This is where I live... you should be jealous!

This is the Eibsee Lake where we go to swim and tan. Last week Sabrina and I decided to swim to the island in the middle, which turned out to be a lot further away than it appeared, but we made it!

Slugs are also a part of everyday life here in Garmisch. This is an unusually large one that is about the length of Chenea's hand.

This is Chenea and I hiking the Partnach Gorge.

Above are my 2 good friends Chenea (top picture) and Sabrina (bottom picture).

I AM AMSTERDAM.

My friend Rachel and I both had 3 day weekends, so I took my first plane trip to Amsterdam!
Our trip started out great. Luckily, we had a slow night at work, so we got out right at 10 and caught the last train out of Garmisch to Munich. We spent the night in the Munich Airport on some comfy chairs and then boarded our plane bright and early at 7:30. After an easy hour flight, we made our way to our hostel to unload and then headed to the city! We walked through Dam Square and around Jordan (a less touristy area). The canals are gorgeous! I found the flower market, which was an entire block lined with flowers. Sadly we missed the tulips--one of the main tourist attractions in Amsterdam in the spring. We also toured the Anne Frank house, which was a very moving experience to actually be in the place where the family hid for so long. After a long walk in the rain we finally made it to an Indonesian restaurant that someone from our hostel recommended. The long walk was worth it, and Rach and I are now bigs fans of gado-gado. Try it if you have never had it before!


Day 2 we took a 4 hour countryside bike tour and saw Amsterdam from a different perspective.
It was gorgeous and nice to be away from the craziness of the city, and we made a new friend, Maddie! She had just finished studying in Spain and was traveling for a bit with her mom. We also tried a traditional Dutch dessert, pofretages (spelling???)... basically mini puffy pancakes with powdered sugar. Excellent!


Then I headed to the Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum. Van Gogh was my favorite since he is one of my favorite painters. The Rijksmuseum has art from the Dutch Golden Age in the 1600s. I also toured a diamond store because many of the world's diamonds pass through Holland. I saw how they are cut, cleaned, and polished. And then they tried to get me to buy some... a bit out of my trip budget! Rach and I grabbed dinner and then went on our candlelight wine and cheese canal cruise. We met some more fun people and also got a tour of the Red Light District. For those of you who do not know, marijuana and prostitution are both legal in Amsterdam. The Red Light District really is glowing with red lights and streets lined with glass doors and prostitutes waiting for customers. The curtains are closed when they have visitors... definitely a bit overwhelming, but a must see if you are in Amsterdam.

Day 3 was very relaxing. I went for a run in the morning and the city is very different in the morning. Not even the cafes are open and the streets are pretty empty compared to the bustling nights. We found a great coffee shop called Grolsch cafe with a perfect view of the canals. We did a little shopping and then headed to Vondelpark to walk around. It was very big and very pretty, and we got very lost! Luckily, you can get on any tram going towards the central station and find your way back to the main part of town! We had a fun little adventure and got to see some very pretty parts of Amsterdam on our journey back to the hostel. We met some nice boys from Florida who were traveling Europe, so we talked to them for a long time and just enjoyed the sunshine! We ended our night with dinner back at our favorite cafe and tucked in early since we had to wake up at 4:30 AM to make it to the airport for our flight home.

After a very frustrating, extremely long line in the airport we finally boarded and made our way back to Munich. We met a large group of guys who were also going to Garmisch for a bike tour. They shared their pretzels and sausages with us on the train home, and we finally arrived in Garmisch!

Life in Garmisch

Just wanted to give you all a quick update. I stayed here in Garmisch this "weekend," which was a lot of fun! I actually got to go out to dinner for a change, since usually I'm working, so that was a nice treat. We had girls night and ate at the GlassHaus and then went to watch music in the park, where they have a gorgeous mini-amphitheater set up with tons of flowers everywhere. Then we came back and just watched a movie!
Thursday I hiked the Kramer, another one of the mountains here. It was a little more intense than the Wank, but we made it to the top in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. It was finally sunny here, so it was a great day to hike, and then I came back and went to the lake to lay in the sun. I must say, my tan is not up to my usual standards, so I worked on it a bit.
Rachel and I are going to Amsterdam next week so we are trip planning! We are taking a canal cruise and going on a bike tour!
I bought a bike which was an excellent purchase and makes life much easier since I can get to work in just 10 minutes now! It still rains pretty much every day, and I've definitely learned to ALWAYS bring a rain jacket because one minute it might be sunny and the next raining.
I found the best gelato place and it has cononut gelato, which most of you know is one of my favorites!
Yesterday I bought a dirndle, the traditional german dress. Lots of girls have them to wear to Octoberfest and Garmisherfest-- each town has its own fest, and ours is next week. There is also a fancy restaurant in town where you can get dressed up and wear them out to dinner, so hopefully I'll get plenty of use out of it.
Today is quite rainy, so I'm off to grab coffee and do some research for my trip! Hope all is well in the States! Love and miss you!

