We Came, We Saw, We Pragued

Shambles and traveling go hand in hand. Said shambles increase exponentially when you throw in trains and more than about 6 people. That, my friends, is a guaranteed recipe for shambles. Don't believe me? Well, stay tuned. Story time.

I first boarded the struggle bus on Wednesday when I went, unaccompanied, to Liege to book our couchettes for our night train to Prague. In hindsight, it might have been wise to ask someone to go with me to check me, but I was confident in what I was doing. Falsely so. Whether because of the language barrier or the ineptitude of the man at the ticket counter or my own stupidity, we ended up with "sleepers", not couchettes. The term "sleepers" implies that you can "sleep" in them. Oh, the irony.

We left for Prague at 8pm on Thursday. I was traveling with Taylor, Jacob, Nick, and Brandon, but there were 3 other groups going separately for a grand total of 14 obnoxiously loud Baylor bears packing the trains. By some act of God we made it to our night train that left at 11 after lots of sprinting through train stations and almost-missed trains. Here's where the lack of couchettes kicks in.

We found our "sleepers" aka saunas. Our seats were in these 6-person compartments that were hot and sweaty and crowded. So, after talking to a couple from Chicago and a girl who had studied in Maastricht with whom we were sharing a compartment, we went to find the train "restaurant" which consisted of a closet with food and a cranky conductor in it. We crowded up the hallway and annoyed our fellow sleeping passengers for a few hours before making it back to our own compartment to find some randos sprawled across our seats. And that, my friends, is how I ended up sleeping wedged up against the wall on the floor of a train using my wallet as a pillow, my feet being used as a pillow for my roommate. Jacob and Nick still had available seats, so they tried to sleep in their compartment while I spent an hour and a half trying to fall asleep in about 498,723,958 different ways. Around 6, Taylor and I got up to go to the bathroom and on our way back had to pass the couchettes. We creepily searched through them until we found two empty beds in a compartment with two of our friends who had booked their tickets correctly.

Shambly enough yet? But wait! There's more.

The rest of our group came in to wake us up at 11:30 (at which point the train was already 3 hours delayed) and announced that the train was going to be stalled for an hour due to a faulty motor so we were getting off immediately to take a different train to Prague. Most of us got off to find the platform for this other train, but while we were standing there trying to figure out what to do, the train we had just left pulled out of the station with two of our friends still on it. Hmm. Welp, see ya in Prague.

This next train was, of course, delayed, so once we finally got on it we arrived in Prague around 1:30, four hours after our expected arrival. Disgusting and exhausted, we followed our somewhat questionable directions to our hostel. I wish I was kidding, but these are copied word-for-word from their website:

It takes about 10 minutes but you may find hard to find us..We preper for you a special navigation system to make it as easy as possible – please watch for the lamps !!Get ready for it ? So, get out of the train station and turn right.Walk througt the park, there will be a childrens playground on your left hand side, and at the end there will be a tram stop ( tram n. 5,9,26 ).Here you can find one of the lamps with hostel ELF logo which gives you the direction.Cross the road and go right, on the corner turn left and you will get to a big cross.In the middle of this cross, you can find the second ELF lamp …Here, you have to cross on all pedestrian crossing ( make like a half of a cirkle ) and go left following the rail corridor. Higly recommend you to cross only on the lights..So take the street on the left side and keep walking.When you get on the first cross ( 3 minutes ), there should be a theatre called „ PONEC „.Keep walking and on the left side, there should be a sallon called „ BLODDY BLUE TATOO“.After 2 minutes you should find us on the left hand side.. 

We checked in and were pleasantly surprised with how nice our private room was. We relished the free wifi then headed back to the aforementioned park and enjoyed the beautiful weather for a while.

We walked back to our hostel with the intent of finding something else to do, but since no one had really slept the night before we ended up falling asleep for a couple hours... That night was pretty low key with some delicious dinner at a nearby restaurant (burgers, Caesar salad, and steak...we're starting to miss America a little), walking around Old Town Square, which is beautifully lit at night, and hanging out just the five of us. 

