Benvenuto in Italia

I am a couple days behind on my blog, but so much is happening that it’s hard to find a spare moment to write about it! Due to a 6 hour layover during my traveling, the first city in Italy that I really saw was Torino. And I guess it’s a lesson in that first impressions are not always correct—just like the smell of the metro in Paris was not any indication of what the city was actually like, the bathrooms in Italy are not any indication of what the country is like. So maybe that’s an obvious statement, public bathrooms usually aren’t all that great, but it wasn’t that they were dirty, it was something else… After a long day of travel—all I wanted to do was pee. So, when we saw a sign for a bathroom, that cost 1 Euro to use, I was probably more excited than I should have been. My high expectations crumbled when I went into the bathroom and saw that there was no toilet, just what looked like the bottom of a shower (only smaller) with a drain in the middle. Maybe I had walked into a public restroom where you could shower, but there were no shower heads…so no. Did I walk into the men’s bathroom? Maybe it was some sort of a European urinal.  I checked the sign on the door, “Donne” (aka: female). No. I walked out of the bathroom—obviously let down—and told Hayden that there were no toilets, and explained how the floors had shower bottoms. Turns out (says the world Traveler, Hayden) that those were indeed toilets, a kind called “squatters.” I feel like the name is pretty self explanatory, but in case you are still lost, basically you put one foot on either side of the drain (there is a little place with traction for your feet), squat down, and do your business. Welp, I want to get immersed in the culture, but that was a little too head first for me. Luckily we found a different restroom that had an actual toilet—problem is that it was missing a seat cover, I felt like I was going to fall in! So, Italy definitely has some interesting restrooms, but—to my relief—those types of bathrooms (in my experience thus far) are not the norm. Halleluiah.

Il Squatter

Is it just me, or is this toilet missing something?

First Purchase in Italy: Harry Potter in Italy

2nd Purchase: Gelato

 Some of the Street Performers in Torino:

Torino itself was wonderful! Like any newbie in Italy, I started my trip off with a piece of Italian Pizza (made by a Brazilian woman…) and some gelato—holy heck, I keep reminding myself that I’m going to be in Italy for 3 months, so to “PACE” myself. Pace myself with the delicious food and desserts; with the shopping, with site seeing, with traveling, and with everything else. Obviously easier said than done because I definitely had pizza and gelato the next day (but it was my birthday, which I’ll get to another time, so I don’t think that actually counts). Hayden, Shawn, and I checked our luggage into a hotel for a few hours and just walked around the city. I made some very important purchases while I was there, the first being Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in Italiano. Hopefully if I study Italian, ready the Book of Mormon and Harry Potter in Italian and push myself to speak Italian with my host family and friends in Italy, I’ll come back to the States and actually be able to speak pretty well. Walking around Torino, I could pick out a lot of words that people were saying, but I d definitely did not comprehend much.

I wish we could have stayed in Tornio, but alas, we had to spend 8 hours on a night train. I was hoping that I’d be able to sleep, but our compartment was full, so we had to try to sleep sitting up. Epic fail. At least the people in our compartment were interesting. There was a Nigerian woman who had been living in Italy for the past 13 years, and a 75 year old Italian man who I tried to talk to, but when he went off about the Inquisition, I ended up just nodding my head, smiling and saying things like ‘va bene’ (okay) and ‘sí.’ Honestly, I’m not really nervous to start living in Italy, maybe I should be, but more than anything, I’m just excited and ready to experience something new and up my independence!

I am sad to say goodbye to Shawn and Hayden, they really are some of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. Shawn is basically the most outgoing person ever—we met a guy from Iran named Shohab. He was really interesting to talk to; he was able to travel because of his job and only had one day in Rome (which he spent with Shawn and Hayden). We were asking him if Iran had certain things, you know, the important things—like peanut butter and Oreos. To which he answered, “Iran has everything. Except freedom for woman.” It definitely caught me off guard; he said that he wishes it did, and that he did not agree with his country’s politics. I feel like traveling and meeting new people is such an eye opener—it’s good to get out of the States and get a new perspective on things.

