My European Adventures!

Italia

Roma, Firenze (Florence), Pisa, Padova (Padua), Ravenna, Venezia (Venice)

View of Rome from Michaelangelo's hill

Kissing the leaning tower of Pisa

Our gondola ride in Venice. I tried to get our gondolier to sing,
but he couldn't so he tried to whistle instead! It was super cute.

Favorite Italian experiences:

• Chilling on the Spanish steps in Rome for hours with friends.
• In the vatican, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the Sistine chapel. There was a guard in there who would go, "*clap clap* SHHHHH! NO FOTO!" every other second. It kind of became our tour joke for the rest of the trip.
• The gondola ride in Venice. So romantic, and the best way to view the city.
• Shopping in the Florence flea market and getting my italian leather purse. Also, learning how to barter with the tough italian merchants!
• Staying in the convent with the nuns. They are some of the sweetest people I have met in my entire life! So patient and kind. I love them.
• Climbing to the top of St. Peter's. Over 360 steps! We all thought we were going to die. It was so worth it though!! The view of Rome was amazing.
• Seeing Michaelangelo's David in person. It was so much bigger than I could have ever imagined! The statue itself is fascinating. Each side portrays a different emotion that David was feeling. Michaelangelo really was a genius.
• Gelato. I always thought it was italian ice, but I realized it's italian ice CREAM and it is SOOO good! Creamy and soft.
• Visiting the glass factory in Venice. For some reason I always thought that little glass sculptures were made from a mold, but nope! The guy warmed up a piece of glass and pull, pull, pull -- he had made a little glass horse in less than a minute. It was amazing!
• The mosaics in Ravenna. Probably the most beautiful mosiacs I ever have or will see. I loved the ones where the saints were carrying their martyr's crowns and palms to christ. They weren't wearing the crowns. Instead, they were offering them to Christ as a gift. That made me have so much respect for the catholic view of Saints. I was confused before because I saw it as some sort of god-like worship that I didn't really like, but now I understand that they are just respecting those who have offered up their lives for the sake of Christ's gospel.

Austria

Salzburg, Mauthausen

Right before entering the salt mine outside Salzburg. One of my favorite activities on the entire trip!!

Our friends in leiderhosen.

Their mozart

Sound of Music gazebo

Favorite Austria Experiences:

• The Salt mines. How can I begin to describe this magical adventure with choo choo trains, slides, borderlands, underground labrynths, a still dark lake, crazy old men, bones of the dead, white jumpsuits and a soap opera? I guess, like that. First, they had us dress up head to toe in baggy white jumpsuits. Then we stood in line and a train appeared out of a tunnel. We all jumped on, straddled each other, and rode it into the mine. Then we walked into a large room where we were shown the first of four clips of an outrageously cheesy soap opera involving the Arch Bishop of Salzburg, his greed, and his "romantic relations." The final clip showed him caught in the act with one of his mistresses, and then him declaring that he was falsely accused -- "I do not have 12 children! I have 16!!!" His death was also mourned about 4 times during the final clip, but wait! Nope, he was just falling asleep. After the video, we rode down these huge wooden slides, rode the pirates of the carribean ride across an underground lake (my contribution: saying "DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES!" loudly when everybody was completely quiet), saw the bones of men who died there, and crossed the border from Austria to Germany and back again. If you ever go to Salzburg, you can't miss the salt mines. They're the best!!
• Visiting the Salzburg castle. Amazing views of the Austrian alps, and the cutest little marionette museum!
• Meeting our drunk friends in leiderhosen after exiting the castle. Laurie stopped them and asked for a photo, and they said, "20 euro!" She said it wasn't worth it. They laughed, and the guy in the middle of the picture started breaking walnuts with his hands and feeding them to us. Then we talked about where we were from, and they said they were visiting from Germany. I asked them why they were wearing shorts, and they called them little boy shorts and wouldn't give me a straight answer. Then we invited them to come with us to Mozart's birthplace. They thought that was a lame idea, and invited us to go to the pub with them. We told them we don't drink, or smoke, and they proceeded to offer Laurie a cigarette (she was really excited about that! I guess she grew up in Rexburg...). They couldn't believe we weren't allowed to "be with boys" so they asked us what we did for fun at night. We told them we play games and stuff. It sounded lame! haha Then we invited them to come to Mozart's birthplace with us again, and they said, "we make our own history! Go see our Mozart! Look in the water." We realized they were talking about the fountain in the square, and we walked over and lo and behold, they had stolen one of the Mozart Chocolate cardboard cutouts that were all over Salzburg and stuck it in the fountain.
• Attending two masses: one a mozart mass. So cool, but also kinda a different experience!
• Sound of music tour. We saw where they hid from the Nazi's, sang in the Salzburg festival, all the places in the garden where they sang "Do-Re-Mi," The Sound of Music house, and the gazebo.
• Hellbrunn water gardens. This crazy prince built some gardens where he would invite guests for parties, and then when they were drunk he would turn on fountains that would soak them. The guy was definitely a practical joker, and I don't think I like him much because I was sprayed quite a few times!
• Mauthausen concentration camp. Not necessarily my favorite, but definitely an experience worth remembering. I think i'll be okay with never going to another concentration camp again.
• Staying in my first hostel. 8 girls to a room and showers that make you feel dirtier after you're done.
• Sharing the gospel for a half hour with a jewish guy from israel.

