Thursday, June 17, 2010

Dachau Concentration Camp

On Wednesday on our way home from our little trip in Southern Germany we stopped at the Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich.

It was pouring down rain the whole time we were there.
It is hard to find words to describe this experience. It's hard to imagine what those people went through. It's really just a sad sad part of history.
It was really weird touching the walls and doorknobs, walking across the floor and camp itself knowing that thousands of people were tortured here and died a horrible death.


This is on the gate when you first walk in the camp, it says "Work will set you free" which was a lie.
 
This is a sink room where the special prisoners were allowed to wash up. A lot of special prisoners were at this camp. Specail prisoners were mostly priests from all denominations and they were given a little better treatment.

These are the bunk beds where 2-3 people would be in each bed. These aren't the actual beds. They had to burn all the baracks and furniture in them because of all the disease.

This is the creamatory. The sign said they would burn 2-3 dead bodies in these at a time.

This was a piece of artwork in the museum.

This is the gas chamber. For unknown reasons the gas chamber was never used at this concentration camp. At other concentration camps with similar gas rooms, they would heard the prisoners in these rooms telling them they were shower rooms.



Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Southern Germany

I wish I could have blogged while I was on my little trip to Southern Germany but the internet was 10$ a day.

Monday afternoon we left for Garmish Germany. . It is a little town on the Germany Austria border. Our GPS died so I had to be the map reader for Halli. The drive over there was so pretty. We stayed in a cute little military hotel with an awesome view of the alps from our balcony.

That night we went to a cute little resturant called Bollywood. It was my first time eating Indian food, it was pretty good! This is also where I learned to say Thank you in German! Danka (I think thats how its spelled).

Tuesday we woke up bright and early, ate a big breakfast and headed towards the castles. We went to 3 out of the 4 castles that belonged to King Ludwig II. The first castle we went to was Hohenschwangau. This castle was smaller and more of a private get away.









The second castle we went to is Neuschwanstein. Cinderella's story was based off this castle. The king never actually lived in it and it was never completed. It was a huge castle. It was quite a long hike to the top. We paid 3 Euro's to take a horse carriage ride down the hill.


The third castle was Linderhof and it was my favorite. The king lived in this castle for 8 years. It was built to mimic versaille castle in Paris. The castle itself was small but very decorated. Everything inside was covered in gold or very fancy. It was all so beautiful inside. It's hard to image they built that kind of stuff so long ago. There were beautiful gardens all around the palace. There was also tons of fields full of wild flowers. King Ludwig II was a very extravogant man. He built his own cave where he hired opera singers and orchestras to play for him while he rowed around in his little boat on the lake in the cave. There were other cute buildings surrounding the palace... I'm not exactly sure what they were fore though. We didn't get to take any pictures inside the castles, but I took plenty outside.

All the furniture inside these castles was extremely old looking but very intricate looking. I can't even image living in places like this. King Ludwig II died a very mysterious death and he spent way to much money building these castles. After his death, it took his family 40 years to pay off his debt.
The castles all have a swan theme. We actually got to see some swans too at the lake near Linderhof!

The river water along the alps is so crystal clear. The water is really cold too!

The internet is not very good here and I can't get the pictures to allign properly or edit pictures. Kinda annoying.

Today we headed back towards Munich and went to the Dachau concentration camp. I'll post about that tomorrow.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

It's been a long couple days...

We made it! All of our flights were on time and went smoothly. The last part of the trip was super long. Almost 8 hours on the plane. We found ways to entertain ourselves though :)
This picture was taken right before we left.

So far we've been up for about 2 days now. We are all exhausted, but we made it safe and sound to Taylor's sisters (Halli) house in Germany.
We had trouble with the rental car we were suppose to pick up in Prague so instead of taking two cars back... we all crammed into Halli and Cameron's (Halli's husband) car. With all of our luggage. We got two of our bags to fit in the trunk but the last one was unsuccessful. I attempted to shove it in there... only to smack my head on the open truck. I now have a big bump on my forehead.

We ended up putting the suitcase in the back seat. Not to comfortable, but it worked!

So far everything looks like Oregon except for the buildings are a lot more colorful and some of the cities are ancient looking. We got to drive on the autobahn, we were going pretty fast. The toilets here are really weird... they remind me of RV toilets. The bathrooms weren't very clean. Oh an apparently Europeans don't wear deoderant. At least not the ones in the Czech Republic.

We have all showered and ate. Now its time for some naps!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Airport travels

We left at 11pm, got to the airport at 3:30.
This airport is huge! It took us almost 30 minutes to get to our gate.
Train rides and super long escalators.
Now we have a two hour wait. Next stop... A layover in New York.

Friday, June 11, 2010

The start of EUROTRIP!

Bags are packed. Tickets are printed out. We are ready to embark on a journey of a life time! An adventure to Europe!

