The countdown to Australia has started...

What does one do in one's last week in Munich for a couple of months? Well, in my case the answer is panic. In as panicked a way as I'm capable of, which isn't really that panicked really. But nonetheless, I'm getting a serious case of Reisefieber, as they say here. My thoughts are turning more and more to distant lands.

But there are still a few things to do, like sort out my flat so that my flat-sitter can move in. And of course meet up with friends who I won't be seeing for a while. Breakfast with Christian, lunch with Thomas, dinner with Paul, a final choir rehearsal, cocktails with my EPO girls.

Not to mention sorting out the increasingly complex saga of the new bathroom in the flat in the UK. Argh! It's bad enough when you've got that sort of thing to do on your doorstep. Somehow, arranging for plumbers to go round and give you quotes is a tad trickier when you're sitting in the wrong country.

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It's tomorrow now, and I've got to mention a little happening from when I was in Bamberg with Justin, Sam & the girls which isn't in my ever-so-cursory blog of that week but which I remembered last night in the pub after a fantastic concert of a cappella modern classical music by a choir called Collegium Vocale - check them out at http://www.collegium-vocale-muenchen.de/ - with a few members of my choir. Erm, where was I? Oh yes, the story in Bamberg:

Well, I wrote that we had to drive the wrong way down a one-way street at the behest of a slightly irate - and armed - policeman. Well, as we were inching down the bendy road, fearing a head-on collision at any moment, an old lady who was sweeping her hallway emerged and started totally having a go at us for going the wrong way down her street! But I told her that a policeman had told us to do it, and her whole demeanour changed suddenly from one of affronted-regulations to one of cowering-before-authority. It was most amusing!

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Right, I'm having to unplug my PC now and pack it away. (Of course, by the time I actually publish this post, I'll already be somewhere exciting and tropical, but let's stick with the present tense just for the narrative immediacy of it, shall we?) Tara for now!

It feels like I haven't stopped living la vida loca in MONTHS!! But, then again, looking back at my diary since July, it's TRUE!!!

So it was strangely pleasant to have a few days of nothing much, at home in Munich. I had a few lunch & dinner appointments, and I also had the stress of trying to sort out some plumbing problems in my flat in the UK, but mostly I was able to just chill out and start getting ready for the next phase of my adventures in November. In the suddenly freezing cold - even snowy - weather, I wasn't up for much more than that in any case.

There was one more excitement in store for me, however: a weekend in Cracow with Béné. Ladies & gentlemen, I HAD A NEW COUNTRY!!!!!! Having never been to Poland, I was very excited about this trip.

We drove to Memmingen airport (ludicrously referred to as "Munich West" - although, the actual Munich airport is also really quite far from town) and flew from there to Katowice in Silesia. From there we got the bus transfer to Kraków, which took 90 minutes - as long as the flight, in other words.

Once we'd arrived in Cracow we walked through the historic Old Town, taking in some of the sights but mostly just hoping the rain wouldn't get any heavier. Our hotel was in Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter of the city, just south of the Old Town and east of the Wawel castle. After checking in we headed out to look for a restaurant.

There were lots of restaurants and bars in the area, but they all seemed very empty. In the end we plumped for a place specialising in pierogi, small dumplings with a variety of fillings. We had a portion of lamb & rosemary, a portion of liver & bacon, and a portion of plums & cinnamon. Tasty! Following that, we had a couple of drinks in a bar and then headed back to the hotel.

Sunday was a full day, with lots of sightseeing and - thankfully - no rain. We walked up to the Wawel castle, and from there on into the Old Town, visiting church after church. So many of them were full of worshippers! The Poles take their religion seriously. The church of St Mary on the main square is fabulous.

We were a bit thirsty after all that sightseeing, so we found a funky bar with newspaper clippings all over the walls and had a beer. Then we went to a splendid restaurant called Miód Malina for a delicious lunch of Polish specialities. I had bigos, a kind of meat & cabbage stew. Yum! After a couple of schnapses (I had a DIVINE sliwowica or plum schnaps) and a portion of plum dumplings just like the ones you get in Austria, we headed to the tourist info office and joined a tour group to the salt mines at Wieliczka.

