Home Safe and Sound

Laura and I spent a week as a couple of beach bums in Bol, Croatia. It was literally 35 degrees celcius every day and just too hot to do anything else but just sit on the beach. The water was a nice relief to the heat, and Laura even went for a wakeboard out there. It was pretty sweet. The beach there was gorgeous but it was full of rocks, it was no Grand Beach. The last night we were in Bol the power went out and we were without air conditioning in our apartment that night. It was tough because we had to get up really early to catch our bus back to Split, needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night.

So the next day, being completely hot and tired, Laura and I had utilized every form of transportation possible. We took a bus from Bol to Supetar, caught a ferry to Split, took the bus again to the airport, then we caught a flight to Stuttgart Germany, and from there took the train to Munich. Wow that was a long day! We stopped in Munich for 2 days because there was a band playing there that Laura really wanted to see live. The band is called Mutemath, and they put on an amazing show! They're not so well known in Germany yet so the crowd was only about 100 people. It was fun to go out to something like that though. The rest of the time in Munich we spent shopping!! I had a little space to fill up in the extra suitcase I bought. :o)

From Munich we flew to Ljubljana, Slovenia! Laura has a friend that runs an adventure tours company there and we were spending the weekend there for some good adventures! We stayed in the campsite that he has set up there in tents that were set up in little wooden shelters. So our first day there we went Canyoning. It was soo much fun. We had to hike straight up hill for about 45 mins to get to the starting point, geared up in our wet suits and started to make our way down the canyon. It's kind of hard to explain exactly what Canyoning is but hopfully the pics give you an idea of what we were up to.

Our next activity we did was Paragliding! That was amazing, you're pretty much just running off the edge of a mountain and letting the wind take you away. We were attached to a professional of course, but it was awesome. We were floating up there for about 15-20 minutes. My stomach was starting to feel a bit queezy half way through so we didn't linger too long up in the air. But it was an amazing experience.

And our last fun adventure was white water rafting. It was listed as a class 3 run but it seemed pretty low key when we went through it. I was expecting intense action the whole time, but we floated through most of it with a couple of fun rapids. It was raining while we were going down too. It was cool because there was a mist rising above the water, it gave it a mystical feeling. And the last kilometer we were able to jump out of the boat and just float down the river ourselves. It was awesome. I'm definately looking forward to going again sometime in the future!

Slovenia was sweet, and I'm glad it was our last stop because it was a great way to end our travels out in Europe. Now we started our tedious travels home. We flew to London where we stayed one night, and only one night because it is just way to expensive to stay there. Then from London, having gone through major security checks, we flew to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam to Paris... and in Paris is where all the fun began. We had to go through security again, and wait in rediculously long lineups, then the terminal train that would get us to our gate was broken. And as a result delayed us and our plane 2 hours. We were stressed...by the time we finally made it to Montreal and cleared customs we had missed our last flight to Winnipeg. There were no more flights going to Winnipeg that evening so we were stranded in Montreal for a night. ugh.. So we went to the nearest hotel, the Hilton, and got the only available room, on the executive floor! It was so sweet, the room was huge. We had been up for about 24 hours at this point so we had a solid nights sleep that night. We caught the next flight home the next day and finally made it back into Winnipeg.

I'm so sad that it's all over, but I had an amazing time and definately got my money's worth. As for now, the holiday is over and is time to get to work!!

Sweating Buckets in Croatia!

Hey Everyone! I have to admit I've been very neglegent on my blog. Well where do I begin? Since the last time I wrote I have finished up Tauernhof and am now sitting in a hot internet cafe, with some really funky chairs I might add, in Split, Croatia! I can't believe how quickly Tauernhof came and went, and how much I accomplished in the time in between. I'm so glad to have gone there, I loved it out in the mountains and the people were awesome! On the second last weekend out there a group of us got up really early, 3:30 am, to hike up a mountain to catch the sunrise. Wow, it was amazing. The hike up was intense, straight uphill for 45 minutes on an empty stomach and half asleep, it was a challenge to say the least. It never fails that when I go hiking it always makes me realize how truly out of shape I am. I'm used to running on nothing but flatness in the Prairies so adding an uphill was a change of pace. The hike was totally worth it though, the sunrise was beautiful! It was definately a highlight of my time out there. Just on the other side of the mountain we climbed up was a lake called Mirror Lake. It's really small but when it's calm it reflects the Dachstein peaks. It was sooo worth it!