Shawn, Myself, Hayden, and Shohab

And finally, an ode to Shawn and Hayden—the best traveling buddies a girl could ask for

• Thank you for always carrying my luggage
• Thank you for making me sandwiches
• Thank you for teaching me how to understand the metro
• Thank you for teaching me random phrases in Russian, I hope to use them someday
• Thanks for being such champs while I wanted to shop in France
• Thank you for taking so many pictures
• Thank you for introducing me to falafel
• Thank you for always being happy
• Thank you for taking the extra long route to Italy because my Eurorail pass didn’t work in Switzerland
• Thank you for introducing me to kinder chocolate
• And thank you for inviting me to join you on the trip of a lifetime!

Sacre Coeur and Versailles!

I am finally in Italy! And by Italy, I mean that we are legitimately just crossed the border; the train is stopped and an Italian police officer just checked my passport. It felt so good to finally say “Grazie” to an Italian person in Italy! It has already been a long day, we woke up at 4:00am, took the metro to the train station, got on a train from Paris to Lyon, then Lyon to Chanberry, Chanberry to Modané, and are now headed to Torino before catching our night train to Rome—where we will arrive at 6:00am on the best day in the world: my birthday! ;) We had a 3 hour layover in Modané; it was a quaint little town, but definitely not much to do. We did find an internet café where we paid half a euro for a half an hour of internet use; if only Facebook hadn’t locked me out of my account…luckily my cell phone starts working once I’m in Italy, so I can call my host family and confirm with them about picking me up. Alas, it’s finally here!

That said, I definitely made the most out of my final bit in Paris and saved the best for last. After meeting Alexandrine, we headed up to Sacre Coeur, which is probably thee most beautiful cathedral in Paris. It was exciting before we even got inside—there was a Spanish band singing “La Bamba” and a man, with the most impressive soccer skills I’ve ever seen, doing tricks on a small platform. There was a great view of the Eiffel tower and people everywhere. We got French pastries for dinner; I’m really not even sure what I ate because the employees didn’t speak any English; all I know is that it was delicious!

French pastries for dinner? Yes, please.

This picture really doesn't do the view justice

Inside the cathedral was, just like most things here, unreal. Everything was built from huge cement stones, including these massive pillars. There was an enormous painting of Christ in the front dome, and places to pay tribute and light candles to lots of different saints. After such longs days of walking and site seeing, it really is just nice to go into a church, relax, and reflect on everything. I think it’s kind of cool that the cathedral is a functioning church, so while a lot of people are not Catholic, there are still members who come to pray or confess.

On our way home, we met a couple big, burly, black men. I asked them where they were from and they said something that I interpreted as “Holland.” Wrong. Then I clarified, “The Island?” Maybe they meant Jamaica? False. They were definitely from Ireland (haha). One of them said something to us, and Hayden, Shawn and I just exchanged confused looks, all completely oblivious of what the man—who was speaking heavily accented English—just said. I do love all the diversity here, Paris definitely has a lot of tourists, but its fun to meet people from all over, see if you speak some language in common and learn about each other. That and the big city feel. We stayed in a smaller town in Germany, which I loved, but there is something to be said about the excitement of a big city.

Yesterday was Shawn’s birthday and, how better to celebrate than to visit Versailles!? It was honestly my favorite site/location/tour yet! We spent our 18 Euros and started our tour of the gardens. It was a bit rainy and cold outside, but we didn’t let that stop us from exploring and taking pictures for 3 hours. While I would have loved to be wearing a Paris-high-fashion outfit in all the pictures, I—having not planned well for cold weather—just ended up wearing one of Shawn’s extra coats (haha). Not the cutest, but hey, I just spent the day in Versailles! Can I really complain? The gardens truly seemed to go on forever, I wish I lived here—I think that I would visit every day (it’s free to just walk around the gardens), bring my book, and read; maybe go on a run along the different paths—it’s large enough that I’m sure you could find solitude even among the thousands of tourists.

