My Truly Awesome List - Meine Liste

I’ve been pretty behind on updating my blog, but I would like to present you with a list of 10 truly awesome things that have happened in the last 10 truly awesome days. (not chronological or in order of importance)

1) One of the strangest concepts and biggest differences between German and American traditions that I’ve found so far is what occurs in the holiday season. On December 5th, all of the German children set out their winter boots and await a visit in the night from St. Nikolaus. I, being deathly ill the day before, completely forgot about ole St. Nikolaus and after going super early to bed, I woke up to find my new boots outside of my door filled with chocolate, tangerines, and an awesome bread man baked in the shape of St. Nikolaus. I was so excited, along with all of the children in Germany. Christmas traditions are really different here, I should really post soon explaining. Stay tuned!

My treats from St. Nikolaus

2) Tom, the youngest cousin of Mathis, turned one year old on the 13th! There was fun to be had by all, enough cake to feed a small army, and even though there was a small break from the party to run to the hospital(see below), it was still really great to see Tom on his birthday having no idea what was going on or why his older brother was so jealous of him. 

3) Surprise! The 13th was also Sandra’s birthday! That Monday was party day. From presents and champagne in the morning to a big dinner with the whole family and finishing with brownie cheesecake and watching Love Actually to seal the deal, I hope Sandra had a good birthday even if she had to share it with a one year old. Mathis even joined in the fun a couple days before and made a bookmark for his mom with black paint and his cute little footprints. I was terrified the day I forced Mathis to do this because the black watercolor left bruise colors splotches where ever it touched, which was his entire body because he is a baby and he wiggles. It’s probably better if his Au Pair doesn’t give him bruises all over for his parents to find.

Sandra's birthday cheesecake.

4) Mathis and I enjoy daily walks either to the old part of the city or away from the city towards...well towards nothing really. In route in the middle of no where, there is a giant pasture of around 15 really furry cows. We have never been able to sneak by on this street without these cows staring directly into my eyes with contempt and me following by awkwardly waving or asking them how their day is going. One day last week, when it was way too cold to be walking, Mathis, Kara, and I passed these cows like normal, I yelled, “Are you guys not freezing!?”, and the biggest and closest cow let out the biggest “moo” I have ever heard in my life. Kara barked, Mathis cried, and I laughed so hard that I forgot how cold it was. It’s the little things. 

5) On a less hilarious note, Christof now has two holes in his leg exactly like Sandra in October. This probably does not belong on my truly awesome list of truly awesome things, but nonetheless, the same abscesses showed up on the back of his leg containing the same aggressive bacteria. Friday, after a short visit to the doctor, Christof headed for emergency surgery to the hospital and stayed their overnight. He came home on Saturday and is recovering nicely while we wait for lab results telling us exactly the cause of these abscesses. In the mean time, my legs are on high alert. This whole situation was extra chaotic because of Number 9 below, and the reason for the hospital visit in Number 2 and the set up for the hilariousness in Number 10.  

6) I drove stick for the second time in my life! Sandra insisted that is was all right for me to learn in the snow and ice with Kara in the backseat therefore putting her life in danger also, but it went fine. I only stalled out twice! I’m basically a truck driver now. Well, one who only knows how to drive in first and second gear. 

The secluded road where I was allowed to practice

7) A couple Saturday’s back, I was lucky enough to get invited to the house warming party for Verena, one of the girls I went to the movies which a while back. I went with Sandra and Christof and got to meet some more of there friends and more of Verena’s friends. It was super nice and Christmasy, and I really appreciate all of her efforts to make me feel included here! 

8) One of the mornings when I was deathly ill, Grandma Martha came to take Mathis for a little bit so I could rest without baby and try to feel better. Martha wrapped Mathis up in his many winter layers, packed him in his stroller, said “Goodbye!” and got a few steps out of the door before the front left stroller wheel fell off. Hilarious. The Germans took great care of me, including providing me with hilariousness to make me feel better. 

9) Mathis’ Baptism was this Sunday, 12/12 at 12pm. Christof’s hospital visit made plus the sheer number of guests (close to 30!) and that Mathis is, in fact, a baby, made this event just a little bit stressful. The house was cleaned and decorated, Mathis was dressed, Sandra and Christof were dressed (always a plus - see Number 10), and we  made it on the church in time for the service of which I didn’t not understand one thing. For reasons I couldn’t make out, we marched all over the church for the sake of getting the devil out of poor Mathis and the other baby boys being baptized. A big catered party followed at our house and Mathis fell asleep within minutes of being home. Once again, all of the Niemeier’s family and friends were super friendly, the food was good, and, like normal, I could understand the kids best of all. 

