So, the main thing I have to announce is that Eleanor isn't here. I knew she was scared, but I never, ever thought she would turn around and go home. Sitting on the plane, I was in disbelief - I held on to the thought that she was coming all the way up until we got into the air, and even then I let myself think that she might just be all the way down the front with ms lam where I couldn't see her. I was sat next to ruby instead of Tania - the plan was that I would go sit with tania and el once the plane had taken off, but seeing as el wasn't there that never happened. I ended up just staying where I was for the length of one movie - after that I move a seat forwards and slept next to Tania. I know I actually did sleep at least for a bit, because I remember waking up and having missed a couple songs on my playlist. I stayed there for the rest of the flight, mostly because I didn't want to go back and sit next to the german man who kept trying to ask me questions. I watched two more movies. I read everything everything. I took photos out the window. Finally, we landed in Doha. I wanted to text my mum, or check in my streaks, but the wifi seemed to be working for everyone but me. This probably shouldn't have upset me as much as it did, but I was tired, okay. Stepping outside to get on the plane was hell - it was so hot, and I was still in my sneakers and jeans. The next plane ride was shorter at least, but still exhausting, I fell asleep during rogue one about five times, and then half watched cats vs dogs two for the fun of it. I finished everything everything - one of the best books I've ever read.

And then, finally finally, we were in Munich. I changed into shorts, and finally cooled down a little. We got on a train and rode it down to our hotel. The hotel was nice, but way too hot. Did you know in Germany they don't have air conditioning?? Most other people's rooms had fans, but not us. Me and tania just sat there and sweated. Later we came down and went out to marianplatz. Ms lam's photo taking is really going to get to me at some point - it's always "kids, get in front of the pig" "get infront of the fountain" "let's take a picture with the arch" she means well, but for some reason I really hate feeling like a tourist. When Tania gets out her phone to take a picture of literally everything, I want to throw up. Just like when ms lam gets us all in a group and explains in really slow german where we are. We went down to a little place for dinner, and sat at a round table. Miss tried to read out all the options to us instead of giving us the menus, and I freaked out and just got a kinder schnitzel even though it really wasn't what I wanted. It was good, obviously, but I could have had something way more interesting. I had a spezi as well, which is like coke mixed with orange, and it was gooooooood. tania didn't like it, but I could've told her that. It was so weird when we went back outside again, because it was at least six and still light. Me and tania went back to the room and basically fell asleep straight away. At eleven I woke up with the door wide open, lying lengthways next to tania on the bed.

we had a buffet breakfast today, and it was really great. I had my first pretzel (I plan on having many, many more) plus same cheese and meat, which was cool. I wanted to have apple juice, but everyone thought it could be beer so I decided not to. We put our bags away and went back out to marianplatz to go shopping. We ended up staying outside the sim shop for about an hour while yash and tania bought sims. Rena was yelling about how far out Sophie's shoulder blades could go, and the people passing us on the street were giving us weird looks. After, we had to split up into groups of at least three, which was annoying seeing as Eleanor isn't here. We ended up going with Rena and ruby, which was okay really, but it could have been better. The first thing we got was a soft serve - mine was vanille-apfel. It was really scary ordering in german, especially as I get freaked out ordering stuff in English. The main thing that sucked about goin with the others, Rena in particular, was that we had to stay in all the clothes shops for ages - we went into h&m and Zara, and some other weird german department store, and no one bought anything. We did go into body shop, which was fun - everything was cheaper than in Australia, plus they had virgin mohito and piña colada flavoured body wash which I thought was hilarious. We also went into a cute little souvenir shop, and I bought a tiny beirstein for dad - mostly because I thought the big ones would break in my bag. Tania bought heaps of stuff. When we got back to the meeting point, ms lam said we were supposed to have gotten lunch, which is really annoying because it meant that all this time I had spent waiting in the Zara change rooms I could have been eating. It was at this point when I started getting really annoyed, because I'd had to wait for sims and wait for clothes and wait and wait and wait the whole day. Then some lady walked straight into me, and her baby's head smacked into my shoulder. I kept saying "sorry" which probably didn't help my case to be honest, but do you really think I'm gong to be able to say "entschuldigung" under that much pressure. She was yelling at me and the baby was crying, and suddenly I just really wanted to go home. Instead I walked without saying a word to and on the verge of tears, just replaying it over and over in my head and giving myself ten times more anxiety than was necessary. I ordered a garlic pretzel and another ice cream (raspberry), but it didn't help my mood too much. On the bus I started to get really nervous - I didn't want to meet naomi. I didn't want to go back to her house, and have to speak german to her family, and mess everything up. I kept telling myself that that was it, that the rest of the time I'd just be uptight and awkward and putting myself under too much pressure to be able to have fun. I was still nervous in the car, after meeting Andreas and Christine and Xenia and Pavel, until they asked me if I wanted an ice cream (you know the answers gonna be yes to that question)

And so, one lemon gelato later, I was happy. I'd had three ice creams in one day - how could I not be happy?? Inside the house there's a big cat tree right under the stairs, and I got to say hi to the two kitties (cookie and Nutella) so that made my day even better. Cookie hissed at me, but that's okay, Naomi says cookie just doesnt like people very much. For dinner we had apple strudel - like literally just apple strudel. Like what? This is the best day of my life. We went down near franzis house after - there were lots of boys smoking and stuff there, but it was alright because we left pretty quickly. At franzis house the girls had some sort of alcoholic drink on the balcony - me and tania just had water and cherries - we were trying to spit the pips as far as we could off the edge. Later (like much later) we went on a walk - past a couple horses and down the road to a field where we could see the sunset. Did you know the sun sets at 9 here? It's messed up my body clock even more than it already was messed up. It was beautiful though, the sunset, and the tall grass, blowing in the wind.

I really do think everything is going to turn out okay.

icecream count: 3

Today me and Naomi went out early to walk the dog - he's name is pavel, and he's black. I have no idea what breed, I think he was a rescue. Anyway, landau is really, really pretty. Just the yellow grass and the daisies, and the corn fields - I love it so much. I didn't really like the part so much when we had to run with him - I felt really stupid, and got out of breath much too quickly. We ran into another dog halfway through, and that was a little bit of a disaster as well - pavel was barking, and the other dogs owner was yelling at us in german for having a "bad dog." It's not our fault your dog was off the leash dude. It was twice the size of pavel as well. We had breakfast when we got back - I had another pretzel (yay). Xenia asked me whether I wanted marmalade (which is just jam apparently) or Nutella on it, which was funny cause I've never had a pretzel with spread before. Turns out Nutella with pretzel is really, really good. After breakfast we went and picked up Tania and franzi, and drove to walhalla. The first thing I thought up when they said "Valhalla" was the Nordic (?) myths, but it was more like a Greek temple looking thing, which I found a bit odd. It had lots of old Greek looking marble statues of famous (or I guess like helpful? Smart?) Germans like Mozart and Beethoven maybe. Einstein was there but his statue was pretty average. Tania said it looked like a Simpson, and she was pretty right. All the others were so beautiful, with so much detail, and his was just flat. I don't know what was up with that. Outside of the temple place we got an icecream - which bring the tally count of ice creams so far on this trip to four. It was a lemon and buttermilk cornetto, which was actually really great. I've never seen one of them in Australia before. When we were walking down the stairs to leave, we saw mikey, and also a couple of goats. When we made it down the hill to the river, we got back in the car with Andreas and pavel and went down to the markets. I have no idea where this was at all, but it was really nice. I had a bratwurst mit senf, and it was gr8. We walked past a stall where people were throwing tennis balls to try and get a guy to fall in the pool of water. I opted out on throwing for that one, as there was literally a whole crowd watching and you know I can't throw. We went to a church later, on the river, and there were people performing on a stage outside of it. We saw mikey again (are you following us man??) and I got a cola-mix, which was like a spezi but not so much orange. Tania ordered one again, and didn't like it again, surprise surprise. We went inside the church but I didn't like it so much. It was creepy. Later we walked around a little more, and found a store selling zuckerwatte (which turned out to be fairy floss) and zuckermandeln (sugared almonds). I'd heard a lot about zuckermandeln, mostly from our textbook which is really funny, and they were soooo good. We also did a tour of a castle-thing, which I forget what the name was. Es war sehr interessant. Later, after coming home, we went to danielas for a weird party thing. All the Australians were there, but Tania was still pretty much my only friend, which is why it sucked when she ditched me, multiple times. I played soccer for a while, but I was getting too anxious about my shirt getting sweaty so I stopped. Tania obviously didn't stop, because well she's Tania. all the Germans were drinking beer so I just kind of sat with Kate and Hannah and ate gummy bears (they weren't really bears but oh well) Tania didn't come back after she had finished playing soccer. She sat with the boys, which is typical, really. She said it was because I was "being mean" to her - which is one thing I have to rant about actually. I'm the sort of person who gets second hand embarrassment (because I have anxiety okay I'm sorry), and tania is a very embarrassing person, so naturally when she speaks in that baby voice or does something stupid, I tell her to stop. I also say things in an attempt to be funny sometimes, like oh I hate you, or oh you're gross. I thought we were good enough friends to do that, but apparently not - every time I do it she runs off to the closest person and loudly exclaims how mean I'm being, then refuses to talk to me for the rest of the night. Anyway, i don't think I'm the mean one, when you're the one who left me alone with a bunch of drunk girls trying to get me to drink champagne from the bottle Side note - tania will tell anyone and everyone she can that she won't drink for "personal reasons" (as in, her dad like drinks too much so she won't??) and then goes and tells them the reason, no matter how good friends she is with them. At this point, it just feels like she wants everybodies sympathy. I know, that a mean thing to say when someone's going through stuff - but she refuses to acknowledge the anxiety things I'm going through so i mean 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, I guess you could say I didn't like the party too much. I don't plan on drinking on this trip, or anytime soon. I don't have any stupid personal reasons, I just don't want to say anything I shouldn't.

