So we're just about caught up with pictures, thank you Lord! It's been real nice working on the pictures from home now. Tomorrow we'l have the rest of the Poland pictures up I think and then we will have one more surprise album, oh boy! So anyways... this may be my last blog entry here.
We finally made our day trip to Paris work and somehow, everything went real smooth. We left Friday night, trained through the night and arrived bright and early in Paris. After figuring out the metro system we made our way to Notre Dame. It wasn't quite as large as we imagined it from the outside but it was still really cool and beautiful on the inside. And warm! After checking it out we sat and napped for a little while before daring the cold once again! We then sought out the Miraculous Medal Chapel where St. Catherine Laboure is incorrupt, my patron saint. So that was really neat. The rest of the day was spent hanging around the Eiffel Tower and doing some shopping for our sisters. Overall it was a good day and we hopped on a train for the night trip home, getting back to Gaming afternoon-time on Sunday pretty exhausted, but happy that our goal of seeing Paris was accomplished, gifts bought, and out last independently planned trip was over as well as the last time we used our Eurail! woohoo!
So everyone. It's been an adventure and it's been fun narrating it all on here. But it's over and we're back to life, work, school, planning a wedding, all that fun stuff. :)
Peace to all, MERRY CHRISTMAS, and a Happy New Year too!!!
-catherine*
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Rome & Assisi
Well! It's almost been a month since this trip but we did take over one thousand pictures during those 10 days so it's been a work in progress. We have almost half of them posted so you can check them out and know that there are more to come! Also, our weekend trips to Paris and to Poland will come out hopefully soon after. We're actually returning home this weekend so we will finish from there. But in the meantime let me relate our experiences to Rome in a most concise, from memory, but wonderful blog. Here goes!
So we left on a Friday night in November, whatever that day might have been matters little at this point. We drove through the night, by this point we're getting used to weird sleeping arrangements so it wasn't that big of a deal. We arrived in Rome Saturday morning, checked in, and the rest of the day was actually spent playing cards and in merriment. It's a good thing because little did we know the following days would be the most packed, tiring, and crazy days of our travels so far.
Sunday we began by heading to St. Peter's Square bright and early to grab seats in the basilica for Mass. Alden and I ended up getting seperated but I was sitting with some people maybe 8 rows back, poor Alden had to stand in the back. The Mass was in Italian but it was beautiful. The basilica itself was breathtaking, massive, incredible. But all in all, it was like home to us. Our mother Church. After Mass we said the Angelus with Pope Benedict XVI, who was up in a tiny little window, far far away. After this we had a little free time, we headed to the Colosseum by metro, everywhere was pretty much by metro and we were on the guard for pick-pocketers! Mark and Fr. Dave gave us some tours and I think we saw half a dozen churches in the course of 3 hours. Record time! Needless to say, we were exhausted and headed back to the hotel for dinner and the most amazing lasagna I've ever had in my life! I might just remember it this way because we were starving!!! (nice save huh Mom?)
Monday we continued our Rome tours, saw many more churches, works of art, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and all those good things. I believe we went shopping that afternoon in a souvenir shop, it's hard to remember at this point, but we bought quite a few gifts. I think this was the day that we were also forced to pay for a pizza because we needed a bathroom so bad! They wouldn't let us use it unless we were a paying customer. Monday night we had Mass at one of the basilicas from what I remember, it was again another beautiful celebration. Mass was always my favorite part of the day! That night we got to see Scott too which was awesome (old RI friend :)
Tuesday Alden and I went to St. Peters Square early to really just hang out and take in the beauty of it all without there being crowds everywhere. Then we had our Scavi Tour late that morning which takes us under the basilica where the tombs of pagans and early Christians are buried as well as St. Peter himself! It was kind of hot and humid under there but really amazing to go back in time like that. After our Scavi tour we went back to the Colosseum with the intention of going inside but they wouldn't take credit cards so we just hug out instead. We had another tour through the Roman ruins. I think this was one of my favorite parts because we were outside for a change, it wasn't hugely rushed, and the ruins themselves were really cool. After this we had Mass at Cosmos and Damian Church, the Franciscans mother church in Rome, and they let us wander a little and then once again head back to the hotel. I believe this was the night that we had to wait like 3 or 4 metros to pass because Italians pack on so tight we couldn't squeeze on. But we made up our mind that the next one was it, we were getting on no matter what, and we shoved and squashed on that metro, finally! Then! we had to take a bus from the metro to our hotel as usual, and the bus was completely crammed with singing, loud, crazy Fanciscan students. Oh boy, that was a fun 45 minutes! It was pretty insane, Erin even crowd-surfed, and when we finally burst out at our stop, Fr. Dave breathed "Thank you Lord!"
Wednesday was pretty sweet though we got up about 4:30 in the morning to wait in line at St. Peter's. Wednesday was the day for the papal address and it was "Operation Shake the Pope's Hand!" We stood in line for 2 and a half hours before they opened the gate and we all forgot that we were eachother's fellow classmates in order to scramble and fight for the front. Our whole school probably took up 3 entire rows on one half in the front, Alden and I were in the second row. We waited once again for 2 hours before Pope Benedict came out in his little pope-mobile and it was picture time! He drove all around the square and then the address began, it lasted for quite a while and very little was in English. We did have a time of recognition however when they were announcing different groups. When they announced the Austrian Campus of Franciscan University of Steubenville we went crazy for probably 2 or 3 minutes, it was so cool! After the address, we were ready to shake our papa's hand, but he didn't seem to feel in the mood to shake hands that day. However! The little Kalpagian baby, Dominic, was handed up by one of the guards and he got a beautiful kiss on his head! That was the icing on the cake for me! :) If you check out the Gaming blog, which I will add to our links, you can see a picture of it. (You can also check out other really cool stuff about our Austrian group this semester) The rest of the day Wednesday we went to Santa Scala to pray the holy stairs that Christ climbed to meet Pontius Pilate. These stairs were brought to Rome by some womanly saint... We had Mass in the nearby basilica and afterwards visited a church which holds many relics of Jesus' Cross and nails and stuff. That was pretty amazing. We went back to the hotel one more time and this concluded our Roman journeys.