Being Baptized means you're not allowed
to cry anymore, right?

10) Saturday morning, I woke up leisurely on my day off and walked downstairs to find Grandma Martha alone in the house, holding Mathis, and not wearing any pants. First of all, the hilariousness of this situation is enough for one morning, but the back story makes it so much better. That morning, Sandra went to join Christof for a little bit in the hospital and Martha came over to take the little guy and the dog on a walk. Overnight, all of the snow had melted, leaving the ground soaking wet. Apparently, this is how it went down. Kara throws up near a ditch, leading to Kara stopping in attempt to to eat her vomit, leading to Martha and the stroller being tugged by Kara’s sudden halt, leading to the stroller being sent flying into the ditch and about 3 feet of water, leading to Martha’s motherly instincts taking over and her dive into the water which was probably almost frozen, leading to her pants drying in the corner while she holds traumatized Mathis when I come downstairs in the morning. 

I love my life. 

Countdown until my family gets here and I love my life even more: 4 days!!!!!

der Truthahn - a Turkey

April and I with THANKSGIVIN'!

Mathis grew up quickly. He also enjoys Thanksgiving.

April and I rocked Thanksgiving this year. Not only did we successfully explore Rheda-Wiedenbrück in the snow with a large dog and a baby, AND find all the right ingredients for American style food including the little fried onions for green bean casserole, but we ALSO cooked a turkey! A bigger-than-Mathis turkey! And the first for us both! The Germans were not informed enough about how you don't eat the entire day before Thanksgiving (I blame myself) and were completely shocked by the amount of food on the table. I think today, one week from when we celebrated last Saturday, all of the leftovers are finally gone. My favorite part of the meal was watching Bernd and Marko attack the turkey with scissors. Yes. It was awesome.

Operation Turkey Carving

Before April left on Sunday, we were able to squeeze in a trip to Paderborn with Sandra and Julia to see the new Harry Potter in English. I had already seen it once in German and am still proud of how much I understood. It is finally past the point that I can understand not only from the context and the body language, but actually the language. How cool! Anyways, a few notes about going to see movies in Germany.

1. Their popcorn is sweet and concessions cost way less than in the States.
2. You have assigned seats, with rows and seat numbers and such.
3. There are so many television type commercials before the standard movie commercials.
4. One of these commercials could be for ice cream, which leads to all of the lights being turned on and movie theater employees walking up the aisles selling that particular brand of ice cream. like a baseball game.
5. Sometimes, in the middle of movies all of the lights come on and you take an intermission. The German’s really like turning all of the lights on suddenly in theaters. 
6. Sometimes, you get to go eat at Mexican restaurants before the movie! (not really a standard, but it made me super happy so I thought I’d add it.)

In other news, countdown until my family gets here: 15 days! 

Just Another Thursday - ein ganz normal Donnerstag

Christof’s had a birthday on November 19th, and while I am not at liberty to tell you which one, I would like to point out that he once made references to a cult from the 80’s that Sandra and I had never heard of. On his actual birthday, Sandra and I drove to the town of Lippstadt where Christof teaches to surprise him with cake and the greatest gift of all, his son. One of the best things about living abroad for the first time is that even visiting the next town over is so exciting, so we walked around the downtown awhile before heading to Christof’s school. 

All of the teacher’s were supposed to be back from their lunch break at 3, but we couldn’t find the Niemeier family car in the parking lot, which lead to us standing in the parking lot with a stroller for about a half hour. At one point, Sandra went to check if his car was around back, and I couldn’t stop laughing thinking about Christof pulling in at that moment and wondering why his nanny was standing with his son in the middle of his school’s parking lot a half hour from where we were supposed to be. It ended up that he was already in his classroom and after we carried Mathis in his stroller up 3 flights of stairs, Sandra knocked on his door, we left the stroller in the doorway, and we hid down the hall. We thought we were so sneaky until Christof immediately informed us that he’d seen us walking around the downtown on his lunch break, and was checking out the window every couple of minutes wondering when we were coming to visit. So much for surprises, but for sure there is never a dull moment with my life.

