#30daysofappreciation {Round 2}

If you're new to the blog, we are down to the last couple weeks in our journey abroad. I can't believe I am typing that. It has flown by, and I definitely have mixed feelings about leaving.  I am getting pumped for the events and new things planned in the upcoming months.

On my instagram account, I started a #30daysofappreciation daily picture post.  Since many of you are not followers of mine on instagram, I thought I would share the pictures and reasons behind my appreciation or "I'm really going to miss ______" posts.  Check out the Round 1 pictures 1-10, here.

#Day11: Energy Saving Outlets
This is a weird thing to appreciation...but I love the electrical outlets in England. I love how you can keep something plugged in (i.e. phone charger) all the time without it using electricity by turning the switch off.  What a great invention!

#Day12: Cheap Airlines
I LOVE the cheap airlines like Ryanair, EasyJet, jet2.com, flybe, etc. They quick (although annoying during the flight at times) and efficient.  We can be in Rome for 30 pounds and in 2 hours...that is amazing! I know airlines in the continental United States are expensive, so I know we won't have this luxury when we return back. 

#Day13: Experiencing New Traditions
I have already posted about friendships, but experiencing new cultural traditions, like our friends' wedding.  It was fun wearing a fascinator (hat or hairpiece English women wear during special events), seeing the differences in the ceremony & reception, and enjoying the fun with our local friends. 

#Day14: Breads, Eggs, and Cheese
Another food obsession, shocker! I will miss the amazing bread, eggs, and especially...cheese over here.  Wow, it tastes so much better.  Not only do they all have less preservatives, but you can just tell they are made with the right ingredients.  I wish I could take all the different cheeses back with me, because I love ending my meal with a cheese plate. Such a great idea!

#Day15: Adventures with my Best Friend
Here's the one you were all waiting for...the sappy appreciation!  I have loved spending the last 18 months with my best friend, traveling around Europe.  Not only have we gotten even closer, but we also feel like we can conquer anything! What a great man I married!

#Day16: No Alarm!
This is one I can honestly say I have thought about every morning, and appreciated it every single day.  I know Jeff and my parents can attest to the fact that I despise my alarm clock.  So every morning, waking up naturally for the last 18 months (minus the early rise flights) has been amazing.  Now before you think I'm a lazy bum, I don't sleep in.  I usually wake up when Jeff leaves for work, and just enjoy my leisurely mornings.  Don't hate me.

 
#Day17: "The Gym"
I have really enjoyed having a place that gets me out every day.  The gym I go to is called "The Gym" and it is not anything special.  It is large in size with many different types of equipment.  Although, all I need are a few weights and a treadmill, and I am happy.  It has been a nice getaway during the day, and it has been nice on those rainy days....it forces me outside. Ha!

#Day18: Reading
As a teacher, I am sad to say I did not have a love for reading growing up.  I started my passion as an adult, and it has been fantastic to be able to have time to actually sit down and read a book (or 15).  I made it a goal to start reading books that were soon to be coming out as films.  I am still hitting my list pretty hard, but the local library doesn't have the ones I need to finish my list.  I am looking forward to continuing this new found hobby in the states. 

#Day19: Road Trips
Love, love, love our road trips.  It is probably easy for me to say that given, I don't have to do any of the driving.  So thankful for Jeff and his fantastic English driving skills.  Although there are times I get car sick on these windy roads, I still love seeing the countryside and being to a new place in just a couple hours.  I will miss jumping in the car, knowing I get to experience a new place and new things.  I am hoping Jeff and I continue this in the states and visit places fairly close to home on our free weekends. (P.s. The picture is from last spring at the Peak District)

#Day20: New/Favorite Restaurants
Brown's is one of our favorite restaurants in Nottingham.  The restaurant is a block from our flat.  We used to just go there for drinks, as there is a cute little patio to the side of the restaurant.  Although, we have been there for dinner quite a few times, and each time the menu has changed and it has been fantastic! It has a classy feel, but still the classic British food (fish & chips, pies, etc.).  We were excited to have our "Leaving Do" with close friends there on Saturday night to enjoy the spot one more time.

On to the next adventure...

