Germany

After breakfast Annika took us on a tour of Hunsfeld which included such things as Annika’s favourite shop, The Gummy Bear Shop, her brother Patrick’s Office building and the Town Hall. We returned after our tour for some more traditional German food for lunch, this time Jagerschnitzel and Spatzle (Schnitzel with mushroom sauce and noodles). As Kylie was feeling a little unwell she had a sleep while Katie and Annika went shopping in Fulda for the afternoon. After arriving home from shopping we had some raultaschensuppe (Soup with parcels of spinach and minced meat) before we drove to Fula in Patrick’s veru nice BMW Series 5 for some cocktails with Annika and a friend of hers who was also a gap student in Australia and ironically worked at the Rockhampton Grammar School. What a coincidence!

This morning we caught a train to Fulda, Germany, where we met with Annika who had kindly invited us to stay with her and her family for the next few days. Annika was a gap student for 6 months in Australia where she worked with Kylie at Glennie, the boarding school that Kylie works at. Kylie and Annika had made plans to catch up when we arrived in Germany. Catching the train was an interesting experience especially as neither of us speak much German and each stop was announced in German so that ment we had to be extra careful paying attention and watching each stop to make sure we got off at the correct station. We were a little confused at one point when a stop appeared that had Fulda in the name but we later found out that it was simply part of the Fulda area and we were correct not to get off at that stop. We arrived safely and drove through Fulda to Hunsfeld where Annika and her family live. Upon arriving we met with the Brodala family and Annika and her Mother cooked us a wonderful traditional German dish (Goulash, Kartoffelknodel and Rolkraut – Goulash, potatoes and red cabbage) before we went for a stroll around the Hunsfeld local park.

After our walk through the park, Annika had arranged to for us to meet some of her friends and we had a scrumptious cake Annika had made for us. It was great to meet some of Annika’s friends and here about Annika’s time in Australia. We spent the remainder of the afternoon with the family before having some dinner and watching a movie and then heading off to bed.

With copious amount of sleep deprivation we deboarded our plane and proceeded through customs. We then tried the task of getting to our hostel which seemed alot simpler on the hostel website and we gave up and caught a taxi. This is where we first experienced the German Autobarn! When the taxi reached speeds of 180 kms / per hour the panic set in and we both looked away and pretended we didnt notice. Denial, denial, denial!

Arriving at our hostel in what was a long but fast journey, we tried to check inbut we told that we couldn check in until 1pm. And since the shops and attractions didnt open until 9 or 10am we settled on the couch for some sleep. We woke up exactly at 1pm having completely over slept and both with raging headaches we checked into our rooms and climbed into bed for the next few hours. The jet lag had really kicked in!

We woke up later that evening and went down stairs for dinner before having showers and catching some more sleep (cause we hadnt slept enough!). We both fell straight to sleep so obviously we needed it!