We celebrated the next day with four different cakes (how cool is that!), a visit from Christof’s mom, and a big dinner with the whole family. On Sunday I took advantage again of the chance to see another small German town and ride on the Autobahn when I went with Sandra to drop Christof’s mom back to the town where he'd grown up. It was so cute and had a beautiful castle, but it is really starting to get cold outside and these days there is only so much being outside that can be handled. 

Thanksgiving Thursday in Germany, and I’m guessing in every place in this great world but the States, is just another day. But here it’s not just another boring day because on that particular Thursday in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, it snows! A lot! I have been trying to avoid Christmas music until after I celebrated Thanksgiving, but I could not help blasting “Let It Snow” and dancing around Mathis. Now he’s certain that I’m crazy. I built a snowman, which is way harder than I remembered, and we still currently have an extra snowman head lying the in yard because I accidentally rolled it over Kara’s poop. Class was fun because we read an article about Thanksgiving since the whole group knew I loved it so much, and I loved explaining the holiday to the skeptics. They already think I’m the strange, eccentric American because I sang a song about nominative pronouns that I’d learned in high school, so I’m used to the weird looks by now.

I successfully drove home in the snow and Sandra had made a super delicious meal to celebrate, against Christof’s suggestion to eat frozen pizza. I am super appreciative of how much they go out of their way to make me feel at home here, and I’m positive it’s their wonderful family that makes it easy and fun for me to live so far away.  At 10:30pm my time, however, I didn’t feel so far away, because I got to SKYPE with all of the Thanksgiving guests at my grandma’s house in Charlotte, NC. It started with my brother telling me to call back because they’d just started eating, and went through my both my wonderful grandparents, cousin, uncle, family friends that feel like relatives, and back around to my parents. I can not even explain how much happiness talking to the line of guests brought me, and I could not stop laughing and smiling even after I’d finished talking to them. 

Sometimes it takes stepping away from everything you’re accustomed to to realize exactly how much you have. Lucky for me, I have more gifts than I could possibly ask for. Most of the time I am too busy focusing on all that is new and different day to day that I forget to realize truly where I am, to appreciate where I've come from, and to be thankful for how great both places are. And so, to my caring family and closest friends that make me feel loved at all distances, to the Niemeiers that accept me even while slaughtering their language, and to American holidays that find relevance even across continents, thank you. This Thanksgiving, I am so very thankful for you!

Ein Römisch Urlaub - A Roman Holiday

Rome is, by far, the most chaotic city I've visited during my time in Europe. At the same time, there was something so great about the Vespas whipping by the Colosseum and the intrusive street venders lurking by the Pantheon. Rome is also a city I know I will need to revisit. With all that happened there and so many thing's currently occurring, it was overwhelming.  Good thing I threw a coin over my shoulder into the Trevvi Fountain, which insures I will be back to visit.

The huge Trevvi Fountain aka tourist city.

While the chaos and dirt of Italy sometimes makes me crazy, I can't help but love the food. I took a train to Düsseldorf, a plan to Rome, and a train to the city center in order to get there, so when I found Margo in the main train station we naturally headed straight for the pasta. Margo is my friend from College of Charleston who also graduated in Arts Management, and the best part of traveling with her was our similar views on food! We ate as much as we could stand and it was fantastic. 

Italian's use stale bread to stabilize tables.

They gave me a heart pizza!

My pictures are out of order, so we can jump to Sunday! After a full weekend, Margo and I had seen so many beautiful things, but didn't quite have time to visit Vatican City. Bright and early at 6AM on Monday, I woke up and set out alone to take in the grandeur of the Vatican. It was beautiful in the morning sun, and have no lines to get into the Basilica made it even better.  I got to see Michelangelo's famous Pieta sculpture, and the lucky St. Peter statue.  The line to get into the famed Vatican Museum was not as fantastic, though, and I waited over an hour to get in. Once inside, I sprinted past all of the paintings, tapestries, and other artifacts older than America and made it to the Sistine Chapel. I had a few minutes to admire before I sprinted out of the Museum, took the subway, caught my train, made my flight, missed my train from the airport but caught the next one, and made it back Monday night. While sitting on the couch of my German home, it was almost unreal to think I'd been standing under Michelangelo's famed ceiling that morning. 

