Our last day....

Haley here. Its almost midnight here and we are all about to head to bed. Wanted to brief you on our day before we started our last day in Europe. Today, we toured Florence. Family, get excited! You all have Christmas presents!!! And I feel like I did quite a good job of shopping in Europe. Didnt spend a lot of money and bought quality presents that I think each of you will like! We are staying in a hostel called PLUS in Florence. Last minute book, but has proved to be very nice..it even has a swimming pool! We have 3 other girls in our room..one goes to Vandy, 1 to University of Virginia and one is canadian and at the University of Montreal. The American girls are studying abroad in Barcelona this semester so they are ending their time here in Europe. The Canadian girl has been all over Europe for the past 3 months. Super fun girls, we have had fun getting to know them.

Today, we started our day by heading to the train station. Last night, we found out that we will not be able to stay with the Rogers family in Munich, but no problem. It actually works out great. We are able to spend all day tomorrow in Florence and then get on a train at 9:30 pm that heads to Munich. We will get to Munich about 6:30 am and then catch a short train to Frankfurt. We will get to Frankfurt on Tuesday morning about 9:30; our plan leaves at 2:10. So, we will be sleeping on the train on Tuesday night, but dont worry, the trains are all completely safe and nice. So today, we went and booked our reservation for the train and then headed off to explore Florence. We first found the market place that had TONS of everything for sale! Italy is known for its leather and boy did they have some leather! Great fun doing a little shopping on our way to the Academia Gallery. This Gallery used to be the art school where Michaelangeo, Di Vinci, Giotto, Rafael and many other studied. These guys were the main stream artists of the beginning of the Renaissance and they all happened to be from Florence and studied and painted here. Is artistic talent in the water here? Maybe I should drink more of it....

At the Academia Gallery, among many great pieces of art, we saw the David. Amazing!! Its HUGE!!! I never imagined it to be so big. Cameras were not allowed but i snuck a picture in of David before I was caught, it was worth the chance. and my flash was off so in now way did i damage the art work:) After the David experience, we went back into the town where we explored a little...saw the Duomo, watched a marathon being run, cheered on some Italians that were struggling in the race, shopped a little more, and went to the Uffizi Museum. Again, an amazing museum with work from all the greats of the Renaissance, my favorite art period. It is still SO cool to be able to see all these pieces in real life. I studied them for so long, looked at pictures of them in books and memorized tons of information about them, but am just now able to see them in person. Great!

After the Uffizi, my brain was kinda full, but we headed out again to see more of Florence. We saw the bridge that has lots of stores on the bridge. Tons of jewelry stores with lots of diamonds! I took lots of pictures of rings that i like..you know, for ideas for the future. We headed back to our hostel, walked back through the market on the way. Ended out having to buy another suitcase for all our purchases, and made it back "home." We got back in time to meet our new friends, have dinner, and the hostel was showing Pirates of the Carribean so we watched the movie.

And that was our day. Everyone is in bed now...its been a long day. We have packed mostly. We have to check out of the hostel by 10am tomorrow. We will leave our bags in the locked luggage room they have, head to Pisa for the day and see the leaning tower they are crazy about, and spend the day there. We will get back from Pisa about 4 and have a few more hours in Florence before we catch our train at 9:30.

So thats it. Cant believe the trip is coming to an end, but i am so ready to see everyone! I called Dan today to see how his CPA test went. He answered and said, " Since your calling, im guessing your home..." Of course, i had to say no, but i wanted to say yes! I am ready to hang out with you guys. But this trip has indeed proved to be a trip of a lifetime. It has been a ton of fun, with some great experiences, some great memories and a ton of things learned. I am so glad I came. I was worried about the trip. A girl in my small group told me it would be absolutely freezing, very expensive and extremely hard. None of those things have proved to be true. It has been a little cold at times, but the last few days, I havent even had to wear my big coat, just my brown North Face. And while I have spent a little above my budget, my budget was $280 so lets be honest, that would be hard to do. And my spending is still very low, so I feel like I did pretty good for 14 days in Europe. So goodnight, love you, miss you! Will probably be able to jump on for a little while tomorrow but just in case we cant, see you Tuesday night!! We land at 9:30!