icecream count: 4

Today we went to school. It really wasn't so bad - I thought waking up that early would be a trek, but seeing as the sun comes up at 5, I'm up by then regardless. Andreas drove us to school - walking in the gates was so weird. Naomi must have thought our school was disgusting, because theirs is so well looked after. There are murals on every wall, and outside there were table tennis tables and little patches of roses everywhere. I went to Naomi's classroom for a little while - unmet all her friends (sort of - they asked Naomi for my name instead of me). One girl hugged me, but I guess ive seen weirder things than that. We had lessons with ms lam for the first half of the day, which wasn't so bad. It was just like german back at home, except it felt more special. The classrooms still have chalkboards, and they all have a cross above the door. The chalkboards are actually really cool, and can slide up and down, plus they still have a projector, and automatic blind things. The classroom also has a lot less gum and gross stuff lying around, so I guess that's a win for Germany. After our first couple of periods, we all went up to the ratshaus to see the bürgermeister (those are the actual words for "town hall" and "mayor", no kidding) the walk was long, uphill and hot, and I was wearing a shirt that was not so great for sweatstains. So no, I didn't enjoy that very much. We took a photo for the newspaper (scary) and the mayor talked to us about... stuff. I'm not entirely sure what he said, as it was all in German, but I know he made a sexist comment about dirndls at one point (I got the gist, even in a different language) and that made me like him not so much. He did give us pretzels and orange juice, which was good. We went back over the river Isar, and ms lam took a lot of photos as per usual. By the time we got back it was actually the end of the school day, which was funny because it was only 1:00. We went back to Naomi's parents firm - it's called typo, I think they make shirts - and had pizza bread (sort of like bakers delight stuff) and a minion banana milk, which took about ten years off my life. After we got back home from that, we went out to the lake to go swimming. It was really hot, so it was actually very nice. The sand was super muddy and squishy, and there were lots of ducks, but that was okay. hannah and sophie and moritz and yash and lena and kate and julia were there as well as franzi and tania and some other people I didn't know. There were heaps of other people there - it was almost like we were at the beach, everyone had their towels and umbrellas out. I went and got an ice cream when I got out - it was a flutsch finger, and I'm p sure it was german cause I've never seen one before. It was really good, tasted life a life saver but finger shaped. We went home and had a pizza plait which Xenia made for dinner. It was very good, but there was still a lot left over. I washed all the lake water out of my hair and went to bed.

icecream count: 5

It was raining this morning, which is funny because it's meant to be summer here. I only just missed a total disaster - I think I've ruined my favourite pair of jeans forever, but other than that I'm fine. nothing much else happened today - but I mean it wasn't bad. Mostly, we \240just did german - I mean, mostly. Ms lam gets a bit off topic sometimes - halfway through a sentence she stopped to asked Tania why her shirt said "gayfinder" on it (it said gryffindor incase you were wondering) and I couldn't stop laughing for a long time. mikey and Declan drew little stick figure gays on the board, and ms lam with a pair of binoculars going "I found them!" I'm quite glad the Germans didn't walk in and see it before we rubbed it off with the sponge and scrapey thing. School finished at one o clock again, and we went back to typo and had left over pizza plait, plus some more white sausage. We went to franzis house instead of going home, so I could try on some dirndls for volksfest. The one I liked best was brown with a pink apron thing, but when Franzi's mum took up the skirt the pink thing was too long, so now it's brown and red. It's okay though I still really like it. I feel so stupid wearing it around, but that's okay. Naomi says she's going to do my makeup - I'm a little worried about that, but hey, who knows, maybe I'll look pretty? I'm excited for the food at volksfest, not so much for the rides or the singing or the drunk kids everywhere. I'm sure I'll have fun though. After leaving franzis house we popped in to the stable to see her horse really quickly. She's white, but I think you're meant to say gray, and apparently very old. She doesn't look it. Xenia had a tiny little pony called matty- I'm not sure if she even rode it, her feet would have definitely touched the ground. There was also a tiny puppy there who was being all excited and cute, like puppies are. At home, we had a traditional Bavarian dinner - sausage and pickle salad, and a cheese fondue were the main things I really liked.

fun facterino: neuschwanstein actually means new swan castle, which I didn't know last time I went there. We drove in the bus for three hours today, with all the Australians and all the Germans. Me and tania listened to music for the whole time (I put on my musicals playlist, which she seemed pretty happy with) and tried not to fall asleep. When we got there, the line for the toilet was way too long, so we had to walk all the way up before we could go. The walking was too hard - I wish we could've gotten the horse and cart up, but tania kept saying how cruel it was to do that. I don't know if she's right or not, but I thought draught horses were built for doing that kind of thing. Anyway, I would have rather done that then had my legs burn off walking all the way up. At the top it was really pretty, though my pictures didn't really make it look so nice. tania took better ones I think. After ms lam stood for an hour trying to get all thirty something of us into a photo with her iPad, we did some more walking up to a little bridge. It was a really good view, but I was much too scared to get my phone out - it was so high up, and the planks were all wobbly, I thought I was going to die. Tania somehow managed to hold her phone out over the edge - I don't know how. We went on a little tour of the inside of the castle after that - we had little phone things we had to hold up to our ears for the audio guide. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but some of the rooms were really beautiful. We also had to wear our bags on our fronts, which was a bit weird and made me feel stupid (and a little bit pregnant) the entire time. The tour didn't go for very long at all - afterwards we had free time. I bought a pretzel magnet, a castle key chain and a post card before I realised that ms lam had forgotten to give me money from my envelope. I had exactly €3.50 left for a bowl of pommes frittes, and then I was done for. I spent the rest of the two hours looking in souvenir shops and feeling sad that I couldn't buy anything. We found mikey and declan eventually - some American girls had come up to them and asked for their snapchats, plus bought them souvenirs and friendship bracelets. It must of been the Australian accents, because in general they're both pretty gross. We went down to sit by the lake (and whinge) (at least, I whinged). everyone went down the grassy slope to the water, and everyone slipped on the way down. Mikey fell straight on his butt, and Tania slid all the way down until she got stopped on a rock by her butt. She scraped her leg as well I think - I didn't want to go down after seeing them all epically fail. They went and stood on some stepping stones in the water, and Declan fell in. Sophie found a pipe and did gymnastics tricks on it - she almost fell on more than a couple times too. Soon, it was time to go back to the bus - I ran straight to ms lam and got €20, and got what I wanted in the end - a little teddy wearing lederhosen plus a tiny beer keychain. The bus ride back wasn't as great because my phone was on really low battery, but I listened to some of Laura's music as well. Back at home, we had fish meatballs for dinner, which were actually really great. Me and Naomi watched german bachelorette up in her room until it was time to go to bed.

