Day 16, Ireland, 25 Dec - CHRISTMAS

So, today is generally an exciting day for a lot of people... US INCLUDED!

We woke up and opened presents in front of the Christmas tree with Andrew, Gillian, Sarah and Paul. And Daniel and I were spoilt! Daniel bought me a gorgeous necklace, and I bought him a nice watch, then Andrew and Gillian had bought us socks and chocolates and body washes, and Marty (another of mums cousins) had done the same. I got the fluffiest most amazing pyjamas, chocolate, and slippers, and Daniel got gloves and a beanie and chocolate also.

We spoke to the entire family for half an hour, Aunty Deborah, Aunty Catherine, Granny, Granda, Mum, Colin, Ashlee, Maggie, Denise, Riley, Barbara, Jessica (who was spoken to, rather than speaking to us. She likes listening on the phone! Typical 2 year old).

We went to church, and had Christmas dinner mid-afternoon. Roast Chicken, Beef, Ham, potatoes, soup, peas, corn, carrots... SO DELICIOUS. Everyone eats until they're full to brim (and then tries to eat dessert after that anyway) and we were not the exception. It was a great day, and an early night was much enjoyed. :)

Daniel watched Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Incredibles and Mythbusters with Sarah, then went to bed.

Days 14-15, Ireland, 23-24/12

Sunday 23rd

When we woke up today Emily went to church with Gillian and Sarah, and I slept in a bit then had a conversation with Andrew after I got up. We had a roast lunch and then we went to Castle Ward. This is one of the only places I wanted to go to the WHOLE TRIP, because of one reason, Game Of Thrones was filmed there. Castle Ward was used as the court yard for Winterfell, the seat of House Stark. So I was a bit excited because I am obsessed with Game Of Thrones, so going where some of it was filmed was AMAZING! I must say though, it did look different but just knowing it was filmed there.. I was fangirling a bit. Emily, Andrew and Sarah went to visit Aunt Georgie for a chat, I stayed home and watched the comedy channel. Emily said it was great being in Aunt Georgies house again.

Monday 24th

Not much happened today. We watched Friends most of the day, then Gillian's family came over for dinner. It was nice food. There was curry and rice, lasagna, little sausages and sausage rolls and a pasta bake. We called home as well, that was good! Then after everyone had left we watched a movie called Mr. Stink. "Mr. Stink stank. He also stunk. He was the stinkiest stinker who ever lived." That was the first and last line, good movie actually. 

Days 9-13, Germany-Ireland, 18-22/12

Tuesday

Daniel went to school with Yannick today and I had another day alone. I visited Anna, a friend who lives just around the corner, and as I'm allergic to her cat, we came back to Yannicks and hung out watching youtube videos. The day ended and we went to bed for another night.

Wednesday

We didn't do much this morning, but in the afternoon Daniel, Yannick, Anna and I went shopping in Darmstadt - a few of us needed Christmas presents and Daniel wanted to buy a coat. We ate pretzels for dinner and came back to Yannicks at 9pm ish.

Anna's older sister, who usually lives in Nuremburg, is up for Christmas and came over to meet us. We had a nice chat and tested each other on hard words to say in our languages. They struggled a little with "proposterous", but we had some fun :)

Thursday

Again, another boring morning (for DANIEL! Mwahaha!). I walked to the next town this morning. After a few days of sitting around the house all morning (and sometimes all afternoon as well), eating a lot of cheese, I was starting to feel very unfit so I took myself off to Seeheim. I had a look around, took some photos, apologised to a few people for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and ended up lost and asking a lady for directions, which I'm sure was incorrect German, and I knew she could tell (other than being lost) that I wasn't from around there because she spoke sooooo sloooowlyyy when giving me directions back to Jugenheim.

Jacky finished school early and wanted me to go out Christmas shopping with her, so we went into Darmstadt and I spent another afternoon shopping. It was nice spending time with Jacky. :)

Friday

We spent the morning finishing off washing to get ready to go to Ireland on Saturday. And in the afternoon I went with Dany and Jacky to deliver their Christmas presents and cards to people before they leave for Dany's parents place for Christmas.

Then, Friday evening, we had CHRISTMAS DINNER with Yannick, Jacky and Dany, and Anna joined us as did Yannick's oldest friend Nico.

