I am a failed blogger

In my defense, my trip to Germany is mostly a family visit, which means most of my time is spent trying to come up with ways to tell my grandma that yes, I do mostly understand what she is saying but, no, she won't understand my response because my German pronunciation is soooo bad.

Basically, we're not really traveling around Germany. We're spending almost the whole time in my grandparents' tiny village. Today was the exception I was granted because Becky happened to be in Germany at the same time as me, so how could we NOT meet for lunch?

So my mom, Opa, and I took the ICE from Limbürg to Würzburg and met Becky and Allen for lunch (with the slowest service ever). 

Here is my Opa and me waiting for the train bright and early at 8:40 a.m.

And here is all of us minus my mom waiting on the slowest service ever:

Photos with date courtesy of my mom's camera because I somehow did not take one. I blame lack of sleep.

Becky tried currywurst! Wee!

Spot the white asparagus.

After lunch we said auf weidersehen to Becky and Allen went off to find an old church my mom wanted to see and the bridge with a statue of saints. The patron saint of Würzburg is the same as the patron saint of Nomborn, which my mom was strangely excited about. So much so that she posed for a picture in front of it with my Opa.

Anyway, I took lots of pictures as we wandered around all day, stopping for ice cream, Opa's fave, and stopping at an H&M because Würzburg has one even if Nashville doesn't...and I complained about loud German YOUTHS who were smoking and skateboarding and wearing weird clothes.

The Main River was really swollen.

Oh, and I bought something I thought was the equivalent of mocha but it turned out to be pond sludge. No, really. They gave me a strainer for it and everything.

So I taught my mom how to use my camera instead of drinking it. Hence this sexy shot.

Check out my shades. $5 from Forever 21. I am high class!

My main travel blogging will begin next week when we're not family-visiting.

Oh, and Monday we went to some abandoned village, where the whole village left Germany for America in the 1830s or something. My grandma was trying to make me read a newspaper article about it, which is kinda flattering since she's always saying Dustin and Evan speak so much better German than me...yet I can read a newspaper article? Sweet.

Look, I can read some! I can read anything I need to. Ausgang. Ausfahrt. WC. Pommes. Hanchen!

Das ist alles fur jetz! Guten nacht, kleine Fräulein!

Packing part 2!

Behold the power of my organization. Sit in awe.

(Our flight to Newark is delayed. Gross.)

All the clothes I packed before.

All my clothes after. Boom!

My purse/camera bag contents. (Yes, I love wipes. They are so handy while traveling. I have so many wipes. I have Wet Ones, Pampers, Ponds, Kleenex, Cottonelle. YAY WIPES.)

Camera bag packed (sans camera, of course).

Boom!

And now I am too lazy to do anything else with this post. Enjoy!

Packing Part 2 will have to wait till later...

Because I'm too lazy to post my pics. But for now I just thought I'd do a post saying I am off to Germany today (Charlotte via Newark to Frankfurt) and then off to Greece next week, so I shall be posting again. Woohoo!

Enjoy a picture of Oliver for now.

PACKING. Part 1.

So I have this really weird...thing...where one of my faaavorite parts of traveling is the planning. I love figuring out transportation! And hotels! And...what I pack. I mean, I love the actual traveling, too, of course, but I think the planning aspect is just all about the anticipation and that's why I revel in it. As Winnie the Pooh so wisely realized:

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. ~A.A. Milne

So anyway. About that anticipation. I have a big year of travel planned this year! I just bought tickets to Germany and Greece with my mom. We're going to visit my family in Germany the first week, then we're flying from Frankfurt to Athens and hangin' out in Greece for a week. I am super, super pumped!

I also just bought a really cheap plane ticket to San Diego with my friend Dana for next October (did I mention it was cheap? like $164 cheap! super cheap!) so we're gonna explore Cali together for 5 days, which I am also super, super pumped about because I went to San Diego last November and it looked like THIS:

Anyway. The point of this post is not how awesome my travel plans are, though. It is that I am slightly insane. It is that I will be flying on quite a few small planes and I refuse to check any baggage, which has led me to the point of planning what I will pack 4 months in advance. This is pretty normal for me, though. I do this with most international trips.

So today at work I decided to make a visual list! And as I was making my ghetto visual list, I thought, hey, why not blog it and share my insanity with the world? See list below. I do not own the "personal item" purse yet but think it looks perfect for what I need. I've been wanting a cute purse that will protect my DSLR camera that I suck at using so much that I forget how delicate it is. The only problem is it costs a pretty sum, so while I have planned how to pack it, I have not yet purchase it. Enjoy!