An action-packed weekend

Yep! That's what I had and below are a selection of photos to prove it.

However, before I launch into it, a few things about the organisation of the photos. Their in achronological order starting with what I did yesterday and ending with what I did on Friday - like a true journalist:) I would also sincerely like to thank Florence - a cool Chinese chick I met on Friday - for sending me the pictures of the Dom so promptly so that I could put them on my blog so timeously.

Yesterday afternoon some of my floormates and I painted our very drab looking common room. We had a case of beer and some snacks to keep us motivated although I was impressed by the smoothness with which the whole operation proceeded. When you look at the photos note the puke yellow colour the walls used to be so that you can fully appreciate the transformation we had achieved. The hero in the story is Frieder, our floor representative. He did a great job organising everything and although only half of the people who live on the floor pitched to paint, it was more than enough because had any more come we definitely would not have had enough rollers and brushes. And too many cooks (painters) would have spoilt the broth (job)! It was a great bonding session and about four of the six of us took the bonding a step further afterwards when we went to the Adventscafe to enjoy some of the tradition Christmas (sweet) goodies and Gluhwein at our res bar.

The morning I'd visited my first Christmas market in 10 years, the souvenir (a cup) of my last visit to a Christmas market still survives at my parent's house. The market was in front of the Rathaus (city hall) in the city centre. It was a lovely experience: so many things to see, so many lovely foods to choose from (sigh!). I eventually settled on the Currywurst and Lumumba (it tasted like hot chocolate with a shot of alcohol and whipped cream) - it was heaven! The decorations were great and I can't wait to visit many more Christmas markets.

Saturday, I was recovering from my lovely night out on Friday. I only slept for three hours - my bio-rhythms messing around with me again. The evening I had a lovely dinner with Peter. I tried something called Flammkuchen. It's similar to pizza, but instead of a bready pizza base they use phylo pastry and there's not much cheese on it either, so it's probably healthier. I tried the one with the ham, onion and cheese. It was very, very tasty, but next time Peter and I go there I'll try the one with salmon and rocket. The woman next to me had it and it looked absolutely divine.

Friday was great as I finally got round to going to the Hamburger Dom (carnival). I first had supper with Rikke (Dane) and Audrey (American) from my class before we moved on to the Dom. The Dom comes to town twice a year, once in Summer and once in Winter. We came just in time for the fireworks, which incidentally was the second fireworks show we'd seen that night. We'd also watched a fireworks display over the Alster river from Rikke's kitchen window. We didn't have much time at the Dom since it closed at promptly at 0:00. So after a quick go on the bumping cars we moved over to the Olympic rollercoaster. IT WAS AMAZING. Audrey and I sat right in front (best seats) and screamed our lungs out! The cobra can kiss my behind, but it is never going to beat this ride. It was just the best ride I've had in a very long time. Afterwards we moved the party to various bars in student resses where Rikke and Audrey lived and just danced and drank the night away.

So there you have it: a bumper first post for December. However, I will not be doing something like this at the beginning of every month.

Keep well.
Ciao

P.S. I hope the photos don't take too long to load with the substandard bandwidth in SA.