Country #4... Switzerland

This weekend, I journeyed to Montreux, Switzerland, with 3 others from Edelweiss. We began the 6 hour journey Tuesday night at midnight when we all got off work and arrived in Montreux at about 6AM. We trail blazed through some "private property" (oops) in the mountains and set up camp to sleep for a few hours. After a few good hours of sleep, we woke up and headed into town. Montreux is located on Lake Geneva, and it is a perfect mix of lake and mountains, with lots of vineyards too! The town is famous for its jazz festival, which is why we were there! There were lots of little artisan tents set up and tons of food. But the beers were much smaller than in Germany! It was a very relaxing weekend, and we just sat on a hill and listened to jazz in the park. Many famous names come to play during the festival... BB King, Dave Matthews Band, Black Eyed Peas, etc. We stuck to the free music, which was still amazing. Thursday we visited the Chateaux de Chillon, a historic castle on the lake.

We listened to some more jazz, and then headed to Lucerne, another small town on the way back to Garmisch. We stopped and enjoyed another lake, and played on the swings in the park... probably our favorite part!

After grabbing some dinner, we made our
way back to Garmisch! Switzerland is probably my favorite place I've visited so far, and I'm looking forward to going back soon!

Happy 4th of July!

Celebrating the 4th of July was a little different this year, but yesterday they had a big barbecue on base and I ran in the 5k Holiday run. Work was CRAZY and we had a record number of people in Zuggys. After getting yelled at by angry waiting people a few times and watching some entertaining karaoke, I did make it outside to see the Edelweiss fireworks. It was no Ozark Spectacular, but it did have nearly every car alarm around going off. Then we headed out to BMW fest--a BMW biker rally/event that is going on all weekend in Garmisch. It was pretty fun--tons of tents set up with bands, Germans in lederhosen, lots of dancing on tables, and more BMW motorcycles than I have ever seen in my entire life.
We did all receive a letter telling us not to go out in Garmisch this weekend because there was a fight between a few MPs (American military police) and Turks at a local bar, and apparently the Turks were planning some sort of relatiation on Americans this weekend since it is the 4th. Luckily nothing happened and the most eventful part of the evening involved witnessing some crazy table dance moves!

THe Wank

It's been an eventful week. Munich on Sunday. Visiting Lake Eibsee Monday. Hiking the Wank Tuesday. I already told you about Munich, so I'll move on to the lake. Eibsee is a nearby lake (20 minute drive or 1.5 hour bike ride). My friend Sabrina took me with her.. she loves running, hiking, biking, etc, and has been here a year and a half, so she is showing me lots of places! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures this time because we were running, but there is a lovely view of the alps in the background and the lake is crystal clear. Yesterday Vince and I hiked the Wank (pronounced Vank... w's are v's in German). It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to reach the summit. It is about 4 miles to the top, plus a 1.6 mile walk to get to the mountain. And I also walked to and from work, so I got quite the workout yesterday! Every mountain here has a cross at the highest point (the picture above).

Austria!

My trip to Austria was quite an adventure! We went to Amsback which is only about 2 hours from Garmisch. Day One involved white water rafting on the Inn River. It was a Level 4 (there are only 5 levels) so it was a bit intense but not as bad as I was expecting. Unfortunately, they did not take any pictures of us rafting, but here is the crew before we left. We all managed to stay in the raft, except for the 2 guides, who decided to play a little joke on us and jump out after one of the big rapids. We camped (probably illegally because we just found a nice little spot on the river and set up camp)... it was my first time actually cooking out.. hotdogs, smore's and goulash! Day 2 we went canyoning, which I have a hard time explaining, but it is kind of like rock climbing, but also involves sliding down water falls and jumping into water! We stopped and had lunch, definitely a gourmet cookout compared to the night before. We cooked steaks and veggies, and finished with shots of schnapps... gotta love the Austrians! Our guide, Gabbi, was awesome and she told us the perfect place to camp with a huge fire pit. She even came later in the night and brought us some Austrian beer and more schnapps. Another successful trip! Below is the view from our campsite!