Thanksgiving

Second 10 Day

Whew!!!! What an adventure! Austin, Jordan, Sarah and I started off by catching a train friday morning at 7:40 to Basel, Switzerland. It was about a 9 hour ride since Basel is up in the NW corner of Switzerland on both the French and German borders. It was a great little town with open markets, small streets, cute churches and a beautiful river running through it. The weather was great and our youth hostel not too bad. We had 2 nights there and one full day to walk around. On sunday morning, we hopped a train to Interlaken, Switzerland. AMAZING town! This is exactly what I pictured when I thought about what Switzerland would be like. Cute little houses, bitterly cold weather and breathtaking mountains that shoot straight up into the sky with sheer white cliffs! I will try to post pictures sometime this week. We stayed here one night and rented an apartment that a lady had built on top of her house. It was great! We got to sit in a jacuzzi hot tub and drink hot chocolate out on the deck bundled up under blankets and then come inside to sit by the wood stove fire! It also had a full kitchen so we bought eggs and milk and bread and made french toast and scrambled eggs for dinner. Monday morning we trained to Zurich for one more day and night in Switzerland. Zurich is a huge city, so it gave us a different feel and look at Switzerland. There was a lot to see along the river and bay and some gorgeous churches. We mostly just walked around and looked in tourist shops and then headed to our hostel to go to bed pretty early because we were so tired. We were able to buy swiss army knives for a discount from our hostel which was nice. Tuesday was another 9 hour train back to Vienna where we slept that night at the castle in order to catch our plane to Athens the next morning. The castle was very empty and cold, almost in a freaky way. They turn the heat off to save money while we are gone so it was dreadfully cold. But it was nice to have the place to ourselves. We watched a movie and had the computers as long as we wanted them and didn't have to share with 50 other people! On wednesday we landed in Athens, Greece to sunshine and 70 degree weather. We found our 3 star hotel for 10 euro a night per person (traveling in the off season is the best), grabbed our first of many gyro's and headed to bed to gain energy for our exploration of Greece over the next 4 days. On thursday, after our continental breakfast, we headed for the Acropolis and Mars Hill. We had planned to read Acts 17 where Paul preaches on Mars Hill about the unknown god, but after we walked for about 30 min, I realized that I had left my bible at the hotel. We went back to get it because we all wanted to read it on Mars Hill. We finally made it up there and we first ate lunch on the hill. After that, we explored the Acropolis. It was great except for the fact that the other 3 got in free because they were under 20. I had to pay :(. The Acropolis was worth it though! The Parthenon was beautiful even with all of the construction going on. It was also great because you could see the entire city of Athens since it is up on a hill. After we were done there, we went back to Mars Hill and I read Acts 17 for us. It was pretty amazing to read it in the same spot where Paul gave the sermon from! On our way back to our hotel, we started our shopping that would continue on through the next day. We again had gyro's for dinner and headed to bed. Friday was deamed a shopping day by the girls. It was fun though to see everything and just be in the Greek culture. The people are so nice. I bought a few gifts, but mostly just enjoyed walking around. Again, we had gyro's for dinner. We were suppose to go out to Aegina Island saturday morning and spend the day and one night there, but when we got to the port we found out there were no boats going because there was such bad weather out in the gulf and a huge storm coming in off of the ocean so even if we could get out, there was a good chance we could have been stranded and miss our flight, which we found out happened to some girls from our group! We were a little upset, but were alright with not going because we went back and got another room at our same hotel becasue we had made friends with the receptionist. He was hilarious!! He told us stories about Greece and gave us a Greek language lesson. The funniest was when he was trying to check in the Israeli professional rugby team, but still came out and told us a story about how he called up his friend Apollo, the Sun God, and how he arranged to have the sun for us, and called him back when the sun didn't come out and had him fix it and it was sunny all day for us!!!!!! We ended up just walking around that day and went out to Gryfada beach in athens but couldn't swim because the water was too rough. This morning, we decided to go up to Mars Hill to take communion. We bought saltines and peach juice because that was the best we could find, but it worked!! It was an absolutely amazing experience and one I will never forget. One funny thing about Athens is that there are dogs everywhere!! They are all well behaved, but they are everywhere just laying down and walking around. On our way this morning to Mars Hill, a big white husky dog started following us. She followed us all the way up the hill, about 1 1/2 miles, layed down while we did communion, and then back through the streets while we shopped. She would stay outside of stores while we shopped and stayed right by us. We named her Sadie. It was fun. We then went to the airport and got on our plane back to vienna where there is snow on the ground and it is -1 C, about 28 F degrees. Over all, our trip was great. we had so much fun! I will never forget the places we went and things we saw and people we met. God continues to amaze me with his creation and by continuing to bless me day in and day out. Like I said, I will try to post some pictures this week. I am pretty much done with class and all I have to do this week is help get ready for a huge thanksgiving feast here in the castle. We are expecting about 120 people!! We are thinking about going to Salzburg and Bratislava as day trips, but other than that we are done traveling. we will leave 2 weeks from tomorrow to head to oklahoma and then on to Portland by Dec 10th!!! I can't wait. it has been a great 3 months, but I think I'm ready to be home and am excited for christmas!! the christmas markets will be fun here in Vienna these next 2 weeks though!!!

