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[rachelseyes]

5/29/19

This morning again I started slow and went for a run. Today it was sunny so after my run I spent some extra time in a park along the Mein soaking up the sun. My burn is finally tanned from Sicily.

I met Juli downtown at a street festival after work for her. I tried a gin basil smash cocktail, which is exactly what it sounds like and exactly as refreshing as it sounds. The sun was hot.

We had currywurst and fries and enjoyed the weather. Many purple started showing up to the street that the festival was taking place on so we went to the old Opera house and met up with Thomas and Magda. We chatted with them for a while and then biked home through the old city.

We packed up and then headed to Stuttgart as my flight leaves at 10am.

I am sad this is my last night in Germany, I really love it here. However, I am also missing my people and my fur baby back home and am excited to see them again too.

[rachelseyes]

5/28/19

This morning again I let myself get a slow start. Juli and I went and went so much in Sicily it felt like it would be good to let myself relax and not do so much.

I went down the street to the local grocery store and picked up some creamy balsamic and chocolates to bring home. The kinder chocolate here is just to die for. I normally don’t eat too much candy but I do when I’m here because it just doesn’t compare.

I walked downtown and found the shopping center and was on the prowl for some new jeans. I stopped in a few stores but ultimately found myself at Zara by the suggestions of Juli and Alice. I got some great deals. I like buying clothes instead of souvenirs, much more practical. And of course food.

I walked around and really felt like I knew where I was going, which was cool. I am starting to really know Frankfurt, or at least how to get around central Frankfurt on foot. All the walking is so good for me too. I love walking around and exploring.

I went back to the apartment around 6 and had a coffee (with this delicious egg liquor from Italy) and read my book on the balcony watching planes fly in.

Juli got home not much later and we again went to the local grocery store with a list from Juli and Dennis’ friend Felix. He is a good scientist but basically a chef, and cooked us an amazing course of Flamkugen. This is a thin crust with creme fraiche and traditional toppings are onion and bacon bits. This is a food regional to where John, my stepdad, is from. Which is now France. Felix made us 5 different kinds to try, including one with salmon and beet with horseradish and another for desert with cinnamon and sugar and apples. We shared wine and laughs. I even watched the kazoo kid video for the first time and laughed so hard I cried. I can’t believe I have lived this long without seeing that video..

Felix headed to his hotel and we headed to sleep after a fun night full of laughter and great food.

[rachelseyes]

5/27/19

Ahhh Frankfurt!

This morning I let myself sleep in a bit and took a slow start with coffee and breakfast. Juli and Denni had to work so I was free to explore Frankfurt on my own.

I went for a run on the path that I ran on last time here, along the Mein. It is shaded with beautiful trees and follows the Mein under the bridges through the city. It felt good to run in the fresh air. Germany is different than Italy, people here are smiling and friendly. Also, I definitely look like less of a tourist here. I was the only blonde many times in Sicily.

It was cloudy but the air was nice and crisp.

I went back and showered and then headed to DM to pick up some facial products that I like from a natural cosmetic brand here, Juli got me hooked 😉 they have such a great moisturizer and it’s cheap!

I then made my way over to Sauchsenhausen, which is an old part of Frankfurt. It was so cute and also so beautiful. I ran into a super cool old church.

I found the Main again and saw the skyline from the other side, it is the only skyline in Germany. There is much construction going on around the city as they are building up Frankfurt. It is less than when I was here last July, it is coming along nicely. They even rebuilt the old historical part of the city, which I will get to tomorrow.

On my way back along the Mein there were so many cute baby geese! One of them squawked at the guy walking in front of me and it was just adorable.

I made my way back to the apartment and found Dennis and his friend Frank who had just finished their class for tax consulting. We shared a couple beers on the balcony and then headed downtown to meet up with Juli when she got off work.

We got some cheap street fruit and met Juli at the Birkenstock store. There is a whole store for birks here! It is time for me to get a new pair and so I tried many styles and finally chose one. There are so many styles here they don’t offer in the US.

We then went to Juli’s favorite Vietnamese restaurant and I tried something new. I can’t remember what it was called but something like Bon. It was a salad with noodles and spring rolls on top. Verrryyyy good.

We walked back home through the city and hung out a bit at the apartment, and tried some Limoncello, before heading to bed for the night.

[rachelseyes]

5/26/19

This morning we woke up a bit later and started our day by going to the local bakery for a croissant again. The owner recognized us, which was cute. I tried a pistachio croissant and man the pistachio here is just amazing.

We walked around and explored Catania and saw the old buildings and churches all around.

We stumbled upon a big flea market and took a look. Lots of trash but some treasure too. Surprisingly, there were a few swastica items, which really was shocking.

