9th June

bethjane — Sat, 9 Jun 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Today has been a great day :)

A skype conversation with one of my favourite people - my amazing Mum - a long run, the sun shining and an evening spend making new friends and watching Germany beat Portugal in the football.

Today is also the day I have decided to start this blog - the blog of my life, my journey, my discoveries, my laughs, my tears and my time in Germany. From here on, I am ready to start writing this and focus on my time here, not wishing I was elsewhere.

Which, I am ashamed to admit, I have spend the past 2 weeks doing in Germany: feeling sorry for myself and wishing I could have the safety, security and familiarity of home.

Despite this I have had some great times in Munich. A few highlights:

1. The Sandemans Free Tour - definitely worth doing. I thought this tour was great and very informative and fun!

2. The Alte and Neue Pinakothek - as an art history fan, these two museums were just the best! With the Alte covering the older ages - with fantastic Renaissance art and the Neue (my favourite) with great art from Monet, Manet, Van Gogh.. all my French favourites! And so much more..

3. The trip to Neuschwanstein - beautiful!

4. Being able to walk around everywhere and really discover the city, in a way that you can't do with driving, or public transport.

5. Being able to do this things alone and still enjoy myself - where it may not be the crazy times I have with my best friends, the knowledge that I can enjoy myself while discovering Salzburg or visiting some of my favourite pieces of art, is definitely something to remember

6. Salzburg: specifically climbing to the high point and having a fantastic view over Salzburg - with the fortress, the villages and the alps. A moment of total calm and beauty.

7. This one, although kind of mentioned above, deserves it's own note. Seeing Sunflowers by Van Gogh in real life was fantastic! I have never seen a Van Gogh before and for it to be Sunflowers was just great! Taking some time just to sit in front of it is a highlight.

8. Going along to a German-speaking meeting - I had no idea what was going on most of the time but able to listen some and end up having a, somewhat stilted, conversation with two Romanians in German was a bit surreal. So lots to work on there, but proud of myself for going!

That is all for now.

Discovery and life in Berlin to follow :)

bethanyingermany

9th June