The mines were fascinating! Some 350m deep, although tourists only go down half that far, they have been worked since the middle ages and only recently stopped producing salt. There is cavern after cavern down there, many decorated with salt sculptures, salt altars, and even a whole salt church, with every bit of it carved out of the walls of the cavern. Well worth a visit!

When we got back to Kraków, it was already dark. We decided to attend a concert of chamber music in the church of St Peter & St Paul. The pianist was technically excellent but he lacked expression. Actually, what he lacked was warmth of spirit. Pity. The string quintet were also impressive. But by the end of the concert we were both FREEZING!

We rushed across the Old Town to a restaurant called Chlopskie Jadlo, recommended by Aleks and warmed ourselves over piles of hearty food: bread smeared with lard and sour cream & chives; a warming sour cream & potato soup; smoked mackerel in a creamy apple & onion sauce; roast pork with prunes; turkey pieces in a creamy mushroom sauce. Funnily enough, we didn't have space for a dessert! But then again, my hot beer with fruit compote in it was sort of desserty...

Suitably warmed, we made our way back through town at a more leisurely pace. I took lots of atmospheric photos. It felt really quite Christmassy. I can imagine Kraków being a great place to do Xmas markets - provided you're wearing your thermals.

On Monday we did lots more sightseeing. We took in Kazimierz, visiting the Old Synagogue which is now a museum. Then a few churches - just for a change! Then we found ourselves on the bank of the Vistula river. And - shock horror - the sun was out! We took our climatic cue and hopped on board a floating bar for a cheeky lunchtime beer with views onto the Wawel castle. By the time we'd finished our beers, the sun was gone again. But no matter: we'd needed our sunglasses after all!

Just by our bar was the take-off and landing platform for a tethered hot-air balloon that affords views over the whole city. Neither Béné nor I had ever been in a balloon, so we jumped at the chance. I have to admit, it was a whole lot scarier than I thought it would be! I had a few visions of the cable snapping and us drifting off into the wild grey yonder, or of the balloon collapsing and us hurtling back to the ground. But mostly I tried to take my mind off these thoughts by enjoying the view - and shivering in the icy wind.

Back on terra firma, we walked past Wawel and into the Old Town from the other side. We headed to a Georgian restaurant for a late lunch of khatchapuri, or cheesy bread with roast vegetables and chicken, and a bottle of just-about-not-too-sweet Georgian red wine. After the meal we continued our meanderings through the Old Town, exploring the northern end a bit more. Churches, some churches, and a few churches. Oh, and a theatre!

After some more scenic nighttime photos, we wound up in a cellar bar and, following the waitress' advice, drank some lemon curaçao shooters. Not quite sure why now, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Then we headed back to the hotel for a quick freshen-up before finding a bite to eat nearby and one last drink before turning in.

And suddenly it was Tuesday morning and time for us to leave. The weather decided to be sad at our departure and it was rainy and nasty for the short walk to the tram stop. The tram was packed solid, but we were only in it for about eight minutes. And at the bus station we found our minibus quickly. An hour and a half later we were at the airport, with a few hours to wait.

The weather cleared up somewhere over Austria, and I had a fabulous view of the Alps as we came in south of Munich to land at Memmingen. Sunny & almost warm! That made it a lot easier to be home again after a fab weekend with Béné.

I thought of a fantastic way to avoid being depressed at the end of the excitements of Oktoberfest: go on a huge trip around the whole of Germany for a week!

On Monday morning, Lorna & I travelled together to Munich airport. She flew back to Düsseldorf, whilst I flew up to Berlin. I was met at Tegel airport by Chris, my good friend from Canberra who I haven't seen since I was living in Australia.

We had a lovely day, catching up on news and gossip. I met Chris' friends who he was in Berlin with for the weekend (who, incidentally, were kind enough to let me stay in the flat they had rented for their visit just near Nollendorfplatz).

It was so cold! After the gorgeous weather of the Oktoberfest fortnight, it was a real shock to the system to have to wear a hat & gloves. Luckily, I'd brought them with me. And luckily also, it didn't rain or anything silly like that. But talk about sudden arrival of winter!

We had lunch in KDW, the huge department store in West Berlin that was such a symbol of capitalist decadence during the Cold War. Then we went for a long walk all through the city, ending up at the Hackescher Markt. There I introduced Chris to onion cake & Federweißer.