Many places were closed today since it was Sunday, but there were less people out because it was also sort of rainy. This included the monastery we wanted to check out.

We saw the Greek theater, which was like the Roman theater but not as underground.

Many of the trees are flowering here and they are beautiful in the contrast of the rain.

The rain got harder and we were hungry as it was about 2pm. We started to look for places to eat and many had waits, so we settled for a sandwich place. We just wanted to be somewhere dry and we were hangry.

My shoes were wet but also black from the streets. It is quite dirty here in the city.

We got our bags and started making our way toward the airport. Returned our trusty fiat 500, which we named Stefano.

We had one last cannoli and hopped on our flight to Frankfurt. We chose Ryan air and it was cheap and not too bad. I will definitely fly with them again.

Denni picked us up from the airport prepared with sandwiches and water. This was so nice, it was about 10pm. We got back to the apartment, shared some limoncello, cheese, and other snacks, caught up with Denni, and hit the hay.

[rachelseyes]

5/25/19

Goodmorning Catania!

We stopped by a local bakery this morning for a croissant and what was sort of a like a little rolled up pizza. Delicious.

We started early because today is our tour of Mt Etna (or later we would learn, Mama Etna), the largest active volcano in Europe.

We chose to take a tour instead of hiking on our own because the trails change due to lava flow and also we do not have volcanic knowledge if something were to happen.

Our guides name was Giulia, and she was incredible. She knew everything we asked. On our tour as well was a couple from Spain, a woman from Australia, and a man from China.

We first stopped at a cave which was formed by lava flow. We saw a tiny little plant that was growing in the mineral rich lava stone sand, a seed that had been tracked in on shoes. Very cute, but it’s life will soon come to an end when it begins to need the sun.

We saw valerian and lichen and other native flowers. The volcano is full of plant life and everything flourishes because of the minerals that are brought up with the lava. Spring is beautiful here.

We hiked around the volcano and a few of the 300 total craters that have been erupting since the 1600s.

It felt like a whole different universe on the volcano. Up in the clouds, it was misting and raining a little bit, much cooler at elevation. Very beautiful. I don’t have many words other than it was just breathtaking. Being in places like this always depends my respect for Mother Earth.

We headed down to a store that sold local products made from things grown on Etna, and they were delicious. Olives and olive oil, wines, liquors, pestos, and most surprisingly, honey. Of course many flavored with pistachio.

We headed back into the city and our tour ended so we started to walk around and explore Catania.

We had some dinner in a restaurant that was part of the underground city in Catania. In the 1600s, Etna had a huge explosion and lava flowed all over Catania over the city that was already built. So, they built a new city on top of it. This was so cool to see, and the river that still flows under the city through the old lava tunnels. The service wasn’t the best but the food was good. I had lobster and some pasta. We had some wine and were tired so went back for some rest before our last day in Sicily tomorrow.

[rachelseyes]

5/24/19

Today we woke up with much anticipation for the sun and a day at the beach. We had coffee and breakfast at our hostel, made some sandwiches for lunch and were on our way after some kisses from our host’s wife. Our sandwiches were made with buffalo mozzarella, which is just a bit more intense of flavor. It is so good.

We walked along the rocky beach and saw all kinds of rocks, including tiny lava stones. The beach is mostly rocky and not very sandy.

The sun was shining without a cloud in the sky and the wind coming off the crashing waves was marvelous. We basically had the beach to ourselves. I am so happy we didn’t come during high season.

We drove to Catania and took a smaller road rather than the highway, it was so cool to see the smaller villages and all the greenery. It feels like the jungle, and all the flowers are blooming.

There are some huge roundabouts here, and there are never lines on the road to separate the lanes. Kudos to Juli for driving through these. I can see why many cars here have missing bumpers and many scratches.

I knew I got quite a bit of sun but I didn’t realize how much until we got to Catania. I had a headache and even felt a little nauseas, even after applying sunscreen every 1-2 hours. I got pretty crispy. We picked up some aftersun and tried to go to sleep early but it is also loud here, in the heart of Catania, with much street music and mopeds. The buildings are so old they don’t seal entirely and the sound enters. But this is ok because it means we can walk everywhere in the city because we are so central.

[rachelseyes]

5/23/19

Today we woke up and had breakfast at our hostel. Our hostel is different than our b&b, less homey. But nevertheless it is a good experience. We will find this out later tonight.

We wanted to walk to Taormina today, which is about 3 miles, so we wanted to start relatively early. We set off to Taormina and followed the road up the hill around the cape to Taormina. We wanted to see and go to the Isola Bella, and we did. We got to Taormina and wanted to see the city a bit before we tanned and saw the island, so we made our way into the city. We took a winding road of switchbacks up onto the city built into the mountainside on the coast which looked like a jungle, lined with beautiful tropical trees and many flowers. We later learned that the other option to get into the city would’ve been straight up stairs, and we were happy we took the route we did.