started off my day today with a little freakout, as Naomi told me we were going to go to the beach tomorrow. I'm sure I'll work something out, but I really did think I was going to avoid that situation completely cause we went to the lake a couple days ago. Anyway today was probably one of the less good days of this trip so far. It wasn't all bad - We did a lot a lot of german, which was fun. ms lam had us talk in german for an entire period while the other half of the class went to a year six English classroom. Unfortunately that meant we had to go to a year eleven classroom, and, even worse, I got put in a group by myself, one on four. To tell you the truth, it was just as bad as I imagined it would be in the first place. They had a sheet of paper with things to talk about written down, and they kind of sort of asked me some questions. There were massive gaps of silence inbetween, and it was really, really awkward. I'm really hoping I never have to do that ever again. For now, I'm just going to repress it and pretend nothing happened. Ms lam gave us some cool marshmallow chocolate things - apparently they used to be called "negro kisses" which is a bit iffy, but they changed the name to schaumküsse, which is just foam kisses, so I guess that's better. They were really good though. After the german classes finished, we went with naomi and her year eleven friend to get lunch. I thought it would be awkward, cause he was in the class we had to go to, but he was really nice (I wish he was in my group). He was telling us about how he was going to compete in the javelin and relay next Thursday, except he didn't know the word for javelin or relay. We got pizza and noodles from the shop and walked back to eat them. Turns out the "noodles" were actually pasta (which is much better than noodles anyway) and it was very good. I thought I had one to myself, and I gave Tania a couple pieces when she asked for it, but she seemed to think we were supposed to share, and was complaining about me not giving her any. I ended up giving her the whole thing which pissed me off. I would have easily given her all the rest when I was full, because there was a lot and I wouldn't have eaten it all. You shouldn't be angry at me because I won't give you things - you should just let me be nice in my own accord. (She didn't give me any pizza either) anyway, the pasta was good. After that, I went to Naomi's classes, because school ends later on Thursdays. She had Spanish for two periods, and they were just doing presentations which was sort of boring, especially since I don't know any Spanish. Hannah was falling asleep next to me. Tania could have come if she wanted, but \240she stayed with franzi instead. They were organising some sort of fun thing for the year fives - like sack races and stuff. We went back to typo again at about 3, and I had another ice cream - a calippo this time. We got crepes on the way home, from the same gelato place as the first day. Mine had Nutella and banana in it, and it was sooo good. At home we watched dance academy (in german!!) and had lasagna for dinner.

icecream count: 6

It was raining thismorning, thank god, so Naomi said we could probably just go to the beach next week (yesss). the first half of today was pretty boring really - we did some german, and then we left. School finished at ten because it was the year twelves last exam day or something - but I just can't get over how short that school day is. At our school, we wouldn't even have finished first period by ten! Anyway, we walked back down to the shop like usual, and had some cute little biscuits with berries on top. On the way back home, we picked up Naomi's grandma to take her back to her house - when we dropped her off, she said "viel spaß für die Volkfest" and was very impressed when I understood. I think she thought I spoke no german at all. When we got back, I had a shower and Naomi did my makeup. It was a bit embarrassing, because I had no idea what to do while she was doing it (do I close my eyes? Do I look up? I don't know), and when she told me to do my own mascara I had no idea how. She ended up putting it on for me. Anyway, I looked goood. One of the main reasons I've never worn makeup is because I knew that once I did, I'd never think I looked good without it again - which is why I was a bit scared by how good I looked with just mascara on. I really have no clue how to do makeup though, so there's no danger of my picking that up any time soon. I had to wait about three hours after that before the volksfest started, which was a little annoying, cause I kept wanting to rub my eyes or lie down on the white sheets. We had gulash with pasta, which was really good, and I put on my dirndl. It's brown, with a red apron thing. I think I liked it better with the pink apron, but when franzis mum took it up, the apron was too long. Anyway, red is more traditional I guess. And I really liked the way I looked in it. We picked up franzi and tania before we drove to the volksfest. We stopped near the fountain because the parade was supposed to go past there later. A guy called Edgar from Naomi's class came and we had him take pictures of us. Declan came later (he was wearing lederhosen!) and mikey (he wasn't) the parade came past soon after - there were like five marching bands and all the little gymnastics groups did cartwheels down the road. Eleanor came. She got on a plane yesterday, but her mum had to come with her, which sucks big time. I wasn't really all that excited to see her, to tell you the truth - I'd already had so much fun without her here. I don't want to around mean, but still. We went to the tent just before the parade finished, to beat the crowds, but we still couldn't find a table. We ended up sitting with lena at table that was reserved for year twelves, but someone ripped the sign off so it was okay. The tent was massive and blue and white striped, with heaps and heaps of people in it. There were waitresses walking around with five massive beer mugs in each hand - lena had already drunk half of one of those mugs by the time we got to the table. Me and el and tania went outside to buy food - we all got a pizza, plus tania got a giant pretzel. we saw all the other Australians - Rena kept saying tania's makeup was great. No one talked about mine, even though I thought I looked amazing - maybe I'm just super attention seeking and annoying but I wish they had. The rest of the night I forgot I had makeup on at all, and just felt like normal, gross old me. el came with me to buy an orange juice - it was fizzy and a bit weird, but I liked it. I drank it back at the table with the germans, and met a boy called nikolaus, who said he thought his name was weird because it's like Santa in Germany. He was nice. Later when we went out again, I bought prinz and pinzessin lebkuchenherz for choo and poo, and chocolate strawberries. I dropped the last one on the floor, which was really sad. We also got some flowers from playing a shooting game (I didn't actually play, Hannah gave one to me) and went on the bumper cars, which are way faster than the ones at Luna park, and hurt a lot more. Tania and Lena had a go at the hammer thing, but that didn't really work out as they could barely lift the hammer. Made me laugh a lot at least. I had some odd encounters with wild german drunks - the first was when a guy tried to give a flower to his friend behind me, and then accidentally pushed it infront of me instead, and sort of weirdly asked whether I actually wanted it and was awkward. Another time a guy asked me where I got my pizza from and I had no idea what he said. Some girl in the line for the toilet asked me to hold her drink and then asked another question, and I didn't know what she said at all. I just said nein. I mean, the problem wasn't really that they were drunk, more that they didn't speak English and I had no clue what they were saying at all. At the end, there were fireworks. They were really loud, but pretty. Soon after that, at about 10:50, we left. I was really really tired, and went to bed almost straight away. It was a good day though, despite el and Jane and language barriers. I really like volksfest.

