Bonnie Scotland

Scotland, oh Scotland. A country I just discovered wasn't a province in England not more than a year ago. Still, when my girl Sammy said she had booked tickets, I jumped at the opportunity to spend a week traveling with her!

Not to make myself sound like a super ignorant American (I figured I kinda already did that in my first paragraph) but here is a conclusive list of the things I knew about Scotland prior to my trip: whiskey, time warp portals (Outlander anyone?), kilts, bagpipes, and a strong accent that even native english speakers can't understand.

I am happy to inform you, Scotland gives a lot more.

We flew into Edinburgh where my good friend Adi is doing his masters. Adi and I met traveling last summer and have staying in contact, and he was nice enough to be our guide for the week!! He was seriously the best guide ever. He knew everything!! He even drove us up into the Highlands for a day. But I'll get back to that later.

First lesson learned: Scotland is COLD!! For some reason, after living in Germany, I thought there was no where on the planet who could have worse summers than here. I was wrong. It might have been 40 degrees, but I could be rounding up. I was freezing. Adi drove us home, then took us to a pub where he instructed Sammy on all the different flavors and we listened to live music.

 The next day we woke up and did a walking tour of Edinburgh. We learned a lot about the dark past of Edinburgh!! We also got to see where many famous authors got there start, along with the cemetary JK Rowling walked around when she needed inspiration. You can find the names of characters on the graves!!

Pond on the way to old town

Edinburgh Castle

Graveyard

This marked the graves of people who died from infectious diseases.. to warn grave robbers

Where JK Rowling wrote the first few Harry Potters

Bagpiper

After this, we walked hiked to the top of Edinburgh to a place called Arthurs Seat. You can see a 360 degree panoramic of the entire city. It's really beautiful. Especially with the ocean in the background. It was one of those moments where I look out and can't believe that some people don't believe in a god. There's no way something a gorgeous as that could have happened by accident. But that just my opinion. It was very windy and we were quite cold, but stayed up there as long as possible. A lady was up there playing the bagpipes which made it even better!

Half-way up

The ocean

Casually bagpipping

Freezing

Old chapel ruins on the way down

Edinburgh sunset (it's on a bay, that's the other side in the background)

We woke up super early the next morning and drove up! I don't know where we stopped, but Adi knew all the good places. Our final stop was Loch Ness, where we said hi to Nessie and played in Castle Urquart. We drank lots of hot chocolate and saw lots of rainbows on the way up!!

Doune Castle, where Monty Python was filmed

Rainbow over Urquart Castle

Group Photo

God reminding us He's not going to flood to earth again. Phew!

We were exhausted when we got back. Sammy and I watched a movie and slept a long time. The next day we went to the Scottish Musuem. We saw lots of cool things, like the first cloned sheep "Dolly" who has since been stuffed. We also saw the first chest board and found a lots of cool coins. Oh, and we got our New Year's Eve outfits. You like?

We went home and watched a movie/waited for Adi to get home. Then we cooked dinner and went to our underground tour!! As mentioned before, Edinburgh has a dark history. One of which is an underground city. Once affluent, later abondoned, then reused by the homeless, drug-addicts, prostitutes, and such types of people. It was three stories underground and there were no windows. All the water from the streets washed into the lowest floor (remember they used to throw their poop on the streets) and the average life span of someone living here was 3-6 months. Gross. It was so bad, the cops wouldn't even go in it. Now it's used to give tourists a fright. The lead you in their by candle light and tell you the darkest stories and some of paranormal activity. It was a bit hokey, but we still got a good scare and had a LOT of fun.

After this, we went to pub to hear live music. All in all, the trip was a huge success. We had such a great time and most of it was thanks to our awesome host Adi!! Thanks again!

Boom Goes the Dynamite

About 70 years ago, there was this war... It was kind of world wide, no big deal. It was the second time such a war has happened... Therefore the name "World War Two". Maybe you've heard of it?
 A lot of it took place in the very town I'm living it.

