So this will be my last bit about Germany! I meant to post this before I left England, but I was too busy, so I am posting this from back in the states!.

So I left off when Lennart, Beate, and I were driving into the Black Forest after leaving my relatives' home. Once again I fell asleep pretty quickly...those darn motion sickness pills. We headed for a campsite in a little village in the forest. Once we got there We had some difficulties setting up the tent. I was not very helpful, as I have not set up a tent in over ten years and spent a lot of the time standing there awkwardly while they figured it out. The village itself was quite beautiful. Maybe 40 houses in total, and several farms. There is a style of architecture that belongs to the Black Forest, and is designed so that the heavy snow that the region experiences in winter falls off the roof.
This was a pretty old looking barn that has the roof I am talking about. You can also see it on the house in the background. It thought it was rather beautiful, and really gave a character to the buildings.

After we set up camp, and changed our clothes, we headed off again to the city of Freiburg. It was a beautiful city, and we had a wonderful time there. The architecture was truly beautiful, and there were several unique spots I found while we were walking around.
These doors for example. No idea what they led to, and no idea why they were painted this way. But still, very fun and interesting!
This door also caught my eye. The colors and design were simply gorgeous. (I have a thing for doors). If I remember correctly it was the door that led into the office buildings of the cathedral in the city? Maybe. That could be wrong. Speaking of this cathedral, it was beautiful. Again, the sun was setting when we walking around, and the red stone of the cathedral was lit up. There was also a folk band performing in the square in front of the church. It is here I wrote a hasty postcard to my parents and sent it (fun fact for you mom and dad).
There was also this interesting statue. Supossedly it is famous for the city? At least that is what Beate said. It certainly looked iconic.
Also, like a lot of places in Europe, the buildings were COVERED in flowers and plants.

We decided we wanted to climb the hill in the center of the city to watch the sun set. We made it to a lookout point at the top and just relaxed for a bit. Well, as much as we could. There was an obnoxious couple up there with us smoking like chimneys. They did leave after a while and we started to goof off. Watching the sun set over the city was truly amazing. Everything glowed.
We were up there for a while, so at one point I decided to do a writing exercise where I described everything happening around me in my journal. Lennart and Beate found this fascinating, and the next day interrogated me about the process. Lennart also took my camera and snapped a few photos while I was doing this, something I did not realize until later when I was looking through the pictures from the day.
In the direction I was looking towards lay France, which is where we were headed the next day....

After sitting up there for an hour or so, we were getting pretty hungry so we headed down and looked for some food. Beate was craving Turkish food, so that is what we ended up getting. It was pretty delicious. By the time we finished eating it had gotten dark, so we steadily made our way back to the car. We made a pit stop at a book store that was literally covered floor to ceiling with books, and only a small walkway a foot wide going through. It was very cool, and I found this tiny poetry book I wanted to buy. However when I went to buy it I was informed it cost 35 euros!! That was a NOPE moment. Beate bought some books as well, also overpriced. I doubt the place is going to stay in business if they don't lower their prices....

Oh I almost forgot! We saw a car almost get hit by a trolley. The trolley was going through an intersection, and the cars all had red lights naturally. Well this one asshole sped in front of the trolley and the trolley man blared his horn and barely missed hitting the car. Like he missed by inches. It was terrifying. The guy in the car then pulled over and went into a bank like 100m up the road, and then out of no where four cops come running by us and charge into the bank. We thought we were going to see someone get arrested, but then a few seconds later the cops came walking out without the guy. No idea what happened, but it was very exciting.

That night we slept in our tent, which was not as bad as it could have been. The next morning we got up early and headed out into the Black Forest. I got super car sick...again, but we eventually made it to our destination. None of us were feeling up to a huge hike, so we picked a fairly easy one. Just 3 kilometers up the mountain Belchen. It was COLD at higher altitude. We had a pleasant walk up. I told them all about weird little things involved in living in America, and how my process of journal-ing. They even made me narrate out loud what I would write if I was to write what we were doing at that moment. I felt silly but they got a kick out of it. Near the summit we stopped at a restaurant that was there (not exactly the most remote of locations) and we enjoyed some hot chocolate. There were tons of dogs there, and while we were there two dogs got in a fight, and in the effort to break them up a woman got bit on the hand. It was very dramatic.

