Salzburg

Monday, August 25, 2014
Day 13—Salzburg

We arrived into Salzburg in the morning at around 9:30, and we sat in a café (enduring secondhand smoke the whole time, I’m over cigarettes) to get some coffee and plan out our time in the home of Mozart and The Sound of Music! We went to the train office and found out that even with our eurail passes it would cost us about 40 euro to go to Florence, so we decided to skip Italy and stay an extra day in Salzburg. Our first order of business, once that decision was made, was to try and find out if we could stay at Morgan’s school. So we had to find it. We knew that it was on Moosestrasse (that’s the name of a road), so we took a bus (never have I ever been so confused by a busing system in my life). The bus dropped us off at the address of 2 Moosestrasse and we had to go all the way to 106 Moosestrasse, but our fear of the busses kept us from getting on another one of them, so we walked. And walked. And walked. And then all of a sudden, the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen, tall mountains, huge trees, and fields of wildflowers appeared, and oh my word Austria is actually heaven. Walking was infinitely better with that view.

 

Eventually, but not in a hurry (my walking slowed due to the fact that I couldn’t take my eyes off the mountains), we made it to the big yellow building that is The American International School of Salzburg a.k.a. Morgan’s new home! We walked in and couldn’t find anyone, so we kept walking around, feeling like trespassers, and tah dah, we found Louis (a UD grad and former resident of Bellbrook) the new boss of Morgan. He gave us a whole list of places to eat and things to do, as well as potential places to stay because Morgan’s room was not yet ready. So we left our bags with him, and walked across the street to one of the Bed and Breakfast’s that he had recommended. Again, no one was there, so we trespassed some more, and then found someone. She only had one room left, for 35 euro each, for one night. We decided that even though it was out of our price range, we deserved it (for all of our suffering). Then we went back to the school to pick up our bags, and Louis gave us the grand tour. It was so unbelievably cool to be able to see where Morgan is going to be spending the next year of her life. It made me so excited for her, because she is going to have a blast. Louis told us about some of the excursions that she is going to get to go on (the first of which is building houses in Romania), the sports teams and where they travel to, and a little about the teachers and the students as well.

After our tour, we were more than ready to go to our hotel room and change out of our train clothes. The room was seriously the cutest thing ever, it was completely ours, and it had a phenomenal view, what more could we ask for? And just so you know the pictures will NOT do it justice, so please trust me, it was amazing. We changed our clothes, and freshened up a bit, before deciding to attempt to navigate the buses.

We made it, somehow, into town where we walked all around, through markets and streets, and shops and restaurants. The whole place was so cute, and it felt like we were just tourists in another city on our vacation, until one of us would remember that Mo is going to be living here. The thought of her living in Salzburg always made me like the city even more. It was more fun to explore because the more of it I saw, the more I was able to see of her future life. Although, it was also kinda hard, because it was the last stop of our trip, and I was going to have to leave her here. 

We continued to walk all around (it’s a mystery to me that I haven’t lost 20 pounds) and finally made our way to the restaurant that was recommended by Louis. I got fish and chips (typical, but I’m sorry, I just like all of the same stuff), and Morgan got a spicy sausage. Don’t worry, I also tried the apple strudel in a warm vanilla cream sauce (mystery solved). If your mouth is watering, it should be.

After dinner, we shopped around some more, and after some struggle we found H&M (remember that Morgan needed new clothes, her belongings weren’t arriving for a few more days)! In order to get there we had to cross a love lock bridge, which was really pretty, but I feel like those are popping up all over Europe in all the main cities. There isn’t just one special love lock bridge. I guess everyone wants to lock their love on a bridge. The whole ordeal makes me want to go to all the cities that have one and put a lock on, just to feel like I’m getting away with something. Like, I’m actually not in love AND I already did this, five times, in five different cities. I’m the only person that would think that was fun… I digress. We found H&M. I helped Morgan pick out some pants, and we left. We then found a Starbucks, where I was able to get wifi (FINALLY) and tell my mama HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I’m a terrible daughter for missing Mother’s Day AND her birthday this year, but I’m gonna try to make it up to her (and now I’m thinking that I shouldn’t have put that in writing).

The view from our balcony! Told you
it wouldn't do it justice!!

After I talked to the birthday girl (that sounds weird), we took a bus to get home to our lovely room, nice and early. But nice and early turned into, WHAT THE HECK IS UP WITH THESE BUSES! Poor Morgan, she either has to figure this out or buy a bike. We got yelled at one, almost got hit another time, and we had to change buses like 8 times. On the last one, we passed the hotel (there is a stop right next to it that we didn’t stop at, WHAT?) and then just decided to walk because we were over it. Even still, nothing could bring us down because we were so excited for showers, clean towels, and more than one raggedy pillow. We both took long showers, and I was even able to listen to music (which I have been missing since I lost my phone) through Spotify on my computer because we had wifi. That is the cleanest either of us have been since we left America. No lie. It felt so unbelievably great. I then reorganized my bag (which also felt awesome), and fell asleep watching Easy A, one of my all-time favorites. It was the perfect ending to an awesome day.

Sachsenhausen

Sunday, August 24, 2014
Day 12—Sachsenhausen

This might be a shorter journal, because today we went to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. We woke up early and had to meet our tour group at 9am. We all traveled to the camp, by train, together. Our guide, a Manchester born Brit named Rob, gave us a very comprehensive background about concentration camps and how they began before we started the tour, and as a result, I learned so much that I hadn’t previously known.

This isn't a very fun blog post, so I thought
I'd spice it up a bit! Aren't we beautiful?

I knew about how Hitler tried to rise to power preying on the economic problems caused by the Treaty of Versailles. He had claimed that Germany had not lost the war and that the communists had signed a treaty that forced the people to suffer economic lows and unemployment. When the U.S. gave Germany a huge loan, people no longer needed Hitler’s crazy ideals, so he was imprisoned. It was in prison that he wrote, “My Struggle.” It was later, when the great depression hit, and everyone was starving again and in need of a leader, that Hitler rose in popularity. The current democracy in place had a choice, appoint Hitler as Chancellor or appoint one of the men from the communist party. They choice to appoint what they thought was the lesser of two evils, and suddenly Hitler was the Chancellor. As Chancellor, Hitler began imprisoning people from the communist party, because they were a threat to his power. Most of that, I already knew. What I didn’t know was that the camps began in response to the 1936 Olympic Games held that year in Berlin. Our guide told us that historically the host city cleans the streets up, imprisoning the “good for nothings.” This would have included, the Jews, the homosexuals, the gypsies, the homeless, all the people that the city would not have wanted visitors to see. It all progressed from there. I also didn’t know that starting in 1933, around the time of the book burning, all of Germany’s schools were required to immerse the children in propaganda. From a young age, the kids were taught that certain people were lesser, they were more equivalent to animals than they were to humans. Ten years later, in 1943 at the height of the Nazi Regime, many of the soldiers had lived through ten years of brainwashing and propaganda, trained to kill Jews.

