so here i am once more. sitting in my pyjamas in my room in leuven. pondering how best to fill you in on my two week trip. pondering how much procrastination i can do before feeling exceptionally guilty about the lack of study i have done (first exam is one week today). so i'm going to try the bullet point entry for a change. not sure if i can pull it off. but i'll give it a shot.

21st december: start the day at 5:30am walking through dark quiet (perhaps the most quiet i've heard it) leuven to the train station. me, eric, sandra, peter. me and eric nearly missed the train. a sign of things to come...

saw a squirrel! highly delighted! the trip is off to an excellent start. little grey squirrel. running up the branches and down the branches. its grey fluffy tail making little wavy movements.

and then snow! yep. it starts to snow. what a way to begin a trip across germany. little snowflakes drifting through the air as the train speeds through german countryside.

14 hours of switching trains later... munich.

excerpt from diary: 21-23 december: "i felt like i was inside one of those glass balls that you shake and then watch the snow float through the air... climbed up a big church tower to view the city... very very beautiful... ornate old churches, palace gardens, old and new town halls..."

saw lord of the rings - jumped, laughed outloud and cried. proud to be a kiwi.

ate sausages in a very typical german beer hall with big heads of deer with antlers on the walls. one litre mugs of beer.

23-26 december: christmas in salzburg! snow everywhere. most beautiful little town i've been in to date.

walked up to the castle and into the abby used in sound of music. saw where they hid from the baddies near the end of movie. also saw "you are 16 going on 17" gazebo. hurrah! not to mention archway that mum and dad always say "we've been there kids" when we watch it...

spent christmas with eric's cousin and his family. absolutely perfect. shared christmas eve and christmas day with them and their two kids fiona and julien (5 and 7) and took delight in them running around and squealing as they opened their presents and then proceeded to jump on top of me and try to pull off my socks. loved it.

despite cell phone issues, was able to get in touch with family back home.

went to christmas mass in the big dom cathedral - gorgeous building - liked it more than st peters in rome to be honest.

went sledding!

26-29 december: grunau - little skiing hostel type place up in the mountains in austria. meet many aussies. walked through the snow. i spend time on my own (eric is skiing) and try to study a bit. nice, relaxing - let my feet rest from all the walking we do.

excerpt from diary: "saw both the big and little dipper - reminded me of the fact i am on the other side of the world - viewing the stars upside down. in a different place. stars hold such a peace. a peace and a clarity at the same time. the night sky is so deep, not only literally but how it can penetrate - right inside my eyes and almost through me... i marvel at the enormity of creation sometimes. the creativity, the uniqueness, the openness. no straight lines, no systematic patterns. it's all random beauty. in a world full of straight lines and codes, where people try to keep their surroundings manicured. the stars defy that thought process."

29-30 december: vienna. despite what so many people say - about how beautiful vienna is - it just wasn't a city for me. the extravagance and excessiveness - everywhere. every direction i turned was another huge building, trying to outdo the building on either side of it. more windows than i could ever count. too much and i felt out of place. vienna to me seemed to be a place that worships money.

the parks had too many park benches in line - so i moved one of them into the middle of the path - just to try and make things not so perfect.

did go to a concert and hear mozart, beethoven, strauss, brahams. that was good. in a place mozart had performed in when he was younger.

highlight - meeting up with sandra and peter and spending an evening in a far too classy for us bar, listening to old american jazz, drinking a drink that was called casablanca and catching up with good friends.

excerpt from diary: "as we walked home in the rain - i finally caught a glimpse of a pretty vienna. perhaps the rain washed away some of the immaculateness. perhaps it washed away some of my negativity and cynacism. but a mist lay over the city and the lights - lighting up the palaces - no longer with an air of disdain. the rain somehow glistened through... vienna isn't the place for me, but it wasn't so bad afterall."

31-2 january: the czech republic is awesome! and it begins with cesky krumlov - little town right on the border...

went to a bar that had a live snake under the glass counter. it was green. it was big. but it didn't move. all very exciting.

wonderful hostel where i met kiwis and spent new years eve dancing with them and people from all over the world. fantastic fireworks display that involved utter randomness and slight danger as people held up strange wand type devices that spurted forth fire and magic into the sky.

hello 2004.

walked up, over and through the castle - to read a sign saying "watch out for the bears" who sadly seemed to be hibernating. instead i made a snow bear much to my delight.

thick powdery snowy snow. fun fun fun.

2-4 january: onwards to prague. gorgeous. far nicer than vienna. most beautiful city in the world. fell in love with it. amazing buildings, bridges, castles, churches...

walked for kilometres and kilometres in freezing conditions where i had to hop and jig to keep myself moving.

went and saw don giovanni - a marionette puppet performance of opera. mozart's gift to the city of prague. funny and very very good.

found and bought orange earmuffs.

missed our train connection (was bound to happen as we had so many close calls along the way) and ended up taking a bus right through germany and back to leuven - a good 14 hour ride i guess, including a crazy 3 hour wait at the border whilst the germans inspected us...

excerpt from diary: "checked out the huge metronome - ticking back and forth, keeping the music of prague in time like a giant conductor - overlooking the orchestra which is all of prague itself. bitterly bitterly cold. could hardly feel my nose. ouch. fingers dying. literally i'm sure."

and here i am. off to study now. hope you all had a lovely christmas and welcome to 2004!!!