Mid-Break: Germany & Italy.

Hello beautiful people!

Before our arrival in Rome, we were able to spend about a week traveling wherever we pleased.  A good portion of our group met their family, but the rest of us formed groups and went out on different adventures around Europe.  Laura, Kate, Nick, Wade, and myself decided to head to Germany & Northern Italy.  We first started out by going to Munich.  As our plane landed, the air was bitter cold & for a second, it felt as if we had landed in Minnesota.  We all felt a wave of homesickness, but it quickly went away as we found our way to our hostel & enjoyed our first dinner together.  The food in Germany: sooo delicious.  A lot of Germany reminded me of home, including the food.  At our first restaurant, I had delicious fried chicken with potato fries.  I was lovin' that.
Over our first weekend, we spent a day in Salzburg and the other morning at the Dachau concentration camp.  Salzburg was absolutely beautiful.  It's only about 2 hours outside of Germany & our train ride was just beautiful.  The entire ride was spent speeding through the country side with the alps present in every view.  Salzburg itself is smaller than I would have anticipated, but yes, it's gorgeous.  We toured the Cathedral & that was beautiful.  We also looked at Mozart's home & museum, saw Sound of Music sites, and ended with the Hohensalzburg Castle.  Nestled on top of a very large hill, this fortress was made available for touring & dining.  There is quite a lot to see, but my favorite part was just the view itself.  The fortress looks over the entire city and it's just really beautiful.  That night, we struggled finding a reasonably priced place to eat, so Laura, Kate & I ate delicious waffles :)  Mine was covered in berries, ice cream & whipped cream.  Oh gosh, sooo delicious.  Perfect end to an awesome day.
On Sunday, we made the journey to Dachau concentration camp.  We went on a guided tour & it was such a learning experience.  Though horrible things happened at this place,  it was still amazing and I feel very fortunate to have been able to go.  It is still quite haunting, for much of it remains standing.  Dachau wasn't known for mass executions, but rather housed more political prisoners than Jews.  40,000 were killed there but it's mainly remembered for being a model to all other concentration camps.  Others structured themselves around it and all commanders were trained and started at Dachau.  It started out as a labor camp & the people weren't treated nearly as horrible as they were nearing the end of the war.  At the end, people were starved, forced to do horrible tasks, used for medical experiments, and tricked into suicide.  It was a very haunting experience.  I walked through rows of cells still standing and at many points, moved to tears.  I was most affected by the crematory.  Here, we saw gas chambers and a cemetery.  The tombs simply read, "Thousands unknown are buried here".  This was especially hard for me; it made everything that much more real I guess.  I'm very glad we were able to go to this place & our tour guide was exceptional.  The experience is one that all should witness for themselves.  It'll truly altar how you think.

Salzburg.

Cathedral

When we returned from Dachau, we spent the afternoon exploring Munich itself and had dinner at the famous Hofbrauhaus.  Munich is beautiful.  Definitely one of my favorite cities we've visited thus far.  We visited many historical sites during the afternoon and enjoyed a walk along the river that runs through the city.  The Hofbrauhaus was also quite the German experience.  Kate, Laura & I shared a giant Radlar beer, which has lemonade in it.  It was good, but overall, not my favorite.  The food was interesting as well.  Everyone enjoyed it, but again, not my favorite.  The experience though, was awesome.  The restaurant is huge and a place that is always packed.  It's a really cool place and we spent over two hours there.  It was a blast!

The rest of our week was spent in Northern Italy, starting in Venice.  Venice is beaaaautiful; a photographer's dream, you could say.  Unfortunately it rained the entire time we were there, but I still loved it & took pictures non-stop.  After arriving, we had dinner and I had my first authentic Italian pizza.  Oh my gosh.  Deliciousness.  Can I live on this food forever please?  Another group member, Brigitta met us there and with only one full day, we took complete advantage and explored the entire time.  We started by going to St. Mark's Cathedral, which was beautiful.  Unfortunately, all the rain is flooding parts of it.  Because Venice is surrounded by water, this is something they have to deal with quite often.  It was sad to see what it does to the city.  Besides the Cathedral, half of our group went to a museum, but Kate, Laura & I decided to just explore the city.  I just love Venice.  Its beauty is so unique and everywhere you look, there is beauty.  We had a blast just getting lost in all of its narrow alleys and secluded streets.

In the late afternoon, our group went to the island of Murano.  Murano is a 20 minute boat ride away and it's known for its glass blowing.  The streets are lined with shops filled with glass products that are just so beautiful and unique.  Laura and I managed to find some beautiful watches for only 15 euro!  We had a blast just walking through all the shops and seeing the amazing things one can make out of glass.  That night, we made ourselves some pasta in our apartment and had awesome dinner conversation that I'll never forget.  I am quite blessed by the incredible people in this program.

Just gorgeous.

On Wednesday morning, we originally had planned to go to Cinque Terre, but the previous day it flooded horribly.  All of its trails are destroyed due to mud slides and the flooding.  The towns were horribly affected and over 9 lives were lost.  We had to make up new plans, get new train tickets, and find a place to stay all in one hour.  We managed to do so in the city of Florence.  That afternoon, we arrived there and fell in love immediately.  Florence is your small town big town and it's gorgeous.  Because we are going there later in the program, we decided to go to Siena, a Tuscan region, in order to save all the Florence tourism for when we're there later.  Although, we had dinner our first night at an incredible restaurant.  For 12 euro, we were able to have pasta, a main dish of meat and a side, then dessert.  I was extremely full, but um.. have I mentioned how much I love the food?
Siena was gorgeous.  It also is quite small, but the landscape is what I enjoyed the most.  We were so excited to see fall colors!  We toured the Siena Duomo, which is their cathedral.  It was huge, but for my taste, a bit too elaborate on the inside.  I enjoy churches with more simplicity.  Afterwards, we went to the Museo Opera Metropolitana.  This houses some amazing Italian art and from within, we walked up onto the Panorama, which overlooks the city.  The view was really great!  After that, a few of us left and just explored the city.  We managed to stumble across two colleges and find beautiful landscapes.  It was a well spent day, I'd say.

Siena!

That night, us girls had pizzas for dinner and then went out for gelato.  Mmk, the gelato here?  Out of this woooorld.  I am obsessed & it's okay because when I'm ever going to have this deliciousness again? Not for a long time!  I'm going to take full advantage.  I've gone quite a few times thus far, and there are many more to come, my friends.

Mid-break was awesome and our group had a really great time together.  On Friday, we explored Florence a bit, but then boarded our train to Rome.  Now, this is my home & I am in love.  Stay tuned for my adventures in Roma :)

Godbless!