st.
After roaming the streets of downtown Koln, we ventured off onto a less busy street and saw a clean, quiet, and quaint wine bar named Vintage. We popped in, chose a seat and ordered a bottle of white...
A few glasses in, we noticed two well dressed, nice looking business men walk in and order a bottle of wine and a plate of fresh fruits and cheeses. Until this point, we had been saving our Euros by sharing dinners, loading up on any free breakfasts, and skipping meals when we could. Needless to say, we were probably staring at this plate of nibbles like two starving wanderers would a steak dinner.
Long story short, the guys asked if we would like to join them. They spoke English well, told us they were shoes salesmen, and welcomed us to Germany with a nice bottle of champagne and our own plate of fruits and cheese. Pretty sure we downed that thing faster than Jen could say Dirk Nowitzki... (inside joke that I had to throw in). :)
A few hours and a few photo ops later, Jen's family arrived at Vintage to take us home. The guys asked us if we would all would like to go to the Eros concert later that night. Of course, Jen and I had no idea who Eros was, but Ron's girlfriend was flipping out! Apparently, he's a pretty big deal over the pond. We said sure, got their business cards so we could get a hold of them later and were on our way. As we left, we looked at the card and found out we'd been hanging out with Alex Birkenstock (owner and CEO of Birkenstock...yup, the shoe). haha.
On our way back to the house and a little light in our soles, we appreciated the scenery and snapped a few pics. Looking back, I have no idea where we were, but we had fun!
We had just enough time to drop our backpacks off, change clothes, and grab the train to the concert hall!
No telling how many hours we had been up at this point, and after an eventful day coupled with still being jet lagged, we were spent! Although, we were having the time of our lives, it didn't take too many songs that we didn't know, or could understand for that matter, before we were out....I'll let the pics speak for themselves!
Not sure how long we slept, but it was all downhill from here. (Jen- remember your love for the New England Patriots?? haha) Nonetheless, this does go down in history as one of my most favorite days, and it was allll left to chance! The best days seem to come along when you don't have expectations and you just let life take it's course...
The next few days in Germany we saw and did some incredible things. We had a great time hanging out in the local scene and touring the Dali museum, the Lindt chocolate factory, and the Dom!
It was time to pull a Heidi and say Auf Wiedersehen to Germany. We were off to my favorite country, Italy, but decided to stop in Vienna for a day of sight seeing...
We took a night train and had 4 smelly European roomies. Not my favorite part of the trip, but definitely an experience. These cabins (and "beds") are tiny!!
We arrived in Vienna early in the morning and hit the ground running. We tried a bus tour against our will and fell asleep, did a little shopping at H&M, saw some important looking buildings, visited a famous church, and ate the special dessert at some famous hotel....you can really tell I remember a lot! ha.
But the best thing we did was visit Schonbrunn Palace. This place was beautiful...
Vienna was a beautiful city and I wish we could have stayed longer, but Italy and it's food was calling my name...
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