6.21.2007

The Ice Cream Challenge.

Here it is, proof that I did actually travel around Europe...

The first desert at the El Paso airport with Dad...we would have had ice cream, but they didn't have any.

London, the chocolate stick part was really good.

Somewhere on the English Channel...it was too cold for ice cream, but this tart was tasty!


Mont St. Micheal, dark chocolate and strawberry, mmm...


Paris, near the Louvre


Taize, this one only cost 80 cents because it is sold not for profit...and it was good!


Nice, caramel ice cream, this was definately one of my favorites.

Gelato in Rome, I'm a big fan of the lemon gelato...

And my new favorite ice cream, Dutch Stroopwafflefest...you have to try it to believe it! Plus I was eating it with some of my best friends!

So, there you have it...a succesful ice cream eating adventure!

6.20.2007

Home at last.

I am sitting in my living room, still in my pajamas at 10 o'clock in the morning, and I never knew that it could feel so good. Yesterday I was travelling for over 20 hours with only a couple short plane naps, but I think I pretty much beat the jet lag! The amazing thing was that I made both connections even the hour and a half in Houston to clear passport control and customs! My backpack did get lost somewhere between Houston and home, but if I had to lose it sometime this trip, this is when I would choose.

It is good to be home, but it feels a little funny sitting still after so much movement. This last week with Eleanor, Rachel, and Janelle has been a blast! We sampled every Dutch junk food we could, walked all over in the rain and a littttttle bit of sunshine, laughed until I (almost) peed my pants several times, talked about life, relationships, and the meaning of it all...and generally had a wonderful time.

Thanks for following this trip with me! I hope to upload some pictures once I get a chance to look through them, so stay tuned! And I plan to keep updating this blog with other random mutterings as I go through life, maybe I'll even write a more reflective ending to the trip if I get in a reflective type of mood sometime soon :-)

I hope all is well with you. May peace be with you in your travels!

6.14.2007

Wow.

My trip is nearing the end. I can hardly believe it. Right now I am in Gronigen visiting my dear friend Eleanor who has been studying at an art school here for the past year. I flew into Amsterdam two days ago from Rome. Eleanor and I had talked about meeting in Amsterdam, but I had a hard time finding internet to really make plans. But then waiting for me as I walk out of baggage claim is Eleanor! It was amazing to see her there waiting for me.

That night we walked around the canals of Amsterdam, it is a beautiful city. All the tall skinny houses crammed right next to each other with house boats floating in the canal in front of them. I felt very European! It was surreal walking around such a foreign city with a friend I hadn't seen in a whole year. Surreal and wonderful!

Today we are walking around Gronigen, lingering in cafes, smelling roses, and eating yummy food. Oh, my favorite part about the Netherlands so far is that they but chocolate sprinkles on their toast at breakfast! I had never realized just how social acceptable chocolate for breakfast was in Europe...that is a tradition I am soooo starting at home!

It is very good to be with a friend that I have known for more than three days. I feel more rested and less stressed about traveling and where I am going to be next. It is good to relax and not be a tourist for a while. And our friend Rachel and Janelle are coming to Gronigen today, so that will be a blast!

Farwell for now!

6.11.2007

Nice, the night train, and Rome.

I left Taizé way to early in the morning to catch a bus then a train down to Nice. Strangely enough, Nice is very nice. Lots of beach and even some nude sun-bathers to complete the experience. I did partake in the beach but not the nude part...just so ya know.

After eating an ice cream and grabbing some fruit for the train, I hopped on my first night train on its way to Rome. I shared a six seat cabin with 5 then 2 other backpackers. It wasn't too bad with the three of us and I was able to get some sleep. The two other backpackers got off in Florence and an older Italian man came into my cabin. This was my first negative experience being a single woman traveling, but I got the point across to him that I was not interested in anything and that he should leave right now. Then I left the cabin until he moved his stuff out. It is a good thing that "No" is the same in any language.

And now I am in Rome. It is beautiful and the history is amazing. Today I stood under the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and gawked like the millions of other tourists who have done the same. It was unreal, I can hardly belive that it actually happened! But now I can cross that life goal off the list.

One very cool thing is that the girls I meet in Paris and ran around with my first night there are also here in Rome staying at the same place I am! They saw me at the bus stop and none of us could belive the coincidence! So it has been very fun to hang out with them in this beautiful city.

Tomorrow I am flying to Amsterdam to meet Eleanor, Rachel, and Janelle. I am very excited to hang out with people that I have known for more than a few days! And as much fun as this trip has been, it will be nice to be home. I'm too that point were I walk around and think, "oh, another old building...oh, another famous painting..." and that's just no good! But I will write more about what I really saw later when my energy and enthusiasm is back.

Life at a monastary.

I wanted to share with you a little taste of Taizé in the video below. It was an amazing experience, prayer three times a day with 10 minutes of silence at each service, simple meals that you eat sitting on benches talking to people from all over the world, bible study in the morning and work in the afternoon.

But as one of my friends at Taizé said, it is not real for those of us who visit for a week. There are a lot of people there who come back year after year to get that spiritual high and renewal, but then lose it when they go back home. That's how my church camp experiences in high school were. But the key is to make that kind of life real at home. To live with simplsity and prayer and silence everyday.