It was kind of sad to leave Tauernhof but I was ready for the next phase of my trip. I met up with Laura in Munich and from there we flew to Dubruvnik. It was a complete change in scenery, going from the mountains to humid tropical beaches ! Not too bad. We've spent a fair amount of time on the beach working on our tans because it's just too hot to do anything else without sweating like crazy. We did some touring around as well, Dubruvnik how an Old Town that we checked out. We walked on the wall that surrounds it and got some sweet pics from the views. After that we stopped into one of the tiny Italian restaurants down a little alley in the Old Town for some Pizza. We ordered a Pizza for 2 and decided to share it. When it arrived it was the biggest Pizza ever, and there was no way we could finish that thing off ourselves. Luckily we were able to take it with us for later. It was good Pizza though! After 3 days in Dubruvnik we took the bus over to Split! We're just staying here 1 night and moving on to Bol where we have a nice little apartment for a week! I'm pumped just to sit on the beach and relax and get in some good vacation time. I'm going to enjoy it while I can because the relaxation ends when I get home and start the job search!

That's about all I have for y'all today. I can't seem to get the pics on here at the moment, this computer is frustrating me!! I hope to get them up as soon as possible, sorry!

I hope everyone is doing well and I will be seeing you in a few weeks ! Ciao :o)

Just a little note!

This past week has been pretty interesting so I've got a few new things to add. On Thursday it was my turn to do devotion after breakfast. Everyone has to do it and Thursday was my day, I was pretty nervous about it. It went surprisingly well, I was just being honest about a few things that I've learned here at Tauernhof and the words just came naturally for me! So that was a good experience.

Then on Friday we had a Pirates and Ninjas evening! It was a blast, everyone got dressed up, we played games and watched Ninja movies. I went as a Ninja seeing as my current wardrobe (which is pretty much whatever could fit in the back pack here, is not a lot) does not include anything resembling a Pirate so I went as a Ninja! Here's a pic of me and my room mate Lindsay.

And on Saterday we went on a day trip to Mathausen concentration camp just about 2 hours away from here. I kind of knew what to expect coming here since I've already seen Auschwitz but I think each time you go to a place like that it will hit you just as hard each time. We watched a short film about the history of the camp and some survivors told their experiences there. Some of the images they had on display were very graphic, I honestly was feeling sick by the end of it. It was a really hot day out as well so it was overall just uncomfortable. There were a set of stairs called the, Totestiege, the death stairs. They were called that because the weakest of the prisoners were forced to carry blocks of rock, up to 50 kg, up these stairs. They walked so close together that if one fell over due to exhaustion it would create a domino effect and take out those behind them as well. It's just an awful thing to think about.

That evening there are some mountain biking qualification races going on just beside our campus here so I went to check it out for a bit! It was amazing how fast some of those guys fly down the tracks. After that they were playing a snowboarding video so I went to watch that! It was so awesome, it showed the evolution of snowboarding to date and followed a group of pro snowboarders exploring the Alaskan mountains. It just gave me an itch to go snowboarding again!!

Anywho, that's my update for now! I hope the weather gets better at home soon for you guys! Take Care :o)

Half way done plus a trip to Vienna!

Once again it's been way too long since I've updated my blog. There is always something going on here to keep be completly busy and away from my blog. Two weeks ago we had a day trip out to Hallstadt. It's this tiny little town on a lake just and hour away from here and it was so beautiful. It's claim to fame is that it's one of the oldest towns in Austria. It was a great day, we stopped into a church that had a room filled with bones and skulls. Kinda creepy I must say, but it was interesting. We walked around town for a bit and looked in some of the shops and ended the day with a ferry ride around the lake! It was so beautiful. Just at the end of the ferry ride this wall of rain came through the valley. It was amazing, the day went from clear and sunny to a wall of rain and cloud coming our way. We ducked into a small cafe for some pastries adn by the time we got out the sun was back out! It was a great trip though, I'm glad I got to see it.

This past weekend marks the middle of Bible School for me and we had a travel weekend. I and 4 other girls decided to go to Vienna! It was a blast, aside from the minor train problems (a 4 hour train ride turned into a 7 hour train/bus ride) everything else went smoothly! We found our hostel no prob, and the U-Bahn was really easy to figure out. We went out on Friday night to the main shopping strip by Stephansplatz. There were tons of people out and enjoying the beautiful evening. We found nice little Italian restaurant and grabbed some Pizza and topped it off with a few ice creams afterwards! Saterday we spent the morning visiting the main sites. The Hofburg palace was huge, we didn't go inside though. Just outside it though there was a beautiful rose garden with rows of rose bushes of every colour imaginable. So naturally I took a ton of pictures because I love taking pictures of flowers! We had a nice little picnic in the park as well which was great, I loved watching all the tourists pass by. We saw the Parliment building, Stephansdom (a cathedral) and more importantly we found an H&M!! Our afternoon was filled with shopping, shopping and shopping! After all that shopping we treated ourselves t osome Applestrudels! It was delicious. Also while we were down near Stephansplatz we saw some guys breakdancing! It's the same guys that Laura talked about in her blog if you'd seen it already. They were amazing to watch.. I got some good pics! That evening we found an english theater and went to see Spiderman 3! It's been so long since I've been to the theater so I was pretty excited to see it. I haven't seen Spiderman 2 but I still thought it was pretty good. On Sunday we checked out the Schönnbrunn Palace and spent most of the day there. It was also quite huge with an awesome garden! It was sooo hot out, it was really quite nice. I hear that it wasn't the greatest weather in Winnipeg for a long weekend which is too bad. It was definately nice to get away from school for a few days but I'm glad to be back. This weekend we're heading to Mathhausen, it's a concentration camp in Austria not too far away from here. So I'm interested in seeing how that will go. Time is flying by here, I can't believe we're in our 5th week already.

