Ladies Night!

Last night, Toni hosted a Ladie’s Night at Keller!  It was sooo much fun!  Seven of my friends and I dressed up and then headed to the bar!  We arrived to find 2 bouncers standing outside the door with pink wristbands for us! (This was odd because this is just a tiny local bar…lol)  Inside there was music and drinks and snacks galore!  We ordered some drinks and then got a table!  I was so excited that my usual drink…Amaretto mit Kirsche (Cherry) was on special!  We had fun sitting and chatting and taking photos!  Toni gave us all Free Fingernail Polish!  Then started the contest…whoever would drink a triple shot of Krabblediwandenuff (a nasty, very strong German liquor found at this bar…a mixture of like Tabasco sauce with Jager and maybe some herbs or something…hard to explain…not like anything you have ever tasted before!) would receive a 30 Euro gift certificate to the local Nail and Beauty Salon!!!  So of course I did it…and so did my friend Nasha! =) And then for the main event…Toni got a stripper!!! Omg…this guy was so Hott!  He brought this one German girl up to the front of the room and had her sit on a chair while he danced and everyone yelled and screamed!  It was great!  Then he put oil all over his chest and grabbed Nasha and I’s hands and had us rub it around!  Ahh….it was crazy! Then afterwards, we got to take pictures with him!  The Perfect Ladies Night! 

Best Day Ever

Yesterday was seriously like the best day ever!  Nasha and I headed to Frankfurt in search of my all time favorite store Primark!  The first time I went to one was a mall in Scotland…and I fell in love!  After a long, almost 2 hour, train ride, we ended up in this huge shopping mall!  We found a map and headed toward Primark!  We seriously almost had heart attacks when we found it!  We were going crazy grabbing shirts for 3 Euro and Shorts for 6!  We went crazy in that store!  We tried a million things on!  They have everything and I mean everything!  I got 2 giant bags full of stuff all for $125 Euros!  This included: 3 tube tops, 2 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of jeans, 5 pairs of flip-flops, 1 jumper, 5 bras, 6 panties, 1 night gown, 1 scarf, and 1 purse…as well as 2 candles, 2 pairs of sunglasses, and 3 t-shirts as souvenirs for people!  That’s 33 Items for $125 Euro! Crazy Awesomeness!  Or Awesomesauce…as my friend Nasha would say!  

After shopping ‘till we dropped, we looked for some food.  We thought about just grabbing McDonalds because we were starving, but we decided to look at the map and see what else there was.  There was a whole food court somewhere, but we couldn’t figure out how to get there…it looked like we had to cross the street!  Ended up, we just had to go down the stairs to the other level! lol  We got down there and found this Mexican Grill that reminded us of Chipotle!  It was delicious!  We had huge chicken burritos with rice, cilantro corn, black beans, pico de gallo, cheese, lettuce, onions, and fresh squeezed lime!  Ahh…I want another one just talking about it!  

After thoroughly enjoying our burritos, we were ready to hop on the train…until we passed a store that had flats for 5 Euro!  Then we passed an ice cream shop…and they had mint chocolate chip!  I have been looking everywhere here in Europe for it and this was the first time I have seen it!  And the best part…only 80 cents per scoop!  After that we ran into Rossmans for Nasha to grab some deodorant and I wanted some self-tanner lotion.  Then we headed to the train…we were about an hour behind schedule.   We needed to get home to get ready for Ladies Night!  

When I got home, I rushed to get ready!  I threw on my new jeans and my roomie was like…”ERIN! Where have you been hiding that body?! You need to retire all of your jeans and buy more of these!  You can send your old ones to Africa!”  It was hilarious!  I had never worn skinny jeans before I got to Europe…but apparently that is all my friends are going to let me wear now!  Nasha wants me to throw all of my jeans away…and I was like no, some of them are new!  Anyway…then I put my new teal tube top on with the matching flip flops I got.  Then threw on some make-up, combed and straightened my hair, and viola…ready to go out!  Ladies Night here we come! 