We toured the whole camp, and our guide continued to provide us with in-depth history lessons that helped us to understand how this whole thing came to be. I’m not going to write much in this blog about the camp, because honestly, it was everything that you would expect it to be, somber, emotional, and sad. Everywhere I walked at that camp was hallowed ground. I learned so much, just by being there, but it doesn’t feel right to describe it in detail on my blog. If you ever want to know about it, I have lots of pictures and I can tell you all about it. But for right now, while it is still raw for me, let me leave you with the quote from our very own Martin Luther King Jr. that our guide used to end the tour, “It is often not the words spoken to us by our enemies that hurt the worst, but the silence of our friends.”

When we got back from the tour, we were starving, so we got another currywurst, once again, it was delicious (even though it sounds gross). We walked around the city looking for and H&M because Mo needed some new clothes. We couldn’t find one though, because it it’s Sunday, and everything was closed. So we went back to the flat, where our stuff was packed up and ready to go. On Our way to the flat we saw the most beautiful double rainbow, like literally, I have never seen a more vivid rainbow in my life, it was absolutely gorgeous! We did eventually make it back to the flat (after taking pictures and staring at the full double rainbow), where we changed into some comfy clothes in preparation for another long night of sleeping on the rails. We thanked Tarik for letting us stay with him, and then we all became friends on Facebook. So the stranger became our friend. But I mean really, all strangers are friends we haven’t met yet, aren’t they? We said goodbye and headed for the train station.

Riding with the bikes on the
floor of the train #lovingit

We were a bit early for our train so we bought some pretzels (before you get judgmental about how predictable we are, just a warning, there are a LOT more pretzels in the future of this blog). With snacks in hand, and by snacks I mean pretzels, and yes that’s plural, we both had more than one (they’re just SO good, and cheap, our two favorite things)…with snacks in hand we boarded the train. The first train was only a couple hours, and before we knew it we were on to the next one. And that’s when the train wreck happened. Okay wait, I guess you can’t use that figure of speech when referring to trains, this is where the hot mess began, better? Just so we’re clear, we did not get in a train accident. However, we did get on a train that had ZERO, and I mean ZERO, available seats left. And we were going to be on it for about 6 hours. Oh boy. We found a place in the bike room where we could lay down and sleep. So we did. I slept on the floor of a train surrounded by bikes, quite soundly I might add for about 2 hours. Then I woke up freezing, got some stuff out of my bag, and by the end of it I was wearing three pairs of pants, a shirt, a flannel, a sweatshirt, and a North Face rain jacket. I slept a little longer, and then a man came, tapped on my shoulder and informed me that he was moving us to a seat (a few seats had become available at the last stop) even though we didn’t have a reservation, because we were in the way. LOLZ. They didn’t care about us until people couldn’t get their bikes out. Anyways, they moved us to a seat, and to be honest, I slept better on the floor. Although I did still sleep. It was another wonderful adventure to say the least. At some point on that train ride, we rode out of Germany and into the beautiful Austria, and that is where this blog stops, because this was a Berlin day, and we are gone from Berlin. Told you it would be short. Auf Wiedersehen.



Historical Berlin

Saturday, August 23, 2014
Day 11—Historical Berlin

This is us playing in that thing that we didn't
know was a memorial. Oops.

So, picking up from my last blog, I was in a coma on a lofted bed in a strangers flat in Berlin, sleeping next to my friend Morgan who was also in a coma. Now skip 13 hours. Yes, 13 hours because that is how long we slept. Exhausted much? We woke up around noon… actually that’s not totally true. I also woke up once around nine, and so did Mo. You see, we had strict ground rules about our slumber party. Historically, I have a habit of waking up before her and then ACCIDENTALLY and by TOTAL COINCIDENCE (although no one believes me), I happen to be staring at her when she wakes up, which is apparently really creepy. So she told me that if I wanted to sleep in the bed and not on the couch, I had to promise that I wouldn’t stare at her if I woke up. So naturally, I agreed that I wouldn’t stare at her or even look at her while she was sleeping. However, at around nine I woke up facing her, I had literally opened my eyes for about .06 seconds when she opened hers… I was so afraid that she would push me off the loft, that I closed my eyes really quickly hoping she didn’t see me (SEE I told you, complete coincidence). Then I fell back asleep and so did she. She says she doesn’t remember it, so I guess I freaked out for nothing, and I am just now realizing that this is a super weird story. Sorry about that.

Anyways, we got up around noon, and got ready for our 2pm tour. The metro system here is probably slower than walking, but being lazy bums that sleep til noon, we opted for the sluggish metro. So, we missed the 2pm tour. No big deal, we just bought some more food, this time we had sandwiches (and Dunkin Donuts...tehe, don’t judge me) and sat at the same park, this time with a great view of a statue’s butt. We also has a good view of a little boy (picture Manny from Modern Family) playing the saxophone incredibly well! He was so cute and very, very talented! At about a quarter til 4, we walked over to go on our next free tour! This tour was actually one of my favorites because the city of Berlin is filled with SOO much history! Especially recent history from the last century. They were central aspects of both WWI, WWII, and the Cold War, and their involvement in each war was tied to the war before it.



We started the tour by walking to the Holocaust Memorial. During our little stalling time after we missed the 2 o’clock tour, we walked around in the memorial without a clue as to what it was. When you walk up to it, it looks like a ton of really huge grey blocks that form a sort of maze. The blocks start shorter on the outsides, and they get taller and taller in the middle. We wondered what it was, but we didn’t see a plaque or anything. We felt bad when we got to the memorial on the tour and found out what it was, because we had played in it earlier. It was designed by a Jewish American artist. The design is meant to make you question it, and as we talked about its potential meanings with the tour group, we were told that no interpretation could be wrong because the artist designed it with versatility of opinion in mind. Our guide (a girl this time) told us that many different people have seen it in very different ways, and even though she has done the tour loads of times, she hasn’t stopped hearing new interpretations. I really enjoyed that part of the tour, because it was interactive and I enjoyed hearing all of the different ideas that people in our group had about it.