Thursday we were packed, fed breakfast, and out the door for Assisi! We made one stop on the way at the Portiuncula, St. Francis's first church I believe. Assisi was cold and windy! Our hotel was practically right in the center of the town. Actually, the girls' hotel was, but all the guys were at a different hotel a few streets down. I don't think we did much that day except check in, take a nap, and have dinner and Mass. But it was nice to start slowing down.
Friday we had Mass in a nearby church to start off the day and then had a tour around Assisi. We saw a few more different churches and learned more about St. Francis's life. Friday afternoon we had our pilgrimage walk up to St. Francis's hermitage, where he used to go to be in solitude and quiet prayer for days at a time. We also did this in silence, Alden was tired and not feeling great so he stayed behind but it was nice to take the time to be alone, explore the trails St. Francis used to walk and pray by myself. For Assisi, this was the highlight of the trip for me! After heading back down there wasn't much else except relaxing and eating.
Saturday we had Mass in front of St. Francis' tomb which was a great honor. We had some more touring and then we had the afternoon to really just shop around, relax, and take it all in. We also had some gelatti that night with Scott and Erin so that was fun! I can't remember much else that we did. We packed up that night, had dinner, and Mass, cause we left early on Sunday morning, drove through the day and got back in Gaming around midnight. It was nice cause we had the next day off from class to recuperate.
But the following weekend we were off and traveling to Paris! Stay tuned for more!
In the meantime... see you all back in the States!
Goodbye Austria, we'll miss you!!!!
-catherine*
So we left on a Friday night in November, whatever that day might have been matters little at this point. We drove through the night, by this point we're getting used to weird sleeping arrangements so it wasn't that big of a deal. We arrived in Rome Saturday morning, checked in, and the rest of the day was actually spent playing cards and in merriment. It's a good thing because little did we know the following days would be the most packed, tiring, and crazy days of our travels so far.
Sunday we began by heading to St. Peter's Square bright and early to grab seats in the basilica for Mass. Alden and I ended up getting seperated but I was sitting with some people maybe 8 rows back, poor Alden had to stand in the back. The Mass was in Italian but it was beautiful. The basilica itself was breathtaking, massive, incredible. But all in all, it was like home to us. Our mother Church. After Mass we said the Angelus with Pope Benedict XVI, who was up in a tiny little window, far far away. After this we had a little free time, we headed to the Colosseum by metro, everywhere was pretty much by metro and we were on the guard for pick-pocketers! Mark and Fr. Dave gave us some tours and I think we saw half a dozen churches in the course of 3 hours. Record time! Needless to say, we were exhausted and headed back to the hotel for dinner and the most amazing lasagna I've ever had in my life! I might just remember it this way because we were starving!!! (nice save huh Mom?)
Monday we continued our Rome tours, saw many more churches, works of art, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and all those good things. I believe we went shopping that afternoon in a souvenir shop, it's hard to remember at this point, but we bought quite a few gifts. I think this was the day that we were also forced to pay for a pizza because we needed a bathroom so bad! They wouldn't let us use it unless we were a paying customer. Monday night we had Mass at one of the basilicas from what I remember, it was again another beautiful celebration. Mass was always my favorite part of the day! That night we got to see Scott too which was awesome (old RI friend :)
Tuesday Alden and I went to St. Peters Square early to really just hang out and take in the beauty of it all without there being crowds everywhere. Then we had our Scavi Tour late that morning which takes us under the basilica where the tombs of pagans and early Christians are buried as well as St. Peter himself! It was kind of hot and humid under there but really amazing to go back in time like that. After our Scavi tour we went back to the Colosseum with the intention of going inside but they wouldn't take credit cards so we just hug out instead. We had another tour through the Roman ruins. I think this was one of my favorite parts because we were outside for a change, it wasn't hugely rushed, and the ruins themselves were really cool. After this we had Mass at Cosmos and Damian Church, the Franciscans mother church in Rome, and they let us wander a little and then once again head back to the hotel. I believe this was the night that we had to wait like 3 or 4 metros to pass because Italians pack on so tight we couldn't squeeze on. But we made up our mind that the next one was it, we were getting on no matter what, and we shoved and squashed on that metro, finally! Then! we had to take a bus from the metro to our hotel as usual, and the bus was completely crammed with singing, loud, crazy Fanciscan students. Oh boy, that was a fun 45 minutes! It was pretty insane, Erin even crowd-surfed, and when we finally burst out at our stop, Fr. Dave breathed "Thank you Lord!"
Wednesday was pretty sweet though we got up about 4:30 in the morning to wait in line at St. Peter's. Wednesday was the day for the papal address and it was "Operation Shake the Pope's Hand!" We stood in line for 2 and a half hours before they opened the gate and we all forgot that we were eachother's fellow classmates in order to scramble and fight for the front. Our whole school probably took up 3 entire rows on one half in the front, Alden and I were in the second row. We waited once again for 2 hours before Pope Benedict came out in his little pope-mobile and it was picture time! He drove all around the square and then the address began, it lasted for quite a while and very little was in English. We did have a time of recognition however when they were announcing different groups. When they announced the Austrian Campus of Franciscan University of Steubenville we went crazy for probably 2 or 3 minutes, it was so cool! After the address, we were ready to shake our papa's hand, but he didn't seem to feel in the mood to shake hands that day. However! The little Kalpagian baby, Dominic, was handed up by one of the guards and he got a beautiful kiss on his head! That was the icing on the cake for me! :) If you check out the Gaming blog, which I will add to our links, you can see a picture of it. (You can also check out other really cool stuff about our Austrian group this semester) The rest of the day Wednesday we went to Santa Scala to pray the holy stairs that Christ climbed to meet Pontius Pilate. These stairs were brought to Rome by some womanly saint... We had Mass in the nearby basilica and afterwards visited a church which holds many relics of Jesus' Cross and nails and stuff. That was pretty amazing. We went back to the hotel one more time and this concluded our Roman journeys.
