The Queen's Corner

Final Europe Post

2009-07-02T11:31:00.002-07:00

Okay, these are long overdue. I am finally posting pictures from the rest of our European adventure. I'm posting twice...the first post includes the pictures from Eastern Europe and the second post includes the pictures from Munich, Salzburg, and the surrounding towns that we visited with our family over the Christmas holiday, as well as the pictures from England.

Also, in case you didn't notice (and assuming you care), I posted the final Nicaragua blog (as well as pictures) below the Europe pictures.

Final Europe Pics

2009-07-02T11:31:00.001-07:00

This is Sighisoara, the hometown of the man who inspired the Dracula legends...yes, ladies and gentlemen, THE Dracula! And I'm sure you can imagine what kind of man would inspire legends of a blood sucking killer. Let's just say he probably wasn't a fan of kids and puppy dogs... Anyway, the town was beautiful, even at night. Although at night the town kind-of shuts down...a little creepy, actually. I loved Sighisoara and would love to return someday!

This next little section is the lovely city of Budapest, Hungary. I love Budapest...definitely my favorite big city! It's hard to explain why, and I don't think these few pictures do it justice, but I fell in love with the city as a whole.

A Holocaust Memorial at the Jewish Synagogue in Budapest. It's in the shape of an upside down menorah, and the leaves have the names of people killed.

This is the awesome parliament building. I thought it was pretty!

This is one of the castles in Budapest. As it was winter, they had ice skating just outside of the castle...tons of fun!

Ok, this was a labyrinth in Budapest, and when we first started there was no one else, making the entire experience a bit eerie. I don't know that I can even explain what it was like, except that it was hilarious. It was dark and they had creepy music playing, which made me pretty jumpy and Rebecca completely enthralled. The highlight for us (because we have really weird humor) was the "discoveries" they've made. Read the sign and then look at the evidence below to see what I mean.

I know, I know...ridiculous, but we had fun!!!

Prague was beautiful, but I found it to be a bit overrated...my opinion of course. It was also extremely busy and the Christmas Market wasn't nearly as fun as the one in Budapest..again, my opinion. Still, it was a lovely city. The odd looking building is known as the "Dancing House," so of course we had to check it out.

Krakow was nice...more Christmas Markets! The main thing we did in Krakow was to go and see Auschwitz, which was a sobering experience to say the least. They request that you not take pictures in the exhibits so I respected that and made do with a photo of the outside. It's extremely disturbing the devastation evil people can do.

After Krakow, we headed up to Warsaw, where we actually only spent a few hours. I would love to go back, though, because the city was really lovely.

A quick side trip before heading to Austria was to go to Lodz to honor Rebecca's Lod-ness. For those of you who don't understand that comment, don't bother. Trust me...don't bother. We had dinner in a restaurant called "Fiddler on the Roof" where there was a fiddler playing in a little nook up near the ceiling...fun!

Vienna- lovely city, although by the time we got here, we were getting tired of sightseeing, and instead we were counting down the days until we would meet up with the rest of our family in Munich. However, we still enjoyed Vienna, especially the cemetery where Rebecca visited the grave/memorial sites of several well-known musicians and composers.

The day before we were to meet our parents and brother in Munich, we took a day trip out to Ingolstadt to visit the church that had been closed the day Wolfgang showed us around. The ceiling of this church is really unique in that one's perception only makes sense while standing in a particular location near the back of the church. In any other location the painting is distorted.

Final Europe Pics (cont.)

2009-07-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

It was great meeting up with our family again. We enjoyed the streets of Munich that first day, the Christmas Market, a delicious meal, and watching the clock tower performance (much better than the one in Prague, by the way).

We took a couple of side trips from Munich, the most notable to Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig's fairytale castle. We couldn't take pictures inside, but the entire thing was amazing in its detail and very unique architecture!!!

Dachau...another concentration camp. This photo is of the grounds. There used to be barracks located in those retangular spaces, but all but a couple have been dismantled now.

Salzburg was lovely and we thoroughly enjoyed the Sound of Music tour we went on...the pavilion is the one featured in the song, "I am 16, Going on 17." The town behind me in the above photo is home to the church where Julie Andrews' character, Maria, gets married.

Our last day in Salzburg was a skiing day. And even though I prefer the snow in the Rockies, you just can't beat the view of the Alps!!!

Back in Munich for a couple of days, we took off to visit some of the nearby towns. Then Rebecca and I boarded our last plane before the one that would take us home, and went to England. There, we picked up a rental car and launched into traffic.

Newcastle...the main reason we headed all the way up to the North of England was to visit Matthew, a great friend we met at L'Abri. We had a fantastic time spending New Year's Eve with him and his friends. Matthew gave us a tour of Newcastle, showed us around Durham which is a nearby city, invited us along to some pubs, and of course, introduced us to Doctor Who. It was such a great time that we even extended our stay an extra day! We also got to see Hadrian's Wall on one of the days Matthew was busy. We had been interested in seeing that when we were in Scotland back in August, so it was fun to finally get the chance to see the wall that at one time separated England and Scotland.

The Lake District was gorgeous. We stayed with Margo, a friend we met in L'Abri. Margo is from Australia, but is working as a vet in the Lake District, where she welcomed us into her home, showed us around, gave suggestions and directions, and even introduced us to some great BBC movies...Jane Eyre and the new Sense and Sensibility!!!

On our way down to Oxford, we stopped in the lovely town of Chester on Margo's suggestion. The architecture was beautiful, and probably one of my favorite's in England. We also had to stop in Stratford Upon Avon to visit the birthplace of Shakespeare. Of course, the house has been rebuilt, but there you have it!

We were incredibly blessed to be welcomed into the home of Kevin Bywater and his family in Oxford. Oxford was a fun town to wander, and we especially enjoyed having lunch in the Eagle and Child, which was a favorite location for a group known as the Inklings, which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Some of the fun, old sites to see in England (the reallyreallyreally old ones) are Avebury, Stonehenge, and Glastonbury Tor. Most people are pretty familiar with Stonhenge, but Avebury is quite impressive as well. It's a much larger stone circle (actually there were two). The problem is, it's not a intact as Stonehenge and you have to walk around a bit to get an idea of what it once looked like. Nevertheless, pretty impressive stuff... Glastonbury Tor is associated with various legends and mythology, including King Arthur. I don't know too much about it, but the main reason Rebecca wanted to see it was because it's the site of an important battle in one of her computer games...hey, we have sophisticated tastes, do we not?

Before spending our final days in London, we enjoyed a quick stop in one of the oldest tourist destinations...the city of Bath.

I'm not even sure London requires much of an explanation. London is London...Big Ben, the Eye of London, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, and the changing of the guard...oh, and we even went to see Hairspray. I think one of the highlights for me, though, was going to the houses of parliament and watching the politicians in session. That was really interesting and I was completely enthralled. No pictures permitted in there, though, so sorry...

Adios, Nicaragua

2009-07-01T14:00:00.001-07:00

The final three weeks in Nicaragua continued the be fun and eventful. Ryan and Rebecca (whom we'd met on Oma Tepe), and Rebecca's cousin, Rachel, were in Granada the weekend after our adventure on the island, so we met up for dinner on a couple of nights. Uncle Gerard and Maria Celia also picked us up one afternoon and gave us a lovely tour of some of the towns around Granada, including Catarina, San Juan del Oriente (where they do some amazing pottery), and the volcano which was pretty amazing.

One of my fondest days was the following Saturday. Uncle Gerard sent us the keys to the house on his island, and we invited some of our friends from Granada...Angelica (who manages the language school we attended during our first couple of weeks), Dali (another student, from Switzerland), and Ronaldo (from the English class at Carita Feliz). After chatting and swimming and messing around for a while, Dali noticed a fishing boat just off the island, and called the fishemen over to buy some fresh fish, which we proceeded to gut, cook, and eat. It was a fantastic afternoon!

The children at Carita Feliz were delightful and even more enjoyable than helping them with their work was reading with them, playing games, and walking to a nearby park one afternoon. Talking with children is a great way to practice and improve one's language skills, at least for me. Even though they don't often slow down their speech, I find I'm less self-conscious with them than with adults. I can be silly and relaxed with the kids. My last day with them was the Monday of our last full week in Nicaragua. We had planned to spend the afternoons of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday teaching English to Ronaldo, a young man from the English class. Due to low enrollment, that class was canceled, and Rebecca continued to tutor Ronaldo. Unfortunately, our plans to continue the tutoring that last week didn't work out, but we were able to get some shopping and packing done so it worked out.

The majority of our things were picked up and delivered to Maria Celia's house in Granada on Thursday and we left on Friday for the beach town of San Juan del Sur. This time we made sure to go all the way to the Rivas bus station to avoid an expensive and unnecessary taxi ride. We then managed to jump on the bus to San Juan del Sur just as it was pulling out. Unfortunately, this meant we had to stand for part of the ride, which meant we were more vulnerable, and I managed to get pick-pocketed! :( grrrrr... It was only $5, so I was less concerned about the money and more upset that I hadn't been more prepared.

We checked into the hostel in San Juan, which turned out to be a nice, private room. The weekend was very relaxing...a few walks down the beach, a little exploration of the town, poking our heads into a few stores, etc. etc. Uncle Gerard and Maria Celia picked us up on Sunday and we spent the night at her house in town. She also has a beach house, but a kitchen explosion in her neighbor's house a few days prior had damaged the property so we weren't able to stay there.

On our way to Managua the next day, we picked up our things in Granada and then went to stay a couple of nights with Uncle Gerard. The days in Managua were nice. We went to the markets to buy a few souvenirs, the post office for some stamps for me, and enjoyed drinks and conversation one evening with Uncle Gerard.

Looking back on our time in Nicaragua, I am very pleased with what we were able to do and what we accomplished. I can't say I'm fluent in Spanish, but I think I could certainly get by. There's still a lot to learn, though. So I need to keep practicing in order to avoid losing all of it!!!

Well, folks! That brings us to the end of Nicaragua. I've posted some pictures below! I'm almost to the end of my year of traveling, but not quite. An entire summer in Egypt is still in progress, and there's plenty to write about!!!

Nicaragua Pics...

2009-06-28T19:49:00.001-07:00

Okay, here are my pictures of Granada and the various other things we did while staying in Nicaragua!!!

A view of Granada from the church bell tower.

In the bell tower with some of our new friends from the spanish school.

The streets of Granada

My successful attempt at shaping a tortilla.

Our class headed out to one of the islands one day, and Jesus got a few of the students up dancing (including Amanda in this photograph). The funniest part was the group of local boys who gathered to watch behind them. You can't see many of them in this photo, but there were about 10 of them I think.

On our way out to Uncle Gerard's island for the first time, we stopped to watch a couple of scenes from the Stations of the Cross.

These are some photos of the island where we spent a relaxing four days!

After completing my spanish course, I took this photo with my instructor, Lesbia.

Cooking lessons at the Spanish school!

The zipline on the Mombachu Volcano!

Coffee Fields

This is a photo of Lake Nicaragua...you can see the isletas on the lake. They look like a long peninsula, but they are actually lots of small islands, close together!

This is a view of the Laguna from Catarina.

One of the cute, little taxis in Catarina.

This is the day we biked and hiked to the Laguna...crazy, but I'm glad we did it!

The sports club where Uncle Gerard is a member...he got us temporary memborship cards and we hung out there one morning.

These are a couple of views of the volcanos on Oma Tepe.

The springs (Ojo de Agua)

My birthday cake

Ryan and Rebecca (our friends we met on Oma Tepe).

The Volcano with Uncle Gerard.

One of the old churches in Granada.

Saying goodbye to friends...kids at Carita Feliz, the Clinica Alabama Granada, Xavier and Susanna, Gustavo (pharmacist), Cecilia (administrator at the clinic), Olivia (receptionist), and Eduardo (one of the doctors).

A quick shot of the markets in Granada...doesn't really capture the hectic-ness of making one's way through them, but there you have it!

Our fun afternoon out on the island with new friends!

The lovely coastal town of San Juan del Sur.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-05-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated, so let me catch you up on all of the happenings here in Nicaragua. We enjoyed another week of work last week. Our time has been full, between working at the clinic in the mornings and going to Carita Feliz in the afternoons. Carita Feliz is the learning center for kids to attend outside of school. I helped out with the English class (though still had plenty of opportunity to practice Spanish), and Rebecca worked with the younger kids in math. We met another volunteer, also helping in the English class. Her name is Esmee and she’s from Holland. I enjoyed working with her a lot, although the teacher we were assigned to help was extremely frustrating. She is really nice, but her teaching method is all over the place. There doesn’t seem to be much of a system, and on our first day, she handed the marker to Esmee and said, “Teach about the verb, ‘to be.’” Then she did the same to me once Esmee was finished. I had no idea what she was asking for and had to request that she give an example on the board first. I was incredibly surprised that she handed over the lesson to us on the first day. I wouldn’t mind so much if I knew ahead of time what she wanted to cover and which part she wanted me to do. I could go on, but I’ll spare you ALL of the details... :)

The week was busy, but we were looking forward to a fun weekend away on the large island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. It’s called Ometepe, and everyone recommended going there. We started out by walking to the bus station in Granada and finding the bus to Rivas. That part was easy. We knew that once we arrived in Rivas, the taxi drivers would try to get us to go with them over the less expensive bus to San Jorge, which is where the port is. What we didn’t expect, however, was for the bus drivers to be in cahoots with them. They actually stopped the bus BEFORE arriving at the Rivas bus station and ushered all of the foreigners off, leaving us with a taxi driver who wanted 40 cordobas each to drive us to San Jorge. I asked the bus driver where the bus to San Jorge was and they emphatically told me that there was no bus and then left. I was so irritated, because I knew there was a bus...more than one person had told me that there was a bus. I was just about ready to start walking and ask for directions along they way when another taxi driver pulled over and offered a ride to us and two other tourists for 20 cordobas each. More expensive than a bus, but better than 40. FYI: 20 cordobas = $1, and a bus to San Jorge probably would have cost 10 cordobas.