Anyways, I hope that everyone is doing well and healthy back home!! Pics are coming soon, for some reason it won't allow me to download pics from this computer. Soon I promise!! Take Care :o)

Taurenhof.. Loving The Fresh Mountain Air!

So, here I am.. It's been a good 2 weeks since I've written anything on here and a lot has happened. Laura and I spent some time in Hagedorn with our family friend Heike Pothast. We were just happy to stay in one place for a few days and relax. We did get a bit of relaxing but the week flew by at Heike's. We went to a bigger town, Paderborn, to go shopping with our cousin Klara. It was nice to visit with her again! We made Heike tacos one night, and they definately did not taste like the ones we make at home but it still was pretty tasty! Heike teaches yoga so Laura and I joined in on her class. It was really interesting, since I've never done yoga before and it was all in german. I enjoyed it though! We also joined in on Heike's drumming class, which was awesome.. it sounded amazing! On our last day with Heike she took us out for a canoe ride down the Lippe.. a little river near by her place. Laura and I were in a canoe and Heike and her friend Herald were in the other. Much to our surprise there were little rapids on this river and Laura had to steer us straight through them. It was pretty fun, we got a good pic of us in action! From th ride home. Heike's car broke down 3 times, once on the autobahn (Laura was driving it at 160 km/h) and we were able to get help right away because hte autobahn is a priority for them. Then again 20 minutes later the gas pedal was stuck down, we had to wait over an hour this time. So Heike went to a near by house and called to order a pizza. So there we were on the side of the highway eating pizza in Heike's car waiting for the repair guy ! The guy came and fixed the pedal but a short 20 minutes later the fuse broke ae Lippe it was a bit of an adventure to get home though. What should've been a 45 minute drive turned into a 5 hour towgain. So we finally got towed back to Heike's by her friend who came to pick us up. Phew, just a bit of an adventure for us. After Heike's Laura and I set out for Schladming and Part II of our Europe trip where we go our seperate ways. We spent a day together here in Schladming, Austria and checked the town out and where the school was that I was going to be attending for the next 2 months. I was glad that Laura could come out here with me and we could hang out a bit more before I start school. I'm a week into the course now and let me tell you things are different here. From a flexible, do whatever we want whenever attitude to having structure and lectures in a new environment was wierd. There are 72 students here and a lot of them are from Canada! There is actually a few people from winnipeg and 3 people from Winkler ! Fellow Mennonites .. yay! I am learning a lot about the Bible and even more about myself out here. This will be a great experience, as difficult as it feels sometimes, and I'm trying to take advantage of every minute of it. Our campus is right on the side of the moutains here so I can look out of my bedroom window and see the moutain side right there. It's truley beautiful here, I've been out hiking a lot and the views are amazing. There's a river that runs right through town and as I was walking along it one day I saw a bunch of brand new baby ducklings!! They were so cute! Anyways, I just thought I should update my blog since it's been so long..

We went on a 5 hour hike today! It was amazing and worth every step. We climbed up to a little lake and the path followed along this awesome waterfall! It was so beautiful.. I really love it here in the mountains! :o)

I hope that everyone is well at home! Take Care :o)

Berlin, my Favorite City !

