Avia - Hotel Regensburg

... and I put the ones of the Christmas market on for you mum, because I know it's just how you imagined, with lots of stalls with more Christmas things than you can poke a stick at, it is really difficult trying to decide what to buy when its all so great (and surprisingly not that expensive, well for how beautiful they are, I probably would pay more for them ). These are day photos though from Regensburg..... it is 10x better at night!!

... time to watch many episodes of "two and a half men", "Malcolm in the Middle", "Friends" and "new adventures of Old Christine". We then stopped at Dubai for 3 hours and got to go SHOPPING!!! The only thing I brought though was a Dubai Sundae at 'Burger King' and they couldn't pay me change in euros so I then had to go to the travellex office (there were about 4 in the airport) to change the 'durhims- singapore money into euros, which I managed to get 2 euros ...

Woke up today as we were approaching Regensburg, a well preserved medieval town. I joined Jack and Suzanne for a walking tour of the town. Our guide was very good and had interesting stories to tell about the town’s history. We saw the oldest stone bridge in Germany which was completed in 1146. It was the only Danube crossing for hundreds of years, and was the starting point for the second and third Crusades. We also saw the Roman Gate to the ...

... is no way). Now I just walk along, not caring at all what others are saying, most of the time I even miss the English conversations. There are many other things I've learned, but I won't go into those.

Classes are interesting (sometimes). I'm taking 4 for those of you who don't know. German 101 (beginners language) is going ok. It is just hard to learn a different language. I had a test last week and did ok on it. I did learn that I'm going to have to watch myself ...

... and which is connected to a nifty shopping mall). A few days later, we all successfully made it onto the IKEA bus and got to do a little shopping for the things we needed.

We also enjoyed several fun nights at beer gardens (I am beginning to be able to tolerate beer more now) with great company. I've made several good friends here, but the entire group is pretty cool in general, which is great!

Today, everyone from the program got up and went on a boat ride to a site called the Wahalla, which is a replica of the Parthenon. It was a nice, peaceful ride with great company. The sun was out, it was just an absolute lovely day. When we got to the site, we had to climb many steps, but it wasn't anything new for me, I'm quite used to climbing steps these days. We walked around for a while, then went inside to see the busts and sculptures inside. We then trecked ...

This morning I planned to wake up at 4:00am in order to catch a 5:30 bus to the airport. It was a very hot night (with no AC), waking up almost every other hour, I was just waiting for my alarm to take me out of my misery. When my (cheap, airport, travel) alarm finally went off, I realized it was 15 till 5. I jumped out of bed, quickly abandoned the idea of trying to fit in a shower, and stuffed my bag full of my belongings. When I went to go check out ...

... town. We visiting another very baroque/roccoco style chapel just in time to see a wedding procession! The inside of this church even beats out the earlier Ettal chapel by at least 100%! It's a literal feast for the eyes and to be married here....hmmm.We tried to limit our pictures especially when you're intruding on someone's momentous occasion but looking at the pictures, you'll see exactly what I mean about the gilding and frescoes. Just breathtaking. Leaving them in ...

... bloody church) and many of the Aussies get a bit bored with all of this. Regensburg had been the original capital of Bavaria from about 530 to the 13th century. Being a Saturday it was quite busy, several weddings, a Gay Mardi Gras parade, and a Gothic convention. At least 100 young gothics parades through town in their black gear, and studs and spikes. They posed for photos on the steps of the Gothic Cathedral. Quite entertaining. Cuckoo ...

... is much else to do in Regensburg, so I might head off somewhere else tomorrow morning. Because I can. The rest of Regensburg held few surprises - apart from an over-flowing Danube which had blocked off some roads - so I made like a river and meandered back. Leo and I went back into the town for a meal at a typical Germany eatery - no English on the menu! I (think) I had some sort of pork with fried potatoes, really tasty, and the obligatory new kind of beer.