Florence - Gelato, Sculptures, & Leather Markets

We were welcomed to Florence by our Florentine grandmother at our hotel. She was an extremely nice elderly lady who rents out six rooms in her home. We weren't able to communicate very much with her, but we felt very welcomed by her!

We arrived a little later in the day so our first day in Florence we weren't able to do very much. We spent some time walking through the San Lorenzo Market. Street vendors lined blocks of streets and pretty much every stall sold some sort of Italian leather product. We had a great time walking through and seeing all of the purses, wallets, belts, jackets, and suitcases all made out of leather.

Next we went and walked around the Duomo Cathedral (pictured above). The Duomo was originally built with a big hole in the roof, awaiting the technology to build a dome because it wasn't around yet. A local architect came up with the solution and the dome was built in 14 years. In our opinion, the outside of the Duomo was much more impressive than the inside.

We started off the next day by walking all the way across the city (it's only about a 20 minute walk) to the Ponte Vecchio. This is Florence's most famous bridge. The bridge is lined with extremely fancy jewelry stores that we could never afford to shop in but it was fun to walk and look.

On our way to the bridge, we saw a Christian Evangelical group singing and then performing a mime/dance on a piazza (we think of Isaiah 53). Just as they got to the part where Jesus was going to be resurrected and clothe the people around Him in white, the police came and shut down the performance. The group seemed to have written permission to perform in the piazza, but the police didn't care. It was really interesting to watch, especially the timing of how it all went down.

Close to the Ponte Vecchio is the Uffizi Gallery. Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure that the Uffizi Gallery has been open as a museum since the late 1500's...that's crazy! The most famous work in the gallery is Botticelli's "Birth of Venus." We also saw works by Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo (all the ninja turtles).

That night we went for a walk and got gelato at one of the best Gelateria's in Italy. We had caffe and tiramisu flavor. It was delicious! It was also really fun seeing Florence light up at night.

Our last day in Florence, we began the day by going to the Centrale Market. Here they sell every part of the cow, make and sell fresh pasta, vegetables, and other groceries. Our senses were going crazy walking around the market. One minute we would be surrounded by whole raw chickens, the next we would be all around greens, and then we would be all around fish! It was fun but we were glad to get out of there.

Next we did what any person visiting Florence has to do and went to see Michelangelo's sculpture of "David." "David" stands 17-feet tall in the Accademia. He was meant to stand on the roof of the Duomo but was moved indoors for his protection. It was amazing how detailed every part of him was, from his fingernails to the veins in his hands and feet. But he definitely doesn't look like a 17 year old in the sculpture.

We ended our time in Firenze with a delicious dinner and one last walk around the city.


Now we are on our last train in Europe (and we are thoroughly enjoying the business class seats we didn't have to pay for)! Pretty crazy that we've been traveling for 8 weeks today. Roma here we come!

The Pellice Valley - Waldensian History & OM Italy

We arrived in Bobbio Pellice with very few expectations. We weren't sure what OM's ministry was in the area, what our housing situation would look like, or what exactly we would be doing. Taking each day in stride, we wound up with a rather packed schedule.

Monday, after unpacking a bit, we took a huge tour of Forterocca - the hotel/retreat center. Forterocca means "strong rock". It began as a vision with older OM missionaries and has developed into a very real ministry. The land they originally bought to make their vision come to life housed an old Fascist army barracks. They thought they could simply renovate the building, but due to construction codes, they had to tear down the army barracks and rebuild. Interesting Italian law - for anything built above ground, you have to build in the same footprint that existed before...meaning, their building had to be the exact same measurements and shape above ground.

The main building is now finished and fully functioning to host church groups, youth groups, arts conferences, sports camps, and more. A few smaller buildings used to exist on the property. They are hoping to turn these into a bigger dining area, fireplace/cozy area, and a cafe where parents can come while their kids are involved in camps or other things. The underground (where they are free to expand) is going to be built into an indoor soccer court, since there are no indoor recreational facilities in the area. It was fun to hear all of their dreams and what they are working towards!

We also learned some facts about Italy:
-Italy has more Muslims than Afghanistan.
-Italy is 0.6% Christian.
-Torino (40 min. from the valley) has the largest Satanic church in the world...they are free to practice as long as they are underground.

On Tuesday, we joined in on their morning team meeting. We heard more about their ministries and other ones going on across the world. We took a walking tour of Bobbio, they town where we were staying, guided by a sweet Canadian lady who has lived there with her husband almost 9 months now. It was fun to hear her enthusiasm for the people, the beautiful area, and the culture! The rest of the day we were hosted for lunch, snacks, dessert, coffee, and dinner with different people. It was a lot to take in - but so great to hear different experiences, histories, and stories from the missionaries there. We also loved the international community being so prevalent in the area. On the OM team alone, they had Holland, South Africa, Scotland, USA, Italy, Canada, Colombia, Germany, and other nationalities represented!



