Weekend getaway.. Destination: GERMANY!!!!

Hello to all!
it's definitely time for me to write here again.. woops.. !! Time flies when you're across the world..

Anyhow, last week went by so fast, I don't even know what I did to be able to tell you!! oh my..

Instead, I will tell you about my amazing weekend in Germany..

We left friday 21:00, on a bus to Riga, Latvia. It arrived at the Riga airport at 2:20 AM. So, Ben, Annie, and I slept on the airport benches until 8, when we checked in to Ryanair. Our plane to Germany left at 10:05, so we had plenty of time to sit, wait, and chat with Gerard and Claire (two other study abroads going to Bremen with us!) We arrived in Bremen at 13:30 (unfortunately, no stamp in my passport!) and Ben, Annie, and I walked around to find our host. (Ben's family is with a mission in Japan and they have connections with a family in Bremen, Germnay. We were hooked up with them. Keep in mind that Ben has never seen them before and they have no idea what we look like.) Ben walked around with a sign that said that man's name on it.. finally we found him with two of his eight children. He took us to his car...speaking perfect english the whole way. (Thank God.. none of us speak any German) He told us that they live an hour outside of Bremen and that on the way back to his house he was going to drop us off in Oldenborg (another beautiful city) so we could look around for a while.

We walked around Oldenborg for 6 hours and it was spectacular.. Valentine's Day.. sunny..lots of people.... shopping..architecture.. WOW..!! We fell in love with the city and the people we were encountering. We took tons of pictures in the parks and in front of many beautiful buildings. We even ate Italian food instead of German food.. woops. But the day was filled with seeing as much as we could in our limited time. Our host, Werner, picked us back up and we headed to his house for a huge family dinner. Did I forget to mention that he has 8 children (4 of his own & 4 foster children)? WOW.. (6 live at home) So we had a huge family meal that his wife prepared for us.. and basically.. we fell in love with their family.

Next day, we went to church with them.. German Baptist church.. wonderful place. Didn't understand any of the sermon, but there were baptisms and a huge celebratory feast after church for the entire congregation. It was so fun to sit and eat with the church.. we felt so welcomed by everyone.. The rest of the day was about the family's children; we played basketball, puzzles, and many other games with them all day. No sight-seeing, but it was a wonderfully relaxing day of course ending with another great meal with the whole family!

Monday, we were taken to the train station and we took the first train to Bremen, where we were meeting Claire and Gerard. We checked into our hostel and headed out to the city to see the sights.. Oh my goodness, I was blown away by the architecture and the beauty of this city. Wow... I hope the pictures do some justice to how amazing the city was. We ate Bratwurst in the big square. looked in the cathedral that is 1000 years old, and wandered the city for hours. Then, we ate doner kebabs for dinner (Turkish style kebabs ALL over the place in germany.. SO good).. and went back to our 10 person, co-ed hostel room and headed to bed. The next day we headed home. Only 1 plane, 7 hours in Riga airport, and 1 bus until I was "home" again.

[I will tell more about the amazing family next time.. STAY TUNED!!]