Holocaust Memorial

Next, we went to a parking lot. The lot actually sits on top of the bunker where Hitler and his wife killed themselves. Hitler’s men, even after his suicide, followed his orders to burn his body. Hitler did not want to be a war prize so he asked his soldiers to burn him into ash before anyone could find his body. They poured gasoline all over him and tried to burn him, but they didn’t have enough time, because it would take days to burn a body this way and the allied forces were moving in. So, the dug a shallow grave and buried his charred, but still recognizable body in the grave. Later, the Soviet’s found his body, cremated it and then dumped the remains. They didn’t want him to have an actual grave, because they didn’t want any Neo-Nazi’s to have a place to celebrate him. Now, above his bunker is a parking lot, because the German’s don’t want Hitler to be important, they want to treat his place of death as if it is as important as a parking lot. Which I think, is awesome.

We also got to see the building that was used as the S.S. Air Force Headquarters. The architecture screams Nazi, and there is a mural on the wall of the building depicting a perfect or ideal society form the eyes of the people running the Third Reich. On the ground in front of the building is another mural depicting the truth, diversity, and disorderliness of a real society, and you get the idea that modern Germany wants to emphasize that the utopian society depicted above is unrealistic and flawed, and that they dislike Hitler and the misery he caused just as much as the rest of the world. We walked a little further and saw the front of the same building, which is one of the main buildings that they used to film Valkyrie. Our guide told us that when they filmed the movie, they didn’t tell anyone what they were doing, (because they didn’t want people showing up to the set) and they started putting up swastika’s and Nazi flags, and they had soldiers dressed up with arms bands on and guns in hand, and people started to freak out because they had no idea what was going on. Which is pretty funny. She also said that this building, still serves an evil purpose because it is now the headquarters for the German Tax Agency, which is also pretty funny.

As we walked toward the Berlin wall, she explained that all throughout Berlin there are bombs buried that are still there from WWII. She said that sometimes they go to renovate or build a new building and they find a bomb that has to be disarmed because it could technically still go off, and that is not so funny. She also explained as we walked the history behind the Berlin wall, which I had actually never heard before (or at least understood or remembered). Essentially what happened, for those of you that don’t know, after the war, the allied forces (UK, America, France, and the Soviet Union) divided Germany and each country got a fourth. Berlin, being the main center of the Nazi Regime, was also divided into four parts (even though the whole city was within the Soviet’s territory). The American’s, the British, and the French, wanted to rehabilitate and grow the economy of Germany and set it up as a democracy, while the Soviet’s wanted to control it and form a communist and socialist government. So Berlin, and Germany on a larger scale, became divided into East Germany and West Germany. With the east being controlled by the Soviet’s and the west being controlled by the US, France, and the UK. The U.S. put 17 million (today’s equivalent of 160 million) into the economy and people started to succeed. They became wealthier and wealthier, and they started owning refrigerator’s, TV’s and other new technologies that the East Berliner’s could not afford. People in the east started flocking to the west, and the Soviet’s got sick of that. So, in the middle of the night on August 13, 1961, with the help of 400,000 soldiers, police, and construction workers, the first form of the wall was built around West Berlin. People woke up the next morning unable to see their family members and friends, and they were completely separated for the next two years. And in all of this aftermath of WWII, you can see the beginning of the Cold War, and Berlin, was central to all of that history. We saw a small strip of the wall and a portion of the old “death strip.” It was incredible to stand there and see such an iconic piece of history, and be amazed that it isn’t nearly as large or daunting as you might have imagined, and yet it separated the city and the county, forming the Iron Curtain, and representing another sad part of the city’s incredible history. Leaving the strip of the wall, we walked a little farther to the place where Checkpoint Charlie used to stand (and where a fake checkpoint currently stands with fake guards ready to take your picture and stamp your passport with a fake stamp). This iconic place is where the Soviet and American tanks faced off in a standstill for 16 hours, where WWIII almost began. Our guide noted that if one of the men had accidentally pulled the trigger, the city of Berlin would not likely have survived a third world war and would as a result not exist today.



WHile shopping, I found two signs for my parents.
Dad's fix-it shop, specializing in hurt
feelings and mending with hugs. He doesn't
fix broken toys though, he gave our toys
to Goodwill.  And Mama's kitchen is closed
most days, but  on Sundays she makes the
BEST chili in the world.
 

We also walked past gorgeous historical churches and a theatre where there is a statue of the German version of Shakespeare. We walked to the site of the 1933 book burning, where thousands of books written by or about Jews and the Jewish people were turned to ash. This book burning took place right outside of the University library where Albert Einstein was a professor. Einstein, a Jewish man, immigrated to the US in 1934 and escaped the Nazi’s by a few short years. In the plaza, in front of the library, where the book burning took place, is a memorial to the horrible event. The memorial is a small piece of glass on the ground, where if you look closely you will see empty bookshelves, an empty library with just enough space to hold the number of books that were burned in 1933. Next to the piece of glass is a quote from the German Shakespeare that translated reads, “When you burn books, then you will burn people.” The quote was written sometime in the 1800’s long before the book burning took place and the Nazi’s were a political party, but it foreshadows the horrid event that we call the Holocaust. The quote also shows us that propaganda is a warning sign of things to come. 


I really loved the guide that we had for this tour. She was so passionate about the history around her, and was adamant about the importance of recognizing the history of her country and the mistakes and tragedies that it includes, as a way of learning from the past and aiming to not repeat it. She mentioned that one of the many things that she loves about Berlin (and Germany as a whole) is that while many countries recognize in their history books on the good things, Germany assumes responsibility for its past, admits its mistakes, and educates it’s young people about the bad things too. She, our guide, believes that is something for them to be proud of, and I agree with her.

TheAmplemann!!

Once the tour was over, Morgan and I walked around and went shopping a little. We found a store called Amplemann, which was basically a brand that carried all sorts of items with their country’s Amplemann on it. An Amplemann is the little guy that appears in the walk or don’t walk signal at a cross walk. Germany’s Amplemann happens to be particularly cute, cause he wears a little hat.

Eventually, we realized that we hadn’t eaten in a very long time, but that everything (or at least everything in our price range) was closed. We did, after some searching, find McDonalds, and we happily went in to get burgers and flurries. While we were there, two tipsy German guys, told me that they were, “falling in love this second with your eyes.” To which I said okay thank you. He asked if I was falling in love too, and I said no and then walked away. Morgan and I sat down and started eating, and suddenly, they reappeared, this time to ask if Morgan and I were lesbians, to which I also responded no. They he apologized for being drunk, and said that he hoped we enjoyed Germany. It was quite humorous. After McDonald’s we went back to the crib and went to sleep. All in all, it was another fantastic day.