Berlin was awesome. I think it's one of my favorites of the cities that we've seen so far. Our hostel was just on the edge of the citz in the Grunewald. It was cool because here we are in a huge city and our hostel was in the middle of a big park. We took a free tour through Berlin our first day. The guides work for tips and the guide we had definately earned hers. She was energectic, funny, and fit hundreds of years of history into an understandable summary. Wer saw most of the main sties in Berlin on this 4 hour walking tour. First we saw the Brandendurg Gate, it was built as a tribute to peace in the 18th century. It was the site of many military parades, demonstrations, and it was the backdrop for the famous pictures of when the Berlin wall game down. Next we saw the Reichstag which had an interesting role in history. Today the Reichstag is the home of the governing party but in 1933 it was mysteriously burned down after which Adolf Hitler declasred a state of emergency and seized power. We walked through a gorgeous park called the Tiergarten (Animal Park) which was used as the Royal Hunting grounds for the Prussian monarchs. After that we saw a holocasut memorial that was built in the city. It was very simple yet very effective in conveying some of the feelings and experiences of the people sent to concentration camps. The memorial took up about a block and from the side it appears to be a bunch of blocks lined up in rows all at the same height. When you walk through it the ground level starts to change and you become lost among these huge pillars, I almost lost Laura in it. Our tour guide mentioned that it's the feelings of getting lost, being separted from the people you're with and being alone that perhaps allow people to reflect on what the holocaust must have been like. Our guide took us to a spot which is apparently not advertised in most tourist books. It was the location of a Nazi bunker in which Adolf Hitler had killed himself in. There was nothing there to state what used to be there because they don't want people to memorialize it and it turn to a place hwere people would bring flowers to and such. The entire bunker was destroyed as part of de-nazifacation after the ar. Next we walked through the square in front of the university where the Nazi's burned books that sent a 'wrong' message or were written by people of Jewish decent. We also stopped in front of a huge building designed and built by the Nazi's. It was truley huge, the door to get in was much taller than your standard door entrances and the door handle was up to my neck. Our guide said that Nazi architecture was designed to be big, intrusive, and meant to make people feel small when they walked up to it. What was interesting about the building was that on one side wall was a long mural of the 'perfect' socialist society. Happy people working tough labour jobs together, business people and labourers shaking hands, etc. Just adjeacent to the mural was a picture of the people in the front row of a demonstration in protest of that type of society who were shot in the back, the reality. I thought it was an interesting display. Just past this building was a piece of the Berlin wall, I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly but it was nothing special, but the story behind it makes it interesting. When the wall was torn down they left a brick outline in the road so people know where exactly it used to be. At the end of the tour our guide told us the story of how the wall had come down. A long story short, from what I understand, there was a misunderstanding between some important people and it was announced on Live TV that travel restictions would be lifted between east & west Berlin, effective immediately. Our guide went on to tell us the 3 day party that followed the announcement and the destruction of the wall. Wow, I can't imagine what it would've been like to live through an experience like that. Berlin seems to have come a long way since then, there's been a lot of rebuilding going on. But there are plenty of reminders throughout the city of it's past, such as the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche (Memorial Church). It was built in the late 1800's and was significantly damaged during the war. It still stands in downtown Berlin as it was when it was bombed. I these things so interesting, coming from a city like winnipeg that doesn't have such an ancient history. Our second day we went to a suberb of Berlin, Potsdam and visited the Palaces there. We took a tour through the New Palace where Fredrick the Great lived in 1763. One room that made this palace unique is the Grotto Salon! It was really cool and had sea creatures designed into the flooring and seashells decorated on the walls. We stopped at a German Film History museum that Laura wanted to check out, wanted through the parks a bit more and head back to Berlin. Our third day there we went to see the main attraction at the Berlin zoo, Knut ! He's a baby polar bear that we lined up for 45 minutes to see. He was so cute. We also saw a new born deer there as well, the mom was still licking him clean and he was trying to take it's first steps. After a few hours at the zoo we went to the German History museum. It was really interesting but 3 hours of stnading and reading boards was tiring. They had so much information there. Lauar and I decided to stay an extra day in Berlin.. there's just so much to do and 2 days just wasn't enough. Next we venture out to see our family friend Heike Pottast in a tiny little town of Hagedorn !

