37 hrs of traveling for 48 hours in Germany: Totally worth it!

So as the title indicates... I had an extremely long weekend, but definitely a weekend I will never forget! The adventure all began on Thursday night when we had to leave from Sevilla to take a 6 hour bus ride to Madrid. I figured for 20 Euros I could do a bus at 11pm...I would sleep in the window seat I paid for..right? I should have known it would be a travel disaster from there..a guy stole my seat so I had to "sleep" or should I say toss and turn for 6 hours in an aisle seat...in an oven! I really don't think they have heard of AC or heating here... but we finally arrived in Madrid at 5:30 am and then had to take the metro to the airport. A simple task you ask? Nope...took about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the airport to wait for our 3pm flight.. couldn't help but wonder if the day would ever end. Colleen, Nina and I were travel partners in crime from here on out. We got through security and had one jar of peanut butter stolen, but no worries, we still had another to get us through the 7 hour airport wait... Until a few hours later when the girls said we had to switch gates. Little did we know, this meant we had to go through security AGAIN... where our 2nd jar of PB was stolen. We begged them to let us keep it, or at the very least that they should keep it because it killed us to watch a second jar go to waste... but no such luck..figures. Turns out, we did not have to switch gates, and had to go back through security AGAIN.. to find our plane was delayed 2 hours. Let's just say thank god we enjoyed each other's company because at this point we had been traveling for 15 hours and still no plane...but we FINALLY arrived in Frankfurt and the story gets much better from here!

We get to Frankfurt and meet the boys, Jake and Paul, and my good friend Marle who lives in Frankfurt! It was so great to see her again, and quite honestly just great to be in Frankfurt in general. From the airport we had to head to the hostel ... in the Red Light District much to Colleen's chagrin ... but it was all an adventure in my eyes! Heck I was only asked to join a private party like twice ... I said "ya" in German and started walking in... KIDDING! Made it to the hostel, changed, and the six of us went to our first German pub!

MArle and I in the German bar #1!

She bought us these little shot things. On the bottom there is a number. You have to tap the table with the bottle X amount of times, as indicicated, open the bottle, take the shot..and then...

You put the cap on your nose! IT tasted so great by the way..like strawberry banana.. between that and our Apple Wine that is native to Frankfurt I was already in love!

After that pub we went to a few others, had a few other delicious drinks, and decided to head back to the hostel to call it a night around 2am...afterall traveling had gotten the better of us! So we get back to the hostel, 3 bunks for the 5 of us, and we all sit down on our beds. Two boys on the bottom, other two girls sleep above them, and I take the bottom bunk closest to the door to fight off any intruders..it was the red light district afterall, someone has gotta man up. Now why am I telling you where we slept? It is important to know for the next story. You see, we were all just talking and I got up off my bed to do God knows what. I look at the other 4 people, glance towards my bed, see a movement, look back and count 1,2,3,4,5 (BAD words run through my mind) and realize YUP we are all down here so what the heck is above my bed? (Mind you..this all takes place in a matter of 3 seconds...) If you know how I react to sudden movements at all (Abby, Becca you two have a fairly good idea) I grab the person nearest to me and literally just hit the ground or whatever is closest. In my case, I literally leaped onto the nearest bed and jumped on poor Paul, apparently screamed "There's a bird" and made the other girls scream too and the boys jumped despite what they say! Then, this little Chinese girl sits up on the bed, says something unidentifiable, and goes back to bed. WOW it was one of the funniest moments of my life ... and we could not stop laughing and talking about it. Then we wondered aloud, do you think she understands us? Just incase, Paul adds "If you can hear me ... I am really cool!" I guess we will never know ! She was gone before we woke up the next day... and that was the last we saw of her..thank god because I don't think my heart could handle another moment like that! I hope you can somehow see how I reacted and get a kick out of it ... I am laughing my head off just writing this right now. Let's just say if there were cameras, I would be a $100,000 winner on America's Funniest Home Videos.

