When you live in a foreign country you can always find things to laugh at. So far in Erfurt, the funniest thing i have found was a terrible translation of a chinese restauant menu. Heiße Speisen (meaning hot dishes) was translated into "to be called meals". Awesome. I guess it's more funny if you understand German.




Anyway, any English speaking person who arrives in Erfurt may very well wonder what everyone is so steamed up about. The word "anger" is all over the place.

Nick and I have spent quite a long time laughing about this.

Surfing in the city

After seeing a man in a wetsuit biking through Munich with a surfboard I was naturally curious to know where the fancy dress party was that he was going to. It turns out that you can actually go surfing in Munich, right in the middle of the city.

On a hot Sunday afternoon we went to the Englisher Garten. After enjoy a cold beer in the hot sun under some lovely big oaks, whilst listening to some oom pa pa music, we wandered past some nude sun bathers and found our way to the edge of the Englischer Garten. At the mouth of the stream there is a standing wave that is produced by the water pumping mechanism (according to Wikipedia).

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Surfers attempt to surf on this wave for as long as they can, in spite of the signs stating the unenforced law that surfing is forbidden. Aparently an Australian surfer died there last year. River surfing has aparently been going on in Munich since the 70s.

My new Home

This is where i live in Erfurt!
The building was built in the 1960s and was some sort of Stasi somethingerather.





I live on the 6th floor and have a nice view of the stadium, some ministry buildings, the forest and the school where i work. I can also see the cathedral in the centre of town and i get lovely sunsets.



My fridge is very loud but at least i have one! Other people have to put their food in the shared kitchen fridges where things sometimes gte stolen.
It's rather lonely here at the moment but hopefully when uni starts i will meet some more people. I've been for a few runs in the forest and have been doing quite a bit of baking too.



Autumn is well upon us here and it's beautiful! So many colours! The other night i went to one of the English teacher's houses for Pilze - or field mushrooms, hand picked in the forest by here husband! They were delicious - much stronger tasting than ordinary mushrooms.

Strasbourg

Next stop - Strasbourg. The Capital of Europe.
In Strasbourg I was hosted by a friendly young couple who are currently making their own plans to travel the world.
They took me out to some fun bars where we listened to live music - lots of violins, accordions and clarinets - and drank rose flavoured beer.

The next day we went to "The Park of Two Shores". There you can walk across a bridge to Germany... which i did. And the German garden was a little neater. But the French one had heaps more cool stuff. Like pumpkins growing out of blue glass and giant chairs and a table. There were also fun swings to play on.

Later that day I got a tour or Strasbourg from a friendly Moroccan.


That night he took me to an Irish pub where Ireland were playing Namibia in the world cup. In return for my tour, I was able to explain the rules of rugby.

And then it was Monday, and i had to go to Germany to work.

Marseilles

I left Brittany and headed south for Marseilles, determined to get to the Mediterranean, even though i only had a few days before i had to be in Germany. The train ride was pretty, although delayed so i didn't arrive till well after dark.

My host was a very friendly doctor, originally from Berlin. He recommended some good places to go walking to get out of the city. So, the next day, I set off for the city and discovered it was full of All Blacks supporters! Marseilles has a very Italian feel to it - or perhaps it's just a Mediterranean thing. It felt muchlivelier than the north of France, and of course, it was much much hotter!



The hoards of NZers (and French pretending to be) soon drove me out of town to the Calanques. In less than an hour i was in a tiny fishing village on the edge of beautiful white rocks falling into the blue blue sea.

I walked along the rocks, there were quite a few boats out fishing, and a few other people walking.

I walked until i found my own private beach, where i swam and got stung by a jellyfish!

Then it was time to make my way back to town for a big Hospitality Club meeting.

Marseilles won me over and i will be back in the South of France as soon as i can!

Mont Saint Michel

Mont St. Michel is this amazing abby on the north-west coast of France. The tide was out so i took a walk on the muddy sand to escape the hoards of tourists. Here's some pics and a video too!

Paris

I've been staying with Dominic in Paris for the last 6 days.
It's been a little bit overwhelming after spending the last two and a half weeks in a town of 620 people. So many people, buildings towering over everything and a language that i wish i spoke.
Dominic lives in a beautiful apartment with its own private fountain in the courtyard below. There are patisseries and fruit & vege shops on every corner. Everyone is very well dressed.
Walking around the Luxembourg Gardens on Tuesday it felt like the whole city was on holiday. The parked was packed with people reading, pinicing, playing petanqué, sailing mini boats, eating, wandering, socialising.... and so on.
Dominic is a bit of a night owl so we've been hanging out in some great bars and getting up late.

On Friday i went to Versailles - wow, that is one grandiose place. Despite the hoards of tourists i still managed to find myself alone in corners of the gardens, imagining i was a princess running away from my tapestries.

On Saturday we wandered througha street antique market and afterwards went to La Fayette-a huge department store with rediculous prices and some awesome shoes.

After a night of discussions about French politics and history and of course lots of wine and food i slept extremely well and on Sunday i visited the Pompidou Centre. I liked it much more than the Louvre i think.

Later on Sunday dom and i met up with Helen and Nic and now i am staying with them in Rennes. Helen and Nic are both primary school teachers and today Nic took me to school with him and i sang "heads, shoulders, knees and toes" many times!