Day 37

Today I got up around 8.30 and hopped onto the computer to burn all my photos etc so far onto some CDs to send home. After doing this and measuring my suitcase, and packaging up the CDs and my fossil rock thing and some brochures n stuff id colected into a box, me and Mr Kirste went into Esslingen to send it off to NZ. This ended up costing 37 Euro (ouch!!).

After this I decided to stay in Esslingen to look around for a good gift for the Kirstes, but I couldnt find anything good that they didnt have already :), and I didnt have time to buy individual gifts for everyone.. Altho I still have gifts from NZ to give them. It was cool wandering around Esslingen. The Zwiebelfest (Onion festival) has begun and there are big open air cafes and stalls and stuff everywhere. As it is a saturday there were also heapsa fruit stalls lining the main shopping street. It was cool!!

Anyhow.. I wandered around for a while then jumped on a bus home (the bus driver coulda been a famous soccer player or celebrity by the way he was dressed!!), and got home intime for some Maultaschen and soup for lunch (mmmm). I had a couple of pieces, and then me, Arnulf, Ariane and Andreas hopped into the car and drove about 75ish km out to the blackforest to this 'barfusspark' (bare foot park). On the way to the entrance Andreas noticed a rustling under some leaves so we stopped it watch. Underneath was a mole (aww!) it was small and black and cute, and started diging sideways instead of downwards :). Ive never seen a mole before, so this brief glimpse was cool!! So cute!Soon after we were at the barfusspark. This place was really cool!

You took off your shoes and put them in a free deposit box thing (like the lockers at the pool) and then walked along a nice soft earth`bark path. First you came to this waterpark type place with a little river down the path, and assorted toys that had to do with water. Shortly after were a couple of ice (and i mean ICE) cold pools to walk through to give your feet a good wakeup call :). You walked through a smily pond, and then back onto a grass/dirt track and into the forest. This park was great, it was like a feast of sensation for your feet. there would be patches of wooden path, then some stones, then spiky loose stone, and pebbles, and sand, and large stones, small stones, concrete.. the works :), there was even a part where you walked over some broken glass. Mainly it was the dirt track, but there would be sections of this different stuff everywhere. The scenery and forest itself were really beautiful! (reminded me of NZ quite alot)... But the best part of all was this one section where you walked through two consecutive sections of different mud :D!

First was a pool type thing with sloppy light brown, clay type mud, and then some thick, brown, squeltchy, ooyz-between-the-toesy mud :) so much fun! I had a ball skidding and sliding around (altho upon inspecting my feet today I see a bunch of small cuts ha ha.. stupid rocks!). After this we stopped at a little playground, then walked out. We had some rotewurts and curry wurst, and then walked the track again seeing as we had spare time and it was so nice. And after cleaning off our feet I offered to shout a round on mini-golf that was nearby.

Unfortunately the mini-golf sucked. It was only 12 holes.. and all of them were shockers and the ball would roll all kinds of weird places and it was dumb.. but oh well :), after thaqt we piled into the car and headed home (got in at about 8). Soon after we were out the door again and off into Esslingen to the Burg (up on the hill.. in some early photos on flickr.. went there on one of my first days here) where there was an open air cinema. Arnulf and Andreas drove with Chrissi, and me and Ariane picked up Anna and Dominik and we headed off. (saw the gorgeous cat perched on a windowsill outside annas that I spent some time stocking :)). By the time we were at the Burg it was packed out: but we found a spot and lay down (I was on the bare ground (grass and sand)) but it was all good.

I really enjoyed the movie even though it was in German (it was walk the line - about Johnny Cash). I could understand enough to watch the film and not get bored or frustrated or anything.. and I thought it was really nice!! I also had lotsa fun playing around with my camera too before the film started (but it was already dark). Its so my favourite new toy ay!! I LOVE taking photos and figuring out new things and experimenting.. its so much fun!.. Anyhow.. Around 12.30 the film was done and we walked back to the car and drove home. Woah im tired!

C u!