Hypothermia: slowed down by the Berlin chill

Well well well it seems that due to the unprecedented cold of this town called Berlin that i have been slowed down enough to write another blog! it helps having passed the point where people expect you to write one if they express their frustration but i actually wanted to write one, and since it takes so much effort, it may be my last! But it has been incredible, and i am still undergoing the emotional catharsis that comes from dancing on the ground where the wall once stood, severing the city no more as from 1989, the year of my birth. Its difficult to express the depth of my appreciation for freedom that i feel now.

Last time i contacted you, dear reader, was the first days in which we stayed in bordeaux. our hotel was pretty dingy and we had to shower with a hand held apparatus in what was surely an old wheat silo. but its 'manly' (a necessary euphemism) stench became the scent of home and comfort especially for tim and i who had to share a queen. suffice it to say i slept on the floor the last couple of nights we were there. no further explanation is necessary. its best to move on. stop thinking about the dynamics and keep reading. Just do it.

We have become so symbiotic over our trip that there is little we havent shared over the course of our trip, including deep and meaningfuls, our toothpaste, mulah, and sometimes mayonaise. Its clear how much guy love there is over here. Its hard not to be reflective as we edge, no, stride, towards the inevitable but strangely welcome conclusion to our epic land faring saga. I think we're all very learned after an abundance of (often free) tours and general travel. i certainly feel like im beginning to forge for myself a life and existence that i want for myself, and im going to make sure that act doesnt end when i step off the last plane home.

Bordeaux. what a beautiful city! its been so long now that the photos up to Pari round two have had to be dumped onto my ipod! which, of course, means a ridiculously long and overly verbose entry ahead. so for the fair reader who has better use of their (virtual) existance then by all means, let my rant deter you and continue to delve through your facebook notifications but for those that want to enjoy what is going to be the next (potentially and likely) two hours of my life in type then come with. Its been unforgettable.

So bordeaux is where its at. retrospectively. We survived more often then not off baguettes filled (literally) with fresh supermarket meat and the finest slice cheese which i have come to love and are one of the few meal options that thinking of doesnt make me sick, unlike:

greasy chips heaped with mayonnaise
endless meat saturated kebabi
month old mcdonalds meals
italian, mainly pizza

this is probably due to our (true to our bachelor instincts and abilities) lace of creativity. but we have survived, and the only one who has been a little sick is nick, and a lot of sleep later he is fine and dandy, lumbering around with the difficult task of coordinating his limbs.

I cant remember verbatim any time where there is no photos, so bordeaux is a little patchy. We went to the tallest sand dune in europe one day, and as you will no doubt see later (and again and again) we performed the ultimate bonding act of running, leaping, tumbling down this collossal natural monument in nought but our jocks. no regrets whatsoever. That day we walked around the misty grey of the bordeax coast, along piers logged by light rain and through whitewashed streets with our heads buried in our scarfs and hands stuffed into our pockets. we have been incredibly fortunate with a lot of our travel organisation as you would be undoubtedly aware so the buses were practically waiting for us at the dune de pilat. Many bordeaux nights were characterised by (multiple) two euro bottles of red and cheering through the streets since its legal to bear alchohol in public. the joys of europe, sure to be exploited.

One day tim and i left to st emilion, which i have posted photos for in my last entry. This was a train trip away and a beautiful stone crafted township cradled by sprawline winefields guarded by chateaus as far as my eye could make out. The place was overlooked by a church bell tower, likely to have been there for centuries at least. We were shown around a private establishment by the son of the owner who looked like lumiere's spitting image in flesh, with the greatest debonair smile i have encountered, the one that exudes distinction but tacitly. he showed us the wine making process from the ground up, to the pressing rooms and his family's cellar, where french had hidden during the revolution in the end of the eighteenth century. I would love to develop my fledgling wine tasting abilities given the time and financing, but ill probably have to leave it for later.

During our stay in Bordeaux we paid for about 1% of the tram rides we caught, which was always stressful for me but has become a norm of public transport until this day. I can also remember going out one night which tim has mentioned to some clubs in bordeaux, followed by the most impromptu and therefore the most enjoyable night in Bordeaux, where we struck a conversation with an australian loving student who invited us (generously) to his friends house to keep the night alive. It was the turning point for me. I could never again claim that the french hold unreservedly, complete disdain for us lowly english speaking travellers. and since that night every french person i have met (who is not working for the rail service, and is not delphine; ill explain later) have been heartwarmingly generous and have made my stay over here so much more memorable.

Through our trademark lack of organisation tim and i (how could i have expected any less?) ended up with no accomodation and no way of getting to Lyon, our next desination, on our last day in bordeaux. My frustration was barely containable, but i was completely shattered by the selflessness of nicks house parents, who housed (and fed!) us for the night, which is no small feat. I slept with gratitude for a stranger i had never met and will never forget, and it was a good sleep.

We left in formation the following morning for Lyon, which was to be an enjoyable stop off. I just remembered too that this was the 8 hour train trip that we had perpared no food for. we were so weak when we got off that we couldnt resist a massive binge on french pastry at the station, which i would prefer not to repeat. Again, a bed had to be shared during the two nights, and tim got his desire fulfilled when he got to share BOTH nights. Few have experienced such joy in their entire life. We walked around, scouring the second hand bookstores, wandering through christmas markets poised for the climactic days ahead, straddling canals and being complete cheapskates about it. Its still a bitter memory I have of being denied a ferris wheel ride by the other two. so cheap.

So lyon marked the end of our taste for complete reunion. Our ineptitude for organisation was counterbalanced perfectly by the comforting prescence of the main train station, which we hopped right onto on our way to strasbourg, where we were to part again. Tim left, all by himself, for stutty and nick and i headed for Dusseldorf, laughing from his German uncle Eckharts lightspeed phone answering skills.

