The Wonder Twins in Germany!

When I walked away from my family at the airport nine months ago I was a bundle of nerves. I was so incredibly excited and apprehensive that I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. My mind was running in what felt like a thousand different directions. It actually made saying goodbye to my parents and my grandmother easier: I was consumed by so many different emotions that it was difficult for any one to truly take a hold. It was a few days before I began to dwell on everything that I had given up, like time with my family and friends. Initially I came to Germany having accepted that none of my family would be able to come and see me (P.S. Theresa Rose, you count as family). Imagine my surprise and absolute delight when, in January, I suddenly was faced with the prospect of seeing three of the most important people in my life all within the same month. It was like winning the lottery.
So due to this, and the fact that their visits all fell so close together, my last post was just the beginning of a series of homages to three awesome woman, who never cease to inspire and amaze me with their love. Up next: my best friend and partner in crime, Theresa.

Freshmen year flashback...I think so.

But before I go to far into all things Wonder Twins, I have to first share with you the story of yours truly on a genuine, Bavarian farm. Because it was an awesome experience.

I had one week between the time I dropped my sister off at the airport to when I was due to pick up Theresa, and during that time it was Easter. I am officially a professional at spending holidays away from my family and know that the best way to not end up wallowing in my room with a jar full of Nutella is to distract myself. Which in this case meant pizza, friends, and late-night conversations. Now before you judge me for not going to church on Easter let me remind you that in Germany the clocks change on a different day then they do back in the states. This day just happened to be the day before Easter. I had every intention of waking up to go to church, not realizing that my phone hadn't actually adjusted itself like it said it had. So I watched the new pope deliver a sermon on YouTube while I got ready for the day.
Score one for technology.

My host family spent the Easter holiday on a farm and while I wasn't with them for their egg hunt and massive chocolate consumption extravaganza, which is probably a good thing, I did join them a few days later. And if you've never holidayed on a farm before I have only one thing to say to you:
you are missing out.

 

Baby Cows!! In case you weren't sure.

Apparently this is a profitable and popular business in Bavaria. Farmers will convert an empty building on their property into a vacation home and will rent it out for days at a time. You spend your time surrounded by beautiful countryside with the Alps in the distance, listening to the soft murmurs of distant cows and fresh milk delivered to your door every morning. It is traditional for Bavarian houses to have all sorts of murals depicted on their walls and to be covered in incredible wood work and the farther you go out of the city the more examples of this you will see. The closest town to us was like something out of a fairy tale.
And the farm didn't even smell that bad. Although I suppose that, given time, you can get used to anything.

Wilkommen to my life.

There were chickens and rabbits you could feed and a stall full of baby cows to coo over. The big ones were a bit less inspiring and a bit more smelly, but still entertaining to watch. Especially when babies try to make conversations with them.

  Like so.

But the best part had to have been the MASSIVE hay loft that the family had converted into the coolest play area I do believe I will ever see. Seriously, I had just as much fun in this place as the boys. And because I am a thoughtful person I present you with a video tour of the play loft of every child's fantasy. You're welcome.

 Total hours spent playing pirates and swinging into hay lofts with the boys: roughly ten. Which is not to shabby for only being there three days.
Please excuse the weird noise I make at the end.

Lunchtime!

So the moral of the story: if ever you find yourself craving a different sort of holiday, find a farm.
Although I have to admit, watching the farmer and his wife wade through massive piles of cow manure two times a day has irrevocably cured me of ever wanting to live on a farm myself. Not going to lie.

 And now, Theresa.

Speaking of fairy tales, our friendship comes pretty close, only it's the awesome kind of fairy tale that actually exists in real life. And while I know that every once in awhile we may come across a fire breathing dragon or some sort of evil witch intent on our destruction with a delectable poison apple, I also know that our dragon slaying skills are seriously impressive, and that our parents did an excellent job teaching us about stranger danger. So to all of life's Disney villains and twists and turns I say bring it on, because I know that with my best friend standing behind me I can pretty much take on the world, and that's an awesome feeling.

 Off to the famous Shumann's Bar for some delicious cocktails!

Theresa and I met our freshmen year of college when we were randomly assigned to the same apartment and within the first few weeks developed the base for a friendship that has irrefutably changed my life for the better. We lived together for four years, spending nearly every day together, and were in each others company so often that one of the men working at the bar we frequented in college began to call us the Wonder Twins, and the name stuck. We'd been talking for awhile about the possibility of her coming out to visit me, and then all of a sudden we had a tangible plan and the reality of her being here could not have been more uplifting or perfect. Thus far we've seen Ireland, Amsterdam, and Germany together. The only question left is, what's next?

I'm getting pretty good at the whole 'waiting for people at the arrivals terminal' bit, and even remembered to bring my own bottle opener this time for our celebratory beer. It's a lot of fun, watching people come out of the gates from baggage claim and be picked up by the people who love them. And despite the airline losing Theresa's luggage, our trip started off great from the second we saw each other. She had slept quite a bit on the plane so we decided to go out into the city after we dropped the little luggage she had off at my house.
P.S. Theresa, props to you for living on next to nothing for three days.
I took her to Augustiner's, which is officially my favorite beer hall in all of Munich, and then out to a pretentious club called P1 where the prices for drinks were much to high but where we had fun dancing nonetheless.