I woke up so much later than I usually do here, and so much more tired than usual. We had breakfast at probably like 10, and by quarter past eleven we had to leave the house so I wasn't in the best mood when we left obviously. We picked up tania and franzi from their house \240and drove to straubing. We went to the zoo there. It was good, but I wouldn't say it was great. Maybe I was just in a shitty mood, but the animals looked like they were in much smaller cages, instead of big habitats like taronga. The chimps looked really sad, and the lion just lay there the entire time. We had nice sausages, with cheese inside, and it was good, but naomi and franzi had currywurst, and they had chips as well, and I wanted that more. We did see a lot of tortoises, so I guess that's an upside. After, we walked down to straubing city, which actually took a while. We went shopping which was not so great either. We just walked and looked at clothes, and tried on clothes (i mean they did, I didn't) and looked at makeup. I've decided I hate shopping. I did make a successful icecream order, in german, so that was good. We went home after a long long time. At home we did nothing. Five minutes before we were supposed to leave, I wasn't ready at all - I asked naomi whether she was going to not do my makeup or? And all she said was "yeah I can if you really want." I mean, to me that sounded like she didn't want to, plus we only had 5 minutes, so I didn't ask again. That was probably a mad move though, because getting into the car I felt almost sick with anxiety - because everyone else was going to be wearing it, because I look bad without it, because I felt ugly. And I knew that this would happen the second I put on makeup. I knew I wouldn't ever want to take it off again. I kept thinking about the people who I met yesterday who would now know what I really looked like. I kept thinking about all the people who didn't compliment me, who were now going to notice the downgrade. I nearly cried in the car. I'm sorry if you're sick of my whinging and constant pessimism. It gets better from here, I promise. At lenas house, franzi did my makeup. We went to the volksfest, and sat at the bumper cars because there were no seats - I had half a pretzel (which was massive by the way) and some chips. We met everyone - Laura and Kate and Hannah and ruby and grace and Chloe, and we all sat together outside the bumper cars, and i started to get my calm back. Everyone was braiding each other's hair, and chatting, and everything was finally peaceful and fine. I went inside the tent to get a spezi and everyone was standing on the tables singing - it looked like a lot of fun but we left again to go back. I got chocolate strawberries again. We went on the bumper cars a couple more times. Tania went on a ride which span around and around - it had no seat belts, so people were falling into the middle all the time. I would have gone on it probably, but I had just eaten. We went and got a massive kiwi icecream. While we waited outside the ride for Hannah and Declan and everyone else to go on it again (Declan was just sitting there not holding on to anything, it was kind of scary) Lena came up with a guy called Daniel, and we were trying to teach him English. He asked us to teach him a long word, so we tried to get him to say "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". It was funny because they both thought it was an actual word. Lena could say it, which was impressive because she was a bit drunk, but not Daniel. Things got a little uncomfortable past that point, because Daniel and his friends were all being flirty and weird. I felt like I wanted to leave, but I sort of backed off a little instead. Daniel ended up going on the bumpers with us (again) and then asked for tania's number to "teach him English". She actually gave it to him, which I wouldn't have done. He said he was 16, but he looked a lot older, and was just a little creepy. Tania insists he was cute but he was 100% not. I doubt he even knew her name. I honestly don't understand boys, or everyone's fixation with them. He was drunk, and not at all appealing, yet tania's gushing the whole night about how some guy asked for her number?? I almost threw up in my mouth every time she mentioned it. We caught the bus back to lenas house, and the boy stuff was even more uncomfortable there. El was moaning about some guy she loved who was moving back to Spain (I'm convinced the main reason she didn't get on the plane was so she could say bye to him) and Tania was texting mikey, and acting like she didn't want us to know, yet telling us every little thing he said. (And mikey of all people as well) I really just wanted to go to sleep.

icecream count: 8

we left Lena's house almost as soon as we woke up - we did wake up fairly late though, so i didn't mind. We had breakfast back at home after I had a shower, and Franzi's mum picked us up a while after that. franzi was listening to Shawn Mendez in the car, and for some reason it made me feel really really happy. Sometimes I do this thing where I grab all the memories from a holiday and squish them together and make a video in time to music in my head - the song for this trip is definitely "nothing holding me back" It just does this thing to me where I can't not smile when listening to it, because I'll be thinking about right now. One day, I'll go travelling everywhere with all my friends, and I'll actually make the video instead of pretending. That way I can watch it every day and remember. Anyway. Anyway. In the car, I was happy. We drove to Landshut, which is a town. I don't know anything about it except for that. Franzis mum brought crates, and we walked over the river, past all the cutely coloured houses, and stopped at a street. We sat on the crates, and I ate a little pretzel bread sandwich thing. We had to get out our umbrellas for a bit, but it was okay. Turns out we were waiting there for a medieval parade thing, which started at two. It was lots of fun - they were playing instruments and riding horses and stuff. There were acrobats as well, which was my favourite part. They got up in a huge pyramid, and did flips. And one point, one of the guys was lying down in everyone's arms and they were throwing him really high. Everyone in the crowd was yelling haaaallooooo!! A lot and it was really funny. There was also a really, really good dog right next to me. It looked like bear in the big blue house. I love him. When the parade was finished, we went to a cafe and had a hot chocolate. We also went and looked inside the church which was alright. After that we went home - we had maccas on the way back, and I had chicken nuggets (even though I saw they had curly fries in the menu and probably should have ordered that) Andreas and Christine weren't there when we got back, so we just did nothing for a bit. For dinner I just had leftover apple strudel, and watched Harry Potter (number vier) with xenia. I was telling her about hp studios in london - she asked about butter beer. It was really weird watching Harry Potter in german - I knew exactly what they were saying, but only because I've watched the movie too many times, and have pretty much memorised all the lines. I went back up to Naomi's room with her and half watched a soccer match between Deutschland and chile.

I came to school today with my bag packed full of three days worth of clothes, and got on the bus to go to Salzburg. We drove for two hours - I sat with tania for the first half and listened to music, but it sucked a bit because the double adapter made one of my earphones not work. We stopped off in some town for a walk, and after that I sat alone, because Tania wanted to have the whole seat to herself I would have rather stayed in the same seat I was in and had her move, but she wanted to talk to the boys behind her, so I had to go to the front of the bus and sit by myself. I found out at that point that it wasn't the double adapter that was making my headphones not work, but my actual headphones weren't working. I just fixed the right left ear ratio in my phones settings, so it was okay in the end. I'll probably forget about it later and be really confused though. When we got off the bus, we were at salzbergwerk - the salt mines. We got into jumpsuits (mine was way too big) and got on a little train to go into the mines. The tunnel was really small, and I felt like I was going to hit my head every three seconds, but it was fun. We also went down these slide things which was soooo much fun. tania was complaining about how much she hated it, but she did it both times so I mean. Ms lam bought all the photos of us on the train and on the slide - In still on a mission to take photos of them for myself. After the salt mines we went down to a lake (I don't know where it was whoops) we found a big rock with a tree growing out of it, and everyone climbed it. lots of people took lots of photos, and I need to remind myself to try and get those as well, because they were cute. That's mission number two. The lake was really nice and green blue, and there were lots of ducks. I went and got two massive pretzels - a sweet one and a cheese one - and they were both very good even though it might have been too much. We went into all the little souvenir shops, and I got some salt rocks for poo, and an edelweiss wooden spoon for mum. I wanted to buy a cute little blue purse, but tania thought it wasn't good enough - I'll probably regret that really soon, but I'm going to blame it on tania. We took the bus back to the hotel, which was really nice by the way - me and tania got a room for three, and it was massive and so nice. We had to go down again a couple minutes later, to go out into the city. We went to the mirabelle gardens, and found a little leaning over tree and everyone climbed it. We went to the garden from the do re mi song, with the horse fountain in the middle, it was so cute. We walked over a bridge with lots of locks on it, which excited me because I'd been there before. We walked around a bit, and saw a guy pretending to be a statue - he gave rena a lollipop, and she didn't even tip him. We also saw a man on top of a gold ball, which was a bit odd. We went up to the top of the mountain on a steep train thing. It was really really pretty up the top, and I was annoyed because my phone had run out of battery by then. There was a little castle up there, and everywhere we went there was a better view. We had a schnitzel with chips, and it was so good - I can't believe I finished it all after my pretzels today, but I did. There were lots of bees everywhere, and everyone seemed to be scared of them. Mikey and ruby and Kate were catching them in glasses, and mikey smashed one - im really surprised that he did that instead of me. We went back down the mountain, and had an icecream on the way back to the hotel. I had mango and lemon. El came back to the hotel, but had to leave pretty soon, because she's actually staying with her mum and not us. Everyone went down to yash's room and stayed there until ten, when ms lam came to kick us all out. One of her rules is no hanky panky after ten.

