The internet
has been out all day, and so have I. Germany has been amazing, but I've been
getting progressively sicker. :/ I haven't let is slow me down until today, but
Shawn and Hayden were really tired too, so we all took 4 hour naps after
church. I was a little surprised; actually, that the church we went to today
was not only in all English, but that all the people there were American—it was
a U.S. military ward (did not even know those existed). I met a couple girls
today that were my age and from Utah, I assumed they were backpackers as well,
but it turns out that they were actually army wives whose husbands were
stationed here in Germany! It's crazy how many different paths a life can take.
Like I said, today has been very relaxed, Janae (who we're staying with and who
is an absolutely gem) taught me to make the most delicious cinnamon rolls! We
just had a big dinner, and now we're planning on taking our final walk in
Germany before catching our train to France at 6:30 tomorrow morning! Ah how
time flies!
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| The church had signs in English and German. These were the kids whose house I have been staying at :) Cute, huh! |
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| Yeah, this was our driving scenery, can't complain Dandelions never looked so beautiful! |
Friday was so
jammed packed and we were always on the go—doing whatever our hearts pleased
and meeting a ton of new people. Saturday was a bit different because we
decided to go tour one of Germany’s most famous—if not thee most famous—castle:
Neuschwanstein. Aka: Cinderella’s castle. According to Steffen and Jenny, who
we met on the train yesterday evening, it is a total tourist site—neither of
them had actually seen it, even though it’s only about 4 hours away from their
home! Their loss; it’s funny how we don’t always appreciate the things close to
home. Since it was one of our last days
in Germany, we decided to go big or go home (and we’re clearly not ready to go home,
love you mom). So we started our 4 hour trek on the Autobahn, which is a
European highway without a speed limit—we took Paul’s minivan (haha) and were
staying strong at 80mph while other cars FLEW past us going at least 120mph. It
was ridiculous, but Paul said that there are less automobile accidents here
than in the U.S. Hence, I think that we
should follow suit—it’d make traveling so much more efficient. It would have
made our trip more efficient as well if we hadn’t accidently got off at the
wrong exit (curse you GPS) and ended up on windy roads in little towns. Ya
know, it added a couple hours to our drive, but I really didn’t mind. I feel
like there is really no way to articulate how beautiful this place is—pictures
don’t do it justice.
I kept having
random urges to stop the car, go lay out, and have a picnic in the fields of
grass and dandelions (which are surprisingly pretty). Six hours later, when we
finally made it to the castle, we saw that it was under construction. Really?
Six hours and no castle? Luckily it was only a portion of the outside of the
castle that was under construction and tours were still going on. We did have
to lay down a pretty 21 Euro (about $28) to buy tickets to tour it and another
castle: Hohenschangau and Neuschwanstein. Because the castle is a big tourist
attraction, they had tours in all sorts of different languages, so I actually
understood this one! Though I'm still not always great at picking out every
word, when English is spoken in a heavy accent… Shawn, Hayden and I have
apparently developed German accents ourselves and consistently repeat the few
German phrases we have learned.
Thank
goodness we are together because I’m sure anyone else would be completely
annoyed by us. German ‘hello’ is very similar to the English ‘hello,’ except
that it’s more of an “auLL-o” (where you say the ‘o’ deeper than the ‘auLL’
portion). So, obviously, that’s how we greet everyone now. While we were
walking down the hill, we passed a couple women, smiled and said ‘auLL-o.’ You
never know what language anyone is going to be speaking, so that’s a pretty
safe thing to say that everyone will understand. When the ladies replied with
‘Oh hi’s” Shawn asked them how they were doing, in English. They had already
passed us by a couple of feet when he said that, and they turned around at
record speed, “You speak English!? Ah!” They were so excited to see other Americans
and have someone actually understand them, and we were excited because we had
fooled someone with a ‘auLL-o” into thinking we were German! A win-win
situation! To top it off, a lady yesterday told me that I looked German! So,
maybe I could pass for a German; unfortunately, the chances of me passing for
an Italian are about as good as me passing as a Thai person.
While we’re
on the topic, I am getting excited to go there (Italy)! We’ll leave for Paris
on Monday and spend a few days there and then take a train into Rome! I’ve been
talking a lot with my host family—Facebooking my host sister, Diana, and
brother, Diego. They’ve offered to come pick me up from Rome and take me to
their home—which is about 45 minutes away. I’m not sure how exactly I will
navigate that because I want to spend the day in Rome on May 4th, which is my
birthday (!!!!)—and how better to spend a birthday than partying it up in
Rome!? The problem is that I don’t have anywhere to leave my luggage and I
don’t want to carry it all around the city (Shawn and Hayden just have
backpacks, so it’s easier for them). Maybe I’ll see if Diana or Diego just want
to spend the day in Rome with us—getting the tour by an Italian would be a
total dream! I’ve emailed my host mom, Mara—Diego helped her write the message
(He served a mission in Wales, so speaks English), but I know her English isn’t
great. I’m excited to talk with her because my Italian isn’t very great either
(haha), we’re sure to have some interesting conversations and epic
miscommunications during my stay.
