Wow! So much has happened. I know, I'm pretty bad at this so far...
But I have been keeping a journal- so it's been written down in some form or another.

Anyways, about this weekend; it was a crazy one! To celebrate our two year anniversary, Mike and I decided to spend Saturday at Europa Park (a German equivalent to Disneyland/Epcot). It had many different European countries you could visit, and a lot of various rides.

To begin our adventure, we were up very early to get to Freudenstadt in order to rent a car. Freudenstadt, however, was setting up for it's annual festival, "Nacht der Magie" (or for you non-German speakers, "Night of Magic") and so the roads through it's Marktplatz (marketplace) were closed. Sadly, we only had directions to get out of that city through that road.... it took us a hour to get our of a small city! We asked many Germans, and every time got different answers!


We made it out safely (and with little sanity left) and headed towards Europa Park. Of course we got lost along the way (again) and found out from a very nice German woman that, "Umleitung" means "detour" because another city we had to get through was also closed! We just could win that day!


Finally we found the Autobahn and Michael floored it to 150 kph! I think that means he went over 100 mph, but I'm not sure.... we would have gone faster but it was a rental car- and we didn't want to push our luck! An hour later we ended up at Europa Park! It was so nice to be out of that car!


Europa Park was really cool. ^_^ We didn't have that much time to see everything since we arrived late, but we ran around and did our best! The different countries were very unique and looked wonderful, but the rides were...interesting. There were a lot of Disneyland knockoffs- like Piraten von Batvaria, and a Haunted Mansion, a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and a Splash Mountain. They were are unqie and fun in their own way- but no where near the grandeur of Disneyland. However, I really enjoyed the rides. I definitely thought they were worthwhile and a lot of fun, and they had so much food! There were so many candy and dessert places to eat, it was amazing! And you were allowed to drink, smoke, and even bring your pets! Why anyone would want to bring their dog is beyond me... but they did! They had a lot of shows you could go to, like a jousting show in Spain and a musical in England (you watched it in the Globe Theater!).
All in all, it was a very exciting day, and we both had a lot of fun. But of course we lost the car for 20 minutes in the parking lot. ^_^

After we left the park at 6pm, we headed straight for "Nacht der Magie" in Freudenstadt! It was... episch (epic)! There was over 50 magicians, artists, musicians, and fire manipulators there all performing on 6 different stages throughout the night. The festivities started at 7pm, and we got there around 8:30pm so we missed some stuff but we saw a Turkish magician, an acrobatic show, a fire show, and roasted bread over a fire! We got really close to the main stage and saw the highlight of the festival. Jan Rouven and Mark Terenzi are apparently very famous over here. Jan is a magician, and Mark is an American singer. They did a Rock concert/Magic show together and it was very good. ^_^

On Sunday we had to go all the way back to Freudenstadt to return the rental car, and of course the buses don't really run on Sundays, so we kept getting the bus lines mixed up and ended up walking for 50 minutes, and then another 40 minutes to a Kaufland to eat. Kaufland is like a smaller Costco or Winco. But it was closed! So we had McDonald's and while we were eating the bus to Horb (where we had to get to) left! So we had to wait there for another 45 minutes.... :(

All in all it was an interestingly exciting weekend!

Ciao!