Tuesday, July 15, 2008
HOME!
It's the end of my first day home. I did laundry; I was much more excited about that than I ever have been before. I'm sure there will be photo slideshows at some point but I can't tell you when yet. When you see me, ask for stories or pictures. Thanks for paying attention and now this blog will probably lie dormant until something exciting happens or I travel somewhere else.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Berlin to Brussels to the Cliffs of Dover to Amsterdam to Northern Netherlands (Leeuwarden)
There's been alot happening since the last post to say the least. And I have to say that Peter is taking a bit of my spotlight (as did Sarah before that :) so if you still care about me, read on...
We saw the "Memorial to the Jews killed in WWII" in Berlin. After Berlin we hopped our first nighttrain to Brussels where we only went to take a ferry across and see the cliffs of Dover. And it had to be a rainy, dismal day of course so we couldn't actually see them that well. We missed the ferry we were supposed to return on then the next one was delayed so we got back to Calais well after any trains were running to take us back to the hostel in Brussels. So we begged. Our ferry had mostly people taking their cars across and truckers with their semis so we asked everyone we saw for a ride. Incredibly, after only about 15 minutes, we found someone that had room for four people (like he was driving an SUV by himself room, not like if you can fit in a semi's cab room) and could drop us off outside of Brussels. So we ended up at a gas station on the highway outside of Brussels. After calling a cab (more like the guy working there called a buddy and asked if he wanted to make some easy money), we got to our hostel about 2am and got some sleep in real beds. It turned out pretty well all things considered.
Brussels to Amsterdam for the afternoon. We saw the redlight district (pretty busy for 3pm) which gives a whole new meaning to meat market. Women rent store windows and sit barely dressed in windows up and down the street.
On to Leeuwarden in Northern Netherlands where we had a couchsurfer to meet (we have taken alot of trains in the Netherlands and in the last few days in general due to last minute changes to the original plan of Prague). We did meet her pretty uneventfully (might be a first) and she, as all of our hosts, has been extremely nice and generous. Today she has offered to drive us to see Witmarsum (sp?) where Menno Simons lived and see the original churches.
This is probably our last day of actually doing much of anything. Our plan for a night train to Copenhagen then having the 13th in Copenhagen fell through because the train was full. So that means we spend most of tomorrow on the train then fly home the 14th! I really can't believe that it's about to end; it's been amazing!
We saw the "Memorial to the Jews killed in WWII" in Berlin. After Berlin we hopped our first nighttrain to Brussels where we only went to take a ferry across and see the cliffs of Dover. And it had to be a rainy, dismal day of course so we couldn't actually see them that well. We missed the ferry we were supposed to return on then the next one was delayed so we got back to Calais well after any trains were running to take us back to the hostel in Brussels. So we begged. Our ferry had mostly people taking their cars across and truckers with their semis so we asked everyone we saw for a ride. Incredibly, after only about 15 minutes, we found someone that had room for four people (like he was driving an SUV by himself room, not like if you can fit in a semi's cab room) and could drop us off outside of Brussels. So we ended up at a gas station on the highway outside of Brussels. After calling a cab (more like the guy working there called a buddy and asked if he wanted to make some easy money), we got to our hostel about 2am and got some sleep in real beds. It turned out pretty well all things considered.
Brussels to Amsterdam for the afternoon. We saw the redlight district (pretty busy for 3pm) which gives a whole new meaning to meat market. Women rent store windows and sit barely dressed in windows up and down the street.
On to Leeuwarden in Northern Netherlands where we had a couchsurfer to meet (we have taken alot of trains in the Netherlands and in the last few days in general due to last minute changes to the original plan of Prague). We did meet her pretty uneventfully (might be a first) and she, as all of our hosts, has been extremely nice and generous. Today she has offered to drive us to see Witmarsum (sp?) where Menno Simons lived and see the original churches.
This is probably our last day of actually doing much of anything. Our plan for a night train to Copenhagen then having the 13th in Copenhagen fell through because the train was full. So that means we spend most of tomorrow on the train then fly home the 14th! I really can't believe that it's about to end; it's been amazing!
Monday, July 7, 2008
It's a small world...
In the middle of the Black Forest, on a hiking trail, we met a family that Nathan knows from Goshen. They invited us to dinner and acted as our hosts for the next few days. We were staying in a hostel in a castle so had no desire to cancel that but they fed us some, drove us to the best swimming holes, and drove us to our very early morning train (before the buses were running, early morning). We appreciated the taste of home (literally, she made us lasagna).
