I spent the last two weeks in Germany with my childhood friend Annika and her two adorable girls Mia and Ela. Annika used to live with us when was a girl as an Aupair and she and I remained very close! I lived in her pink decorated house on the top floor! We stayed in Leutkirch Im Allgäu but spent a huge amount of time traveling to the near by states bordering Leutkirch including Bavaria and sometimes the country Austria. I kept telling Annika that Germany feels like a fairy tale! The land is well trimmed and beautiful and there are castles everywhere you look! Literally, I've seen maybe like 6 different castles in the two weeks I was there including the Neuschwanstein Castle, which is the castle that the Disney Castle was based off of! The towns are small but incredibly lively and the food was fresh! We visited so much of the area and it was incredible to get the opportunity to live with a true local and live the way locals do! We ate bread, the BEST cheese ever, and sausage for nearly 2/3 meals of the day as well as a daily beer. The diet... maybe not the most sustainable... but easily the most satisfying! I learned a little bit of German and I feel like if I were to have stayed I could have picked up on more and more!
Some of my biggest take aways from my time spent in Germany are: good company is essential! I was so lucky to spend some time with Annika and her girls and "shadow" their lives. I was there as Annika would wake up everyday and send her girls off the school, as they would drink their morning coffees, prepare lunch, go to work, attend hobbies like horseback ridding, gymnastics and judo, more coffee, doctors appointments, out for drinks, grocery stores, special education courses, thrift shopping, barbecues, and one more coffee. In spite of all of this though I noticed that people would make time for their friends. Small talk is not small at all and can last for hours. I felt like people were prioritizing social time way more than I am used to in the USA and it was really amazing and is a skill I hope to bring with me as my journeys continue!
Monkey misses Mia and Ela!
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