icecream count: 9

today I was really pissed off in the morning, and things just kept making it worse. Tania woke me up by blowing her nose a million times - big, disgusting, snotty blows. I hate it when people blow their nose. It makes me want to throw up. And at 7am as well? She then facetimed her mum at the exact time we were supposed to leave for breakfast, and told her she was going to show her our hotel room - I went and hid in the toilet because I didn't particularly want to see or talk to her mum. tania, thinking because I was in the bathroom she could continue talking, talked to her mum for about another 20 minutes, making us late for breakfast. I don't like how she calls her family every two seconds. At home she complains about them all the time, and here she's sobbing about how she misses them so much. She even calls raydon when we're out in the city, since she has a sim (when it's 3 in the morning there as well?) and calls him "bubba" and "ray ray" 🤢🤢 anyway. It's not all that bad I promise - I was just in a really really bad mood and didn't want to have to deal with any of it any more. the breakfast was actually quite good, despite the abundance of americans (they annoy me). We left on the bus soon after that. The first place we drove to was the gardens where the sixteen going on seventeen gazebo was. You couldn't go on it, which was eh, but it was still really pretty and nice. Ms lam took a video of us running through a field, which was funny because she didn't know how to put it on video, and she didn't realise the iPad could hear her singing "the hills are alive" in the background. After that we went on the bus up to a place called the eagles nest (hitlers holiday house, which isn't so pleasant, but the view was really great) we sat outside our coach waiting for the bus for a bit - everyone made daisy chains with the clovers. Laura had them threaded through her hair, and i stick them in the holes in my sneakers. We took the bus up the mountain, then walked through a really cold tunnel, and then up a gold elevator to the top. It felt like it should have been a ski resort, which was weird seeing as its summer here, and there was no snow to be seen. We walked around taking pictures of the view - we found a few little secret books and crannies to sit in over the mountain. Ms lam didnt tell us to bring our money (again) so me grace Laura Chloe and Sophie borrowed a 50 from her for lunch. I just had an icecream, but it was a really good sundae one. We went back down the mountain after that, and got back on the bus, and then the coach. We drove back to salzburg, and mostly everyone slept. When we got to Salzburg, we got off in the city, and went shopping down the Main Street - I don't know what it was called. Anyway, Eleanor bought heaps of clothes - tania and ruby didn't buy much at all. I just bought some mozzarella "sticks" (they were more like circles) from maccas which were so good, i wish they had them in Australia. I also bought a lot of haribo - I'm not sure if it will make it home or not. Afterwards we went on a horse and carriage ride around the old city, which was sweet. When we got back to the hotel, me and tania did nothing until eight, and then went to Mikey's room this time. He had a lot of food, but other than that I didn't do anything. One half of the room was playing cards, and the other half were watching some musical in the corner, but there was no room for me on either bed. I just sat on the floor by myself. No one noticed when I took tania's keys and left. I had a shower, and that was maybe the best part about today. I put my music on full volume and sang and did whatever I wanted - and I found myself thinking, hey, this is what it would be like if I lived by myself. Or at least with people who wouldn't judge me for everything I do. ms lam came and knocked on the door a little while later, so lucky I was out of the shower by then. tania came in a little while later. I spent the rest of the night watching dans liveshow, which I never would have been awake for back home. It did mean I ended up going to sleep at eleven, but that's alright. I had a nice night.

icecream count: 10

today started with a buffet breakfast again, which I was too tired to appreciate. We packed our bags and cleared everything out of our hotel room, then got on the coach out of Salzburg. We drove for maybe an hour, and everyone slept the whole way. Eventually, we got to a place where there was another Ludwig palace, called chiemsee. We took a boat over the lake to the island, and got off there. It was really, really hot. We walked up to the palace - it had two massive fountains out the front, and was really pretty. Apparently it was based off Versailles, but I've never been there so I wouldn't know. I went and bought an icecream (straciatella) while we waited for the fountains to come on. El got an icecream too, but some guy infront of her ordered seven icecreams so she barely managed to eat it before we did the tour. The inside of the palace wasn't finished (the tour guide said he ran out of money, which is actually hilarious) but it was soo nice. My favourite room was the dining room, it had a really really pretty porcelain chandelier which I wish I could have taken a photo of, but you're not allowed to apparently. There was also gold literally everywhere and it was pretty. After the tour we walked straight back - there was a little sort of kiosk place where we could've got lunch, but I had a krapfen (a Berliner) and Fanta instead. The krapfen was just a jam donut, and a little underwhelming. I like the Fanta here because it's a lot less fizzy, and sort of looks more natural, idk. We went back on the boat, and then took the coach all the way back to landau. Naomi was waiting as soon as I got off the bus, so we just went home, and then to the volksfest again after about half an hour. Tonight was the last night, so lots of people were going, even though we just got back from Salzburg and everyone was tired. We got there a lot earlier than usual (so we could get a table) and it was a bit boring for the first half. Me, tania, grace, kate and chloe left after a little while - we got pizza, and then sat out the back of the horse-ride stall, on these rocks. It was out of the way and really nice, we just stayed there for ages. Eleanor didn't find us, and I sorta didn't want her to. I don't think the other girls like her that much. not sure if I do either, other than that she orders my food for me. She found us when we went out to get crepes, and was really angry that tania didn't answer her phone. The crepe was nice, atleast. I had Nutella and strawberries. I got an apfelschorle and we went back to sit on the rocks for a bit. El was getting pissy about tania not wanting to go on rides, so she went out and did the bumpers with her a couple times. And then it started to get all a bit much. tania really wanted to go in the tent and sing and stand on the benches and have fun. Eleanor didnt. She convinced her eventually to just go inside for 10 minutes, but el refused to even talk to anyone there, and just stood, until eventually I had to drag tania out of there. I told el it would be nice if she would just let tania have a little fun, and she ran off. That annoyed me a lot, because it wasn't fair at all. tania wanted to do this, and it was literally her last night she would be able to, and she wasn't allowed to just because el didn't want to. She did more dodgems with el. We went back into the tent. I ended up leaving with Eleanor, because she couldn't just be left alone. The rest of the night I was stuck out there on babysitting duty, not enjoying myself one bit. I didn't talk to her. I read my book on my phone, and pretended she didn't exist. Because maybe I wanted to have fun too? It's not fair that I should have to look after her when I'm not her best friend, or even that close to her at all. I think Eleanor needs to try and think about other people sometimes. Anyway, we went home soon after that. we saw daniel again, and he didn't even say hi to tania, which made me feel good, even though I felt bad about feeling good about it. On the bright side, I went without makeup and didn't feel ugly at all, and I've just got to a really good bit in my book (Gemina 👌👌) and I survived a whole volksfest without getting pressured into a beer, so I'm happy about that. Still a bit pissed about not going in to the tent, especially when wake me up was playing at the end, but most of the songs were in german so I would've felt awkward anyway. At this point I'm just hoping that things with Eleanor don't get any worse than this, especially seeing as her mums here. If she or anyone else ruins this trip for me, god help them.