As a result, occasionally when doing construction or the unlucky child is walking through the woods (too soon?) they uncover one. This happened less than a block from where Erik lives:

It weighs a whopping 550 pounds!!!

A similar type of bomb was found earlier this year in  another town in Germany. While trying to excavate it, it was set off and three people were killed. It was a tragic accident that kind of shook up the town. To prevent this from happening, as soon as it was identified the nearby buildings were evacuated (including Erik's building)

After careful inspection, they realized it was unsafe to try to disarm, so they were going to set it off. It was all over the news, but I was working and wasn't able to follow it as closely as I would have liked. Around 10 pm, I was about 1.5 miles away, and I heard a gianormous "BOOM!" I called my host mom. "Christa did you hear that?" "Yes!", she answered. "The entire house shook!" I couldn't believe it. We live about 2 miles from where the bomb is, and our house shook!!!

The next day was very exciting. Everyone wanted to get a look at the aftermath. The police had blocked off the site, but you could get pretty close. Within about a 2 block radius, the downstairs windows of many buildings were broken (including Erik's building, but luckily he's on the 3rd floor).

The view from Erik's building. The bomb was on the other side of the Mc Donalds

Can you see the broken windows?

The smell of smoke and gunpowder was really strong. The next day it started to rain, and poured for the next four days. Four days later, the smell of gunpowder was still there.

I have to say, it was a pretty eye-opening experience. Being American, I have never seen war or the affects of war on my own soil. I see it in movies and hear about it on TV shows, but I have never been through anything close to a war zone. It was brought to my attention that this particular bomb was dropped a few hundred times a day, on one city. That blew my mind. Seeing and feeling the impact of what just one bomb could do, I couldn't imagine having to listen to that blast 100 times.

This is the construction site, but you can see all the blackend walls from the blast.

I guess now I have a better chance of trying to understand the calamities of war. I never really realized how sheltered Americans are. I have no fear of war on American soil. It makes me wonder if people experienced war first hand if we might not get involved in as many as we do. Hmm. Who knows. I don't mean to get all political, I'm just saying. I'm really glad I got to witness this with my own two eyes.

If you're interested, here is a link to the video of the fireball created by the bomb. It's pretty impressive if I do say so myself. You can skip to 19 seconds to just see the blast and the aftermath.

Krankenwagen

When it comes to emergencies, Americans take themselves very seriously. I never realized HOW seriously until I called 911 in Germany for the first time.

Two friends and I were out of the house for the night when one of my friends started complaining of back pain. She said she really wasn’t feeling well, and eventually we decided to go home early. About 5 am, I get woken up: “Stephanie, you need to get up now. Emma collapsed on the floor.” Groggily, I start to come to. Then I see her. My friend Emma is on the ground keeled over in pain. “Call the ambulance, call the ambulance,” she’s crying. Tiki looks at me, “Stephanie, call the ambulance. We don’t speak German.” Crap. I think to myself. Now, my Germans pretty okay, but over the phone describing symptoms? I’m nervous. I pick up the phone. “What’s the emergency number?” No one knows. My head goes into panic mode. I take a deep breath in, say a prayer, and proceed. I find the number on a website, call it, and receive a message: “Sorry, we are closed. Please call back during normal business hours”. What the heck? I mean, I am in Germany, the country of closed Sundays, but could it really be possible to only be able to get an ambulance during normal business hours?? I look on the internet again, and try the fire brigade. Ah ha! I get through. I calmly explain to the gentleman that I need an ambulance, and somehow manage to describe her symptoms, what has happened throughout the night, where we are, and what’s going on. Divine intervention I’m sure. He assures us they on their way, and I hang up.

Three minutes later, the bell rings. Someone’s here. Thinking we’re back home, Tiki and I run as fast as we can to the door to prevent them from knocking it down. We look for the keys—can’t figure out how to open the door. Both she and I panic, thinking any minute there will be an axe at the door as they run in trying to save our lives. We finally manage to open the door, and rush to the gate.

