Hello everyone!

While I’ve never had a blog before, I decided to write about my semester studying at Saint Louis University Madrid so you all can follow my adventures!

My program does not begin until January 8, but I wanted to travel beforehand. Since I don’t know anyone in my program, my dad, who has never been to Europe before, volunteered to travel with me for about a week and a half.

We left on December 28 and traveled from Minneapolis to Philadelphia to Madrid to Munich… it was a LONG day to say the least. We got to Munich on Thursday, December 29, got some dinner, and went to straight to sleep.

On Friday, we got up and went to the concentration camp, Dachau. On the bus there, we met a college group from Missouri. We talked with their professor, and he had gone to the U of M for grad school just like my dad did – small world! Dachau was incredibly sad, but we learned a lot while we was there.

When we got back to Munich, we went to dinner with Cyndi, who is my great uncle’s sister who lives about 45 minutes from Munich. She gave us a wonderful night tour of the city!

On New Years Eve, we took a train to Augsburg, which is where Cyndi lives. She showed us around the city, including touring many beautiful churches.

After we spent the day in Augsburg, we took the train back to Munich. We went to Marienplatz because I’d heard that they had fantastic fireworks on New Years Eve. Much to my surprise, people were openly drinking on the streets and were setting off fireworks – some of which hit buildings or went into crowds. I guess I’m not in America anymore!

Today (New Years Day), we went to mass at Frauenkirche. It was absolutely beautiful, except Mass was in German, so I didn’t understand much. We then had beer and huge pretzels for lunch at Hofbrauhaus.

Germany has been absolutely beautiful, and we are enjoying exploring Munich! Tomorrow we are taking a train to Neuschwanstein – the castle that the Disney castle is based off of.  On Tuesday, we are off to Salzburg, Austria!

Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers!

Katie