Today we flew in from California. It was a 10 hour flight to Dusseldorf then our connection of an hour flight to Berlin.
We decided at the beginning of the year that we were going to take a vacation to Germany because it was the optimal time
in all of our schedules for the next couple of years. No hardcode internships/jobs and no summer school. We also had friends
in Germany that we met a long long time ago, so we decided to meet up with them! They're going to show us around and hang
out with us for the weekends. The flight was pretty comfortable actually. We flew AirBerlin, they had awesome personal TVs
infront of you. I watched four movies on the flight; (rewatched) The Kingsmen, (rewatched) The Blind Side, The Imitation game,
and lastly American Sniper. All great movies. We had a lovely soup made by our friends, the Mohnke's. After dinner we went
out for a nice walk to check out the community. LOTS OF BUGS. SO MANY. SO ANNOYING. When we got back from the walk I actually
felt that my eye had swollen up. I checked it out in the mirror and I had a bubble on the white part of my eye. My mom said it
was an allergic reaction to something so I took a benadryl to help it out. Totally knocked me out too. Sleep was nice tonight.
Our Arrival to a Train Station at Berlin
Day 2: 6-26-15
Today was a very busy and long day. Janett Mohnke said it would be easier for jet lag and the time change if we got up and did
something all day the day after the flight. So we did. We started with a nice large breakfast at their house. After I took another
benadryl which knocked me out for the next two hours too. I woke up and immediately left to start our first official day. Also my
eye did get better but still wanted to be sure. We first walked to the train station where we took the train to downtown Berlin.
The first thing we visited was Van Gogh Alive. It was a little place put together to show off Van Gogh's life. Not his original works
but pictures of them. They brought them to life and made them move. They played a show of the years of his life and the different periods
he went through. It was pretty sweet. Very enjoyable. After that we walked around a bit and we noticed that on the walls of the old
buildings there were holes that were made from the shots of guns during the World Wars. There were some parts that were even paved over
to rebuild the walls. That was pretty cool. We went to lunch at a normal German restaurant. Had lunch with the Mohnke's and they suggested
various items. Noah got the Curryweurst that they said everyone should try at least once. I got a grilled chicken with vegetables.
Wanted to save the curryweurst for the carts on the street another day (best way to have them). Then we walked around a bit more
deciding what we were going to do. We finally went to the canal for a boat ride of the history of Berlin. Showing off the different
structures and buildings. That was cool and it actually started to rain during that. After that we went to visit the university that
Klaus works at (Humbolt University). Then off to visit a couple shops, one of which was the original Applemann. Applemann is the figure
on all of the go lights for pedestrians when crossing a street. They thought he was so cute so they switched him out with the old ones.
Then dinner! We went to a mexican restaurant. Pretty good, I had a Burrito con carne. Instead of the shredded meat which is usually expected
they prepared it with mincemeat, it was an interesting flavor but still good. Lastly for the last thing of the day, we went to the tallest
structure in Berlin, the Berliner Fernsehturm. It's like the tower in Seattle. We went up the check out the view and it was pretty. Looked
at were we had visited and what we are going to visit in the next few days. A couple of girls saw Grace sketching some buildings and asked
if she had an instagram (which she does, @gracepooleart) and they talked to her for a while and became friends. That was cool to see. After
that it was off to home. Came back after walking for an entire day, everyone sacked out. I'm pooped and ready to sleep a long long time.
It was a long but great day.
Van Gogh Alive
Pictures of Berlin
The Boat Tour of Berlin
The Tallest Point in Berlin, Berliner Fernsehturm
Dinner at the Mexican Restaurant
Day 3: 6-27-15
Today was a good day :)! Lots more walking but very beautiful. This morning was very relaxing. I did wake up at 5AM due to jet lag but
my parents got up around 12PM. I played some Hearthstone with my brother in the new Tavern Brawl with Mukkla and his banana ambush.
I also played some Worms 3 on my phone with him where we kill each others team of worms with rocket launchers and grenades. After a bit
Janett and Klaus got up and helped us with breakfast. Apparently rolls and bread are a big breakfast item for Germans. They put spreads
like butter, cheese and different types of fruity/vegetable spreads on them. We had tea and coffee too. Coffee and the espresso are made
by Klaus. He loves his espresso machine and he's the best for making it. After Noah and my first breakfast, Grace woke up and she asked
if we'd like to go on a run with her. I wasn't up to go for a run but we offered to go on a bike ride while she ran :D. It was great,
a beautiful park that we went through. The bike ride was pretty tough actually. Mountain biking, respect! The rocky and bumpy roads were
tough to get through. Bunches of fun and it was great to go out with Noah and Grace. Then we came back for second breakfast where we found
Jasmin woken up. We ate a bit more and Caro, Jasmin's friend, joined us for today. Janett offered to play a game with them. It was a game
with wooden blocks and wooden throwing sticks. There were two teams, each side has five blocks standing up, and there's a king block in the
middle. The teams take turns throwing the wooden sticks to knock over all of the opposing team's wooden blocks. After all five are down then
we aim for the king. It was a great game, we had three rounds of fun. Super tough, and definitely looks easier than it is. After, we ran around
on their structure behind their house. They're a bunch of logs put together and ropes to climb to get across. There's also a fun spinning wheel
we can run on that gets progressively faster. Lots of falling off and we had bunches of fun on it. Then came third breakfast/lunch for our
parents. After lunch, Jonas asked us to play table tennis with him. We played for a while then played on the spinning wheel again. Finally
all of our parents were ready to go so we started the day off with a trip to the panorama of the Berlin Wall. We were at Checkpoint Charlie,
a American checkpoint on one side of the wall that still stands today. We went into the panorama museum and there were many quotes from people
who lived during the days of the Berlin Wall. How live was there and what they had to go through. Around all of this were signatures of all
of the visitors who had come to the museum. We signed the floor of the building and I MADE A HAND TURKEY :D. Grace drew some random people
and everyone else did their own little thing. We went a little further into the building and there was the panorama of the Berlin Wall during
the times it was up. It showed the differences between East Berlin and West Berlin. The differences in social life and technology too. Very
very interesting. After the panorama we took a little snack break at an Einstein Kaffee shop. We didn't eat much because of the late breakfast
and we had reservations for dinner. We went to visit the actual Berlin Wall that was still standing after that. It was cool to see it actually,
they were a lot more seperate than I thought, there were two walls with a big gap between the two. Klaus also told us about the history of each
side. He explained how to tell the difference and that one side took down their trolley and didn't have as great of technology as the other side.
After the wall we went to visit the East wall. The East wall is decorated with lots of pictures and different artistic approaches. It was pretty
but it wasn't the best or most impressive. The idea of the wall was way cooler. After the long wake while looking at the wall, we went to our
reservation at one of Jasmin's favorite restaurants. It was mainly a burger restaurant with lots of other options. I ordered the French Burger,
that had the regular beef patty with a fried cheese and cranberry sauce on it. Super tasty and you could definitely taste the sauce. It came with
a side of fries and a salad too. And since this is Germany, the age to drink is 18 so I drank a beer! My dad suggested it to me and it was pretty
tasty but I'm not yet too fond of it. I still have to get used to it since that was my first. We walked home and everyone sacked out. I think I'm
the only one up right now since I'm writing this and talking to my lovely girlfriend, Isabel :D. It's tough to talk to her since there's the nine
hour time difference and I don't have wifi/data throughout the day. So it's great to have a conversation with her. Miss her bunches. Welp, it was
a great but tiring day! I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow, were I will be able to go kayaking!!! :D Bye!
