It's photoshopped

This place is rediculously photogenic. I'm sure this place is photoshopped. They've photoshopped real life. I've got more photos but I thought I'd throw these up.

The bus dropped us at the entrance to the place, but there was about 500m walk down the drive to the reception, that was rather cold as we hadn't changed in Ivalo into the really warm clothes.

I have lots of other photos, but they'll come soon.

Temperature: -9°C

Location: Tankavaara Gold Mining Village

Whiskey: Talisker!

Reindeer Seen: 1

Reached Ivalo

Location: Ivalo Airport

Temperature: -8°C

Stuff on the ground: Snow

Successfully reached Ivalo Airport, and we're now on the bus to Ivalo centre. 

The ride is really going now

I really don't know where to begin, but I have to say that I'm meeting some amazing people, as the photos in my previous post shows. I'm not sure where to begin to be honest.

I arrived in Munich and Line (see previous post), her partner and I all rode the train to the station near my hostel. It was also conveniently right next to one of the larger Xmas Markets in Munich, and I have to say it was pretty awesome. I'm typing this at an Airport so I can't upload some photos at the moment, but check back on this post later. (Note to self, remove this part when i upload photos).

Eventually I made it to my hostel and by then was feeling pretty tired and wet. My room mates were already in the room doing some decompression time themselves when I stepped in, said Hi, apologised and disappeared without saying much else to have a shower. Refreshed, I re-entered to discover I was bunking with an Australian (Janeta) and an Israeli (Shae), both were very cool and happily accepted me.

The evening was spent enjoying Bavarian beer and lots of conversation. I really don't know what to say, as it was so enjoyable and had so much fun, and to be honest - i don't remember some of it :-D

I shall try to do a better post next time!

Temperature: 8°C
Location: Munich Airport
Gate: 41

Brief update

So people don't think I've died, I'm having a ball of a time in Munich and been busy, so haven't had any down time to blog. More to come later.

Tag zwei

Location: Erlagen, Germany

Temperature: 7°C

Bus Driver: Searching for hidden seats

Slept well at the hostel last night, i owe that entirely to earplugs - the bar next door was still going strong when I woke at 7. Would have been fun to join them, but I needed to sleep, and have proved the reason nicely, I'm rested and was up and about at 7:30. The length of time taken from then to actually getting downstairs was taken up with trying to pack without waking my roommates who were still zonked out at 0830. 

Eventually I made my way to the Frankfurt station where I discovered Germany is big. I'm on a 6hr bus trip to Munich - 20€ vs 120€ for a 4hr train. I decided to go by bus, figuring the 2hrs isn't worth 100€. I asked the woman assisting me if the view would be worth taking the bus, I was able to convince her she should say "Yes" :-D. In retrospect I may have been overly hopeful view wise. Nothing wrong with it, but visions of castles and spectacular rivers haven't been realised.

I met Line (pronounced Lee-na (sort of, it's hard to explain)), she's German. Line has been extremely kind enough to help me find the bus (indeed she's on it too), and then translate the various announcements. We both had a laugh at Google Translates attempt to translate the announcements from the driver. Apparently "the outbound is the rear". Which was googles disturbing translation of what Line tells me was "the toilet is in the back of the bus" ........

Regrettable Line can't join me in my exploring of the Munich Xmas markets, but I'm sure I'll meet more people there who will help. The Germans appear to be helpful people.

Oh, Line spent 6 months working in NZ awhile back and told me of her first few places assisting on farms.... NZ, we really need to work on first impressions Line describes NZ as "Friendly but a little bit weird". I like the description, but I from the stories she told me, I think she was being very kind with only saying "a little bit" - lets just say riding horses through living rooms is always more than a little weird.

..

Alive

I'm alive in Frankfurt, it's been fun so far. just about to go to sleep as i think ive been awake for 16 hours or so. Once again I met a traveller who was almost as lost as me. She however was from Germany, but just didn't know the Frankfurt trains. Rather fortuitous as the train we found that was the "correct" one, had some kind of issue at the next stop, the announcer said we needed to transfer to another train, but that was only said in German. I'd have spent awhile sitting in a mostly empty train wondering what was going on, but for her. I really must try and remember peoples names. :-D

Local Time: 2155h
Temperature: 6°C
Sleep: Soon

I haven't moved

So a few hours ago, I was flying over Russia. And now I'm still flying over Russia.... Russia is big... I'm glad I'm not trying to explore Russia. I'm now in what feels like hour 26 of this 12 hour flight. It's been suggested that because I normally sleep through the long hauls, this one feels longer.

Selfie! Again!

I forgot to introduce Joy before (I think I mentioned her in the last post). I met her as we disembarked from the Auckland to Shanghai flight, and of course we banded together to find our way. She too is on this flight, somewhere.


Oh, and Joy says "Hi" to Lucas and Skylar (I told her about my niece and nephew). Speaking of which.....



Mum, Skylar, Amy....... These are PANDA bears! (To anyone else reading, inside joke I'm afraid).