What was also dramatic was the view. You could see for hundreds of miles in all directions, and the clouds were both dark and light.
The mountain had tons of flowers all around, and people were lounging around in them, soaking in the sun.
It was unbelievably gorgeous. On the way down, the views were equally as good. The way up we were entrenched in the forest, and couldn't see much, but the hike down we could see all into the valleys around us.
We had a lot of fun on this part of the walk. Beate is going to be a school teacher teaching children English, and asked me to teach her some songs I learned as a kid. The ones I managed to remember were "Row row row your boat", "Yankee Doodle", and a special one my mother taught me about eating worms. Lennart and Beate LOVED that one, and Beate even recorded me singing it so she could have the children listen to a native speaker pronouncing the words. Germans, I learned, have a hard time pronouncing the word "worm". It was a lot of fun. I am usually pretty shy about singing in front of other people because, well, frankly I suck. But in the middle of the woods with these two people I didn't mind so much.

After we finished the hike, we headed out of the Back Forest and drove for France! I...fell asleep again. But I did briefly wake up when we crossed the river into France. We headed for a campsite in the outskirts of a village called Kayserberg. Yea it sounds pretty German, but it is in France. It is absolutely gorgeous. Most of the town has retained it's original architecture, and it was so gorgeous we decided to extend our stay there so we could fully appreciate it! By the time we set up camp and got into town it was nighttime, and after we had dinner (sitting under the stuffed head of a boar) we explored a little bit before heading back.

The lights that lit up the town at night were spectacular. It was so beautiful, and we couldn't wait to see it during the day.
We walked back to our campsite and slept through the night. We got up super early (again) and drove into town this time. We had breakfast in a public playground, which was silly and fun. Everyone was staring at us. After that, our first stop was an old ruined chateau on the hill overlooking the village. We took the roundabout way through the vineyard, which resulted in us getting slightly lost and my ankle getting torn up on a thorn bush.
We eventually made it, and were treated to gorgeous vies of the valley and the village.
The light was perfect as the sun rose over us, and I got these stunning shots that I am rather pleased with.

Next up was the village again, this time in the daylight. The buildings were so charming and colorful.
There were bakeries EVERYWHERE, and every building was covered in flowers.
They were each a different color, and mos were painted in a very bright color like these.
There were also a lot of these cute metal signs outside the shops. It was very authentic and very French. This purple house below was one of my particular favorite houses.


There was also a particular theme of storks in this village. There were also on the a lot of postcards with the birds on them. We learned eventually that is was because storks would famously create their huge nests on the top of buildings in this village, and eventually we found one on top of an old guard tower.

Unfortunately, we had to leave. My flight was that same day 3 hours away in Stuttgart. We drove and drove through more gorgeous villages, and eventually back into Germany and to the airport. This trip was honestly the best of my life. I have never had so much fun, and been at so at ease in a foreign country. I could see myself living in Germany one day (maybe), but I would have to learn German first! I am eternally great full to everyone who made this trip so wonderful. Saying goodbye to Beate and Lennart at the airport was much harder than I thought it would be. They became such good friends, and I do not know if or when I will ever see them again. Goodbyes suck, but I hope that those "see you later" not "goodbye forever".

I went on my last trip to London a few days ago.....I wanted to say goodbye to the city. Although I doubt I would ever live in London (expect if I got filthy rich and could live in one of the nice parts), I have grown attached to the city and I wanted to say goodbye.  My planned trip was a short one. I just wanted to cross two things off my list that I hadn't been able to get around to so far. These two things were the Museum of Natural History and Regent's Park/ Primrose Hill.

When I set off the weather was supposed to be partly cloudy with 0% chance of rain. Well halfway through the train ride it started to pour. Luckily by the time I got into London at roughly 11:30, The trip to the museum was mostly underground via the tube, so by the time I surfaced it had stopped raining. I think I have gotten pretty good at navigating London's underground. It is so much simpler and better planned than NYC's, and I managed to navigate my entire trip without any assistance from the internet. I would like to think I don't look like a tourist anymore...but then again I was going to a major museum so who knows.