Once we arrived in San Jorge, we had to wait about an hour for the ferry to leave. On the ferry we were subjected to possibly the worst movie I have ever had to watch. I’ll spare you the synopsis. And yes, I could actually write a synopsis in spite of the fast that I could hear very little. Anyway, once we arrived at the port on the other side (a town called Moyogolpa), we asked some questions in the tourist office and opted to head to a little town called Charco Verde. We jumped on a bus and about an hour later were walked down the road to find a hotel. There were 3 in the area and we ended up sharing a dormitory for $5 per night with a married couple from Canada. Ryan and Rebecca invited us to go to dinner with them that night, as they had discovered a cheaper restaurant up the road. The hotels have their own restaurants, and if we hadn't known better, we'd have just eaten there and spent much more money.

We hit it off with Ryan and Rebecca and spent the entire next day with them as well, which was my birthday. :) We began the morning with a hike in the Nature Reserve in Charco Verde. The views of the 2 volcanoes on Ometepe were beautiful (they're called Concepcion and Maderas). The other highlight of the hike was watching the tiny frogs. They looked like little flies, but once we noticed them jumping, we took a second look. There were hundreds of them, if not thousands, some of them still tadpoles...very cool!

After the hike, we ate lunch at our restaurant again. Since it was Sunday (and a lot of buses don’t run on Sundays), Rebecca (Canadian Rebecca) negotiated a good price with a taxi driver to take us to Ojo del Agua, which is a natural spring nearby. We enjoyed a few hours of swimming and relaxing. At one point, Rebecca suggested we stop somewhere on the way home and get a cake or something to celebrate my birthday. As we were discussing this, a lady came up to us with a huge slice of cake, wished me a happy birthday, and handed it to me. Apparently, she had been at the spring to celebrate another birthday and had overheard our conversation. We shared the cake and chatted with her for a while. It made my day!!! She turned out to be an American who was working at a Franciscan Monastery on the island.

Back at the restaurant for dinner, we enjoyed another delicious meal and ice cream for dessert. We all left the following morning; Rebecca and I back to Granada, while Ryan and Rebecca took off for another part of the island. We’re hoping to meet up with them again this weekend when they’re in Granada. Meanwhile, it’s back to work for us!

Let me set the record straight...

2009-05-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

Apparently I've caused much concern over my disinterest in dancing here. There are a few reasons I've chosen not to participate. One of them is that while they do have ballroom dancing, quite a bit of it is sort-of doing your own thing, following the guy, but free-dance style. I'm not one for improvisation in front of people. Secondly, the dancing here is a lot of hips and shoulders, which I'm less comfortable doing. But most importantly, I don't mind too much dancing with someone I know or someone a friend recommends, but then other people ask you to dance and I find dancing with complete strangers like that uncomfortable. Therefore, I have chosen to watch and enjoy, but avoid dancing myself. I hope that answers the concerns... :)

I Walked to the Lake...the Bike Walked with Me

2009-05-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

(10 points to whomever can place the quote that inspired the title of this blog...)

Well, it’s been a big week, full of new friends and exciting experiences. Would you like to hear about it? Too bad, I’m going to tell you anyway. We worked in the clinic Monday through Thursday. I asked Cecilia on Monday if Rebecca and I could work in separate sections of the clinic for the remainder of the week. We both felt it would be more beneficial for our language acquisition to avoid being around people who spoke only English...namely, each other. On Tuesday and part of Wednesday, I helped out in the office area, filing patient records and re-writing some of the labels that were illegible. Some of them were so bad that Olivia (one of the secretaries) and Cecilia couldn’t read them either. In addition to meeting Olivia, I also met Thelma, who is another volunteer. Since they both speak only Spanish, I had a great time conversing with them.

The other part of Wednesday and Thursday, I was back in the pharmacy again with Rebecca. They’re really pushing to get the medicines organized, because they will get a new shipment soon. Cecilia has said again, though, that next week she’ll show us both how to do the weight, blood pressure, and blood tests, so that we can help with some of the patients.

As much as we enjoy the people at the pharmacy and appreciate the help we’re able to offer, we’ve realized that we really need more interaction. After some brainstorming, we stopped by the Spanish school to talk with Angelica about the volunteer opportunities the school advertises. I was thrilled to discover that there is a free learning center about a 30 minutes walk from where we live. This center is primarily targeted at poor children who need additional help. They go there for lessons in reading, English, math, dancing, cooking, sewing, etc. etc. The children’s sewing work is displayed and for sale, the proceeds of which go to the child who made them, which I think is great!

The director of the school said their greatest need was in the area of English. I think she just said that because she saw two English-speaking girls and knew we’d be great help with pronunciation. I was skeptical at first, but they assured me that we would interact in Spanish. The only English would be the specific words the children were learning and helping them with pronunciation. So, the arrangement is for me to help in English the first week while Rebecca helps in math. Then we’ll switch for the second week. We can only get there for the final 90-minute class of the day, but I think the director was really excited to learn that we would be able to volunteer for 4 weeks. I gather it’s unusual for them to get volunteers that long. We start on Monday.

In addition to the exciting new volunteer opportunity, we unexpectedly made a new friend in the neighborhood as well. On our way home from the park one day, we decided we really wanted sodas. So, we stopped in at a local convenience store and bought a couple of drinks, forgetting that drinks in the glass bottles have to be consumed at the store itself. We sat down and after a couple of minutes, the lady at the counter started chatting with us (in Spanish of course). We conversed for a little bit, and have stopped by since to say hello. We’re now hoping to stop there periodically for drinks and conversation.

Another person we’ve developed a friendship with is Dali, who is another student. You may remember our attempt to socialize last Friday night with a group from the school. Dali is the one I identified as French. Well, he’s actually Swiss, but he speaks French. He paid for our taxi ride home that night because he felt it would be too dangerous for us to walk...he’s very thoughtful. Anyway, he hangs out at the school a lot so we ran into him one day and he asked if we wanted to go to a nearby cafe. We ended up getting ice cream, coffee, and fruit smoothies. He doesn’t speak English (or hasn’t let on that he does anyway), so we communicate in Spanish, which is great. Grammatically, we probably know (or remember) more than he does, but he’s such an outgoing person that he just communicates with everyone. So he understands quite a bit, and hanging out with him has definitely loosened us up in our willingness to just “out with it” whether we really know exactly how to say it or not. Wednesday night we went out for mojitos with him and his friend, Norlan (who is Nicaraguan). We also met another friend of Dali’s, a 14-year-old local boy who has grown quite attached to him. He sat at the table with us and we learned all about his 15-year-old wife in Managua and their 3 kids... :) He’s quite a character!

Dali invited us out to Cafe Nuit on Friday night and we ended up staying out until 1:30 in the morning. It’s a great atmosphere, and Rebecca “wowed” everyone once again with her dancing. At one point she even participated in a “threesome,” being twirled and whirled by two guys! We had told Susanna that we wouldn’t be eating breakfast the next morning because we wanted to sleep in, which I am proud to say we did. I personally slept until 9:30. I really thought I’d end up waking up at 7 and not be able to get back to sleep, so 9:30 was quite an accomplishment.

We had lunch a little early and then met Dali and Angelica again. The four of us rented bicycles and biked out to Laguna de Apoyo. On the way there, we were witnesses to a poor cow being chased by a small herd of dogs, which was slightly amusing for us...less so for the cow. Of course, on the way back, I was chased by a dog, and ended up feeling a certain empathy for the cow. I managed to nearly kill myself on the way to the Laguna, because it was in the middle of the afternoon, hot, humid, and mostly uphill. Also, we hadn’t brought nearly enough water. Once we arrived, we had a bit of a hike down to the Laguna, where we all rushed to jump in. Because we biked and hiked, this particular beach, or cove, is rather secluded. We were the only ones there, which made it really fun and a different experience than last time. In spite of the fact that I was worried I’d have to turn back early on, I was really glad we made it. The hike back up was a bit strenuous, but riding the bike back downhill was great. I liked that part a lot... :) Dali invited us to go out again Saturday night, but we were so exhausted. We ate dinner, showered, then climbed into bed and crashed!

After breakfast on Sunday morning, we went to a club where Uncle Gerard is a member. He had arranged for us to get temporary membership cards, so we spent about an hour there. It was a really nice atmosphere for relaxing and a little studying. The only other errand of the day was stopping at the big supermarket, where we got a cappuccino before heading home for lunch. We’ve had a long, entertaining weekend, and are now ready for a busy week of volunteering (and hopefully lots of Spanish speaking)!!!

Whistle While You Work!

2009-04-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

This week we were back to work at the clinic. In addition to sorting and organizing the medications, we have also started helping counting dosages and preparing prescriptions...fun stuff! Between sorting, counting, pouring, labeling, and the like, we’ve met a few more people this week. One of them is the doctor that will start working at the clinic in May. I assume he’ll be taking Jared’s place, since he’s returning to the States pretty soon. We were also introduced to some more students from the Spanish School and joined a group for a night of dancing on Friday night. Our group consisted of 4 from Nicaragua, 1 from France, 1 from Canada, and the two of us. The eight of us piled into a taxi and went down to a place right next to the lake. Rebecca was the “belle of the ball” and “wowed” everyone with her superior Latin Dancing skills. I attempted to keep a low profile and avoid being asked... :) I was forced to dance at one point, much to my chagrin.

On Saturday morning, we went on a canopy tour on the Mombacho volano...I’m pretty sure that one’s inactive, though. This consisted of climbing ladders, swinging through trees, and a terrifying drop at the end. The road to the coffee farm where we got our gear was bumpy enough to rival some of the roads I’ve been on elsewhere, so it was no huge surprise to find that our poor truck had two flat tires when we returned. The company sent another truck, but in the meantime, our little group set forth to meet it. The walk was actually really nice and we got to see some wildlife along the way (don’t worry, folks...the monkey was waaaaayyyyy up in the tree). Our guide also stopped to show us a spectacular view of Granada, Lake Nicaragua, and its 300 some odd islands! From so far up, the islands look like one long peninsula instead of the numerous individual islands that they are.

Sunday morning we ate a big breakfast, after which Xavier and Susanna invited us to go with them to Catarina. Catarina is a town with a lovely view of the Laguna de Apoyo. We weren’t disappointed...the scenery was fantastic and the wind was incredibly refreshing. I even got a “windy picture.” Rebecca and I did a little shopping there as well. The prices were better than in Granada, and we managed to get some things we’d been looking for. The bad news...my flipflop broke. Those flipflops have tread many a path and been my friends through a great many countires. I shall miss them...a moment of silence, please.

Thank you.

Authorized Personnel

2009-04-21T16:59:00.001-07:00

It's fun...being authorized personnel and I feel crunchy walking through doors that say it! :) We became "authorized personnel" last week, on Wednesday, after two more days of class...

On Monday morning, it was time to get back in gear. We had classes Monday and Tuesday, and Monday afternoon went to the markets in Masaya. They had good prices there, so Rebecca bought a dress and I purchased a shirt/trouser outfit. On Tuesday the rest of the class spent the day at the “Laguna de Apoyo,” which is a large crater filled with water. We opted out of that because we really wanted to take advantage of our class time. Since Tuesday was our final class period, we felt it was important to have the entire 4 hours. So we graduated, received our certificates, then did some shopping in Granada. Rebecca bought a shirt and we picked up some more sunblock and ibuprofen (both very necessary)! On our way back to the room, we bought a bag of cut mangos for 25 cents, quite a lot cheaper than the $5 I spent on a comparable bag in Hawaii.

Wednesday morning we just hung out, then participated in the afternoon activity with our class (since we hadn’t gone to the Laguna on Monday). Angelica taught us how to make churritos, and they were delicious, if I say so myself (which I do). A quick stop by the clinic to arrange our volunteer hours was the only other errand of the day.

Thursday morning at 8:00am we arrived at Clinica Alabama and became "authorized personnel." Cecilia, who is our contact there, set us to work in the pharmacy, helping to arrange, organize, and label their medications. Rebecca managed to get herself sick with a headache that afternoon, which meant lots of time over the toilet bowl. Interesting side note...when it’s really hot and muggy and someone has just thrown up in a toilet in a bathroom with no door, it’s not tremendously fun to find you are out of water and unable to flush the toilet. Ah, well, at least she made it to the toilet, right? She didn’t eat most of the day and on Friday, stayed back in the room. I worked in the pharmacy on my own, but my day was broken up a little when Cecilia insisted I go get Rebecca to see the doctor. She is so sweet. (Cecilia, not Rebecca :) ) Becca spent most of the day in the room, recovering, but was able to make it out for dinner.

Saturday was shopping day and we explored the “mercados” a little more. I also bought a shirt and we picked up more mosquito repellent...something is biting me and I want it to STOP!!! Sunday was great fun. Uncle Gerard picked us up around 12:30 and we drove out to Laguna de Apollo, where a friend of his has a house. The house is gorgeous...it’s made of stone (or is a good imitation) and has a “nook and cranny” feel to it. We met a few new people and visited with some we had met previously. Swimming in the lake and the pool was interspersed with eating, drinking, and re-visiting our ethics debate with Fruto (the man we’d met the first day on the island). All in all, a really fun and successful day, and the perfect start to a new week!

Semana Santa

2009-04-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

Well, folks...almost two weeks in Nicaragua. How are thing going? Great! Let’s begin with our exploration of the city... Well, honestly I can’t say we completely explored the city, but we did manage to wander down the main streets, grocery shopped at the supermarket, and strolled down to the beach as well. As nice as the city is during the day, a walk in the evening is very relaxing. Once the sun goes down, the temperature becomes bearable and a slight breeze makes it down right comfortable. The main street comes alive with performers and people heading out to restaurants, clubs, and bars. We were out a bit too early for the “real party,” but since I’m not big into the nightlife that was fine by me.

On Sunday we went to church with Xavier and Susanna, who we rent our apartment from. Their church is a little farther out from the center, but still only about a 15 minute walk. It was a Catholic church...not surprising as this is the major religion in Nicaragua. Once I caught on to the passage of scripture being read from, I followed the reading fairly well. I was quite proud of myself, thank you very much.

