How I Saved Myself $750

Communication is an art. It's nice to be able to put it to use sometimes, and in a different language at that!

...the following takes place between 10am and 11am.

I thought I could deal with having to pay two months' rent to this place even when I'm not even going to be here. I thought I could deal with the fact that these mean people would have the key to my apartment that is MINE by contract until September 30, while I was paying for it...meaning they could rent it out again if they wanted to and make double the money... I thought I would just give them the money and go home and be fine with it.

No. After being here almost 8 months with two more to go, I realized that was NOT going to fly. I found someone who needs a room for those two months and was told I was not allowed to sublease it. So this morning I went in there, where I sat for about 20-30 minutes while she told me all the reasons why it wouldn't work, and I told her I had stuff to pay for at home and this kid really needs a place to stay... and I kept asking "why can't you make an exception for exchange students; they HAVE to move out in July, PLUS we are foreigners and have essentially no idea how to get an apartment in a foreign country anyway. They always offer rooms here to exchange students and everyone has to pay out the butt to stay here even when they have to leave two months earlier. She even told me that two years ago everything was different and it may have worked then. She told me over and over again that she couldn't change anything, that I knew what I was getting into when I signed the papers, etc. etc. and asked me "Do you understand?" and I said "NO. Why can't you make a new contract? You can give him a contract for two months, you CAN make an exception, I have OTHER THINGS TO PAY FOR."...

And then I cried a little. Not because I'm super dramatic, although I am very proud at how dramatic the moment must've looked like... I was VERY frustrated and angry at how unfair they are to exchange/Erasmus students. Here, everyone gets money for everything. Most students get money from their parents and have to pay about $300 per YEAR to go to school in this region. And even for the regions that do have tuition fees, its like $700 a semester. That's NOTHING compared to what we have to pay. Not that I pay anything anyway, but it's still not cheap for me and just because I HAVE money, doesn't mean I have to spend it on stupid things like rent when I'm not even living there!!!!!!!!

She immediately printed me out a lease cancellation form. I signed it and Voila! I don't have to pay the rent for the last two months of the contract. I KNEW it was possible! Exceptions can ALWAYS be made and I learned this from working in customer service for 5 years (it doesn't take long to pick up on that, though). There are always exceptions, always always always.

I am moving out on the 15th. Hopefully I can find someone here in the Wohnheim that will take me in until my cousins come to pick me up on Saturday the 19th.

Now I just gotta wait for the guy getting my room to reply to the lady's email saying he will go through with it (he'll have to pay both months rent + €400 bond (which he will get back) up front... which he will be fine with, I think... he's a medicine student from Hamburg, which means the kid must have some dough. :-)


Caitlin

Hej everyone, I'm back from Stockholm

We set out at 6:30 am Wednesday morning and paid €21 to park at the Hahn (German for "rooster") airport for three days, which really wasn't half bad. I had to really really FIGHT with the lady at the counter when we went to check in because she was trying to make us pay €5 each to check in since we were using the counter... Ryanair charges anyone who doesn't use online check in BUT anyone who doesn't live in the EU is not allowed to use online check in. Discrimination? Yes, but they don't care. Anyway not getting into that. We experienced some terrible turbulence for about 6 seconds during the flight there and it was so bad we all thought for those 6 seconds we were really going to die, it was terrifying.

The hostel we stayed in was really really cool!!!! It was also very clean. They have free pasta! We bought our own sauce (found the yummy kind we had in Italy!) so that made for quite a few Euros saved on dinner in this expensive city. The beds in the hostel were also really comfortable and there was just a lot of space to hang out and meet people. I met and chatted with sooo many people it was unreal. Had a grand old time chatting with a bunch of English boys, although I had to ask them to repeat just about everything they said, ha ha!

