January Adventure Video!

Yet another amazing month has passed by, which means it's time for another adventure video! I'll be posting another written post soon, but until then, enjoy this 3 minute peak into my life abroad. :)

I've heard from some people that the embedded videos don't come through by email, so here's the link just incase. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKNQbXEMrgU
Also please feel free to comment, like and subscribe on Youtube!

The Big Halfway Point and Christmas Flashback!

Last week, on January 10th, I hit the exact halfway point of my time here in Germany. For me, that is honestly a really weird thing to contemplate. The reality of it is, from that day forward, I have lived more days in Germany than I have left ahead of me. It's easy for one to simply look at the big picture and think about that 5 months extremely long time, and I'm not getting anywhere near the time when I'll have to leave this place that I've built a new life in. It's easy to put things off, thinking that there'll be time later. It's easy to take these precious moments for granted. But the reality of it is, the clock is ticking. The past 5 months have gone faster than any other time of my life. But instead of dwelling on this, and continuing to think about when I will leave this home, and go back to my other home, I'm making the choice to embrace the time I have here and make the most of it. Having a timeline truly puts a different spin on life, but I've realized that maybe that isn't always the worst thing. Knowing that I won't be forever is in some ways helping me to live a more fulfilling, enjoyable life. At home, I tend to put things off, figuring that there'll always be another day for whatever I'm considering doing. Here, I'm trying my best to take advantage of every opportunity I get, because I know if I don't I might never have the same opportunities again. Pretty much comparable to the "what would you do if you knew you only had X amount of days to live" concept, but obviously not quite on the same scale.

Enough said about that! Now here's the Christmas post that I've been wanting to post for the last few weeks.

For Christmas, I was lucky enough to get to travel with my host family down to Baden-Württenburg to visit their relatives! We stayed for 3 nights, and pretty much every waking moment was spent eating, talking, laughing, playing games, and having an overall amazing time.
We had school on the 22nd (apparently in Germany they just can't resist fitting in 2 extra days of school). Anyway, school got out super early on Tuesday (11:30), so it wasn't too bad. So after school and lunch, we packed up the car and set off on our journey. It's pretty far (4 hours or so, which is at least really far by German standards). Upon arrival, we enjoyed some yummy "Abendbrot" (Evening bread) with the family and chatted for a few hours before going to bed.
The next day (the 23rd) we went into Karlsruhe and checked out the Weihnachtsmarkt! Yup, yet another to add to my list from the last blog post. It was actually one of the nicer Christmas Markets that I visited (at least in my opinion), so I'm really glad we checked it out. Great atmosphere, nice booths and goods, not too big, not too small, and not too crowded. What more could one ask for? :) Also I finally got to try "Gebrannte Mandeln" (almonds fried in this sugary sauce which turns crunchy when it starts to cool). They were absolutely amazing! Perfect ending to my month of "Christmas marketing"in Germany. :P And when we got home, we had "Reiskuchen" (translates to rice cake, but it's actually not an american rice cake, and also not like a regular cake). That's pretty much one of my favorite foods here, which may be attributed to the fact that I eat rice like once a week at home and very rarely here. But don't worry, there's also plenty of other more "German" things that I like to eat. :P

Badische Nuss Hütte at the Karlsruhe Weihnachtsmarkt

Karlsruhe Weihnachtsmarkt

The 24th is a day that I would best describe with the German word "gemütlich", which can mean "cozy", "leisurely", "relaxed", or a number of other nice things alone those lines. We slept in, and around 10:30 ate a nice breakfast all together of eggs, "Brötchen" (little bread rolls eaten often for breakfast) with every topping imaginable, and tea/cocoa/coffee. In the afternoon, we went on a beautiful walk on some of the little dirt roads that go around the nearby farm fields. It was so warm and sunny that it actually felt like spring. A few of the other people that we met along the way jokingly wished us "Frohe Ostern" (Happy Easter). Who knows, with the kind of crazy weather stuff going on these days, we'll probably have a blizzard and a foot of snow on Easter. Despite being about as far from a white Christmas as one could get, we thoroughly enjoyed the warm weather while it lasted.