The museum was free of course. Actually free. Not like the ones in NYC that have a "suggested" donation and you have to walk up to a register to get in. Unfortunately for me, I didn't notice any maps (although I was later informed they were everywhere...must have missed them), so most of my time in the museum was aimless wandering. I followed the signs to the dinosaur exhibit, because Andrea had warned me that the line to get in there could take hours. First I passed through mammal fossils. (I apologize for the not so great photos. I only had my phone on me)


That sign below the rather scary looking water animal told the story of a woman who single handedlly discovered most of the fossils in this collection. Her name was Mary Anning, and she discovered her first complete skeleton at the age of 11! I was sitting on my couch watching Lord of the Rings on repeat when I was 11.....

Eventually I found my way to the dinos, and thankfully there was no line to get in. However once inside it was like moving thousands of cattle through a very narrow passage. The passage took you past a couple large skeletons, and then up some stairs and down a platform over the main exhibit. For some reason people move through this section at one step a minute, and you have to weave through the crowd if you actually want to get out before you lose your mind.
There was some cool stuff though, and they had robot dinosaurs that moved which was pretty cool. My favorite thing on the sky walk of never ending shuffle walking was these two ENORMOUS arms that were menacingly hanging from the ceiling.
"Give me your first born child!"....sorry. It just looks like that is what the arms are saying. You can see one of the robots down in the corner of that photo. Could you imagine how large the animal was that had been attached to those arms? DINOSAURS MAN! LOVE EM!

*Ahem* At the end of the hall there was a big robot t-rex! That was unexpected and really neat.
It didn't do much. Just moved it's head around and made grunting noises. Still cool! After I left the claustrophobic dinosaur exhibit, I went through the mammal section. The most interesting thing about seeing taxidermy mammals is always seeing the extinct ones. The rest are like...well I could go to a zoo and see examples of this animal that aren't dead. The large animal section was interesting though. It was a giant hall with plastic (I assume) whales and dolphins hanging from the ceiling, and the large mammals on the ground floor.
I of course went for the orca, because they are my favorites. This hall actually reminded me a lot of the Natural History Museum in Edinburgh....and when I say that I mean they look exactly alike. I don't think the one in Edinburgh had a blue whale though.

On the other side of the museum was the geology section, which had the coolest entrance to anything ever. It was a giant suspended earth, lit up all red, hanging in a completely black hall with ethereal music playing. An escalator went straight up through the middle. Of course I rode it.
It was pretty awesome. Unfortunately at this point in the day there were about a million tourists overtaking the museum, and I had to leave for the sake of my sanity. I headed up to Regent's park pretty quickly.

I have been to Hyde Park a few times, and I have to say Regents Park is wwaayy better. It was so beautiful. If the weather had been better I could have stayed there all day (still no rain yet).

However I was out of water and hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I was pretty desperate to stop somewhere. Before I did though I dragged myself up Primrose Hill. For those that don't know, Primrose Hill is basically the only hill in London, and from the top you can see the entire city. It is also famous for being a good place to see celebrities, as many live in the area. I didn't see anyone famous, but I did see a bunch of dogs, which is almost the same.
Here is the view from the top of the hill. Pretty nice. I didn't stay long though because there were too many cuddling couples for my taste. I walked down the hill and down Primrose Hill Rd looking for a place to eat. I eventually found a place that had a menu that didn't repulse me (seriously what is it with rich people and weird food?) and went in. It was a cafe, so this shouldn't have been weird, but the wait staff seemed very taken aback by the fact I was alone. They were very awkward about it and it made me a tad uncomfortable. I tried to be friendly and charming though, and wrote in my journal a bit. The food was delicious. A salad with lettuce, chicken, avocado, and pumpkin seeds. Absolutely perfect. After leaving that place where the waiters looked at me funny, I walked back to the park and sat down for a bit....until it started to rain. I took that as my queue to head for the train station. The walk back was rather pleasant, mostly due to the fact that there was no tourists anywhere. I was pretty much walking through neighborhoods, a complete stranger. It kind of made me sad.

