Between Paris and Now…

… a lot of things have happened.  These things were important, but not large enough to take up a whole blog post each, so I’m writing a bit of a bits and pieces blog to update my lovely fans (that’s you, if you’re reading this) on my lovely life.

1.The twins turned 1. I’m pretty sure they didn’t really get what was going on, but I was excited.  I’m sewing them summer dresses as a present (they’re not finished yet, but neither is winter so that’s ok!) and I’m still excited that they’re actually a year old!!! We celebrated with extended family coffee and cake – in true Erichshof style, there were approximately 10 cakes! 

2. Australia Day (this actually happened on the same day as #1).  Celebrated by going to the pub with Ellie (the other Aussie Au Pair!!), drinking beer, eating Tim Tams and playing cards with Aussie Flag playing cards (thanks Courtney!)

3. Max’s Birthday.  Celebrated at his house with his extended family.  There was pizza.  I gave him M&M’s, movie tickets, a Ferrari, and my last packet of Tim Tams (it was a double pack, and no, he still hasn’t given me any even though he said he would).  It was a lovely night!  I don’t have a photo of the night, but here’s the photo of us that I gave him for Christmas.  Photography by a super wonderful photographer.

4. 6 Months with Max.  That went fast!  Celebrated by sending each other cute little text messages because we were both at work (lame, I know, but we’ll celebrate it sometime soonish!).  Here’s another photo of us because we’re just so cute.

*Just a short commentary to this photo: this was taken the night we met – he was trying to tell me he would beat me in a fight (or maybe that we should have a fight?  It was 6 months ago – I don’t remember exactly!) As you can tell, I took him very seriously!

5. Winter arrived.  This was celebrated by whinging all day how cold it is, avoiding leaving the house at all costs, and checking the calendar 5 times a day to see if Summer is any closer.  I did, however, leave the house at –14 degrees one morning, and was gone for a significant amount of time.  I had to buy Max’s birthday present.  I also left the house one or two other times, but otherwise, it’s been Indoor Rachel for the past couple of weeks! 

6. Yesterday the Maschsee was “Freigegeben” – in English that means “given the all clear”.  This means that it’s completely frozen – minimum 13cm ice in ALL parts of it and you’re allowed to go on it.  You’re allowed to go on it in Summer too, but then you have to have a boat.  Today I went on it without a boat.  That was fun.

7. Sarka and I went to the Ice Disco  tonight.  That’s like the school disco except in the Ice Skating Rink.  It was way cool.

That’s all I have, so I’ll leave you with this photo of the cutest 1 year olds alive.

Winter

Temperatutes this past week or so have dropped severely. And that's putting it mildly. Today was MINUS 5 and that's pretty warm.

On Thursday morning it was MINUS 14 (YES - FOURTEEN!!!!)and I actually left the house.

Also, we had snow.

Paris, the city of….. love?

So, contrary to what I was previously informed, I did not love Paris. 

I liked it, sure, but really, it wasn’t amazing.  Everyone talks about how it’s such a beautiful city and so amazing and everything, and quite frankly, I didn’t see that at all.

Now I have to say, Paris has never been super high on my Must See List.  Not that I doubted it’s amazingness prior to going there, just that there are other things I wanted to see first.  However, compared to every other city I’ve been to, big or small, actually, the small towns as well, there’s always a surprise.  If you look for it, if you get lost, take a wrong turn, go searching for something to eat, or just take a tip from someone else who did, you’ll find an amazing cafe, or a piece of art or the Centre of Britain (really happened.), or a park or SOMETHING.  In Berlin there’s always something new to see – someone does something crazy or the light hits something in a different way and transforms it.  In London there’s SO MUCH to see (Berlin too), in Budapest every single thing you see is stunning.  You walk a metre and then take another photo.  In Copenhagen it’s stunning and fun and interesting.  Every city or town is like that.  I’ve seriously loved everywhere I’ve been, except Paris.

Now don’t get me wrong, I had a great time there, and saw some REALLY beautiful things – the Eiffel Tower, l’Arc de Triomph, le Palais Garnier (Paris Opera House, aka my new home.  Seriously, I love it.), Notre Dame, the Louvre, the river, it was all absolutely stunning.  And Montmartre (where my hostel was) – the Moulin Rouge (did I mention I was just around the corner from it???), the Pigalle (red light district), the artists areas are all funky and cool and heaps of fun but you go to Paris with a list of things to see and do and when your list is complete there’s not much else – there’s no surprises, nothing changes, nothing’s new.  And all that in one of the most expensive cities for tourists in all of Europe!  The only thing I wanted to see and didn’t get time for was Versailles.  And one day when I’m rich I’ll go back and go to the opera there.  But otherwise, I don’t feel the need to ever return to Paris.

Anywho, enough of me ranting about Paris and it’s less-than-averageness, let’s get to the good stuff, namely, what did we get up to?

The first night we went for food and a walk – we ate at a Brasserie which had great chicken and chips, fabulous wine, and what more could you want?!  And we walked around and saw a few different things – a church, the Palais Garnier Opera, a few other things, and then headed back to hotel and hostel to sleep.  The next day we headed out for a fabulous free walking tour (I flippin LOVE New Europe Tours – without a doubt the best tours I’ve ever done.  And they’re free!  Thanks for the tip Nikki!) which covered most of the major sites, then we had lunch in a little cafe with the guide (and by golly it was a good lunch!).  Then we went to the Eiffel Tower, waited a LOOOOOOOONG time, but not too long considering what we were told it would be, caught the lift up to the 2nd floor (top floor was closed) and managed to be up there in time for sunset!  How perfect!!!  Paris, the Eiffel Tower, sunset…. how romantic!  And who did I have to share it with?  My boyfriend?  A mysterious tall, dark and handsome man?  Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant? No.  Mummy, Daddy, my brother and my sister!!!  Wow!

