Europe - Days Eight and Nine

Woke up and got ready on time once again!(: We went down to breakfast which was pretty good surprisingly!(: We had granola cereal with chocolate pieces and I really liked it. It was very filling. I also had a huge roll with butter. I love the bread in Europe a lot.  

We headed out for the day starting out with a bus sight seeing tour down in Munich. The weather was terrible today. It's hard to have fun when you're freezing and stuck in the rain. It's a cute city though, just involved a lot of umbrella use. (: We saw a lot of Nazi history sites and other major attractions like more of Ludwig's castles. He has so many it's unbelievable.  

 

 

 

 

Our tour guide was such a cute, fun little lady. I liked her a lot. And she talked so fast it was like she never took breaths!(: We loved her(: 

Stopped for a few pictures along the way. She showed us this one river where everyone surfs. Yep. Thats right. People SURF in the middle of Germany! theres one place in the river where there is a massive wave created as the river flows and people hang out and surf there. It was freaking crazy! I guess its way super dangerous and two people have even died when they crashed and hit their heads on the concrete, its very shallow water, and drowned. But it doesn't stop people from doing it because they love it! It was a unique sight. (: Then they dropped us off at Marienplatz. That's the city center in Munich. We ate some lunch, some type of sandwich again, then bought Germany's famous pretzels. They were delicious and I felt like I ate so much food I was going to explode.  

 

 

 

 

We went to see the Glockenspiel towers, basically a giant cuckoo clock that has spinning characters every hour. It was pretty cool to see and the bells sounded beautiful!(:  

 

There was a group of men dressed up like olden time knights that we got to see and once came up to talk to us. The pictures are great, he was definitely the coolest guy ever. Loved meeting him(: He was so friendly and funny!  

 

Then we went walking around the square, stopped at a grocery store and went souvenir shopping. I got my last keychain for this country and then we got our postcards as always.  

Kena and I found the cutest little jewelry shop with way cheap jewelry. I got darling earrings and a pretty charm bracelet. It was exciting.  

Finally we finished and went back to the bus to take us to Dachau. I was glad to be back on the bus after being in the cold and rain for so long.  

It is cool to be in Germany though because so much of my family is from here. I know my dad would love it! 

Dachau was the first established concentration camp in Germany during Hitlers reich. I didn't really know what to expect when I went in, but wow. As soon as we walked through the gates you could feel it. It was so somber. You could almost see all the people suffering. We toured the museum and went to a short documentary about the Nazis and the Dachau camp. It was kind of emotional to see all of it. The rain and clouds matched the mood of the area perfectly. It's really hard to describe but it was very cool to see. I'm glad I went there but it was sad. None of those things should have happened, and it was heart breaking. No one was feeling good about it. Just hard to see. But an informative experience.  

After Dachau we got back in the bus to go back to Munich. We tried all sorts of German candy. One was called a Nimm and was super fizzy. It burned my tongue and taste buds! But it was way good. We had Moams too and I loved those. German candy is super unique and super fantastic.  

We fell asleep for a little bit and then arrived in Munich. Kena and I opted to take a bike tour during our free time. We got to ride the cutest little bikes. They were like beach cruisers!(: It was way fun and relaxing. We toured the city and got to see the bronze road (a World War Two memorial where non-Hitler supporters walked in rebellion), visited another beautiful church in the city, and rubbed the traditional lion heads for good luck. We also cycled through the beautiful English gardens. It was awesome. Totally a typical German day. I felt like I was having the real deal experience and I wasn't just a tourist anymore! We also saw the opera house and this big street festival with local bands. It was cool.  

The only downside was the rain. It was only sprinkling at first but by the end it was pouring. I was so grateful I'd decided to go change my sandals to hiking shoes this morning!! But after the tour was over I was soaked and freezing. I couldn't use my umbrella or anything be used we were on bikes and I didn't have anything water proof. So that was interesting. But still such a fun experience. (: 

Then we went to dinner. We were nervous since last nights was so bad, but today's was a lot better. (: We had a vinaigrette salad, and then pork and noodles for the entree. They seem to eat a ton of pork here!! That's like all they've served us besides the mystery meats. For dessert we had some sort of pudding which I still didn't like but it's all good. (: I got another Spezi so I was extremely happy. I'm going to miss that back in America!! 

Quote of the day: Melanie was telling us about how hot her face was and so I went to feel it. My hands were still ice cold from the bike ride, I hadn't even come close to warming up yet. I touched her face and she grabbed my hand and said: "Ashlie! Your hands are delicious!!" Hahahahaha we laughed so hard. (: 

Garrett was nice enough to buy us some bags of candy from the grocery store while we were on our bike tour. So we'll have some to bring home. (: 

After another long day, we headed back to the hotel. All we had to look forward to was more packing and sleep before a long travel day. 

I'm so sad this trip of a lifetime is already over. It's the weirdest feeling because I feel like I've been here for weeks, but I also can't believe it's over and how fast it went. Total oxymoron but I'm serious. I feel both.  

I hate when things you've been looking forward to for so long suddenly have already happened!! 

But again, don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.  

Definitely a trip I will remember for the rest of my life. I loved and enjoyed every second. I took every opportunity and I have no regrets. So grateful for this chance and I can only hope that this is only the beginning of a lifetime of traveling. It's literally all I want. I'm leaving my heart in Europe!

Side note- We were supposed to be downstairs and packed for the flight home at 4:15 this morning. We had our alarms set for 3. Guess what? Not one of us woke up. We had been up til 2 and one of the girls was just going to pull an all nighter and wake us up but we all fell sound asleep. Henson burst into the room at 4:13 freaking out and telling us to get up and we literally had two minutes. Talk about an alarming wake up, I thought there was a fire, it scared me!! We scattered like flies and flew around the room grabbing all our stuff and throwing it in our bags. I feel super unorganized and I probably left something important. But oh well. We got dressed and ran downstairs. I was super sad we didn't get pictures with Dimitrios, he was the coolest! But we didn't have time. The hotel gave us this nasty packed breakfast of a sandwich, a kit kat bar, an apple and water. While we were waiting to check in we were supposed to eat it since it had to be gone before security. I took a drink of the water and it was not normal. It was some weird mineral water and it was disgusting!!! So I took a bite of the kit kat to get rid of the taste. The kit kat was not a normal American one either, it was terrible. Henson even said it tasted like a Pringle. So I threw that away and took a bite of the apple to get rid of that flavor! Eventually I just threw away the whole meal. A lady watched me do it and shortly after we watched her to take out the barely used water bottle and food and shove them all in her bag. So I guess I did a service by hating the food. It was way funny.  

We got to fly Air France home, a total bucket list item for me. I've always seen these planes and wanted to ride them. And they'd didn't disappoint. They were a lot bigger and more roomy, we were served fresh croissants and hot chocolate instead of the typical stupid peanuts and water, and it was the perfect temperature. Wish we could have took Air France all the way home instead of just to Paris!!