 

Berlin

Friday, August 22, 2012
Day 10—Berlin

I have to admit, the very last thing that I want to be doing right now is writing. I mean when you’re living all the action, writing about it is slightly less amusing. But we had an interesting experience to start off day 10, one that I will never forget. Taking multiple night trains all over Europe was something that we knew wouldn’t be a swanky or deluxe affair. And honestly, our plans for this entire trip are quite opposite of that. It was never intended to be a five star vacation. We’re backpacking, you know, sleeping in hostels, using a towel sized for a toddler, not washing our clothes (or hair…ew), I mean that’s all part of the adventure, and I really love it. It’s challenging, and it stretches me, reminds me that I have more than I need, that simplifying my life is not only possible, but preferable. I can have plenty and live with SO much less than what I actually have, and that is a good reminder for any American. I mean even our homeless have what they need to survive, and far more than many have in other parts of the world. Our poorest are the richest in some countries. And it’s hard, because I have always had nice things, and enough money, and food on the table, and fun trips, and my own bed, and on and on, it’s hard to not want more of those nice things.

But being here, living simply, reminds me that I have more than I need, and I don’t NEED the newest iphone, a new duvet comforter, and to watch Bachelor in paradise. What I NEED is to spend more time in the Word and in prayer. What I NEED is to hug my mama. What I NEED is to make Cole laugh. What I NEED is to go see Mackenzie’s new apartment. What I NEED is to treat my daddy to a breakfast at blueberry. I NEED to watch Brydon cheer at Cedarville, go visit my grandma and let her make me grilled cheese, call my papaw to ask about his latest game of golf. What I NEED in this crazy life full of excess and things that unessesarily waste my time, is to invest more into the lives around me, and by doing so invest more into the Kingdom of God. Cause honestly, I bet if I didn’t have an iphone, I would check Facebook, email, and Instagram less. If I didn’t have a comfy duvet on my bed, I would wake up early on Saturday to volunteer my time to someone who needs it more than my pillow. If I wasn’t obsessed with Netflix and TV, I could have conversations that matter with people I love. The simple life. Now don’t get it into your head that I will EVER stop watching football and eating chili on Sundays in the fall because that WILL NOT happen. In some cases, especially when it concerns Sunday afternoons when the Bengals are not on a bye, I’m too far gone!!

And now, I’m sure that you would all love to hear about my interesting experience. The one that I will never forget, that started off the day in Berlin, you know the one that put me up on that soap box to begin with? Yeah well, it happened like this. We have 2^nd class eurail pass tickets, and in order to keep it cheap, we can’t take night trains with reservations and sleeper cars, so we get to ride four different trains throughout the night. We also get to have a four hour layover at an outdoor train station at two o’clock in the morning in northern Germany, where we are freezing during the day time, and fighting hypothermia at night. To some of you, this may sound miserable, until I add that we had bags full of clothes and we bundled up. Oh, and by the way, we had a pretty big fleece blanket. Also, we had a giant bag full of snacks. And wifi. And a Microsoft surface tablet, fully charged, accessorized with head phones to watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Yeah, we suffer in luxury. And that’s what I’m saying. A night of me “suffering” is like a day in the life for someone living in the slave trade, or in a place of violence (the Gaza strip perhaps). It’s unreal how much I don’t need. Okay seriously, I’m off the soap box now.

The traveling through the night thing was actually long, and very exhausting. We made it to Berlin around noon, and were waiting to hear back from the people we were staying with, who is a friend (Morgan), of a friend (her friend Quinn), of an acquaintance (a guy he met in Norway named Killian), of a friend (his flat mate named Tarik, who was very nice and an excellent host by the way). If this sounds confusing to you, that’s because it is… I mean basically we stayed with super nice strangers. And I was thrilled because we weren’t in a hostel, with people making noise, where you are constantly on your guard, it was a home, where we slept in a comfortable bed in our own room.

However, we didn’t know any of this until around 8pm. We had to wait all day before we could get into the flat. So we got off the train at the enormous Hauphbahnhof central station, found a travel center where they had plenty of brochures and things, and tried to make a plan for our time in Berlin. Once we figured out the metro system (the s and the u), we made our way to the center of town where we found Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and several other American things, but chose instead to buy a currywurst (I mean it’s Germany), which was actually very delicious! Then we bought Starbucks (give us a little credit for the currywurst, geez) and headed to sit on a park bench and people watch, because we didn’t have the energy to carry our bags around the city. We bought a pretzel, and just sat and talked and laughed, and enjoyed relaxing on a nice day. Until, we saw a guy in FULL African garb buying a pretzel from the man where we had just gotten ours. Morgan, said that she thought he was from Ghana because he had the Ghanaian flag and colors proudly displayed… well, everywhere! We were talking about how we wanted to be his friend (like I’m not kidding, we really were), when he waved at us, smiled, and then ended up coming over to say hello. The three of us sat there on the bench and talked to each other for about 3 entire hours (also not kidding). He is literally one of the greatest people I have ever met.

His name is John, but his friends all call him Cali or Calif. He is from Ghana as I said, and his story is unbelievable. He would summarize his story with the quote, “It’s nice to be nice!” But really what happened is that a Doctor and a Lawyer (married couple) both visited his village in Ghana, he did not know them, but when they asked for him to show them the bananas, He was quick to help, taking them to all the best fruit stands and talking to them the whole way. Just being nice, as he would say, “because being nice costs you nothing.” When they tried to give him money, even though he said he was starving, he refused. He didn’t want to help because he wanted something, he just wanted to help. Well the couple asked to see his house so he took them. He is from a very poor family and they saw that. They got his information, starting with the house number, and they began writing letters to him, with money included. As he continued to grow, they continued to support him, always keeping in close contact. One day, they asked him what he wanted to do, and he said that the big thing to make money where he is from is to drive a taxi. So they bought him a taxi and he got his certification and was able now to take care of his family. But then, he felt as though this had couple had changed his life by investing in him. They had made impossible things, possible, and he needed to give back some of his wealth to his village children, he started a foundation for them, as a way to make sure that some of the poorest of the poor have a fighting chance. The couple found out about his new foundation, and they were so proud of his use of money and his generous heart. So, they offered to help him grow the foundation by bringing him to Berlin to meet people and get help with his website.