Monday began with the start of our classes! My instructor’s name is Lesbia. She’s really sweet and I love how great everyone is in helping us understand. They slow down their speech, enunciate their words, and use gestures. Just a few simple things that make a huge difference! That, and they’re very patient with us. But don’t worry, we get plenty of conversation at regular speeds at mealtimes with Xavier and Susanna. :)

The price of our classes includes activities each afternoon. Monday afternoon took us on a two-hour jaunt around Granada, learning about its history, culture, and traditions. I understood a decent amount, but don’t ask me to repeat anything. We actually “Gussed” the bell tower there. For those of you who aren’t aware, to “Gus” something is to pay lots of money to “Go UpStairs” and see a panoramic view that looks like every other panoramic view in the world. Now, to be fair, there are a few places where “Gussing” is worth it. This was actually one of them. The other people in our group were going up and it was only a dollar, so up we went. I didn’t expect to enjoy it quite so much. But Granada is different, so the panoramic view is different as well. Actually, in general I find that “Gussing” in a small town is far more interesting than in a large city. Most big cities start to look the same after awhile...a bunch of skyscrapers...blah. Anyway, we enjoyed the tour, learned a little bit about Granada, got to know the other students a bit, and took some nice photos! All in all, a successful afternoon.

Tuesday morning was only a two-hour class. Then we headed out of the city for a little cooking lesson. Yes, you heard (or read) me right...a cooking lesson. Well, sort of. So we walked down the streets of Granada, heading a little out of town, crossing a river, and winding around to a little house where an elderly woman makes tortillas for a living. The dough was already made, but we each shaped, cooked, and ate a tortilla. Believe it or not, mine came out really well and I got a round of applause (of course, Lesbia coached me a little, but I did the work)!!! That afternoon we piled in the back of a truck, drove to the lake, hopped on a boat, and made our way around the many islands, enjoying the view. Arriving at one of them, we sat back and enjoyed a leisurely conversation with our instructors and fellow students. I had mango juice...yummy!!!

Wednesday morning, we took a little field trip to the mercados (markets). Tight, narrow aisles separate stands where people sell various items, ranging from fruit and fish to clothes and shoes...not unlike markets I've seen in other countries. We purchased 12 mangos for about 85 cents. Yay...we got mangos for dessert that night...mmmmmmmm! Wednesday afternoon was a dancing lesson taught by two of our instructors...Angelica and Josue. We learned and danced a little Merengue, Salsa, and Baracha. We learned another dance as well, but I can’t remember the name of it. All I know is that it consisted of a lot of shimmying and shaking. I just don’t do the Latin dancing justice. Angelica and Josue sure looked great, though!!!

So that brings us to Thursday...we woke up at 7:15, headed down for breakfast, and ate speedily after a call from Uncle Gerard with a minor change of plans. Apparently we had to be to our destination 45 minutes earlier than we had expected. So we rushed upstairs, grabbed our overnight bags, and walked briskly to the house of a lady named Irene, who was taking a small group out on the lake. Every year around Easter, they have a tradition here where they do the Stations of the Cross at the various islands of Lake Nicaragua. The islands chosen set out crosses and altars, and a procession of boats makes their way around, commemorating one of the stations at each island. Once in the boat, we hurried to join this small procession and visited two islands. Then we proceeded to wind our way around the many islands. Most of the islands are privately owned and some of the houses are spectacular. We finally arrived at Uncle Gerard’s island, where we were ushered up to the deck and offered drinks. The afternoon was spent chatting, relaxing in the jacuzzi, and eating and drinking. We zipped off in the boats a bit later to watch the sunset, then only 6 of us went back to the island for dinner. We thoroughly enjoyed an ethics debate over our meal that evening and went to bed full and happy.

Friday started off with rolling out of bed at 8:30, taking a long shower, eating breakfast, and enjoying a quiet morning on the island. Birds chirping and a slight breeze rustling the trees were about the only noises as I laid back in the hammock and did absolutely nothing. The “absolutely nothing” was broken up by rowing around the island once. Then after Rebecca headed back, I opted to take the boat out by myself to nearby “Monkey Island.” This island is home to a couple of monkeys who make it their business to amuse passers-by. I was warned not to get too close as they have been known to invite themselves onboard. Having a history with these creatures, I took the advice to heart and did my best to keep a safe distance.

My first attempt at rowing the boat was a failure, but after some advice I tried again and succeeded. I felt pretty accomplished rowing out there by myself. Making my way back to Uncle Gerard’s island, I passed by a tourist boat and was rather surprised to notice cameras pointing in my direction. I’d like to think I looked so amazingly competent they just had to snap a photo, but I’m a little afraid that the shockingly white girl attempting to row a boat by herself just looked completely ridiculous. I mean, it can’t be good when tourists are snapping photos of you instead of the cute little monkeys, can it?

About two-ish, the Spanish ambassador, his wife, two daughters, and son showed up. Uncle Gerard’s nephew was entertaining some friends on his family’s side of the island, so us “youngsters” went over there for a bit. I socialized for a little while, but soon found myself back on our side for a delicious lunch...fish soup. Afterwards, we headed to the island of one of Uncle Gerard’s friends where we swam in their pool, enjoyed another unique view, and played with an adorable chihuahua. Back home again, we had sausages, chicken, and fish for dinner, followed by the most scrumptious tres leche cake. The windy island at night is just as unique and spectacular as the quiet island of the morning, and I enjoyed a bit of alone time before heading to bed!!!

Saturday was a fairly relaxing day, filled with doing almost nothing, but reading and napping in the hammock. Saturday evening, however, we went into Granada for the Resurrection Mass. It was really nice...they began the service by going outside where a small fire was burning. I say small, but the sparks were flying everywhere and people were scrambling to get out of the line of fire! :) A large candle was lit, from which many other small candles were lit, representing the light Jesus brought to the world. Back inside, we listened to a reading from Genesis with background noises illustrating the creation of the world. Then there was a short re-enactment of Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac...good thing God stops him in the story...good thing for the kid playing Isaac anyway... I understood only segments of the remainder of the service, but that was ok. Following the mass, we were joined by Maria Celia’s daughter and her friend, and headed back to the island.

Sunday was another laid back day, although a few people did stop by later on in the day. I got in the water for a little bit, but opted out of the skiing and banana boat fun later on. We headed back to Granada around 5:00 that evening. Arriving back at our little apartment and seeing Xavier and Susanna again felt like coming home.

Fin de Semana

2009-04-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Saturday, which means more venders, more crowds, more hassle. Umm, I prefer shopping during the week all things considered. We're pretty much hanging out today...no big plans other than exploring a bit more of the city. Everyone here is gearing up for Easter Sunday. A couple of times each day a group comes by carrying a "float" of sorts with Jesus carrying the cross, and another of Mary. Yesterday, a group of private school students followed, singing and praying. They stop at various houses and everyone on the street comes to their doorways and watches. It's quite the event here!!! Last night, there was a band preceding the float of Jesus and they stopped at our place (well, next door where the people we're renting from live- Xavier and Susanna). We're enjoying the relaxing pace so far, although I'm sure things will get busier once we start our classes next week.

Nicaragua

2009-04-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, now for the current news! I'm in Nicaragua! It's been wonderful. We spent the first night with my cousins' dad in Managua. The next day, Uncle Gerard arranged for us to drive south to the city of Granada. We have a small apartment here, which is great. We frequently lose our water and the hot temperature is stifling, but it's wonderful! The lady we rent from is very nice and provides us with three meals a day. The food is great...lots of rice and beans! The town is small enough to walk everywhere. We went to the supermarket yesterday, which ended up taking only about 15 minutes each way. There is even a language school next door to us. The cost is very reasonable and includes one-on-one lessons as well as afternoon activities. The week after next, we'll begin volunteering at a local medical clinic. So, all in all, we've settled into life here quite well and are looking forward to the various opportunities that are opening up!!!

Hi Again!!!

2009-04-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

Well, hello there. Yes, I'm still here and no, I still haven't finished Europe. I am currently in Nicaragua, in the lovely city of Granada. However, although I have internet access, I am unfortunately unable to post pictures on my site. Therefore, you will have to use your imagination for how my European Adventure ended. Suffice it to say, we made it home in two pieces (Rebecca was one piece and I was the other). We are no longer "us." After leaving Ukraine, we spent time in Eastern Europe, exploring large cities such as Bucharest, Budapest, Prague, and Vienna, as well as the smaller town of Sighisoara. Sighisoara was the home town of the man who inspired the Dracula legend...pleasant guy! We also spent a little time in Poland...went to see Auschwitz as well as the cities of Krakow, Warsaw, and Lodz. Christmas with my parents was fantastic. We spent the time in Bavaria, taking in Munich, Salzburg, and various other small towns in the area. The Christmas Markets were a definite favorite! After Bavaria, we took a plane to England where we rented a car for a week and a half. We had the opportunity to visit a couple of friends we had made in Switzerland at L'Abri. Matthew lives in Newcastle and Margo in the Lake District. Continuing South, we eventually made our way to London where we turned in our car and spent the final few days there.

Phew...how's that for a whirlwind tour of our final month? Sorry for the lack of details...when I'm able to post pictures, I'll try to fill in the blanks. For now, this wraps things up.

Ukraine

2008-12-16T12:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know this is late, but I have to post about it...

Our train ride from Istanbul to Bucharest was supposed to be 19 hours long, but that turned into about 22 hours after delays at the borders...immigration always causes delays, but no one seems to have decided to account for those delays in the arrival times. Anyway, upon arrival in Bucharest, we booked our train out for early the following morning and walked to our hostel. By the time we got to sleep that night we had only a few hours before we had to get up again and head out. The lady at reception was really nice and got breakfast ready for us early! Our train ride to Kiev (capital of Ukraine) was supposed to be 27 hours, and guess what? It was 27 hours!!! They left on time and arrived on time, accounting for the time at the border. The border took about 2 hours because (and we didn’t find this out until later) the rails are different in Ukraine than in the rest of Europe. So, they have to change the trains over.

We arrived in Kiev at about 9:15 in the morning and proceeded to take care of three errands...1) We needed to get money out of an ATM, 2) We needed to buy our tickets to Kharkov and make reservations for our train back to Bucharest, and 3) We needed to get a phone card and call John Lynch to let him know what time we would be arriving in Kharkov. We began with #2. I attempted to ask at the information counter, but unfortunately was unable to get any help. Almost no one speaks English there and the lady refused to even point to where I could buy a ticket (I showed her our passes and the name of the city we needed to get to). Joannie later said that I was just lucky she didn’t scowl at me. After standing in one line, I got a lady to write down the number of the ticket window I needed to go to. When we found that window, there was a woman buying a ticket there who spoke English and she was kind enough to help us communicate!!! Rebecca hurried to withdraw money as they don’t really accept credit cards. Once the tickets were purchased, we had one more hurdle. I asked about a phone card at a magazine stand and they directed me to the post office where it was easily purchased and I called John with our arrival details. –sigh of relief-

In Kharkov, we didn’t see John right away and eventually started wandering around the outside of the station before Joannie came up and asked if we were Elizabeth and Rebecca. Apparently, Tanya (John’s wife) had gone into labor earlier in the evening and things were a bit crazy. Yay, us...we just have the best timing! At the house, Joannie showed us our room, which was the attic. We climbed the stairs to the second floor, then ascended the ladder, and lifted the hatch. It was great! We didn’t get to sleep until late that first night so we slept in a bit the next morning. The kids were wonderful. Ariel is John and Tanya’s first...she’s 4, soon to be 5 in January. Arlen just turned 3 a few days before we arrived, and no one knew what the third was going to be except for John and Tanya, who had chosen to keep the gender of their new baby a secret until his/her birth. When John arrived home that morning we found out that Tanya had given birth to another son...Aaron.

We headed out into town with Joannie that day to buy a turkey at the open market. I don’t think I can really describe it, but that was an interesting experience! We were fortunate to be able to spend Thanksgiving with the Lynch’s. I didn’t think I would care much if I missed Thanksgiving, but I must admit, it was really nice to celebrate it.

There’s so much I could say about Ukraine, and I could probably go on and on with a detailed description of each day, but I think I’ll just share some of the things we saw and did, and the amazing people we met! John arranged for a girl from the church to help us navigate the city. Her name was Olya and she just couldn’t have been more wonderful! She was very friendly and talkative and we really enjoyed hanging out with her.

Olya is a member of a Jewish dance team, so the evening we first met her, she picked us up at the house and took us to watch their practice. About a week later we also had the opportunity to watch the drama team practice (Faceless People). They have some incredible choreography as well incorporated into their dramas. John took us with him to the youth group he leads and we enjoyed meeting the other youth leaders and some of the kids. They had a lot of questions about us so we chatted for awhile, with John interpreting. One night we went to an orphanage where a couple of ladies go every week and teach various grades. The week we went the topic was on love. These were 7th grade, 9th grade, and 10th grade students. We were unable to participate in a lot of the activities we attended for obvious reasons, but it was really interesting to see what was going on and talk with the leaders of these groups to hear about what God is doing.

One of the ministries that impacted me (and that we were able to participate in) was a hospital ministry. When expecting mothers go to the hospital to give birth, sometimes they choose not to keep their babies. There is a process that includes signing papers giving the child up for adoption. The problem is, sometimes these women (or girls) just leave without signing the necessary papers. The baby is then left in the hospital with no home to go to, but also unable to be adopted (and therefore cannot be taken to an orphanage). If the women disappear and the lawyer is not able to find them, these babies can end up stuck in the hospital for up to a year, and sometimes longer. In these situations, the babies are rarely held, spoken to, or played with. The nurses feed them, but it’s a hospital with sick patients. It isn’t set up as a nursery. So these babies are confined to a crib for most of the day. A group of ladies from the church (6) go to four of these hospitals on a regular basis to hold and talk to the babies. In summer, they can sometimes take the babies outside as well. There are probably nineteen hospitals like this, but they are only able to go to four of them. The woman we spoke to would like someday to have a home where these babies can go until they can be put up for adoption. I’m not certain what she needs in order for that to happen, but it’s definitely a huge need!

In addition to the ministries we participated in, we also did some walking around the city and shopping while we were in Kharkov (including some trousers for Rebecca from the second hand store- all of her other trousers are falling to pieces). In between the activities going on during the week we tried to be as much help at the house as we could...from cleaning and doing dishes to playing with the kids or picking up something from the store.

We really enjoyed our time in Kharkov with the Lynch’s and were sad to leave. After leaving Ukraine we had only 5 ½ weeks left of the trip. I can’t believe it’s December!

Pics...

1. Thanksgiving with the Lynch's (from far left and going clockwise)...John, Sarah, Elizabeth, Joannie, Ariel

2. This is a picture of the university square in Kharkov. It is supposedly the largest or second largest square in Europe...we got different stories.

3. This is a picture of me and Olya, who helped us navigate the city. On this day, Rebecca stayed back so it was just the two of us.