It was the most amazing evening! We ate Raclette which is just like baked potatoes except that you have a grill in the centre of the table and everyone has their own little fry pan and you put everything you want on your potato in the fry pan and finish it with cheese, then put it under the grill to warm up and melt the cheese and it was heeeeavenly! Then you pour it onto your potato. SO YUMMY! And the table was all set nicely and we lit the candles and it was a beautiful night spent with some very special people.

At one point during dinner, Yannick and Jacky both went upstairs for something and Daniel suggested we hide, so that when they come back we'll all be gone. It worked a charm! We went down into the cellar and it was hard to contain the laughter, but we were down there for a good 5 minutes before they came down and found us. But when Jacky saw the empty table, I'm sure even my sisters in Melbourne could hear her scream! It was soooo funny and I couldn't breathe from the laughter! It was hilarious.

After dinner, we did some gift exchanging. The Christmas Tree Candles were lit and we all sat in the lounge, watching peoples faces as they opened their gift. I think there were two highlights for me - everyone laughing at the gift we got Yannick (that was just golden!), and how much Dany loved the present we got her. We chose very well, I think. :)

After this, Anna, Yannick, Daniel and I walked Nico home and then Daniel and I walked Anna home. All in all, it was a brilliant night, probably the best of the trip so far, and a night I'm not going to forget very soon.

Saturday

Today we fly to Ireland! Nothing exciting to report on... Mad rush packing in the morning. Got to the airport. My bag was almost overweight (already!). We had a coffee together at Starbucks. Had a nice chat to an Irish lady on the plane. Got off the plane and discovered I can receive texts and calls, but can't send any. Got on the bus to Belfast and after 5 hours in transit, and 10 hours without food, we were in Belfast, chatting with Aunt Georgie, Stephanie, Jade, Andrew and Gillian. It's nice being here, and seeing everyone. I'm looking forward to a great 2 weeks with family, in an ENGLISH speaking country, where they drive on the LEFT!

Day 8, Germany, den 17. Dez.

We were home all day today so nothing really to report on. Except that before bed time we took some funny photos of each other before bed! (With Jacky).

Days 5, 6, 7, Germany, 14. 15. 16. Dez.

Friday

The morning was a little boring, we didn't do much. In the evening we went out, the way the Germans do it. Daniel went for a boys night on the town with Yannick and some friends, and a friend of Yannick (Anna) took me out to a club with her best friend Katrin. Daniel taught the boys a game which they turned into a drinking game, and they walked around the city a bit. My night was a little more eventful... We got lost on the way there, so it took us two hours to find the place and we finally got there at midnight (it should have only taken about 40minutes). First we missed the tram so we went to Ali Baba where Anna had a beer while we waited for the next one. Then when we got into the city and had to change trams we got on the wrong one, so we got off and started walking... Only to realise how far away we actually were! We ended up on a street that was, let's just say it reminded me very much of things I've heard about St. Kilda! But in the end we got to the club, a little wet, but had a good time! I had guys buying me drinks and asking for my number, but of course they were talking in German so I just turned around to them and said "Sorry, no thanks, I don't speak German." We got home only a few minutes after the boys (we got a taxi home, much better option!) at about quarter past three. I went to bed at 4.

Saturday

After not enough sleep, we got up in the morning ready for another day. Dany and I went to the shops, we bought a Christmas tree, some groceries and came home again. Daniel and I then went to Loop with Anna and Katrin for some Christmas shopping (Loop is like Fountain Gate. Big shopping centres aren't that common here). We bought a few things, I swapped my new coat for a smaller size and when we came home Anna told us how the Christmas tree decorations work here (some of them are really strange, and Dany puts candles on the tree instead of electric lights). We decorated the Christmas tree as a surprise for Dany and she loved it. It was a lot of fun. I was exhausted from the previous night though so I went to bed, however Daniel stayed up watching a movie with Anna.

Sunday

Daniel, eating a crepe with nutella!

I wasn't so tired this morning, Daniel however had stayed up the entire night (again) and was exhausted. Today we were going to Frankfurt for the Christmas Market though, so he had to be up and ready to go out.  The market in Frankfurt was HUGE. It was so beautiful though. There were lights everywhere, so many different smells, sounds and colours! Unfortunately it was raining a lot of the day, but it was fun anyway. :)

I didn't like the gluehwein in Darmstadt on Thursday, but today I tried gluehAPFELwein. Warm apple wine. It was SO hot, I burnt my tongue :( It tasted much nicer though. Sweet and delicious. And I ate a Bratwurst for lunch. Omnomnom! We bought some gifts and had a look in the shopping centre that is so beautiful designed, then we went home.

