No More Blogging!

I thought I would eventually make a detailed post about our road trip this summer, but I never got around to it.

Now, grad school has started and I barely have time to cook food let alone write blog posts. Seriously.

Education has always come extremely easily for me, even through undergrad. I remember starting my BSN program and the professors insisting that we were going to have "no social life" and "shouldn't work" because the program was so intense. I was rolling my eyes through the whole first semester because that was not remotely true.

This program, on the other hand, is extremely time intensive. I easily spend 80% of the time that I'm awake doing school work for the 7 classes that I am taking. Maybe I can pick this up again next December, but I won't be making any promises!

Stateside!

On May 3rd, Greg and I landed at Hartsfield Latoya Jackson Intergalactic Spaceport and Nail Emporium. In other words, we moved back to the USA!

Our first week was spent visiting my family, who we hadn't seen in three years. After that, we drove out to Texas to visit Greg's family before starting a two week road trip of the Southwest. It was nice getting to visit everyone and enjoy some time visiting a lot of the sights that we told ourselves we would explore while living in Colorado, but never made it.

I'll share some information about our road trip soon. Even though we moved back to the US, we're still impatiently waiting to receive all of our stuff from Germany. We're going on month three without furniture and it's getting old quickly.

Taken our last weekend in Germany

Road Trip: Salzburg, Austria

Our last trip outside of Germany was to Salzburg, Austria. We've been to Austria several times, but never over night. We've driven and taken the train through Austria more times than I can count. We've even stayed in hotels only 5 minutes from the border, but never actually "visited" Austria. So, for our last trip, we decided to go to Salzburg. Salzburg was chosen as our last vacation over Prague, which is probably my favorite European city, but it didn't disappoint.

Long Weekend: London 2016

Originally, we planned that our last big trip in Europe would be a road trip around England and Scotland right before we moved back to the US. Then, we looked into the cost of such a trip and decided maybe we weren't THAT interested. Greg was very insistent that he wanted to the London one more time before we left, so we decided that one long weekend trip was probably within our budget.

Last Winter In Germany

Unfortunately, our time in Germany is coming to an end. It's been a roller-coaster of emotions the past 3 years, but we're excited to be moving on as well. The one thing we've agreed that we're strangely going to miss the most: Christmas Markets.

Norway: Fjords of Fun Part 2

Flåm

It only took 3 months, but I am finally finishing blogging about the rest of our Norway trip. After this, I'll update about our exciting winter months around Germany, our last trip to London and our plans for the next few months.

Surprise!

...The surprise being that I am updating the blog.

Middle Rhine Valley in October.

Obviously, I haven't taken the time to update this with the second half of our Norway trip or any of the adventures we've done since then.

Since August, we've enjoyed our last fall living in Germany, our last Christmas markets, a short trip to France, a visit from Greg's sister and brother in law, an ill-fated "ski" holiday to the unusually warm Alps and a recent trip to London. Now, we're gearing up to say goodbye to Germany, and (more importantly) the Army, for good.

Partnachklamm

I recently found out that I was accepted into one of the three grad school programs I applied to. I am still waiting to hear from one sometime in the next few weeks and another has invited me for an interview in February which I am debating whether or not I want to attend. I'm feeling pretty confident, though, because the one program I was accepted into is probably the most selective, only admitting 8-10 students per year.

Greg has started preparing for his upcoming job hunt and is feeling very positive about the end of his military career. We're ready to move on with our lives. There are a lot of things that we are going to miss about Europe, but we can always come back in the future if we would like.

Tower Bridge

We're debating about whether or not we will do any more traveling in our last few months here. There are a few more places we would like to visit, but may not make it to all of them. And, ultimately, that's okay. We've had a lot of fun in the past 3 years but we're ready to focus on our next stage of life: building careers that we value and enjoy.

What will happen to this blog? Well, depending on where I decide to go to grad school, there may still be some extensive travel in our future. In the meantime, I should probably just focus on updating all of the fun things we've done before we return stateside!

Norway: Fjords of Fun Part 1

Hellestylt

So, I am finally getting around to posting about our trip to Norway. Two weeks after getting home from Norway, I took the GRE which I had been anxiously studying for and now I've completed most of my graduate school applications. I submitted two out of three applications and had one interview. My final application should be completed within the next few weeks and I should receive a decision from two of the schools by February. Here is to hoping I get into grad school!

Rome, Pompeii and Mt Vesuvious, Italy

[Disclaimer: I wrote most of this post a month ago and believed that I had already published it. Sadly, I hadn't and just realized that today!]

Fourth of July weekend was a four-day weekend for us, so we decided to take a trip. After reviewing a few different options, our best bet was a trip to Rome, Italy.

