Kiefersfelden & Kufstein

I took a little train ride (12 hours..."little train ride") from Bonn to Kiefersfelden--a small city in Bavaria, right on the Austrian border--where several of my USM friends were singing in a summer program for opera and musical theater. Though both cities are in Germany, it was like I was on a whole different planet. I could still understand and be understood, but it took my ears a bit of time to adjust to the 'southern accent' that people had there. [Sidenote: I'm pretty sure this is the first time in my life that I have had a "normal accent" in any language, as opposed to a drawl. Personal victory!]

Incredible Ireland

On (basically) a whim, after finding out that we both had long weekends from classes, my best friend (who was also studying abroad in Europe) and I decided to meet up in Ireland and spend the weekend together.

24 hours in Belgium

In June, my BFFSling visited me before taking a train into Bavaria for a music training program. Having a few extra days and wanting to say that we had been to more countries, we decided to take a bus to Brussels, Belgium for 24 hours.

No strangers to kitschy trips together, [i.e. the Salem Witch Museum visit, Fall 2011?] Sling and I decided that priority number one in Brussels was a little place called MiniEurope, a theme park/village sort of place containing miniature replicas of all the famous buildings in the European Union.

No, really.