Chiemsee und Koenigsschloss

This is a long overdue post. About three weeks ago Michaela, Mary, Andrew, and I went to Chiemsee. Unfortunately, it was a really rainy day, but we still enjoyed ourselves. There are 2 popular islands on this lake. Herreninsel und Fraueninsel  haha Man island and Woman island. On Herreninsel, there is a stunning castle, another one of Kind Ludwig II's - the Bavarian King who also built Neuschwannsteinschloss, the "Disney castle". This one he modeled directly after the Palace of Versailles in France. Everything in the castle is ment to have a French style. They said the king didn't want anything about the castle to look Bavarian. Odd idea for a king to want a house that looks like another country? I wish I could've taken pictures inside because it was unbelieveably tacky. It was way way way too much - it was all gold, marble, imported wood and a long list of other extremely valueable things, worth a great deal, but way over done. We couldn't help but giggle from how ridiculously over the top everything looked.

It was about an hour and a half train ride, a 20 min walk from the train station, a 15 min boat ride, and then another 30 min walk to the castle... in the rain... it was worth it.

The garten was absolutely beautiful. The fountains were works of art and from both sides of the palace you could see the lake on either side. It is super fancy and a cool palace, but I could never live like that. It looked like a movie set up.

 

In the pouring rain but enjoying our time together. So this is another wonderful day trip to take in Bavaria! Another one to check off our wish list!

Turning 23

I had a wonderful weekend celebration for my birthday! Turning 23 in Germany was great! Friday night I hung out with a few friends and then I spent the night at my friend Laura's flat. We woke up, had a lovely breakfast together and made our way to the train station to go to Garmisch for the day and take a leisurely hike in the mountains.

The train ride was entertaining, of course, with our group of people: the loud people speaking Englisch, with hair braiding and magic tricks. But getting there is always a part of the fun of a trip.

We got to walk through a beautiful gorge down there in the Bavarian Alps with a rushing river right under us. It was incredible. And the water was ridiculously cold!

Then we made our way up and got to see another beautiful sight. The weather was perfect which made the day even more perfect. I took 200 pictures so this is the sneak view.

With Michaela, Azra, and Cristina. And Paul and Oliver were there to take the pictures ;)

Then we went back to Munich and met a few other friends and enjoyed the rest of the day at the Biergarten. It was such an incredible day! I felt so special to get to celebrate with friends here.

Sunday I celebrated with my host family and we had a great time together! Their gift to me was 2 tickets to a water park in another city near Munich. So Sunday night, Anna and I got to go play there! It was so much fun! It is a completely indoor place with a big pool, bar, and water slides. It was no Schlitterbahn (and just after typing that word I realized its a German word, nice New Braunfels) but it was so awesome! We had a blast!

 This past year has exteeded my expectations time and time again and I am thrilled to see where God leads me in a new year of life. He taught me a lot with 22 so I can't imagine what He has in store for me with 23 :)

So it was an all around wonderful birthday weekend celebration, but it did make me miss home a bit. Thanks everyone back home for the birthday wishes! I miss y'all so much and will be happy to celebrate with everyone when I am  home in one month!

"Therefor let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire."

 Hebrews 12:28

Welcome to the World, Sunshine

Dorothea Vuksanovic was born on May 14th!!! She is finally here! She is beautiful and our little sunshine! Everyone is beyond excited to welcome the new family member into the world! We have been celebrating ever since! I have never had the pleasure of holding such a young new born baby. It was a beautiful experience.

Fruehlingsfest

Another beer fest has come and gone. This one is called Fruehlingsfest (Spring Festival). It looked like a small Okoberfest with the carnival set up and the beer tents, but it wasn't as traditional or a big deal really. There were only 2 tents, that we saw at least. It was fun to go and sing and dance on the tables in our dirndl ;)

Dane and Rahul finially took a break from studying and came out to play with us!

And it was a bonus because my cousin Hayden and his roommate are here visiting from his study abroad in France! Hayden put it nicely when he said that he has never seen so many happy people together celebrating like that! haha Everyone sure is happy.

Every girl needs a picture with the Munich lion in her dirndl ;)

So apparently in Bavaria they celebrate 5 seasons with a special brew of beer. There is a brew and festival for summer time, autumn time, winter time, spring time, and then also for Lent. So the spring festival is the last one I will get to celebrate while I'm over here. And it was a good time :)

Andechs on Ammersee

Last Tuesday was May Day (Der Erste Mai) here in Germany so it was a work and scool holiday for everyone. I think it is equivalent to our Labor Day. So we celebrated by, you guessed it, going to a beer garden. But this one was special.

6 of us took the train down to Ammersee in Herrsching. We played around a bit by the lake before making our way to the Andechs monastery. The monks here have had a brewery going for a thousands years! So they have nearly perfected it. You can only get the beer at the monastery. So it is a special one for sure and is a local favorite!

We definitley stole those mugs.

The hike up to the monastery took us over an hour so the beer at the finish line tasted amazing! The hike was absolutely beautiful! This is one of my favorite things we have done in Bavaria!

The entire monastery was pretty impressive.

It was such a beautiful way to spend a day together with friends! This was another priority on our Munich must see wish list!

There is a First Time for Everything

I have had a lot of firsts getting to live in Germany so far this year. It's been my first time to...

...see Europe... live in Europe... live somewhere besides Texas.

...watch a full soccer match... and attend my first hockey game.

...wear a dirndl.

...go to so many museums and palaces... see a royal treasury.

...learn another language.


...have non native English speakers correct my English. Only slightly embarassing.

...teach kids English (as their third language).

...see the Alps.

...ski in the Alps.

...drive a stick shift... drive in the snow.

...have a white Easter. Still haven't had a white Christmas yet though...


...go ice skating outside on a frozen pond (that just so happens to be infront of a castle - Nymphenburgschloss).

... have at one point 5 different money currencies in my wallet (American, Euro, Swiss Francs, Hungarian and Brazilian money - I traded my American 2$ bill to a friend for his Brazilian 2$ bill)

... hear 3 different languages at the dinner table.

...see Spiderman beat up a Princess.

It's been an eye opening year ;)