europe is the goods: from Paris to Berlin, and the smaller cities in between

so I haven't written in a little while, this could be a big post. I've seen and done so many things, where to begin?

Let's start at Paris. Oct 29-Nov 2
Well arriving in such a city was surreal, I walked from the L'est station, North of the Seine, and made the trek towards my hostel (too freaked to jump on public transport as of yet). I think I fell in love on the way. As i walked by restaurants, waiters greeted me with Bonjour, hoping for another customer. I can so vividly remember walking along the Seine for the first time, it was beautiful and all the old buildings gleamed 'France!' My accommodation was great, a 3 bed dorm, cleaned daily and only 10 mins walk to the Notre Dame Cathedral, and as soon as I had unpacked, that was exaclty where I was headed: Notre Dame. It was beautiful. I again couldn't believe I was actually seeing it. I arrived at the stunning Church from the back, where there's a pretty garden, full of couples and families. As I walked along the side, the smile grew on my face, looking towards the gargoyes, many of which are headless. I had to sit down and take it all in when I got to the front. Of course, I can not deny the Disney childhood, and how much it reminded me of the cartoon movie 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'. I don't think I need to upload a photo... you know what it looks like! I kept exploring the city and as I crossed one of 'le' bridges, suddenly I could see it over in the distance, the Eiffel Tower, despite being surrounded by a hemisphere of smog, it was still so beautiful. It took me a few more moments to take this in as well.

waaaayeah!!!

Mealtimes were interesting in the city of love. I still want to know what's so lovely about not being able to find cheap food anywhere! My hostel didn't have a kitchen - mega lame. However I made friends with my local supermarket. The expensive meals in the evenings were still enjoyable. On the 30th October I went on a free walking tour of the city, led by an Aussie girl, who really knew her stuff. It was a great way to see the things which I otherwise wouldn't have seen or known about. I met an aussie bloke from Cairns, yes, Damien, or Damo. We hung out for the rest of the day and took a look at Montmatre, Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge, Hungry le Jacks, and the Eiffel Tower at night. Now that was awesome to see! The hourly sound and light show was stunning.

I really enjoyed being by myself just wandering the streets of Paris, with out having a particular goal. The Louvre was interesting for an hour, but a little overwhelming, it is such a huge building, and yes I saw Venus de Milo and Mona of course.
The spontaneous weekend trip to Paris was certainly an adventure, but the feeling of material-saturated-consumtion-culture made me look forward to leaving. For such a rich, well known city, there are too many people living on the streets. Maybe the bigger the city, the less anyone cares, or feels obliged to help.

My next trip was a day trip on the 21st Nov with Uni to Cologne. The German city of Karneval and Fasching. It was pretty to look around, particularly the old Gothic Cathedral is something to note, which took altogether 600 years to complete.. I wonder if they knew at the beginning how long it would take, if they would still bother?! Much of the city was destroyed during the war, so the mixture of modern and old architecture is pretty cool.

Köln Dom

Next up was play time on the Autobahn, something that I just had to do while here in Germany. So I a rented Mercedes Benz C Class from 27th-30th Nov and enjoyed a solo roadtrip through some of Western Germany. Aachen for the first night on Friday, most Western German city, then towards Dusseldorf the next day for a housewarming party of a close German friend. The trip was relaxing, it was more about the freedom of driving and cruising around at speeds close to 200km/hr and the fun party on Saturday night. Sunday I met up Donna in Dusseldorf who came from Amsterdam, so that we could travel back to Heidelberg together. Thankfully, my phoneless cousin and I conveniently stumbled across each other in the rather large Dusseldorf station, despite our very vague plans of meeting up. We made our way back through Cologne and on to Heidelberg. I had to say goodbye to the car on Monday, and it was back on the bike for esty.

Pitstop.

Back in Heidelberg Donna and I spent a few days (never mind uni) hanging out and seeing a bit more of my town. Like the castle -stunning-. Broken, but beautiful nevertheless. More Christmas markets were seen, and before I could say 'wow I should start doing some homework at some stage' Donna had to leave.

View from Heidelberg Castle.

Next I headed to Berlin, to meet up with cousins Donna, Ashley and Daniel. If you haven't been to Berlin, you must go. I've been lucky enough to go twice, but I would certainly go back. The alternative city excites me, and the history over the past 80 years as well is something which no one can ignore. Taking a look at The Berlin wall from the East side (where people were killed trying to get 'into' West Berlin) was interesting, the controversial artwork upon the wall by those young and old, German and Internationals, informed and well informed artists is fascinating.

Berlin Wall, true that.

We did a free walking tour, and learned many new things as we walked through the city for over 4 hours. Berlin is actually built on a swamp, and founded in 1237. There is sometimes a funky swampy smell near the Brandembourg Gate, don't let me turn you off though, I think it adds to character. We all had a great time together, Donna had organised a great, cheap apartment to stay in which made it a really comfortable time. Waiting 2 hours to get into the Reichstag, below 0°