Thursday we were packed, fed breakfast, and out the door for Assisi! We made one stop on the way at the Portiuncula, St. Francis's first church I believe. Assisi was cold and windy! Our hotel was practically right in the center of the town. Actually, the girls' hotel was, but all the guys were at a different hotel a few streets down. I don't think we did much that day except check in, take a nap, and have dinner and Mass. But it was nice to start slowing down.
Friday we had Mass in a nearby church to start off the day and then had a tour around Assisi. We saw a few more different churches and learned more about St. Francis's life. Friday afternoon we had our pilgrimage walk up to St. Francis's hermitage, where he used to go to be in solitude and quiet prayer for days at a time. We also did this in silence, Alden was tired and not feeling great so he stayed behind but it was nice to take the time to be alone, explore the trails St. Francis used to walk and pray by myself. For Assisi, this was the highlight of the trip for me! After heading back down there wasn't much else except relaxing and eating.
Saturday we had Mass in front of St. Francis' tomb which was a great honor. We had some more touring and then we had the afternoon to really just shop around, relax, and take it all in. We also had some gelatti that night with Scott and Erin so that was fun! I can't remember much else that we did. We packed up that night, had dinner, and Mass, cause we left early on Sunday morning, drove through the day and got back in Gaming around midnight. It was nice cause we had the next day off from class to recuperate.
But the following weekend we were off and traveling to Paris! Stay tuned for more!
In the meantime... see you all back in the States!
Goodbye Austria, we'll miss you!!!!
-catherine*
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Berlin
greeeeeeeeeeeeeeetings from austria!!!!!!
i apologize for the amount of time it has taken me to write this post. we have been very busy with school lately and havent had much time to keep up on this. and it gets very tiring. but i am here to write about our last trip which was to berlin, germany.
overall it was a great trip without anything that really went wrong. of course that was because we stayed with a friend of catherine's who did all the planning and hard work for us. so we trained to berlin overnight and her friend met us at the trainstation. that was all the work we had to do. julia (her friend) first took us to her house through a network of different trains which we would have easily got lost on, but it was all second nature to her. so we got to her house after probably about 30-45 mins. after dropping our stuff off we left immediately to go the reichstag building, germany's parliament or the equivelant of our white house. normally to get in and get a tour you have to wait in line for a couple hours and go with a large group, however, julia has a friend who works for one of the political parties there, so we got to bypass the line, get special visitor name passes, and a private tour from someone who worked there. julia's friend spoke near perfect english, and julia herself spoke almost flawless english, which was a nice suprise. to be honest, if i didnt know she was german, i probably wouldnt have guessed it from her accent or lack there of, although she did look very german. anyways, her friend gave us a complete tour of the building which was very cool. probably the coolest part was a section of the building which hadnt been renovated, it was actually just segments of the original walls that hadnt been renovated that had graffiti from russian soldiers still on it, and bulletholes scattered all over the wall. it was really amazing. after the tour we went around to the front of the building where there was a huge field spread out before the building. hitler gave many of his charismatic rallying speeches on a podium above the steps out front, and thousands upon thousands of naze troops had stood to attention on that same field!!! it was basically one of the coolest things ever. so after that we walked around berlin, saw a holocaust memorial which was just a bunch of different sized concrete blocks (refer to the pictures), and saw different parts of the city. julia showed us her law school and different buildings where she studies every day. she also showed us the square where the nazis held their book burnings (indiana jones and the last crusade, we saw the actual place, gonna have to watch it again!). in the middle of the squar there is a glass panel on the ground and underneath is a huge room with empty bookshelves to symbolize all the incredible jewish knowledge that was destroyed. we ended the night by going out to eat, getting ben and jerry's (yes!!!!!!!!), and going out for a drink, before heading back to go to sleep.
the next day after a great breakfast (which i missed cause i slept in) we went right back to touring. we stopped and saw the larose cleaning company's main headquarters. yes that was where my beautiful fiance was created. we then took a train to the berlin wall. the wall was actually much smaller than we had expected, only being about half a foot wide and about 12 ft tall. the entire wall was covered in graffiti, there was not a clean section, but a lot of it had deep racial meaning which we did not understand cause we are ignorant americans, but it was still pretty dang cool. after that we continued our tour by seeing a church that had been bombed during ww2 and was never rebuilt, half the steeple was missing, and is now used mainly as a tourist attraction. after that we did a lot, and i mean a lot, of shopping. too much for my preference but i was with a couple girls, what could i do? although we did get to see a watch which cost 6200.00 euro. that comes to $9069.36 US. yep more than some cars. ill just stick with my $30 wal-mart watch thank you very much. so after the shopping we basically just had lunch and worked our way back to the train to head back to good 'ol gaming. the end.
overall it was a great trip. not having to plan it all out and having everything go smoothly was a great change and the hospitality of julia and her family was incredible. it was a trip that we will not soon forget and our very grateful to have had the oppurtunity to go on. please refer to the pictures for a much better explanation of our trip than what i just gave, they really are amazing. we hope you all are enjoying following us as always. next we will be in rome and assisi for 10 days! we will be sure to take lots of pictures as always and post them as soon as we recover from lost sleep. we hope this finds you all well and we miss and love you dearly. yes, dearly.
auf wiedersehen!
