Well, we're not backpacking anymore so I suppose the title of this post may be misleading, but it's still Europe and I have some cute pictures and stories, so my daily diary continues...
Tuesday 10/18: SUN & THRILLS
Today we slept in and had a really nice breakfast with Oma, Opa and Christopher's cousins. The best part was "bretzel brotchen" (pretzel rolls) My favorite! Then Oma gave us a choice between a cultural experience and a super fun experience. Since we had been on "culture" overload the past few weeks, we voted for the "fun" option and she took us to their local amusement park, Trips Drill! It was definitely the best choice.
The park was small but super fun! It was a perfect fall day with warm sun and a light breeze. And the best part of all...there was no one in the park! It felt like a little kid's dream, or a rich kid's reality, like we rented out the whole park just for us. We never waited in line and we could ride everything multiple times. For our favorite rides, as soon as we got off, we just ran back to the front of the line and rode it again. On the big rides, we always posed for the photos which was hilarious...it was a blast! (We even snuck a few pictures of the photos... but we got in trouble and the lady watched us like a hawk afterward).
Some of the rides they had included a mini Power Tower that was made like a log and sometimes instead of dropping you down, it launched you forward a bit! It was crazy. Then they had a fun 
obstacle course with activities like running across a swaying bridge, or a moving walkway, slides and crazy trick bikes that go up and down when you peddle, have peddles on the back or are super hard to steer. Then of course they had the classic spinning rides that make me so sick, and pretty fast roller coasters plus several water slides. I got REALLY soaked at the end, thanks to a joke by a certain cousin who was determined to get me wet haha but it was fun.
Oma packed us all a yummy snack, the best German chocolate, of course :) Then we went to a petting/feeding zoo with elk, cows, bears, polarwolves, raccoons, eagles, owls and more! It so fun to feed them and even saw a big buck! (Christopher was so excited). It was also funny because the whole t
ime Chris and his little cousin Sammy were throwing rocks at the animals trying to get them to look up, or run... mostly the raccoons so I didn't mind.
Then at the end as we were walking out of the park, we looked over and Sammy threw one last rock (keep in mind it was a really LONG throw) into a big
pen and it hit a sheep right on the nose...it was hilarious. Especially since Sammy is the cutest. He doesn't speak much English (although he probably understands more English than I do German) but he always said "Don't cry baby, don't cry" and would pat us on the head.
Once we got back to Oma's, we had yummy spaghetti for dinner and then played Oma's favorite game of Stadt Land Fluss with everyone. Even his aunt Silke came over so we got to spend time with her too. I love that game... especially when you play with 2 languages because then you almost always get points since words start with different letters. It was so fun, especially when Christopher tried to use German words and spelled them wrong, like Pforzheim with a "F." Oma was always too nice and still gave him the points.
Wednesday 10/19: FAMILY FUN DAY
Today we all went swimming at the local indoor pool! They had diving boards, lap swim, balls for passing around, and a small baby pool so we didn't bother the old people. It felt so good to exercise and also extra fun to have people to play with, other than ourselves. Also, our cousin took this special class for driving in all conditions. It was neat to watch for awhile. They had to do certain tests like driving and stopping while hydroplaning, turning quickly, etc. It would probably be smart for me to do something like that. I need to be a better driver in bad weather.
When we got home, we watched the Kings Speech, which was a super great movie. It's crazy because in Germany, it's not rated-R. They have a different rating system and a lot of the movies in the U.S. that are rated-R are actually a "PG-16" type rating. I think it totally depends on the movie in whether or not you can trust the ratings, but in this case, I felt completely comfortable watching it. Especially since Oma recommended it... she is like the sweetest angel, ever.
For dinner, we ate yummy meatballs with rice and Apple Kuchen for dessert. Then we had a really fun family party that Silke 
planned...Christmas in October! We celebrated as if it were a mini Christmas holiday. We had a white elephant gift exchange which was super fun. At first, I got cool German cartoon called "Asterik" but it was stolen from me! I was so sad. Then I ended up getting another movie in German and Becky and I shared a magnet craft set. Chris got a Santa hat and waterbottle which he stole from Sammy, who surprisingly didn't care because all he really wanted was the cake mix! haha it was so funny.
Then we surprised Silke with a special gift... when we had gone into her apartment we found there were NO pictures of us! So we presented her with 2 giant posters of our faces and said that her punishment was that she had to hang them so she would never forget us again. :) Then we sang Christmas songs like "O Tannenbaum" while Fabi, Oma and Silke played on their recorders, and then we ate German cookies and Kinder punch. And lastly, Oma shared her testimony with us. It was very special.
