MUNICH/SALZBURG

Hallo!

We spent last weekend in Munich, Germany (heading back to our roots) and Salzburg, Austria. There is no way to accurately describe our experiences with words, but here is our best try!

Friday morning began early as we hurried off to the airport to catch our 7:00 flight to Munich. On the plane, we each had our own row, so we all got a nice two hour nap! Upon arrival we hurried to our hotel/hostel in order to make our noon tour of the Olympic Stadium. After wrong directions from a bakery worker, waiting on our room at the hotel and running a nice half mile to the Olympic Stadium, we were already 10 minutes late and couldn't find the meeting point. Because we were so late, we decided to postpone our tour to Sunday and headed to Dachau Concentration Camp. On the way, we made a pit stop at the BMW Welt (get it?). We got to see a Rolls Royce and some of the newest BMW designs. Then, we hopped on the subway and went to Dachau. This is our first example of being at a loss for words. The three of us have always been intrigued with the Holocaust, which made for a very meaningful experience. We walked through the gates into the open area where they used to have roll call. Surrounded by the barbed-wire fences and Nazi look-out towers, we couldn't help but imagine what occurred inside these gates not so many years ago. With our audio tour, we made our way through the barracks and eventually ended up at the crematorium. This is where the 'showers' were. As we stepped into the gas chamber where thousands of people had been tricked into thinking they were going to take a shower, there was an eerie feeling that we honestly cannot describe. Walking out of the camp, our hearts were heavy, but we left with the comfort that this tragedy has come to an end.

After experiencing Dachau, we needed a more lively environment, so we headed to Hofbräuhaus for a local dinner. Hofbräuhaus is the home of Oktoberfest and the most famous beer hall in the world. Not knowing what to expect, our jaws dropped when we walked through the door. The restaurant was massive and almost everyone had a liter of beer sitting in front of them. We all ordered sausage and pretzels and tried some of the famous Hofbräuhaus beer. The atmosphere was a blast and was a great cultural welcome to Germany (see video). To no one's surprise, we headed a couple of streets over and found the shopping area of Munich after dinner…oops! (sorry dad)

Saturday morning, we got up early again and caught a train to Salzburg. When we arrived, the snow was heavily falling, and we were thankful to have on two pairs of pants, gloves, ski coats, hats and snow boots. Our first adventure was to Untersberg Mountain where we got on a cable car and went all the way to the top of the Alps. While this ride was a little scary, the views were worth it! At the top, however, the view didn't really exist. We had fun playing in the snow though. This is example number two of not being able to put our experience into words (but see video anyway). After descending the mountain, we wandered down Getreidegasse street and found lunch. This street is part of old town Salzburg and is famous for all of the iron signs hanging above the stores. After lunch, we met for our Sound of Music Tour. We were taken to the different sites of Salzburg used in the Sound of Music (the two different houses, the gazebo, the abbey and the garden). The second half of the tour was spent winding through the Alps outside of Salzburg and singing along to the Sound of Music soundtrack. These sights included many lakes, and we saw where various scenes from the movie were shot (Do, Re, Mi and The Hills Are Alive). At the end of the tour, we got to try Salzburg's famous apple strudel. Following our tour, we boarded the train back to Munich. Exhausted and delirious, Brynne and Meagan decided to attempt the German language…..enjoy that video.

 

Sunday, we got to sleep in a little before heading to the Olympic Tower. Being the tallest structure in Munich, the views were incredible and enabled us to see how beautiful and unique the city is. Our next stop was the Olympic Stadium where our apparently psycho tour guide didn't show. Thank goodness a college student studying in Munich was also doing the tour and could help translate the situation. Grumpy front desk lady wasn't going to let us in, but with a combined effort, we convinced her to let a Red Cross worker show us around. The stadium is very unique, and we felt like little kids as we ran onto the field where the opening ceremonies and other events were held for the 1972 Summer Olympics.