“Servus!” (Bavarian equivalent to “Whad up”) shouts not one, not two, but three gorgeous, beautiful young EMT’s. Tiki and I look at each other. She gives me the look of: Really? Is this really happening? Of all the times to send good-looking EMT’s, they had to pick now? “Great,” she says to me. Both of us are in our pajamas, five minutes ago I wasn’t wearing any pants, and it had just rained on us before we went to bed. Needless to say, we were looking pretty gross. They greet us casually, saying the German equivalent to “Sup dudes good morning. How’s it going?” Tiki and I look at each other puzzled. They calmly come into the house, just looking around saying, “So where’s your friend?” We direct them to Emma. She explains that she doesn’t speak German, and one switches to English. He had of the strongest German accent I’ve ever heard. He sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Doez it hurt hier? Ah okay. Und here? Ah okay. Und hafe you peid? Ja okay. I zink ve need to go to ze hospital!” He sings. Tiki and I can’t look at each other for fear of laughing. They help her up the stairs and into the ambulance. 

Off they go, to the hospital, no siren, no rush, just chillin having a peaceful journey, and I had yet another invaluable cultural experience. There really is no place like Germany. (Except maybe Austria, and parts of Switzerland, but that's another story)

PS.  I’m sure you’re wondering what happened to my friend Emma. Don’t worry, she was fine, just had an easy treatment and was out the next day.

Enjoying Bavarian Holidays: Maria Himmelfahrt

Welcome to another ridiculous Bavarian Holiday! I find it incredibly interesting to have so many religious holidays in a country as secular as Germany. But that's not the point of my post.

Since the airport is open everyday, I don't get the day off. But I just wanted to take a moment to wish you all a Happy Maria Himmelfahrt Day... And for all of you to take a breath, have a rest, and enjoy... because it's pronounced, "Him-mel FART!!" Hahahaha.

Have a great day everyone!

Nanny Problems: A dead Mouse

     It was a lovely summer day and Emily and I were outside playing princess. I wasn't technically working, but Christa was in the shower and Emily wanted to play with me, so of course I went outside with her.

Emi runs in the corner to hide from me when she stops:"Komm mal Steffie, hier, schnell! Crok mal was ich gefunden hab!!" Come Steffie here fast! Look what I found! I come running over. "A dead mouse!" She replies enthusiastically. "No Emi, don't touch, back away from that". I told her. I'm thinking: Ew. Gross. I really hope Christa doesn't ask me to pick this up. Emi is so intrigued. "I don't want to touch it, I just want to look". So she hovers over it. "Poor, poor mouse". She repeats. I'm incredibly grossed out. I don't see why Emi wants to stare at it, but she really seems to like the thing. Next thing I know, she has a flower in her hand. One by one, she starts picking the petals off and throwing them over the mouse. She was so somber about it. It was pretty sweet, I have to say.

When she was done throwing flowers over it, she says to me, "Steffie, go get mommy. She can start the grill up and we can cook it and eat it."

Erhm. Excuse me. "No, Emi, we can't eat the mouse".

"I don't mean now," she said, "I mean later. For dinner". 

I stop. Now, my German's pretty okay, but there's just some concepts and words I have trouble expressing. I start to think and put together the words I do know, and I think it came out something like this: "Emi, your not allowed eat mice. They are dirty and have a lot of bacteria on top of them. If you eat them, you would get sick."

Either I drastically butchered my German, Or she didn't believe me.

"Don't worry," she tells me, "Mommy will make it yummy".

Some might say my patience is running a little dry, but at this moment I admitted defeat. "Let's go get your mommy and show her. I bet she wants to see".

"Yayyyyy!!!!" exclaimed Emi.

So off we went, into the bathroom, to get a very surprised Christa. In her towel and all, she came outside to get rid of our dead little friend, and I was a very happy girl.

P.S. We didn't have mice for dinner.