One of my pics from our sunny walk. :)

In the afternoon, we sat outside (yup, outside) and ate cookies and drank tea. Never expected that to be included in my list of Christmas break activities in Germany! In Germany, the main celebration of Christmas occurs on the 24th, although some families celebrate for 3 days (the 24th, 25th, and 26th). My host family celebrates predominantly on the 24th, so this was when we planned to have our special Christmas dinner. I actually did not know in advance what we would be eating, and I was pretty surprised that everyone wasn't frantically working in the kitchen all day to get things done in time for the big meal. Finally, at about 5:00 or so, I found out that we were having Raclette, which is very commonly eaten on holidays in Germany. There are these "cooker" things on the table, and each person receives a little pan next to their dinner plate. The table is filled to the brim with bowls of all sorts of foods, and everyone takes what they want and cooks their own meal right in front of them! I was actually a bit baffled by the idea at first, but also completely intrigued at the same time. I'd say the closest thing we have in America to raclette is fondue, but that's actually quite a bit different. So, for my first pan, I took my host cousin's advice and made a "Pizza Hawaii" pan with ham, pineapple, and cheese. Super yummy! After that I made several other pans (they're very small), with different combos of veggies, meat, cheese etc. Such a great eating experience! If you ask me, every American needs to come to Germany and eat raclette at some point during their life.

Raclette cooker! 

Raclette!

 After we finished up our raclette meal (I think about 9:30 or 10:00) we started in on presents. We did the "one present at a time" method (which I like a lot), so we didn't finish until about midnight! It was really fun watching everyone open the gifts I got them, and I got surprised with some really sweet gifts as well!

Weihnachtsbaum!

You'd think after this we'd be all done, but no, German Christmas doesn't stop there! We still had "Schrottwichteln"! This could be described as a white elephant gift exchange and a silly but competitive game of monopoly mixed into one. Everyone brought a random gift (this gift is not allowed to be bought, so it has to be something old laying around the house, or something handmade). The gifts are all unwrapped and placed in the center of the table. Each participant takes turns rolling dice, and each number represents a different action that the player must take. First, the gifts have to come into play, then they are passed all around based on the rules from the dice. Over time the gifts get unpacked, and then they get traded around some more. We really got into it! Everyone had certain gifts that they had their eyes on, and certain ones they they wanted to get as far away from as possible. In the end, I ended up with a bag of "christmas pasta" (presumably from someone's pantry since you can't buy anything specifically for the event), and two egg warmers (to keep boiled eggs warm before you eat them). Of course none of the gifts are anything extremely outstanding, but the experience made it 100% worth staying up until 2 am for! After that I face-timed my parents for a few minutes. Needless to say, we all slept in quite a bit that morning. :P
The 25th felt a bit weird, because instead of being the special Christmas day like it is in America, it sort of just felt like any other ordinary day. After a late lunch, we packed up and said our goodbyes to the relatives, before beginning our journey to Wiesbaden to visit the relatives from the other side of the family. By evening we got home, and then we got to open our gifts from my mom, dad, oma, and opa in America! Thank you all so much for the nice things you sent!
So thats a wrap on Christmas in Germany! It was an amazing season, and I'm so thankful for everyone I spent it with.

Christmas with my host family <3

Bis zum nächsten Mal! (until next time)
Dana <3

Es ist Weihnachtszeit (and time for Christmas Markets!!)

As soon as December hit (or really the end of November), Weihnachtszeit in Germany swung into full force! I can't believe it that now there's only 3 days left until heiligabend (the 24th), which is the day that Germans primarily celebrate Christmas and give gifts etc. In this post I'm going to be talking about some of the Weihnachtsmarkts (Christmas Markets)  I've been to (in 5 different cities!)

Düsseldorf (November 28th): I actually went to several Christmas markets in Düsseldorf (I think technically 4, but some were pretty close together, so I don't know if I'd really consider them all separate ones or not). So anyway, this was my first ever experience at a German Christmas market, and it was absolutely amazing!! I know I've seen pictures of Christmas markets in Germany, but somehow I had forgotten that everything is displayed in these cute little wooden booths. I was sort of imagining something along the lines of a farmers market (with tents and stuff). Walking up the steps from the U-bahn stop, from a tunnel of darkness, directly into a German Christmas market may be one of the most magical things I've ever experienced. It felt like I was instantly swept into a fantastical winter wonderland (even though there wasn't snow).

