Budapest

And now for the more fun blog (at least for me) of the history and facts about Budapest. :)

Budapest:

In 1873 2 towns on the west of the Danube, Buda and Obuda, were unified along with the town of Pest on the east side of the Danube. All three of the towns had originally grown through the 12th century and Buda was the seat of Hungary's rulers from 1247. The area was under Turkish rule from 1541 to 1686. In 1686 and army called the Holy League, containing over 74,000 men, reconquered Buda and within a few years almost all former Hungarian lands were taken from the Turks. The territorial changes were officially recognized with the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. In 1788 the entire Hungarian Kingdom was removed from Ottoman rule. The city was destroyed in a battle and was then incorporated into the Hapsburg Empire. Throughout the 19th century, Hungarians struggled for independence and modernization. 1867 was the year of reconciliation that brought the birth of Austria-Hungary which made Budapest a twin capital of a dual monarchy. After losing the war in 1918 Austria-Hungary collapsed and Hungary declared itself an independent republic. In 1920 Hungary lost over 2/3 of it's territory as a result of the Treaty of Trianon. The city suffered intense damage caused by American and British air raids during WWII in 1944, and also suffered major damage from attacking Soviet troops in defense of German and Hungarian troops. The country was declared communist in 1949 but was followed by the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 collapsing the leadership on October 23rd.

St. Stephen's Basilica:

This basilica is named after Saint Stephen I who was the first King of Hungary (975-1038). At 96 meters it is one of the two tallest buildings in Budapest. The building took 54 years to complete, largely due to the collapse of the dome in 1868 which required complete demolition of the completed works and starting over from the ground up. It was finally finished in 1905.

Parliament:

This building is one of Europe's oldest legislative buildings, the largest building in Hungary and the third largest parliament building in the world. 7 years after the unification of Budapest, the national assembly decided to establish a new Parliament building expressing sovereignty of the nation. Construction began in 1885, was inaugurated in 1896, and completed in 1904. Sadly, the architect went blind before it's completion and was never able to see the final result. At the same height as St. Stephen's Basilica it is the other of the two tallest buildings in Budapest.

Chain Bridge/ Szechenyi lanchid:

Named after Szechenyi who took the initiative to build the bridge making it the first connection between Pest and Buda. The bridge sparked economic revival and lead to Budapest's golden century. The bridge serves as a symbol of Hungarian liberty.

Vajdahunyad Castle:

Built between 1896 and 1908. It is a copy of a romanian castle by the same name. It was originally made from cardboard and wood for the millennial exhibition but because it became so popular it was rebuilt from stone and brick.

Hero's Square:

One of the major square's in Budapest and is full of historic and political symbols. In the center of Hero's square is the Millennium Memorial that has statues of the leaders the 7 tribes that founded Hungary in the 9th century. Construction on the monument began on the 1000th anniversary of the country in 1896 but wasn't finished until 1929.

Buda Castle:

This Royal palace was originally built in by King Bela IV and was replaced by a Gothic palace around 1400. It was again remodeled by Kind Matyas in 1458. Under Turkish rule it was completely destroyed in 1686 but later the Habsburgs began construction on a new palace in 1719. This too was destroyed in 1849 and had to be rebuilt in the second half of the 19th century. Remains of the 15th century Gothic palace were found during the reconstruction of the latest one and were incorporated into the restored palace that we see today. Today the palace is home to many important nation collections, includeing the Szechenyi Nation LIbrary with over five million books and manuscripts.

Fisherman's Bastion:

Fisherman's Bastion is a neo-Gothic/new Romanesque terrace that sits on the Buda band of the Danube. It was designed and built between 1895 and 1902. It consists of 7 towers that represent the seven Magyar tribes that settled in the Carpathian Basin in 896. It takes the name of a fisherman that defended that particular stretch of the city walls in the middle ages. From the towers you can look out over almost the entire city.