After the castle hostel and hiking in the Black Forest and swimming in the lakes, we moved on to a boat cruise up the Rhine River. It was a very relaxing day considering we were on that boat for over 11 hours. We saw beautiful countryside, vineyards, quaint towns, and old castles and cathedrals. We stopped in a hostel for one night in Cologne before coming to Berlin. We have seen the Berlin Wall already tonight and celebrated Jasmine's birthday. Tomorrow we continue our exploration.
After the castle hostel and hiking in the Black Forest and swimming in the lakes, we moved on to a boat cruise up the Rhine River. It was a very relaxing day considering we were on that boat for over 11 hours. We saw beautiful countryside, vineyards, quaint towns, and old castles and cathedrals. We stopped in a hostel for one night in Cologne before coming to Berlin. We have seen the Berlin Wall already tonight and celebrated Jasmine's birthday. Tomorrow we continue our exploration.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Switzerland and Germany
We did not do the kayaking or canoeing. Instead we took a train to Munich and spent the afternoon at the Dachau concentration camp. Very different day but good none-the-less. That evening was the Eurocup football finals and we went to downtown Salzburg into the "fanzone" to watch with approximately 20,000 other fans. It was a totally different sports experience than I´d ever had before. 20,000 people gathered in Salzburg. The finals were being played in Vienna between Germany and Spain but 20,000 people gathered in a different town in Austria to watch and cheer. Spain (the huge underdog) won 1-0. That was incidentally who we were cheering for (though that´s mostly because the people around us were cheering for them and we didn´t want to be the odd ones out).
The next day we went to Zurich and met our host (a Catholic theologian that we found on a website devoted to free lodging, think Mennonite-Your-Way without the Mennonite). He was extremely nice and very trusting. Soon after we arrived, he gave us a good map and tips of where to go, told us that he had to leave for a few days, to eat anything we wanted, gave us the keys to the apartment and left. So we had our own apartment for the night. We saw where Felix Mainz was baptized, and where he had his "third baptism," where he was drowned in the river. Under our host´s advice, we went swimming in the river that runs through the middle of Zurich. The water was remarkably clean, deep, and fast moving. I had to swim full speed against the current to hold my position. Mostly we´d just float down and walk back up. At the end we even jumped off of one of the bridges (after we saw a local do it) We cooked supper at the apartment, the first real meal we´d had in awhile.
The next morning, Nathan and I set out looking for the Traufelhole while Mark and Jasmine saw more of Zurich. The Traufelhole is the cave that served as one of the first meeting places of the Anabaptists. We set out with one set of driving directions and some city names. We eventually made it to the right town and asked some women where it was. They talked amongst themselves and turned around and said they´d take us because it was a very long way on foot. One of them drove us close. We walked a little ways and found a sign explaining the sites. Then promptly took off in the wrong direction (in our defense, north on the map was pointing straight left and wasn´t clearly marked as such). We spent an hour walking out, around, up, down, and over the mountain before finally making it to the cave. Then it took less than 15 minutes of fairly simple walking to get back to the original sign. Let´s just say that we had a new appreciation for the original Anabaptists that did it all without the cleared trails and maps. Then we had to hitchhike back but we had another nice person pick us up pretty quickly and take us back to the bus stop.
That night we stayed at a Mennonite-Your-Way family in Bern. They were extremely hospitable and the homemade bread and jams for breakfast were heavenly.
Yesterday we came to Freiburg to visit a friend of mine from high-school (a German exchange student). She took us to a music festival where we got to try different food that she said we had to try while we were in Germany. We didn´t get to spend much time with her unfortunately since she is currently in the middle of a university term. We head on (to what we imagine as) some relaxing days in a hostel (looks like an old castle) in the middle of the Black Forest. Hopefully it is as wonderful as we are imagining.
The next day we went to Zurich and met our host (a Catholic theologian that we found on a website devoted to free lodging, think Mennonite-Your-Way without the Mennonite). He was extremely nice and very trusting. Soon after we arrived, he gave us a good map and tips of where to go, told us that he had to leave for a few days, to eat anything we wanted, gave us the keys to the apartment and left. So we had our own apartment for the night. We saw where Felix Mainz was baptized, and where he had his "third baptism," where he was drowned in the river. Under our host´s advice, we went swimming in the river that runs through the middle of Zurich. The water was remarkably clean, deep, and fast moving. I had to swim full speed against the current to hold my position. Mostly we´d just float down and walk back up. At the end we even jumped off of one of the bridges (after we saw a local do it) We cooked supper at the apartment, the first real meal we´d had in awhile.