Walls of the Vatican with the St. Peter's Dome

Beautiful stairs in the Vatican Museum which I sprinted down
in order to make my train!

St. Peter's Basilica - Where the Pope does his thing. 

Now back to the rest of my trip. Saturday and Sunday were filled with the "musts" when it comes to Rome. We stood in line for the Colosseum and took an audio tour, followed by a stroll in the Roman Forum and on Palestine Hill where Romulus and Remus did their work in 100BC. The ruins in these places were from around 150AC, which is way too old for me to wrap my brain around. Margo and I did a free walking tour in the late afternoon of some of the main city center sites, and continued the tour Sunday morning with a walk to the Pantheon. I never got to see inside, though, so I guess the oldest Dome in the world will have to be visited next time. 

Margo and me in the Colosseum.

Ruins, Ruins, Everywhere

Rome loves it's Piazzas. 

We were lucky enough to get entrance tickets into the Borghese Gallery on Sunday afternoon. We read that sometimes you have to wait months for openings in the gallery's schedule, and after I visited I now see why. It was absolutely beautiful and I got up close views of some of the art I'd studied about in class. My two favorite pieces were sculptures both by Bernini. I felt nervous standing in front of his "David", which his muscles flexed and forward flow, because it seemed like he would let go of his slingshot any second.  The park surrounding the gallery was beautiful to walk through, and after going to eat gelato with our Australian hostel-mate later that night, I went to bed early, dreaming of pizza, chocolate, marble, and the time of gladiators and Caesar. 

My favorite place in Rome, Villa Borghese

Wo ist der* Mais? - Where's all the corn gone?!

*thank you Christof for helping where my German lacks.


I've been back from my big trip for a couple of weeks, but it took me until just the other day to realize that all of the corn is gone! Mathis and I are big on going on walks, and normally we stroll gracefully by the tall fields (or completely chaotically with the wind and rain and Mathis screaming), but no longer. The fields are clear and the wind is extra brutal, especially for a girl who grew up in the foothills of the warm South. 


Besides living in the Arctic, everything is great here! I've been working daily on perfecting my graduate school applications, which don't have to be finished until February. You know me, the super non-procrastinator....  
Between that, German class, and taking care of Mathis, there is no time to be bored. Oh, and I'm reading my first full-length German book! I'm trying to read most of it out loud to myself, like an insane person, but it's helping me with pronunciation and with not being terrified to read out loud in my German class. The book seems good but I'll let you know how it is when I'm finished. In 2015. 


On Friday, I went to my first German movie, which was a total success. The movie ("RED") was hilarious and easy to understand, and I got to meet some of Sandra's friends from tennis. They were great and so much fun, and have kept in touch with me since the weekend so we can go out again. On Saturday I cooked chili and made key lime pie, and on Sunday I went to my first restaurant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück with Christof and Sandra. Small, tiny miscommunication in the beginning about whether THEY were going out to eat or WE were going out to eat, and I was not ready when the Grandmother came to stay with Mathis. When you read this Christof and Sandra, I'm sorry again if I made us late! They spoiled me with a far too fancy restaurant, but it was beautiful and delicious, and added bonus: the waitress spoke English!  It was a big weekend for me. 


Right now the house smells like the boiled broccoli that Sandra is making for Mathis' baby food. It is making me so happy with memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas' at my grandparents. 

This weekend I'm visiting Rome! Can't wait to see the Sistine Chapel and gladiators killing each other. I miss everyone back home, but a really appreciate everyone reading my blog and keeping in touch. It means so much to me! 

Mathis in the bear costume my parents sent!

A Pumpkin Baby - Ein Kürbis Baby

Halloween in its commercial sense hasn't yet infected Germany, so naturally I made it my personal goal to bring Halloween to them.  I couldn't find any Halloween costumes here, and even though my mom sent me one it wasn't quite here yet, so Sandra and I bought some supplies in Gütersloh to make Mathis a pumpkin outfit. The process involved dying baby clothes Clemson orange, as well as attaching a felt leaf to a green hat. Pumpkin, done!

After a great week back here since all of my travels, we headed Sunday morning to Münster (which has won several international awards for being 'The Most Livable City') to meet friends of the family. They were super friendly and had a cute baby boy that was only a month younger than Mathis, so it was fun to watch them "play". The friends had no idea it was Halloween. 