Then I stayed up late with Becky and Silke... just having some girl chat time. It was fun because it felt just like my family. The girls always love staying up late just talking and hanging out. Family is the best.
Thursday 10/20: SPECIAL DAY
I had to savor my very last Bretzel brotchen today! It was sad... but delicious, as always. Then we had to spend time packing. We couldn't believe this day had come, that after 5 months we were going to be leaving Europe! It was a bittersweet moment because we didn't want to leave, but at the same time, we knew it was time to go home. And it was exciting to be going home too.
In the afternoon, Oma took me to cute local jewelry store and told me to pick out something. I found a really cute pearl bracelet. She is such a sweet grandma and I will treasure this bracelet forever! Then we headed up to Frankfurt, where we stayed in a hostel at the temple. It was so neat because in Germany, instead of a having a temple day, they have a temple WEEK! So people come and stay in the hostel that's attached to the temple with a tunnel and they go to sessions every day. They bring their whole families and they have activities and speakers for the young adults; kind of like a Youth Conference type of thing. It was such a neat experience. We attended a temple session with Oma, and Christopher's aunt and uncle, Tanya and Rainer. It was a really special day.
Friday 10/21: FAREWELL EUROPE
We bid farewell to Europe today. We departed Europe with no issues (thanks to our temporary German
visas from Oma!) Our flight had no delays, our bags were underweight, our layover in Iceland went by quickly, which was fabulous. It was crazy when we first got off the plane in America because everyone from our plane got in this huge, long line. And we were like, umm, what the heck. There shouldn't be a line just to get to baggage claim. So we snuck over to the handicapped side and just walked past all the people (literally hundreds of people were in this line). I wasn't sure what we would find when we got to the end, but I was SO extremely happy when I saw this sign:
It said left, "Visitors" and right, "U.S. Citizens." I'm sure those poor tourists had to wait about 3-4 hours at least. It never felt so good to be a citizen of the United States of America!
Even though we were sad to be leaving family and that our big European adventure was over... it still
felt so good just be home in America. There were so many things we missed, and things we realized that we took for granted.
Christopher's brother Kyle picked us up at the JFK airport in New York City, and to celebrate our arrival, we ate at Taco Bell. And it was so delicious... just like the tacos we had been dreaming about for months. When we got back to Christopher's parents house... we went straight to bed, and slept like babies.
SUMMARY OF EUROPE While we were there, we felt very much like outsiders, strange and different for many reasons:
- We don't drink alcohol. In Italy this is very offensive to some people, especially when you turn down a free taste of their best wine. It was hard to say no at times, because they couldn't understand us when we tried to explain why.
- We don't smoke. This is a cultural norm in Europe which actually affected us more than them. Secondhand smoke was inevitable and we just had to learn how to deal with it.
- We don't drink coffee. They weren't quite sure how we were still alive and functioning every morning. Most people we met had at least 3-5 cups a day.
- We only speak one language fluently. Unfortunately, this one is mostly their "ignorant, egotistical American stereotype proving true." It's not that we didn't TRY though... we tried to learn as many phrases and sentences as we could but going from Germany to Italy to Greece to France to Switzerland sure made it difficult. We often got confused and started mixing languages or saying the wrong phrase like Merci in the German part of Switzerland.
- We wear swimsuits on the beach... haha umm, self-explanatory.
- We dislike a lot of the things they love. For example: mineral/bubble water, soccer, and super strong cheese.
- We got married younger than 30. In fact we got married younger than 25, which is just unheard of and crazy to them. They just kept asking us why and we would say, because we were in love and we wanted to. It made no sense to them and I guess we couldn't really explain it either.
(I know some of these things even make us strange in America, but it seemed even more so in Europe). So yes, you can imagine after they find out all those strange things about us, we were somewhat like an endangered species, no...more like aliens from another planet. We just didn't "fit in." But we are okay with that. We still met lots of great people and I have a feeling we might stick out in their minds, so maybe that's a good thing. Despite getting a lot of strange and sometimes offended looks, we still enjoyed our European adventures anyway.
But as with traveling, you can never see it all and even when you're finished you feel like there are things you missed and SO much more that you want to see. We are already making future plans in Europe for: The Berlin Wall, Auschwitz Concentration Camp, the Northern Lights in Norway, Prague, Croatia, the Running of the Bulls & the Tomato Fight in Spain, the Amalfi Coast in Southern Italy and Sicily, more Greek islands...
But I think we'll need to build up our savings account for a few (like 10) years before we can afford all that. But boy, I've said it once and I'll say it again, traveling is such an addiction! The more you see, the more you want to see! What a beautiful, interesting, amazing world we live in. I just can't get enough of it.