3 days left....

Haley here...Wow time has flown. It is now Saturday night and what a day we have had. We spent the night in a now called Sacile last night. It is outside of Aviano Italy. We stayed with one of Italys military Young Life people named Cheyenne but Cheyenne wasnt there so we hung out with her roommate Rachel the whole time. Rachel is a volunteer with Young Life and is on active duty with the Air Force. Last night we had a pretty chill night, just watched a movie at Rachels and went to sleep. This morning, we woke up and went to the Air Force base in Aviano. It was pretty cool seeing an air force base for the first time! I tried to imagine what it was like for my mom, who grew up on a base for the first few years of her life. Mom I thought about you! We went shopping in the commissary. Very American! Looks like Walmart inside and I got a 4 gb memory card for my camera for only $9.99!! I am a fan of the military.

Well, me, Charlotte, Rachel and her friend Casey boarded a train about lunch time and went to spend the day in Venice. Beautiful city! Seriously, the whole city is like a museum. No need to spend any money seeing things, just see the city! Now, that is my kind of city. We just walked around the maze of the city and took tourist pictures and had a lot of fun. We had a great day! My favorite was the Italian Gelato! for only 1.50€!

We left Venice about 6 tonight had headed to Florence. We got into Florence about 9:30 ish tonight (i am really not sure, i dont have a watch) and we are in our hostel for the night. really fun, great clean safe hostel so dont worry about that.

oh and my watch. i accidently left it in Berlin. I loved that watch and was so concerned about being safe with it so it wouldnt get stolen, that i left it in the bathroom:( the watch was a good one, not terribly expensive, but good nonetheless...However, i have had it since high school so i guess i got my worth out of it. but i may need a watch for Christmas mom....:)

well, thats our day...see you in 3 days!

change of plans.....

No idea what was wrong with the last post, why the letters are so big..i tried to change it, but it didn't work..

anyway....

just to let you know, change of plans in order to save money and see more cool things we will be going a different directions for the rest of the trip.

Here are our next few days:

Friday - leave L'Abri (Switzerland) and go to Milan for another Thanksgiving with some Texas boys. Stay in Milan till about 4ish then go to Venice where we will hopefully meet Cheyenne and Rachel, 2 American girls who work for Young Life in Aviano Italy. We will be staying the night with Cheyenne and Rachel.

Saturday- Leave Aviano, go back to Venice, and see Venice till about 1:00 then head to Florence Italy. Saturday night we will stay at a hostel in Florence.

Sunday - See Venice!! I get to FINALLY see Michelangelo's work!! SO excited!!!!! Sunday night is still up in the air. We have a night booked at the hostel but we possibly will cancel it and take a night train to Munich Germany. It is a LONG train ride, and if the reservation for the train is cheaper than the hostel, then we will take the night train. Don't worry, they are safe and comfortable! Better than airplanes!

Monday - get into Munich, at whatever time that may be. We will be staying the night with the Rogers family, a Munich Young Life family that is from Knoxville Tennessee. Yay for Volunteer fans!!!!

Tuesday - take the 4 hour train ride from Munich to Frankfurt and hope on a plane. See you that day!


Well, here is the brief rundown of our new plans! Will keep you updated to tell you how it all goes! Love you! Goodnight!

Happy Happy Happy!!! from Haley

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!

and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We are at L'Abri..things are great..will write more about it later. We are getting ready to have Thanksgiving dinner here! yay for celebrating an American holiday with Americans in Switzerland!

Random events of the last couple of days:

yesterday, we had to wait in Aigle for a couple of hours before we could get a bus to L'Abri. While we were sitting there waiting on the bus, a train pulled up. I thought I heard a knocking sound and turned around. Diana Bendor-Samuel was on the train! Diana was in my youth group at Northwest and I house sit for her family from time to time. Awesome family and I love that girl! She is in the 9th grade at TCA; how random that we ran into each other in Switzerland!! small world...

and..we are at L'Abri in Switzerland. I was just looking through the guest book from the last couple of years and found Rachel Farrar's name in it. Another small world. Rachel is in my small group from church. Rachel, if you read this, Kay from L'Abri says hi!