He’s here on a mission, but while he sat with me and Morgan in the park, we could not stop laughing. For us, he described his first time on a plane and how big his eyes were the whole time. He talked about experiencing spinning doors, and escalators, and how everything was amazing to him. In fact, in the park where we were sitting, there were these people that would paint themselves gold and silver, and sit in the park in poses to get money, which Calif thought was awesome. We told him about the ones that float in London, and he said that he saw some like that too, and he said, “this is something spiritual,” and he didn’t like it. Until the host couple that was staying with him told him that it wasn’t spiritual, but that it was just a trick. They googled it to show him the wires and things, so that he knew how it all worked. He was also talking about the old couples and how they hold hands and laugh together. Their affection for one another was something he was not used to, but that he really liked and wanted to have back home in Africa. He also got a phone call from his pastor and his mother while he was sitting with us, the pastor prayed over him on the phone, and he cried through the whole conversation with his mother. It was very sweet to watch. When he was ready to go, he gave us both a hug and we asked to take a picture with him. At which point, I reached my arm forward, because we did not have anyone to take the photo, and I took a selfie of the three of us. He flipped. That was the coolest thing he had seen yet. So we taught him how to take one of himself, and told him to think of us whenever he took one. He practiced a couple of times, and that was hilarious, because each time he just got more excited! It was great. We really were in the right place at the right time, because he was such an enormous blessing to me!! God is good, and I am so thankful that I was able to meet him, and learn from his joy, contentment, thankfulness, and love for the Lord.

I want everyone to have his information, in case you ever find yourself needing an African charity to donate to, this is a great one, and the whole point of his trip to Europe was to spread the word, so that’s what I want to do! Please check out his Facebook page and his website. His name is John Kweku Eduafo and his foundation is called Okyena-Ntsi Children Foundation. The website is not quite finished yet, but you will be able to find it at www.okyena-ntsi-children-foundation.org! He’s only 24, but he has a big heart and even bigger dreams, and he needs the help of other believers and friends to grow his foundation and impact his village.

The Brandenburg Gate

After our long, but very fun, talk with John in the park, we made our way around town looking for somewhere to get wifi so that we could see if we had a place to stay or if we needed to find a hostel. We ended up back at Starbucks, and luckily, we had gotten instructions from Killian about staying at his flat. We couldn’t go until 8pm, so we had to stall for a while longer. We hung out at Starbucks and I got to talk to my sweet mama for a while, which was much needed for my slightly homesick heart. You know you have an amazing life, when you are traveling the world with one of your best friends and you still miss home. I am so blessed. As we sat there, I had a gorgeous view of the Brandenburg Gate, which got prettier as the sun went down behind it and the lights that shine on it in the night came on. Once we had stalled long enough, we left to go to the flat. We were late, but we still got in. We met Tarik, Killian’s flat mate, and he welcomed us (two strangers) in with such kindness. He offered us his last beer, and even though I have never drank beer, and I knew I wouldn’t like it, he poured me a glass and it was his last one, so I felt like I couldn’t deny his hospitality. But I hated it. I guess it was one of those things that you have to try while you’re in Germany, but I don’t know how I can hate beer and be German-Irish. They would be ashamed.

We were starving at this point, so we walked to a little Italian place that had personal pizzas (that were more like medium pizzas) for only four euro!! One of the things that I really like about Europe is the fact that you never have to tip. I always felt like I was getting away with something, but it was also really nice to not have to worry about it. After we had our pizza, we went back to the flat, with full bellies, ready to crash! Our bed was lofted so we climbed up, and had ourselves a little slumber party. We decided that because we got little to no sleep, and we were literally dying, we weren’t going to set an alarm. We wanted to go on a free tour of Berlin, but they had tours at 2pm and 4pm, and we figured we would certainly be up in time for one of those. Then, practically the moment we shut our eyes, we fell asleep. Like, dead asleep. We skipped all the light cycles of REM and went straight to the part of the cycle where you are in a coma. It was awesome.  

Haarlem

Thursday, August 21, 2014
Day 9—Haarlem

As I defrost from an experience that you will get to hear about tomorrow, I will write today’s blog. The day started around 8:15am. Can I tell you it is getting harder and harder to wake up every day, this backpacking stuff is not for the faint of heart. But as I always say, I truly am loving this wild and crazy adventure and all the ups and downs it has to offer. We had to check out this morning so we got up, showered and packed our things, and then headed into the café lounge area to eat breakfast.

The breakfast today was French toast and it was both filling and delicious! The lounge area at this hostel was very cool. There are tables, couches, and benches all over the room and an array of pillows are strewn about in all patterns, colors, and sizes. There is a guitar hanging on one of the far walls, and there is also a giant painting of the city of Amsterdam with the word Jesus painted in large letters above it. All of the workers here are volunteers from all over the world. They are all believers and receive free housing in exchange for the opportunity to work in a community of Christians, and together share God’s love with the people of Amsterdam. They were from a variety of dominations, and they came from Germany, Texas, New Zealand, El Salvador, Colorado, as well as many other places. Each evening they have a Bible study, and a little later each night they have prayer time. The whole ministry was awesome, and I really enjoyed our stay there.

Anyways, we stayed in the area for a while after we checked out to sit and use the wifi to post pictures and videos and blogs. I ended up talking to one of the workers in the café who was a recent college grad from Texas. He was telling me about working in the hostel and living in Amsterdam for the summer. I actually never learned his name, but I started talking to him because he was playing Ben Howard, which made me happy because I lost my phone and haven’t been able to listen to any of my music.

My new shoes!!

After that, we locked up our bags at the hostel (they have a free service and we could leave them until 6pm) and headed out to take a train to Haarlem, another city in the northern part of Holland. We really enjoyed Haarlem! It was very cute and was similar to Bruges, in that it was small and less crowded, but still full of beauty. It was very quaint, and right off the bat we got more frites and mayonnaise cause they’re just too good! 


My bike charm!

We walked down the main strip and found the Corrie Ten Boom house, which was our main reason for coming into Haarlem. What’s funny is that we asked some people in Amsterdam and a girl working at Starbucks in Haarlem to tell us where the Corrie Ten Boom house was, and literally no one knew who she was. But we found it anyways, and found out that we couldn’t tour the house until 3pm. So we walked around the main square, where there was a giant pair of Dutch shoes that we stood in, a gorgeous church, and a ton of amazing stores. We found another H&M, a toy shop where I tried to find a toy for Cole (but it’s honestly all the same junk he could get in the states), and a Pandora store (where I bought a cute little bike charm to remember this unbelievable journey)! 

The lovely Haarlem square!