So falling asleep was a cinch, and we woke up to a beautiful day and no plans ... so exploring was a definite must! The only thing any of us really knew was what I knew .. help us all, right? Frankfurt is one of the most Americanized cities in Europe with it's skyscrapers and also the Centeral European Bank is there .. pretty cool to see! So let's start from the beginning. We got dressed and took the train downtown to get a coffee, and kind of couldn't believe our eyes. How does Frankfurt look ... well picture Germany in Disney World and that is what you see everywhere! Just a charming little city! See below for some scenic shots.

Nina and I downtown

I was informed this is exactly like Hansel and Gretel... after many eye rolls when I said I had no idea what that was!! NOW I remember..

You get the picture... this city could not be any more charming!

First thing we did was just explore the random streets and a few churches. Basically in between each scenic stop the boys had to stop and sample a beer .. educational, right?

Catedral Peter I believe this was called!

Next up we went downtown to the metropolis center. The girls went inside to shop at a store and left me outside with the boys..first mistake. Second mistake? Paul and I taking a picture of this guy with the adorable little donkey. He came over begging for 1 Euro from Paul... I told him I would pay 1 Euro for the donkey. Paul just starts talking super quickly in English to confuse the guy and I just kept begging for the donkey.. if you saw the donkey you would have too. Well, he did not get the money and I didn't get the donkey, sad day for everyone. We walked down the street and look what we ran into...

A German market! They had brats, schnitzel, beer, pretzels, you name it. Best part? Everything was SO cheap and BIG! The crew all got brats, I got a steak thing with grilled onions..to die for! Then they have home cooked pretzels..Picture Bear game pretzel style except 10X better!

Once our stomachs were full, we made a poor decision to climb 328 steps up a cathedral to overlook the city ... well worth it once we were out of the clastrophobic ramp that wound us around one too many times.

Here is a picture of what we climbed up... see below for our view!

The classic shot of me on top of the world ... seriously I must be the luckiest girl alive!

The Romer ... Pronounced Rumer.. we think. Whenever we asked where this was we pronounced it wrong so I guess I'll never really know. It is in the adorable little city center and this is the old city hall of Frankfurt.

We took this via my timer ... since nobody was up there to take a group shot of us. We know why now! I think we said some naughty words on both the way up AND down even though they were church steps ... they made us feel so sick! NEedless to say we made it down and we were happy to see the ground again. Next we went to see the Romer close up

PRetty much how you picture typical Germany..right??

One last shot of the downtown

Next we were just walking and we passed the Museum of Modern Art. Now, granted, I do not think any one of us are your typical art buffs. However, after we toured this museum it was a unanimous decision that it was easily one of the coolest/most eye opening experiences ever. The art (which will be below) was so unreal. The artist, from Spain, had many exhibits with candy...see below for the first one you see as you walk in

So you are supposed to take a piece of candy per the request of the artist. Therefore, it is an everchanging "Human work of art." I thought this was so cool! There were a few exhibits like this. There were also random stacks of paper with maps, famous people, etc in the middle of a room. Again, they are meant to be taken by the public.

The art was very exotic. There were tons of naked exhibits. Some were obviously beautiful but they displayed some of the most erotic, obscure pictures I have ever seen. However, like I say, it really made you open your eyes to different cultures and try to figure out why they displayed some of the things that they did. We understood then why little kids were not allowed to enter..

We went into a room with projectors and were looking at some art..and decided to make some art ourselves! (Well, sort of)

Pretty good art for a Miller... thank you very much!

Heart stopping moment number two... We were heading into what we thought was a dark exhibit. There was a little dark hallway you had to enter ... I started to walk in with the girls behind me. Yup nope wasn't about to go any farther seeing as it felt like I was entering a haunted house (again, big scardy cat when it comes to those things if you didn't know!) So PAul goes in first and I figure it is safe to follow..WRONG. Paul fails to tell us there is a scary man standing around the corner. When I turn to follow him this 6 foot 20 (okay like 6'2" ) comes out of NOWHERE and again, my instincts take over, and I FLAIL backwards and like shove the two girls into a corner. Yes, we all screamed. I literally thought this guy was supposed to be the art.. apparently he told Paul he wasn't a part of the museum. Again, all kind of a blur/heart stopping moment, but just makes it that much more interesting, right? Well, after that we needed a break so we headed out and were off again!

