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

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

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!!!!!!!!

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