Paris Day 5: Happy to Head Home

I woke up the next morning to them talking in Spanish.  They completely ignored the fact that I was in the room for the entire duration of our morning routine.  That was another thing that was bothering me all weekend.  Everytime Diana would get mad at me, she would talk to Nasha in Spanish.  One time Nasha was like dude talk in English.  I understand that it is easier for her to talk in Spanish, but when we are doing something as a group and need to discuss it, don’t just talk to Nasha in Spanish like I’m not even there.  Its rude!  Anyway, we headed out to grab breakfast and everyone wanted McDonald’s again, but I was sick of having the same thing every morning.  And paying about 3.5 Euros for a croissant and a glass of orange juice!  I wanted quality burger because they had a deal for 4.80 and you get a bagel with bacon, egg, and cheese, a croissant, yogurt, juice, and hot chocolate!  That was a way better deal!  But Diana refused to eat there, so I got my food to go and then met them in McDonalds. 

We were eating when it started raining again.  It had been dark and gloomy all morning and we knew it was most likely going to rain.  But Diana had decided to wear her nice flats, so she insisted on going back to the hotel and changing.  By the time she returned it was already approaching 11 and we needed to leave for the airport at about 3:30, 4 at the latest.  Her flight left at 6:25 and ours not until 8:15 but we agreed to go with her so she didn’t have to go alone.  They had done the same for me because my flight to Paris left an hour before theirs. 

So we rushed over to Notre Dame took some pictures and then realized the line we saw was not for the towers, it was just for going inside.  We didn’t have time to wait in line, so we were just standing there near the entrance when we saw a bunch of people skipping, we thought about doing it, but I was feeling guilty.  We were about to leave when a nice older lady overheard us talking and was like we are skipping the line too if you want to join us.  She was very nice and we talked to her about her family and about our studies and we explained how we had a plane to catch but that we really wanted to see the inside.  She said that they were there the day before and she wouldn’t let her husband skip, but that they came back today and the line wasn’t any better.  We quickly walked through the gorgeous cathedral.  And just my luck, I forgot I had a regular alarm set for my 11:30 class on Tuesday and it started going off inside…where there was supposed to be silence!  I was freaking out, the stupid thing wouldn’t turn off and finally after what seemed like an eternity, I got it off.  I was so bad because they were having mass!  I had had it on silent, but the stupid alarm still rings on silent! 

Anyway, we got out of there and headed to the shopping street to do some last minute shopping.  Nasha still had to get her mom’s perfume and I wanted some lotion and stuff.  On our way to Champs-Elysees, we came across a store called Jennyfer that is a French clothing brand.  We went inside and were in heaven!  The prices were relatively cheap and their clothes were so cute!  We spent too long in there!  I ended up buying a swimsuit for only 14 Euros and a pair of sunglasses since mine broke the other day.  Then we headed across the street to find Diana and I ended up getting a tank top in that store.  There was a dress I fell in love with, but they didn’t have in in my size =( .  Anyway then we ran to the grocery store so I could get some more tarts to bring home with me and we wanted some water.  Then we headed to Sephora for the beauty products we wanted.  After that, I wanted to head to the store where my coat was, I had talked myself into getting it, I was like when will I ever be in Paris again.  But Diana insisted on going to this other shopping mall…we wasted so much time looking for it.  Then we ended up just jumping on a train back to the hotel because it was getting late. 

There was a nice lady in the train station that helped us get to another one because the line we needed to take from that one was broken down.  Once we got on the extremely crowded train Diana was like ouch.  She had gotten a paper cut from my shopping bag.  I apologized and then she kept saying ouch, ow, I’m bleeding!  Nasha was like what?! (because she was making a huge deal out of it) and Diana was like She Cut Me…and I was like oh no…that was not my fault, its not like I purposely cut you with my shopping bag!  And Nasha was like yes, I’m sure Erin was like oh hey lets cut Diana!  Both of us were not happy with the way she was acting then.  We finally got to our stop and headed to subway to grab some lunch to take with us to the airport.  Diana had left before I was done ordering and when Nasha and I got to the hotel, we couldn’t find her.  We shoved our stuff in our suitcases and then the receptionist told us that she was upstairs in the bathroom.  Once she was done, we ran to the grocery store to grab some chocolate that we were eyeing earlier but didn’t want to carry around all day.  Then we headed to the train station. 