We went back to the alley where the side door to the Ten Boom building is located. Now back story. When people talk about Europe they have all sorts of things to say, and they show you pretty pictures of historic buildings and things, and they leave out some of the weird stuff. Like the birds. They’re everywhere. They fly low, dive bomb, take off sporadically, and worst of all they aren’t scared of you so they don’t go away. Morgan and I hate them. That may sound harsh, but they’re psycho. Literally though, while we were sitting in the alley (it’s not a wide alley mind you, very narrow, and people are all around waiting for the tour), one of them was walking along before it suddenly took flight right towards us. I mean the alley is already narrow so opening his wings, even gently, was a bad idea. But no, it just shot up with no restraint (cause it’s a bird) and I screamed. Which is just embarrassing because people stared at me. But I couldn’t help it, it really freaked me out, I hated it and I can’t believe no one ever told me or warned me about the bird problem over here. So, if you are planning to go to Europe be ready for the birds, THIS IS YOUR WARNING. Another thing no one mentions is that there is WAY more graffiti than I ever would have thought. It's all really colorful and artistic graffiti and its all over, on trains, tons of buildings, bridges, and overpasses, and it’s oddly beautiful, except that it also sometimes ruins beautiful things. I just never expected that.

The place where they hid
the ration cards!

Now back to the subject at hand, the Ten Boom house. First of all, there is still a clock shop in the front of the building, and the woman who worked the museum said that it was all largely the exact same. In the watch shop you can buy watches that actually say “Ten Boom,” on the face, which I thought was awesome. The Ten Boom Museum is actually one of my very favorite things that we have done on this trip so far, and it was completely free! It was cool because we had studied the book and the story so extensively in Mrs. Crain’s seventh grade language arts class, and I remember it all very well. So when I saw the steps where they hid the radio, or the actual clock that was used as a signal, when I saw the space where they kept the ration cards, and when I saw the hiding place itself, it was all so incredible to me to actually be there and see it all in the flesh. To stand in the space, crawl through the secret passage, I loved every second of it. Even the fact that they ran drills for everyone to get into the hiding place in 70 seconds, flipping their mattresses, taking all their food with them, climbing the long spiral staircase that runs all the way through the house, and getting into the space in that amount of time is very impressive, especially when you see it in person.  


Morgan and I in the hiding place!

It was also amazing to see the living room where they sang worship songs and had Bible studies and prayed for God’s people, the nation of Israel, every single week without fail for 100 years (Corrie’s grandfather started the tradition when he bought the house in 1844, one hundred years later in 1944 the Ten Booms got arrested). The whole thing is especially touching to me with everything that is going on in the Middle East. Their prayers were necessary then and they are necessary now as well (times one thousand). God’s people are still under attack, and this family went out of their way, they went above and beyond, and they gave their lives for the people of God…happily. They saved so many lives, not only physically, but spiritually as well. Even in her later years, Corrie’s humility to ask God for the strength and power to forgive the man who beat her, led to his salvation. Countless others, before, during, and after the war, are better off as a result of the love and hospitality that the Ten Boom’s gave to anyone in need. I want to be like that. A refuge for those who need safety, a stream of water in the desert, the very picture of Isaiah 32:1-4. This story is one that has always inspired me to love God more and to love myself less, and to be there in person was an enormous blessing and inspiration. Not to mention the fact that the lady that showed us the museum was the cutest, old, Dutch woman in all of Holland. She made a point of telling the story as God’s story, not as Corrie’s story, or the Ten Boom’s story, but a story of God and the work that he did through an incredible family. 


The hiding place with the passage
door open (on the bottom left).

The tour started out in the living room, which is furnished with photos of the family, and is decorated as closely to the original decorations and furniture as possible. We sat in the living room while the old Dutch woman told us the story of the Ten Boom family. If you have never read the book “The Hiding Place,” then you should read it, but basically **SPOILER ALERT** this is generally what happens... Corrie starts a web of underground activity aimed at helping the Jews. She creates a list of over 80 contacts, she gets help from friends and family, and together they have safe houses, money, and ration cards. They use a Swedish clock advertisement to alert people that may be coming to the house for help as to whether or not it is safe to come in. If the clock is in the window, they are safe, if not, they are not safe at all. People come to and from the house with needs that Corrie and Betsy and their father, manage to find solutions to. They have a hiding place built in upstairs so that six Jews could stay with them. Corrie had an architect friend build in a false wall (out of brick so that you couldn't knock and hear a difference) in her own bedroom on the top floor of the house. Eventually, a man working with the Nazi’s comes to the family “needing help,” and Corrie helps him. Then, because she helped him, the Nazi’s bust in to take her and her entire family away and search the whole house for the Jews but cannot find them anywhere. The Ten Booms are all (including Betsy and Corrie's older brother and sister, and their sister's son) are taken to concentrations camps where the majority oaf them are killed. Miraculously and clearly at the hands of God, Corrie survives, and she spent the rest of her life running healing programs for concentration camp victims, and traveling the world, speaking to people about God’s love. That’s essentially the story, but you should still read the book. It's a story of hope through unimaginable pain, and forgiveness in impossible circumstances, and it is absolutely inspiring. The whole museum really made me think of my mama! I know her well, and she would have loved it!

The little Swiss clock signal
in the alley window.

At this museum, I didn’t really learn anything new, but I loved it because I was able to see all the things I had read about and seen in the movie. Even the deck on the roof that the Jews could crawl onto for a little fresh air! However, I did learn one really amazing thing. The old Dutch woman told us all the fates of the six people that were in the hiding place when Corrie and her family were arrested. They were all saved there, but some of them were later found and taken in to a camp and killed, and others thanks to the Ten Booms, survived! They knew what had happened to five of the people but they had never been able to find details about the sixth person, a young boy. A few years ago, when they were doing their normal daily tours, they told the story of the Ten Booms in the living room as usual. They were touring all through the house, but when they got to the hiding place and they spoke about the fates of all five of the people and explained that they never actually knew what happened to the sixth man, one of the older men in the room spoke up and said that he was that sixth boy. He said that he had escaped from the hiding place and had stayed in hiding elsewhere until the end of the war when he immigrated to the US. This was the first time that he had been back to the Netherlands since! What an amazing story, makes me wish that Corrie was still alive to see him again and celebrate in his long and blessed life. 

We finished the tour in the dining room where the museum had on display a bunch of different copies of books about the family in all different languages. They also had one of the visual aids that Corrie had used when she was speaking all around the world to describe a life guided by God. The trip to Haarlem was definitely a success, and a highlight for me thus far.

We took the next train back to Amsterdam and went shopping for souvenirs. We found some nice post cards, and headed back to the hostel where we found our friend from Pennsylvania, Lauren, who we sat and talked with for a while before we all three decided to get some dinner. We went to an American-style diner, and I got to have a Caesar salad and some cheesecake. I was so thrilled to have vegetables, and the cheesecake was scrumptious! Although, I would kill for some movie theatre popcorn right about now! The hostel workers said we could stay until our train left at night, so we stayed in the café talking to Lauren and her friend Amanda (who was on a bike ride when we went to dinner), they are both really sweet girls who we are hoping to meet up with in Berlin. I also passed the time by blogging and watching fox news videos about the issues in the Middle East, and the way the president handled them, as well as by watching my feed full of ALS Ice Bucket Challenge videos, which were all awesome. I especially liked watching my little cousins Elin, Cam, and Cole, accept the challenge. But most of all, I enjoyed watching my cousin Farrah take the challenge, which was hysterical. I was challenged by my mother, and while it may be impossible to make it happen in 24 hours, I am planning on taking her up on it (and donating some money as well)! I also got to read a couple of Relevant articles, and I felt like I was connected to the world again, before we finally left for our series of night trains, which you will hear all about on the next blog!

