Sunday, October 26, 2008
First 10-day
WOW!!!! what an adventure!! being back at the castle, thinking back over our trip, i can't beleive that i went to the places i did and saw the things i saw! i feel so blessed and lucky have this opportunity. this might take a while, but i'll do my best to summarise the past 10 days as briefly as possible. here we go............
Austin, Jordan (girl), Sarah and I got on our first train in an overnight couchette at 20:30 thursday, october 16th. when we woke up, we were at our transfer station about 2 hours outside of paris. when we boarded our connecting train to paris, we found out that there were no more seats unless we wanted to pay nearly 500 euros per person. we didn't have much time to make a decision because the train was about to leave, so we jumped off and went to the ticket counter. through broken english and french, we found out that our best bet was to each pay 3 euros for a train that would get us close to paris, but not in time to make our last connection that was suppose to take us out the thr normandy beaches and the town of Bayeux where we had a hotel reserved. we finally figured it all out and got into paris after a 5 hour delay, then onto bayeax, paying a total of about 20 extra euros for all the different connections. but we got to bayeux safely at 7pm friday night, almost 8 hours after we had planned. we were upset that we had lost half a day, but jumbled our next days plans for going back to paris and and found a later train so that we could have all day at the beaches. after dinner at a cute pizzeria, we went back to the hotel and headed to bed. earlier, when we had arrived at out hotel, the receptionist helped us book at taxi for 8am that was gonna take us to the American Cemetary and Omaha beach, and found a bus back to town at 2pm, in time to catch our 4pm train to paris. the beaches were amazingly beautiful!! we got there at about 8:30, and surprisingly it was just in time for the sunrise. the skies were clear, but it was freezing. we hurried down to be on the sand while the sun rose and walked along the water for about 45 min before heading up the hill to the cemetary. i have seen the nearly 10,000 white crosses and jewish stars many times in history books or on tv and movies, but it was an incredible feelling to actually walk among them. after an hour or so, we checked out the museum and watched films and read displays explaining the events of the morning of June 6, 1944 on the beaches. after eating lunch on top of the hill overlooking the ocean, we explored the bunkers and hillside where the germans were entrenched and caused so many us casualties from before getting on a bus back to bayeux.
we arrived in paris at about 7pm and quickly ate dinner at the nicest mcdonalds i have ever seen before making our way to our hotel..... which brings me to another story: while we were stuck that first day in the train station trying to get throuhg paris to bayeux, i found out that the hotel we had booked wasn't even located in paris, but had a paris mailing address which is wh we booked it becasue we looked up the location of the address which was smack in the middle of paris. the hotel itself was about 1 hour outside of paris with limited public transportation. i found this out becasue i couldn't find it on the map!!! i scrambled to find another solution, which turned out to work great. we stayed at the Hotel Bastille, right in the heart of the downtown part of paris. our room was on the top floor of our building and had a balcony overlooking the lively streets below and had a view of the Bastille statue. we were happy. we woke up sunday around 10:30 and set to explore, heading first to the Arc de Triomphe. it was gorgeous and the Champs Elyssees Etoils roundabout surrounding it was impressive! after taking pictures and walking around it, we headed to the symbol and icon of paris, the Eiffel Tower where we sat in the lawn under the blue skies and warm sun while we ate a picnic lunch! it was perfect, except for the drunk guy who harrassed us and everyone else around for the 2+ hours we were there. after eating, we took naps and just enjoyed the french atmosphere. we went up the tower and saw the city from above which seemed to go on forever. we had dinner at a french cafe just down the street and returned after dark to see the tower lit up. i know paris sounds so cliche and overrated, but it's not. it is one plave everyone should try to visit it the opportunity presents itself. i was skeptical because it is such a tourist place, but theres a reason everyone wants to go there, i will go back in a heart beat if i ever get the chance. the next day we went to the louve and notre dame and walked around all of the shops. the next morning, as we were on our way out to Versailles, we stopped by the train station to reserve the rest of our trains home... only to find out that everything from scotland, and then from belgium was booked. we were going to be stuck in scotland!!! after 2 hours of trying to figure out the best and cheapest way home, we decided to cancel belgium and stay and extra night in scotland to fly home from edinburgh to vienna. throuhg all of this my debit card froze becasue i tried to make a large purchase of all of our plane tickets and i had to call my mom and then the bacnk that night to unlock it. that was nerve wrecking for a few hours! after that headache, we went out to Versailles and loved the beauty and majesty it presented. the gardens were lovely and the palace itself was unpresidentedly large. we went to hardrock cafe that night for dinner and loved american style food with ice in the drinks, unlimited free refills, fries, burgers and free unlimited ketchup.