We got into Taormina and found a nice botanical garden full of cypress and other exotic trees. It was so beautiful and had such a great view looking back on Giardini Naxos, the coast, and Mt Etna. It was a clear day and we could see everything. The weather is marvelous, in the 70s and sunny.

We stopped for an espresso and kept wandering into Taormina. We chose to forgo the theater because entry was expensive. And that was ok because we walked through some old cathedrals and under old arches and wound our way through the tiny cobblestone streets of the city. It was charming, except for the tons of people on the one touristic street. We got off of that and made our way winding back down to the Isola Bella, which is an island on a rocky beach in the cape of Taormina. Many people take the gondola up and down, but we took the winding streets and were basically alone. It was so nice to see all the actual nontouristic city of Taormina and all of the greenery.

We made it to Isola Bella and had pizza at a restaurant on the beach. Here I learned that in Italy you have a pizza to yourself, not sharing. I only realized this when we were ordering 🙈 oops!

We changed to our bikinis and made our way to the rocky beach. We talked through some shallow water an found a spot to lay out and tan. The beach had a wonderful view of the city built into the hill. There were many people here but it was ok, nice to soak up some sun and relax after the 12 miles we had already walked.

I went for a swim in the cool, clear, salty Mediterranean water. We layed our until the sun went behind the city and then started our way back to our hostel. We went to a grocery store to get some salad for dinner and sandwich ingredients for tomorrow. We had to wear plastic gloves to get the vegetables from their trays, which was weird. A guy told us we should do so after seeing us touch them with our bare hands. What a waste of plastic, so strange.

Overall we walked 15 miles today, close to the 11 or 12 we have been putting in each day. We look forward to a beach day tomorrow.

We got back to the hostel and made our salad and sat with a girl from Germany and from Switzerland and shared Prosecco. We got some at the store and then saw we weren’t supposed to bring it in because they sell some alcohol there, but the host didn’t say anything.

The German girl has harvested some eucalyptus leaves today and we made eucalyptus tea, it was delicious. We chatted about our days and many other things before heading to our rooms for the night. It is so nice to meet others in the hostels who have similar minds to find ourselves here together.

Catching up on blogs and then heading to bed. We are tired, but what a beautiful day.

[rachelseyes]

5/22/19

Today we embark to the Pearl of Sicily on the east coast:Taormina.

We had another wonderful breakfast with Claudio and the other women staying in our hostel. By this time we knew each other and chatted all morning.

We needed to get going so asked Claudio if we should stop somewhere along the way to Taormina. He suggested that we stop in Santo Stefano di Camastra to see where they make Sicilian ceramics. We did and they were beautiful. I was the only blonde walking around this small village and everyone definitely knew I was an outsider. They typically assume I am German though, and they are somewhat close because Juli is. It’s funny. I found some really beautiful pieces to bring home.

The highway was so difficult to get back onto because of the mountains. There are only a couple main highways here with lots of tunnels that cut though the very mountainous country. We took a wrong turn trying to get back onto the highway and set ourselves back about an hour winding through some country roads. They were so narrow and my stomach got a little sick but it was cool to see the countryside. These things happen on road trips.

We followed the coast the whole way, as the mountains prohibit any fast travel through the island itself. They are so green and lush. The tree and plant life changed the farther east we went. Also there are more flowers here.

We arrived in Giardini Naxos, which is a small town right next to Taormina. We put our things in the hostel and took a walk to the beach. There are So many flowers, I am so happy we came in May!

There is molten rock everywhere nearer to Taormina from when Etna must have had huge eruptions. We are close and can see her in the distance when it is clear. We also can see mainland Italy in the distance which is mountainous. At times on the coast it seems like there are only a couple miles from each other. The water is so clear and blue. Everyone here thinks I am German because I am blonde it seems, and typically I am the only blonde in the non touristic areas. They are kind of right I suppose 🤷🏼‍♀️

The aloe plants look like trees here, and the cacti do grow into trees. The greenery here is incredible. I think the lava rock must be mineral rich.

I saw many news things like lime and lemon trees, banana and orange trees, natural marijuana plants. It seems like anything and everything grows here.

We walked into town and had a nice dinner of pasta and seafood at a restaurant on the coast. We saw a beautiful rainbow over the sea and shared a tartufo, which is an Italian desert. Ours was pistachio. It is an ice cream ball with layers of pistachio and vanilla ice cream with crushed pistachio, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce on top. Yum!

We talked to the locals and got some ideas for tomorrow and walked back to our hostel to rest up. We learned about the large Greek influence on Giardini Naxos from our host, and see it now. Even bandaids I bought are actually written in Greek on the box and not Italian here.