4. This is me with Dima, who is one of the abandoned babies I held.

5. Elizabeth, Soombir (spelling?), and Ariel

6. Elizabeth, Soombir, and Arlen

7. Group shot of all of us...John, Tanya, Ariel, Elizabeth, Igor, Arlen, Rebecca, and Soombir

8. On the train from Kiev to Bucharest, we met a couple of girls (who shared our compartment). They were on their way to Bulgaria for a boxing competition!!! Rebecca, Elizabeth, Svetlana, and Julia

Ukraine Pics

2008-12-16T12:06:00.002-08:00

Turkey!!!

2008-12-01T11:31:00.000-08:00

I really liked Turkey, so a big thanks to Brook for recommending it. I don't think we would have gone there otherwise. When we arrived in Tsesme it felt and looked like the other coastal towns we had seen in Greece. In fact, the ferry from Chios to Tsesme is only about 30-45 minutes. We bought our visas, went through customs, and then walked about a kilometer to the bus station where we purchased tickets to Izmir. After almost two and a half hours we arrived at the Izmir bus station where we were met with the hustle and bustle of a big city. We desperately needed a toilet when we got there, so we hurried down only to find that, of course, you have to pay. They accepted euros in Tsesme, so we hadn't needed to withdraw any money and as I'm sure you can imagine, toilet attendants aren't exactly the friendliest people around. At the last minute Rebecca remembered that although we had paid our bus fare in euros, the change was in lira, so we had enough to satisfy the toilet guard. Scooping up our large bags afterwards, we wandered into the large hall full of various kiosks with people shouting at us, "Where are you going? Where do you want to go?" At first I thought they were telling us to get out, but they eventually beckoned us over. We were passed down the line to the kiosk selling tickets to Kusadasi. The bus was about to leave so they herded us out, telling us to buy the ticket on the bus. About to board, I turned to Rebecca who reminded me that we still didn't have any lira. We informed one of the attendants who ushered us back in the building where they exchanged some of our euros before hurrying us back out to the waiting bus. Finally in our seats, we sat back in relief and prepared for another two and a half hours. Upon arrival in Kusadasi we called our hotel and Ali, who runs the hotel, came to pick us up. From that moment on, everything was taken care of. They drove us where we wanted to go, arranged buses or other transport, even ordered in food. At first it was nice, but eventually we felt ready to explore on our own and had to kind-of sneak out the door. Okay, not really. They were great! And they really went out of their way to ensure that our stay was enjoyable, which it was!

Our second day in Kusadasi we went scuba diving. The idea had been to do that in Greece, but unfortunately, things tend to shut down in Greece in the winter so diving wasn't available. We decided that if we couldn't dive from the Greek side, maybe we could from the Turkish side. This worked out rather well and due to the time of year, we were the only divers. Our guide was great and Rebecca had her first actual dive (apart from her lessons). Back at the hotel we took a quick nap, then headed to the ruins in Ephesus. Again, so much more fun without all of the crowds. Traveling in winter definitely has its drawbacks, but the benefits make up for it in my opinion. Anyway, afterwards Ali took us to a shop owned by a friend of his where we had tea, chatted, and shopped a bit.

The following day we took a day trip to Pamukkale. Most of the day was spent on a bus, but after all of our moving around we decided we'd rather spend more time on a bus than pack up and move to yet another location. Pamukkale is fascinating and really unique. We've visited so many places that sometimes things start to look the same everywhere we go. Pamukkale was definitely different. When we got there, we walked up this path full of mineral springs. The white rock looks like snow and the water drizzles over all of it. They don't allow shoes, so we went barefoot up the path, stopping to play in the water. It felt like walking up a wall of water and since others were climbing as well, we kept going until an employee came up the path blowing his whistle. Apparently, it's permissible to climb a certain distance, but not too high (no signs to indicate where this imaginary line is, though). Actually, we weren't entirely sure if the whistle was being blown at us or the guys who had climbed even higher...oh, well. Anyway, once at the top there were more ruins to explore, including an amazing theater that is pretty impressive. Brook could probably say a lot more about this. In fact, since we weren't on a tour, I'd love to hear more about what I was seeing! On our way back down to catch the bus, we were beckoned over by a woman who anticipated our hunger and we ate in her tiny little restaurant.

Our last day in Kusadasi was spent doing a little more shopping, a little more bargaining, and going to the Turkish baths. That was nice...very nice. It's like getting a message only there's water and soap involved. That night, we took an overnight bus to Istanbul. We arrived early in the morning, transferred to a small bus that took us to the city center, and then began the hunt for the hostel. It didn't take too long, and they let us check in really early (and gave us breakfast). We slept for about an hour (because sleeping on buses is not easy) and then began our exploration of Istanbul. Between our guide books and Brook, we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do and see. Unfortunately, within about 20 minutes we discovered that they have doubled the prices in the last three months. I guess they figured that if tourists paid that much in western Europe, they'd pay it in Turkey, too. Anyway, that changed our plans a bit. We went inside the Blue Mosque, which is beautiful (and free) and then walked quickly through the Grand Bazaar (just wanted to get a taste of it...didn't really care to stop and get hassled). We bought some spices at the Spice Market, and then headed across the canal after buying fish and bread from a street vendor. The bridge was full of fishermen, a line of polls on top and a line of restaurants on the bottom. We actually found that walking on top was better (even though it was cold and windy) because at least the fishermen didn't hassle you along the way! : - ) We tried Turkish coffee, which is slightly better than Greek coffee, although very similar. I have to admit, I don't really like the grainy texture, but whatever!

The next day we opted to be satisfied with seeing Topkapi Palace from the outside and took Brook's recommendation to go inside the Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia used to be a cathedral, but when Istanbul was conquered, it was turned into a mosque. Anyway, there are remnants from both eras inside, making it a really interesting bit of history!!! We also bought some baklava and turkish delight later in the day before heading back to the hostel where we ate dinner (Rebecca went out and picked something up). By the way, I really like Turkish food...very yummy!

That night we were planning to take the train from Istanbul to Bucharest. At about 7:00 pm (or 19:00), the electricity went out all over the city due to poor weather conditions. Poor weather conditions consisted of wind and buckets of rain being dumped on the city. I was a little concerned when the guy at reception said he wasn't sure if the trains would still be running, but figured the worst that would happen would be that we would have to arrive in Ukraine a day late. We poor unfortunate souls were forced to trudge through the aforementioned weather in order to get to the station where we sat on a cold, dark bench until the electricity came back on. Applause filled the air as we all breathed a sigh of relief and then business carried on as usual. Our 19 hour train ride turned into 22 hours (because no seems to plan in enough time for all of the border stops), but we eventually arrived in Bucharest, where we stayed a short night close to the station before departing on a 27 hour train ride to Ukraine. But that's another story...

Picture Explanations:

1. Ephesus

2-4 The mineral springs at Pamukkale

5. Rebecca at the theater in Pamukkale

6. The outside of Topkapi Palace in Istanbul

7-8 The Blue Mosque (outside and inside)

9. The Hagia Sophia

10. This is one of the mosaics from inside the Hagia Sophia

11. Yum! Baklava on the top and Turkish Delight on the bottom! Also, they really like pistachios in Turkey so pistachio flavoring is very common and very good!

Turkey Pics

2008-12-01T03:53:00.000-08:00

Greek Islands

2008-12-01T03:25:00.000-08:00

The islands in Greece were much more enjoyable than the big cities, although Crete has more than it's share of big, dirty cities with too much construction. We stayed in Heraklion because of it's proximity to the port, but took a couple of day trips. The first day trip was to Knossos where we enjoyed exploring more ruins. The Knossos Palace was once the center of Minoan civilization. Parts of it have been restored (I don't know how accurately), but it's pretty fun to explore! Rebecca was very enthusiastic because Knossos was very important in Indiana Jones' search for Atlantis!!! Brook, I hope my extremely brief description gets a better grade than Rebecca's. Another fun day trip was to a couple of coastal towns. We just really enjoyed getting out of the cities, walking along the coast, and and enjoying some fresh air!

We took an overnight ferry from Crete back to Athens, then transferred to a ferry going to Syros, one of the smaller islands. Again, the highlight was being out of the city. The people were nicer, more helpful, and the atmosphere was, in general, much more pleasant. We found a hotel that let us store our luggage while we took a bus to see more of the island. Late that night we caught another ferry that took us to Chios where we were greeted by a very kind man who runs a hotel about 7 kilometers outside of town. I had called to book with him because his prices were so good and he offered to come pick us up at 2:30 in the morning so we wouldn't have to look for a taxi. Not only that, but the hotel actually turned out to be apartments, so we had a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living room. It was great!!! The town was pretty small and out of the way (better in my opinion) so we walked around a bit, enjoying the scenery, the quiet, and the small market a short walk from our apartment. After two nights there, we caught a ferry from Chios to Tcesme, which is in Turkey. I have lots to say about Turkey, but that will have to wait for next time...

Pictures:

1. This is Knossos. Obviously, much of it has been reconstructed, so this isn't what it actually looked like...just what Arthur Evans thought it probably looked like...

2. This is me during our day trip away from Heraklion. I am sitting on rock on the coast in a town called Elounda.

3. This is an old Venetian Port in Heraklion that we walked by every day.

4-5 These pictures are from Syros. We only had an afternoon and evening in this lovely town, but we enjoyed every minute!

6. Here I am on the island of Chios where we spent a day prior to heading to Turkey!

Greek Island Pictures

2008-12-01T03:19:00.001-08:00

Interlude...

2008-11-29T13:44:00.001-08:00

Well, there's much to say about my travels, but I'm not going to say them now. This is a short interlude as suggested by the title! We've arrived in Ukraine where we were surprised and blessed to spend Thanksgiving with the Lynches. We're having a great time here and are enjoying the many people we meet! Our trip is winding down now...one more week here, then two weeks in eastern Europe. After that, we will spend a week with our family in Germany for Christmas, then two more weeks in England before flying home. In many ways the time has gone by so quickly, and in other ways I feel that I've been gone for years. I'm excited to see my family and all of my friends, but it will be strange to be home. Only about six weeks left...we'll be home on January 15th. And by the way, Aubrey, if you're reading this, I'm in desperate need of a shopping trip! I'm so sick of my clothes now and they're sick of me! Well, that's all for now, folks. I have news of our travels and pictures to share, but those will have to wait as I'm very tired and am about to go to bed!!!

Slovenia to Greece

2008-11-12T12:05:00.000-08:00

Well, the last week or so has been an adventure. We stayed a couple of nights in Lake Bled, Slovenia, where we enjoyed the view of yet another castle, walked around the lake, rented a row boat and headed out to an island, and enjoyed the hospitality of the hostel owners. Damien drove us into town and back, and they had an amazing 6 euro dinner which turned out to be a four course meal! After leaving Lake Bled, we spent one night in the capital, Ljubljana (pronounced Lubliana, although I called it Libblejibble before I knew that...)

After reviewing several options on getting to Greece, we finally decided on taking the train from Slovenia back into Croatia, then on through Serbia, Macedonia, and then into Greece. That meant we had to go through immigration eight times...each time we left a country and each time we entered another one. That gets really annoying! We had about four hours in Serbia during which time we visited a local fast food restaurant and got some delicious burgers. After that we met a guy named Marco who we chatted with for a while before finding our beds. (It was an overnight train, so we got beds...fortunately for us, we had the little room to ourselves.) Marco was an interesting character. Our train car didn't open up until right before we left, so we sat in another part of the train talking about things like jobs and politics. Ugh...I'm sick of people asking me about U.S. politics! Anyway, he was pretty nice, but in Serbia there aren't really any non-smoking areas so after a while we had to politely excuse ourselves from the small cabin with limited air flow where he was continually blowing smoke in our faces. I tried to put up with it as long as I could, but I already had a headache and I do have my limits...

After the very long train ride to Thessaloniki, we arrived at our hotel and went out around the city for a few hours before bed. The next day we took a bus to Mount Olympus where we hiked for a while. It was a beautiful area and again, nice to be out of the city...oh, and lots of cats for Rebecca to play with!

From Thessaloniki we took an overnight train to Athens...and for anyone who might consider doing such a thing in the future, don't! Or at least, take the later train and make sure to get a bed or couchette! It would have been worth paying a little extra. That was the most miserable train ride ever! But that's enough of that...we don't wish to discuss miserable things!

Athens...Athens...well, our hostel was really nice. After the miserable train ride, they kindly let us check in really early (7 am) and we slept until noon before heading out into the city. As for the city...it's a city! The ruins are amazing and the area is great for its historical importance, but overall, I didn't love Athens. It's huge, dirty, and a typical big city I guess. Anyway, we spent three full days in the area, but the second day we took a day trip to Delphi where we saw more ancient ruins. This time, though, they were away from the city. It was really nice. Most of our last day in Athens was spent making arrangements for our ferry travel and ultimate arrival in Turkey. We will be visiting a few islands before taking a ferry to Turkey.

Picture Explanations...

1. Temple of Athena in Delphi.

2. The stadium in Delphi.

3. Parthenon

4. This is a panoramic view of the sprawling city of Athens. We were at the Acropolis when I took this photo.

5. Mount Olympus (or around there)

6. The White Tower in Thessaloniki.

7. This is the island in the middle of Lake Bled.

8. And this is the Bled castle, up on the hill, overlooking the lake.

Slovenia and Greece Pictures

2008-11-12T11:48:00.000-08:00

Questions

2008-11-02T06:03:00.001-08:00

So I've had a couple of questions that I haven't answered. My dad asked if we had gone up in the Tower of Pisa, and the answer to that is no. While viewing it is free, they like to charge a lot of money to go inside, which makes everyone feel like they have to go inside. This is a very common trap which we have sadly fallen for a few times. Rebecca likes to call it the GUS Syndrome (Go Upstairs). I find that the outside of any given structure is most often more interesting than the inside, so unless we really want to go in somewhere, we tend to avoid the ridiculously priced fees. Maybe it would be cool, maybe not. I just get annoyed with how over priced things like that are, so we tend to avoid them.

Okay, next question about the Anne Frank tree. As far as I understand, it is still standing. There was a plan to take it down, but of course that was met with resistance and I think the protesters have won for the time being. The tree itself is enclosed in a courtyard that is not accessible to the public, so no, we didn't get to see it.

I think that's it for now...

Heidelberg and Plitvice

2008-11-02T04:39:00.000-08:00

Yep, back to boring titles for now...sorry to disappoint!