To Nasha and I’s surprise, Pinar and her boyfriend met us there.  We all got our tickets and were heading to the train.  Nasha and I both had big suitcases and everyone else just had little carry-ons.  Diana took off with Pinar and they just left us behind without even looking back.  When we finally caught up with them Nasha was flaming!  She went off on her and was like why did you just leave us, you didn’t even look back, blah blah…and Diana just looked at her and was like “we were walking.”  Nasha was like you were walking?! And what were we doing… So we just walked to a different part of the platform.  Then Diana had the nerve to come up to me and tell me that I owe Pinar 5 Euros for the dump she reserved!  Then she walked away.  Nasha and I didn’t talk to her for the rest of the day.  When we got to the airport, they just left.  I was telling Nasha its nice that we came to the airport 2 hours early for her so she could just ditch us.  We tried to forget about all that crap and we ate our sandwiches and then visited one of the stores.  We found a scratch-off machine and I won 1 Euro! =) lol Then we boarded our plane and eventually got back to Germany.  Then we had an hour and a half train ride home from Frankfurt.  We finally got to our homes at around 12:15.  We were both so glad to put Paris behind us and be back home in Germany!  

Paris Day 4: Louvre Museum and Eiffel Tower at Night

Monday morning we woke up to head to the Louvre Museum! We grabbed yet another breakfast at McDonalds and were on our way.  Not to our surprise, there was of course another long line!  Again we had an issue, Diana and Nasha took off to go take pictures and left me to wait in line alone!  It really made me mad because I had just said I want a picture with that fountain and then we all decided we should get in line first and we would take pictures later.  After they finally returned, Nasha offered to take pictures of me with the fountain, but I still was not happy.  We waited for about 45 minutes all together to get in, but again our Passports with Residence Permits allowed us in for free!  Once inside, things were better.  We saw the statues of the Greek Gods and Godesses, the Grand Sphinx, and best of all…the Mona Lisa!  It was smaller than I expected and there were so many people crowded around it that it took forever to get close enough for a picture!  Once we finally got to the front, we snapped a few pictures and tried to get out, but there were so many people crowded there, they wouldn’t even let us get out of their way!  It was crazy! 

Luckily we finally got out of there, saw a few last minute things and then left the museum.  We walked through some gardens and then headed to the Eiffel Tower!  Today was the day we were climbing it!  We stopped at a little crepe stand on the way and I had the most delicious chicken and cheese crepe!  We arrived to find a huge line again, the sign said a 2 hour wait.  We soon realized that line was for the lifts.  So we jumped in the stairs line and were in within about 20 minutes!  We climbed the first set of stairs to the first floor and it wasn’t too bad.  We took some pictures and headed on up to the second floor.  By the time we got there we were pretty exhausted.  We had to stop a few times for breath on the way up.  We took some pictures there too and then relaxed on a bench for awhile before getting in the line to get on the lift to go the res t of the way to the top!  We finally made it to the top and oh my was it windy and cold!  Plus to make it worse, it was sprinkling!  We tried to take some pictures, but of course they didn’t turn out very good because our hair was everywhere and it was rainy and wet!  We marveled at the view for awhile and then headed back down.

 

We were planning to go check out the Basilica on Montmartre while it was still light out, but while we were eating dinner at this Chinese place near our hotel, the other’s decided they didn’t want to go.  I was annoyed because it was one of the things I wanted to see, more than the Pantheon and some of the other things we saw.  But I wasn’t going to go alone, it would be too dangerous.  That was their excuse for almost everything I wanted to do, its too dangerous!  This frustrated me because yes the city is dangerous, but as long as we stick together and only go out when its light out, we should be fine.  The only reason that stuff happened to that guy was because he was out drinking at the bars late at night in the bad part of town; we are smarter than that! 