We slept in Saturday morning before picking up lunch close to the square (more Caesar salad) and joining a free walking tour. Our guide was from New York, and was full of fascinating facts and hilarious jokes (*sarcasm*) but we got to hit the high points of Prague, which really is a neat city. 

The Jan Hus statue in Old Town Square

Tyn Church and Jan Hus statue

Prague's famous astronomical clock, installed in 1410

Spanish synagogue in the Jewish Quarter

Franz Kafka statue

The tower next to the Municipal Building that separates Old Town from New Town

After a couple hours we broke away from the tour group and boarded what Brandon and Nick call the "success bus." And for the most part, I'd have to agree. From this point forward things seemed to go perfectly, despite our struggle of a start. We made our way to the Charles Bridge on our own. This, though very crowded, was by far the most beautiful view of Prague. 

We took the bus back to our hostel, took a quick power nap, and changed clothes to meet up with everyone else for the night. We got roughly two hours of sleep before catching the 6:15am train home on Sunday, but our trains ran perfectly on time, and we were back in Maastricht by 6pm. The one hitch in the game was my phone getting lost, but it was about time. I don't think I've ever had a phone for more than 18 months, and this one was getting up there in years (by which I mean months). Hopefully that saga will sort itself out, but I apologize for any and all unanswered texts/snaps/Viber messages.  

So a slightly more low-key weekend than the past two, but a nice change in pace. I'm sure there's tons more to do in this city, but I feel like we hit the highlights and did it all without rushing through our 48 hours there. We're becoming pros at the weekend planning thing, and we already have the next three weekends somewhat scheduled! Too bad I'm having trouble putting forth the same motivation into my actual "homework." 

Life in Maastricht

While my weekend adventures are inevitably more exciting, I have yet to share anything about the little town I get to call home for the next 2 months. 

Maastricht is about as far southwest as you can go in the Netherlands before crossing into Belgium. In fact, the first night we were here, some of our friends accidentally walked to Belgium, and it took them all of 30 minutes. It takes that long to drive from my house to Taylor's in Dallas, much less change countries or even states. Crazy. 

It is the oldest town in the Netherlands, and the buildings that have been there the longest are beautiful. There's an old church downtown that has been converted into a bookstore, and a beautiful church very close to where we're staying that's just completely empty. 

There are twice as many bikes in the Netherlands as there are people- don't worry, I'm still trying to work out that logic too. But I believe it, because I see many more people walking and biking than I do driving. 

The university itself is spread out throughout the town in multiple buildings. We are staying at the Teikyo guesthouse, and most classes are either in there or in the Center for European Studies (CES) building in town. The only other buildings we've been inside are the business and economics building and the library. Baylor's campus is beautiful, but can't compare to this until there's a river prettier than the Brazos and a gorgeous green park outside the business school. 

My philosophy class is going to be challenging (philosophy = free thinking, accounting = this is the right way, this is the wrong way. There's a reason I like accounting), but I love the professor. He's a Netherlands native and speaks roughly 8 languages. He is highly understanding of the fact that most of us want to be here to travel, not study, so he has quickly become the most popular professor. 

I just started my modernism class this week and I'm equally overwhelmed. Having not taken a REAL English class (excluding my idiot of a teacher senior year) since junior year of high school, I would definitely count myself the dumbest in the class. I just didn't realize how much I'd gotten used to the atmosphere of a business class, or how different it is from other classes. 

On Thursday after class I had a little time to wander, so I walked from the CES building and found a town square and this pretty church. 

I like how late the Spanish eat their meals. The Dutch disagree, it would seem. We eat breakfast every morning at 7:30 and dinner every evening at 5:30. Stroopwaffles (a word my phone is still learning and currently autocorrects to Strip Waffles), a Dutch specialty and Baylor student favorite (so we're told), usually make up our second dinner when we're hungry again around 10:30. I will probably spend at least €50 to bring as many stroopwaffles home as I can. 