One night I walked down to the church in the village of Taizé with the same friend. The 1000 visitors to Taizé were all back in their beds so the silence there was complete. We walked into the church and I could feel the silence pushing against my skin. We had been in mid-conversation when he opened the door to the church, but we both stopped talking, sat down, and listened to the deafening silence.

I was very sad to leave the peaceful place after only a few days, but like I said, it was not really "real" so it was time to come back to real life.

Taizé

6.08.2007

Question

Hey... you blog savy people, how do I add this video here?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_GL_zdSSIY

Oh la la...Paris!

From 6/5

Well folks, it's been a while so I'm going to try to catch up on the past week. Since my last post I've been in Paris for three days. On my way there from Mont St. Micheal, I stopped in a city called Rennes for a few hours. I didn't have anywhere to leave my pack so I carried it with me, and wouldn't you know, it was raining! Anyways, as I was walking around these beautiful gardens a complete stranger started talking to me. He is a student named Guy (pronounced Geee) who doesn't speak any English. I was nervous about having him around, but we stayed in public spaces and ended up having a very good conversation. There was a lot of pointing, grunting and akward silence involved since my French is very limited, but it was extremely interesting.

Then I got to Paris and the girl sharing the bunk bed with me had also just arrived and was travelling alone. Karolina from Quebec and I cooked (or attempted to cook) dinner together then met up with some other Canadians who were attempting to see the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Effiel Tower all in one night! What an introduction to Paris for Karolina and me!! We walked from our hostel to all those places only breifly getting distracted at a choclaterie and a couple dress store windows. The Effiel Tower is beautiful at night when they make it sparkle by flashing on and off the lights each hour. But really, the best part of the night was the girls naming me an honorary Canadian!!

The next day Karolina and I took an official walking tour of Paris and learned the history behind what we had run past the night before. Then we headed over to the Musée D'Orsay, a converted train station that houses many of the Impressionists including Degas' ballerinas and even a Gustav Klimt painting that I was very excited to see. It is an amazing collection and I could have spent hours there. We meet up with some other backpackers for a three course French dinner back in the student district. It's great, once I got the hang of meeting people, it turned out to be really easy!

On Friday I accomplished one of my life goals; I climbed all 414 spiraled steps up the bell tower of Notre Dame de Paris! The view is amazing and I got to meet aquite a fex gargoyles face to face! The other highlights of the day were the Sacré-Coeur Bastillica, the Moulin Rouge, and coffee at the café from the movie Amèlie. That night the Louvre was free for those under 26 years old. It was beautiful to see what could have been a crowd from any bar wandering around this amazing museum. After saying hello to the Mona Lisa, I wandered around the scuplture wing. They had an exhibit going on where artists design pieces for specific places in the Louvre. For example, the room that houses sections of ancient Mesopotaian carvings was filled by a large curved mirror; a piece entitled "Vertigo" or something to that effect. It was cool to see the reflections of the ancient stonework distorted with my own reflection and those around me.

My last day in Paris was spent wandering around an english bookstore called Shakespeare and Co. where artists are able to live while they create their art. Then I ate my Paris ice cream in a park near the Louvre.

That night Karolina and I decided to celebrate a successful stay with a night on the town. At the end of the night we found a chill bar with a local crowd and the best drink I've ever tasted! It was called a Grasshopper: crème de menthe, crème de cacao, and fresh cream...heavenly. I'm going to try to make some when I get home and you are all invited!

I left Paris for Taizé (a monastary/retreat center a couple hours south of Paris) the next morning and on a whim saw the place where the Bastille stood. You really can't go anywhere in that town without running into a piece of history. But I must say that the best part about Paris was that I had a friend and realized it really isn't that hard to just start talking to people. Needless to say though, it is very nice to be resting at Taizé after a crazy weekend.

6.02.2007

A beautiful day.

From 5/29:

Today I rented a bike and rode out to Mont St. Micheal: The Mont is a spectacular abbey and city that was built in spurts since 600 AD. The abbey is a three story monastary that wraps around the peak of a little mound in a bay. The abbey is still inhabited by the Brothers of Jerusalem. While I was there I was able to sit in on part of their service. It was all in French, which made it a bit hard to understand.

The mound that the abbey is built on is actually an island. When the tide is out, cars park in a lot where water flows when the tides are in. Although I think so much silt has collected that high tide doesn't turn it into an island anymore. They are working on a big project that is supposed to fix that, but it seems like it might be too late. Even during low tide, there are magnificent views of the bay from the top of the abbey.

The rest of the little tourist town wraps around the bottom of the mound. I spent a long time wandering the stone streets and climbing up and down stairs, but even on my way out I found a new passage with a new view. Oh, and I ate my ice cream! 1 scoop of strawberry, 1 scoop of dark chocolate in a cone. So far France so has England beat on the ice cream front.

Biking was really good. It was nice to do something active that didn't involve my pack. The path to the Mont isn't very well marked and I'm not sure if I was even on a path on the way out there. There was a narrow mud path cut into the grass next to the river that I followed. It was a little bumpy but it got me where I wanted to go. I also got lots of good pictures of the country side from the bike which I will post when I get a chance.

And now I'm back in Pontorson where the town is already asleep. But even though it is still light outside (it doesn't get dark till 10 or 10:30) I'm ready to go to bed too. Goodnight!