And the next stop is...

We next went to Munich! This post might have to be divided into two. There were just too many pictures and too much explanation. We arrived in Munich and got oriented to go find our hotel. Hotel Munich was just down one of the streets from the Munich Hauptbahnhof.

It looked like a great part of town. We came to find out later, that we seemed to be on a street with some questionable businesses, which means we kept our eyes straight ahead at night. But, Munich was fun. It went by fast, but it was fun.
On our first day in Munich, we split up. Amy and I headed out to Dachau. Sobering, but something I wanted to see. When you leave the train station in the town Dachau was located in, you can walk the path the prisoners had to take when they got off the train. The station there is the one where the prisoners were pushed off, divided up and walked to the camp and barracks. We were only able to be at the concentration camp for a couple hours at most. I'm amazed that anyone can even suggest that the Holocaust didn't happen. The pictures, the buildings, the history of that place says completely otherwise. It was so sobering to think about what happened at that place, that it had gone on for a long time before the Americans liberated Dachau.

Afterwards, Amy and I took the train back into Munich and met back up with Bryonny and Tasha.

We went to the main pedestrian area of Munich to get dinner and do a little shopping. We were also looking for the Old Rathaus, the old town hall, where the glockenspiel was located.

We noticed, even later on in our travels, that the stores closed really early, most stores were closed around 6-7pm. It was odd to see that. Munich was preparing for Oktoberfest to start, so every storefront had the traditional dress for men and women. Leiderhosen anybody?

Over the mountains we go...to Klagenfurt Austria!

We moved on from Venice to Klagenfurt Austria. My Aunt Kelly and Uncle Martin live there, teaching school. They were so kind to let us stay there a couple nights. We took a bus from Venice to Klagenfurt, being dropped off at the train station. 

We were waiting for my aunt when she came up behind Tasha and I and surprised us. How fun it was to see her!! I was so excited to be in Austria with them. And she had wonderful news for us...our luggage had arrived before us that day at her house!!!! WE HAD LUGGAGE again! I had been praying for our luggage since Venice and while kind of disappointed when it didn't arrive in Venice, we received it later and didn't have to lug it around Venice, over the bridges and cobblestones.



After being picked up, we were fed by Kelly and Martin and wonderful dinner and shown our rooms at Hotel Krenn. Kelly was so nice and made up our beds, put a stamped postcard, chocolate bar and Haribo gummies on our beds.

It was so fantastic, my friends kept saying how great my aunt and uncle were so thank you Krenns for being so great and welcoming! We went to sleep enjoying being in a home. The next day, Kelly and Martin showed us around Klagenfurt and the surrounding countryside. First stop, Minimundus.

This place has small reproductions of well known sites around the world. When I say small reproductions, I mean smaller than the building itselt, but larger than people.

We went out to Hochosterwitz, a castle outside Klagenfurt. On the way, we stopped at some excavations of Roman ruins. As we were driving along, we saw the castle up on the hill. It was amazing, this is what I was hoping for in Europe. America doesn't have the old places like Europe. It was so cool to see these places.

We parked at the bottom of the hill and walked up the road through all 14(?) gates the castle had. It is said this castle was never conquered and after walking the road, I can see why. It would have been hard. We searched through the castle, the armory, the garden and admired the view from the top of the hill of the surrounding countryside. Amazing that just over the mountains from Venice, we were in this lush green mountainous countryside, with lakes and castles.

(just a fun little pic of my aunt and uncle:)

Kelly and Martin showed us the lake near their house and through the town of Klagenfurt, with the Lindewurm.

We went to a restaurant to eat real Carinthian food, cheese noodles. I really enjoyed Klagenfurt. We stayed one more night there with my aunt and uncle. We were well fed and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Kelly and Martin took us to the train station the next morning after feeding us the best breakfast, and sent us off to Munich!

Oh the Places You'll Go...Stop 1, Venice!

On September 3rd, my 3 friends and I took off for the trip of a lifetime. We began 16 days of whirlwind travel around Europe! Our first stop was Venice, Italy. We flew from San Diego, to Philadelphia, to Rome then changed airlines to Alitalia and flew up to Venice.

The longest flight of my life, sitting for so long and trying to walk after that was an experience and arriving in Venice to beautiful weather and no luggage was just fantastic. Yes, 3 out of the 4 of us arrived in Venice but our luggage did not. No big deal. Somewhere when we transferred to Alitalia, our luggage made it onto another flight other than ours. So, after 3 hours at baggage claim, giving them our entire itinerary for our trip, giving them our hotel numbers, calling my mom from Venice and waking her up at 4:30am for my aunts info, which I had put in my bag but couldn't find it (don't worry, I found it later during the trip:), we got into Venice with our backpacks and ready to just deal with our lack of clothes. My desire for Venice was to see the beautiful old buildings, take in the first stop on our trip, eat some good food and just revel in the fact that we were in ITALY!