Our Itinerary...
Leave Seattle airport 6:45 am
Arrive in Prague airport 7:45 am


Monday-Dachau Concentration Camp in Munich

Tuesday -Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau (King Ludwig's castles aka Cinderella's castle)

Wednesday we might be going to the highest point in Germany where we can see all the way into Austria and Italy. We are also stopping at Regensburg to see St. Peter's Cathedral, walk along the Danube, and eat in one of the oldest sausage places in Germany!

Thursday- Travel to Pottenstein and tour around

Friday- wake up super early and drive to Paris!

Saturday- Versailles. All day!

Sunday-Louvre

Monday- Notre Dame, Champs-Elysees, Shakespeare and Co., catacombs and whatever else we want to see on our last day in Paris.

Tuesday-Tour Prague

Wednesday- Leave Prague airport at 11 am.

Arrive home 10:30 pm in Seattle.

I'll try and post as much as possible!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Black & White Wednesday

Last weekend, I got to go home for my sisters graduation. I am so proud of her and excited that I get to spend my last year in college with her because she is coming to the same school I go to!

My sister is very photogenic and we had a few photo shoots last weekend :)

My sister wears a lot of eye make up, but it works for her :)
She also has very beautiful green eyes.

Here is one of my favorite pictures....





Which one do you like better? Color or black & white? I can't decide :)

To see more black & white photos go to....
the long road

Monday, June 7, 2010

Commencement

Yesterday was the day. The day my little sister graduated from High School. I'm so proud of her. She is the senior class president and had to give a speech. It was an awesome speech. She is an awesome sister :)

Today me me miss high school. I went to that school for 12 years. My sister went there for 13. My dad went there for 10. That equals 35 years. A long time.

Next year I'll be graduating for the last time. Then I'm going to have to grow up...

This weekend, I took a total of 463 photos. That is a lot of photos!
I'll just share a few of my favorites :)

 The Senior Class of 2010
 
The class praying together before graduation
 
Receiving her diploma!
Taylor, my "the other sister" 

I want to say thank you to everyone who came and celebrated this accomplishment with my sister!
And for those who couldn't come, thank you for the cards and support! 

Ashley... You are not at the bottom of the totem pole again. You are once again a freshman!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Baccalaureate

bac·ca·lau·re·ate 
"a religious service held at an educational institution, usually on the Sunday before commencement day." 
 
This is such a weird word. 
 
Anyways, today was the graduation church service. Lots of pictures of taken. I heard some great speeches. Saw the beginning of some tears that are just gonna over flow tomorrow... 
 
Lots of picture....  
showin' off whats under the robe!
 

Parent tribute. The teary part of the program. My sister wrote "Mom and Dad, There are no words to explain how much I love you guys, and how thankful I am for everything you've done for me, even though I might not seem so thankful at times. You took me to all those piano and sports practices, you were at every basketball and volleyball game, and every swim meet. Thank you for being so supportive in everything, even my small obsessions, like the Blazers. I know you guys will always be there for me no matter what, and I'll always be able to count on you. You're the best parents anyone could ask for and I will miss you so much next year. I love you!"  


Pictures of the senior prank....Taylor Ashley and Macall conquered the log!
Even my dad signed the log haha
 
After the program today, my sister had her graduation party at the house. Friends and family came over for potluck and desert. My sister opened presents. Lots of stuff for her dorm room next year :) I think my dad is already dreading packing up all her stuff. Eventually she'll learn and just like me take less and less stuff to school every year. 
 
 Tonight they had a family night where the teachers all did tributes to each student and played games. It was quite hilarious. 
 
Tomorrow is gonna be a long day. My little sister is graduating! Ahhh 

Friday, June 4, 2010

The beginning of graduation weekend

My little sister Ashley graduates on Sunday. I'm at the airport right now, waiting to fly home.
It is going to be a busy weekend. And a busy week.
I fly back to school Monday morning, take my nutrition final Monday night.
Tuesday I pack and clean.
Wednesday I take my supply chain management final.
Thursday I take my marketing final and then drive home right after that is done.
Friday I pack for Europe and leave Friday night to drive to Seatlle.
Ashley, Taylor, and I fly out of seattle airport early Saturday morning. Holla!

Last night my sisters senior class pulled an awesome prank (with the help of my dad of course).
This is a picture I stole from my sister. This is half of the prank. This half of the prank weights 15000 pounds.
I'll take more pictures of it later this weekend. Hopefully I can find a connection cord for my camera because I forgot mine at school :(


More on the festivities later!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Giants Game Round Two!

Last night a few friends and I went to the Giants Game in San Francisco.

We had tickets for the Lexus Dugout Club.... we had two seats in the very first row and four seats in the forth row. We took turns sitting in the front row. Allie and I were sitting in the front row for the best part of the game, as they came sliding across home plate!



Everyone from school kept calling us because they could see us on TV!

It was awesome being that close.

The game was awesome too!
The score: Giants 4, Rockies 1.
Great way to end a stressful day and a great year.