Aha!

Tuesday (continued..):
Haha when I got home that night I found a cutting from the local newspaper featuring my photo and citing me as saying I dislike Valentines day because it's too commercialised (and every other voxpopee was of the opposite opinion:P). Souvenir and a half!

Wednesday:
Umm nothing particularly interesting. Went for a ski and went out after dinner and played a few games of pool..by myself hah.

Thursday:
See Wednesday minus the pool. My arms were toast from doing 30km classic. I find it so much harder than skating:O

Friday:
Big day:) I decided that since 45k was no longer a challenge, I'd try and do 60k of skating for my long ski. When I got to the loop I heard two Americans talking among themselves and struck up a conversation with them. They were very fit triathletes, who'd decided they'd give the Winter triathlon a shot. The only problem was, they didn't know how to cross country ski and the race was in 2 weeks, so they were trying to get some skating practice in. They were actually not too bad considering they'd never been coached. Although one of them did manage to break his 300 euro skis in half the last time they went out:P (they were covered by insurance, so no biggy). I took them under my wing and took them for a few laps without stocks. They were looking a lot better by the end of it. After 4 laps or so they called it quits because otherwise they were going to lose certain appendages:P I guess they'll know in the future that -10°c plus windchill calls for more than a pair of skins:P So that was 6 laps gone. It's a lot easier skiing with other people. It eases the mental burden I guess. I did another 6 laps to make 30km without stocks and then strapped them round my wrists. Reached the 45km mark without problems, still feeling strong. The next 4 were fairly tough, but after that the finish line was in sight and I got there! I actually didn't feel too bad, I could've done another 10k or so.

Had to wait ages for the stupid bus, so I sat in a cafe, ordered a tea and covertly ate my sandwiches:P

I was still feeling amazingly energetic when I got back to my room (It probably had something to do with the cup of coffee I drank before the ski and the fact that I hadn't had any caffeine for a few months:P) and really could not stand another night of falling asleep in front of the TV. I really wanted to go out, but didn't know where. Martinique was the only place I could think of, but I was quite reluctant to go there after the quick look I took with Ben two weeks ago. Apprehensively, I walked down to the train station at about 10, only to find that there were no trains going to Freudenstadt until 11pm, which would give me about 30 minutes before I had to catch the last train home again lol. There was a train coming from Freudenstadt, so I said screw it, and hopped on, prepared to launch myself into the unknown...and then it started off going back to Freudenstadt haha.

I didn't really have a clear idea of how to get to Martinique, so I just started walking in that direction. A few steps later, I heard music coming from this place opposite the station. I had a look through the window and it looked pretty good: pool table, music, people. So I went in and discovered the youth centre 'Teeny disco'. It was fantastic! I'd started to think that there was a generation issue in Freudenstadt. All the old people are really nice and outgoing, but all the young people I had met were unfriendly, and uninterested. But the people here were great! A charming young lady by the name of Martina introduced me to everyone, and we had great fun compiling a list of obscure german swear words:P In no time at all it was 12 oclock and I went to make my goodbyes, but this young guy called Freddy insisted that I come and sleep over at his girlfriend's house and try what is in his opinion, the best beer there is in Germany. 'Ummmmm'
'Be spontaneous man!' (he started speaking english in this hilarious accent as soon as he heard I was from Australia)
'Heh why not?'
So I went back with them to Charly's (his girlfriend) place, tried the bottle of 'Das Echte' beer (I think Alpirsbacher Speziell is more deserving of the accolade), translated some death metal lyrics into german for him, drank quite a lot of schnaps, and fell asleep... And then woke up about half an hour later and for the first time in my career, was forced to crawl to the bathroom and empty the contents of my stomach (amazing how you really do feel completely better afterwards..I always thought it was an exaggeration) eugh:P I think I'm going to stay away from alcohol for a while lol. It was a really fun night in spite of that. A similar thing is happening tonight, which I'm looking forward to:)

Saturday:
Woke up at 8am or so, lacking a few hours sleep. I wanted to go for a ski and I knew it wouldn't happen if I slept in until everyone else was awake, so I left a note and caught a bus back to Baiersbronn. I got to my room and ate a little breakfast, but wasn't really hungry. It was very hard to leave the room again, but I had no excuse and I had a theory that 30km of skating would be a good hangover cure. It sort of was. I was fairly unco-ordinated and went incredibly slowly at the start, but felt progressively better and by the end, I was feeling good:) But not anymore - sitting at the computer for 2 and a half hours has robbed me of energy haha. I'm going to go back to my room and recuperate for a bit before I go out again.