A Greek Monday!

I woke up at 6:45 to a beautiful sunrise coming out of the ocean. Seeing a sunrise out of the ocean has been the on thing I have been looking forward to most and it was really beautiful. The sun was a large red ball that was throwing scattered lines through the clouds and made the ocean seem really dark blue. I quickly got out of bed and got dressed, but I was a little too late for pictures. I just enjoyed the moment for the moment instead and not for the picture :) I then went down to the beach and just sat down there for a while as the sun rose. The sun hit some clouds and it disappeared so I went back up to our room. We ate breakfast at 8:00 and it was really good. There was a HUGE bowl of plain yogurt... and it’s no where near the stuff in the US. This is a very thick and creamy yogurt... almos goopy... that you put different toppings on. They had this every morning with four differnt jellys, and two bowls of cearel you could put on it to. My favorite topping was the hot nutella tasting chocolat sauce they had. I put it on my yogurt every morning and it was really good! They also had some eggs, traditional bread, meat and cheese and some little round bread/sweet cheese type things. That had some Cinnamon on top with a drizzle of honey and some sort of sweet cheese inside. Maybe it was cream cheese or something like it. It was really good and I was definitely full afterwards. We got ready to go and left right around 9:00am to go to an old ruin that was once a palace where the monitor battle took place. Each family had a vehicle so it was four cars total. We all had special names to. My uncle Dennie, Aunt Debby, cousins Emily and Ana, my grandparents and I were all in an 8 passenger, manual VW van. Every vehicle got a walked talky and a code name. Since Dennie was leading the pack his name was Gandalf, the Jacksons was “Red squirrel”, the Smiths were the Whomping willows and the Cooks were the nut packets. It was really fun. So once we got ready we were off...

Our first stop came when we met a van coming the opposite direction on the narrow road, Dennie pulled off a little bit and let the vehicle pass, but then found out that the van was two wheel drive and was stuck. So we backed the van down... or actually I should say the whole pack slowly backed up... it kind of looked like a snake trying to slither backwards. We got back on to the cement and then we were off for real. After about a kilometer we realized we had another problem... the gas tank was on E. So our next mission was to find a gas station. We did and it was really big and wide open. There was also a little church (like 10 person church little). It really proved church buildings come in all shapes and sizes. After our gas up we left for the museum again. And yes, you guessed it, we stopped again! This time at an ATM machine. Apparently the one next to the hotel was out of cash. So we were driving down this rally busy street and we all pulled over. We left enough room for cars to pass, but while everyone was crowding around the ATM machine a bus came up and couldn’t get through. Not only were we holding up the bus though, we were also holding up at least 20 cars behind it. My uncle and the other adults made a mad dash back to their vehicles and we pulled out. The last car however got caught behind all the people we held up. The bus driver was really angry... and we saw him again when we got to the museum!! We finally got too the museum and got in. It was really cool to see the ruins and walk around. It wasn’t like a normal ruin where you walk on little side walks and look at everything behind roped off sections. We actually got to walk on it and through some neat stairways and stuff. My favorite part was all the cool stone stairways and the trails to walk on. Also a guy came up to me and had me take him and his wife’s picture with his really nice Canon camera... he must have seen mine and known he could trust me in knowing how to use it. After I was done looking around I joined the rest of the kids and we looked around in the tourist places across the street. There is always so much stuff to buy, but I’m having a hard time buying stuff I won’t use. So I didn’t get anything. We all met up at the entrance and then we loaded up into our vehicles to find somewhere to find lunch. This turned out to be quite the adventure. We spent the next 20 minutes driving around looking for a place that was actually open and could hold 20 people. We then found out another truth about another country. The French don’t use the bathroom and the Greeks don’t eat lunch! We finally found a small pizza place/hotel that would feed us, but we had to wait 20-30 minutes. We decided it would be worth it because we would probably spend that much time trying to find another place to eat and then have to wait there anyway. So we got some drinks and then just hung out for a while. There was an amazing bakery across the street that some of us went to as well. While most of us were off looking around the adults ordered the food. They ordered a bunch of “starters” for lunch so we ended up eating a bunch of "little lunches". We ate fried/battered mushrooms, fried cheese, bread, squid, French fries, kabobs, fried zucchini and then fruit and yogurt for dessert. It was like the longest lunch ever. We were there for at least an hour and a half. Each starter came out like every 10 to 15 minutes and then we would eat it and wait. It was good though! After we ate those of us who wanted to go to the beach walked down. It was about a 10-15 minute walk before we got there. Once we did we were excited because there were huge waves! We ran around in the water a little bit and I skipped stones. I found out that if you skip them off waves tat they really go far. It started to rain a little bit so we went back to the vehicles and then back to the hotels. I was kind of tired and dozed off for a little bit. I kept waking up barely and hearing different parts of different conversations and it was really weird. I woke up fully when we stopped for a bag of oranges for Emily. I got out and took some pictures and then we finished the rest of the 10 minute drive back. We passed a cool beach that I thought would be cool to run to. I think I will tomorrow.