Anyway, we finished dinner and then Diana wanted some Crème Brule, so I went with her so she didn’t have to go alone.  While she was eating, she was like you know I heard what you said last night.  I wasn’t asleep.  And she said something about that noise she was making, she didn’t know in English, and I was like snoring and she was like yeah.  And yes Nasha was like I don’t know how she can sleep on her back like that and she mentioned that causes snoring.  That was the only thing we said about that.  And then she kept saying she heard us talking.  And I was all what are you talking about and she was like Nasha asked you what time you were setting your alarm for and you told her and then started talking about me how I just get up in the mornings.  I was like yes I was explaining to her how I can’t just jump right out of bed like you can.  And then she mentioned something about Italy and was like yeah just ask Nasha what you said, but she couldn’t tell me what I had said.  The only thing I said was that I don’t think I can go to Italy with her because we fight too much. 

Then we relaxed in the hotel until it started to get dark out.  This was our last night in Paris and we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower when it was lit up.  Luckily, the bus stop was right in front of our hotel, so we didn’t have to worry about walking around at night!  We arrived to see the gorgeous tower in lights.  It was raining so we tried to hurry and take our pictures.  We were waiting for the twinkling lights, but they weren’t coming on again.  I was like maybe its every thirty minutes, but then 9:30 came and no twinkly lights.  We were getting ready to head out when we realized how many people were gathered.  We then assumed that it happens every hour.  We stood there waiting and Diana was complaining the whole time how her feet were soaked and she was all wet.  Mind you, she was the only one with a freaking umbrella!  This made Nasha and I very mad!  I was like my feet are soaked too, but we want to see the lights…we’re only in Paris for this one last night!  Finally we saw the twinkly lights and Nasha and I danced around happily. 

Then we headed back to the hotel where the flames got hotter.  Diana was like I am going to take a shower and Nasha was like no I am going to take one, you always go first.  So Diana was annoyed but agree and was like but I am going next in a very rude tone.  When Nasha got out of the shower, Diana went to get in and realized there was only one towel.  She asked me if I brought one and I had, but it was bundled up in a vacuum sealed bag that I didn’t want to open and plus I couldn’t put it back in there if it was wet and this was our last night.  So I was like well we could just go downstairs and ask for another one.  So then she was like ok you do that.  And I was like I said we could, not I’m going to.  And she got all huffy and puffy and was like I am using my towel and slams the door to the bathroom.  After she was done, I took my shower and went straight to bed; I couldn’t deal with her prissy attitude anymore!      

Paris Day 3: Chateau de Versailles

The next morning started off rough…this was the beginning of my roommate problems!  From this point on Diana and I were butting heads about every little thing!  She always jumps out of bed and starts getting ready right when the alarm goes off.  Everyone that knows me, especially my best friend, knows that you don’t mess with me in the mornings…I need time to wake up.  After we got ready, we grabbed some breakfast at McDonalds and headed to the train station to jump on a train to Chateau de Versailles!  We arrived to find a huge line!  Nasha compared it to the ones at Disney!  We stood in line for an hour and a half.  To pass the time Nasha and I played the alphabet game…I am pretty sure everyone around us thought we were crazy!  But we were having fun!  Once we finally got inside, our passports with our residence permit allowed us to get in for free! =) The place was beautiful and the Gardens were gorgeous!  It was crazy how big the place was!  

By the time we got out of there, we were starving!  We found a little bakery place on our way back to the train station and grabbed a sandwich.  After lunch we jumped on the train back to our hotel.  We were supposed to go to Montmartre that day, but someone on the train had told us about their son getting pulled into a car and beaten up there the other night, so the others didn’t want to go anymore. Then Nasha wanted to take a nap, so Diana and I headed off to see the Pantheon and the Luxembourg Gardens!  The Pantheon was somewhat interesting, but not as nice at the Palace.  After the pantheon, we stopped at a little souvenir shop where I got a few gifts for people back home.  We found a little crepe place and I got an apple cinnamon crepe.  The Gardens were beautiful, but then it started to rain so we headed back to the hotel.  

