops at all in Broellin, and nothing overly exciting in Pasewalk. I have bought a few presents already, but that’s a secret. But what I am really looking forward to, and laugh if you will is seeing the new Twilight film at the cinema. It will be in German, but that’s ok, if I miss anything I can always watch it again.

Warsaw has been amazing. I would like to go to Africa with James in January. Tangier in Morocco is not far from Gibraltar in Spain. There is a ferry service that runs on a Friday night and returns on a Sunday night.

Welcome to Warsaw.

I have almost finished the first diary of my travels, and have now bought another. I came across a small market, it was a sanctuary, wonderful to find as it provided a little more warmth than the streets. One of the stalls at the back of the tent on the side of the road housed warm woollen jumpers, gloves, arm warmers, and diaries. The lady told me the diaries were hand made in Istanbul, wow I thought, they are beautiful, I spent at least 5 minutes maybe 10 sifting through the diaries, which one should I buy? The right diary is important to me, if it is boring, I wont write in it, it has to be special. I chose a diary, and moved on to the arm warmers, these I was told were hand made in Nepal; now I know the diaries being handmade in Istanbul is bullshit, but I had my heart set on one anyway, and bought it. I did not however, buy a pair of arm warmers. I should have, not for they were anything special, they were rather dull and usual looking, but, as I will mention a few more times below, it was bitterly cold.

Extract from my [new] diary. 26.11.11

“I am so terribly scared to write in here, for fear of making a mistake, or scrawling my hand writing into an illegible mess. Never the less, it is always more important to write something messy down, than nothing at all. To get another coffee and sit here longer? Or to get up and fight the bitter cold of the lonely streets outside? It is only mid-afternoon but the light will fall soon, and the cold streets of Warsaw will be plunged into darkness once more. Compromise one more coffee, then some more exploring…. There seems to be an entire generation of people missing from the streets. I am just having a little trouble working out which one. There are so many people my age, from 20-30 I mean, and a lot of older people [not old people], in the 50-70 age bracket. Barely any young children, school age, and their parents are missing also. Everyone is beautifully dressed, but not really sporting colour. It is orange with black, or pale blue/ grey with black. And more brown then you can poke a stick at. Every time someone opens the door I get a terrible chill, all the war from my seat to my scarf, unpleasant to say the least. I am quite possibly the only red haired person in Poland, and unfortunately hats and beanies the like do not suit my face. I wonder if the gorgeous Zara have something that will fend the bitter cold? I have formed a love-hate relationship with couples holding hands. It is such a beautiful sight to see; love,  friendship, and hopefully happiness – this world needs more love, more friendship and certainly more happiness. But I am envious- not jealous. I do not know these people, but envious of their closeness, their companionship. Something I have been missing in these past months. I met a girl last night, at the hostel, we started with the usual “how long have you been travelling for?” I said “almost 6 months” she said “just on 5 months.” It turns out we left Australia on the same day. I wonder why I added 2 weeks, and she took 2 weeks off… off to Zara to find a hat.

After a few hours of being unfortunately lost in the ever darkening streets of Warsaw, I have found refuge in a warm quiet restaurant a few doors down, and across the street from my bed. Do things always remind me of my family and dearest friends? Or only when I am a million miles away?