-alden
i apologize for the amount of time it has taken me to write this post. we have been very busy with school lately and havent had much time to keep up on this. and it gets very tiring. but i am here to write about our last trip which was to berlin, germany.
overall it was a great trip without anything that really went wrong. of course that was because we stayed with a friend of catherine's who did all the planning and hard work for us. so we trained to berlin overnight and her friend met us at the trainstation. that was all the work we had to do. julia (her friend) first took us to her house through a network of different trains which we would have easily got lost on, but it was all second nature to her. so we got to her house after probably about 30-45 mins. after dropping our stuff off we left immediately to go the reichstag building, germany's parliament or the equivelant of our white house. normally to get in and get a tour you have to wait in line for a couple hours and go with a large group, however, julia has a friend who works for one of the political parties there, so we got to bypass the line, get special visitor name passes, and a private tour from someone who worked there. julia's friend spoke near perfect english, and julia herself spoke almost flawless english, which was a nice suprise. to be honest, if i didnt know she was german, i probably wouldnt have guessed it from her accent or lack there of, although she did look very german. anyways, her friend gave us a complete tour of the building which was very cool. probably the coolest part was a section of the building which hadnt been renovated, it was actually just segments of the original walls that hadnt been renovated that had graffiti from russian soldiers still on it, and bulletholes scattered all over the wall. it was really amazing. after the tour we went around to the front of the building where there was a huge field spread out before the building. hitler gave many of his charismatic rallying speeches on a podium above the steps out front, and thousands upon thousands of naze troops had stood to attention on that same field!!! it was basically one of the coolest things ever. so after that we walked around berlin, saw a holocaust memorial which was just a bunch of different sized concrete blocks (refer to the pictures), and saw different parts of the city. julia showed us her law school and different buildings where she studies every day. she also showed us the square where the nazis held their book burnings (indiana jones and the last crusade, we saw the actual place, gonna have to watch it again!). in the middle of the squar there is a glass panel on the ground and underneath is a huge room with empty bookshelves to symbolize all the incredible jewish knowledge that was destroyed. we ended the night by going out to eat, getting ben and jerry's (yes!!!!!!!!), and going out for a drink, before heading back to go to sleep.
the next day after a great breakfast (which i missed cause i slept in) we went right back to touring. we stopped and saw the larose cleaning company's main headquarters. yes that was where my beautiful fiance was created. we then took a train to the berlin wall. the wall was actually much smaller than we had expected, only being about half a foot wide and about 12 ft tall. the entire wall was covered in graffiti, there was not a clean section, but a lot of it had deep racial meaning which we did not understand cause we are ignorant americans, but it was still pretty dang cool. after that we continued our tour by seeing a church that had been bombed during ww2 and was never rebuilt, half the steeple was missing, and is now used mainly as a tourist attraction. after that we did a lot, and i mean a lot, of shopping. too much for my preference but i was with a couple girls, what could i do? although we did get to see a watch which cost 6200.00 euro. that comes to $9069.36 US. yep more than some cars. ill just stick with my $30 wal-mart watch thank you very much. so after the shopping we basically just had lunch and worked our way back to the train to head back to good 'ol gaming. the end.
overall it was a great trip. not having to plan it all out and having everything go smoothly was a great change and the hospitality of julia and her family was incredible. it was a trip that we will not soon forget and our very grateful to have had the oppurtunity to go on. please refer to the pictures for a much better explanation of our trip than what i just gave, they really are amazing. we hope you all are enjoying following us as always. next we will be in rome and assisi for 10 days! we will be sure to take lots of pictures as always and post them as soon as we recover from lost sleep. we hope this finds you all well and we miss and love you dearly. yes, dearly.
auf wiedersehen!
-alden
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Salzburg Day Trip (Eagles Nest Flop)
Hey everyone, well this entry should have been written a couple weeks ago now but it has been pretty busy as usual and we are currently in Gaming this weekend because Paris fell through. So we have time on our hands to catch up on blogging and pics. It's been a nice weekend of relaxation for a change so we won't complain even though I had my heart set on Paris. We also tried to book another day trip this weekend to Salzburg to see Sleeping Beauty's castle which is also supposedly spectacular, but it wasn't worth the travel for the time we would be able to spend there. Can't do everything I suppose...We will definitely do Paris another weekend though, God-willing.
So. Once upon a time, a couple weekends ago, Alden, Caleb, and I headed up to Salzburg, leaving about 4:30 am, yuck. We trained to Berchesgaden I think it was called to check out the Eagle's Nest, Hitler's private vacation ranch. However, the farther we headed north, the more snow came down. I had a sinking feeling that traveling up a steep mountain on a bus, in a snowstorm, wouldn't fly. We got there and were told this was true and we learned that only a couple days ago it had closed, and it was absolutely beautiful. It was a real bummer. However, the snow was absolutely gorgeous and so the train ride was pretty fun. I cranked up the Christmas music on my ipod and was a happy pilgrim. :) If you're curious as to what the Eagle's Nest WOULD have looked like, you can look it up online. It's pretty remarkable and supposedly one of the most beautiful locations in the world. Anyways... we headed back to Salzburg, did a tiny bit of shopping, and went to the Augustiner for lunch which Caleb had actually never been to anyways. Afterwards our score of bad luck continued as we missed our train back to Gaming. We ended up taking a train to St. Polten where we thought we could take a taxi for around 50 euro. This was mistaken for the drivers wanted 140 euro!!! ahh! We prepared ourselves for the fact that we needed to find a hostel or spend the night in the train station. We called Katie, one of our RD's, and our luck turned around. She was 10 minutes away!!! Her and a couple friends were driving back from Vienna from the Kalpagian baby's baptism. And so they picked us up and we made it safely home that night. The end.
-catherine*
So. Once upon a time, a couple weekends ago, Alden, Caleb, and I headed up to Salzburg, leaving about 4:30 am, yuck. We trained to Berchesgaden I think it was called to check out the Eagle's Nest, Hitler's private vacation ranch. However, the farther we headed north, the more snow came down. I had a sinking feeling that traveling up a steep mountain on a bus, in a snowstorm, wouldn't fly. We got there and were told this was true and we learned that only a couple days ago it had closed, and it was absolutely beautiful. It was a real bummer. However, the snow was absolutely gorgeous and so the train ride was pretty fun. I cranked up the Christmas music on my ipod and was a happy pilgrim. :) If you're curious as to what the Eagle's Nest WOULD have looked like, you can look it up online. It's pretty remarkable and supposedly one of the most beautiful locations in the world. Anyways... we headed back to Salzburg, did a tiny bit of shopping, and went to the Augustiner for lunch which Caleb had actually never been to anyways. Afterwards our score of bad luck continued as we missed our train back to Gaming. We ended up taking a train to St. Polten where we thought we could take a taxi for around 50 euro. This was mistaken for the drivers wanted 140 euro!!! ahh! We prepared ourselves for the fact that we needed to find a hostel or spend the night in the train station. We called Katie, one of our RD's, and our luck turned around. She was 10 minutes away!!! Her and a couple friends were driving back from Vienna from the Kalpagian baby's baptism. And so they picked us up and we made it safely home that night. The end.