Konigssee, Bavaria

In June, we decided to enjoy the great outdoors by taking a trip to one of the most scenic locations in Germany, Konigssee.

This is actually Obersee

Konigssee is located in Berchtesgadener Land, a national park in the Bavarian Alps on the Austrian border. Konigssee is best known for a few things. First, the close proximity to the Eagle's Nest which encourages a lot of visitors with interest in WWII history. Secondly, the famous "horn echo" which occurs when a horn is blown from a certain spot on the lake, causing an echo throughout the Alps which sounds like a symphony of horns playing. Finally, the beautiful views and amazing hikes through practically untouched Alps speckled with traditional wooden buildings and milk cows. German travel websites are covered with picturesque Bavarian scenes from Konigssee and the surrounding area.

Our main reason for making the trip was to enjoy a hike in the mountains, which we hadn't gotten to do since we lived in Colorado. On Friday afternoon, we packed up Augustus and the Jeep and set out for the southern-most portion of Germany. Unfortunately, we didn't get out fast enough to avoid traffic, so our road trip took almost 3 hours longer than anticipated. When we got to our hotel, the staff had gone to bed, so they left our key at the desk with a welcome note.

The next morning, we got up early to catch one of the earlier boats out. Konigssee can only be crossed on a particular kind of electric boat. No other vehicles are allowed on or near the lake to preserve it's crystal clear water. There are only two different stops to get off of from the boat and you pay by how far you plan to go. Each boat stops at a particular point to blow the trumpet in order to hear the echo.

On the day we went, it was soaking wet and pretty cold outside. We dressed Augustus in his best hoodie, put on our thickest rain coats and took a seat on the boat next to a group of British college kids. They all sort of laughed at Augustus cuddled up asleep in Greg's lap the whole trip. He barely noticed the trumpet playing, which, due to the weather, was pretty anticlimactic. The echo didn't have the same triumphant effect in the pouring rain, but it was still kind of cool. There is a famous chuch on the water which is where most people exited, but we stayed on until Salet which is the trail head for a path to Obersee and the Rothbach waterfall, the tallest in Germany.

Obersee is only a short and easy walk from the Salet port, maybe 10 or 15 minutes. However, there is a longer trail which leads along the edge of Obersee and through the mountains until it reaches a cottage which sells fresh milk. If you continue to follow the trail, it ends at the Rothbach waterfall. Despite the rain, we decided to hike it. We weren't totally prepared for that much hiking. Because of the weather, we assumed we wouldn't want to spend that much time outdoors so we didn't dress for the occasion. We ended up hiking several miles anyway.

Augustus was awesome. He only got tired and had to be carried for a short period, and I think it was more so because he was so wet and not because he was necessarily tired. He climbed up the steps carved into the rocks and carefully approached the cows blocking the path to see if he could venture forward. We even saw the British kids later in the hike who mentioned how good he was as hiking.

We stopped at the milk cottage and got some beer. It kind of grosses me out that people were stopping to get luke warm milk while hiking. Augustus got cold from all the rain so we had to wrap him up in Greg's hoodie to dry him off. The views were absolutely beautiful and worth the walk. After a short break, we decided to walk towards the waterfall before heading back to the boat. We didn't walk all the way down the waterfall trail, but instead stopped and allowed Augustus to run around for a little while in the cow pasture. He was interested in the cows, but not enough to attempt to approach them.

Luckily, the hike back was much more dry and the boat much less crowded. Augustus was so exhausted that he curled up in a nest he made in Greg's hoody and fell asleep. All of the Germans were watching him and laughing as he dug his way up under it to sleep "under the covers." This was definitely the longest hike he's taken since we moved to Germany.

Once off the boat, we dropped Augustus at the hotel to rest and ate an amazing Bavarian dinner on the water overlooking the lake. It was a nice end to the trip. At the hotel, we learned that it was a common practice for travelers in the area to return to their hotel at night for dinner. Most of the hotel guests did this. They even reserved a table for each of the hotel guests. We decided to go down to the restaurant for beer and cake.

There were more things that I had wanted to do in that area before we returned, but the weather was so bad that it wasn't worth it. There is a cable car that you could take to the top of a mountain overlooking the lake, but we didn't bother since the clouds were so low that you couldn't even see to the top of the mountains. There wouldn't have been much to see. We didn't go to the Eagle's Nest because we didn't have much interest. We considered stopping through Salzburg, Austria, on our way back, but I forgot to bring our passports so we didn't.