well, thats all, 2 people are waiting. heading out to Italy tomorrow morning. will update more then! Have a great day celebrating turkey and football! Love you!

day six, charlotte version

Since we stayed in Paris another night, we spent today first going to Notre Dame. Although we didn't climb to the top or go down into the Crypt, we saw a great deal of the famous church. Our group, the girls we ate dinner with, got hot chocolate across the street from the Fountain at Place St. Michel, after which Haley I ventured off on our own. We decided to walk down the canal to the Champs-Elysees. We meandered our way up from the Christmas festival shops to the Louis Vuitton, Mercedes shops the street is known for. We finised at the Arc de Triumph where we witnessed to fools running across the Charles de Gaulle circle thing, not a smart thing to do when there is no insurance company that will cover you if you get into an accident on it. There are no lanes, no lights, no rules... pretty crazy. They say there's an accident everything 30 minutes, we never witnessed one despite all the honking. After that we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Once there we climbed our way to the top, what an amazing view and experience to be standing at the top of such an internationally known structure. We timed our climb so well that when we got down the tower was lit up in blue and it was 5 minutes until the top of the hour so we got to see it twinkle, so magical! (yes, I know I'm cheesy.) wish I had someone to share that romantic moment with, oh perhaps years from now I'll have the privilege of doing that. After our day we were pretty beat from all the walking and climbing so we made our way to the metro to make our way home. I must say I'm rather proud of myself for figuring out the Metro so quickly. We grabbed food at the grocery store for dinner and I am now considering heading off to bed. We have an early morning since we have no train reservations for the train the leaves at 8 tomorrow for Lausanne so we can arrive in Aigle on time to get to L'Abri.

day 5, charlotte version

wow, what a rush! and I am loving it. after getting in last night and going straight to bed, we woke up refreshed for a free general tour of Paris with Alex, who was not only interesting and witty but attractive as well. on our tour we saw the Fountain at Place St. Michel, Notre Dame, statue of 'good' King Henry the IV, walked along the canal, saw the Lourve, Palais Royal, walked along the monument corridor, saw the Jardin du Tuileries, the Obelisque (that Napolean stole from the Eygptians-he seemed to do that a lot), walked along the Champs-Elysees and finished up between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, neither of which are actually palaces. go figure. after the tour, Haley and I headed back to the Lourve to see the Mona Lisa, Venus du Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Sphinx and as much art as we could. I know Haley wish she had time to see more and I think I rushed her through but there's just soooooo much to see that it's overwhelming. After all that we raced back to the hostel to change and then raced back on the metro to meet up in the "Pink" Light District (makes more sense, since it's only one street) for the Montmarte(I don't think I spelled that correctly but I don't really have time to change it) tour. We saw the Moulin Rouge, St. Basilica's of Paris, saw where Vange Gogh and Picasso lived, painted and hungout. Plus we got to see where some of the scenes from Amelie where filmed. It was a fantastic tour, again with Alex, despite the cold and occasional rain. We then ate with some girls we had met on the morning tour who came on the evening tour. There was Mai-Ling (Australian), Kate (Australian), Haley (from Liverpoool, she got a flight for 4p(pence)), and Lauren (Australian), yes lots of Australians. We ate at Chez Eugene in the Artists' square. It seemed a very Parisian thing to do and was lots of fun. After all of this, Haley and I decided to stay in Paris one more night.

backtrack, day four, charlotte's version

today we saw Brussels- in the snow! we saw the Royal Place, Royal Palace, the Sablon, Palais de Justice, the EU, Parc de Cinquentenaire, Shuman, Colonne du Congres, the Botanical Gardens, Rue Nueve, Atomium (World's Fair structure), Laeken Palce, St. Micheal Church, Bourse, Manneken Piss. The most interesting thing I learned(and odd) is that there;s a different church for the baptisms, regular attendance and burial for the Royal family. we came back to Marissa's to grab our bags and take her to dinner. Dinner was good but the great thing was that the parents of one of the girls we were eating with (one of Marissa's high school wyldlife leaders) paid our bill! It was super nice of them. anyways, we rode the Thalys high speed train into Paris and I can't wait to see it all!

