Jan 2009

Hope the New Year finds everyone doing well! My Dad, Mom and Tara came over to Europe and we had the most amazing vacation! My dad planned quite the fun filled sight seeing tour of Germany, Austria, and Italy. I met them in Frankfurt, Germany on December 21 then we headed down to Heidelberg. We got there while it was dark but we walked around a bit and had our first taste of Germany food. We were all pleasantly surprised I think=) Mom and Tara then tried some mulled wine...I had tried some before and knew I wasn't much of a fan. The next day we woke up walked around in the light a bit then headed down to Munich for the Christmas Market and had some tasty German sausages! We then continued on down to Garmisch, a US military resort in the Bavarian Alps and spent the night there. I have since decided that when I graduate I am going to go work there for a year before I go into the real world!! The next day we headed to Neuschwanstein Castle which was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It is the castle that was used as inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disney. It was amazing! Just wait til you see the pictures. Then the drive continued down to Innsbruck, Austria where we spent the night. We saw the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympic Ski Jump that is in the city. This whole time we were driving through the breath taking Bavarian and Italian Alps! Verona, Italy was our next stop because I insisted on seeing Juliette's house from Romeo and Juliet. It was a nice break anyways because the drive from Austria down to Pisa was quite long. We arrived in Pisa on Christmas Eve and saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa. That is about the only thing to do/see in Pisa so after that we headed back to the hotel and watched some weird Italian Circus show on tv. haha. Christmas Day we headed down to Roma. Roma was amazing! It is a very busy city with lots of people and lots to do! We went to the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We practically walked constantly for 2 days. We then decided to head over to Pineto, Italy to stay with my mom's family a day early. On the way we had to drive through the mountains of Italy which had lots of snow and ice! We saw cars spinning out, it was quite scary. Ask my mom about it=) We then spent two days in Pineto visiting with family. And I thought we had a lot of family in Ohio...going to Italy was about equal! It was nice to find out that there are some cousins around Tara and me in age over there too! Venice was the next stop on our tour and probably the coldest city (in my opinion!) Venice was like no other city because of the fact that no vehicles can come into the city! Everything arrives via boat. After Venice we headed back up to Munich for New Years and then stopped at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site on the way to Frankfurt where we all parted again. Hope everyone enjoys the pictures!

http://s494.photobucket.com/albums/rr304/stacey_conrad/European%20Christmas%202008/?albumview=grid

Sorry I have not uploaded pictures in a long time! At the end of November I went to visit my best friend Addie who was studying in Dublin, Ireland! It was quite rainy while we were there but other than that it was beautiful. We had a fun filled four days and i even tried my very first (and last) Guinness. I could not even finish the one free pint that you got when you bought admission to the Guinness Factory. We also took a bus ride over to Galway while we were there. Talk about cold! It was SUPER cold there and there was not much to do. Oh well! I hope to go back sometime and go visit Cork and Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney stone=)

http://s494.photobucket.com/albums/rr304/stacey_conrad/Ireland/?albumview=grid