We got to our apartment where we were to spend 1 night, dropped off our stuff and got ready to go out. Part of our prep was to go out and find an outfit for the next day, since we didn't have any clothes. Once that was done, we hit the streets to walk our way to San Marcos square and get some food! We found a pizza place, that served a huge, fantastic pizza. And we of course had to find some gelato!

Venice was beautiful, the canals, the colors, the churches, the gondola's, the bridges, it was all right out of the pictures. The weather was perfect.





On Sunday, we headed to the islands of Murano and Burano to see the glass and lace produced out there. Murano was nice, the glass was beautiful, but I loved Burano. The houses were so colorful and fun. I loved that there were flowers in every window. Burano had some beautiful lace vendors and was just a fun place to walk around.

We caught the water taxi back to Venice and sat ourselves down at a cafe to eat wonderful pasta dishes!

It was so fun to site in the cafe and just watch people and eat good food. Of course we had to have gelato again:) We walked around the city some more and browsed the shops.


We went back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and check out so we could head to catch our bus up to Austria. On our way to the station, we were able to see the regatta, where the gondola's and other canal boats were going up and down the Grand Canal that runs in front of the station. It was a great ending to our Venice experience. (sidenote, we still don't have our luggage at this point, we were leaving Venice thinking we wouldn't see our luggage again and planning on purchasing an entire travel wardrobe in Austria).

We caught the bus that was taking us up to Klagenfurt Austria and my Aunt Kelly and Uncle Martin's home...

Berry Picking in So Cal?!

A couple weekend ago, two friends and I went up to Shelley's and went BERRY PICKING! Near Shelley's house in the town of Oak Glen, there are u-pick berry patches. We picked strawberries, raspberries and a few blackberries off of the side of the road:)



Jenny and I then made freezer jam with all our berries. We ate some before and made it on Tuesday and it's SOOOO good!





It was a great topping!

My first star sighting!!!

And I didn't get a picture!! Last night, I was at Rubios eating my fantastic mango shrimp taco (SOO GOOD!!) and I am informed that there is a real life TV personality just at the other table outside...guess who? (Krystle you will appreciate this:)

It was ALI AND ROBERTO from ABC's "The Bachelorette"! Yes, they were sitting there in their jeans, button up shirt, hoodie, just hanging out in front of Rubios. Those of you who watched the show know that they moved to San Diego. From the fact they walked away, not drove, I'm assuming I can figure out the general neighborhood they live in. I think the magazines would be disappointed to see how happy and in love they looked, no trouble in paradise there! The ring was still on, so looks like this couple might make it at least a few weeks after the show.

Pearl showed her age this weekend:)

Oh Pearl, such a great car. I bought Pearl in 2002, the year after I graduated from BYU. Pearl (OZ rally edition, yes I wanted a little more sporty) is a great little car, who drove me to roommates and friends weddings, up to Idaho to drop Brittany off at BYU-I, back and forth to Utah, down to San Diego in 2005, up and down the California coast, interior and even more times to Utah. She's closing in on 100,000 miles. Yup, she doesn't look her age. Except this week, when her engine decided to show it's age. Oh, so not fun to go into the mechanic and have them tell you, "your timing belt, water pump, idle valve and O2 sensor need to be replaced." I knew the timing belt and water pump were coming, I was bracing for that. But the other stuff, geez. Pearl had to be kept in the shop for 4 days, Saturday-Tuesday. I got to rely on others to drive me around, so fun! I forgot how much I don't like not having my own car to drive around town in.
So,instead of a possible new car in a year or two, Pearl will be mine till she dies. She's now got about another 80,000 miles on her, with a newly cleaned engine, new parts and soon, new brakes! It just keeps getting better:)

Just a little tired...

I don't think I've ever been so tired, IN MY LIFE! What I wouldn't trade for those long nights of studying in college. For whatever reason, those seem more manageable than my life does right now. Sorry, this is a little bit of a venting post. I've struggled over the last year with how to balance and prioritize. It's a little hard. I'm amazed at my family, extended family, and friends that are able to have spouses, kids, and jobs and seem to do it all. I have me to take care of, and can't seem to do that. It makes me a little nervous to try to add one more person into my life. I think Heavenly Father knows that, cause nothings coming ;) In any case, I have a feeling this is a life long struggle, that it doesn't go away with a spouse and kids, probably just a different kind of prioritizing.

On September 3rd, I will be leaving this tired life for a couple weeks to go traveling with a few friends. We are headed to:

then here:

here:

a little castle:

and further east:

a little down:

and ending:


BRING IT ON LIFE, BRING IT ON!!!!