Weihnachten und so weiter...

Hi again! Right... Where to begin!

Where I left off, I suppose.

On the 21st, Lissi and I got on a train at 8am, that travelled at 300km/h, to Nürnberg where we met up with my good friend Madeleine and her family, who are here on a family trip through Europe. The first thing we did (after an excited reunion, of course) was get on another train to the beautiful little town on Bamberg.

This church celebrates its 1000th birthday next year. I know. Bamberg was virtually undamaged after the war, unlike most of the region around it, because there was fog when bombs were being dropped. Thus, little Bamberg stayed intact.

We went to a traditional German pub for lunch, and I had this traditional Bavarian meal: a meat-stuffed onion. Weird.

After lunch we took the train back to Nürnberg, where we had a look at the famed Christmas markets.

We took a horse and carriage around the market. Very fun :)

After that awesome day came two days with much more drama than we would have liked. On the first day, while Lea was out, she was hit by a car. It's not serious, she was just very shaken, but the driver drove off and no one on the street helped her. Very stressful for everyone. The next day was our last day at school, and everyone swapped presents. I'd been feeling pretty bad for the last few days - extremely tired, slightly cold-y. Later that day, wandering around town with Lissi to get some last minute things for Christmas, I felt really strange - disconnected and floppy etc. Lissi sent me home as she could see that something was wrong, and I proceeded to faint on the UBahn (underground train) on the way back. I was by myself, but the German public (who had ignored Lea when she was in trouble) were amazing. One woman held my hand as I lay on the benches of the UBahn stop (one stop from home) and a bottle of Coke, plus paramedics and police all appeared out of nowhere. Lissi turned up about 10 minutes later (after I remembered the names of my host family... took me a few panicked moments) and took me home, very slowly. I'm perfectly fine, we think it was probably just a mix of being so tired and the general stress of being on exchange and the drama with Lea the day before. So nothing to worry about, just a bit of drama to spice up my travel stories!

This was me about twice a day for the last 4 days. Knackered. (Thanks host dad for the gorge photo)

And then it was Christmas. The celebrations continued for multiple days, but it started on Christmas Eve with a few families that they celebrate with every year. Christmas Eve is the night they do all the presents etc. It was lovely :)

My presents :) I wasn't expecting anything, so I was so happy and felt so welcomed!

 On Christmas Day, Lissi's family all came to Munich to have lunch together. Cue more presents, more food, more family.

Lea's boyfriend Budi and Paul, my host brother :)

Cutest cousin in the world (except Emily, obviously), little Gabriel. He initiated the hug, and boy was it strong. Hence my crazed expression :P

The cousins, holding Ringwurst - an incredibly delicious sausage. Shaped in a spiral.

The next day we drove up to Johnny's home town to spend some time with his family. More food, more presents, more Christmas.

Grandma went a little crazy with the plätzchen baking. This is about 2/3rds of it.

Time for a geography lesson.

 Then we drove about 20 minutes to the town where Lissi's family lives, where we stayed for two nights. The town itself isn't tiny, but practically the whole Götz family live on this street, so you just had to look out the window to check which aunt was coming for breakfast.

Then it was back to Johnny's town for lunch before heading home. This was an amazing Basilica.

Johnny's family.

So yeah, that's what I've been up to! Still a wee bit headachy from hitting my head when I fainted,  but not tooo bad. And it was lovely to meet everyone :) Missing home a wee bit but this week marks the halfway point - and with it comes incredibly mixed feelings.

Hope you all had a wonderful festive season.

Alles Liebe,
Camille xx