The variety of products at the Düsseldorf Weihnachtsmarkt was absolutely astounding. I saw pretty much everything from wood crafts (dishes etc.) to beeswax candles to cookie cutters to felted/knitted wool crafts, the variety was endless. Plus, I couldn't believe how many different things one could buy to eat there. I got a giant soft pretzel covered in cheese, which was pretty amazing. I also got a few christmas gifts (but can't talk about those yet since it's still not Christmas). 

Glühwein Stand in Düsseldorf

Christmas tree at the Düsseldorf Altstadt Weihnachtsmarkt

Altstadt Weihnachtsmarkt in Düsseldorf 

Neuss (November 29th and December 11th): The Neuss Weihnachtsmarkt isn't one that lots of people travel specially to, but it's in my town, so of course I wanted to visit it a couple of times. Granted it is small (about 40 booths I think), but I found it had a really nice charm to it. Both times I visited were in the evening when it was dark, and in my opinion pretty much any Weihnachtsmarkt looks amazing all lit up at night. 

My first visit was with my host mom, after we went to see the play "Das Dopplete Lottchen" on November 29th. It is a children's play, but I think that's about all I'd be able to understand in the way of theater at this point. It was really cute and fun to watch though!! Plus I understood all of it (helped by the fact that I read the book beforehand), so that made everything even better.  We didn't really buy anything at the Weihnachtsmarkt, although I did get something called a "paradiesäpfel", on recommendation of my host sister. I thought it would be something like a carmel apple, but the red sugary coating over the apple-on-a-stick is actually really hard (sort of like jolly rancher or something). Not something I'd probably be eating very often, but definitely fun to try. It was also "verkaufsoffenen Sonntag"in Neuss, which means that all the stores are open (they're normally always closed on Sunday). My host mom and I went to this store called Tchibo (pretty much a very interesting cross between a coffee shop and a tiny department store...only in Germany, right?), but didn't end up getting anything. 

The second time I visited, I went with a couple of girls from CBYX, after we met with our Bundesminister in Neuss. We spent a couple of hours in a coffee shop talking about political issues, cultural differences, Weihnachtsmarkts, and a variety of other topics. By the time we were finished, we were all really hungry, so we each bought a bratwurst from a food truck. Then we walked around the Weihnachtsmarkt and checked out all of the cool Christmas-y things there. :) 

Neuss Rathaus

Neuss Weihnachtsmarkt

St. Quirinus Kirche

Meeting with Herr Gröhe (Bundesminister)

We made it into the newspaper! 

Click here to read the article (in German): http://www.erft-kurier.de/grevenbroich/handschlag-mit-dem-paten-amerikanerinnen-am-rhein-aid-1.5638220

Bonn (December 5th)

After that, the Weihnachtsmarkt! It was somewhere in the middle size-wise between Neuss and Düsseldorf. And being a Saturday afternoon, it was extremely full. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun looking around and noticing the variations and similarities between the other Weihnachtsmarkts I'd visited. We also saw children visiting Saint Nicholas (photo below). I spent the whole day on December 5th in Bonn with my host mom! First we visited " the Haus der Geschichte" (house of history), which provides an in depth look at Germany from 1945 until the present. Although reading complex German signs for close to 3 hours was a bit exhausting, I felt very satisfied with the amount that I was able to understand. Of course I didn't read every bit of information there, but I think it would even take a German an entire day or more to do that. The place was HUGE. Also a cool thing about this museum is that it is completely free for everyone (which is pretty uncommon for museums in Germany, or really anywhere). 

Das Haus der Geschichte

Mecki!! 

Saint Nicholas 

Bonn Weihnachtsmarkt

Wiesbaden (December 12th)

My host mom needed to go to Wiesbaden, so I made the trip down to Hessen with her and got to meet up with Alida at the sternschnuppenmarkt (shooting star market) in Wiesbaden for a few hours. It was absolutely wonderful! Everything was decorated really well, which made the atmosphere great. This market also wan't so extremely full (surprisingly), and the booths were set up in a really appealing manner. For lunch, we ate a a pizza place, and got window seats looking out into the market. 