I watched the moon rise over the sea from our hostel while talking to Carter and went to bed. Goodnight Giardini Naxos 😴

[rachelseyes]

5/21/19

Ciao Palermo!!

This morning we woke up and immediately I went to our balcony. The doors just open wide, no screens or anything. Don’t need them here, no bugs really. It was dark when we arrived last night. Almost every flat has a balcony here and people hang their clothes out a lot. They have plants on them and so did this one. The sun was shining and it already was 65! Beautiful.

We went out to the common room and had a Sicilian breakfast with a girl from France and a mother and daughter from Mexico. We had olives, olive oil, tomatoes, bread, croissants, and fruit. Omg yum. The tomatoes are the best tomatoes I have ever tasted. The oil the the olives and incredible. What a way to start the day.

We all talked and also listened to what Claudio, our host, had to teach us about historical Palermo.

Claudio was so helpful and provided us with a map and gave us tips for the types of things we told him we wanted to see. He really knows the city well. We loved listening to his stories.

We walked up and down the historic streets of Palermo, the ones that the romans built long ago in the straight perpendicular pattern we all know today. There are these long straight streets and then tiny little winding streets between them.

The cathedrals and places were magnificent. It is so impressive that they were built so long ago. Like 1000 years ago long ago. It is amazing. The art and sculptures in them are breathtaking.

We stopped for lunch and had arancini which are little fried rice balls with spinach, cheese, meat, or whatever you like inside. This was delicious.

We stopped in an anti mafia museum and learned about the Italian mafia and the hold they had over the country until 1992. Even still there are abandoned buildings and Claudio said there are businesses that are still under control of the mafia.

We then walked to the harbor which the Mediterranean is up against, and took a break to dip our feet in the cool clear water and catch some sun. The views were spectacular of the neighboring cities and mountains. Palermo is surrounded by mountains almost 360.

We stopped at a gelateria and had something new, gelato in a brioche. So like a literal ice cream sandwich. It was super yummy.

Here we saw many pigeons and they walked right up underneath our chairs. This made me sad to think we have created a world like this. I wish we humans had a lighter impact on the world and the animal life around us.

We found the botanical garden which was the first public garden in Palermo. The trees were huge and nature was nice there. We took a rest in the sun and then started heading back to our hostel. We found a small art gallery and chatted with a local artist for a bit. Her watercolor work was beautiful.

We walked through markets on the tiny winding streets and found our way back to the hostel where we showered and changed for dinner. Claudio recommended a restaurant close called Freschette which had veg options and was all natural and organic. We shared some Babbio which is a bubbly Sicilian white wine. I had the special of the day, pasta with a tomato pesto garlic sauce and a side salad with beet root. The tomatoes and the olive oil are the best I have ever had, and the pasta was incredible. This is easily the best food I have ever had 🤤

We met with Pauline, a girl from France who was also staying at our hostel, for drinks in an outdoor bar on the street next to our hostel. I tried Aperol and Amarro. Aperol is bitter and is mixed with tonic to be called an Aperol sprizz, and amarro is some sort of Italian almond liquor that we had on the rocks. It was very good. It was interesting how the bars took over for the markets on the streets and people just crowded the streets with drinks. Very cool vibe. We were tired and then went back to the hostel and I slept like a rock. To the east side of the island tomorrow!

[rachelseyes]

5/20/19

STU—>CTA

Today we woke up in much anticipation for our trip to Sicily! We had a light breakfast and then began to pack and run some errands to prepare, like getting sunscreen.

We had a quick but marvelous lunch (ravioli with ricotta, balsamic, Parmesan) and took the train to the airport.

We got through security very quickly and had a little picnic of sweets and coffee before boarding our flight. It was a very rainy day in Frankfurt.

The flight was smooth and quick, only two hours to Catania, Sicily. The plane flew around the volcano Etna, which was breathtakingly huge and stood tall above the clouds. There is still snow on it.

We landed with some turbulence and everyone clapped. We made our way to get our rental car and waited in line forever, but it was worth it for the little Fiat 500! It is so cute and we are so excited to drive it!

We left Catania and made our way to the west end of Sicily-to Palermo. We arrived late at night and it were in a bit of culture shock. The streets are very narrow and very dark and we were obviously tourists. We finally found the door of our hostel after going around it many times. The streets and buildings here are SO old, some date back to 1000. The streets are cobblestone and the doors of buildings blend right in. It is hard to navigate, and late at night this was scary after our 2.5hr drive across the island. However, we finally found the door and buzzed in. We walked up many stairs and were greeted by Claudio, our wonderful host. Right away he carried our bags and smashed the mosquito in our room. He is very kind.