-catherine*
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Greece and Venice
Hi everyone! We had a wonderful 10-day break and once again, are caught up on pictures and blogging. So! It all started on Thursday October 4th or whatever it was... we left right after class and took a train to Amstetten where we reserved our night tickets, got on our train and rode through the night to Venice. It wasn't too bad sleeping on the train though I was pretty tired, Alden can sleep anywhere, like a rock! So we saw Venice briefly on Friday before we caught our ferry to Greece. What a long couple days!!! We left Friday afternoon, slept on the deck that night (VERY cold) and spent all of Saturday napping, playing cards, and waiting. We couldn't see much because there was quite a bit of fog and also, you can only look at the sea for so long... the Adriadic Sea really is pretty though, very blue.
We arrived in Patras, Greece Saturday night, exhausted. As we were walking around looking for a taxi, we stumbled upon our hostel, if you want to call it that. We stepped in the... refugee home? and I was immediately uncomfortable and did not feel safe at all. Soiled mattresses, rickety doors, and disgusting bathrooms. We didn't even want to shower after 3 days! We would have felt more dirty i think... We decided to stick out the night and went to an internet cafe to book the next few nights at a different hotel. We got some dinner, tried to relax, and survived through the night. I was so tired I actually slept but Alden didn't do so well and slept with a knife at his side, haha. The next day we got out of there, found the bus station and drove away from Patras! yay! The bus attendant stopped us where we needed to get off, told us to go down the road and take a left at the sea. Great. Well, we were hiking through private residences, orange orchards, on the coast, etc. Somehow we did find the little village of Silianitika! Our hotel was nice and CLEAN. It was very quiet and peaceful and besides feeling like a couple ugly ducks from people's stares, we had an awesome time. Great food and relaxation. We swam in the beautiful water and drank wonderful Greek wine. We had marvelous seafood and it was on that beach, going for a night walk in our barefeet, that Alden fell on his knee on the rocky beach and asked me to marry him. It was perfect and I now have a beautiful ring on my finger. :)
Wednesday we wanted to be adventurous and decided to go to Athens. Bad idea! A huge city and a couple ignorant tourists do not go hand in hand! We were completely lost, had no idea what we were getting into, and wasted the day just trying to find the train station. Allwell...maybe someday we'll see the Parthenon! haha... We went back to Patras, had our last Greek dinner, and got back on a ferry, yuck! But this time we found floor space inside, esp. cause we had 2 nights on the boat this time.
Friday morning we arrived in Venice. I immediately loved it. What a unique and beautiful city, so different! We learned how to use the water busses and saw alot of the city that way. We found our hostel which was actually more like a hotel, nice for a change, and cleaned up before hitting the town for some Italian pizza, mmmmm. We went to St. Mark's square for some shopping, amazing sights, and to play with the psychotic pigeons, haha, what fun! We had a blast and I think besides the engagement and swimming in Greece, it was one of the highlights for me. :) Unfortunately we couldn't do one of the romantic gondola rides, 80 euro was a little steep for us! We slept good that night but were ready to go home the next day. We hung at the train station pretty much but there was jellati and live music so it wasn't too bad. Here we bumped into both of our roomates, my roomate nearly killed me in excitement when she saw my ring, haha. It was nice to see old faces. We trained the night again back to Gaming.
How nice to be home!!!!
So that's about it. Back to classes and quiet Gaming town life. So nice. Hope you all enjoy the pictures! Look forward to seeing pictures of the Eagle's Nest next week which is where we plan on going this Saturday. We had to cross off Switzerland due to money but it's ok, can't do everything!
Much love!
-catherine*
We arrived in Patras, Greece Saturday night, exhausted. As we were walking around looking for a taxi, we stumbled upon our hostel, if you want to call it that. We stepped in the... refugee home? and I was immediately uncomfortable and did not feel safe at all. Soiled mattresses, rickety doors, and disgusting bathrooms. We didn't even want to shower after 3 days! We would have felt more dirty i think... We decided to stick out the night and went to an internet cafe to book the next few nights at a different hotel. We got some dinner, tried to relax, and survived through the night. I was so tired I actually slept but Alden didn't do so well and slept with a knife at his side, haha. The next day we got out of there, found the bus station and drove away from Patras! yay! The bus attendant stopped us where we needed to get off, told us to go down the road and take a left at the sea. Great. Well, we were hiking through private residences, orange orchards, on the coast, etc. Somehow we did find the little village of Silianitika! Our hotel was nice and CLEAN. It was very quiet and peaceful and besides feeling like a couple ugly ducks from people's stares, we had an awesome time. Great food and relaxation. We swam in the beautiful water and drank wonderful Greek wine. We had marvelous seafood and it was on that beach, going for a night walk in our barefeet, that Alden fell on his knee on the rocky beach and asked me to marry him. It was perfect and I now have a beautiful ring on my finger. :)
Wednesday we wanted to be adventurous and decided to go to Athens. Bad idea! A huge city and a couple ignorant tourists do not go hand in hand! We were completely lost, had no idea what we were getting into, and wasted the day just trying to find the train station. Allwell...maybe someday we'll see the Parthenon! haha... We went back to Patras, had our last Greek dinner, and got back on a ferry, yuck! But this time we found floor space inside, esp. cause we had 2 nights on the boat this time.
