Pictures from London

Big Ben and Parliament
British Museum

The Globe Theatre

St. Paul's Cathedral

The Tower of London

Two Tower Bridge

Westminster Abbey Trafalgar Square

The Queen's Guards

Buckingham Palace...the queen was in, but no luck of seeing her

Just found this funny

The arch that I can never remember the name too..

Gates to Hyde Park

Really London?

London was one of the best weekends and worst that I have had here so far. Friday night, my friend Scott and I headed to the Munich airport for a packed weekend of sights. Everything went ok in Germany, but once we landed in the UK things started to get a little hectic. Customs went well and we made it through ok. After walking to the train station, we realized that the only train to and from Gatwick airport (southern airport of London) was almost 20 pounds each! We bought two tickets and took the 30min train ride into the city. While on the train, an older Italian couple sat next to me and I was so excited to talk to them...sure they spoke Italian and I spoke Spanish, but we could understand each other enough to carry on a small conversation.

The underground was to be our savior once arriving at Victoria station. Sadly enough, we found out that the lines we were to take to our hostel happened to be under construction for that weekend. We decided to try and get as close to our hostel as possible on other lines, so we bought tickets and hurried downstairs, only to see the last train pull away as we ran up. After being defeated, we went upstairs and took a taxi to the hostel. It wasn't too far, but it was fun to see some of the sites at night.

The next morning we woke up early and went to see everything. We saw Westminster, Hyde Park, Marble Arch, Two Towers Bridge, Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, London Eye, and many more interesting sights. The whole day was packed with the underground and buses. Westminster was by far my favorite place to visit. We paid the extra money to go in and look around. It was so beautiful and had a lot of history in it. I was able to see the graves of the Queens and famous poets. The next day, we went to see St. Paul's cathedral, the Globe theatre, and the British Museum. While at the museum we were able to see the Rosetta Stone and also Cleopatra's mummy. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had a plane to catch...so Scott and I headed to a restaurant to have fish n' chips and then leave.

Sadly, we underestimated the amount of time it would take the buses to get to the train station and we were 5mins late to catch the train to the airport. We took the next one and ran to checkin, only to find out that we were 10mins late for checkin and they wouldn't let us through even though the plane wasn't leaving for another 30mins. Scott and I were forced to purchase another ticket for the next day and to sleep in the airport for the night. The next morning, Scott and I were able to get back to Munich and were almost 5hrs late for work. Overall, it was a great weekend, but the travels were harder than any other trip. Thank you London!

Prague Pics!

Salzburg Pics

Me at the castle overlooking the city

Mozart's house

Salzburg in the day

Salzburg at night

A Long Time Ago...

Obviously it has been over a month since I have written and truly not much has changed...well a few things. Within the past month I have traveled to Salzburg, Austria and Prague, Czech. Both cities were amazing. Salzburg was small and had amazing Sound of Music tours, while Prague was a chance to see an old housemate from Seattle. Who knew that I would be able to say that I met a friend in Prague! Out of the two cities, Prague was definitely my favorite. It was large, but not overly big...you could still walk around to places, but it was so beautiful.

As of now, I have two more trips planned: London in a little over a week and a roadtrip through Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland. It is going to be quite the adventure. I am hoping to see as much of Europe as I possible can, hence all the traveling in just three months of being here.

I have also made some amazing new friends. Samantha arrived about a month after I did. She is from Colorado and we have really hit it off, since she's considered the other religious girl. And then there are Ben and Scott. The two guys with complete different personalities. Scott is the goofy kid while Ben is the quiet one, but we all get along so well. We all like to hangout and watch movies or go out for a game of pool.

The most recent activity though is Oktoberfest in Munich. It started last on Saturday, but I went yesterday with an extremely large group. The festival was more like an oversized state fair, without the animals and demolition derby. Right off the bat, everyone wanted to go into one of the beer tents, so we wandered into the Hofbrau tent, which is the only one that you can order a beer while standing at a table. Dressed in our dirndls and lederhausen, we passed for local Germans...well some of us did. Morgan and I were taken for German girls and asked to have our picture taken a few times throughout the day. We were so happy that we passed for locals! After the Hofbrau tent, we moved next door to the Hacker tent which wasn't as roudy, but definitely as loud. I'm not really one for sitting around and drinker and extremely large glass of beer, so I became bored pretty quickly, but soon enough we all were out riding the rides. It was such a great day and I was able to hangout with people that I had not been able to before. I don't think that there will be a second day of fest though...one was enough for me.

If you can do it, I can do it

What is the most manly task that someone could perform to show his strength? I didn't know either, but apparently in Garmisch one must pick up a 500+ lbs stone to show that he is tough man. I was expecting something else, like moving the stone or throwing, but nope, you stand on a podium and dead lift it. The person you lifts it the most centimeters receives a free beer, or that is what we heard. All sorts of men came out to lift the stone. There were different weight classes: heavy, middle, and light. A bodybuilder in the heavy weight class was able to lift it 95centimeters. Three of the guys from our table went up to try it. Two out of the three were able to lift in a few centimeters, but nothing more. At one point, two girls tried to go up and lift it together, but it didn't even budge. After a watching a few men try and lift the stone, it became boring and I left fest early to go watch a movie...

Two bee fights and the Kramerspitz

The chapel on the way up

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Everyone said the Kramer is a difficult, yet beautiful hike. Once hearing this, I decided that I would hike it one day. So bright and early Monday morning, I woke up to the sunshine and decided it was the day for a hike. I got ready and headed out, not knowing what I was getting into. First off, I thought I would be ok without hiking boots...that was a no. I was wearing my running shoes and paid for it later. Secondly, I took my Nike cinch backpack, this ended up digging into my shoulders and didn't hold enough. I learned all this during the trek, but it was still a great hike. Right up the first hill, there is a beautiful small chapel that is set out in a field. Around the field, there were benches and on one there was an elderly gentleman just sitting and taking in everything. He looked so peaceful. Right before I had entered the peaceful setting, I had my first bee fight. As I was walking up the path, a bug flew into my cheek and I just brushed it away, thinking it would keep going. Next thing I knew, I had a bee chasing me and it kept buzzing my face. I tried to ignore it, but that was impossible. I swatted it, which then irritated it even more. Next thing I knew, I literally kicked the bee and it didn't return. After the ordeal, I had used way too much energy, but I kept on. Once leaving the field and the chapel behind, I followed the signs for the Kramer. I went up a gravel road that switched back and forth up to a restuarant or the halfway house. It was along this trek that I had my second bee fight. Really, the first one must have told the rest and one of them decided to finish the fight. So out of no place, a second bee starts to buzz me and won't leave me alone. I thought that if I left it alone, then it would leave, but it didn't leave me. So the second bee start began, I swatted and kicked, and killed that bee. I had to have been a sight to see, swatting at a tiny bee, but I got it! After that was over, the rest of the hike was very pleasant. It took me almost 3hrs to reach the top. It was worth it though. The view was so great. I could see the whole valley and overwhelmed by God's creation. Everything was so beautful. Sadly, my camera died before I reached the top, so I wasn't able to capture the view. I will have to hike it again some day so that I can take pictures. The hike back down wasn't too bad. It took about 2 hrs to get down and I even passed some people that I had passed on the way up. The strange thing around here is that all the elderly hike. They are machines! A few passed me on the way! But they were nice and talked to me. Once returning to Abrams, I showered and took a nap because the hike really took a lot of energy out of me, but so worth it!