Kerzen (candles) <3

Sterne!

Marktkirche Wiesbaden

Köln (December 19th)

Considering that Köln is only 40 minutes away, and it's Christmas market consistently ranks in the top five in all of Germany, I just had to check it out once. I was warned that it would be extremely busy, so I arranged to meet up with Rowan and Karina there at 11 am. But of course, it was just about as packed as it could get. The selection, decorations, food, and just about everything was top notch, so I can totally understand why. Really, can it get much better than a German Christmas Market directly under the most famous cathedral in Germany? I don't think it really does. In addition to the "Weihnachtsmarkt am Kölner Dom", we also checked out the one in the Altstadt and the one along the harbor, by the chocolate museum. The Altstadt one was very nice, and even had an ice skating rink. The one on the harbor wasn't as nice as the others, but I needed to pick up some mustard for my host family at the mustard museum (yes...that exists), so we were really close by anyway. We sort of looked at the whole day as some sort of progressive meal that lasted from about noon until 4 pm. Who could possibly eat crepes, ice cream, french fries, and waffles all in the same day? Exchange students to Germany of course! We divided some stuff and all had relatively small portions, so it's not actually as much as it sounds. Plus we walked all day so I think we earned a few extra calories. ;) Not every day you get to visit one of the world's most famous Christmas markets...gotta celebrate somehow, right? I also finished up the last of my Christmas shopping, which decreased my stress level a ton. 

Kölner Dom

Entrance to Weihnachtsmarkt am Kölner Dom

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, everyone!! 

New favorite German phrase: "Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!"

This would directly translate to something like: "A good slide into the new year!"

Gotta love it. :) 

Chor Wochenende!

I spent this past weekend at a nearby youth hostel with my choir! I definitely sang more then I ever have within a 48 hour time period. Despite my voice becoming a little hoarse, and my throat starting to get sore, I had an absolutely fantastic time! Not only did we sing, but we also played a lot of games and talked. And the best part - I spoke close to zero English alllllll weekend! 

Here's a little outline of what we did. I've been having a hard time motivating (and finding the time) to journal, so I'm at least going to try and keep this up a bit so I have some record of what I did. 

Friday, November 20th: 

Came directly home from school at 2:30, ate a quick lunch, and packed my backpack with the stuff I needed to bring. We arrived at the Jugendherberge a little after 4:00. Then we  made our beds (the beds don't come already made up at youth hostels) and then then went downstairs to sing a bit before dinner.
After eating our bread, cheese, and sliced meat with a side of potatoes (very typical for Abendessen in Germany), we headed back to the conference room that our group had for the weekend to sing and play some circle games. Luckily for me, most of the games we played were pretty simple (and didn't require a ton of talking), so I was able to participate just fine. 
After that, we divided into smaller groups and ate some snacks and played some board/card games. I joined a group of experienced "speed cup" enthusiasts, which turned out to be quite an interesting time. Basically, in Speed Cups, each player gets 5 little plastic cups of different colors, and with these little cups the players have to complete various challenges, which are determined by cards that are flipped over one after another. Whichever player completes the  task the fastest wins dings a bell and then they that card. Whoever has the most cards at the end wins. Despite only winning 2 cards (I was actually extremely happy with myself to get those on my first time playing). I've never really seen a game similar to to this in America, so maybe I'll just have to bring it back and start a new trend, haha. ;) Eventually we all went to bed and got a sufficient (sort of) amount go sleep before the next day. :P 

Saturday, November 21st:

I'm not going to go through everything we did in order, but our day included lots more singing, practicing for a musical, and playing many more games. One of the games we played was a card game called "Bohnanza" (you'll only get the pun if you know some German). Anyway, it is a game where each player is acting the part of a bean farmer trying to earn the most money from their crops. There's absolutely no American game that I can even begin to compare to it. It's quite entertaining once everyone figures out how it works!   We sang so so so many Christmas songs, which started getting me excited for Christmas!  :D One of my favorites that we sang is a pretty song called "Mitten in der Nacht", which we will be singing at some of our performances in December. Incase you don't speak German, Mitten in German does not = mitten in English. The name of the song translates simply to "Middle of the Night" 
After lunch, we had a group picture on the big staircase of the youth hostel, which was quite an adventure in itself. Everyone (I think 40 people) just barely fit, and getting everyone arranged so that we could all be seen seemed a little harder than it should have been.   After we finally got the picture taken, we spontaneously started singing a song called "Der Kleine Stern" (the little star). Some other people staying at the youth hostel walked by while we were singing (thankfully they didn't need to use the stairs), and they looked like they rather enjoyed it. They were from a drumming group, so I guess they must have been musical types too. I hope so anyway, because we also sang a bunch in the dining hall and in other common areas of the building. :P We ate all our meals in the Jugendherberge, and the food was very good! I've now eaten at 5 different German youth hostels, and I've really never been disappointed by the food. 

Sunday, November 22nd: 

We did more singing with the whole group, and we also had a "wunsch runde" (wish round) where people could request for the whole group to sing their favorite songs. When it was finally time to go home (at 2 pm) a bunch of us got back up on the aforementioned staircase to sing happy birthday to one girl's mom, when she arrived to pick up her daughter. I think she really appreciated it, and being part of a surprise is always fun. :) 

Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post. I didn't really use my phone during the weekend, so I didn't take any. If I can get ahold of some other people's pictures then I'll post them! 

Schönes Wochenende, everyone! (Have a nice weekend) 
I'm going to the Düsseldorf Weihnachtsmarkt tomorrow! I'll definitely be taking pictures there. :) 

Over 100 days in Germany!!

I meant to write this post last Saturday (my hundredth day here), but I didn't end up getting around to it, so I'm just going to do it now! Anyway, it's honestly so hard to believe that I've already been here for over 100 days. Time is just going so quickly...we're already about half way between the time that we (the ASSE CBYX group) arrived, and our midyear program in Weimar. I know I can't possibly recap everything I've done since the fall vacation (already a month ago) but I'll try my best to hit the most important subjects.

24. October Went to a Geocaching event with my host dad and host sister. We talked some with other geocachers for a while, signed a guest book, and traded trackables (little trinkets attached to metal tags which each have a special code, allowing them to be tracked as they move from geocache to geocache towards their final destination.

25. October I got adventurous and tried cooking a couple of my favorite foods for my host family! I made...wait for it....SUSHI and PUMPKIN PIE. I realize that those two foods could probably win an award for the world's worst food combo, but it actually turned out pretty well! I had mentioned that I like making sushi a few days before, and before I knew it, a sushi mat and nori, that my host had ordered online arrived at our door. So of course, I wanted to make them sushi as soon as possible. :D I wanted to make pumpkin pie because 1. it's pretty much the best dessert ever, and 2. we had gotten a pumpkin in the CSA box earlier in the week that I was free to use for the recipe of my choice. My host sister even made fresh whipped cream to go with it. :D

October 30. Just a normal school day, but wanted to share these pics that I took after school of the nice fall colors. :)

31. October 
Took a little day trip to Düsseldorf and met up with one of my CBYX friends. She had never visited Düsseldorf, and I know it pretty well since it's close by and I was there every day for 3 weeks during language camp. It was fun to be the "tour guide" in a city that was completely foreign to me just a few months ago.

Königsalle Düsseldorf

1.  November 
I biked to Zons (a stadtteil of Dormagen, which is between Düsseldorf and Köln) with my host parents. It was a surprisingly warm and sunny November day, so we decided to take our time and find some geocaches along the way. Once we got to Zons, we locked up the bikes and walked around the beautiful little town. It was pretty busy that day, but I can understand why. With the center of the city enclosed by walls built in the 14th and 15th centuries, this little town has been called the Rothenburg of NRW. The city has many historic features, including a mill tower/windmill, the St. Martinus Kirche, und the Zollturm and Rheintor (Toll tower and Rhine Gate) which were formerly used to collect tolls from users of the Rhine. At the end of our little tour of Zons, I spotted a group of people walking about 5 donkeys and a sheep right through downtown. Never know what you'll see in Germany. :P

