Being a Repat

I have been back in NC for 2 years. It's weird to think it's been that long and it's also weird to think I ever lived in Europe. 

Pros about being back:

1. I have lots of friends I can see at a moment's notice.

2. Driving - Nice huge roads to drive on and big parking spaces.

3. Not having to move so often now that I own a home again.

4. The weather - NC has amazing weather and when it is too hot or too cold our AC or Heat is always on, even when we aren't home so it's good the second we walk in the door. I even have a different thermostat on the different floors.

5. Washers and dryers - European washers could hold only a few clothes at a time. I can do 2 weeks worth of laundry and they still won't be full. :) 

6. Family being close so you don't have to count the hours to see what time it is to see if you can call.

7. Walmart, Target, and other department stores where it is a one stop shop.

Cons:

1. Politics - I wish everyone would be nice and respect people's views even if they are different than yours.

2. Traveling - I can travel in the US and see some amazing things, but in Europe you travel for a couple of hours and you are hearing another language, seeing different architecture, eating different foods, and enjoying different cultures.

3. National Parks vs. National Trust - National Parks are amazing and beautiful, but they are few and far between. National Trusts in England usually include an old house and beautiful gardens. They are also everywhere in England. I went to so many of them just for a morning or day trip.

4. West End vs. Broadway. I could go to a West End show for around £25. That was the normal price (Not all shows of course). I can't usually see a show for that comes to NC.

5. Cheap flights - I have multiple examples where the train to get to the airport was more expensive than the flight cost. I miss Ryan Air, Easyjet, and other discount airlines that let me hope around Europe every chance I got.

6. Walkable cities - Especially in Germany, I could take a train to the main station and walk to wherever I needed to get. German trains were also super cheap. English Trains were a little expensive.

Neuschwanstein Weekend

My landlord got a new wifi system and now my internet goes in and out, so I haven't posted any blogs lately.  Today, I'm going to try to get this post done before the internet goes out again.

Neuschwanstein Castle - My friend from work and I rented a car and went to see Mad King Ludwig's castles - We saw 2 and he has 4 (who knew?).  We went right after school and the leaves were just beginning to change and the drive was breathtaking.  Everywhere we looked we saw amazing sights!

Walking into
Hohenschwangau Castle 

Hohenschwangau Castle

  

To end the perfect day of beautiful sights, the sun gave us one more show!

Hands down, at night, Hohenschwangau castle is better than the Neuschwanstein castle.

This is the view from our hotel.  It is pretty, but at night it doesn't even compare to the other one!

Good morning sun, alps, and castle!

My friend Sam at the entrance of Neuschwanstein castle - who knew it was 2 colors!

Gorgeous views from the castle balcony.

The view from Neuschwanstein Castle!  I walked around that lake!

Looking toward the 2 castles from the other side of the lake -
we are actually in Austria in this picture!

This is the other side of Neuschwanstein castle looking onto the valley.

The gardens of Hohenschwangau castle.

What would a castle blog be without the turret?

Hohenschwangau castle isn't as pretty as Neuschwanstein during the day.
Neuschwanstein has the advantage also of the Alps for a background.

The Perfect Hotel and the Perfect Village

This may be the first May pole I have ever seen!

This is a little smoke house in the hotel's back yard.
They build a fire in the pit and warm themselves up from the cold winters.

This is a map we saw of the Camino.  It is a pilgrimage from all over Europe to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.  I knew about the trails that went from France to Spain and from Portugal to Spain, but I had no idea there were trails literally ALL over Europe!  The one that goes from the U.K. via boat looks like the one for me!

Love these frog princes that are everywhere!  This one says "Kiss me!"

Seriously?  This is our hotel's back yard.  This is fairytale land FOR SURE!

I thought this was just artistic!  I had to try several times to get what I wanted.
It reminds me of a book cover.

We saw a sign that said view, so we stopped to see the view!

Augsburg

I love love love these vines changing color on the sides of buildings!
It is so pretty!!!  These pictures do not do it justice!

