Group Trip

Our entire study abroad group went to France and Switzerland for a group trip a week ago.

We flew into Germany on the border of France. We then drove a charter bus to Metz, France were we spent the night. The next morning we traveled to a few WWI sites. Our first stop was the WWI memorial at Verdun. The Douaumont ossuary is a memorial with the remains of unidentified soldiers from the battle of Verdun. In front of the structure are 25,ooo graves each marked with a white cross (or regular headstone for non-Christian soldiers). The view of the graveyard is eerie since it looks like the graves reach out in the distance forever. Inside the ossuary is a hallway of cloisters where large scale photographs hung from the ceiling. Each photo featured a WWI surviver holding a photo of how he or she looked during the war. It was a really great display that made the memorial seem even more personal. After the ossuary, we visited the "trench of bayonets," which is a trench that was covered by a blast during the war. The soldiers in the trench were buried alive. They are still buried with their bayonets sticking straight up out of the dirt, hence the name "trench of bayonets." We then visited the Fort Douaumont and a "disappeared" village. During the battle of Verdun, 9 villages were completely decimated. The one we visited had signs pointing to where farms, homes, and other buildings once stood. Our group took communion in that village and shared poems, quotes, songs, and Bible verses. The whole day was very somber and moving. 

  ☜gravesite 

ossuary☞

From Verdun, we traveled to Strasbourg, France. We spent two nights in Strasbourg but there were only one thing worth mentioning. Our group took a tour of the Council of Europe. This was an interesting and informative tour, especially since I did not know there was a Council of Europe until the tour. Seeing how Europe is working towards peace was especially good after the previous day at the war sites. 

After Strasbourg, we traveled to Switzerland. I'll tell you right now that the Swiss Alps is the prettiest place I have ever been. When we arrived, we were able to walk around the town of Interlaken before riding to our hotel which was outside of town. In Interlaken, I found out that the Swiss really know how to make chocolate... The next day, we headed to a ski area, some of the group skied, some sledded, some hiked, and the coolest of us snowboarded. Snowboarding in the Alps was awesome!

 The view from my hotel balcony

 Me on the mountain with my board.

After Switzerland, we had a very unique experience; we spent three night in a monastery. Taizé is a monastery that has opened its doors to young people for the past few decades. We were able to worship, eat, and discuss with young Christians from all over Europe. The experience is hard to describe but it was emotionally and spiritually refreshing.

After Taizé, we went to Paris for less than 24 hours. The main things I saw were the Eiffel Tower, the area of Montmarte, Notre Dame, and lots of crepes.

The trip was long and busy but full of great experiences and bonding with people in my group. I did get pretty sick at the tail end of the trip, one reason for the delay in this post. But, I'm all better now.

This upcoming weekend is a 5-day weekend. A group of us were supposed to go to Berlin but just found out that we booked our flights for the wrong dates... So, we're going to Berlin the next weekend (23-27) and will be in Oxford for this weekend. Thanks for reading this post!

Oh and here's the link to the photo album: France/Switzerland

Sorry I didn't take more pictures...

Spring Break Photo Links

Pisa and Florence

Venice

Rome

Malta

Spring break... a couple of weeks later.

So... Spring break was more than a week ago and I'm a little behind on entries but I'll try to catch you all up on the past couple of weeks of my life, starting with Spring break.

Pisa

Friday, March 6- Four of us flew into Pisa, Italy. There I had my first taste of real Italian Pizza and gelato (both of which were hard to beat during the rest of the trip). We went and saw the Tower of Pisa and the Duomo. They were fascinating to see but there was not much more to see in Pisa. 

 ☜ holding up the tower of Pisa

Florence

Later on Friday- From Pisa, Bayley and I headed to Florence while the other two girls headed to Cinque Tierre to meet up with another group. After arriving in Florence, Bayley and I found our hostel, the Archi Rossi, fairly easily (after figuring out that there are three different kinds of street numbers). We met Melanie, one of our roommates and a German student traveling around Italy alone). For dinner, Bayley, Melanie and I ate free pasta in the hostel's kitchen. It was as great as its price. After a long day of traveling, we went to bed early.

