Morgen!!!

Guten, that is. Everyone says, "Morgen!" here rather than, "Morning." It comes quite naturally. So, it's been a while, huh? I know it's no excuse, but things have been so busy and awesome here! Let's see where I left off. I took a 3 day trip to Venice! I went with my friends, Matt and Kristen, who are very chill, very laidback Texans. Great travel buddies. We went during Carnivale and it was just breathtaking. Everywhere you go, people are selling cool Renaissance masks and crazy robes and costumes. And let me tell you, all the market stands, little shops were very expensive. One Venezian informed us, "Well...you are in tourist town, no?" And we replied, "Dude, we work at a ski resort and live in a tourist town full-time!" I.e., we're used to getting shyster'ed. My travel buddies cracked me up constantly on the trip. We ended up driving to Italy (so worth it - the drive is almost as beautiful as Venice. Almost.) during a huge blizzard without chains on the tires (which is illegal in Germany f.y.i.). Matt had never driven in snow, and actually had never even seen snow before he came to Germany, so he was a weee bit nervous. The second we made it to Venice, we walked down the pier and Matt bought a beer at every stand. I loved it!

Next trip I took was a few days later to Salzberg, Austria. It was a last minute trip with my friends Alex and Noah (pictures on Facebook!) and we had a fantastic time. Some highlights include Noah pelting me and Alex with snowballs while climbing up to an extremely old monastery (Salzberg is full of them!), Alex and I pretending to kill Nazi Zombies (an awesome video game we play in the dorms) in the Salzberg fortress, and Noah devouring countless numbers of sandwiches. Alex and I also went out to a bar the first night and met a very funny radio deejay from Louisiana who was on his way to meet up with George Clooney on George's secluded Italian villa. He showed us proof and everything! Alex used all of her wiles to get the deejay to invite her along. Hehe. Well, that's all for now, but I have a Part Deux coming up with more updates here. I think I am taking a tour to the Dachau Concentration Camp tomorrow, so my day should be full of sunshine and rainbows! I am kidding....

Ciao for Now! Mandyfreulin