Matthias' Church:

This church was built originally in 1015, reconstructed in the late 14th century and extensively restored in the 19th century. It was the 2nd largest church in medieval Buda. The church's 700 year history is looked at as a symbol of the city's rich yet tragic history. The church held many coronations including the one of the last Habsburg king, Charles IV. It was also the location of Kind Matyas' (Matthias) two weddings.

Me on Chain Bridge with Parliament in the background.

Its Days Like These...

Buckle up... It could be a long one...

Seeing as I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep on Friday night, I was rather disappointed to hear the alarm go off at 4:30 on saturday morning. However, after remembering that the alarm signaled the beginning of my long-awaited trip to Budapest I suddenly had enough energy to stand up and quickly get myself ready to go catch the train. But just as I was almost finished, my friend Kar, asked me a question that forced the blood to completely and quickly drain from my face... she asked, "Nicole? are we going to need our passports?" Knowing that the answer was obviously 'yes', it reminded me that I knew exactly where my passport was. Can anyone guess where it was? Perhaps in the inside pocket of my backpack with my wallet where I ALWAYS keep it when I go on trips?... NOPE!!! It's precise location was at the bottom of the middle drawer of the wooden cabinets in my room, all the way back at my house... an hour away from my friend's house, whose house we had stayed the night at. SMOOTH MOVE NICOLE!! But seeing as I'm generally a smart and sensible person I figured it would be better to go all the way back and get it, rather than risk getting in trouble at the border with the Austrian AND Hungarian police. So, after trekking all they way back for a teeny tiny little book and missing our original train to Budapest, we trekked back into the city to try and catch the very next train which would be the last train for a few hours. Unfortunately for us two 'american visitors', we are completely at the mercy of public transportation and can only drive as fast as public transportation will allow... which is NOT that fast. It was probably the most agonizing bus ride I've ever had to endure, full of impatience, early morning crankiness, and a lot of praying! When we finally got to the city, we rocketed as fast as possible and bolted into the train station, completely out of breath, just in time to jump on the train. The next three hours were filled mostly with sleepy conversations about what Budapest will be like, and failed sleeping attempts.

Upon arrival at Budapest our energy was once again restored with a buzz of anxious excitement. As we stepped off the train, we realized instantly that this was definitely going to be an adventure to remember, whether a good adventure or a bad adventure, we had yet to figure out, but an adventure nonetheless. And of course, the spazzy randomness known as the inside of my brain, stepped up to the plate to yank out an applicable reference from a movie I despise and haven't seen in years, and throw the words "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore" right out of my mouth. One quick scan of the place allows one to take in the view of the obvious lack of money and corrupt government. However, I was in Budapest fulfilling another small dream so I made a choice to keep a positive outlook and try to enjoy and learn something from any experience.

Just being in Budapest is a huge, eye-opening experience!! Around every corner is just more and more evidence of a poor, 'formerly' communist country. Homeless people begging on almost every street, dilapidated buildings pleading to be bull-dozed, and public buses that fit no description within the comprehension of any middle-class american. Yet, despite the downsides to this city, we were able to see some amazing things (see other post for details) and gain experiences that will forever burn in our minds.

