"The Hills are alive with the Sound of Music"

At this exact moment, I can look out the window in front of me and enjoy a full view of the Austrian Alps. The mountains closest to me are fir covered, mostly green but interspersed with fall colors. At the base of the nearby mountains lies a small town, spread through the valley. Farther in the distance, but still very near to me, are snow capped mountains. Rising above the rest and covered in jagged rocks and cliffs, today these peaks are hidden by clouds which seem to slowly creep farther down the mountains and nearer to my retreat.

My retreat is a thing of beauty itself. Perched on the top of a mountain, it has looked down over the valley since 1150. Named Schloss Mittersill, it is indeed a castle, and it is my home for almost a week. This castle has seen quite a bit in its lifetime. Like many castles, it has burned (more than once) and been rebuilt. Its past is not entirely a pleasant one: during the witch trials in the area, the dungeon held those suspected of witchcraft--probably upwards of 200 people. Then, during World War II, the castle was used as Nazi headquarters and is thought to have been used for human experimentation, although not the experimentation itself but the paperwork end of it. After the war the castle became a hunting lodge (it had been this prior to the war as well), and in 1968 was sold and become a vital conference center. Because of the Iron Curtain, there were few places where Christians could meet from both the east and west. After the curtain came up, the castle was not as essential, but has continued to be a Christian conference center for people from all over the world. (Like me!!)

We're here until Sunday morning, and it's the one point in the trip where we are forced to relax and take a step backward, simply because there is absolutely nothing to do in the area except enjoy the amazing views. Well.... I should rephrase that last sentence... It's the one point in the trip where we are supposed to be able to relax. In actuality, we have something called a "creative project" (i know, the creativeness of the title really inspires....), an accompanying short paper, a newspaper article, preparation for an 8 page paper, narrative journal entries, 3 days of classes, and preparation for another 7 page paper. Delightful, isn't it?

As you've all been so patient reading through this... I'll finally show pictures. ...Although, knowing most of you the way I do, you probably skipped right through everything I said and looked only at the pictures. :-)
Also, I'm not entirely sure what happened since I haven't had this problem up until now, but the pictures don't seem to be showing up completely. The entire right side may be cut off, but if you click on the picture, you'll be able to see the entire thing.


This first picture is the deck outside my room..... about half the girls are on the top floor of this particular wing, and we all share the deck. Despite it's location in the Alps, the weather has been rather warm and a good number of us sun-bathed yesterday. (Supposedly the forecast predicts snow tomorrow)



This next picture is kind of low quality because it's taken from a coach window on our way to the castle. Still, gives you an idea of the views we have from here.


A shot from the garden directly below the castle. Hopefully I'll remember to post a view pics of the castle itself.... but don't hold your breath--I still never finished that other post.



And this is the view from the deck in the first picture. Well, at least one angle.

It's 2am

That's right. It's 2am in Krakow, Poland. I must be awake at 7am.
But, because I feel so guilty about not keeping up-to-date on this thing, and because I love you all so much, here's a very short entry. Actually, this is a bunch of crap because i'm too tired and rambling.

If anyone has made the connection already, Krakow is located near arguably the most well known Nazi concentration and extermination camp: Auschwitz. So, that's where we spent our entire day. The first half was spent at one of the camps, then we ate lunch, then went to another one. Then ate dinner. More on Auschwitz later. And some pictures.

Oh and i forgot to say, the reason we have to be up early (which really is not an unusual thing) is because we're driving all the way to Vienna tomorrow. Yeah, pull out a map and look up the 2 places. Then, if you're really feeling brave, look up the Czech Republic and find a small town called Olomouc. That's where we're stopping halfway through tomorrow for lunch and a tour of the town.

