I returned to London just before New Year’s 2011 and headed straight up to Edinburgh to bring in the New Year with the Hogmanay Festival.
I was with a group of friends and we hired an apartment in Grassmarket Square which is pretty central and not far from Princes Street Gardens. We had a few cook ups and roasts and joined in the festivities of the Hogmanay Festival which included artists such as Mark Ronson, The Vaccines and Bombay Bicycle Club etc.
We managed to walk to the top of Arthur’s Seat where it was incredibly windy and back down again before we blew away. It was then time for me to head back to London and face reality, the dreaded job hunt was on again.
On my days off (no work available) I continued to explore the many London sites. Getting into a routine was hard as work wasn’t reliable enough but I eventually got there after receiving a temp assignment for Richemont International Limited from a successful interview.
Richemont was in Mayfair and after one day I had finished all the work required. This meant I was out of work again for the rest of the week so I decided to go to Berlin to see one of my good mates who was living there.
My god Berlin was cold (it was the start of February) and when I arrived it was -17degrees!!! Definitely the coldest I had ever been!
I found my way to my friend’s apartment where we sat on the couch with a hot cup of tea and caught up on the latest. As Lexi had work to go to at Belushi’s Bar, I went on a free walking tour, in the snow. Silly move, I was frozen stiff (I had not worn enough layers despite having two scarves on). The walking tour was good otherwise and including some very cool sites and interesting information about Berlin’s history. To warm myself up, my friend fed me drinks at the bar where she was working – it helped.
Over the next couple of days we went out and explored the city and Lexi took me to the most amazing burger and fries place I have ever been to (called Burgermeister and kind of hidden under the S-Bahn tracks) which made my hangover pretty much disappear instantly! We also went to a place where there were massively oversized chairs (very odd) and then to Hofbrauhaus for a typical German feed. Ate a lot of currywurst too and celebrated the Superbowl at Belushi’s Bar.
Sadly my time was up and I bid farewell to Lexi, but it would not be the last time I would be in Berlin. This time I had good news when I arrived back in London, Richemont wanted me back!
The same day as I flew in, my cousin (who had recently moved in with me as one of the Aussie housemates had gone home) told me to go with her to the Walkabout Bar Finchley Road where she worked and then amazingly proceeded to get me a job working part-time at the Bar!
I now had two jobs and my Mum and Sister told me they were coming over to visit in March – things were looking up!!
Having two jobs was hard work. I was working over 70 hours a week going from one job to the other but it got me saving and kept me busy ready for my Mum and Sister to arrive and my next big trip in April…
Never a dull moment in London..
Some fun facts and info about Germany can be found here.