Train Station to the Walls
The Berlin Wall Panorama
The Berlin Wall
Checkpoint Charlie
The East Berlin Wall with Art
Dinner with My Beer :D
Day 4: 6-28-15
Today was a nice day. Relaxing and slow morning, tasty rolls for breakfast. After breakfast we went for an hour drive to visit
Spree Forest. Today was a day full of kayaking! Since we used our legs to walk everywhere for the last two days, today would be
an arm day! We went in 5 different kayaks; 4 doubles and one single. I rode the single kayak, it felt like the single was a lot
more rockier than the other doubles. I had more mobility and control over mine though which was fun :). So we went along the river
and took a path that we decided before hand. It was estimated around 4 hours of kayaking and we'd stop for lunch in the middle.
So we set off and it was gorgeous! So much wildlife and lots and lots of bugs flying around. The open fields were gorgeous to look
at and there were tons of plants surrounding the river. I enjoyed the peace and quiet too. Riding around with the family was fun too.
Noah and Jonas led the way as we navigated from the back. We came to a couple locks which were fun to go through. The later two we had
to do ourselves which was a bunch of fun to do. We stopped our kayaks for lunch, we had to pull them up onto shore so we could walk to
the restaurant. Our first choice was full so we found another restaurant down the river a tad bit more. It was delicious! I had a pork
chop with saurekraut and mashed potatoes. Mmm salty and really well cooked. After lunch we continued down the stream and a couple hours
more of kayaking we found ourselves back at the beginning. While going along the river I noticed the reflection of the trees in the water
which was super cool and beautiful. We drove home and an hour and I passed out in the car. As soon as we got back to the house I was so
tired and exhausted from allergies too that I passed out on my bed. I skipped dinner and just slept the night too. It was a good day.
Kayaking Adventures!
A Hay Person my mom wanted to take a photo of
Day 5: 6-29-15
Today started off slowly again. I woke up around 7 and messaged my girlfriend for a bit. Said good night to her as she went to bed. A great
start to my day :). Then I went with my brother to eat breakfast while the rest of the family slept. We had leftover indian food which tasted
pretty good, there was a lot of curry sauce and rice which went well togther but my mom wished for more veggies. It tasted good for a morning
snack. After that we went back to our room to play a little Hearthstone then after showering we decided to go outside and play some more wooden
blocks. Oh and by the way today is Monday so Jasmin has her lecture (so she has to drive out to Dresden) and Jonas has school. After three games
of blocks and a bit of playing around outside we head back in ready to leave for our weekday trip to Dresden. Our parents are ready yet so we
go to our room and occupy ourselves with video games until everyone's ready to go. We leave around 12ish and it's a two and a half hour drive
to Dresden where we'd be staying till Friday. That entire car ride I was asleep! Woot woot! We arrive and check into our apartment and dang my
mom his the jackpot of all apartments. It's a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment. HUGE; giant living room, a kitchen and giant bedrooms.
Pretty comfortable too. We relax a bit from our long day of kayaking the day before. I took a nap until we were ready for dinner. We planned to
meet up with Jasmin for dinner at a pasta/pizza restaurant. We drove down and met her. This restaurant was served kind of cafeteria style.
They gave each of us a card that we would check with each server to mark what we've ordered. At the end, after eating, the cashier would check
our balance and that's how much we'd pay. Pretty cool system. I was starving since we didn't get lunch (because we were in the car) so I got both
a pasta bowl and a whole pizza! The pasta was delicious! I had a Carbonara, cheesey sauce with spaghetti noodles, bacon awe nd ham bits, with basil
on top. My pizza was a scampi with arugola. Shrimp, arugola, cheese, tomato sauce and something else too... I can't remember right now. It was
decent too. We enjoyed our meal with Jasmin and she walked us over to the train station to get tickets for our trip on Wednesday. We were going
on a hike with Jasmin and Janettt. After that we got back home and relaxed a bit more. Today was a nice relaxing day after a very exhausting day.
Our ride to Dresden
Vapiano Pizza & Pasta
Day 6: 6-30-15
Today was a fun and very interesting day. Lots of history and artifacts of old Dresden. The morning was relaxing. I woke up pretty early but stayed
in bed to message my girlfriend. She's doing well and has gotten better from her sickness from Spain, Hooray! :) Talked to her for a couple of hours
then said good night. Another happy morning. And my mom got up and cooked eggs, potatos and salami. So I had chunks of potatos, salami and scrambled
eggs. A nice meal for a good day of walking. We all got ready one after another and left the house around 11ish. Today we were heading to see the castles!
So the first castle we visited was more of a museum castle. It had three segments with different types of history pieces from the old times. The first
segment was gadgets and useful items. It started off with mathematics; tons of measuring tools. All really well made and gorgeous! Then it moved onto the
telescopes upstairs. There was also a couple of vaccums. There was a video that showed how each vaccum worked which was really cool to watch but we had
no clue what the vaccums were used for. After that we moved onto the watches and clocks. This part was really cool to me. The showed a bunch of clocks
open and their gears and parts moving around. The grandfather clocks were amazing and super cool to watch and follow each step. There was one hand held
watch that was super intricate and it was know for it's complicated design. They opened up the back of the clock to show it's parts and I really don't
know how they crammed so much stuff into the back of that watch. The next segment was pottery, porcelain, and statues. This part was cool, not much stood
out like the watches. Many pieces about animals and my dad pointed out that it was cool that all these artists made their sculptures off of other people's
pictures. They haven't really seen each of those animals in real life. After that segment we got hungry so we went across the street to a small cafe.
We sat outside because it smelt great! I ended up ordering something I had no clue what the name meant. It was a super tender and soft beef piece. It came
with a potato ball with bread crumbs on top. It also came with cabbage that was super well cooked. My brother eyed a coffee ice cream as someone else ordered
it so he decided to get one and I shared one with Grace. It was pretty tasty. Noah disliked his and had to load it with suger since he hates the bitterness
of the coffee. Our waiter was great. Lots of jokes and he was very friendly with us. Noah especially liked him. After lunch, we went back to the castle to
visit the last segment which was the painted art. There were many different time periods of the stories in the bible and the seven stages of the cross. In
the middle of the main room there was a painting by Rafael with Jesus and the two cupids at the bottom. Those cupids are shown everywhere; bottoms of cards
and many others. When finished with the castle we walked around for a bit. We got italian ice cream and enjoyed the scenery. We then wanted to visit the
Dresden castle. We walked in but sadly it was closed today so we decided to head home and visit it on Thursday! On the way home, we walked through a mall to
check it out and decided we were just going to do dinner in today. We picked up a rotisserie chicken and some pasteries. We had salad material at home so
that was our dinner. The rest of the night we rested in our apartment. I got home early enough that I caught Isabel still getting ready for work, so I
chatted with her for a bit then played a bit of video games and fell asleep.
Zwinger Castle
Zwinger Museum
Lunch!