Cloudy in Poland

From Prague we moved on to Cracow, Poland. we arrived just around dinner time and the Easter Markets were still going strong. So Laura and I went over to check things out. Most of what they were selling were the same as in Prague but some of the food they were making wsa a bit different. Laura and I stopped at this stand that was cooking up some great pork and veggie dishes, it tasted amazing! After a long day on the train it really hit the spot. There was also a stand cooking up waffles so of course we couldn't resist that one either! The weather wasn't the greatestwhile we were there but Luara and I still managed to get out and explore the town a bit. Cracow, along with many other towns we've visited, had a castle that we went to see. In the middle of the castles courtyard there was this huge cathedral that was amazing! We went inside to take a peek and it being Easter monday, there was a service going on. It was all in Polish but it was nice to get some Church time in. What was really great was the men's choir that was singing from the balcony at the back. It sounded so great in that church. For the rest of the day we wandered town a bit more and found a bagel shop, which are few and far between here in Europe. So we stopped in there for lunch! Cracow has a Jewish quarter called, Kazimerz. When WWII broke out there were some 70,000 Jews living in that area. They were eventually all sent over to concentration camps, most likely to Auschwitz that was only an hour and a half bus ride away. Our second day in Cracow we went out to see Auschwitz. The cloudy, rainy weather almost felt appropriate for our visit there. What I hadn't realized is that there are actually 2 camps in that area, Auschwitz I was the first one. It was originally built for Polish prisoners of war but as the war progressed it expanded and used to house the Jews, gypsies, and others that were sent to concentration camps. Auschwitz I is where we found the famous sign that reads, 'Arbeit Macht Frei'. The second camp that is only 3 km away is called Birkenau, Auschwitz II. It was several times larger than the first one and the conditions at this camp were much worse. At the first camp the barrocks were made of brick and were somewhat insulated, at Birkenau the people slept in wooden barrocks that were originally used to keep horses in. The tour we took through this was really interesting and I had learned a lot about WWII and Auschwitz that I had no idea about before. One thing that really stuck out for me was that the Nazi's had kept and re-used everything that they acuired from the people who arrived at the camp. Most of the Jews that arrived at the camp were under the impression that they were just being relocated so they had packed all of their most valuable possessions, unfortunately when they arrived at the camp their luggage was confiscated from them. There were warehouses on the camp site where prisoners were put to work and sort through all of the luggage. Valuable things like jewlerey were sent back to Germany and other items such as shoes, brushes, glasses, pot&pans, everything else was store in the warehouse. The museum we visited had rooms full of this things that were kept. What hit me the most was that the Nazi's had kept the hair they had cut from the people who were gassed in the gas chambers. Apparently it was quicker and easier for them to cut the hair off the people after they had been killed. A portion of the warehouse was full of sacks filled with human hair to be sent to textile companies to make cloth from. In the museum there was a display of such fabric that was made from the hair sent from the camp. On our tour we also saw what was left of the main gas chambers and crematoriums as most of it was destroyed by the Nazi's at the end of the war in an attempt to cover up what they were doing there. This picture on the right is of the train tracks where people were first off loaded and where 'selection' took place. That's where the decision was made weather a person was fit enough to stay and work in the camp. Most elderly, pregnant women and children were sent directly to the gas chambers that were located at the end of these tracks. It was definately an educational experience to say the least. That evening Laura and I just spent some time on the net and relaxing. We head back to Germany, next stop... Berlin!

Easter in Czech Republic

I hope everyone had an excellent Easter weekend! Laura and I spent easter in the Czech Republic. After we left the Derksens in Buren we spent a solid 2 days on several trains going across Germany, through Austria, and into the Czech Republic. Our first stop was Cesky Krumlov. It's another small midieval town with a 13th Century castle. It was quite cold out the day we spent there so we tried to make the best of it by staying indoors as much as possible. We took a tour through the castle (which was even colder inside), checked our emails and drank some warm tea in a Tea House in town. Our hostel here was the first one we've had that has a kitchen, so we were thrilled to pop a pizza in the oven our first night there. Laura and I also discovered an english book store just down the street from our hostel. Since I finished the book I brought along in Austria already I was due for some new reading material. After Cesky Krumlov we stopped in Prague. I have heard so many good things about this city so I was pumped to get there. It was quite overwhelming to arrive at the train station there and be swarmed by crowds of people. But we managed to navigate our way around the station and through the city to our hostel, with very few signs in English to help us. Our hostel was pretty new, it had just opened the week before, which would explain the missing shower door, the blinds without a string to close them, and the bed rail pieces under my matress (which I didn't even notice were there until the second night..haha). It was a good hostel though, it was clean and there were always people buzzing in and out. We had 2 full days to wander through Prague and I think we were able to see all the main sights. Prague has a very recent history iwth communism and we stopped in their communism museum to check it out. It feels like this trip has been one big history lesson so far, I've been learning so many new things and am totally interested in reading further on some of this stuff when I get home. The museum was pretty interesting, they showed video clips of a riot that occurred in Prague in 1989. It occurred in Wenceslas Square where thousands of people gathered to protest the communist government, we happened to walk through this place on our way to the museum. The video showed people getting attacked by the soviet run police for protesting. This is something that has happened in my lifetime, most of the things we've been seeing are hundreds of years old, which makes it all the more interesting to read about. Now, in Wenceslas Square there are huge easter markets set up. They were selling everything from cheesy souveniers, food, paintings, to hand painted easter eggs. It was difficult to resist spending a lot of money here but I was able to limit myself to only a few things. I picked up a Czech patch to add to my collection, a small painting of the Charles Bridge in Prague, and a pair of earings & a ring that had an amber stone in them. The Czech Republic doesn't use the Euro so we were using Koruny's ( I don't think that's spelt right) and the exachange in something wierd like 18 korunys to 1 cdn dollar. So it was tricky to know exactly how much I was spending, since my mental math is not so great! Either way things were a bit cheaper out here. They had a stage set up where Laura and I stopped to watch a group of kids dressed in traditional clothes singing and dancing. It was quite cute. We went on to the Old Town Hall to check out the Astonomical Clock. Tourists pack this area full every hour on the hour to watch the apostles float past the 2 little openings above the clock. This clock records three different kinds of time, Old Bohemian time, time as we know it today and so called Babylonian time. Thie clock also shows the movement of the sun & moon through the 12 signs of the zodiak, it's a very complex clock! just down the road, and past a few more Easter market shops we walked up to the Charles Bridge. At any given time during the day this bridge is packed with tourists, artists drawing caricatures, vendors selling art and other souveniers, and musicians playing music. The bridge was built in 1357 so it's extremely old. Prague also has a castle that we climbed up a steep hill to see. We didn't go inside the castle itself but it hada really nice Cathedral in the middle of its courtyard. The whole place was really crowded with tour groups so we didn't linger there for too long. Next we walked up Nerudova Street. This street was interesting because before people used numbers to distinguish houses they had signs above the doors. There were things like a Swan, 3 Fiddles, two Suns, and a Shoe for the shoe makers house. Laura and I also found this building called the Ginger & Fred building. I'm not sure why it's called this but it was neat because it was had a different look to it. I'll let the picture show you what I mean. It was designed by a Fred Gahry. Overall Laura and I enjoyed Prague a lot, there was a lot of cool things to see but I think after a few days it's nice to get away from all the crowds of tourists ! After Prague we move up to Crakow, Poland !

