Are these two related?

Really???

And that's all I really have to say about that.

keeping you a-breast

So, for a very long time I was at least a semi-regular blog poster. And then I came back home for the summer and evidently things like Zaxby's fried chicken, friends, family, freakishly-addictive YA novels, and general Georgia fun seemed way more important. 

However, due to the fact that I am due back in Bregenz for round two of this shindig pretty soon...

I figured it was time to return. 

Now, I promise that I will eventually get back to the Sally and McCarty adventures that occurred, oh some five months ago now. But for now, I figured I'd drag up the favorite "facebook needs to chill" file for a few days before recanting my Georgia adventures of late. 

Warning: I have been hoarding these while I was away from my blog.

Ok, now there are others here that might draw an exasperated eye roll out of me on a regular basis. In fact, there will be more where that came from later this week. Yet, today I'd like to focus on the gem, there, second in line.

Now, I don't know your particular handle on the German language so I am going to do a bit of translation along the way. That as you may guess is an advertisement for breast enhancement.

I appreciate the simplicity of the ad. Especially the "Fragen?" to the side there. "Fragen?" means "Questions?"

Yeah, I gotta question.

Since facebook claims to cater these advertisements to the particular person who views them, what on God's green earth did I do to get this one?!?! Did Zuckerberg's robots search my pictures to discover "Hmmm, looking particularly flat-chested in this photo. I know the perfect ad for her!"

On a related note, who begins their personal decision process of breast enhancement on facebook? 

I think an Egyptian Nile cruise and a spa vacation (see above) are in order to process the fact that I apparently have an insufficient cup size. Geez.

Stay tuned for more 

It's good to be back.

Good/Bad Ideas

**Yes, the design changed. I was sick of the fact that the mobile version of my page was illegible due to the background picture design with the text color. It might be a work in progress.**


Sally arrived on a Friday morning beaming with pride as she survived her first solo trans-atlantic flight. She even took some advice from me and finagled her way into a first class seat! Amazing, huh? She made the flight attendants love her, basically. 


After a quick stop at the Deutsche Bahn counter to validate our Eurail Passes, we were off for the first day of adventures. My plan was for us to do the concentration camp in Dachua the first day so we (a) stayed outside as much as possible to allow Sally's body to understand the time change and (b) got the sadness out of the way at the beginning of the trip. Dachau is very significant and an incredible memorial. That said, the time with Sally marked the second time I had been to Dachau in a two-week period and the third time overall. It's not exactly the type of place you want to visit over and over again. 

The only problem with my plan was the museum's movie about what happened in Dachau. It is very informational and all, but the man's voice is somewhat droning, the auditorium is very warm and dark, and Sally was running on very little sleep. 


So, naturally, she fell asleep. Whoops! Maybe Dachau was a bad idea that day.


Once we were back outside in the cold, she perked up a bit. 


We then headed back into Munich to visit some sights including Marienplatz, the English Gardens, and the Sophie Scholl memorial. We started at the English Gardens. Sadly the weather was pretty blustery that day. Therefore, we weren't exactly keen to stay outside for extended periods of time. We did catch a glimpse of some surfers in the river doin' their thing despite the weather. 

The Sophie Scholl memorial is probably my favorite memorial I have ever seen. Besides the fact that I think she has one of the most inspiring life stories, the creative memorial to her, her brother, and the others involved with the White Rose movement during WWII is not to be missed. And it might be very easy to do just that. The memorial is actually on the ground at the entrance of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. If you don't look down, you might miss it. If you don't know the Sophie Scholl story, you should look it up.

Marienplatz is always a fun thing to Americans because these large beautiful old buildings are generally what we think of when we think of Europe. Believe it or not, the big stone one is actually considered the "New City Hall".  (I don't know why they won't rotate)

Because we needed to take a long train ride to Bregenz that evening, I decided a trip to the Hofbräuhaus was in order. Yes, it's extremely touristy. However, it is lively with good food and good beer, which is perfect for sleepy first day travelers. So, that was a good idea. We also had to help this large group of British guys with some sort of draft pick or something. We asked something like 5 different times what exactly it was and never got a satisfactory answer. 

