On the basis of Ellie's recommendation and our intense desire to spend the weekend anywhere but in Essen, Annabel and I decided to visit Hannover on our way home (to Essen) from Berlin (it's roughly halfway between the two). We were taken in by the aunt of one of the other girls in the course (with whom we shared a room in Berlin - which is a lesson for all of us in not following our primal urges - my urge to kill when i was constantly woken up and left without easy access to a bathroom would have left me without accomodation in hannover had i followed it. and that is why we play nice with the other children.) - this woman, the aunt, is my hero. she lives in a gorgeous old apartment in a beautiful street, has the place perfectly decorated, works from home as a consultant and is generally just the most awesome independent friendly person ever. after we arrived she let us take over her bathroom for however long it took us to purge the horrors of a week of shared bathroom and limited hot water from our shivering forms. she then drove us all over the city, showed us the town hall, took us out for cups of tea and made us a beautiful meal of raclette. she then let us sleep in (which, after a week of getting up early to withstand herr bayer's monologues was a pleasure i can scarce describe) and then wander her lovely city at our leisure.
