Munich, Germany

Hello!!! We have just gotten back from Munich, Germany! Germany, by far, has been my favorite trip! We left on Wednesday, well technically Tuesday (that's a long story) to fly to Munich. Our flight left at 7am, and due to the fact we have no car and must rely on public transportation, it takes us 2.5 hours to get to the airport (3 hours if you add in the walk to the train station). Unfortunately, no train goes from Vasteras to Stockholm that early in the morning. Therefore, we headed to Stockholm on Tuesday at 10pm.

Tuesday night we spent the evening at a professor's house in Vasteras. She cooked us Thanksgiving dinner!! In actuality it was more Swedish than anything; there was no turkey, no mashed potatoes, no noodles, no stuffing, and no pumpkin pie. We did have ham with this special sauce, white rice, bread, and salad. Glog is huge here at Christmas time. I really don't like it!

Anyway, on Tuesday evening, we were planning on staying in the train station until 3:30am when the bus left to go to the airport. Well...the train station closed at 12:30am. So...the four of us, along Alex from Canada (we met him at the train station, he had no where to go either), walked a few blocks to a Kebab House, where we sat for the next 3 hours. We met lots of drunk strangers! We made it on the bus, which left at 3:45am, and headed to the airport. I got about 3.5 to 4 hours of sleep that morning!

Wednesday we walked around Munich & saw a movie. Thursday we met up with Sarah's sister and husband, and took a walking tour of Munich. The history of Munich is fascinating! We went to the Hofbrauhous, which is a gigantic restaurant and bar. We each drank about 2L of beer. Then we walked around Munich some more! Friday we went to Dachau Concentration Camp, which was interesting but yet sad. It was the only camp that was open the entire 12 years that Hitler was the dictator. The city of Dachau is literally right next to the camp, which is ridiculous because the people had to have known what was going on. I didn't take any pictures of anything that wasn't a memorial; I didn't really think it was appropriate. Friday evening we walked around the Christmas Markets in Munich. Saturday, Lauren, Valerie & I traveled to Salzburg, Austria, where the Sound of Music was filmed and the home of Mozart. Not only is it in the Alps, but it used to be a fortified city. The Christmas Markets had just begun, so there were a ton of people there. We walked up on some of the walls/natural rocks that used to fortify the city, some breathtaking views. We saw some catacombs & a few churches!

Milano #2

All of these pictures are from yesterday! We had an amazing time, Italy was gorgeous, I would definitely go back!!

Our hostel...Hotel Bristol...This is Francesco. He was amazing! He even helped us find a place to store our luggage on Saturday for free!

This was considered hot chocolate...more like a melted hershey bar that tastes like cocoa!

More pictures of the Duomo...yes today we went back!

Walking into the Galleria

A bride and groom were having pictures taken in the Galleria!

Spinning on the Bull's Eye for good luck!

Leonardo Da Vinci

Milano Central Station

I could not believe how many people actually slept in the airport! Worst night of sleep ever...but definitely worth saving $20.

Milano

On the plane Friday morning

The Alps from the airplane

Hotel Bristol

Dinner at the cute pizzeria, that oddly was run by Asians

Real Italian pizza, just for you Mom

2 of the best things in Milan, Fashion & Gelato

Random buildings

The fountain in front of the castle: Castello Sforzesco!

The castle

A tombstone just for you Jake :)

This is the park: Parco Sempione, that the castle overlooks.

This is the Piazza del Duomo, the cathedral of Milan, 600 years old. It's in the center of the city, with the large square in front of it.

The Galleria...the famous shopping center, Milano is the fashion capitol of the world.

Merry Christmas!

These pictures are all from Friday! We arrived in Milano ouraround noon, found our hostel after an hour of figuring out how to get there, and then had some pizza for dinner.  We took the Metro to the Castle, spent some time in the park, and then stopped in a cafe to have some gelato! We walked down through the main street that has miles and miles of high fashion stores. We spent a lot of time taking pictures outside the Duomo. I'll post the pictures from today and yesterday soon! But now I'm going to take a nap...I haven't gotten any sleep for the past 2 days because we spent the night in the Milan airport last night. What an interesting experience.