Long Lost Relatives !

We arrived in Frankfurt to meet up with our second cousin Olga for a few days when for some reason we couldn't get her cell number to work. So, with no way of communicating with her besides with emails Laura and I stayed in a hostel our first night in Frankfurt. Apparently there was a Music Festival going on in the city so most of the accomodations were pretty much full. We lucked out and got 2 beds in a hostel just accross the street from the train station. Olga had tracked us down in our hostel and we were finally able to touch base with her. We met her the next day at the train station as she had to go to school and she directed us to her flat. It was so nice to be able to settle in someone's house for a bit. It was a nice change from being at a hostel. We settled at her place for a bit caught up on some emails, did some laundry, and met Olga downdown later that day. The last time I had seen Olga was about 5 years ago when she had come to Winnipeg for the summer, so there was much to catch up on! Olga took us to the University where she attends and we grabbed some lunch, we wandered the downtown streets for a bit, checked out a really old church, and of course stopped for some Ice Cream ! We went to this cafe that has a full menu on all the different types of ice creams you could get. They had some really fancy items there, I'd never seen anything like it! We also went to a Film History Museum that was pretty interesting. It displayed some of the first cameras used, they had a set set up that you could check out, and they had an interesting display of costumes and stage makeup ! That evening Olga took us to her Bible Study group that she attends every week. It was just a small group but it was nice to meet some of the people that Olga knows and hangs out with here in Frankfurt. Laura and I finally sent home a box home with stuff that we've picked up along the way and didn't need. Wow, that helped a lot and cleared up some space in my bag! Our visit with Olga was really fun and our next stop was in Buren to visit the Derksens, also second cousins of ours. There's our Uncle Johann and Tante Sara and they have 5 kids Victor, Peter, Klara, Willy and Daniel. They were all able to join us and spend some time with us over the weekend! They are such a friendly family it was hard not to feel at home there. Johan took Laura, Klara and myself to this Castle that is not too far from their house. Apparently Hitler wanted to make this castle the centre of his empire, as it's the centre of Germany. There is some really amazing history just in their backyard! After that we stopped at Klara's apartment not too far from Buren, did some shopping, stopped for some coffees and that evening we watched Deutschlands Super Star!! On Sunday we went to church with them. It was nice because we haven't been to church this whole trip so far and with Easter coming up it was nice to be there. We stopped in to meet Johann's mother (who was married to my Opa Derksens brother) and she was quick to tell Laura and I how much Laura looks like a Derksen and that I look more like my moms side! The Derksens in Buren didn't speak any english either so my german got a good workout for the weekend. It's tricky when I have so many things I want to say but can only say half of it because translating it is kinda difficult, but I made the best of it. Overall, we had a great visit with our relatives in Germany and it was probably one of the highlights for me. Our next stop will be in Czech Repulic to see Cesky Krumlov and Prague! So until then, Take Care in Winnipeg !

Deutschland!

