Castles, Kings, and Mountains

This past weekend I traveled to the land of castles, mountains, green fields, historical landmarks, and the best chocolate I have ever eaten. This place is also known as the country of Germany. It started Thursday morning when I woke up bright and early and traveled to the airport along with three other girls. When we arrived in Germany, we took a train straight down to the cutest little town called Garmish-Partenkirchen. When we stepped out of the train station is was as if we had stepped right into a fairy tale. The small town was surrounded by giant mountains and there were plush green fields full of cows and sheep that stretched on for miles. The buildings were all white with brown roofs and accents and had perfectly trimmed hedges and lawns. Once we found our hostel, we ventured out into the town to explore. We decided to travel to the base of the mountain to ride a tram up to the top to see the town from up high. The path to our destination ran along the base of the mountains and gave us a stunning view of the city. As we were walking I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to live there. It seemed like a place where nothing bad could ever happen. The people we passed were all so friendly and the town was so quiet and clean and beautiful. More places should have that atmosphere. In the city where I live in Iasi it is always so loud and busy and cars are honking and people are yelling. We all need to take time to step back and enjoy life and find the beauty that exists all around us. Many of us forget how important it is to "stop and smell the roses". Visiting this peaceful town helped me see the importance of doing just that.

The girls I traveled with!

After strolling along the beautiful path that led us to the tram, we arrived at 4:08. Turns out that the last tram up leaves at 4:00 so we missed it by 8 minutes. We were disappointed but the walk to get there was so beautiful that we weren't that upset to have missed it. That's another lesson I learned; your final destination may not be what you expect, but it is important to enjoy the journey you take to get there. There is often much more beauty found in the journey than the destination. We took a different path back that went straight through the city. At one point we came across a mother and her two sons spending the afternoon together. They were standing in a big field and the young boy was riding his tricycle along the path. The mother and her older son were standing in the field trying to fly a kite. She would throw it in the air and he would run as fast as he could to try and get it into the air. They also had a beautiful golden retriever digging in some mud nearby. As I watched this family, I thought about what I wanted my life to be like down the road. I don't think I could imagine a life more perfect than theirs. They all seemed so happy and were living in this tiny town and didn't seem to have a care in the world. After we all agreed that they were living the ultimate perfect life, we kept walking and arrived back to the hostel and called it a day.
The next day, we decided to go straight to the city of Fussen where the Neuschwanstein Castle is located. This was my favorite part of the entire trip. The castle was incredible and the views from the castle were breathtaking. This castle was built by King Ludwig II who was declared mentally insane and suspiciously murdered days later. He was obsessed with fairy tales and therefore, fairy tales were his inspiration for building his many castles. This castle later inspired Walt Disney and is the model he used for the castle in Sleeping Beauty and the Cinderella castle that is at Disneyland. We took a horse drawn carriage up to the top and toured the inside which was beautiful. After some hardcore Disney Castle fan-girling and taking a million pictures, we left the castle and headed back up to Munich where we would spend the remainder of our vacation.

We spent the entire next morning at Dachau, which was the first concentration camp built by the Nazi Party. I have always wanted to visit a concentration camp and I was so excited to be able to experience it. We took an audio guided tour and as soon as I stepped into the camp, a feeling I can't describe overcame me. I learned about what certain buildings and areas were used for and heard real accounts given by survivors. I can't imagine what that must have been like to be there during that time but they were incredibly brave. If any of you have a chance to visit one of these incredible sights I highly encourage you to do it. It puts life in a whole new perspective and leaves a clear message in your heart of what it means to make sacrifices for what you believe in.

This is part of the big memorial that is in the camp.

This is where the prisoners slept.

These bunks were meant to house 200 people but ended up housing 2,000 men inside.

The crematorium that held the gas chambers and furnaces.

We spent the next day and a half exploring Munich. We took a walking tour and our tour guide was awesome. He told us so many fun stories and interesting historical facts about the city. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to see very many of the places he told us about but that just means that I will have to return someday to experience it all for myself. I loved the city and the people there were all so friendly and welcoming. Germany now has a special place in my heart and I loved visiting and sharing their culture and love for life. Now I must return to my kids at the orphanage and share my love of life with them.