Wednesday we started our day with a Waldensian tour. Four hundred years before the Reformation, Peter Waldo, a rich French-man, purchases a Bible and had it translated. When he read it, he realized the Catholic church was misleading their followers and felt strongly that anyone should be able to read the Bible. Persecuted in France, he walked over the Alps into the Pellice Valley and started telling people about Jesus. He gained followers, but the Pope didn't like this. He didn't like people reading the Bible on their own. So he sent his army to the valley to make Waldo and his people renounce their faith. They refused so many children and families were killed. Eventually the Pope made a decree that they were allowed to live - but only above a certain altitude. This altitude in the Alps was dangerous and fairly unlivable, but if they came below that altitude, they would be killed.

On our Waldensian tour, we saw a cave church where the Waldensians met once a week to worship together. They would come from miles around and about 100-125 people could fit in the cave. There was only one way in and out of the cave, so the people had to have a lot of trust in one another and in God to protect them and keep them safe. At one worship service, someone had tipped off the Pope's army about the location of the cave church. The army snuck up, poured hot oil and fire into the cave, killing everyone present at the service. These were the risks that the Waldensians took daily to worship God.

Next we went to a Waldensian Bible school - what maybe the oldest reformed Bible school. For four months out of the year, the brightest young men of the community would go to Bible school. There were only two or three teachers at these schools and the only book used was the Bible. The young men would memorize entire books of the Bible. While we were walking around the school, Hannah went to stand in the sun because she was cold. All of a sudden, we heard a shriek and up the hill ran Hannah! She had been run at by a HUGE WILD BOAR! Thankfully, Hannah intimidated the boar and the boar took off running into the woods, never to be seen again. We then left the school in a hurry.

We spent lunch with Eliseo and Paula's family. Eliseo is the field leader of OM Italy. It was great to get to know him, his family, spend time in a home, learn more about OM Italy's vision, and learn more about the different ministries.

After lunch we went to an Italian language lesson. The OM team puts a big emphasis on learning Italian. It was a very overwhelming and fun class. We learned vocabulary words starting with A-F. One girl in the class couldn't understand English or Italian, so I could only imagine how difficult the class must have been for her!

We spent the rest of the day with Robert and Lara's family. They are American and have been in Italy for two months. We had such a fun time with them, playing with their girls, and hearing about how they ended up in Italy. They both have a huge heart for the Italian people and it was amazing to hear about.

Now we are in Florence and having a great time! Less than a week until Cairo!

Cinque Terre - A Vacation from Our Vacation

We arrived in Riomaggiore on Saturday to stay for the weekend. Riomaggiore is one of the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre and are part of a national park. All five towns are situated on or between cliffs, overlooking the west coast of Italy. The buildings are all brightly colored, creating an awesome contrast with the dark cliffs that surround them. Focaccia bread also comes from this region, along with tons of basil and pesto. So the food was amazing!

After one of our longest and most stressful travel days, it was perfect to get off the train to the view pictured above. The seagulls were squawking, the water was crashing against the cliffs, and the weather was beautiful (probably around 68-70 degrees all weekend). Needless to say, we were able to put the stress behind us and enjoy our vacation from our vacation.

Saturday we walked all around the town we were staying in. We took a steep walk up to the highest point for a beautiful view. Then we walked down to the harbor to watch the sunset. The beach in our town consisted of huge rocks and boulders in the water, so we picked one out and sat for awhile, enjoying the beauty.

On Sunday, we woke up with the intention of hiking between all five towns, a 7-mile hike. We walked down to the harbor and caught a boat to the furthest town from us - Monterosso. From there, we were going to hike back to our town on the other end. The boat ride was so fun! We saw every town from the water, the water was so blue, and we were able to just enjoy our morning. I will say that while we were on the boat, we were thinking about whether or not we were going to be hiking in the mountains that we were seeing...and we thought definitely not.

When we arrived in Monterosso, we found out that the trail connecting all five towns was closed due to a rockslide. So we improvised and decided to take a 5k hike to the next town - Vernazza - so that we could at least do some hiking and see another town.

Well, what was supposed to be a 3-hour, 3.2 mile hike quickly became a 5-hour, over 5 mile hike. The trail started on a rock path, going straight up! No wonder they estimated a 1.5 mile hike to take 1.5 hours. We had thought that was a little crazy, but it was starting to make more sense. The trail markers were not very obvious, to say the least. So early on in our hike, we took a major detour...and we mean major. We ended up so far out of our way and we even had people following us because they thought we knew where we were going. So after realizing we had obviously made a wrong turn, we backtracked about a mile and realized that about when the trail had started getting easier, we had missed a turn. So back onto the impossibly difficult, rocky, straight uphill trail. Through the woods, up the mountain that we had thought we definitely wouldn't be hiking, we finally arrived at the top.

