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| Hallo Frankfurt |
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.
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| Stop number 10: Marburg |
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| Edinburgh Castle |
And now, roadtripping through Europe, the 20 second version:
-Days: 27
-Cities visited: 10
...making: 13 stops
...making: 13 stops
...in: 3 countries
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| Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna |
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| Some of the "+"'s: two of my sister's fellow TA friends |
-Trains: 17
-Types of transportation: 8
...aka: feet, car, taxi, bus, train, subway, plane, boat
-pictures taken: 988 (after editing)
Some of the highlights:
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| Arriving in Cologne around 8:30 pm |
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| 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.
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| With Lisa in Kiel |
visiting friends and family I hadn't been able to see in far too long.
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| The Baltic Sea with Elna |
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| 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.
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| Kiel ---> |
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| ---> Tübingen |
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| These are our salt mine faces? |
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| Arthur's Seat, with a foggy view of Edinburgh below |
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| Loch Ness |
Just in case that wasn't enough, here are a couple more pictures...
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| Hardcore chess in Salzburg |
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| Parade below our window on morning #1 in Salzburg |
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| Canadian choir in Salzburg |
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| Not the best wine, but the name was too perfect to pass up |
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| Train number 16, Vienna --> Frankfurt |
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| Edinburgh's Royal Mile at 11 pm |
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| Just an average day on the main streets of Glasgow |
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| The Olympic Torch outside of the University of Glasgow |
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| Look mountains!! |
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| 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!