We were so tired, we showered and headed to bed. The streets are loud, as mopeds and motorcycles seemed to go all night, but nevertheless I slept ok and was so excited to explore historic Palermo tomorrow!

[rachelseyes]

5/19/19

Today we started the day with another great breakfast. This time I remembered to take a picture before digging in. You will see a classic Bavarian pretzel on my plate, they are delicious and classic to the southern part of Germany Juli is from. I think they look like a happy guy smiling big.

After finishing our breakfast we headed to the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart. Lucky for us, today was the museums 13th birthday, so admission was free. This was one of the coolest museums I have ever been in. It not only went through the history of the cars but also how the development of the cars and the world around them influenced one another. Such as the world wars. What an amazing company and cool museum. The building itself is very modern and cool looking from the outside too. Huge, 8 stories high you start at the top and work your way down through the years.

Then we drove back to Frankfurt and met with Dennis and his friend Thomas for dinner at Oosten, which is a restaurant right on the Main (the river that runs though Frankfurt). The restaurant is made from the old crane that used to place boats in the water. We all had beautiful salads, though Dennis’ was a bit to spicy. Juli and I both tried one with oyster mushrooms, cooked beet roots, goat cheese, cucumber, and an arugula base. It was delicious. Juli and I finished with a schnapps called Williams Birne. It came in such a cute little glass.

Frankfurt is the only city in Germany with a skyline, and it doesn’t disappoint. We caught it right at golden hour. It is breathtaking. Watching the planes come in and out of the airport over the Main.

I am so happy to be back here, it feels cool to recognize places and things from being here the last time. I am so happy that I get to live in a world where it is so easy to visit friends who live in other countries and spend time with them.

I love to immerse in other cultures and learn different ways of life. I definitely learn a thing or two about doing things differently.

[rachelseyes]

5/18/19

Today we woke up and had a marvelous German breakfast. Man have I missed these. I ate too quickly to take a picture but maybe I’ll get one tomorrow. Soft boiled egg, fresh bakery breads and Bavarian pretzels, soft and hard cheeses, cucumbers, tomatoes, apricots, blueberries. Are you drooling yet? What a way to start the day.

We finished up and headed toward Burg Hohenzollern, which is a castle not too far away from Ebersbach. Approaching, you can see the castle perched way up high on top of one of the Swabian Alps. These are more like huge hills but they refer to them as the Swabian Alps. The Black Forest is behind the castle.

There are castles all over Germany and it is so cool to see them, because they are so old. America is so young, we don’t have these old pieces of our past like Germany does. What a way to learn about history.

We parked in a lot quite far away from the castle because we wanted to hike to it. There are some great hiking trails surrounding and leading to the castle.

We had a bit of a tough time finding the right trail at first but we talked to an older man and he pointed us in the right direction. The first sign we saw said 2km to the castle but we quickly found out that was more like 10km one way. Which was totally ok, the Forest was so beautiful and looked like something out of a movie. So lush and green, huge pine trees, song birds singing songs I didn’t recognize. I love seeing the different forests of the world. It is so peaceful in the Forest and I was so happy to be spending the afternoon in it. However, we didn’t quite wear the right attire for this strenuous of a hike. We thought maybe it would just be a shortish paved path. Needless to say, our feet hurt from not wearing the right shoes. But it’s okay, definitely not upset about that.

We got to the castle after about 2 hours hiking through the forest and took a tour. The castle was huge and just magical. The tour was in German, but I had an English booklet to follow along with. It was cool taking a tour in a language I didn’t know because it gave me more time to read and really look at things. They didn’t allow pictures but let me tell you this place was marvelous. Everything plated in gold, amazing oil paintings and portraits all over, marble pillars. Just incredible.

A bit of rain started when we got there and we were so happy that by the end of the tour it ended.

We got a coffee and had a little chocolate and started our journey back through the forest to the car. This way was much more uphill and we got our workout in. We saw so many snails that had come out after the rain. They are the biggest snails I have ever seen and some of them have left their shell and are out living their best life as naked snails. Juli thought it was funny but I was fascinated by them. I’ve just never seen snails so big! Some of them were the size of my thumb!

We got back and headed to Tübingen to meet up with Juli’s brother Manuel and his girlfriend Eva to see the charming little town of Tübingen and have dinner.

This little town is so cute, they have these little boats that they take through the river that runs through the city. It is just cute and charming because it is so old. The streets are still stone and there are many little winding streets and sidewalks through all of the buildings all smooshed together into this city. There is a big university here and some very cool old churches.

We ate at a German restaurant and I had white asparagus with thinly shaved ham like prosciutto and potatoes. I had a lemon beer that was very refreshing as well. This white asparagus was amazing. I had never heard of such a thing and this surprised them very much, as it is a delicacy to them. It tastes like green asparagus but much more mild. It was incredible with hollandaise sauce. Yum.