Stay tuned for more Sally and Ashley adventures!

A Birthday Girl with a Plan

Wow. It's been a while. Since I last posted not too much has changed. I did find out that I am staying in Austria for a second year at my same two schools, though. The adventure continues! Also, 20 days from now I will begin my journey back to the States for a summer full of sunshine, swimming, and Sweetwater/Terrapin/Red Brick brewery visits.


In the meantime, I want to start a series of posts about a trip I took a while back with my wonderful friend Sally. Since today is the beautiful and talented Sally's birthday, what better time to start these posts. Sally and I met in BCC 100, an orientation class we had to take our freshman year at Berry. Now I don't like to brag, but we always refer to our group of classmates from that course as the famous BCC class. We were a great group and were a kind of a big deal. Plus, a lot of us were from Gwinnett County and as the water towers used to say "Gwinnett is Great. Success Lives Here."


Anyways, my good friend Sally is also a teacher and therefore had a week off from work around Easter. It just so happened that her week off alined with my week off and a plan was set in motion. 


Alright, harsh truth time: I am sure that those of you in the same boat can attest, but before you move abroad for any extended period of time, there are always the people that say things like "Oh my gosh! That's so cool. I am going to come visit you! I really am!" They usually don't mean it. Traveling to Europe costs a lot of money and I understand people have other priorities. So when Sally first said she wanted to come visit...I was happy but knew it would likely not come to fruition. I had heard all of these promises before. So that day when she bought her plane ticket and there was no way out...I may have jumped up and down. 


She arrived on a Friday morning and we hit the ground running. I have never crammed so much travel into such a short period of time. I was nervous beforehand, but it was a great trip.


Get excited for some great stories in the days to come!


Here is a picture of us being über-touristy on day one at the Hofbräuhaus:

Happy Birthday, Sally! Hope it's a great one!

...Not to be confused with Pop-Up Video

The trip with the family came to an end. It was really tough saying bye to the little ones because children change so fast. I knew the next time I see them, they will be so different. By far the hardest thing about living abroad is missing so much of them growing up. 


That said, I had some random video clips on my camera...mostly of my nephew and my niece...but I thought it would be nice to put it together as a sort of "wrap-up video" of our trip. I can't lie, every time I think "wrap-up video" in my head I think of the 90s sensation Pop-Up Video. I have heard from some friends back in the States that VH1 has brought it back. Good decisions. My video isn't nearly that awesome and has no bubbles that pop-up. 


It does, however, have music and wrap up the trip with my family. It also concludes these posts about the trip. 


Enjoy!

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Last day. Last day? 


It was a good thing we were going somewhere great because I was a little sad. 


I don't always LOVE tourist towns, but Rothenburg is just so darn cute...you can't help but be charmed. It is an extremely well-preserved medieval city complete with gates, walls, curvy streets, towers, and wonky buildings. The whole nine yards. 

One of the biggest priorities of the day was to visit THE Christmas store. Wendy and Justin have visited this "chain store", for lack of a better term, on several different trips and in different towns. Apparently this one is the mac daddy of them all though. The place is seriously massive. I was blown away. I have never seen so many Christmas decorations in one place. And let me tell you, if you have ever seen my mother decorate for Christmas, you know just what a statement that is. The woman is obsessed. Anyways, the one place that has her beat is in the heart of Rothenburg, right off of the town square. 


Käthe Wolfurt's Christmas Village. 

This Christmas pyramid was so big, getting a proper picture of it proved unsuccessful. 

Every hour on the hour, the town hall building in the square pays homage to a lovely local legend.

According to the legend, the town was seized about to be ransacked by some outside enemy when the conqueror dared the mayor to a small challenge. The conqueror agreed to leave the town alone if, and only if, the mayor could successfully chug a large amount of wine...around two liters.

Well, he DID IT! Hooray! Town saved! (FYI, this cute story probably never happened and it was more likely a bribery situation, but I like cute stories...so let's just go with it, ok?)

To commemorate the event, the town hall opens its windows when the clock tower strikes to reveal the onlooking challenger in one window and the brave mayor throwin' it back like a frat bro in a boat race in the other. What a fantastic thing to celebrate 24 times a day!

