Farewell Europe, the last 4 months have been a blast!

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I just had the loveliest last day in England. I awoke to beautiful sunshine and then was picked up by Leah's grandparents, Adele and Lesley who whisked me away to their beautiful home in Selsdon and provided me with a beautiful garden in which we lay about sipping yummy wine and enjoying the most delicious food that Adele so finely cooks every time. The garden had grown so much since I had been there last (around April of this year) and Lesley had been growing so many vegetables and he showed me all of them. It was amazing! I have never really known many people who grow their own vegetables so it was very cool to see.The best part was that we got to eat the beans and courgettes for lunch and they were stuffed with all sorts of delicious things all topped off with some roasted potatoes and carrots. It was such a beautiful lunch and I really enjoyed seeing them again, we had some wonderful chats and I cant wait to see them again one day whether that be when they come to Australia or when I go back to Europe, I guess whoever can save up first!! Then me and Adele went for a walk to the supermarket as I had to get a few more things for Uganda. It was a beautiful stroll in the sun and then we stopped off for coffee on the way back. It was such a lovely, relaxed and peaceful day and I am so blessed to have spent it with them. I only called them the other day in the hope that they were free so I could see them before I left. Such lovely people and they treat me so well, it was just the best day. I wouldn't have wanted to spend the day in any other way! Sadly we eventually had to go our separate ways but I will always be thinking about them and praying for them and hoping they can move to Australia eventually! 😊
Then I came home and basically sorted out my life haha. I had to pack my bags (still not completely done) and clean up and throw things out and just.. you know the deal.
I can not believe I am starting my trip to Africa tomorrow. I leave at 5:15am in the morning to get a flight to Dubai. I will stay in Dubai for a night and then leave for Uganda the next morning!! AHH! crazy times!

So I apologise for not writing an entry sooner, I feel like I have been so busy lately but I guess I havent really been that busy. I have mostly being trying to rest but I guess a lot has gone on. So I left you in Amsterdam. After that I made my way to Brussels in Belgium. OH BELGIUM why is your food so TASTY?! seriously wow. I got there and checked into my hostel, met a few peeps as you do and then got in contact with Alana (my old youth group leader from Sydney who now is married and lives in Holland to a Romanian guy but was coming to Belgium for the day! ha!) and she told me I could have come to stay with her in Holland and then I totally was like AW YEAH MAN I FORGOT YOU LIVE THERE! DAYUM! so that was a shame.. BUT all hope was not lost as she was coming to Belgium. So the next day we met in Ghent, which is a cute little town outside of Brussels. I met her after being super late :/ because I got lost in Brussels after going shopping (amazing vintage shops there!) and then couldnt find the train station and then got on a super long train which made me take double the time to get there so I eventually did get there. Because the train was taking so long I asked a girl if I had missed the stop and she told me we were on a train that stopped at EVERY stop so we hadnt reached ghent yet. Anyway she was really nice and we chatted and that was cool to meet her, she was Belgian and yeah just awesome. She got off at Ghent too and the train had also made her super late so we got off together and then I saw Alana and her hubby and another friend, forgot his name haha! It was a really nice afternoon, we walked around and saw the town and sat down for some Belgian beer and nibbles and then walked more and then got dinner and it was really good to see Alana again! We did meet up in London when I was here a few months ago but only briefly for a couple of hours so it was awesome to chat to her, great to hear that BEAUTIFUL accent 😉

The next day I walked around the city with a guy from my hostel, Christian and then he went somewhere i forgot where and I kept exploring. I do see what people mean when they say Brussels doesnt have much there cause its true. There are a few things to see but other than that its pretty much just another city with AMAZING WAFFLES AND CHOCOLATE and all sorts of goodies. I have been told there are much better places in Belgium to go so I will have to try those places next time!

Then it was off to Berlin. WOOOO! So after a whole day of training it up I arrived at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Okay FRICK man this train station is HUGGEEE! I have never seen one like it! wow! Its like 6 levels or something and just wow!!! Anyway I found an exit.. any exit'll do I guess. but of course Jess couldnt find me as this thing is massive and there are apparently more than one exit I now know haha! Anyway it was SO GOOD to finally run into her arms after 2 and a half years!!! Basically my time in Berlin was very very awesome! I will not go through every day but I will let you in on a few special moments.. firstly.. my bed was AMAZING! haha seriously so comfy and I just never wanted to get out of it. also it was so LOVELY to see her beautiful family and house and just see her life there. well she lives in such a beautiful area, right near a forrest so we walked through there and went to the lake and EVERYBODY has like 5 dogs each so there was just packs of dogs everywhere near the lake so funny! the forrest was a really nice walk, and the city is very cool, so much to see! We walked around it a few times and I got to know some of the main areas and wow I feel like we did so much. Lots of city seeing and hanging out with peeps. Okay so I will quickly tell you some good moments, the time me and Jess were soooooo tired and weird that we sat at the bus stop singing songs about alabama at the top of our lungs and all the children and people on bikes rode past looking at us strangely hahaha good times, the time we went clubbing in Berlin and absolutely went all out and just danced forever and owned the df and just were totally awesome, the time we got an amazing cheeeese pretzel, the time we took a million photos of us jumping in front of the.. i think its called the Brandenburg Tor but i feel like that could be totally wrong.. anyway its the big buidling in Berlin haha and these people totally just stood there (they are in the photo) watching us haha, the time we went to the Asian markets and got pedicures and got amazing vietnamese food, the time we went to an awesome art house and put my camera on timer and tried to take these photos of us in which we thought we looked liked we were falling but we totally didnt and then we just kept ending up actually falling on the ground and just laughing so hard whilst everyone around us stared, the time we picked Eloise up from the airport, the time Eloise made us all dress hipster and go out into the city, the time we saw Harry Potter in freeee deeeee, the time we went to the Berlin wall and went crazy with awesome photos and then my jaw hurt the next day from epic posing... so i think you get it that there were a lot of times.. a lot of GOOD TIMES! let the good times rooollllllll. okay well i will put up photos of these times too and tell you all about it when im home but basically Berlin was just the best!!
Then.. i was supposed to catch 3 trains to come back to England as I had one trip left on my eurail pass but as it turns out I never ended up reserving the trains and got there on the day hoping there would be space and there wasnt. I had treked it with allll my huge bags and then couldnt even go. It was disappointing, I literally sat in the train station crying and not knowing what to do. Eventually I pulled myself together and went back to Jess' house and hoped they would have me for another night 😊
Fortunately for me, the Irwins had an extra ticket to London the next day as Gavin (Jess' dad) was flying in at a separate time because of his work so I got to take his ticket. The downside was I had to pay 100 Euros to change the name of the ticket... but I just had to do it as Hillsong Conference was the next day so I had to fly! It was fun though, and much quicker than it would have been on the trains.
Anyway we got to London and i was so excited to be back!!!
The Conference was very encouraging and such an awesome time of fellowship and i learnt SO MUCH and i just loved it.. but most importantly i love God! He is just so incredible and wow I can not wait to see how he uses me and teaches and moulds me and does whatever we wants in and through and for me on this next stage of the trip. I am getting so tired right now so I will have to leave it there but I am glad I got this done before Africa!
Basically being back in England has been very refreshing, I havent had as much time to rest as I have wanted but I have got some rest and relaxed a bit. I have mostly been shopping for so much stuff I needed to get for Uganda and now all I need to do is go upstairs and pack up a little more and then get up at the crack of dawn to go to Dubai. May the Lord bless you and he continues to bless me 😊
Love to you all, thanks again for reading homies.

peace x

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