Dusk is my least favourite time of the day. It hasn’t always been. I had no issue with it back home. Back at the castle however… when the mist rolls in it is dreadful. Some days I watch as the mist rolls up the driveway, slow and thick to engulf us whole. When the sun goes beyond the horizon, and the darkness follows in the steps of the mist and through the castle, it is like a scene out of a Stephen King book. Not that I am brave enough to read any of his books. It is a scene that even the best directors in hhollywood wish they could create. Dusk today was no better. I left the wonderful little café; which will be impossible to find again- as I was lost when I found it. I walked in the opposite direction to which I had come, a recipe for disaster in itself. I left my map on the table. As I walked away from anything I recognised, I found a square, a market square, with stalls selling cheese and hot wine, scarfs and beanies and more arm warmers. The square; surrounded by houses; tall buildings, apartment blocks, beautiful. Across from me was a very sad looking Christmas tree. The tree was probably three people tall, and missing some much needed limbs. The sun went down ever so slowly, that before I knew it, it was almost pitch black. I had my iPod on, very softly – as I still wanted to hear the sounds on the street. A man approached me suddenly, asking for money, he first asked in Polish and I apologised, quickly and quietly just said “English” and proceeded to walk, he didn’t look desperate but he said, “Polish gold, money.” That was when I realised the unexpected gloom of the street I was on. Why does a great neon sign advertising AXA feel like home? It wasn’t yet complete darkness, it was only 3, or 3;30pm. The flashing sign I say indicating it was 7 degrees was definitely lying. I hurried along to a major road. I found a Starbucks. I was surprisingly a long way from the beauty of the Old Town, and the security of Nowy street, where I am housed. Yet, it was very clean, but still terribly cold. I couldn’t escape the cold. Starbucks now symbolised safety, help with a map- where am I, warmth and another coffee- and certainly no longer the consumerism it had symbolised when I found the cute traditional café only 2 hours earlier. I finally located myself on the map. I was walking in the right direction, and I was still on the hunt for a hat. As I walked on, road works and feelings of helplessness were setting in. my terrible sense of direction and the cold, the concrete and the darkness were beginning to terrify me. Who would miss me? Who would see me go? It would be 48 hours before anyone realised my disappearance. And then what? How would they find me? Warsaw is a big place. I have no phone, and no one at the castle has contact details for a next of kin for me. Then,  the comforting face of consumerism once again.

I wish someone had taken my photo here today. The loneliness of solo travel seldom hits, especially when living in dorms, but I would own many more self-portraits; in front of “this church” or “that statue.” I will be heading back to the hostel soon, when I finish my tea. No hat was bought today, maybe tomorrow? Hats look silly on me anyway. The 116 bus just flew down the road, that’s the ‘Chom-something’ bus. Feels like home. Makes me miss James. I look forward to someone saying that name to me again. Exhaustion is setting in. I don’t know how much more of this I can take”

Spiros

I think you can turn every conversation into a book, or as inspiration. There’s a guy here who only sits on the wooden military chairs, never on the cushy wool fabric ones. And it’s pretty cold in the kitchen. He was telling us why he likes the wooden ones. He started talking about his life in Greece at school and growing up. About all the kids going on strike and sleeping in the school and setting fire to furniture to keep warm, and then trying to avoid the principle, because he would get into trouble. It made me realise I have no idea if people are lying or telling the truth, but with stories like that it doesn’t matter, no one is getting hurt.

How interesting people’s lives really are. You meet someone and they might smile or not, you might like them or not but really you have no idea what is going on in their life. If they drink every night to get to through the next day, if they read the newspaper every morning, if they like their wife or husband, all you see is what they let you see.

We take life for granted. Well I have been. I spent a month on the quickest whirlwind tour of Europe. (More about that later). I was so scared about running out of money, not seeing everything, getting back to Ireland, getting a job, seeing my friends in Germany. That I didn’t just slow down and take in the scenery.

No snow today, 5 more days of hope: 15th November 2011

So I pretty much lost the bet. The 5 girls made a bet about when the first snowflakes would fall. We made the bet about 2 weeks ago, and it was cold, so I guessed 2 weeks- the 15^th of November. Well, I thought it was cold then, it is cold now too. Surprise-surprise, but no snow fell today. It has to fall before Sunday for me to still win. But I doubt it will. Ulrike is next, with the 24^th as her bet. As we have Gretchen here from America, we are all going to celebrate Thanks-giving together on the 24th. It will be a first for most of us, it will be fun, I’m looking forward to saying thanks. I have been so lucky on this trip, in the past 5 months, and it’s nice to be surrounded by this new family for Thanks-giving. Following Ulrike is Gretchen, with a bet of the 25^th of November, they both think it will fall on Thanks-giving, apparently snow is common in America on this day. Nele bet the 29^th of November, and Jenny bet the 1^st of December. I hope I win, I am the one with the least experience of snow, and the prize is bragging rights.

Today is the 24th of November- Thanks-giving. We still havent seen snow. I learnt today that snow is frozen rain. Had I thought about it, I would have worked that out, but I maintain I have never thought about it. It's constantly getting colder - what comes after snow? It's currently warmer in the fridge than it is outside. - please appreciate the sunshine in Australia this summer, I am missing it!!