From the top of this first hike, we then had another hike down to the town where we were ending. Thankfully, this one was mostly downhill. However, it was basically very opposite terrain. We were more or less climbing down rocks and sand, surrounded by cacti, salamanders, and huge bees! I was fine with the salamanders (they were pretty cute), but one time I glanced immediately to my left and the noise I had heard was not a cute salamander but a huge, grayish black snake. That about did it for me. Nick told me later that night that it had actually crossed the path right in front of me...so whoever says wildlife is more afraid of you than you are of them is lying. It was then I realized snakes in the wild were not my thing. I took off, basically at a light jog, trying to get down this trail. We were so ready to not be hiking...we were hungry, dirty, itchy, and legs all cut up from the thorns and cacti our trail was taking us through.

Eventually we did make it up one mountain, across two, and down the last one into the town Vernazza. We went straight to the beach to rinse off, bought our magnet souvenir, local focaccia for a snack (at this point we hadn't eaten real food in 6 hours), and hopped the train back to our town. It just felt so good to be back in civilization. We showered and then headed back to the rocks to watch the sunset (the view from our rock is pictured below). We hung out by the water awhile, resting and reading. After such a long day, we decided to order carry out pizza and eat in our apartment. Yes, we had an apartment for the weekend in the middle of town. It was the perfect end to an exhausting day!


Now we are back on the road to the Pellice Valley to visit OM Italy...four trains and a bus later, here's to hoping for a more relaxing travel day.

Venice - Canals, Gondolas, & Gelato

After a long and not very restful night train, we arrived to a sunny and warm Venice. We walked out of the train station to the Grand Canal and in front of us was a boating dock for Venice's metro system. Hannah instantly fell in love. Perfect weather, city on the water, and no traffic! Since no cars are allowed in Venice and Venice is an island, all means of transportation are either on foot or by boat. That means the metro, police, fire department, etc. are all boats.

We took a slow boat "cruise" down the canal. It was amazing how many boats and gondolas were on the water and not bumping into one another. We were in awe of how similar Venice looked in person as it does in the movies. The highlight of the ride was going under the Rialto Bridge. After checking in and resting for a little while, we went out for lunch. One quick thing about our hotel room...our window was on a canal so we could watch gondolas go by and hear the singers/musicians on them! It was really cool. Anyway, for lunch we stopped at this little snack bar type place. We didn't have very high expectations but it was quick and easy. We both got pizza and it was amazing!! Wow!

For the rest of the day, we did some sightseeing. We walked over the Rialto Bridge, went to San Zaccaria Church (where the corpse of Zachariah lays, the father of John the Baptist), walked around San Marco square and saw the clock tower that has been ringing since 1499. We also had a delicious glass of Italian wine and beer, as well as a fabulous first dinner in Italy! We had tortellini with cream and ham and gnocchi and it was amazing!


Our second day in Venice we only had a few things we really wanted to do. So we took the day slow and relaxed a bit. We toured St. Mark's Basilica, which was built in the 11th century. It has 4,750 square yards of Byzantine mosaics which are all put together to make a masterpiece of a ceiling. I (Nick) was also lucky enough to get an appointment with Benito at Coiffeur Benito, one of the best barbers in Venice. He went to town on my hair and at the end, I was very happy with the haircut. The only direction that I was able to communicate to him was "short, but not too short." It worked out great and was a lot of fun!

That afternoon we sat on a pier by a canal and played cards for a while. It was so cool being that close to a canal and just hanging out. To make the time even better, I actually beat Hannah! I thought everyone would be proud of me for that :) Since I beat Hannah, I had to buy us gelato...actually alato gelato (Hannah doesn't think it's a very funny joke, but I do!) It was very tasty!

That night for dinner we went to a more "touristy" restaurant. They thought it was acceptable to charge us to pay them to eat. They called it a cover charge or table tax, but we called it bologna! The food wasn't as good as the first night, but it was still pretty good...because it is Italy!

We read about this thing called dueling orchestras in St. Mark's square so after dinner we went to see what they were all about. What happens is three restaurants serve customers on the square and they each hire an orchestra. The restaurants then charge a crazy amount of money (like $20 for a cup of coffee!) for drinks. The orchestras play for hours and don't pay much attention to one another. Instead of sitting down, we just wandered between the three restaurants, watching the orchestras from the back behind the customers sitting down at the restaurants. We thought we had the better deal because not only could we wander, but we could dance also with other people on the square! We had a really fun time!

