Europe

So I think I've realized that I will be playing catch-up forever if I try to finish all of my posts from living in the Middle East, and then Europe, and then all of my awesome new experiences in Ohio. But I can't let those experiences in the ME go to waste, dangit! So I think I've decided to steal an idea from my blogfriend Bridget and do a "Flashback Friday" for all of those awesome experiences. Which leaves me free to move on to The Days Of Europe.

This task is also overwhelming, as The Days Of Europe lasted two weeks and stretched over six countries. So for today, I think I'll just post one picture from each day of The Journey.

Day 1: Buyukada Turkey

After a horrible (read: normal) experience in the Tel Aviv airport at 3am, I wanted wide open spaces, lots of water, and smiling old women. I saw this woman at the top of a huge mountain on the island of Buyukada just outside of Istanbul. I took a ferry to the island and rode a bike to the monastery at the top. This cute woman was putting together this letter puzzle, and when I asked if I could take a picture of her, she flashed this great smile and smiled vigorously. It made my day (that and riding a bike all over a beautiful island in Turkey!).

Day 2: Turkey and the Black Sea

It almost sounds like the name of a band (or a bad sandwich), but day 2 my two friends and I took another ferry up to an island on the edge of the black sea. My favorite part just might have been the boat garages for these houses on the lake.

Day 3: Istanbul, Turkey

Ok, so this day gets two pictures. Of the several things we visited this day, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia were my favorites. I took a nice nap in the Blue Mosque, sitting on the floor, and I'm pretty sure lots of people were taking pictures of me because I kept seeing these bright flashes, even with my eyes closed. But I bet their pictures didn't look as cool as the one I got without a flash (above).

 

Day 4: Dachau, Germany

We flew in to Munich and grabbed a rental car to traverse the Alps, but first we stopped by the concentration camp in Dachau. It was very sobering, as it should be, but somehow easier to handle than many Holocaust museums that I have been to in the States.

Day 6: The Alps

After living in big cities for the past several years, some days I still come back to my farm roots. As we drove through Germany, I rolled down the window and reveled in the smell of freshly cut hay. Strangely enough, it was like the balm of Gilead to my parched soul (after smelling dirt, sand, and olive trees for a year in the ME). Oh yeah, and I saw this delightful little village in the Alps and decided to move here instead of going to graduate school. I'm still considering it...

Day 5: Lausanne, Switzerland

I had to visit my sister's namesake, so I stopped by Lausanne. Best story from this place was probably that the night before, in a French town across Lake Geneva, I had eaten at a Chinese restaurant run by a Cantonese couple (I ordered in Chinese. It was great). And then the next day, in Lausanne, I walked through a street market and stopped for several minutes at one, pretending to look at jewelry as I eavesdropped on the two Chinese girls who ran the shop. It was so awesome to finally understand what people were saying.

Day 6: Strasbourg, France

We stayed at this teeny village about 30 minutes from Strasbourg. Teeny village in the countryside + huge church + huge lightning/thunderstorm + dancing in the rain. It was like a dream. I wish I could have stayed in this village for more than one night. It was beautiful.

The next day, Sunday, I attended the LDS Strasbourg ward, quite possibly the kindest, friendliest ward I have ever been to in my life. The city was gorgeous, too, but attending the ward was definitely the highlight.

Day 7-9: Paris, France

I was walking near the Eiffel Tower when a man came up to me, speaking rapidly in French. "I don't speak French," I told him in French (the only remnant from 3 years of study in junior high and high school). He kept gesturing to his camera and said, "Picture?" so I naturally assumed that he wanted me to take a picture of him and his friend. Only after I agreed did I realize that he wanted to take a picture of him and me with the Eiffel Tower in the background! "Sorry," he said in French. "You're just so beautiful!" And I did know enough French to understand that!!

The gargoyles at Notre Dame are always a classic.

Day 10-12: Rome, Italy

Rome was HOT!!! After walking around in the sun all day, I was wandering through the Roman Forum. I had yet to go in to the Colosseum. But all that I could think, as I walked through the hundreds-of-years-old ruins, was "Oh, look, another pile of old stones. Where's the ice cream?" I finally took a nap in the Colosseum, and that made things much better.

I also fulfilled a long-time dream to visit the Capachin crypt in Rome. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside the crypt, but this picture reminded me of all that bony goodness. It was seriously amazing.

 

Day 13: Oxford, England

I had to go to Oxford just to see what I had said no to. Just thinking that I could have studied here almost made me regret my decision to choose daily checkpoint crossings and a year of hardship over a quaint little town with a small river running through it. But regrets would get me nowhere, so instead I just went and found an awesome church graveyard. 

Day 14: Bath, England

I will admit that one of my main reasons for going here was Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. And I wasn't disappointed. The train ride through the countryside was lovely, visiting the Roman Baths was excellent, and the cathedral there was one of my favorites that I've been to. The best part? The angels on the outside of the cathedral. The artists depicting Jacob's dream didn't know how to portray angels climbing down, only up, so they just made angels climbing up and turned them upside down to make them climb down.