Only in Europe can you walk out of your friend's bathroom only to hear a live accordion being played in the next room (our host, Heiner, is an excellent accordion player! how German is that?!).

Only in Europe can you spend 5 minutes explaining the definitions of "swagger" and "swag" and the difference between the two, followed by a discussion of what it means to "turn one's swag on" (the discussion I had between Heiner and his roommate).

Well, maybe only in Wurzburg....

Wurzburg was fun.

The end.

For "only in Europe, part 1"....click here

Kayla and I had been planning our "Salzburg Christmas weekend" for quite some time. We had planned to meet in Rosenheim (where Kayla lives) and ride to Salzburg together....our plans changed, however, when a snowstorm hit my town, cancelling/delaying the buses which then caused me to miss the first train to Rosenheim (the one I had planned to take). In a panicked frenzy, I bought the wrong train ticket (there were no attendants working at the station due to snow so I used the machine and bought a ticket which was scheduled for a different day - then couldn't exchange it at the desk since no one was working!). This ended up costing me 17 extra euro; not the end of the world but frustrating, especially whenever you need every cent you have for Christmas shopping!

Then, to make matters worse, the trains were delayed all the way to Salzburg - and so crowded that they were standing room only! I called Kayla, frustrated, and told her to go on without me and that I'd be there as soon as I could. She asked me if I'd rather turn around and go back since the going had gotten so tough. I considered it for a moment but since I had already been on the way for 6 hours (and the trip is normally, what, 3 hours?), that I may as well stick it out. I am so glad I did. As soon as I got to Salzburg, I hopped on the bus, rode it a few stops to Mirabell Gardens, hopped off and ran to meet Kayla. It was so beautiful the rough day didn't matter. I have such fond memories of this short little trip with Kayla.

I wonder how many times I said, "My mom would love this!" or "I wish my mom were here!" or "Gotta take a picture of this for my mom!"

Every year, the city of Salzburg converts Mozartplatz into a skating rink.

We rode to Rosenheim together on the following day and enjoyed the snowy scenery. We used Kayla's headphone splitter while listening to Enya's "Trains and Winter Rains". Perfection! I love her whole Christmas album. By the way, isn't her jacket so fluffy and cute?

We literally had 10 minutes to walk through the Rosenheim market before I had to catch my train to Nuremberg. Luckily for me, once you've seen 340 Christmas markets (or something like that), you've kinda seen them all. :)

Highlights:

*Buying so many Christmas gifts for friends and family

* Seeing a snowy Salzburg for the first time in a year

*Kayla finding money on the ground 3 different times (for a total of 11 euro),

although I did keep thinking, "Why couldn't I have found that first?!"

Erica and I went to 2 different Christmas markets 2 nights in a row.

My plan was to attend as many of these as I possibly could.

....I think I did pretty well.

Würzburg:

Nürnberg:

(yeah, it was, like, my 5th time at this one...don't even worry about it)

(continued from the last post)

The "burg" in Wurzburg's name indicates that there is a castle/fortress (Festung) within the city borders. Naturally, we had to see it so despite the extreme temperatures, we walked to the very top. The view was incredible and the constant movement helped keep our body temperatures above freezing. I do regret wearing my favorite pair of jeans (complete with a few holes), however, since bare skin and subzero temperatures do not mix well. The pictures are pretty, though, right?

such a Rapunzel tower, don't you think?