Euro Lights

Well I have made it to the ugly city that is Frankfurt. Not very impressed at all. Looks more like communism than the whole of Romania put together, except there are advertising posters everywhere without the hammer and sickle.

Currently on the free wireless at Frankfurt airport and charging my iPhone at the same time... So I guess this blog is just me biding my time until the battery is full.

The trip on the ICE was rather pleasant. The coffee on the train was terrible but I accepted that due to the ample amount of leg room. I used to have an aversion to train travel but now I am willing to travel by train as an acceptable alternative to flying.

I got the half time score of the Hertha vs Bayern game whilst on board via a friend sending me an email from the stadium. The guy next to me asked what the score was and proceeded to tell all the people in the carriage (which was filled with southern Germans.) News didn't go down to well and as I feared for my life at that point I neglected to mention that I have a season ticket for Hertha (even though I have been a Bayern fan since conception.)

I must say that for Valentines day, I have only seen 1 display of affection today. That would be the young German couple sitting opposite me sucking each others tongues out. I am trying to look away but I am just so confused as to how that ugly bastard got his supermodel looking girlfriend. Big wallet...? or big something else maybe.... Heart?

Anyway I will head off and spend some money at the duty free getting some presents for the family that I have had a whole year to purchase and that now I have left until the last 4 hours.

Well, it's less than 24 hours until the big trip. Everything is booked, sorted, cleaned (due to Australian quarantine) and packed. I am not as excited about going home this time as I was the last. Don't get me wrong I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends for the first time in 12 months but I see this as my scouting trip for moving back to Aus for good. A bit sad maybe but I suppose it had to happen one day.

But I won't dwell on that... for now. I have been trying to work out the best way to recover quickly from jet-lag. Last time it took me a good 7 days before I was fully on Aus time. This time I hope to make it 3-4 days. The chances you ask... Well for the first time, ever, I managed to sleep on the plane back from Ireland. I don't know if it was because I was so sick or drunk but it broke my jinx of not sleeping on planes. This time I hope to get sleep on the way back which must surely help me... To those of you that may want to know, I have always stayed awake for the 48 hour trip to and from Europe, even when I was just 4 years old.

I watched a program a few years ago that tested people flying from Aus to the US. Long story short, the people that slept when they felt like it recovered better than people that took sleeping pills to sleep the whole flight, those that slept according to the time zone that they were traveling to or the people that stayed awake throughout the whole flight.

So here goes nothing.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.

One week from now I will be heading back to Australia. I am looking forward to it. Getting back to the heat, sun and family. Not looking forward to the two days travel but I guess that's the price I have to pay for being born in Australia and living in Berlin.

I tried to arrange flights from Berlin to Frankfurt to catch my connection to Australia but it means that I would have to wait 14 hours in Frankfurt airport... Not going to happen. I once spent 8 1/2 hours in Sydney airport waiting for a connection to Brisbane. So I have decided to travel by train. DB will be my chauffeur and my limo will be the ICE. Never traveled on it but I hear good things.

Its been pretty hot back home, in case you haven't seen on the TV. 47.5 degrees, nice. To add to that 2/3 of Queensland is under flood waters. To give you a rough guide as to how big the state is ; Queensland 1,730,648 km2, GB 241,590 km2. So thats about 7 times the size of GB and 2/3 of that is under water. Why are the Poms complaining about snow? There are snow ploughs, there are no water ploughs.

Anyway, I am on a mission to get alcohol from Australia for a party tonight. I have no idea where I am going to find some here in Berlin but have been given the name of a bottle shop in P'Berg to try. If i am unsuccessful then I will just have to stick an Aussie label on a bottle of Becks.

I am so proud of myself that it wasn't 4 months since my last post.

Hope all is well with you lot. Talk to you later.