We walked through the city and then stopped to get some food for breakfast and also some gelato.

Juli and I were exhausted from our day so we dropped Mani and Eva off after walking around and chatting about all sorts of things, and headed back to Ebersbach. We took showers and headed to bed. Guten nacht 😴

[rachelseyes]

5/17/19

ORD-CPH-STU

Today I departed for Germany to see my dear friend Juli. I have been waiting for this trip for so long! Last summer when I visited I told Juli I wanted to come back and spend more time in Germany but also go somewhere warm, stay tuned for that.

Carter dropped me off at the airport, and off I went on my adventure across the Atlantic. Im so thankful for him.

Then the most surprising thing happened. I got to my gate within 35 minutes. Baggage drop, security, everything. At ohare. I couldn’t believe it. So I had some time to kill and walked the airport and people watched. When it was finally time to depart I got comfy in the plane and slept a bit. The ride was smooth and the landing was smoother.

Copenhagen was rainy, and wow is their airport huge! It reminded me so much of Sweden hearing the people talk Danish and seeing all of the Scandinavian foods and candies. Makes me miss Sweden and my family there so much!

I got a coffee and heading to my gate. By the time I got through passport control and walked the airport I only had about 45 mins to wait at my gate. Everyone here was talking German and it made me so excited. I was so close.

The flight to Stuttgart was super quick and easy in the tiniest little plane. I also got through security super fast there and sooner than I knew got to see Juli.

We drove back to Ebersbach to her parents house and shared stories and caught up on life over wine, a yummy salad, and pastete which is a special crossaint-like dough rolled with mustard, pickles, cheese, and ham inside and then baked. Delicious 😋

I was exhausted and we headed to bed, planning for an adventure tomorrow.

[rachelseyes]

7/22/18 This morning we woke up (a bit later than expected, we were tired!) and had another amazing breakfast with the Schmid family. Seriously, breakfast here is amazing. Incredible bread from the local bakery, cheese that blows America’s away, shaved yummy meats, creamy homemade spreads, creamy yogurts. Seriously I could live on the breakfast food forever. It is so delish. We decided that the best option to avoid the rain was to head into Frankfurt. Juli just moved here a few weeks ago and we decided to bike around the city and explore. I am so glad we did! We started biking and crossed the Main, which is the huge river that runs through Frankfurt. So; we were in Mainhatten 😜 There is graffiti everywhere, which I really appreciate. Some of it is really good, and I love the creativity that comes with it. Maybe it’s a good thing that I couldn’t read most of it. We biked into Offenbach which is the city right on the other side of the Main. We biked by the river and saw lots of pigeons and water birds. There were even swans. They are huge. We had great weather until we turned around and saw some dark clouds brewing behind us. We took a picture with the “Offenbach by the sea” and decided we should go back to a little cafe so we didn’t get soaked. We stopped at a really delicious ice cream and coffee cafe and I had some new things! Firstly, we shared a German iced coffee. This is coffee with scoops of vanilla ice cream inside! Juli told me when she first came to the states she ordered an iced coffee expecting one like this and was rightfully very disappointed. It was delish. Then we also shared spaghetti ice cream. This was the most delicious creamy vanilla ice cream in small ropes like spaghetti with strawberry sauce on top and shaved white chocolate. It resembled spaghetti noodles with marinara and Parmesan! How cute! The best part was how delicious it was! Wow. It rained a bit while we were eating out treats and then stopped and we headed back toward Frankfurt. We went through this wooded area that didn’t feel like a city at all. We got back into Frankfurt and biked all over the city. We saw the European Union Bank, which is a huge glass building with a unique shape. What a powerful place. We saw this best from a train bridge that we also took pictures of the Frankfurt skyline on. Frankfurt is the only city in Germany that has a skyline. So this is pretty cool! We continued biking and ran into a festival and flea market! We walked around and listened to some cool music for a few minutes and then walked around the flea market. I found a cute jumpsuit and juli found a cute dress! Super cheap, like a huge garage sale! I loved the vibe, right on the Main. We biked to the Dom which is Frankfurt’s huge cathedral. It was so incredible to stand next to. It is so old! I walked inside but quickly walked out because people were coming out of church 🙈 oops! We continued to bike around into the historical part of Frankfurt and found ourselves at the CSD gay pride festival in Frankfurt! We walked through it and it was so fun! We wanted to get back to have dinner but attending one of these fun parties is definitely on my list of things to do! I love the environment. The most exciting part of this was seeing the equality street crossing signs. There were two girls or two boys walking together with a heart over their heads. Juli said in the past they do it for only the day of the festival but now they are keeping these forever! It was so cool. We stopped at the old theater which is a super beautiful and intricate building and then also stopped at the Wave, Juli’s Work. By this time we realized how hungry we were and headed back to Juli’s apartment to make the food Karin sent with us. She sent us with kohlrabi stuffed with creamy carrots and a kohlrabi sauce as well as local turkey. Oh my god seriously this might be my favorite food. I need to get the recipe from Karin! Along with dinner Juli and I also shared a bottle of champagne with some elderflower syrup. I love elderflower flavor so much. We chatted with our champagne on the balcony for a few hours and then showered and went to bed so that Juli wouldn’t be too tired for work in the morning. Goodnight Frankfurt 💕