icecream count: 11

I've been really really tired the past couple of days, and I don't really know why. this morning we got on the coach as soon as we got to school, and drove to the bmw factory. The drive was only about 15 minutes, which sucked because I would've liked to have slept on the bus. El made a big deal of sitting next to me, and I ended up being separated from tania by about three rows. I don't understand why I can't talk to both el and tania at the same time - eleanor always seems to be pulling me away from her and it sucks. Anyway, tania was probably pissed about that, but it wasn't my fault. we did a tour of the bmw factory, and I mean, it was probably really great, but I was just so, so tired. I felt really bad for the tour guide guy, because you could tell none of us really cared. I mean, the robots were cool, and the bit with all the customised cars. I just don't really care that much about cars. We got back on the coach after about two hours of walking around the factory. There was a bee on the bus which el obviously freaked out about, which annoyed me a lot a lot. We drove down to dingolfing, to meet the Lord Mayor. I liked him a lot better than the first one. He was a funny old guy who kept taking pictures of us with no warning. He gave us mugs filled with chocolates, and a pen. We also got to go pick a number plate from a pile he randomly had stocked up downstairs. They all have the letters of the area they come from at the start - like LAN for landau or LA for landshut or DGF for dingolfing. Mine had MÜ, which I thought was münchen but apparently it isn't. It's okay, I still think a numberplate with an umlaut on it is pretty cool. Not really entirely sure what I'm supposed to do with it though. We had wurstel and a spezi to eat, and he gave us some yellow dingolfing bags to put our numberplates in. There were crests up on the wall of all of the areas or towns or whatever - I thought that was pretty cool. When we got back to school, it was still break, so we went with franzi and naomi to go get an icecream from the store. I had a snickers one, and it was great. We went to chemistry with them after that - the teacher was a little bit annoying (she said "wir....machen......chemie" really really slowly as if we were stupid) and it was Abbie boring seeing as I couldn't understand what she was saying, but the periods go much shorter than ours, so it was alright. It was the last period as well, so we went home pretty much straight after that. i had another calippo at typo. After lazing around for a bit at home, we went back to the school for an exchange students farewell kind of thing. Tania came really late, which was okay we saved a seat for her - but before she came, ms lam came up to me and said she'd heard that tania had been excluded, and that we needed to save a seat for her. That made me really sad, because now she thinks it's my fault. I would have sat right next to tania and stayed with her all the time if eleanor wasn't being such a brat. I can't cater for the two of them at the same time - tania wants nothing to do with eleanor, but I can't just leave her alone. It's getting much too hard. They played a slideshow of all the pictures they took in australia - it was very cute, but it made me want to go back home, especially with el creating all this trouble (which is now apparently my fault) We had Bavarian food and decorations - I got a little Bavarian flag ribbon and tied it on my wrist. I had the sausage and pickle salad from a couple nights ago, and there was also pretzels and cheese and other things. The best part was the dessert - we had chocolate mousse and chocolate brownies and Black Forest cake :))

tania went over to sit with ruby and her friends, and I came too - luckily el didn't follow. I fiddled with the bottle caps, which Rena was apparently impressed with. We went outside to play beach volleyball, but some sweaty dudes were already there. I stuck clovers in my shoes again instead. Tania took my phone and took a couple hundred pictures of me whinging at her to give it back, which is a set of photos I hope I never delete. They made me laugh so much. We went in and out again a couple times - we watched Hannah playing flute, and Simon playing the accordion. Eventually everyone was outside, just mucking around. Me and Kate went on an adventure into this little hollowed out lump of bushes - I think it was probably the kids secret smoking hole. I was so excited to be able to walk through without being worried about snakes or spiders that I didn't notice the stinging nettles (ouch). We took a big group photo with everyone, and I hope I never lose that one either. I still don't know some peoples names, but I have met most people. We went home with franzis mum. I think, overall, today was a good day.

icecream count: 13

this morning it was cold and raining, bs it felt like one of those days that just wasn't going to work out no matter how hard I tried. When I got to the classroom, tania and Eleanor weren't there yet - I just sort of sat outside and listened to 6/10 on repeat, half asleep. And then Eleanor arrived, and everything went a little downhill. German class itself wasn't that fun - el had already finished all the sheets while she was back at home, and kept muttering about how everything was so easy, and correcting me all the time. She wanted to go to Lena's classes instead I guess. When we went out to break, she took all her stuff with her and went off to find Lena before we could stop her. She said ms lam couldn't tell her what to do, because she's supposed to be under her mums care. She said she could do what she wanted. I wasn't really arguing - I didn't particularly want her around anyway. When we got back from recess, me and tania had to tell ms lam what Eleanor had gone and done - and that turned into a big talk while the rest of the class went outside. I couldn't tell whether she was angry at eleanor or at us, but she kept saying she hated the attitude, and that she was done with it all. It felt like she was angry at us, and that scares me, because it's not my fault at all. If not Eleanor's it's more tania's than mine, for telling ms lam every single tiny little thing that el does wrong. We went out to play beach volleyball with the class and the Germans. Eleanor wasn't there - she got Lena's parents to pick her up. Lena told ms lam she was "sick" but really the only explanation she gave was that she "hated it" so that's fun. I didn't really have fun playing volleyball or basketball, but it was alright just sitting and talking with naomi. She didn't play either, she's scared of balls. It started raining eventually, and everyone went inside - me and tania and a whole lot of people ended up walking to maccas down the road. I had a tiny tiny hamburger and a lemonade which was very good. Most of the people there ended up asking me about Eleanor and it turned into another big talk about that. I feel like I shouldn't do that anymore, especially as ms lam keeps getting me in trouble. I think Naomi wanted me to go to her class but I didn't make it back in time. It was religion anyway so I don't think I would have liked it. me and Xenia and Naomi stood outside in the rain and waited for Andreas to take us to typo. We went to kaufland and bought some soup - it was pretty hard getting there, as Naomi was holding the umbrella, plus it was really windy. Anyway, the soup was good. It had pasta and meatballs in it. We went back home a while later, and waited for the rain to stop. When it was sunny again, we went down to see the horses. Me and Naomi went on a really long walk with her horse, sabse. It's short for Sabrina apparently. She's very old, but pretty. She had lots of colours on her back, because she's a therapy horse and the kids had been finger painting on her - I think that made her look even prettier, in a weird way. We went through a forest, and that was pretty too. It was really really hot, which is odd because it was cold and raining this morning. Me and Naomi talked a lot. I feel like we're quite close now - I mean, the conversation isn't awkward anymore. It sucks that I have to leave in a couple of days. Xenia showed me her horse - he's really small, I think he's like a Shetland or something? And his name is mattie. I had a shower when I got home, because I was really gross from the walk. I also had an icecream from the freezer - it was like a homebrand-fake-strawberry-cornetto thing. It was good. We drove to the biergarten for dinner, and that was really nice too. I had currywurst (yum) and it came with wedges which were great too. I think the thing about currywurst is it has just the right amount of sauce - by that I mean heaps and heaps. There's no way you're going to run out of sauce when you eat a currywurst. Why isn't everything like that?? I also had a really big glass of limonade, with a handle and everything. Naomi took me to the little castle next to it, and we lakes around a bit more, and talked a bit more. Andreas got us a typical Bavarian dessert, which was funny because they're only supposed to make it on Sundays, but he told them I was a special Australian exchange child and they made it for us. It was really good - like a pastry, and I think it had apple and sultanas in it. Anyway, it was warm, and I really liked it. The sun was setting when we were driving home in the car, and it was beautiful.