The next morning, Nathan and I set out looking for the Traufelhole while Mark and Jasmine saw more of Zurich. The Traufelhole is the cave that served as one of the first meeting places of the Anabaptists. We set out with one set of driving directions and some city names. We eventually made it to the right town and asked some women where it was. They talked amongst themselves and turned around and said they´d take us because it was a very long way on foot. One of them drove us close. We walked a little ways and found a sign explaining the sites. Then promptly took off in the wrong direction (in our defense, north on the map was pointing straight left and wasn´t clearly marked as such). We spent an hour walking out, around, up, down, and over the mountain before finally making it to the cave. Then it took less than 15 minutes of fairly simple walking to get back to the original sign. Let´s just say that we had a new appreciation for the original Anabaptists that did it all without the cleared trails and maps. Then we had to hitchhike back but we had another nice person pick us up pretty quickly and take us back to the bus stop.
That night we stayed at a Mennonite-Your-Way family in Bern. They were extremely hospitable and the homemade bread and jams for breakfast were heavenly.
Yesterday we came to Freiburg to visit a friend of mine from high-school (a German exchange student). She took us to a music festival where we got to try different food that she said we had to try while we were in Germany. We didn´t get to spend much time with her unfortunately since she is currently in the middle of a university term. We head on (to what we imagine as) some relaxing days in a hostel (looks like an old castle) in the middle of the Black Forest. Hopefully it is as wonderful as we are imagining.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Surprise! I have internet again so quickly
Today was an amazing day spent hiking through the Bavarian Alps in Salzburg Austria! We took buses up to Hitler`s Eagles Nest and then got to walk around (jump from rock to rock near the edges of cliffs in the Alps) for several hours. It was also my first real near-death experience (don`t worry Mom, I`m alive and well). I chose a particularly bad route for one of my descents and got into very loose rocks and soil on a steep section. Now that its over, I must say I reacted quite well to the whole thing to figure out how to prevent my tumble over the edge of the Alps.
We were cheap and decided to not take a bus back down one of the legs of the several kilometer ascent. However, we also decided to be kinda lazy and therefore hitchhiked back to the train station. We got picked up by a very nice teacher from a school nearby who talked the entire time but was willing to stuff all four of us into the back of her car.
If we are`t too cheap tomorrow and several things fall into place, we might be kayaking or white water rafting in the streams running off the Alps! The streams are gorgeous and clear. We happened to see someone with a kayak today and I got an insatiable urge to kayak. The others seem to be favoring white water rafting (which for some reason I`m pretty sure I`d be ok with) so i`ll probably depend on price and convenience in timing.
In Salzburg we are staying in a very nice hotel (by our standards) but actually by accident since other reservations were lost and this was gotten last minute. However, we are making the best of it by taking enough food from the complementary breakfast to feed us lunch and supper also. And now that I`ve seen so much of Salzburg, it`s totally worth it.
We were cheap and decided to not take a bus back down one of the legs of the several kilometer ascent. However, we also decided to be kinda lazy and therefore hitchhiked back to the train station. We got picked up by a very nice teacher from a school nearby who talked the entire time but was willing to stuff all four of us into the back of her car.
If we are`t too cheap tomorrow and several things fall into place, we might be kayaking or white water rafting in the streams running off the Alps! The streams are gorgeous and clear. We happened to see someone with a kayak today and I got an insatiable urge to kayak. The others seem to be favoring white water rafting (which for some reason I`m pretty sure I`d be ok with) so i`ll probably depend on price and convenience in timing.
