I have to say, I had no idea what to expect in Berlin. I normally love reading and researching a place. However, the last few weeks in France have been whirlwind so didn’t have a chance to look too much into it. Jumping on the plane to Berlin meant it was time to take a deep breath. It was a welcomed relief to hear English spoken again. I felt slightly overwhelmed by trying to speak French for 3 weeks with little knowledge - I really need to learn it properly.

Me and the French boy were meeting up with his travel buddies from India for a New Years party in Berlin.

The interesting thing I found about Berlin is that you can really feel the history. Recent history. You did not need to think back to a time and imagine how it would have been different. It gave us a chance to reflect on what happened in recent years. We visited the small remains of the Berlin Wall and walked along the cobblestone lines where the wall divided the East and West of Germany.

There were stories of over 90 people killing themselves trying to get across this wall to West Germany. Images of people smashing and destroying the wall are incredible.

We celebrated New Years with Germans (along with other nationalities) and it seems like Germany is now one. Apart from the odd ‘that’s because shes from the East’ type of jokes resulting from slight cultural differences (colloquially Ossis and Wessis).

We also visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe - a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, photo below. A sobering experience.

We brought New Years in with a bang (literally) with fireworks going off all over the streets by various Germans. Apparently this is the norm in Germany. We spent New Years with a whole mix of people from different cultures which was fantastic. Bring on 2009. If it can be anything like 2008, I will be one happy girl.

Merry Xmas. Or should I say Joyeux Noël from here in France.

I am spending 3 weeks in a French village for Christmas this year with the French boy’s family (who don’t speak a word of English). It’s proven difficult to give a good impression without speaking the language. But I am giving it a go with hand signals and lots of smiles.

We have had meals every day with his friends and family. It can get tiring listening to a table full of French people full of wine and trying to understanding every word that they are saying. But his family are lovely. They live in a cute little village where we visited the local markets to get cheese.

I have had the opportunity to try lots of delicious French food and wine. I tried one of the delicacies of French food - foie gras, french for fat liver. It is scrumptious. I did not know when I was eating it that the duck is fattened through force feeding through a tube. Ick. It is actually illegal in California and there are websites protesting against the cruelty to ducks to make foie gras. But how could anyone ever tell the French to stop producing this traditional and popular dish? All I can say is, good luck.

fields of civray

Oh how the world is changing. We spotted this sign at a cafe in Brighton advertising their “credit crunch specials”. My my.

Another sign we came across at a salad bar which made the French boy laugh was this one. Doesn’t the crisps defeat the purpose of the salad? They seem to love their crisps here and for a Frenchman, he finds it slightly shocking. It gives the French more ammunition to make fun of the delicacies of English ‘cuisine’.