Once we got back a few of us got changed into cooler clothes and went down to the beach. We then hung down there for a couple of hours. We built a really cool; I like to call it abstract, castle out of sand and random things we found on the beach and in the rocks. We found things like tile, bricks AND even a piece of rebar! It was a lot of fun. While the group (Kyle (15), Kerrie (16), Laura (16) Ana (my cousins who is 14) and Delany (12?) were talking and skipping rocks I hiked up the side of the hill across the bay and walked out onto a really cool outcropping of rocks. I’m going to sit there during a sunrise for sure because it has a great view! It was starting to get dark so we went back to the hotel and by then everyone else was eating. We ate (fish, some different salads, potatoes, a yogurt type dish, fruit, rice and noodles). After dinner we went up to the Jackson’s room and watched “Oh brother where art thou”, which was actually pretty funny! It was a really good day.

My adventure continues with.... A trip to the south side!

Saturday AND Sunday (4th-5th of April)

Saturday: I got up around 6:15 in the morning and went for a run with my cousin. She ran to the soccer field and I went on a trail through the woods that came out on top of this small hill that overlooked a small house and pasture. With the fog covering most of it, it was transformed into a little morning scene. I got back and showered and then we all rushed out the door to a breakfast that was being put on for Dennie at the church they attend. So we got there and my cousin Ana and I made some fruit salad and my grandpa made his famous pancakes. We ate some before everyone got there and Ana and I decorated the big chalk board to make it birthday-ish and then we set the tables with birthday napkins and candles. There were about 30 people total that came and a lot of food! It was very interesting to be in a German environment... I don’t understand a thing. :P After we ate we all Collaborated and got the dishes done. We then drove home and put everything away. After that we spent the rest of the day resting/packing/waiting for 10:00 to roll around. Once it did we had the van packed and were driving off at 9:59pm. We arrived at the station and Dennie took the van and parked it somewhere. The train arrived on time and we were ready. We got on and tried to find spots. It was kind of crowded, but after 5 minutes we got settled for the most part. Once we did how ever we realized that we didn’t have the best company in our car. There were at least 20 college students who were all drinking something. On guy had some IPod speaker that was playing this really repetitive techno music, that just about drove me up the wall and then there were a couple people that kept walking back and forth. I was kind of uneasy so I sat across from my Grandma and my aunt sat next to my grandpa in the other aisle. There was one couple that was very drunk who stood next to my grandpa and aunt and was talking to them. We made it off the train with no incident, but the whole ride was very unpleasant. The Saturday night crowd right? We then transferred to a much nicer train and got spot in a quiet car around 12:00am. The seats were very comfortable and we even had a table in front of us. The train reached a speed of 200 km/h. We all did really well on that ride. We got to the airport and we loaded all our baggage onto some carts and wheeled our way to the check in point. On our way there we passed a family that had flown in and was walking somewhere. They had two little boys and one of them was on the top of all the luggage in the cart and looked really tired and about as cute as a 4 year old can J Once we got there we looked around for the rest of the group, but didn’t see them. After about 10 minutes of sitting around and me learning how to count in German someone from the group came and said that everyone was there, but they hadn’t checked in. By the time we got through checking in the rest of the group was in line. We went through security with no problem... well... I set of the reed light and was searched, but I was good. My uncle and cousin Emily we subject to a random bag check too. We got to our terminal and then rested in some lounge chairs. Our flight was taking off of at 3:40am and by the time we got checked in and through security it was only about 2:00am. My face was doing better today. It pretty much peeled a lot and I had to keep putting lotion on... I felt weird with my skin so gross looking.

