May 18th

I'm writing to you from an overnight train to Venice. It's 1:30 in the morning, and I'm pretty sure we are somewhere in Italy, but I can't be certain. I would be sleeping right now, dear journal, but I have a horrid sore throat that has intensified over the past few days, and my ears are popping like crazy.

Everyone else is sleeping, so I decided to take my mind off my ears by writing to you about how the day went. I'm also writing in very poor writing conditions as there is very low light, I don't have my glasses on, and I'm in a moving train car. But anyway...

Today was a fabulous day! We went to Fussen, Germany to see the infamous Disney Castle.   Neuschwanstein Castle, or more commonly known as Cinderella's castle is absolutely magnificent!! Neighbor to that Castle....is another castle: Hohenscwangau. Not as cool, but I only saw it from afar.

We woke up around 8:45am and walked to the train station, dropped off our backpacks and hopped on a 2 hour train to Fuessen, a quaint little town, mostly visited by tourists. Entering Fussen on the train you're able to see Neuschwanstein Castle that basically sits atop a mountain, I bet your thinking how we got up there journal. Well, the only Disney fairy tale way how, a horse-drawn carriage of course!!

Neuschwanstein Castle

Tickets to tour the actual inside of the Castle was already sold out for the day, but touring the outside of it was way beyond amazing!! It was so gigantic, I don't know how anyone could ever live there.

We continued on to cross a sick bridge with a waterfall that wasn't far away from the castle, it had the most righteous views, and after that we hiked down the mountain. Such an spectacular afternoon.

Jeff went to see the Hohenscwangau Castle, while Sloan and I went through town and ate some lunch. We all ended up at a gift shop, where I bought my dad a PUZZLE POSTCARD!!!! OMG THE GREATEST INVENTION EVER!!!

Hohenscwangau Castle

We hopped on a train back to Munich, and once we got there went on a scavenger hunt for some Bayern Munich attire....but all the shops were closed. Unlucky. Then boarded a train to Venice.

Thank god, this is the last overnight train!! There is a man that just walked into our train car, after there was a argument outside, he sat down next to me, took his shoes off, and propped his feet between Sloan and Jeff. Also, his friend is sitting outside our car on suitcases. Creepy!!!

St. Marco's Square

UPDATE: The man and the guy sitting outside our door got up and left the train, and police opened our compartment looking for them. Holy terrifying!!!

We finally made it Venice, and can't check into our hotel room, so I write my goodbyes while sitting on the steps of St. Marco's Square.....so tired

-JEN