So basically i've found that i'm too lazy to update this blog. We're in Berlin at the moment and we've caught up with a friend who came to NZ for a week or so, and after having a (large) beer on the lawn by the river by Berlin Cathedral... and then another beer now that we're back at his apartment whilst waiting for dinner, i've decided it's time to attempt to fill in some gaps.
Since we last left you readers we were somewhere in Africa. I'd repeated some stories about nothing much and that's essentially how the rest of Africa went for us. Although that sounds really depressing, it isn't really. We managed to leave Africa without contracting any diseases, parasites (as far as we know, although I was hoping for a worm in my chest), or being kidnapped (that did happen to two seperate groups we'd been travelling with). After Malawi we arrived in Tanzania and finally something other than deep fried chicken and chips, or meat and rice to eat. Fantastic country with a unique history for this part of Africa due to it's Muslim influence. Call to prayer was pretty cool (100000000 times a day), and in places I discovered my favourite prayer MC's. To top our trip off, we spent a week in Zanzibar and were chased off the island by Dani's drug addict friends.
Just to punish ourselves, we left the balmy 35 degree temps (and incredibly humid... like non-stop sweating humid) for the ever balmy London (all of 5 degrees when we arrived). Andy and Helen put us up for what turned into almost a week in their lovely flat in Fulham. We caught up with friends, visited the ever awesome Natural Histoy Museum and Kew Gardens and with Andy's guidence, undertook an adventure on Boris's Bikes (the mayors hire bike scheme).
Following London, it was time to touch base again with the family in Estonia. This was a bit daunting for me as I hadn't seen them in almost 10 years. London had been cold after Africa but had put on some amazing warm weather. However, after vowing never to return to Estonia in winter, as we approached the airport, Dani tapped me on the shoulder to point out the snow and ice that still lay on the ground. Even though it did warm up over the week we were there, the first day max temp was 4 degrees, and Dani was able to walk out onto the frozen Baltic Sea (never before has she been able to walk on water). It was great visiting places I hadn't seen in a long time, and my cousin Katre (not actually my direct cousin but will do for the sake of argument) spent a lot of time showing us around. Kristi my other cousin made it across from Sweden and on Sunday we had a big family reunion with about 20 people making it (all of who we didn't even know existed 15 years ago). A highlight of the afternoon was when my Nana's little sister remembered that our great great great great (or there abouts) grandmother was given to her husband for his dog in the 1600's by her father! Now this is something to brag about.
Anyway, we are now in Berlin and will be in Germany for a month. Andy and Helen from London are meeting us here in the weekend and we are off down the Romantic Highway together. Oli from NZ is meeting up with us this weekend as well so it'll be great to catch up with a bit of fresh NZ on the other side of the world.
Dinner is ready, but check out the photo's that DG has been putting up on Flicker. As i'm in Germany and using a crazy key board i'm going to smack in all the crazy keys these weirdos have ä ö ü € y § instead of z and a there's a bunch of other annoying misplaced keys!!