How to get eggs from the neighbours

Nele describes some of the time in the first few weeks that I was here as fremd. Fremd meaning foreign. By this we mean that we barely knew each other, and spent a fair amount of time together. I feel like we got along straight away. But of course we are closer now than then. About 2 weeks in we rode our bikes to the closest shops in Pasewalk. The route we took was almost 10km each way. We rode over cobble stones, a dirt road, through a small town, and into Pasewalk. It took more than 3 hours I think, there and back, and the time we spent in the shops. When we left Broellin it wasn’t warm, but it wasn’t raining either, it didn’t even look like it would rain. Nele has her bike here, from her home. I had to find a bike in the cellar. The first bike we dragged out wasn’t right, the seat was far too high, and I was sure I would fall off, it took me a few tries to get up on it to ride, so we put it back. The second bike, the pedal fell off, before we managed to get it out of the cellar. The third bike, the seat was too low, but I wasn’t worried about falling off, it was pretty difficult to ride. I hadn’t ridden a bike in at least 5 years, maybe since the last time I was in Germany. Wait, that isn’t true, the first few months I lived out of home, with Erin and Kelly, I rode mums bike to the train station in the mornings, to get to work.

When we arrived in Pasewalk, we went to Kaufland. We decided we wanted to bake a cake, and get some chocolate and wine for the weekend. Nele had introduced me to red wine the week before. And now it is possible I like it more than white wine. Maybe not in summer though. We bought cooking chocolate, and peanut butter, tinned peaches and other snacks. We bought a cake tin, and I bought tracksuit pants, I only really have summer clothes with me. As we came out of the centre, we saw the sky, it was absolutely pissing down. That’s not the right expression; it was raining cats and dogs. For starters, we only had one backpack, I was going to put the shopping bags over the handle bars. But we had bought too much, that the bags probably have torn, and got far too wet. Then only Nele had a rain jacket. It took about 15 minutes to find a backpack that wasn’t 15 euros and 2 ponchos. We packed everything, including the 5 bottles of wine and champagne in the bags, put them on, then put the blue ponchos over the top. I don’t think I have laughed so much in my whole life. It was just so silly. My legs felt like jelly, and we looked like The Hunchback from Notre Dame. As we started riding back, the rain eased. Every time I pushed down on the pedal it would click, and make us both laugh. About 10 minutes into the return ride, one of the reflectors on my bike fell off, the stupidity of it made us laugh more.

We got back to the castle, I was wrecked. The following day, when we went to make the cake, we realised all the eggs had been used. We could wait, and maybe Nele could pick some up the next day after work. Instead we decided to meet the neighbours. There are about 20 houses, maybe less, maybe more in Broellin. Nele thought maybe one of them had chickens, and therefore, maybe eggs they could give or lend us. We went to the house with the supposed chickens, but they were not home, or maybe we saw the older lady first, before we got to the chicken house. Anyway she didn’t have any eggs, and neither did her neighbour. It was about 6pm, and getting dark. As we were walking back to the castle we saw a lady walking around in her house. We stood on the foot path, deciding whether we should walk down the drive way, or press the button next to her letter box. I was too nervous to just walk to her front door, as we were contemplating; she opened her door and asked if she could help us. Nele asked for some eggs, and we saw her go to her fridge and pull out a carton. We needed 6 eggs, and she gave us 6. Without even asking how many we needed. The cake was amazing. I made dinner as Nele made the cake. The whole cake was eaten by breakfast the next day.

Pyromaniac

Ok, so there is physics of fire, I am an expert now. Didn’t I tell you?

Building a fire: a guide for Dummies (ie me). You need some newspaper, some wood, some cardboard, more cardboard than newspaper, more wood and some coal. The idea is to have the system set up from the beginning. A tee pee some like to call it. I like to call it the triangle of love to heaven. On the bottom, you place the scrunched up newspaper, then on top some of the cardboard, then some more newspaper. First things first, you light the bottom layer of newspaper, which should ignite the cardboard, on top of the second layer of newspaper you now place some very thin, easy to burn wood, most people call this kindling, I like to call it Ignatius. From there, the fire should burn steadily, and not go out. If you are lucky it won’t go out. As Ignatius burns, you slowly, one by one add the wood, no more than 2 to make sure it stays alight and keeps burning. Now, a trick of the trade, time to add the coal, just one or 2 pieces, this lights easily and burns for a long time at very hot temperatures. You are now safe to add more wood, bigger pieces to the fire to let it burn for longer, remember to continue adding coal to ensure the fire stays alight long after the wood burns out. Before bedtime it is a good idea to put no more than 2-3 lumps of coal into your fire to ensure warmth for the night. Any more than this, and you will cook in your bed, literally cook, like a fried chicken.

