German Wedding! Deutsche Hochzeit!

MAN! The semester hits and I just get swamped! But more travels are happening so I desperately need to finish reporting about this trip!

I took the train to Sweden and landed in Fallersleben (near to Wolfsburg) around midnight. My dear friend, Fiona (originally from Australia who I befriended in Germany), was getting married the next day!! Early Saturday morning, I met two friends from Mannheim, Rosa, from Italy, and Miriam, from Germany/Canada at the train station. We hadn't been together in a full 2.5 years (or more for some of us!) and there was a lot of waving and yelling and hugging.

Miriam, Rosa, me, outside the church!

The wedding was, without a doubt, the best one I have ever been to (no offense to anyone reading whose wedding I have previously attended...). It started at 1pm. No photos were allowed during the ceremony, but here's the church: 

It was classy and simple. Although the ceremony was mostly in German, parts of it were also in English (for Fiona's family from Australia who mostly does not speak German). For example, they did their vows first in German and then in English. After the formal ceremony, they let off a basket of doves (has anyone heard of this tradition before? A bunch of white doves being released outside? I hadn't). We went to a park for some photos and then back to the hotel/reception for finger foods and mingling. Starting around 5, the guests were seated and the speeches started! Timo (the groom) gave a long speech about their history, and thanked everyone (by country) for coming. They had guests from Germany, Australia, France, USA, Italy, Canada, England and Ireland. Talk about an international wedding! Fiona's father gave a long speech telling stories about Timo and offering advice. Then we started eating and man did we eat. There were many courses and 2 hours of food that included traditional Saxony soup, salad, warm buffet (casseroles, meats, and the like), cold buffet (lots of fish and caprese salad), and a dessert buffet. Europeans really enjoy these long drawn out meals. And I certainly did too!

Later in the evening the dancing started and every hour or two was a game - either for Fiona and Timo or for the guests to play. One of the games (shown below), had Fiona and Timo sitting with their backs to each other, with one of their own shoes and one of their partners shoes. They had to answer questions by holding up the correct shoe. The questions were things like: Who is the better cook? Who is the better story teller? Who made the first move?

The answer to "Who made the first move?" They were both quite convinced that they were correct (Timo is holding up Fiona's shoe and Fiona is holding up Timo's shoe)

There were many more games, much more dancing. and then... Wedding cake AND A CAKE BUFFET. To remind you: we already had a dessert buffet 3 hours ago! WOW! 

The dancing, eating drinking, celebrating all continued past my bedtime at 4am. In total, the celebration lasted almost 16 hours. Respect. 

Miriam, Fiona, Rosa. 

We were all so happy to be back together if for only one night.

Tune in next time for the last installation of the trip to Germany.

2. Malmö and Southern Sweden

After spending 2 delightful, if not somewhat jetlagged days in Stockholm with Corinne, we took the train down to the southern coast of Sweden to stay with her boyfriend's family in Trelleborg (https://maps.google.com/ - look it up). Carl picked us up in Malmö and we drove to his favorite beach. We spent all afternoon on the beach (not your stereotypical Swedish activity, but turns out it is) and then headed to his parents house for a delicious dinner of homemade mushroom risotto and a wine tasting.

(beach by Carl's parent's house)

The next morning, Corinne and I borrowed bikes from his parents and she gave me the Trelleborg tour. It was/is a fishing town, the houses are small, but their yards are extremely looooooong so that they could spread the fishing nets out at the end of the day.

(adorable tiny houses)

(really looooong and thin yard)

I really wish that I was able to spend more time in Sweden and with Corinne, but alas, the time had come for me to depart to Germany for my good friend Fiona's wedding!! 

Bye Corinne!!

1. Schwedentigioruirsok

My most recent adventure took me to my favorite side of the pond (Sorry, USA), for 12 blissful days of travel. I am going to have to write this trip in installments because there were so many different aspects that deserve attention. 

The title of this post accurately describes the Swedish language. I mean absolutely no disrespect or jest in saying that, rather the complete opposite. I spent 4 days in Sweden and still have not a clue as to how to even pronounce the simplest words. It was strangely more related to German than I anticipated... and sounded a lot more like French as well... Kudos to anyone (Corinne) who is trying to learn it!