Sunday: We found a nice row of lounge chairs and layed down. I tried to sleep, but couldn't, so I got up and walked around. I also spent some time typing the past couple of days up and read. We waited around for about an hour and then moved into the gate area. All of us kids sat in a group on the floor kind of lounging around. After about 15 more minutes we boarded the plane and took off really fast. Not the speed of the air plane but the time it took to get all ready and leave. The actual take off was the longest I remember though... Normally you speed up and *vroom* your off, but this took it felt like a whole minute off zooming before we left the ground. They served us a sandwich (which was really good actually) and some yogurt. I listened to my Ipod and fell asleep since it was all dark out. I slept the whole flight and woke up to a beautiful sunrise. I was sitting on the wrong side of the airplane to get a really good view of it, but from what I did see it was amazing! It was a really long orange and dark red streak across the sky. Then we landed and walked out to a very cloudy wet Crete :P those clouds really hide the sun. It was fairly warm, but really wet and kind of drizzly. The smell was realy refreshing and I definitely know why people like the smell of the ocean now! We walked off the plane onto the tarmac and then got onto a bus that brought us to the luggage claim. It took a while for all our luggage to appear, but it was all accounted for and nothing was missing or broken. We then packed up and head towards the bus that was going to take us to the hotel. Everyone was doing well except for one of the girls, Olivia, who had just gotten over strep throat. Her ears and throat were hurting really bad!

It took us a good 45 minutes to get to the hotel from the airport. The drive was really nice though. We went around a large portion of the island to the northern point where our bay was located. We stopped at two other hotels first before ours and each time I was like... I hope this isn't ours, because they were no where near the beach. When we did get to our hotel I was excited because it was perfect! On the beach in a cool bay and had lots of sand. When we got there they still needed to fix our rooms up, so we ate breakfast (it was around 9:30am). It took a long time for the breakfast to arrive so Kyle (one of the guys) and I went down to the beach and skipped some rocks and looked around. It was so cool to actually walk by the ocean and hear the waves. It felt so amazing! Everything was just amazing... After about 25 minutes our breakfast came, but some people got theirs mixed up. Over all I wasn’t really impressed with the service. The food was good, but it took a really long time. After we ate we sat around and continued to wait for our rooms to be ready. A couple of us went up the street to a small store and looked around. A little while after we came back they finally lead us to our rooms, which were actually down the road a few meters and in a separate part of the hotel. They were really nice rooms and had a lot of space. We got one that over looked the pool and a little bit of the ocean. Zack (the guy that’s my age) and I got dressed to swim and jumped in the pool. You can think we ae cazy to do that on a 55 degree day, but we wanted to swim everyday. haha we were only in the pool for like 2 minutes. And the first time I jumped in it was kind of a jump in and jump out deal. It was freezing, but well worth it! After a hot shower I just hung out and looked around. Everyone just chilled and did different things. A lot of them napped. We had dinner at 6:30 and it was buffet style. There were a lot of different options. There were three green salads and two with feta cheese. Then there was goat’s cheese that you could just have. There was humus, noodle, fishes, fried potato slices and some sort of casserole type thing. There was also ice cream for dessert. There was banana, chocolate and strawberry. They were all quite good! After dinner all of us teens went up to one of the rooms and played a game of apples to apples and then moved to another room and watched a movie. After that I walked my cousin Ana back to her room for my aunt and then got ready for bed and hit the hay. I had a good nap that afternoon so I wasn’t that tired. I ended up falling asleep quickly anyway. It was a great first day and I'm thankful there were no problems or troubles and that we got to the hotel safely :)

My adventure continues in.... A Greek Monday!