Her plane arrived on a Saturday night and so on Sunday she was introduced to a little phenomenon called 'everything in Munich is closed on Sundays'. And this is hardly an exaggeration. The only things you'll find open are restaurants and museums. And the movie theaters. Grocery stores? Closed. Bakeries? Closed. Anything even remotely related to merchandise? Closed. The airline told her that if she had to buy anything to supplement her missing possessions she could turn her receipts over to Lufthansa. To bad nothing was open. The joke's on you American tourists.
  So seeing as how our choices of entertainment were somewhat limited, and the weather wasn't holding up too well, we decided to visit the BMW museum.

Three cheers for awesome cars we can't afford!

When we weren't drooling over lush, leather interiors and sleek car designs we were pretending to drive the cars themselves. At one point I was in the drivers seat and Theresa was in the back, playing with the buttons controlling the cars stereo system. She would periodically turn the volume up really high, meaning everyone in the vicinity would stop and stare at me with eyes that clearly said, "You're one of those people." It wasn't long before a BMW representative made their way over to the car, at which point we scrambled out as quickly as we could before we were yelled at in German for acting like the children we secretly are.
Which, in case you were wondering, is the story of how Theresa almost got us kicked out of the museum.
But in her defense it was really fun pushing all of the buttons.

And I bought a motorcycle!

 The third night she was here my host parents recommended an Italian restaurant for us to try, which ended up being amazing for a handful of reasons.
1. The food was ridiculously delicious. We had scallops and delicious salad and crusty bread being thrown at us from every direction. The wine was heavenly and don't even get me started on our entrees. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
2. We were given free wine and sparkling champagne by the Italian wait staff.
3. The restaurant closed while we were still enjoying our dinner (we didn't arrive until much later in the evening), but instead of hurrying us out the door the Italians decided to have a karaoke party.
4. Theresa was serenaded by our Italian waiter.
5. The entire night the conversation was a mix of German, English, Italian, and French.

6. Did I mention the delicious food?

During the week we explored the Englisher garden and on one occasion happened to run into a few guys from Colorado. We ended up spending several hours with them at the Chinese Tower, a massive bier garden in the middle of the gardens, and taught them how to drink like the Germans.
Every once in awhile the weather decided to be lovely and one of those opportune times just happened to be when we climbed to the top of St. Peter's kirche in the heart of Munich. And I truly mean we huffed and puffed our way to the top. You have to tackle a seemingly endless number of stairs before you reach the top of the bell tower, but once you're up there it's all worth it.

 You can see for miles in every direction.

We also spent quite a bit of time with the boys, who later told me that she looked like Kristin, only with golden hair, which obviously makes you a princess Theresa. Only princesses are allowed to have golden hair. And we saw Neuschwanstein! It was considerably more fun visiting King Ludwig's famous castle with my best friend beside me. We developed a plan along the way which outlined how we were going to take hold of the palace and turn it into our own permanent residence. It involved wooden swords and helmets from the gift shop, and shields made out of plastic. We were fully prepared to use force if necessary. But can you really blame us? If something so fantastically perfect as this exists...

...it's only fair that we be allowed to live in it as princesses of the realm.
And in case you were wondering, I have the same theory about Ryan Gosling. Men like him should only be allowed to exist if every woman gets to have one. Equality makes the world go round.

We ate gelato every chance we could get and gorged ourselves on delicious Vietnamese food. We met friends in the most unlikely of places and Theresa developed a definitive taste for Krapfen,
A.K.A Theresa crack.

The girl was addicted.

Imagine the most perfect doughnut in the whole world, baked not fried, light and fluffy, filled with delicious jellies and cream pudding. Sprinkle some powdered sugar and love on top and you've just created a Krapfen. Bakeries all over Munich mourned the loss of my best friend when she got on the plane back to California, and I was crying right along with them. I've already mentioned how hard it was to say good bye to my sister in my last blog update and won't go into explaining that feeling again, except to say that I've watched three people walk away from me now: it never was any easier watching them go. 

And we went star-gazing!!

 Theresa Rose: you are officially a Bavarian lass. With a real Dirndl and everything.
I'm so fortunate to have you in my life and to be able to call you my best friend. I'll love you no matter how many times you beat me at Yahtzee and can't wait for whatever adventures life has in store for us.

"I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn, and we are led to those who help up most to grow, if we let them, and we help them in return. Well I don't know if I believe that's true, but I know I'm who I am today because I knew you."
*Please take special note of the creeper in the background.

In six days I'll be celebrating my twenty-third birthday and in eleven days I leave for Mallorca. Somehow I'm going to find time before that to write about my mother's visit. We traveled the world together, or at least a small part of Europe, and being able to hug her for the first time in nine months was incredible.
It felt like being home.

Sometimes I can hardly believe how much time has already passed since I've been in Germany. Some of my friends back home are graduating now and it seems like yesterday that I was there myself, melting in the hot sun, waiting for my diploma. I miss my family and friends but am not quite ready to return back to California, and have decided to delay my return by a few months. My host family offered me more time and I gladly accepted. Originally I was slated to return home in August, but will now be back around the end of October. Instead of three months I now have six left to get as much from this experience as I possibly can. I'm very fortunate and plan to make the most of this extra time: traveling, spending time with the boys, and enjoying the beautiful summer months Munich has to offer.
And who in their right mind would say no to a second chance at Oktoberfest?
Not this girl.

XO
Sarah

“I'm not in search of sanctity, sacredness, purity; these things are found after this life, not in this life; but in this life I search to be completely human: to feel, to give, to take, to laugh, to get lost, to be found, to dance, to love and to lust, to be so human.”
-C. Joybell C.