In Salzburg we are staying in a very nice hotel (by our standards) but actually by accident since other reservations were lost and this was gotten last minute. However, we are making the best of it by taking enough food from the complementary breakfast to feed us lunch and supper also. And now that I`ve seen so much of Salzburg, it`s totally worth it.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Rome, Pisa, Venice, Salzburg
Since I have very little time, those are the cities I´ve been in since I last posted. They have all been amazing and I am still having the time of my life. More pictures than any of you will want to see will be coming home with me but i won´t be able to post anymore. and on that note, I have two minutes left and must say goodbye to you all again.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Woke in London, about to sleep in Rome
After a very long trip getting to London, we saw all we could in 2 days. Nathan had already spent a week there so his insights helped. All the other cities are gonna have to be us winging it :)
The highlight has to be going to Shakespeare's Globe Theater where we saw King Lear. We bought the cheap tickets (of course) which meant that we stood for the whole 3 hour performance. There is a yard in front of the stage (open, we almost got rained on but it stopped soon before the show started) and a ring of seats (covered) behind the yard. The yard supposedly holds 700 though I'm not sure I'd ever want to be there then.
Now we are in Rome. We flew in this morning after a very uncomfortable (and short) night in the airport for our 7am flight. We were rather tired so limited our day and came back to the hostel relatively early (7pm-ish). We saw the Colloseum and 2 cathedrals. We did come into Rome in time for the heat. It was 90s F today and we spent all afternoon walking in the sun.
Our hostel is in a residential part but very conveniently located to the central metro station. We have been eating lots of bread, peanut butter, nutella, and apples. That has been all I ate for the last 4 days minus the rice/beans/tomato I just had for supper. Oh and our last night in London we ate out so that those that like fish 'n chips could try it in London. (I had chili con carne which was also amazing, it even came with basmati rice!)
I finally did get sick with a cold. It has been draining, just annoying. My nose is either stuffy or running but I'm still going strong. It's been a nice change of pace to switch to a smaller group of people that I knew before this whole thing started. I'm hearing lots of China and Scotland stories as well as getting to relate Lithuania ones.
PLACES SEEN:
London: Tower Bridge, Tower of London, London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circle, National Gallery, King Lear performed at the Globe Theater, Big Ben, the guy protesting in front of Parliament for the past 7ish years, the Thames, Westminster, guards in funny hats (they didn't look too thrilled about all the picture-takers, and yes, we did get a picture with them too), Old Bailey (for all those who've seen V for Vendetta, we quoted it while we saw it, and yes I heard the 1812 overture playing and saw some explosions, actually in a side chapel at Westminster someone was playing the 1812 overture on the pipe organ!)
Rome: (so far) Colloseum, St. Mary church, St. Peter in Chains church (they have chains they say held Peter during one of his several stays in jail)
The highlight has to be going to Shakespeare's Globe Theater where we saw King Lear. We bought the cheap tickets (of course) which meant that we stood for the whole 3 hour performance. There is a yard in front of the stage (open, we almost got rained on but it stopped soon before the show started) and a ring of seats (covered) behind the yard. The yard supposedly holds 700 though I'm not sure I'd ever want to be there then.
Now we are in Rome. We flew in this morning after a very uncomfortable (and short) night in the airport for our 7am flight. We were rather tired so limited our day and came back to the hostel relatively early (7pm-ish). We saw the Colloseum and 2 cathedrals. We did come into Rome in time for the heat. It was 90s F today and we spent all afternoon walking in the sun.
Our hostel is in a residential part but very conveniently located to the central metro station. We have been eating lots of bread, peanut butter, nutella, and apples. That has been all I ate for the last 4 days minus the rice/beans/tomato I just had for supper. Oh and our last night in London we ate out so that those that like fish 'n chips could try it in London. (I had chili con carne which was also amazing, it even came with basmati rice!)
I finally did get sick with a cold. It has been draining, just annoying. My nose is either stuffy or running but I'm still going strong. It's been a nice change of pace to switch to a smaller group of people that I knew before this whole thing started. I'm hearing lots of China and Scotland stories as well as getting to relate Lithuania ones.
PLACES SEEN:
London: Tower Bridge, Tower of London, London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circle, National Gallery, King Lear performed at the Globe Theater, Big Ben, the guy protesting in front of Parliament for the past 7ish years, the Thames, Westminster, guards in funny hats (they didn't look too thrilled about all the picture-takers, and yes, we did get a picture with them too), Old Bailey (for all those who've seen V for Vendetta, we quoted it while we saw it, and yes I heard the 1812 overture playing and saw some explosions, actually in a side chapel at Westminster someone was playing the 1812 overture on the pipe organ!)
Rome: (so far) Colloseum, St. Mary church, St. Peter in Chains church (they have chains they say held Peter during one of his several stays in jail)
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