Sadly however, the warmth from the red wine is making me warmer than the fire. What am I doing wrong? Considering its 10pm, and I have just got the fire system going, I think I am going to cook like a fried chicken tonight. I hope my room is warm when I get up, it is supposed to rain tomorrow. Miserable! And I won’t want to get out of bed in the morning.

Part Three - 12.11.11

The last time I wrote I was in Budapest with mum just over 2 months ago. I had applied to a cruise ship holiday company for a job, but other than that, I was rather low on money and not sure where to head next. I never heard back from the cruise ship place, which is good I guess, I still think it would be quite a fun job, but obviously not for me at that time, and had I got it, I wouldn’t be here now. After Budapest I travelled about 10 hours on the train to Innsbruck in Austria, I had organised a job interview at a hotel on the Alps. About a day after I arrived in Innsbruck, I travelled 5 hours return, on an old train, then on a squashy bus up high into the mountains for the interview. That was easily the longest I had travelled for an interview (15hours). The area was spectacular. There was already snow on the top of the mountains. It was a beautiful place. Unfortunately though, as the whole interview was in German, and mine is not good enough, I didn’t get the job. I knew pretty much straight away I wouldn’t get it; the interview only lasted 20 minutes. I got the same bus down the hill that I had gotten up it.

Heading back into Innsbruck, that afternoon, I realised I had to pull myself together and sort out the next step. I didn’t have enough money to wait for a week to hear from the job, I figured if they wanted to give it to me I could come back, so I arranged to stay in Innsbruck 2 more nights and head north to my friends in Bavaria on Sunday. When I was in Portugal, a girl at the hostel we were staying told me about a website called workaway.info. It’s a worldwide work exchange site. The idea is, people offer accommodation and sometimes food in exchange for a few hours of work a day. Depending on the place, the work variers as does what they offer.

The day after the interview, I jumped on the site and registered myself for the year. It was 20 pounds, which isn’t bad. You can look at what people and places have on offer but if you want to contact them, you have to be registered. I went through all the photos I had taken in the previous 3 months and found the least party, least drunken photo and displayed it. I wrote my short description, who I am, what I am doing, what I want out of the work away ie language practice etc. and I contacted about 10 or 15 places. It was a Saturday evening, and I was so excited and full of anticipation to get answers back from the places. The next day, I checked out of the hostel, I still hadn’t heard back from my friends in Nuremberg about staying with them, they said I was always welcome, but both were in the process of starting new semester of uni and moving house, my timing was shit so I had to check into a hostel. I began to get a little worried, but by Monday morning I had a response from one of the places, they said I was welcome to arrive later in the week if I wished. They were located about 2 hours north west of Berlin, half way between Berlin and Hamburg.

I had heard about a program called mitfahrgeliegenheit which is basically organised hitch hiking. I met a young guy in the dorm room who was from Stuttgart, he helped me organise the trip up to Berlin for 25 euros. The train from Nuremberg to Berlin would have cost me about 90 euros. The idea is you meet the driver at a main train station at a certain time, and they drop you at another station at the destination. It is fairly safe. If you turn up and the driver is a creep, you simply don’t get in the car. Easy as that. I had no troubles. And it saved me an arm and a leg.

It was a great week to head up to Berlin as I had 3 friends from Melbourne there at the same time. Wednesday night we all went out for dinner which was nice. Then Thursday I headed to my first workaway spot. I was basically just bloody grateful to have somewhere to go. I know had I stayed in Nuremberg a few extra days I would have been able to stay with my friends, but I didn’t want to put any pressure on them and I was concerned about money.