After a long and stressful travel day, and having to improvise because we missed a very important train, we made it to Riomaggiore! Below is a picture of our view when we got off the train. We are having a great time and taking lots of pictures! We love you and miss you all! Less than a month until we are back in the states!

Budapest - Many Stories to Tell!

Well, if we needed any good stories from our trip, we now have more than enough from Hungary alone. While nothing in itself was a disaster, we had plenty of moments where we just looked at each other, dumbfounded that something else was going wrong/not as planned.

Saturday we were picked up by an OM-er at the train station and taken to the office, where we would be staying in their guest room. After we dropped our stuff, we went to an end-of-season baseball party. Baseball is a significant part of OM Hungary's ministry. The baseball league here in Hungary is really growing and OM has been able to use it as an avenue in ministry for both youth and adults. We heard that most Hungarian coaching is shame-based...with the coaches essentially yelling and embarrassing kids when they made a mistake. The OM coaches at first received some grief for focusing their coaching on love and encouragement, but now the league is recognizing the strengths of that style and have asked for more Christian coaches. It was really amazing to hear about how it started and how much it has grown!

Back to the party - a traditional Hungarian bacon fat roast. Yes, we roasted bacon fat, just the fat, no real meat involved. What happens is you get your slab of fat on a stick and roast it like a marshmallow. As it is cooking, you are spreading the fat drippings onto your bread (wouldn't want any of the fat to go to waste). Then when it is fully roasted, you take a small bite of fat...followed by a big bite of bread with the melted bacon fat, and then finished with a bite of onion. The couple who showed us the ropes said that the bread was to help with digestion, but they didn't know why the onion finished the combination. I was proud of us for handling it so well in the moment, as it led to great conversations with the Hungarians around us. But later that night, maybe not so proud of how gross we felt.

Sunday was a bit of a slow day. We went to a Hungarian church, but they had a guest preacher who spoke in English. We were hosted for a delicious lunch by an American family who has been in Hungary for over 20 years. It was great to pick their brains on the ups and downs, but then just enjoy the company and being in someone's home. They invited us back for games later that night, but never mentioned any time or details. So around 7ish, we decided it was "later that night" and ventured over there...the whole walk contemplating all the awkward situations we could enter into when we arrived. Thankfully, it all worked out and it was a good decision to put ourselves out there a bit!

Monday we woke up at the crack of dawn for English lessons. While it was hard pulling ourselves out of bed, it was definitely worth it! We were able to talk with Hungarians as they were learning to speak English. We felt so welcomed into their culture and their country. After the English lessons, we had a meeting with the director of OM Hungary so we were able to hear about all their different ministries, needs they had, and visions for both the present and the future.

Monday afternoon we decided to make our trek into the third district of Budapest, in search of Nick's great-grandparents old home. Just a little background, they immigrated to the USA in the 1920s and the scan with their personal information is very faint and hard to read. That said, we learned that the real address (or what we can barely read) does not actually exist anymore. Either the apartment building was torn down, the district lines were redrawn, or the road name had simply changed. In any case, we found the only road name that was remotely similar in District III and headed that way. After a 45 minute train ride, a metro ride, tram ride, and maybe 2.5 mile walk, here is where we were...


Yeah, didn't look like there are any apartment buildings in a mile radius of where we were. But maybe it was a house broken into apartments, so we kept walking, determined to find this address. Well, we found the street after lots of gravel road in the middle of fields and nowhere. We took pictures of the street sign (pictured below) and then headed up the road to see if we could find a house number (we were looking for #23). Please realize that we are in a very desolate, isolated area, where no tourist ever sets foot. Everyone knows everyone, so we are sticking out like a sore thumb and pretty uncomfortable. On top of all this, as we walked, we set off every dog in the neighborhood. We had maybe 6 dogs howling at us and their owners coming out to see what was happening. About three houses up, we realized there were no house numbers posted, so we decided we did our best and that we needed to leave. So we didn't find the house, not sure if we even found the street (probably not), but we had a lovely walk through their area of town at least!



As we walked miles to catch the tram, rode the tram, the metro, and finally the train, we both felt tired and as if we couldn't handle much more in the day. But then we managed to miss our train stop on the way home. We then proceeded to go fifteen minutes past where we needed to be, only to have to wait another hour for a train to come to the stop where we were stranded and take us back the other way. All of this wouldn't have been so bad, but we needed to be somewhere at six for dinner. So as we stepped off the train at the right stop, our watch beeped that it was 6 o'clock. We then walked as fast as we have ever walked for about 1.5 more miles so that we were only 20 minutes late for dinner - which is acceptable in Hungarian culture. Needless to say, our feet were dying by the end of the day.

