What Katie Did Next …

Then my gorgeous pal Julie (another cute aussie also working now on the EU project and shares the fishpond pad with me when I’m there) came over for a couple of weeks, so we had some fab german social times thanks to tp, christian and mo mainly for sharing their homes, places, people and made us aussie girls super welcome.

and my last days in eu land was spent on amrum … a truly wild rugged and spectacular frisian island in the north west of germany. The sand iisssssssss as good as aussie beaches, and there is kilometres and kilometres of it … solved some of my homesickness problems being there actually. And behind the beaches sand dunes everywhere forming natural bird habitats and acres of forest with hares, squirrels and all manner of amazing wild birds running, hopping and flying everywhere. And tp sorted me out with great adventures, fab swimming spots, forest runs, beach camping and amazing seafood day after day night after night. If you’re an EU land person, you really mustttttt make a little adventure there one day.

so a few extra days of hols up my sleeve was found so a little sidetrip to the land of sauerkraut, 4 litre beer mugs and 4pm sunsets was had! hamburg was all about the deer, the warm spicy wine (really have forgotten the german terminology on this one), the danke bitte schoen, the caramelised fig salad, the hot showers, the heated towel rails, the thousands and thousands of sparkly christmassy lights, a bit of eins, zwei, drei … zwei und zwanzig, drei und zwanzig etc … impressive i know ……. aaaaaand …… berlin was all about the galleries, museums, more warm spicy wine, espressos, the long luxurious breakfasts, the double on bicycling, the east and the west, the wine, the utter joy of dancing to some real beats with non staticy speakers, the tunes the tunes the tunes, the doors and rooflines, the churches, the buildings, the friends, the late night turkish, the committed to the cause policemen (poor little guys stuck out there in that icy weather), and the general joyful unexpectedness that is berlin really …. not to mention the hills, the snow, the falling snow which was a truly delightful treat for this little summer gal … cheers mo for pampering me on this one …. good good times all round and cheers to all those delightful individuals that made it that way for me

Well I thought I should give you all a little update on Berlin. I wasn’t originally planning on heading there, but some people I met in Stockholm were going to be there for the week, so I thought I would go and hang out. Berlin according to most, is meant to be a fairly unique city in terms of the rest of Germany. Very edgy, artistic and experimental in most of its artchitecture, bars, cafes etc etc and lots of really unexpected things. There is art, sculpture and grafitti everywhere but done in a way that works … they have mixed the old and new really well. A lot of the buildings and accommodation are very old and grafittied etc from the outside but are re done inside … works beautifully.

One of my favourite places was this area above a bar where a whole load of artists have set up residence and you can wander in whenever they are working (ie a lot of night hours) and watch them at work, purchase their art and soak up the surrounds. Quite inspirational actually.

Off to somewhere that has beach …

Well just a quick post … have made my way to Berlin which I highly recommend you all do at some stage … very cool, arty place all round. A few quick snaps below for your enjoyment … xoxo