I jumped on the train with all my stuff and arrived at the small town about 4 hours later. The family were incredibly nice. They had 2 workawayers there when I arrived. One was sort of dating the oldest daughter, and the other had been there 3 weeks and sick of the past 2 and a half weeks. I thought it was very cheeky of him to be using them like that, and by the Sunday they asked him to do some work or leave. So he left. The one who appeared to be dating Meike left the day after I arrived, he was gone for a month and planned to return around the end of October. I stayed there for 2 weeks. (15^th Sept- 29^th Sept). I did some gardening, some cooking, I cleaned up horse poo every day, and painted a fence. They fed me, and I got a room to myself with a private bathroom. I felt like I was intruding for most of the time I was there though. They were lovely, but I spent quite a bit of time alone.

Just before I arrived at their house, about a day before I heard from another workaway place, also in northern Germany (Schloss Bröllin). I replied and told them I had already accepted a place, and could I maybe come a bit later. They said of course. After about a week with family I contacted Schloss Bröllin again and asked if I could come soon. They were very accommodating and picked me up from the closest train station in Pasewalk. I arrived on the 29^th of September.

I am still here. 6 weeks later. My first impressions of the place were to be quite honest; terrifying, lonely, where the hell am I, I don’t know if I can last the 10 week commitment I have given to them. Basically is it worth it, this is so isolating! It is an old farm estate, apparently about 800 years old, can't remember where I read that. It has been restored and has now been made into an international youth performing art facility for about 20 years. I am one of about 5-10 people who live here all the time- depending on the day of the week, and there are more people who just work here and live elsewhere. I work for about 5-6 hours a day in exchange for my own bedroom, with a wood fire oven, generous amounts of food, a shared bathroom and as much nature that you can poke a stick at.

Last night it was about minus 5, and the frost stayed on the ground for most of the day today, well the whole day where it was in the shade. (It looks like snow). I can now successfully light a fire, and keep it lit for hours using wood and coal. I dry my clothes in my bedroom, we have no dryer and it is too cold outside, so all my clothes have a permanent undertone of smoke. It isn’t a bad smell though. The washing machine costs 1euro per load and is in the cellar. All the wood is piled up in the cellar too, and the 5 tonnes of coal that was delivered last week as well. That was fun to move.

Nele and I went exploring in the cellar a few days ago, imagine the movie Saw, that’s what the rooms are like down there. We saw a wall covered in mosquito lave and ran screaming out. She is 18, from Frankfurt, and lives here permanently too. She works full time at the library in Pasewalk as part of the European Voluntary Service. Pasewalk is 7km away and has all the shops, including the closest piece of chocolate- I guess that is a good thing. Bröllin has no shops, and only about 30 houses, a bus that comes like 3 times a day and a mail box.

She, Nele, found a mouse in the pantry the other day; the pantry is pretty big, as we host groups of anywhere from 2-80. She ran out jumping up and down, I was putting wood in the fire in the dining area, I thought she cut her self, making dinner or something, we all take turns to cook which I love. Anyway she was almost crying and I couldn’t work out what she was saying. She told me she had gone in to get a new sponge, and put her hand in the box and felt something soft, so she grabbed it and it moved and squeaked. I started laughing, there was no way I was getting it out, so we decided to go get someone, at that moment Eddie walked in, Eddie is my age and is from a local town, he is living here and doing some work for about a month, until Monday I think. Anyway, he started laughing at us, and together we decided to grab one of the cats, we locked Eddie in the pantry with the cat, the white cat wouldn’t do it and kept escaping. So we grabbed one of the black cats, and after 3 or 4 attempts the mouse was successfully removed.

There are 3 cats that live here. They are needy and greedy and will jump on your lap when you’re eating and steal your food, they are not allowed inside though. I think I will have a life time of bad luck as I fall over and get caught in the way of the black cats all the time, especially at night. It is so dark here at night, I use the torch Bron and Adrian got me to get from the main house to the kitchen. It is possible to see all the stars in the sky almost every night. More than in the country side in Australia. Maybe not. But there are thousands, maybe millions; I could stair up at them all night.

We have bonfires here occasionally too. Less than a week after I arrived, there was a group of about 30 young people here doing a theatre workshop. A group of us that live here, and some of the youngens were sitting around the fire. Someone put an old door on it, and it had burnt a bit but not completely through. One of the young girls, probably about 15, stood on the edge and bounced her foot up and down on the side of the door, then walked around to the other side and bounced it up and down, obviously she deemed it stable, because she walked back to the first side, took a quick run up and walked across it. I had no idea what she was doing until she had done it. Excuse my French, but what a fucking idiot. No one said anything. I was amazed. She could have been seriously injured. Maybe I am just too uptight.