Nanny Problems: The Laughing Stock of the Zoo

After eight months in Munich, I decided: Germans just don't laugh. We've watched funny movies together, we've heard jokes, we've seen police officers give tickets with their fly down: and nothing. Just me, sitting there, living up to the American Stereotype as the single person loudly cracking their head off. I've learned to adjust. If I find something funny, I usually just quietly giggle to myself. So when I went to the zoo, I wasn't expecting anything different.

I'm an Au Pair. I make less in a month than my boyfriend spends on the average weekend out. It's a little depressing. Luckily, as a native english speaker, there are many opportunities for me to make a little extra cash watching other people's children. One of which, is a nice half German half American family with two young boys.

I get a call early Tuesday morning that both the mother and the father were very sick, and asked if I could take the 2 year old the the zoo for a few hours so they could sleep. Now, I love this family, but the mother is a little bit overprotective to say the least. No judgement, just a statement of fact. When I arrived, she had a bag waiting for me with all the things I needed for the day. As I'm pulling things out, I get to the bottom of the bag, and low and behold-- a leash. Yes my friends, I was going to be one of those parents with their children on a leash. Thankfully, it was a nice one with a little monkey on the back (I'm trying to think positively). Internally, a part of me died a little bit, but I was happy thinking: It's okay. The Germans are very reserved and non nosey people. No one will say anything. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Monkey leash

We start walking around the zoo. We're seeing zebras and giraffes-- the little boy was having a great time. I start to notice people pointing and whispering, but I kind of just figured they were looking at the animals. We enter the monkey exhibit. The boy and I walking around watching the monkeys, and we start to hear, "oh my gosh do you see that kid? what is he a dog?" I roll my eyes. I hear a little giggling--figure its nothing. The kid and I stand still because he sees some monkeys he really likes. We're looking and having a great time. One male monkey starts chasing a female monkey around the cage. A big crowd starts to form. The monkey then mounts the female monkey, and they start having monkey sex!! Everyone is pointing and laughing.. and so are we! I look around, to try to join in the fun, when I realize--no one is pointing at the monkeys.. they are pointing at me!! There we are, in the middle of watching monkey sex, and I am the laughing stock of the zoo. I was humiliated.

We left the exhibit and started walking to see something else. Then I really started to pick up on it. Kids were pointing and laughing--parents alike! Right in the middle of a giraffe pooping--people were laughing at us. It was terrible. I have never been so happy to leave the zoo in my entire life.

Lesson learned. I was wrong. Turns out, Germans do know how to laugh.

Lose Yourself in Venice Part 2

Now, where did I leave off?

We woke up in the morning and I was eager to have a real Italian Cappuccino! Emma and I went to the hotel bar and ordered two cappuccinos, complete with chocolate dust on top. We sat in the courtyard of our hotel and drank. They were delicious!

After this we headed back into town.

Now you're probably thinking.. Okay Stephanie, where's the catch with your title? Well. Here it comes. Lose yourself in Venice. I beg you-try NOT to get lost! The thing with Venice is, it is full of old, skinny, barely fit in there buildings, connected by bridges, walkways, and half of the time they are interrupted by a canal or a dead-end. You can walk for minutes in one direction, only to find yourself stuck yet again in a dodgy corner of the island! The good thing is, it's always a beautiful view. But when it's 85 degrees outside, it can be frustrating.

Erik and I just spent the day re-visiting everything in day light. It mostly looked the same but with more people!

Erik's baked lasagna

Cool little kid chasing the pidgeons that I wouldn't let Erik touch.

In on of the dodgy corners we came across a candy shop where I bought the biggest meriangue I have ever seen!! It was strawberry flavored and SO GOOD!

I was a happy camper! After this we started home again. Luckily the traffic wasn't that bad and the clouds were nice a high, so we got to see a lot of the Alps we missed on the way there. We stopped at the most beautiful Mc Donalds I have ever seen somewhere in Austria. It had full windows over-looking a mountain and a canyon in the Alps. I wish I had my camera!! But I did managed to catch a few good ones of the ride back.