That evening, we met up with his friends again at the television tower on Alexanderplatz. We were going to go up, but we would have had to wait an hour, so we decided instead to grab a bite to eat in a huge but nonetheless perfectly acceptable Italian place just by the Rotes Rathaus.

After that, we headed out for a few drinks in the vicinity of the flat. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that there was so little going on. Okay, it was a Monday night and it was cold, but come on, this is Berlin for Christ's sake!

On Tuesday morning Chris had to dash to the airport early to catch a plane to the UK. I had a few more hours before my flight to Düsseldorf, so I had a brunch with Chris' mates and then made my way out to the airport. In Düsseldorf I caught the bus to Lorna's place and met here just coming in from work. We had a quick chat and a drinkie, then headed out to meet the rest of the E.ON UK crew.

I was soooooo excited to see so many people I hadn't seen in years!! Claire was there, René was there, Eva was there. And of course I saw Lorna, Phil, Charlotte, and Ali, as well as Annika who I'd met in Munich a few years ago. What a lovely evening!!

Wednesday was my day for travelling to Bonn. I was met at the station by my friend Andreas, and after dumping my stuff back at his we headed into town for an evening's stroll through the centre. We ended up at an Indian restaurant, had a few drinks at the studenty indy bar next door, then called it a night. And we got back to Andreas' flat just in time: the mother of all thunderstorms came over and gave a spectacular light & sound show about ten seconds after we walked through the front door.

After breakfast on Thursday, we headed through the centre of town and out to the south, to where all the German parliament buildings were located until the decision to move everything to Berlin after unification. From there, we worked our way slowly north, through the posh fin-de-siècle suburbs to the southwest of town (where we stopped for lunch) and on past the university into town. After a walk through the middle, we stopped to admire the view up the Rhine before grabbing a coffee in a classic grannies' coffee house. Then I had to go to the station already! Not fair!

But it was fair really, because it meant I could have dinner with Lorna & Annika, then a drink with those two lovely ladies plus Phil. And of course a cheeky nightcap at Lorna's before turning in and getting ready for the next leg of my big journey.

Because on Friday I caught the train to Leipzig. It was a journey of almost six hours right across the heart of Germany, industrial cities giving way to fields, countryside, forests, small towns, more fields, more down-at-heel towns, and finally the city of Leipzig. I was met at the station by Dietmar & Dirk, my hosts for the weekend. I hadn't seen them in a good few years, so it was lovely to catch up with them again!

I had a marvellous weekend with them, which started that very evening: 20 years ago to the day, the big peace marches started that ultimately brought down the Communist government of East Germany and led to unification. It was a very moving experience to walk, candle in hand, with 100,000 other people along the very route that people had taken back then. This time, instead of tanks and riot police, the marchers were accompanied by art installations and footage of the original marches beamed massively onto the sides of buildings.

I can't stress enough how amazing it was to be there. I remember, 20 years earlier as a schoolboy in England, seeing the marches on television and thinking "this is history in the making". And now here I was, reliving those moments on the very soil where they took place, and surrounded by people who had lived through those incredible times. Overwhelming.

On Saturday, after a lazy morning and a generous breakfast, Dietmar & Dirk took me all through Leipzig to see the whole city, including the view from the top of the tallest tower in town. The weather was so-so, but the rain held off for most of the day. Leipzig today bears almost no resemblance to the weary, dreary, post-Communist conurbation that I visited back in 1993. Many many buildings - but still not all - have been restored to their pre-War glory and the city shines in renewed urban pride.

That evening, we went for dinner with four friends of Dietmar's that were also visiting that weekend. Ralf and Dirk were also staying at Dietmar's place; luckily there's plenty of room for guests in his flat! After dinner we all went on to the BärenStolz party, where I got to meet some of Dietmar & Dirk's other friends & acquaintances. We stayed there until around two o'clock, then caught the night tram back home. A good night was had by all.

On Sunday, Dietmar laid on another sumptuous breakfast, then Ralf & Dirk carried on up to Rostock (where they were spending a week's holiday). The three of us went into town and had a quick coffee at the station, and then *sniff* it was time for me to leave. I just made it onto my train to Munich in time! As the train pulled away, I waved goodbye to Dietmar & Dirk, truly the hosts with the most.