Tuesday 10/18: SUN & THRILLS
Today we slept in and had a really nice breakfast with Oma, Opa and Christopher's cousins. The best part was "bretzel brotchen" (pretzel rolls) My favorite! Then Oma gave us a choice between a cultural experience and a super fun experience. Since we had been on "culture" overload the past few weeks, we voted for the "fun" option and she took us to their local amusement park, Trips Drill! It was definitely the best choice.
The park was small but super fun! It was a perfect fall day with warm sun and a light breeze. And the best part of all...there was no one in the park! It felt like a little kid's dream, or a rich kid's reality, like we rented out the whole park just for us. We never waited in line and we could ride everything multiple times. For our favorite rides, as soon as we got off, we just ran back to the front of the line and rode it again. On the big rides, we always posed for the photos which was hilarious...it was a blast! (We even snuck a few pictures of the photos... but we got in trouble and the lady watched us like a hawk afterward).
Some of the rides they had included a mini Power Tower that was made like a log and sometimes instead of dropping you down, it launched you forward a bit! It was crazy. Then they had a fun 
obstacle course with activities like running across a swaying bridge, or a moving walkway, slides and crazy trick bikes that go up and down when you peddle, have peddles on the back or are super hard to steer. Then of course they had the classic spinning rides that make me so sick, and pretty fast roller coasters plus several water slides. I got REALLY soaked at the end, thanks to a joke by a certain cousin who was determined to get me wet haha but it was fun.Oma packed us all a yummy snack, the best German chocolate, of course :) Then we went to a petting/feeding zoo with elk, cows, bears, polarwolves, raccoons, eagles, owls and more! It so fun to feed them and even saw a big buck! (Christopher was so excited). It was also funny because the whole t
ime Chris and his little cousin Sammy were throwing rocks at the animals trying to get them to look up, or run... mostly the raccoons so I didn't mind.Then at the end as we were walking out of the park, we looked over and Sammy threw one last rock (keep in mind it was a really LONG throw) into a big
pen and it hit a sheep right on the nose...it was hilarious. Especially since Sammy is the cutest. He doesn't speak much English (although he probably understands more English than I do German) but he always said "Don't cry baby, don't cry" and would pat us on the head. Once we got back to Oma's, we had yummy spaghetti for dinner and then played Oma's favorite game of Stadt Land Fluss with everyone. Even his aunt Silke came over so we got to spend time with her too. I love that game... especially when you play with 2 languages because then you almost always get points since words start with different letters. It was so fun, especially when Christopher tried to use German words and spelled them wrong, like Pforzheim with a "F." Oma was always too nice and still gave him the points.
Wednesday 10/19: FAMILY FUN DAY
Today we all went swimming at the local indoor pool! They had diving boards, lap swim, balls for passing around, and a small baby pool so we didn't bother the old people. It felt so good to exercise and also extra fun to have people to play with, other than ourselves. Also, our cousin took this special class for driving in all conditions. It was neat to watch for awhile. They had to do certain tests like driving and stopping while hydroplaning, turning quickly, etc. It would probably be smart for me to do something like that. I need to be a better driver in bad weather.
When we got home, we watched the Kings Speech, which was a super great movie. It's crazy because in Germany, it's not rated-R. They have a different rating system and a lot of the movies in the U.S. that are rated-R are actually a "PG-16" type rating. I think it totally depends on the movie in whether or not you can trust the ratings, but in this case, I felt completely comfortable watching it. Especially since Oma recommended it... she is like the sweetest angel, ever.
For dinner, we ate yummy meatballs with rice and Apple Kuchen for dessert. Then we had a really fun family party that Silke 
planned...Christmas in October! We celebrated as if it were a mini Christmas holiday. We had a white elephant gift exchange which was super fun. At first, I got cool German cartoon called "Asterik" but it was stolen from me! I was so sad. Then I ended up getting another movie in German and Becky and I shared a magnet craft set. Chris got a Santa hat and waterbottle which he stole from Sammy, who surprisingly didn't care because all he really wanted was the cake mix! haha it was so funny. 
Then we surprised Silke with a special gift... when we had gone into her apartment we found there were NO pictures of us! So we presented her with 2 giant posters of our faces and said that her punishment was that she had to hang them so she would never forget us again. :) Then we sang Christmas songs like "O Tannenbaum" while Fabi, Oma and Silke played on their recorders, and then we ate German cookies and Kinder punch. And lastly, Oma shared her testimony with us. It was very special.Then I stayed up late with Becky and Silke... just having some girl chat time. It was fun because it felt just like my family. The girls always love staying up late just talking and hanging out. Family is the best.