Nice view, eh?

I swear, the gardens go on forever!

The indoor tour was definitely my favorite of my entire trip. When you entered, you received a little handheld walkie-talkie-looking device and as you walked around to each new room, you typed in a little code (which was on a sign in every room), held the device up to your ear like a cell phone, and listened to a history of the rooms, the artwork, and the people associated with them. King Louie the 14th built the palace, but my favorite topic to learn about was Marie Antoinette. I’m telling you, you NEED to come to Paris! Yes, it’s expensive, but you can always live off peanut butter and banana sandwiches or street vendor food (yes, I thought I would miss peanut butter once I got to Europe, that is definitely not the case). We did treat ourselves to some Falafels last night for Shawn’s birthday though. Holy heck—Best. Food. Ever. Those Arab chefs know what they’re doing. Falafels look kind of like meatballs, but are actually made out of chickpeas, which—to be honest—I really don’t know what are. Either way, DELICIOUS. And the place we went, according to Alexandrine, was the best in town! (We did get to see Alex and her boyfriend again—we went to their storefronts; he never smiled the day before, but I think he was so surprised that we actually followed up and came to visit that a huge grin involuntarily spread across his face! P.S. I am totally a fan of this kiss on each cheek thing;).

A ton of the rooms had different themes, most were practically all one specific color

The bathroom!

Kudos to King Louie XIV for wearing heels before any of the women!

The Hall of Mirrors--just a little bit famous :)

You type in a 3digit number and put it up to your ear like a cell phone
and hear the audio for the tour

And, since my train doesn’t have too terribly much longer to go, I’ll just part with a few interesting things/things I’ve learned and observed about France

• ·         Fashion: Yes, people dress nice, but there is this one style that I’ve seen a ton in France and Germany for girls that I haven't quite been converted to: tights (usually tinted black nylons, but I’ve seen white, and all sorts of prints), under short jeans shorts (my favorite is when the shorts are so short that you can see the darker portion of the nylon at the very top), and sneakers (lots and lots of sneakers here). Who knows? Maybe it will catch on in the states...
• ·         Pick Pocketing: I’ve only seen one man get pick pocketed here, but it’s definitely something to be aware of—especially in the metro. Three kids (probably one that was 15 and two that were 10 or 12) kind of teamed up—one bumped him, one said something to distract him, and the third grabbed the money. It happened so fast that no one really even had time to figure out what was going on. I hear that Rome is infamous for their pickpockets, so that’s definitely something I’ll need to be aware of.
• ·         Bathrooms: you usually have to pay to use them. We did find a public one on the street that actually self-cleaned itself between every user though, pretty legit!
• ·         French Food: Delicious, but of what I’ve had (that’s actually French), not very substantial. That said, the best darn crepes and pastries that I’ve ever had.
• ·         Shopping: AMAZING! If only I was rich J

     Germany and France have been absolutely amazing, now I am ready for my summer in Italia!

The Eiffel Tower and French People! Finally :)

This morning we were all dead tired! I was excited to see more of Paris, but a part of me felt ready to be in Italy—I think it's because I just miss meeting and getting to know people...when I'm living in Italy and learning the language, I'll have more of an opportunity to learn about people (which is pretty much my favorite past time) and build friendships. That said, everything about today was absolutely amazing, and it ended more perfectly than I could have imagined. :) Today is actually a holiday in Paris, so while a lot of museums were closed, there was still a TON going on! There was a big rally for the current president of France (ya know, the kind of protest-thing they tell tourists to avoid), and we got a free French Flag and T-shirt out of it :)

Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower—I’m trying to decide exactly how to describe it. It’s hard. Everything is hard to describe here because words just don't do the city justice—there’s a different feeling in Paris. I think it's the fact that culture, history, and pride oozes from every corner in the city. That mixed with the pure excitement of everyone visiting and taking pictures with statues, buildings, artwork, and monuments that they've only seen on TV or in books. The Asians, though, seem keener on taking pictures with me than any statue (haha) several more asked me to take pictures with them today—it still catches me off guard, but I'm seriously starting to consider that I chose the wrong continent for my field study. Not to worry though, I got a picture with quite the attractive Frenchmen as well! Shawn did get some pictures with French girls—the problem is that he is an AWFUL judge of age! He started hitting on two 14 year old girls and asked them to take a picture; they offered to show us where something was, so we all started walking together. That's when Shawn found out how old they were haha, so I took the reins and just started chatting with them instead, so that he could avoid anymore awkwardness...oh mercy.