the next morning, we made our way to scotland, which was by far the highlight of the trip for me. after flying into Glasgow which is on the western coast, we got a train over to st andrews which is on the eastern coast. crossing scotland was beautiful with the rolling green hills and ocean bays!!!!! more beautiful that home, and that's impressive in my book! our taxi driver from the train station to our hotel learned that we were going to play golf the following morning and gave a qhick detour. it was dark and he turned off the main road heading straight for the ocean about 100 yrds ahead of us. he suddenly stopped and asked if we recognized where we were. it took only a second for me to realize that we were on the cart path sitting in the middle of the 18th fairway about 40 yrds from the 18th green on st andrews old course. i was blown away, i probably looked and acted like a little kids pinting everything out that i recognized!!! it was awesome. after checking into our "garden suite" at our hotel, we went to dinner at the golfers pub down the road, where all the famous golfers who come to st andrews, including tiger woods, phil mickelson, vijay singh and tons of others go for dinner after a day on the course. we actually saw our a celebrity there while we were.... the one and only Bobby Knight!!!!!!! we was very calm and a nice man in person. the next morning, Austin and I headed the Links clubhouse to check in for our 9:44 tee time on the Jubilee course, the hardest course at st andrews. it wa windy and cold and rainy, but it couldn't have been better. to know that we were on the course that golf was invented on was a remarkable feeling. it cleared up, but stayed windy making it an even tougher challenge, but it was fun and beautiful. that evening, we went to dinner at Luke and Holly Tallons house. Luke was in my dad's youth group in colorado and is now finishing up his PHD at the University of St Andrews. we had fun eating a home cooked scottich meal of shepherds pie and toffee cake with tea and playing with their 2 year old son Isaiah. the next morning, we shopped around town for a couple of hourse before catching a train down to Edinburgh. we stayed in a backpakers hostel in downtown in a dorm with 38 other people. it was a cool experience. edinburgh, was cold and rainy so we didn't walk around too much, but what we saw was great. the castle sits on a hill above the city and it had a great scottish feel to it. we enjoyed our one night. yesterday, we got a plane to london and then connected on through to vienna where we got back to the castle around 1am, only to find out that we gained an extra hour of sleep thanks to day light savings!!! we we thrilled. the castle was empty since we were the first one's back and freezing becasue the heat had been off all week and it takes 2 days to heat this place!!!!!
it was a great trip. i learned and saw so much and experienced europe to the fullest. i thank God for our safety and helping us get through the tight moments when we weren't quite sure if or how we were gonna get home. i know it's not, but vienna definately feels like home. it was such a relief to be in the city and even though it's a different language, we recognize it and have learned how to get around here and break the language barrier. it is refreshing to be back.
tonight, to celebrate my 20th birthday, a bunch of us are gonna go out for kebab and gellato. a kebab is God's gift of food to human in the form of lamb meat in a bagget or bread roll. and gellato is italian styled icecream that is unlike anyhting you have ever eaten. i can't think a better or more proper way to clebrate than by stuffing myself with as much of each of those that i can take!!!!! it will be a curbside feast on the streets of vienna tonight!!!!!!