Italian Ice Cream After Lunch!
Exploring Dresden
A Cathedral We Found
Day 7: 7-1-15
Today we went hiking! Up to the sandstone mountains! We woke up early and had breakfast in. We took the train to the main Dresden station were we met up
with Jasmin and Janettt. Before we met up with them we visited a shop called Woolworth (apparently popular on the east coast of the US) and checked out
what they had. It was basically a 99 cent store with a bit higher prices and better quality. We went back to the station and met up with Jasmin and Janett
and found our next train that would be a 45 minute ride to the mountains. I slept until the end of the ride and woke up in time to pass by the mountains.
They were gorgeous! A big open area with a river going across the bottom, then a forest of trees on top of the sandstone mountains. Before we headed to
to the top we stopped at an ice cream stand and had a refreshing bite. I had a chocolate flavored ice cream, two scoops :D. So we were going on a path
that would take around three hours round trip with breaks and lunch. There were tons of stairs up and it felt more like a tourist path than an actual hike.
The path was pretty easy, just a bunch of stairs but it wasn't long till we hit the top. Gorgeous view of the town below. There were a couple stops where
they built a section to look at the view and it was fantastic. My dad has been taking panoramas all trip and I think he took about 20 just today. We get
past the top and there's a couple of buildings there. There was a restaurant and even an entire hotel! On top of the mountain! I don't know why someone
would want to stay up there but they had it. So we now hit the part of the path that was more hiking, it was more foresty and we went through the mountain.
After about ten minutes going down, we stopped at a picnic area where we stopped for lunch. Jasmin and Janettt made sandwiches for the group. They made chorizo,
cheese and lettuce, and cream cheese sandwiches. Jasmin also made these little patties that were her grandmother's recipe. Those were delicious and they were
vegan too! After the thirty minute stop, we continued our journey and the wildlife around us was amazing. Tons and tons of green everywhere. Sadly my mom has
been dealing with her knee for the last couple of weeks and today it was slow for her as she went down each step, one by one. Once we reached the bottom it was
around 3PM and Janett said it would be a good time for ice cream, cake, or coffee in Germany. So we found ourselves a little shop and had some more ice cream!
I had a walnut scoop of ice cream and a blueberry and rasin sauce on top. Pretty good. The whipped cream on top was too heavy and I don't think it was necessary.
We went back across the river back to the train station on the ferry. We caught our train and headed back to Dresden. Once we reached the station we decided to
eat dinner out again but before we went, the girl stopped by an art store to grab some yarn for knitting on Friday. Noah, my dad, and I went back to Woolworth
to grab some deodorant for Noah. My dad also grabbed some wine thinking it'd please my mom. When we met back up, to our surprise, our mom also bought a bottle
of wine! We ate dinner back at the same pasta/pizza place like two nights ago. Again it was delicious and they cooked the pasta really well. We got back and I
sacked out on my bed. It was a fantastic day.
Heading Over To The Sandstone Mountains!
An Ice Cream Stop Before The Hike
The Hike and The Views
Back Down The Trail
Afternoon Ice Cream Break
Noah Playing With The Ducks
Day 8: 7-2-15
Today was a slow start with a fun middle and slow ending. We had a very long morning. Ate breakfast in, we had eggs and I had my leftover pizza from the pasta/
pizza restaurant. I woke up around 5AM and talked for a long time with Isabel. It was nice and I enjoy talking to her. She makes me think a lot which is nice.
Afte that I took a nap again around 8AM to 10AM. Woke up and played a bit of Hearthstone. Then had lunch! My mom made these GIANT ham sandwiches that I don't
think I was completely ready for. After lunch we were going to meet up with Jasmin to check out the Dresden Castle. We started the tour of the castle museum
and it began with lots of art and intricate designs of clocks and tabletop pieces. Pretty cool. But the part after that was better. We found the part where the
weapons were. These were all the medival weapons, armor, and jousting equipment. Super sick stuff. After that Grace and Jasmin headed back to the apartment so
Grace could draw Jasmin and we headed to take a walk around to check out the buildings and I wanted to try out the Currywurst. A sausage cut up and drizzled with
a sweet curry sauce. Pretty tasty. Very sweet though. We walked back through the city to enjoy the architecture. For dinner we got some take out asin food. I had
a bowl of fried rice. It was pretty flavorful and tasty. After that I passed out on my bed. Today was a nice relaxing day.
Weapons at the Museum
Day 9: 7-3-15
Today we headed back to Berlin for the weekend, back to the Mohnke house! We had to check out of the apartment around 11AM. I woke up around 5AM. So I messaged
Isabel since it was around 8PM California time. She was out so I just played on my laptop and phone. Then she started messaging me back later so I messaged her for
the rest of the time. She went to sleep around 10:30AM my time which was around 1:30AM their time :). She's the best though. Makes me smile every moment I get to
talk to her. Well after she went to sleep, I got ready and packed to leave. We headed out to Berlin! We had a last minute decision though to visit Janettt at her
university of applied sciences to check out her office and the campus. It was on the way so after around an hour and a half of driving we arrived and it took us a
bit to find the campus. We have a GPS in the car but didn't have the campus address, only the city. We found her and the campus was pretty nice. It was very small too.
It was a school of only four thousand students so she knew all of her students by name which is always nice. She walked us around for a bit and then we went out for
lunch at a thai restaurant before Janettt had to leave for a meeting. After lunch we continued our journey back to Berlin. As soon as we arrived to the house my dad
sacked out on his bed since he was so tired from the drive over. For dinner tonight, Jasmin was cooking one of her grandmother's recipes. We started dinner with a
vegetable salad and some bread, then came the main course of a circle of mashed potatos with gravy in the middle and sort of boiled/poached egg. It was very delicious
and I would definitely have it again. It apparently is a very popular German dish, called the Lost Eggs. While they made dinner, we played table tennis with Jonas.
After dinner, they had set up a table outside to have dessert/snacks on but we went off to play frisbee with Jonas and run on the physics wheel. Frisbee was tons of
fun and I got super sweaty afterward. It was extremely hot in Berlin which is pretty rare. It got to around 93 degrees. After the three of us settled down, the rest
of the family came to sit at the table and we learned to knit from Jasmin and Janettt. Noah and I were making scarfs!!! :D It's actually very tough to knit but once
you get a hang of it it's pretty fun. We sat outside and talked for a while. My dad made a comment on how he loved that his kids had gotten to the point that we were
arguing about how much each of us could hold while drinking. Yeahhhhhh that was us. But today was a niec relaxing day, we took it easy and spent some quality time
together in the end.
Janettt's University
Grace Fell Asleep In The Car
Jonas' English Test
Day 10: 7-4-15
Today was a nice day. Slow morning. I actually got to sleep in today... the rest of the days I keep waking up super early because my body wants me to... Today our
plan was to hit the German parliment building then walk by the Brandenburg Gate and lastly attend an outdoor classical concert. It also was extemely hot today.
