Emily the midnight ninja

I have a little story to tell that cheered me up and may cheer you up as well.

My whole life I been rather active while I sleep...talking, flailing around...one time my friend Kyndal woke up, and I was sleeping with my feet on my pillow and when she woke up again I was right side up.

My other specialty is kicking. When I was little, my mom, my brother, and I went to South Padre with some friends. So of course my Mom and I shared a bed and my brother had one to himself as this seemed the most appropriate. Well I kicked my Mom so hard I left bruises, and she slept with my brother for the rest of the trip. Well on my recent trip to Cape Cod I was sharing a bed with my friend Kat. Now I thought I had grown out of this kicking phase since nobody has complained in a while, but apparently I was wrong. I  alternated between kicking and trying to cuddle with her. She has dubbed me Emily the Midnight Ninja, which she so kindly reminded me off at dinner this evening. =)

Amazing reasons for infrequent updates

Reasons why I have not been updating the blog =)

May:
Home to Texas
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Berlin, Germany
Nuremberg, Germany and surrounding areas
Munich, Germany


June:
Arusha and much of northern Tanzania

July:
Boothbay Harbor, Maine

August:
Palo Alto, California
Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Home to Texas

In the near future:
September:
Holbrook, Arizona

November:
Denver, Colorado
Napa Valley, California

December:
Home to Texas

All of this means I have more beautiful pictures than I know what to do with. =)

Day 10: Munich

So I've had requests to explain who this mysterious Felix person is... Felix was a foreign exchange student from Germany at my high school when I was a junior. We met because he was in the band, but mostly we met because my high school was the size of a teacup. Over the last 7 years we've kept up through email and instant messaging.

Felix had to go back to Munich for class, which was perfect as I got to wander around Munich while he was stuck in class. As I am of the opinion that wandering is the best way to travel, I didn't really plan anything.  As I only had the day, I went and found one of the tourist buses to take me around the city. The bus was nice because you could hop on and off whenever you found something interesting.

My favorite stop was Marienplatz, which has lots of cool architecture and shopping, but everything was closed because it was Sunday. I kept walking around just because it was beautiful and there were lots of street musicians, and I was enjoying myself when I came upon a street fair. I bought some chocolate strawberries and sat down and listened to the traditional German music for while. This really cute dog became my best friend as soon as he noticed my strawberries.

It had been threatening to rain off and on all morning and finally started pouring, so I made my way back to the Frauenkirche cathedral that I'd seen to get out of the rain. It's a big beautiful Gothic cathedral with lots of stained glass.








My final stop was to Nymphenburg Palace, which was built in the 1600s! There was a beautiful park behind the palace where people came to work out, or picnic, take a walk, you name it. I sat on a bench for a long time people watching and eating chocolate.

May 30, 2010

Maine with Mom: Monhegan Island

So another day on our trip up to Maine, we took a ferry out to Monhegan Island, which is a famous place where lots of artists have gone to paint. Behind us is the town where there are lots of cute shops and restaurants and way toooooo many tourists.

But there are also some really nice hiking trails, so my Mom and I hiked to the other side of the island to see the views.

Day 9: Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg ob der Tauber... another name I cannot pronounce and trying only succeeded in making Felix laugh hysterically. It's a town that has preserved it's Medieval architecture. It's a big tourist trap, but it was a lot of fun or at least I had fun. Felix complained a lot about the Japanese tourists. =)






We spent a little time exploring the town to see what there was to do. One of our first stops was the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum. Most of the tools of torture were hideously gross, but several funny ones caught my eye. I took a picture of for my brother's benefit. The caption for the Flute of Shame reads:

"This was used for shaming bad musicians. The neck of the musician was forded through the upper round hole and the fingers were placed under the iron which shows the many finger holes. This gave the impression that the musician was playing the flute." 

Now when I read this I pictured my 6'4'' brother wearing this all scrunched up because he is so tall, and then laughed so hard that I cried.

My second favorite reads:

"The delinquent was to sit behind it, while his hands were pinched under the irons, and his feet were forced through the holes in the wood. Every passerby was allowed to tickle the bottom of the sinners feet. Sometimes, salt was rubbed into the soles of the feet and goats licked it off."

They sure were inventive in the Middle Ages...

For lunch we had Schneeballs (Snowball in German). Not exactly the most nutritious but pretty delicious. I'm sure my Aunt Colleen could have found something healthy in them.  They are a specialty in Rothenburg and are hard to describe. It's kind of like a fried dough thing covered in sugar or icing. There is no good way eat them. I just ended up eating mine like an apple. There were children everywhere with powdered sugar on their faces from these things. =)

There is a beautiful cathedral in Rothenburg ob der Tauber called Jakobskirche or the Church of St. James. I was always hoping when I went in one of these beautiful cathedrals that I could find a concert to attend because I remember my brother talking about that when he was studying abroad in Prague, but unfortunately they all seemed to start later in the summer.

May 29, 2010