We got there and then started arguing about where to eat dinner.  Diana wanted to try some local French food at an expensive sit down place.  First of all, I don’t know what she expected to try because I am pretty sure she wasn’t interested in the snails or duck.  Nasha and I just wanted something quick and cheap.  Nasha suggested a compromise.  We would have dinner at the fried chicken place we had been talking about and then we could go to a restaurant for some dessert and maybe wine.  So we went to the chicken place and Diana was pissy the entire time.  Then we went to this restaurant to eat dessert.  I got a lemon tart; I had been wanting a tart ever since I got there!  It was amazing!  Diana got the chocolate mousse and Nasha got the chocolate Fondant!  We all tried each other’s and they were all delicious!  After dessert we headed back to the hotel for some sleep!

Paris Day 2: Struggle to Turn the Trip Around

We got up at about 7, quickly got ready and headed out to look for a new hotel.  We found a McDonalds, got some breakfast, and used the Wifi to search for places.  The 2 people from the other room, found a place with one room available and just took off to go book it.  This made Nasha and I mad because 1. They were the ones that reserved that dump and 2. the night before they were complaining about how we were splitting everything equally and they made us pay for part of their room because a 2 bedroom was more expensive than a 3 bedroom!  After failing to find a place online, we took off to just walk around to hotels until we found one.  I don’t know how many places we asked, but they were all full.  We finally found a place that had 1-3 person room available for just that night.  It was only 5 Euros more than where we were staying.  Diana found a more expensive one, that was only available for the following 2 nights.  We were able to look at the first room and it was amazing compared to the place we were in!  We walked in while she was finishing up cleaning and it smelled amazing!  The bathroom was so clean!  The beds were clean and nicely made and there was even a tv in the room!  We took the room and headed back to the our other hotel to gather our things and check out. 

We arrived to a new crazy French lady that was yelling at us about having more than 3 people in a room.  We had no clue what she was talking about!  We were like we are only 3 people; there is no one else in our room.  She was like NO, we have security cameras and someone showed up at 2am asking for your name!  By the way, she barely spoke English.  She kept calling Nasha, Pinar (which is who made the reservation) and Nasha was yelling back that she is not Pinar, that Pinar wasn’t there, that they left us and we thought they had already checked out.  Then we were just trying to get checked out.  She was talking to us about paying and stuff and we were like no, we aren’t staying here one more night this place is disgusting.  And she started yelling at us in French and then Nasha…(who btw is Columbian, not to be stereotyping, but she is the one that said she has that type of temper…incase you are reading this! lol)…started yelling at her in Spanish and then the receptionist was saying something about calling the cops and so we had Nasha leave the reception area while we were trying to figure it out and then Pinar shows up.  So we finally get everything worked out, we ended up having to pay for a second night there because we were cancelling within 24 hours, but we couldn’t have cancelled the day before because we had to make sure we had another place to stay!  Anyway, we got out of the dump and into our new hotel!  It was definitely a God thing that we found that place!  He was watching over us the entire weekend!

After settling in to our new place, we jumped on the bus to go see the Eiffel Tower!  We wanted to do that the first night, but after that whole mess and it was kind of late we didn’t get to.  On the bus, I had my camera ready to capture Nasha’s face when she first saw the Eiffel Tower; Paris has always been her dream!  We got there and she was in shock for at least 15 minutes…it was a great experience that made a whole day a lot better!  After doing every possible pose we could think of in front of the tower, we bought some souvenirs and then headed to Champs-Elysees.  This is the major shopping street in Paris! 

Nasha was looking for some Cologne and Perfume for her parents and I was just looking for any bargains of some sort.  We stepped into this French perfume store and they had a tester strip they handed to us when we walked in and I fell in love with the scent!  It was amazing…so I asked how much a bottle was and then wished I hadn’t!  It was 96 Euros for a bottle a little over 2 ounces!  That is when I wished I was rich so I could get it.  We left and I could not stop thinking about that perfume, until we came to a clothing store and I found a coat I absolutely fell in love with!  It was one of those tight fitted ones and it like flared out at the bottom…and the best part…it was zebra print!  I tried it on several different times, trying to find the perfect size.  I totally wanted to buy it, but it was 69 Euros and I just couldn’t talk myself into it!  We decided that we would probably come back to the street, so I would think about it and then decide.  We found a little grocery store and got some water and soda to have at the hotel. 