Saturday- We woke up early to be one of the first in line at the Accademia (famous for Michelangelo's David). We were the third and fourth in line so we were able to just walk right in when it opened. Another good thing about being one of the first people in the museum is that we were able to see David without people crowded around it. The statue is spectacular. It's hard to even comprehend how Michelangelo was capable of that much detail in marble. The rest of the Academia was amazing as well.

After the museum, we went back to the hostel for a walking tour of the city. Our guide lead us through the city and gave us a basic overview of the city's history. Later, we visited the Duomo of Florence and another Basilica. The Duomo is beautiful from inside but I think the exterior might be even more beautiful than the interior.

  ☜ Bayley and me in front of Florence Duomo's Bell Tower

We had seen a note in the Duomo announcing English Mass services... so, we went to Mass that afternoon in the Duomo. I had never been to Mass before so I didn't know when to stand, sit, or kneel. It was a very interesting experience.

We spent the rest of the evening window shopping in the designer area of Florence.

Sunday- Another early morning: We were fourth and fifth in line for the Uffizi Gallery, which is one of the premier art collections in the world. Most importantly, it contains works by all four of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo). We walked around Florence some more before heading to the train station for our trip to Venice.

We arrived in Venice in the evening and spent some time getting to know the city (WARNING: that's a euphemism for getting lost...). We arrived at the hostel, which was not the best hostel I've stayed in but it worked for our purposes. We were both tired and a bit cranky from getting lost, so we just grabbed dinner and went to sleep pretty early. 

Monday- In the morning we got breakfast from a café and ate it in St. Mark's square. 

 ☜ St. Mark's Square

We watched people commute in for the day and others setting up souvenir, food and newspaper stands. After we watched Venice wake up, or commute into the city, we went to St. Mark's basilica. The church is basically sinking so the floor has been damaged quite a bit. We had to walk through it on platform walkways. The mosaics in the church are really beautiful; it is a shame that the church is being so badly damaged. After seeing the church, we went to a museum about the history of Venice. It was interesting to see how Venice used to be. I think that the city has become more of a tourist attraction lately but, it used to be a place with festivals and parties for the residents. It would have been a fun place to live. Next we headed back to the train station (and found our way  more easily than the day before). We were headed to Rome! We arrived at night and met up with the other 7 girls who had been in Cinque Tierre. We ate dinner and I had some awesome tiramisu. We went to bed in a room decorated with images of Roger and Jessica Rabbit...

Tuesday- We headed to the Vatican. After walking through the museum, which has some really great art, we go to the famous Sistine chapel. It was very cool. I just sat for a while taking in all the images the cover the ceiling and walls of the room. A young girl in front of me said "Mom, what's everyone waiting for?" It did seem as though everyone was waiting for something. We were all crowded around and the noise level steadily grew until a shout, of "Quiet please" from a guard, started the process again. But everyone was looking at what they had waited for. We then went to St. Peter's church where we saw a strange affection for the apostle Peter. To someone with limited experience with the Catholic church, it seemed peculiar how Peter is held at the same level of reverence as Christ.

That night we followed a walking tour from a guide book that one of the girls had brought. We saw the "four rivers" fountain. It is really cool because each of its four statues represent a region of the world. We also saw the Trevi fountain where we threw in coins. Apparently, that ensures me another visit to Rome. I'm OK with that.

Wednesday- We went to the Coliseum and the Forum this day. A couple of us got a guided lecture (not really a tour since we stayed in one place) of the Coliseum. He kept referencing Gladiator which I have not seen but I guess I should now that I've been there. The Forum was cool to see but I didn't really know what was what (though I pretended...). After a while, it was just more ruins after more ruins.

  ☜ in front of the Coliseum

Thursday- Thursday morning we flew to Malta. For those who don't know where or what Malta is (I sure did not until a few weeks ago), Malta is a small island country south of Sicily. As we were landing, I could see from coast to coast of the island. We spent most of the three days chilling at the beach, eating crepes, and walking around. It was a relaxing break from the tourism that I had done for the past week. We flew back to London Saturday night. 