We left around 1PM to hit the air conditioned train. We first went to a mall to get more yarn for our little projects we are making. Noah and I got 5 more rolls of
yarn for our scarfs. I'm excited to complete it. We then left for the parliment building where we waited for a while for security and for them to let us in. We had
a 3 o'clock reservation for the cafe on top of the building. We ate cake and it was also a gorgeous view. After cake, we took in the view and read a little bit about
the history of the building and it's creation. Then we were excited to see the Brandenburg Gate. We could see it if we looked off the parliment building but once we
got up close it was pretty cool. Gorgeous monument and the history behind it is awesome. We could see the line of where the Berlin wall stood and how far away from the
gate it was. Next to the gate there were all the different embassies. We saw the US one with it's US flag and a rainbow flag to show the pass on marriage. That was
pretty cool to see. We kept walking through the heat toward the concert but we stopped at a mall to grab some food since we didn't eat lunch and only had cake for a
snack. First my dad and I wanted burgers from one of the shops but the server was being pretty mean about us ordering that we decided to go somewhere else. I then got
two sandwiches with cheese, tomatos, and arugola. They were pretty tasty. OH before we hit the mall Noah wanted to go inside a souvenir store. Inside we looked around
and I found one of the coolest toys ever. They were little music boxes with only the mechanism. There was no box but it showed the notes and the pattern while they hit
the rungs to make the correct sound. Each box had it's own different tune and I really enjoyed Fur Elise by Beethoven and Spring by Vivaldi. I got both of thsoe music
boxes and Noah got one that had "La vie en rose" by an unknown artist. Lovely tunes and the reason why I got Fur Elise was that all three of us learned it on the piano,
so it brought back some memories. I just love the mechanism and I find that so cool. Okay, so we finished our linner and we headed to the concert. It was outdoors infront
of one of the old historic buildings. I didn't figure out which one it was but it was a pretty nice atmosphere. The concert started and it felt a tad bit slow to me at
first. During some of the pieces, a couple of singers would come out and accompany the orchestra. Those singers were fantastic, super impressive. And for other pieces
there was a ballet group that would dance during the piece. They were pretty awesome too. After the intermission, the concert began to pick up and get more interesting.
It was somewhat boring during the first half. The bigger pieces came out during the second half. One thing that helped me was I noticed a bunch of pieces that were by
Pyotr Ilyich Tchiakovsky. Tchiakovsky is my favorite composer and I love the music he made. I'm actually listening to the best pieces of Tchiakovsky on youtube as I
write this. The concert also added little effects like lighting as the night went through and they added flares at the intesne moments. They would pop the flare as the
climax of a piece was in process. I didn't expect those in the beginning. Overall it was a nice concert and apparently for the conductor it was his last. There were
though two things that did bother me about the concert; one was that when I watched the conductor conduct and the musicians play it was off of what I was hearing.
Since they were a bit away from me and because of the speakers too I heard them later than I saw them, so the queues the conductor made were always early in my mind.
The second thing was that the entire orchestra was very stiff which made it hard to be engaged with them. There wasn't any emotion in their playing. They were fantastic
but it would help if I could feel what they felt. I did love the concert though and I'm happy I could go with the Mohnke family to it. After the concert ended, we
headed back home and took a couple of subways and trains to get there. It was still super hot and even when I was in the house I was super sweaty. I came home and
messaged Isabel for a bit as she was excited about her family making paella. It sounded so good... Today was a nice day and I forgot to say Happy Fourth of July!
Buying Our Yarn
Restaurant On Top Of The Parliment
Brandenburg Gate
The Classical Outdoors Concert
Day 11: 7-5-15
Today was a nice relaxing day. We stayed in the Mohnke house for the morning. We ate breakfast in, there were rolls as usual and spread. I had a roll with a creamed
cheese and a strawberry spread on top of that. Super tasty, strong cheese plus the sweetness from the strawberrys, was a great combo. Klaus showed this to us and I'm
totally using this when I get back home. I talked with Isabel for a while as she enjoyed her Fourth of July back at home. she was supre excited about the seafood paella
that her family was making and gahhh it sounded so good. I had a nice chat with her and wished her good night as I continued on with my day. A bit after breakfast, may dad
found out that some of the Mohnke family haven't watched How to Train Your Dragon. SOOOO we went on an adventure to find it and luckily it was on Netflix! So they set up
their projector to watch it on. We had our drinks in and the movie started! After a bit of not being able to see the dark parts of the movie do to the sun during the day,
we realized it may be better to watch it on their Mac. After the technical difficulty was over, we started again and it was much much better. During the movie a couple people
were knitting but I was on my laptop working on this website. I finished writing my blogs for the day so I thought I could probably do a rehull of the structure of the website.
My website's structure was super super messy and as an example for the engineering classes, it was not the best. So I cleaned it up a bit and made some new directories to
make it smoother to edit. I also added a new page which was a resources page. I realized that there's a lot of things the class has to know off the top of their head to
update their websites. So I felt like it'd be easier if they could just look it up and use that as help. Many, if not all, of the students were new to websites and using
html, so this could help Dr. Neat not have to go to each person for a problem they encountered. So that took basically the entire movie to write that and I'm still adding
more as I think of things. It's been fun for me to write this, the one thing I hope is it isn't too complicated. I want it to be easy to find and easy to read too. Well
after dragons, my dad and Klaus went out to get us take out from a Turkish restaurant called Donner Kabob. We all had a falafel and oh my gosh... it was so good. A super
crunchy bread on the outside with the falafel on the inside and a mouth watering secret sauce that was a bit sweet. Plus all of the lettuce and cabbage in the middle of it.
I downed that falafel in minutes. It was so good. I'd definitely go for another sometime. To be honest, I wish I had ordered two... Alright, soon after linner we got ready
and a bit more dressed up for the Opera we were going to see that night! We were going to see an opera/play performace about a robot and teaching it how to be human. Teaching
it how to have feelings and how to operate (HA get it OPERAte) as a robot without humans. We traveled on the trains to the Opera house and when we got inside there were waiters
with glasses of sparkling wine and sparkling water. I took the wine :DDD. We went upstairs to check out the place and there were a couple of post cards that the woman said
they'd send if you wrote on them and an address. This was fun! There sadly were only two addresses that I remembered in my head, mine and the Martos household. So I sent one
to the Martos'! :D It was perfect too because the front of the card had the robot on it! And they love robots. So we found our seats and waited for the opera to start and as
I looked around it was a nice venue, small but pretty. One thing I noticed that I wasn't excited about was how the seats were placed in the audience. Unlike other theaters
the seats were placed so that when you sat down and when you looked at the stage, there was a head right infront of you. They didn't place it so that you were between two
people's shoulders and sadly... it doesn't go well for short people. But I dealed. The opera was fantastic! I enjoyed it and it had a decent story to it. It was a tad bit
tough since the majority of it was in German but luckily we had subtitles infront of us. The singers were fantastic and I appreciate them greatly. Their voices were booming
and I could definitely not do that. Half way into the play there was an intermission where Grace and I were somewhat hungry so we went outside and got ourselves a pretzel!
We were expecting a flavorful really tasty pretzel but sadly were let down by a soft, weak pretzel. We went back in for the second half of the play which I think was the better
of the two and I enjoyed it a ton. There were a couple of comical bits that I caught but sadly the rest were in German. It had a fantastic finishing number that was enjoyable.