Love the artistic buildings that put color into the city!

Weird Sounds, a Surprise Visitor, and Trash - Again.

German sounds:

1.  ei is pronounced with a long i sound.
2.  ie is pronounced with a long e sound.
3.  The e at the end of the word sounds like a short a.
4.  The w sounds like a v.
5.  The v sounds like a w.
6.  The z sounds like an s (they try to tell me it doesn't, but it does).
7.  The s sounds like a z (see above comment).
8.  The ä-ö-ü are impossible to pronounce so I'm already giving up on those!
9. ß is not a crazy b. It is 2 s's together - sort of. There are rules that I've been told and promptly forgotten, so as long as you know that it is an s sound, you are safe.

Now you know German - or at least you can read German and sing songs. I have no idea what they are saying, but since I don't have an English hymnal, I'm singing in German at church.

German Friends:

These are friends from church.  They often have guests over on a Sunday night.  This was my second Sunday coming.  This was a going away party for Bianca, my friend that went with me to Stuttgart.  I am going to miss her so much even though I hardly know her really.  We really bonded on that trip!.   You can see half of her head next to the little girl.  We ended the evening with singing and I got to sing in English while they were singing in German.  The thing I miss most about church in America is singing. I sing in German if the songs are slow enough for me to try to pronounce the words.  But I sing very quietly so I don't mess up.

A Surprise Visitor:

My brother Kenneth was sent to Munich for a sudden thing that happened with work.  He had 2 days advance notice.  He was in Munich for 4 days, so I decided to go see him for a few hours after work.  

So Munich is pretty much the capital of Oktoberfest and it started the weekend before Kenneth got here.  We found a great Bavarian restaurant with lots of great food.  It was great because there were so many people dressed in dirndls and lederhosen. It was very perfect for anyone with a few hours to spend being a tourist.  Most of the people of course were Americans and from the UK, but that is beside the point!  We were seeing costumes!  :)  Lol.  We heard more English on the streets than German for sure.  At least the waiters were German anyway.  Lol!  We had our wiener schnitzel and bratwurst.  We were as German as anyone else in the restaurant, but I should have worn my dirndl darn it!  I'll have to save it for next time.  (By the way, people at church wear theirs all the time.  One day, I'll be brave enough to wear mine.  It just seems wrong to wear since I'm an American.  But other Americans wear theirs, but they speak German fluently.)

One of those "chance" moments happened again when I mentioned to my friend that I was going to Munich on Wednesday.  She said that she was actually driving to Munich on Wednesday to catch a plane and would I like a ride.  Kenneth's hotel was close to the airport! Amazing coincidence, tender mercies, or Karma - No matter what it was, it was awesome to get a ride and to have time to get to know one of my co-workers even better!  The man in this picture - Jesus - is Kenneth's co-worker.  He and his wife are from Spain (I'm not sure why I have all these chance encounters with Spanish people).  They are amazing people and I had a delightful time speaking my Spanish with them.  I even got kissed at the beginning and the end of our time together.  They want me to contact them the next time I am in Madrid.  I swear I love Spanish people, they are amazing, warm, kind, and generous.  Germans are also lovely people.  I am pretty sure the reason my heart is in Spain is because I have spent more time there (Not to mention it is warm and has the ocean and the sea.  Any place that gives you kisses as you come and go is a pretty good place.)  I'm sure that I will love Germany as much as I love Spain. The Germans have actually really made me feel very welcome and have bent over backwards to make sure that I feel comfortable and I am a part of the group.  I love that Germans have groups that you can join everywhere.  Not to mention that the houses in Germany, the views, and the castles are amazing!

This is Edelweiss.  It was in the Bavarian restaurant that we went to.  Of course, we broke into song singing.  I had no idea Spanish people even heard of the Sound of Music.  Most Austrians and Germans never have.

