So much for healing my heart........ and in which 1 month turned into 2

Hallo Frankfurt

I was supposed to go to Europe to have fun and take a couple deep breaths and find my motivation again. I did have fun, but the breathing got lost in the shuffle somewhere between the 13 1/2 hour train trip through Germany and the only stopping for two days deal that I accidentally enforced everywhere... So, to catch you up on life, this post includes: a list of the change-the-world acts I've been up to and will describe in more detail in catch-up post part 2, a little summary of my trip, and a dedication to one of the most wonderful women in the world. All of this works together to explain why a one month break turned into two.

First up, the list: donating to a Seeing Eye Dog Fund in Scotland (look at me, being all worldly and donating in British pounds!), joining the Shine Project's Change 4 Change campaign, the miracle of baby powder, and recognizing I have to help myself before I can help others with the use of bucket lists.

Stop number 10: Marburg

Edinburgh Castle

And now, roadtripping through Europe, the 20 second version:

-Days: 27

-Cities visited: 10
...making: 13 stops

...in: 3 countries

Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna

...in order: Frankfurt, Neumünster, Kiel, Tübingen, Salzburg, Vienna, Zwettl, Vienna, Frankfurt, Marburg, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Frankfurt.

Some of the "+"'s: two of my sister's fellow TA friends

-People visited: 16+

-Trains: 17

-Types of transportation: 8

...aka: feet, car, taxi, bus, train, subway, plane, boat

-pictures taken: 988 (after editing)

Some of the highlights:

Arriving in Cologne around 8:30 pm

Frankfurt train station, 11 pm

when my 2-train, 8-hour trip across Germany turned into a 13 1/2 hour trip with 6 different trains; complete with 6 hours of standing and no air conditioning.

being reunited with my sister after almost a year of separation consisting only of sporadic skype dates, a few emails, and quite a bit of facebooking.

With Lisa in Kiel

visiting friends and family I hadn't been able to see in far too long. 

 The Baltic Sea with Elna

the birthday boy

being there to celebrate my grandfather's birthday.

becoming reacquainted with one of my best childhood friends.

visiting Scotland for the first time ever. 

 traveling from the northern tip of Germany to the southern, exploring salt mines, climbing Arthur's Seat, and taking a boat ride across Loch Ness.

Kiel --->

---> Tübingen

These are our salt mine faces?

Arthur's Seat, with a foggy view of Edinburgh below

Loch Ness

Just in case that wasn't enough, here are a couple more pictures...

Hardcore chess in Salzburg

Parade below our window on morning #1 in Salzburg

Canadian choir in Salzburg

Not the best wine, but the name was too perfect to pass up

Train number 16, Vienna --> Frankfurt

Edinburgh's Royal Mile at 11 pm

Just an average day on the main streets of Glasgow

The Olympic Torch outside of the University of Glasgow

Look mountains!!

Mountains??

We got home on June 14th, three days before my birthday. My mom and aunt were supposed to skype on my birthday. I was supposed to hear a hearty "happy birthday" from my aunt face-to-face(ish) for the first time in... well, ever? Supposed to. My aunt had been battling breast cancer for more than a year now and had a stroke on my birthday, or really the day after (New Zealand time), which is her husband's birthday. Two days later, she was gone. 

Tante Biba was the family member that I was compared to the most. I looked like her, I acted like her, I even got a double first name just like her. What's that saying about imitation being the highest form of flattery? How do you say goodbye to someone who seemed larger than life when you were little and grew to become one of your staunchest supporters and closest friends once you were old enough to carry on decently intelligent conversations? With the knowledge that she'll always be there in our traditions, that's how. If I may imitate Tante Biba in one last way, I'd like to borrow her strength and her positivity, because life is too short for wallowing in the regrets but is just right for cherishing the memories.

 Britta Katrin Lamprecht Rewi 

19 May 1969- 20 June 2012

After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.  

~J.K. Rowling

Hope you're having a blast, Tante Biba!

In the last two weeks...

...I had an allergic reaction (food poisoning?)/got some kind of phlegm-y, coughing gross sickness in the same night that's stuck around for two weeks.
...there was one day when I had four papers and an assignment due and a presentation to give.
...I found out my dog had a tumor and he wasn't going to make it.
...I went home to be with him for the last two days of his life.
...I had to put my dog to sleep.
...I had 24 hours to study for each of my two final exams followed by 24 hours to write two final papers.
...I graduated from college. I'll say that again.......... I'm a college graduate.
...I moved all of my stuff out of my apartment, said good-bye indefinitely to many of the friends I've made in the last four years, and drove home from Ohio for the last time.
...I basically planned the entire month-long trip to Europe I'm embarking on in less than 48 hours. 

It's been a lot, I'm a little bit run down right now. I'll be back, just give me a month in Europe to find my feet and heal my heart.

 (I cannot take credit for any of the graduation weekend pictures.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

In loving memory of Bilbo Baggins, 28 Aug 2000- 5 May 2012

Love my baby forever

 

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." -JRR Tolkien