Italy

this was our big all-group 10 day travel. it was pretty interesting boarding a night train with 55 people. but we did it! on friday night, we took an overnight train, 14 hours, from vienna to Rome. we arrived saturday morning and after checking into our lush hotel, we were released to explore the city. my friends and i chose to visit the furthest sight, the Vatican City and St Peter's Basilica. when we first got to the square, it was lunch time so we started to eat out sack lunches we had packed to save money (as a college student living on a budget in europe, you quickly learn how to eat and do everything as cheap as possible!!). we were eating on the step and the whole time a large crowd of probably 75,000 plus filled the square. when they all started cheering and yelling, we joined them to see what they were all looking at.... the pope!!! he came out and gave a speech becasue it was some catholic/italian holiday weekend. he blessed everyone in several different languages. it was very thrilling. we then went into St Peters where we saw Michelangelo's Pieta and the largest and most decorative church i have ever seen, and i've seen a lot in the past 2 months. we then walked around rome and stopped by the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps after a curb-side safe pizza dinner. the next day, we went to the colliseum, roman forum, the prison where both Peter and Paul were held and the church that holds Michelangelo's Moses. our last morning in rome we all as a group went to the vatican museums and the sistine chapel. it was beautiful!!! definately smaller than i anticipated, but the artwork was breathtaking!!!
we left that afternoon for florence and arrived there at about 5pm. after checking into our again lush hotel, me and a few friends decided at the spur of the moment to jump another 2 hour train out to the leaning tower of Pisa. from the train station, it is a 20 min fast walk. we went out there, took pictures and ran back to catch the last train that night back into florence. on tuesday, we went to the Uffizi gallery which is said to be the greatest art collection in the world. i honestly did not find it worth my time and didn't pay too much attention to the art. i feel bad for that, but at this point in the trip i am so burnt out from visiting so many museums. it's becoming repetative and boring to me. anyways, after walking around for an hour or two after that, we met to go into the Academy of Fine Arts which houses Michelangelo's most famous sculpture, the David. it was amazing!!! it was so big and beautiful. i really enjoyed it. for the rest of the afternoon and evening, we hung out in the leather markets buying as much italian leather as we could afford. just the atmosphere was pretty cool. we had chinese for dinner? don't ask me who's idea it was for oriental food in italy?? we were all glued to the hotel lobby tv for houirs that night watching the election. we woke up wednesday morning to find out that Obama had won by a land slide. if you in america think people were partying, you ain't seen nothing til you've seen europe party. they are all so excited and happy and it makes them love us. it's really weird but the saying over here is: when america sneezes, europe gets bronchitis. we boarded our last group train to venice. i have always heard how cool and unique venice is, but you can't explain it til you've been yourself. it is so beautiful with the canals and ocean and alleyways with no cars. we walked around all afternoon seeing a few sites, but mainly just enjoying the atmosphere. that night, me and a few friends went out the bay and sat for a few hours just talking and relaxing becasue it had been such a long and fast tempo week. the next morning, we set out on a mission to find the girls some swim suits. we decided to catch a taxi boat out to the island of Lido. it is world famous for it's beaches. we were unsucessful in finding suits for them, but it turned out alright because it got too cold for them. but, it was not too cold for us guys. we found an abandoned boardwalk that we could climb up and walk out about 50 yards on to jump into the ocean and then ride the waves in. it was a lot of fun. we all had a picknic on the beach and attempted to build a bonfire but all the wood was too wet. austin jordan sarah and i headed back early to venice so that we could take the girls on a gondola ride, the boats driven by a man standing on the back with one ore. it was fun, expensive but fun. i was lucky at this hotel to be given the only suite. i had a king size bed to myself and only had 2 other roommates who each had nice beds also. since our room was so big, a lot of people gathered in my room that night to watch the European Music Awards. it was funny, we went to the store to get food and just made a party out of it. our group gets along really well which makes everything really fun.
on friday morning, everyone was released for free travel with which we had to get back to vienna by sunday. i decided to go to Munich with 2 others becasue it was kinda on the way home. it was a beautiful city!! very pretty and lots to do. we took a free walking tour which we were skeptical about, but ended up loving. we saw where hitler lived and steered his nazi party from and some really cool historical sites. i also saw the largest beer hall and beer garden in the world. after a full day, me and my friend ben went to see the new 007, Quantum of Solace. it came out here on the 7th about a week before it comes out in the states. it was awsome, go and see it when it comes out.
and now i'm back at the castle. i wrote a paper for bible class this evening and worked a bit on a presentation i have coming up this week. this is our final week of classes for the semester! we leave again on friday for our last 10 day free travel and then when we come back, it's 4 days til thanksgiving and then a week before we come home!! it's going by so fast. i will be home in 1 month but it is going to fly by. i will try to post some pictures this week when i go to the internet cafe to upload onto my flash drive. take care and hope all is well with everyone