Today was the day that we (well, Keeley) had been looking forward to for quite some time. We made our way to Tropical Island, the largest indoor water park in the whole world. Located about 60km SW of Berlin, the place is gigantic – inside an old aircraft hangar, you drive past all these old military bunkers to get to it. It is a very professional arrangement, where you get a wristband as you enter and pay for each thing as you use it. There is a rainforest, a big 'beach', a 'lagoon' pool with fountains and spas and a current pool that spins everybody around. Another section of the park is devoted to saunas and relaxing – naturally we ignored this bit. There are a couple of restaurants, cocktail bars, fast food places, a stage, a 4000 sq m kiddie land (only maybe a sixth of the park) and best of all three big waterslides. We spent most of our time on the slides and in the lagoon. The highest slide was an exhilarating seven seconds of pure speed, then there was a very slow twisty slide, and the most fun one was the slide that you rode down on rubber tyres. There seemed to be no rules to the tyre slide – some people were going down in trains of five, others without a tyre at all. We went solo (you often twisted around so you couldn't see where you were going), in a train (our combined weight made us go quite fast) and both on the same tyre (even faster – we flipped off towards the end of the day). It was great fun. The way the park is designed makes it really attractive to families, and although it was Wednesday there were lots of people around. You can even stay at the park overnight in tents – it is open 24hrs. A few people looked like they weren't going to pay for the tents and had set up sleeping bags on the benches at the 'beach'.
By the time we got back to Berlin we were tired from swimming all day (and climbing the steps to the slides – preseason training =)). We made some epic nachos for dinner, had a long chat with some Aussie girls we'd met, and finished with some fantastic celebration crepes to congratulate me for my appointment to U18s Nationals (Keeley felt it was important to include this). Tomorrow we have to go around and see all the sights of Berlin we've missed so far, even though we may freeze to death in the process…
I write again, I don't promise that it will be new and exciting, you have read it all before. For the benefit of the few people who care about my thoughts of Europe, here is the second highlights package.
Didn't particularly like Prague and that is all that will be said on the subject because this is for Highlights.
Vienna wasn't that impressive either, which was a little disappointing since I had such a good time last time. I blame the company. We did find a brilliant music museum 'haus der musik'. It was interactive and very interesting, it was all about future music. Other then that there was snow, eye-seeking snow- I'm serious it would fly up under my hat to get my eyes, very uncool.
The overnight bus was interesting, you don't expect the bus driver to get lost, but he did.
Rome was brilliant, sunny and almost warm, interesting and full of character. The colosseum was very cool to see and I learnt a whole heap of interesting facts that weren't in gladiator. The best thing that we did in Rome was easily the Vespa ride. So much fun, and I hardly drove the thing. Was quite happy looking at the sights instead of remembering to stay on the wrong (or right, as the case may be) side of the road.
Venice, easily my favourite place in Italy and the only place to come close to equalling Poland, in fact I think I would go as far to say that it does. The canals, the glass blowing, the MASKS! I was in heaven. It took me the whole 3 days to pick a mask, but the one I got is perfect. The food was a bit of a highlight in itself. We had the craziest pizza the first night, half Mr. X (so what ever they had left over in the kitchen) and half fried potato (which is French fries). It was different, I'll give it that.
Then we headed to Innsbruck, a ski village sandwiched between huge snow capped mountains. It is amazingly brilliant, every time you turn a corner the view gets better. Innsbruck was the hosts of a winter Olympics, so the place is scattered with Olympic venues. We read in a brochure about bob-sledding and decided that we had to give it a go. I was amazing; it only lasted about 42 and a half seconds but was incredible fun. You go up the side of the walls and are 90 degrees to the bottom of the run. Its brilliant fun! The bobsled is so rattly that you swear you are going to fall out. It was simply the best experience and money much better spent then going on a Gondola ride in Venice, me thinks.
Oh and the food, nearly forgot the food here. We met some 'locals' on the bobsled, they invited us out to dinner at this micro brewery. We were instructed to order off the 'Triolian Specialties' page as this is traditional food to the area. It was great. We both got a meat dish that had pork and beef fried in a pan with potatoes and onions. It was SO yummy. I also got an iced hot chocolate; it was different, but not bad.
We then headed to Lauterbach in Germany. For those of you who don't know that is where I did exchange in 2006. We stayed with my host family, however Johanna, the only English speaker in the family was in Ireland. We have had a good time trying to communicate. It's been hard, but I think that since we are both trying really hard that it is sort of working. While staying here, we have been making the 2 hour trek into Frankfurt to watch the hockey. But it is worth it. The hockey is great fun, we have been missing it a fair bit and it is good just to watch and pick on all umpires and stupid players getting cards. On one of the nights, we went out to dinner with Mr. Stepf and his wife, Mr. Stepf being one of the German teachers from the exchange. It was such an enjoyable night and I am so glad that we made the effort to catch up. They took us out to a very nice restaurant (Italian) in Fulda and then to a micro brewery afterwards. They were such lovely people and we both had a great time. Scott got some good wine and beer while the waitress struggled to give me a vodka and OJ… Oh and he had some crazy shot I am very glad I didn't try because you had to chew on coffee beans.
I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks, the home run. We have set a date for our return, it gets us in the day before Scott graduates. So the next month is going to get a bit busier, but that in itself is exciting. We finish Germany, 4 days in Berlin, and the worlds biggest indoor water park, I'm so excited. And 3 days in Munich. Then we head back into the Alps for a couple of days (Bad Gastein, Austria and Interlaken, Switzerland) Before really kicking things up a notch. The short way to write it is Switzerland, France, Spain, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium Germany, Home. See you all in a month and a bit, and please everyone keep safe.
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