Stockholm, Sweden: July 24 and 25

Stockholm was added to the Euro-Trip for one main reason: Corinne, my best friend from college. She is doing her Master's work at the Karolinska Institute (see below)

You may have heard of the Karolinska Institute because this is where the committee meets to decide the Nobel Prize in Medicine!

(me with Alfred Nobel, outside the Nobel Forum)

In any case, the first day, I spent walking around Stockholm in a jet-lagged daze. The city is beautiful, though, lots of amazing architecture, on the water, tall, blond people speaking this insane language. The church pictured below was one of my favorites, although you couldn't go inside. It was founded as an abbey in the 13th century and has been the burial place for Swedish kings for at least 4 centuries. It is located on an island (well, really all Stockholm is a collection of islands) called the "Island of the Knights." 

We also just happened to walk up to see the changing of the guards - completely by chance. Perfect timing!! It was not horrendously exciting, some guys in royal blue dancing around with really big guns. 

On the second day in Stockholm, we went to visit one of the archipelagos. There are three layers of archipelagos (the islands in the Baltic Sea surrounding Stockholm), inner, middle, and outer. The outer archipelagos require ferries to see them. We took a bus to one of the inner ones and visited the town of Vaxholm. The weather was perfect and the town was really quaint and cozy. 

On my next trip to Sweden, I would like to buy a boat pass, which allows you access to all the ferries in the archipelago for 5 days. You can turn it into a tour, camping and archipelago hopping.

Two days was not enough in Stockholm for future reference. I would like to go back there.

Coming up next: Installment 2 - Trelleborg and the Southern Coast of Sweden. 

Costa Rica 2012

Well, well, well. After my last experience blogging, as a somewhat naive 18 year old, I've decided to try again with all arrows pointing towards success this time. Obviously the purpose is to document my travels, something that I pride myself on prioritizing.

Friday, I got back from a trip to Costa Rica with the Vemich-Strong immediate family - our first exclusive family vacation in oh, probably 13 years or so. It had its ups and downs, but I'm proud to say that we all tolerated each other's crazies better than I anticipated.

Day 1 (Friday, March 9): I arrive in San Jose from Louisville, expecting my family to be waiting outside the airport with open arms (they were supposed to land 2 hours before me, get the rental car, etc etc). I walk outside the airport, scanning the crowd and find a lot of Ticos, many asking me if I want a taxi and NO FAMILY. I don't panic. They're probably driving around somewhere. An hour later I start to get a bit antsy, especially when people start asking me if I want to use their cell phone and I realize we have NO alternative plan other than "meet at the airport." Forget that none of our cells work, none of us speak Spanish fluently and my heart rate starts to pick up a bit... Luckily just then my father walks out looking around. Reunited, it takes us another 2.5 hours to get the car and get to our hotel for the first night. We're staying at a hotel in Alajuela - a suburb of San Jose. Dinner is obviously first on the list since they haven't eaten all day! Below is a photo of the grounds of our hotel. Pool off to the right, our little house off to the left, fresh breakfast straight ahead!

Day 2 (Saturday, March 10): Up early, go for a walk, eat breakfast, lounge by the pool a bit and back on the road for our 4 hour drive out to Samara - on the Pacific coast. When we finally arrive, we are informed that there has been a mix-up with the condo we (my parents) rented and while we have it reserved, the people currently IN the condo believe they have it for another night. After soaking in the view from below (off what is to be "our" balcony), we go off to find a hotel and explore the town a bit.

Day 3 (Sunday, March 11): No one slept well last night because the hotel we stayed at last minute was a little sketch. We did get a wonderful breakfast included though - delicious Costa Rican coffee and gallo pinto. Gallo pinto is the traditional breakfast of black beans, rice, and eggs, but the spices vary depending on the region. We head to the beach while the condo is cleaned and then we can move in! Today is spent unpacking, buying groceries, relaxing by the pool/on the beach. Really feels like we're on vacation now! 