The next week!

Well I'm sorry I have not been good about getting the past two days up... I haven't been up to much... just getting ready for Crete and doing some odd things here and there.

This next week I won't be able to post anything because I won't have internet access. I will be writing it all down though and will have it up when I get back! Are train to the airport leaves in two hours. We are leaving the house at 10:00pm and our train leaves the station at 10:55. Our flight doesn't actually leave until 3:40am, but the 10:55 train was the only train we could get that would get us to the airport before 3:00am. So it's going to be a really long night, but really fun! On Thursday I met the whole group that is going to Crete with us and they are really fun! Our flight lands around 7:20am in the morning and that means we are going to have an extra day (pretty much) in Crete. I'm really excited bout it!

So anyway that is a very brief description of what's going on. I will try and get updates up when I can!! And don't worry I'll be taking lot and lots of pictures for you all to see!

:)

Heidelberg

I slept really well last night and woke up at 7:00 well rested. I spent some time working with my pictures and trying to get my camera sorted out. Turns out the problem was the memory card being to big or something... because once I took a lot of the pictures off it worked great. I made sure all my pictures were on the computer and then I put them all on CD’s. So now I have a hard copy of them and I have most of them off my memory card. So instead of spending time editing and posting I took care of that other problem so I could keep taking pictures. We had to be ready for the bus at 11:30 in order to get to Heidelberg in time to do all we wanted. I got read around 10:45 and then we kicked it in gear and walked to the bus station. We took the bus all the way to Heidelberg and then got off and walked over the bridge. We took some pictures and then walked over to a sculpture of a monkey and took pictures by it. My grandpa had a hankering for ice cream so we stopped and got some. I had a scoop of lemon and a scoop of pistachio... I know, great mix! After that we hiked to the Funicular, got tickets and then waited for it. It’s really cool how it works. Its counter balanced so when one goes up the other comes down. We took the first one up to the first station and then took the older one up to the very top. The view of Heidelberg was really cool, the only thing that ruined it was the light layer of clouds that blurred the view. It was a great day though, beautiful sunshine and very warm weather. We walked up a trail and saw a falconry and got to see some falcons and an owl. After that we went to a small restaurant and had some lunch. We ate and then took the Funicular back down. It was fun to sit in the front row... almost like a roller coaster, but in slow motion. After we got down we walked down Hauptstrasse, which is like a really long pedestrian street with stores on either side. I bought myself a new pair of shades and something for my sisters and then my grandparents and I watched a puppet show that this guy was putting on on the street. We stopped at another place for ice cream and I got some cherry/vanilla swirl type ice cream this time. I was kind of getting warm so I took a layer off and as we walked to the bust station. My grandma saw a flower shop and went and got some flowers for my aunt and I helped hold them. J We stood and waited for the bus and I got a headache sitting there in the sun. My face really hurts today and I had a blister on my nose that I have to keep popping... it’s really not very fun at all. I made sure I had sunscreen today! I’m probably a little dehydrated, but I have been drinking a lot of water since we have got home. It’s beautiful outside right now and I’m enjoying the weather! I’m also looking forward to our trip to Crete this next week! Yey for sun!

Monday?