Did i mention that we had an almost identical trip just 3 days ago?? Yep, drove from Prague, through Olomouc where we stopped and half the group did the tour, then here to Krakow. As you can imagine, I hate coach buses with a passion at this point in time. There's this odd phenomenon that happens on long bus rides. The first part of the trip (usually in the morning) is mellow, with most people awake, talking quietly, journaling, and reading. After a rest stop or lunch break, the group then falls asleep, with less than 5% staying awake. This phase lasts at least an hour, sometimes much longer, depending on various factors. And then, after the next rest stop/dinner, the entire group gets a little stir crazy. This is when card games, loud music, laughter, games of toss, practical jokes, and dance parties in the aisles break out. So there you have it, the 3 Stages of Long Drives with Lots of College-aged Students. (and yes, that is the technical name for this particular theory.)

Umm.... looking back at the intro to this entry.... i apparently suck at "very short" entries.

lame

sorry again, I had no internet in Germany and very limited internet here in the Czech Republic.

Here's hoping Poland has good cheap internet!

Remembering D-Day

Mmk, so I've now finished this post..... weeks after I should have. As a result, I forgot probably half of the commentary I was going to write along with the photos. Nonetheless, the images are pretty amazing and really don't need me to explain them.



In a single day trip from Caen, France, our group stopped at a German cemetery, Pointe du Hoc, and Omaha Beach... All three famous as being directly connected to D-Day.This first picture is from the German Cemetery (I unfortunately cannot remember the name of it right now and don't feel like rooting around for the pamphlet with the name on it). We only stopped for half an hour because we had a lot on our schedule for the day, but even the half hour was worth it. It's a little strange to see flowers on some of the graves and know that even today, family members travel to France to remember German relatives who died during WWII.

From there we traveled to Pointe du Hoc, located on the coast. It's the cliff in between Omaha and another D-Day beach. Kevin is standing in the crater left by a shell... the entire area is littered by these huge holes in the ground.



This cliff is also part of the Pointe du Hoc area; it's the location where a specialized unit was trained to scale the cliff walls during the night in an attempt to take over the area.

Both this and the picture below were taken on Omaha beach, one faces the coastline directly, while the other is a long shot down the beach.


This is the entrance to the cemetery portion of the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. The cemetery sits on top of the hill, overlooking the actual beach.


Just a small portion of the crosses.

Finnish sniffles

Due to multiple reasons, my 4 days in Helsinki include very few pictures.
Reason 1: It rained all today.
Reason 2: I saw a 3 hour play one night and a 2 hour one the following night, which took up a good portion of time and obviously didn't involve many (any) pictures since cameras aren't allowed in theaters.
Reason 3: I'm sick. Apparently, 47 people sharing rooms, food, drinks, buses, etc., is a recipe for illness. To my credit, it took 3 weeks for my body to decide it was going to give up the fight.
So here's what I came away with in the way of pics:

Helsinki has lots of water. (I'm a little low on energy and brain-stuff so that's the extent of this photo's commentary)
This is a church. On a hill. Made of brick. I spent a very long time trying to figure out how to get to it. Eventually I gave up and just took a picture of the outside. I bet the inside is pretty sweet too but I suppose I'll never know.
Yesterday we went to an island fortress. No one would pay attention or take a picture with me on the ferry.
They changed their minds.

There's the fortress. And some more water.

There were caves on the island. We only found a few of them. Also, it was cold. Helsinki is really far north and a cold wind likes to blow. So everyone finally got to pull out their fuzzy hats, jackets, and gloves, as you can see in this pic of Hanna and Allison
We discovered Fall. Instead of exploring the island and going to the museum, most of us spent a good hour taking photos and playing in the leaves.
P.S. No, i'm not in this picture. All the pictures with me in them were not on my camera. Besides, this was yesterday, when I was feeling the sickest, and I tried to avoid lots of pictures cuz I look a little drugged in all of them. Anyway, that's all for Helsinki. Lots of catching up on work, sleeping, and hanging out in coffee shops.
Tomorrow we fly to Berlin... can't wait!

Helsinki, Finland

Well, it's been at least 5 countries since I've written.... hopefully today I'll get a few posts up and back-track a little. My poor parents (and I'm sure many of you) have been eagerly awaiting another post.

Today's our first full day in Finland. We were told to expect to freeze as this is the furthest north we've gone so far. I brought extra layers especially for this portion of our trip. Well.... so far, completely unnecessary. As you can see from this pic, it's sunny and blue skies are a common theme of the trip. It's a little sharp.... an autumn breeze blows most the day, but in general, not nearly as cold as I thought.