Since I have been here the work has been pretty easy. They sort of expect me to find work for myself to do. I cook a lot, as I mentioned. I love turning the music up loud and spending hours in the kitchen, I haven't done that too often though.  I have spent a bit of time in the office with Ulrike. She is 28 and spent 8 months driving around Australia with her boyfriend at the time, about 2 years ago. She is on her placement for her masters course on Cultural History. We keep each other company, and distract each other most of the time. We share you tube clips and music. Currently I am re-ordering old newspaper articles into the correct dates, trimming the edges and sticking them on to fresh paper. It should have taken me about 2 days but I am dragging it out. It is pretty mind numbing, but the office is warm, and it is better than shovelling coal. The articles are from 1992-1995. Ulrike organises the groups that come through and bookings for the future. They also hold festivals and weddings here in the summer. I don’t think there are any more groups coming through before I leave. The group of us who live here get along quite well. There is the odd disagreement, and frustration, but we all enjoy cooking and eating together. It has become a little family and I know I am going to really miss them when I leave.

About 2 weeks ago Ulrike, Nele and I drove down to Dresden for 3 days. It was the first time I had been away from the castle since I had arrived. Schloss translated is castle – this is Schloss Bröllin. It was great to get away. Ulrike is from Dresden and she spent the weekend with her friends and family. Nele and I spent the first night with Ulrike’s family, then the second 2 at a hostel in the city centre. Dresden is about 4 hours south of Bröllin. When we arrived at the hostel the lady who checked us in told us that there was a guy in our room who smelt, and offered us a private room. It was about 10 euros more for the 2 nights, and looking back on it she was probably lying to make a bigger sale, but the room was cosy and we could spread our stuff everywhere like most girls do.

We went shopping and sightseeing on the Saturday, and Saturday night went to what seemed like a rather alternative party in a factory. It wasn’t until later that we realised it was Halloween themed, and that is why everyone had glowing face paint and crazy masks on. We had lots of fun anyway, dancing and what not. We didn’t get back to the hostel until about 6am Sunday morning and the sun was slowly coming up. That evening, we went to the movies and walked around Dresden at night. It is a beautiful city. I would have loved to see it early 1900s before it was bombed. On the Monday we did some more sightseeing, climbed up to the top of the FrauenKirche. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and we could see quite far. I like Dresden a lot, but I don’t think I could live there.

I am about 40km south of Poland here, I am actually living in what was formerly part of Eastern Germany. I would love to visit Poland for a weekend. The closest Polish city is Stettin. Maybe I will go there soon.

I leave in a month. I have been here 6 weeks and I am sad at the thought of leaving in 4. It took me a little while to settle in, the buildings are old and pretty creepy, the people are lovely but I think it is the same settling in anywhere. But now I am completely settled, I am enjoying my time here. I will really miss everyone. But I will be leaving. After here I am headed south to Bayreuth and Nuremberg where my friends live, girls from when I was on exchange. We are planning to go to the Christmas markets when I am there too, which will be amazing, snow on the cobble stone streets and Christmas decorations everywhere. I also hope to also get in touch with Aunty Bettina’s cousin who lives about 2 hours from Nuremberg. I hope to see her too when I go down.

I will be with my friends for about a week, and then I head to Spain on the 19th of December. I have a few days alone in Madrid before mum and James arrive. I am really looking forward to seeing them. We are planning to be in Seville for Christmas day and Lisbon, Portugal for New Years. Mum heads back to Australia from Madrid and from there James and I head north east to Barcelona. We have a week from seeing mum off, to getting on the plane in Barcelona to head to Rome.

I don’t know how long we will spend in Rome or Italy. I would love to go to Venice, Florence and Pompeii too. I have been looking into more workaway opportunities in Italy, Turkey and Eastern Europe. There are all kinds of volunteer positions available. Au pair, childcare, some charity work, gardening, fruit picking, summer camps, hostel work, tourist work, building projects; you name it, they have it, and all types of accommodation too, in a castle like here (this isn’t a real castle) in tents, share accommodation, dorms and one place offered a mattress on the living room floor.