And now for the most memorable part of the trip... At the end of the day, after we had seen and done everything on our list, we headed back to the train station to await our train to take us back to our beautiful city of Vienna and our beautiful beds that are situated in beautiful homes! Being incredibly tired at this point we were looking forward to a nice, boring, and relaxing train ride home. However... our hopes of riding back in peace were completely obliterated after we had been on the train for about a half an hour and the ticket controller came to check our tickets... Knowing that our tickets were completely and 100 percent valid, I simply handed him my ticket without a care in the world and waited for him to return it to me. As he was inspecting it he mumbled something I didn't understand, but assuming it was german and that I just wasn't listening carefully, and knowing the normal procedures, I reached for my passport to show him that as well. And then, practically throwing my passport and ticket back at me he proceeded to say (in english, with a really annoying accent), "Dees teecket ees not valeed." To which I gave the response (with, of course, a sarcastic snotty accent of my own) "Yes, eet ees! Check eet again!!!! And this was only the beginning of a very long and intense argument. I honestly did try to be patient with this man at first to try and solve this ridiculous problem, but keep in mind that I have very little patience for crap to begin with, I was incredibly tired, and he was a certified, class A idiot!!! So basically the patience thing lasted about as long as Penny can keep her room clean... which rounds up to be about... 3 1/2 minutes... on a good day. (love you Penny!) After spending a few teeth-pulling minutes having a conversation full of broken english and frustration he finally asked me, "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" which means "Do you speack German?" and I answered "Ja, ein bisschen aber nicht viel", "yes, a little but not much". From here I proceeded to experiment with my unpracticed german, which only resulted in the realization that I in fact spoke more german that he did, meaning that our chance of decent communication and problem solving had diminished greatly! So there I was with boiling blood and spitting fire, trying to convince a man who understood very little of either of the two languages I was speaking, that he was wrong about our completely valid tickets being invalid. And just so you know I really wasn't kidding about the 'spitting fire' thing... I was so angry with his attitude and incompetence that the poor guy looked like he was about to wet his pants. He just kept stammering over himself saying the same thing over and over..."you must get off at the next stop... I can do nothing" (remember to say it with the snotty accent) After 2o minutes of fruitless, insane arguing he finally left, actually ran out of our compartment with a final "you must go", (said with a huge hint of nervousness) and slammed our compartment door shut. So at this point I'm about to freak out because the thought of being kicked off a train in a teeny podunk town in Hungary didn't really appeal to me. But, not being sure what to do, I looked at my phone to see that I had 3 bars of battery left and decided to call Isabelle just to at least let her know what was going on so she would have some sort of clue in case we really did get ditched. Isabelle, of course, was also very angry because she also knew that we were right and the stupid hungarian weasel was wrong, and thankfully she gave me some very good advice. She told me that he really isn't allowed to touch me and that I should just stay on the train until he's inclined to call the police. Just then, my battery went from 3 bars to 0 and completely cut me off leaving me with no form of communication or s.o.s. and leaving Isabelle at home in suspenseful panic. At this point I had about 40, 000 emotions running through me ranging from blood-curdling anger to a new level of hysteria! The thought of spending the night in jail wasn't the most welcoming but I had just the right amount and combination of anger and adventure to be willing to fight everyone on that train until they dragged me kicking and screaming to a hungarian jail for the night! However, on the inside I was a lot more nervous then I was letting on and my friend Kar was also extremely nervous so naturally we were both saying about a million silent prayers! After a few minutes of sitting there trying to figure out what we were going to do when the train stopped, Kar asked me if we could say a prayer together. So we calmed ourselves for a few minutes while I said a small prayer to help us communicate with these people and get us home safely to Vienna. Once the prayer was said we both felt immediately that we were going to be ok and that the problem would be solved. So now all there was to do was wait until the next stop to see if he was going to come back with reinforcements for round 2. However, about an hour and fifteen minutes and 3 stops later, no one had come by or said anything.... and then we came to the last stop... which was right before we crossed the border into Austria. Originally we were only supposed to be stopped there for 10 minutes so we were just watching the clock praying more with every second that with any amount of luck we could make it through this stop too, meaning we could make it all the way to Vienna. But of course with the luck we were having the train was not stopped there for not only 10 minutes but instead an hour and half!! Still no one had come to kick us off, but we had absolutely no clue what was going on and why we were stuck at the stop for so long! They kept making an announcement over and over but considering neither of us speak Hungarian very well, or at all, it didn't do us much good. So eventually we assumed that the train had broken down, and just continued to sit there full of suspense, impatience, and questions. When the 90 minutes of waiting had passed and the train started moving again we considered ourselves very blessed to still be on the train and to not have had any more pointless confrontations. But I also knew that they would most likely be coming around to check tickets again soon and I really didn't have the energy to produce the would-be-needed amount of spunk and composure for another argument. Sure enough, after about 10 minutes a man came. Luckily for us it was a very different man (I really think the other was cowering somewhere with very wet pants) so I decided to act innocent and hand him my ticket as if nothing had ever happened. So when he said "Fahrkarte bitte?" I nonchalantly handed him the ticket and waited. Very routinely, he simply glanced at the ticket, punched it with his little puncher thingy and handed it back it to me and then proceeded to follow the same steps with Kar's ticket. After returning our tickets and saying "Danke Schoen" he slid out of the compartment and went on checking tickets throughout the train. That was it... really.... After all that aruging, yelling, stressing, praying, frustration, preparing etc. etc.... THAT WAS IT!!!!! I basically learned that I was in fact right all along and our tickets were, as I've already said, COMPLETELY VALID!!! Upon this revelation (that wasn't really a revelation because I knew all along that I was right! ... not that I'm stubborn or anything) I looked at Kar and we both let out a very loud... "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