We took an overnight ferry here from Sweden.
Pause for a second.. conjure up an image of what you think a ferry might look like.
It's probably similar to what we imagined. A mid-size boat... cheap snack stands, a huge group bunk room, gray metal, nothing extra or fancy.
So when our coach pulled up at the harbor in Stockholm and this was the only ship in sight, we were ecstatic.
Ready for some of the stats on this thing?? (Rhetorical question, i'm telling you either way)
13 Decks.
over 8 Restaurants
Spa center, Sauna
Hot tub, waterslide
Casino
Cabin rooms with 4 beds and a full bathroom
Tax Free stores
Club
Yeah, i'm sure you can imagine what 43 college students on a surprise one-night cruise looks like.
We'd all been wearing traveling clothes, so most of us changed and got dressed up for a nice, classy dinner. (more about other food later.... seriously, i measure the passage of time by the amazing meals I have along the way) My group of 10 found a place with a meat focus--I say it like that to differentiate it from the seafood place next door or the pasta one farther down. Some people had steak, some salmon (yes, i realize that's a seafood... don't get legalistic on me, i didn't say exclusively meat), and I had lamb cutlets. YAY!!!!
After dinner we went to the top deck where the club was and joined in the karaoke for awhile. And of course we went dancing later that night. But first... because we never pass up a chance to get dressed up... all the girls went back to our rooms and changed outfits for the 3rd time that day.
So there it is, the short, condensed story of our unexpected mini European cruise.

oops

as you can see, i'm a good 2 and a half weeks behind on this thing. I'm already in Belgium, which means I need to catch up on stories from London, Paris, and the French countryside.

Eventually they will come... have no fear.

Izzle Tizzle and the whole gang

Instead of telling the entire story of the day we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, I'll upload lots of photos here and just tell short moments from the day. Also, I'm not uploading my fav photos of the tower on here cuz I do need something to show when I get home. Nonetheless, there are some nice ones. Enjoy!
Oh look, dinner on the lawn under the Eiffel Tower. Our group grew from 6 or 7 to around 14 as people from our group kept randomly showing up.


You may notice the bottle of wine Ryan is pulling from a bag... illegal-ish. I say "ish" because we waited till we saw 2-4 other groups around us enjoying their drinks before pulling ours out. After all, a picnic at the Eiffel Tower just isn't the same without a toast.
In line for what Ralph calls the "Izzle Tizzle." You'll note that I'm stoked. Ralph is too; it's a little bit more subtle. By the time we got to the front of the line, 5 other mini groups of our group had ended up there, and by the end of the night, 28 of our 47 were at the top at the same time.View from the second level... we timed it to get there right around sunset.. wasn't an incredible sunset, but still pretty sweet.
In line for the elevator to take us the rest the way to the top. Again, we're all stoked... even Ralph. Note the artistic decision to include a symbolic Eiffel Tower in the background. Special thanks to Ryan for taking the role of the Tower.

Picture of a railing. And the sunset. Self explanatory.

20-something of the 28 who ended up there at the same time. Yeah, we crowded up the area. Also, pay attention to the time of day of these last few photos. We definitely spent HOURS on the top level.The tower is blue. Oh, and this is from the walk down... we had to take an elevator the first part of the way, but then walked/raced down the last half.

Can't go to the Eiffel Tower without a little bit of ice cream. Here we are across the street, looking at the tower, enjoying our ice cream. Luckily it was on the warmer side of things... my idea of a good ending to a great night is not freezing my bum.

Coventry Cathedral

On our way to Stratford, we drove through Coventry to see the cathedral that had been bombed during World War II. The Germans bombed the city after choosing it from a tourist book… Small cities known for their beauty were chosen to destroy. In retaliation, the Allies chose the German city of Dresden to bomb.