The Asians here love me haha, but this one definitely conned me into giving him my French flag,
so maybe it wasn't my blonde hair that caught his eye after all...

A picture with a true Frenchman in front of the Eiffel Tower, bucket list check!

We've had some difficulty with transportation after the Eiffel Tower. For starters, we couldn't figure out how to rent bikes; there are these stations where you can rent bikes for the day—and it's free for the first 30 minutes, but our debit cards weren't working. Then, we spent over an hour in the train station trying to figure out how to get to Rome. We were planning on taking a night train, but it got cancelled, and all the Eurorail seats were full for the train from Paris to Rome. Luckily we found an alternative route, unfortunately that means that we leave at 6:30am one day and get to Rome 24 hours later—the little joys of traveling :) Ah well though, we may have a couple nice layovers in some random towns, and end up finding some brilliantly amazing sites!

After buying tickets, we decided to go back to the Louvre and relax outside. I made a seat out of a random platform, while Shawn and Hayden rested up aways away against one of the glass pyramids. I was people watching and taking random pictures when a couple—around my age—caught my eye, mainly because the girl was wearing a skirt that was pretty much identical to mine, except for the color. I kept watching them and their seemingly heated conversation. They were going back and forth for a couple minutes—clearly upset—and, all of a sudden, the girl turned and stalked off in the opposite direction, obviously trying to put as much distance between herself and him. He followed her, not saying anything, just staying near her. Right when the thought crossed my mind that it was sweet that—even though they had been arguing—he didn't immediately leave her, he walked away in the other direction. My attention focused on her—as she realized he had left. She walked into a big open space in the Louvre, crouched down, and kind of bowed her head between her legs—it looked like she was crying...

Without really thinking anything through, I got off the platform and started walking over to her. I wasn't sure what my plan was, and figured that even if I’d had one, there was a pretty good chance that she didn't speak English anyway. So, I crouched down next to her, put my hand on her back, and after a couple seconds asked, "Are you okay?" I think it surprised her to hear my voice, she probably thought I was her boyfriend at first. She looked up and me and kind of shrugged, so I asked her if there was anything I could do—still unsure if she understood me. Turns out she did. She said no, but was clearly upset. I gave her one of those 'understanding smiles' and said that I was sorry. She, unaware that I had seen anything, told me that she had been arguing with her boyfriend and that that was why she was crouching down. I was a little relieved that she spoke English. I'm not even sure when the conversation changed, but we just started talking about random things. She told me that her name was Alexandrine. She spoke nearly perfect English, but was born and raised in France—she’d done a lot of traveling and had really improved her accent. We laughed about the fact that she lived in France and had been to New York, and that I lived in the States and hadn't. She told me how she worked in fashion, and I told her a bit about myself. I told her that I felt I was missing out on a huge portion of French culture because I hadn't been able to meet many French people... We sat there—crouched—for five or ten minutes before standing to continue our conversation. She told me that she wanted me to meet her boyfriend; she looked around for a minute and spotted him sitting near some stairs. I walked over with her; Shawn and Hayden—who had obviously been worriedly watching me (because they thought she may have been a gypsy)—walked over as well.

