Germany!!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. And that a lot of turkey was eaten for me! I went to Germany for Thanksgiving. lol. I went to visit Laura Cardy. Now Laura & I have a funny little story considering we've never actually met each other. She went to NCCS in AZ, 2 years after I left. She's Ashley Kaiser's roomie, and she's friends with Chuck & Allison.. whom I'm still friends with today after leaving there in 8th grade. Laura & I have both heard stories about each other and have talked before.. so it wasn't like we were complete strangers! Lol. But anyways.. she's an au pair (a nanny) in Germany for a whole year.. and it just seemed like a perfect idea to go there and meet her! And it was! We had so much fun!!..

But back to the story..

On Thursday, I headed off to the airport at around 1. My roomate Krista and a couple of her friends were headed off too, their flight being earlier, I caught a cab and train with them. I just hung out at the airport for a couple hours before my flight left. The flight from London to Bremen, Germany was only about an hour long. It was basically just a hop, skip and a jump across the ocean. After I got my passport stamped (yay!!), I headed through the terminal to see Laura! Hehe. It was soo great to finally meet her. We headed off to where she lives. It was off to bed around midnight..

Friday morning got up early and headed off for Munich! (Munchen as it's pronounced in Deutsch!) We stopped at the bakery for breakfast.. mmm.. yummy doughnut! Lol. It took us about 8 hours to get to Munich. The whole time we listened to Christmas music. I think the drive was my favorite part actually! I got to see soo much of the beautiful country side.. Germany is gorgeous! I saw the cute little town, with the cute little churches, and the hills.. oh. it was pretty! Loved it!

When we finally got to Munich, we headed to Dachau. Dachau was the first concentration camp of the Nazi, and was mainly a male camp until the end of the war. This was the main reason we went to Munich, as I truly wanted to go to a concentration. And I'm so happy I was able to go and be there.. The day was foggy and it was getting dark as we were walking around, it was also terribly cold. The look and the feel of the day helped to better understand the men's lives in the camp. We walked around in the barracks, and saw their cramped living quarters.. saw pictures of the men.. saw the gestapo posts.. the wall around the camp.. the train tracks that they were brought in on and the dead were taken out on.. The whole experience was mind-blowing. I was in awe as I stood in the roll call area and tried to picture the camp with the men, in their prison outfits,.. seeing the camp and the pictures makes you wonder how people can be so cruel? And how they were able to hide it for so long.. It seems unimaginable. Visiting Dachau makes me want to go to other concentration camps to learn more... they just seeem so horrible to imagine, but once you've been to one.. you can't imagine how people could do those things to another human being.

After we left Dachau, we checked into our hostel! No worries! We had a very good one, one of the best in Munich. We have very good stories compared to the horror stories that we've heard! And! There were no bed bugs!! :) I checked! Lol. Laura and I hung out that night and got to know each other. It was such a fun night!

Saturday, we again went to the bakery for bfast. I got another doughnut, and this time a German pretzel! It was soo delicious! We headed back to Dachau to finish looking at the things we didn't get to see the day before. Then we headed to the city centre to look around and do some shopping. We waited to get into the parking garage for like 40 mins! It was crazy!! Luckily though, as soon as we finally got in, we found a parking space right away. We then went and did some shopping! And we walked around the market on the street. Laura got some roasted nuts.. they smelled very good! But I hate nuts! Yuck! All the stores were decorated for Christmas! It was soo cute! We were on a mission to find a German braut while I was there.. but we couldn't find one. :( I wanted a true German one from a street vendor, not from a restraunt, and I couldn't find one. It was very sad! But that just gives me more reason to go back! :) After we found the things we wanted, we headed back to the car for home!

The drive home was a little long since some of the autobounds were closed. But we did make it back! We stopped at McDonald's for dinner, and it was amazing!! They had FREE REFILLS AND CRUSHED ICE!!! The drink fountain was out for the customers to get their own drinks, so heck yes i got free refills!! Lol.

Sunday morning it was back to the airport. My flight was only about 40 mins. this time.. Yay! I had to wait an hour until the next train came, but it was ok. I read my book. Krista and her friends were on my train again, so we took a cab together back to school.

The trip was truly a great time. I had a wonderful time with Laura, and in Germany I did everything I wanted to do. I hope that everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving and enjoyed their time with their families.

This week in school is really low-key. It's the last week of classes, and people started finals on Saturday. We're all starting to pack and get ready to go home! I have a little bit of mixed emotions about going home. I'm soo excited because I miss everyone greatly and can't wait to have everything normal again. But I've had an amazing time here, and will be sad to leave my new friends. There's soo many places I haven't seen yet either, which gives me a million reasons to come back again!

See you all VERY soon!
Miss you!

Love,
Tiffany