Enjoying a Beautiful English Wedding

This past Saturday, we headed down to to Hereford (about 2 hours southwest) to a couple of our friends' wedding.  Jeff met the groom, Tom, at work and I was lucky enough to become friends with the bride, Sarah, last spring.  The ceremony was at this quaint church out in the countryside.  It was so interesting experiencing the differences between and American vs. an English wedding.  As we sat down, we enjoyed the company of some of our other friends.  I learned that often times the bride comes down before the bridesmaids.  This is so that the bridesmaids can hold the train of the bride's dress, although Sarah came down after the bridesmaids in her wedding.  There was no groomsmen, only ushers (including a best man).  They did not stand up front or go down the isle. 

 

Not the clearest picture, but you can see the adorable invitations. 

Inside of the programs

The wedding began, and there was lots of hymns and readings.  The minister asked if there were any objections, which I had not heard at a wedding in a long time.  I also found it interesting that they signed the legal documents during the ceremony.  Our friends laughed when Jeff told them we signed it at our reception on the back of our best man, Scott.  We threw dried flower petals at the couple as they walked out of the church and into their cute little ride. 

Flower send-off!

We headed straight to the reception, which was held at this winery. It was a beautiful set up, as we all sipped on cocktails outside on a beautiful day!  They came around with a few hors d'oeuvres, and then the reception began around 4:30.  Our meal, which was called the Wedding Breakfast.  I asked weeks ago about this, and it is called a breakfast because it is the first meal as husband and wife.  Cute, right? We sat down for our three course meal.  Jeff had chicken liver pate, chicken breast & vegetables, and eton mess for dessert.  I had the pea & mint soup, chicken & vegetables, and chocolate roulade.  No cake for dessert, but it is still tradition to cut the cake.  They cut the cake and put it out later for you to eat later in the night or take it home.

Loved picking out my fascinator for the wedding.  So much fun!

If the Mackins are reading this, we decided to wear the exact same attire we wore to your wedding since it was about a year ago.  We partied in your honor. 

We enjoyed the wonderful meal, and left completely stuffed.  The speeches started, and there was legit betting going on at how long the best man's speech was going to be.   Apparently, it is known that the best man always takes a really long time embarrassing the groom.  Jeff and I put down 7 minutes and 22 seconds for our bet.  We ALMOST won, as the winning number was 7 minutes and 35 seconds.  People started to heckle the best man to keep talking, so I think if they didn't do that...we would have won. Ha, wishful thinking?! The money is normally used to pay for drinks at the bar anyway.  All three speeches were great! The father of the bride spoke, the groom, and of course the best man.  It was really cute to see the groom speak at his own wedding.  I liked that.  

Next up was dancing.  There was a good amount of people dancing throughout the night, and often times to songs I had never heard.  My favorite part was when they brought out more desserts and cheeses to nibble on throughout the night.  Me being obsessed with food, shocker...right? This was mostly for the second round of guests that had arrived.  There were two invitations.  One invitation was for the entire day's events, and the other was to come after dinner. We had a great time, and felt so lucky to be able to not only experience and English wedding, but to celebrate with our dear friends, Tom & Sarah.  Congrats, Tom & Sarah!!

On to the next adventure...

 

Sausage, Beer, Beer, Sausage, Beer, Pretzel, Beer, Beer, Sausage, Beer

The title of the post pretty much sums up our time in Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest, where we had lots of amazing German food and lots of amazing German beer.  We had a friend join us, Travis, for the festivities.  He came in from the states, and met us in London to head to Stuttgart, Germany on Wednesday. After an hour, fifteen flight to Stuttgart, we headed by train to Munich for another two and a half hour ride.

We made it to Munich, and the boys immediately put on their lederhosen, and I put on my dirndl.  We headed towards the festival where thousands of people were already drinking, eating, and enjoying the festival.  What a sight to see all of these people dressed up in the traditional attire.  There were 14 large "tents" that held all the different local beer.  And by "tent" I mean a standing structure that holds about 10,000 people.  Not so tent-like, right? 

Jeff and I in our Bavarian attire

Inside one of the beer tents. (This was taken Sunday so less people in their Bavarian attire)

Oktoberfest is known for its traditions like the cookies. 

