Double post: I wish to go to the Festival! / There is a Castle on a Cloud:)

Hi!

I'm a wee bit behind in my posting because I couldn't take my laptop with me to Hamburg. But now that I'm back in Kiefersfelden I thought I'd give you the whirlwind pictoral tour of my trip to the Bavarian Festival and Neuchwanstein Castle in Austria. Let's go!


BAVARIAN FESTIVAL:

Lucky for us we arrived in Kiefersfelden just in time for one of the super-fun Bavarian festival, complete with authentic German food, beers as big as your head (ick.) and lots of liederhosen:)


Call me an ignorant American, but traditional Bavarian clothing just makes me smile...and sometimes laugh:)

Here's the group with the sweet kid that we held hostage for photographic purposes

More cute kids in fun clothes
The band!

Hooray! A fun time was had by all:)

__________________________________________

NEUCHWANSTIEN CASTLE!!!

The Neuschwanstein Castle was built on top of a huge mountain in Austria by King Ludwig II (aka Mad King Ludwig) to replicate medieval architecture and to pay homage to the operas of Wagner. It actually was never completed but it is breathtakingly beautiful.

Fun Fact for all you Disney-ites: Neuschwanstein castle was Walt Disney's inspiration for Cinderella's castle at the Magic Kingdom!

On the bustrip through Austria!


Pretty Lake near the entrance

We took a horse and carriage ride up the mountain to see the castles. This was the view:)
Finally the castle!

Doesn't look real, does it?

Just past the front gates

On the steps of the palace!

Royal mischief:)

The "lesser" castle:) A guest-house of sorts. Not too shabby!

My Disney Princess pose in front of the castle. Just call me "Snow Brown";)

Love you all!
sidonie

P.S. Extra points to the person that can identify the Musical Theatre references in the title of this post!

Hamburg-er in Paradise

Ok. Hamburg is a great city. If you haven't been, you should go!

I was there for three-ish days participating in a Musical Theatre Intensive Training Program with Stage Entertainment. I didn't know this before I went but Hamburg is the Broadway of Europe and Stage Entertainment is THE largest casting company on the continent. They continually cast Broadway scale productions like, Wicked, Aida, The Lion King, Mamma Mia, Dirty Dancing etc in cites all over Germany as well as in London and NYC. (For all of my darling non-theatre friends: if you are thinking "that sounds like a really big deal" you would be absolutely right!)
So, we met with and auditioned for the casting director. He was super nice. He also held a European audition workshop for us. We also had a series of masterclasses with one of the brilliant professors at Stage Entertainment and the most hardcore, butt-kicking dance classes that I have ever had. It was sad to leave.

Stage Entertainment!


One of the many, many gigantic dance studios

My classmates mid-choreo
My fabulous dance teacher and choreographer, Kati
Just a few fun things I saw...

...they really do deliver everywhere

This just made me giggle:

...I'm loving it:)

THE LION KING!!!

:) :) :)

In the main station with Brittany! (not sure what's going on with my nose here...)
On the S1 train with Rebecca:)

One of the things I found was that Hamburg has the most BIZARRO advertisements. It's darn near impossible to tell what the displays are promoting. Here's one of my favorites (Please pardon the Blair-Witch cinematography):



...aaaand what are we selling here?
Your guess is a good as mine!

Lovies!
s i d.

A Slice of Bavaria

I forgot to mention in my last post that at the Orlando airport I was the lucky winner of, let's call it, the "supersized" security check-- complete with white glove surveillance of all of my earthly goods and not one, but TWO pat downs. Apparently I look really suspicious...Must be all that teal eyeshadow! Lucky for me I remembered to leave all my ninja gear at home:).

On to Keifersfelden!


This is the cutest, quietest most quaint little village that you ever did see. I'm staying at the Hotel Zur Post. It's an adorable place right outside the Bavarian Alps. This is the view from my balcony...





Outside of my acting class:)



My favorite thing about this place is that it makes me seem like a good photographer.

Even my self portraits have improved (a little:))




More pretty-ful-ness.


And my favorite...


Apparently in Bavaria they guilt trip the jay walkers into submission. The sign says "Cross when it's green. Be an example to the children."


Love you all! Going to visit the Nueschwenstien Castle tomorrow. Stay tuned for pictures!

Auf Weidersein:)

An American In Paris

Hi friends and family!

I have sleepily but safely arrived in Europe. Wahooooo! This is my very first trip across the pond and I feel doubly sophisticated because I traveled all by myself. My adventure was semi- eventful. Nothing too terrible though. I arrived at Orlando International Airport around 11:30. And good thing too-- because Delta kinda hassled me about my passport. You see, if you change your name you're supposed to renew your passport with the name change like three months after your wedding. But really - who does that? Not me. I never look at the thing until I'm about to travel and at that point it's waaay too late to send for a new one. Soooo, basically I showed up with one last name on my ticket and another on my passport. (This didn't present a problem two weeks ago when I flew to the Dominican Republic, but it did cost me about 20 minutes of explaining at the Delta counter on Tuesday). But the fantastic thing is that because the agent was so uber concerned with my identity she didn't seem to notice that my luggage was waaay overweight. (I won't even tell you how much. It's embarrassing:)). So that 20 minutes of talking saved me 80 bucks. Not a bad exchange rate in my opinion:).

Aaanywho, my first flight was really late and thus landed in Atlanta ten minutes before my connection to Munich. I prayed a lot and ran a lot but still didn't make it. I won't lie, I was irritated. I mean, I had just run to the opposite side of the airport to find NO plane there. But I got in line at the Delta counter and tried to have a good attitude or, at the very least, a remotely pleasant look on my face. My irritation quickly subsided when I learned that Delta was going to reroute me to fly to Munich from...PARIS. What?! A layover in Paris. I'll take it!



Everything in Paris was just as I thought it would be. The landscape was beautiful, the airport smelled funny and the Parisians were rude. I love France:)




I was there for a couple of hours. Just long enough to pick up a couple trinkets;) and then catch my final flight to Munich! This month I will be staying in the village of Keifersfelden in Bavaria. It is ridiculously beautiful here. I've never seen anything like it. I can see the Alps from my bedroom window. How unbelievable is that?

Here are a few pics of my view of Germany from the plane. So glad I picked a window seat!










Check back for pictures of the beautiful village of Keifersfelden!!

LOVE!
s i d.