We walked around the town pretty much the whole time we were there, photographing the fabulous and enormous statues and gardens. Stockholm is situated on 14 islands connected by almost 60 bridges! Gamla Stan is the old town and is soooo pretty and picturesque with old, old houses and narrow alley ways. The city is ridiculously clean and I saw TWO people's dogs poop on the street and the owners promptly cleaned it up! We witnessed the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace (when the guards walk they swing their left arms up really high, its funny). We caught a random acrobatic show in the town on Thursday. A Swedish specialty we really enjoyed were the cinnamon buns... the best of which were NOT purchased in a bakery, in my opinion, but in a package of six at the grocery store... Sweden also has the most amazing chocolate I have ever tasted, and as I write this am fighting the urge to get up and retrieve some of it from my cabinet... RESIST!!!

Stockholm has a fabulous shopping district--over 4,000 stores. We walked everywhere. On Thursday we went to the Vasa museum, a huge museum that's centered on a 16th century war ship that sunk 15 minutes into its maiden voyage due to being too top-heavy. That was fascinating-- we were there for almost three hours. After we visited that museum, we stopped for lunch and I had a hotdog wrapped in a tortilla with mashed potatoes, lettuce, tomato, and ketchup/mustard. They overdid it on the potatoes in my opinion...

Our evenings we spent hanging out downstairs in the hostel just chatting away with other travellers. I enjoyed that immensely... by the time most of those other travelers made up their minds about which bar they were going to that night, it was time for bed for these two old ladies ;-)

Most of the pics (should be posted on Monday) will be of all the pretty buildings and squares and guardens and statues we saw... Sweden is a beautiful country!!

In other news, I may be getting a sublease for my apt. for August and September, two months that I'd planned on, reluctantly, having to pay regardless that I'm going home before August even begins...

My head behind my eyes still constantly hurts, but only when reading. It seems harder to focus on the words than ever before, as if my eyes were going out of focus by themselves somehow.

I just planned a weekend excursion to Brussels, Belgium, for June 13-15... Iwona is coming to visit Koblenz on the 16th-17th so I am looking forward to that as well.

My next trip is on Friday, and I'm going to see ANNA in London!! I am very excited and feeling very grateful, as her mom is going to pick me up and take me to the airport and then pick me up again when I come home on Monday night. And also grateful that Anna is hosting me and sharing her 2 for 1 coupons with me :-) and picking me up from Gatwick, YEAH :-) Thanks Anna :-)

Tomorrow there is a giant flea market on the Moselle...we're going to walk there and check it out. I hope I don't find anything I can't live without... I can't afford to have any more STUFF...speaking of stuff, I just got a new webcam for my "new" computer (I got it fixed last week for FREEEE) which is a really really cool webcam and it works way better than the old one, which means, Mom, I'll be calling you more often :-)

Now I am going down to see my Australian buddy--we took my bike to the shop today to get a new tube in the back tire, ate ice cream, and walked home--to sip sangria and talk about life. It's quite possible I may get so drunk that I won't be able to find my way home, which is downstairs and to the left, leaving me at the mercy of a most merciless Aussie.


Cheers,
Caitlin

UPDATE: I just read my entry (it's the next day, 9:12am) and I must have been drunk when I wrote the entry (I really wasn't) because "my way home" from the Aussie's as a I described in the last paragraph is NOT "downstairs and to the left"... it's UPSTAIRS and to the RIGHT... downstairs and to the left is how to get to the Aussie, who lives on the lowest floor, LOL.

I did make it home last night, it was a fun time and the lights in the hallway don't work. Hmph.

Dublin

Talk about the trip of a lifetime! Well, since I left on October 1, it's
been the trip of a lifetime, but you know what I mean. I just got back
from Dublin, Ireland, last night! It was SO much fun... the Irish are
ridiculously nice people. The first time we opened the map on the street
looking for a bank, an older Irish gentleman asked if we were lost and
needed help. He even pulled out his wallet to see if he had change for my
€100 that I needed to change at the bank. The security guard at the bank
ended up pulling out HIS wallet and exchanging it for me since the bank
wasn't going to be open for some time. What a bunch of nice people!!