My checks are all rosey now from the fire in my room. I don’t have a thermostat but I am guessing it would be around 19 or 20 degrees in here. It couldn’t be much warmer than that as I am wearing a jumper, scarf, slippers and I am in bed with the doona on. I am never going to take central heating for granted again. I prefer the type of heat that a fire creates, it isn’t stuffy in here, it’s pleasant. But I also appreciate the process; collecting the wood and coal from the basement every day, and lighting the fire.

I don’t know what more there is to tell, 4 pages and that’s the update.

I hope everyone is well and safe and happy. I would love to hear about what is going on for you, in Australia, America and the UK.

Congratulations to Alex for finishing year 12 so well. I hope you get into the course you want, or you could just come over and travel with us J??

Lots and lots of love J xxx

Part Two - 04.09.2011

Hey all - Update 2 took a bit longer than i expected
12 countries in 3 months.. this is just a little bit of whats been going on :)
Sorry i havent emailed in a while. I have been sending some post cards though.. i am having a wonderful time. sad to say its time to get a job though.. I just applied for a job on a cruise ship. well with a cruise ship company (Viking) you might have heard of them. they seem to be world wide company- but they travel along the Rhine (which is BEAUTIFUL) and the Danube- havent seen much of the danube yet, but I'm thinking of traveling by boat to vienna up the danube (from budapest). (depending on job situation of course). If cruise idea doesnt take off in the next few days i'll head to vienna, try to get  job there as my german is pretty good at the moment. its great to see mum, we are in Budapest together at the moment.
I LOVED Portugal, 10 days of relaxing, going to the beach and partying. the language sounded alot like Polish maybe not very spanish at all. (which is what i expected).
Switzerland was amazing also, the clear rivers, and huge mountains- SO SO SO expensive though- would have loved to stay longer. Loved Toulouse and Nice in France. was great to see friends from back home.
Loved the time i spent in the UK, meeting family for the first time was fantastic, so easy- such lovely people!!
Germany was great of course. seeing the girls i went to school with on exchange (7 years ago) was fabulous.. like no time had passed.
It has been an amazing 3 months. (graduating uni soon too which is just great). I am the happiest i have ever been- so i guess that says something about the wonders of Europe.
I have met some amazing people. from all over the world. So many australians travelling though. like at least 80% in most hostels.
speaking of hostels- great way to travel- but its really hit and miss- some have ben amazing, and some have been disguisting!!
i am aiming to settle in germany when i get sick of traveling(which will be never- but living out of a suitcase - which is now my best freind haha is tiring)/ the urge to have money again takes over.
apparently with a work permit - in germany- (which is free) you get 6 months of free language courses valued at like 4,000 euros. (cant go wrong with that- plus ill be fluent by the end of it) and then i might quite probably study in germany - returning to study this time next year is the goal- somewhere in europe is the idea- germnay would be ideal- but depends on pricing for international students- so it migh tbe in the UK coz ill be a local student there. (international studies/ human rights law) is the goal.. but life seems to be changing and doing back flips quite regularily at the moment so anything could happen.. which is great :)

I hope all is well back home. keep me updated on whats going on, i love hearing the stories!! : )

lots and lots of love xxxxx

Part One - 20.06.2011

hello hello
this is the first of maybe many, maybe few emails i send out about my travels.. i guess the less emails i send the better time i am having.. :) i am in Ireland.. up the top- i am in the north, but currently in the Republic of Ireland. i have spent most of my time so far in Northern Ireland which 'belongs' to the UK.. i have absolutely fallen in love with the country. the people are amazing, the country side is spectacular. the best way i can describe this area to those of you in melbourne- its alot like gippsland and wilsons prom. rolling hills, green EVERYTHING :). i am really enjoying meeting new people and entering the stage where i start to step outside my comfort zone. tomorrow and tuesday I will be attending (and presenting) at a conference here in Buncrana. the conference is both on road safety and mental health and wellbeing. I will be presenting on tuesday about mental health in australia. it is an amzing opportunity for us :) we also get to work with a youth work organisation in the UK. i am going to Manchester to work with Rainbow Haven a refugee advocacy organisation who provide food, shelter, advice to refugees in migrants in manchester and surrounds.
so, i just wanted to check in and say hi.. i am safe and having a blast.
i hope you are all well and happy.. and staying safe
lots of love
carolyn xo