Tuesday...oh Tuesday. We left the office for the train station the first time around 10 AM. We heard the rain, but didn't realize how bad it was. We barely got to the outside gate before we decided that this 2 mile walk to the train station wasn't going to happen then. Really bummed, we decided to wait and see if it would stop or slow down. While we waited, Nick emailed our hotel in Venice to see if we could drop off our bags before check-in since we were arriving at 8:30 AM. Harmless question, one we didn't need to ask, but so glad he did! We got an extremely rude reply, accusing us of lying to him about having a reservation. We forwarded the reservation emails we had, with our payment information, and confirmation of the dates, and the hotel management replied that we DID NOT have a reservation and that we falsified the email to make it look like we did. He was actually yelling at us over email...

So we spent the morning looking for more hotels, but everything we found was unavailable or really expensive. We took a break and decided to try walking to the train station again. We got down the road and around the corner (much further than the first time, but still not even an eighth of the walk) before we ducked into a bakery, soaked and freezing. Exhausted from one bad thing leading to another, we ate pastries and drank cherry coke and a cappuccino for a little break. We decided we would go back to the office and try to make the best of a rainy day, but when we left the rain was really soft and slow so we made a dash for the station.

We were thankful for the break, it lasted just long enough to put some smiles back on our faces and talk through some things so we were on the same page. But it didn't last much longer than that. When we arrived at the train station, the ticket lady would not give us tickets to go into Budapest. I think she was just talking, but when someone is raising their voice at you in another language, it is hard not to think you are being yelled at for something you don't know. Another lady walked up and I asked if she spoke English and could translate for us. She was sweet and very helpful in terms of tickets, but as far as why we couldn't get train tickets, all we know is that she kept saying "bomba" and making the motion for a phone call. We are thinking maybe a bomb threat? So in any case, the station wasn't running to Budapest. But this sweet lady told us she would drive us to the bus station. Our first car ride with a stranger...and it went very well. We weren't about to decline help at this point. She even parked and went into the bus station with us, bought us tickets, and put us on the right bus before she left. Hungarian hospitality at its best!

Still wet and cold, we got on the bus to finally head downtown. I will spare you the long details of the next probably 2-3 hours of our life. Basically, every bus we needed drove away right as we would arrive so we missed every bus we needed by a hair. Every time we were under cover it would not be raining so we would get hopeful and go outside to continue touring and the rain would start falling all over again. Our map was soaked, we were miserably lost in the rain, and no one had heard of the place we were trying to find.

Eventually, we did arrive at New York Cafe...one of the fanciest coffee shops in the world! It was absolutely gorgeous inside, extremely flashy, with Romanesque pillars, gold and crystal chandeliers etc. We splurged on some amazing coffee with ice cream - Nick's newest discovery and why he now encourages us to stop for coffee breaks once or twice a day. With the little pick-me-up, we finally got on the right bus, found the covered market, and did a little shopping.

That night we were on an open-top bus and drove from Pest to Buda and saw the whole city lit up in all its wonder...definitely one of the most beautiful cities at night. I think it was that moment, still freezing because the wind was whipping us and we were still damp, that we saw the treasure of Budapest. While it seems unimportant and out of the way, it is definitely worth the trip!

Wednesday (or today) we woke up, packed, and headed back into the city to do some sightseeing in good weather! We walked around the castle district with the most beautiful castle we have seen in Europe so far! We saw some amazing views of the city too...all for free. Funny how Budapest has several free sites, but then you have to pay $1.50 to use the bathroom.

We did a hop on, hop off bus tour so that we could see as much as possible in the 8 hours we had. Parliament was beautiful and made London's parliament building look almost plain...didn't expect that one. St. Stephen's Basilica was also gorgeous, with a dome that stood 96 meters high! We ended in Heroes Square and the City Park. Heroes Square was built for Hungary's 1,000th anniversary and is full of statues of their kings and other heroes. Then we ventured into the park and the Szchenyi Baths. These are old Roman baths, built on thermal springs. The water was 38 degrees Celsius, so I think about 108 degrees Fahrenheit. It felt wonderful after the long days we had been having. We spent about an hour enjoying the naturally hot water.

From there, we booked it to the train station, ate a delicious Hungarian dinner, and jumped on our night train to Venice (where we now have a different hotel reservation, phew). This night train connects at 1:30 AM, so it will not be quite as restful...but at least we have Italy to look forward to and enjoy!

Vienna - City of the Arts

After a wonderful time in Prague, we arrived in Vienna not really knowing what to expect. People have spoke very highly of the city so we stopped here for a few days. And we are so glad that we did!

