Dresden to Berlin

OK so I think I left you all (both of you ;) arriving in Dresden and meeting my friend Anna. Anna is another cat walker from Bolivia's Inti Wara Yassi (http://www.intiwarayassi.org/articles/volunteer_animal_refuge/home.html) and I was to be staying with her and her flat mate in Neustadt Dresden, an up and coming area with lots of students and some great graffiti! Living with Anna was fun, she had a really nice apartment and some fun friends downstairs. We cooked most nights, watched movies and drank wine till late. Life was a chilled :)

On the weekend we went with a friend Gregor to the Sächsische Schweiz, a hilly climbing area and national park. Autumn had just arrived and the colours were nothing short of breath taking!

We walked around all day, had a picnic on the edge of a cliff and took many photos of the utter beauty that surrounded us!

We were all quite exhausted on the train hope, although there was some entertainment in the way of a cute baby playing in his pram. He had the whole carriage captivated for the whole journey while he laughed and played with his toys...Broody....me....nah!......

Dresden is a great town. Pretty much everyone cycles and Anna managed to get me a friedns spare bike to get around on, I really miss cycling! The next night Anna and I cycled to a house party. House parties are a bit different to that in London. If you're a stranger everyone will come up to you and introduce themselves, so polite! Of course I forgot every new name almost immediately but it was such a nice sentiment.

After a week in Dresden it was time to venture to Berlin. Anna's mum lives in Potsdam a city 15 miles southwest of Berlin. In Germany car sharing is very popular and almost the only way students can move around the country affordably. We met Manuel in a McDonalds car park. He drove a four door green Nissan yogurt (or something like that, it was quite forgettable) Obviously I wasn't expecting something exotic or rare, but the child inside still hopes ;)

Manuel managed to ignore all of these signs

Pretty much the best road sign that exists ever! He kept to around 120kph the whole way. I know it doesn't matter, but in my head our car share would be some maniac with a BMW M5 estate and blast us to Berlin in around four minutes. What was important was that the Nissan and Manuel got us to Berlin in around €10, which was nice :D Oh and we passed what seemed like a million wind farms on the way to Berlin. Germany gets 9% of it's power from these things, that's quite a bit!

Anyhoo, Feeling tired now and I've got to grab a shower so it's goodbye for now and I'll update again soon. Till then it's a goodnight from Barcelona xx

Switzerland to Dresden

After saying my goodbyes I hopped onto my the first of three trains that would take me from St Gallen to Dresden. Soon after arriving in Munich I noticed the first of what seemed like an endless train of new German cars, mainly Audis, must have been around 400 of them! It was quite a sight.

The next train I got would split up half way through the journey, and by that I don't mean that the very carriages would tear open and we would all be smashed on the rails underneath us. No, I mean that the first carriage would go to dresden and the rest of the train (that I was happily sitting in) would go to one of the other German towns that exist in Germany. As you may have noticed I didn't know this until a non English speaking train conductor told me. I understood though and at the next station I went to the front carriage....It was rammed! So I sat on the floor in a door stairwell opposite a young couple who were eating a massive bar of bright pink chocolate! What after effects that bar would have I can only imagine!

At the next station the polizei came on to the train, routine checks I'm sure....I put on my most German of faces (whatever that might look like is anyones guess) But to the polizei must have shouted ID check me please I've most likely got at least four Eastern European children in my bags for the highest bidder. And I turn into a gibbering tit almost immediately! Not only does my basic German manage to escape my noggin, but somehow I'd left the door open for just long enough for my English to escape also. All I managed was some sort of exhaling with a slight girly murmur...(note to self, I'd make a terrible spy) The woman polizei notices my...ahem...slight internal panic, I produce my passport and she says to me in English not to worry, it's just a routine check. Anyway they made radio call to quantify the level of patheticness in front of them and after some confirmation carried on down the carriage with a smile, I'm sure they even wished me 'Good luck' O remember that scene from The Great Escape, 'Good luck', 'Thank you'..Gilp, don't slip up now..Oh wait I'm not a spy, nothing to worry about....'Danke' I replied (just in case) They didn't even give a moments notice to the utter crazy at sat two seats away from me, not worth the hassle I guess...I swear he was chewing on a dolls head at one point though!

The train jerked wildly into yet another station, this one was called 'Hof' which made me smile and then my learn Spanish kicked in randomly on my iPod, that made me smile even more. Two hours to go and I might as well try to take in some Spanish. I swear the lady on the recording is half Spanish half cat! She is rolling her R's like I've only heard a feline purrrrrrrrrr.

Passing some beautiful little villages that time had quite clearly forgotten about. So beautiful it almost made me forget about the bumpy train journey. To best describe I would say the train felt like it was being driven by a teenager late for his first kiss!

And eventually I arrived in Dresden to be met by my friend Anna...Tbc

Leaving England for 8 months. First stop, Switzerland.

Well well, that was 14 festivals done and dusted and the best summer of festivals ever to date! Wow and that's saying something!

So I had a week to sort everything out and of course have some leaving drinks! Lately it seems I only see certain friends at my leaving drinks, but if it means I get to see them then I will kepp having them :D

Leaving drinks were two days before I left the country (just enough time for a hangover to disappear!) And what a party we had! And thank you all so much if you came, you all made it very special for me :)

Next up was three weeks with my wonderful grandma in Switzerland. Autumn was just beginning over here and the world was a beautiful place! Three weeks came and went in a flash!

Great friends
Yummy cheese fondue
Beautiful long walks
Chocolates
Finally losing my fear of the dentist
Lots of cake
Too much Swiss cheese
My wonderful grandma
Trips to Bern and Winterthur
Swiss techno nights
Amazing new guided meditation
Swiss musicals and the best hot chocolate ever!
It`s hard to say goodbye.......Switzerland iche liebe dich! I will miss you so very much xx (Look out Dresden here I come!)

In Hebrew we have a word, Nehneti. It kind of means that I enjoyed something but with my heart. It seems apt as I leave Switzerland.