These are videos from a few days ago. Shawn and Hayden are going to make a video of their world tour, this is a little bit of us exploring a castle, and us running to catch a boat--it seems like we're always running.. :)
Anyhow, while we’re on the topic, I am getting so excited to go there (Italy)! We’ll leave for Paris on Monday and spend a few days there and then take a train into Rome! I’ve been talking a lot with my host family. I have been Facebooking my host sister, Diana, and brother, Diego, quite a bit and they’ve offered to come pick me up from Rome and take me to their home—which is about 45 minutes away. I’m not sure how exactly I will navigate that because I want to spend the day in Rome on May 4th, which is my birthday (!!!!)—and how better to spend a birthday than partying it up in Rome!? The problem is that I don’t have anywhere to leave my luggage because once I split with Shawn and Hayden, they’re staying in hostels (No home/hotel to leave my things in), and I don’t want to carry my luggage all around the city (Shawn and Hayden just have backpacks). Maybe I’ll see if Diana or Diego just want to spend the day in Rome with us—getting the tour by an Italian would be a total dream! I’ve also emailed my host mom—Diego said he helped her write the message, but I know her English isn’t great; I’m really excited to talk with her because my Italian isn’t very great either haha we’re sure to have some interesting conversations and epic miscommunications during my stay. This is the last email she sent to me; I can already tell that I’m going to love her!
As for today,
can I just say I love castles? Besides the corsets and heavy dresses, I am
pretty sure that I was meant to live during the days where people actually
lived in castles. I mean, I might have to add a few modern touches, like a
septic system and an elevator (we walked up sooo many stairs today! Given, I do
stand by the fact that using elevators is the first step to making you fat),
but honestly, the intricateness and effort put into every aspect of the castles
is unlike anything I’ve ever seen [outside of a textbook]. All the art on the
walls was from the Romantic period; I thought it was interesting that even
though there were war scenes on the walls; blood was never painted because
Romantic artists didn’t want to shock people—I have a feeling that most of the
artwork I see in Rome won’t follow that trend, time will tell!
The first
castle we went to was the Hohenschangau (Say that 3 times fast! Actually just
try to say it once…). It was bright yellow and filled with Swans, it reminded
me a lot of my Grandma Patty who used to have swans all over her house. The
castle was beautiful, but I thought the tour was way too short—we only explored
a tenth of it. Still fun though.
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| We asked if we could take a picture with this man, and were going to just stand by the side of the carriage, but he seemed eager to have us come sit by him haha hmmm.... |
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| outside of the Hohenschangau castle with Hayden, Me, Shawn, Nina, and Adam :) |
I had been
pretty impressed by all the castle tours I’d gone on thus far into the trip,
but when we walked into the entrance of Neuschwanstein castle, all I could
think is, “THIS is a castle.” And thank goodness, because we trekked up a
flipping mountain to get there (given, we could have paid 1 euro to ride a bus,
but what’s the fun in that?). Walt Disney knew what he was thinking when he
modeled Cinderella’s castle after this one. It was kind of perfect too because
one of the girls we went with, Nina, is majoring in dance and planning to go be
Cinderella at Disneyworld next year.
Btw: Nina is great—she has dual citizenship, is living in Germany for
the summer, and may become a travel buddy for some weekend get-aways! But back
to the castle—it was unreal, my favorite part of it (both castles actually) was
the ceilings because of their intricate design, it’s obvious that whoever made
them put in ridiculous amounts of time to complete them. I think that’s one of
my favorite aspects of these eras, everyone wasn’t in a rush—they took the time
to make something beautiful, not just functional. This trip has definitely made
me stop, sit back, and take the time to enjoy the beauty of everyday. I realize
Germany and castles are not ‘everyday’ things, but I really do think that I
miss out on a lot because of my ‘need to be efficient.’ Welp, a lesson learned
and a day enjoyed.
We’re driving back now and I’m the only one still awake
(besides the driver of course!), and I’m planning on changing that…now! Juice!
(I don’t actually know how it’s spelled in German, but ‘juice’ {pronounced more
like Jew-oo-ce, wow k, how I just sounded it out is probably a little off, but
closer than juice I suppose} means goodbye in German).
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| My 'new best friend' outside near the castles |
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| Cinderella's Castle! |
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