I seem to have forgotten about Monday! Well had no fear, because I remembered! Well actually I didn't do anything on Monday. I did a lot of picture work and my grandparents took a day off again. When my cousin Ana got home we both went for a run and that was really pretty. We ran through a cool trail in the woods and up and down some hills. I really need to go running at Holzinger lodge sometime... those trails are a lot of fun! After we got back I changed and then my uncle and I went to go hike around two castles that were like 10 minutes away. They were very small castles, but still cool! My camera wasn't working, so I didn't get any pictures until right when we left. We looked around for a bit and then drove back. I then got to bed because I was going to be up early... So yeah that was my Monday :P

My day in the alps~

Wednesday: I woke up around 7:30 to my uncle getting up and looking out the window. Since it was really foggy when we pulled in the night before we weren’t sure if skiing was going to be fun. If it was clearer we would still go the place we planned, but if it was worse or the same we would go some where else. I asked him how it looked and he said it was worse. Sure enough the fog was heavier and worse. We got packed and then ate breakfast down stairs. We asked the lady who owned the place about it and she said when you see a dark blue strip at the bottom of the fog cover that means it’s clear on top. She then turned on the TV and sure enough it was! The channel was showing a live feed from the webcam at the ski place. So we were pretty excited! It was going to be amazing! We ate the rest of our breakfast, packed our stuff, put on our snow gear and then left for a day of skiing AND forgot a very important thing... sunscreen! I would come to regret that by the end of the day.

We got to the place at about 9:00, when it was supposed to open, and it was kind of packed (a lot more so than my uncle had thought it would be). We found a spot and got our stuff on (boots and etc... ). We got our tickets which were really cool. They clipped on to your jacket and had a little bar that you slipped into a machine to go on the lifts. It was kind of like a thin credit card. There was a really cool dam under the first lift and I went to take a picture of that while my uncle went to get goggles in the car. We then scanned in and got onto the first car. It fit like 20 people and was really crowded. We started up and went into the fog cover... and with in 2 minutes we broke through and it was so sunny and beautiful! The mountains were... indescribable! They were endless and white and amazing. I just sat there and stared... my jaw probably hit the ground. We got to the station and I stopped and took pictures, but little did I know... it was just the beginning of what I was going to see. We took the second car up and got even higher! The second car went to the main ski base. The view from there was even more incredible! I could stand and look out at the mountains all day! The first thing we did was search for a locker. I had brought my camera and I wasn’t going to leave it in the backpack we brought laying around. So we found a locker that was right by the front door and put our stuff in it. It was also super warm so I took off my jacket and put it in the locker along with my camera.

We started down the first slope and I got used to skiing again. We took the ski lift up to the three runs (which were more like 5 or 6 and AMAZING) and right as we were scanning through I realized at had forgotten my card on my jacket that was now back at the lodge and in the locker. Once again I experience a moment in life where I'm so excited I forgot something important. It happened back last year when I ran the Ragar relay and was so excited for my first leg that I forgot my shoes, light and jacket gear.... :P I guess I haven't changed much - haha

So while I waited at the bottom, my uncle rode up and skied down to the lodge, got my card and then came back. We then rode up and then skied down and I had some trouble. I found out that my posture was messed up and my balance was off. So I messed around a little bit and figured out the right groove and skied a lot better. I improved over the next couple of runs and felt really comfortable on skis. We went down the blue hill and the red hills for a few times and then we went down a really long reed one that turned to black diamond and then red again. It was like 3 miles long. It was soooo fun! Then we road the car back up again and skied the other three runs a couple of times.