WARNING: I am going to write a lot because I really enjoyed this trip and
I want to remember all of the wonderful memories made during it. Please
don't complain about the length of this entry, if you think it is too
long, just don't read it and don't say anything if you don't like it, it's
not your trip and not your blog, either. And my mom likes having something
to read... so THERE!

Anyway, Jenny and I flew from Düsseldorf airport to Dublin. Düsseldorf is
THE worst airport ever when it comes to security checks. Okay, they do a
good job, but it's a pain in the neck and took us almost 30 minutes to get
through and they searched our bags. It didn't help that a bunch of Turks
were in front of us in line trying to smuggle plants and peanut butter. No
one seemed to know anything about anything in line at security at the
Düsseldorf airport. ANDDDD there was passport control BEFORE leaving the
airport, it was crazy... Oh well. Anyway the flight was very pleasant. We
flew with Aer Lingus. As I got on the plane, the guy checking the boarding
passes saw my name and was like "you're Irish!" and I was like "no, I'm
not"... because I'm not. Funny thing was, although my name is allegedly
Irish, I could only find ONE souvenir with my name on it in the entire
souvenir store! There's a time difference of one hour between Germany and
Ireland so we "gained" an hour and got there 20 minutes after we left :-)
.. technically.

Once we got to the airport we had to go through passport control again,
where we had another pleasant experience with the Irish... they really are
nice!!! We hopped a bus after some difficulties finding the right one and
headed into town... took about 40 minutes and was only €1,90, whereas the
other buses going into the city charged €5-€7! It pays to do research in
advance, folks!! The hostel we stayed in was nice, we were in an 8 bed
girls only room with our own bathroom... we were bummed because we booked
in advance and ended up having to pay €8 more per night after they lowered
their prices to €10 a night once they realized they weren't going to fill
up those nights... but since we booked in advance like smart people
usually do, we were stuck with €18 a night. Which was okay, I mean, that
still wasn't bad.

Wednesday morning we dined on buttered white toast and orange juice
provided by the hostel, then began our journey around the city. It's a
small city, easily reachable by foot mostly... We first headed down to the
big park, St. Stephen's Green, where Big Willy, the giant seagull, and all
of his friends had been vacationing. HUGE HUGE HUGE seagulls. I enjoyed
watching one of them venture over to the pigeons getting fed and laughing
about how huge he was next to the pigeons, haha... seagulls are the
pigeons of the beach. Next, we went to the Iveagh Gardens (pronounced
"Ivy"), which was once known to locals as the "Secret Garden"... we found
it after a sign ironically pointed the way for us... after playing around
and exploring the garden a bit, we headed over to Trinity College, where I
engaged in a conversation with a guy working in the library... those Irish
people love to talk!

We took a bus to the Kilmainham Gaol (we learned that this word, Gaol, is
pronounced like JAIL!... tickled me pink, those Irish quacks). The tour
was really cool and really cheap, apparently the Irish have a very
terrible history in their quest for independence and survival... the jail
cells were open and people could go inside. The tour guide we had was
interesting, he explained everything in such a friendly way, we didn't get
the full effect of the grim events that had taken place in the jail
because he sounded so nice!! After lunch (purchased at the grocery store
next to our hostel) we went to see the St. Michan's Church, established in
1095... the church itself was strange enough, but the main attraction was
down in the SUPER creepy crypts below the church... there are naturally
mummified bodies on display down there and some of the crypts are still
"active", meaning if someone in one of the families that own the crypts
wanted to stick another body in there, they could legally do so... the
tour guide was amazing, he spoke in such a bone-chilling tone that we all
kind of felt creeped out... the bodies were mummified by the constant
temperature and the limestone walls down there... he even let us into the
crypt with the mummies on display to touch them (we didn't, though!)...
all the other coffins (not caskets, these are the real deal coffins with
the funky old school coffin shape, which are apparently still in use in
Ireland today... I saw a hearse at a stoplight with one in the back, which
we thought was strange enough considering there are usually curtains in
the back of hearses... maybe it was empty....) probably have mummies in
them too, but since the crypts are still active, they aren't allowed to
excavate them... so that church was the neatest and coolest thing we did
the whole time there... we both agreed!