8. November Another amazing Düsseldorf day with some CBYX friends. It's actually a really rare occasion that I meet up with other exchange students (It actually is, even though I've mentioned it twice in this post), because we're all usually busy doing stuff with our host families and/or German friends, and of course the point of being here is to become integrated into the culture, learn the language etc. But that being said, I did have an absolutely fabulous time "playing tourist" with 3 of the most amazing girls I've ever met. We toured the Alt Stadt, ate Pizza, and even went to the top of the Rheinturm (sort of like the space needle). Then we went over the bridge across the Rhine, attempting to go to our favorite little after-language-camp gelato shop. Unfortunately it was closed, but we ended up going into the Jugendherberge where our language camp was held and bought ice cream bars. :P If you feel like seeing the four of us vlog this exciting day, check out my youtube video here:

Top of the Rhein Turm! 

9. November In the 4th-6th lessons, all of the 11th grade history classes from my school took the city bus into Neuss for a ceremony, to commemorate the Jewish people who were killed on this day in 1938. I didn't understand everything that was said (it was all pretty complex and some of it was actually spoken in hebrew) but I did get the main ideas. Afterwords, we had some free time in the city, so I walked around with a few friends. We checked out H&M (just looked, didn't buy anything) and went to REWE for brötchen and pretzels. We had considered getting Döner, but then decided not to, mainly due to the fact that none of us were very hungry, and we didn't have a whole lot of time. Then we all took city busses back to school in time for the 7th lesson. 

10. November Went into the city with a friend from school in the afternoon! She showed me this amazing waffle restaurant, and we both got waffles there. The amount of toppings to choose from was crazy. Lots various of kinder chocolate products, fruit, and a wide variety of other stuff. Here's a pic of my waffle! I got it with nutella, kinder bueno, almonds, giotto candies, and kinder bonbons. Maybe not the healthiest thing ever, but when in Germany... ;) 

11. November The 11th was Saint Martin's Day, which is mostly celebrated by children who carry lanterns and go to people's houses, sing a song, and then get candy. They don't do trick-or-treating on Halloween here, so no, the German kids are not bringing in giant hauls of candy twice within a two week timeframe. Although I'm sure there's plenty of kids who wouldn't mind that at all. :P Anyway, before the kids go house to house, they have a "Sankt Martin's Züge" which is a parade of all the kids carrying their lanterns. Since this is so unique to Germany, I didn't want to miss my chance to see it. My host family told me when and where the parade was supposed to start, so I left about 5 minutes before if was scheduled to start (this supposed starting place was literally 200 feet down the street and around a corner). Well much to my surprise, I got there, and there was not a soul to be seen. But, luckily, I could hear a band playing in the distance. Unfortunately, it sounded really far away, and I couldn't even tell what direction it was coming from. So I just took a guess and started walking in one direction. Well, the music because even more faint as I walked, and eventually I figured out that the way I was going was most certainly wrong (go figure). At that point, I decided to on my "map my run" app on my phone (for 2 reasons, one being so that I could find my way back from wherever I ended up, and the other being that I thought it'd be interesting to see how far I had to go to find the parade). Well eventually, after almost a mile, I found it! After all the kids had walked by with their adorable lanterns (all very individual and creative), I followed the mass of people to the place where they were having a bonfire and telling of the story of Saint Martin. I'm definitely glad I didn't give up.  

Sankt Martin

14. November Went to a "Sankt Martin's Markt" with my host sister, host mom, and host mom's friend at a church nearby. It was pretty much a craft fair/book sale, and they also had some snacks for sale. I didn't buy anything, but the crafts were all really cool and fun to look at. Maybe I'll be inspired to do some crafts sometime soon (I actually would have time for that here. Amazing, right?). Then we went home for a bit and had a quick bite to eat before heading to friend's 18th birthday party. We had quite the time finding the place, but once we got there, we had a great time! 

