New Years in Germany

I arrived at Doris' on the 29th of December and caught a train to Halle, Germany on the 30th to celebrate Silvester (German New Years) with my friends there. Since Doris and I didn't take into consideration the possiblity of traffic (and we were both on the phone) we managed to miss my train to Halle. Whoops. I was at a 50% success rate of catching my schedulded travel plans. Wonderful. We got another train, finally got ahold of Evi's parents (who were picking me up) and I arrived there an hour later than planned, but nothing horrible. I got to go through Leipzig's train station, though, and it was beautiful! They still had up all of the Christmas lights. I love this time of year in Europe. And as a FAST FACT: it is Europe's largest train station and all of the trains only pull in one way and go out the same way. Very unique. I got to meet Evi's new boyfriend, very nice I might add, and enjoy a wonderful dinner with her family and friend Caro.

After having slept half the day of New Years Eve Evi and I went into town to visit my host family, Uwe and Andrea. It was so good to see them again!!! I wish I could have spent more time there, but since the party was right around the corner, we had to get going. Everyone started coming over to Evi's and the evening of fun and celebration began. We had a great dinner and played a game. I have no idea what its called, but its basically a mix of pictionary, charades, and Catch phrase...in German. Caro and I (picture) were on a team and were in the lead the whole way but ended up coming in second at the end. Still pretty good for a non-native speaker!! We counted down to the new year, toasted our champaign and then headed outside in snow for the fireworks. I love how everyone goes into the streets and there are just fireworks all around. Since Evi lives in a small village, much few fireworks, but still fun none the less. It snowed every day I was in Halle. I loved it!

The next day (Jan 1) was pretty worthless so we made plans to go out for a wild Saturday night in Leipzig (Jan 2). We lounged around a lot of the day but did make it to their new-ish mall for a small shopping round (nothing purchased) and headed home. George was already waiting for us with a rope and a sled. We were going sledding!!!! I have never actually sledded on a real sled (on plastic saucers at White Sands). So since Halle is flat, we hooked it onto the the bumper of his van and started our journey. It was a blast! I wore all of the protective gear as well. Didn't want to get hurt!!! The next day I caught a train back down to Nurnberg to spend some more time with Doris.

I got on the schedulded train this time, it was late due to weather, but at least it wasn't my fault! There was so much snow and cold weather many of the trains were suffering delays. Halle probably got around 10 inches of snow while I was there. So it was a beautiful white train ride down to Nurnberg where Doris and I hunkered down for the evening. It was cold and her mom made an amazing meal. We didn't want to do anything after that! The next day, we got the bright idea to go shopping. We had so much lucky it was unbelievable! We had a great time, got coffee in the city, worked our muscles caring big heavy shopping bags and rewarded ourself with sushi for dinner. We then hurried home to watch Pretty Woman (in German) and have a relaxing night with her parents. The next day I was catching more flight to get back to Amsterdam to start my new life!