We arrived on Wednesday and got to our small, family-run hotel, but big rooms (pictured below). The hotel was about a 10-minute walk from downtown Vienna. Our first day there, we did a self-guided walking tour of the city. We saw the State Opera House (one of the premier houses of music), St. Stephan's Cathedral (with 450-foot towers, it is considered to be the needle around which Vienna spins), and Loos' Loos (restrooms that were fancy enough to host poetry readings while you do your business).

We also got to Skype with my brother, Jake. Shout out to Jake! Congrats on picking a major!

On Thursday we woke up early because we had a goal in mind...get tickets to see the opera. We got breakfast and headed back down to the State Opera House, only to be told that the opera for that night was sold out. However, there were still standing room tickets available that went on sale 80 minutes before the show started. So we decided to return for that! We are used to standing for absurdly long periods of time!

After leaving ticketless, we went to the Dorotheum, a gigantic, four floor auction house. They were auctioning/selling everything from furniture to paintings to jewelry. It was all very expensive and very nice! All things we could only dream of having. Next we went to the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg Palace in downtown Vienna. This is a 21 room collection of crowns, jewels, royal robes, and more. Some of the highlights were the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne's saber, an eight-foot tall 500-year old unicorn horn, and a 23-pound gold basin and pitcher used to baptize noble children.

Also, we saw what some people believe to be the cross on which Jesus was crucified and the Holy Lance used to pierce his side. We also saw fragments of Jesus' manger, a piece of Christ's loincloth, and a shred of the Last Supper tablecloth. Finally, we saw John the Baptist's tooth...that was kind of gross. (All of these claims aren't fully accepted as true.)

Next, we went to the Haus der Musik, a three floor interactive museum. It was a really cool experience. The first floor was all about the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. On the second floor, we learned all about the nature of sound and music by doing different experiments. The third floor went through the history of famous Viennese conductors such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Strauss. Finally, and definitely the highlight, was the chance to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic virtually. I had no idea that Hannah was a natural conductor! The crowd was cheering for an encore after her performance. It was a great preview of the night to come.

After a delicious Viennese dinner, we headed over to the Opera House to get in line for standing room tickets! We were so early that not only did we get tickets for a sold-out show, we were front and center of the standing room area. Yes, we stood for the entire 3.5 hours (after walking probably 5 miles already that day). But it was definitely worth it! The Opera House was gorgeous and the performance "Don Giovanni" was wonderful!

The other people in the standing room, though, were maybe not so wonderful. I have never been so closely surrounded by so many internationals using what broken English they had to yell and fight with each other. Asian ladies were ramming me (Hannah), trying to get into spots I was holding for us while Nick was checking our bag. One lady behind us kept chewing out the man for moving her scarf (tied to the railing to mark her spot). She was convinced he was trying to get rid of her so he could have more room. In reality, the people who were sliding behind us managed to catch her scarf every time and move it down the railing with them. Haha, it was entertaining to say the least. We used all of our skills - from Cairo and USC football games - for navigating the crowds and boxing out to hold our spots. So all in all, it was a wonderful time!

Friday we had a slow morning and then made our way to Schonbrunn Palace, the Habsburg's summer home. This is the only palace in Europe to rival Versailles. It has 1,441 rooms! But we only got to see 40 of them. The palace is not as gaudy as Versailles, so it feels more like a home. Some of the rooms that we saw were definitely built up and extremely fancy (such as the Great Gallery, which was the site of a famous summit between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev). Another highlight was the mirrored room, where six-year-old Mozart performed his first concert. We also spent time walking around the palace gardens. They seemed to go on forever! It was amazing imagining what it would have been like to attend an event in the palace gardens.

Friday night we got to Skype with the Giles family. It was great to catch up with Jake and Bethany, see Cason running around, with Judah and Jonas walking close behind. And then we got to talk to Mike and Steph for a little while before the connection was lost. We loved hearing about how they are settling in and enjoying Lebanon.

Now we are off to Budapest and on a journey to find my great grandparents house!

Prague - Cafes, Clocks, & Crystal

Prague...where to even begin. This city contained many unexpected charms. It is considered to be the "Gateway to Eastern Europe" - this means it was cheaper and a bit more dirty, but full of unique architecture, old buildings, cafes, and live music! Prague also seems to be a center for selling crystal. Not sure why exactly, but walking through their stores of crystal chandeliers and glass art left us in awe (and made me want to buy it and ship it all home :)).

We didn't have much of a plan for Prague, which turned out to be a nice change. We knew where we were staying - on the gorgeous boat MS Florentina. It was a great location, close to lots of the sites and liveliness of the city, and came with a delicious buffet breakfast. Nick planned all of our housing situations and they have all been extremely successful! We have stayed in a hostel, a hotel, a castle, on a train, houses, apartments, and now a boat.

