Part 82: Danke, Ellerau

My time in Ellerau has drawn to a close already and tomorrow I head off to Berlin. Unfortunately. I was invited to go out tomorrow night by a bunch of people, figures that happens just as I am leaving, but I'll get to this.

Today was really a good last day in the Hamburg/Ellerau area with the day beginning by Jette and I going into Hamburg to check out the Customs museum I had been meaning to go to. We arrived there and paid the 2Euro fare and then toured around the interactive museum. Most of it was in German which was a shame but there were some English boards here and there and Jette would translate sometimes which was great. We stayed there for just over an hour before making our way into the main city section of Hamburg to go in search for a new backpack for me and some shoes for Jette. It was fun cruising the streets and what was awesome was that finding the perfect backpack was really easy. Its an ugly thing, but man is it practical with a laptop compartment and all. My old one broke so I needed a new one quick smart for my Berlin journey tomorrow!

Eventually Eiva (I think thats right, maybe not, pronounced ee-va) Jettes sister, and Fredericke, Jettes mum met us in town to pay for Jettes shoes and then Jette, Eiva and I toured Hamburg some more and Fredericke wet back home. It was cool touring around with them because between them they knew some things to point out and also this cool non-touristy place to go in Hamburg. Its a really 'posh' area but whats odd is that it doesn't look it. It looks quite the opposite but thats, I think, part of the charm. Its bizarre. We bought some lollies and then looked at the massively grafitted houses etc. for a while before slowly making our ways back home. It was a nice time in Hamburg and we got back around 5ish.

Back home, I went and computered while Jette and Eiva did there own things. Jette had a girls-night out to go to tonight so Eiva invited me to go hang ot with her and her friends for a games night thing that her and her mates were having. I packed all my stuff and by 9.30 we were there. At first I got mixed reactions for being there. My presence meant that they would have to speak a little bit of English here and there and some people where stoked and others well...weren't. I did say that if they didn't want to speak English it was fine but the Eiva sad they had to so eventually everyone, except one girl, spoke English a fair bit which made it great.

We started playing some game where you draw, explain or act out a word to move foward. It was interesting because sometimes it would be English, others German and then when it was my turn the card that I drew was passed around to all my non-team mates to find the perfect translation. A few drinks later we ended up changing the game because two people had to go home making the teams uneven. We then played red-faces which was really good fun and everyone enjoyed the challenge of doing it in English. It was cool and they all were an awesome group of people. There was 12 of us all up and I ended up coming second being 'Pamela Anderson'.

Eventually though, I had to go home, it was 1am and I have to be up and out by 9 tomorrow morning. When I was leaving they were all saying I should go to Kiel tomorrow where Eiva is having a party. It would have been awesome but I have booked everything and I am in Berlin so I cant make it :/ Still! It was good hanging out with them. I think they were all about 22ish except one girl who was my age and she was good to talk too :) Good times.

Now I really should get going to bed as I do have to be up early tomorrow so I will leave you and apologise for the rushedness of this blog!

Night!

p.s. Danke - Thanks. Special 'danke' to the Merkels for hosting me these last 10 days!