We found this really cute cafe in the Temple Bar area behind our hostel...
it was called Cafe Irie and I had a Chicken tikka panini and it was SOOO
good... I should mention that food in Dublin in RIDICULOUSLY expensive and
this was one of the cheapest we found... the rest of the evening we hung
out in the hostel and turned in early so we could get up early the next
day...

And the next day, Thursday, we headed out to the Georgian style Merrion
Square... there are hundreds of tulips planted there and it was so
pretty... we wanted to go to the Natural History Museum after that since
we had read about it in our travel guides, but we got there to find out it
was closed... as I yelled through the gate in frustration "WHY IS THE
MUSEUM CLOSED?", two older Irish gentlemen stopped and explained that the
staircase had collapsed about three years ago and the museum has been
closed ever since... blimey! Our next stop was to see the well next to St.
Patrick's Cathedral... we stopped the corner of St. Stephen's Green to
check the map and a dreamy young Irish lad cheerfully offered us his
assistance... after which, as I watched him walk out of my life forever, I
fell slightly in love ... he cruelly continued to haunt my memory... my
almost lover, I never got his name, nor he mine... and what may have been
I will never know...

The well ended up being just a fountain, those Irish quacks who wrote my
guide need a dictionary!!! In the park, though, we did see the ONLY dog in
Dublin... after the first day we realized just how few (zero) dogs we had
seen in comparison to Germany. The next stop after that was the city hall,
which had a less-than-impressive exhibition on the history of Dublin
downstairs. We headed over to Dublin Castle only to find out that due to
governmental business, there were no tours... next door was a great garden
though and I found The Dublin Cat sunning himself peacefully on one of the
benches... he was sweet and he only tried to bite me once, hahaha... he
lives in the hedge and judging by his size, is exceptionally well fed. The
Chester Beatty Library was beautiful... they had a fantastic exhibition on
world religions upstairs that kept me busy reading and perusing for over
an hour. Upstairs they have a Japanese garden providing a great view of
the Castle and the gardens next to it. Down in the lobby of the library we
met a pretty bitter but friendly Irish man who is moving to Panama City,
FL in September because he is "sick of Ireland"... we were hungry and
wanted to leave but he really wanted to chat... he recommended a fish and
chips joint to us but we had the sandwich stuff from the day before still
so we just went back to the hostel to eat where we met two German guys,
one of which was on his way back from a two semester long stay in
Wisconsin... they were interesting, the two, we had some drinks by the
river with them later that evening and just chatted about life and
politics, maybe thats what the Irish do?

Found this really quirky thrift shop in a basement and I found a brown
suede handbag for €10... quite a bargain I say. We then went to the Christ
Church Cathedral, where we did a self-guided tour of the place which had a
LOT to offer... one of the walls, for example, is LEANING about two feet
toward the outside... downstairs in the crypt there are mummified remains
of a cat and a rat who were discovered inside the piping of the organ!
THAT was creepy... the cat still had whiskers!! We returned later that
evening (after enjoying the fine taste of FAT FROG, a green alcoholic
beverage we discovered in the supermarket, and some Cadbury cream eggs,
unknown to the US except around Easter) to the Christ Church to take part
in the Evensong service, so we got to hear the fabulous choir sing
beautiful (albeit boring) music... it lasted about 35 minutes and there
was a lot of sitting and standing, but I really enjoyed it anyway because
somehow it allowed me to cut out other stuff and just sit and listen.

