back in the states.
I’m hoping that no one is anxiously awaiting for me to exit limbo.
I have, indeed, returned.
I’ll update the rest of my adventures soon…….
The name has officially been changed to Food Travel instead of Free Travel.
((this never posted:
Train from Vienna to Prague.
Arrive at around 1:00
Find out that groceries are SUPER cheap here.
In Search for Kolaches. Failure
Found potato pancakes
Shopped in some super touristy stores
Found a little market and shared some Czech nougat thing
Walked around the Old Town Sqaure
Astronomical clock struck at the hour
Bought cheap pizza
Enjoyed some Starbucks/down time/wifi
Walked across the Bridge
Gawked at cool buildings and gargoyles
FOUND KOLACHES
Found the Lennon Wall
Laid in some grass
Found the enormous Prague Castle
Came back to the Square before the sun went down
Got super cheap 19 Koruna (less than a 1€) hot dogs
Occupied a nook in some La Vita Creperie to journal and eat some yummy Esmerelda crepes.))
Let’s see. What have I learned most? That three girls staying out after dark in any of these cities is probably NOT a good idea.
Now, Prague by day was probably my favorite so far. We saw and wrote on the Lennon wall, ate a TON of typical food items of the Czech, saw the giant castle, the astronomical clock, the St. Charles Bridge, and so many more things.
However, as soon as the sun down, all the creepy people came out. We had plans to stay in the train station all night to catch our 4:30 train out to Berlin. But when we were kicked out from 1-4:00AM, we were forced to camp out at KFC. You’d think it’d be safe! Wrong. We had men coming in and out all night long very obviously looking at our things and then leaving again. When I tried to let a KFC
Worker know what was going on, he didn’t understand a lick of English and replied,”Are you looking for the disco???” UGHHHHH
We eventually got the bump out of Prague and headed to Berlin*. Upon arriving though, we were so tired that we rested our first day there. But before we’d wasted the entire day, we managed to find the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall and try Currywurst. Both super awesome culture pieces of the city. (The latter a little less important than the former.)
The next day (Wednesday) we took a free tour of the city. SO WORTH IT.
We saw:
Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag, (parking lot covering) Hitler’s bunker, Holocaust Memorial, Book burning Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdammer Platz, SS Headquarters, The Berlin Wall, TV Tower, Gendarmenmarkt, and Museum Island.
There’s no way the three of us could have found all of that on our own.
That night was our first real night train (not just train through the night) experience. Minus the exchange I had with the man attempting to climb into my bunk (he claimed in hushed tones, “You must believe me, this is my bed.” Well he was wrong, he soon found out, and proceeded to collect all of his smelly possessions off of my bed. The ones I awoke to being thrown on top of me in the middle of
the night), as well as having 25€ stolen from me….it was pretty fun.
There’s no such thing as a normal train or metro experience for me.
So upon arriving to Amsterdam and checking into our super sketch hostel, we walked around the city, saw Anne Frank’s house, bought things from the outdoor market, tried the McKroket (which you’ll hear about later) and explored in general. But, after being exposed to Amsterdam much more than we would have preferred, we were ready to leave. So we camped out at the hostel for the rest of the evening eating peanut butter sandwiches and pretzels.
We woke up at 5:30 to catch the earliest train out to Brugge. Yup. We were that ready to leave.
So now…that is just what we are doing: embarking upon a new country—Belgium!
*(We decided to not go to Poland and see Auschwitz. It was probably a pretty good decision based on our luck in the cities at night. I’m sure Poland would have been even sketchier. Plus! We got to spend an extra day in Berlin)
You are waiting for a train. You know where you hope it will take you but you can’t be sure.
Just kidding we’re on our way to Prague!
So the past few days with just girls has been so fun. But not without stories of creepers, chocolate tendencies, and trains, trains, trains.
Interlaken and Grindelwald were so much fun. Switzerland is so absolutely beautiful. We shouldn’t have started there! Ha.
Since Interlaken we’ve been to: Grindelwald, Basel, Munich, Rothenburg, Salzburg, And Vienna.
After arriving in Munich, Rothenburg was a spontaneous day trip that Rick Steves suggested. So of course we went there.
It was adorable. And totally worth the little Christmas stores and schneeballen (a yummy, left-over dough pastry).
At the Munich station we quickly ate some stereotypical German food (Brawts, of course) just for some peace of mind. We’ll be back when we come through Berlin though.
Then came Salzburg.
Unfortunately, Austria was a huge bust for us. Not only did we endure a creepy following man, buying a hostel at 2AM, and being super lost, it was a Sunday. So, when we attempted to escape our bad luck in Salzburg, Vienna ended up being pretty stinky due to all of the closed-ness. Oh well.
Maybe I’ll come back to Austria one day. At least we managed to eat some Wiener Schnitzel before leaving it in the dust.
Currently we are destined for Prague. 5 hour train from Wien-Praha. We’ll Czech it out and let you know how it goes.
Free travel.
Oh, the Great Lengths we’ll take to see what Man has made and his Creator perfected.
World Traveler
Whoops. Posted this on the wrong tumblr.