We walked a little bit, grabbed a giant sausage, and headed into the Hofbrauhaus tent.  It was pretty funny to see the three of our faces as we walked into the tent. I think we were all in shock as there were people everywhere, the band was playing local tunes, hops were hanging from the ceiling, and everyone had giant beers in their hands (1 liter of beer, approximately 2 pints).  We walked around, a little overwhelmed, and found room at a table where we enjoyed a few beers.  We loved the songs the band played, even though we did not understand any of the words.  It was also fun to meet new people, mostly Germans to talk about the festival and whatnot.

Giant sausage. So yummy! (PhotoCred: Travis)

The festival area. You can see the large tents (buildings) on both sides of the pictures. One of which has the giant beer on top!

This was our favorite tent. The only one with sit down and standing tables. 

The boys in their gear with their beer! (PhotoCred: Travis)

On Thursday, the three of us walked around Munich.  We went into a couple churches that were really pretty, popped into a few shops, and ate at a cute little outside restaurant before heading back to get back into our gear.  We could not make it inside a tent, so we enjoyed an area outside a tent before meeting our friends, Julie and Andrew who were joining us for the remainder of the Oktoberfest excitement.  We all had a great night, grabbed some sausages, and headed home for the night.  Another successful day.

 The insides of the two churches in the city of Munich. 

Julie and I with our giant beers (PhotoCred: Julie)

On Friday, we got up early to rent a car. You're nervous about how this story is going to go, aren't you? Luckily they drive on the "right" side of the road and the driver's seat is on the American side as well, and Andrew took the lead, so that was nice.  No issues as all, really nice roads, only "bad thing" was the signs were in German.  We drove about 2 hours to the Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle in which Disney modeled their famous castle after. We were the lucky ones who could barely see the castle up close because there was a crazy amount of fog that morning.  We looked off the edge of the castle, and it was pure white...we couldn't even see the ground.  It was pretty disappointing that the weather was so yucky.  Other than that, the inside (no pictures allowed) of the castle was beautiful. It was not like the other castles we have been to because it wasn't used for war; it was purely for the joy of the king.  The rooms were still decorated as if the king still lived there, so that was pretty great to see the fine details.  Sidenote: The story of this king is pretty interesting if you want to read more.  We walked down from the castle area, grabbed a great local meal, and began to head back to the car for our journey home. Funny story though...the fog lifted and we looked up from the sidewalk to see the castle perfectly in the background.  Just our luck!

 Inside the castle grounds. Fog was so bad I didn't get many pictures

After the fog "magically" disappeared as we were leaving the city 

We ended our evening at another beer tent, and enjoyed the festivities.  Saturday morning we woke up early to head to the festival.  We knew that since it was a Saturday and the last "big hurrah" day we were going to need to get to the tents early.  We stood in line around 8:15, and the tents were supposed to open at 9:00.  The line began to move, and immediately everyone smooshed into one giant blob of a crowd.  At one point the line was moving, but I was not physically moving my feet. The line was pushing (not roughly, just tightly) that we were just moving together.  The 5 of us were split into 2 groups by accident.  Jeff, Travis, and I were sent to sit outside while Julie and Andrew made it inside the tent.

The Oktoberfest gang! (PhotoCred: Travis)

Inside our tent on Saturday morning. Great environment! (PhotoCred: Andrew)

We eventually met up in a few hours, and hung out until the early afternoon.  We took it easy the rest of the evening, and rested up for a long day of traveling the next day:

• 2.5 hour train ride to Stuttgart city centre
• 30 minute metro ride to the Stuttgart airport
• 1 hour 15 minute plane ride
• 1 hour long underground ride in London
• 2 hour train ride back to Notts (Back at 1 AM)

I leave you with a few little videos that capture the environment inside the tents. Pretty hard to describe it all in writing. Prost!

Video of the band's first song. Immediately everyone got up on the benches and began singing some German song. (VideoCred: Travis)

This video is of everyone singing the "What's Goin' On" song by 4 Non Blondes. (VideoCred: Travis)

Thank you to Julie, Andrew, and Travis for allowing me to use some of your pictures on the blog. You definitely saved me from lugging around the giant camera all weekend!

Onto the next adventure...