The last three weeks: ( 21/10/13 - 10/11/13)

Well I finally feel like I am settling into my school, getting to know the teachers and the students. All of my students are a bit older so I think its harder to connect with them, as they are not primary school age where someone from another country who speaks another language is the most exciting thing.

First week back at school:

The first thing that really changed being back was the weather, before I left it was still quite warm and I could get away without wearing a cardigan or jumper. Now being back autumn has really started to set in, trees are starting to look barer and barer, the leaves are covering all the footpaths, the sun doesn't visit so often and we have finished daylight savings so its getting darker earlier and earlier. The temperature has gone from no cardigan required to cardigan, scarf and jacket required! 

Schillerplatz in Mainz - 5-10min walk from my flat.

Repost from Instagram - but I love the leaves in this one. 

I started to prepare and take lessons in the school, mostly lessons about New Zealand, New Zealand Food, New Zealand culture, New Zealand people and all things New Zealand really. The thing that shocks them the most was that I flew 30hours (including stopovers) to get to Germany.

Second Week:

My good friend Jess came to visit for the weekend and as it was halloween on the thursday we had a small gathering at my apartment with Nadin's friends as well. We played this drinking game, which is normally board game size, but Nadin made it apartment size and we played all over the apartment until we headed out into the night to meet up with the american assistants.

Apartment size drinking game

On Friday we started our day with a buffet breakfast at Extra Blatt in Schillerplatz - just down from my house. We ate so much, that we didn't need lunch. We  then took a day trip to Frankfurt, we were a bit tired and it was freezing! We spent the day looking at the shops and a few sights. We were reluctant to look closely in the shops as we all were waiting for our pays to come through from the PAD. (I know it had been 5 weeks at that stage with no pay!!)

Buffet Breakfast

Entrance to small mall in Frankfurt's main shopping street.

That night, me and Jess had a quiet night on the sofa with satay curry, tear jerking romantic movies, home-made popcorn and face-masks!

Jess making popcorn! Wasssss delicious.

Week Three:

All the weeks have began to blur into one as I am settling into a routine going to the gym, climbing, preparing lessons for school, to the supermarket on Mondays, the market on Saturday to buy fruit and veges and meeting up with Maddie for coffees at our favourite cafe called Muffins - which has the best Chai (I have found in Germany so far)

On Thursday we went out for dinner at an all you can eat sushi train! 

Sushi Train

This weekend Nadin was luckily enough to score another free weekend stay at Centre Parcs in a house so we headed up there on Friday night and arrived in the pouring rain. Nadin's cousins also joined us for the weekend which we spend relaxing, eating and going to the pools. The weather wasn't the nicest but it was a enjoyable weekend all the same, especially as we got to stay for free! Nadin's sister came and stayed on the Saturday night and bought her dog alone too!

Part Three (finally): 2 weeks, 3 countries and 7 cities!

Sorry I have been so slow to bring you each part of my holiday, this is the final part, which was probably my favourite. So here goes....

Dijon: Day Nine & Ten

After an 'I'm never doing this again' experience with the overnight train from Milan to Dijon, we arrived at about 8.30am, but were not able to check into our hotel until 2pm, so we stored our bags and set out to explore Dijon - slowly as we were both so tired as we the train ride wasn't the most comfortable and sleep was broken all night.
Dijon was a small town, obviously famous for the mustard, but we were also excited to do the 'Owl Tour' which we had read about online. The Owl Tour is a walking tour of the city which you can do without a guide and you are able to see all the sights as you just follow these bronze triangle stones that are set into the roads and footpaths with small owls engraved on them!

A bronze owl triange to follow

We didnt actually do the actual owl tour until the following day as we were so exhausted the first day we just had a look around and then went back to the hotel to check in, rest up shower and head out for dinner. I think we were in bed by 9pm that night, but were up rested the next morning to start our owl tour.

It took us all day to complete the tour with 22 sights, stopping at the bakeries to admire the delicious foods on display, sampling all the delicious foods on display, looking into other little nick-nack shops and stopping for coffee breaks. It really was a great way to explore a city, especially because you were taken down streets which meant we discovered some really nice shops, cafes and bakeries!

A owl marking one of the sights (there were 22 in total)

Touching the owl with your left hand is meant to be good luck

A square/semi circle in Dijon surrounded by the council buildings

Garden in Dijon

At the bakery.....

and More!

Nancy: Day Eleven & Twelve

Place Stanislas Entrance

Inside Place Stanislas

Gate/Another Entrance to Place Stanislas

In the botanical gardens

At the park

Waffles in the park

After in arriving in Nancy the night before from Dijon, we spent the day sightseeing. We visited the Place Stanislas (Place means square I believe), it was a square in the middle of Nancy, which entrances were gates made of gold (probably painted gold now) and houses restuarants, museums, council buildings and the tourist centre. It was really beautiful and all the embellishments in gold made the square look expensive and high class. Afterwards we investigated a park and the botanical gardens. The gardens send seeds to all over the world and have thousands of different types of flowers and plants. In the park I had the most amazing waffle, made fresh in front of me and topped with melted chocolate and cream!