An hour later we returned to Vienna in peace considering ourselves very lucky and blessed.

It's days and experiences like these that remind me that my life is incredibly blessed. I am so grateful for my relationship with my Heavenly Father and that I can turn to him in any situation! I am also so grateful for my life and my family and for the way I was raised. After seeing how people live in poor, corrupt countries and finding myself helpless in a silly confrontation, I am truly proud to be an LDS American!!!!!

A little song I made up in my state of giddy fatigue...

"I'm proud to be an american, where at least I know I'm free...

where I won't get kicked of a stupid train, by a man who's afraid of me...

and I proudly stand up... next to Kar... and defend ourselves today...

Cause there ain't no doubt I know I'm right!!! GOD BLESS THE UUUUU SSSSSSS AAAAAAAA!!!

Belvedere Palace

Last weekend a friend and I went to visit a palace in Vienna that I have wanted to see for a long time. It was one of those things where I kept saying, "eh, I'll do it next weekend," But now, after being here for 9 months, I've finally done it.

The palace is called the Belvedere Palace. The word 'belvedere' is of Italian origin and literally means 'fair view' or 'beautiful view', which fits this palace perfectly because not only is it incredibly beautiful, but the view from the top floor captures the majority of the city and can take your breath away. It is a baroque complex that was built by Prince Eugene of Savoy. It's original purpose was to serve as a suburban entertainment villa. The work began 1714 and what is now called the Lower Belvedere was finished in two years later in 1716. It was built as a garden villa, with an orangerie and paintings gallery, and also *suitable living quarters.

The Upper Belvedere was not built until 1720 and was only finished 3 years later. It was originally intended to only be a 'proper end' to the main garden, but was later enlarged to become the main summer residence of Prince Eugene. The Belvedere complex was sold to the empress Maria Theresa by the Prince's heiress in 1752. It was Maria Theresa who first called it the 'Belvedere'. In the Upper Belvedere there is a central 'Marmorsaal' (marble hall) which was the site of the signing the Austrian State Treaty that formed the modern Austria on May 15, 1955.

*they say 'suitable' with a high class snobby tone as if it means barely okay enough... when really each room is bigger than my house

Kid Pictures

Timon and Fanny on the U-bahn... Such a cute picture of Fanny... Timon was talking on his phone... too bad no one was on the other side because his phone doesn't actually work. :)

Timon and Christoph staging a hostile takeover of my bed

Flora and me... this was taken my first week here

Christoph likes to think he's really cool... much to his dismay he's only 3 years old. But a pretty dang cute 3-year-old if you ask me :)

The girls looking cute and Christoph looking 'cool'

Update from Austria

I know I haven't updated the blog with anything for a long time, so today I decided that even though there is nothing too exciting to record, I will just give a brief update about general everyday life.

