The end of Berlin:

On Friday morning, the others got back about 6:30am. Those of us who could, got up at our normal time, had breakfast and headed off to the same meeting place as the other tours to do a tour of Potsdam. Unfortunately it was only us who turned up (and some English guy who was happy to do whatever) so the tour was cancelled. Our would-be guide Paul was from Perth and was also disappointed seeing as he had come in for work and now had no point in being there, but he gave us some suggestions as to what to do once we got to Potsdam (we had already bought daily train tickets). Well, he had one main suggestion and that was to go to the New Palace. We trained to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and discovered that the Potsdam train was going to be 2 hours late, so we decided to head back the way we came and go to the East Side Gallery, which is pieces of the wall with its original graffiti. While on the train, Greer spotted that the train on the next platform was going to Potsdam so we jumped off and took our chances. We're still not sure how the 2 hour delay disappeared but we're glad it did. Once arrived, we went to the tourist info centre to buy a map, and saw that the Neue Palais (new palace) was at the other end of the city, so we headed off and decided to see all that we could on the way. We walked over a bridge which led to Freundschaftsinsel (Friendship Island - nawww) and through streets full of multicoloured shops. It was our warmest day yet which was lovely and there were lots of people around. We found ourselves at the edge of a park and walked through, seeing so many pretty things - icy rivers, nice courtyards, towers, arches, ducks playing in a half-frozen fountain, a Chinese house. Finally arriving at the New Palace, there was also the uni which was just as stunning and another building. Ugly cherubs lined the edges of the top of the building, and we had a look in the little shop before heading back to the station. It felt like a really long walk back, but I guess we were just excited on the way there and we had lots of stops. At the station, I got a proper German brezel (pretzel!) which was so salty and amazingly delicious, and a Kit Kat McFlurry (come on, I have to try them in every country they're sold), which was surprisingly not that good. We got on the train fairly quickly - a DOUBLE STOREY train - and had an express trip back. Back at Wombat's, we half packed then went down to the restaurant next door for our last Berlin dinner. I spent a whole £8 pounds on dinner (penne & pineapple juice, while some of the others got big burgers) - we decided we could splurge! After dinner, I finished packing and then we headed up to the bar for the last time. That was such a cool place and luckily I took a couple of photos the night before :) Rose, Caitlin & I talked to an Italian guy and Caitlin & Janet's new roommate, this really sweet Chinese girl who bought a whole pizza thinking it would be just a slice and shared it with us. We headed to bed about 11:30pm and slept until 3:00am.

Georgie and Aisling got back to the room shortly after, having not slept, and we all left about 3:35am to head for the station, giving ourselves plenty of time. And lucky we did, because when we got there the train was going to be about 15 minutes late, meaning we would miss the bus to the airport at the other end. We ran back to Wombat's to ask if there was any other way to get to Tegel airport (they had been really helpful giving us the first instructions) and were told we could catch the train the other way, then catch a different line and then get the same bus from a different spot. We went back down to the station, where we found our original train was still late but not as late, so we waited for it and thankfully found the bus at the other end with 5 minutes to spare. I asked for 'Fünf Personen, bitte' (five people/tickets, please) and then responded with 'thank-you'. Good job, German Yve. We arrived at the airport about 5am, checked in quickly and just sat. And sat. For an hour. Then we went through the gate and waited even longer. Unfortunately none of the shops opened till 7am and I really wanted a Berlin t-shirt now that Georgie had found a nice one the day before. The flight was really wobbly and you could feel the plane speeding up and slowing down, which was slightly disconcerting, but I slept most of it, on and off. It was also quite an empty plane and I had 3 seats to myself, although I stayed in the aisle seat, generously offering the window seat to Georgie. We got some egg and capsicum pastry which wasn't bad.

At Heathrow, we had to wait half an hour for the bus, although it came a bit early so we just sat (again) in it for a bit. None of us could even be bothered moving inside to wait, probably because we were back in cold temperatures we could actually handle. I slept on and off again. When we got to High Wycombe it was raining so we got a taxi up the hill. Our driver was really nice and drove us right to Lodge door and unloaded our bags for us. Up in the flat, all the teaching gaps had new beds, sheets, doonas, pillow and pillow cases but no mattresses. Back at Highlands it was the same for me. I got straight into slippers, trackies and a t-shirt (warm enough!) and did some fun stuff like washing all my clothes that I'd worn every day for a week just to stay warm, and going through all my receipts/tickets/etc and stapling them into their separate days. My mattress arrived, weeeww! My bed now takes up more than half the width of my room, but the mattress is really high and comfy, and the doona cover and pillow cases are so colourful that they brighten up my room. Caitlin and Janet got back a couple of hours later than us as they'd bought different tickets and went to a different airport. For dinner we headed down to Wagamama, where I got fried rice and miso soup for £7, yummy yummy. Rose came back to Highlands with us and we put on Princess & the Frog, although I fell asleep shortly after it started.

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Phew! Done! Next post will possibly be a general daily/weekly rundown of what I do.