Back to reality

So unfortunately we have finished all our fun tripping around, and are back here in London and forced to face reality.
However i will fill you in on the end of our trip first...photos are up on my facebook page if you havent seen them already.

Berlin is a strange city, not beautiful or amazing to look at, but full of history from WW2. The first night we arrived in Berlin we had dinner at this place called the Happy Pig....the food was ok, Schnitzel again! but the best part of the night was at the end when we did karaoke...lol. My personal favourite was seeing caleb and another guy perform achey breaky heart....i wish you guys could have seen it, very funny. I got to sing some classic S-Club 7 song, which i know you are all very jealous of.
The next morning we started with a walking tour, our guide was amazing and he was able to bring to life what would have otherwise been just boring buildings. We got to see bullet scarred buildings, ex Nazi headquarters, the location of Hitlers bunker, Checkpoint Charlie, Jewish memorial and lots of other stuff. Germany is amazing the way they have embraced the role that the Nazi's played in WW2 but also how they have distanced themselves from their past and managed to move on. What is interesting to note is that whenever anyone speaks of the WW2 era it is very deliberately phrased as 'Nazi Germany', not just Germany.
That night we went on a pub crawl...was fairly tame, one club was fun, i got to dance on the tables etc, so fun. We were all wearing David Hasselhoff t-shirts, which is a wee bit of a novelty...nothing quite like a massive group of tourists travelling in a pack all looking strange. Not a bad night tho.

The next morning was our drive to Amsterdam and as we entered the city we visited a Clog and Cheese factory. This was pretty cool, apparently there are only 5 clog makers left in the whole of the Netherlands. We got to eat the cheese and then buy stuff, i added to my collection of christmas tree decorations that ive been collecting in each country..fun, cant wait till christmas just so i can hang them.
Amsterdam itself was a real eyeopener. I had only ever heard of it because of the redlight district and weed, and yes both are very prevalent there, but its a gorgeous city in its own right. We hired bikes one day, had a little bit of a tour and then headed off on our own to explore and its full of canals, and so flat that its really lovely to ride round. Teh houses are all on a lean cos of the fact that the area is sinking because of being on reclaimed land. One highlight was visiting Anne Franks house, they havent changed the house inside where her family were hidden before being betrayed to the Nazi's. Very cool to see the bookshelf etc which hid the entranceway, after having read the book as a kid, and trying so hard to imagine what it actually looked like.
We had dinner that night at a floating Chinese restaurant. Funny story, when it was originally built the engineers etc spent ages working out how much buoyancy etc they would need to keep it afloat...on opening night, once the guests had come onboard, it started to sink, because they had forgotten to factor into the equation the weight of the guests....lol. Had an amazing meal there, and then got on a boat for a canal cruise. This was a lovely way to see Amsterdam.
This was our last night on the tour and definately a good way to finish.

The next morning the alarm didnt go off, i must have set it wrong and we woke up with 10 min before we had to be on the bus...arghhhh. Just threw everything into our suitcases and raced downstairs...made it just! It was a long trip back to London, we left Amsterdam at 7am and arrived in London at 8pm....long!

Now its back to reality. Jess and Andy who we have been staying with have offered us the room long term, so thats pretty cool. The apartment is so conveniently located to everything, so now we just have to buy a bed, at the moment we are sleeping on an airbed which is actually amazingly comfortable.
I have had some interviews, some worse than others, hoping that i will get a job soon. Caleb is out today checking out a job, to see if he likes it, not building, cos its quick difficult to get into and Caleb hasnt done the stuff he needs to just walk into a job.
But life will hopefully settle soon into a bit of a routine. We are heading to stratford-on-avon in a couple of weekends for Jess's birthday. Thats where Shakespeare was born, and its apparently really beautiful.

Anyway, thats us and our latest news.
Keep in touch
Luv Caleb and Maree