☜ Taylor and I in Malta

Oh, and I got some awesome turquoise pants in Malta:

By the way, here's the links to my facebook albums:

Budapest

Vienna

Budapest and Vienna! (I know it's long but there's some gems of cheesy jokes sprinkled throughout to keep it interesting)

So... I got back early Sunday morning from my travel break to Budapest and Vienna. The trip was good but a couple setbacks kept it from being exceptional. So here's the lowdown on the trip (skip to the end if you'd like the Reader's Digest version instead of the play-by-play):

Play-by-Play Version

We (Cammy, Megan, Kyle and I) left Oxford on a bus at 1:00 Friday morning headed for Stansted airport. Our flight was at 6:35 that morning,

 arriving in Budapest about 10:00 AM. After a motion-sickness inducing cab ride, we arrived at our hostel which was a funky new-age kind of place, complete with incense and a Buddhist mural in our room. We took a walk through the Pest part of Budapest, after fig

uring out their public transportation system, and then crossed the bridge to the Buda side, which, as we soon found, is really hilly. We went to the top of a hill called "Castle Hill" where we saw a church and the Fisherman's Bastion, which looks like something you'd see in a Disney movie. While up there, we also went into a marzipan museum where they had made sculptures of buildings, people, and even movie scenes out of marzipan (a sugar and almond paste mix). It reminded me of Ace of Cakes, for those of you who have seen that show...

After that we climbed Gellért Hill to the Citadella, a former fortress. From the top, you can see almost all of Budapest.

The view from the Citadella

After the Citadella, it was late and we were really hungry, in Hungary... Should've gone to Turkey... As we walked towards our hostel, we stopped in  a few places that were open but they weren't serving food at that hour. Finally, we saw a pub that was opened and looked like it would still serve food. Ignoring the name, "Nevada Pub," we ventured through the door, ready for some authentic Hungarian cuisine. Instead we were greeted by a guy dressed as a cowboy. The whole place was decorated with American West posters, pictures, etc. Anyways, since we were starving and they were serving food, we ate there; but I didn't order the "Texas Steak" or anything else too American.

The next morning we woke up early to pack and head out to find the bus that would lead us to our caving guide. We finally found the bus to take us to him. After we dressed in our extremely attractive caving outfits, we headed to the entrance of the cave.

Me between a rock and a hard place 

(which happened to be another rock)>

The caving was amazing!!! It was so much fun. I didn't get too claustrophobic, which is something I was really worried about before going in. It took us about 2-2.5 hours to do the tour through it. The caves were not wet, nor did they have stalagmites or stalactites because it was formed by thermal waters flowing through the hills. It goes under the residential part of Buda almost to the Danube River.

After our caving, we headed to the train station. We bought gyros to eat while we waited for our train... and then we missed the train. Fortunately, there was another one leaving in a couple of hours. So, we walked around the neighborhood surrounding the train station while waiting. We got into Vienna at about 8:00pm and rode to the hostel in a taxi. I disappointed that this hostel didn't have incense. We ate dinner ate a restaurant near the hostel; we got there just in time- they were about to close the kitchen. We went back to the hostel and, like the crazy kids we are, went to bed. 

The next morning, we headed out the Schonbron Palace. It was the summer palace of the Hapsburg family. It was gorgeous inside! Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside so, I have none to show you of the interior... I guess you can google it if you want to see pictures.

Next we found our way to St. Stephen's Cathedral. But, before we went in, we found a restaurant with wienerschniztel. It was kind of expensive so, my friend Kyle and I split one wienerschniztel and a hamburger, which was much cheaper. It was really good! I don't think you can really go wrong by taking meat (in this case veal), breading it and then frying it. By the way in a continuation of our American-themed restaurant tour, the restaurant was named Chattanooga Cafe, but it did have Viennese cuisine. Next, we went into St. Stephen's cathedral which is huge and beautiful. We did not see his hand in the box because we didn't want to pay money for that. Across the street is St. Peter's cathedral which is not as huge but it is beautiful. 

<-St. Stephen's -exterior    

St. Peter's- ceiling>

We then made our way to the bus station which was difficult because we had people give us at least 5 different directions to the station. We caught the next bus to the Bratislava airport, which as I later found out, is in the tiny country of Slovakia. We were a couple of hours early so we just hung out in the airport's cafe drinking coffee. After the flight and bus ride from London to Oxford, we arrived at our house at 4:00 am Sunday. I was in bed by 4:20.

Reader's Digest Version (AKA for those of you that are not my grandparents or parents and don't care about every detail)

Thursday

-Budapest

-hostel had insence and Buddha mural.