We ate dinner at Eddie Rocket's, which I swear is the EXACT REPLICA of
Johnny Rocket's back home... right down to the menu!!! You have to pay 20
cents a song for the juke boxes, though, and it is WAY more expensive...
we got two burgers and split some cheese fries and it cost over $30!!!
Jenny had never been to a 50's diner though, so it was worth it for her to
have the experience... anyway as I mentioned earlier we had drinks on the
river with the Germans and it was amazing in a crazy way because I looked
at the river once to see that TWELVE swans were swimming in it, they
literally came out of no where and it was breathtaking to see them
swimming around the river in the moonlight!!

The next morning we got up early and took a bus Howth, a suburb by the
sea... it was AWESOME there... we saw the Irish sea, the mist hovering
above it, hiked the trails down the hill and to the port where we saw
seals, some more giant seagulls, and a boat called Dipper... we asked some
locals about the other sights in the area, and we walked up to the ruins
of an old Irish abbey which to me was strangely beautiful in an old Celtic
sort of way... there were so many old graves and it was cramped in the
surrounding cemetery, so much so that there were even graves inside the
actual ruins... we walked down the road to the Howth Castle, which is now
the Transport Museum, where we were met by another babbling Irish guy who
told us to go take a look over the city from the first hole on the nearby
golf course... we trekked up the road and really got a great view of the
sea, littered with sailboats, the port, the castle and even the rest of
the city of Dublin. On our way back a Romanian guy who told us about Jesus
gave us a ride back to the main road (don't worry Mom, there were two of
us and he worked for Enterprise Rent-a-car!

We went back on the bus to Dublin, had lunch for cheap at a nearby cafe
run by Asians, then went to the airport where we caught our flight back to
Düsseldorf... we were tight on time once we got there but I asked the S
bahn driver to wait just one minute, to which he smiled and replied that
he wasn't allowed... but he waited anyway, we think, because he left one
minute later than scheduled, as soon as we got on the train (it pays to be
cute and ask really nicely sometimes in desperate situations...) otherwise
we wouldn't have gotten home for a really long time... 11:30 was late
enough...

That's it for Dublin... in other news, I think I may need glasses, as my
eyes seem to be having trouble focusing and I seem to have "headaches" but
behind my eyes... don't fancy going to an eye doctor here, though... my
computer is still ridiculously slow but in further research I may have
discovered that the problem lies in the FAN... since November or so it has
been constantly running and running and running, but the computer doesn't
get hot... I learned that there may be a lot of dust inside the fan area
which causes this and therefore the computer to slow down and that
cleaning it out may improve things drastically. Of course tomorrow is
Sunday and NOTHING is open tomorrow so I will have to wait until Monday to
do something about it... perhaps get a can of air to blow out myself or
head over to the school to talk to the tech guys, for sure they have
something to take care of it and maybe I won't have to buy anything OR go
into town... I am also translating English to German now, maybe I can
speak this language after all. So far I am two pages in, and it's not even
that hard. Granted, it is definitely not going to be as good a translation
as it would have been had a native done it, but it also doesn't have to
be.... which makes me happy, ha ha...

Next week Kerstin and I are going to Stockholm for a few days...

I apologize also for the delay in getting pictures uploaded, the computers
on campus do not support Facebook uploader anymore for some reason and I
used to take my computer there to do it but since it is now running like
such a turtle, it may be a while... there are lots of pictures coming as
soon as I can get this computer up to speed!!

Caitlin

Album links are unfortunately no longer working

Somehow, Facebook changed all the links to my photo albums and now the links I have posted to the left are no longer live... I apologize for the inconvenience, but considering the only person(people??) I know that consistently look(s) at my pics is(are) on Facebook, I will waste no time trying to fix all 70 or so of them.

Cheers,
Caitlin

Miscellaneous Events of May 7 - 12

Well tonight I am already headed off to my next destination (Dublin), and I just got back from my last one (Spain) last night. I still need to pack and all that but I thought I should pop in and let the world (Mom) know how it went down.

