First Day Back in Hawaii

After having an okay sleep we both woke up early this morning and hung around our houses. We talked to each other via phone but haven't done anything today. Its probably good that we are just resting though. We are both glad to be home and are ready to share stories. Thanks to everyone for all of your support during our trip and we hope that you have enjoyed reading about all of our European adventures. Hopefully by the end of the week we will have pictures to share with everyone. See you soon!

Tasha and Steph

Monday July 30, 2007

Well this morning we had to wake up pretty early so that we could pack up the last of our stuff and grab a quick breakfast before going to the airport. We reserved a shuttle to the airport for 6am so we had to hurry a bit but made it with time to spare. At the airport we had to wait for the Delta counters to open up so we could check in so that was kinda boring. When it was our turn we had to go through a checkpoint with an airline employee that asked us a lot of questions about our bags which kind of made us a bit nervous but we didn't have anything to worry about. We made it to our gate after having to go through 2 security checkpoints. Our first flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta was about 10 hours long and we slept most of the way except during the movies we wanted to watch, and when it was time to eat. When we arrived in Atlanta it was so nice to be off the airplane and to be able to navigate easily and understand the people around us. At the same time it was sad because we missed Germany. We got through customs safely and without problems so that was really nice. We barely even had to stand in line, it went surprisingly fast. We stopped on our way to our gate at a news stand to get some magazines for our next long plane ride. It was really exciting and comforting at the gate to see local people and hear them speaking. We used our cell phones for the first time in a 7 weeks to call our families to let them know we had arrived safely in the United States. Tasha and I had about 2 hours in Atlanta before our flight left for Hawaii so we just hung around and looked at all the different people. Our flight to Honolulu was smooth with only a few choppy spots and a couple crying babies. Overall the flight wasn't to bad except the food tasted pretty nasty. We were so excited when we landed in Honolulu because we had finally made it home. Everything worked out well and we got picked up at the airport and went to Tasha's house to eat dinner. The food was so delicious because we haven't had rice in so long. It was really good to see everyone but a few hours after we got there the jetlag started to hit us and we were pretty exhausted. We said bye and I went home and we both slept.

Sunday July 29, 2007

After a good nights sleep in Aunty Ruthlies's comfortable home we got out of bed and got dressed so we could go downstairs for breakfast. She prepared a beautiful breakfast for us, which consisted of an assortment of breads and homemade jams. It was all so delicious and fulfilling to our bellies. We helped Aunty clear the table and then spent some time relaxing in the living room while she started to cook for lunch. After only a few hours it was time to eat again for lunch. Tasha and I were still quite full from lunch so we had to eat pretty slow but we managed to eat everything. For lunch we had Kartoffelsalat (German Potato Salad, fried fish, and salad. After getting even more stuffed from lunch we had to hold off on dessert so that we could relax and try to digest a bit. We let about an hour pass before we sat down to enjoy some coffee and some delicious cake. After filling our stomachs to the max we sat down in front of the TV to watch a DVD of Tasha's brothers wedding ceremony with her aunty. It was so fun to watch it with here because she felt like she was in Hawaii and enjoyed being able to see everyone that she hadn't seen in so long. Soon after finishing the video we had to catch the taxi to the train station so that we could make it to Frankfurt before dark. Aunty Ruthlies rode with us to the train station where we had to say goodbye, which was really sad. We got on the train and headed to Frankfurt, but we had to stop somewhere else and change trains to the station at the airport. Once we arrived at the airport we had to wait a while for our hotel shuttle to pick us up and it was really cold so we got pretty chilly. We finally made it to our hotel and relaxed while unpacking and repacking out suitcases. Since there was free WiFi at our hotel we decided to take advantage and make some last minute phone calls via skype before heading off to bed for an early nights sleep.

Saturday July 28, 2007

This morning we woke up early so that we could get dressed and pack up the rest of our stuff before going to eat breakfast so that we could catch our train on time. We had another super delicious breakfast provided by the hotel and made sure that we ate plenty for our train ride to Stuttgart. After breakfast we went up to our room to get our bags and bring them down to checkout. Our room wasn't very expensive for what we got in the price and the staff at the hotel. Everything was so wonderful and we would definitely recommend the Forsthaus Graseck to anyone that is going to Garmisch Partinkerchen. We took a taxi to the train station as it would have probably taken us an hour to get there with our bags and stuff. It was a nice train ride to Stuttgart where we were to meet Tasha's Aunty Ruthlies. It was a good thing that we had seat reservations because the train was quite full. When we arrived in Stuttgart we hurried off the train so that we could walk to find Tasha's Aunty. As we were walking and got closer to the main area we spotted a woman with a wide-eyed look on her face and that was Aunty Ruthlies. She was so happy to see Tasha because it had been so long. She met us in Stuttgart at the train station and then we took the S-Bahn to Marbach, which is the town that she lives in. She had prepared a wonderful lunch for us that was a delicious soup from her hometown and it was soooooooooooooooooo good. After eating the soup she had baked 2 cakes that we had to try and that was no problem except that we were both quite full but we managed to eat a piece of each. We showed her Aunty and her son some pictures of our trip through Europe and they were so shocked that we had traveled alone all around the place. We spent some time relaxing after looking at pictures and eating lunch and then we ate a small dinner. For dinner we ate some bread, leberwurst, bratwurst, and cheese. It was all so delicious. After finishing with dinner Tasha and I decided to hit the sack early so that we would be well rested for Sunday.