But beyond housing, we only had a general idea of what the city was like. Prague was situated on both sides of the river, with the castle and Little Quarter on one side and the Old and New Town Squares on the other side. The first day we crossed the Charles Bridge, a pedestrian bridge full of statues, vendors, and musicians. We walked through the Little Quarter to do some shopping and eat lunch and then stopped on Kampa Island to walk through the park and enjoy some local Czech snacks, similar to doughnuts and fries/chips. We chose not to tour the castle even though it is possibly the largest in the world...or maybe because it could be the largest in the world. It seemed huge and was a combination of 5 or so individual castles, just a little overwhelming and not what we wanted to spend 10 hours doing.

That night we grabbed dinner in the Old Town Square and listened to these amazing drummers entertaining quite a crowd. We headed "home" for an early night and were able to Skype with Nick's parents...so nice to see some familiar faces!

Tuesday we started off in the Jewish Quarter. Little did we know that it was a Jewish holiday so all the sites were closed. We were still able to walk around and read about the synagogues, though, so that was nice. One of the synagogues is the most historic in the country and only exists today because Hitler planned to make it a "Museum of the Extinct Jewish Race"...along with lots of Jewish treasures that are now on display in the museums.

The rest of the day we just walked around the city, saw the Astronomical Clock (pictured above) change at the hour, listened to some great musicians, sat in cafes and played cards. All in all, a very great day!

At night, we went to a black light theater show - very unique to Prague. The show was a combination of pantomime and dance under black light. Basically, the actors had a series of pantomime acts. In between these acts, dancers performed modern dance in costumes that lit up under black light to create a sort of optical illusion. Hard to describe, but really cool to see and experience.

Now we are headed to Vienna, Austria. We are really excited about this stop because it has been so highly recommended from lots of people! We miss everyone and can't wait to be in better touch!

Below are some pictures from the window in our room on the water...in case you didn't get to see them in Facebook.

Switzerland - Fondue, Wine Tastings, & Wonderful Hosts

While we expected Switzerland to be our coldest stop, we arrived to beautiful, warm weather...who would've planned that! Well, our extraordinary host, Natalie, said that she ordered it just for us! Natalie is a good friend of Hannah's from Cairo. They knew each other in high school and haven't seen each other in six years.

Natalie was waiting at the train station when we arrived and whisked us back to her apartment (some of you might have seen the view, Hannah posted a picture on Facebook but here it is again). For the next four days, Natalie fed us "Egypt style." No, not Egyptian food (it was mostly Greek). But she fed us and fed us and fed us....and then fed us some more! It was nice for Nick to experience a little taste of Egypt. :) She also treated us to almost everything and made our stay extremely comfortable.

Our first day there, was the perfect day to relax. Natalie had to work so we slept in and took it easy for the first time in five weeks! It was amazing! We watched TV, walked by the lake, walked around town, and watched more TV. It was a great start to Switzerland. While we were relaxing, Natalie was getting promoted - congratulations, Natalie!

Friday night we met Natalie's fiancée, Vassilis. He is Greek but came from Zurich to spend the weekend with us (and Natalie of course). It was great to meet him, get to know him, hear about how they met, and their future plans. Friday night they took us to an amazing restaurant seated on a cliff overlooking the lake and the Alps for drinks - where they had their first date (no wonder Natalie stuck with him). The sun was setting over the crystal clear water...it was spectacular! After, we went to a delicious Italian restaurant in Vevey and ordered huge pizzas and calzones.

At dinner, we learned all sorts of things about Switzerland. We learned that anyone can create change...they just need a petition and a certain amount of signatures and then their petition will be voted on by the whole country. Recently, there was a national vote to increase the number of vacation days from four weeks to six weeks - the people voted no! They thought it would be bad for the economy. The people also voted no to lowering taxes and making it illegal to smoke indoors. The government in Switzerland really believes that the people will vote whatever way is best for the country, not just best for themselves.

On Saturday, we took a nice drive in the hills of Switzerland to a castle/vineyard. We toured the castle and were told that we could spend the night...for only 400-500 CFK (about the same in $) per night. Maybe next trip! Next we sampled wine made from the vineyard surrounding the castle. All of the wine samples also came with specific food samples. It was interesting how the food really did bring out the taste of the wine.

Next we drove to Geneva and walked through a water jet that shot water 100 meters up in the air, ate Movenpick ice cream (one of Hannah's childhood favorites), drank coffee in the old city, saw Christina's new house, and had Swiss cheese fondue! It was a very fun and full day.

On Sunday, we had a big brunch together and then toured Chateau de Chillon (Switzerland's 2nd most toured site, according to Natalie). Chateau de Chillon is a castle right on the lake and we were able to walk all around it. We saw prisons, tortures room, lookout rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms (and where all the waste fell).