A week out I learned the word for "pumpkin" in German and went to great lengths to find one the entire 7 days. I couldn't find one, and Saturday I gave up a bought a little pumpkin so at least we'd have something. It wasn't until today, though, that Christof came home with two of the largest pumpkins I have ever seen. Real pumpkins, done!

We had to get ready for the party! Sandra was great at carving pumpkins and I set out the Halloween feast that I had made the day before. It included rice krispie treat ghosts, cupcakes of monsters, caramel apples, and those mud pudding things that don't really taste great but are cool because they have gummy worms. Julia, the sister-in-law, bought chocolate monsters and eyeballs for the party, and they looked great on the table.

I dressed Mathis up and even though he didn't like his hat, he was a good sport. Kara looked hilarious in my old dinosaur costume and totally stole the show away from Mathis. The whole family came over and we ate the desserts that are way too sweet for the Germans. Their desserts are never sweet enough for me, and I think my homemade icing put them in a sugar coma today. Ben declared he didn't like any of it and went to bang on the piano for awhile, but I think the rest of the people liked the rice krispies the best!

The night was a success and I hope that I gave them a good view of the Pagan holiday. The Grandmother made all of my effort worthwhile, when at the end of the night she rode away on her bike with one of the lit Jack-o-Lanterns tied to the back and wished us (in English) a "Happy Halloween"!

Mathis watching me carve the tiny pumpkin.

Mathis LOVES Halloween.

Mathis with his pumpkin hat.

Sandra carving her pumpkin. 

The Tiny Pumpkin!

So happy that it's Halloween.

The Halloween Feast

The Grandparents brought their own Halloween hat!

Christof with the sleepy pumpkin.

Kara was a dragon.

Ben is really good at making up songs
 and singing them super loud.

Happy Halloween!

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

Just when I thought a language couldn't be harder than Hungarian, I am introduced to Czech. And to top if off, my introduction to Czech was not casual and friendly. It instead involved the train attendant slamming open our train cabin door, screaming something in Czech, and then walking away. April and I walked into the hallway of the train which happened to be stopped in the middle of rural Czech Republic, and noticed that no one else was still on the train. The attendant hollered, "BUS!" at us and, with all of our stuff, we were seated in the back of a bus and driven around the Czech Republic. The bus would stop every now and then, and April and I would get out, check to see if it was our stop, they would scream at us in Czech, and then we would get back on the bus. Eventually somehow everyone knew to get off the bus and back on a train, and we followed and made it to Prague.


Our hostel there was probably the nicest place I stayed on my whole trip. Two boys from Clemson University had decided in college to open a hostel, and they made it happen in Prague. They had great American food in the restaurant downstairs, showed movies or had live music every night, and had a great continental breakfast. At dinner April and I tried the Pilsner beer that is famous in Prague, and we didn't like it. We explored the city a little after dinner and I found it to be absolutely beautiful. The Charles Bridge at night was awake and busy, and the castle was lit and beautiful. Back at the hostel we met our roommates, Damion, a guy from Australia, and Skeeter, a girl from the Philippines, and we went everywhere with them over the next couple of days. 


The free walking tour in Prague was awesome, and our tour guide had lived in Boston, Charleston, and Virginia, just like me! We learned about Prague's past under the Hapsburg dynasty, its darker days under Nazi and Communist rule, and my favorite part was the Jewish history. The oldest jewish synagogues and oldest Jewish quarters in Europe are in Prague, which coincides with the fact that Hitler wanted Prague to remain forever as a city with the evidence of the extinct Jewish race. I loved the Jewish cemetery, that contained stacks of graves over 20 feet tall. Since Judaism requires their followers to be buried, they had no where to bury but up, since they were only allotted so much space for over 400 years.


Everywhere you look in Prague, there are beautiful Baroque style buildings and churches, and I loved the red clay-tiled roofs all over the city. We had more good food, of course, chimney cakes, goulash, and braised beef. I didn't get a chance to try real Absinth, but I think I'll live. Damion, April, and I even ate delicious Mexican food! Mexican food is in the top things that I miss from home!