First of all the flight was SUPERB. I got a super deal (29 Euro) with Condor from Frankfurt Main to Malaga. Not only did they serve a hot meal and free drinks on a three hour flight, they showed a film (King of California) AND I got to sit in the exit row for FREE! It may have been because I complained about not being able to hold even my purse during takeoff (all my money and stuff was in there!!) and had a look of horror as a family of five seated themselves around me, the youngest of which, an infant, grabbing my arm and stepping on my feet. I HATE that on planes, sitting next to families with children whose parents do NOT care in the least how much their children invade the space of other passengers. UGH. So the flight attendant told me there was a seat open a little ways back and I gladly took it, it was the best seat in the house. I had triple the legroom and was the first one off the plane!! I still missed the bus to the main bus station in Malaga though, because Condor DID have a 15 minute delay. Perhaps because they waited until 20 minutes before the scheduled takeoff to board that many people (it was a full 757!).

ANYWAY... I've been told I complain as much as a German sometimes so I'll shut up. I eventually made it to Granada where a nice, handsome Russian boy, Viktor, offered me accommodation for a few evenings. He even watched my favorite show, the Office, with me and took me around town with him a bit. We attended a talent show put on by other exchange students there and then we ate hamburgers with fried eggs on them. This was my very first experience with fried egg, ever... and it was on a hamburger. To each his own.

The next day it rained. A lot. Unfortunately this Florida girl, who was very much looking forward to prancing around in her new summer apparel, was stuck in jeans and a jacket once again. We went to the science center in Granada where there was a temporary exhibit going on with poisonous animals. I saw snakes, poison dart frogs, lizards, all kinds of stuff. We went to the planetarium too and I didn't understand very much because I don't speak Spanish but Viktor was kind enough to interpret for me. At the science center, it rained so hard and even hailed (perhaps the size of BB pellets), it was quite ridiculous but cool to see. Afterward, we met some of Viktor's pals and had some pizza (that was apparently purchasable at a local supermarket for a quarter of the price we paid, according to sources, lol) and walked around this little mall for a bit. It was a nice time

On Saturday, we went to Nerja, on the Costa del Sol (near Malaga) where we were also planning to have a nice time in the sun and sand, but it was too cold and rainy (still). We still had a nice time. There are lots of cute shops and a LOT of cats (specifically: orange ones) and the beaches are sooo pretty. Instead of sand, there were just millions and billions of tiny pebbles that were no problem to clean off after getting your feet wet. We visited the Balcony of Europe and (almost) saw Africa...

Something funny--when we booked the hostel in Nerja, the reviews kept saying that the couple that owned it were Russian. Well, when we got there, we were given accommodations different from what we had booked and paid for-- and complained about it. The owner was NOT happy (I don't know why, it wasn't our fault) but, as soon as Viktor decided to work his magic by speaking in his mother tongue, the owner's mood changed drastically. He was SO excited that Viktor was Russian, they introduced themselves, chatted excitedly, and he showed us a map recommending a restaurant to us, the best places to take a stroll, the nicest beach, etc, and the room we ended up with had a really cute balcony on which we, in the evenings, sipped sangria until we (I) couldn't see straight anymore. It was marvelous and I will remember it forever.

Sunday we visited the famous caves of Nerja--it was kind of expensive in comparison to the Casemates in Luxembourg last weekend, but it was still really neat. I'd never been inside a cave before and it was crazy to read about how they were used back in the day by, well...cavemen. We went back, had lunch on the balcony (including perhaps a little too much sangria) and walked down to the beach. I put my feet in the water (it was cold)!! We saw a bunch of cats but none of them wanted to play except this little one near some stairs, whom I gave the name of Creamcake (she was creamcolored)... I determined by the roundness of her belly and friendly nature that she must be pregnant, as Dipper was when we found her. Except at that time we didn't know she was pregnant... hahaha. DIPPER!!