The leaders of Coventry Cathedral decided after the war to not rebuild the old structure but instead build a new cathedral adjacent to it with the theme of peace and reconciliation running through it. The following photos explain a little more about the Coventry Cathedral, and I’m sure more thoughts will come up after we travel to the sister city of Dresden. INSERT PHOTOS

The same day, before getting to Stratford, we went to Warwick Castle. It was expensive, touristy, crowded, but still rather fun to see. And that’s all I’ll say about it, cuz I feel it’s a waste of my time. But, if you’d like to know the history behind it feel free to look it up. INSERT PHOTOS

Okay, so i can't get the photos in right now... but if someone reminds me, i will eventually. actually, even if someone doesn't remind, i will eventually... just maybe later than sooner.

Disappointments and Surprises

Monday morning we left Scotland to drive to York in England… crossing the border was uneventful considering it’s still the UK. I have only this to show for it: a quick photo on the side of the road… wind and rain whipping our faces.

The group leaders had also planned to stop at Hadrian’s wall…. A large wall built hundreds of years ago stretching across the UK. Few pieces of it remain, but we were going to stop at an area that had more remaining portions. Vandermey had talked it up quite a bit and that’s why, when we finally stopped and climbed out of the coach, I had only this in response:

Yeah, not going to lie…. It was one of the more pointless stops of our trip. Luckily we only stopped for 20 minutes.

From there, we drove on to York, home to the beautiful York Minster and an ancient city wall surrounding the city. This is perhaps my favorite small city of the trip so far. A river runs through it, and the city has a wonderful historic downtown area with small boutiques. In between the shopping district/minster and the river is a sprawling park with winding trails, rolling hills, and ruins of an early hospital and church. We only spent a night in the area, but I still had a few hours to roam the town and will hopefully get another chance to go back someday. The York Minster is the oldest and largest of it's type in the UK. After we walked around inside, we climbed the 270-ish steps to the top and were rewarded with a view of the entire city.

Creme Brulee: Always a good decision

Today (Sat, not monday) was a busy day. It included 3 hours of class, walking to lunch, walking to a 3 hr long show, walking to dinner, walking to the second show, and walking home. And while all of that included some fascinating stories and experiences...
Most notable was the creme brulee. After seeing a Festival theater performance with the entire group, we were told to go forage for food before our evening performance of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. Have you ever tried to decide on a place to eat with a group of more than 4-6 people? Yeah, it's an absolute mess. Our group of probably 10 or more wandered for awhile, and then 4 of us broke off. It was really a matter of survival. I mean, there's only so much time for food between the two performances, and that time was being wasted.
Oh and yeah, I'm still in Edinburgh at this point.
We found an adorable French cafe, with small, white wrought iron tables on the sidewalk, and red and yellow striped awnings and cushions. Our friendly waitor, being rather intuitive or perhaps psychic, only brought 3 regular menus to our table, handed them out, and then handed the 4th menu to me--that 4th menu being the dessert menu. My eyes immediately jumped to the one item that every eye should ever jump to at a French cafe, and I decided in that split second that dinner really wasn't all that important. And that is why I ordered creme brulee for dinner. (Those of you cringing at the thought that I missed out on all those lovely nutrients that typical dinner food entails, fear not. I shared a dish with Sarah along with my dessert) It was by far my favorite meal since arriving in Europe... I highly recommend that everyone try it--order dessert instead of dinner. Your taste buds will thank you for it.

"Funk it Up About Nothing"

Friday--Still in Edinburgh, Scotland

So, I woke up incredibly late on Friday. We had been given an entire free day with the idea that we would explore the Fringe Festival, catch up on journals, and get some homework done. Apparently my body thought the time would be better spent doing nothing. I woke up at 12:30, realized half the day was gone, yet still managed to get a full day's worth of events out of the remainder of my time. Ryan invited me to join him, Tara and Sarah to go see a performance Dr. Vandermey had suggested. An adaptation of Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing," the play was being advertised as a hip-hop masterpiece of sorts. Ryan and I walked down to what we hoped was the venue (another one of those 20-30 min walks..) and began searching for the correct show on the listings. (They had their tickets but I still needed to buy one) A few mins earlier, a young man had tried to hand us a flier... but as this had become a regular occurence, we kindly refused him as we had the hundreds of others of the last few days.