With a couple of extra days we decided to spend some time in western Germany, in Heidelberg. We stayed in a hostel in the old city, which was beautiful. We actually took a day trip our first day there to Freiberg where we took a cable car through parts of the Black Forest. In reality, it’s just a forest, but it was pretty neat. We had the cable car to ourselves, and the change in the view as we rose in elevation was great. We began the trip with green trees at the bottom, fall colors soon dominating, until finally little patches of snow became a blanket of white everywhere. We enjoyed a brief walk at the top before sipping hot chocolate with rum at the restaurant.

Our second day in Heidelberg was spent at the Heidelberg castle. The castle itself was okay...the best part is the lovely location. On the castle grounds they had a museum about the history of pharmacy. If anyone can shed some light on that, I’d be interested.

An afternoon train took us to Munich where we boarded an overnight train to Zagreb, Croatia. We stored our luggage at the train station in Zagreb, picked up some maps at tourist information, and then did a short-ish walking tour through the city. Croatia is not yet a part of the EU, so they use a different currency, which is always inconvenient. It can be expensive to exchange money, so when we’re not using the euro, we have to try and calculate exactly how much we’ll need so that we come out as close to exact as possible.

Anyway, Zagreb was a nice city, but we were really anxious to get to Plitvice, where we planned to spend 3 nights near the National Park, spending one day in the park and the other doing as little as possible. We are so busy every day, we both felt like this would be a good time to relax and stay in, taking a break from being tourists.

The Plitvice Lakes were beautiful. There are 16 lakes in the park, and dozens and dozens of waterfalls. It’s amazing! We explored the park for the day, loving the lack of tourists at this time of year. There were only a few other people, which made for a quiet day! Marija, who runs the guesthouse we’re staying in, drove us to the park and picked us up again...she’s incredible!

We’re currently enjoying our day off, being as lazy as possible! Not much more to say at the moment. We head to Slovenia next...

Pics:

1-6. These are pictures of Plitvice Lakes. Number 6 is Cassie's fault...she started the whole hanging over rails thing and now Rebecca does it too and makes me nervous!

7-8. These are a couple of pictures of Zagreb.

9. This is a view of Heidelberg Castle. It's under renovation, which is the reason for the ugly scaffolding on the right. Other than that, it's beautiful!

10. This view is looking down on the city of Heidelberg, from the castle!

11-13. These photos are of the Black Forest. They show the various climate changes we experienced on our way up!!!

By the way, these pictures loaded backwards this time. It's different every time, which is why I gave up trying to make any sense out of it and just put the pictures up in one post and their explanation up in another post. Hopefully it's not too confusing for everyone!

Heidelburg and Croatia Pictures

2008-11-02T04:15:00.001-08:00

Corrections

2008-11-01T11:03:00.000-07:00

I made a bad typo and spelled medieval terribly wrong...which has now been fixed...I hate it when I do that! Anyway, go back and read the whole blog now, because I’m sure that typo ruined the whole experience last time you read it...

Also, I forgot to mention two veryveryvery important events that took place while we were with the Garbers. The first occurred on October 18th. This marked the halfway point of our trip, and by halfway I mean, of course, that we had completed half of the trip and had half of it yet to go... We celebrated with Wolfgang and Julie in our hotel room with a glass of wine and later in the evening, a genuine German puppet show! And by genuine I mean nothing of the sort. This particular puppet show was...interesting...we’ll leave it at that. I will say that I will be laughing for years to come every time I think of it!

The second event took place on October 19th when we celebrated the birthday of my sister, Rebecca. She is now 22. And we are most happy. A couple of the neighbors came over and we had cake...Mmmm! Rebecca was also presented with a delightful birthday present (no, not the ring). It was an adorable mini Christmas carousel and I, because my birthday is in 7 months, got one as well! Even better!

Okay, moving on...you get a new post...lucky you!

Berlin

2008-11-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

We began our time in Berlin with a free walking tour. Those are really neat, by the way. It’s this company that offers free walking tours in various cities in Europe, their employees working on a tip basis, so everyone just pays what they can at the end of the tour. We did the tour in Madrid and now Berlin, and loved both of them! Our guide’s name was Colin and he is from Scotland, which made Rebecca very happy! He was great and even dramatized his stories for us!

We began our tour at the Brandenburg Gate, which has now become an emblem of a reunified Germany and several embassies have been built in the square there. Apparently, the U.S. wanted 80 meters of security clearance when building their embassy, and the German government wanted to know what the U.S. would like them to do with the large gate there...move it or blow it up? The U.S. was fine with either...or at least, that’s the story Colin gave us.
: - )

Much of the history in Berlin is so recent and during the Cold War, even in some of my early memories. There are numerous memorials, which are very sobering to visit. The Holocaust memorial is incredible. It’s in a grid patterns, consisting of 2,711 concrete blocks rising from the ground at various heights, which can be walked through from all sides. It looks like a graveyard as you walk through the narrow paths, never knowing who might be coming around the next corner. Another interpretation that our guide shared with us was that the levels of the blocks represented the various levels of anti-Semitism, the blocks at ground level representing anti-Semitic attitudes, and the tallest blocks representing the systematic extermination of their race. We also went into the museum they have underneath, which was, as all Holocaust museums are, difficult to work your way through.

We also saw the remnants of the Berlin Wall. It’s actually been fenced off to protect what’s left from the tourists, who used to come and chisel off pieces of it as souvenirs. The Book Burning Memorial was also really interesting. There’s a huge room underground with rows upon rows of empty shelves. The room has been sealed off to represent our inability to change the past. The only way of seeing the room is a square glass panel in the middle of the plaza. The glass is slightly reflective, the designer trying to remind us through our reflections that we have a responsibility to avoid this in the future. The students from the university also have a used book sale outside the school every day, which I thought was pretty neat!

Our second day in Berlin, we actually left the city and visited Leipzig, which is about an hour away. There are several important monuments to music there, including a concert hall where Mendelssohn performed and a church (Thomaskirsche) where Bach led a choir and Mozart played the organ. Ooh, and we also bought socks there...because we needed some.

Umm, that night we went to see a movie...I won’t tell you which because I hate you*...I mean, because Rebecca already has. It starts with an H and ends with a 3, and there is “igh School Musical” in the middle.** Anyway, while we were at the plaza, grabbing a bite to eat prior to the movie, there was a red carpet premier going on. It was for a German movie that I’ve never heard of, but the atmosphere was kind-of fun!

We left this morning for Bruges, so see you again in Belgium!

*A quote from Steven Fry from “A Bit of Fry and Laurie.”
**A reference from Dreamfall, which is a computer game that Rebecca loves!

Explanation of Pictures...

1. This is the Red Carpet Premier...

2. Ummm...okay, this was the "ceiling" of the shopping area where we saw the movie I won't tell you the name of. We came up with all kinds of interesting things that it might be. What do you think?

3. Okay, I don't know if this is true, but our guide told us that this was the first free public toilet. Interesting, no?

4. This gate has come to represent the reunification of Germany.

5-6. The Holocause Memorial

7. The Book Burning Memorial

8. The Berlin Wall

9-10. Thomaskirsche

11. Bach

Berlin Pics

2008-11-01T08:37:00.001-07:00

Belgium and Holland...Land of the Kamikaze Bicycles

2008-11-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

I know, right? I actually thought of a good title...how exciting! Anyway, Belgium and Holland...we didn’t have much time in either place, but I think we made the most of our time! We stayed in Bruges while we were in Belgium and took a short half day trip to Brussels. Bruges is supposed to be the Venice of the North, or so our map said. It was a pretty town to walk around in.

Our short trip to Brussels required a visit to their chocolate museum. This probably wasn’t worth the 5 euros we paid, but we were in Belgium, so... Also, apparently French fries were originally invented/introduced in Belgium, so we stopped at a little roadside restaurant and got some fries to go, smothered in mayonnaise. That’s how they typically eat them, and it was pretty good! Every store you walk into in Brussels has models (among other things) of the Manneiken Pis, which is a fountain. The reason it is so popular is because the water from the fountain comes from the statue of a little boy who appears to be peeing. Haha...very creative. But it has become quite the thing here...in fact, locals periodically make outfits for the little boy (with a well-placed hole, of course) and many of these outfits are on display in a museum. Hmmm...I really have nothing more to say about that!

One of the things we really enjoyed in Brussels was the Musical Instrument Museum. You get a headset and as you walk through the museum, it tunes into the area you’re in and plays samples of those instruments. We had a lot of fun there!

Back in Bruges, we did some shopping, specifically for lace. You have to be careful to make sure you’re getting the real deal (Belgium made). The shop owners are upfront and honest about what they sell, but if you automatically head for the cheaper things, you might accidentally pick up something made in Taiwan! We went to a cute little shop that was recommended where everything they sell is genuine, and sometimes they even have the lace makers sitting outside the shop working.

After leaving Bruges, we made our way to Amsterdam, where we stayed at Shelter Jordan, which is a Christian hostel that was recommended by someone we met at L’abri. It was a great atmosphere! We were able to get inexpensive meals and we had the room to ourselves the first night...that was a nice surprise!

On our first morning in Amsterdam, we went tot he secret annex where Anne Frank hid with her family and penned her famous diary. It is always very sobering to see things like that and to imagine what it must have been like...

We visited a small town called Zaanse Schans where we saw windmills (we were in Holland, after all), and made a quick trip to Delft as well!

Oh, and the bikes! Almost everyone has bikes in Belgium and Holland, and unlike cars, you can’t really hear them very well. They come from every direction, sometimes out of nowhere, and they’re treacherous! Our guide map in Bruges suggested we rent a bike and join the “kamikaze” cyclists in trying to run over the tourists. We didn’t really have time for that, but it sounded like fun!

Explanation of Pics:

1. This is Amsterdam...the pretty part. There are lots of canals, which make for some nice walks!

2. This is Holland. We ventured outside of the city for a view of some windmills.

3. Pretty! This is a windmill!!

4. This is a lace shop in Belgium. Two elderly ladies usually sit in the chair doing lace work, but in their absence, the doll takes over.

5-6. The chocolate museum...Mmmmmm... I'm standing behind a glass case showing the ingredients for various types of chocolate...milk chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate...

7. This is the main square in Brussels.

8. This is one of the side streets we walked down in Bruges. Bruges is apparently considered by some to be the Venice of the North. I liked Bruges, but I don't know that I would go so far as to say that.

Belgium and Holland Pics

2008-11-01T08:19:00.001-07:00

The Long Awaited Update!

2008-10-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay! For those of you crying out for an update, this is it! And it promises to be a nice, long one as well. We’ve had pretty limited internet access for a while, either because it was too expensive or not working properly. And so, here you go. The last time I posted we had left Spain. So much has happened since then...Spain seems so long ago now. My plan for this post is to actually divide it into several posts. One section will include our short stay in Nice and then our time in Italy. Another section will delve into our experiences at L’abri, which is where we stayed in Switzerland, and Paris. The final section for now will be our wonderful stay with Jake’s aunt and uncle in Germany. Sound good? Well, that’s how I’m doing it, so it doesn’t really matter what you think. Here goes!!!

South of France and Italy (boring title, I know, but that's what it is)

2008-10-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

We were a bit hesitant about returning to France after our horrendous experience at the train stations in Paris, but gathering up our courage, we set forth! We were supposed to call our hostel when we arrived in Nice, but unfortunately, we had no phone and the train station staff was (true to form) rather unhelpful. A really sweet lady tried to help us, but alas, nothing worked. Frustrated, I decided to go out and start following the directions, hoping that when we arrived at the location where the hostel supposedly picked you up in a shuttle, there would be a store open who might help us. We found a phone/call center within five minutes of leaving the station, though, so everything ended up working out just fine. And just to clarify things, the French are actually very nice, friendly, and even helpful...just not those that work at the train station (at least not generally).

Anyway, Nice was a cute town, especially in the city center with their markets. What was really fun was a short bus trip we took to Eze Village. The cobblestone streets wound their way up a hill with various shops set into the side. We stopped for some crepes on our way back down, which were delicious. After a hike down the hill and subsequent mountain, we took another short bus ride to Monte Carlo where Rebecca searched for a stone disc in the sewers (Indiana Jones computer game reference).

Leaving Nice, we journeyed through various towns in Italy, arriving at long last in the quaint town of Riomaggiore, part of the five villages that make up Cinque Terre. Anyone going to Italy, put Cinque Terre into your travel plans. As enjoyable as the rest of italy was, this was by far our favorite stop. Riomaggiore is the quintessential Italian town, and our hostel was really a little apartment with six beds, a kitchen, bathroom, and washing machine. We were able to wash our clothes (at last) and in typical Italian fashion, hung them out to dry on the clothesline outside our window. The full day that we spent in Cinque Terre was one beautiful view after another. We hiked from town to town, taking a ferry between the final two towns. Each picture was postcard pretty. The government, having noted the beauty of these towns, has made the Cinque Terre into a national park, thereby maintaining the charm for future generations, of which we were one.

Our next stop was Florence. On the way we stopped briefly in Pisa, which has practically one claim to fame, and that is it’s leaning tower. Pretty neat to see that, and then we continued on our way... One of the big things to do in Florence is to see Michelangelo’s David. I must admit, I was wary and doubtful that I would think it so very spectacular. Upon entering into the large room dedicated to the statue, I have to admit to being quite in awe. It was beautiful and even as we were leaving, I kept looking back (and no, not because of that...get your heads out of the gutters)! We met an Albanian artist named Albert one night in Florence who treated us to coffee and chatted awhile.

We had originally planned to head to Sienna next, but switched that with Rome due to the fact that the last weekend of the month had many free sights, including the Vatican on Sunday. We had three full days in Rome and they were packed. From the Colosseum and Roman Forum to the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica, we scoured the city. We even went a bit out of the city to see Ostia Antica, and old Roman port. Also included in our sight seeing adventures were some catacombs. The Vatican was crazy! We got in this huge line of people and it took us about 2 hours to get in. The museums were alright, but the really amazing draw was the Sistine Chapel. Now, I appreciate art, but I don’t always understand it very well. Since we got into the Vatican for free, we opted to get the audio guide. We were really grateful once we got to the Sistine Chapel. As I listened to the description of Michelangelo’s great work, I was struck with the realization that I was hearing the Gospel message, and so were all the people who walk through that chapel with an audio guide. It really was an amazing artistic accomplishment and in learning more about it, I wished I could have stayed even longer!

