Thursday July 14, 2011

Okay everyone! This is my LAST POST..so brace yourself!! :P. Today in Elmshorn was really windy and cold..us americans thought it would be fine to wear flip flops..so we did! :P..we got really weird looks from all the germans though..oh well!! :D. Carina and I got our eyelashes died today! I burnt soo bad! But now they are pretty :). We went shopping for the last time in Germany..Kinda sad..but oh so worth it! Ligretto will now live in America! :) That's my favorite game that we have been playing! Tomorrow we will wake up early to leave the house by 6:15 am!..we will pack the car and get ready to go to AMERICA! We will arrive in NJ around noon and then part ways from the airport! It has been so much fun and I am so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends! Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers! It truly was the time of my life and I wouldn't have done anything different with my summer vacation! I made new friendships with Amy and Jamie and Carina will remain my over seas sister! <3 Please pray for our travels tomorrow and that everyone makes it to their friends and family safe and sound! Thank you for the posts and for reading all of my blogs..and RAMBLINGS about how great Germany is! I recommend everyone take a trip to Europe at least once in their lifetime! <3

xoxo
Rachel

Wednesday July 13, 2011

Today was our last shopping day in Berlin..bye bye berlin! It was a lot of fun and a lot of walking! It's amazing to see how much city life is different here, it seemed like everything was just so much cleaner! But there was  A LOT more graffiti, the berlin wall was really cool to see! Very beautiful :) something that just isn't the same in pictures. We went to the olympic stadium here in Berlin, we didn't get to go in or anything but it was def cool to see up close and personal! After seeing that, Carina's dad picked us up with the tour bus (family van) to head back to Elmshorn. It was a three hour car drive back home which consisted of coloring, listening to music and watching movies on my iPod :). We got home and went downstairs to unpack and get everything some what organized to get everything packed up and ready to go back home tomorrow! It's crazy how fast our time here has gone by..but it was so worth it and something that I will never forget! The good, bad and the ugly! <3. Thank you all so very much for the continued thoughts and prayers and I will try blogging my last blog tomorrow at some point! Sorry about the limited number of pictures posted. I will be sure to get them all up on my Facebook asap when I am home in the ville! <3

xoxo
Rachel

Tuesday July 12, 2011

BERLIN TODAY! Our morning was a rough start, sore from yesterday from all of that walking! We all got up fairly early to make our way to the big city :). First thing we did was got on the bus this morning to take that to the train station, at the bus stop Carina realized that she forgot her watch back at the apartment. She left us to go back to get it (all along we have been making "Carina left us videos" and that was one famous one we did :)). When she came back to get us, we got onto the bus and made our way! BERLIN here we come!! The train ride was your typical train ride, except the fun fact that it's 3 english speaking girls and a german. Things get interesting!! Today on the train was a busy day! Not many places to sit, so I ended up on the stairs! in the way of everyone trying to get off! When it was finally our stop, we got off and headed right to some stores! Our day pretty much consisted of walking and shopping! My feet were hurting really bad in my new european shoes but i did not let that ruin my day! No way!! We shopped shopped shopped!! Carina was telling us that she was getting tired of shopping :P. We had another funny moment on the train but that's a little too much to share! Ask if you wanna know and I will tell you in person..cause it's funny :P. Trains planes and automobiles could be the title of today's day! We met our friends Mori at dinner tonight and I told him my name was Heather :P. That was funny and everyone else went along with it :). Today was a good day, our list is this Lady with orange hair on bus, guy begging for change, lady with music box, guy playing guitar, band singing. People we met, Fernando, Mori (ask me about the restraint story), bubble guy, random winking and random waving game! Tomorrow will be our last day in Berlin and we are very sad about that! More shopping tomorrow and then we will be driving back to Carina's city! Good night all, I will blog tomorrow! <3

xoxo

Rachel 

'

