Greetings from the heart of the Black Forest!

Upon leaving Poland, we headed to Berlin in expectant of a night filled with hard-core partying! We planned on experiencing the famous underground clubs of Berlin. However, in true 'girls in europe' style, we went off track slightly and went on a bar-crawl. We are extremely proud of ourselves as we managed to explore a wide variety of bars (a beach bar, with sand as flooring; a posh bar, furnished with deep red leather seats; a gothic bar that had an ecletic taste in statues, such as four-boobed women- which Erika found fascinating! We also managed to walk into a brothel by accident! Not many people can claim to have done that! ) High-five! We downed one too many (we blame the beach bar as they had happy hour till 5am!) and engaged ourselves in an absurb, drunken conversation, which we vaguely remember being about saving people and magic of Wicca (don't ask!!)

The next day we woke up crippled from our hangovers but decided to be sensible and get to the station two hours before our train departs to the Black Forest. We sat in Subway, nursing our headaches and piecing together a picture of what happened the night before.

Erika, at 12.10, decided to get some chewing gum.

At 12.15, she has yet to return. By now, Cam and Ali are beginning to fret as our train is due to leave at 12.27.

At 12.20, Ali begins to publicly display her frustration and runs around, trying to find Erika.

At 12.25, Cam has given up hope of catching the train and decides to finish her drink.

At 12.26, Erika struts back into Subway, calm and collected. She casually mentions that the train is still at the platform. To this, Cam and Ali immediately scoop up their bags and we all run like deranged people to catch the train, knocking people over on the way!

At 12.28, the train leaves Berlin Bahnhof with Ali, Erika and Cam on board. Madness!!

The effecient, modern, air-conditioned and comfortable trains of Germany are a stark contrast to the rusty, hot and dusty trains we have travelled on all over Eastern Europe. If you ask us which train we prefer, our answer would, surprisingly, be the rusty, hot and dusty trains. We loved the charm and rawness of the old trains and the interesting people we met on board. After a six hour journey, we finally arrive in the Black Forest and immediately search for a restaurant to sastify our ravenous stomachs. We found ourselves in a village so did not have much choice so we settled for a Pizzeria. It was quite surreal as the waiter asked Cam to communicate with him in French, instead of German (this might be because of her appalling German! Oh well!)

We finally get to our hostel at 11pm, via taxi as there were no buses! The next day we decide to walk to the beautiful, vast lake that lies in the middle of the Black Forest. We decided to hire an electric boat (especially after witnessing Ali's scary rowing skills in Prague) and explore the lake. Erika, being the water babe, was compelled by the water surrounding her and so stripped down to her bikini and jumped in. Cam wanted to jump in as well, but then thought "how on earth could Ali haul us both out of the water?" and decided to stay in the boat. This was very sensible thinking on her part as we then noticed a sign, placed by the wheel, which read "no jumping into the water from the boat". Alas! Erika has broken a German law! Having understood the sheer awfulness of her actions, Erika was reduced to a quaking little girl and expected the German army to pounce on her in any minute!

We then headed to the swimming pool, which was on the border of the lake so people could flit between the two. While Ali sunbathed, Erika and Cam jumped into the lake and swam 3/4 of the way, before realising that they may have been gone for a while and Ali would begin to worry. They then reunited with Ali and we all frolicked in the swimming pool (holding front crawl competitions etc). We had a shower afterwards but, because it was steaming hot, we couldn't bring ourselves to leave so the lifeguard had to frog-march us out, semi-naked!

We realised that we had neglected our stomachs all day (save for a bounty bar and a hearty breakfast, provided by the hostel!) so when we passed a restaurant on the way back to our hostel, we jumped at the opportunity to have a meal. However, we perhaps jumped a bit too far as we discovered it was a four star hotel. We were soaking wet, with unironed, dirty clothes...no wonder why we were subjected to dirty looks from our fellow diners!! Nevertheless, the meal was delicious!

Our activites the next day was not as excessive...we spent the whole day dying our hair! Typical! When surrounded by this beautiful scenery and fresh air, we opt to pass the day in the hair-dressers! Ali was up first- she had a few streaks of light brown colour applied to her hair (which looks beautiful might I add!) Erika and Cam made use of the spare time they had and sampled every product and cream the beauty shop sold! We came out smelling sweet and feeling very fresh and pampered! Next was Erika. Adopting her usual 'WOW' attitude to life, she chose to dye a thick strand of hair deep red. But, as we all know how much luck Erika is permitted to in life, her hair came out a bright red, Bobo the clown colour (as Ali kindly puts it!) So we rushed to the chemist and bought a bottle of chocolate brown hair dye to recify the error!

As we had to get up very early (6am ish) the next morning, we agreed to go to bed early. But, what happens? Do we go to bed early? No, of course not!! We decide to talk till 1am. Then do we think "Ooh its getting a bit late"? No, of course not! Our deformed brains think it is now appropriate to dye Erika's hair in the small hours of the morning! No wonder why we missed the alarm the next morning!!

Thus, we have decided it is sponaneity in Germany!! Goodness knows what will happen in Amsterdam (our next and last destination!) xxx