darrrlin', danke schoen.

[my elbows make my arms look like legs. deer legs. also, disregard the reindeer pjs. ahah oh, iiiirony.]

she's aliiiiiive!

yes, i'm alive.

hi, my name is michelle, have we met?

yes we have.

it's been a little while since i've last blogged on account of the fact that i've been working my butt off at nordstrom to pay myself back for some unexpected expenses in paris.

and by unexpected, i mean that i had no idea i could fall so hard so fast for a pair of shoes or a sweater.

i guess i did find love in paris.

ANYWAYS,

i'm going to try and bang out the last month of my study abroad [i need those memories people, deal with it.] before school starts again. 

hooooo boy, let's go.

october 28th started off early.

we got up earlier to go grab some breakfast downstairs, which was fab by the way.

who knew that ham and cheese panini's with salt and pepper for breakfast could be so d good?

i did. deep down. i just had to prove it to myself.

then, brynn's old family friend brother williamson came to pick us up.

he was going to show us around all weekend, since he had lived there for a few years and knew the area.

well saweeeet!

once he picked us up, we headed out and got on the autobahn.

for those of you who don't know what an autobahn is [don't worry, i had no freakin' idea], it's basically a freeway where you're allowed to go as fast as you want. i'm not kidding. i'm pretty sure we stayed a consistant 90 or 100 mph the whole time. and of course, i was fearing my life the whole time. i'm surprised i didn't put all three seat belts in the backseat on me.

sad thing was, we were all talking and i could not stay awake. like literally, it was probably the hardest thing in my life going on in that moment. and it was always right in the middle of him talking to me [whoops? i dgaf?].

one thing that i loved was that i kept seeing a sign on the autobahn saying "ausfahrt" and sounding it out in my head over and over and laughing. i am just not mature enough for this country. finally, brynn got the courage to ask him what it meant and it means "exit" basically. hahahahahaha i love it.

we finally reached our first destination, which was neuschwanstein. that's the castle that the disneyland castle is modeled after. how cool, right? a real castle. for a real princess like me [head tilt and smile].

we headed up to it and bought tickets for a tour, and it was in the line waiting, that i found myself getting guilted into singing a solo on sunday in church. yes. because he happened to be the branch president, and i happened to be singing "danke schoen". cool beans.

we found out that you could either walk up to it, or do the fat person thing and take a horse carriage. well, of course we're smart, because we decided to walk up it. let's just say, that baby challenged me. and by baby, i mean those freaky huge 11 pound babies that you only read of in national inquirer [you know.....if you read those...]. luckily, there was an absolutely gorgeous view to distract me [sometimes]. i seriously felt like my mother taking a bazillion pictures. or a chinese tourist. but how could i not?

[seriously. it doesn't get any better than this. also yes, i'm the nerd wearing my paris shirt in germany. judge me.]

we arrived a little early for our tour of the castle, so bro. williamson took us a secret way where there was a bridge over a waterfall/river way down below to see the castle from the back. and man, baby got back, because that thing was just unreal looking. i couldn't believe how high up we were. and how many dang fine german boys were around me. hallo, ist was Ihr Name? but seriously. 

after our tour, we headed back down to the car, but not before picking up our first brat on the way. ohh my daang, that thing was delicious. something about the mustard here is just not fair. i regret not toting away a quart or two of that stuff. oh well, all's well that ends well. and right before we got to the car, we stopped in a little shop, just to see what was inside aka buy delicious expensive candy and a pretty scarf. ehh when in germany, right?

[the hanuta was definitely not as good as it looks. and the giotto was definitely waaay better than it looks. and the gummy bears are always a good time. i craved them non-stop in germany.]

next was the linderhof palace, which was another, but smaller, castle built by the same king that built the first one was saw. but not before we drove through austria for a bit!

a video for your viewing pleasure.

[of course, we sang this the whole time.]

the palace was even more ornate on the inside than the first one, even though it was way smaller. i hadn't been to versailles at this point, but it felt a lot like versailles would feel like. everything inside was gold or red velvet, and the art on the ceilings was unreal. i need art on my ceilings. and a canopy bed. stat.

[the one of williamson taking a picture of brynn planking kills me everytime. i can just hear him trying to figure out her camera..."okay, let's see....did it work?"]

then, we started to head back to where we were staying that night [with some members in bro. williamson's ward], but it took a whole four or five hours because of traffic. one, of which, i slept [surprise surprise]. and another spent at the fabulous and german-originated burger king. i know. classy and trashy, right?  but williamson loves burger king and it was late, so we settled. it was probably the dirtiest and messiest burger king i've ever been to [out of the what, three?]. and most confusing. my and brynn spent the longest time trying to decide if we should share fries or not, and finally decided to, and she ordered her sandwich, and then i went up to order mine [with the fries to share], and mine was less than hers. so she asked him if he had given her the whole meal, and he said no. and then two seconds later, called out her order number and handing her a tray with a whole meal on it. i busted over laughing.

[we go to sit down, and literally, every table had trash allll over it. like piles and trays and everything. sooo gross, but such a funny memory.]

fun story: i really wanted salt and pepper for my fries. i was on a salt and pepper kick, and haaad to have it with my fries. burger king decided to be out of it, and as we were walking by the trashed tables, i saw some leftover salt and pepper packets on the left-over trays. well, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. you bet i fished those babies out and used them. and i'm proud of it.

once we get around the city we were staying in, we decided to hit up a grocery store to buy some candy to send home [williamson said he could ship things for us for real cheap]. ummm, this might have been the most embarrassing grocery store trip of my life. me and brynn pounced on that candy/cookies/everything. i think i bought at least 40 euros worth of stuff. please don't do the euro to dollar conversion for that. but hello, when is the next time i'm gonna be in germany! thank you very much.

[those bottled sausages are sooo wrong. and that cookie was sadly disappointing. and that cart was the heaviest thing eva.]

and then, we were dropped off at our very nice german host family's house. coolest house ever. i don't know what it was, but everything seemed kind of futuristic. okay, not really. but they had those shades that go over the windows electronically and the windows like popped out and tilted toward you when you opened them. and they had a towel warmer in their bathroom. and everything was super clean and shiny and silver. i'm sorry, 2066? yeah, i thought so too. maybe it's just because i was used to living in the pig pen of madame percin? probably. i still loved it though.

[my shmany suite. that's german for "my fancy room". not really.]