Around noon we skied back to the lodge and I got my camera and wrapped it in my jacket and hat so it was padded in the backpack and then skied down to the lift. We were going to ski down once more and then take the next car to the top of the Mountain peak. I skied down, very carefully, and got my camera out before I got onto the lift. I made sure it was safe and then started taking pictures on the way up. I got to the top and skied to the right and took about 20 pictures and then skied over to the other hills and took about 30 and then skied down to a little shack where there was a deck and took about 10 more. Then we skied down and took the next car up to the very top... and wow... wow!... I mean WOW! It was so high and incredible! I told myself I was going to come back to this very same spot someday because it was worth seeing again and again and again! I took at least 60 pictures from the very top and just stood there and soaked it in. We ate lunch at the place there, which was kind of gross, but filled us up. I then hiked over to a couple spots and took pictures and then hiked up to a really high look out place where you could see the other side of the mountain range and the little tiny town below as well as clouds. I too, yet again, more pictures and then I wrapped up my camera, slipped it over my back and skied from the very top the hill to the lodge, about a mile... and I put my camera away and took off some layers. I skied the rest of the day with a long sleeve t-shirt with a t-shirt over that and snow pants. You could have easily gone skiing in short and a t-shirt though... it was that warm. We then skied from the lodge down to the second car station (the 2^nd one we took up in the morning) it was about 3 or 4 miles long total. It was amazing! The black diamond was a little hard, but I made it with out falling, with out going too slow and felt good! By this time of the day it was getting kind of warm so the snow was a little wet and was starting to pile up on the hills. Skiing it was kind of hard at times. We got to the bottom and rode the car back up. My uncle sat in a lounge chair and took a nap in the sun while I continued to ski.

I went down the black diamond one (Which is so much better than MN Black Diamonds!) and then the red one and then skied all the way down to the car station again. I then met my uncle and we skied 4 more runs and then called it a day at 4:00. We were going to ski till 5:00, but we were getting tired and there is no need to get really tired and fall and get hurt. I took onne last look at the mountains and then we got our stuff in the locker and started our way down. When we got to the bottom we got our boots off... which felt so amazing on my feet! We changed and then hit the road. We stopped for coffee quick and then left Oberstdorf and headed back “home”. With in 10 minutes we stopped and I took a picture of the mountains again and then we drove on a little bit before pulling over again so I could take a picture of a cool creek with the mountains behind it. I took a picture of myself too. When we pulled in there was another car there. I was about to leave and then this lady had walked over to the creek as well and asked me if I wanted my picture taken by her with my camera. I was like “YEY!” She took my picture and then I took her with her camera and it was cool! J

I then looked through all my pictures, ate a little bit and fell asleep. I slept a good 2 hours of the 4 hour trip. I woke up in time to see the sunset and it was weird. The sun was all dark red, but the sky was completely blank with no color what so ever... it was like, the most un-romantic sunset ever :P – The other thing I woke up to was a very red face... no I wasn’t angry, but I discovered that the after noon in the sun had turned my face into a tomato! And I was even so lucky to have a line across my nose and cheeks where my goggles were. So now I look like a dork :P Oh well! My arms are also red from skiing in the sun with my sleeves rolled up all afternoon. It was well worth it though, but I regret forgetting the sunscreen!!! We got home and unpacked and I got ready for bed and talked about Thursdays plans, peeled some potatoes for my uncle and then typed this all up and went to bed!

It was a very amazing day an probably my favorite day so far! What a great way to start the month of April off! J Thank you God for safe skiing and amazing mountains views!

-meeting couple in car

My day in highschool...

Tuesday:

I got up and did the whole morning routine with everyone at 5:00 and then I was off to school again, except this time with my cousin who is in high school. I got there and was not surprised by the amount of swearing I heard or all the girls hanging on the guys and the guys picking on all the girls. We walked to her first class which was art. We sat down at her usual table with three other kids and then the teacher looked at me and said, “Emily take your friend and go sit in the back of the class.” I was like uh oh, I got my cousin in trouble. It was all good though I guess the table was just too crowded or something. The project for the next week or something was to make a mobile. A mobile is a hanger with stuff hanging off of it. The teacher wanted it to be more of a balance though, because “You highschoolers are more advanced than the 2^nd grade so I want to see that.” About half the kids were pretty good and then the other half just goofed around. One kid brought a small bottle of vanilla extract and then dared one of the guys, “Mayo”, to drink it. He did and smelled like vanilla. I helped Emily with the idea she had, but then the teacher pretty much said it as ugly and unattractive and nobody would want to look at it. So then I suggested my own idea and it turned out better... well it started to, but then class ended.