Monday July 11, 2011

Today is our trip to Potsdam We woke up at 6:30 am and made it out of the house by 7:00 am..Very early start for us americans..! The drive wasn't bad at all, I was expecting it to be never ending! But it seemed like it went by super fast. When we arrived to Carina's dad's apartment here, we unloaded the car and made ourselves at home :). Potsdam is super beautiful and there is just so many fun things to do! Carina's dad works 5 min away from where the apartment is so he was there most of the day. He took us to the city first and left us ladies there to tour and to do what we are best at..SHOP! We shopped SO MUCH today..all of us had like 5 bags each! Kinda makes me feel sick when I think about it!!..but momma keeps saying, I may never get this chance again! The first thing I thought about when we arrived to the city was "man my feet are gonna hurt by the end of today!". The streets were FOREVER long, full of shops. We hit almost every store! And I was in about 10 shoe stores trying to find my "european" shoes :)..for those of you who don't know! Germans all wear converses! So I got some converse look alike..to feel european and to fit in with the crowd ;) <3. We all got tired quick as we shopped shopped shopped! And there was A LOT of walking involved too! The funnies thing about today was at the end. We were all walking through the park a very BIG park (called Anssouci)..beautiful..but it seemed like it just kept going and going and going..I just thought my feet were going to fall off of my body! We all made it to the very end of the park..and the gates were CLOSED!..We had to walk around the gates..weird..I know..! And find a way out so we didn't have to walk all the way back! The funny thing is. I was wearing my new white I <3 BERLIN sweatshirt and I felt something on my arm..dummy me..I slapped it (first reaction) and it was a dang mosquito! The blood went everywhere and I was so upset! I had to just get over it and keep walking though! We remember we had to stop at the supermarket and get milk so we did that next. We got some things we like, like non bubbly water and other yummy snacks! We walked back to the apartment around nine and had some cereal for dinner and I colored in my coloring book while we all sat and talked on the back porch :). We all showered (much needed), and now the other 3 are all playing ligretta and yahtzee!..I'm sure we will all get sick of it soon enough :P. But maybe not!! Haha :). Overall today was a good day! Just very very tiring! We all enjoyed the shopping and seeing all of the different stores and what all they had to offer! Tomorrow will be our big day in BERLIN!! We are all very excited for that and can't wait to see the city! Thank you for the continued thoughts and prayers! I will continue to keep every updated as my time in Germany comes to an end. I'm so ready for a feet hurting shopping full day tomorrow! Good night and sweet dreams! 

xoxo 

Rachel

Sunday July 10, 2011

Today we woke up around 6:45 am and had some breakfast before Carina's dad drove us to the Bahn! We bought all of our train tickets and then got right on our first train to Denmark! We got on and off trains until we were finally in Denmark! The first thing we did was ate some hot dogs! We met some other english speaking people :) one from NY and one from CA :)  that was exciting! After hot dog eating we all shopped at one of Carina's favorite stores in Denmark and I got some more souvenirs! We had to quick catch our bus back to the train so we had to leave that store in good timing. We walked to where all of the buses were and got on the first bus..turned out that was the WRONG bus! And the right one had just left...We got off the wrong one and just waited..and waited...and 30 min had passed..and waited some more! And before we knew it like an  hour and a half had passed and there was still NO bus! By that time there were people around waiting for the bus too so we didn't feel too alone :P. After hanging out at the bus stop, listening to music and playing some yahtzee, the right one finally came! We quick got on that to our first bus to Hamburg and the conductor was nice enough to call the other train to tell them to wait for us before they left to where we need to be to go to the beach! When we arrived to the city Busum we wanted to all go walk out when it was low tide! There is a ton of mud and worm poop every where! It was really cool though! A very fun experience! The car was also 2 hours away from where we were! Long and tiring walk! I asked if there was absolutely no where else for them to park..they laughed :P After the Busum trip we all made our way to dinner..dinner was so good! I had a dish called surf n' turf! Steak and shrimp and french fries! :) everyone really seemed to enjoy what they ordered. Carina's family was nice enough to pay for our meals! <3 we are home now and talking and watching glozell youtube videos and having fun! We are really excited for berlin tomorrow and I can't wait to post more! Please pray for safe travels there and I will hopefully blog more soon to keep everyone updated!

xoxo
Rachel

The Famous BALTIC SEA! :)

Here is a sneak peak of LUBECK!