We most likely won't make it back down that direction again unless we try to go snowboarding in the area this winter. The drive to Bavaria/Austria is miserably slow. The scenery is certainly beautiful but that's pretty much all we are interested in around that area. I don't have any huge desire to visit Munich especially after realizing that Oktoberfest can be had in just about any city, but with less tourists and a smaller crowd. Maybe we will return to Garmisch at some point if we have time.

Strasbourg, France and Other Forgotten Local Trips

When we first moved to Germany, I thought I would document every single thing we did and every single trip we took. Then, after visiting a lot of places, I've gotten pretty lazy.

We've decided to try to visit a new place at least every other weekend. We hope to continue that trend through summer as it will probably be our last full summer in Europe. So far, we have done a lot of traveling both near and far since May!

Several weekends ago, we took a trip to Strasbourg, France. Strasbourg is the home of the United Nations headquarters and is located in the Alsace region of France which has traded hands multiple times through history between France and Germany. The inhabitants of Alsace now speak both French and German with a very distinctive accent... or so I'm told.

Strasbourg was a beautiful city which is only 2 hours from our house. It's actually how I imagined most German cities would look before we moved here. The buildings seem to mimic the Bavarian architecture with their own extremely intricate markings which made them look much more artistic and, well, French. I actually told Greg that I think the most beautiful building I've ever seen was in Strasbourg. He didn't completely agree with that sentiment, but did comment that the architecture was more unique than in Germany.

We didn't do a whole lot in Strasbourg other than walk around and eat. The food was great and the town was beautiful, which was good enough for a day trip. It's also fun to be able to say that we can drive to France for a day from our house.

I love this picture of Greg.
(Obviously, this is not the day that it rained)

Twice in the past few months, we've driven up to Bozerwolf off-road park a little over an hour from our house to take the Jeep off-roading. Once, we camped out overnight for Jeep Topless day, which was unfortunately far too cold and rainy to actually take the top off of the Jeep. This was our first European camping experience. It is mostly illegal to go backpack camping here in Germany, so we have to plan out a campsite in advance.

Each weekend we've been in town, we've attending at least one festival in our local area. Wine festivals are just beginning in the Rhine-Main region and we are more than happy to attend. Our own local wine festival won't start until next month, so we have several more weekends to enjoy the festivities in our area. Germans definitely love to party outdoors in the summer!

Finally, we've also taken two bigger trips, one to hike in Bavaria at Konigsee, and another to Rome, Italy with a minor detour to the Naples area to visit the ruins of Pompeii. I'm already working on those posts, so bare with me as I slowly catch up on our adventures!

Backlog Blog

I promise that I have not forgotten about this blog. I have lots of day trips to update about but haven't had the time or energy to do it. This weekend we should have plenty of down time which should allow me to do some blogging! Until then, here is a cute picture of Augustus in a hoody.

Ireland: Dublin, Belfast and Giant's Causeway

It's been a while since I've updated the blog. For several months, we mostly hung out around our town and patiently waited for the weather to warm up again. We planted flowers, bought bikes, pulled out our summer clothing and did just about everything we could to encourage spring to arrive. It finally did, and then we went on vacation to visit a still cold and rainy Ireland.

It stopped raining about a minute before this picture

Fasching 2015: The Drunken Debauchery Continues

Last year, I posted a little bit about Fasching. To recap, Fasching is the German equivalent of Carnival or Mardi Gras. It starts the Friday before Ash Wednesday and lasts until the Tuesday before. (Fat Tuesday if you were raised Catholic). Western parts of Germany with heavy Catholic influence throw the biggest Fasching or Fasnacht parties. The word for the celebration depends on where in Germany you live. Some areas will still call it Carnival, particularly if they have heavy French influence.

The idea behind Fasching/Fasnacht/Carnival is that your sins are forgiven prior to the start of the Lent season. So, you have one last weekend to "live it up" before focusing on the Lent season. Since Catholic religion is hardly practiced any more in Germany, the party is less about the religious ideas behind Lent and more of another excuse to throw a nice party.

One of the main components of Fasching is dressing up like a "fool." Whereas Carnival in Venice brings about the image of extravagantly dressed masked party guests, you can pretty much dress however you like for Fasching. The most common costumes are head-to-toe animal outfits complete with hoods. This is probably partially because of the cold, wet weather in February in Germany. I wanted to dress up as a cow, but the store did not have my size costume. Instead, Greg convinced me to dress up as Princess Leia since he was going as Darth Vader.

We live within easy walking distance of our city's downtown area. However, before we could make it to the party, we had to walk through our very American neighborhood dressed like Star Wars characters. Can I just take this moment to comment: Americans do not know how to have fun. Seriously. We know how to ruin otherwise fun things.