MARK
Austin, Jordan (girl), Sarah and I got on our first train in an overnight couchette at 20:30 thursday, october 16th. when we woke up, we were at our transfer station about 2 hours outside of paris. when we boarded our connecting train to paris, we found out that there were no more seats unless we wanted to pay nearly 500 euros per person. we didn't have much time to make a decision because the train was about to leave, so we jumped off and went to the ticket counter. through broken english and french, we found out that our best bet was to each pay 3 euros for a train that would get us close to paris, but not in time to make our last connection that was suppose to take us out the thr normandy beaches and the town of Bayeux where we had a hotel reserved. we finally figured it all out and got into paris after a 5 hour delay, then onto bayeax, paying a total of about 20 extra euros for all the different connections. but we got to bayeux safely at 7pm friday night, almost 8 hours after we had planned. we were upset that we had lost half a day, but jumbled our next days plans for going back to paris and and found a later train so that we could have all day at the beaches. after dinner at a cute pizzeria, we went back to the hotel and headed to bed. earlier, when we had arrived at out hotel, the receptionist helped us book at taxi for 8am that was gonna take us to the American Cemetary and Omaha beach, and found a bus back to town at 2pm, in time to catch our 4pm train to paris. the beaches were amazingly beautiful!! we got there at about 8:30, and surprisingly it was just in time for the sunrise. the skies were clear, but it was freezing. we hurried down to be on the sand while the sun rose and walked along the water for about 45 min before heading up the hill to the cemetary. i have seen the nearly 10,000 white crosses and jewish stars many times in history books or on tv and movies, but it was an incredible feelling to actually walk among them. after an hour or so, we checked out the museum and watched films and read displays explaining the events of the morning of June 6, 1944 on the beaches. after eating lunch on top of the hill overlooking the ocean, we explored the bunkers and hillside where the germans were entrenched and caused so many us casualties from before getting on a bus back to bayeux.
we arrived in paris at about 7pm and quickly ate dinner at the nicest mcdonalds i have ever seen before making our way to our hotel..... which brings me to another story: while we were stuck that first day in the train station trying to get throuhg paris to bayeux, i found out that the hotel we had booked wasn't even located in paris, but had a paris mailing address which is wh we booked it becasue we looked up the location of the address which was smack in the middle of paris. the hotel itself was about 1 hour outside of paris with limited public transportation. i found this out becasue i couldn't find it on the map!!! i scrambled to find another solution, which turned out to work great. we stayed at the Hotel Bastille, right in the heart of the downtown part of paris. our room was on the top floor of our building and had a balcony overlooking the lively streets below and had a view of the Bastille statue. we were happy. we woke up sunday around 10:30 and set to explore, heading first to the Arc de Triomphe. it was gorgeous and the Champs Elyssees Etoils roundabout surrounding it was impressive! after taking pictures and walking around it, we headed to the symbol and icon of paris, the Eiffel Tower where we sat in the lawn under the blue skies and warm sun while we ate a picnic lunch! it was perfect, except for the drunk guy who harrassed us and everyone else around for the 2+ hours we were there. after eating, we took naps and just enjoyed the french atmosphere. we went up the tower and saw the city from above which seemed to go on forever. we had dinner at a french cafe just down the street and returned after dark to see the tower lit up. i know paris sounds so cliche and overrated, but it's not. it is one plave everyone should try to visit it the opportunity presents itself. i was skeptical because it is such a tourist place, but theres a reason everyone wants to go there, i will go back in a heart beat if i ever get the chance. the next day we went to the louve and notre dame and walked around all of the shops. the next morning, as we were on our way out to Versailles, we stopped by the train station to reserve the rest of our trains home... only to find out that everything from scotland, and then from belgium was booked. we were going to be stuck in scotland!!! after 2 hours of trying to figure out the best and cheapest way home, we decided to cancel belgium and stay and extra night in scotland to fly home from edinburgh to vienna. throuhg all of this my debit card froze becasue i tried to make a large purchase of all of our plane tickets and i had to call my mom and then the bacnk that night to unlock it. that was nerve wrecking for a few hours! after that headache, we went out to Versailles and loved the beauty and majesty it presented. the gardens were lovely and the palace itself was unpresidentedly large. we went to hardrock cafe that night for dinner and loved american style food with ice in the drinks, unlimited free refills, fries, burgers and free unlimited ketchup.