Knowing the copious amounts of bread, cheese, and chocolate will catch up to me, I found a running trail through a beautiful nearby park. The early dinner and the fact that the sun doesn't set until at least 10pm allows plenty of time for an evening run. 

Today I had the whole morning to myself, so after a semi-successful trip to Liege to book Prague tickets (I'll be providing my travel companions with Benadryl since the man could not for the life of him understand the word "couchette" which I repeated 3 times. 10 hours of sleep sitting up, here we come), I spent a few hours walking around Maastricht. 

First, this happened: 

As if I needed something on top of Stroopwaffles. This is from Pinky's and there's one on every corner, so hello next 15 pounds. Then, because I packed light to come on this little European adventure and I am insanely bored of my wardrobe, this happened: 

Oops.

On Wednesdays in the square there's a farmer's market and it's actually out of my dreams. There's fresh vegetables (to complement my Pinky's) so I stocked up on those to cook dinner and apease my bell pepper addiction. The rest of the booths are all clothes and CRAFT SUPPLIES. I told you, heaven. 

During my 20 minute walk back to Teikyo I was sweating more than I did during my 3 mile run yesterday because thank you, Texas, for your heat that you've so generously shared. So I stopped off at the mall for a fan since the Europeans like to channel their inner Amish and boycot A/C. So here's what I ended up with: 

This picture was taken 20 minutes ago. It still looks like that. The instructions appear to be for some other fan, not the one I spent 18 Euros on, so I'm leaving that task for later and meanwhile desperately wishing I had a swimming pool to go jump in. 

Anyway...

Maastricht is perfect to act as "home base" for the summer.  It has a pleasant feel of being not too rural but not too "city", and everything is more or less within walking distance of the guesthouse. I don't understand a word of Dutch, but the people seem friendly nonetheless. Maastricht is starting to feel more and more familiar, and I know come August it will be hard to say goodbye to this quaint little town. 

There is, however, a KPMG office not far from the train station. So who knows...

Be Still

If you've ever had so much as a 10-minute conversation with me you know that I love the mountains more than almost anything in this world. I love the quote from John Muir, "The mountains are calling, and I must go," because there are some days that I would literally give anything to just sit under the Aspens and stare at the Rockies in the perfect mountain air. I live in a constant countdown from one trip to Colorado to the next. That's why I'm moving to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. 

We decided on Switzerland on Monday, booked our hostel that night, and our night train on Tuesday morning. I left Thursday evening with Nate, Jacob, and Taylor. We splurged for the "couchettes" which were comfy (or, at least horizontal) and actually let us get a full night's sleep. 

We arrived in Interlaken around 9 on Friday morning and took one more train up to Lauterbrunnen. The train conductor on our last ride was less than thrilled when we a) didn't have tickets except our Eurail passes which are apparently not valid here, b) only had Euros to pay for a ticket, and c) Nate paid him with €50 for 5CHF. Didn't go over well. 

But we made it to our hostel where we dropped off our backpacks and headed into town to find some food. We had some delicious-albeit expensive-sandwiches, cashed in on the wifi, and enjoyed this incredible view.

After lunch we took a super short hike up to one of the 72 waterfalls in Lauterbrunnen, Staubbach Falls.

From the bottom we walked back to the train station and hopped a train then a cable car then another train up to Mürren. I would've been perfectly happy to just stare at this view from the top the rest of the day.

But, we started the hike back down into Lauterbrunnen, which was a little rough on the knees and left me with a bruised tailbone, leg, and pride after a little tumble down. Some people bring home magnets from every country they visit, I'm bringing home bruises. My legs look like they got run over by a train. I couldn't have cared less, though, because here's what I got to look at all the way down.

It's impossible not to feel the Lord's presence with this creation all around. So many times today I would feel the breeze and just hear the words "Be Still" run through my mind as I looked out at His majestic mountains. I think if I had to pick a theme for this weekend, that would be it. We had very few things actually planned, it was mostly just about enjoying each other's company in the midst of this beautiful setting. Being still. 

