Monaco doesn't mean Monaco in Italy...who knew!

My sissy and I always say..."You learn something new everyday!" Well here you go Ali, here is your random fact of the day. Italians refer to Munich as Monaco, which makes no sense whatsoever because Monaco, for those of you who do not know, is a tiny country below France, right near Italy! You might not see the problem...but let me explain. Florence's train station is pretty small...the platforms are all in one area and so all you have to do is check your train time and locate the platform in which you leave. We stopped to get doner kabaps, which are these amazing (non Italian) wraps...I always ask for chicken, but I am convinced they give me lamb instead. Oh well. Anyway we had about 20 minutes to get to the train station, which is about 15 minutes away, but we weren't too worried. Once we got to the train station we looked for Munich on the screen to see what platform our train left from. Wellllll, it wasn't on the screen. The only train leaving at the same time was going to MONACO...we weren't going to MONACO. Or so we thought. So at this point we start freaking out because our train is not listed on the screen, so we have no idea where to go, and no one seemed to be able to help us. After a quick panic we decided to look at the train number...which matched up to the train leaving for Monaco. So once we found the platform we realized our sleeper car was at the other end of the train...so with huge backpacks, big jackets, and doner kabaps in hand we RAN our little butts off hoping the train would not close its doors to leave. We made it to our tiny sleeper car and by this time we were sweating, sheesh!

We took an overnight sleeper car on the way there, so there were 6 beds in one tiny little room, which is not fun when you are clausterphobic. I slept about 3 hours because I would fall asleep and then wake up with the ceiling in my face, not a good feeling. So I would have to get out of bed so I didn't freak out and stand creepily between the two rows of beds. We got into Munich on Friday morning and were thrilled to see a Starbucks as we got off the train station! First starbucks we have been to since being in Italy, so it was a nice treat, given that Italy's coffee is TINY!

We stayed at a hostel called Wombat's, or Aussie as Kristen would call it. It was one of the coolest hostels we have stayed at so far. We went on a "free" walking tour of Munich...which basically means that you just have to tip them, but we had no problem with that because our tour guide, Ozzie, was awesome! He took us to a little shop that served AMAZING brotwurst sandwiches.

At the end of the tour, the girls and I went back to the Hofbrauhaus, which is one of the most famous beer hall in Munich. It was pretty cool, they had the long wooden tables, live German music, and all of the workers were wearing the German lederhosen (leather pants). We loved Munich, it was such a neat city, everyone was very nice, and we had lots of fun.

The next day we went to the Dachau Concentration Camp, which was a very moving experience. We stayed for a few hours and it really impacted all of our lives.  Dachau wasn't even an execution camp like the others, but it was still chilling to hear about everything that went on there and how poorly the people were treated. I'm really glad we took a trip there, it opened my eyes up to a lot of things.

That afternoon we took a train to a city called Palling, an hour and a half outside of Munich. I went to visit Maex, a German exchange intern, that lived with Carly's family for 6 months last year. He and his family invited us over to stay with them, it was the BEST experience of my trip so far. It was so neat staying with a German family, it was an amazing experience. They were so happy to have us over and his parents were adorable and so hospitable. They cooked us meals, gave us a room to ourselves, and showed us around their small city. We went out with Maex and his sister and met all of their friends and went to a club right outside of their city..we have so much fun!

Germany was definitely my favorite trip so far, and I think a lot of it was being able to stay with a German family. It was nice to experience such a different lifestyle. They were so kind and generous toward us and we had so much fun spending time with their family and friends. The city was tiny, about the same population as my high school, but it was snowing all weekend and it was beautiful. I really hope I have a chance to go stay with them again. They said we are welcome anytime...and they treated my friends as if they knew them forever.

Coming home was not so fun! We were in regular seats on the way home, which we were kind of looking forward to because the sleeper cars were so cramped. However, regardness of where you are sleeping, an 8 hour train ride is never fun when your train's heater is broken. It was freezing! It was about zero degrees celsius outside and we had no heat at all. It was miserable. I had on layers of clothing, my huge jacket, my sleeping bag caccoon, and a blanket and I was still freezing. We were in a car with a sweet, little Italian grandmother who was only concerned about tucking us in and keeping us warm, it was the nicest thing ever! She got off on a stop 2 hours before ours and left her peacoat with me, she insisted that I kept it. There is only so much you can say to a lady who only speaks Italian...I tried. I told mom it was her birthday present.

I'm sorry for being so bad at keeping up. Regardless of what you might think, MOM, I actually go to school :) I have been super busy and feel like I don't have much free time to just sit around and get some journaling done. I feel like I have a lot of stuff to do during the week for school, which makes sense, but at the same time I wish I had more time to explore Florence and document my trip. But there is nothing I can do. Be patient with me :) I will try my best. Love and miss you all. Thank you to everyone who participated in Purple Stride! You guys are amazing. It meant so much to all of us that you joined us to honor my daddy. Thank you for all of the support and donations.

Hugs and kisses.

xoxo
Ciao.