Where did you get that scar?

Yay! We're here in 3 respective pieces sitting in the lobby of our Austrian hostel. We flew into Vienna this morning, put down our stuff, ate at a local Turkish eatery then headed to the city center to look at old buildings and crazy eurocup fans lining up for the fanzone - zones. As we were lounging on the stairs of the national library the weather suddenly turned sour and we were bound to the covered entry way until the lightning, thunder, monsoon rain ceased. no problem, we found a comfy place to sit, whipped out our books and read for the 30 minute storm duration. Becca has a friend that lives in the city so she’s here now, listening to all of our crazy stories and telling us some of hers as she’s been living abroad. (pictured: proud of my recent tall latte find, sunglasses #2 & #3 after the first broke in my bag)

Let me rewind a bit… a time ago we were in Salzburg, Austria and there are 3 things you need to know about that place. 1) W.A. Mozart was born there and we saw the doors of the two places that he lived, 2) ‘Sound of Music’ was filmed here and we saw some of the sites of the film and watched the entire movie at our hostel, 3) Spain and Greece played a Eurocup 2008 game here which was VERY hard to forget amongst the thousands of red/yellow and blue/white sea of fans. At least we were sure that we were not the only foreigners in town. (pictured: the ubiquitous Mozart balls)

Next, we took a gorgeous train ride from Salzburg to Zagreb, Croatia. We met up with some of Hillary’s missionary friends from UPC , then had dinner and ice cream with them and their two adorable daughters. The family went to their home and the 3 of us planned to be close behind on the bus to their neighborhood to catch the Croatia/Turkey game that night. The main plaza was the site of our bus stop and the raging fans ready to watch on the city’s big (huge) screen. The bus came, which Becca and Hillary easily hopped on, but little ol' me got swept away in the crowd and the doors closed right in front of me and drove away. Personality check: you’re standing among hundreds of drunk, rabid soccer fans, you have no Croatian money (kuna) on you and the only other English speaking people in town just boarded a bus that’s driving away at a speedy pace. I laughed for about 1 full minute, re-did my hair (I guess a psychological re-grouping mechanism of mine) and remembered the very helpful lost school kid motto of “hug a tree”. I stood there, facing the direction the bus drove away and waited for about 10 minutes until I saw Hillary jogging around a corner, which spelled ‘r-e-l-i-e-f’ for me. We watched the game in the friend’s neighbor’s front yard and wallowed in the collective grief that swept Croatia that night.

Next we boarded a plane to the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia called “The Pearl of the Adriatic” for good reason. It is a tourist paradise with the fun Old Town surrounded by the just as old city walls. Rocky beaches, ice cream at every corner and a monk’s island only accessible by boat. Of course, we did all three. The last was the site of my most recent injury, a 1.5-inch long gash under my left knee. “how did you get that scar on your knee?”, “Oh, this one time I was swimming off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic Sea…”, I guess that’s worth the hour of worrying about stitches, applying diligent pressure, and a lack of health insurance.

Today we got up early, said goodbye to beautiful Dubrovnik and flew away to Vienna, Austria where we still sit in between weary travelers, newbies & veterans alike, free wireless and a nice pillow waiting for me on the second floor. Thanks for keeping up on us. We’re having a great time learning about ourselves, Europeans, maps and about how small this world actually is. Peace.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Here is a link that will show you some pictures from the trip thus far.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2276160&l=8ca58&id=10702280

Right now we're still in the Loire Valley, Fontevraud, to be specific and about to celebrate at a friend's wedding reception. Tomorrow afternoon we will be driving up to Paris and flying out Monday morning for Munich, Germany. So much to see... time running out... Greece, getting closer.... I love all of this traveling and meeting new people. I recommend it to all who are thinking about such an excursion. Pick some funny/trustworthy travelmates though, they make the trip fun :)

Here I Am

Alright, we're still in Paris having a blasty blast. Read Becca's blog, shown on the last entry, to read about the interesting events that occurred at our first hotel which led us to this wired, clean and, most importantly, bug-free hotel that I sit in now. The train from Luxembourg to Paris was a trip too (literally and figuratively) as we had no idea that we had assigned seats on the TGV until an angry crowd (mob even?) stood in front of our seats and sweetly demanded that we vacate them. We acted quickly, gathered our backpacks and started walking... and walking... and walking until about 12 trains later when we finally found our correct seats. "where are our suitcases?" someone innocently poses, "hm, back at the wrong seats". This interaction concluded with Hillary and my excursion, like salmons swimming upstream, to get back to the old seats, gather 4 pieces of luggage and rolling them back to the correct seats. This sounds easy enough but when this maneuver is attempted while a train completely full of passengers traveling at 200mph is taking turns like a bat out of a hell and children are free to frolic in the aisles because they don't have real seats, then let's just say that Hillary and I personally experienced what it would be like to be characters in a video game where the goal is to avoid touching or rolling over as many Parisians as possible. I think I got to intermediate level. Read Becca's blog to discover what awaited us at our final resting destination... (http://www.beccarrow.blogspot.com/).

So, everything is going well here and I thank God for keeping us safe (from crazy French motorcyclists who believe that honking their horns at someone walking on the crosswalk will magically make them disappear... needless to say pedestrians do not get the right-of-way in Paris) and watching over our domestic situation by providing two great hostels in Brussels and Luxembourg and providing an out it in the form of my parents when our accomodation plans for Paris were unsettleing. I'll post some pictures from 1. Bruges 2. Luxembourg and 3. Cathedral ceiling in Paris. Keep us in your prayers and I'll keep you updated on our whereabouts.

love, b.

Belgium & Luxembourg

Honestly, I will get back to this and write a real post but for now i just wanted to show some pictures and give you one of my travel mate's blog to look at pictures....

http://www.beccarrow.blogspot.com/

Hope to hear from you soon.