We went to her second class, which was Geometry and I enjoyed that. The teacher was kind of quiet and didn’t always wait for the class to be quiet, but I guess that’s their fault. We learned the same thing that my other cousin learned except on a harder level. The warm up problem was really cool. We had to find the height of a triangular stack of pipes that each had a diameter of 8ft. It would be easy to say that it was 16, but the top pipe sinks in between the other two a little bit so it less than 16. The way you solve it is by connecting the center of all the pipes and forming a triangle. Based on some thermo all the sides of the triangle are 8ft. So then you know the radius is 4 feet. Then you know that half the measure meant is 8ft (because they gave you that info, and because when you had the two radiuses you get that answer). So then you have to find the little gap in the middle of the pipes; to do that you have to find the altitude of the triangle. So you draw a line down the middle and turn it into two right triangles. You know two of the legs one is the diameter length and the other is the radius length. So you us the Pythagorean thermo to solve it and you get the other distance, which was like 4([sqrt]3) or something. So yeah... I liked it J

The last class she had was Chemistry. That class was a lot of fun to. The teacher was very on top of it and in control of the class and I liked that. We did a lab where we had to heat baking soda and do some different measuring. It was a lot of fun... we also had to wear goggles... ugh...I don’t like those :P After that we ate lunch and then she went to this class room and read for 20 minutes. So I picked out a book and read some of it. Then we had to go to her Spanish class because she had to fix something and I almost fell asleep. It wasn’t actually class time; some kids were just looking at their grades. I was struck with the fact that for most kids Spanish class it a waste of time. A fair portion of the class does the least amount possible because they don’t want to learn it and they skinny by with a passing grade and forget it all. I say this with experience. I’m not sure how to fix that problem, but in the long run I don’t think it’s worth it for most of the kids if they barely make it through the class and then learn nothing anyways. Wouldn't they be better off learning something that they might do a lot better in, that is then more useful to them? I don't know.... anyway

After that we went back to her reading class and my uncle came and picked me up. He said hi to a couple of the teachers there and then we left. We went back to the other base and went to a renting place where we got boots and skis for me. I didn’t fit their size 13 boots so I used size 14 ski boots... yeah, very big! We then filled the tank and hit the road to Oberstdorf where we were going to go skiing. We listened to some music, talked, got coffee and snacked. It was a very fun trip. The GPS (Maggie) took us on a very different route there, but it was really pretty and I’m glad we went that way. My uncle and I got to Oberstdorf in about 4 hours. I got a peek of the mountains when we went to France, but when we came down this winding road near Oberstdorf I saw the Alps for the first time and I was taken aback. They were so amazing! And the landscape was beautiful. There was no where to pull off and take a picture so I just forgot about my camera and took the time to just soak what I was seeing in! There was some dense fog so you couldn’t see all the way up, but I was still amazed. We arrived at about 8:30pm. The place we stayed at was super far back in the valley of the mountains, but had a great view! It was a small little house with some rooms up stairs. The room had a couch, one gigantic bed, a shower and sink and then a deck that you could go out on to. It was just right. J

I took some pictures off the deck of the incredible mountain scene, but with the fog the pictures really don’t show it well. We got our stuff all settled in and then both of us went to a small restaurant, where we were the only ones, and had something to eat. I had some apple strudel with almond ice cream and vanilla sauce. It was pretty good! We then got back to the “hotel” and got ready for bed. My uncle did some reading and I wrote a letter and then we went to bed. He told me to nudge him if he started snoring and I told him the same. Not five minutes after we went to bed he was snoring. I just put my ear buds in and let him sleep. I fell asleep myself and never heard him again.

It was a very fun day! Part of it I was in high school for the first time and then 4 hours later I’m at the base of the alps sleeping in a small “hotel” awaiting the next day to go skiing! Thank God for safe travels and an amazing day! J