Free travel has been so very good to us thus far. Currently I am in a super cozy hostel known as the Funny Farm in the beautiful city of Interlaken. Big fan of this place.
Monday we flew into Rome, stayed the night there, spent all day Tuesday exploring all the super neat things Rome has to offer. That night we trained out to the beautiful city of Florence. This morning we were able to the city our HUFer friends have had at their disposal. Despite the pouring rain, we really enjoyed it. After a really funny train situation* we’re now in Interlaken for the night. Autumn, Brittani and Bailee will get here tomorrow and Taylor, Ashley, Haley, and Meghin will continue on to Munich. I’m excited to see new faces! BUT I’m so sad to see the rest go. We’ve had such a blast together—laughing, cutting up, being goof balls. So here’s to the rest of free travel. So stoked. Bring it on. Most importantly, bring on the extra crunchy JIFF. All about it.
*so at one point, Corey and Luke didn’t get off the train once we reached Spiez in order to go to Interlaken. After some stress and lots of laughter, they actually managed to make it back to the train station before we had to make our second train.
Just another funny free travel experience for the family.
One last Sunday.
We had to say goodbye to Oksana and Gregory tonight. Two things have made me cry this semester: The church in Bethlehem and leaving those precious people. Since I’ve finally stopped crying (only after seeing the humorous Grafitti: HATERS’ BUNS)…I’ve been able to gather my thoughts during this last bus ride back to the Artemis to the tune of 35 beautiful people singing praises to Jesus. I’ve never seen Jesus’ love so tangible in any other human than in those two. They spoke JUST enough English to keep a semi-fluid conversation going yet, they showed more Love than I could ever convey to you. I want more than anything to be like that—To convey Christ’s Love so tangibly that they feel God’s love in their very hearts. I pray that I never ever forget Oksana and Gregory and the example of Christ that they showed Max and Kayla and I. Their friendship was so important to me this semester and I want that to stay in my heart forever. And I know in my heart that if I don’t have the privilege of seeing them again one day, I’ll see their beautiful, smiling faces and hold hands with them, singing praises to God with Jesus in heaven.
My last day in Athens. An unfortunate series of events.
Luke, Zo and I all woke up a little earlier to catch the 9:20 bus out of Porto Rafti. We went from there, to Markopoulo, to Koropi, to Monastraki—the usual. Then we all spent an hour going here and there buying last second gifts and souvenirs. The plan was to meet up at 12:00ish at the metro and from there we would head back to The Artemis. But. There seemed to be a miscommunication. So as it was nearing 12:05, I rushed down to find the right metro…it took me until 12:15. Okay so I’m on the right metro. Good to go. So as I’m patiently riding I’m thinking of scenarios of what happened with Luke and Zo. Had they gone before me? Been looking for me and took a later metro? I had no idea. All of sudden the metro stops at Doukissis Plakentias and the lights turn off…full power down. Basically a subtle way of saying, “everyone get off.” Which would have been fine had my phone not fallen off my lap into the small gap between the metro and platform. Yah, the one the constanltly remind you to “mind.” UGH So after a big ordeal of having to find someone in authority to jump down and grab my phone (by the assistance a very nice Greek woman and her daughter), and seeing the metro that I could have taken to Koropi pass by (this all taking about 45 minutes)….I am waiting. 9 more minutes and I’ll be back on track. No pun intended.
What an interesting beginning to my day.
So there’s a twist! Turns out Zoe and Luke had taken the same metro I was getting on. They had looked me for quite some time in Athens but we had apparently just missed each other. I didn’t see them until we all got off at Koropi…but still…what a relief. So after two more bus rides back to Porto Rafti….this journey will have taken me about 3 hours. Worth the story I guess.
The waves have ceased to sway me to and fro.
So this morning we returned to the Artemis. We disembarked the Louis Cristal at a beautiful 7:30am. Just for recap’s sake the islands we visited/explored through out the week were:
Mykonos
Kusadasi
Patmos
Rhodes
Crete
& Santorini
As usual—I purchased many more souvenirs than I probably should have.
Mykonos was super beautiful. And Santorini was super neat, but it didn’t exactly live up to its inevitable expectations. However, getting to ride a donkey up the 500 steps to civilization was definitely worth it (even if he tried his best to remain an inch from the walls at all times).
It was nice to relax on the cruise. Especially right before the end of the semester and free travel, though now that stress has become a reality at the moment.
On the cruise, several of us would go to the disco every night. For hours. Now keep in mind that there was no finger pointed choreography or large hair picked do’s. In Greece disco-ing is simply busting a move. So fun. So very fun. For many many reasons.
The 4-5 course meals weren’t too shabby either. And it felt like it was for free!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attain the proper skills to fold towels into fun animals like I was hoping. But that’s okay. The class was well worth it.
Karaoke was hysterical. Kayla, Zo, and I sang “Hold On” for Bridesmaids sake the second night. It wasn’t by any means super great. But the entertainment value was well worth it.
Other than possibly leaving my pencil pouch full of colorful pens and, in turn, forcing my journal to be a lot less colorful—this past week was an absolute blast.