We all introduced ourselves and had a great conversation, we were all laughing—everyone that is, except her boyfriend, who was very nice, but—Alexandrine explained—was a true Frenchman, and in tradition, he did not smile (or speak English. :) Shawn joked about wanting to kiss a French girl (I use the term 'joked' loosely) and told her she should help me kiss a French boy. Her boyfriend understood that and offered up himself; rather than responding how any American girl would, she seemed keen on the idea as well. "Yeah, you can kiss him! This is Paris, the city of love—we don't care about things like that." I just laughed, mainly because I had no idea how to respond, mmm 'no thanks'? She was such a fun person! She is well traveled, spoke 3 languages, and had a passion for life. We asked them to take pictures with us; Alexandrine tried to teach me how to take pictures like a French girl aka: no smiling. I failed epically. :D Shawn, Hayden and I had to get going, but she showed us the best spots in Paris before we did. She told us it was a pleasure to meet us and that we weren't like typical Americans because, "You want to travel and you care about history. And you're not fat." Ha I hope that's not a stereotype held by all French people about Americans, but I have a feeling that it is. She told me that she believed in destiny and that we meet the people we do for a reason. She thanked me for coming over to talk to her, told me that she could tell I had a good heart, and then offered to show me around her store in Paris the next day! Sounds like a plan! Oh, and I got two kisses from a Frenchman! One on each cheek! Perfect.

Today was the best day by far, I can't help it, I loved meeting people and getting to know them. I felt like we really bonded in that short amount of time; Alexandrine and I exchanged information and decided to stay in touch. And to top off a good thing with a strawberry (I don't like cherries), Shawn and Hayden were taking pictures the whole time! These are by far my favorite pictures of the entire trip thus far—sentimental value, I suppose :) And here they are:

People watching at the Louvre

Hayden and Shawn relaxing outside the Louvre

This was after we'd talked for a bit, she was writing down her name and email address

It's kind of funny how you can always find a common bond with someone,
everyone who is put into your life is definitely there for a reason.
I also love the fact that we are basically wearing the same skirts in different colors haha
hers is from Paris, mine is form Utah

My attempt at taking a picture like a French person, without smiling

you can never know about your own destiny:

are the people you meet there to play a part in your own destiny,

or do you exist just to play a role in theirs?

Libba Bray

Welcome to Paris: The City of the Mona Lisa and Obnoxious Men

We found a random little park to have lunch
and found this legit playground!

Can I just start off by mentioning how amazing technology is? Yesterday, I had a 3-way skype converstaion with my mom and brother. I was skyping from Germany  on my laptop, my mom was skyping from the States  on her iphone, and my brother was Skyping from Chile on his ipad--kind of impressive. Anyhow, we took a train from Frankfurt to Paris this morning (and are having trouble getting our train figured out to Rome). The first thing I noticed about the train station in Paris were the guards with machine gun (probably not the best idea to ask them to take a picture, though the tourist in me was tempted...), the second thing I noticed was that the air smelled like cigarette smoke; I thought that was pretty bad until I smelled the metro--kind of a mixture between B.O. and urine, and I was surprised by how dirty the city was...not what I expected from Paris. Luckily, once we got closer to the center of town, everything changed and I felt like I was walking through a textbook. Honestly, the history just oozes from this place, i'ts nothing like I've ever seen. 

Our first big stop was the Louvre, we were a little overwhelmed by how big the line was, but it moved quickly. Unfortunatly not quickly enough to avoid all the vendors slash con-men walking around. Note to anyone planning a trip to Paris, if a big black man comes and says, "Does the pretty lady want to put her finger in the string? (it's a string tied in some circular knot)" Say no. haha. That probably sounds obvious, and for the record: I didn't put my finger in the string , but there are really men that walk around asking that, and--from what I've heard--they pull it tight and won't let it loose until you give them money. I'm not sure if these odd things happen because I'm in Paris or just the fact that it's a big city. Either way: kinda creepy. A lot of the local men here are kind of creepy; and maybe creepy is a bad word--obnoxiously forward would probably be a better description. I don't think I've ever been gawked at more in my life; I seriously thought it was a joke the first guy passed by me (as we were standing trying to figure out the map). He walked past 3 times with his arms wide open, kissing the air and winking at me. Really? I have to wonder if those kinds of maneuvers have ever worked for anyone. I hope not. Either way, everything really does get better the closer you are to Center, probably because most of the people there are classier, or just tourists. I've gotten asked a few times where I'm from, for some reason I LOVE the fact that it's not a dead giveaway that I'm from the states. :)