After the hectic pace of Rome, we were thrilled to get to Sienna, where we took a bus to a little town called San Rocco. We stayed in a Villa located on a private farm. The location was remote and quiet, and we had our own room...yah!!!!! The lady and her daughter who ran the place helped us arrange a wine-tasting tour, which was a lot of fun. We were actually taken to a vineyard called Mozart Vineyard where they play Mozart 24/7. They have apparently joined together with students from a University (in Florence, I think) in order to study the affect music has on plants. It was fascinating to walk through the Vineyard there, hearing music coming from the numerous speakers set up everywhere. When we weren’t out tasting wines, we were back at our beautiful villa, taking walks on the property, or sitting on a balcony reading, or chatting with some of the other guests. It was extremely relaxing, so much so that putting on our backpacks on the day we left was torture.

However, Venice was next and we couldn’t miss out on that! Venice is, of course, unlike any other city. When we first arrived I looked out the front of the train station and for a split second wondered why there was a boat driving down the street! We actually stayed in a hostel on the Island, which made the experience even better. Our hostel had a free breakfast and a free dinner. We would all sit around a large table in the common room, and although it was awkward at first, this arrangement made it easy to get involved in conversations. Our first night there we stayed up until midnight talking with a couple of other people we’d met. We only had one full day in Venice, but we made the most of it, visiting a church, heading up a tower for a really unique panoramic view, and even taking time to get lost. Gondola rides in Venice are ridiculously expensive because they can be, so since we weren’t exactly willing to spend 100 euros on one, Rebecca bravely assembled a group from our hostel and six of us we got together in the afternoon. Definitely overpriced, but I suppose it’s one of those things you just have to do when you’re in Venice. We had a great time.

Well, upon leaving Venice, we boarded a train bound toward Switzerland. We were thrilled with the prospect of an entire week in one place. Even though they remind you on their website that L’abri is not a place for a relaxing vacation, we felt pretty good about being told where to go, what to do, and what to eat. It’s not always so bad being taken care of...

Explanation of Pics:

1. A narrow street in Eze Village...it was like this all over and lots of fun to wander through!
2. On the hike down from Eze Village, we enjoyed this view...
3. Rebecca posing with Monte Carlo as her background.
4-5 Cinque Terre...gorgeous, isn't it?
6. This is one shot of many of the Roman Forum.
7-8 The Colosseum.
9. Bet you can't guess what this one is...oh, the leaning gave it away, huh? When my mom was here 35 years ago, she took pictures of her friends which came out with the tower straight and her friends leaning! Check out Rebecca's sight for our tribute to that little mishap!
10. Another view of Cinque Terre because I liked it and it's pretty!
11-12 Ah, Venice! This is our little group on a gondola ride!
13. This is the Mozart Vineyard. They were in the midst of grape harvesting season, so some of the grapes were still on the vine.
14. The view from our villa balcony!
15. This is me at the Vatican. I'm overlooking the grounds.

Nice and Italy Pics

2008-10-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

L'abri and Paris

2008-10-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know my titles are boring, but I don't care!

L’abri- This is a Christian community dedicated to people (primarily young people) with questions about God, the Bible, social issues, etc... You name it... We began each day with breakfast at 8:00 (except Sundays and Thursdays, which were our days off and we started at 9:00). After breakfast we had a little time before we were expected to be at our assigned place from about 9:30-12:30. Each student was either assigned to work in the mornings or in the afternoons. If you weren’t working, you were down at Farel House to study. Everyone pitches in and helps at L’abri, so work assignments consisted of various tasks, from cooking and cleaning to making sack lunch for days off and taking care of the grounds. At lunchtime, everyone was divided into two groups, going to their respective chalets. Here we ate while one of the workers facilitated a formal discussion. During formal discussions, someone asks a question and the entire group focuses on that question for the hour. The afternoon session then goes from 15:00-18:00. If you worked in the morning, you study in the afternoon and vice versa. 18:30 is dinner and after that everyone retreats to whatever activity most suits them, usually ping pong on the deck or games in the common area. A little later, someone might organize a group to go to the pub in Villars, which is the town nearby.

On Sunday afternoons and Thursdays, we each participated in various activities...hiking, shopping, sleeping, skiing in the winter, etc... We went hiking one day up Death Hill. And, yes, there is a reason for that name and there are three of them. Death Hill #1, Death Hill #2, and Death Hill #3. I climbed them all...slowly. But it was breathtaking, so I forgive whoever suggested the hike.

Our time at L’abri was wonderful. I especially loved the study time. They have a huge library with books on a wide array of subjects and tapes upon tapes with lectures by Dr. Schaeffer, his wife (they started L’abri), and others who were invited to L’abri. There’s just a lot of time to read and reflect and as we approached the halfway mark of our trip, I found myself in need of that!

We tacked two extra days onto our time at L’abri (mainly because they were showing Pride and Prejudice...the BBC version, of course...on Sunday night). Well, okay, that wasn’t the only reason. Anyway, we left reluctantly, as we always do, and continued on to Paris.

Paris in the Fall...it was beautiful. And we had no problems with the train station this time. In fact, the guy who helped us was friendly and even funny! Our hostel was nice and in a great location! We did the major things, of course...the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Valerie had recommended going up the Eiffel Tower at night, and I have to thank her for the suggestions. After awhile, the panoramic views begin to all look the same (after all, how different can one big city really look from another?) Anyway, the night view of the Eiffel Tower as well as from it, was breathtaking! I wasn’t especially fond of the elevator because I could see out, which had a dizzying affect!

We took a short ½ day trip to Versailles where we saw the palace of Louis XIV as well as the gardens. We weren’t able to make it to Marie Antoinette’s home...slightly disappointing, but you can’t do it all! The Louvre was incredible...beyond huge. We got a bit lost, but once we found ourselves again, we were able to follow the map rather well.

We also really enjoyed the Rodin museum. Sculptures are a lot of fun and they let you take pictures...even better!

We left Paris, excited to meet Jake’s aunt and uncle in Germany (for those of you who don’t know, Jake is a friend of ours back home...although you probably guessed).

Picture Explanation:

1-3 These are just pictures of the scenery at L'abri...just to give you a taste of what we saw when we looked out our window every day... : - )
4. Cows are cool...and they make pretty bell noises!
5. This is Chalet Bellevue, where the students lived at L'abri.
6. The Louvre at night is even more beautiful than during the day. You head down into the glass pyramid and there it is...a labyrinth of rooms filled with all kinds of art!
7. The Mona Lisa...what can I say? Rebecca can vouch for me, I stared at it, trying to get it, but to no avail (ducks throwing items from those artsy people reading this).
8. At the Rodin museum: The Thinker...what is he thinking about? You decide...
9. A view from the Eiffel Tower...Paris at Night!
10. The Eiffel Tower...bet you didn't know that one, did you?

Switzerland and Paris Pics

2008-10-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

Ingolstadt and Rothenburg

2008-10-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

Wolfgang and Julie Garber met us at the train station late Thursday night and then let us keep them up into all hours of the night chatting. They are amazing! We slept in on Friday, had a leisurely morning, and then once their kids got home from school, we all took off for the weekend. They took us to Rothenburg, which is this gorgeous German town. Walking down the streets, I thought the houses must be cardboard cutouts or at the very least, enlarged dollhouses. The first night there, we went on the Night Watchman Tour, which took us through the city streets, outside the walls, sharing what life was like in the 1300’s. Wolfgang and Julie had been on this tour before and said that it keeps getting better. The Night Watchman was mysterious with great dose of humor and kept all of us entertained.

The following day we explored Rothenburg, shopping, eating, and visiting the criminal museum where we learned all about torture methods, ways of executing criminals, and various other punishments for various other crimes. Interesting!

Shopping in Rothenburg got us in the mood for Christmas, especially the huge Christmas store they have there. It looks like Christmas, it smells like Christmas, it must be Christmas, right? But I suppose we’ll simply have to wait like the rest of you!

On Sunday we stopped in another medieval town for lunch and then back to Ingolstadt. Monday was spent exploring Ingolstadt, visiting the churches, castles, and stores there. It had gotten too cold by then to ignore and we finally broke down and bought coats. I think we’ll be very grateful for that as we continue heading North. Our last night there, I went with Wolfgang and Julie to the older kids’ school where they were having their version of what I suppose we would call a “Back to School Night.” It was fun learning about their schools and curriculum. A night out for Greek food followed, then back home to bed.

We were sorry to leave the Garber household on Tuesday. We feel like leaving home again, and that just keeps getting harder instead of easier. But off we go again...this time headed for Berlin. Until next time...

Pics:

1. Wolfgang and Julie in front of the Christmas store in Rothenburg.
2. The kids (Dominic, Jacqueline, and Rebekka) during our walk in Rothenburg.
3-4 The beautiful city of Rothenburg...did I mention how beautiful it was?
5. This is a picture of the river in Ingolstadt the day Wolfgang showed us around. He's an amazing guide!!!

Germany Pics

2008-10-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hola!

2008-09-25T14:24:00.001-07:00

Okay, first of all, no more trying to fit the pictures around the words or the words around the pictures. It takes too much time...probably because I can't figure out how to do it properly...whatever! This works fine!! Secondly, the pictures all loaded out of order, so I'll briefly outline our itinerary in Spain and then explain the pics...k? Okay.

We began our time in Spain in Madrid, including a daytrip to Toledo. Following that, we headed down to Granada, then North to the coastal city of San Sebastian. Our final destination in Spain was Barcelona. Alright, now for the pictures...

1. This is a photo of the "sound and light show" we saw in Barcelona (Dan, Brad, Lou...if you're reading this, we just couldn't resist...) They do this show every half hour, every night, from 9-11. It's fantastic!

2. This is Rebecca in San Sebastian. We spent a lot of time meandering down the beaches there. It was really beautiful, and Rebecca even took off her shoes and walked on the sand with me for a while (for those of you who don't know, Rebecca hates the beach).

3. This is a view from the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. These palaces and gardens were absolutely breathtaking. I had to take another picture every few steps because there was always another angle that appeared just as stunning as the one before.

4. In Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia is well-known as a popular construction site...yes, in typical Gaudi fashion (Gaudi was the original architect), it still isn't finished. There are three different facades, each very different from the other, having been constructed under various people. The hope now is that it will be finished in 2026 (hey, people who worked on VBS 2050, not looking so bad, huh?) Anyway, the detail is unbelievable!

5. This statue is in a main square, or plaza, in Madrid.

6. This is a view of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, from our patio. Actually, it's the main viewpoint in the little town we stayed in, but James, the owner of our hostel, called it our patio because it was basically right outside our door.

7. Just a picture of me at the Alhambra.

8. Here you can see a street in the little white village we stayed in while in Granada. The streets were labyrinth-like, and great fun to wander around in.

9. The final picture is just a view of the city of Toledo.

Okay, hope that satisfies everyone who has been anxiously awaiting the next post. I have more to say about France and Italy, but that will have to wait until next time...hopefully not so long this time!!!

2008-09-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

Ireland Again!!!

2008-09-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. When we do have internet, it usually isn't the best connection or I'm too exhausted to post. So, sorry everyone! Here's the Ireland post and pictures.

Where do I start? We felt fairly at ease back in Ireland, feeling like we could get around Dublin fairly well by this point (well, for a tourist anyway). So the first day we were there was errand day. I needed new pages in my passport and we felt that it would be easier looking for an embassy in an English speaking country than somewhere else. So, I looked up the embassy online, got the address, and marked it on our map. Feeling rather sure of ourselves, we decided we could walk, and I just ignored the note on the embassy website that mentioned a bus would take about 35 minutes to get there. We didn’t mind the exercise anyway. Stepping out the door of our hostel we were met with an onslaught of rain!!! Determined to go through with our plans, we whipped out our umbrellas and marched onwards. Freezing cold, soaked through, drenched feet, and an hour later we arrived at the embassy. “You look cold, if you don’t mind me saying,” says the gentleman at security. That’s putting it mildly. And of course, by the time it was my turn the system was down and they couldn’t check my passport in D.C. so we were going to have to wait 2-3 hours. On the recommendation of a security guard there, we headed quickly across the street for some coffee and stayed put in a dry cafe for about an hour and a half. By the time we left, the rain had died down. I got my passport and we headed back to the hostel, not wanting to see another drop of water for at least a month.

That night, however, we went out with Valerie, Emilio, and two friends of theirs. We did see more drops of water, but fortunately, nothing too serious. The following day saw us on the bus to Wicklow, which is supposedly the “garden of Ireland.” It was really beautiful. Cities are nice, but I really love getting out of them and seeing what God created.

Sunday we took the bus to Galway where we would be based for two nights. We really liked the hostel there. As soon as we arrived they invited us down to watch a hurling match and eat pizza. Monday morning we took a ferry to the largest of the Aran Islands. The Aran Islands are a piece of the past, where most people speak Gaelic. We rented bikes and rode around a large loop, seeing a significant portion of the island. It did start raining towards the end of our time, but not too badly.

Tuesday we took the bus to the Shannon airport where we boarded our flight to Paris. That experience and Spain will be in the next post...

2008-09-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

Goodbyes

2008-09-05T11:04:00.001-07:00

Well, we said goodbye to the Greens last night, which was very sad. It felt like leaving home again! They are a wonderful family, and no, I'm not just saying that because they're reading our blogs now! : - ) We really had a nice time in Scotland and were sad to leave, though excited about the parts of our trip to come... Dublin is familiar now, so we feel pretty comfortable here, but I am getting a little nervous about going on to Spain and hoping that the little Spanish I speak will be enough. We won't be back in an English speaking country for quite some time once we leave Ireland. The next part of this adventure should prove interesting!

Adventures in Scotland

2008-09-04T03:08:00.001-07:00

I cannot even begin to express how nice this week has been. Being in a home and with a family has felt like a luxury, especially after almost 6 weeks of hotels and hostels. The Greens have been fantastic and we've enjoyed getting know them! They've also been a huge help in determining what we would do here. The house is in Balerno, so we take the bus into the city most mornings, which is about a 30-45 minute ride, depending on traffic. We've spent quite a bit of time walking the Royal Mile, which is a stretch of road between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Scotch whisky being the national drink of Scotland (much as Guinness is for Ireland), we took the whisky tour and barrel ride to learn more. We took a really fun tour on Mary King's Close, which is an underground tour of what used to be the streets, or closes, of Edinburgh. The streets used to slope downwards from the Royal Mile to the river, but eventually stores were built on top of the old streets on level with the Royal Mile. So some of the old streets and houses are still underneath. Emilio and Valerie had suggested that, so the four of us did that, and enjoyed it quite a bit (for those of you who don't know, Valerie is my cousin who lives in New York and just happened to be in Scotland at the same time as us...Emilio is her boyfriend).