Wow is it nice to be in Germany! The scenery is beautiful, the trains are on time, and most importantly I understand the language! We took the train from Milan to Augsburg and passed through Switzerland. It was cool because it was almost as if we were in sunny Italy one minute and we passed through a tunnel and on the other side were snowy mountains. It was so pretty. Our first stop here was to see Schoß Neuschwanstein. There was another castle there called Schwanau that we toured through as well. What a perfect place to have a castle, right on top of a hill with the niew of the valley and a beautiful lake below. Ahhh to have been Germany royalty back then and live in such great places! The Schwanau castle was used until 1912 so it was fitted with electricity already. After our tour of the first castle we stopped to have some Frankfurters and salad on the patio outside! It was a gorgeous day to be outside. The hike up to Neuschwanstein was about 30 minutes uphill, so we were definately getting a workout today! That castle was really interesting to see. Apparently the castle itself was designed by a stage designer instead of an architect, which I thought was kind of interesting. King Ludwig II had dedicated the castle to the works of Richard Wagner. He had parts of Wagners operas painted on the walls in some of the rooms, he had a Singers Hall built so that Wagner's pieces could be performed. He even had a hall built that looked like a cave to resemble a piece of Wagners Operas. It was really quite interesting to see it! After Neuschwanstein we took the train to Rothenberg ob der Tauber. It's a little town that still has an old medevil city still fully intact. All the buildings looked that same as they would have back in the day from the outside but on the inside they had all been modernized. It was such a cute little town, but very touristy. Something that was great about this town was that there was a bakery around every corner you'd pass. It smelled amazing in each one, and they had such great displays in their front windows. It was tough passing by a bakery and not going in them to load up on pastries! We stopped in the Crime Museum they had in the town, it was all about Mideval laws, punishments and they also had the torture tools they used to get confessions from people as well as for punishments. It was really cool to check that out and see how strict their laws on behaviour was. An example is if someone missed attending church one Sunday they had to stand on a Pillary, in the middle of town, with a huge rosary necklace around their neck for a certain period of time so that people ridicule and mock them. They would notice that you weren't in church because everyone had an assigned seat and if you were not there it would be pretty obvious. We wandered around the town for the rest of the day. They had an excellent little Christmas store in town as well that was full of Christmas decorations and ornaments that were all made in Germany! From Rothenberg ob dem Tauber we are on our way to Frankfurt to meet up with my cousin Olga! It's been almost 5 years since we've seen her last so it'll be nice to visit with her again, and hopefully I'll get to shape up on my German a bit.

Hope everyone is doing great back home ! Take Care :o)

Pompeii, Pisa, and Milan

Wow, I have some catching up to do here. Pompeii was an excellent stop on our tour of Italy! I´m so glad we did it. The town itself is really nice and just a few minutes from our hostel was a really beautiful Church, where it seemed a lot of young people were hanging out. We spent a solid 5 hours visiting the Pompeii ruins ! That place is huge, and there was so much to see. We were able to see a part of history that was so neatly preserved by volcanic ash and lava. It froze a moment in time when it erupted. They had mad casts of a few bodies that were in the buried rocks as they were when they had died. It definately made things a bit more real that´s for sure. The narrow cobblestone streets even had little grooves in them from the carts that were wheeled down them so long ago. It was an excellent stop and all day was just enough to see everything! Our second night in Pompeii we had met a German girl who was staying in our dorm room, she was travelling on her own for a week just to get away for a bit. We spent an evening outside visiting with her, an Aussie fellow, and an American ! It was really fun to share stories of our travels and experiences so far! From Pompeii we spent a solid day on the train towards Pisa. Our hostel in Pisa was a bit of a challenge to find but a short hour and a half later Laura and I had figured out which bus to catch to get to our hotel ! Pisa was a nice town as well, but unfortunately the 2 days we were there it was cold and rainy. Kinda miserable weather to go outside and see the leaning tower, but we went out anyways. We didn´t make it to the top of the tower but we got a few pics and head inside to a much warmer musuem ! Further on to our Pisa experience, Laura and I wanted to get some laundry done at our hotel so we paid the few Euros and put our stuff in the machine. I guess the machines in Italy are a bit different, because when it was done our clothes were still soaking wet ! So we paid a few more Euros to use the dryer and 2 hours later our clothes still weren´t dry. We had things hanging in our room overnight even and our things were still damp in the morning. So an unpleasant experience of packing damp clothes later I think we´ve learned our lesson! The train ride from Pisa to Milan was about 4 hours, and the scenery we passed along the way was amazing! We were going right along the coast so we had a nice view of the beaches! Definately a spot I´ve noted for future vacations to Italy. Laura and I had made sure to pay extra attention to directions to our place in Milan, so we were able to find the place with no problem! We were greeted to Milan at the train station by a huge Dolce & Gabbana ad on the wall which included some very nice 6 packs ;o) We´re off to a good start! Our mission in Milan was to see all the main shopping spots and maye buy a few things as well! We managed to walk on Via Napoleane where all the high end shops (places I can only ever dream of shopping in) such as Versace, Ralph Lauren, Dior, Prada, Armani... and the list goes on. We saw a sweet Lamborghini parked on this street, it was an ugly neon green colour but a nice looking car to the say the least! So after aday of looking at $2,000 purses we made our way to the slightly more affordable shops just a few blocks away. We made a final stop at a Gelati place, who knows when we´ll find more of that good stuff! So of course we took a very cheezy pic of ourselves with our Gelati´s, mmmm. Milan was our last stop in Italy, next it´s up to Germany for us!