Our last day in Prague was c-c-cold. We went to the John Lennon wall and it was refreshing to see all of the art about peace and love. We hiked with our Philippine roommate Skeeter to one of the highest hills in Prague to a monastery and had great views of all of Prague. Our castle tour was later that day, but I hardly remember anything from that, since I was freezing to death. I do remember the Cathedral, however, because of all the beautiful churches I saw on my trip, the Cathedral at Prague castle was my favorite. It was understated while being magnificent and I loved it. Our last dinner was at an authentic Czech restaurant, and after, Damion and I went to get real Prague ice cream and saw French actors filming a movie. April and I left on Friday with the train, where got yelled at because I put my feet on the seat, and we said goodbye in Berlin. In my next train I sat with a really nice family and their two sweet boys taught me how to play "MauMau", a German card game.  Sandra and Kara, the dog, were waiting for me at the train station, and Christof had a great home-cooked dinner waiting for us. I'm glad to be back.


I am so grateful that I got to go on this trip. I can't believe the number of beautiful things I've seen, how many wonderful people I've met, and experiences I've had that really help my appreciate how sweet things can be. 


Pictures to come soon! 

SALZBURG, AUSTRIA

This trip has taught me a lot of things about myself, one of them being that I am no good with night trains. The one we took from Vienna to Venice was not terrible, but leaving Venice, we decided to save paying a night at the hostel and take another night train. This time it was only 6 hours, which is not a night’s sleep, and put us in Salzburg, Austria at 4am, which is not morning. Our entire night was filled with tiny, interesting men. In our reserved cabin we found the first short man, but we got in our top bunks and turned the lights off. He felt the need to wake us both up to say “Goodbye” when we got to his stop, and that’s when small man number two came and sat in our cabin. We tried and failed at falling asleep, but must of dozed off for a second because we both shot up around 1am to the police at our door and the strange, small man arguing with them in a language other than German, Italian, or English. We had no idea what was happening and once Aubrey Anne and I proved we had passports and were not with him, the policeman kept speaking Italian to the man in trouble. Once, the policeman tried to tell me what was going on in Italian, but I didn’t understand. We interpreted it as the man was an ax-murder and we were going to be in the news in the morning. When our alarm went off at 3:45am, we found the third little Asian man sleeping on my jacket on the seats below us. 

There is not a lot happening at Salzburg at 4am and once we got to our hostel, the nice attendant let us sleep in the lounge and use the computers since we couldn’t check in until noon. Around 5am, the finally scrawny man, this time from Ireland, stumbled into the computer room wearing only white underwear. He proceeded to talk nonsense to us about Yogi Bear and how he couldn’t believe his cell phone fell in a hole, and then shortly returned with the grey tube he’d broken in order to get his phone out and introduced himself as “the greatest”.

 

The best thing about our hostel was the fact they played The Sound of Music movie every day in the lounge at 10:30am. Once Aubrey Anne and I made it to 10:30, we knew we’d be OK, and the musical helped us stay awake until April got in at 12 and we could check in. We were so delusional from no sleep that when we were trying to find a place for lunch, we kept miss reading signs and could have sworn that one sign that ended up being a long German word had read “Al’s Chinese Palace”. April explored on her own while we napped, and after I talked to my parents for the first time the whole trip and met the boys from Iowa that were making faces behind me while I was talking to my parents, we met up with April and saw how beautiful Salzburg is. Salzburg is the smallest city I’ve visited on this trip and I really liked the feeling of knowing where we were (especially after Venice) and being able to walk to everything. 

The Sound of Music Tour took up most of our Monday and I am not embarrassed to admit that I loved it! Even though April, Aubrey Anne, and I were the only ones participating in the Sing-A-Long part, it was still beautiful to drive out into the country and see the hills that are “alive with the sound of music”. At the suggestion of our fantastic tour guide, Gary (who would laugh at his own jokes in a similar manner to the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz) we had the best apple strudel I’ve ever eaten in the tiny town of Mondsee. The rest of the day was filled with visiting a fortress from around 1000AD, an abbey from about 650AD, and an Augustiner Monastery that has been turned into a beer hall, which served the beer that the Monk’s brew themselves. A cute, 85 year old man with his own personalized beer stein vigorously waved us down to sit with him, since all of his party had left early, and spoke in German to April for a long time about how lovely we were and that we have our whole lives ahead of us so we’d better make it good. Later, a super nice couple from Colorado heard us speaking English and came to sit and talk for awhile. We had great conversion and they were very worried for us traveling alone, and kept asking us about European boys, about if we felt safe, and telling us they felt sorry for our parents. They gave us their email, phone number, and address in Colorado, and now we all have a free place to stay when we ski the Rockies. 

