The Daily Ju, coming at you from Munich and Herne, Germany

Germany has been my favourite country by far to date - but it's also the first country i've been to that i have never seen before. Oktoberfest was everything and nothing i thought it would be...there was a fair grounds that was maybe a touch nicer than what you'd see at the medicine hat stampede ;) but the beer tents is where we made our mark...you order beer by the litres and even can order a half a roast chicken which was DELICIOUS! we were so drunk but you have to get there early or you won't get a spot in the beer tents, which means you won't get served. by 8 we all thought it must have been 12 at night, but we crawled out of the grounds and stopped at another little bar before we hit the hay. then we drove back 7 hours on the autobahn (which at times has speed limits, and even has a speed limit for tanks...yes - army tanks - which i thought was odd...but whatever) we've been taking it all in in Herne, Germany where my dear friend Shannon McNeven (a good old canadian boy) has been an amazing host. we even helped him repaint his room which you would not believe the monstrosity it was before. hopefully we'll get our pictures up soon from germany...we've been good little guests, helping out around the house, cleaning up and even constructed a bed for shannon. he plays and runs a hockey team out here and we went to watch them play last night...the crowd was amazing. we've only been here for a few days but we're already sad to leave tonight. we've really been trying to learn german while we're here, which has run on either really proper german or cursing german. we learn the cursing german at the bar. The lower part of germany is called Bavaria and picture driving through the mountains in British Columbia...so beautiful with little towns spread around.

This trip has really made me branch out of the julie box that i've been living in for the last 24 years. this morning i had corn flakes with honey on it (at the request of our wonderful host shannon aka shanny even though i told him i don't like to try new things in the morning) last night i had chili and a turkey sandwich for supper. the day before i had a saurkraut, lamb, and cucumber sauce pita for supper - although i will admit i had no idea what it was made of before i ate it. not to mention the poached eggs, the pork THING that i ate in london, and the sick kebab that i had at 5 in the morning in London (and we can all imagine that beer gave me the courage to do it). i had a "jambon" panini in paris and have really been throwing my inhibitions to the wind...so mum and dad - not to worry, i'm not going to come back all shriveled up and weighing nothing, because this really is the trip of new things...and a lot of old things, because we still have been embracing the bar scene...

lots to do, i have to book our tickets to sweden which we'll be arriving in tomorrow! as the older sister i have to keep things rolling smoothly as rach can sit back and enjoy the life of a younger sibling