My Family Comes to Europe // Berlin, Munich, Salzburg & Prague

Hey friends!

If you know my family, then you know why this is a big, BIG deal. If you don't know my family...this is a big, BIG deal!

My mom has maybe been on an airplane twice? Since I've been alive anyway! We were never a 'vacation' family growing up. We went to Northern Michigan and spent many weekends on the lake, but we didn't travel. If we left the state it was with my Grandma and we only went to New York. If we left the country... mmm well we didn't!

I feel incredibly grateful that we were able to invite my family to come for 2 weeks. Let's dive in shall we!?

My Mom Robin, Brother Julian, Sister Danielle, Brother-in-law Justin and Aunt Tina all made there way to Germany a few days after Christmas.

My goal was to fill them all up with many stories to tell.

After multiple delays and 40 hours of traveling, they FINALLY made it! (Pretty sure my mom will never fly again, but that is a story for another time!) And what do you do when you get to Germany? Well you have a schnitzel and a beer of course!

I even made them ride the bus! This trip was sure to be filled with a lot of firsts. :)

We took a day trip to Berlin on their second day here, and we pretty much suck because we I took no pictures! I blame it on the exhaustion that everyone felt! And the jet lag. (Even though I was quite well rested, whoops.) My sister and aunt both took a lot of pictures in Berlin, so that is all that matters. :) I have blogged Berlin a few times before. :)

We explored Berlin, being sure to see some of the famous sights and we were fortunate enough to be able to check out the Christmas market there.

Brandenburg Gate at night! Such a beauty.

We celebrated the New Year in Braunschweig, and I am pretty sure it was an experience NO one will forget! It was incredible! So. Many. Fireworks.

I made a large turkey breast for dinner, like a traditional holiday meal and we played family games. May not be the most wild New Years you ever heard about, but we enjoyed ourselves. About 30 minutes before midnight we walked to the center of town to see the firework display. The display is done independently by anyone who purchased fireworks within the few days approaching the New Year. Fireworks are only sold for three days before the New Year. And I am pretty sure every last one of them gets bought!

We explored Braunschweig and I showed them some of my favorite parts of town. :)

After a few days at my house, we loaded up two cars and set off for a European road trip! Complete with manual transmissions and snow. :) Due to our large group, we had to take two cars because Europe loves their small cars. Blake drove one car, and MY mom had to drive the second car. Pretty sure she felt like she was back in the 80's. :) She did great and we made it there in one piece!

First Stop: Munich!

We arrived at dinner time because of the snow and traffic. We rented a truly lovely AirBnB a few train stops away from downtown. It was perfect!

For dinner we went to Blake's favorite place in Munich. Augustiner Brau. We ate more delicious German food and of course indulged in a few more German beers!

Marienplatz in a winter wonderland.

We started at Marienplatz for day 2 in Munich. My sweet family.

We explored all around in Munich! It was the day we put the most miles in. The family still had gas in them, so we used it!

We stepped up our game of taking photos of US throughout the rest of the trip, I promise. :)

Second Stop: Salzburg

We also rented an AirBnB here and it was darling as well, plus the location was superb!

The direct translation of Salzburg is "Salt Castle", there are many salt mines in the area that you can visit. Or you can do it like we did and visit the salt store! It was awesome. We got cooking salts, bath salts, salt soap, basically all kinds of salt goodies!

Mozart's Birth House

Sweet cold family!

*Fun Fact* - Behind us is Pferdeschwemme or Horse Wash/Well. This is where the Royals had their horses washed. It is said to have inspired car washes as we know them today. 

Salzburg is magical!

We even got so lucky as to experience their Christmas market as well. I say lucky because we were there well after Christmas, and in Germany most of the markets close before the New Year.

After a long day of exploring, we went to a German restaurant for dinner. I convinced Danielle and Blake that we should each get a liter of beer. As one does :).

Our 2nd day in Salzburg was a little snowy. After this picture we took a funicular to the top of Fortress Hohensalzburg. This was amazing! I highly recommend this.

Views from the top!

Salzburg Cathedral

We made our way to Mirabell Palace where The Sound of Music was filmed, but if you have ever seen that movie you know that the true beauty is because it's summer! While it was still beautiful, it was completely covered in snow and not as magical as I know a summer visit would be. So here's a tip for you - if you are going to Salzburg mainly for The Sound of Music, go in the summer :).

We aren't even a little bit cold. ;)

Third Stop: Prague

This post is getting all sorts of long, so since I have blogged about Prague before I will keep this section merely fun and short. :)

The Family in front of the Prague Castle.

I am adding this in for fun, because I feel like it is real good info. :)

I had to show them the Prague Beer Museum.

Mom and Aunt Tina with Prague behind them. :)

Lastly, the family on the Charles Bridge.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our family trip! If you are contemplating your own family trip to Europe, might I encourage you to go! I have great tips on planning, saving and traveling with a group! :)

June and Wolfenbüttel

HELLO JUNE. Come on everyone, say it with me. Summer is here!