Two days was the perfect amount of time to see Salzburg, and it would be a great place to go on a weekend retreat to relax. The beginning of the Alps looks breathtaking, the shops and streets are so quaint, and hiking, caving, and skiing would be perfect there. April and I are on a train in the Czech Republic on our way to Prague, and so far no strange, little men yet. We can only hope.

VENICE, ITALY

I have never seen anything like Venice. What a confusing, mysterious, decaying, enchanting, wonderful place!  Arriving at the Venice train station at 8 am on Friday morning, Aubrey Anne and I quickly took the attitude that getting lost is the only way to find our way anywhere. The only problem with that plan was that our giant packs got really heavy after an hour or so, but even with horrible directions we found our hostel and put our bags down until we could check in at 1pm. Our hostel was in a great location on the main island and our front door was 2 feet from a canal with gondolas. 

All I had heard from Aubrey Anne about her last trip to Venice was gelato, pizza, gelato, pizza, and gelato. Even though it was early, we headed straight to a great pizza places I had heard of, and by headed straight I mean we walked back and forth across the Rialto Bridge about 6 times trying to figure out which way was up. Once at the pizza place, the only people that came in to order pizza were locals, and we took that as a great sign. They assured us that sharing one pizza would be more than enough for both of us, and after eating two of those, we left happy on the search for chocolate gelato. 

All we wanted was a nap in the afternoon, but no one at the hostel seemed to know how to put our bunk beds together, so we ended up napping on our packs on the floor. The next morning, our beds that were finally put together caused problems again, since my phone fell off the top bunk in the night and the battery popped out, so my alarm didn’t go off. We had met a girl from Scotland the night before who also wanted to become an Art Therapist, and we decided to travel by water bus around to the smaller sights of Venice for the day with her. Even though the water bus was the most inefficient form of transportation I’ve ever partaken in, it was a great way to see the city. We went St. Georgio, an island that used to be the religious hub of the city when Venice was a brand new city. The church had a basilica with a great view of the main island, and even though I believed the attendant when he tried to trick me that it was closed, it was cool, figuratively and literally, from the top.

Alicia the Scot, Aubrey Anne, and I ordered pizza’s and ended up having to run back to the water bus with our boxes so we wouldn’t miss it. We headed to Burano. Of my whole trip so far, Burano is probably the best thing I’ve seen. It was a little colorful island that you would expect to see in the Greek Isles, but it is built on canals like Venice and they have great prices on the famous Murano glass, the island that most tourists head to instead of Burano. I don’t know what to say about it except go and see. You will love it too.

An older couple suggested to us at St. Georgio to go see Torcello, an even more remote island off of Burano,  because it holds the oldest preserved building in all of Venice. The 8^th century church was closed for renovations that  day, though, and the island was pretty remote, so we quickly water bused from Torcello to Murano and got some more gelato. I was fascinated with the cemetery island off the Venice, since after all of the residents buried there had to be moved after 40 years to make space for new Venetians who’d passed away. I was nervous the whole time because I thought the sign written in Italian told us that the cemetery closes at 6pm, and I wasn’t trying to spend the night there. We ended up seeing a beautiful sunset from the cemetery boat bus stop and then Aubrey Anne and I were off on a mission to get lost in Venice.

We figured that the best Italian restaurant couldn’t be on a tourist’s map, so when Aubrey Anne’s dad agreed to pay for a nice meal out, we tried too hard to find that hidden gem restaurant where the locals eat. Venice is funny like that, I guess, because we kept ending up in St. Marks Square, the biggest tourist trap of all, or in a maze of streets that somehow all ended in canals. We found a great restaurant even if it wasn’t as secluded as we’d hoped, and went out on the town with the entire loud group from the hostel that night.