Czech Republic

Praha (Prague)

Jessica and I on the old bridge where mission impossible was filmed. Recognize that building in the background? Yeah, that was in it too!

Favorite Prague Experiences:

• The castle guard that stuck his tongue out at Krista.
• THE FOOD! Best food I had on the entire trip! A lot of german influence.
• Buying things with Krowns. $65 = over 900 Krowns. I felt like I was spending a lot!
• Czech me out shirts.
  

Germany

Berlin, Lutherstadt Wittenburg, Munchen (Munich), Neuschwanstein

Neuschwanstein Castle (sleeping beauty's) -- Me pretending to be a princess

View of Swan Lake from Neuschwanstein

Holocaust memorial in Berlin

Park where Luther burned the Papal bull in Wittenburg

Disney Museum in Munich

Favorite Germany experiences:

• Seeing the parlaiment building in Berlin where Hitler used to give his speeches, and seeing the bullet and grenade hole patches in the side of the building.
• Going through the holocaust monument in Berlin. When you walk in, it starts off with the blocks spread apart and short, and they get taller and closer together the deeper you get. It is supposed to represent the prisoners getting shipped off to the concentration camps, thinking it won't be so bad, and them eventually realizing how deep into it they were.
• Seeing the berlin wall, the SS (gestapo) headquarters, and going along the wall to look at the hitler/nazi museum.
• Seeing the glockenspiel in Munich.
• Going to the place where Luther posted his 95 theses, where he was married, where he burned the papal bull, where he gave most of his sermons, where he attended school, where he lived, and where he was buried. All were very spiritual experiences.
• Attending an LDS sacrament meeting in Munich.
• Visiting the Neuschwanstein castle and wirskirche in the Bavarian alps -- the most beautiful places I have ever been to. The wirskirche is thought of as the most beautiful rococo chapel in the world. Just below Neuschwanstein is THE swan lake - the one that the ballet was based off of. That is undoubtedly the most beautiful lake I have ever seen.
• Seeing the altar of Zeus in the Pinacotec in Berlin. I loved the stories about the gods.
• German chocolate. YUM!
• The Disney museum that Jessica found in Munich. It was an exhibit about where Walt Disney and his artists got all their inspiration for the first disney classic films.
  

