Childhood Dream Come True :)

What has been one of my dreams since middle school? Going to Germany. What did I do to celebrate the start of October? I WENT TO GERMANY!

Thursday night, after having just traveled last weekend to southern Italy, we made our way back to Termini Train Station to meet up with our group to head to Okoberfest in Munich, Germany! We booked the trip through a company called bus2alps and they are a company that helps students traveling abroad visit other places they are interested in on the weekends. So there were a bunch of students all meeting at Termini to head to Oktoberfest. We left around 9PM and took and overnight, 12 hour bus ride to Munich. We arrived at roughly 9AM Friday morning. Best part? We signed up for the camping portion! I shared a tent with Mary Kate. We went to go drop our stuff off and look around.

After doing so, Sally, Mary Kate, and I got ready for our bike tour we signed up for. It was a bike tour through the city of Munich! It rained on us a little bit but the city is absolutely beautiful. We got to see city hall (yes, the glockenspiel is here and it's not worth seeing; most overrated tourist attraction in all the world), an amazing church (which I can't remember the name...) which was gorgeous and all white inside (nice change from all the color in the Italian churches), a beautiful garden, the Chinese tower, the natural wave in the river of Munich where surfers are constantly testing their skills, and the 2nd largest beer tent in the entire world. This beer tent is 4x larger than Central Park in New York. Let that one sink in for a little bit...it was crazy! It was so incredibly peaceful there I never wanted to leave. And the scenery...goodness I could look at that 24/7 and never get tired of it. This is where we stopped for lunch before heading back and ending the tour.

After making our way back, we decided to go check out Oktoberfest! It was only about 20 minutes away if you took public transportation. We got to the festival and just walked around for a bit. Part of me felt like I was at a giant outdoor Halloween party with everyone wearing their tradition German outfits haha but they were really cool to see! The festival was pretty crowded (go figure it was Friday night...) so we decided not to wait in line to get into a beer tent since it was already around 8PM and the festival closed at 10PM. So we headed back to the campsite and hung out there. From my class, there were about 14 of us who went on this trip. We all ended up finding each other and hung out. We met this group of guys from London that night and they were very interesting but fun to hang out with for a night.

Saturday morning, Sally, Mary Kate, Amanda and I went on a tour of the Neuschwanstein Castle
 aka the Sleeping Beauty castle!! It was about a 2 hour bus ride there and then a 30 minute walk up the hill to the castle, but every minute getting there was worth it. Even with all the rain coming down, it was absolutely gorgeous being there near mountains and the amazing castle. We quickly learned that pictures were allowed so I don't have that many up. However, I bought a book at the end that has gorgeous pictures in it. Unfortunately the pictures don't do the castle any justice but at least I have something :) After exiting the castle we walked up more to go see the view of the castle from the near by bridge (because what Disney princess doesn't have a bridge to go with her castle?!). It was really pretty to see because the bridge was crossing over a waterfall making it picture perfect. Nothing could've topped it. Ok, maybe less rain, but we still managed.

After we go back, the four of us girls and our new friend Andrew, who we met on the castle tour, went to Oktoberfest! This time, since the rain finally stopped and it was earlier in the evening, we waited in line to get into a beer tent. The wait ended up not being that bad and got in fairly quickly. We spent some time there and met a very nice French man who we talked to for a little. Then we met Pep Guardiola! He was a soccer player for FC Barcelona, then played on the Spain World Cup soccer team, with his last debut in 2001. He now is trainer/coach for FC Bayern Munich team!! He was kind enough to let us take a picture with him. That was the highlight of my night :) After awhile we headed back to the campsite to hang out for a bit on our last night.

Sunday morning, before our departure time at 1PM, we took a trip to go see Dachau Concentration Camp. It was the most eerie, saddening, humbling experience of my life. It was definitely eye opening. While we were there it was misting which make it all the more eerie. We were able to see the "special bunkers" for the people who got punished, the land where they were forced to stand for hours and hours on end without moving, the regular bunkers and where they all used to be, the crematorium (both the original and the new one) along with the "shower" room (gas chamber), and waiting rooms to go take your "shower". We also go to see the trench along with the barbed wired/electrical fence to keep people from escaping and the watch tower where the guard stayed to watch that area. Everything that we saw wasn't altered in the slightest so we were seeing it how it was back then. Extremely saddening. After the use of the concentration camp, they built a Jewish memorial for all the people who lost their lives. It was nice to have that slice of humanity in an area that so severely lacked it. It was definitely worth seeing. And it was definitely nice to have a relaxing 12 hour bus ride back to Rome after dealing with those emotions.

The trip to Germany was absolutely incredible. Big city wise, I prefer Munich over Rome. It still had it's big city aspects but was way cleaner and quieter. It was beautiful.

After getting in around 1AM that Sunday night/Monday morning none of us were looking forward to the next week ahead of school. However, my walk for Art History on Thursday morning made up for the exhaustion of traveling. Thursday morning our art history class met at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Finally, I have been inside Vatican walls and it was incredible! The moment you walk into the Basilica your breath is taken away. It is a building that can not only fit 2 football fields inside, but can fit other buildings themselves inside!! CRAZY!! And so BEAUTIFUL!! The Basilica also holds some of the most amazing treasures like 4 statues created by Bernini surrounding the center of the Basilica and Michelangelo's Pieta. The Pieta was incredibly beautiful and serene. I couldn't believe I was seeing it with my own eyes! The entire day was like I was walking on a cloud in a dream world. I'm so blessed that it was real life for me.

After class, my friends Emily, Shari, Krista, Sally and Erin climbed to the top of the dome of the Basilica. The first major stop you make you are inside the main part of the Basilica looking down at all the artwork, statues, the apse, etc. It was amazing. Such an interesting way to view the Basilica from up there. We then continued our way to the top and once we go there we saw the entire city of Rome at it's finest. We were so high up it was incredible and jaw-dropping. And of course, we got to see the very well known, classic picture of the Vatican and Basilica from the bird's eye view. Many pictures were taken and many freakouts of excitement were had :) None of us could believe that we actually got to see that for ourselves. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that was absolutely incredible. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. It puts such a different perspective on things when you are looking down on the beautiful, gorgeous city of Rome that we are calling home for four months :)

So, as you all can tell, it has been a pretty incredible past week and a half. I'm so incredibly blessed and I wish I could share all these moments with all of you in person. I'm definitely counting my blessings here and there are many more to come I'm sure :) Dreams do come true, so keep dreaming everyone! I know I am :)