After the Opera we headed back for the subway and trains and the entire walk there was lightening striking in the sky. Once we arrived to our 2nd last train stop the rain was
pooring and lightening was everywhere! It was great. We did arrive to the house dry though. Jonas offered us to play a game with him and surprisingly it was werewolf! We play
werewolf all the time in robotics and it's a blast! As we started we realized that we've played different ways and there was some controversy over the rules and the way to play.
After a bit of discussing we came to a conclusion and Jonas narrorated the first round. This round I was the witch and the first night I used my life potion because the werewolves
targeted me. I also killed Noah with my death potion for no good reason... When talking during the day though I accused Jasmin and Klaus as the werewolves due to actions by my
dad and Janettt. I was correct :D. I narrorated the second round and this round was a fun and super intense one. Noah and Janettt were the werewolves and in the beginning my dad
accused Janettt of picking Jasmin super quickly for the leader role. He thought they were both werewolves. Noah had a sly mind game where he said why don't we kill Jasmin first
since she was the leader and held two votes. He convinced everyone to kill Jasmin and in the end that almost won the game. Super smooth play by Noah and it was fantastic to see
it play out. We had a blast playing werewolf. It was a nice day and right after I sacked out in bed.
Selfie With My Dad and My Sparkling Wine
Selfies With My Bro Before The Opera Starts
The Opera House
Day 12: 7-6-15
Today was a relaxing day. Full of sleeping in the car. So we woke up early and we planned to visit a castle before ending our day in Weimar. Sadly we found the castle was closed
and many other public places are too. That meant we could rest a little more before heading out. I chatted with Isabel for a while and enjoyed a conversation with her until she fell
asleep. We ate breakfast in, rolls again with spread. Then we packed up and left for Weimar. I slept the majority of the journey but at one point I woke up an that's when our GPS
bugged out on us and told us to go the wrong way. We decided to head towards a city closeto Weimar and then rest the GPS to give us a new route. It luckily worked but we did lose
an hour in the car. Once arriving to the city, we were trying to find our apartment but we misread the GPS thinking it was in the middle of a construction site. We parked and walked
around trying to find it an we had parked right infront of it passing it three times while driving. We went up to our apartment and damn... my mom is good at this. She found this
fantastic 5 bed apartment with a kitchen, living room, bathroom and a balcony for like $150 for a night. CRAZY. The owner filled the staircase of her art work and she apparently has
a record label and has a couple of her CDs in each room. Pretty neat and lots of weird/cool art. The apartment was in a fantastic location too. We walked over to a little market area
for linner and found a Italian restaurant to eat at. It got our attention because of the gorgeous menu and the gnochi it had on it. It was disappointing to find out there was no gnochi
left and once ordering our food, it wasn't the best Italian food. After linner, we walked around more exploring the town. We grabbed some groceries for our apartment. The town is
nice and quaint. Lovely town. I like it a bunch. The rest of the evening I relaxed in the apartment. I finished the story mode of Portal 2 again which is a super fun game. I also
worked on updating this website and adding more features of the resources page. I had a lovely chat with Isabel too via snapchat. She's doing well at her job and I miss her bunnches.
Seeing her makes me miss her more too. So yeah. To sleep I go too. Weeeee.
The Apartment My Awesome Mom Got, It's Sick
Walking Around Weimra
The Ice Cream Options at a Shop
Day 13: 7-7-15
Today was a super cool day because history! So we woke up in Weimar and went out to breakfast pretty early. We went to the Back-Factory, which was a bakery with everythinggggg.
It was pretty great, I got a Berliner (donut in German), an apple and cheese stuffed waffle, and a chicken ciabatta sandwich! Each of them were fantastic. After we ate breakfast
we walked over to the grocery store Mullers to get some snacks for the trip to Munich. Noah got four bgs of Lays which were the shape and feel of a Ruffles chip. Pretty good deal for
him too. After checking out of the apartment we headed for Nuremberg. Before checking into our hotel we went to the Nazi party rally grounds, or in German Reichsparteitagsgelände.
This museum was one of the areas that the Nazis rallied on. They would gather in thousands to listen to people, like Adolf Hitler, speak. The idea that we were standing on the same
grounds that over thousands of Nazis rallied on was crazy. We got the audio tour of the museum and it was fascinating. So much awesome history about the area and the time through
the World Wars. We went through the beginning of how the Nazi party was started and Hitler's life and views to the end of the war and how all the parties ended up. The Nazi rally
grounds were also shown before and what happened on them to after and how they are used today. There wasn't much to see besides the panels of history and the Congress Hall that we
stood in. The audio tour told us basically everything. It was super super interesting and after a bit I kind of got a bit tired of just listening to the tour. I got slowly more
distracted by my surroundings, but at the end of the tour it showed the outcome which definitely got me hooked again. There was one room in particular that had all the names of the
Nazi leaders and how they were trailed. Some sentenced to life in prison and others sentenced to death. The amount of people involved in the leading of the Nazi party was insane.
The view of the stadium outside was great. After we finished the museum, we checked in at the hotel in Nuremberg. We had two rooms and gosh it was hot up there... We had the fifth floor which
was the top floor and the difference between the fourth and fifth floor temperatures were so different. We kept the fan on all night and it was still hot. It was even raining and
there was thunder and lightening outside. The rain was nice. For linner we went to a place called Hot Tacos. It was a Mexican restaurant that one dude ran and it was around an 4.5
star restaurant. It was small but super super tasty. We had a nacho especiale for the table. It had chili and was loaded with tons of toppings on them, super delicious. I myself
ordered two tacos and one burrito. The burrito was take home and with steak. The tacos were chile con carne and turkey, both delicious. The tacos were made with a soft tortilla
that he put on the grill to make the sides super crispy to keep it together. There was a sauce that he put in there that was fantastic too. I thoroughly enjoyed the tacos and burrito.
The walk down and back to the taco join was gorgeous. We didn't get to see the same view earlier since we drove in through the city. It was old looking and there were multiple
cathedrals that were ginormous and extremely detailed. We headed back and hung around at the hotel. My bro and I got our own room why our parents and Grace took the other. Noah
and I sat on our bed knitting and watching the youtube show Video Game High School by Freddie Wong. I've seen the whole series before but I loved it and I'm watching it again with
Noah. During the show I ate my burrito and texted Isabel for a little bit. I get to text her around 9PM-10PM Germany time since that's when she gets her lunch break. She texted
a little longer yesterday because she was trying to figure out SolidWorks which is a Computer Assisted Design (CAD) program that she's using to make pieces for her work. It's like
the Photoshop of picture editing tools. I wished Isabel good luck on her work and a bit after I fell asleep for the night.
Back-Factory Breakfast
Nazi Rally Ground Museum
Our Hotel!
Nuremberg!
Hot Tacos
Day 14: 7-8-15
Today was an awesome day. I woke up decently early so I messaged Isabel to see how she was and that lead to talking for a bit. She was working on her presentation for work tomorrow.