London, although I quite enjoy it there, was not my home. I knew it much better than the average tourist, but it was not home to me. Then I thought about it, neither is Birmingham. I have lived the last year in a place that was not home, a place where I am an outsider, and although I will be back in the States shortly I will be moving across the country to be in another place where I will be a stranger. Will Seattle be my home? I don't know. It is a depressing thought though...

Other than that moment of melancholy walking to the train, on this trip I really handn't gotten emotional about being in London for the last time. It didn't hit me until I was on the train heading back to Birmingham. I glanced back after about 15 minutes and realized I couldn't see the city anymore. That is when it hit me. A horrible grief mixed with fear. I wanted to cry but I was surrounded by people so I held it in, and the feeling eventually passed. If that is how I felt leaving London, I can't imagine how I am going to handle leaving the country in a few days. Probably actual tears. I cried when I left Scotland four years ago. This is probably going to be much worse...

So yea, that was my last day in London. Sorry if this post has been touched with sadness. I am not very subtle about the fact that I don't want to leave the UK. I want to make a home here. But sadly circumstances have not allowed it. Maybe I will be able to come back in the future, but who knows. For now, all I can say is goodbye London. You are a far greater city than I expected and had ever given you credit for. <3

Last week I had the enormous pleasure of traveling to Germany for the first time. It was also my last trip before moving back to the USA, which is very very soon. Germany has always been a place I needed to visit. My great grandparents emigrated from Germany in 1929, and the descendants of these two get together every year in upstate NY for a family reunion. Going back to Germany, and back to the relatives that remained there, is something that we all have always wanted to do. Various ones have, of course, over the years. But now it was my turn.

Luckily for me, I wouldn't be going at this adventure alone. During my stay in England I became very good friends with two German students: Lennart and Beate, who had invited me to visit them in Germany over the summer. After several weeks of planning between the three of us, it was finally time to leave. My plane was at 7am, which meant my sorry butt had to get up at 4am. That was slightly nightmarish- I am a woman very fond of her sleep- but it was necessary. I flew into Stuttgart and landed at 10am, where I quickly met up with my friends and we were soon on our way!

Our first stop was a castle named Hohenzollern, and it used to be the royal seat of the kingdom of Prussia. It was GORGEOUS. Right out of a fairy tale!
You could literally see for hundreds of miles around. It was overall a very flat area, and I could see how this was a prime location for a castle. We talked a lot about how we would siege the castle if we were so inclined to do so with medieval weapons, but decided it was impossible. Well the joke was on us because apparently castles built on this hill had been sacked twice in history. Obviously not this one though, which stood tall and gorgeous still.

You can only enter the castle through a guided tour, and were very pleased to discover that there was a tour in English that would start 40 minutes after we arrived! Lennart and Beate were very happy they wouldn't have to translate the entire tour for me. (No photography inside the castle)
On the way back Hanneli and Wilhelm wanted to stop at a store that sold all local produce to get some fruit. This store was amazing. You could smell the fruits and roses and everything was so gorgeous. On top of it the store was flooded with golden light from the sun set. I am completely serious when I say my favorite photos from the entire trip, I took in this store.
I was running all around the store taking photos like a mad woman. The three of us could not get over how gorgeous it was.
One half of the store was completely covered in roses of all different colors. It was so gorgeous I wanted to cry. All I could think of was how much my mother would be obsessed with this place.
The sunset was absolutely perfect. I couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous scene.

These are just a few of the photos. For the rest, you can head on over to my Flickr page. Sadly, we had to leave, but not before the store owner let us sample the most delicious plums I have ever had in my life. It was a magical experience.

That night we had a delicious dinner. It was a local dish that she made for all the relatives that came through. I enjoyed it a lot! I must say I really loved German food, so much more than I expected! I did not make it long, however, and went to bed early. I fell asleep almost instantly.