Saturday, Aubrey Anne and I checked our packs at the train station and went to see what else we could happen to find in Venice. We happened to find the same delicious pizza place from the first day and ordered a “maxi” pizza this time and a loaf of the bread that people who knew the owners and spoke Italian kept coming in the pizzeria to buy. While it was baking Aubrey Anne went to find a cheap bottle of wine and a wine key, and then we were off with our “maxi” pizza box that barely fit in the narrow alleys.  We eventually made it to St. Mark’s square, the tourist center we were trying to avoid for dinner the day before, and sat against a wall in the middle to enjoy our pizza and wine. Tourists kept coming up to take our picture and we were confused why whole tour groups would pause in front of us, until we realized with were sitting in front of a giant poster about the history of St. Mark’s square. 

We didn’t get in trouble for eating until we were already done (“Dis is not a picnic garden!”) and filled the rest of the day with a trip to the beautiful basilica mosaic-ed with glass from Murano and by writing post cards sitting by the Grand Canal. Rain in Venice is beautiful and I was lucky that is started raining a couple hours before our train left. I loved the winding streets crowded with umbrellas and we met a hilarious waiter in a coffee shop who, upon finding out we were American, kept pretending he was on American Idol. 

It was starting to get dark, so we found a small grocery store to buy olives, bought tomatoes from a street produce vendor, and bought wine and olive oil at a specialty shop to accompany our bread from our favorite pizzeria, and had our second picnic of the day on the steps of the Venice train station, overlooking the canal and the rain.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA

I would like to start by saying that Vienna is not boring. Numerous people we met in Budapest warned us that there is not much going on in this city, after 3 days there, I would like to say that they just didn't know where to look. 

Aubrey Anne and I arrived by bus on Monday afternoon and found out that Vienna is a large city. When ever I used to think of Vienna, I pictured large white mansions with gravel gardens and carriages (which is exactly what the Museum section looks like!), but the first thing we had to do here was figure out the subway system. The subway stop for our hostel was under some serious construction, and throughout our time there we never once came out of the same exit onto the same street. This made it especially confusing to find the front door of our hostel which was actually a block around the corner from the sign, and involved extra walking with our heavy backpacks.

Lucky, my friend April had arrived in Vienna earlier that day and scoped out the scene. We handed the reigns over without struggle, and basically followed April's lead for many successful days. On the agenda for the day was going to the Prater to ride the Giant Ferris Wheel of Vienna. The wheel is the oldest in the world, and while it may not be the tallest, it is definitely not the most stable thing, and I was so nervous the whole time. I was somehow convinced to do the giant swings also, and we all went home for the evening with smiles literally frozen to our faces.

Day two brought us the Schönbrunn Palace, who's wealthy residence included Marie Antoinette and all of her sisters, and the famous Sisi, a queen and popular fairytale here. I was worried about it being expensive, but it was really fun! The grounds were beautiful and all of the trees were slowly changing into fall colors. I had a little problem finding my way out of the maze there, but with shouts from Aubrey Anne and April I found my way out... eventually.

All over the city there are statues of the famous composers who made their mark in Vienna, and I loved wandering in the parks and coming upon Strauss, Mozart, and the very hard to find, Beethoven. To warm up after the parks, we went to an authentic Viennitian coffee house even though none of us drink coffee. It was really cozy with it's gray-haired, seasoned pianist and the dark wooden couches upholstered with red velvet. I let my German skills get ahead of me though, and ordered a really gross cake with poppy seed paste that I mistook for chocolate. The Austrian accent is hard to understand!

Besides the cake, the food was great. I ate my first giant wiener schnitzel and it was way larger than my head, and we were old by British boys in Budapest that the "ham and eggs are wicked in Vienna", and they were. The last day April's train left early, so Aubrey Anne and I had time to arrive late to the Glockenspiel show, attend an organ concert in the oldest church site in Vienna for some culture, and find the best falafel and kebab place I have ever tasted.  Aubrey Anne went back to the hostel to plan for her further travels and I headed to the Belevidere, an old summer residence that has been turned into an art gallery that hold the largest collection of Gustov Klimt paintings. It was so incredibly hard to find the entrance into this place, and I ended up walking along a wall parallel to my destination for a good half hour. It was worth it, however, when I got to stand in front of one of my favorite paintings for just as long while tour groups passed around me and as I learned more about it than I ever could from the prints I own.

Our first night train left at 8PM, and after a minor freak out about the correctness of the station where we were waiting, Aubrey Anne and I were headed overnight in our Harry Potter like compartment with uncomfortable pull down mattresses to Venice.