On our way to lunch, we got to see the famous old town hall and Glockenspiel. Then, we ran into the best restaurant for lunch (see video). Our final stop in Munich was the English Gardens where we all promised we would be returning. From the people surfing at the edge of the gardens, to the lock bridge over the river, to the gazebo on the hill, the park seemed like a fairytale. As we left the English Gardens, we saw our first peek of the sun as it set over the city. Then, we hopped on the subway and headed for the airport.

As we leave, we want to give you a clip of our Barcelona life. We finally found a store that carries Dr Pepper, Jif Peanut Butter and Goldfish. Clearly we need a break from all this spanish food.. (see video!)

Here's the link to the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyPq1_yxj_0&feature=youtu.be 


We love you!
Brynne, Katie and Meagan

LONDON

Hello, Hi & Hey! (we actually got to say these to the locals this weekend!)

If you don't already know, we spent this past weekend in London! It was a whirlwind but a blast, so here we go!

It all started Thursday night by learning how to pack for a weekend in our NorthFace backpacks and setting our alarms for 3:00 a.m. We woke up, made eggs (Katie knows chickens have feathers not fur…watch video), got a taxi in Spanish and took off at 6:40 for London. Once we arrived, we headed straight for Leicester Square to buy our half price tickets and found Platform 9 3/4 at a train station on the way. Harry Potter lover, Brynne, was nothing shy of ecstatic.
At Leicester Square, we were so excited to find out they had Wicked tickets available for that night!! Then, we had a yummy lunch at Shake Shack in Covent Garden Market and went to our hostel. We quickly dumped our backpacks and ventured to High Street Kensington, Oxford Street and Harrod's (yes…we did spend our first afternoon shopping). After seeing the ridiculous prices at Harrod's, we decide it was time for some food. We went to the most adorable place (BB Bakery) and had cappuccinos, macaroons, and warm croissants! Then……WE WENT TO WICKED!!! This was our favorite experience of the trip! Being in the heart of theater, hearing British accents and singing along to some of our most loved songs made it a chart topper by far! We're still singing the songs as we write this blog. Our first hostel experience was Friday night. It was the typical white London brownstone home. We had a triple stacked bunk bed, and it was very clean!

Saturday morning, we woke up ready for the London Eye. However, we had to make our first Starbucks stop of the semester, and we weren't complaining. The London Eye was an incredible view of the city to start our tourist filled day! After that, we walked down the south bank of the River Thames and got to see the Medieval parts of the city on our way to Borough Market.
Here, we had our favorite meal of the trip: chicken and vegetable kabobs, tomato and basil focaccia bread, fudge and mulled apple cider. The atmosphere was fun and local, and the people were extremely friendly! From the market, we went to the London Bridge and found out Meagan is obsessed. We spent the rest of the day on the top of a double decker bus learning the history of the city through a hop-on-hop-off tour. For dinner, we went to The Silver Cross pub for an English meal which consisted of fish and chips and pimm's. Then, we went on a river cruise and got to experience the beautiful sights of London at night. We stopped at a coffee shop on our way back to the hostel and headed back exhausted and ready for a good night of sleep.

Sunday morning, we experienced our one and only London disappointment….The Parent Trap house. It was the only house on the entire street run down and under construction of course. So, we took our single picture for proof and walked right back to the tube station. Our English breakfast at Wetherspoon helped lift our spirits before we attended church at Westminster Abbey. We spent half the time there dreaming about William and Kate's wedding and the other half in awe of the boys' voices in the choir.

We basically ran from church to Buckingham Palace so we could see the changing of the guards. Little did we know…every tourist in London would be there for the experience. Not to mention, half the population of Asia. This was a neat spectacle, but we quickly decided to escape the crowd and go to the Orangery at Kensington Palace for afternoon tea. This was the most delicious tea we had ever tasted, but what we ordered didn't go over so well with the staff….
aka they tried to deliver our kids meals to the only table in the restaurant that had kids (not ours). Oh well…the food was yummy, we gave them a good laugh, and we got to view the beautiful gardens of Kensington Palace. From here, we ran to Buckingham Palace to get our picture without the tourists and say goodbye to the queen. Ironically enough, we asked a group of girls to take our picture and ended up finding out they were Thetas from Boston University. So naturally, we took one big kiting pic for the road and booked it to the airport, literally.

