The Land of Goethe and Schiller

It's been an eventful week, dear readers. In the last seven (or maybe eight) days I've been called upon to face a lot of things I didn't really want to have to, including horrible homesickness, internet banking troubles and a haircut I wish I hadn't bothered with.

Luckily, I've also had lots of fun too, starting with the morning I checked my internet banking (at that point still accessible...) to see that I had been paid! I could have cried tears of joy but instead I responded by going for coffee with the other assistants in Halle, the lovely David, Fanny, Anastacia and our visitor Adam from Leipzig, which of course turned into beers. The next day I headed out onto Halle's shopping boulevard with images of myself tossing credit cards in every direction and strutting down the cobbled street laden with bags full of luxurious goods. In reality, though, Halle's shopping leaves much to be desired, and I came home with one sad bag from H&M. Looks like I have miles to go before I can get used to this Shopping In Germany thing!

Thursday night saw me putting on my war paint for the Erasmus students pub crawl. I met Franzi and her bike at the first pub then met Fanny, Charlotte and Jack at the station. When tequila got involved, things definitely escalated quickly. I don't remember too much from the "club" we ended up in, but I can't forget the Currywurst we inevitably ended the night with. Delicious.

After guiding my somewhat weary Leipziger friends to the station on Friday morning I went for lunch with Eliza and Helena, two other assistants working in the region, and then headed to Dresden! I was really excited to see where one of my best friends had ended up, and meet the flatmates I'd heard so much about. Emma, Ross Anne and I stuffed ourselves with Mexican food then headed to hear some blues music but decided on a fairly early night due to feeling sick. After blaming the food, we eventually realised the cause was actually the carbon monoxide leak in Emma's flat! Don't know if anything could have put a much bigger damper on the weekend. But Dresden is a really overwhelmingly beautiful city and it was great to see my girls, and I'd definitely love to go back and visit again properly when the dangerous gas has been eliminated.

After a lazy but stressful Monday, which involved waking up at midday (got to love school holidays!) to discover I had been locked out of my online banking, I woke up bright and early on Tuesday for a trip to Weimar! I didn't know much about this little city in Thuringia, but after about half an hour there I had already fallen in love with it. It's beautiful in a very different way to Dresden: while Dresden is all about grandeur and spectacle, Weimar is stunning in a much quieter, more modest way. It's wonderful to just walk around and take it all in, and I think we visited at the perfect time of year as the autumn leaves made it even more picturesque! We didn't visit the Goethe or Schiller museums, being terrible German students, so I can't report on those. But I would definitely recommend a day trip to Weimar if you're within easy reach, and if you can get one of Deutsche Bahn's ridiculously good value Laender-Tickets then even better, as we managed to get there and back for 7 euros each!

I also took some photos on my new/old SLR too, which I'll be posting when I get them developed! I'm off to the zoo here in Halle tomorrow with one of my flatmates, and tomorrow night I'll be partying with two awesome ladies, so I'll have plenty to report on next time!