I keep his cancer bracelet...

...in my purse since I broke it.
I wear his ring on my necklace.
I call the refs “blue” because he always did.
I keep his note in my wallet.
I leave his picture by my bed.
I am scared to talk to him…

I don’t really know what I am doing with this blog. Well, let me rephrase that. I know what I am doing – writing a travel blog – I also know what I wish I was doing – writing a blog full of meaning, a blog with my most inspired, passionate thoughts. Is it too late to change it up a bit?

I thought writing to my Dad might satisfy that yearning, but it has just ended up feeling a bit contrived. I hope you (if there are any of you) will bear with me as I try to shape this journal/diary/log/chronicle/record/communication tool into what I require these days.

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground....

After CRAZY night in Ireland...

Billy: I have to give it to 'em... we brought the party to Ireland.
Maggie: I think it's 'I have to give it to us.'

After acting a fool in Ireland...
Billy: Everyone has a switch, just different light bulbs.

After discussing his small business ambitions involving döners, donkeys, beer, and a hot dog stand in downtown Charlotte...

Billy: Watch what you tell me, I am gonna be a CEO one day.
Maggie: Perhaps it is 'watch what I tell you...'

FURSTY DOWN!!!

Hey Dad - before I tell you about our time with Wes so far, I wanted to let you know that I have been missing you terribly recently.  There seems to be a song that comes on every morning and night that reminds me of you... Coldplay, Fix You - Bon Iver, Perth - Sarah McLachlin, Angel - Sarah McLachlin, I Will Remember You - Eric Clapton, River Of Tears - James Taylor, Fire & Rain - Train, When I Look to the Sky... I could seriously go on and on. Sometimes when I am with someone, I imagine if they will ask me about you. I act out in my head what I would say about you... and it makes me cry.

"I never knew what it was to be alone, no, 'cause you were always there for me. You were always there, waiting."

I hate when this happens. I know it would hurt you so much to know I am unhappy at times. I am not playing victim, or "poor me"... I just miss you. I just want to hug you once more. I just want you to know that I did grow into a successful woman, who is so happy and so loved, and not causing trouble for Mom anymore. I am so thankful, and I wish with all my heart you could be a part of it.

So onto our time with Wes... Wes has been studying in Valencia since May, and he came to Germany once his studies were finished to spend some time with us.  The boys (Billy, Wes, and Kyle from Billy's football team) went to Amsterdam for three days, and when they returned, we went to Munich for the weekend.

We started in Marienplatz with a beer and a brat.

This is the Asam Church.

At one of the city gates...

We made it to the Hofbrauhaus. The Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München (state court-brewery in Munich) is a brewery owned by the state government. The Hof (court) comes from the brewery's history as a royal brewery in the Kingdom of Bavaria. It is one of Munich’s oldest beer halls. It was originally founded as the brewery to the old Royal Residence. It was also one of the beer halls used by the Nazi Party to declare policies and hold functions. On February 24, 1920, Adolf Hitler proclaimed the twenty-five theses of the National Socialist program at the Hofbräuhaus, which reconstituted the German Workers' Party as the National Socialist German Workers' Party, known as the Nazi Party.

I mainly like it because we managed to gank two of the mugs that have a big HB on it (HANNAH & BILLY <3 )

Boys acting up on the train.

Me annoyed with boys...

In the English Garden / Englischer Garten (Munich's Central Park)...

We also took a trip just outside the city to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany.  The 30,000 Jewish deaths that happened here is not considered "severe" compared to the other death camps.  I cannot describe how sick and depressed I was here.  I picked up a rock to keep with me and remind me what can occur with blind patriotism, not thinking for myself, and jumping on a bandwagon.

The camp courtyard.

Crematorium... the sign outside the Crematorium building says in German: "Think about how we died here"...

I didn't get choked up until I came to this plaque.  I am not sure why it hit so hard...

The "Brausebad" (Shower), the Dachau gas chamber.

The main gate at Dachau where prisoners walked through marked with the sentence Arbeit macht frei (Work makes you free).

After we left Dachau, we went to the Olympic Park for the Tollwood Festival (Munich's hippie festival)... The park is amazing, and was constructed for the 1972 Summer Olympics. We somehow ended up in the wrong area of the park and walked in on a church service.  It was soooooo awkward.

View of the swimming hall and tower...

TOLLWOOD!  Awesome crafts and art!

PIPPI!!!!

Moroccan Tent...

So, long story short, the boys spent all of the money we had for a second night in the hotel.... so we were just going to return to Nuremberg.  However we got SUPER lucky and found an amazing Holiday Inn just outside of the city for dirt cheap (they didn't even charge us for Goose!), and we got robes and slippers to hit the sauna with!

Apology flowers for spending all of our money...

McDonalds CAPPUCINO!!! Hahahahah...

MAYPOLE! It is a decorated tree or tree trunk that is usually erected on May 1. It is usual to have a ceremony to erect the maypole on the village green.  Just before the Maibaum is erected, depending on the region, there may be a procession through the village, usually ending up at a central place and/or restaurant and usually watched by crowds of spectators and accompanied by a brass band.

One of my favorite aspects of Germany is that there are ALWAYS festivals.  This one we happened to run into when trying to get to Königsplatz (King's Square).  It appeared to have a sport theme, as there was all sorts of dancing (even country line dancing) and sports (lacrosse and football included!).

This building is not celebrated in Munich, but my thrifty Rick Steve's guide told me that this was the original Third Reich adminitration building and home to Hitler.

We ended our weekend at the Fursty / Nürnberg game.  Nürnberg won!!! Wes was absolutely hilarious, and I got completely cussed out (but that story is for another blog... I am not sure I have emotionally recovered... luckily my knight in shining army heard about it and confronted the person after the game for me)...

So what would you think of me now?

So lucky, so strong, so proud

I never said thank you for that

Now I'll never have a chance

How do you know we are American?

It doesn't feel right going to Italy without you. I know that it was one of your dreams... or maybe just Mom's that turned into your's...

Anyway Billy and I took off to Italy for four days. We were looking at lakes because we were dying to go swimming, and we decided to go with Lake Como - I figured if it is good enough for Clooney, it is good enough for me! We rented a small apartment, and brought Goose with us. We started off on the right foot when we got a free upgrade at Enterprise. By the way, Enterprise has a life long customer in me now. Hertz will never get my business again!

The ride down to the Austrian/German border was slow, but once we hit Austria, we saw the most amazing countryside... and we better considering we had to pay a 7,40€ vignette to travel through Austria and a 39,00€ one in Switzerland!!!!

This is seriously the road we traveled....

Once we arrived at Lake Como, we had to take a ferry in order to get to Bellagio - the town we had rented an apartment in.

This was our apartment...

This is the view from our apartment...

One of our favorite things to do in Italy was to find all of the alleys and the cute stores and restaurants along them.

We found a small place to have some drinks and they gave us a small plate of food along with them... (oh we also indulged in some shots as well)...

The bartenders never understood our drink orders...just Vodka?

We had to walk along the road in order to get to the beach or the town center, and there was really no room for pedestrians...

PIZZA!  Billy's had boiled egg on it... STRANGE! (and not so good)...

Goose was able to join us...

This was a fantastic little cave bar that had amazing wine, antipasta, and atmosphere.

The cappucinos were amazing....

 

We went to the club that had just opened our last night there, and we got a private cabana for free!!!

One day Billy was holding a plastic cup of beer and a football and asked me how I knew that he was American... I said, "Football!" He was like, "Nope!  SOLO CUP!"  It became a joke of our's...

Skipping rocks is one of our go-to games as well... Billy is way better than I am.

Billy back-flippin...