Paris day 2; 7 days left

This time next week, we will be on our way home!

Well, Charlotte gave a pretty good run down of the day so I don't think i have much left to say about it. I have really enjoyed Paris! Meeting new people has definately made the trip better. I hope we continue to meet new people. This hostel is my favorite of all the ones we have stayed in..its really fun and lots of great people.

Last night I spent a good deal of time praying that God would make my time here intentional; that He would put people in my path that I could have the opportunity to talk with and even share the Gospel with. Well, 2 of the Australian girls we have hung out with, Lauren and Kate have both had conversations with me. They have been really good conversations, where they just ask me what I believe and we just talk about it. Kate is into kinda new age stuff; Lauren is not into anything. I pray a seed was planted there and that our relationship can still grow so that we can have more of these conversations!

I am super excited about the next 2 days. L'Abri!! oh..2 days to spend totally with the Lord in Godly community. This is what I have missed about Dallas so much. I won't have the comfort of friends that I have known for a while, but we will all have the common bond of the Lord, something that has been missing in the new relationships I have made along the way. Super super excited about what the Lord is going to teach me in the next couple of days. Goal: knowing God, instead of knowing OF God..

Well, Drew says I should be out hanging out with people so i'm going to go. Goodnight! See you in 6 days!

Paris!!! by Haley

Sorry I didn't get to update yesterday..it was a busy day! We have been in Paris for 2 nights..got in the night before last about midnight from Brussels. We spent all day yesterday in Paris, went on some tours and saw how awesome Paris is! Will definately show some great pictures! We are staying in hostels..we have one here in Paris again..they have all been super nice, fun and safe! Lots of Americans in the hostels, so its a little comforting to be in a foreign city, but still around Americans.

We are about to venture out to see some more of Paris..we are going to see Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and some other things. I am excited! Last night we made the executive decision to stay in Paris for 1 more night instead of going to Geneva. I am glad we are slowing down and staying here instead of rushing off. We have met some friends here- from Australia and England, and some American boys. so we are having fun here!

We do head off tomorrow for Switzerland..going to L'Abri! I am excited to sit in a chalet in the Alps and spend some great time with the Lord. look up L'Abri on google if you dont know what it is..i have had several friends stay there and they all say its awesome so I am really excited! we won't have internet access there, so i will update before we leave to go.

Love you all..sorry this is so short! Miss you all terribly! See you in a week! Mom and Dad, talk to you in a week! Can't wait!

side note

everyone, and i mean everyone that we meet and tell we are from america, their next comment is, "American? Obama!" then we slightly nod our heads and say yes. they ask what part of American, we say Texas, and they say, "Texas? Texas is for Bush!? baa!"

just thought it was interesting that everyone in Europe knows America has a new president and cares so much about it and immediately associates us with Obama! yikes

ok, good night!

Snowball fight in Brussels! Haley's update of day 4

we got to Marrisa's about midnight last night and stayed up until about 2:30 talking to her. we talked about young life in europe and america and people we both knew. it was a fun conversation!

We ended up staying the whole day today in Brussels. I was glad! After talking to Marissa today, i figured out my wierd mood was just overload and quickly moving from place to place in only 4 days! so the slow down was a nice change.

Since we couldn't get a train out of Brussels until 10:15 tonight, we took the day to explore Brussels. It was freezing cold and snowed all day! We ate Belgium waffles in Belgium, went to an outdoor market, saw a statue of a peeing boy, and other fun things around Brussels. We had dinner with Marrisa, 2 of her young life girls and one of her friends. one of the girls is the daughter of a diplomat..what exactly is a diplomat? Apparently, there are lots of those around Brussels. didn't realize Brussels was so important in the government thing.