After shopping, we headed back to the hotel and then tried to find a place close to the hotel for dinner.  We found a little pizzeria on the corner.  All I wanted was a crepe with vegetables in it and they couldn’t do it for me.  Then the guy was asking if I was a vegetarian and I was like no I want meat and vegetables.  I finally just decided to get a stupid pizza so that I could have all the meat and veggies I wanted!  It turned out pretty good, but wasn’t the crepe I had been craving.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel to take showers and get rested up.  We were extremely tired after the mess the night before and that morning!  

Paris Day 1: The Nightmare

I arrived in Paris around 7:30 pm and had to wait an hour for my friends to arrive on the next flight.  When they didn’t show up when expected, I went to the information desk and they told me that that flight had been moved to another terminal.  So I had to jump on a bus and rush to the other terminal.  When I finally got there, they were all standing outside looking for me and I guess they had tried to call me and message me on facebook and whatsapp and nothing was working!  None of those calls ever came through!  Anyway, we were finally all together and ready to head into Paris.  We got to the train station, got our tickets, and headed into town.  When we arrived it was of course already dark and the lights were nice when I stepped out of the train station.  I was trying to take a picture of the street when some guy roughly our age stepped in front of me.  I guess he thought I was taking a picture of him because he gave me a dirty look and we were trying to get out of there fast and it seemed like him and his friends were following us.  We finally lost them and eventually found our hotel. 

We walked in up this narrow stair case to find the crappiest reception desk you have ever seen.  The walls weren’t even painted and there were light fixtures and stuff that were not finished and were just hanging there!  I was scared to see what the room was going to look like.  The girls that had booked the room didn’t think it was important to read the reviews, so Nasha and I were concerned before we even got there from what we had read about this hotel.  We paid for our first night and headed up the stairs to our room.  The lights in the halls were set to automatically shut off, so you would be walking up the stairs and all of a sudden it would be pitch black!  It was so annoying.  We got up to our room and opened the door…and oh my!  It was the nastiest room I have seen in my entire life!  The amour and bedside table were practically falling apart.  We looked through all the sheets for bugs and dirt, but luckily didn’t find anything.  However, when we lifted up the mattresses, there was hair and dirt galore!  You felt itchy just being in the room!  Then we decided to check out the bathroom, I opened the door and looked in the shower…it was the most disgusting shower I have ever seen in my life!  It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years…there was no way I was taking a shower in it! The toilet was relatively clean luckily, but the sink had some hair and dirt in it. We went to the bathroom quickly and then went downstairs to meet the other 2 people that came, the one that made the reservation. 

We discussed how awful the place was and decided to go try to find some dinner.  We found a doner place right around the corner and enjoyed a meal while using the wifi to search for another hotel.  Best part…they had cherry coke…and it was in a Purple can! lol It was already to late to switch that night and everything seemed to be full because of the Easter Holiday.  We decided to go back to the room and try to get some sleep and deal with it in the morning.  All of us slept in our jeans and hoodies…there was no way I was sleeping in my shorts in that place! I left my socks on too! There wasn’t wifi there and for some reason my text messaging wasn’t working either!  I could receive texts but couldn’t reply! Nasha and Diana couldn’t sleep and they were talking in Spanish until about 3am, when finally I was able to fall asleep.  

