sorry for lateness

Merry Xmas to everyone, hope you had a great day and much love from me

My weekend of Awesomeness (take 2)

Well this weekend started at 1pm on friday when school finished.

Friday: After school they had a Xmas jazz performance on so me and daniel watched that for about 40mins then we went home, after packing and getting in the car we drove from Ludwigsburg to Dresden (where Dresden china comes from) and we spent the night there at daniels brothers university flat, it was cool, the whole family went out and we went to a bar for a drink, Vodka Orange.

Saturday: Spent the day going around Dresden seeing its history and sites, Especially the Frauenkirche, a Church that was destroyed in WWII and was only just repaired 5 years ago, it looks amazing, i will post some photos soon. Then we went to the Medieval market which was cool, had traditional german sausage with mustard that burnt my throat and then tried my hand at Archery, not to bad i thought myself. Then we went to the Palace where the king used to live and that was cool, very old barouqe styled buildings. Then to the Kings Church which was even better, full of gold and cool looking stuff.Then we drove to Berlin in the evening, me and daniel and his brother we out to bar that evening, Vodka Sour, Martini.

Sunday: Got up late, then went into Berlin city for the day, saw the Parliment which is way cooler than ours, saw the Bradenburger Tür ( the big gates in Berlin) then we went down the main street of Berlin. Saw pieces of the Berlin Mauer (wall) around the city and went into the berlin Ferrari store haha. Came home and relaxed on the couch for the evening then played Uno which was extremly competitive.

Monday: Went to the Jewish Museum in Berlin, not really a fun experience, felt very somber there. Very interesting though, was very well done and would recommend it to anyone going to berlin, then we went to checkpoint charlie which was cool, lots of pieces of the wall and the original USA checkpoint post. The shop there was pretty expensive though, €7,50 for a tiny piece of the wall the size of my pinky fingernail. So i didnt purchase.After that we went to the main shopping area in Berlin which was huge, so many shops and heaps of high class store, Louiss Vitton, dont care if i spelt that wrong haha. Me and Daniel went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Berlin, Bought the T-shirt haha and drank a beer there,  kristallweisen beir is the best in the world, if you can find it in NZ, drink it. Then last night we played more Uno then Me, Daniel and Konny(daniels brother) went into a bar and had another beer, KristallWeisen again, i cannot stress how good it is.

Tuesday: Tired to go to the Fersehe Turm in Berlin, (TV tower), but it was way to expensive so we didnt, then we went to a shop called the Ampelmann store, basically the Ampel Männchen is the small green and red guy on the traffic lights but it looks way cooler than the one we have in NZ so they made it a novelty and now you can buy stuff, so i got a t-shirt and some rubbers shaped like the people, its rather cute haha, Then we came home, had the best pizza for lunch and then drove home to Ludwigsburg and we got home at like 10pm.

One of the Coolest weekends again, here in my second home of Deutschland (Germany)

Tschüs (bye) for now

Lots of Love 

Hamish

Photos from the weekend of Awesomeness. (dont diss the plastic tyres on lewis's, i still dislike the guy but his car is gorgeous)

My weekend of awesomeness.

Well this weekend has probably been one of the most exciting and enjoyable i have had i awhile. It started on thursday night.

Thursday: watch daniel in choir performance, afterwards go to bar across road, drink beer and dance night away with spanish and latin music.

Friday: Late start at school, 1.55pm then have Nikolaus ball from 8pm-12pm, drinking included with lots of dancing to techno, bass heavy, loud music.

Saturday: get up late, go to Stuttgart at 1.30 and meet up with alistair and oskar(others on the exchange) go to biggest football match of the season which was completly sold out 2 months ago, 70,000 people, finishes in 2 all draw, with a fantastic goal from stuttgart in the 89min, pure amazement, come home, have dinner, go out to pub drink, laugh and have generally a great night, someone drank a lil too much, not me btw.