Today in Braunschweig it is sad and rainy. I walked to the grocery store, in the rain. But guess what, I am still super stoked that it is June!!! I am going to try something new. :) At the beginning of each month I am going to share with you a few goals that I have, and then at the end I will let you know how successful I was. I am doing this to hold me accountable to my goals, and I encourage you all to share your monthly goals with me!

My June goals are:

1. Read 5 new books: I want to read a lot more this month. I want to turn the TV off, stash away the computer, put down my phone and read. I want to dive into some really good books!

2. Workout at least 5 days: I brought some really great workout DVDs with me to Germany, and I want to commit to them. Some of the workout sessions are only 25 minutes long, leaving plenty of time in my day to do other things. I am really going to try to do one workout M-F.

3. Plan vacations: I want to think longer than just the few weeks ahead. I want to plan out some places for us to go that are further out then next weekend. I need to sit down and just hash it out, do the research, book the tickets, reserve a room, just really sit down and knock some vacation planning out!

4. Enjoy the outdoors: I want to spend at least 30 minutes outside everyday, even if it is raining.

These are my short term goals this month! Here's to hoping I can accomplish them! Some of them are things I should be doing anyways, but writing them down and having them at the top of my mind each day are going to ensure that at 7pm if I haven't read, I will, or if I haven't enjoyed the outdoors, I can get up and go do that!

Now I want to share with you this cute little town we went exploring in yesterday!

Wolfenbüttel

Wolfenbüttel is about 20 minutes from Braunschweig, it is a small old town that wasn't destroyed during the war because it was the area where they would bring all the sick or wounded. Much of the buildings are original! It was just a beautiful quaint little town that I was happy to explore!

We met up with our friend Vanessa for one of her last nights in Germany. It was very bittersweet, but we are happy she gets to move back to DC!



The castle! There is also a University in there. How neat to attend class everyday in a place so beautiful.



The smallest house in Wolfenbüttel! Blake could touch both ends of the house at the same time. Isn't it cute?



The main street through the town. No cars allowed. :)



Cute houses and buildings.



One of the many churches in town.

For dinner we ate at a very cool restaurant. The outside portion was sand and inside it was all wood, with doors that opened so you felt like you were outside. It was raining, so we ate inside.



I had Flammkuchen... of course!



And a beer. :)

No post this Friday. Blake and I are attending a 'Welcome to Germany' seminar that VW is holding.

Then this weekend we're off to Cologne. Can anyone say Kölsch!

Ciao!

Monday in Germany

Today I bring you the blog from our HOUSE! No more hotel!!! What a joy!

It finally feels like we actually live here now. No more vacation!

I made my own breakfast today, for the first time in 3 weeks...and it was amazing.

Last week we went to the laundromat. Boy oh boy, what an experience! Seriously. We put all of our clothes in what we though was a washer, even poured in the soap. Only to realize 10 minutes later it was a dryer. After we finally figured out how to somewhat make sense of the machines we were stylin'!

Our clothes being washed... how exciting! The washing machine was HUGE. It was a bit expensive though. 8 euro to wash, .70 euro cents to dry. We had to dry 3 times before the clothes were no longer wet. We mixed, darks and whites (my mother would be so disappointed, sorry ma) all went together. So we did manage to wash 3 weeks worth of clothes for about 10 bucks! And we will be making a few more trips there. Our washing machine at our new place will be out of commission for 4-6 weeks! Aye aye aye. But at least we have a kitchen.

Friday we went to apply for my visa. And... drumroll please. All went well! They were fine with all my documents and they gave me a one year visa! They are waiting to process it just until we are able to get a letter from the bank. So there is one small piece still missing but nothing that involves a decision! The decision is already made. :) 

The front of our building! We are on the second floor. The building has a paging system? Is that what they're called? I am not sure, as I have never had one. But there is a button with our name and if it is pushed, we can ask who it is and buzz them in :) so that is kind of fun!

Our new landlords are so very sweet! They got us champagne, and painted us a picture that has USA to EU on it, it is very cute! 

Friday night we stayed in. We needed to rest up for our big day on Saturday! ;) Not really a big day, but a trip to Ikea - so that requires rest. 

I am bad and took NO photos at Ikea. Maybe I am not actually bad, I don't know what there is to see! If you have been to one Ikea, you have been to them all! The process was the same. And even though everything was in German, we could still figure out how to get around. There were arrows - a universal symbol :)! There was not a whole lot of differences. Many of the things I have seen in the US were there. The only difference I saw was more of some things and less of others. In the US, Ikea's selection of kitchen tables is awful. Well here, it is lavish! There were tons, and a lot nicer than the ones in the states. But everything else, pretty much the same!