First of all... It is completely blowing my mind that I have been here for 9 whole months now! I literally cannot believe it. It seemed like 5 seconds ago that time was stuck in molasses and I thought I'd never see the end of November, and then I blinked and suddenly it's March 2nd! In the beginning things were incredibly frustrating with the kids. I would have 1 good day for ever 6 bad days and it was really starting to wear on me. But as the time has gone by the kids and I have gotten used to each other and adjusted well. Especially the last couple months. Lately I have really been able to establish good relationships with 3 of the 4 kids. When I first got here, Fanny was the one I was frustrated with the most, but with each day I realize that it just might be her that I miss the most when I leave here in June. She has been really sweet and fun lately. In fact in some ways she really is like a little mini-me. One day when I was taking her and Timon to Kinderstunde (children's hour - church kids group), we were sitting on the U-bahn (underground train) and as we were sitting there I glanced at Fanny... She was sitting there with her little gold pig-tails, red glasses, completely in her own little world, and avidly chewing her fingernails... it was literally like looking into a de-aging mirror. It has been really fun with Christoph lately as well! He is the one that I spend the most time with so things have gotten really good with him. The other day I was wearing a shirt from San Francisco and Christoph, pointing to the Golden Gate Bridge, asked me about it. After explaining to him what it was and that it was in America he thought for a second then jumped on me, put his arms around my neck and said, "Nicole, I wann in Amewicka mif you go, " then proceeded to give me a very slobbery kiss.... so cute!!! Things with Flora have been pretty steady from the beginning. Her and I have always gotten along well. There are bad days, but the majority of the time with her is good. She's quite the little smartie pants too... I have been reading english books with her (that is, having here read them to me) as practice because in a couple weeks she will join a bilingual school for a few days to see if she fits in well with them. If all goes well, then she will be attending and english/german school next year. Fanny has also been accepted into this school for when she is older. As for Timon... I'm not going to say too much about Timon because I don't want to spoil the good mood I'm in right now. All I'll say is that there are good days and bad days... more bad than good... but I can't complain too much because things with the other three are more good than bad. :)

Isabelle has officially found and hired the new au pair as my replacement in June. The new girl's name is Kelsey and she is from Portland. She seems really nice and will be coming sometime around June 16th. My favorite thing about her is that she is also really young AND she is also LDS! For some reason I find it really funny that this family will be getting 2 mormon au pairs in a row... coincidence? ... guess we'll find out someday... :)

As for my social life... well... it's pretty much non-existent. Ok... not non-existent, but it is pretty slim. I have had zero desire to hang out with the kids from my Young Single Adult church class. They call us adults but unfortunately most of the guys in the class act as though puberty is still about 3 years in the future. I can't even tell you how many conversations I've sat through about comic books and super heros... it gives me flashbacks of Stephen and Keith... when we were FIVE!!! Needless to say my social outings are few and far between so it's a good thing I know how to sink into my own little world. :) I do however have a new friend who just got here. She is from Utah and she came here to be an au pair as well. But unfortunately she got stuck with a crazy family and will be returning to the states in just a few weeks. But I have been hanging out with her on the weekends lately and will be taking a couple of trips with her before she flees the country. Other than that my social life basically consists of facebook, letter writing with Jason and his creeper friend, and skype dates with Ryan. haha :)

Well I guess that's all for now but I'll try to keep up better with updates these last few months. I miss everyone like CRAZY! ...only about 3 1/2 more months to go! :)

And now for the history and fun facts... again :)

Munich -

Munich's location is just north of the Bavarian Alps and is the Capital of Bavaira, Germany. It is home to about 1.3 million people and is the 3rd largest city in Germany. The native name Muenchen, comes from the old german word Moenche, which means 'monks'. It gets its name from the Benedictine order who founded the city. 1158 is the assumed foundation date which is the earliest it was mentioned in documents. The city plays host to one of Germany's largest festivities known as Oktoberfest. (yes I do realize I spelled it with a 'k', that's how you spell it in german) If you don't already know what Oktoberfest is, it's basically just a huge fest where people from all over the world come to Munich over a period of 2 1/2 weeks to drink a lot of beer. Approximately 6 million people attend the fest every year. Munich is known world-wide for it's beer-brewing business and nowhere is it taken more seriously than in Munich. Bavarians are said to be the world's biggest beer consumers. The average intake is about 240 litres of beer per person. yuck!!