We got back to the hostel after our hike to check in. We had a cute little 4-bed private room, which was perfect. My 3 travel companions napped while I took a little walk around and enjoyed getting to be "cold" while I knew my family was at home in 107 degree temps. I fit in a short nap before showers (which cost 1/2CHF per 5 minutes of hot water. God bless America) and dinner. We had some pricy pizza (but it was SO worth it) while we talked about all the things we miss about America. Top of the list: Cheddar's and Chick-fil-A. But, again, who cares about any of that when you're sitting in the valley of such incredible mountains. 

We paid for some wifi at our restaurant before heading back to our hostel to rest up for our adventurous day on Saturday. 

So on Saturday, this happened:

Up until about 7:30pm, this day was incredible. We all had separate activities/times, so we spent the day going in several different directions. Jacob went paragliding first, then T and I took a train into Interlaken to meet our guides, mine for paragliding and hers for hang gliding. 

I signed my waiver and they loaded us into a van to take us up to our departure point. There were 8 other people flying with me- a mom and her 2 sons from Russia (one of whom was roughly 10 and had already paraglided before. In Monte Negro. Not a big deal.), a girl from South Korea who was studying abroad in Poland, a German couple, and 2 German guys. My guide's name was Domi, an Interlaken native who not only asked me where in Texas I was from but which PART of Dallas. He knew what Flower Mound was...I'm not even entirely confident I know where Flower Mound is. 

So good conversation, at the least. Domi got me all hooked into my harness and we took off! We jogged a couple feet down the hill and lifted into the air. 

If you ever want to learn a lesson about faith, I would highly recommend paragliding. Literally the wind was the only thing supporting me, 3500 feet in the air. It was the most incredible feeling. Again we're back to my fear of heights. But I can honestly say that I wasn't nervous the whole time we were in the air. There's no way for me to possibly describe the beauty you can see from that perspective. I would do it again, without a doubt, if only to see that view again. 

I love my SLR camera, but today I would've given anything to have a point and shoot just to have a picture to show where we took off. It was a 360 view of mountains with a lake  (hence, "Interlaken") on either side. I've never been so in awe.

I landed around 2:15 and had an hour to waste before Taylor finished. I found a tree in the park where we had landed and ate my lunch with this view:

Then a Swiss marching band came up the sidewalk in these classy get-ups. Normal. 

I could've spent the whole day there, I was so completely content. I walked back to the train station to find Nate waiting for his bungee jumping crew to pick him up. Taylor showed up just as he was leaving so we wished him luck and headed back into town to wait for him to finish. 

We ended up at the top of the Metrole Hotel where we had ice cream, took some pictures of the view, and talked for a few hours.

In honor of the Stewart family (who, by the way, we owe most of this trip to- thank you for your recommendations and your beautiful pictures that led us here in the first place!)

Aaaaand here's where everything went downhill. Nate was bungee jumping off a cable car into a lake. Insane. We planned to meet back at the train station at 8:00, 4 hours after he had left. Plenty of time. Nope. 

T and I showed up at the station at 7:30 to meet Jacob, who had been there since 7:00. 8:00 came and went...followed by 9:00 (we went to get burgers at this point, which the restaurant made especially for us after I explained to the waiter that we were Americans and could we please have the cheeseburger we were craving so badly)...then 10:00. We had joked all day about what if something happened, but when he was 2 hours late we got concerned.

Cheeseburgers: the redeeming factor of the entire evening

A few expensive phone calls, one chat with the police, and one confused hostel owner later, we found Nate. At the hostel. Unsure of what emotion we were supposed to have toward him at this point, we got on one of the last buses out of Interlaken back to Lauterbrunnen and made it back to our hostel to find him laying in our room. 

Never underestimate the beauty of cell phones. You never know what you have till it's gone. Like the ability to communicate. Golden. 