We got to leave Brussels on a high speed train! i was super excited about that! finally after studying high speed trains and stuff for my old job, i got to ride on one. on the way to the train, we encountered some slightly sketchy boys. i felt safe, so i talked to them..the brokenness of this country(ies) continues to overwhelm me. Marissa said godly men are very few and far between in Europe...like she doesn't know any that are not married. this society continues to break my heart. i wish i could do something...i pray..please pray for these people..

we are at St. Christopher's hostel in Paris now. got in about an hour ago. Mason recommended this hostel and it seems pretty safe and fun. very American, there are lots of Americans here. 2 of the girls in our room are from New Zealand and 2 from American. i hope i get a chance to get to know them. i pray the Lord continues to put people in my path that i can talk to, have an intentional conversation with. I pray that he uses me in these countries, that I am not just traveling for fun, but traveling to spread Him through these countries that so desperately need him.

WyldLife people..i miss you terribly! i keep getting emails from parents telling me their son or daughter is coming to the Christmas Party. Get excited! We are going to have fun! I can't wait to see you there! I will be sure to show you pictures from my trip after the party! Love you all!

and everyone else too..i miss you all..still praying lots for each of you. love you all! can't wait to tell you about everything!

Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium all in day 3

Berlin this morning, saw some cool historical sights! Dad, you will really enjoy my pictures! Then booked a train to Amsterdam for the afternoon. Sat in a room with 4 Italian boys. They were fun! Experienced Amsterdam for about an hour or so (that was enough) and then headed to Brussels. Now, we are staying with Marrisa, she works for Young Life in Brussels and is from Pennsylvania! It has been fun hearing about Young Life here and everything! Seeing another Young Life friend, Liesel, tomorrow then headed to Paris..

please pray for me..we have only been gone a few days and for some reason i miss home. crazy, i know, i am in europe and this is a trip of a lifetime, but i do. i miss the normalcy of home, and the friends. I miss my WyldLife friends, and my community group. and i miss not being able to have a converstation with a friend that i really want to have. so, i am loving everything i am seeing. its awesome, Charlotte and I are having a great time! So please pray that I will experience today, for the special and awesome things of today, and enjoy them for what they are!

that being said, i love you. its like 3 am now so i'm going to try to head to bed. maybe that will improve the way i feel! miss you!

charlotte's brief version of day two

Haley didn't leave me too much time on our internet pass so this will definitely be brief. Good thing I have mastered the keyboard. This morning was pretty sweet to see everything Luther (read Haley's version of day two, i's better), I definitely learned A LOT! After some delays and detours (yes, all were my fault since I was navigating) getting to the train to head for Berlin. I thoroughly enjoyed the snow but was happy to see dusk as we were settling into our super cool, ultra modern hostel for tonight. I've taken my hot shower and am pretty much ready for some sleep for the adventures that await us tomorrow. Until then...

Day 2

Figured out the capitalization thing..step 1 on mastering a keyboard...

well, we have finished day 2. it is now about 8ish pm or so and we are in Berlin. our day started out in Wittenberg, home of Martin Luther. We got a great nights sleep in a super clean hostel. only about 5 people were staying there, so we were pretty alone most of the time. i cant believe we woke up this morning in germany! we had our first german breakfast in our hostel and then went on our way to see wittenberg. it was raining this morning, not hard, but steady drizzle. that wasnt fun, but it wasnt too cold thankfully. wittenberg is so cute! almost too cute..like looked like a small town movie set..cobblestone streets, everyone walking or riding bikes, everyone greeting each other..so cute. we went to Martin Luthers house first. it used to be an Augustinian monistery where he was a monk and is now a museum. there were paintings from 1549 there, a cup that supposedly Jesus and Mary touched, a Bible that Luther wrote in, his old books and more. AND only 3€ since i had my student id:) we saw the church were luther preached and the church were he nailed the 95 day thesis on the door. it was cool to see some Reformation Theology history. luther said, in one of his writings, that by reading romans he discovered that it was by grace that we are saved. not by works. he said that if it was by works, then he would have earned the best heaven by living the monk lifestyle that he did, but that he still did not feel at peace. it was through reading romans and discovering grace that he knew he was saved. on the statue of Luther, it says psalm 119:46 -

i will announce your commands to kings and i will not be ashamed.

what a great example!

some quotes from luther (part of his thesis)

-the true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.
-when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, "repent", he meant that the entire life of believers is one of repentence.