icecream count: 14

I slept in a lot this morning - which is to say that I woke up at about seven, and got out of bed at like 10 - but I've been waking up at about five every morning so it feels like a luxury. I didn't have much for breakfast - just a croissant, and some orange juice. It was enough though. I had to half pack my bag, which was really sad. Before I met naomi, I fully expected to want to leave by this point, but I'm finding I don't really want it to end. I folded my clothes and tried not to think about never seeing her again. Her mum walked in and gave me a gymnasium landau mug and a cute towel with my name on it. She said she hoped I had a good time here, which was cute. She's so nice, but now I have to fit a whole towel into my bag which isn't helpful. I'll manage. At maybe about twelve, franzis mum came and picked us up in her car, and we drove to the train station. Today franzi and naomi planned for us to go to Munich to do some shopping - my shopping experiences so far haven't been all that great, so I wasn't really all that excited. They insisted anyway that shopping in Munich was amazing (I've already been shopping in Munich and i don't know about that) so I was ready to tag along regardless. The train ride was an hour long, so we got a four seater and me and tania listened to music. It was a little awkward because there was no where to look other than at franzi or Naomi, and my legs didn't really fit. Also my music is a little weird sometimes, and tania tells me she doesn't mind but like... does she really. I don't feel like anyone appreciates listening to every single twenty one pilots song in a row (especially the self titled ones, they're a little odd) anyway, we got there and it was reallly hot. We saw all the stuff from the first day - the fountain, the arch, marienplatz, the place where I got my softeis. I followed the others into the mall (which I hadn't actually noticed was there last time we shopped) and we started on our shopping quest. We went into topshop first, which was uneventful - I tried on one of those one piece looking things which really didn't go with my bright orange underwear, and a white jumpsuit as well - same deal. The lighting in the change rooms was really bad - I think they should fix that, it's not gonna help anyone buy any clothes. We went down to another part of the shopping centre after that - we went into a couple of shops whose names I forget - most I'd heard of but never been into. One had california written on it everywhere and was 50% off but still really expensive, and one had really really tiny shorts which I'm 100% sure fir absolutely nobody (except maybe xenia) we also went into urban outfitters but that was kind of a dud. It had nice notebooks but I already have an unused one at home, and don't want to cheat on it. My favourite shop we went into was brandy melville - I've never seen it in Australia before, but it was just really nice. I tried on a couple of shirts which I really liked - a pink one and a yellow one and a navy blue one - I didn't know which one to pick, so I just took them all. There, are you happy mum? I spent all my money, which was about €60, but i really liked the shirts and I feel like I'm never going to see that shop again so why not. It was time to go meet franzis mum at marianplatz after we left that shop, but we went to another couple places still after that - I got a Munich shirt for dad at a souvenir shop, and a Hard Rock Cafe one for myself, mostly because everyone here seems to wear them, and I know it'll make me remember this trip every time I wear it. I ended up spending about €100 on shirts, so whoops. We saw the glockenspiel in the tower going round at 5 - it went for about five minutes and was really just wooden puppets going in circles, but still pretty cool. We went to a really really nice place for an early dinner - it was called hans im glück, and one day I'm going to go back there again. The inside was really nice, with trees coming out of the floor - I don't know why, but it looked nice. I got an avocado burger plus a mocktail called the moskito, which was lime and mint and really nice. I was so full after, but it was worth it. We walked back to the train station through the English gardens, which were really nice. We saw some guys surfing on the ice river Rapids, which was odd but I guess they don't have any oceans here so makes sense. The river was going really quickly, and there were a couple dudes just floating down it. I wouldn'tve done that, there were way too many ducks. We walked pasta lot of guys drinking and swimming (one guy left his six pack in the river to cool them down) One group of guys was playing "i come from a land down under" really loud, and I almost had to stop and wink at them because yes. That's me. We got a frozen yogurt later - I just had blackberries and strawberries on mine, but it was great. it felt a lot more healthy than praus. We went home on the train again after that, and I mostly kind of slept, because it was already nine by then. When I got home I had a shower and crashed straight away. It was a good last day though - never thought I was capable of buying things and actually enjoying myself in the process. I will love those shirts forever.

icecream count: 15

I had to wake up early today, even though it was a weekend, because I had to pack up and leave. I was a lot more sad than I expected to be - naomi feels like a close friend now, and I'm actually never going to see her again. Her mum and her dad are so nice as well, and her sister is so funny - this morning she said "ich bin in hufflepuff weil bin ich nett" and I was all like "ich auch!!" And it was great. We went to the place where the volksfest was - it's all been taken down now, which is really sad. Laura was already crying when I got there, and then franzi was and so was Tania and then Naomi started crying and then everyone was. I didn't cry, and I feel like maybe naomi thought it was cause I wouldn't miss her, but I was really actually so sad - I don't usually cry when I'm sad, only when I'm anxious or embarrassed. I watched them out the window as we drove away, and I watched pavel barking at us, and I sat in silence for the rest of the trip. I moved back to sit with Tania and read my book halfway through. We stopped in pilsen at one point - we walked around and looked at buildings for a little it, then found a cute little restaurant. Inside, it was playing 2012 songs in czech, which was really odd. I mean like party rock anthem and all about that base, and a couple of geometry dash songs here and there. I ordered a carbonara and got a tiny apple juice. It was very good. We drove the rest of the way to Prague in absolute an hour - the bus driver took us around the city on a kind of tour thing. We saw an old stadium that was the third biggest in the world I think. Miss said it could fit six soccer fields - I mean that sounds pretty big to me (what's the largest one like??) we also saw the river and a castle I think. I don't think many of us were paying that much attention. When we got off the bus, we had to drag our bags across the cobblestones all the way to the hotel, which wasn't fun. Hannah was getting all the suitcases out of the back, and when she told me mine was really heavy I actually got offended in a weird way - but dragging it like that over the uneven roads made me believe her. When we got to the hotel, the wifi in the lobby wouldn't connect to my phone, and seeing as I was already tired and frustrated, I started to get maybe just a little bit mad. After I dragged my entire suitcase up a spiral staircase (because the lift was taking too long) I discovered that the wifi didn't reach our room. It worked in everyone else's apparently - just not ours?? Maybe it's stupid, but with leaving naomi and the frustration of my suitcase and everything piling up, I almost cried for the first time today. We worked out that it worked a lot better out in the breakfast room, so I sat out there for a bit which was good. We had to leave soon anyway. We went out into the city - we ended up walking around for a while because it was too early to eat (apparently). I don't really know what we saw, except that in the main square there were a couple of super cool rappy dudes who were filming a music video. The girls were dancing stupidly in the back of the car, while the guy in the front mouthed the lyrics. I don't know if they knew how stupid they looked, but I guess good on them for actually having confidence. We found a little burger place eventually, which was actually really nice. I had a bbq burger, but the barbecue sauce actually came on the side so I mostly had it with my chips. I had a homemade lemonade as well, with mint in it, but it was a little watered down and not so good. Eleanor didn't eat most of the meat because it was "raw", i.e. a tiny tiny bit pink around the edges. honestly el, get it together. We had a thing called a trdelník, which is just icecream in a donut cone. It looked really really good, which was why I was a little disappointed by it. It wasn't bad, but the "cone" was first of all, hollow all the way through, so you had to have a cup at the bottom (who's idea was that??), and second of all was really hard. So basically, it was impossible to eat, and that might have made it not worth it in the end. When we went back to the hotel I had a shower - tania went to the breakfast room where everyone was. I went there after my shower too, but I don't know if I will again. I asked where tania was as soon as I walked in, and she laughed at me really loudly for a really long time because she was "literally right in front of me". She wouldn't shut up about it the rest of the time, because it was apparently so hilarious. I went out to the back half of the room to sit on my phone where the wifi worked and drink apple juice (which basically tasted like water) and pretty much everyone asked whether I was okay, and told me I was being antisocial. I mean, I would've stayed in my room, but the wifi doesn't reach there okay? Sorry. I went back to the room after tania laughed about me asking where she was for the hundredth time, in front of a completely new set of people. I don't think anyone noticed me leave.

