Neuschwanstein! <3

On Saturday we went to Schloss Linderhof, which is the smallest of King Ludwig II's casltes.  

(this is the first picture and then the third and on until the foggy ones of Neuschwanstein!)

Throughout the castle he had big statues of Peacocks.  He kept live peacocks on his lawn the few days he lived there instead of flags because he felt like flags were a sign of war and he was a pacifist.  Walking around the lawn was beautiful (as you can see) he had fountains and different paths and walkways everywhere...one of them led to a manmade grotto in the side of a mountain which he used for performances of Wagner's opera Lohengrin!

After that we went to the village of Hohenschwangau and ate lunch at a little German restaurant before walking up to Neuschwanstein! Hohenschwangau is the 2nd picture and it was the palace where Ludwig II spent his childhood.  This was at the end of the road where we ate lunch and also off of this road was a little pathway leading 30km up the side of the mountain to Schloss Neuschwanstein! 

There are horse drawn carriages that can take you up the mountain to the castle, but we walked, and the higher we got the more fog there was.  And it was about 40 degrees and rainy...So my pictures didnt turn out that well, but the fog made it very exciting! 

Partway up the mountain the tour guide told us to turn around and we could see the castle coming out of the fog and the trees!  

We finally got up to the castle, but since we were so close up it was hard to take good pictures because it was huge! 

We took a tour of the castle and only got to see a few rooms but it was unbelievable.  Unlike his other castles that we visited that were decorated in the baroque style with many colors and lots of gold and porcelain, Neuschwanstein was decorated for Wagner's operas.  He was a great patron of Wagner and had his own chamber hall in the castle with a stage where the operas were performed.  The swan was a symbol in Wagner's opera Lohengrin and that is what Schloss Neuschwanstein (New Swan Stone) was named for.   

So...im sorry the pictures arent that great but I am DEFINITELY going to have to go back...so there will be more! 

The picture at the top is my favorite picture of Neuschwanstein...hopefully the next time I go it will look like this! 

Brit and I tried on dirndls! 

And Saturday night our friend Christian from Sweden cooked for us at his apartment!

(next entry...

NEUSCHWANSTEIN!)

an den Chiemsee

On saturday we went to a lake called Chiemsee.  We took a train to a nearby town and then a smaller train took us to the lake where we got on a boat and went to the Herreninsel (man's island) and the Fraueninsel (woman's island).  On the Herreninsel was crazy King Ludwig II's last castle.  We toured the castle but were not allowed to take pictures inside.  

Then we took the boat over to the Fraueninsel and ate lunch in a beautiful German restaurant.  Then we walked around the island and were able to get in the water a little bit!  

More pictures!

These are some of the things I can see out my window...orange bear, roommates, and sometimes a naked man on his balcony across the way! 

I took these pictures on the walking tour we took of the city...the first is in the famous Hofbräuhaus...a band was playing around this table of old men and all the old men were singing along! 

Germany!!!

                I feel like I should start from the beginning...

I got to Munich on Sunday, 31 August, with my 100 lb bag and my new friend Jake!

Praise God for Jake...otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get my 100lb bag onto the train then off the train, then up the stairs and down the street and around the corner and into our hostel! Luckily the weather was BEAUTIFUL! 

We walked around the city and hung out at the hostel.  It was a bit lonely, and I had a hard time leaving my family and kyle, so i finally let my tears out that evening over webcam with my mom.  But she told me to put on my makeup and go out to the bar in the hostel and meet people.  So I did...

I think those people, even though I will probably never see them again, were put there to comfort me! And of course there was the group of Canadians who were celebrating someone's birthday, and one of them came and sat on the floor with me and tried to talk to my mom on webcam...it was interesting! I forgot to mention that we stayed in a dorm that night with 20 other people.  I was one of 2 or 3 girls in the room and I woke up in the middle of the night with a big black spider crawling on me because I was sleeping next to the open window...didn't sleep very well after that! 

The next day we were able to move into our dorm rooms and this is where I began to feel better! I have 2 Japanese roommates and a German roommate.  Haruka and I share a room and Yasumasa lives in the room next to ours.  And then the "hausmeister" Julius in the third room! Although we don't communicate with deep conversations, switching back and forth from German to English, they have been so much fun to live with! The first day they made us coffee and later that night miso soup! 

Jake lives upstairs in another apartment with another Japanese boy and a 73 year old Japanese couple who cook them dinner a lot! And finally I met another girl who lives upstairs in her own apartment through the Goethe Institut, Brit, from Norway! 

On Tuesday we started class and Brit and I were put in the same one!  There are people from ALL over in our classes, many spanish speakers from Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, and Spain.  Guys from Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, and Croatia, and a girl from Russia and a woman from India who has been living here for 7 years! 

Every day after class we walk around the city, go shopping, buy food, eat lunch, and usually every night we go to a biergarten or a pub! The biergartens are unbelievable...huge areas you have to walk on paths through the trees to get to, that you would never know were there...there are tons of stands and areas where you can buy beer, wurst, pretzels, ice cream, and all kinds of other things! Then there are tons of picnic tables set out on the ground with trees all around!  You can bring picnics and any kind of food you want, but you HAVE to buy your drinks there!  

Last night we went to an Irish pub because some of our Irish friends wanted to watch Ireland play soccer! It was a great atmosphere, and even though I don't really understand soccer (fußball!) it was fun hanging out and hearing all the boys scream at the big screen! When the game was over, an Irish band came up and started playing music! 

Brit and I went and tried on dirndls today!  So I'm going to try to put up some pictures of that and other things we have been doing once I figure out how...I just thought this would be the easiest way to let people know what's going on here in this beautiful city! 

Tschüß!