Daniel and Jacky outside a typical german-looking building
- a honey-house! So many different types of honey!

In the evening, Jacky's church had a carols night that she wanted to go to, so we quickly got dressed up and left again, just Jacky, Dany and I. I didn't understand a lot of the words, but it was so amazing. Luckily enough, I know the Christmas story, so I could at least follow what was happening. After the drama/song/drama/song there was a short sermon and I didn't understand a lot of it, however I got the general gist of what he was saying, that Jesus brought peace, and Christmas isn't just a child's birthday, but a time that was given to us to bring happiness, and that if things aren't going well in our lives, we must change. It was a wonderful service.

On the way home, Dany let me drive! Oh my gosh it was weird. I was sitting on the left hand side, I had to drive on the right, the gear stick was on my right... Oh it was so WEIRD! I freaked Dany and Jacky out a little though, because I am so used to driving closer to the right hand side but I had to drive closer to the left and it scared them a little. Woooops. But I'd like to try again. :)

We got home at 8.30, and ate some potato and sausage soup, then I quickly got changed and turned my computer on, at 8.54pm, or, 6.54am Monday morning Melbourne time... I could access my VCE results at 7am. I was 6 minutes early. That was the longest and scariest 6minutes of my whole trip, and possibly of my whole year. I was so nervous. But I'm sure other people will think it were obvious (I don't think it was so obvious) that I had nothing to be worried about. I was extremely proud of my results and I did a very good job. I had two goals, to get an atar above 80 and to get my name in the paper, and I achieved both of those goals. :)

I slept very well that night.

Day 4, Germany, den dreizehnte Dezember

MORNING:
Daniel - I went to school. I dont know exactly why since I've finished school, but I got to see some of my friends from last year which was nice. We (Yannick and I) started with English and the teacher asked me to say a sentence about myself which probably ended up as a paragraph but oh well. There was some group work to do which I helped with and after that was German. I understood very little, if not none of that class. But I understood more in German than I did the next class, politics. Ew. I dont even study it back home. After politics was sport, but they had to some presentations so I sat there and did nothing.

Emily - I had a bit of a sleep in which was nice, then I woke up and there was no one home! I chatted on Skype for a bit, wrote the blog for Wednesday and didn't do much at all! Painted my nails, listened to music, had a long shower, read... And finally they all came home for lunch at around 12.30-1!

AFTERNOON/EVENING:
Daniel - We had pizza for lunch. Then some more of my friends came over and we sat and chatted until about 4.15, which by then the sun was setting and it was getting dark. Emily, Jacky and Dany went out shopping and Yannick and I did something I'm very fond of. Nothing! I went to bed at around 8 because I was tired.. Yep thats right. EIGHT O'CLOCK!!

Emily - One of Yannick's friends that came over, Anna, is taking me out tonight (Friday night) so she came over to discuss the outing with me - what I should wear, when and where I meet her, how we are getting to/from the club, how much money I'd need etc. After Anna had left, Jacky, Daniel and I played cards. I think Daniel and I are a bad influence on Jacky - she is learning some very inappropriate words! (Jacky is 14). Playing cards meant we needed to know how to say "King" "Queen" "Jack" and "Ace" in German (we're smart enough to know the other numbers), and "Jack" in German almost sounds like "boobs" and "Ace" sounds a LOT like "ass"... Poor Jacky! And then to make matters worse we played "Bullshit" (some people call it 'cheat') so there's another word she learnt yesterday...
Dany came home from work and we had to go into the city (Darmstadt) to go to the train station and book tickets, as Daniel and I wish to travel in January to Munich and Verona, but the prices and itineraries online were rather confusing. The man at the train station was very patient with me, he was great and made it as cheap and easy as possible!

Drinking ma glühwein! (Actually, this was before I'd tried it...)

Dany and I then went to H&M (kind of like Myer with only clothes) and there was a big sale on, so I looked for a big warm (beautiful) coat and found one exactly how I wanted and it was 50% off! Yay! Every girls dream :P So it cost me less than 30€! I'm one very happy girl!
We then went outside to the Christmas Market... It's so BEAUTIFUL! The lights, and the stalls, gingerbread hearts everywhere, sooo many people! It's magical. Dany wanted me to try my first glühwein (hot wine), so she bought me some and it was good at first, but it was very strong red wine, and it was hot, so after a few sips I'd had enough and Dany finished it. We had a brilliant conversation at the Christmas Market and it made me realise how lucky I am to have such beautiful people putting us up. I couldn't have asked for anything better and I really love them. :)

Pretty self-explanatory. :)

NOTE: Sorry for the bad quality photos... These were taken on my phone, not my camera. :)

Day 3, Germany, den zwoelfte Dezember.