At this point, i pulled my socks up. I knew that i was facing the immensely difficult task of cleaning up my act for the sake of my (indescribably) generous benefactors that had agreed to my staying with them over christmas, a rare time of year i could have ruined for them completely. travelling with two other boys seems to be a means to exponentially accentuate the rowdiest traits one has.

Eckhart and Diana (whom i love very much as if they were even my own family) took the liberty of picking us up from the station. Trick's wild cousin patrick and his even wilder sibling 'topher' were to be arriving the next day. Not a second was spared by the winterhoffs in making my stay one of my favourite parts of my trip and definately one of my favourite christmas times.

As the family came together from all over the world the board games crept out of their hiding places and entered the fray. These days were very joyous and hilarious times, characterised by games and frequent meals (the best ive had here. period), and not the least of all immersion in english media, from films to certain television series. In fact, a very addictive series. It was here, in the big d (as local editors like to call it, as tims travel book informs me), that i discovered gossip girl. the most blissfully self aware piece of trashy banality ever to be smeared across the screen today, but it has become my love. I have embraced the inner Mattie-O and Petie-B. I managed to pool together my (formidable) reserves of laziness and not write the blog i had promised myself i would in D, but enjoyed all the more every second i spent with my accepting surrogate family. I was either embraced as one of their own or the hapless protagonist of such an elaborate deception that made me feel embraced that i am indebted no matter which way you look at it.

Christmas came. the joyous, familial end to 2008 that was rolling ever closer. I had anticipated to be spending the day marinating in my self pity, being so divorced from my family with whom i have not had enough contact by far that my favourite plan was to spend the day rewatching a film that was due to be released. But, not only was it to be released much later in europe, but I was swept right into the fold of the winterhoff festivities before i could blink. What still makes me very emotional even as i write this is their sheer generosity. Nick had told me earlier that his mother, judy, or la mere as she goes by in this blog universe (dont let her pseudonym fool you!) had bought me a present. Me. A lowly freeloader leeching off whoever i could in europe, no to mention my habits for doing so back in wollongong. thought of even in a time as hectic as christmas. Then, the winterhoffs, who had housed me (I can never thank them enough, i have not the necessary abilities of self expression. which might be a good thing), had not filled, but FILLED a bag with all sorts of german liquer, chocolate, lollies, notebooks, matchbox cars just for me. little old me. with such profound happiness that only some have the privelidge to experience. Then, as i was about to recede into the shadows and experience the remainder of present opening in a sabotaged vicariousness, diana tells me thats not all. its not all? i wonder, taken aback. is she serious? patrick hands me his gift, a copy of flemmings 'live and let die'. even patrick, who was living off a student budget and whose christmas i had crashed had thought enough of me to get me a present. It was breathtaking. Then Diana handed me a crad, from nicks aunty valniere, whom i have never met, which had in it 25 euros. Enough said.

The next day i broke my streak and awoke early to go for an explore and a bit of a jog. I clambered through the undergrowth backing onto their home and wound around a partially frozen creek until i doubled back in time for nick to wake up. Eckhart was fully clothed and, as a testament to his character, he was looking too relieved to see me and had assumed that i broke my leg and was unconscious, undoubtedly struck down by the cold as i was scantily clad in my tee shirt and no socks. but the brazen australian spirit proved its worth and i rode upon a wave of well earned endorphins for the whole morning.

That day we went for a family walk (all family events came to include me) around the golf grounds and through the forestry. I broke off from the rest and meandered through the woods until i stumbled upon some bunkers left over from the second world war. At this moment i remembered how history was made on this continent and how close and fresh the memories were. It was very quieting. I became a bit more wary when the thought crossed my mind that (unlikely as it was) there could be landmines left there, so i treaded very very carefully back home.

Home! it keeps moving over here! I laughed so much those few days with topher and patrick, some really bad tasting jokes being the most staying. Diana and i struck a particular chord and i talked with her a lot! everyone who was trying to read at the time got frustrated with our constant discussion and relocated themselves much mroe than once. And i can say that even I, the english nerd who hasnt read a book out of school for years, have burned through a couple of books whilst over here! Including twilight, the first instalment. With Stephanie meyer's and gossip girl's combined effortst the inner teen girl has been stirred to life, hopefully to last.

The saga of my credit card ended there, with activation being very straightforward. I rang home to my familia to wish them all as merry a christmas as i have had and washed all my clothes. On the way to the cathedral in Colgne I also purchased some fresh new socks! my feet feel cleaner but my shoes, sadly, will never recover. they've seen far too much action and they are stained by memories and the abuse they've suffered. I posted my 5k stack of sin city books that i had bought along the way, making my bag a whole lot lighter.

So nick and I left the dorf early in the morning, having had a wonderful christmas, laughing over the last image i had of eckhart, or rather his arm, as he tossed into the train our bad of food for the trip. We are hopelessly forgetful, and I know this will make all mothers smile in knowing affection for our innocent shortsightedness. by the way, nothing's changed.

So nick and I arrived in Pari, christmas behind us, new years ahead, ready for round two. Pari for its first time in my experience would have been lacking if it weren't for the amazing set list of destinations simply because of the persistant rain that tended to flatten the mood. But lo and behold, followers, that we brought the good weather of Deustchland with us and had either sun or snow the whole time. It makes a big difference.

This blog is ridiculously long already, and i haven't even caught up to 2009! insane times.
Ok i just realised that at this point i have photos documenting my travels. Please read the next blog after, otherwise you'll ruin the chronology. talk soon.