The day started to get cloudier and colder, so we sidetracked to the mall (naturally) and we rode Europe's longest escalator ... 90 sec from bottom to top.. fun fact ! Here she is .. what a butte!

After that we just kind of wondered along the river and took in the sites..even crossed the river a few times ... just for kicks!

Night finally came upon us and we actually were able to walk from the center of town back home. We took a pit stop outside of the Centro Banco Europeo and we saw like 7 older couples dancing the tango on the streets. Now I know I can't dance, but that would be so cool to be able to do! A guy was playing some music for them and they all just looked so happy, and it was so great to just take it all in. As it was starting to rain, we headed back to the hostel to relax, shower, and get ready to go out. When we got to our room you better believe I did a thorough check before anything else!

After our day we just went out and tried a few more beers...and in my case had a few more vinos :) The next day the boys left early and Marle came to pick us up to take us to a German castle!! We drove on the Autobahn to get there..about 155 KPH, we were flying! Was so great. Then we saw the castle.... dum dum dum

Isn't it beautiful? After seeing the beautiful countryside of Germany I couldnt wait to see this bad boy! We found out that they had private tours and our tour guide wanted us to pay 25 euros for an hour long tour in english..did I mention he was 70? Turns out Rudolf, and not the red nosed reindeer as he joked, was AWESOME. He had some wits...and some brains. We saw the ins and outs of the Solms castle. They used to be a Royal family in Germany and now they are just a normal family living there today. No pics were allowed inside, but I assure you it was beautiful as ever.. just a bit chilly. We saw so many pieces of art from the wars that are filled with so much history. Mom, you would have LOVED the interior decorations. There was even a blue and white dish that was gorgeous... but Rudolf was watching our every step.. next time! Before heading out we took a few more pics but this castle was just unbelieveable!

View from up and inside the courtyard! Marle and I

Nins and me!!!


After this we went to Marle's house and her mom cooked us a fabulous lunch that consisted of the yummiest potatoes EVER, meat, NO BREAD FOR ONCE, a parfait type dealio (Sara I know I know..I should be more specific )...and then a coffee cake with coffee to finish off the meal. WOW delectable. They were so kind to take us in for the afternoon and just the sweetest family. We went to print off our boarding passes and I happened to notice our plane was 2.5 hours delayed before we even leave her house...good lord when does the madness end? I do not want to bore you yet I Can't spare these final details. Basically, Marle drops us off at airport, we do the secuirty thing -- I kid you not -- 3 more times. Nina gets strip searched, my alcohol taken, but our PB was already taken. No worries -- plane delays AGAIN. At this point our busses that we had planned on taking were completely out of the question. The plane was to fly from Frankfurt, to Madrid, to Chile. We were half expecting to wake up in Chile. Turns out, I would have rather. The customer service in Europe is NON EXISTENT. Hours later the airline gives us nothing in return for screwing us over both ways, and we literally do not know where to go from there. flights were over 400 euros and all busses were booked. Took a quick catnap in the airport, maybe 20min long? Then had to pay for a Renfe (high speed train) just an extra 100 euros..what's a girl to do?? Got lost in downtown Madrid at 5:30 am, I talked to some boys and they helped us find the train station. MEanwhile familia, found a few spots for us to site see!! Gotta take in the sites when you can I spose. FINALLY got onto the train, sat down and passed out, and woke up in Sevilla a million hours later.

That was the short, less annoying version, believe me. But when you travel with good company like I did, actually great company, the time didn't go by nearly as slow as it could have. And getting to see Germany and MArle and have all those wonderful experiences, I would do it all again in a heart beat!!! But I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend here in Sevilla this coming weekend, and then Barcelona to reunite with SMS. Thanks for staying tuned (if you're still here!!!)

As Always As Always

Peace, Amor, Espana
Ana