By Sunday night, we were feeling sort of homesick. So we gave in and had Burger King for dinner, since it was a travel day/night and we were wanting a taste of home. The prices are far from the ones at home though...$14 for a chicken sandwich meal! Absolutely crazy...And we had to wait quite awhile for our food, so not considered fast food in our minds.


Now we are taking a night-train from Switzerland to Prague, Czech Republic. It is the longest train ride of our trip - 13 hours. Hopefully we get some sleep tonight in these rock solid beds!

Germany - The Land of Castles, Vineyards, & Oktoberfest

We arrived in Bonn, Germany last Thursday (sorry it has been so long since an update, we were without Internet the last few days). We stayed with the Capps family for the weekend and also were able to spend lots of time with John. Kelly and Erin are close family friends and also youth leaders from Egypt. Since seeing them last, they have had two wonderful kids - Maren and Elias (4 & almost 2). It was so great to catch up with them, hear about life in the German culture, their work in the international church, and as parents of two energetic kids! It was so fun to play with the kids...Maren dominates at Crazy Eights and Elias loves to line things up (reminding us of Cason always parking his cars). John was a good friend from high school in Egypt and I lived with his family for awhile, so it was good to catch up with him as well.

During our time there, we were able to meet a mix of their friends. It was interesting to be back in an international group of friends, where everyone relates a bit different because everyone is from a different culture. You don't always know if you are offending someone and you don't always understand the sense of humor - but it still manages to work well and can generate some very deep, lifelong friends.

We spent one afternoon biking on the Rhine and playing on the playground. Again, it felt great to just hang out and play! We saw hot air balloons fill up and lift off in the park, fed fish, and stuffed the kids pockets with all the chestnuts that were beginning to fall. One day we went for a walk through the vineyards and saw a different side of Germany, filled with little towns nestled in the valleys. It was remote, but very beautiful. The rest of our time was spent playing games, sipping coffee, and sharing about our life!


From Bonn, we took a train to Moselkern, Germany. We knew the train station was an unmanned station, but we didn't realize just how secluded we would feel! We hiked a beautiful trail from the town, along a stream and surrounded by trees with their leaves starting to turn colors. After about 5k, we arrived at Burg Eltz, the castle pictured above. It is one of the largest and best preserved castles, I think from the 1200s. We toured the castle, heard about the families who built it, saw tons of armor and weaponry, and learned that staircases were built to wind counter-clockwise so that knights protecting the castle would always have an advantage on those attacking the castle, as all knights at this time were right-handed.

We hiked another 5k down and caught a train to St. Goar - a small town on the Rhine. We stayed in a beautiful hotel, right on the river. To walk from one end of the town to the other, only took about ten minutes! We really enjoyed being in a tiny place, it was a nice break from the big, overwhelming cities we have been in the last few weeks. We saw the world's biggest beer stein, beer steins worth over $2,000, giant cuckoo clocks, and Rheinfels Castle.

Then we took an hour boat ride down the Rhine River to another town called Bacharach. On our boat ride, we saw tons of castles built up around the river, where rulers used to demand taxes from merchant ships before letting them pass. We arrived in Bacharach and I instantly loved the town! It is known for its wine, so all of the hillsides around it are covered in vineyards, and the town itself is full of wine gardens...basically gardens covered in vines, where you can sample the local wines.

We stayed in our first and last youth hostel in this town, but it wasn't just any hostel - because it was a hostel in the town's castle! It was so cool to get to walk around the castle, stay in it, appreciate the beautiful views from every angle! The only downside - we had to climb the mountain (over 350 steps and steep hills) with our backpacks. We pretty much spent the whole hike laughing at ourselves, trying to balance going up steep hills while our backpacks were pulling us backward. It was definitely worth the hike, but probably not something we will do again.

After a few relaxing days in the seclusion of wine country, we flipped the switch and went to Oktoberfest...quite the opposite experience in every imaginable way. Think about a state fair, the SC State Fair comes to my mind, and multiply it by 10 in terms of people, rides, vendors, and more people! Then, add in 14 massive (and I mean massive) tents, filled with thousands of people...and you will have a pretty good picture of what Oktoberfest is like. You sit at long tables, squished on either side and then sitting back-to-back with someone you don't know. Everyone wants to share food, talk, sing, dance, and then "prost" (or toast) each other. So needless to say, we met some interesting people...some wanting to talk US politics, which we strategically avoided, and others just wanting us to partake in all of their traditional fun!

Now we are on the train to Switzerland, going through the Alps...so we are going to get off here and enjoy the scenery! Love to everyone!