after we saw all of luther, we went back to our hostel, got our ginormous backpacks and headed to the train. i am short! i cant figure out how to make my backpack fit so that i dont carrz all the weight on my shoulders! but we got our backpacks and started walking back to the train station. long walk, we got lost, backpacks got heavier but we finally made it! AND it started snowing! big snowflakes! we rode the train to berlin..and here we are...been an exciting trip so far!

charlotte's brief version of the events on day one- europe

After arriving in Frankfurt after a nine hour flight (me getting only an hour and a half of sleep), haley and I headed off to the trains to make our way to Weimar. After initiallz attempting it on our own, we thought we should perhaps inquire with the kind people at the Eurail Travel Center. Ah ha!. such geniuses are we. So we made it to Weimar and caught the bus to Buchenwald Comcentration Camp; what an experience. It was appropriately wet, raining, windy and cold, giving us a glimpse of the weather the inmates endured in sometimes nothing more than pajame type tops and bottoms. the faith, strength and determination these survivors had is astonishing. After two hours at the camp we went back to the Weimar train station, collected our overstuffed backpacks and again, decided better to ask questions than wander around aimlessly. On our train to Lutherstadt Wittenberg we had some fun (their will be pictures when we get back) and met a nice fellow (and attractive) on his way to Berlin. I have decided to learn some German after waiting 15 minutes for a WC(bathroom) on the train only to realiye it had been marked ' for crew only'.

day 1....adventure begins

hullo! haley here...well, we have finished day one of our europe adventure! i cant figure out how to capitalize letters on this keyboard and a few letters are different, so bear with me if i mix things up! we arrived in frankfurt at 7:20 this morning. it is now about 8 pm. i slept pretty well on the plane. felt like i had a good nights sleep. charlotte on the other hand only got about an hour of sleep! i sat by a super nice lady on the plane. she is from germanz and went to visit her sister in shreveport. we talked off and on throughout the flight but both wanted to get some sleep. she had to go to work this morning! we got to know each other fairly well; she even gave me an english-german pocket dictionary! so sweet! we have already used it a bunch! i look like the people here (more so than my last international trip to japan) and i want to be able to talk german and not look like a tourist! so, iäm studying up on my german:)

once we landed in frankfurt, we had to figure out the train situation. took a little time, a few confusing conversations where i pretended to understand german conversations and charlotte finally getting english answers. i just want to figure it out on mz own rather than ask for directions and look like a "dumb american" but asking for directions does save time! so we boarded a short train to frankfurts main station and then a 2.5 hour train from their to weimar. didnät think there was much to this small cute german town but apparentlz hitler was a frequent visitor and the ss police had a main station there. we then boarded a bus and went to buchenwald concentration camp-about 15 min. awaz. i cannot imagine living just 15 min from a place where thousands were murdered. the realitz of the holocaust. how? i donät understand how someone could torture and kill people like that-and the kids that were there-how?to think of the torture those people went through just because of their faith. where was god in that? his people-why? god, you saz everything happens to magnify your glory, but its really hard to understand how that magnified you. in the cells there were pictures and memorials. i guess familz members somehow found out their relative was in that cell. one cell had a cross and 2 corinthians 5:2o on the wall:

20. here we are, then, speaking for christ, as though god himself were making his appeal through us. we plead on christs behalf; let god change zou from enemies into his friends!

wow, to think these people, whoäs relative was tortured and murdered, prayed for the salvation of the murderers. lord, please help me to love others this much!


now, we are in wittenburg...home of martin luther! we get to see the church where he nailed the 95 day thesis to the door! wow, i know i am a theology nerd when i get excited over this but the history in this country is amazing! ok, time is running out! love you! miss you already!

Getting ready..our last night in America

Well, it is Tuesday night...We leave at 2:45 tomorrow afternoon. I am getting a little excited but still a little stressed! I can't believe we are actually doing this! Well I have some work I better get started on, and we need to book some hostels to stay in. We have been organizing places and people we will be staying with. I am super excited about meeting all the Young Life people throughout Europe. There are lots! Its exciting to be a part of a ministry that is so world wide! I am ready to meet some of the people who are just like me, but who God has called to serve in other countries.

Will check back soon..going to get to work now!

Remember...Once in a lifetime trip