None of the other Americans walking to the parade were dressed. We got a lot of crazy looks at first. Once we crossed from our American neighborhood into "real" Germany, all of the Germans were dressed up and partying. We actually got a lot of great comments from them. Small kids would yell "Leia" and wave. The girls at the beer stand scolded Greg for not dressing up as Hans Solo. We made a lot of random German friends for the day. They taught us the "correct" way to take shots from their little bottles of plum flavored vodka and how to sing along to polka music. By 9 pm, we were so exhausted we walked home and fell right to sleep. Our original plan was to attend the parade in the town across the river from us the following day, but we decided to stay home.

There are a few things that I will miss about Germany when we leave, and one of them is the sense of community here that just doesn't exist in the states. The idea of throwing a "town party" in the streets would never happen in America. Bonding with someone over a similar costume is something that would probably only occur at a college bar on Halloween. Germans have a reputation for being unfriendly, which can occasionally be true, but they are wonderfully inviting to all outsiders at social events. If you try your best to belong, they'll try their best to accept you. Most importantly, they know how to have fun while keeping it safe and acceptable for people of all ages.

Long Weekend: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

I apologize for the delay in updating about our most recent trip.

'Tis the Season: Christmas Markets in Germany 2014

Nuremberg Market

One major adjustment you have to make when you move to Germany is accepting the fact that winter is miserable and feels like it will never end. I usually love winter, but Germany will ruin it for you. The sun comes up around 9 AM and sets about 4 PM. You're entire day of sun light is spent at work, in an office. That is, of course, if the sun even does make it's appearance from behind the thick, deep clouds that are a permanent fixture in the sky from October to April. Every single day, it rains at least a little. Sometimes it mists the entire day or alternates soft, steady rain. Snow is even more rare than sunlight, even though the wet air makes it feel cold enough to snow. If you have seasonal depression or a vitamin D deficiency, Germany is not a place that you would enjoy living.

Luckily, Christmas markets help make the start of winter a little more bearable. I wrote about the markets last year as well. They get talked up a lot by Americans in Germany. I won't lie, they really aren't anything too special. Most of them sell the same things and most of what they sell is crafts or Christmas decorations. The only redeeming factor that makes you want to visit them all is the food and drinks. Gluhwein (mulled wine) is a staple of all of the markets and each one will have different regional varieties. Some are fruit flavored like apfel (apple) or kirsch (cherry). Most are just red or white. You can also get non-alcoholic varieties. Other than the Christmas decor and gluhwein, the markets are pretty similar to any other festival in Germany.

Christmas market in our town.

Long Weekend: Normandy, France

This summer marked the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy. We thought it would be pretty cool to be able to see Normandy on the 70th anniversary, but that was not realistic. However, we definitely did want to visit while we lived in Germany, it was just a matter of planning the best possible trip.

Omaha Beach

Local: Iron & Wine

This past weekend, we went to Normandy, France to commemorate Veteran's Day. Before I get too caught up in our trip to Normandy, I wanted to take a moment to mention a great show we attend the day before heading to France.

Church turned into a stage.

I've been a big fan of Iron & Wine since freshman year of high school. When I saw he would be performing a show at a church in our area, I considered buying tickets but was turned off by the price. 60 euros to attend a Thursday night concert in a Gothic church did not sound appealing. By the time I decided to get tickets, they were sold out. At the last minute, I found someone selling a pair of tickets for 40 euros. That was much more in my price range.

We ended up walking most of the way to to show as it wasn't far from where we live. Some men stood outside selling beer and soda to take inside. The whole church was full of German hipsters, which I wasn't even aware existed until that day. There were very few Americans which surprised me.

It was an extremely intimate performance. He mispronounced the name of our city, which was cute. The majority of the show consisted of him asking people to call out songs they wanted to hear and him playing them on the spot. He had a few specifically chosen to play as a duet, but most of it was on the spot. The whole show was pretty impressive, included the choice of venue.

The next day, we packed up to leave for a pretty awesome trip to France!

Weekend Trip: Prague, Czech Republic

This weekend, we decided to take our first true road trip since we've moved to Germany. We've talked about going to Prague for the past year. In order to take a train to Prague, it would take about 9 hours rather than the 5 it takes to drive. After much debate, we decided to have our first road trip since May 2013.

Cruising the Mediterrenean Part 5: Dubrovnik, Croatia

After leaving Greece, we sailed along the Albanian coast before reaching the final destination of our cruise, Dubrovnik, Croatia. When I first booked the cruise, I sort of shrugged off Dubrovnik as being just another location like Bari that we didn't particularly care to visit. After a little bit of research, we quickly changed our minds.