Day 4 (Monday, March 12): Another day spent relaxing. Waking up early, hearing the howler monkeys was exciting! We make appointments for surf lessons and rent some snorkeling gear to go look at the reef. We saw some awesome bright blue and yellow fish and Mom and I saw these weird white fish with black in the middle. 2 hours later and starving, we eat lunch at an amazing vegetarian restaurant, the owner, Sabine is very personable and brings out hot peppers fresh from her garden to talk to us about her recipes. She also employs an ex-pat, a young man who moved to Costa Rica over a year ago from Connecticut and has no plans to return to the U.S. I could relate :) We went down to the beach for the sunset and to drink pina coladas. Yup, vacation! 

Day 5 (Tuesday, March 13): Did some yoga in the morning (we're talking 6:30am). The sunrise is so early (before 6am) so it is mid-morning bright by 7:30 or 8am. We had lunch at Lo Que Hay - known for their tacos! the vegetarian ones weren't anything to scream about but the salsa was pretty good and they did have the Taco Tuesday special that Matt and Dad both got - a chorizo taco and a beer for 3$. Highlight of the trip for myself was the surf lesson in the afternoon. Matt, Dad and myself all took part, and Mom attempted to document our lessons on my camera. She got some good shots, and was even narrating videos but alas! wasn't working the camera correctly.... haha. Had to relax by the pool after that exhausting lesson!

Day 6 (Wednesday, March 14): Forgot my camera today, which I am so disappointed about!! We took a trip to Guiatil, right outside Santa Cruz, about 1.5 hour drive from Samara. In this village, they are continuing an 800 year old ceramic pottery tradition. They get the clay from another village about 2 km away, mix the clay with "iguana sand" (sand where iguanas lay their eggs). We watch one of the men make a vase, and cruise around the shops looking for wine glasses (unsuccessfully). There is also a soccer game going on in the center field of town. Santa Cruz v. Santa Barbara. All the students are out watching it - they get off of class to watch soccer! That's my kind of country. We end up buying a couple bowls, a vase for Grandma, an armadillo, a small pitcher (cream sized), and 2 mugs. Lunch in Santa Cruz and then we buy some delicious bread from the panaderia on the corner. We head back to Samara to practice some more surfing! (The videos all worked this time)

Day 7 (Thursday, March 15): It really is the Ides of March as we had our "kayak trip from hell" today! We head down to the beach early and have a cup of coffee, meet some friendly dogs, and a German! Then over to where we rent ocean kayaks to kayak out to the island. It is supposed to be a "3 hour tour" to an "uncharted desert island" (if a song didn't just start playing in your head, I don't know what to tell you). In any case, our guide doesn't speak much English and so was not speaking much at all (in English OR Spanish, which we could have worked with!) Getting to the island is rough because the waves are coming from both directions. Matt loses his sunglasses :( and Mom and Dad almost flipped their kayak, but it turns out ok. We explore the island a bit, Matt's mood returns to normal, we watch an iguana eat some melon, watch all the little crabs scuttling all over the beach. Some of us try to go snorkeling, but again, the guide is not so great in giving directions in any language so Dad ends up being the only one out there. The waves are a bit intense so I don't even try. After some swimming and eating fresh fruit (delicious pineapple!) we decide to head back to mainland. Guide pushes us into the water and we paddle back... when getting to the beach he tells us that when waves come, put our paddles up in the air over our heads and lean back. Mom and Dad tip their kayak over, Mom goes under the kayak, hits her head and loses her sunglasses. We hightail it out of there.

We eat lunch at the vegetarian restaurant again with Sabine and then Mom, Matt and I run to Playa Carrillo with Dad following us in the car. Carrillo is the beach that is about 4km down the road. It is almost completely deserted when we get there and wonderful.

Day 8 (Friday March 16): We have to leave early to catch my flight out of San Jose to Louisville at 2:30pm so we get up at the usual 5:30 or 6am, pack up and head out! Drive back is pretty relaxing, though we are all sunburnt (Matt and Dad the worst). I am dropped off at the airport and the other three head off for a day in San Jose. I still haven't heard how this was, but I'm sure it was more fun than the kayak trip.