It was a really great trip. I am so happy I got to go to Venice. I feel like the luckiest girl alive. Thanks to Erik for driving.. I'm sure it wasn't the most fun for him to drive with three girls 6 hours both ways.... He is the best!

If you haven't made it to Venice, on your next European adventure it is a must see!! It is so beautiful and romantic. Hope you all enjoyed, and really, go lose yourself in Venice!

Lose Yourself in Venice, Part 1

So I've been hanging out in Munich for a little while. Knowing I'm surrounded in close proximity by 5-6 other countries has been killing me... I need to get out! When I found out Venice was only 5 hours away by car, I was dead-set determined to get the gang together and get on the road. So that's exactly what I did.

We took a drive through the a popular skiing destination for rich people, The South Tirols, which covers Austria and Northern Italy. The drive started out well but we hit a huge cloud bank, and most of the Alps were covered. It was still really nice!

We hit a bit of traffic on the way there, but the drive wasn't really that bad. Since it was on our route, we decided to make a pit stop in Verona, the famous city of Romeo and Juliet, on our way there.

It was over 80 degrees!! Such a change from the freezing German summers!

The arena where Gladiators fought

Streets of Verona

My first Italian Gelato!!!

Erik by the Bubble Gum Alley

Juliet's Balcony

And the courtyard where Romeo stood :)

Verona was really beautiful. It was very Italian in the architecture, with the pale oranges and pinks and the ornate white trim. We didn't stay very long because we were eager to get to Venice. I really didn't want to miss the sunset!!


So we got back in the car and finished our trip. Our hotel ended up being really nice! It wasn't on the island because we had a car, but it was just a short bus ride away. We took the bus onto the island and sat down to have dinner.

Erik's pizza had eggplant, salami, prosciutto, olives, artichokes, bell pepper, mushrooms, and eggplant on it! I was so jealous!

I could see dusk was coming so I hurried Erik up so we could make it to the Grand Canal by sunset.

Venice at dusk is gorgeous. All of the colors of the sky reflect on to the water and it looks like an oil painting. plus, the weather is finally comfortable enough to enjoy everything you see.

Ahh Venice at dusk! There was so much to take in I didn't even know where to look! I just had to stop, take a deep breath, and thank God for putting me here and making such a beautiful scene.

When most of the colors had faded, we decided to get some gelato! When my dad and Chris when to Italy, the thing I remember most about their trip is how much Gelato they ate!! Every since then I had always wanted to have some. Now, we have Gelato in Germany, and I thought it was good.. until I went to Italy!! We found this cute little place right on the ocean and got a couple of scoops. I decided I was going to try a new flavor every time, so I had Melon and Strawberry. Surprisingly, Melon was my favorite! It was delicious! Erik makes fun of me because I say everything is "the best thing ever". He says it's over-used and he can never really tell how good things are, because I love everything. After hearing me declare it, "the best gelato ever", Erik just kind of rolled his eyes and ignored me... but then he took one bite of his ice cream and said, "wow, this really is the best gelato ever!" HAHAHA it was such a momentous occasion for us!

Gelati Nico, a Venetian MUST DO!!

Now that it was pretty dark outside, all the lights of the city were getting turned on. The sky was dark but there were still lots of street lamps and windows lit up everywhere. It was great. We made our way through the alleys and dead-ends (stay tuned for part 2) to Piazza San Marco where the giant Basilica is.

The Basilica

The Plaza

Nook of Venice

Creepy alley

There were people playing music and people sitting on the steps, it was really nice.

After this, we walked to The Rinalti Bridge to see The Grand Canal at night. It was gorgeous! The lights were reflecting on the water and there were boats that went by--it was really nice!

The Bridge

Words/photos can't express how beautiful it was

After this, Erik and I were done. We met up with the girls we drove with, left the island, curled up in our hotel room, and were out cold in a matter of minutes!!

to be continued...