2009 - Year-In-Review

It's February 6th and the second anniversary of my arrival in Germany!

2009 has been a full and eventful year: a country count of 16, a range of great experiences, a plethora of new friends, and plenty of all the little things that I don't have pictures or words for.

And so, the next 100 photos tell only part of the story that was 2009!




Winter of 2009 was cold and mostly uneventful, but the day-to-day stuff went on as usual including Young Men's activities at church...

In March I went to Frankfurt...

Visited the LDS Temple...

And had a good time...

On the way back to Munich I stopped in Würzburg for a visit...

I stayed with the boyfriend of my fourth cousin once removed (she joined us too)...

At the Glyptothek museum, Munich...

A beautiful April day in Innsbruck, Austria...

In late April I traveled north to Mecklenburg for the 60th birthday of Wolfgang.

A bike ride around the countryside with relatives was really cool...

From Mecklenburg I took the ferry across to Denmark and the train up to Copenhagen.

I stayed with my great aunt and uncle who are serving a mission in Denmark...

And they were nice to show me around town...

I also took the train over to Malmö, Sweden...

And got to visit my friend Szilvia and her family...

When I got back to Mecklenburg I got to go to the motorcycle races...

And wander through the fields of raps...

In May I met up with some old friends from the University of Utah who were in Munich for the day as part of their choir tour. We ate at the Hofbräuhaus...

In June I got to see my friend Angela perform in Der Rosenkavalier at the Munich Opera House...

A few days later I cut myself in a fight with a ninja...

Later in June I took a trip to Prague in the Czech Republic...

Mozart's theatre...

Dvorák's grave...

When I got back to Munich we had a "Single's Ward" in Rosenheim...

In July, my old friend Kjersti and her friend Brandi came for a visit. We ate and drank Apfelschorle at the Hofbräuhaus...

We had fun cooking dinner at Katherine's house with friends...

And we got to see Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys perform live...

Also in July I introduce the candy bar game to Germany...

Later that month I went hiking in the Austrian Alps...

And the hills were more or less alive...

In August I went with my friends, the Taggs, to Benediktbeuern and Bad Tölz...

Benediktbeuern (the Carmina Burana monastery)...

Bad Tölz...

Later in August I went with my friend Peter to visit his homeland: Slovenia...

We rode bikes around Lake Bled...

We swam in Lake Bled...

We hiked Slovenia's highest mountain, Mt. Triglav...

With Peter's brothers I visited old World War I ruins...

And swam in the ice-cold Soca River...

From Ljubljana Peter, his brother Rok, their friend Janez, and I set off at midnight on the Great Balkan Roadtrip...

We drove through Serbia, seeing interesting towns, countryside, and castles...

We made it to Kosovo and drove on Bill Clinton Boulevard in Pristina...

We spent Sunday afternoon in the formerly war-torn city of Ferizaj...

We spent a few evening hours in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia...

And we enjoyed some leisurely time at the lake resort town of Ohrid...

From Ohrid we entered the mysterious land of Albania...

Visited ancient Ottoman castles...

Authentic Albanian streets with wonderful food...

There were plenty of wild ruins to explore...

Eventually we made it to southern Albania to the Greek/Byzantine/Venetian/Ottoman ruins of Butrint...

And we enjoyed some good beach time on the Ionian coast...

For my birthday we began in the port city of Dürres with old Communist monuments still to behold...

And bunkers bunkers everywhere...

We crossed into Montenegro where the rugged coastline revealed beautiful views...

It was hard to beat laying on the warm pebbly beach and running through the cool waters...

We went to Kotor Bay and visited the old city of Kotor at night...

The next day we drove to Croatia, to the city of Dubrovnik...

Later we cooled off in the fresh Croatian waters...

Late afternoon found us in Bosnia & Herzegovina in the town of Mostar...

We enjoyed some fine Cevapcici in this beautiful, but haunting city...

The next day was Sarajevo where we found where Archduke Ferdinand was shot...

In September a couple of members of the elders quorum went for a hike in the Bavarian foothills. Afterwards we enjoyed Kaiserschmarrn, a delicious Bavarian dessert...

Later in September Sybille and Wolfgang picked me up and we spent a week at a farmhouse in a small Bavarian village nestled in the Alps. We had fresh milk every morning...

We did plenty of hiking and saw plenty of cows...

We did a bit of golfing...

We took drives into Austria...

A ride to the top of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain...

I was able to explore the Alps a bit on my own...

And a nice day in the town of Mittenwald...

We topped off the week with a traditional song and dance program put on by local talent...

On a beautiful October day, Melanie was baptized, surrounded by her friends...

It was also the time of Oktoberfest...

Of course all throughout the year I did plenty of English teaching. Here was a fun group I had in October...

November was Thanksgiving and we Americans worked hard with our German friends to prepare the traditional feast..

In December I got to fly back to Utah to visit family and friends. It started out fun with a surprise party at Hires.

Cheese fries...

It was fun goofing off with old friends again...

And having many a Tim Tam Slam...

A few of us cousins went up to the cabin for some tubing...

And a cozy game of cards...

As the new year came around, brother Mike was sworn in as Mayor...

I visited the Great Salt Lake with some friends...

My friend Alan and I drove to Southern Utah and visited several of the National Parks.

At Bryce Canyon I made a new Korean friend...

We hiked among the hoodoos...

We visited Capitol Reef and Goblin Valley...

And a cold but spectacular Arches National Park...

I had a few more parties with friends and fam before I returned to Munich...

And now I'm back in Germany, updating my blog...

Bring on the 2010!!!

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