Romania!!

November 14-16, 2009 With the flexibility of my job I was able to celebrate Veteran's Day on Monday and create a 3 day travel weekend. My time was spent in Romania - a beautiful country! I spent 2 days in Bucharest with a day in between in Transylvania. Through my hostel I was able to take a day tour to Peles Castle, "Dracula's Castle" also known as Bran Castle, and a traditional Transylvanian town, Brasov. It would have been impossible to connect these three locations in one day via the train so I was very lucky that I had read about this excursion on the hostel's website. Below are a few of my favorite pictures from my trip....enjoy.

Palace of Parliament....the world's second largest building by surface area (after the US Pentagon)

Streets of Bucharest

Bank in downtown Bucharest

Peles Castle

Brasov, Transylvania

Brasov, Transylvania

Hay Stacks, my favorite!!! at the Village Museum in Bucharest

one of the many houses at the Village Museum depicting the various lifestyles of Romanians

Leaves...women were raking leaves throughout the park and the Village Museum and gathering them in baskets or bags

Unirii Square, Buchrest

Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro

It's been a while since Matt and I went our trip through the Balkan Peninsula but here are a few more pictures to glance through....and by a few I mean 150 out of 1800!!

Plitvice Lakes National Park from above...before we hiked down into the gorge

Walkway at the Plitvice Lakes National Park

Downtown Sarajevo

Island in Bay of Kotor

Boats in Bol, Croatia

Boat ride from Bol to Hvar

More Pictures

Wilson goes to New Zealand

For the second year in a row I am proud to report that the Human Resources' pumpkin has won! Last year we won "Most Creative" and this year we won 2nd place...Custodial won a well deserved first place. The inspiration behind this year's pumpkin design is thanks to Accounting. I saw their pumpkin before we had even thought about a design and it was very creative. Going off of last year's set up I thought, ok, they have a creative pumpkin we'll go for first place in the scary category hence the scary aztec/maori chimpanzee. After it got dark outside we had a red glow stick inside!! very creepy! The name "Wilson goes to New Zealand" came from a comment someone made saying our pumpkin looked like Wilson from Castaway....add the Maori designs and you have "Wilson goes to New Zealand." I'm glad we carved a pumpkin this year because I discovered it can be fun and easy when you have the right tools. Not only did someone else gut the pumpkin this year but we had real pumpkin carving tools instead of kitchen knives. This year was also a lot warmer outside -- last year my hands were numb by the time I had finished gutting the pumpkin but this year we were outside with just long sleeve tops on.

The 2009 Edelweiss Lodge and Resort 2nd place pumpkin

The pumpkin and I

Last year's pumpkin, "The House of HRO," Most Creative Pumpkin
*photo courtesy of my dear friend Courtney*

Day Trip to Switzerland

November 8, 2009 Jennifer, Megan, Mike and I went on a day trip to Saint Gallen, Switzerland. On our way back we stopped at the Bodensee. It's so weird being able to take a day trip to a different country and as a result sometimes you don't think about needing to travel with your passport! Luckily we were waved through at border control, whew!

The girls with the Berlin Bear in the Parking Garage

Baby Bear!!!

St. Gallen

Fall :)

Delicious Chocolate Mousse

Weird Spaghetti Chocolate...we never could place the taste

Door handle to the Cathedral

Another Cathedral with a tiled roof

The Bodensee

On the path to the water front

Pumpkin Fest

September 26, 2009 Every September and October there is an annual Pumpkin Fest in Ludwigsburg, just north of Stuttgart. After going last year and having such a great trip with Lisa Marie I marked my calendar months in advance to make sure I went again this year. Of course, a trip to the Pumpkin Festival is not complete without a stop at the Riter Sport Chocolate Factory and the Stuttgart Base for some American shopping and eating!

Riter Sport Chocolate Factory....The Store! Renovated and way bigger than last year!

Pumpkin Fest! This year's theme was "Fairytales"....last year's theme was space/zodiac signs...check out that Giant!...Jack and the Beanstalk, I think

Mouse and cheese round made out of pumpkins!

