Overcrowded train?? LET'S GET BOOZED!!

On the way to the train station, we spun out trying to avoid a little black bird. I love snow. Did I tell you that already??

Once at the station, I faced an 11-hour train ride to Bratislava. I armed myself with a book (about silence, no less, WTF??), a sense of calm (ha!) and an urgent need to sleep. I managed the first half of the ride relatively unscathed. Kept having to change seats because I didn't reserve one so all the rich ass mo fos had to sit in their places. Workin for the man. haha... I shouldn't blog when I'm drunk. Or stoned for that matter.

Anyway.

Last few hours of the journey I got up to give MY seat over to aforementioned rich jerk and was met with a flurry of Prague alightees (made that one up) heading to mostly Bratislava I would imagine. Well. Someone had sent the memo out and it was official - eastern Europe was snowed in and no mother fucker was gonna take the bus. If in fact it was running at all.

So the train was packed. What to do?? Well, you find some people your age, sit down on the floor and make friends. You then, after many minutes of speculating whether they actually deserved it, break out the chocolate. Then, completely unprovoked, the girl also takes out her far superior chocolate and offers to all. We joke that all we need is wine at this time and boy turns to his bag and breaks out a bottle of white. Things are looking up.

We spend many minutes trying to open this bottle. It's hard man. Finally, with a toothpaste, we crack through and it is the beginning of the end. Four bottles later, the train grinds to a stop and we're at Bratislava. At Bratislava, we convince girl to stay for a drink before going to meet her friend. She's already drunk. It is sweet rubber arm action.

We walk into the pub and my English boss, E's girlfriend I says "oh hi, so you made it!!" Turns out she had messaged me to meet at that very pub and we happened to walk into it, me armed with several drunk randoms including one Slovakian TV presenter asking me for English lessons (hahahahahaha - I can hardly teach myself) and ready to party. Last time they spoke to me I was all tired n shit n not looking forward to the train ride. But turns out it was A-OK!

16 and getting more than me!

I am officially jealous of a 16 year old. Sorry, 16 and a half. For the second night in a row, I have had to put headphones on to drown out the sound of her having sex with a hot German 26 year old (yep, that´d be MY age) and I am practically SCALING THE WALLS. What happened in my life to get me to this point?? Urgh. Her mum is downstairs making dinner - surely she can hear too... It´s not like she´s making much effort to muffle her screams.

Rant over. Moving on. It was a gloriously sunny day today and it made the snow glisten and sparkle... was just gorgeous. The weather has become a bit better too, was about -2 today I think. Positively balmy.

I leave tomorrow morning on a train direct to Bratislava, stoked I don´t have change trains at all. I really want to meet a hot stranger in the carriage and have some danger sex behind a seat or something. This 16 year old situation is getting out of hand. Something has to be done.

Lazy days

For some reason I am really tired today. I woke up to feed the horses by 8am and afterwards fell asleep again until G woke me up at midday to feed again. I feel like all I´ve done today is sleep and feed horses. But luckily it´s not too cold and I can work outside for a reasonable amount of time before my limbs start seizing up.

I worked L´s horse Cowry today, it was pleasantly surprising that he was quite well trained and in the same manner I trained my beautiful girl Issi. But not perfect so at least there´s something to work on there. I wanted to ride today but it was one of those lazy days... evidently. Me and L watched some Sex & the City (in English, thank god, these German dubbings really throw me) and I finally pulled myself outside to work Cowry just before feeding time.

I´m madly working on my lesson plan for next week. It will be third week of teaching and I´m determined to be more organised this time. Although I have successfully flown by seat of said pants these past times, I don´t want to have the stressed feeling at the end of each school day, anxious about what the next day will bring. I was, as I guessed, asked to do another week straight after next but I declined. It would stuf around the people I´m staying with too much and I need a break - two weeks in a row is just too much for a fledgling teach like moi. I don't know how my mum has done it for umpteen years!

I had a few pangs of loneliness today as I looked on Facebook at what my mates in Oz and London were getting up to... this gypsy life can be so isolated sometimes but I just gotta remember how amazing it all is. And I won´t be away from home forever. I guess I´m also a bit scared to go home because I know it will be another stretch of no luck in love. Australia is not my love BFF, that´s fo sho. But no, I gotta stay positive - no expectations, no letdowns. At least I have my gorgeous friends waiting there for me.

