Getting up to date...

It’s been a very eventful eight months since my last blog. What began as a summer in Berlin has turned into a much longer stay and during that time I have grown so unbelievably lazy when it comes to writing that I have surprised even myself. That has got to stop.

Summer in Berlin is brilliant. Tour guiding was amazing fun, always meeting new people and sharing my love of this fantastic city. My summer was filled with sun, fun and way too much booze. I also started playing Aussie Rules Footy for the Berlin Crocodiles, which has been a great way to keep fit and connect with some Aussies over here in Berlin. We unfortunately fell short of our goal to make the Grand Final but did manage to secure third.

In August was a trip to Ukraine and Poland with Dimma. That was pretty ridiculous. For some reason it seems that Dimma and I bring out the worst in each other. I was drunk or hungover the whole time, and he managed to fall asleep with tea Tree oil on his face on the first night of the trip, ruining his skin and then proceeded to complain about his facial herpes for the next two weeks. Despite that however the trip was eye opening and barrels of fun.

In late October I spent two weeks travelling through Egypt. Good thing I did it then, as there seems to be some major political unrest in the country now. Egypt is absolutely amazing, however Cairo is a complete toilet. I couldn’t get out of that city fast enough. Some highlights of that trip were Abu Simbel, floating down the Nile on a felucca for two days and climbing Mt Sinai. The last few days spent snorkeling in Dahab were also great fun, and I think one day I might go back there and get my divers licence.

The cold set into Berlin quite early this winter, and by early December there was already a foot of snow. I was delighted to see my first white Christmas, and even more excited to go out and kick a footy with the boys in the snow on Christmas day, which is something I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do in Australia. For new Years I went to Edinburgh for Hogmanay, their NYW celebrations and had a fantastic time with Mojo and fell in love with the city of Edinburgh. Seeing Biffy Clyro play in the gardens was a highlight, but the whole trip was brilliant.

Then January 2011 was back to more guiding in the snow, with a quick blast to the Czech mountains for some snowboarding. It was a great week on the snow, ruined somewhat by Sonja getting her arm broken on the morning of the first day. Obviously, her trip wasn’t a whole lot of fun, but I was glad that I had speakers in my helmet, and spent most of my days trying to get better at jumps, the halfpipe and swearing of rails permanently.

Australia Day 2011 is a complete blur. The drinking started in the early afternoon and extended until the early morning. I have vague recollections of behaving like a tool, saying things I shouldn’t, trying to hook up with girls that I shouldn’t and in general being a prototypical Australian douche. I guess if I’m going to do it any day, it might as well be Australia Day. At least I didn’t start any fights.

And that, pretty much brings us up to date. I am going to try to write more regularly and it will therefore not be a summary of the travels I have done over the last 8 months like this entry. Coming up this year I have trips to Austria and Cuba booked, the possibility of going through the Baltics and a strong chance of going through the Balkans with Dimma and Woo. All of which should create more than enough crazy shenanigans to make my following blog entries significantly better than this one.