We got ready for bed and started packing. That was when I realized my wallet hadn't made it home. I remembered having paid for my bus fare, putting the ticket in my wallet, and setting it _____ . Jacob and Taylor retraced our steps with me all the way back to where the bus had dropped us off and back to the hostel with no luck. 

The main accomplishment of our little 1:30am venture was time for me to come to terms with having to replace everything in it- credit card, debit card, passport, driver's license (a cause for celebration), paragliding pictures, bus card, Baylor ID, Maastricht ID. You know, just every important document I possess. 

I woke up at 5:45 to meet the first bus in town. I wasn't panicked, but waking up and walking out the door to this didn't hurt:

The bus arrived at 6:25, and luckily the driver spoke English, blessing #1, and was so so kind, if only because of my desperation and shambly 6am appearance (note that it takes at least 1/2CHF to shower and I had no wallet), blessing #2. He let me ride the bus for free to the main station with him to check. He literally walked through all the parked buses in the station with me and looked under all the seats. We didn't find it, but he took down my name and number so he could ask the driver of the bus from the night before. 

Going back to the Be Still theme, I kept hearing those words in my head throughout this little adventure. It's hard to drive through mountains and not feel at peace, even under the suckiest of circumstances. I will be forever grateful for the bus driver angel who went so out of his way to try to help. 

So when that plan produced no results, my next priority was to find a printer to print off a copy of my passport so I could at least get back to Maastricht to sort everything out. I took a quick shower with a borrowed 1/2CHF and went to the front desk of the hostel to explain the situation. As soon as I said I had lost my wallet the lady asked me what it looked like. I described it and she told me someone had turned it in when they found it at the train station. I didn't go so far as to hug the woman, but I could've. All my cash and coins were gone, but I didn't have to spend the entire day making international calls to cancel and get everything back so I was more than okay. I might even get myself a new driver's license to celebrate. 

We packed up our room, found some decent chocolate milk at the grocery store, filled up on Nutella bagels and wifi at the cafe, and caught our train to Interlaken then Bern. There had been a music festival going on in Interlaken, so the train was PACKED. The boys very sweetly gave us the only available seats which put them with the fragrant rock fans in the hallway between cars. They described it as a "sauna full of BO, smoke, and weed." Yum. 

We didn't have much of a plan for our time in Bern, so we just wandered until we found this famous clock tower (Zytglogge clock tower) and Einstein's House, thanks to the boys' flawless German and excellent sense of direction.

Zytglogge Clock Tower

Einstein's living room in his Bern home, the city where he discovered the Theory of Relativity

We started our long train ride back at 1pm which, without reservations, means a lot of musical chairs as people bump you out of their reserved seats.

There were parts of this weekend that I absolutely hated, but all of them are overshadowed by the beautiful scenery and great company. It was certainly hard to leave this beautiful place, as it always is to leave the mountains, but I know this is one place I'll make sure to come back to in the future. 

P.S.- here's the updated city count: 

1. Maastricht, the Netherlands

2. Koblenz

3. Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

4. Würzburg, Germany

5. Ottobeuren, Germany

6. Lindau, Germany

7. Liechtenstein

8. Montreux, Switzerland

9. Schaffhausen, Switzerland 

10. Freiburg, Germany

11. Cologne, Germany

12. Munich, Germany

13. Pfronten, Germany

14. Liege, Belgium

15. Porto, Portugal

16. Lisbon, Portugal

17. Madrid, Spain

18. Barcelona, Spain 

19. Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland 

20. Interlaken, Switzerland

21. Bern, Switzerland

An Ignorant American's Commentary on Europe

The following are my general observations on various aspects of life in Europe. 

1. The metric system might as well be a foreign language in and of itself. If someone tells me the airport is 100km away I have no idea if I can walk there or if I need to call a taxi or book a plane ticket. No clue. Thus, kiloCALORIES also mean nothing. Haven't looked at a nutrition label in weeks, don't plan on doing so anytime soon. 