the next morning, we made our way to scotland, which was by far the highlight of the trip for me. after flying into Glasgow which is on the western coast, we got a train over to st andrews which is on the eastern coast. crossing scotland was beautiful with the rolling green hills and ocean bays!!!!! more beautiful that home, and that's impressive in my book! our taxi driver from the train station to our hotel learned that we were going to play golf the following morning and gave a qhick detour. it was dark and he turned off the main road heading straight for the ocean about 100 yrds ahead of us. he suddenly stopped and asked if we recognized where we were. it took only a second for me to realize that we were on the cart path sitting in the middle of the 18th fairway about 40 yrds from the 18th green on st andrews old course. i was blown away, i probably looked and acted like a little kids pinting everything out that i recognized!!! it was awesome. after checking into our "garden suite" at our hotel, we went to dinner at the golfers pub down the road, where all the famous golfers who come to st andrews, including tiger woods, phil mickelson, vijay singh and tons of others go for dinner after a day on the course. we actually saw our a celebrity there while we were.... the one and only Bobby Knight!!!!!!! we was very calm and a nice man in person. the next morning, Austin and I headed the Links clubhouse to check in for our 9:44 tee time on the Jubilee course, the hardest course at st andrews. it wa windy and cold and rainy, but it couldn't have been better. to know that we were on the course that golf was invented on was a remarkable feeling. it cleared up, but stayed windy making it an even tougher challenge, but it was fun and beautiful. that evening, we went to dinner at Luke and Holly Tallons house. Luke was in my dad's youth group in colorado and is now finishing up his PHD at the University of St Andrews. we had fun eating a home cooked scottich meal of shepherds pie and toffee cake with tea and playing with their 2 year old son Isaiah. the next morning, we shopped around town for a couple of hourse before catching a train down to Edinburgh. we stayed in a backpakers hostel in downtown in a dorm with 38 other people. it was a cool experience. edinburgh, was cold and rainy so we didn't walk around too much, but what we saw was great. the castle sits on a hill above the city and it had a great scottish feel to it. we enjoyed our one night. yesterday, we got a plane to london and then connected on through to vienna where we got back to the castle around 1am, only to find out that we gained an extra hour of sleep thanks to day light savings!!! we we thrilled. the castle was empty since we were the first one's back and freezing becasue the heat had been off all week and it takes 2 days to heat this place!!!!!
it was a great trip. i learned and saw so much and experienced europe to the fullest. i thank God for our safety and helping us get through the tight moments when we weren't quite sure if or how we were gonna get home. i know it's not, but vienna definately feels like home. it was such a relief to be in the city and even though it's a different language, we recognize it and have learned how to get around here and break the language barrier. it is refreshing to be back.
tonight, to celebrate my 20th birthday, a bunch of us are gonna go out for kebab and gellato. a kebab is God's gift of food to human in the form of lamb meat in a bagget or bread roll. and gellato is italian styled icecream that is unlike anyhting you have ever eaten. i can't think a better or more proper way to clebrate than by stuffing myself with as much of each of those that i can take!!!!! it will be a curbside feast on the streets of vienna tonight!!!!!!
MARK
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Hungary
Alright, I know I haven't posted any pictures and it's probably really annoying, but read anyways because we had an amazing weekend and God did some amazing things! I went with 8 others to Miskolcs, Hungary to work with and encourage the church there. I was originally suppose to go to Warsaw Poland, then to Heidelsheim Germany and then a camp in Austria, but all three fell though on wednesday afternoon and we were suppose to leave thurday! it's weird how God works! It is a small congregation of about 8-10 members who focus all of their outreach and energy towards children and the orphanage there. the minister, Ati, is a local hungarian who married a Pepperdine alumni, Ruth. they have 2 year old girl and 7 month old boy and are in love with Christ and the people in Hungary. They were so encouraged by our visit. we got there thursday night and were split up between our accomadations. the girls stayed with Sylvi, a ladie member of the church and us guys slept at the the apartment where the church meets. on friday, we planned a small "vbs" event for the children at the orphanage who we hung out with all afternoon singing songs, doing skits and making crafts.... oh, and providing afternoon snacks of pop, candy and chips! we then all went to Sylvi's apartment where she prepared a home-cooked hungarian pasta meal with bacon and cottage cheese in it. it was awesome! on saturday, we did a little site0seeing in the morning of a 13th century castle in the city. we then participated in the churches coffe-house ministry where the invite a lot of the orphans and anyone else to the apartment for dessert and fellowship. we celebrated a few birthdays and played games with the kids. we then went out to dinner and and bowling as a group which was a lot of fun. the girls then left and us guys played pool til about midnight before we headed back to the apartment. this morning, we gathered for services and were really encouraged by the church members. Ati had asked me earlier in the weekend to lead communion. i talked about what a blessing it is even though we don't speak the same language and had to use translators and didn't understand each others cultures, that we are still brothers and sisters in christ and brought together as a family under one common love and bond through Jesus Christ. I felt honored to lead the thoughts. we then shared one last meal together of hungarian soup and cake and pizza and were then on our way back to Buddapest and then Vienna. we luckily learned from our mistake and reserved seats on the train back becasue we were stuck on the smoking car on the way from buddapest to Miskolcs. it was awful! i met a guy in the church named JD. he is turning 23 three on tuesday so we helped him celebrate his birthday this weekend. he speaks perfect english with a southern accent becasue he played basketball at Lubbock Christian University for one year. I want everyone to pray for him as he travels this next month to the states to tryout at ACU and Oc for thier basketball teams. he and i becasme very close and are already trying to arrange a time to visit again. i will explain to you more later in person if you want to ask me about it, but God did some amazing things this weekend and i feel really blessed to have gone to Hungary. I was "suppose" to be, by my plans, in 3 others places this weekend, but God took me to Hungary. it really helped me realize how much my plans don't mean and how i can only trust in God becasue He's the one who really knows what's going on. I would love to hear from you all and talk to you soon. God bless
MARK!!!!!!!!
