a taste of germany

So this post will probably be a little long also...but then I promise you'll be all caught up!! I just wanted to give you all a little idea of what we've been doing since we got here. :)

Chase arrived in Germany about three weeks before me and stayed in a hotel downtown Bamberg called Hotel National (right across from the Chinese restaurant; if you know Chase, then you know that this spot was ideal!).  However, in order for me to be allowed to travel over he had to get another temporary place? Not sure why the Army thinks I can't live in a hotel too but he was moving to a vacation home so I was not complaining! Chase worked so hard to get everything done before I arrived! A few weeks later, I showed up. :)  He had a little welcome kit waiting for me that included my favorite lotion, a whole lot of pink stuff, and a cold beer. What a guy. ;)

Right after I got there (literally like 2 minutes after I walked in the door) we were told a larger place opened up and we could move there immediately.  So of course we took the offer! This place was AWESOME (all of our temp. places were at Gästehaus Steidle - I highly recommend staying there if you have the chance - the owner was SO nice).  Chase bought some Christmas decorations before I came and had a Christmas tree too! Here are a few pictures of our first temporary place all set up for Christmas.



The living/dining area




Kitchen table with Christmas decorations Chase bought!




Our cute room! :)




The loft.  (Sometimes we went up there to hang out just because we could haha.)




The stocking Chase bought us.




Our kitchen.




Hehe. Love this. This is the entry to the place; it was a tight fit for Chase!




Our very first Christmas tree together!!

We had such a great time in this place! It was literally a five second walk to downtown Bamberg...and the Christmas market was all set up the whole time we were there so it was so much fun to walk down at night and get some gluhwein and flammkuchen or brats! There was a cute little bakery that I liked to walk to when Chase was at work to get a coffee in the mornings:

Next, I'll put up some pictures from the Christmas season in Germany.  Some are from the Bamberg Christmas Market and some are from the Nuremberg Christmas Market!

Bamberg Christmas Market

Ornaments!!

Trying our first flammkuchen

Trying our first gluhwein

Bratwurst from the stands downtown are the best!

Altes Rathaus

My fave..Little Venice

Nuremberg Christmas Market

Nuremberg Christmas Market

Nuremberg Christmas Market

With Christmas getting closer and closer we had to decide what we were going to do! We decided last minute to hop on a train and head to Heidelberg to spend the holiday weekend with Casey, Jaimie, and Crystal and boy are we glad we made that decision.  There was SO much food, SUCH great friends, and LOTS of laughs.  It was definitely a great way to spend our first married Christmas!! :)

Chase, me, Jaimie

Our first Christmas as "The Prasnickis"

Chase, Me, Crystal, Jaimie toasting with homemade egg liqueur

Two of the best people you'll ever meet: Casey and Jaimie

Our Christmas feast Part One

Christmas feast Part Two

We were sad to leave!!

So we celebrated with a Kellerbier when we got back to Bamberg!

Next up was New Years Eve!!! This holiday in particular brings back TONS of memories for us.  1) We met on New Years Eve, and 2) Chase proposed on New Years Eve. So we just knew this was going to be a fun time! A lot of friends were traveling to Berlin to celebrate but we decided to stay in Bamberg.  We had dinner at an Italian place with some friends, hung out for a little while, then went over to another friends' house to bring in the new year!

Happy New Year Dinner. :)

Kate and I after dinner in front of their awesome tree!

The fam. toasting to midnight Germany time!

HAPPY NEW YEARRRRR!!!

Toasting to midnight Virginia time! :) More time zones = more celebrating!!

Four days later, we moved into our new house!!! I'll post pictures of the house once we get some more things set up but I do have some up on Facebook of when it was completely empty.  For now, I'll just give you a teaser of the view from our living room window...what I get to look at everyday... :)

Aaahhhhh...so gorgeous!

Lastly, St. Barbara's Ball!!! What a great time.  We got all dressed up and took a cab downtown (because I didn't have my drivers license yet and Chase's roll in the night was to drink a glass of "the grog").  Let me tell you, the taxis here are SO much nicer than in the U.S.  As opposed to the creepy old dude, they have nice, young and normal-looking drivers.  And they drive BMWs with built-in GPS systems and heated seats. Yea, that's what I'm talkin about.

Just arriving at the ball.

Kate and I before dinner.

Ryan (Chase's sponsor) and Chase!

Summer (Ryan's wife) and I before dinner!

My handsome LT.

So the story of the grog is that each year, the newest gunner (that would be Chase) has to drink a glass.  It's basically a huge punch bowl that gets filled one bottle of alcohol at a time.  It starts with two mugs full of last year's grog (ew!).  Then, different people get "called out" from around the room and stand up with a bottle of something different - say a quick toast - and poor the whole bottle into the grog bowl.  After about 20 or so people went, poured a whole bottle of something in the bowl, the Sergeant Major puts his sock in there, they stir it up, and Chase has to chug a whole glass of it and put the empty glass over his head! HAHA! I mean what in the world?! Yes, it happened...here's proof:

Starting with last year's grog

Mmmhmmm NOT gonna be good, baby!

Just ooone thing missing...yep, a SOCK?! what?!

CHUG CHUG CHUG

He did it!!

I am just SO proud of him haha.

Just in case you're thinking, "Man I wonder what drinking a whole glass of every type of alcohol you can think of in about 2 seconds does to you?" I'll show you...

HAHA I just love him so much.

Much better. :)

Our fellow newlywed friends, Jason and Kate. :)

Overall, St. Barb's Ball was an absolute blast! We even got these awesome souvenir beer mugs to take with us!

Well I hope you enjoyed getting "caught up" with the main things we've done since we've been in Germany.  We certainly have enjoyed every minute since we've been here and have already met some really great friends to share everything with! As if you need an incentive to check back for the next post, I'll give you two words: new furniture.  Yep, we got new kitchen furniture today and pictures will be up soon haha.  Well this 22 year old is out for now...when I wake up, I'll be 23...which means two things...1) I'll be SO much more mature, and 2) I'll be the same age as Chase for the next 13 days. :)