2. On a related note, chocolate. With rare exceptions, I have loved most every chocolate I've tried. The Hankamer lobby (at Baylor) keeps the vending machine fully stocked with Extra Crispy Kit Kats. If you've ever had a class with me you can attest to the fact that I probably have one every other day. On a good week. However, the European Kit Kat makers apparently hired a dietician to do their marketing because they settled on calling this same candy bar a "Chunky Kit Kat". Hmm. Flattering, but hard pass. 

3. Despite my above comments, I have yet to see a fat Dutch person. These people literally live on bread, cheese, and alcohol, so I am slightly unclear as to how these two truths balance each other out. 

4. "Asfahrt" means "exit" in German. We learned this on the group trip when we seemed to never reach the town of Asfahrt, but passed a sign for it every couple miles on the Autobahn. Baylor has received roughly a cumulative $1mil for our educations, which are clearly paying off, given that intelligent (delayed) revelation. Sic em bears. 

5. I've deduced that the Dutch language does not include a "th" sound. They live in the NeDerlands and they Fink (think) and talk about Dis (this). I'm by no means criticizing, I think it's fascinating that our tongues are literally developed differently to where we physically cannot pronounce things the same. 

6. Nothing makes me feel more uncultured than meeting 7-year-olds on the train who are fluent in 3 languages. #america

7. Before I leave this continent, I must learn what this letter: 

ß

is and how to say it and why it's the only letter in the German alphabet that's different from English letters and why it can't be capitalized. So bizarre.

8. Stroopwaffles. People. It is heartbreaking to think that some of you reading this will never know the beauty that is stroopwaffles. I can't even compare them to anything, there is no parallel.  It's more or less a soft, small waffle sandwich with caramel in between. Add some Nutella and that's where the 15 extra pounds I'll be bringing home (on myself) will come from. God bless the Dutch. 

Weekend 1: Camping in the Trees

Week 1 and 2 I learned that while taking initiative to get things accomplished is not necessarily a bad thing, my planner personality needs to chill out and enjoy what I'm seeing/doing.

This week, my Type A-ness took a hit when we reached Wednesday and had no idea where we were going for the weekend. No hostels booked, no train tickets purchased, and everyone else seemed to have everything finalized. So, week 3: I learned to go with the flow. 

Pinterest came to the rescue. Taylor and I had both pinned this way back:

"Tree Camping in Germany"

It was just something that looked cool, but would never really happen. Unless, of course, it's Wednesday and you have no weekend plans. At that point, tree camping is a genius idea. 

We did all the necessary research, had a broken conversation with the sweet German woman at the campsite, reserved a guide via email, and our plans were made! Slightly insane, incredibly expensive, but when the heck else in my life am I going to sleep hanging from a tree over mountains in Germany? My main rationale was, "Thousands of people have 'pinned' this, but how many of those thousands will actually do it?!" So while most of our friends took off to Paris and Berlin, we left Friday morning for Munich, after a slight delay and revision of plans courtesy of our faithful funders... 

We are experts at the train thing now, and while I do miss my big red truck quite a bit, I actually really love the public transportation scene. Plus given that I don't think my 6'4" father could fit in a single car I've seen on this continent, the F-150 might stand out just a tad. 

Anyway, we switched trains 4 times for this leg of the trip, with just one minor mishap where we got off about 5 stops too soon. Once again, traveling as a pair is 1000x easier than in a big group. Get off train, check for platform number, get on train. No worrying about stragglers or anyone thinking it should be done differently and no standing in line for 20 minutes to wait on every single person to buy a ticket then a candy bar then a drink, etc. I might have a slight preference between the 2 options... 

I'm getting used to people looking at me like I'm an idiot. I feel like we look super American, so it always surprises me when people start talking to me in their native language. Ignorant, I know. But the train conductor caught me at an all time low today. He must've gone through 4 different languages before I finally understood he was asking for tickets (because what else would a train conductor want as he stands by your seat...hello, Madeline), and as he walked away I thanked him. In Spanish. Classic. And not embarrassing at all, for myself or for my faithful travel buddy. 