More shopping was done at a store that came recommended to us by good ol' Rick Steeves. What was extra neat to my sister and I's ultra travel nerd side, was that this shop owner lady has known Rick Steeves since he was a teenager! He sends her Christmas cards for cryin' out loud! My family gave her plenty of business (including the purchase of a cuckoo clock) and got the Rick Steeves book discount, naturally. 

Of course, there was also plenty of street wandering. We even managed to get a view of the place from outside the wall.

Arguably one of my favorite things about Rothenburg ob der Tauber is that you can climb some stairs to walk around the perimeter of the city actually ON the wall.

 Then, my niece and nephew were really cute. But what else is new?

 Big brother kiss

We found this and had to take a picture for the simple hilarity factor of a confederate flag for sale in Rothenburg ... and were praying no one saw us and took us seriously.

We had some yummy dinner at this place (the green building) after walking all over town realizing that the concept of an early dinner is completely lost on this town seeing as how pretty much every restaurant was closed. They had really good potato soup though!

Some good lookin' people

Come back tomorrow for an extra special blog surprise!

A lot of adventure for two days

After a day in my "Austrian hometown", we had a lazy morning and then took the train over to Lindau for a little while. Lindau is such a cute place. You may remember it from my Christmas market posts. 

We walked down by the water, spotted some cute old buildings and streets, and saw some old churches. The weather actually cooperated well enough for us to see the beautiful mountains all around us from the edge of the lake. We found a little secret garden type area with some benches overlooking the water and the Alps. We sat there for a long time soaking up the sunshine and not wanting to leave.


But as always, there were more places to see, more pretzels to eat, and more beer to drink...


Speaking of...


After packing up and leaving Bregenz, we headed to Andechs. Andechs is a monastery located in Bavaria that has been the home of some beer-brewing Benedictine monks since 1455. Many people regard it as the best beer in Germany. You know that is saying something. It was a good thing the food and beer were good because that evening seemed to be fairly trying children-wise. The little ones apparently weren't fans. 

The next day we were back in Munich.


We all took the S-Bahn from where we were staying but split into two groups. My dad was on a mission along with my stepmom to find the Harley Davidson store, while the rest of us headed to the Viktualienmarkt near Marienplatz. I loved it there. I am always a sucker for markets and this didn't disappoint. Being so close to Easter, there were all these cute bunny and duck decorations for sale. Fresh vegetable stands and flower stalls were everywhere. Of course, the nearby beer garden left a nice scent of hops in the air. So, it didn't take long for Justin and I to insist on having a beer. 

 Yes, that is green cheese. No, the moon isn't really made of it. But, if it were made of BBQ spare ribs...would you eat it then? I know I would.

 Wendy scoping out the goods.

 Just beautiful!

 Piggies!!!

I love this so much! They have names. I can't even. It's too much.

We met up with my Dad and Leslie back in Marienplatz to watch the Glockenspiel do it's thing before returning to spend some more time and money at the market.

 Clear skies and a famous clock

This place had the most perfect food I have ever seen. It was so beautiful, colorful, and organized that it almost seemed unreal.

If I lived in Munich, I would have bought this lemon tree. How cool is that?

If you are ever in Munich, especially in springtime, a stop at the market is a must!


We then spent some more time in the sun having lunch at a restaurant in view of the Neues Rathaus. 

Mmmmm, Obatzda...nom nom nom! 

Later in the afternoon we stopped by Nymphenburg palace to see the ducks and the swans. Watching Kaiden play with them was precious. He was a little bossy and kept telling the birds to get in the water. Clearly he succeeded.

We finished our day having dinner at Hirschgarten, which is properly named. Hirsch means deer in German and on the grounds of the beer garden is a giant fenced in area with, what else, deer. They also have rams and bunnies, too.

Kaiden was initially a little freaked out when we had our first visitor come over to us.

He quickly changed his tune and was loving it! He fed all the different "longhorns" as he calls them.

Here is what we learned: 

1. Deer don't like french fries.

2. Rams do like french fries.

3. Deer like cucumbers.

It was a definitely a fun place to eat.