Cute Christmas stuff at the St. Martins Markt

15. November Slept in and had kind of a lazy day. But my host sister and I did make some really cool paper stars (like 3-d origami ones). Each star required 30 different pieces, which when assembled correctly, required no tape to stay together. That afternoon I did my English homework for the weekend, which turned out to be way harder then I bargained for because it was a task that involved translating a German text to English. :P 

One of the 3 paper stars we made. :)

That's all for this time! I'll try to blog a bit more often now (we'll see if that really happens). It's starting to look like Christmas here! Supposedly my school is going to be decorated for Christmas on Monday! :D 

Herbst Ferien - Fun Times!

During the second week of Herbst Ferien (Fall Vacation), I was lucky enough to get to travel around Germany a bit with my host family! Here's a little recap of our travels. :)

October 9th - 12th: Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Rhineland Pfalz 

Bad Neuenahr is a beautiful little town located along the Ahr river, which is a tributary of the Rhine. We stayed in a Jugendherberge (youth hostel) there that really felt more like a great big house with lots of families. Unlike some youth hostels that are known for being really "no frills", this one came with towels, soap, shampoo, and a little pack of gummy bears for every person. The food was also really notable. In fact, it was so good that we didn't even end up going out for any meals during our 3 night stay.
On our first full day there (Saturday) we walked all over the town of Ahrweiler and found a bunch of geocaches. My favorite spots were the Alt Stadt (of course), the Dahlien Garten, and a really cool bench we came across on top of a hill in the middle of a bunch of vineyards. That evening we all hung out together and played some card games.

The tree behind us was planted in 1571!

Dahlien Garten

A church in Ahrweiler Alt Stadt

After breakfast the next day (Sunday), we all got ready and headed to the "Wald-Abenteuer Kletterpark" (Forest-Adventure Climbing Park). We had a short instruction session in which we learned how navigate a few of the common obstacles in the park, as well as to clip and unclip our various harnesses to the different contraptions. After that, we were on our own in the park for the next 4 hours. The park consists of a practice course (the one we did with the instructor), 5 normal courses (each including ending with a zipline), and a mega zipline that is 450 meters long!! Thats over a quarter of a mile! The courses get harder as the numbers get higher, so we decided to start with the first one, and complete them in order. The first couple were pretty simple, but by the time we got to the 4th course, things got really intense. One by one, we attached our harnesses to the ropes and climbed up the rope ladder to a 30-foot-high platform. Then, one by one, we took turns clipping our harnesses into some sort of bungee-type contraption and *jumping* off the edge of the platform. Yep, that's right, I jumped off a 30 foot high platform. The aforementioned bungee contraption was somehow designed to allow one to free fall approximately 10 feet, before swinging another 10 feet or so parallel to the ground, and then into a giant net thing. Standing on the platform right before jumping was extremely terrifying, but it turned out to be really awesome!

The Mega Zipline - 450 meters.
It took 28 seconds to get across.  

Kletter! 

On Monday morning, I took a really nice (and quick) walk along the Ahr to downtown Bad Neuenahr. We decided to call it "Power Tourismus", which basically means that we quickly walked to whatever looked interesting, looked at it for under a minute, and then walked quickly to something else. It was a good way to see a lot of stuff in a short amount of time! We only had about 15 minutes downtown (keep in mind that this is a really small downtown), but I think we saw pretty much all of the important sites! Of course having longer times to explore is always better, but a little time is always better than nothing!

October 12th-14th: Karlsruhe, Baden Württemberg

After leaving Bad Neuenahr at about 10 am, we started our drive to Karlsruhe. After about 2 and a half hours, we arrived at my host family's grandparent's house just in time for lunch! We had pumpkin soup (which was really amazing!!) with some great fresh bread. Shortly after we were done eating, everyone got ready to go collect walnuts. When I say we collected walnuts, I really mean we collected walnuts...like a lot of them. All together (there were 6 of us) I think we got at least 7 huge bags full. The walk was really pretty (rolling hills, open fields, country roads...you get the idea). We also got to see a little kapelle (chapel) out in the country which was pretty cool.