Friday morning we arrived in Venice. I immediately loved it. What a unique and beautiful city, so different! We learned how to use the water busses and saw alot of the city that way. We found our hostel which was actually more like a hotel, nice for a change, and cleaned up before hitting the town for some Italian pizza, mmmmm. We went to St. Mark's square for some shopping, amazing sights, and to play with the psychotic pigeons, haha, what fun! We had a blast and I think besides the engagement and swimming in Greece, it was one of the highlights for me. :) Unfortunately we couldn't do one of the romantic gondola rides, 80 euro was a little steep for us! We slept good that night but were ready to go home the next day. We hung at the train station pretty much but there was jellati and live music so it wasn't too bad. Here we bumped into both of our roomates, my roomate nearly killed me in excitement when she saw my ring, haha. It was nice to see old faces. We trained the night again back to Gaming.
How nice to be home!!!!
So that's about it. Back to classes and quiet Gaming town life. So nice. Hope you all enjoy the pictures! Look forward to seeing pictures of the Eagle's Nest next week which is where we plan on going this Saturday. We had to cross off Switzerland due to money but it's ok, can't do everything!
Much love!
-catherine*
Monday, October 15, 2007
Whitewater Rafting in the Alps
greetings!!!
well its been a long time since we've wrote and a lots happened since then. we just got back from our ten day break yesterday and though we are exhausted, we are working hard on getting pictures up and writing entries to keep you all up to date. this entry will be dedicated to our whitewater rafting trip which was a little over two weeks ago. we originally were going to do a day trip to a vineyard where we would get to do some wine tasting and help out at the vineyard, but that was cancelled because the vineyard closed early due to weather. so instead they did a whitewater rafting trip on a river in the Alps. it was about a two hour drive if i remember correctly. when we arrived there they got right to business handing out wetsuits, helmets, and lifejackets. we definitely needed the wetsuits, the water was around 35 degrees farenheit so we probably would have died without them. anyways, they gave us our wetsuits and sent us into the changing rooms which were basically a couple sheds. putting on the wetsuits was a bit of a shock as they were still wet from their last use and ice cold. anyways once we got the wetsuits on and gathered up again outside they took us in groups in these rugged vans to the first launch site. after a brief safety talk we broke into groups and chose rafts and guides. our group was actually the first to go. when we got the the waters edge, our guide told us that the first thing we had to do was go into the water up to our necks. so we did. let me just say that we all instantly found all the holes in our suits. the suits worked well though and i only really had a noticeable hole in my butt. but it wasnt too bad. anyways we got into the river and went down the first part which was relatively calm, basically getting used to the commands and working together. there were a few mild rapids on that section, nothing too bad. the views were absolutely breathtaking though. the river flowed through the austrian alps and we had towering mountains around us. it would have been worth it just to ride down the river looking at the landscape, let alone be on a rafting trip. it was gorgeous. and it was here that we got our first taste of raft wars which was incredibly fun. basically whenever there was a calm, and you were near another raft, you splash the hell out of the other raft, and try to knock the other people out of their raft using whatever methods you see fit. my roommate caleb instantly jumped into our raft and started throwing people out (he's 24 and a pretty big guy). but i jumped on him and wrestled with him for about 3 minutes before throwing myself and him in the river. he tried climbing back into our raft, but i jumped on his back and dragged him back into the river. it was fun. after getting pulled back into our raft we finished that section of the river, dragged our raft out of the water, loaded back into the vans, and drove off to our next landing.
the next section of the river had a level 3 (out of 5) rapids section. that would actually be a level 4 in the united states, but in europe was a 3. the rapids were the first section of this part, and after we went through them we stopped and watched everyone else go through them. it was insanely exilerating and fun. after that we had a long section of calm waters where the greatest part of the raft wars took place. now before i go on i have to tell you that mark kalpakgian told everyone on the bus that there was a reward of milka (european chocolate) for the person who was able to knock robby cruz in to the water. robby cruz was the biggest guy on the rafting trip, about 6ft 3, probably 200-210 lbs. the rafting group he was in also decided to make sure that no one got him into the river. anyways, it was at this point in the river that my raft drifted towards his and his back was turned to me. i saw this as my chance. i stood up (i was in the backseat of an 8 man raft) and ran down my raft and lept through the air onto his. i didnt previously know that his entire raft was going to protect him, so i was a little shocked when him and two other guys tried to knock me into the water. it took all my strength just to stay on the raft. i eventually got the two other guys off me and was wrestling with just robby. it was at this point that another raft of students from ave maria who were with us drifted over. two of their guys jumped in and started helping me. we basically came to a standstill with robby as he had two legs wedged under the seats of the raft. the two ave guys had his two legs, i had one arm around his chest and the other arm between his legs. with the last bit of strength i had left, i pushed robby over the edge, still holding onto him with all my strength. all this took about 5 min of hardcore wrestling with about 6 guys. as i broke back through the surface of the water i saw robby yelling in frustration, and an entire raft of people cheering. with my last ounce of strength i raised my fist in the air and yelled. at this point my raft was about 75 feet away from me floating down the river. all the guides were yelling at me to swim to the raft and get out of the water, but i was so exhausted i just floated for a minute to get some strength back before swimming back to my raft. it took me about 3 minutes to swim to my raft, and this was in the freezing water. when i finally got back to my raft i was out of breath, exhausted, and numb on every part of my body that was exposed to the water. it took a while before i could feel my hands and row again. but i was so proud of myself i didnt care. i honestly felt ten ft tall. at this point there wasnt much of the river left, and as we approached the end, the guide told us we could jump out and swim if we wanted to. me and catherine did. it was fun, albeit freezing. we were definitely ready to get out of those wetsuits by the time we got back to the camp. once we got back into dry clothes and on the bus we were tired, warm, and starving. that night they had another bonfire and cookout with free beer back behind the townhouses where the professors live. it was a great way to end an incredibly fun day.
the school purchased about 800 pictures from the guides who were taking pictures all along with waterproof cameras, and the school has those pictures up on a website that we will post a link to soon. it will be on the side of our blog underneath our own link. be sure to keep an eye out for those. well, catherine will soon be writing a post about our ten day break, but i hope you all enjoyed hearing about this amazing experience we were able to have and be sure to check back soon to hear about our latest experiences. we love and miss you all and look forward to hearing from you soon!!!