We went back to the hostel after walking a while and ended up sleeping for THREE HOURS. Then we went to the restaurant the manager recommended and it was soooo good. It was such a shame that we couldn't (I couldn't) eat any more that I did. We ordered paella to share, and there was just soooo much!! I think if I'd eaten anymore I would have had to put some back :-)

Monday we took a bus to Malaga and I got on a plane with Ryanair (cost 85 Euro, NOT 29 like with the flight there), which was cramped and would have been miserable had I not had a few magazines and my iPod. Apparently yesterday was a holiday, but I didn't know that so I expected to get on the regular bus and go home once I got to Koblenz, but ended up having to dish out another 8 Euro on a taxi. The dumb part was that I was actually ON a bus for one stop and the bus driver told me that the bus I wanted was still coming and so I got off when he told me to and THE BUS NEVER CAME. AHHHH! Surprisingly calm and not very irritated, I simply called a taxi and went home. Such is life sometimes.

Today I am packing for Dublin. We're only there for three nights, but we'll have two full days to check the place out. Apparently the city's not that big...


Caitlin

Luxembourg + the beautiful Castle Eltz

This weekend was fabulous.

Saturday morning the Three Fins, the Australian and I piled into a car and drove to Luxembourg. What a neat little city!! Since it was Saturday, it was pretty packed. I bought a postcard and a stamp and wrote on the postcard, but have no idea what happened to it... I guess I lost it, and I'm hoping whoever found it was nice enough to put it in the post box, otherwise you won't be getting a postcard, Mom! We visited the casemates, which are a bunch of tunnels underneath the city... that was really cool! In Luxembourg they speak French, German, and Leetzebergisch, their own mixture of the two-- it is WILD... the newspapers have articles, advertisements, etc. in ALL THREE languages!!

Sunday we walked to the main station because we thought there was a bus on Sunday, but there wasn't... I think if I could summarize yesterday in two words it would be "we walked". Because that's what we did-- we walked 45 minutes to the train station, 70 minutes to the castle once we got off the train, and 50 minutes back (we HURRIED, otherwise we would have missed the train home!). The castle was really great and well worth all that hiking. Just the hiking was worth it, the trails to the castle are gorgeous; right next to a valley and a cute little creek. Then, all of a sudden, you turn another corner from the many and BAM there it is, this amazing medieval castle just perched on the mountainside. We picnicked there and took a tour of the castle. Everyone in that time was really short, even the knights in shining armor. When I was little I used to want to be a princess (who didn't?!) but now as I've gotten older that has changed... I couldn't imagine wearing my pretty little princess dress and have to live in that place. I'd never get out! The Castle Eltz is owned to this day by the von Eltz family, and I asked the tour guide if the $8 we paid to get in went to them and he said yes. I was like "shucks, ain't they got enough money?!" What kind of luck is that? Well, I suppose it's a family business. There are also paintings from the artist Lucas Cranach (the older) hanging throughout the castle, which are loaned out for Lucas Cranach exhibitions. Wild. Castle Eltz was also on the back of the 500 DM (Deutschmark) bills before they were phased out and is known as the most famous castle of its sort in all of Germany...

Something interesting... in Germany and in the language there are two different words for "castle"... "Burg" generally refers to older castles existing in the Middle Ages and before, and "Schloß" (ß is pronounced as a double S), which refers to newer castles and some palaces, such as those that belonged to Crazy King Ludwig II -- Neuschwanstein (Cinderella castle), Linderhof, Hohenschwangau, and Herrenchiemsee, along with many others throughout the country.

Last night I watched "Dan in Real Life", battled a huge green monster, and went to bed early.

Today I went shopping in Koblenz.... :-) Didn't find any record-breaking spectacular deals, but
some pretty good stuff I guess. I realized that when I packed I forgot all about summer clothing, and just ignored the fact that this place does not have air conditioning... so I found some tanks and some shorts and a skirt for summer... great travel clothes--take up less space!!    

Oh and last week we had a picnic on the Moselle-- it was kind of cold but it was neat to get to know the rest of the new crew a little better.