The next day (Tuesday), we went into the nearby city of Karlsruhe in the morning. It was absolutely beautiful, despite the fact that Karlsruhe is currently in the process of getting an U-Bahn System, so it is really dug up. My favorite things to see were the Karlsruhe Schloss and the Turmberg (tower hill). That afternoon, my host family members were all busy with various things, so I decided to take a walk on my own and look for a geocache. I intended to walk the same way that we had gone the day before, but due to some road construction I ended up going a different way. I looked for a route on google maps, and the way I ended up going was a really nice trail through a bunch of green fields. I did find my way back, and just in time for some yummy cookies and tea too! That night we had dinner with other family members and I got to meet my very nice host cousin, aunt, and uncle.

Karlsruhe Schloss

October 14th-16th: Bamberg, Bayern

Now onto my favorite of places we visited...BAMBERG!!! Due to traffic on the way there and some stops along the way, we didn't arrive in Bamberg until after 4 pm. We arrived at the youth hostel that we were going to be saying at, and my great aunt (Tante Lise) arrived there shortly after to meet us. From there, we started walking towards the downtown, but first stopped at the tourist info center to sign up for a night tour that we'd be participating in later that night. After that was taken care of, Tante Lise started showing us around the beautiful downtown area. Honestly, I'm quite sure that Bamberg is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. From the historic riverside houses to the thousand year old Bamberger Dom to the historic Rathaus, everything about the city seems like it comes from a fairy tale. As we walked, I had a really great time talking to Tante Lise about growing up in Bamberg with my Oma, and the times that my Oma, Opa, Dad, and Aunt came came back to visit. Having a local to show us around was really cool, and getting to know my great aunt that I've sent letters back and forth with for years was even better! For dinner, we went to a traditional Bavarian restaurant called "Alt Ringlein". I had a sampler of Bamberger and Nürnberger Bratwursts, with a side of sauerkraut and bread. It was very, very yummy, and very, very Bayrisch! At 9:00, we met in front of the information center for the night tour. Our tour guide was dressed in some type of traditional historic outfit, and was carrying a lantern. I didn't understand the entire tour (my host family said that this guy was speaking a pretty strong dialect, so I maybe I sort of have an excuse, haha) but I got parts of it for sure, and everything that I understood was really interesting! The tour was supposed to last an hour, but it actually went a while longer. By the time it was over, we said goodbye to Tante Lise and then pretty much just went right to bed.

With Tante Lise (Bamberger Dom in background)

Altes Rathaus (Old City Hall)

Bamberger Dom by night

The next day, Thursday, was our full day in Bamberg! We started out the day by checking out the inside of the Bamberger Dom, which is the church that my Oma and Opa got married in. We also went to the nearby rose gardens, which sort of reminded me of the rose gardens in Portland, OR. :) The rest of our morning was spent exploring the city and finding all kinds of cool places, taking pictures, and also a little bit of shopping. I got a winter scarf and hat at C & A because it turned out that Bamberg was a little colder than NRW typically is. In the afternoon, we hiked up the hill to the Saint Michaelsberg Kloster (an old monastery from 1121). Unfortunately the inside was temporarily closed for restoration, but the outside was absolutely amazing. After that, we went back into downtown and I found my 1,000th geocache. The title was "Bis sum bittern Ende", which means "To the Bitter End". Before dinner, I ended up doing some fast walking/power tourismus. We had dinner that night at the same place, but this time I got Kasespätzle, which is a southern German noodle dish made from eggs and cheese. Sehr lecker!

Inside the Bamberger Dom

Antother pic inside the Dom

Alte Hofhaltung & Bamberger Dom

Kloster Saint Michelsberg 

Dinner at Alt Ringlein

On Friday, before starting our journey home, we went to visit the Altenburg, which is a castle on the highest hill in Bamberg. It was a touch foggy, but the view was amazing, and the castle was stunning. I especially enjoyed seeing it because I've heard my dad talk about how it was one of his favorite places to visit in Bamberg when he lived there for a year with his family. After that, we headed to the part of Bamberg where my grandma was born. We saw her childhood house, and also found the gravestones of my great grandparents. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity for this.
My Herbst Ferien was absolutely amazing, and now only 8 more weeks until Weihnachtsferien (Christmas break).

In front of the Altenburg.

Altenburg

View of Bamberg from the castle

Here's my youtube video of the entire fall vacation, including everything described in this post and the last one!