Hotel Elsen Grevenbroich

I finally saw where I was born!! A really nice small town on the outskirts of Düsseldorf, with the biggest open pit coal mine I could ever imagine. When I go back to Canada I will post the panorama picture I took of it. I am staying with family now and preparing for my next leg of the trip. Thank you Ulrike, Massud, and Semira for having me at your home and Joubin for the use of your room (hope you´re enjoying your time in Australia cuz!)

... pretty tough for everyone, especially yesterday. I have said goodbye to all of my friends. Tara has left for her host family, Santiago has left to his host family, Trevor went to visit his fiance and son before flying home today. I think that Rafael from Chile might still be around but he is travelling around seeing Karneval all weekend in Düsseldorf and Köln.

I went on Thursday ...

... It'll cost a fair bit, but at least then I will have everything at home (I can't pay the excess baggage fee at the airport! It's absolutely insane!!!)

And so I will leave u for another day. If I have time to tell u about my other adventures before I come home I shall. If not I will give u an outline of what my week holds:
Tonight I am going to see the opera 'Don Giovanni'
Tomorrow we have our last official classes at uni and we have bought a bracelet to ...

... 8364; (accom with Stefan, the guy I met on the train Fri) or Prague -78€ (plus accom in a Youth hostel) I have no idea what I want to do...I hate being so indecisive!

And that's about it. Don't know how frequently I will be able to leave u messages from Berlin as I am not sure where an internet cafe is. But I am sure it will all work out. So u may hear from me next week and if u don't, my next entry will probably be just as long if not longer than this one!

Until then,
Sarah

... next Thursday and hopefully the Phantom of the Opera on Friday, plus on Valentines day I am going to see Don Giovanni. It should be good. And it's so incredibly cheap here. I have never known an opera to be only $15 for students in Australia. (Mind you, I have never been to the Opera in Australia...)

So I will leave u to think of me in a winter wonderland (I am not sick, so this is an accurate description).

Speak with u soon,
Sarah

... city with Rafael and bought a blank CD to put all of my pics on to bring home. Jan 22nd is also a really important day in Germany for shopping. All of the shops have massive sales on all their winter range starting from then. I went to a really popular German fashion shop called H & M. I found a cute cardigan there that would be perfect for my character in Backbeat, but I don't know if I would wear it otherwise... I'll post a pic of it ...

... being down due to the hurricane. We just hoped that everything would be Ok and left the station. We walked along the shopping promenade and Lauren bought a Karneval hat for her friend who collects hats. It was shaped like a toaster with 2 pieces of bread. Then we ate dinner before going to the Opera.

Once we stepped inside, we felt really excited and also really unnerved. We were the only people there who were not beautifully dressed. Mostly ...

... beer and had a wonderful time. I sang a couple of songs for some of the brazilians, because they were talking about how much they love Jazz. Between Tara and Santiago a romance blossomed, and most of us got to bed between 3 and 5am, knowing that we had class at 9 the next morning. However we were told that in the morning we were to make a decision based on the weather as to whether or not it was safe enough.

Unfortunately, after less ...

Hi guys,
Don"t know if u have heard or not, but Germany is in the middle of a hurricane. 150km winds and severe warnings from the government to stay indoors. It was supposed to hit Essen really hard and we were all sent home from uni early and told to stay indoors. I really wanted to go online today to talk to u all like I said I would. Sorry guys!! I"ve just borrowed Tara"s laptop now. Mum, if u read this, send me a text message when u wake up so I can ...

There was this website www.superlastminute.com that will give you really cheap flights within the next 48 hours. They were flight only deals that the company couldn't sell during the standard channels and I was using their service the year before when I flew to Colombo for a couple of hundred Euros. However, it turned out to be the most expensive trip ...