Trash - Again:

Taking my paper trash for a walk.  We have bio pickup, plastic pick up, trash pick up, but no paper pick up.  So, I had a large pile of cardboard and trash to take, so I put it in my old lady grocery cart and took it for a walk to the nearest paper recycling thing about 3 blocks away.  Unfortunately, that one was too full and I couldn't stuff any of my stuff into it, so I had to go to the one about 3 blocks on the other side of my apartment building.

This paper recycling bin was the one that wasn't full to the brim, but if you look, it's pretty darn full, but I could at least stuff my paper in.  I was actually afraid I'd have to bring it back home with me and keep storing it until I knew a paper bin was empty enough for my stuff.  Darn IKEA and all the paper that comes with their stuff.  I bought a blanket at a grocery store and I actually unwrapped it at the paper recycling place so I didn't have to bring it home with me and take it for a walk back later on.

The View from Other Side of the Street:

Do you ever get in a habit of doing something the same way every time you do it?  Well, whenever I walked toward the city after work, I always walked on the same side of the street as the school - of course, it is straight.  Well, last Thursday I walked toward game night and I crossed the street right past my school.  I was very surprised to see how pretty it was.  There are lots of multi-colored houses with lots of German charm.  I had noticed the stores on the ground level before and I had even gone in a few of them, but I never noticed it was so pretty above the stores.  So, I decided to walk to game night a different way and I passed an Asian restaurant.  Mr. Luu's.  I remembered that I had gotten a flier about the delivery that was available.  I looked in the restaurant and it was empty.  The chef was at the top of the stairs and looking out.  I felt so sorry for him that I almost walked right in even though I had just finished a huge meal at school (It was a fundraising meal for a school in Nepal).  I didn't go in, but I felt like I should to support him!  It was in downtown Neu-Ulm, but it was a side street with nothing around but houses.  I had never been down this street before and had no idea it was even there.  Do you ever see things and imagine what is really happening?  I made up this whole story about that man standing there on his own trying to earn money for his family in some poor Asian country.  I hope he has success.  After playing games, I went back by the same street and looked back in.  Still no one was there and the man was gone from view.  Possibly in the kitchen just sitting and hoping that someone came.  This reminds me that I should go by sometime for dinner.  :)  

Nuremberg: Who is to blame?

Nuremberg:  A place of castles, cathedrals, and a long history.

All these pictures were taken with my cell phone using the selfie method because the SIM card messed up my regular picture taking ability on my phone.  So, sorry if they are a little sideways or cut off.

I almost didn't see this!  You have to look over the bridge to see this view.  I love the arches to make way for the water.

I love this saying.  Although it is sad and tragic, I think it's a metaphor for when anything horrible happens in our life.  This cathedral - one of the smaller ones - has pictures of right before the bombing of Nuremberg with Nazi flag after Nazi flag to the finish of the rebuilding of the cathedral.  There are sayings like this that accompany each of the pictures.  It is moving to say the least and had me wondering who was to blame.  I am going to chalk it up to the casualties of war with my American brain saying that it had to be done, Hitler had to be stopped and this was how it was done.  There was no alternative.

  

Walking down a cute colorful street on the way to the cathedral.

 The following pictures are from either the top of the 

castle tower or the surrounding area.

This shows the destruction of Nuremberg from the bombings of World War 2.  Most of the buildings are completely destroyed and all seem to have at least some damage.  These pictures were all around the top of the tower.  So you would see the before picture, the after picture, and look out the window to see the city as it is now.   I liked the pictures in the cathedral a little bit better because to me, this shows the destruction only.  It didn't show the row after row of Nazi flags like the cathedral did.  To me the castle talked about the destruction rather than the consequences of following an evil dictator.  

This is a model of a well that was found inside the castle walls.  It is so deep that it took about 5 seconds for us to hear the splash of water that the guide poured in.  Sorry I don't have a picture of the well, but you can't see down it at all because it is so dark.

I climbed to the top of this tower!  It has great views!

This was breakfast - It was very yummy and not cheesecake at all.  The "plain" one actually had a nutty mixture in the middle.  I love German bakeries!  YUM!