Munich

On Friday, Nasha and I took off for Munich.  We left at 8:01 and arrived around 3pm.  We didn’t want to do a lot of exciting stuff the first night because our friend Karly was meeting us Saturday morning; she had classes Friday.  So first we found the hostel, checked in, and got a city map.  We then decided to check out Marienplatz!  We saw 2 gorgeous churches and checked out all the food in the market place.  Then we decided to find the Hofbrauhaus for dinner.  This is a famous restaurant/brewery that Hitler once ate at!  They had these huge mugs of beer, but Nasha and I just felt like having soda.  When I told my friends when we got back, they were like NOOO you have to have beer at the Hofbrauhaus! lol We ordered the Crispy Pork Knuckle!  And OMG it was delicious!  However, we should have split one because it was huge!  We each only ate half of it!  The meat just melted in your mouth and the crispy skin tasted like pork rinds, but it was fresh and warm! Yummy!  After dinner we looked in a few souvenir shops and then headed back to the hostel.  We were tired from the long train ride and decided we should get rested up for the long day Saturday.

On Saturday, we planned to get up early and go to a garden before picking up Karly at the train station…that didn’t happen! lol We got up around 10, ate a quick breakfast, and then met her at the station at 11:10.  We took her to the hostel to check in and then headed out on our adventure.  After stopping by the post office really quick, we headed toward the Englischer Garten!  On the way we passed a smaller garden with beautiful flowers!  Then when we got to the Garten, we realized it was huge!  And I was kind of disappointed because there weren’t flowers there.  We were surprised to find Surfers in the river!  It was so crazy…but so cool.  Who would have thought you would see surfers in Germany?! lol We made it through about half of the park before we decided to head to the Nymphenburg Palace.  We got a group day ticket for the tram for like 10.20 Euro, so it was pretty cheap!  We got the Palace and it was huge.  I don’t know why anyone would need a place that big!  After taking pictures in front of the Palace, we headed to Olympia Park!  The tram took us to the back side and so we couldn’t find anything.  Then we found a map and figured out how to get to the BMW Museum.  On the way we saw an Icee stand…and Karly and I had been craving Icees for forever!  We both got blue ones! =)  The BMW Museum was smaller than I expected, but it was nice.  And we got to sit on some of the motorcycles! 

After the museum, we headed over to the...Hamster Balls!  They had these big inflatable hamster balls that they put in the river and you could get in them and roll around on the water.  We each got in one and we had 5 minutes in there!  Nasha and Karly made me get in first.  I got out there and tried to stand up and I fell right over.  I tried again and started to fall so I began to try to run like a hamster and I ended up doing like a front flip and landed on my neck, luckily I didn’t hit it too hard.  But then I was scared to try to stand up again.  After Karly and Nasha got out there, I tried to stand up again.  I watched Karly and she was like trying to hold the top of the ball and balance herself.  I tried it and was able to stand there for maybe 10 seconds at most.  I crawled around on my knees some, but even that was hard.  It was fun, but also tiring!  I don’t know how hamsters do it!  After that we explored the park a little more, checked out the Olympic size pool.  Then we decided to head back towards our hotel to get some dinner.  We ended up eating at McDonalds.  But this is the first McDonalds here that had FREE REFILLS! lol And we won ice creams and drinks with the Monopoly pieces!  After dinner, it was about 8pm and we decided to go back to the hostel to get some rest.  We were tired and had walked too much!  We wanted to be energized for Sunday’s adventures and travels.  After resting for a minute and letting our food digest, we went across the street to get some Gelato!  Yummy! Then we looked up information for Sunday and went to bed.

Sunday we got up and grabbed a sandwich from the breakfast room to take with us!  We had planned to leave at 9 and head to the Dachau concentration camp.  It was a 20 minute train ride from Munich and then we had to take a bus.  Luckily, there was a nice guy on the train, a tour guide actually that we over heard talking about the memorial site, so we just followed him!  We got there and had our luggage and they didn’t have any lockers!  The lady behind the desk was so nice, she was like we aren’t supposed to do this so don’t tell anyone, and then she put them behind the desk so we didn’t have to drag them around with us!  We were so thankful!  We toured the camp.  We saw where the prisoners had to sleep and also where they were cremated.  We saw some graves where their ashes were buried and also the memorial churches that were built in there.  In the museum, we read about the way they were treated…from how they were fed to the work they had to do to the punishments they received.  I didn’t get through half the museum without crying and we left after going through half of it. 