Cute Street with Pot Plants

In the evening we went to this cute little restaurant in town (it had rave reviews on trip advisor) and we were not disappointed! The interior was incredible, every wall lined with vintage items in themes, like hats, cooking utensils, dolls (bit scary looking), vases, pictures and so much more. The food was equally as amazing, I went for the set menu as it was entirely in french and the options were overwhelming. My main was called a Raclette, which is a baked cheese with a mountain of sides (see picture below), it was delicious! Even going to the toilet was exciting to see the displays! Best Restaurant of the whole trip I think!
Display on the way to the bathroom:

Snack before heading off to Luxembourg! Food isn't done by halves in France

Luxembourg: Day Thirteen and Fourteen

Castle tower

Luxembourg was our last stop before heading back to Germany. We only had one night here, which was plenty to see the city and do a bit of window shopping (money was drying up by this point in the trip!!). We invited Jess to come stay with us as well as when we arrived our hotel room had three beds! So see took a short bus ride from Saarbruecken to join us in Luxembourg city. Luxembourg really is a mix of old and new, the city centre is split into two areas, seperated by a george and a few surrounding castles.

feasting on delicate chocolates!

Decorated Elephants on display in Luxembourg

One in the shop covered in 

Also while we were in Luxembourg it was just the end of an elephant awareness fundraiser, where artists paint life size statues of baby elephants and they go on display around cities then are auctioned off and the proceeds going to help endangered elephants. It was the last day when we were there, so all the elephants were conveniently in one place for us to look at and take pictures with. We also went to the shop and bought our own mini one to decorate. - Although didn't really think it through how I'll get it back to NZ as it is quite heavy....

My own to mini Elephant to decorate

Another Elephant Display

Still smiling after two weeks of travelling!

Well after two weeks of travelling I was pleased to sleep in my own bed and have a half decent shower without wearing jandals. I am busy back in school now teaching and assisting in lessons, I will post an update soon from the last few weeks back in Mainz. Time really has flown and its only 35 days until Addison arrives!! 

Part Two: 2 weeks, 3 countries and 7 cities!

Well finally getting on to part two of my adventure, I could say I haven't had time, but I would be lying. I only work '12 Stunde' per week - which is meant to mean 12 hours, but actually its 12 periods at school per week, which only equals 9hours as the periods are only 45min long..

Florence: Day Six

The Catherdal in Florence

View from Top after 463 stairs! 

Definitely worth it!  (That is the bell tower of the cathedral)

 We started our day in Florence with the cathedral which was one of the most prettiest cathedrals I have seen. Most are quite Gothic style looking but the one in Florence looks like a mosaic on the outside made up of thousands of  tiny little coloured tiles. After being given instruction that we must climb the dome from Emma (Addison's sister) we made our way up the 463 stairs, which actually spiral around inside the dome to the very top for an amazing view of Florence.

After we had caught our breath, soaked in the view and made our way down, we ventured on to see the Ponte Vecchio. On our way we stopped and saw this statue outside a museum. Just some guy on guy action.

The Ponte Vecchio apparently the most photographed bridge in Italy (maybe the world) and is famous for being the first bridge built by the Romans and for having shops also built on the bridge. The river unfortunately wasn't the nicest looking, being all brown.

Ponte Vecchio 

Maddie and I at the Ponte Vecchio

Me on the way to Michael Angelo Square.

Just another amazing street in Italy.

Me and the (replica) Statue of David

Next we made our way over the river and up a small hill to Michael Angelo Square, where the statue of David once lived. . There is just a replica statue in its place now. Sadly we learnt this after our visit so we thought we were viewing the actual statue of David. On the way we cut through some side streets, I just love the typical Italy street, narrow road with a thousand cars parked along each side and then just lined with coloured apartment type buildings

The Dome of the Cathedral

View from the Bell tower of Florence and a bit of the Dome of the Cathedral

Afterwards we conquered the bell tower next to the cathedral which had just as many steps but an equally amazing view of Florence, the cathedral and the dome.

Milan: Day Seven & Eight

The Milan Cathedral

Fountain in Milan

I can't resist a European looking bike for a photo! Love this bike. 

Oustide the castle

Milan isn't very rich in sight seeing, most of it was destroyed after the war so it was rebuilt and is actually quite modern looking compared to the rest of Italy, wider streets and the buildings don't have as much character.
So why did we visit Milan... the shopping! Although I didn't buy much (a dress and a few tops), we did a lot of looking at all the shops Milan had to offer. It was nice to relax and stroll the city.

We did visit the cathedral which is the largest in.. Europe (don't quote me on that), but it took thousands of years to build, and was only officially completed a few years ago.

We also visited a castle, and had afternoon tea in the park, they were having a sign up day or something similar for a 5km fun run the following day, which we were tempted by for a free T-shirt, but couldn't work out how to sign up and was told it was 'impossible' by one official.

Afternoon tea in Milan

Part Three to come..... Dijon, Nancy and Luxembourgh