Dragon and his slayor....I found out that day that I'm not so knowledgeable about fairy tales

Mother Goose

Pippi Long Stockings

Cinderella

Hansel and Grettel

Bayern Munchen Soccer Game

September 22, 2009 Martin, Natalie's boyfriend, bought us tickets to a Bayern Munchen play off game! I couldn't believe how cheap the tickets were - 30 euros! and we had amazing seats!!! 5th row on the corner of the home goal! Great seats!! The game was very crowded but luckily there were extra trains running to help get the crowd out of there at the end of the night. The stadium is a "cashless" stadium which is brilliant! We bought a card, put some euros on it and then bought what we needed to and it was fast! It definitely made a huge difference in the food lines. Even if you bought food/drinks from the vendors walking up and down the stairs of the stadium it was quick because they just had to scan your card. Anyway, here are some pictures from the game.

Before the game, walking to the stadium

The game! The field! The stadium!

The girls dressed in red for FC Bayern

The arena changes colors depending on who is playing....Red for Bayern Munich, Blue for 1860 Munich, White for German National Team

Day at the Plansee

October 25, 2009 Well, after being sick all week I was going stir crazy! Can't say I'm feeling 100% but I had to go somewhere/do something so I drove to the Plansee, a lake in Austria about 30-40 minutes away. The drive was gorgeous....winter might have called but the trees haven't gotten the memo yet and the Plansee was perfect. The fresh air was definitely needed and I got to photograph two of my favorite things - reflections on the water and boats (ok, there was only one boat I liked but still...).

Bodensee and Halfway House

May 17, 2009 OK. So these pictures go way back...but like I said, I'm a little behind! This was just a random spring/summer day that Matt and I went for a little bike ride to a lake, the Bodensee, close by and then decided we wanted to do something more rigorous so we hiked to the Halfway House, a hut "halfway" up the Kramer mountain....not all that rigorous compared to hiking the entire mountain but still a hike :)

Bodensee

Boat at the Bodensee

View from the Halfway House or St. Martin's Hutte

Historical Walking Tour....Garmisch

August 24, 2009 The community offers a historical walking tour of Garmisch in the spring and fall....here are some normal sites I "see" everyday...I definitely learned some things about the murals and buildings I pass by everyday...whether I remember all the stories is another thing!

So there's a cluster of three buildings that I've heard were important but never quite knew why....well, here they are...except I somehow did not take a picture of the "Blue House" so I'll have to add that later! but the Blue House is famous because the French stayed there for a few nights before invading Austria (they were planning on staying a few months until the homeowner gave the French soldiers an insider tip on how to easily get around the mountain so the soldiers wouldn't stay there for months as planned). The "Blue House" is now an upscale restaurant! Matt and I wanted to go there to say we had dined there so I took him there for his birthday...next time it's his turn! He ordered a really nice King Prawn dish and I had a Thai Chicken Curry dish - both were delicious! and of course, no meal is complete without a bottle of wine! Next to the "Blue House" there's a yellow building (pictured below)....basically the white building (pictured below) is the brewery and the yellow building is the "braustuberl" or the place you drank the beer...makes sense to put them right next to each other!

Brewery

Restaurant to drink the beer from the brewery (white house)

Barns everywhere in Garmisch....they were here first so the "newcomers" just have to deal with the smells!

Frühlingsstraße....the most photographed street in Garmisch...and just minutes from where I live/work

The murals on this building show the means of mail delivery/transportation through the years. Here they are on the river in 1730

Horse and carriage in 1830

and along came the railway in 1930

cute pun on words...Adam bookstore with a mural of Adam and Eve....you can't see it in this picture but there's also a unicorn in the mural! Adam and Eve meets fairytale!

At the Richard Strauss Festival in 2001 this statute was presented as a tribune to "The Women in the Operas of Richard Strauss" ....Daphne, Elektra, and Salome

The evening of the walking tour coincided with King Ludwig's Birthday, August 24th. Every year there are fires on the mountain to celebrate his birthday....there are fires on the mountains for other occasions throughout the year as well! This fire shaped like a crown was on the mountain seen in Oberammergau, a town 20 minutes away.