Gooooooing home

From Germany I headed back to Barcelona to stay with my prima Maria Elisa in her town. I stayed there the night of the 23rd (coming back from Germany), the 24th, and the 25th (flying back to the Us) while there we jus took a walk around the town with Romina, the baby, went for a walk on the beach, and ordered sushi. So far everything flying home has gone smoothly. I got to the airport on time, my bags were only a little over weight so I didn't have to pay, I changed flights, and now I'm on the plane headed to Boston. Here I am eating this delicious airplane food (I can't lie I really like it haha) and finishing my blog. In about 4 more hours I'll touch down in Boston and my adventure will be over, so thank you to everyone who read my blog and kept up with everything I was doing, it really means a lot to me!

I missed my two friends!

Germany was awesome. I really didn't think I would think it was so pretty or enjoy it so much! It was awesome seeing my old friends Rebecca and Caroline, we acted as though we haven't been apart, as though it hasn't been almost 4 years that we've seen each other. We looked through their memory boxes from the US and it was so funny finding some of the things from high school. One of the best parts was hearing Rebecca's imitations of how Americans sound haha so here it is in a video....

Last day in Germany. :(

Today we woke up and headed to Neroberg, a small mountain with a cable car that brings you to the top. Once up there we had an awesome view of the city! We walked arou d for a little bit and saw a Russian Orthodox church with gold dome tops. After taking in these pretty views we headed back into town. We stopped at a grocery store and bought Wienerwurst (hotdogs), and pretzels, and food for a salad. We Went back to Rebecca's house and I ate my last German meal...German hotdogs haha! After we ate we hung by the pool again for a little bit. I have to mention Rebecca's dog Bila (I think that's how it's spelled), it's so cute! I'll put a picture. After I packed up my things we left for the airport and I had to say my goodbyes to them again :(. It's funny because in high school when they left to go back to Germany I didn't say good bye but I said cya later, and it really was cya later! Just 4 years later. I'm truly so grateful for being able to visit them in Germany and so thankful for their hospitality and making me feel so welcome :). So thanks again if you guys are reading this!!

Heading back to Wiesbaden

The next day we headed back to Rebeccas house in Wiesbaden. We got there around 2pm jus in time for her moms pasta and fresh tomato lunch :). After lunch we hung in Rebecca's back yard for a little while by the pool. After a little bit of soaking up the sun we headed out to the city on bikes. Once again I was too small for my bike. One time when the crosswalk light turned green I couldn't get back up on my bike to pedal and kept slipping in the middle of the street. Finally I just got off and walked my bike across haha. I felt like a little kid just learning how to ride a bike! After that Rebecca and Caroline had to keep watch on me. We rode around and saw different sights of the city, Wiesbaden is such a pretty city. We stopped at Kurhaus, a building with a small casino and Roman baths. Out back is a pretty park with a pond and a fountain where we walked around for a little while. After here we set off walking to see more sights of the city. We saw the shopping area, a huge brick church, and a souvenir store with the worlds largest coo-coo clock.
After our tour of the city we all went out to dinner with Rebecca's boy friend. We drove to another town went to a restaurant called Maximianshof that had very good wine (my favorite)! This was one of the cutest restaurants I have seen. It was out in the country near wine vineyards. The restaurant was someone's house and their backyard. The house was really old from the 1500s (that's what I think one of the men from restaurant told me) with all the traditional decorations inside. We ate outside in the yard where the garden is and an area of tables to eat. It was so cute with small tables, lights, and flowers. I ordered another Schnitzel with a salad and we each had 2 glasses of wine. Dinner was awesome. We sat there for a few hours remembering old memories and just laughing. It's really like we haven't been apart for almost 4 years. I have true friends in Rebecca and Caroline.

2nd day in Köln

Today we got up, had another German breakfast haha, an headed into the city. First thing I saw in the city was a bridge that is covered in locks. Couples get locks and put their names on it, attaches it to the bridge and then throws the key into the river. There must be hundreds of locks! Right on the other side of the bridge is the huge Köln gothic cathedral. We headed into the cathedral and bought tickets to walk up to the top of the tower. There were just under 600 steps in this very small winding staircase where sweaty people are going up and down and it smells. All these smelly steps are worth it when you make it to the top and see the beautiful view of the city. After climbing the tower we headed to the basement of the church to see the treasury. The treasury is the gold, art, and other artifacts contained in the cathedral. We looked through the treasury and then headed to the archeological dig under the cathedral. Under the cathedral there was a big archeological dog that went on to find out how the cathedral was built. We took a tour of down here an learned how this cathedral was built over hundreds of years, how there are $$remeneces$$ of an even older cathedral, graves and roman ruins. It was freeeeezing down here compared to how hot it was outside and especially walking up all those steps. Then two days later we all had colds haha; well I ready had one and Rebecca and Caroline got one.

