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*
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
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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