Well, Ryan and I were STILL standing in front of the sign board, lost in the large number of shows and venues, and the same guy came by again to offer us a flier, but stopped mid-sentence when he realized he had already asked us. Apologizing, he started to move away, and i interrupted him, offering to accept a flier because he had tried so hard. Of course, what a blessing, he (and the odds of this are slim, given the number of shows and people) handed us the flier for the exact show we were looking for and was able to tell us where to get the ticket, how to get to the show, and a little bit about the group.

The show was crazy amazing. A group of 6-8 young adults from Chicago, they rapped out the entire play, completely rewriting Shakespeare's lines but keeping the rhythm and story the same. Oh and the best part, aside from the play itself, was the surprise before the play began. We walked in the theater and saw, of all people, the ENTIRE Westmont England Semester group. We knew they were in town, but hadn't really been able to contact them. After the play a large group of us went to a local pub and caught up on life and just hung out for awhile. And that's how the trip has been going; at the outset of the day, I had no plans. By the end of the day, I had seen an amazing play and met up with 25 friends I wasn't expecting to see. Just think, if I hadn't slept in, it wouldn't have happened. Not bad. Not bad at all.

All in a Day's Walk: Part 3

Note to Readers: Please realize that this third post takes place the same day as the first 2.... and that's a condensed version. Every day is this busy. Also, because of limited internet, these are being posted sometimes more than a week after they happen.

Well, to quickly summarize, after the street performance we continued our walk to the castle, stopping in to see the inside of St. Giles Cathedral, covered with stained glass artwork spanning hundreds of years. By the time we made it to the base of the castle, 2 hours had passed, and Tara and Melissa didn't think they'd have enough time to tour the castle and meet up with another group. We split ways, and Kev and I bought tickets for the self-guided castle tour. My knee, which has started acting up with all the cold and hills, was absolutely killing me so I knew our tour might get cut short a little. Regardless, we saw most the exhibits, including this 4-ton cannon (large enough i could have climbed inside if there wasn't a sign telling me i couldn't).

At this point, we made a slightly stupid decision. Thinking it would work out, we decided to get dinner near the castle then hop on a bus back to our lodgings. Well, 45 mins later, we were all the way back and had not found a place to eat. (I'm really not sure how that happened--we may have just been too picky and cheap). And this leads me to the pub story. (Sorry, it won't be nearly as exciting or scandalous as you might think)

Three hours later. Seriously, it's getting late and i've walked miles and miles today with no food. MILES. Dead tired and not planning on going out, I get sucked into other people's plans regardless. (Yeah, I fold to peer pressure occasionally.) Our professor had recommended a play called "The Factory," which a group of students was going to see. So, assured by the group that we would have time to stop for dinner after buying the tickets at the venue but before seeing the show, I dragged my tired body back out into Edinburgh. We bought the tickets, found a pub where our group of 6 would all fit, and ordered food. Of course, we had failed to pay attention to the time. 10 minutes before the show and we didn't have our food. 5 minutes before and we still had no food. At this point, we were frantically calculating which was more important... the food or the show. (In Europe, once a show begins, it's very unlikely that you will be allowed in.) Well, 2 minutes before the show, they give us our food. And, wrapping it up in napkins (most European restaurants have no take out boxes), we sprinted one by one out of the pub--looking rather ridiculous I might add--and sprinted down the street, dodging people, phone booths, light poles, and the occasional car. Arriving at the theater, we had no time to eat, and I was forced to bury my food in my purse. All this to say, I ended up eating my dinner 6 hours after I first felt the pangs of hunger. Begrudgingly, I will say this however: the show experience was well worth the extra food trauma, miles of walking, and lack of sleep.

All in a day's walk: Part 2

Some background info: Every year at this time, Edinburgh's population of roughly half a million doubles. The cause? Something called the Festival, the Fringe Festival, and about 6-10 other smaller festivals who take advantage of the visitors who have traveled here for the first two festivals I mentioned. The first is an international theater festival with well-known actors and troupes, high priced tickets, and guarenteed first class shows. The second, the Fringe Festival, built up around the first. Consisting of over 100 venues, and literally hundreds of shows every day, the festival gives all sorts of actors, musicians, and street performers a chance to show off their talents (or lack thereof). The day before we had seen one of these less fortunate performers, who, having little actual talent, made a show out of the lead up to his trick... in the end wasting everyone's time who had stuck around hoping to see something entertaining and spectacular.