Since we will only be here a year, we didn't need much. We set out to Ikea to buy some pillows, an ironing board, a drying rack, a few things that were missing from the kitchen, and any other random inexpensive thing that we felt we might benefit from (like an ottoman tray). 

After that we headed to Real. I would consider this like a Walmart or a Target. It was huge and it had everything from produce to TV's. We needed some staples - food for Sunday's dinner only, hand soap, toilet paper. Things like that.

A cart ramp at the Real! This thing was neat! An escalator for you and your cart! The cart wheels had little magnets on the bottom and off it went! (See that Haribo! I wasn't joking when I said we eat too much of it!)

Saturday night we were invited to a BBQ and Beer Tasting at our friend Vanessa's house. She lives in the town right next to Braunschweig. Her brother picked us up and drove us over there. Her family was incredibly sweet and generous for welcoming us over with a wonderful meal! Her dad had over 20 German beers for us to try! We had a great night, and headed home in a cab at 2 in the morning. Let that be an indication of how we spent Sunday. We didn't do a whole lot. It was relaxing and wonderful. It was almost 90 degrees here. And no, we don't have air conditioning. Our apartment stays surprisingly very very cool!

We did cook our first meal though. I was making baked potatoes. I never knew how difficult it would be to read the oven signs.

 

Even with the help of this site I still am not sure I know what they mean. But any who, I have never had a brand new oven, so I was not entirely aware of what was going to happen after I turned the oven on. I let the oven warm up like normal, and then I open it to put my potatoes in and the BIGGEST gust of smoke comes pouring out. And the smell. The smell was awful. I googled, and apparently the first time you turn the oven on this happens, and it's normal. #thankyougoogle

Blake opened all the windows and we went on with our dinner! I am hoping tonight the oven isn't so bad! 

Come back Wednesday to read about my first solo trip to the market! I am off to get the house in order and find spots for our things. :)

Friday and the House

House Number 3!!!!

An overwhelming number of you guessed that :)

I think my writing was biased towards the home that we picked!

We get the keys next Wednesday, and we can't wait!!! It really just seemed the most like home, while each house had little bits of greatness, when we walked in there we both just knew! Plus, it really will be nice to have the extra space to accommodate our guests! :)

If you are wondering what we eat everyday, because I know that I would wonder what you all eat everyday if you lived in a hotel, let me tell you.

OUT... we eat out everyday for every meal and we are really really sick of it! What's a girl got to do to get a grilled cheese or some chicken!!! That is another reason we are very, VERY excited to move. So we can cook!

But, the upside of eating out is that we get to try a variety of places and things. My new favorite food here is Flammkuchen - it is bread dough rolled out incredibly thin with crème fraîche cheese and traditional toppings of onions and bacon. It is glory.

Here is my half eaten flammkuchen. If you google translate that it says tarte, so when I ordered it I truly had know idea what I was in store for!

I will post some random pictures from our days, and show you the very cool place we had dinner at last night!

That is the main office at the Volkshochschule - where I registered (attempted to anyways) for German class! 

*** Update on that, the school is full until October, but I need to be in a class in August in order to get a Visa. We chose this school as it is the cheapest. There is a very large increase in refugees here who are taking the spots in the classes. She put me on the waiting list for the class in July and the class in the middle of August, but said it wasn't likely I would get a spot. We paid for the October class and left. After some searching I found another class at Berlitz, which is another language center - but much more commercial (there are even some in the USA) so the cost is much greater. They offer a class starting in August that is more of a German life class, you learn some of the language, but you also learn how to function in society (how to order off a menu, how to write an email, how to fill out forms - all in German), as well as German History and Culture. In order to enroll in this course you have to take a proficiency exam so they can place you in the correct module, I told her I know nothing so I think were good and she said I still have to take the exam. I go to Berlitz next Thursday at 8am to do just that. After I take the oral and written German test and they see that I was IN FACT not making it up that I can't speak or write in German they will let me register for the course. This course is not too expensive and is going to be the perfect alternative that we need! Next Friday, at 8:30 am I go back to the Braunschweig City Hall with all of my papers and hope they give me a Visa!***

We went to I-Vent Braunschweig last night with our friend Vanessa! This restaurant sits at the very top of a 17 story building! You take an elevator up to the top, and you are seated amongst the glass restaurant. You can see for miles, it was really lovely! What was so different about it was that restaurants like this in the US you see buildings, here it was just so green! I loved the change. 

The restaurant was a Spanish tapas place, so the title of the food was in Spanish and the description in German. I was really screwed! Thankfully Vanessa and Blake came to my rescue. In the US tapas are usually pretty small, so I ordered 3. Well these were huge, I probably could've gotten away with 2. 

Was all pretty tasty! I was not a fan of the top left, I clearly missed the description. 

That's all for today folks!!! We are off to Prague for the holiday weekend here in Germany! I won't be blogging until Tuesday next week - but then I will tell you all about our time in Prague!

Enjoy your weekends, and thank you for reading! <3