We made it through security 25 minutes before the gate closed for our flight. But no worries, we made it just in time! On the flight back we were exhausted and reached delirium 10 minutes in (see video for proof). We finally landed in Barcelona only to be welcomed back by a single worker at customs for our entire flight (again…see video for proof).

In conclusion, we conquered London. 8 hours of travel, 54 hours in London, 11 hours of sleep, roughly 20 hours of walking and more sights than our eyes could count. This was the weekend trip of a lifetime!

Missing the English already but ready to continue learning Spanish!

Here's the video link!!  http://youtu.be/IQH5Y3G7hCg

Sending our love from Spain,
Brynne, Katie and Meagan

FIRST WEEK IN BARCELONA

Well, that's a wrap on our first week in Barcelona!

Picking up where we left off, we've realized this week that Barcelona is full of more adventure than we ever could have imagined. Sunday morning (well…afternoon) we woke up ready to be tourists for the day. Katie even had her camera around her neck. We started off at La Rambla, which is the ultimate tourist street in Barcelona. Since it was Sunday, the market was closed, and there were not as many tourists as we expected. In other words, we stood out like sore thumbs. Slightly disappointed, we realized that we were extremely hungry. La Rambla offered Burger King, McDonald's, KFC, Subway and Dunkin Donuts, but we wanted to stick to cultural food this time. This led us to our favorite restaurant so far: The Organic Market. From natural juices to healthy salads to traditional tapas (snacks), we fell in love with the atmosphere and delicious food immediately.

After lunch, we hopped on the Metro and set off to Park Guell. We walked up quite the hill to reach this well-known park that overlooks the city of Barcelona. This park is home to some of Gaudi's (popular Barcelona architect/artist) most famous works of art and his home of 20 years. Not to mention, one of the most beautiful views of Barcelona you can find. After observing and taking our many pictures, we left the ticketed area of the park in search of more things to explore. About 20 minutes later, we realized the area we really wanted to see was inside the ticketed area (it was so confusing). So naturally, Brynne walked up to a worker and played the dumb blonde American asking if we could get back in…….it worked! We observed many asians taking pictures while sporting the peace sign and tried to document them, but we were too slow. Needless to say, Park Guell is a Barcelona must and gave us a great view of our new home!

When we got back to our apartment, we finally got our school schedules (yes, this was 12 hours before the first day of class……welcome to Spain). For those of you that know the three of us, scheduling last minute is NOT the way to our hearts. We had a couple issues that had to be fixed on Monday, so we woke up early and headed to our organization's main campus. The changes that needed to be made were not as easy as we thought. We headed to McDonald's to use their free wifi to contact OU.

Taking a break, we went to the market on La Rambla that we missed on Sunday. Brynne finally got her mixed mushrooms and we got our fill of fresh fruit! After hours and hours and emails and emails, we had finally done everything we could to fix our schedules and just had to wait to see what happened. Exhausted and ready to be home, we walked out of the campus to find it raining. We had no umbrellas. On the miserable walk back, we found our new coffee shop obsession...home of Suizo (the greatest hot chocolate known to man). We went inside, got on twitter and saw the Jesus Calling we had all read that morning. As we read it, we all began laughing at how cool Jesus is. He knew how to put our worrying minds to ease.

Between Tuesday, Wednesday and today, we've started to get in the groove of things. We conquered the ATM eating Katie's debit card (don't worry, she got it back) and the lack of lined paper in the office supply store (see video for proof). We're learning the streets (even Meagan!), and it's starting to feel like home. We're enjoying our apartment, and we finally found a way to watch The Bachelor! YAY!!

Here's the video!! http://youtu.be/buJOy5XRSig

We're looking forward to this weekend, and we can't wait to share more adventures with you!