Frauenkirche (in Munich)-

This church is one of the main, if not the main site of Munich. The site of the church was originally occupied by a small chapel that was dedicated to the virgin Mary and was built in the 13th century. But about 200 years later a much bigger church, Frauenkirche, was built there by architects Joerg von Halspach and Lukas Rottaler. It was finished in 1488 but the very distinctive copper onion domes were not added until 1525. It is now one of Germany's largest Gothic structures. It can hold a congregation of approximately 2000 people.

Frauenkirche

Oberammergau-

This is the small little village that we stopped at during our tour in between the two castles. It was such a cute little town and I loved the setting of it right in the mountains. I couldn't find much information about it except that it is famous for its production of a Passion Play and is used in a popular german tongue-twister. The Passion Play resulted from a vow made by the people of the village that if God spared them from the effects of the bubonic plague then they would perform a passion play every ten years. It started in 1634 but is now played in years ending in zero, which means it will be performed this year. It consists of about 2000 actors, singers, musician, and technicians, most of which are residents of the village.

Oh yeah and here is the cute little tongue-twister (remind me to say it for you when I get home)

" Heut kommt der Hans zu mir, / Freut sich die Lies/ Ob er aber ueber Oberammergau, /Oder aber ueber Unterammergau, / Oder ueberhaupt nicht kommt, / Dass ist nicht g'wiss."

Translation- Hans is coming today/ Lies rejoices/ Whether he's coming via Oberammergau/ or via Unterammergau/ Or not coming at all/ that is unknown. :)

King Ludwig II-

King Ludwif II took the Bavarian throne in 1864 at the age of 18 after the death of his father Maximilian the II. He led an unusual and solitary lifestyle. His unique style, and passion for building castles led to him being known as the 'Fairytale King'. He was fascinated by the composer Richard Wagner and devoted himself to ensure financial security for the rest of Wagner's life. He spent most of a lonely childhood in Hohenschwangau, which little prepared him for the adult world where his word as king was a key factory in the course of his country. His desire for absolute monarchy came in conflict with the Munich court which led to him slowly withdrawing himself into his own childhood-fantasy world- a world reflected in the works of Wagner and which produced the Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee Castles. He strove to create a world far away from reality all the up up to his death in 1886.

Neuschwanstein-

This castle began being built in 1869 on Swan rock above the beautiful Alpsee Lake. It's tall slender towers give it the image of a fairy-tale castle. It is 5 stories high and was built in a Romanesque style. Sadly, the king died during the construction of the castle causing it to be left unfinished. It took roughly 18 years to build what you see today and in total the king only spent about 172 days there. The tour of the castle takes you through all the finished room, which only takes about 30 minutes. The completed rooms include the throne room (minus the throne because it was never built), the dining room, bedroom, living room, study, and kitchen... which is hardly anything considering the size of the whole castle! Just as a fun fact... the barely-used bedroom had so many intricate wood carvings that it took 14 wood carvers 4 1/2 years to complete!

Neuschwanstein (taken from the internet) :)

Sorry it's sideways.... really hard to get a good picutre... because it's HUGE!!

Taken from the village of Fuessen just beneath

Hohenschwangau-

This wasn't actually a part of the tour but it is located right below Neuschwanstein. It sits right in between the Alpsee Lake and Swan Lake and was owned by King Ludwig II's parents . His father Maximillian II bought the ruins in 1832 and had them rebuilt and decorated in the style of the middle ages. Ludwig most of his childhood here.

Hohenschwangau

Linderhof-

Ludwig II had the Linderhof built in the mountain landscape in the years 1870-1878 as a tribute to the absolute Monarchy of the French Kings. He got the idea to build the caslte after a trip to Versailles in 1867. The location was chosen and purchased by Ludwig near a hunting lodge that was owned by his father. It was built in a rococo style as a reflection of the Burbon Kings. This was a private sanctuary where Ludwig could go and retire in seclusion.

Linderhof Palace

Courtyard of the palace... the boxes are covered statues.