[rachelseyes]

7/21/18 This morning I woke up in Ebersbach with the family and had an incredible breakfast. It is common here to build sandwiches for breakfast. I tried a Swabian pretzel, traditionally ate with butter and some cheese and meat. I tried so many things this morning! The cheese is sooo good! We had a few cups of coffee and chatted with the family and decided what to do with our day. The weather was kind of throwing a wrench into things because there was a chance of rain pretty much everywhere. We considered Lake Constance, Neuschwanstein and Füssen, Frankfurt. We decided to head to Neuschwanstein, which is Kind Ludwig II’s castle in Füssen. This is very close to the Austrian border of Germany. We ran into a lot of traffic on the way, which turned the 2 hour trip into a 4 hour trip. We were happy that we left right after breakfast! Thanks to Jürgen for getting us going and kicking us out the door, for our best interest 😂 the drive was beautiful, and the landscape continued to become hillier and eventually mountainous. We drove through a couple small mountain towns in the hills with tiny streets to try to avoid some of the traffic. Between the patches of dense, dark green pine trees on the hills were bright green patches of grass. It looked like a fairytale. It was sprinkling and clouds were sitting around the summits of the mountains and it was a mystical and ominous feel. We parked the car and started to walk up toward Neuschwanstein. There were many many people here and we actually had to wait in line to pass the bridge that King Ludwig built to connect two mountains. The bridge sat over a very clear waterfall. We crossed and started hiking up Tegelberg, which offered beautiful views of the castle and an alpine lake. Here the people were not, and we hiked about two hours up into the mountain. It was very lush, the rocks were white, and it truly felt magical. We were very close to Austria. We weren’t sure where the trail we were on was going, so we decided to turn around and get some lunch. We came down to the castle and walked up to it, sitting in the courtyard for a bit to rest our legs. We got an Apfelschlore each, which is sparkling water mixed with apple juice. It really hit the spot and helped us to feel better. I think we had a little bit of hypoglycemia! We went down to the car and went into Füssen for dinner. We found a classic Bavarian restaurant and ordered classic Bavarian food. We had really good beer and Kässpätzle which is closest compared to mac and cheese. However, it was made with amazing cheese and fried onions. For desert we had Apfelküchle mit Vanillesauce which was a fried apple cake with vanilla sauce. This was AMAZING, like woah. After we asked for the check one of the waitresses came around with a mini barrel of pear schnapps and offered me a swig. It was weird at first because we think it was her first day, but yummy the schnapps were delicious. We headed out into the classic streets of Füssen and headed back to Ebersbach for the night. We had a glass of wine and some Austrian praline chocolates and chatted a bit before heading to bed for the night. 😴🇩🇪

[rachelseyes]