I talked with her for a while and I enjoyed our conversation about what we're up to. I miss her tons. She is super great and I enjoy her company. After a while I thought that I
should leaver her so she could concentrate on her work. I checked up on her right as she was going to sleep a bit later. Wished her a nice night. After that we woke up Noah for
breakfast at our hotel since it was included in our stay. There were so many options! They had the general breakfasts for both Germans and for Americans. They had the cheese,
meat slices, and rolls like German breakfasts and scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages like American breakfasts. I missed my American breakfast so I mainly had that, but I also
got a roll and a crepe. Super tasty. One thing I've noticed is that the glasses for drinks are smaller. I had to get up over 8 times to refill my glass. Also I somewhat dislike
that water isn't free like the U.S. It's hard to stay as hydrated as I was at home. After breakfast we headed out for our two and a half hour journey to Munich! I slept the
majority of the ride which was awesome. We arrived at the Renissance Museum. This museum was gorgeous. It was more full rooms rather than pieces. They restored many of the rooms
with complete interior designs and furniture. Such cool artwork and old furniture. I guess the pictures will show it all. I actually took a picture of every chandiler I saw because
when Isabel and I were at the Getty we compared and talked about the chandilers. She said she likes them so I took photos to look at them with her and talk about which ones were
neat and which weren't. Alright check out the photos to see how awesome it was. It was grand and the majority of the rooms were HUGE. After the museum, we went to the hotel to
check in. This time it's one room and pretty small. We're staying here for three days to enjoy Munich, which everyone says is the best. So far it's been pretty great. We asked
the receptionist for a good ethnic food area and especially a sushi restaurant. She suggested a small restaurant that we looked up to have a four star review. We arrived and there
was one guy running the restaurant. He took our order and I got the California box (18 rolls) and shared a roll with Noah. It was pretty good, I didn't realize that soy sauce was
so salty because I usually don't use it on anything. Since these rolls were rice plus the one ingredient, I felt they deserved soy sauce. I enjoyed all my rolls though, but I wasn't
completely filled. We walked around for a bit to find a grocery story to get some snacks again. I grabbed a sandwich and we also grabbed 6 bottles of Radlers. Radlers are a type of
drink that is a mix of beer and a sprite. Fizzy beer with a fruity taste. I've tasted it before and thoroughly enjoyed it. We walked back to the hotel and hung around. I updated
my website and ate my sandwich. The rest of my family is watching a show about the life of a store owner in London a bit back in time. Well to sleep now.
Cool Buildings in Munich!
The Renissance Museum
Sushi With Christoph and Mark
Day 15: 7-9-15
Today was a gorgeous day! We started somewhat slow, my parents went out and grabbed breakfast for us. We ate in our hotel, I had a chicken sandwich and a cream filled
donut. I also worked on my website a ton. I kind of got behind on uploading photos so I did the last nine days of photos. It took forever but it's finally done. Isabel
was up so I chatted with her between her Pomodoro sessions. Pomodoro is an app she uses to do work, it times your work time and gives you breaks every section. It's a
very useful app and I think I'm going to use it this next year at college. It helps you just sit down and be super focused for a certain amount of time. After breakfast,
we decided to go to the English Gardens. It's basically a giant park in the middle of Munich. It was huge and gorgeous. There was one area that was the biggest field of
grass that I've ever seen. Over three football fields worth of grass and trees. That I would have a blast playing ball on or throwing frisbee. We strolled through the
Gardens and we were headed to the lake in the middle. The lake was gorgeous and there were tons of ducks and geese. The walk through the park was great too. After the
stroll, we went to an Indian restaurant called Indian Mango. My mom found it and it was a delicious restaurant with authentic Indian food. I had a mango lassi and a mango
chicken. The chicken was great but the sauce was fantastic. Thoroughly loved it. After lunch, went back to the hotel and I finished up updating my blog. I took a 15
minute nap right before heading out to the Marienplatz Square. There were some lovely catherdrals and buildings in the square and many many stores. We walked around a
bit to check out some stores. There was one nice store that had tons of cool cool gadgets in it that we were fascinated by. After checking out the stores we headed back
to a burger place that had a bunch of people sitting outside. My mom checked it out on the way to the plaza too. Oh yeah, this entire time at the plaza it was only my mom,
my dad, my brother and I since my sister went to meet some SCAD friends. The burger joint was fantastic. I had a beef burger with the regular toppings, bacon and a
parmesan sauce. Super tasty. We also got a big order of steak fries that we ate with their homebrand sauces. Very flavorful and subtle sauces, bbq, honey mustard, ketchup,
and a type of aeoli sauce. After that we went back to the hotel and watched two episodes of Selfridges. A super exciting show. Well, after that I slept!
Breakfast while doing work
Walking around Munich
The English Gardens
Surfers in the English Gardens
Indian Lunch!
A Gorgeous Church
Marienplatz Square
Day 16: 7-10-15
The sights today were amazing. Today's main event was visiting Würzburg palace. This king built many castles but this was the only completed one. He lived in it for 8 years
alone. It was pretty small inside but the gardens outside were gorgeous. The location was in the middle of the Austrian Alpes which put it in one of the best locations ever.
He had people slowly construct his house and it took over 10 pounds of gold to cover the interior. 10 pounds of the gold leaf paper that's super super thin and light. It
was really golden inside. He had tons of furniture but the best was his dining table. So for his dinner time, he would sit in his chair at the dining room on the second floor
and he'd wait till his dinner was ready. When it was ready, the table would rise up from beneath the floor for him to start eating. The would use pulleys and a crank to
pull it up. And once he was done with dinner, they would lower the table back into the mechanic's room to be cleaned. It was a pretty sick table and pretty awesome. The king,
had bunches of other designs that were super cool and inventive. Along with his great interior, the statues outside were fantastic as well. Gorgeous fountains and the there was
a fountain in the back with Neptune and his horses. The gardesn in the back were beautiful too. We walked up through the gardens to the grotto behind his palace. The grotto
was a cave that he found and had someone paint in. One super huge painting in a gorgeous cave with lots of stalagmites. We waited a bit to go in but it was kind of worth it.
After visiting this palace, we decided we had enough time to drive over to two other castles. After driving for around an hour and a half we got to the castles but decided
to just look at them from the outside rather than going inside. The castles were still amazing from the outside. The view of them on the mountain was cool too. They were so
majestic on the side of the mountain. We took tons of pictures but after a while we decided to head to Nuremburg since we had a two hour drive ahead of us. We got a little treat
before we left, ice cream! I got two scoops of coffee ice cream, it was delicious! I slept most of the journey back to our apartment in Munich. For dinner we went back to the
Indian restaurant. We ate a la carte, got lots of dishes and they were super tasty like last time. After dinner we went back to the hotel and slept! One thing I forgot to talk
about was in the car, I hooked up my phone onto the bluetooth and started playing music. Played some songs from all bands then my dad said hey can we listen to your a capella
music and so I shared it. That was pretty sweet, I enjoy Pentatonix a lot so it was nice to share it with them.
Würzburg Palace
Driving to the Castles!
The Castles
Random Poses
The Grotto behind the palace
Ice Cream for the finish!
Day 17: 7-11-15
Today we didn't have much planned but driving back to Nuremberg. We got out of the house really late today. Grace didn't get out of bed till late. We ate in again, this time
we had Doner Kebab since it was around 11AM. I had a sandwich which was super flavorful and refreshing. After breakfast we headed out for a palace in Nuremburg. This was one
of the top things to see in Germany. When we arrived, we parked infront of the giant building that surrounded us. We went in and got our tickets, but instead of following the
tour guides, we decided to take it easy and just enjoy it ourselves. Enjoy the art and the building itself. We completed the north wing and felt like it was a little short.