First snow ride!!

So I had my first horseriding experience in the pouring snow yesterday and it was something else. One one hand, it was surreal because the snow had turned the place into a virtual ghost town, everything was white and I was rding bareback with just a sheepskin blanket to prevent the icicles on the horse´s fur from freezing my ass off.

On the other hand... the sensation of the ice-cold snow cutting into my face meant that at one point I could barely move my mouth to talk to G´s daughter L, I had stupidly forgotten to wear another layer under my jodphurs so my legs were also now frozen and my horse June couldn´t keep up with the Icelandic ponies´ brisk walk so we were constantly jogging - not a good idea given the fluffy sweet-as-pie snow actually masked a layer of slippery ice underneath. So we fell. Numerous times. Once to the knees. I stayed on but every fall made the young one even more nervous so that was a great feeling. Imagine the horse bolting into pure whiteness, no idea what´s underneath... eek.

Anyway, I am glad I did but I am not rushing out to do it every day - at least next time I will wear more clothes on the bottom half. I already look like a sumo wrestler up top. But fuck it, I´d rather have a fat suit on than freeze my tits off. Those things are valuable ;)

Snow hat!

Thrifty buys and burning surprise

I saw a care on fire last night. I don't know how or why it happened but when we drove past in Dannenburg, the bonnet was ablaze. As horrible as I'm sure it was for the owner, who luckily was not inside at the time, all I wanted to do was stop the car and get out to warm my frozen body.

Anyway in that same trip to the shops, I went thrift shopping and got another jersey for 1.50 euros (super sweet!) and some shoes that don't actually let wetness in. This is a new experience for this little gypsy, whose shoe collection currently comprises one pair of cowboy boots with a split across the entire sole, almost completely broken slip-ons from H&M, my beloved heeled brogues, flip flops, mesh-material sneakers and house slippers. An entirely inappropriate ensemble for the depths of German winter.

I've finally gotten the dates from T re wedding and Prague so can now do some more planning. It seems I do have time to come back here for Christmas so will try to do so as I think it will be a lovely experience. I've really come to like everyone here, they don't expect much from me so it makes me want to do more, and G is such a kind and welcoming spirit, just the type of person I hope to be when I am her age (51 I think).

I hope to go riding this afternoon in the snow, a first for me (except for Iceland, although it was more raining with snow on the ground), but if J is feeling better she will take June and I won't have anyone to ride. I'm sure there will be another time to ride so I'm not fussed. The house is so terribly warm :)

Finally booked a reasonably priced train to Bratislava, from the station just half an hour away from here amazingly enuf. And no changes on the train - hello sleeping pill town! Planning to get back here and then to Munich and back again for Christmas is another thing entirely, however...

-10 and counting...

Today is officially the coldest day I have ever experienced in my life. I had to wake up by 8am to feed the horses and by golly gosh, I have never felt so cold. The poor horses' water was frozen, they have icicles hanging off their whiskers and even their shit was frozen into the ground when I tried to clean it up. But, on the plus side, I did get to see a real snowflake close up when they landed on the horses... I'm talking a real fairytale lookin' crystalised snowflake. Breathtaking.

Apparently it's down to -10 in the daytime here, pleasant enuf if you're an eskimo, and they promise more snow to come in the next couple of days. After that, apparently, it's going to "warm up". Hmph. We'll see what that means.

I am still trawling the internet for the best way to get to Bratislava - it ain't easy! The train fares are not that cheap and the longer I wait the worse it's going to get. AND this morning I woke to a confusing msg from my English teaching boss asking me if I wanted to stay longer. Stay longer where? I asked. Urgh, it's hard enuf organising all this without more complications. Just wish I didn't need the money so bad.

G invited me to Christmas here at her house, which is SO lovely and I would so much like to but I just think with the timing of T's wedding just before Christmas I will be resigned to spending it with strangers either in a hostel in Prague or still in Munich. Or, if I'm lucky, a nice new Couchsurfing friend. Sigh.