Then we took a train back to the station to head to Neuschwanstein Castle!  If you don’t know, this is the Disney Castle!  It has been featured in several movies and was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s Castle!  It was a 3 hour train ride there.  We decided to do the 30 minute uphill walk because the line for the busses was too long and we were on a tight schedule.  It didn’t seem like it took quite 30 minutes, but it was definitely tiring!  However, it was definitely worth the walk!  The castle was gorgeous!  I wish that half of it wouldn’t have been under construction and covered in plastic, but at least the front wasn’t.  We took several pictures and then headed back down the mountain! It took less time than we thought to make the trip, so we checked out the souvenir shop before catching the bus back to the train station. 

At the train station, I looked on my phone to find the platform, and it told me that the next train didn’t leave until 19:05 and didn’t get back to Frankfurt until 6am!  I was confused because Karly looked it up and we were leaving at 16:40 and would get back to Oestrich-Winkel by Midnight.  We jumped on the train and decided we would worry about it later and figure out what was going on.  We played some games on the train to pass the time, we played the alphabet one where you pick a category and then say something in that category that starts with each letter.  Nasha was just shouting out random words that made no sense, like the first thing that popped in her head beginning with that letter!  It definitely made the train ride more interesting. 

We didn’t realize until we got to Augsburg, that the connections she had looked up included an IC train which isn’t covered by the Bavaria ticket that we had!  We looked up every possible route home we could think of and nothing!  There was no way we were getting home until Monday morning!  We had to sit there for 2 hours, until 21:25 to catch a train to Ulm.  We got something to eat and then sat in McDonalds at the station.  Luckily there were plug-ins, so we could all charge our phones.  I had to pee and the stupid McDonalds didn’t have a bathroom.  I walked all over the train station and when I finally found them, they cost 80 cents and I had left my purse in McDonalds with the others.  So I just went back.    I got my free milkshake that I had won with the Monopoly thing.  Then Nasha said she had to go to the bathroom too, so we walked over to the Burger King to see if they had one, and no luck!  It was locked so I guess you had to like pay and get a key or something.  We searched the mall that it was in, but no luck.  The only thing we found were some of those little kiddie rides, so of course we had to stop and take pictures in them! lol We went back to the station and decided we would just pay 80 cents, but when we got there we realized it was coed and there was this creepy guy in there.  Nasha was like “No…I’m not going in there, and you aren’t going in there either!” So we went back to McDonalds where Karly was and decided to hold it for 30 more minutes until the train got there. 

We ended up having to go through like 5 different cities, so of course we couldn’t sleep because we weren’t on a train for longer than an hour and a half.  We were getting to the slap happy part of the night and were being pretty crazy.  Nasha was seeing how many different ways she could wear her scarf on her head!  It was hilarious!  We also had to wait 2 hours in Karlsruhe, wherever the heck that is.  We ended up at some sketchy little station that had no indoor part, so we decided to take the tram to the Hauptbanhof and then we would take it back to make our connection.  The tram ended up taking us to some even sketchier train station and it just stopped and the conductor kicked us off!  He didn’t speak English and just pointed to the door!  He was really rude.  So we were stranded, God only knows where, at 3 am!!!  We were so scared!  We were sitting there on a bench waiting, when a different conductor walked by and said something in German and we told him we don’t speak German and he told us in English no more trains and then he was like where are you trying to go and we were like Heidelberg!  He sent us to the Hauptbanhof which ended up being only 300 meters from where we were.  So then we were able to sit somewhat safely inside the Hauptbanhof.  Then finally after the longest 2 hours ever, we got on the train to Heidelberg and eventually we made it home.  I got to my house at 7:30 am Monday…only 7 hours later than planned!   We counted it up and we had been on 18 different transportations within 24 hours!  All in all it was a great trip; we just could have left out the last part.  Especially since I had an exam on Monday!  Luckily it wasn’t until 5pm, so I slept until 2 and then studied a little before having to jump on the bus to school.