10/12 That night we stayed in a Hostel in the alps. Unfortunately for us, the bus was unable to make it up the Mountain because it was too steep- So we got to walk it!! Luckily the Hostel sent down a van to bring up our bags—but still. It was the steepest incline I have ever seen in my entire life. I thought my lungs were going to explode. Whenever the van was coming, someone would yell “AUUUUUUUTOOOOOOO” (which means car in German) because if it were to slow down to pass us, it wouldn’t be able to make it up!

10/12 SCHLOSS NEUSCHWANSTEIN:: After decending the cliff from Schloss Hohenschwangau, we got to walk an hour up a mountain to Schloss Neuschwanstein, better known as the Disney Castle! It was an insanely long and exhausting hike, but it was worth it!! It was a really foggy day, so the view wasn’t all that spectacular, but you could still see the surrounding alps and Schloss Hohenschwangau! This was the castle of Mad King Ludewig, whose family lived in Hohenschwangau. He died before really living in the castle, but there was running water and flushing toilets on every floor (which was very advanced for this time.) Also, he insisted on having no paintings of himself, but of the legends of Germany. It was really beautiful! Oh, I forgot to mention that there’s a rule saying you can’t take pictures inside of almost all of the castles we visited. So, unfortunately you will have to google or something if you’re interested in seeing the insides.

10/12 SCHLOSS HOHENSCHWANGAU!:: Amazing!! It was SO cold here, we were right in the middle of the Alps, and hiked up a relatively small cliff to the Castle and were no longer cold. My ticket number was 136—thirty six. :P It was big and beautiful- there’s not much more I can say! Haha we learned that all paintings in Castles of war never show the blood. Oh! Also, this castle is famous for all of the Swans. There’s a swan in almost every painting, all the door handles, tables, chandeliers, and walls! It was the family crest or something.. haha

10/11 Mainau:: I couldn’t take many pictures here because my camera was dead. This island is literally known as the Island of Flowers. All year long there is a greenhouse filled with palm trees! We ate super wonderful apples from the island too!! I spent most of my time with a girl named Hillary from Arizona (since we got separated from the rest of our friends) We had a lot of fun and good talks as we ate cake and wandered around the island! Oh—Mainau is an island on the Bodensee- better known as Lake Constance. It is bordered by Austria, Switzerland, and Germany, and is right at the foothills of the Alps!! SO PRETTY!! There were swans, butterflies, giant flower-animals, bamboo, a castle, sculptures, several fancy benches—it was simply gorgeous!

So So Sorry!

I know I'm waaaay behind on blogs, but I have a good reason! Unfortunately my internet wifi thing broke on my laptop :( I'm on my Host Dad's computer now so I won't waste time with a bunch of explanations! If you want to see all of my pictures, Facebook is the best option. If you want to see them and don't have facebook, let me know and I can set something up with flickr. I'm contemplating making Vlogs (video blogs) and putting them on youtube until my computer is up and running. That way I can record and upload them waaaay faster. Comments? Oh, and if you see a random J or L or other letter, it's where I put a smile or frown, but it doesn't paste that way sooo, yeah. It's just crazy. I don't know why this is underlined..

10/10 Freiburg:: One of the first things we saw here was a bank or something called “Breuninger” – which is funny because that is the name of my Rotary Contact in the USA! We were looking to go to a Mexican restaurant, but the two there were much too expensive! So all of us were given some free time. My group went to Subway, and were about to go to the Starbucks next door, but we didn’t have time!!! :( After that, we had a tour of the city. There a few funny stories about Freiburg- First, they “accidentally” ended up bombing their entire city at one point! Haha another thing is that it has four gates of entry, the city folk wanted them taken down because they’re about 20 Meters high, so the Lord or whichever person was in charge (I can’t quite remember) built it up another 30 or so Meters!! We went to a park with a beauuutiful garden and there were two drunk men who were bothering each other—it was quite comical! That night we went to a Mexican bar where Rotary bought us each a beer! We all had a lot of fun together :)