I also LOVE the Louvre! Just walking in there and seeing all the diversity was amazing, there must have been museum maps in 2 dozen different languages (This is their website link: http://www.louvre.fr/en). Shawn and Hayden speak Russian, and I'm pretty sure that we've met every single Russian that has come to Paris. We met a family that drove 4 days to get here! We talked for awhile to a couple Russian men, one wanted to practice his English, but kept letting us know that, "I am very shine with my English." Aka: shy. I think hearing other people speak English, be a little shy, and make mistakes is giving me more confidence with Italian; not because I will speak it better, but just because I've realized that making mistakes isn't a big deal. I've picked up the basic hello, goodbye, and thank you in German, French, Italian and Russian. I seriously wish I was fluent in all those languages, but hey--maybe someday I will be. :) Anyhow, all the artwork seemed bigger than life, I honestly had no idea how massive some of the sculptures and paintings were. I got to see the Code of  Hammurabi and even the Mona Lisa! The Mona Lisa is actually thee one piece of art that wasn't as big as I expected. I'd heard from others that it was pretty small, and they weren't lying, but it was still pretty magnificent--that I got to stand a few feet from one of the most renowned pieces of art in history...that's special. I took a zillion pictures, so rather than listing everything I saw, I figured I'd just post the pictures and let you see for yourself. :)

Mona Lisa!

Wait...is this not the Statue of Liberty..?

The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code,
 dating back to about 1772 BC. It is one of the oldest deciphered
writings of significant length in the world.

Notre Dame

I can't help it, I am obsessed with windows and stained glass

Street vendor food is the way to go in Paris! Cheap and delicious!

After the Louvre, we made our way to Notre Dame! I'm definitely not Catholic, but I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on this experience. Everyone was so respectful in there, which I suppose I would expect, but it made it such a peaceful and relaxing experience--which we needed after walking around Paris for 5 hours. The Cathederal is definitely functioning--there are areas for confessions, and spaces dedicated to different saints where individuals can light candles and pay money as some sort of an offering. The artwork and archetecture in Notre Dame were absolutely beautiful, especially the gothic windows, which--as Shawn and Hayden now very well by this point--are my absolute favorite! 

The rest of the day we just spent walking around the city, grabbing dinner pananis (panini is actually the plural form of sandwich in Italy, panino is singular, just fyi) from a local street vendor. We ate it on a bench near the river, and got to just sit and relax for awhile on the water. I love people watching here--there are SO many couples, which is probably more obvious than surprising. I like it though, it's as romantic of a city as I imagined--if I ever come back, I'm definitely bringing a significant other :) or just finding a Frenchman while I'm here ;)

Well I better get going to bed, lots to do tomorrow! Wish me luck for finding a way to Rome--our eurorail isn't working for the train we planned, so either it's pay $150 for a train ride or fly.

Cinderella's Castle!

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!

The church had signs in English and German.
These were the kids whose house I have been staying at :) Cute, huh!

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 4^th, 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!

Dear Kierea we are excited of meet you!! Brother Perego told us about you... so we have decided to have you stay at our house. We live in a beautiful place near Bracciano lake. From here you can travel to Rome by train or by bus, but it depends which zone you have to reach. I think that if you  will like our food , we'll share it. so in this case i would ask you 300 €. However we can adjust every details according your schedule. Thank you for your kindness and willingness to help; we too are happy to help you to have a good experience in Italy!! See you soon and have a good journey    Mara

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.

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....

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).

My 'new best friend' outside near the castles

Cinderella's Castle!

Boats, Castles, Thai People and More!