7/19/18 Godmorgon Krokek! The kind neighbor rooster woke me this morning 😜 I went downstairs to have some coffee and breakfast with the Pettersson’s. Something I have missed so much is sitting out on their huge deck having looong breakfasts. We eat and then go through pots of coffee talking and catching up for hours and hours. It is so exciting because I will be seeing them soon in less than a month in the states! It was another abnormally hot day so we decided to take Zacke to a skiren (lake) by Stavsjö, which is like the next county over. Victor lives here so we stopped to chat with him for a minute before heading over to the lake to swim. As usual, the lake was crystal clear. The “sand” was little tiny rocks and pebbles. The fish were swimming so close to us, they were green with red eyes. I wish they were the pedicure fish but sadly my feet looked the same when we got out 😉 Zacke is afraid of swimming but he really did a great job today! We got out and had some fika, which is some sweet breads and strong coffee. It was just the pick me up I needed. We headed back to Krokek, packed up, said our temporary (ALWAYS temporary 💕🇸🇪) goodbyes and headed back toward Norrköping. Alice and I went into Maxi and got some chocolates and other Swedish things for me to bring back to the states. Just like Walmart sometimes it is just fun to walk around and see what there is. We went back to the apartment and got fancied up for a night of walking Norrköping. We ate at Asken Kvartetskrog, which is a pub that has amazing shrimp salads. I love the shrimp here so much, it really doesn’t compare. I could eat it every day. Shrimp salad, shrimp sandwich. YUM 😋 Our waiter was super cute and it was fun to flirt with him a little bit. We had a couple drinks and were eating when we saw Grandma and Grandpa Lena and Håkan Lööf walking by! Alice called them and had them come sit with us for a minute. It was so sweet to see them. I gave Grandma Lena a puss (kiss) and they had to get going to a show they were watching a block away. Ps, my wine was a red house Shiraz from South Africa, delish 👌🏻 Instead of desert there, we went next door to a bakery with the best cardamom and cinnamon sweet bread in all of Norrköping. It seriously melted in your mouth. So good. Alice and I walked around Norrköping a bit more and headed toward the movie theater to pick up our tickets for Mamma Mia 2. We have been waiting 10 years for this to come out! We got our tickets and then went across the street to pick out some candies at the huuuuge candy store. They have all different kinds of candies on a wall and you scoop out as many as you wish and put them in a bucket and pay by weight. I got lots of different kinds, some I knew but many I didn’t recommended by Alice. They had a huge snuff wall which was strange to see but look at the pictures like seriously it was so much! My jaw dropped lol. The movie theater allows you to bring in whatever you want for food and drink, which was really nice compared to the states. The previews in Swedish were neat, and it was good Swedish practice to have the subtitles to read in Swedish during the movie. Mamma Mia 2 was amazing and exceeded all of my craziest expectations. I balled my eyes out twice, and it takes quite a lot to make me cry at a movie. I will be watching it again, that’s for sure. Alice and I walked back to her apartment. The air was nice and cool, so the walk was very nice. It was quite late so we decided to go to sleep after chatting about how much we both loved the movie. What a day! I love Norrköping! 🇸🇪💕

[rachelseyes]

7/20/18 This morning I woke up and packed my bags, today I am headed to Germany! Alice and I had a cup of coffee and chatted on the couch. I am going to miss her so much. She is truly one of those people where we pick back up right where we left off. I feel so lucky to be able to call her my syster 💕 Alice drove me to the bus stop to take me to Stockholm to catch my flight. The bus times were either way too early or cutting it a bit close at the airport, so of course I decided to take the later bus. The bus ride was nice, I really love watching the scenery. Sweden is so beautiful! I arrived a bit late to Arlanda, the bus seemed to have a longer stop than usual at center city in Stockholm because many people were boarding. The line for bag drop at Arlanda was SO long. I asked someone if I would be able to skip ahead because my flight was to leave in one hour but they said no. So I waited in line and dropped my bag only 30 minutes before my flight was scheduled for departure. Honestly I was really nervous! The lady checking me in was really nice and let me check my bag to the special area so it would make it to the plane and then the security officer sent me upstairs to a faster line. I made it through security (after they took my mackral away 😭) and made it to the gate of my flight just as they started boarding. I will definitely not cut it that close in the future if I can help it, but it’s so hard to predict lines. We live and we learn. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I took a deep breath and ate some Swedish candy I brought with me and some red wine on the flight. The flight was only one hour and 45 minutes so it went very quickly. We landed a bit earlier than expected and passed so many Lufthansa planes. What a huge company! It was a nice flight. I felt like I walked forever through the Frankfurt airport to get to luggage carousels. It is a HUGE airport! Juli and I were texting back and forth to find each other and as I looked up from my phone to see where I was, she was running toward me and scared the shit out of me! She got me good 😂 It was so good to see her! We haven’t seen each other in almost two years! We found our way through the airport to her car and then started driving (in her beetle called Schmidy Gonzalez) toward her parents house in Stuttgart. Right away we got on the autobahn and were driving so fast, but then ended up running into a lot of traffic. It was okay though because we had so much time to catch up! Plus it was pretty nice weather so we had the top down and were soaking up the sun. Germany is so lush, the highway was surrounded by huge trees. As we made our way into southern Germany it became more hilly and the trees became more dense. We arrived in Ebersbach to meet Karin and Jürgen, Juli’s parents. They were so welcoming, there was a sign on the door saying “Welcome to Germany Rachel!” 🇩🇪 We had an amazing dinner, maultaschen which is a traditional Swabian food. It seriously was so delicious. We also had salad and a potato salad, and some really good white wine from Italy. Felix also joined us, a younger boy that Juli’s parents were looking after while his parents were at a friends party for the night. We stayed out on the porch after dinner and continued to drink wine and had some plum cake. Karin made all of these things from scratch, she is an amazing cook. Juli just graduated with amazing grades from her Masters program, so we were also celebrating her accomplishments. It was so beautiful to see how proud her parents were of her! After spending hours on the porch of laughter and stories, we were exhausted and went to sleep for another adventure tomorrow. 🇩🇪