-alden
well its been a long time since we've wrote and a lots happened since then. we just got back from our ten day break yesterday and though we are exhausted, we are working hard on getting pictures up and writing entries to keep you all up to date. this entry will be dedicated to our whitewater rafting trip which was a little over two weeks ago. we originally were going to do a day trip to a vineyard where we would get to do some wine tasting and help out at the vineyard, but that was cancelled because the vineyard closed early due to weather. so instead they did a whitewater rafting trip on a river in the Alps. it was about a two hour drive if i remember correctly. when we arrived there they got right to business handing out wetsuits, helmets, and lifejackets. we definitely needed the wetsuits, the water was around 35 degrees farenheit so we probably would have died without them. anyways, they gave us our wetsuits and sent us into the changing rooms which were basically a couple sheds. putting on the wetsuits was a bit of a shock as they were still wet from their last use and ice cold. anyways once we got the wetsuits on and gathered up again outside they took us in groups in these rugged vans to the first launch site. after a brief safety talk we broke into groups and chose rafts and guides. our group was actually the first to go. when we got the the waters edge, our guide told us that the first thing we had to do was go into the water up to our necks. so we did. let me just say that we all instantly found all the holes in our suits. the suits worked well though and i only really had a noticeable hole in my butt. but it wasnt too bad. anyways we got into the river and went down the first part which was relatively calm, basically getting used to the commands and working together. there were a few mild rapids on that section, nothing too bad. the views were absolutely breathtaking though. the river flowed through the austrian alps and we had towering mountains around us. it would have been worth it just to ride down the river looking at the landscape, let alone be on a rafting trip. it was gorgeous. and it was here that we got our first taste of raft wars which was incredibly fun. basically whenever there was a calm, and you were near another raft, you splash the hell out of the other raft, and try to knock the other people out of their raft using whatever methods you see fit. my roommate caleb instantly jumped into our raft and started throwing people out (he's 24 and a pretty big guy). but i jumped on him and wrestled with him for about 3 minutes before throwing myself and him in the river. he tried climbing back into our raft, but i jumped on his back and dragged him back into the river. it was fun. after getting pulled back into our raft we finished that section of the river, dragged our raft out of the water, loaded back into the vans, and drove off to our next landing.
the next section of the river had a level 3 (out of 5) rapids section. that would actually be a level 4 in the united states, but in europe was a 3. the rapids were the first section of this part, and after we went through them we stopped and watched everyone else go through them. it was insanely exilerating and fun. after that we had a long section of calm waters where the greatest part of the raft wars took place. now before i go on i have to tell you that mark kalpakgian told everyone on the bus that there was a reward of milka (european chocolate) for the person who was able to knock robby cruz in to the water. robby cruz was the biggest guy on the rafting trip, about 6ft 3, probably 200-210 lbs. the rafting group he was in also decided to make sure that no one got him into the river. anyways, it was at this point in the river that my raft drifted towards his and his back was turned to me. i saw this as my chance. i stood up (i was in the backseat of an 8 man raft) and ran down my raft and lept through the air onto his. i didnt previously know that his entire raft was going to protect him, so i was a little shocked when him and two other guys tried to knock me into the water. it took all my strength just to stay on the raft. i eventually got the two other guys off me and was wrestling with just robby. it was at this point that another raft of students from ave maria who were with us drifted over. two of their guys jumped in and started helping me. we basically came to a standstill with robby as he had two legs wedged under the seats of the raft. the two ave guys had his two legs, i had one arm around his chest and the other arm between his legs. with the last bit of strength i had left, i pushed robby over the edge, still holding onto him with all my strength. all this took about 5 min of hardcore wrestling with about 6 guys. as i broke back through the surface of the water i saw robby yelling in frustration, and an entire raft of people cheering. with my last ounce of strength i raised my fist in the air and yelled. at this point my raft was about 75 feet away from me floating down the river. all the guides were yelling at me to swim to the raft and get out of the water, but i was so exhausted i just floated for a minute to get some strength back before swimming back to my raft. it took me about 3 minutes to swim to my raft, and this was in the freezing water. when i finally got back to my raft i was out of breath, exhausted, and numb on every part of my body that was exposed to the water. it took a while before i could feel my hands and row again. but i was so proud of myself i didnt care. i honestly felt ten ft tall. at this point there wasnt much of the river left, and as we approached the end, the guide told us we could jump out and swim if we wanted to. me and catherine did. it was fun, albeit freezing. we were definitely ready to get out of those wetsuits by the time we got back to the camp. once we got back into dry clothes and on the bus we were tired, warm, and starving. that night they had another bonfire and cookout with free beer back behind the townhouses where the professors live. it was a great way to end an incredibly fun day.
the school purchased about 800 pictures from the guides who were taking pictures all along with waterproof cameras, and the school has those pictures up on a website that we will post a link to soon. it will be on the side of our blog underneath our own link. be sure to keep an eye out for those. well, catherine will soon be writing a post about our ten day break, but i hope you all enjoyed hearing about this amazing experience we were able to have and be sure to check back soon to hear about our latest experiences. we love and miss you all and look forward to hearing from you soon!!!
-alden
Monday, October 1, 2007
Medugorje/Croatia
Hallo everyone! So I know that this is a bit late but here is the post on the Medugorje trip which was actually 2 weekends ago now. This past weekend we were in Vienna on friday and rafting on saturday, but I'm sure Alden will fill you in on all of that in a different post and we are going to try to get pictures form the trip from Mark. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of Medugorje and Croatia cause there are quite a few of them!