Probably the best day so far... Well, for me at least.

We went shopping in the morning in the nearest city - Darmstadt - because Daniel needed gloves so we could go tobogganing in the afternoon/evening, so we managed to find gloves, and we drank these GIANT hot chocolates at Starbucks! They were so warm, it was great because it was -4 degrees yesterday :/

It was a sunny day, which was nice, but the snow only changed one thing, and that wasn't how warm it was - it was just MUCH more glarey due to the reflection of the sun on the snow.
We got the tram back to Jugenheim and took some photos of blue skies and pretty snow (and us). :)

This snow was sooooo cold! Considering it was -4 degrees outside!

After a nice afternoon at home, not really doing much, and some warm food for lunch (oh, it's so good eating warm food on below-freezing days!), Dany came home early from work and she took Daniel, Jacky and I out tobogganing/sledding! The little hillside where we played in the snow (like little children) was up in a mountain only 15minutes or less from where they live and you have to drive through two or three beeeautiful stereotypical german villages, and there were Christmas lights and decorations EVERYWHERE, it was just like magic! It gets dark around 4:30pm though, so when we left home at 5 to go there, it was already dark so we didn't stay long, but it was plenty fun on the sleds and having a snow ball fight!

We stopped at Aldi and another supermarket on the way home and bought some foods etc, and in Aldi, Daniel and I were AMAZED, they have a machine that when you press the button it gives you freshly baked pretzels! They are huuuge and so soft on the inside and we ate them for dinner. Daniel started scooping the soft inside out of his with a fork and we all laughed at him, it was very entertaining. I ate mine with cheese and it was sooo delicious! Omnomnomnom!

Looks awkward? Probably was! Haha, Jacky and I went down together, on a veeery small sled! I could not stop laughing!

 

Jacky and I... We decided that after a very snuggly sled ride together, we were best friends!

Es hat geschneit!

Today was our first full day in Germany!
We both woke up numerous times during the night due to jet leg. It was fairly annoying I must say. Although when we did wake up at around 3am, it was snowing! And we got really excited.
When we eventually got up around 8, there was a note that had been pushed underneath out door that said "Es hat geschneit!" or in english "It has snowed!". We both thought it was really nice! :)

Mum called us and we spoke to Mum. We then got dressed and went for a walk, it was cold. (You'll probably hear that a lot.. SORRY!) We went into a bakery and Emily bought a coffee. Later on I bought a bottle of coke, it was cold enough, then we started walking home again, after about 10 minutes I drank some more coke, and it was colder than when I bought it!

When we got home, we went to school with Yannick, because he still had 1 more class. I didn't understand anything! It was a medic class or something? For all I know, it could have been psychology and I wouldn't have noticed.

After class we walked home again, Emily slept for 3 hours and I read for 3 hours..

That was our day! :)

Daniel Crisp

Day One, Germany, zehnte Dezember.

Emily: Should we start with talking about the flight?
Daniel: It was long and boring.

So there isn't much to say about that... Except that for our connecting flight in Sydney, because we'd booked with QANTAS but were flying the next leg of our journey with British Airways, we couldn't figure out our flight number so we chose the BA flight that was going Singapore, then Frankfurt. So while sitting at the gate, this is what I hear on the loudspeaker - "Emily and Daniel Crisp, please make your way to gate 10, your flight is ready for departure." Turns out, we had to get on the Singapore-London flight and change planes in Singapore... Wonderful! So we were the last people on that plane, luckily enough we weren't the last people to sit down. We both also got more sleep on the plane than we thought we would, which was good.

Those of you who have been watching our facebook posts (well, Emily's) would know that it's been snowing here. That was exciting! But cold, very cold. The people we're staying with laughed at us for wearing so many extra layers!

And after going for a walk, eating lunch, taking photos and lots of chatting, we had a few hours of afternoon napping, then some shopping for Em, dinner and to bed early before an ADVENTURE tomorrow! Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone, don't be too jealous! ;) and if you want our German mobile number speak with mum or send me a private message on Facebook.