icecream count: 16

today we had a really nice buffet in the breakfast room, and then went out into prague. The first thing we did was find an exchange place, because prague doesn't actually use euros. I gave the lady a twenty, and she gave me back 500 crowns! I think 100 \240crowns is worth about four euros - there was a 50 crown coin. We sort of just walked up and down souvenir shops for a little while after that - there were lots of shirts that had "czech me out" written on the front, which was really funny. I didn't get the chance to buy one in any of those stores, but I'd like to get one for choo. We went down into the old jewish ghetto, and I bought a watercolour of prague from a shop there. We walked for a lot more, and it was very very hot. I was getting pissed off at this point, because I didn't want to ruin my new hard rock cafe shirt by getting all sweaty, plus I had a massive pimple on my chin which was annoying me a lot. We walked over the bridge, which was nice because if you leant over you could feel the breeze. I went and got a coke from maccas because it was cold, and I needed it. That cheered me up at least a little bit. Then we kept on walking. We went up a hill, and got to Prague castle (that's a boring name I know, but it's literally what it was called) we bought tickets that let us go into four different things - they were mostly churches. The first church was \240actually really pretty - it had lots of stained glass windows, and was nice. I think I would've liked the windows better if they were just art, and not so jesusy, but they were pretty anyway. The second church had geometric patterns on the roof that kind of looked like flowers, with the chandeliers hanging down form the middle of them. The balcony had a really nice view of the city - all the robes of the houses are red tile, and they look so pretty all together. The third church was smaller, and we just sat down in it because we were tired. There were some bones there, but I don't know what that was about. There was also a dog tied outside - a Dalmatian, and he was really cute. The last one wasn't a church, it was a little street. It was cute but there wasn't so much to see - just some insides of old houses and things. For lunch we just got paninis from the little cafe thing at the castle - I had tomato mozarella, and it was good. We walked back through the gardens, past some dudes saying "ay carumba" and grass we weren't allowed to walk on, and back to the bridge. At the bottom of the bridge we got some pedal boats - I got one with hannah tania and eleanor - and went on the river with them. We went around a section of the river for about an hour - under the bridges and past all the ducks. There was even a bar that was specifically for the people in boats to go up to and buy drinks from, but we didn't go to that. I didn't actually pedal at all, I just stuck my feet in the water and lay down, and even stood up for a little bit. It was really fun. Everyone else thought us putting our feet in the water was gross, and that made me feel attacked, but it was hot and felt fine to me so I honestly don't care what everyone else thought. It's just my feet. I'm not dead yet. We walked back to the hotel after everyone got off the boats - I really wanted to go inside and cool off, but miss said we should go shopping so I just grabbed my purse and left again. I went with mikey declan and el - the only thing I bought was a glass mouse for 50kč. mikey got a green lollipop, and Declan some chocolate. We went into mango too, but declan was the only one who bought anything, and it was just a black jacket. We went to a lolly shop at the very end, and I spent a lot more than I should have (mostly because I cant get my head around the money) I may have spent 300 - but that's €12 so it could have just been 200? I have no idea. Anyway, the lollies were in big barrels, and it was pretty cool. I really only got a couple of big things, and a handful of these really nice sour cherry lollies. I figured it was alright no matter how much money I spent - I needed to spend my crowns anyway, cause there wasn't much else I would be able to spend them on. We went to dinner pretty much straight after that - we just went to a nice outdoor place. I had this thing called flammkuchen, which is literally just pizza, but it's german I think. The crust was thinner so it was less filling, but really really nice. I just had a sprite, but I should have tried a homemade lemonade again because Eleanor's was really good. I think it's a thing here, I don't know why. We sat at a table next to ruby and sophie, and talked to them, which was nice. On the way back to the hotel, I saw another shop with the czech shirt in it, but miss didn't stop. I really hope I get it eventually. I didn't go out to the breakfast room today - I just read my book, and sat close to the door when I really needed wifi. Tania came back in at ten, and read some wattpad book on her phone. I told her I wanted to sleep at eleven, but she just said goodnight and didn't turn the light off. I was angry so I started silently counting until she did - I must have got to a really high number, because I fell asleep like that. At one I woke up, and tania was asleep with the light still on, which I was really angry about. Because of that I didn't sleep too well at all.

tania told me she read until twelve last night - a full hour after I told her I wanted to sleep and she didn't even bother to think that I might want the light off. I was tired and angry in the morning. We had buffet breakfast again, but it wasn't as nice because it was too early for the hot stuff to be out. We got to go on the bus today instead of walking at least, so that cheered me up. I took my backpack with everything I could possibly need, just because I didn't have to carry it around with me. I read on the bus again, and slept, and listened to music. Tania did everyone hair into two braids, but my hair looks stupid like that, so I said no. Everyone made a big deal out of it, but I don't like how I look in them, okay? It felt like everyone was against me. We drove almost two hours to Dresden. Just before we got there, we stopped at a castle place. I have no idea what it was whatsoever, but it was high up and the view was alright. It was raining a lot, so there was mist and you couldn't see that far, but mostly it was okay. There was a really deep well at the start, which was cool. There wasn't anything to see apart from that. Ms lam took a lot of pickies. We were only in the bus for a little bit more before we got to dresden - tania was playing with mikey's hair the whole time and it was actually disgusting. She keeps going over to talk to him and I want to vomit. Eleanor saw her friends as soon as she got out of the bus, and went off with them - I have no idea what friends they were, but she left us alone so I guess that's alright. We went to see the city - it was bombed at some point in ww2 and had been completely rebuilt. We went inside a church that only had a few stones left from the original. It was pretty inside, but just felt... fake. I don't know. We had lunch right across the road - I had nachos, and it was really good, even though I had to eat it really quickly. Some guy across the road was singing for money, and it was kind of funny. He had on a pink guards uniform and was singing in opera. We went down to have a boat tour after that, which was okay but it went for a reallllly long time. Me and tania were hanging our legs over the edge for a bit, but we got told off for it. It started raining a lot halfway through and the view was ruined anyway, so I just lay on my back for the rest. We got back on the bus and went back to prague. We didn't have long in the hotel before dinner - we went back out pretty much straight away. We went to a restaurant right next to the hard rock cage. Tania ditched me straight away to go sit with the boys while I got left with Eric and yash and Eleanor. I hate how she just dumps her on me and doesn't think about how I feel. I don't think she really cares about me so much at all - she has plenty of people to go off with while she leaves me with Eleanor. She's been walking round holding hands with ruby through every city, and going off and talking to mikey or Declan every time she can. anyway, Eleanor's not bad, and I didn't mind sitting with her, or with yash or eric. It's just tania that's annoying me. I had a burger, and it was good, but it took a long time. Ms lam bought us dessert from the same place, and I had an icecream - peanut butter with churros - which sounds really good, but actually was small and disappointing. On the way back to the hotel, we went into a souvenir shop, which was the one successful part of today. I got the shirt for 299 (I had 300 left), and was happy that I used up all my crowns. Back in the hotel, the only thing I did was go up outside Eleanor's room, where there were comfy chairs and wifi, and I only stayed there for 15 minutes. It was a lot nicer than all the other things I've done after dinner in hotels so far though. I wish I'd gone up sooner.

icecream count: 17

Today wasn't really that eventful, so this might be a boring one. we had to pack our bags early this morning and leave the hotel - we came downstairs too early to have hot breakfast, but the cold stuff was still really nice. We got on the coach with our backpacks and suitcases, and we drove for a long time. Tania played cards with yash and johnie the whole time - I just listened to music with my headphones, because my earphones broke. About two hours in we stopped at a service station - everyone bought drinks and food, but I didn't have any crowns left so I couldn't get anything. I shared some Pringles with tania back on the bus, even though the bus driver said we weren't allowed to eat. I read my book. We stopped for lunch in regensburg, which was really weird because that's where we went the first day with naomi. There were a lot less people there, because the markets were finished. It looked so empty. We went to a restaurant with some sunflowers, which were nice, but it was too full so we went to find another place. I ended up having pasta and it was good. We got back to munich, and I was really tired. We went back to the same hotel that we were in the first day, which was a bit disappointing because it was a little gross last time. We were in level two as well, and tania was really mad because apparently the lower floor you're on the worse they are. Anyway, we went up, and turns out she was completely wrong because it was much better than \240the one we had last time. We didn't stay in there for very long before we had to go back down again to get dinner. We went shopping (again) for a little bit first - we went back and found brandy Melville again, but I didn't get anything from there. I did get piña colada stuff from the body shop for mum, and €10 worth of highlighters (shh). We went back to the same place for dinner, and I had a schnitzel again. I had a Black Forest cake for dessert, because I wanted to try one, and it wasn't that great, but still okay. We got back to the hotel quite late, so people weren't allowed to go to each others rooms. That was fine with me. I slept at eleven - tania told me she went out to someone else's room at 2am - she told me apparently, but I was obviously asleep. I don't know why she thought it would be a good idea to sneak around the hotel that early in the morning, but I don't really care. Wasn't anything to do with me.