We started our trip thursday night and drove through the night, it was a long night and the beginning of a tired weekend. Friday morning we arrived in Medugorje and checked into our hotel. Then we walked down to the parish church for a 10am English mass. Allready we were beginning to experience the holiness of this little village as we gathered with hundreds of pilgrims to celebrate mass. After mass we went into a few shops, there were tons of souvenir shops everywhere, we were trying to guess how many rosaries are in the entire town of Medugurje... we met back at our hotel and a guide took us towards Apparition Hill. We prayed the sorrowful mysteries and between decades our guide would share information and history about the town. It was a very prayerful and peaceful atmosphere. We climbed Apparition Hill barefoot as the children did 26 years ago when the apparitions began. As we climbed we prayed the joyful mysteries. When we reached the top, there was more silence and reflective prayer before we hiked down. Alden and I got a little lost on the way back, of course, got back to the hotel and crash napped for about an hour before dinner. We ended the night with some more shoping and jellato icecream. :) Saturday morning was spent in the monastery with Fr. Jozo, he was a very profound and inspirational speaker and prayed over each of us. We also celebrated mass in the monastery where the franciscan monks were martyred which was very powerful. Especially when we climbed down into the cave where their bodies were burned. After this we got back on the bus for Medugorje, grabbed a quick lunch, and headed out for Cross Mountain. We climbed the mountain while praying the stations of the cross, many of the other pilgrims seemed to be very moved by our young group and one even asked us to sing a song for them. At the top of the mountain the view was incredible! We knelt at the cross, which actually has a piece of the True Cross built inside of it. After about a half hour or so we headed back down and then back to the hotel for dinner again. After dinner we went to adoration for about an hour which was also beautiful. Sunday morning we said goodbye to Medugorje and got back on our dear bus. We drove a couple hours into Croatia. I had fallen asleep and woke up to everyone gasping, oohing and aahing. We looked at our window and met quite the sight! Spread out before us, thousands of feet below, was the Adriatic Sea. Mountains towered all around us and our road winded around the side of the mountains above the sea. It was probably one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen in my life! The water was crystal, clear blue, all I wanted to do was go swimming in it! We had mass at a shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes, moseyed around there for a little and gazed up at the mountains. Then we took off for Split, where we spent the remainder of the day exploring the old streets and castle, watching the boats come in, and checking out the tons of shops. It was the most perfect and relaxing way to end the weekend and we were sorry to leave. We got back on our bus for the last stretch, drove through the night again. I got sooooo sick that night I don't think I slept a wink, needing to get up every hour or so to go to the bathroom, what a drag. When we got back to Gaming about 4:45 in the morning we crashed for a few hours and spent the rest of the day watching a movie and taking it easy. It took a while to recuperate from the trip! But it was definitely worth every minute and I'm sure the experience will last throughout our lifetime.
That's about it now. We're in the middle of midterms this week and then off to Venice and Greece for our 10-day break on thursday so don't expect anything new for quite some time. We'll have tons of pictures when we get back and like I said, we'll try to get the rafting pictures up as soon as we get ahold of them.
Miss everyone and hope all is well back home!
Until next time!
-catherine*
We started our trip thursday night and drove through the night, it was a long night and the beginning of a tired weekend. Friday morning we arrived in Medugorje and checked into our hotel. Then we walked down to the parish church for a 10am English mass. Allready we were beginning to experience the holiness of this little village as we gathered with hundreds of pilgrims to celebrate mass. After mass we went into a few shops, there were tons of souvenir shops everywhere, we were trying to guess how many rosaries are in the entire town of Medugurje... we met back at our hotel and a guide took us towards Apparition Hill. We prayed the sorrowful mysteries and between decades our guide would share information and history about the town. It was a very prayerful and peaceful atmosphere. We climbed Apparition Hill barefoot as the children did 26 years ago when the apparitions began. As we climbed we prayed the joyful mysteries. When we reached the top, there was more silence and reflective prayer before we hiked down. Alden and I got a little lost on the way back, of course, got back to the hotel and crash napped for about an hour before dinner. We ended the night with some more shoping and jellato icecream. :) Saturday morning was spent in the monastery with Fr. Jozo, he was a very profound and inspirational speaker and prayed over each of us. We also celebrated mass in the monastery where the franciscan monks were martyred which was very powerful. Especially when we climbed down into the cave where their bodies were burned. After this we got back on the bus for Medugorje, grabbed a quick lunch, and headed out for Cross Mountain. We climbed the mountain while praying the stations of the cross, many of the other pilgrims seemed to be very moved by our young group and one even asked us to sing a song for them. At the top of the mountain the view was incredible! We knelt at the cross, which actually has a piece of the True Cross built inside of it. After about a half hour or so we headed back down and then back to the hotel for dinner again. After dinner we went to adoration for about an hour which was also beautiful. Sunday morning we said goodbye to Medugorje and got back on our dear bus. We drove a couple hours into Croatia. I had fallen asleep and woke up to everyone gasping, oohing and aahing. We looked at our window and met quite the sight! Spread out before us, thousands of feet below, was the Adriatic Sea. Mountains towered all around us and our road winded around the side of the mountains above the sea. It was probably one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen in my life! The water was crystal, clear blue, all I wanted to do was go swimming in it! We had mass at a shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes, moseyed around there for a little and gazed up at the mountains. Then we took off for Split, where we spent the remainder of the day exploring the old streets and castle, watching the boats come in, and checking out the tons of shops. It was the most perfect and relaxing way to end the weekend and we were sorry to leave. We got back on our bus for the last stretch, drove through the night again. I got sooooo sick that night I don't think I slept a wink, needing to get up every hour or so to go to the bathroom, what a drag. When we got back to Gaming about 4:45 in the morning we crashed for a few hours and spent the rest of the day watching a movie and taking it easy. It took a while to recuperate from the trip! But it was definitely worth every minute and I'm sure the experience will last throughout our lifetime.
That's about it now. We're in the middle of midterms this week and then off to Venice and Greece for our 10-day break on thursday so don't expect anything new for quite some time. We'll have tons of pictures when we get back and like I said, we'll try to get the rafting pictures up as soon as we get ahold of them.
Miss everyone and hope all is well back home!
Until next time!
-catherine*
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