Apparently the tour guide takes the groups another way into the south wing. So we joined a German speaking tour just to stick with them to view the south wing. There was some
very beautiful art but compared to the other castles we've been to it wasn't a lot. The building itself I thought was the most impressive part, of how big it was. After visiting
the palace, we went out to grab a small stank to hold us over till dinner. We walked around the area to find a place and we found a strip of shops. Grace was in the mood for a
coffee and Noah wanted some ice cream. I could have gone for anything, my dad got a sandwich for a small bakery that I split with him. Grace and my dad also got a coffee there too.
We would have gotten some pasteries but there were wasps flying all over them, so we decided against it. My brother found a little vendor on the side of the street that sold only
vanilla ice cream with different toppings. He got a creamy top and my dad wanted one too so he got a chocolate top with tons of nuts. I wanted something refreshing since it was
a bit hot so I got a slushy type thing. Pretty tasty and definitely refreshing, not as fake tasting as the other ones I've had in the past. We walked around a bit and enjoyed the
strip, but after we headed to our hotel. We stayed at the holiday inn for the night. For dinner we walked around to find a bunch of restaurants, and the one we chose was Vapiano.
We chose it since it had the best variety and something everyone wanted to eat. My dad and I just wanted a solid meal which was good with pasta and pizza ad my mom and sister wanted
a good salad which they had too. I ate a salad and pasta which was tasty, in the middle I didn't think I would finish but I did. Dinner was tasty as usual. We went back and slept in
our two rooms. I slept with Noah and my dad and I enjoyed a little chat with Isabel. Then it was off to bed with me.
Nuremberg Palace
Ice Cream Stop!
Dinner at Vapiano
Day 18: 7-12-15
Today we head to Leipzig. We planned it to be a relaxing day. We woke up late to enjoy a brunch at a restaurant called California. It basically tried to immiate food from America
and have all the popular meals. I ate a turkey bacon club since it was around brunch. It was pretty good, they used cooked turkey chunks instead of the cold slices of turkey which
was interesting and different. I enjoyed it though. We quickly headed back to the hotel to check out and get on our way to Leipzig. It was a three hour drive to Leipzig so we didn't
have anything planned afterwards. I slept the majority of the ride and played a little bit of music. We arrived at our apartment and gosh, my mom is really good at booking great places.
This apartment was fantastic and very spacious. 5 beds, a kitchen and a big bathroom. I took a bed with Noah and Grace took her own. Grace and my mom were tired so they stayed and slept
while us boys went out and grabbed some food to cook for dinner. We had a nice walk in the rain to a chain grocery store, we first hit Aldis. We started gathering food there then I felt
like the other store would have better quality food. I was right, the quality was much better. We grabbed material to make a salad and some frozen pizzas. Shopping was tough and we
had no idea what to actually get. The other part was the line was 30 minutes to check out. There were 6 lines and we stood in one for 30 whole minutes which was the longest we've ever
had. We took the nice 15 minute walk back in the rain again, it wasn't too bad, just a drizzle. I thought at the store that we didn't have an oven to cook the pizzas with since our kitchen
was somewhat small, again I was correct. SO we cut each of the three pizzas into fourths and cooked them a fourth at a time on the stove. Each fourth took around thirty minutes and we had
two burners but they actually came out really well. Crispy on the bottom and very warm. Salad turned out good too. We walked a bit of Bob's Burgers as well while we ate dinner. My sister
introduced us to the show and Noah and my mom enjoy it. I ended my night talking to Isabel on Google Hangout. We had a nice long talk and I miss her tons. I can't wait to get back and spend
some time with her. That chat made me pretty happy and it was the perfect way to end my night.
Our Apartment
I just had to
Day 19: 7-13-15
Today we spent in Leipzig and there were two churches my dad wanted to check out. We had a slow morning. I woke up and messaged Isabel for a bit till she went to sleep. Then I got up, ate
breakfast and showered. We left to see the Thomas Church were Johann Sebastian Bach was buried and the other church that was a center for people who wanted the Berlin Wall teared down. Our
apartment was in the perfect spot, around a 10 minute walk to the first church. I really enjoyed this church, it wasn't as flashy or decorative as the others. It had some nice stained glass
and it was pretty big inside. I really enjoyed the two organs on the second level. One was being tuned so a guy was playing it periodically which was nice to listen to. We saw Bach's grave,
my brother thought it was weird that he was buried right in the middle of the alter. It was a nice setting though. Also when we went to a church a bit ago my brother really wanted a prayer
candle for only one euro. We didn't get it then but we convinced our mom to give him a euro. He got it now and we all thought he was going to light it and put it on the stand but he read the
small text earlier and it said "You can also take this candle home". So he did. He walked around all day with his candle ready to have fun with it at home (We also got matches a while ago
from a restaurant that we visited). After we finished viewing this church, we went to the next. This one had lots of pictures of the time where people rioted and gathered to protest againast
the wall and lots of history to it too. This as well was a nice church, its alter was gorgeous and we were able to walk up onto it. There was a room on the left side of the alter that hadn't
been changed and it was the old chapel room. They had the seats all there and their own alter inside. While our dad still admired the church we walked around for a bit then Grace told me she
only found the seat numbers 591 and 587. So I went on a journey to find 589. I went to the area Grace said she found the numbers and went into the row. She only looked at it from the front but
from sitting in the seat all the numbers were there infront of them. So of course I took a picture of 589 because why the heck not? We slowly walked back and hit a restaurant they my mom had
looked up on Yelp. It got a four and a half star review so we ate their business lunch (which was the only thing they had at this time). It came with the choice of either soup or a desert and a
main course. I chose the Cordon Blue Chicken and the dessert. It was fantastic. I ate a bit of Noah's soup since he insisted and was a little full. A very tasty tomato soup and then Noah offered
to split my chicken and his fish, so I did and it was a good choice. His fish was super tasty and cooked well. My chicken was delicious too and the potatos and salad it came with was a great side.
Then my creme brulee came out and gah that was fantastic! Throughout our lunch, a group of musicians decided to play on the street, we also sat outside. There were two violins, a viola and a cello.
My dad had no clue was a viola was and thought there were three violins, WHAT A NOOB. They played some great pieces and it definitely made out lunch that much better. After lunch we headed back to
the apartment and I felt pretty tired so I took a long long nap. Grace wanted to cook in so my dad went out with her to get some food. When I woke up from the nap there was gnochi, baked beans,
sausages, watermelon and soup. All super tasty, my mom did a good job cooking the gnochi. It has a little zing to it too which made it delicious. We ate dinner and watched some more Bob's Burgers.
After dinner, I updated my website and now to sleep! Woo. It was a nice day and tomorrow I'm looking forward to archery and glassblowing with the Mohnkes.