Lots of love from Spain!
Brynne, Katie, and Meagan

WE MADE IT!

Hola!

Where to begin…well, on Monday afternoon, we discovered our Tuesday afternoon flight to Chicago was cancelled. After desperately booking a 7:35 am flight for Tuesday morning, we all began frantically packing and finished just in time to get a new phone call that our new flight to Chicago was also cancelled. YAY!! The following two hours were spent on the phone with British Airways (thanks moms) to find out the next available flight to Barcelona was on Thursday FROM DALLAS at 6 pm. Fortunately, Katie's mom was already headed to Texas that day. Even though the excitement was put on hold, we were thankful for two more days with our families and friends! Praise the Lord for His perfect timing!

Thursday morning, we all said our tearful goodbyes and somehow managed to fit all six suitcases (50 pounds each of course) into Katie's mom's car. Once in the airport, we met Ramon. YAY AGAIN! He was the suitcase nazi who allowed no more than 50 pounds-on the dot-in each suitcase. Katie was the girl standing in the airport stuffing her carry on with the extra five pounds. Then we met security… Brynne got her peanut butter confiscated (she's still bitter), and Meagan got her miralax tested (they thought it was cocaine). However, we made it on our flight and met up with our great friend, Michelle, on the way!



Our 9 1/2 hour flight did not provide the entertainment we expected (aka no tv's on the back of the seats and no wifi). Katie slept basically the entire flight. The guy next to Meagan slept with a blanket over his head the whole time and spoke no english. Brynne listened to some girl's life story and made friends with the guy next to her by doing a crossword puzzle. Our flight landed two hours late, so we had 55 minutes until our flight took off in Madrid. Fortunately, we're the current reigning speed-walking champs of Oklahoma, so we made it across the entire airport, through customs AND security, and sped walked right on the plane. However, the second we sat down in the last row of the plane (remember we booked this flight two days before), we all passed out before take off.

Friday afternoon (Spain time), we arrived in Barcelona at last! Our suitcases were the first off the carousel, and our ride was waiting for us right outside the baggage claim. We are so thankful for the Lord's guidance in every step of this journey. There were unexpected situations that only He could handle so perfectly! Also, thank you for all the prayers for safe travels!!

Our program director got us all settled into our apartment, and don't worry, we immediately got to work making it feel like home and started unpacking. Then, we rode the Metro (for the first time) to the program's welcoming event. After a long 21 hours of travel and not much food, we weren't exactly in the mood to try Spain's authentic cuisine, but we did…which led us to Burger King.

We returned to our apartment with more excitement for a shower than ever in our lives. Turns out, the water was 2 degrees, literally. Since our showering experience didn't live up to our expectations, we were even more excited to get a good night of sleep. After an episode of Gossip Girl, we all cozied up under our one single solitary sheet (notice the lack of reference to comforters, blankets, anything warm…because we chose to use our 50 pounds on what we thought was necessary…clothes). We went to sleep at 1, well really only Meagan. By 2:30, we were all awake because of the loud street and freezing cold air whipping through our one sheet. Our teeth were chattering, and hands were numb (the remote to our heater has now been found and all is well). We finally fell asleep around 5 and woke up ready to explore the city.

 Today, we discovered many new places in Barcelona. From the Sagrada Famalia to the super market around the corner (watch video for live footage) to the cute cafe we found for lunch, our day was full of adventure! Including the many stares we got as we left the super market with many bags in hand because we ignored the minor detail that the culture is to go to the super market for each day here. After lunch, we went exploring around the city and came upon Barcelona's version of 5th Avenue! We spent our afternoon finding new stores and restaurants that we hope to frequent!


We can already tell that we are going to love this city and that it will be the perfect home for the next four months! The people are so welcoming, and we're excited to see what the Lord has in store!

Love and miss you all already!
Brynne, Katie & Meagan


Copy and paste this link for live footage!! http://youtu.be/IEgvd2arwoY