I do not even know where to begin—we packed a ton into today and met so many cool people! I honestly feel that more than 16 hours have passed since waking up at 5am. I'm still feeling sick (sore throat/stuffed), but I 'drugged up' this morning and have felt pretty great as a result. :)

I took my first train ride ever this morning and got to enjoy some beautiful scenery, and some pretty legit graffiti. We had a little layover between trains and decided to check out a little town called Manheim—loved it! One of my favorite things about Germany is that all the little towns are so quaint beautiful. We saw some really cool street art and picturesque gardens and fountains.

We founds this place during a layover at one of our train stops!

Street art: "If you don't harvest their thoughts, they'll go bad"

Street art: "If you give me the chance to shine, I'll be the  best sun ever!"

Rhine River Tour at Bingen

We went on a boat tour today to see German castles along the water, and although we ended up having to run to catch the boat, it was well worth it! There was a huge group of tourists from Thailand on the boat with us. One, bright-pink-lipstick-wearing, woman walked over to the side of the boat, near where we were sitting, and started smiling. She smiled, looked at me, then pointed at the camera; I turned to look at the man taking a picture of her, then back at her. I thought she was trying to communicate to me that she was taking a picture and to let me know that she was not smiling at me, so I shouldn't feel awkward. I was wrong. Apparently she was actually trying to take a picture with me! It was unexpected and hilarious, but I went with it. Then, suddenly, all of her friends came over and took turns taking pictures with me. Even after they walked away, a couple of them kept taking pictures of me, and would randomly come and lean down by me to get another picture! I was so caught off guard—either they got confused and thought I was some celebrity or the just really like blonde hair. Either way, if I get treated like that from Thai people, I think Thailand will have to be my next travel destination! ;)

Apparently the Thai tourists on the boat thought I was someone famous
or just really liked my blonde hair and asked to take pictures with me

Rheinfels Castle, St. Goar
We got to explore two castles in depth today, this one was definitely my favorite. Not necessarily because it was cooler or prettier than the other one, but just because the staff was super liberal and let us explore whatever we wanted. Rheinfels was completely in ruins, and we just hiked through the little passage ways and up to every room we could find. We started heading up this pitch black staircase, into goodness knows what; Shawn was leading the way and all of a sudden he screamed--like something had grabbed him! I, being the protective travel buddy that I am, screamed and booked it down the stairs and out of the castle in about 2 seconds; then realized that nothing had actually grabbed him and that he was just screaming for my benefit...Brat.

Stolzenfels Castle, Kapellen

We had to take an extra train and a bus to get to Stolzenfels castle, then walked through the town, and hiked up a huge windy hill to get to the castle, only to find that it was closed. We decided not to let that stop us because, after all, it's not like we could go there next week. Plus, the fences didn't really seem equipped to actually keep people out—if they really didn't want us in there, they'd make it less accessible, right? So, being our rebellious selves, we snuck in and saw some girl in 12th century clothing speaking all dramatically. Had we just snuck into a movie set!? Well, that would have definitely been a cool story, but no. Turns out the castle wasn't even closed in the first place, we just had gone around to the wrong side, and the girl in the 12th century clothes was just a random tourist (this is who gives tourist a bad name, says the girl who 'snuck' in...). Anyhow, the castle itself was amazing! I've never seen anything so intricate in my life. I am completely obsessed with the castles, especially their gothic windows. I feel like I’m in a humanities class on steroids. Seriously, there is nothing like this in the States!

Just inside the castle :)

I love Gothic windows!

View from the castle

It rained most of the day, but it was still pretty warm outside :)

No words, it was gorgeous!

While the boats, castles, food, and scenery in Germany are amazing, I'd have to say that my favorite aspect of this trip has been the people. I don't know why I had this idea in my mind that Germans weren't very nice. Besides that fact that they are falsely modest (every time you ask someone if they speak English, they say, "A little." which actually means that they are fluent and can carry on a conversation with you for as long as you're interested), the Germans we have met are all extremely warm and fun to talk to (thankfully they speak English—I have experience with Italian and Shawn  & Hayden are fluent in Russian and Spanish, but that doesn't get us very far in Germany...shocker, eh?). But, like I said, the people are wonderful.

