Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Mom's Visit and Lake Garda

Well, for the last little while I have been kept occupied by my Mom! She came out to Germany for three weeks this month, and we had a blast! She flew to Munich on June 22, and went straight to our friends' home in Mueldorf. She stayed with them until the 6th, when I met her in Munich for church. It was exciting to see someone here from back home, but also a little weird, like my old life meeting my new one. Anyway, we had some fun in Garmisch for a week, taking a three country tour on Monday the 7th through Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It was along day of mostly sitting on a tour bus, so we were pretty happy when it ended. On Tuesday we hung out with my friend Ben in Mittenwald, a little Bavarian town just before the Austrian border. It was a beautiful sunny day, and it was such a great outing! On Wednesday I had to work for eight hours, a full shift, so my Mom kept herself busy baking and just relaxing in my room, after which we went to a Bible study group with several of my friends. Thursday we went to a softball game and rooted for my roommate Tyane, and Ben. Friday we went to the town Farmer's Market and then got everything squared away with our rental car and hotel in Italy, where we were going to spend Sunday through Thursday of the following week. I also attended a girls night to say farewell to a Bible study friend. There were quite a few girls there, and we spent the night at a married friend's home, for which her husband was sent to spend the night with Ben. On Saturday we all (all the girls, Ben, and the woman's hubby, also named Ben) went to a swimming pond, a super cool man-made pond at the base of one of the mountains in town. The entrance fee was so small we were all very excited to relive childhood memories of swimming in non-chlorinated water.

On Sunday My Mom and I left for Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy. It happens to be a three hour drive from where I live, so it was a nice ride down to the little vacation villa we had rented for the week. On Sunday we pretty much just chillaxed in our apartment, reading library books, cooking dinner, and watching chick flicks. It was wonderful to finally have a real vacation where I didn't have to run around a huge city trying to see everything!

On Monday we hit a local market, then hit a huge Botanical Garden complex about a twenty minute drive from Cavalcaselle. It was incredible! Not only did it cover 600,000 square meters, but it had everything from castle ruins to koi ponds to an actual church on the grounds! We wandered the gardens for a good portion of the day and then went back to our apartment for some more chill time.

Tuesday we went to a charming little town called Sirmione, where we ate Gelato, took in a Castle and some Roman Baths, and ate delicious pizza. On the way home we picked up some groceries for the rest of the week.

Wednesday was supposed to be the lay-out-by-the-pool-with-70spf-sunscreen-on day, but it rained all day, so we decided to see another little town instead. We walked around a place called Desenzano, and saw some pretty sweet panoramas of the lake. After we got back from that, we went to a street market in the town we stayed in Cavalcaselle, which had some great stuff. Then we ate our last dinner in the apartment and got ready to leave.

On Thursday we checked out early and headed back to Garmisch. We had the car for the whole day, so the afternoon was spent running errands that are much easier with a car. We went to the Army Post for groceries, hit up the library, and went around town with my friends to help them out as well. It was a nice day, and it had finally stopped raining!

Friday rolled around and I had to go back to work, so I did. Mom kept herself occupied with watching movies and baking, and I hurried home as fast as I could. We spent the evening watching a movie and having some dinner together.

Saturday I worked early in the morning, and then we just had a nice walk around town, which ended up in a little shopping at H&M. Boy do I love that place! For a follow up, we watched Star Trek. My favorite! Chris Pine is so...easy on the eyes...haha.

Sunday we attended the local Prodestant service as we were both a little drained from so much traveling. After the service we had a little girl time coloring our hair, painting our nails, and baking some more. We Smiley girls sure do love to bake! At nine, we met up with Ben, who had his parents in town for dinner at Zum Wildchutz, a great Bavarian restaurant in town. We had a lovely evening, and I tried Wild Boar for the first time. Yum!

Monday was Mom's last day here, so we went to the local swimming complex and sat around in the hot tub. After that we went home, baked some more, and then watched one last chick flick before she went back to our boy-infested home in Colorado. She left early the next day, and we said a groggy goodbye, then she left! sad day. But on the bright side, I only have a couple of months left here! Then it's off to the real world!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Barcelona

Well, time for another late update! About two weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to Spain, and the Catalunya region in particular. So let the chronicling begin!

Day 1: I went on this trip with a guy named Jeremy because I had heard that Spain was a dangerous place. We took a later train to Munich and caught our plane to Barcelona. We got to the city pretty late, and had a forty minute train ride to the area our Hostel was in. I had directions, and it seemed simple enough. It was easy to find, at the very top of a very steep hill that seemed to stretch on forever at 12:30 at night. We finally made it to our room, and crashed.

Day 2: We woke up in time to eat breakfast, then headed out to a famous park in the city that was designed by it's most famous artist-Gaudi. The park was owned by a man named Güell, who was a patron of the artist, and even had him design his home. The park was beautiful, and we enjoyed hiking around it and seeing all the different installations by Gaudi. After taking in our fill of beautiful scenery to a soundtrack of local musicians, we headed into the heart of town to see the famous cathedral Sagrada Familia, also designed by Gaudi. We took a round-about route, taking in more of the local flair. We marveled at one of the most unusual and magnificent cathedrals in Europe, and thought it was quite the sight. After that we went to see a big building that looked a lot like the Gherkin in London, and walked a bit more around town, including the famous Las Ramblas shopping district. By this point, we were both pretty tired, because all this sightseeing entailed several miles of walking. So we got on the train back to our hostel and called it a night after once again braving what came to be known as "The Hill".

Day 3: Our first task of the day was looking for the Picasso Museum. When we finally managed to find it, it was closed! Sad! So instead we went to the Choolate Museum. I thought it was a suitable substitute. We ate some chocolate (our tickets were actually small bars of dark chocolate), looked at some amazing chocolate art, and then ate more chocolate. After filling up on that, we headed back to the shopping district to actually do some shopping. For the rest of the day we wandered around looking into interesting shops and such until we were ready to head back to the hostel.

Day 4: We both agreed that we needed a break after ll that walking, so we headed down to the beach on this day. Once we located a suitable spot(which, incidentally, involved quite a bit of walking), we laid out for a good four hours. Of course, I slathered on tons of sunscreen and did not get the least bit of color. But its okay, because pasty is my favorite color. When we were finished baking, we went straight back to the hostel.

Day 5: This was another busy day! We began by heading up to the top of Mount Tibidabo to see a huge church on it's peak. We had to take two trains, one bus, and one funicular(small, one-segment train) to the top. Once there, we paid two euro to take an elevator to the middle floor of the roof, and from there climbed to the very top of the cathedral. The view of the city from this platform was incomparable to anything we had previously encountered, and we took a lot of pictures. It was cool to see Barcelona from that point of view, because we could also see all of the surrounding countryside. When we had taken in the beauty of the Catalunyan countryside, we made our way bak down the mountain, using all of the aforementioned means of transportation. When we were back in the city, we went to the National Museum of Catalynan Art. We walked through a teeming mass of Futbol fans gathered before the biggest game of the season, and incidentally, the stadium is located directly behind the museum, so they were completely surrounding the place. Once we fought our way through, we saw some amazing art from the Byzantine era all the way up to the most modern art. When we had finished at the museum, we went back to the hostel and were in bed by 8:30. We were bushed!

Day 6: Going home! We woke up, got packed, took one last jaunt into town for a few last minute items, and then made our way back to the airport, and eventually rain-sodden Garmisch! Yay!