Buonjourno !

On our last day in the Alps Laura and I picked up a few souveniers and planned our trek through Italy. We ventured out for dinner to a cute restaurant called the Kasser-Mandl where the servers wore Lederhosen ! The Schnitzel there was excellent! Laura & I were sad to be leaving the Mountains, ecspecially when it was snowing huge flakes the morning we were leaving. It was actually really pretty! Our first stop in Italy was Bolzano. The train ride there was awesome, we were cruisin right through the mountains so the view was awesome. Grape vines filled the country side. Bolzano was a really nice place, but we came to see one thing, The Ice Man. Laura had discovered this in one of the books she was reading and made sure that we stopped in to check it out. It was really quite interesting. Two mountain hikers had discovered the torso of a frozen man sticking out of the ice while on a hike through the moutains. As it wasn't uncommon to discover lost hikers who didn't make it frozen in the ice, the two hikers thought nothing of it. Although, upon closer inspection the body they found was actually 5300 years old. They kept the body in a temperature controlled room with a viewing window so we could see him. Kinda gross looking but interesting that he's so old ! The discovery of this ice man and the items found around him helped archeologists learn more about the people who lived at that time. So after a few hours in the museum we head out for our first Italian Pizza ! From Bolzano we head out to Verona. In Verona we met up with a German girl, Maline, who was travelling alone and wandered the streets of Veronal. We saw the balcony of Juliette and her tomb, Verona also still has a really old Arena that is still in use for Opera's ! There were 2 men outside the arena dressed in cheezy Roman soldiers outfits, we thought it'd be fun to get a picture with them until they wanted either some money or a kiss for the picture ! We skipped the picture and continued on our way. We stopped for some Pizza, again, for dinner. It was nice that we were able to spend the day with Maline. She was a really cool girl who's only 22 and already has done so much travelling. She's taking a business degree in Germany and is doing an internship at Addidas which is pretty impressive. From Verona we head to Venice ! Venice was great, and the temps were warm ! It was nice to be able to walk around without a sweater on. There wasn't a single car in Venice, you either had to walk everywhere or take a water bus. We pretty much walked everywhere we need to get to from our hostel. We saw the Rialto bridge, St.Marks square and Doge's palace. St.Marks square was filled with Pigeons, I'm suprised we made it through there without getting pooped on ! Phew... There were tons of tourists there, it's wierd to hear other people speaking english. I'm used to not understanding what everyone around me is saying that when I hear english it catches my attention. We had to stop for some gelati along the way as well ! mmm, it's so good here. The gelati places have really fancy displays for their flavours, it's quite impressive. We took a water bus from St. Marks square back to our hostel, it was a great view from the canal ! A lot of the buildings look dull from the outside b ut once the doors are opened there are elegant restaurants and hotels inside. It was interesting, all the streets are so narrow that people just dissappear into another alley infront of you. Laura and I enjoy a nice fire roasted pizza along the canal one evening ! After Venice we stopped in Rome ! Rome is a huge city and we had a bit of an experience trying to find our hostel, which was supposed to only be a block away from the train station. There was no sign for the hostel, and the address we found was a Chinese restaurant. It turns out the hostel was above the restaurant, and the Asian lady in charge didn't speak english. We pulled out our Phrase book and attempted some Italian but it seemed she didn't speak Italian either. We were finally able to communicate to her what we wanted and settled in for the night. Our first day we took a tour of the Colleseum and the ancient Roman forum. Wow, although there wasn't much left to see in the Colleseum it's still amazing to imagine what happened there so long ago ! We stopped at a few other sites, Palatine Hill, Trevi Fountain (which was packed with people but really nice), and the Spanish steps. We've been really lucky with the weather, it's been clear sunny days ! The next day in Rome we spent at the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel. The line just to get in was huge, we waited over an hour! The museum was packed with people so it was hard to really look at everything closely but the main thing we wanted to see was the Sistine chapel ! It was pretty cool to see something in real life that I've only ever just heard about. On our way back to the hostel that night Laura and I stopped in at a blockbuster. I can now say I am the offical owner of a blockbuster membership in Rome ! We rented the Gladiator... how suitable ! Anyways, we continue our tour of Rome to Pompeii next which should be an interesting stop.
Take care !

Ciao !