Christmas Vacation

Considering that I've been home from my big Christmas trip for over week now I suppose it's time to update the blog. This year for Christmas break I had the option of either going with the family to an Austrian ski resort for a week or taking the week off and doing my own thing. Seeing as how I'm a fan of personal space and just happened to be in desperate need of a break, I opted out of sharing a room with 4 kids (with no escape) for a week, and decided to take my own trip. So the week after Christmas, on Tuesday the 29th, I hopped on a train and headed to the Bavarian Alps (in southern Germany in case you didn't know) to escape the space-invading duties of nannying and to fulfill a dream of mine to see the Neuschwanstein Castle.

My trip began with a short 4-hour train ride to good old Munich, Germany. After arriving I had the lovely task of navigating myself through an unfamiliar and large city to find the hostel I would be staying at. As it turns out, I'm getting really good at navigating myself through strange European cities, so finding it wasn't the problem. However, as easy as it was to find, it wasn't nearly as close as I had hoped and expected which made for an extremely NOT fun and tiring trek through sketchy streets while carrying my luggage (which wasn't that much but just to enough to make my back want to snap in half). A million blocks and silent prayers later I finally found the hostel, Easy Palace, where I checked in and hunkered down for the night in a room with 5 other strange girls (but at least they weren't crying kids) - 3 from Brazil, 1 from Singapore, 1 from China.

The next morning I had to be at my tour bus (for the castle tour) at 8:00 so I set my alarm for 6:30 which would give me just enough time for a shower and breakfast before I had to be to the bus. But, thanks to my ability to sleep incredibly deep, I slept right through the alarm and woke up just in time to throw on some clothes, grab my stuff and sprint back down the million blocks to the train station where I would catch the bus. Thank goodness I made it just in time jump on the bus and get a fairly decent seat on the upper level of the double decker bus. :) Of course I felt like a complete dork being alone on a tour bus full of old british people, and rich american parents who had to force their spoiled kids to try and enjoy the vacation... but to be honest I thoroughly enjoy being a dork. I loved the warm, cozy bus, and the nice tour guide who was a perfect medium between helpful/informative and pesky/annoying. The tour took us from Munich to the beautiful Bavarian Alps and would take us to two beautiful Castles built by the Bavarian King, King Ludwig II, and a beautiful little village in the mountians. Our first stop was the smaller of the two castles called the Linderhof Castle. After our rather short guided tour of the Castle and a little postcard shopping, it was back on the bus to head to the pretty village of Oberammegau. There we were able to take a while and do some souvenir shopping and just enjoy the scenery and atmosphere of small town Germany. After that we were finally on our way to the highlight of the trip, the Neuschwanstein Castle. Along with the castle itself, the setting and surroundings of the castle are so incredibly breathtaking. I could hardly believe that I was actually there, like I had just stepped into the picture that is still hanging on my wall in my bedroom back home. (that is if Penny hasn't taken it down) :) The castle has a very 'disney fairy-tale' feel to it. While inside, I half expected the furniture to move and talk, and I even peeked around the corners for signs of 'the Beast'. :)

There isn't much to report after the tour because the next day I just spent the day in Munich sightseeing and basically killing time. But after a couple hours I had come to the conclusion that I really hate Munich. There are few cool things to see but other than that, the only thing to do there is drink beer and eat pretzels. I'm not complaining about the pretzels, they were positively delicious, but the amount of beer consumed by the people in Munich is horrifying and disgusting.

But all in all, it was great to have a few days to myself and check another dream off the list. :)

View of Neuschwanstein from the "village" of Fuessen. I put village in quotations because it's pretty much a joke, it basically consists of souvenir kiosks and a hotel. :)

Remember how I mentioned the castle being like a 'fairy-tale' castle? Well while I was there I found some pixy dust that Tinker bell had left there on her last visit to see Belle and the Beast, so I took it and used it to take this picture of Munich from above.

Ok really I just paid 1.50 to go to the top of a bell tower of one of the churches to be able to look out over the whole city.

The ever-so-lovely hostel room... my bed is the middle top one.