Exhibit #1: Schmidt

After we got done at Rheinfels, we took a bus to Koblenz, a random, small town in Germany, and met a super chill—and kind of out there—guy named Schmidt. He wore all black, which contrasted nicely with his bleach blonde dread locks. Shawn started up a conversation with him. He told us where he was from and then asked us about ourselves.

• Schmidt: Where are you from?    
• Shawn: Utah.    
• Schmidt: Utah? ... Utah?    
• Shawn: Yes.
• Schmidt: Well why the he** are you in Koblenz?

Shawn didn't really know how to answer that; everyone just ended up laughing, and Schmidt shared some cheese with us (individually wrapped, I ate it and am still alive and not hallucinating, so I think we're good). It was random, but we ended up having a good conversation with him, and it turns out he’s a really nice guy. I like going to the smaller, less touristy parts of town. I feel like the people are more open and excited to talk. I really can't wait until I'm in Italy where I actually get to build stronger friendships, rather than just make passing acquaintances (which I still do very much enjoy).

Exhibit #2 The 4 Ladies at Stolzenfels Castle, Kapellen

I didn't mention this before, but the second castle we went to had a guided tour which I'm sure would have been interesting, if we could have understood ANYTHING that the tour guide was saying. Unfortunately, although most people in Germany speak English, the tour guide was not one of them. The only thing I actually understood was his firm step in front of us, which halted our progress towards a self-directed tour, and assured our continued presence in the small tour group, ourselves and four women. One of the women tried to translate a little bit of the tour for us, but ended up ranting about random things. Afterwards, we had a nice little chat with the women—they were pretty sassy, if I do say so myself. I loved it! Shawn told them about his and Hayden's world tour trip and they seemed less than impressed. "How long are you staying in Germany?" one asked. Shawn, smiling widely, told them "3 more days." "Typical Americans." another one said shaking her head. They at least seemed happy that I was staying put in one country for the majority of my trip. Besides that comment (which I thought was extremely funny), the women were friendly, took pictures and talked with us for a good 20 minutes.

These are three of the four women we met during the Stolzenfels Castle tour,
the lady on the right tried to translate for us
We tried to get them to smile for the picture, but they just kept talking :)

Exhibit #3 Susan the Story Teller

We met Susan on one of our longer train rides, somehow we started chatting and she told me that I should not be on the train, but up on the top of the hill, like Lorelai. When we all looked at her, befuddled, she told us that Germany has many traditional stories, and then continued to explain the story of Lorelai. She had a bit of a hard time translating it into English, but told us that Lorelai was a beautiful, blonde haired woman that would sit on the top of the hill, brush her hair, and sing. All of the sailors would get so distracted as they sailed by that they would run into the side of the hill and die. Susan shook her head as she told the story, "Very sad...very sad." Obviously some of the emotional connection/meaning was lost in translation, and I'm not sure how I feel being compared to a woman who kills sailors, but I appreciated her sharing some of the history of Germany with us.

We met Susan on a train and she told us some 'historical' stories about Germany

We also met some cool university students on our last train rides. We talked a long time to a couple locals named Steffen and Jenny—they were sitting across from us and started speaking loudly in English to get our attention. Sometimes I feel hesitant to start a conversation with the people around us, but I've found that it is a completely illogical fear because it seems like everyone is as eager to talk to us as we are to talk to them. Seriously, I love Germany!

And some more pictures from the rest of the day

boat tour

On my way to the 2nd castle

The wax that surrounded the cheese Schmidt gave us,
Shawn actually thought the red was part of the cheese haha

These signs are EVERYWHERE here, Ausfahrt means "exit" in German

Cutest old couple ever! This will be me in 50 years. Minus the red hair..

Sadly we didn't see any cute German kids that day,
but let me tell you--kids with accents are the CUTEST thing you've ever seen/heard!