The next day we headed firstly to my one and only must-see – the Palais Oper Garnier, aka the Paris Opera, aka setting of the Phantom of the Opera aka AMAZING THEATRE!!!!!  It seriously was so beautiful, you cannot understand.  And you’re only allowed as a tourist on 3 levels!!!!  No fair!  There’s 5 underground levels PLUS the above ones I WANT TO SEE IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  You can have no idea how much! Anyway, as we were there they were checking the set functions for the Danish Royal Ballet performance and let me tell you that set was beautiful.  For my theatrically inclined friends, I have several photos, let me know if you want them! Then we went to Notre Dame, also beautiful, and, interestingly enough, the film The Hunchback of Notre Dame is remarkably accurate in its portrayal of the inside of the cathedral, especially the altar.  So there’s a fun fact for you.  We then headed to the ENORMOUS Louvre for a VERY quick trip – we saw some Michelangelo, the no-nose Sphynx sculpture, the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa (thanks to my crowd negotiating skillz aka my semi violent pushing and shoving of several little old ladies and their abnormally huge male relatives I managed to get right in front of her!) and my new fave sculpture, pictured here.  ISN’T IT LOVELY AND AMAZING?!! Anyways, then we went to l’Arc de Triomph which was nice because by then it was sunset and everything was pretty and then we walked down the Champs Elysees and then it was time to go get my stuff from the hotel and head for my train.

Now THAT was a hard goodbye.  Seriously.  Cried a fair bit on the train and the man sharing my compartment was kind enough to pretend not to notice.  Then I got back to Hannover at 6am (oh, how I hate overnight trains) on Saturday morning, took the tram and the bus back home, crawled into bed and slept for 3 hours, before being woken by an SMS from mum asking if I got there ok, and then 2 minutes later one from Max apologising that he didn’t pick me up from the train station (I’d said he didn’t have to but apparently he planned to anyway then slept through his alarm or something!).  How lovely.

Letting off Fireworks At Midnight!

Our Adventures continue with heroine Rachel and her family in Europe. The setting: New Years Eve...

The family arrived in the afternoon and we all had coffee and biscuits. Or cake. One or the other. The kids were VERY excited to finally meet them and as you can imagine they showed it! Daniel was dragged off to Magnus' room to play and Henny took Sarah on a grand tour of the house - she saw the play room, Henny's princess box, the girls' bedroom, Hennys bed, Hennys old bed, Johannas bed, Johannas old bed, and the twins beds. So everything important. Meanwhile the babies played cute and Johanna got all shy and pretended like she hadn't spent the last 3 days asking every half hour when Sarah would arrive.

Sometime later Max came over for New Years Eve dinner. We all ate together (all 8 adults, 3 kids - the twins went to bed!) at the giant table in the dining room. It was a SUPER delicious meal - a meat fondue with 3 different types of meat marinated and then there was sauces and stuff to go with it. YUMMY!!!

At some stage Henny and Johanna dropped off and were taken upstairs to sleep, but Magnus managed to stay awake and a bit before 12 we got all rugged up and headed out the front. There we met Hanns' parents and his aunt who came over from their house up the road to join us for the fireworks. In Germany, as well as the official New Years fireworks like we have in Sydney, for New Years, everyone is allowed to let off their own fireworks. And from the field road we can see the fireworks in Hannover, and in all the villages surrounding us so when 12 hit the whole sky was full of beautiful fireworks - and the boys all had fun letting off ours too!!!

On Sunday Max met us again at the house and Mum, Dad, Daniel, Sarah and Johanna joined Max and I at church. There weren't lots of people there because it was New Years Day but it was a lovely morning, I thought. Then we went to Burger King for lunch and let me tell you, you aint never seen anyone eat chips until you've seen Johanna eat chips. That girl is a machine. Then we went to take a look around the Town Hall which has cool scale models of Hannover pre- during- and post- war. Johanna fell asleep on the way so we all took turns carrying her and then I sat on the steps in there like a hobo and waited till the others were finished. Oh well, I've been there before, anyways. Mum has photos of Hobo Rachel and Loudly Snoring Johanna, I'm sure.

On Monday the family went with Hanns on a little tour of the farm and I stayed inside where it wasn't raining! In the afternoon we headed into Hannover and just sort of had a walk around the main pedestrian area - Sarah did a bit of shopping and we headed into a cafe for some fabulous hot chocolate on a tip from Hanns (I will DEFINITELY be going back there). We headed home and Mum and Dad made pizza for dinner and camped out in front of the TV for the night while Daniel, Sarah, Max and I headed to a cocktail bar to meet Sarka - my very first friend in Germany! It was lovely.

Tuesday we drove up to Bremen and met up with Dads cousin who lives there. It was so cool to be able to finally meet so many of Dad's family members, especially one who lives SO CLOSE to me!! We went into town and met up with his wife and they showed us a little around Bremen before we went home and I rushed upstairs to get ready for... The Christmas Present From Max!! (Yes, I went on a date while my parents were here - don't judge it was a one night only event in Hannover!). The Christmas Present was tickets to a German Production of Phantom of the Opera - yes, I think it's safe to say he's a keeper! It was a fabulous night!

Wednesday my family drove to Berlin and I stayed home. But it's ok because then they came back and took me to Belgium and France with them!