Friday July 27, 2007

After spending our first night in beautiful Garmisch Partinkerchen we woke up this morning and wandered downstairs to eat a delicious breakfast. There were so many options and everything looked so delicious and tasty that we had a hard time choosing what to eat. We got stuffed off the delicious and healthy food and then took the lift down the mountain to go on our adventure in the town. It took us about 35 minutes to walk from the bottom of the lift into town. It was a really nice relaxing walk though because it was on a gravel road with cute little houses and farm land and a couple of pubs. There were people out in their traditional Bavarian dress so that helped add to the surroundings. Our initial plan was to make it to the train station where we would take a train to the Zugspitz mountain which is the highest peak in Germany, but the weather wasn't very good so we ended up just walking around town. We wanted to go up the mountain because on a good day its possible to see up to 4 different countries, but we didn't want to spend the money for something that we wouldn't get to fully enjoy because of the weather. We found some really cool tourist shops and wandered through some cute little towns. We ate Doner again which was not as good as the ones we had in Koln. After spending a while in town we decided to wander back to the Forsthaus Graseck, which was the hotel we were staying at to rest and relax. As we were walking we saw a horse carriage ahead of us and decided that it would be fun to take that to our hotel instead of walking to the lift. It turns out that after waiting a while a group of cute little old ladies had the same thought as us so they hopped in the carriage with us and we rode off to our stop. These ladies were so cute and had so much energy. They kept smiling at us as we looked around and took pictures of everything. It helped make the carriage ride a bit more fun. We didn't do to much the rest of the day except relax, look at the mountains, listen to the goats with their bells run around the grass, and pack up our bags for our trip tomorrow. We did eat dinner again at the hotel and it was so delicious. I think we are gonna miss the good German food when we go back.

Thursday July 26, 2007

This morning we woke up at about 8:15 so we could get dressed and pack our stuff before going to breakfast, which was included in the price of our room. It was really good and tasty too just like all of the meals we have had in Germany. After breakfast we went back up to our room and started bringing our bags down to the bottom floor. Once we had our bags down we checked out and paid for our room. The lady who was working at the desk even called a taxi for us so that was really helpful. We made it to the train station in time for the early train to Munich. Once we made it to the train station in Munich we ate some lunch and went to the next set of tracks for our train to Garmisch Partinkerchin. It was a short train ride compared to the others that we have been taking. The people in Germany are so much nicer than anywhere else that we have been. When we arrived in Garmisch we had to try to figure out how to get to our hotel and ended up asking a taxi driver, but were told that it was a 45 minute walk to the lifts so we decided to catch a cab. After watching the drive we came to the conclusion that it was worth it to take a cab especially with our heavy bags. The only way up and down from our Hotel is by a ski lift which we were kind of worried about since we have our heavy bags but it turns our that it didnt matter. We did have to travel pretty far up the mountain to our hotel. It is such a nice view and really home inside. Our room is really nice and cozy as well and we have a balcony for the first time in Europe that looks out onto the mountains. We decided to just hang out at the hotel and relax today so that we could have energy for tomorrow so we went to the spa downstairs in our hotel and had use of everything because it was self service. It was really nice and relaxing especially because we had the view of the mountains while we were sitting in the jet baths. For dinner we ate at the hotel restaurant which was decently priced and the portions were big and the food was delicious. We headed up to the room afterwards to catch some shut eye!

Wednesday July 25, 2007

At 6:20am this morning we arrived in Munich, where we had about an hour train ride to Frielessing and then another 45 minute train ride to Berchtesgaden where we are staying for the night. When we arrived in Berchtesgaden we were told that we would have to walk 500m from the train station and then up a bunch of stairs and another 500m to our hotel. Neither Tasha or myself were excited about that idea so we decided to treat ourselves and just take a taxi which was really nice and not to expensive. The Hotel Watzman was really cozy in the inside right down to the people that work there. It felt as though we had just arrived at grandmas house. The room was nice, but didn’t have a view. We arrived to late in the city to visit the Eagles Nest, but were able to take a bus to the Lake Konigsee where we took a boat tour around the lake. It was really a beautiful sight and the water was really clear for a lake. You could see the bottom, which is not typical of lakes, to bad it’s against the rules to swim in the water. We were so sleepy on the boat that it was hard to stay awake but we managed to do it until we reached the last stop where we could get out and walk around to another little lake. Along the path to the other lake were boysenberry plants growing so I picked some of the berries that were ripe and ate them. They were so delicious. We stayed around for about an hour before heading back to catch the boat to go back to the dock. We had to wait 1 hour for the next bus to take us back to central Berchtesgaden. We ate dinner at our hotel, which was super delicious and worth every penny. After dinner we went back to our room to relax, pack, and watch the news on CNN in English. We went to sleep pretty early so we could get some rest.