Switzerland

Geneva

Favorite Swiss experiences:

• Swiss chocolate! YUMBA!
• Hanging out on the waterfront at night with friends. It was pitch dark, and I saw the outline of the fattiest rat in the world run in front of me. I screamed bloody murder and the rat jumped about 2 feet in the air. It was hillarious!
• Seeing the reformer's wall. So huge! I also liked the huge fountain in the lake.

France

Paris, Caen, Normandy Beaches

Jessica and me on top of the eiffel tower at night

In front of the eiffel on a rainy day in Paris!

Jess and myself in front of the Louvre

Quasimodo and Esmerelda in front of Notre Dame

Grand staircase in the Paris Opera House

Brooke, Jessica and me in the red light district late at night for a spectacular shot of the Moulin Rouge

Peter our cute little bus driver from Holland! He and I became friends. He was HILLARIOUS!

Favorite France Experiences:

• Seeing and then going up the eiffel tower at night. It sparkles every hour! Soooo pretty. And the view was AMAZING. The ride up in the elevator was kinda scary though. I have a fear of heights.
• Sacre Coure (Sacred Heart). Loved the view of Paris, and also the shopping nearby.
• The louvre. There is SO MUCH TO SEE THERE HOLY WOW. We were there for 4 hours and I didn't even get to everything that I wanted to! I saw the Mona Lisa, David's Oath of the Horatii and Coronation of Napoleon, Winged Victory, the famous armless athena, and sooo much more. They even had engraved slabs of gold. IT WAS POSSIBLE FOR THE BOOK OF MORMON PEOPLE!
• Musee D'Orsay. Liked some of it... not the picasso's. There was a really cool miniature of the paris opera house that I liked.
• CREPES! I had some of the weirdest but YUMMIEST crepes ever! Had the nutella and banana one too, of course. Don't ever get the savory crepes from the turkish kebap places. blech.
• Versailles. There was some weird exhibit going on inside with huge chrome balloon animals that totally ruined the effect, but the place was still beautiful. Whitney and I made friends with Shawn the swan in the gardens and I fed him my granola bar. She learned after throwing her apple core in the famous apollo fountain that apples don't sink, they float!
• My crazy adventure with Jessica and brooke. We saw Notre Dame at sunset, went shopping again at Sacre Coure, went to the paris opera house (where phantom of the opera is based) and saw the grand staircase and one of the most beautiful rooms in all of europe, we also met an LDS missionary on the subway, and had an adventure running through the red light district at 9 pm after we had gotten off on the wrong stop. Scariest experience of my life! Then we found the moulin rouge and took some funny pictures. On our way home we saw two guys fall down the stairs in the subway and on hit his head on a garbage can and was bleeding everywhere. I almost barfed.
• The american cemetery and Normany beaches. I now have a new respect for the devastation at war, and just how real it is. The american men who went off to fight were only an average of 17 1/2 years old. Just boys. They didn't have any training, and they went and fought heardened Nazi soldiers and won. It reminded me of the stripling warriors.

England

London

Stephanie, Amy, Jessica, Josh, Me, and Brooke after Wicked!!

Harry Potter train station

Favorite London Experiences:

• Seeing the white cliffs of Dover on the ferry ride across the english channel. I don't know why I was so excited!
• Brother Anderson and Peterson singing "feed the birds" in front of St. Peter's - and then everyone feeding the squirrels that would run up to them and eat from their hands while bro. p was talking.
• St. James gardens with the cute little cottage and the amazing wildlife.
• Buckingham palace and the changing of the guards that seemed to go on for forever.
• The tower of London where Anne Boleyn and Sir Thomas Moore were beheaded. We had a tour given by a beefeater, who wore the funniest suit and had the great british dry humor. He reminded me of the Dad from My Fair Lady. Also, seeing the crown jewels inside the tower. I have never seen any jewelry as beautiful. AND OH MY THOSE DIAMONDS!
• Harry Potter train station. I was freaking out. "HARRY POTTER WAS HERE!!!!! Let's go to Hogwarts!"
• Seeing the London temple.