I want to end this post with a shout out to my grandpa who is celebrating his birthday on a river cruise somewhere in northern Europe, like me, his life is really hard!!






Amsterdam

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Day 8—Amsterdam

Welcome to Amsterdam

Today we are in Amsterdam. It is unusually Antarctica-like here for the month of August. Wet and rainy! We woke up around 9:15, and got ready fairly quickly to be able to meet my grandparents (who were here on their river cruise through northern Europe) at 10:30 in front of the Royal Palace! We were late because we got caught in a monsoon and we could not find out where we were going. We kept stopping to ask people and we were so unbelievably confused! The thing is that the maps here are the most confusing thing the world has ever seen. The canals are all named and there are more canals than roads, so I was basically clueless as to where to go. Finally though a lady drew me directions on my map, and we made it. I saw my grandma and grandpa from afar and they looked SO cute just standing there and looking around. I ran up to them, because I was just so excited to see them and the four of us found a place to eat. We went to a little sandwich café, and grandpa (bless his soul) treated us to lunch! I doubt he will understand how much we appreciated that, but we were seriously so grateful. Every pence and euro counts. We spent our lunch talking about our journeys so far, me losing my phone, and Morgan’s job in Salzburg. They are seriously two of the cutest people ever, I’m so glad I was able to see them. They told me that my dad had informed them about my blog on Facebook and that it was really awesome and they had to read it! So grandpa said that he went to my Facebook and read my posts but didn’t click the link to the blog. Grandma was very confused why my dad thought it was so great when I barely wrote anything. She was very disappointed with it, so I told them how to open it and now they can (hopefully) read this post and be embarrassed. Regardless, they are the best and it was so cool to be able to meet up with them here in Amsterdam. I can’t wait to move home in about a week and be able to go over to their house more often to eat grilled cheese and make donuts.

My sweet grandparents! Love them!

After lunch, they had to find their way back to the ship to leave! As a parting gift grandma gave us chocolate donuts (typical grandma always filling my belly) that she had smuggled off the ship (God bless her)! Morgan and I walked around the corner to go to another free tour of Amsterdam. The tour was led by a guide named Rocco. The tour took us all around the city of Amsterdam, and it started in the square in front of the Royal Palace, which is only about a hundred yards from the exact spot where the city first started, and some fisherman built the original dam. The tour took us to see an old prison under a bridge, a cheese shop (where we had a sample of 2½ year old cheese…yum), and to the smallest house in Amsterdam which is about 4.7 meters wide. We went to an old neighborhood where all of the religious women (kinda like nuns) of the city used to live, called the Begijnhof. Inside this closed neighborhood there were two churches, one that was Protestant that obviously looked like a church, and one that was Catholic that was made to look like a house on the outside. The people were not allowed to have the Catholic Church so they built it conspicuously in order to still have a place to worship for those that were Catholic. It was well hidden, but absolutely beautiful inside. We also saw a grave, where a woman made a request to be buried in the gutter. So, just as she had asked, her grave was right there in the gutter.

Woman buried in the gutter.

We also learned about the reason for the leaning and crooked houses. The guide said that all the houses were built purposely leaning forward because people needed to get things to the top floors of their buildings, but couldn’t fit them up the stairs. Each house still has a hook at the very top where a pulley system is in place. If the house leans forward, nothing hits the house’s front on the way up! We also learned that the symbol for the city of Amsterdam is three crosses on top of one another. They are unsure why, but believe that it came from the three great dangers to the city: fire, flood, and disease.

A famous coffeeshop where
George Clooney and
Brad Pitt filmed a scene in
Oceans 12.

We walked through a portion of the Red Light District which was partially unbelievable, and partially heartbreaking. Our guide talked a little about The “coffeeshops” where everyone smokes marijuana. Everyone knows that pot is legal here right? Yeah well our guide told us that it isn’t actually legal, but it’s tolerated…apparently there’s a difference. Our guide said that the officers here just look between the fingers. So basically they don’t care that people are breaking laws and that stores are selling hash pops. I guess it’s because Amsterdam is the “undisputed capitol of freedom.”

An example of tilted and
leaning houses. You can see
the hooks at the top of the
house, they stick out.

We also learned about a company, whose name I cannot spell or remember, that played a huge part in bringing the golden age to Amsterdam and growing the city so rapidly. They controlled trade internationally for two entire centuries, and became extremely wealthy because of their brilliant idea on dividing the risk (a principle that was originally Dutch, but is now used all over the world). Back then if a merchant wanted to make money, he would buy a ship and send it to Indonesia to collect goods and valuables. If it came back, he would be rich, but it was very risky because of the potential that the ship never came back, was destroyed by weather, or taken by pirates. And this company decided that what they would do is send a fleet of twenty ships and people could buy a certain amount of each ship to divide their risk. If one ship went down they lost five percent, but they still had ninety five percent! They became unbelievably wealthy because there were so many people that wanted to make money without such an uncontrollable financial risk. The tour was great and showed us so much of this amazing city, and we got a free mint at the end (a Dutch specialty). Also, I would just like to state that there are bikes everywhere!!! Literally, everywhere. There are coffeeshops everywhere too. The city is beautiful though, with all the canals, and bridges, and boats in the river (originally called the Amster River, and they built a dam on it now it is called, Amsterdam).

After the tour we used one our coupons from the free tour people to get ice cream and… big surprise, a free waffle! We got great directions from someone and had no trouble finding our little Christian shelter. We camped out at the hostel for several hours (because our tour guide gave us a tip that the Anne Frank Museum had the shortest lines later at night) resting, journaling, and trying to stay warm. We ate a cheap dinner at the hostel because it was burger night. We got fries and salad with our burgers as well as some pudding and juice.  