Thursday 10/20: SPECIAL DAY
I had to savor my very last Bretzel brotchen today! It was sad... but delicious, as always. Then we had to spend time packing. We couldn't believe this day had come, that after 5 months we were going to be leaving Europe! It was a bittersweet moment because we didn't want to leave, but at the same time, we knew it was time to go home. And it was exciting to be going home too.
In the afternoon, Oma took me to cute local jewelry store and told me to pick out something. I found a really cute pearl bracelet. She is such a sweet grandma and I will treasure this bracelet forever! Then we headed up to Frankfurt, where we stayed in a hostel at the temple. It was so neat because in Germany, instead of a having a temple day, they have a temple WEEK! So people come and stay in the hostel that's attached to the temple with a tunnel and they go to sessions every day. They bring their whole families and they have activities and speakers for the young adults; kind of like a Youth Conference type of thing. It was such a neat experience. We attended a temple session with Oma, and Christopher's aunt and uncle, Tanya and Rainer. It was a really special day.
Friday 10/21: FAREWELL EUROPE
We bid farewell to Europe today. We departed Europe with no issues (thanks to our temporary German
visas from Oma!) Our flight had no delays, our bags were underweight, our layover in Iceland went by quickly, which was fabulous. It was crazy when we first got off the plane in America because everyone from our plane got in this huge, long line. And we were like, umm, what the heck. There shouldn't be a line just to get to baggage claim. So we snuck over to the handicapped side and just walked past all the people (literally hundreds of people were in this line). I wasn't sure what we would find when we got to the end, but I was SO extremely happy when I saw this sign:
It said left, "Visitors" and right, "U.S. Citizens." I'm sure those poor tourists had to wait about 3-4 hours at least. It never felt so good to be a citizen of the United States of America!
Even though we were sad to be leaving family and that our big European adventure was over... it still
felt so good just be home in America. There were so many things we missed, and things we realized that we took for granted. Christopher's brother Kyle picked us up at the JFK airport in New York City, and to celebrate our arrival, we ate at Taco Bell. And it was so delicious... just like the tacos we had been dreaming about for months. When we got back to Christopher's parents house... we went straight to bed, and slept like babies.
SUMMARY OF EUROPE While we were there, we felt very much like outsiders, strange and different for many reasons:
- We don't drink alcohol. In Italy this is very offensive to some people, especially when you turn down a free taste of their best wine. It was hard to say no at times, because they couldn't understand us when we tried to explain why.
- We don't smoke. This is a cultural norm in Europe which actually affected us more than them. Secondhand smoke was inevitable and we just had to learn how to deal with it.
- We don't drink coffee. They weren't quite sure how we were still alive and functioning every morning. Most people we met had at least 3-5 cups a day.
- We only speak one language fluently. Unfortunately, this one is mostly their "ignorant, egotistical American stereotype proving true." It's not that we didn't TRY though... we tried to learn as many phrases and sentences as we could but going from Germany to Italy to Greece to France to Switzerland sure made it difficult. We often got confused and started mixing languages or saying the wrong phrase like Merci in the German part of Switzerland.
- We wear swimsuits on the beach... haha umm, self-explanatory.
- We dislike a lot of the things they love. For example: mineral/bubble water, soccer, and super strong cheese.
- We got married younger than 30. In fact we got married younger than 25, which is just unheard of and crazy to them. They just kept asking us why and we would say, because we were in love and we wanted to. It made no sense to them and I guess we couldn't really explain it either.
(I know some of these things even make us strange in America, but it seemed even more so in Europe). So yes, you can imagine after they find out all those strange things about us, we were somewhat like an endangered species, no...more like aliens from another planet. We just didn't "fit in." But we are okay with that. We still met lots of great people and I have a feeling we might stick out in their minds, so maybe that's a good thing. Despite getting a lot of strange and sometimes offended looks, we still enjoyed our European adventures anyway.
But as with traveling, you can never see it all and even when you're finished you feel like there are things you missed and SO much more that you want to see. We are already making future plans in Europe for: The Berlin Wall, Auschwitz Concentration Camp, the Northern Lights in Norway, Prague, Croatia, the Running of the Bulls & the Tomato Fight in Spain, the Amalfi Coast in Southern Italy and Sicily, more Greek islands...
But I think we'll need to build up our savings account for a few (like 10) years before we can afford all that. But boy, I've said it once and I'll say it again, traveling is such an addiction! The more you see, the more you want to see! What a beautiful, interesting, amazing world we live in. I just can't get enough of it.
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