The longest the first day was the 5 hour train from Cologne to Munich, but we got a little homework and a little napping done before arriving in Munich around 3:15. We had booked a relatively cheap hotel so we once again learned yet another new metro system to get ourselves there and checked in. 

Our hotel was an upgrade from our originally booked hostel, and the beds were up to par with the aforementioned Montreux situation. But we forced ourselves out of them to go into the city square. We had our trusty Rick Steves audio tour, but decided to use the map to do our own thing. The downtown area was busy but we both really liked the unique Munich vibe.

Hotel Schleuse

Marienplatz ("Mary's Square")

Münchner Kindl

Frauenkirche ("Church of Our Lady") 

  

We were starving so we found a little Italian place set in the gardens of the Residenz and stopped there for dinner. There was even some ballroom dancing going on in the gardens, so that was some great entertainment before getting some Haagen-Dazs (the new debate: German or American company?) and heading back to our hotel to rest up for camping.

We checked out at 7am Saturday morning and took a free bus to the free train. Shout out to the great taxpayers of Munich for free transportation. 

Our trip to Pfronten was only an hour and a half or so, and we were met at the train station by the owner of the ropes course, Thomas. We drove a couple minutes to the ropes course and he got us all settled in and introduced us to the staff. 

This town immediately reminded me so much of Telluride. It's in a beautiful valley, for one, but the people are similar too. Everyone is just so relaxed. I literally had to ask if he wanted me to pay, and we spent a lot of the day just waiting to be told what to do because they're just so laid back. Our fee for the evening included everything- ropes course, archery, hiking, food, etc. 

We decided to take the short hike near the base hut first. We took too many pictures of the exact same thing, but it's just hard to not want to capture this incredible beauty.

We ate our lunch at the top of the mountain then made our way back down. 

Next was the ropes course. Disclaimer: heights, with the exception of ski lifts, for whatever reason, are probably my biggest fear. So this was a big step for me.

Proud moments. We spent 2 hours doing several of the courses they offer, then took off our harnesses to meet our guide, Stefan Guggemoos. He was about as German as "Guggemoos" would suggest and as attractive as "Stefan" sounds. Good thing we hadn't showered in 14 hours. 

He took us out to show us the archery options and walked away glad to not have been hit by an arrow from one of us. I have a lovely bruise where the string whipped forward and hit my double-jointed arm, a bruise on my knee where I gracefully ate it while following Stefan to the very first target, and thus a slightly wounded pride. It was somewhere around the 4th target that we had to stop and wonder, "Who the heck are we..." Archery and ropes courses in the middle of some random German town with tree sleeping at the end of the day. What.

We tired of archery pretty quickly, so we met Stefan back at the hut to learn how to climb up to our beds that night. I wish I could explain exactly how we did it, but I don't think I could ever recreate it, much less explain it in text. Suffice to say it was not by pure upper body strength as I had feared, so I made it to the top without too much struggle. Stefan, of course, can climb the x-amount of meters (I'd guess close to 30 feet) in about a quarter of the time it took us. His arms were literally bigger than my legs. It's fine. 

By this point the families that had been on the ropes course all day had started to clear out, leaving us with Stefan and Thomas for dinner. We had been told we were having barbecue, but in Germany who knows what that means. Well, meat. It means a lot and a lot of meat. Delicious meat, not sausage and brats. Thank goodness.

I'm not kidding when I say it was the best meal we've had yet. Pork, steak, garlic bread, bell peppers, and red wine. For dessert, something Thomas called "banana boats"- a banana, still in the peel, sliced down the middle with a chocolate bar in the middle then cooked in the grill. It looks nasty, but it was incredible. A new recipe to bring home to the States, for sure.