MARK!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Berlin
Berlin was amazing! we had so much fun seeing the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and so much more. Our first hostel experience was a lot of fun and positive. We also had a fairly positive rain experience. We reserved a sleeper car on the way there which was nice. the way back to Vienna was a different story though. We had seats for a 9 hour ride. plus, our passes apparently don't work in the Chech Republic, so we were charged an extra 98 euros. it was scary though because the first figure the conductor showed me was 2364 and i thought that was in euros. i seriously almost fainted, but he then explained that was in the Chech currency. i was very relieved! Berlin was fun becasue it was definately just a big party all weekend becasue it was German Unification Celebration celebrating when east and west were reunited. everyone in the city was drunk! they carry beer everywhere like we do pop in america. It was a different atmosphere. we found a cool flea market and explored for a few hours one afternoon. we also had authentic bratwurst which were awesome! on saturday night before we left, we accidentally found Hard Rock Cafe Berlin and enjoyed a huge american style bacon burger and fries! i loved it!!!! today we went as a group went out to Melk Abbey in Melk, Austria. Melk was a neat little austrian village and the Abbey was beautiful! it was huge and covered wit history. Dad and Joel, you both would have loved the library. it was the most extensive and best decorated library i have ever seen. it is all original and has only authentic books and is still today an active library. don't worry, i took lots of pictures for you. i am really excited becasue today i made a tee time for St Andrews golf course in Scotland, the home of golf!!!!! it is going to be awesome and definately one of the highlights of my trip so far! well, i best get to studying for me german final in the morning. it will be nice to have that class out of the way. But i hope to continue to improve my german skills through daily immersing myself in the viennese culture. let me know how you all are doing.... although i am having a blast over here, i do miss home and everyone there!
MARK
MARK
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Busy busy busy....
sorry it's been so long, i just can't find time tosit down at a computer for 30 min and get one of these published. i will try hard to get some pictures up this afternoon before i leave for Berlin with 3 friends, but no promises!! Life is good. we spent last weekend on a retreat in the Austrian alps! it was absolutely gorgeous and reminded me a lot of the cascade range back home in oregon and washington. for the first day and a half it was terribly foggy and i couldn't even see 15 feet in front of me. but once it cleared up by saturday mid-day, you could see forever! it was amazing! me and six friends went on a 6 hour hike down to the bottom of the valley and had lunch at the small village there. it was cool to hike through the mountains and go through people pastures and farming complexes. trespassing is not a big deal here like back in america. it was an overall elevation change of about 2500 ft, so it was a pretty good climb on the way back up since the entire first half was straight down the mountain. i slept outside with 3 other guys. we slept down by a fire in the grass and loved it. the second night, we fell asleep under the stars and woke up above the clouds that covered the valley floor. it was pretty cold, getting down wellbelow freezing to about 24 degrees fehrenheit, but my mummy bag did well and i didn't get cold at all! well, i better get ready for my last german chapter quiz. today is our last class and then we take the final next wednesday! it flew by. i cna't believe i recieved a semester's worth of german in such a short amount of time. I hope all is well back home and we are daily updated about the stockmarket and presidential race, but keep me updated! all of the europeans are more interested in that stuff than we are, so they are always asking us about it when they find out we're american and it's embarrasing when i say i don't know anything!! love you all
MARK
MARK
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