Sunday:Get up 9am, a bit of a struggle after late night out but bearable. Go to the world famous Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the only museum i might actually appreciate, was made even better that F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton's Brazilian GP race car was parked in foyer, made me very happy. Tour the museum and appreciate the origins and developments of automobiles as we know them. Go to Stuttgart to me with more people on the exchange, have afternoon tea and then we go to the Basketball game between Ludwigsburg and Ulm, all free of charge because Doris has connections with a father of a player.Ludwigsburg win 97-91 in extra time and the crowd goes wild. Now im shattered and cant wait for bed tonight, but dread the 6.30am wake up.

Snow in Ludwigsburg

As you can see from the pictures below it is snowing in Ludwigsburg.For me it is awesome, unfortunately it is not snowing very heavily so we are only getting a light covering.

Life in germany is great, although somewhat hard to understand haha, the language is very complex and it seems to be that I get frustrated haha.

Apart from that its all good here in Germany, me and daniel are off to a bass tuition lesson, i think i will just sit there and listen to them play, i dont wanna hold up the lesson when i cannot understand the teacher, oh well

Bye for now,will write again soon.

with Love Hamish

Its snowing in Ludwigsburg.

Weihnachten Markt, or in English, the Christmas Market.

These christmas markets seem all the rage in Germany at the moment, they are evrywhere, in a small town i went to, they were preparing for one, in Ludwigsburg they have a huge maret already set up, in Markrönnigen, they had the first night of theirs last night, but what are they for?

In the xmas market they have stalls with goods to buy, anything you think of you can buy here, clothes, food, toys, you name it they probably have it. In amongst all of this, they have hot food stalls and Glühwein(heated fruit juice with cinnamon) stalls, so that people can eat hot foods and drink hot drinks as they look through the goods. I havent seen a market in depth yet, just walked through a couple to see what they are about. 

Today was my first day at school, well i got up nice and early for it, 3.30am sounds early enough to get ready right, stupid jet lag, its getting better though. School is much different, they have 6 spells a day but only 3 subjects so this morning we had art for 1.30 hours split into two 45mins spells, then maths and latin, i read my book through both because they were sitting class tests.

Oh btw this bits for Karl, you know how everytime i bring up Germany you say the name Helmut, yeah i met a Helmut in the weekend, nothing like what you thought a Helmut would be like, he had a mansion for a house with a huge model train set hahaha, i guess that stamps on your stereotype haha.

The council house in Markrönnigen behind the Christmas tree from the Xmas Market.

Jetlag, the scum of travelling.

Tonight we went out for dinner at a Friend of Daniels parents and all through the night i was so tired, so when we went upstairs into the study I fell asleep on the table, and in the car on the way to the house and during the day, apart from that jet lag is fine :/

I hate this jetlag thing, although im getting over it more quickly than i first thought i would, i just seem to be tired around 4pm everyday, its quite annoying.

Today we went to the xmas market to check that out and it was full of stalls all cocered in pine branches and xmas lights and music and warm food, it was really cool,xmas in Germany is a much bigger deal than in NZ. Today i woke up and i had a Lindt chocolate santa in my boot, some tradition they have and when we got to the friends house i got another load of sweets with more chocolate. Im starting to like German xmas, lots of sweets and big festivites, oh and by the way, i can drink while im here, i have discovered that Tequilla Sunrises are a very nice drink

with love

Hamish.

Im finally here!!

Hey guys im here in germany with daniel and the flights were amazing, even though we had quite a bit of turbulence coming into Stuttgart and on our way from Auckland to San Francisco.

Ive got some awesome photos from the plane of sun over clouds and beautiful sunrises, it was truely awesome. Tonight, my first night in germany i went to a bar/pub to meet daniels friends. It was really cool although alot of people smoke so the place was filled with the taste of Cigarettes.

Well im off to bed now seeing that it is 12.53am but i will try and update this as often as possible

With Love

Hamish.

Its December the 2nd and its reality folks.

Im not sure how to feel at this stage haha, I mean in 2 days I will be on my way to a country that 12 months ago I thought I might see in about 10 years. But as we all know in 2 days I will be starting a journey to the other side of the world, missing my summer for a northern hemisphere winter. A white Christmas (yay!).
Saying goodbye to all my friends has been the hardest part but im sure that when i get back we can swap awesome stories of what we did over our summers.
So its goodbye for now until i get to Germany and I settle into my house with Daniel and his family
Cya soon
Hamish