A shot of one of the multiple stages set up around the area for performances. Some of these stages are fewer than 60 feet away from another... sometimes the noise from one can overwhelm another performance.




Today however, (today being the actual day of this walk... not the day this is written--i'm horribly behind on journaling.) our little group of four got lucky. Drawn in by the small crowd on some church steps, we started watching a street musician who dressed and looked Irish, but turned out to be from Detroit. His specialty were sleight-of-hand tricks, and we had shown up in time to see his last few tricks. They all involved some variation of 3 copper cups on the table and miniature tennis balls appearing and disappearing from underneath the cups. Not only was he skilled at the trick, he drew the crowd in in a way that no one in the audience ever felt singled out in an awkward or embarassing way. My gorgeous friend Tara was standing in front taking photos, and he quickly singled her out, asked her name, and encouraged her to take photos, promising to pay her for any good ones she took and emailed him. A few minutes later, noticing our friend Kevin standing near her, he asked Kevin point blank if he was Tara's girlfriend. Kev quickly denied it, to which the performer quickly replied, "well he's either your boyfriend or a horny stranger with how close he's standing." More impressive than his quick wit was his ability to suavely ask for tips without making anyone feel they were being forced. Unlike some performers, he didn't specify how many pence or pounds he felt would be appropriate, but simply asked for whatever we felt he deserved, and asked that even if we had nothing, but felt he did a good job, that we shake his hand and thank him. (Some performers are rather demanding in asking for payment, usually asking more than anyone feels they deserve, and probably hurting their chances of actually making anything at all)
The four of us talked to him afterwards for a few mins. I was reminded how incredibly small this world is at times. He told us that in September he'll be traveling to Santa Barbara, CA, where we all go to school, for a wedding. Not only that, but he told us the dates he would be performing on State St, right in front of the business I worked at all summer.

All in a day's walk

Hello from Edinburgh, Scotland. This is my fourth full day here, but with the amount of things we've already done, it could easily have been a week.
To best share my trip with you, i'll post stories of things that happen along the way, instead of trying to tell everything that happens.
Like last Thursday, for example.
While here, we are staying at the University of E., located close enough to everything that one can walk everywhere, but far enough that the walk may take up to 40 minutes. Thursday, Kevin, Melissa, Tara and I decided to walk downtown for a tour of the castle perched high on the hill overlooking the city. Having walked quite a bit already in the few days we'd been here, we debated taking the bus instead. Being indecisive, (note: the bus stop was half a block in the opposite direction of the walk to the castle)... anyway.. being indecisive, we switched directions 2 or 3 times, never fully making up our minds. On our second to last direction switch, we needed to cross the 4 lane street to the bus stop.
It's worth remembering that in Scotland, cars drive on the opposite side of the road.
Yeah.
You see where this is going.
Being the educated and intelligent college students we are, we decided to jay walk in the midst of this new and unfamiliar country.
We all looked both ways, decided that we could indeed make it across, and went for it. We had forgotten to factor in the light turning green, and the horde of cars rushing toward us from the opposite side we expected them to. Well, Kevin and I sprinted, making it across with time to spare. Hitting the sidewalk, we turn around to check on Tara and Melissa and found them...
In the center divider.
Now, by center divider, I mean a dotted line. Nothing more. And as Kevin and I watched them, cars rushing by on either side, the girls joined hands and led each other down along the dotted middle line, slowly heading towards the nearest crosswalk.
I'm sure the Scottish drivers got a kick out of watching the scared American girls leading each other single file down the center of the road.

PS- Wondering what exactly Edinburgh looks like? Well, on a rare sunny day, from atop the castle overlooking the city (yes we did eventually make it to the castle. Ironically, after the drama of getting to the bus stop, we walked the whole way), this is one view of the city.