The Moon Has Teeth.: Ignorant Australians, wondering what wildlife is in the Black Forest. Wolves? Bears? Every mythological horror we ever grew up listening to in fairytales? We should totally sleep in there tonight, and tell each other ghost stories!

So, the last couple of days have been fun. Yesterday, we left the very lovely city of Amsterdam, and made our way east, into Germany.

Oh Amsterdam, how we shall miss you. Some things we will never look at the same way. 'World of Sleaze' by Regurgitator is the song that kept coming to mind when we were there, forever and always I will be looking into shopfront windows a little too expectantly, and the ever-present smell of the coffee shops which remind me of an old housemate... you know who you are.

But, all good things must coem to an end, and Jordan and I wanted to see the Black Forest before we finally make our way to Munich, for Oktoberfest. So we got on the train to Frankfurt, with only a slight idea as to where we would be going from there. Oh, by the way, the train we took had a food cart in it, and when Jordan tried to purchase some food, was asked what sort of drink he would like. He asked for coffee, but apparently he could only have beer, or maybe a 7-up, which seemed as if that was bending the rules a little. Ahh, a place where you have to drink beer, and only beer. Do you ever get that feeling that maybe you've come home? I don't get that often (having lived in about twenty-one houses in twenty-six years of life), but I think that was the feeling I got yesterday.

Once in Frankfurt, we found that the train to Freiburg was due to leave four minutes before we got there, however it had been delayed by six minutes. Only just made it.

"We are BORED + TIRED but we know that this was the right
thing to do." - Taken from train graffiti in Frankfurt.

I think that train ride was the biggest eye opener of all. We spent the whole train ride just kinda feeling like really igonorant jerks. I mean, the train was packed, but standing near us was a girl who looked about our age, and not only spoke English and German, but spent most of the trip having a conversation in Spanish with an older woman who was also standing nearby. It just got me thinking, a very lovely friend of mine here not only speaks those three languages, but French as well. And here my brother and I are, speaking only one language (poorly), and about four words in German, and we just decide to up and go to Europe, because 'they all speak English over there anyhow.'

We really did feel quite stupid on that trip. And rightly so.

And Pac Man will eat you if you sit down. Or so we gather.

Once in Freiburg, we got off the train, and just relaxed for about an hour. Jordans foot is still pretty sore from Friday night (excessive shuffling injury). Then we headed in what we thought was the right direction.

As it turns out, we didn't really know where we were headed, and the locals seemed to keep directing us to different places, and each turn we took at their suggestion, seemed to lead down a less well-lit path than we'd been on before.

Walking besides the Black Forest, for kilometers, at night, no idea what time, the thought did eventually cross our mind that we may have to sleep in the Black Forest itself that night. Are there wolves in the black forest? How about bears? I guess we weren't to know. We decided to walk a little more before it came to that, and just talked rubbish for the next half hour or so. Including a conversation we had about us living the Grimms fairytales.

"D'you reckon that little old lady that gave us directions, just directed us to her gingerbread house?"

"It's okay Josh, I've been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs."

"I wonder if we'll walk past a girl with a wicker basket and a red cloak on, being pursued by a big bad... Oh fuck, yeah, I think there are wolves here."

But, we walked some more, and eventually found a hostel, just not the one we were looking for. So we swallowed our pride (and my dissapointment that we wouldn't, in fact, be sleeping in the Black Forest), and we went inside and got ourselves a room for the night.

Wake up early, and we find that this town is really quite a lovely place. It's like a cross between Melbourne, Ballarat, and Halls Gap, if you can imagine it. Freiburg is really quite beautiful, and although we're yet to go wandering throught the Black Forest, it is on our list of things to do. I wanna catch a pixie, and apparently there aren't any wolves there. We haven't asked about bears, but I kinda hope there are. Scary, sure, but hell if it doesn't sound exciting.

It's only early afternoon here, but we're taking a quick break. So far we've gotten ost a few times, found the hostel we wanted to stay in, been to Germanys oldest cathedral (The Munster, built in the thirteenth century). Taken a few photos, and eaten delicious food. Marzipan croissants (God damn i love marzipan, it's been so long since I've had it), bretzeln galore (big, breadier pretzels), and tried some candied kiwi fruit from a market outside the Munster.

You know the best thing about being here so far? Unlike Amsterdam, where we met nothing but tourists, and about three Dutch people, here we've met mostly Germans, not all of whom speak English, which is really exciting. Some of my old German classes are coming back to me. 'Nicht sprechen Deutsch' has gotten a fair workout, but things like 'eine wasser' and ''danke' are also useful.

Okay, so I guess that's about it for now, hopefully next time, we will have been to the black forest, captured a pixie, and braved bears which may or may not even be there. Might bring a stick.

I love you all.

Joshua