Hey all,
Now this is a bit late, because I already sent this to my friends a couple of days ago but thought that I needed to add this to the blog anyway, enjoy.
Well I have recovered from typing and am ready for round two. Last night I got my first good nights sleep in ages. I went to sleep at 2200h and woke up at 0400h this morning. I didn't need to wake up until 0745h but I guess it's a step in the right direction towards something that might resemble a normal sleep pattern. I suppose that figures, I have been sleeping during the day and staying up all night - getting ready for the time zone change back to Australian time and now I have buggered that all up.
New years was great. I arrived back in Berlin at 1930h on the 31st and promptly started making phone calls to organise my night. As I was talking to one of my mates he mentioned that another one of our mutual friends was on a flight from Bristol as well. I turned around and there he was, pretty freaky that we didn't even see each other the whole time in the Airport in England or on the flight. We headed to our mates place and I had noticed when landing in Berlin that there was thousands of fireworks going off around the city. Stepping off the airport bus the first thing I heard was a giant explosion from one of them which sent me back to my time in Vietnam, I love the smell of napalm in the morning, seriously I thought shell shock was going to set in with the amount of explosions going off.
By the time we arrived at my mates place the party had already started. My mate (Irish) has his sister her boyfriend, another Irish guy, 3 of my American friends and one of their German boyfriends, 3 Finnish friends, a Swedish girl and her boyfriend, a German girl, a Romanian girl and of course my Welsh mate and I. If I have missed anyone I am forever sorry as I was pretty drunk. So it was a fruit salad of nationalities, which I have become used to here in Berlin. The party, well I should say the aftermath showed just how much alcohol was consumed. There was huge bags of empty bottles in the house, quite impressive really. We sat drank and flirted, just the usual I guess.
Nearer to the magical Zero hour, fireworks started up across the street. One lot on the roof top across from us, another from the street corner below and another about 15 metres to their left. So we got our own free fireworks show. I was going to go out and buy some but they saved me the effort and money. We opened the windows (it was damn cold) and shouted our approval at their art. We did notice a few misfires that ended up directed at peoples windows, passing cars or buses. A few people were quite worried about one entering the apartment actually. The fireworks went for about 30 mins out the front and it was great. I love a country that gives you the opportunity to celebrate something by blowing part of it (or yourself) up. We went back to our drinking and slowly the party started to disperse.
The next morning was a wake up at about 1130h and I wasn't feeling all that bad, a bit tried that's all. I said my goodbyes and made my way to another friends place to watch DVD's, eat something and sleep. That was all good for about 7 hours until I got the invite back to my mates place to watch the DVD of the Office (British version.) Got back and started helping with the clean-up of the place. It didn't really take that long with all the people we had there. I got tired about 2330h or so and said my goodbyes and headed home. I got home at 0015h, on the 2nd January, 3 days after I had arrived in Berlin. I felt great for achieving that.
We have had some pretty good snow fall here over the last couple of days. It started on new years day and had been on and off since. There are some photos attached to show some workers clearing the roads. I am heading back to German classes this morning, I am excited because it means that I am 1 day closer to being back in Australia.
I have posted an advert to rent my place out while I am in Australia. I got a phone call almost immediately and another one about 2 hours later. So I have to clean the place up and make it warm for when they come through so I can off load this place. I must say that I thought I would have a bit of trouble talking on the phone to these people but my German has advanced to a 5 year old level now so I seemed to manage.
Enough from me I am off to have a shower, get ready for class and then I will go make some phone calls back to Australia. I hope all your new years celebrations were as good as mine and hope that you have not broken your resolutions... yet.