We left for the Museum around 7:30, and stopped in a few souvenir shops along the way. Once we got there we saw the line stretching away from the house and then down the street a fairly long way. A man told us that we might not make it in in time to have a full hour to tour because they close at 10, but we decided to risk it. We made it in and had a little less than an hour to walk our way through the museum before they closed. We were not able to take photos, but it was an amazing tour and definitely a must do in Amsterdam. We saw the original bookcase that was placed in front of the door, and all the things that Anne had pasted to the walls in her room to brighten it up. All of the original wall paper and flooring is still there so we even saw the markings on the wall where Anne and her sister Margot’s heights were recorded. It was unbelievably powerful to walk through the house and hear live interviews, to see what had happened to each member, and the lengths that they had gone to in order to hide. It really was an emotional experience and one that I will never forget. Of course I couldn’t go there without thinking of Mackenzie and the way she wrote an essay relating to Anne Frank and saying that she understood her having to be quiet upstairs (because at the time we lived in the Funeral Home) much like Anne, who was hiding from all of Nazi Germany. Even though it’s not the same at all and she was being dramatic for the sake of a good essay, we still moved. Oh my sister. 

We ended tour time for today, there at the museum. We walked back, choked past some “coffeeshops,” and came to bed. We are friends now with the girls that put the alcohol in my bed, and we found out that they are from France. We also met a couple of American girls who are from Pennsylvania and our very own OHIO! These hostels are better when you know the names of the people you are sleeping a few feet away from. Imagine that.

 

Before I pass out, let me just say thank you for taking the time to follow along with me on this journey! I hope that these posts are enjoyable for you, and that no one is TOO jealous. If it makes you feel any better. I've been wearing the same pair of socks to bed each night for a week.

Bruges

Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Day 7—Bruges, Belgium

Bruges was absolutely gorgeous! If you are visiting Belgium any time soon, let me save you some time, skip Brussels and just go to Bruges. The waffles, fries, and chocolates are just as good and the city is small and lovely. Bruges is very quaint and small and they have extravagantly detailed churches, horses and carriages, and flowers everywhere. They have a row of fancy upscale shops, as well as small souvenir shops. They have gorgeous architecture and the canals and bridges just add to the natural beauty. As far as we could tell there wasn’t a bag area of town, everything was close and a short walk, and we absolutely loved it.

We checked out of our hostel in Brussels early to go to the train station and make the trip to Bruges. Our train was a double decker and we gladly sat on the top level for a gorgeous view of all the small farms and churches along the way. When we got into Bruges, we followed the group of tourists headed to the center of town. And in case the thought crossed your mind, we did lug our bags all around the city, and I think my collar bone is bruised as a result. I actually don’t think that my ankles and knees will ever recover from the added weight coupled with the uneven stones, but I think it’s a small price to pay to go somewhere so beautiful. We walked around for a little while and saw the main square which is stunning, before getting waffles. I had cherries and crème and Morgan got strawberries and crème, and I’m pretty sure that both of us were very happy to have waffles for the second day in a row. We ate the waffles on a bench in the main square and people watched for a bit. Then a bee came and attempted to eat my waffle, I defeated the little guy with the help of a couple of local girls whose food he was also trying to eat!

 



 

The dog sleeping in the
window sill.

When we were finished we tracked down a frog that is supposed to turn into a prince if it is kissed by the same person 100,000 times. So I sat there and kissed it over 59,000 times until I finally got bored. Okay that’s a lie I only barely kissed it once. No prince for me. I mean seriously, you know something is a myth when the goal is so lofty that no one would ever manage it and it could never be proved wrong. From there we walked to a canal boat tour, and paid seven euro to see the city by boat. Our driver and guide was a complete stud, and I didn’t so much listen to the tour as just stare at him. I picked up some information, but also his English wasn’t fantastic. He said that purchasing windows in Bruges is really expensive (I didn’t catch the reason why), so the people used to be taxed based on the number of windows they had. He also said that the houses with the most steps on the roofs were the wealthiest, like the more steps the more money you had. The steps aren’t stairs in case you are confused, they are a part of the architecture on the front of the house on the roof. We saw the oldest bridge in the city, and one of the most romantic hotels in Europe that is also a famous honeymoon spot. We learned about the a couple hospitals and churches, but I honestly couldn’t understand much of what he said. We passed a whole group of swans on the canal, I was so close to them that I could have reached out and touched them. They were gorgeous. We also saw this house that had opened up a window over the canal and their dog was sleeping with his little nose out the window, and he was adorable, the guide said he is always laying there and it one of the most photographed attractions. Overall, the boat ride was full of amazing views and was definitely a highlight for me. So I tipped the guy, mostly just for being so good looking, but also because I really did enjoy the ride.

SWANS!

After the canal boat, we went to find some more postcards to add to our ongoing collection. We found some easily and then went to get more fires. You can judge us all you like for the constant waffles and fries, but they are just so amazing. Morgan got a table while I waited in line (you’re welcome Morgan) for a century. It was worthwhile though because we greatly enjoyed our fries and mayonnaise, in classic Belgian style. We hung out a little longer and then started walked toward the train station. We found an H&M and decided to go in (we’re weak). I bought a jacket because the weather everywhere has been so unbelievably cold, and Mo got some leggings. We’re gonna come back with an awesome tan. Prepare to be jealous!

We made it to the train station, got some coffee to warm our bones, and then began the journey to Amsterdam. We had to take a series of trains to get there, but we navigated it all like a couple of regular pros. On one of the trains we met a couple, a guy from Arizona and an Australian that apparently were going to Amsterdam for this girl to meet the guy’s mother for the first time. I guess they met on a walking tour and have known each other for eight weeks and want to get married. No one worry about that happening to me, I’m still holding out for the frog prince. We made it to Amsterdam Centraal and took the metro to the square where our Christian Hostel “Shelter City” is located. We literally walked out of the metro and it started raining, which made it a little hard to find, but we made it and got all checked in and assigned to our beds. When we checked in they told us that we weren’t allowed to have drugs or alcohol in the hostel, which completely ruined all of the plans we had to go to bed early and not drink or do drugs at all. However, when I sat down on my bed I found a bottle of vodka hidden under the pillow, so people obviously follow those rules really well. The girls who it belonged to got kicked out on the streets, so now I feel bad. No they didn’t, but they did apologize before hiding it again. We hung out in the café/lounge area for a while and got to experience the hostel prayer time which was extrememly cool because many people prayed in all different languages. I really like it here and I am fairly certain that all of the workers here are volunteers that come to do ministry, which is really cool. After spending some there, we went happily to bed.

It really was an awesome day, and I am continuing to feel blessed by all the experiences I am getting to have, and the person I am getting to see it all with! She is the perfect travel companion for this unbelievable adventure! I love her and will miss her so much while she is here for a whole year without me! I’m soaking up all this time with her while I can! Looking forward to seeing my grandma and grandpa tomorrow as well as experiencing the city of Amsterdam!



Notice the steps on the front of the building!