-took us forever to figure out transport

-saw Pest

-saw Buda- climbed hills, saw buildings and views, went to marzipan museum

-ate at American West themed restaurant (it was the only one open)

Friday morning

- went caving. It was awesome- highlight of trip

Friday afternoon 

-missed train

Friday later afternoon

- rode later train to Vienna

-got to hostel, no incense 

Sat.

-Went to Shonbron Palace

-Ate Wienerschnitzel

-Went to St. Stephen's Cathedral

-Went to St. Peter's Cathedral

-Found bus to airport

-Hung out in airport

-Flew to London

Sunday Morning

-Arrived at house at 4:00am

-was asleep by 4:20

THE END

I'm leaving tomorrow night for my Spring Break trip to Italy and Malta- so keep a lookout for an entry on that trip.

On a different note, I found out this weekend that I for sure got the camp counselor job at ACU. So, I'll be in Abilene again for the summer.

Travel Schedule

So... For those who care and/or want to be creepy and know where I am all the time, here is my travel schedule for the rest of semester:

Feb 26-28 Budapest and Vienna (Thursday morning, Fly into Budapest- Thursday night in Budapest- Friday, train to Vienna- Friday night in Vienna- Saturday night, fly back to London from Vienna)

March 6-14 (Spring Break) Italy & Malta (Fly into Pisa- spend Friday in Pisa- Friday & Saturday night in Florence-Go to Venice- Sunday night in Venice- Go to Rome- Monday-Wednesday nights in Rome- Thursday, go to Pisa for flight- Fly to Malta- Thursday and Friday night in Malta- Saturday, fly back to London from Malta)

March 28- April 6 Switzerland and France (All program trip- Trip organized by professors)

April 16-20 Last travel break (Not planned yet but, maybe Germany)

Day trip to Bath

So, I guess yesterday was Valentine's Day... I kept forgetting that it was. I went with a group of girls, seven including me, to Bath for the day. When we got there we kind of wondered around until we found the Sally Lunn's Restaurant where we were to get the famous "Sally Lunn's Bun." The house in which the restaurant was located is the oldest house in Bath; it's from the 1400's. We got our buns, which turned out to be very similar to heated up hamburger buns with cinnamon butter melted on top. It was good, but probably not worth the £4. 

We then found signs that pointed us to the area with the Abbey and the Roman Baths. After grabbing a map in tourist office, we saw a crowd and went to see what they were watching. We found that there were two men putting on a torch-throwing, sparkler-holding kind of show... wearing only thongs, shoes and socks. I guess you never know what you'll find in Europe. The funniest part of the whole thing was that a wedding reception was taking place right inside from the show. You could see the bride through the window looking out with a bothered look on her face. I also found it interesting that parents were encouraging their children to watch the show and to give the men money at the end. Europeans seem to have a very different view of decency than Americans. I don't necessarily think all of it is completely terrible, since some Americans can be overly cautious. It's just something I've noticed through experiences like this and watching British commercials. 

Anyways... After the show, we toured the Roman Baths. The baths are really well-preserved and full of a ton of history. There are spas in the town that still use the water from the same spring. A few of the girls were going to do that later in the day but it ended up not working out. We went to the famous Royal Crescent street built in the 18th century... And looked at it for a couple minutes and then left. After this we went to the Abbey... and found out that it had closed for the day 30 minutes earlier.

We went for high tea at the pump room attached to the Roman Baths. The room used to be used for balls and other similar events. The water from the hot spring would be pumped into the room (hence the name, the pump room) and people would drink it by the glass as a "healing beverage". We tasted it and could not understand how it would possible to drink gallons a day of that stuff as people used to do. After tasting the odd-tasting, warm water, I had tea with some pastries which were delicious!

After tea, we went to the Fashion Museum. They have outfits from the 16th century until present. We got there about 45 minutes before it closed so we had to rush but we were able to see the crazy styles and beautiful styles from a lot of decades. When our adventure through the museum was complete, some of us went on towards the train station, but made a couple stops in stores and for food. The other group went to do the Bath spa, but ended up not doing it because of lines. It was a really good day trip. I might have to go back since we were not able to see the inside of the Abbey and we didn't make it to the American museum... Ok I was joking about that last one, not about its existence but about wanting to go to it. 

Another piece of information of note: I booked my flights for my next travel break. I'm going to Budapest, Hungary and Vienna, Austria! More on that later... Thanks for reading my blog.