After the cathedral we met up with our other old friend Peter from WMA. So nice of him to come visit! We headed to get some food, Currywurst. Currywurst is a sausage with this red curry sauce. All I wanted to eat here In Germany was everything typical. That being said I ate a lot of sausage! I love trying the typical food every new place I go, it's part of the experience of traveling and experiencing a new culture.
After eating we headed to a wine festival, bought a glass of wine an went to the Rhine River to sit, drink our wine, and enjoy the view. After we finished our wine we took a walk around the old part of the city. It's so pretty with the cobble stone ground and the design of the old buildings, I'll put up pictures. From the old part of town we headed to the "beach". This place is so awesome, it's like going to Cancun in Germany. It's this man made beach with sand on the Rhine River. It is fenced off an you have to pay to get in. There is a bar where we got mojitos and a snack bar for food. The place is filled with white beach chairs and white beds where you can go hang out with friends. We all headed over to a bed, sat, relaxed, and talked for a few hours.

Heading to Köln

Heading to see Caroline in Köln
Sun May 20

After eating breakfast at Rebecca's house we headed with her older brother to Köln (Colonge in English) to see Caroline. The breakfasts I ate in Germany are much different from those in Spain. In Spain people usually only have a coffee with cookies, a crossiont, or some cereal. It is a very small breakfast. I couldn't live like this and wait until 330 to eat lunch so I usually made an egg or had yogurt with granola and fruit. In Germany we had bread with butter, nutela, all different kinds of jams, cheese, and some cold cuts. Yum!
Anyways we hit the road and drove to see Caroline which was only about a one and a half hour drive. The scenery was beautiful, rolling green hills with tons of these bright yellow flowers. The autobahn has no speed limit so cars can drive 180-200 km/h or even more! We finally arrived in Köln and dropped off Rebecca's brother at his apartment and continued to Caroline's house. Not a good mix, just Rebecca and me. Rebecca didn't know the way and I had no way of helping because it was almost impossible to sound out any of the street signs in German. After a few wrong turns we Finns arrived at Caroline's house. I met the family (who of course all speak English) .
There we ate a traditional German meal (I think haha) of weißwurst, which is a white sausage, a pretzel, and a salad. It was sooo good! After we finished eating we headed to another festival. In Köln soooo many people ride around the city on bikes, there are bikes everywhere. So, to the festival we rode bikes over. The only problem is Caroline and Rebecca are tall and so is there families so getting on these tall bikes was a struggle. I had to stand on the sidewalk or curb just to get on. The festival was really cool, more food and some beer and live music. Here I tried a reibekuchen which is basically a fried potato kind of like a hash brown. Once again it was really good.
When we got back to Caroline's house we relaxed a little bit and then when out to dinner with her family. We went to this Austrian restaurant that was so amazing! I ordered a
Schnitzel which is a fried meat, it can be different kinds of meat. At this restaurant it was veal and with squirted lemon juice on top you just can't stop eating it.

Germany!

I finally got landed in Frankfurt to see my old friend Rebecca waiting for me! We headed back to her house and her mom made this amazinggg strawberry birthday cake. We ate that for lunch and a little while later 2 of Rebecca's friends came over and we headed to a festival in town. The festival was really cool, lots of food and live music. We sat at a bench just talking and eating. We ordered flammkuchen and ofenkartoffel. Flammkuchen is this rlly thin pizza and ofenkartoffel is a huge baked potao with a white cream on top. It was awesome sittin there and hanging out because the weather was great and both of Rebecca's friends spoke English! In Germany everyone speaks English (including Rebecca's whole family). At 8pm started the champions league final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich. Munich is a German team so it was a huge game over there and almost everyone wanted them, except me, Rebecca, and her friend haha. We watched the first half on tvs outside. By the second it started to rain and we went to watch the game inside a bar. Everyone here were huge Munich fans so when Chelsea made a nice play I wasn't quiet about my support. Chelsea ended up winning in penalty kicks and as the sad German fans were leaving one man came up to me and shook my hand saying congratulations on the Chelsea win haha! After the game we just headed home and went to bed.