Walking around Leipzig
The Thomas Church with Bach
The Historic Protest Church
Lunch with Music :)
The Spy Museum
Dinner made at home
Day 20: 7-14-15
Today was a fun fun day. I enjoyed it. We started by eating breakfast in, I had peanut butter toast. It's been a while since I've had peanut butter and golly it's tasty. We got up early since our
checkout was around 10:30AM. We headed right out to Berlin but our stop before Berlin was to a small village. In this village we were going to do glassblowing! It was nice and very small, also it
was raining a bit! Pretty light but I love the rain. The first thing we did was eat lunch and it was very tasty. We ate some pretty good German food. I ate wild animal cooked like steak, potatoes
and salad. It was delicious. After went through the museum of the history of glass and how it's made. They also showed what has glass in it that we didn't know. The museum was pretty sweet and small.
After viewing the museum, we walked down to the actual glassblowing room and there was already someone working in there. She showed us her glass and how she was forming it. After her presentation she
then asked for people who were making glasses. We gave her our tickets and apparently she made it for us and we got to blow it a little bit. I tried to blow mine a lot to get it to be really big. She
stretched it out at the tip so it could become a plant waterer. The other thing we got to choose was the color off the glass, either two colors an assortment of colors. I chose the assortment of colors.
We did have to wait about half an hour for them to cool though. One thing we saw in the front of the building was a three big bikes. We thought these bikes were sick. So we convinced our mom to pay the
9 euros to rent these bikes for 30 minutes. We used them to their full potential and had a blast on them. So sick and so much fun. It was worth the wait. We picked up out glass waterers and headed back
to Berlin! We arrived and relaxed for a bit until dinner was ready. During relaxation, we played some frisbee and the wooden block game with Jonas. We had a blast on the spinning physics wheel too.
It was great to be back with the Mohnkes. Before dinner we played some Five Nights at Freddies with Jasmin and Jonas. It was their first time playing and we had a blast. Grace, I think, was still
the most scared. Jonas was pretty frightened to start but they got a hang of it quickly. Jonas got to 5AM on night two while Jasmin got to around 3AM on the 2nd night. My dad came in at the end and
said he wanted to try, but it was dinner time. They cooked us an official German dinner. It was great and I loved the sauerkraut salad. After dinner, we played with my dad, Janettt and Klaus. We had a
great time with them, first up was Janettt. She got around to the beginning of night two. She was pretty frightened and had fun. Next was Klaus, he got to the end of night two and had fun with it. His
reactions were fantastic. So calm and composed. Last up was my dad. He got the furthest and had a lot of fun with it. His death was pretty unexpected and he had a good game. He got to the end of night
four. He was super excited about the game. Klaus loved it so much that he wanted to buy it. Since it was so short and put you on the end of your feet. I enjoyed showing them the game. Well after that
I headed to bed.
Lunch in the Small Town with Glassblowing
The Wasps we caught
The Glass Museum
Glassblowing!
Biking!
Day 21: 7-15-15
Our last day in Germany. It was a slow morning with a bunch of fun. I got up a little later, I ate breakfast which was just rolls again. After breakfast, I headed to the store to grab chocolates for
people who helped our trip and close friends. Chocolates are delicious and so tasty and I'm happy I can share them with friends. After our nice walk back from the store, we were ready to start our day
of archery! Some people had a small snack before we left. We drove around an hour to the middle of no where where we met up with a guy who was going to show us how to shoot. He was a super chill and
nice guy. He took out two hours of his day of work to show us archery. He had three different bows, the English longbow, a small compound bow, and a big compound bow. I mainly used the big compound
bow since the power of it allowed the arrows to fly straight. It was definitely harder than it looks. Hitting the target itself was tough. I had a fun time though. I think everyone else did too. My mom
didn't join us since she had a lot of work to do with bags and checking in for the planes. After archery, we headed back to pick up my mom and to head to dinner! Dinner was Indian tonight! Yessss,
delicious. The meal was great and I enjoyed it as our last for Germany. We have had a blast and it's been awesome staying with the Mohnkes. We have to wake up at 3AM tomorrow to head out to the airport
to drop off my mom and sister for their flight to Paris. They're spending another two weeks there for Grace and art influence. I'm excited to head back home though. I miss home a lot.
Archery!
Grace Finished her Bag
Old Pictures of the Families
Day 22: 7-16-15
Long day of flying. We woke up around 3:30AM. I actually didn't sleep because I thought it would help me adjust to the time change. We had a small roll before we left the house then we drove out at
4AM to head to the airport. Grace and my mom had a flight at 6AM for Paris that was only an hour long. Noah, my dad, and I had a flight at 9AM to Dusseldorf then a three hour layover until 1PM to leave
to LAX and land at 4PM. A one hour flight and an eleven hour flight. We waited in the airport before security and check in at a coffee shop called Coffee Fellows. It had free wifi which was convenient
because then I could text Isabel when I was leaving and just text her to waste time. We ate breakfast there; I had a chicken curry sandwich and my brother and dad had egg sandwiches. It was pretty good,
not the best I've had but decent for a coffee shop. We then went to check in to go past security and the people at the counter completely ignored all the people in line and were leaving the counter.
My dad walked up and asked if they were going to check us in and he said they would again at 7:45... which was another hour and a half later. So we went back to the coffee shop and hung around for a bit.
I took a nice nap until the time then we got in line ready to check in. That line took a whole 50 minutes to get through and that was only check in. Security was hell too. We took our laptops out and put
our bags on the belt to go through the x-ray machine. Noah had already walked through the metal detector and the lady asked if we had our boarding passes. We handed them to her and she asked why we had
three and got pissed off that Noah had already walked through the detector. She took the passes and put them in one of our containers with our bags which we thought was weird then had us walk through the
detector. Once we got to the other side we started to repack and put our laptops back in their cases but we started to worry because we couldn't find our passes. We checked everywhere for a good two minutes
panicking that we wouldn't be able to get on our flight. Then out of no where they were sitting on top of my dad's jacket. They guards had taken the tickets out of the container at some point then held them
for a bit until giving them back to us after. Most stressful situation for no reason. We then sat in the terminal for another twenty minutes or so till we boarded our plane. We took off for Dusseldorf!
I fell asleep immediately on the plane for a while. After I woke up, Noah showed my dad and me a picture he had taken while we were asleep. It was of us sleeping AND the two guys down the row sleeping
as well. All four of us had our mouths open and heads back, it was hilarious. We landed safely in Dusseldorf and made it through customs which was easy. Dusseldorf has a really nice airport, decent
sized and some good food in the terminal. We didn't have to hang around for three hours since our flight took a little longer to land so it was only two hours! This wait felt pretty short which was nice.
We got some pizza for the plane and loaded on! This was the plane with the TV infront of you with all the awesome movies and shows. I wasn't planning on watching this time since it was night time for
people in Califonia. I wanted to sleep to adjust correctly. I slept for a good two hours then the rest of the flight I was up watching movies. It was a darn long flight. Sadly for the last three hours
of the flight, Noah sat still next to me doing nothing at all trying to stay calm and not throw up. He successfully did it and we landed but he still didn't feel the best. We went through customs into
the United States which took a bit but finally got to our car. I chatted with Isabel for a bit during this and how we were doing then took a nap in the car. We ordered sushi on our way home so we could
pick it up once we got there. We were looking forward to some comfort food! :D Once we arrived at home, Noah felt the worse and he threw up in the sink. We immediately put him to bed and got him some
water since we thought he was dehydrated and sleep deprived. I stayed up for a bit longer until around 9-10PM and then took a long long night of sleep. It was nice to be home in my bed.