Thomas, the owner of Waldseilgarten and our chef for the evening

We got to know a little bit about Waldseilgarten (the company) from Thomas while we ate- he has been building ropes courses forever, but opened his own in 2006. He's lived in Pfronten all his life and has a wife and 3 kids, ages 5-14. He is among the first to offer tree camping, but he says other guides ask him about it all the time, so he expects competition to start popping up in the future. 

Stefan is 26, a student in Innsbruck, but grew up in Pfronten. He's studying sociology but wants to be a mountain man and work as a ski guide in Canada. Like, marry me already. 

Here's Taylor's take on Stefan:

Fortunately for us, our guide for the weekend was a greek god with a german accent. Stefan: the pinnacle of strength and beauty. Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed being served dinner and breakfast by a young Matthew Mcconaughey in hiking boots. A mountain man with an affinity for both reading and photography… a boy after my own heart. Unfortunately, he couldn't fit in my backpack. Auf Wiedersehen, Hercules. 

So delicious dinner. We enjoyed our last bathroom break for 12 hours and loaded up the car to drive to our campsite. We had to take a short hike from the car to the tree, then he did most of the work while we stood there and watched like idiots. We hoisted ourselves up like we had practiced around 8:45 and got settled in our sleeping bags (which are warm enough to be used for the igloo camping they do in the winter. No joke.).

Hiking to the tree

Our view from our bed

Sleeping in the trees! 

Mr. Mountain Man setting up our bed 

I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say this is the coolest thing I've ever done. We talked and ate chocolate and watched the mountains for a while. God put on a beautiful lightning show for us, which we probably enjoyed more than Stefan, who was sleeping on the ground. We fell asleep faster than either of us intended, and slept twice as long as we had any night before. It rained a little during the night, which Taylor slept right through, but I pulled the tent sides down and we stayed dry the whole time. Stefan, apparently, not so much. Oops. 

He got up before us and had breakfast waiting at this lake. Soft pretzels for breakfast. These people speak my love language: bread.

We loaded back into the car and he drove us to the train station where we got on the train and immediately found the bathroom. 36 hours without a shower does not look good on me, but it was well worth it. 

Stupid as it may sound, I had been kind of bummed to not be making a trip to Telluride this summer, but this weekend was the perfect fix. I will never get tired of simply staring at the mountains, and having amazing food, perfect weather, and my best friend as part of the package doesn't hurt either. Our random, hastily-planned weekend may turn out to be the one of the best- it certainly is the best thus far. 

Remember at the beginning of this post when I said we were experts at the train thing? Well #lawlz. One of our connections left from a different platform than it was supposed to and we sprinted to catch it, but the man wouldn't let us on. Commence frantic rescheduling of 15 different connections. We added 4 hours and €16 to our journey back to Maastricht. But, again, this weekend was about learning to go with the flow. 

As a side note, I HAVE become an expert on train station soft pretzels. In fact, they made up all 3 of my meals today, so there's that. 

At our hour long layover in Mannheim we got a little pick-me-up at McDonald's...desperate times call for desperate measures. 

We sat down outside a coffee shop in the train station and met a woman and her baby who invited  us to their church service that night. A man from their church was playing in the coffee shop, and his songs were in German, of course, but he was really good. Taylor bought his CD and we talked to Sylvia for a while about their church before we had to catch our next train. Whether it was her or her precious daughter or the music or even the McFlurry, we left the station a little more lively, which was a major plus. 

We finally made it back to Maastricht by 9:45, quite literally by some act of God. I will not post a picture of what I looked like by this point, I'll leave that up to the imagination. But it was about this time that I started to regret traveling with my roommate who can somehow always look like she just stepped off the runway while I look like a disheveled hobo tagging along behind and dragging my horrible stench with me. Not to mention my hair, which looked like I had dumped a vat of oil directly on my head. Cute stuff, people. Cute.

I squeezed in a shower before skyping with my family and my lovely GB. Perfect way to end this wonderful weekend! And she gave me a surprise that I'm not allowed to share yet... stay tuned :)