On Monday we took a bus tour into the Highlands, which was amazing. It's beautiful and we actually were fortunate to have lovely weather. It sprinkled a few times, but other than that, it was really nice. We stopped about an hour and a half into the day for a coffee break. Rather than having tea or coffee, Rebecca and I fed Hamish, the Highland Cow. He's awfully cute! Our ultimate destination was the Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle. Rebecca and I explored the castle pretty thoroughly before having a lengthy chat with "Nessie" concerning reality vs. myth. It was a fascinating discussion! On our way back, we stopped in a lovely town called Pitlochry, where we enjoyed a nice stroll.

Tuesday we were back into Edinburgh to visit Edinburgh Castle and Camera Obscura. The castle was fun...we had a map and tried to make it to all of the stops. It's fairly intact for an old castle, and we enjoyed exploring its many heights and depths. They also have on display the Honours of Scotland, which include the sceptor, crown, and sword used for coronations in the past. After dessert and tea later on, we went to camera obscura, which Amy had suggested (Amy and Julia are 15 and 12 respectively). It's a very simple concept that was built 150 year ago. A mirror reflects an image onto a white table, and by moving the mirror around, one can get a 360 degree view of the streets of Edinburgh. The rest of the exhibits vary, with things such as optical illusions and the like.

Wednesday was an adventure in and of itself. For those of you reading Rebecca's blog, this will be repetitive, but I feel that I must present my version of events. To begin with, let me explain an important feature of the house. The house we're staying in has a closed in porch, with a door leading inside and another leading out. We usually leave our shoes here when we come inside. Because we have been returning home after everyone else, we don't take keys with us, but typically when leaving you need a key to unlock the door from the inside, which then locks automatically when you shut it behind you. Then you need an additional key to unlock the next door leading out. Alright, so the stage has been set (you can probably see where I'm going). Suzanne had business in London, so she left early that morning (she normally works from home). Andy had left for work and the girls had headed off to school, leaving us to get ready for a day trip into Glasgow. We walked onto the porch where we put on our shoes and I quickly checked to make sure I had everything before closing the door back inside (which automatically locks, remember). As I counted the money in my pocket, Rebecca went to open the outside door, only to find that it had been locked. Our eyes met in horror before quickly turning in desperation to the door we had already closed behind us, finding of course, that it had locked. A moment of panic passed before I pulled out my phone and address book and dialed Andy's number. It didn't work. I hope you can imagine this. We're stuck in a warm, glassed-in room, Rebecca pounding on the glass, shouting, "Help! Someone, help!" while I'm trying not to hyperventilate at the thought of being stuck until 4:00 pm when the girls would get home. After a few minutes, Rebecca was able to get the attention of a neighbor, who looked at us oddly before coming over to see if we were okay. Just as he came near, I was finally able to get through to Andy. He ended up coming back to the house to rescue us and then dropped us off at the train station so that we could continue on to Glasgow. Altogether we were trapped for about an hour. You know, many people manage to lock themselves out of places, but I think it takes real talent to get locked in. And Caitlin, before you say anything, this does not prove your point about us getting into trouble more often than you!!!

Anyway, after this incident, we did enjoy our time in Glasgow. We found a sweet shop we had read about online and ended up chatting with the lady, Julie, for a while, which was lots of fun! We saw St. Mungo's Cathedral and museum, as well as the People's Palace and Winter Gardens. On our way back to the train station, we checked a few shops. Once back in Edinburgh, we did a little shopping and then headed back to the house.

Today is Thursday. We've mostly stayed around the house today, enjoying some relaxation before flying back to Ireland tonight. Valerie is going to be in Ireland at the same time as us, so we're planning some activities with them in the next few days. Stay tuned...

More Rainy Days...

2008-08-26T13:23:00.000-07:00

Dublin Castle...

We arrived in Cork a couple of days ago, and have enjoyed staying in one place for a few nights. The hostel is great and the staff has been very helpful. Yesterday we took a bus trip around the Ring of Kerry, which is beautiful! We stopped in Killarney for about an hour. Rebecca and I walked for a little while before enjoying rhubarb tarts and tea for two at a little bakery we found. The drive was interspersed with various stops and we had fish and chips at our final stop of the day in Kenmare. It rained off and on throughout the day, and I think some people were rather disappointed in the tour because of that. We actually like the rain and thought the fog made the view even lovelier.

We woke up earlier today to drive to the Cliffs of Moher, stopping in the town of Limerick to change buses. We took some photos of the castle and laughed at the swans fighting with each other in the lake.

A brief stop was also made in Durren where we opted out of lunch in favor of more walking. The cliffs were gorgeous, although due to the fog it wasn't easy to get some decent pictures. We managed, though. And tomorrow we will visit Blarney castle, and hopefully, if all goes well, kiss the stone apparently. 'Ta for now.

Questions

2008-08-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, let me see if I can answer a few questions.

1. Our trip lasted 20 hours, including the time we were in the Tel Aviv airport. We went there really early because we had decided not to get a hotel for the night (we felt it was pointless since we were leaving so early). I count that time because sitting in an airport isn't fun.

2. We looked for Garrett, but didn't see him. Of course, there are lots of musicians and not everyone plays every night.

3. Blarney stone...here we come!

4. We finished up in Dublin and are heading to Cork next.

5. You remember Dublin Castle...we caught the tail end of a tour there and went down into one of the rooms that they won't let you in if you're by yourself. We have pictures. Oh, it's also where we stood in the two little guard houses (or something like that) and took a picture. I took one of Rebecca there.

6. Time difference- 7 hours later than you.

7. Riverdance- We weren't planning on it, but it actually is playing until the end of August, so we might.

8. Your blog- yes, we check it when we have the chance! : - )

I think that's all, folks! 'Till next time...

Rainy Days...

2008-08-23T08:32:00.000-07:00

Yup...we're in Dublin. Last time I was here we had a beautiful week full of sunshine. It only sprinkled once. This time around I'm getting the true Irish experience. It's been raining pretty much all day. We checked into our hostel yesterday after a mere 20 hour trip from Tel Aviv (nothing compared to the 40 hour trip from Pittsburgh to Cairo). The only frustrating part of the trip was passport control in Dublin. There was a group ahead of us without the authorization to enter the country. Unfortunately, they were quite adamant about getting in and were spread out to all of the immigration windows. This meant that the rest of us stood in line for a very, very, very long time waiting for an immigration officer to become available. Once we finally made it through, we collected our bags and took a bus to our hostel. Last night was spent enjoying the Temple Bar area. Today we ventured forth into the rest of the city, stopping briefly at the Guinness Storehouse (no tour this time), a couple of cathedrals (St. Patrick's and Christchurch), and Dublin castle. We spent some time at Trinity College where we saw the Book of Kells, which was really neat! (Although, it's only from 800 A.D.- barely 1200 years ago- bah!) We've joked that seeing the ancient ruins in Cairo and Israel have given "old" a new meaning! We ate lunch as we strolled through St. Stephen's Green before coming back to the hostel to change rooms (our beds from last night had already been reserved for tonight).

One Month

2008-08-20T22:15:00.001-07:00

We've said our goodbyes to the many people we met on the tour, but as they have prepared to go home, we have prepared to go on. It has now been one month since we left Salt Lake. In some ways it seems much longer, but in other ways the time has flown by, as I imagined it would. We are officially 1/6 of the way through our trip, and as of tomorrow I will have been gone longer than ever before. Ahh, a milestone. Part of me feels strange not to be at school, getting ready and preparing for a new year. But then again, I feel like I'm in a completely different world and the summer is just extended. It can't possible be the end of August already. Anyway, just decided to share my thoughts...

On We Go!

2008-08-20T14:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we’ve arrived in Jerusalem! We spent one night at the Dead Sea before coming here. It smelled suspiciously like home there. We went down to the beach and enjoyed a float before dinner.

We’ve been very busy every day, but it’s been worth it. We visited the place where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls and got a little history lesson. It’s amazing what they’ve found and are still finding there. We also visited Masada, which is where the Jewish Rebels took a last stand against the Roman soldiers in about 70 A.D.

Arriving in Jerusalem has been nice if only to stay in one place for a few days. We had a really nice communion service on the Mount of Olives one night and as much as I’m enjoying all of the sites, it is these quiet times that mean the most. We visited Bethlehem and spent some time in the church that has been built over the place they think Jesus was born. It’s loud and crowded with tourists jostling each other and pushing just to touch the place where the manger may have been and to take a picture of it. It’s difficult to think and reflect on the meaning of that event while you’re there.

We’ve visited the Temple Mount and the Wailing Wall. We also walked the Via Delorosa. We don’t know exactly where Jesus carried the cross and was crucified, but it is a traditional walk and something that can be very meaningful if you take the time to consider what it is you are remembering. Our guide, Micky, reminds us that we are the Temple of God and while visiting all of these “Holy Places” it is good to remember that we don’t worship a slab of rock or stone because the Holy Spirit lives in us. As we visit some of the traditional sites (traditional sites being where certain events are remembered and historical sites being where we know things actually occurred), I find myself very skeptical that one specific location could be “holy.” But then I remember that there really were Holy Places back in the days of Jesus. There was a specific place where God’s glory was. It makes me realize what an amazing work Jesus achieved with His death and resurrection...to make us a holy place where the spirit of God could dwell.

I think one of the most meaningful things we’ve done was at the Pool of Bethesda. No one else was there when we arrived and we went into the church where one of the men in our group sang How Great Thou Art. He has a beautiful, beautiful voice and the acoustics were incredible in there. After he sang, we all just sat there for a good 5-10 minutes, singing together and praying. With everything that we’ve been seeing, it was those minutes of silent reflection that make it worthwhile.

We got up early one morning to go to the tunnels underneath the Western Wall of Temple Mount. Because so much has been built up over the last 2000 years, the tunnels used to be streets and were probably where Jesus walked. After the tunnels we visited the Temple Institute, which is a group of people preparing to rebuild the temple. It is fascinating to see what they have done. They have all of the main vessels made exactly as they are described in the Bible and are ready to move as soon as they can. They believe that the Ark of the Covenant is underneath where the temple should be, but for obvious reasons cannot excavate there.

Following the institute, we had lunch and strolled around the area a bit before heading to the Israel Museum where we saw the Isaiah scrolls and a really neat model of Jerusalem from the times of Jesus. Our last two stops of the day were the Garden of Gethsemane and a lovely view of the city from the top of the Mount of Olives.

We are now preparing to leave. We’re done with our tour and now comes the time when we set off on our own. On the up-side, there will be more freedom, but on the down-side, we’ll have to arrange everything on our own.

Today we started out at the Garden Tomb, which is another possible burial place for Jesus. There are several reasons why this is a strong possibility, but as our guide reminded us, it doesn’t matter where. What matters is why.

We also saw the Holocost Museum, which was very moving and our last stop was Abraham’s Tent. We arrived at a location in the desert and were greeted by “Eleazar,” the servant of Abraham, who had come back in time 3800 years to find guests for his master. We put on tunics and walked (or rode camels) down the road before being met by Abraham and sitting at low tables for a traditional meal. "Abraham" has a few modern facilities, such as restrooms, and apparently knows all about Moses as well. I'll bet you didn't know that! Anyway, it was a really fun experience and a nice way to end our time in Israel.

Well, that's all for now! Next stop...Dublin...

P.S. By the way, these pictures are of Masada, the Dead Sea, Pools of Bethesda, Temple Mount, and the southern wall of what once was the temple!

Where Jesus Walked!

2008-08-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

We began the day with a trip to Capernaum, where Jesus often stayed at Peter’s house. A church has been built over what was once Peter’s house, but you can still see the remains of what were once many rooms. This was also the town where Jesus healed the servant of the Roman Centurion. Our guide then threw in an extra tour that was not scheduled so that we could see the remains of yet another ancient city. What set this city apart was that in the synagogue they had actually found the seat of Moses, from which the Rabbi would have preached. Following this we went to the mountain where Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount, and fed the five thousand. At each stop, our guide or pastor leader reads a portion of scripture related to the sight and we consider Jesus’ words and meaning during his ministry.

We had a quick, boxed lunch at the next location, which was Caesarea Philippi, before heading down a path for a short hike. Caesarea Philippi is where Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ, or Messiah. Our last hike of the day was at Dan. At each stop, we see more ruins from thousands of years ago and it is exciting to imagine Jesus and the apostles walking from place to place, preaching and healing. Our last stop was at a museum that houses a 2000 year-old boat that was found in the Sea of Galilee. It was quite a find and took enormous effort to bring it up. We weren’t able to sail on that boat, of course, but we did take a 1-hour ride across the Sea of Galilee before ending the day with a swim in the lake, dinner, and a stroll through the streets before bed.

Visiting all of these places is amazing, and I’m loving it, but I think the biggest impact on me has been the lack of awe I’ve experienced. Of course it’s incredible to stand where Jesus may have stood, but my connection to Jesus and His followers is not in standing where they stood, but in knowing, serving, and loving who they knew, served, and loved. Dan read from Romans 12 the other day and emphasized the part about being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. But I am not connected to people like Elijah and Peter by the physical ground we’ve walked on as much as the spiritual journey to follow God that we’ve chosen.

Un-Thought Title

2008-08-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

This morning we were up and gone by 8:00 am. We met our guide, Micky, and proceeded to our first stop, Caesarea. There are lovely coastal ruins there and we enjoyed the breeze coming off of the Mediterranean. It wasn’t until the book of Acts and early Christians began to take the Gospel message to the Gentiles that this city was mentioned. In fact, Caesarea is the city where Cornelius called for Peter and he and his entire family accepted Christ. It was brought up by our pastor leader, Dan, that the very fact that we were there was due in large part to that encounter.

