Schloss Neuschwanstein

Schloss Neuschwanstein was THE castle that I’ve definitely wanted to see in Germany (I mean, I only made it my main blog photo…) and I finally got to see it on October 10^th 2014!!!! After this post I’m going to change my blog photo to the one I took when I was there with me in it, lol)

I actually got to see Schloss Neuschwanstein as part of the Munich tour, at first I decided not to go because it was quite a bit extra, but changed my mind in Munich, and it was definitely worth the money. Not only did I get to see Schloss Neuschwanstein, as part of the castle tour we actually saw Schloss Linderhof also. We also stopped in a town called Passionsspieldorf Oberammergau on the way to Neuschwanstein. The town is famous for its Passion Plays and also fairy tale houses.

Schloss Linderhof was very beautiful also, but it was a lot smaller and a lot more ornamented on the inside than Schloss Neuschwanstein. We weren’t allowed to take photos of the inside of the castle, but I did buy postcards with pictures of the inside to remember what I see J ) Once we got to Schloss Neuschwanstein, hiking up the hill was probably our biggest challenge. But all is well cause we stopped half way up to eat. After the tour inside Schloss Neuschwanstein, we (Lyndee, Maygen and I) went up to Marien Bridge to take pictures (this is where people take pictures most of the time) 

Pictures:

Schloss Linderhof

A Fairy Tale painted house

Side view of Schloss Neuschwanstein

Schloss Neuschwanstein (back view)

The view from behind Schloss Neuschwanstein 

Schloss Neuschwanstein side view from Marien Bridge 

Front view of Schloss Neuschwanstein 

Schloss Hohenschwangau

Side view of Schloss Neuschwanstein from Marien Bridge!

München (Munich)

     I think a new thing Experiment e.V. (German partner with CIEE) is currently trying is having touring trips in major German cities for its exchange students in Germany. Everyone was invited to attend a 4-day-3-night trip to München (or Munich), but only 20 of us decided to attend (the trip was on the slightly expensive side, but I thought it was very worth it).

     I got to München HBF on Wednesday (Oct. 8th… I know, this post is very late, will explain later) and I was a hour early, so I just went around the HBF looking at the little shops and the book shops, then I discover two CBYXers were at the Starbucks, so I went and joined them and had a nice talk before we had to go to the meeting spot. Then!!! I discovered that Sarah (the teamer from language camp) was one of our teamers in München!!! I was super excited to see her again (and now that I’m writing about her, I remembered that I haven’t contacted her yet.. ops)

     We then went to the hostel that we will be staying at for the next few days and had a nice German dinner (Spätzle, I got the vege version though, they ran out of meat…) then had get to know you activities since not all the people there knew each other (there were like 8-9 CBYXers though). After that we had time to unpack and get the bed sheets, etc.

     The next day, we all had breakfast, got our bus tickets and maps and headed out to München City center. We saw Marienplatz first, then had a guided tour through the main city. We learned about the origin of the city (monks lived here, grew because of salt export), saw St. Peter’s tower, Hofbräuhaus, Frauenkirche and the marketplace. After the tour we had free time for lunch, and Charlotte, Lyndee, Olivia, Maygen and I decided to go to the Hard Rock Café for lunch and because they wanted to buy a shirt. But… we forgot that in Germany, the servers take their time with the order, and the food takes its time to arrive cause most of the time if Germans go out to eat, they spend a couple of hours talking and eating, but we didn’t have a couple of hours, we had about one hour to for eating, but we didn’t get our food until 5 mins before we had to leave, so we had to wolf down our food (we also felt bad about confirming American Stereotypes instead of getting rid of them).

     Then we got to go to the Deutsches Museum. I think any other time I would have enjoyed the Museum, but by the time we got there, I was already a little exhausted from all the walking (and because we went to bed really late but woke up really early) I mainly sat in one of the exhibitions and stayed there most of the time. The museum is a science museum though, so a lot of the stuff you really need to have some knowledge about the topic to find it interesting.

     After the Deutsches Museum we went to see the Parliament building, then had free time for dinner. We actually got to meet up with another CBYXer that lives in the area (Kali) and we went to a couple of shops (one of the friends got two dirndl, which is a traditional German dress) then got some food (well, I got an Ice Shake... haha no real food for me) 

Pictures:

Marienplatz

Devil's Foot inside of Frauenkirche

no explanation needed ;)

Carbon car inside of Deutsches Museum

Deutsches Museum from a distance

Parliament Building (I think)

Marienplatz

My Chocolate Ice Shake in Munich! (& Olivia)

Holiday Park, Laser Tagging and my first non-alcoholic CocktailSp

So the reason I haven’t updated in a while- I really haven’t had much time between school, learning German and trying to integrate with my host family. But I have done some fun things I would like to mention. My host family and I and another family went to Holiday Park last Saturday, it wasn’t much different from the last time I went, but I did try a couple new rides (water rides) and it was relaxing and fun. Then, I went with my neighbor and her friends to a nearby laser tagging range to play some laser tagging! I’ve never played laser tagging before so it was really exciting for me to try.

After we drove to the address provided on the website (for the laser tagging place), we actually had to search around to find the right building. We were actually the only ones at the time that wanted to play, so instead of playing in teams, we all played against each other (there were 4 of us total). We got our vest and gun and were told that we have 99 lives total, and there’s only three places that you can hit and “kill” someone (two in the front, close to the shoulder blades and one in the back (dead center)) and that after you lost a life, you have 5 seconds of immunity that gives you the chance to run and hide.

We ended up playing two sessions (one session is 20 minutes) and it was a lot of fun. But a little too much for me, I think I would do it again, but would have to call it quits after 1 session next time. By the end of the 2^nd session I was ready for it to end (I was sweating and nervous that someone’s going to pop out of nowhere and kill me (which actually happened several times already)) It was a great relief for me when I notice that my gun stopped working (only happens when the session ends) and I walked to the entrance of the range to meet my friends. It was really no surprise for me that I was the lowest scoring one out of the four of us, although I did improve significantly after the first round.

Then… (dramatic music) we decided to go to McDonald’s first to eat (which was actually the first time I had McDonald’s since coming to Germany) because the Enchilada place/bar/Mexican restaurant is pretty expensive and I think they wanted to spend money on cocktails instead of food, which is understandable. So I got my first Big Mac in Germany, and it was sooo delicious (although it was a little dry). I was actually kinda glad to eat a McDonald’s too because a couple days ago I was thinking that I really miss American food, and American food was what I got at McDonald’s (well, sort of…) So after dinner, we all drove to the Enchilada place to actually meet two other people and I got my first non-alcoholic cocktail! I have no idea why I waited so long to get one, it was really delicious (basically awfully good mixed juice that you can’t really get anywhere else). I was really surprised that most of the people I was with actually got a non-alcoholic beverage too (I think Germans are much more responsible when they’re the designated driver, probably because driver license actually costs a small fortune).

Spring Fever

All in all, I had a very good time, even though I got home pretty late and had to wake up at 7 to go to church… lol