The next day we split up. Lennart and Beate went off hiking, while Hanneli and Wilhelm took me  to the village where my family came from. It was a fairly long drive, and on the way they picked me up some medicine so I wouldn't get motion sick. Now, I didn't know it at the time, but one of the side affects was drowsiness. Any time we spent a long time in the car I would pass out! I didn't know what was going on at the time, so it was a bid odd, but at least I wasn't sick! On part of the trip we drove through Switzerland! Which was very exciting. And yes, I was awake for that part! We got to the village, and it looked much the same as any other village. But it was different because this one was mine...sort of. And thankfully Hanneli was there to show me exactly which buildings were important.
This house was the house that belong to my family. My great grandfather was born there. It is where they all lived. If they hadn't immigrated to the US, it is where my grandmother would have been born.
It is so strange standing on the road and seeing what your ancestors saw. This was their home, the street they knew and walked every day, and I was looking at it from a stranger's eyes.
An artist lives there now, and it is decorated with Scandinavian designs. It is quite beautiful, and reportedly he keeps the house in good repair, so that is good.
The above photo is the church where many of the family are buried. I walked among the graves and listened to Hanneli talking about them, most of whom she knew.

We also saw the house where my great grandmother was born. It looked like a house combined with a stable, and it was filled with horses. We didn't linger though, because the current owners were staring at us, and they didn't look friendly. We drove back a different way than we came, taking the route through The Black Forest....and I fell asleep again. We stopped for coffee at a cafe where I had 100% authentic Black Forest Cake. It was a good, but a bit too much schnapps for my liking. After that we headed back and met up with Beate and Lennart. The three of us decided to go out for dinner, and to explore a little bit before we ate.


This picture was actually pretty funny. We were driving past this church and saw how beautiful it was, and a snapped a picture as we drove, but then when looked behind us it was even more gorgeous, so Beate immediately pulled over the car so I could snap a photo!

The village we visited first that knight was called Meersburg. It was small, but very beautiful.

It was right on the coast of the lake. It was on a hill that sloped right down to the water's edge.
There was a lovely rustic castle, but I don't know anything about it. It was closed by the time we got there, but he walked up to the door to have a look....okay I just looked it up and am very disappointed that we couldn't go inside. It is apparently the oldest occupied fortress in Germany.
After roaming around the village (and eating some ice cream), we took the ferry across the lake to the city of Constance. The sun was setting as we made the crossing, and despite the clouds it was rather beautiful!

After we made the crossing we drove down to this lovely area where we could watch along the beach for a while. It was dotted with campsites filled with people. Lennart is apparently an expert at skipping stones, and could skip it 7-9 times each time he tried. I attempted it and my stone skipped twice...
We made our way into the city and had dinner at a pancake restaurant. When I say pancakes, I mean something more like crepes. Beate and I split one that was covered in mushroom sauce and bacon. Then for desert we had one covered in apple sauce and powdered sugar. It was so delicious! We then walked around the city in the dark, which was beautiful and quiet. We even stumbled across the remains of an ancient Roman fort, which led to an impromptu history lesson from Lennart. Afterwords we headed back and had a lovely night's sleep.

The next morning we woke up and got ready to leave. Before we left through, Barbara wanted to show us the fruit fields they owned. They were quite amazing. HUGE black berries and trees with so many plums on it it was almost falling over. We picked a box full of black berries to take on the road with us.

After we left the family, we headed to one of the nearby hills that had a ruined fortress on top. The climb was a lot more than I was expecting, but nice to get some exercise after sitting in cars so much. After being very out of breath (it was a steep path and I am very out of shape) we made it to the top, and to the ruins that were there.

Not as much as we hoped for, but still very cool.We climbed all over them as much as we could. There was the remaining wall of a tower that had a (horrifying) spiral staircase leading to a platform where you could see the entire region. I hate spiral staircases so I had mixed feelings about it...
Afterwords we made our way down and to the car before heading to town and get food for lunch. We had a lovely picnic at a rest stop on the side of the road.

 At one point a man in a van came up to us, which had me pretty freaked out, and started talking to us. There was a brief exchange before he handed Beate a big bag filled with different types of sausages! It was very confusing, and Lennart and Beate were completely surprised as well. Apparently he had been given it by a friend in the village, and didn't want it. When he saw us eating he decided to give it to us. Lennart and Beate could not believe how kind and gracious people were being to us on the entire trip, and I was slightly suspicious. We are all alive and well however, so I guess his intentions were pure.

I think that is where I will leave off for now. So much happened in such a short time! I will pick up here soon!