We followed this city with a visit to Mount Carmel, where Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal. We took our lunch a few minutes from this site, enjoying falafel. Our afternoon stops were Megiddo and Nazareth. Megiddo is the location of 25 various ancient cities, each built on top of the other. Until something destroyed it, there was a spring there, which made it prime real estate, as well as the fact that it was an important trade route between Babylon and Egypt. Anyway, the remnants of each city have burn marks, indicating a violent end over and over for this piece of land. It is believed to be the location of the final battle, and the term Armageddon is derived from it.

Our last stop of the day was Nazareth. We visited Nazareth Village, which is a recreation of Nazareth during the days of Jesus, complete with sheep being led by a shepherd, donkeys grazing here and there, a carpenter and weaver working in their respective homes, and even a synagogue.

At the end of the day we finally arrived at our hotel by the Sea of Galilee. We have a gorgeous view outside our window, which is one full side of the room. We get to stay here for two nights, which will be really nice!

P.S. A pyramid is a tomb, not a temple...in response to a comment from a few posts ago.

Arrival in Israel

2008-08-13T06:23:00.000-07:00

Wow! We do so much and I'm usually exhausted at the end of the day. We crossed the border into Israel today. Jordan was fun! We visited Petra, which was amazing. You can't see it until you're in it. We walked along the narrow canyon and after about an hour it was just there. Then yesterday morning we began the drive to the border, stopping along the way to visit Mount Nebo, where Moses saw the promised land before he died. The border crossing this afternoon went smoothly and we are now staying at a guest house in Israel. We're only here for a night, which is too bad. The grounds are really beautiful so we strolled around a little before dinner, watching the sunset and eating grapes from the vine in the gardens. We're sad to leave this morning, but we have a pretty exciting day ahead of us!

Explanations for Pics Below

2008-08-11T12:01:00.001-07:00

The Temple of Edfu shown below is known for being the most preserved temple. Our cruise family consists of (from left to right) Elizabeth, Brad, Dan, Mohamed, Lou, and Rebecca.

Nile Cruise

2008-08-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

Cairo and the Nile Cruise

2008-08-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

We met our group leader and the two other gentlemen we will travel with for the next couple of days. We will have a fifth person join us for the Nile Cruise, and then everyone else will join the tour after that. Once everyone is there, we will have about 30 people on the tour. One of the men we met for this portion of the trip is a Lutheran pastor from Colorado and his brother-in-law is a doctor from Tennessee. They seem very friendly and it should be fun to travel with them. Our group leader's name is Tommy and he has already been very helpful. Our guide's name is Shereen, and she will be filling our minds with the history of Egypt.

We started our first day together by driving to the Coptic churches, and arrived during their Sunday mass. It is similar in many ways to the Greek Orthodox Church, but they still distinguish themselves as the Egyptian Orthodox Church and have a pope of their own. We saw the hanging church, which is a church that was built on wooden boards laid across the gap between two towers. When you walk inside, there are a couple of places where they have clear glass in the floor so you can see there is nothing underneath you.

After tours exploring Memphis and Sakara the following day, we flew south to Luxor to join our cruise boat. We were met by Mohamed, who would be our guide for the duration of the cruise and our numerous stops at various temples and tombs.

More Cairo and the Start of the Nile Cruise

2008-08-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

Quick Update

2008-08-03T04:29:00.000-07:00

Internet is expensive at our new hotel, so we will be limited for a while now. We hope to post a couple of longer blogs tonight, so you can look forward to that. To answer people's questions, Mohamed is studying to be a tour guide, not a tourist...heehee. Yes, we are completely fine. The bumps from the accident were little. Love you all!

Egypt!!!

2008-08-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

Upon arrival in Egypt we were brought to a tourism company that had an office at the hotel. The gentleman who met us was very helpful and arranged everything for the two days we would be in Cairo prior to meeting our tour group. While it might have been cheaper to attempt to arrange things ourselves, we still felt that we received a good deal. We essentially paid $150 each and that included transportation to the hotel, to nights stay, transportation and entrance into the sound and light show that night at the Pyramids, transportation and a guide the following day to Alexandria, and then transportation to the hotel where we would meet our tour group. It was great to get all of that taken care of at once. It has made the last two days much more relaxing and enjoyable. So, about Egypt...

Papyrus

Prior to the Sound and Light Show, our driver and tour guide took us to see how papyrus is made and we were given the opportunity to purchase some artwork there. Papyrus is one of those things that is very unique to Egypt, and once it was rolled up in a tube, very small and lightweight, making it the perfect thing for us to take along with us on our trip.

Perfume

Following the papyrus, we were taken to a perfume shop and introduced to many of the fragrances that are sent to France, there mixed with alcohol and sold for lots and lots of money. Unfortunately, we had to decline buying any of those, but the presentation was really fun.

Sound and Light Show

The English Sound and Light show was at 9:30 on Wednesday night. They use lights to illuminate the pyramids and the sphinx while projecting images to accompany the presentation on Egyptian history. It was very beautiful and interesting! AFterwards we went back to the hotel and a nice bed.

Egyptian Driving

Okay, now I've been in other countries where driving was a bit scary. I wasn't surprised to see that they really have no traffic lights and everyone pretty much bullies their way into traffic. What did surprise me was that they did the same thing on the freeways at incredibly high speeds. Weaving through people and scooting between cars while going 140-160 kilometers an hour can be disconcerting. Our guide, Mohamed, did a great job, though. He is 21 and in school to learn to be a tour guide. When he graduates in two years he would like to start his own business. A Chinese woman recommended that he create a website so people could find him on google. He laughed when we told him that we'd found our tour on google. By the end of the day, it was very clear why he wanted his own business.

On our way to Alexandria, we noticed that Mohamed was zipping through traffic, but seemed to always stay behind a certain white van, unwilling to pass them. We were curious as to why and so eventually I questioned him about it. Apparently there are various places where the speed is enforced by radar and this particular van was from Alexandria and the driver knew which areas had the radar and which did not. Mohamed was using him to gauge when he could go fast and when he had to slow down.

A few minutes later, we had a slight mishap. A driver ahead of us had car difficulties and rather than pulling off to the side of the road, he stopped in the middle of it. Another car stopped behind him and Mohamed barely stopped quickly enough to avoid missing it. Unfortunately, the cars behind us were not so quick on the reflexes and we were rear ended by another car who was, in turn, rear ended by the one behind him. Mohamed got out of the car and a yelling/screaming match ensued between the various drivers and a large crowd of people that had gathered. It seems, by the way, that rubber necking here can get pretty crazy and everyone likes to get involved. Before long, a large crowd had congregated around our car, and one of the other drivers was standing in front of our vehicle to keep us from leaving, while banging his hands on the hood and screaming at Mohamed. Now, you might asked, was I scared? And the answer to that question is, no. I was actually thinking two things. First, I was thinking that they had better not be blaming Mohamed for something that was clearly not his fault, and secondly, I was thinking that I hoped this wouldn't take too long because I was going to need a toilet pretty soon. Anyway, we were eventually able to get away after Mohamed told the others that he had tourists from the U.S. and if they didn't let us go we were going to text the embassy and they would all be arrested. I don't actually know the number for the embassy, but apparently they bought it because we were off. After stopping briefly so Mohamed could calm down, we were on our way again.

More later, but for now our driver is here to take us to the next hotel!

The Four "ations"

2008-08-01T15:21:00.000-07:00

Which one of these is not like the others?
-Starvation
-Sleep Deprivation
-Dehydration
-Smoking
-Elevation

Okay, so this little quiz isn't completely fair since I practically gave you the answer in my title. Anyway, let me explain my 40 hour trip from Pittsburgh to Cairo...

1. Elevation: I never would have described myself as one to get airsick. However, I it seems that whenever I fly I feel slightly nauseated. I don't know if it is due to the elevation or something else, but I always feel just a little strange and sick when I travel, especially for 40 hours.

2. Starvation: Since I don't tend to feel well during long flights and lengthy layovers, my stomach rejects the thought, smell, and taste of most food, primarily that prepared on an airplane. Not eating makes me even more sick.

3. Dehydration: Especially in countries where tap water is suspect, I find bottled water difficult to come by. Of course we buy some in the airport, but when you're paying for water you are less likely to gulp it like your dying. You can't fill up a water bottle with tap water ahead of time and the flight attendants are very busy and cannot devote themselves to bringing a never-ending supply of water. Therefore, good water is limited and I probably get a bit dehydrated. This just adds to the icky feelings.

4. Sleep Deprivation: I try...I really do. And I usually end up getting a little snooze here and there. However, overall there is very little REM and unfortunately, when you're feeling poorly, you really just want to lose consciousness for an extended period of time and forget that you're hungry, thirsty, and sick. Too bad that's so difficult when you can't even lie down!

Overall, I don't like 40 hour trips on airplanes combined with long layovers. Oh, also, my feet and ankles got really swollen. It was actually kind-of funny and I found it entirely amusing to stare at them. So much so that I took a picture to remember the feeling.

Okay, so now for the smoking. The Tel Aviv airport was very strict with security. We went through several checkpoints, searches, luggage x-rays, and were asked numerous questions. The airport as a whole was very professional and similar to most others I have been in. When we got to Jordan, however, we found a very different atmosphere. For instance, as is typical in an airport, there were signs and announcements clearly stating that smoking was not allowed. However, we personally witnessed at least four different people sit directly in front of the non-smoking sign and light up. We moved a couple of times because inhaling second-hand smoke did not seem appealing. Interestingly enough, airport staff and security were right there. Furthermore, the trash can lids throughout the area had dozens of cigarette butts on them, having been used as ashtrays and no one seemed to mind. Our conclusion: no one really cares about that particular rule. We were just grateful that the actual flight was legitimately smoke free.

We did, however, meet a man from Texas in the Starbucks there. He was on his way to Baghdad to supervise work and had lots of interesting tales to tell, not to mention some good advice. That was the high point of the Jordan airport. We chatted with him for a couple of hours in the early morning before our flight. I will say this for Jordan, though. The airport may have been annoying, but the flight was very nice. The flight attendants were wonderful and I had a nice conversation with a woman who was finishing up a tour of Egypt and Jordan, and had some great advice!

More very soon...I have lots to say about Egypt!

Welcome to Tel Aviv

2008-07-30T06:42:00.000-07:00

So I'm not actually IN Tel Aviv...just at the airport. We had a 1 hour flight from Pittsburgh to JFK, then a 5 hour layover before a 7 hour flight to Frankfurt (originally 8 1/2 hours, but shaved some time in the air). Once in Frankfurt we waited for about 2 hours and then boarded a plane to our current location...Tel Aviv, Israel. We can't check in for another 4 hours and then we'll have to wait 3 more hours before flying to Jordan where we will endure yet another 7-8 hour layover. About 10:15 on Thursday morning we will arrive in Cairo and let me just say, I can't wait to sleep horizontally! Attempting to find a decent sleeping position on airplanes and in airports is pretty much impossible. However, despite the many discomforts, I am so grateful that all of our flights and connections have gone smoothly. For those of you I've spoken to, you know that airports and flight connections stress me out more than anything else. So, praise God and thanks to all of you who are praying for us. Love you all!!!

We're Off!

2008-07-29T03:34:00.001-07:00

We've had a wonderful time in Pittsburgh, from sampling the chocolate delights in Hershey to enjoying a short hike at Ohiopyle. Pennsylvania is a beautiful state and our time with Caitlin has been great! We leave the country today and begin our very long trip to Cairo. This will take us around 48 hours to complete!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally Gone!

2008-07-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, I realize I haven't posted for several days. I've been too busy catching up on all of the sleep I lost the few days prior to leaving SLC. New York was wonderful. Valerie was wonderful. She helped us organize our activities and it was really nice to spend some time with her. The plays (Wicked and Lion King), of course, were more than fantastic. We are now in Pittsburgh with Caitlin and I still seem to be slipping into unconsciousness at random times throughout the day, falling into bed at night, and sleeping in. It has been very nice to get some restful sleep. Now that we're actually gone I can relax. Well, okay, I admit to being rather anxious at the airports due to poor organization by someone I don't know (if I did know them I would inform them that planning too many flights at a time of day when you know they won't be able to take off in a timely manner is stupid). However, other than that, I am enjoying these stops before leaving the country. Well, things to do now...more later!

GO!!!!!!!

2008-07-21T04:15:00.001-07:00

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

HHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's all...

Get Set...

2008-07-20T23:53:00.000-07:00

Goodbyes are hard and this has been the week of goodbyes. Whenever a goodbye approaches, everyone avoids it, searching for something else to say in order to put off the inevitable. Now, on the one hand, 6 months isn't really that long. At the end of it, it will seem to have flown by. On the other hand, it's 6x as long as I've ever been away. I think that tonight was the first time it really sunk in that I'm leaving in the morning and I really can't pinpoint exactly how I feel about it...excited, nervous, nauseous... I think it's less that I'm leaving and more that I don't know precisely what to expect that has me so agitated. We've been packing and cleaning frantically the last few days while enjoying very little sleep so I haven't had much of a chance to actually think about everything. There is always something else to do and as soon as I get to the end of my list (yes, I do actually have a to-do list), several items are added. I think in some ways it will be a relief to get on the plane tomorrow and know that there isn't anything else I can do to get ready. I don't know if I am ready, but ready or not, right? Anyway, this is actually happening and it's happening in about 7 hours, so I think it's about time I at least attempt to sleep. Until next time...

Get Ready...

2008-07-14T00:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is my second attempt at writing this. A few items to take of during this first post...

1. A number of years ago a friend of mine started calling me Queen Elizabeth and it kind of stuck. Consequently, the name of my blog...

2. I have a travel bug. As a teacher I get the summers off and like to get out of the country when I can. I can't help it.

3. I've taken a year off of work to travel starting with six months in Europe with my younger sister.

4. I've been in denial this last week that I'm actually leaving. However, a mere 30 hours before I leave and I can no longer ignore that this is really happening. When I think about it, sheer panic sets in, which is why I've thus far chosen to live in blissful ignorance, or DenialLand, as my sister has termed it.

5. Lest you think I am not excited about this opportunity, let me correct this fallacy. I'm very excited. My mom spent a year in Europe roughly 35 years ago and I've wanted to do the same since I was 10. This is a dream come true. I am still entitled to panic, however. Do not begrudge me my moments of insanity and terror. Don't worry. Only my sister will have to deal with them after Monday. But I digress...we're not discussing my impending departure. We're too busy pretending that it isn't happening.

Okay, there we go...first post done. Another thing to check off of my To-Do List. You'll be hearing from me again soon.

-The Queen