austria- vienna and salzburg

what a BEAUTIFUL weekend! I can truly think of no better word to describe Austria other than beautiful. On Thursday afternoon, I left straight from work with my backpack and headed to the airport. This was a different airport than the one that we usually fly out of, so I was a little nervous about being able to navigate my way there. Thankfully, I made it- without getting lost even once! I tell you people, after this trip I better have some sense of direction hammered into me. I met up with everyone at our gate and we boarded the plane on time, all ready to go! It was a group of 7 of us from Furman- Adair, Sey, Anna, Allie, Jillian, and Stephen, our lone boy. Such a fun group!  By the time we touched down in Vienna around 10, we were all exhausted so we headed straight to the hostel and to bed. The next morning, we woke up and to our dismay, it was raining pretty hard. This wouldn't have been so bad had it not also been cold, so we knew we could possibly be in for a challenging day. We were all still so excited to be in Austria, though, so we put on our happy faces and headed to our first stop of the day, the Schönbrunn Palace, home of many rulers of the Hapsburg dynasty. It was beautiful and ornate palace, and is known worldwide as only second to Versailles in beauty. We took a nice guided tour and learned a lot about Franz Joseph and his wife, Cissy. After touring the interior, we headed out back to see the famed gardens. They were truly stunning. I think the rain added to the effect, because the greenery was amazing to see. The pictures I took hopefully do it some justice. After the palace we caught the metro and headed downtown. Our first stop was St. Stephen's cathedral. It's the most important religious building in Vienna, and is one of the city's most famous landmarks. After visiting inside the cathedral, we decided to head up to its South tower, which is the highest point in Vienna. The climb up was not fun- very steep, with a narrow winding staircase that was pretty medieval. After about 20 minutes we reached the top, and the view was definitely worth it. We took pictures for a while and just took in the skyline, which was nice. Afterwards we were starving, so we headed down to this cute little restuarant and had a nice lunch. We got to warm up and eat some delicious food, which was great! After lunch, to poor Stephen's dismay, we decided to take a little shopping break. H&M over here is gonna be the death of me (and my budget!). After shopping our group split up and Adair, Anna, Jillian and I headed to the Albertina, an art museum that houses some great works of impressionist art by Monet and Picasso. While I found the museum to be pretty, I must admit that I don't truly have an appreciation for art. I find a lot more pleasure in music and literature, and some of the art there was beautiful but just didn't make much sense to me. After the Albertina, Anna and I were determined to find some Viennese cakes. We stopped by a place called Hotel Sacher, a famous Viennese landmark, and purchased a little Viennese cake. It was absolutely delicious! Truly one of the best desserts I've had since I've been in Europe. It was about time to head to the train station to catch our train to Vienna, so we quickly grabbed our stuff from the hostel and were on our way. I've decided that train travel truly is the way to go. It is a lot less hassle than flying and much more comfortable too! I had so much leg room and barely even felt like I was moving. The view was beautiful as well. Once we arrived in Salzburg, we got a little lost. It took us about 30 minutes to find our hostel (for once this wasn't my fault), but once we finally got there, we settled in and went to sleep. Because there were 7 of us, we'd booked an 8 person room and just hoped that we wouldn't have an extra. We weren't so lucky, however, when we discovered that we'd be having an extra person. This wouldn't have been bad, except when every single one of us woke up at 2 AM to hear the loudest snoring I have truly ever heard in my life. This was worse than my dad and my brother combined. I have never heard someone snore so loudly. The situation was so comical that we had to laugh, and eventually we got back to sleep. The next morning we woke up bright and early for the Sound of Music tour. Most of the scenes from the movie were filmed in Salzburg, and I was SO excited to go on the tour. It definitely didn't disappoint! The views were beautiful. We got to see the Von Trapp house, the 16 going on 17 gazebo, and the church where Maria and Captain Von Trapp were married. We also got to learn a lot more about the real story of Maria. The bus took us up to the mountain and lakes district of Austria, which was just so picturesque. It literally looked like a postcard. We stopped in the town of Mondsee for lunch, where I got to try some Austrian sausage and apple strudel- both were great! The tour ended around 2, so we still had a little time to tour around Salzburg. We saw the Pegasus fountain and the Mirabell gardens, all where more scenes from the Sound of Music were filmed. We also did quick tour through Mozart's birthplace, which was really enlightening. After Mozart, we saw the Salzburg Dom, which is Salzburg's oldest cathedral (and the prettiest one I've seen in Europe yet) and a cool outdoor market. By this time it was raining pretty hard and was about 40 degrees, so Sey and I stopped and grabbed some hot spiced wine that was surprisingly good. We traipsed back in the pouring rain to our hostel where we met up with the rest of the group and headed to the train station for our train back to Vienna. Once we arrived at the station, we were surprised to see a train for Vienna already there and ready to go. We boarded it and it soon got underway...10 minutes early. That was our first clue that something was wrong. Turns out, we'd gotten ON THE WRONG TRAIN. I started to panic, thinking that the train operators were going to throw us off or make us pay a huge fine. Thankfully, we were still headed to Vienna, but we'd accidentally gotten on the more expensive "express train". When the conductor came around to check tickets I was really scared. He was actually really nice though and laughed at our mistake...we didn't have to pay anything extra, and the conductor just cautioned us to know better next time. It ended up being a great mistake because we got back to Vienna 45 minutes earlier! Since Anna, Adair, and I had booked tickets to see a Viennese opera at the Schonbrunn palace, this was great news. We arrived right on time without having to rush. The opera was truly beautiful. The orchestra played pieces from Mozart and Strauss, and there was singing and ballet dancing. It was a beautiful evening. During intermission we grabbed some champagne, and I have to say I felt pretty posh to be drinking champagne and listening to Mozart at an opera in Vienna, Austria! What a surreal experience. After the concert we wanted another slice of that Viennese cake, so we headed downtown to Cafe Sacher again and had some nice hot chocolate and cake to top off a wonderful night! We grabbed a flight back nice and early Sunday morning and were back in Brussels by noon. It was a wonderful weekend and I couldn't have asked for a better trip! I'm only sad that I missed my wonderful cousin Erin's wedding- but I heard it was absolutely beautiful. I'm heading to London on Thursday to see some of my Furman friends who are visiting for fall break in addition to one of my friends from camp, and I can't wait!

in front of the Schonbrunn Palace

Schonbrunn Palace gardens

more gardens.. GORGEOUS

me with the umbrella, of course!

St. Stephan's cathedral

view from the top of the South Tower

more views

the steps leading up to the Albertina art museum

where all the scenes from the back of the Von Trapp house were filmed

group shot!

16 going on 17 gazebo

got a little carried away...

it was so rainy and windy

the view

in front of the chapel where maria and captain von trapp were married

Pegasus (do-re-mi) fountain

Salzburg

more Salzburg

inside the dom

view of the Alps from the train station

view from the train

normandy

This weekend I visited Normandy with the Furman group. It was quite a cool experience. We began the weekend with a seven hour bus ride. If you know me, you know that I literally hate buses and am really prone to carsickness. And of course, lucky me, I got the jerkiest driver on the planet. So needless to say after 7 hours, I was not feeling great. But we arrived in Normandy safely and all in one piece! Since it was dinnertime when we arrived, a group of us headed down to a local cafe. We were staying in the city of Bayeux, which is a beautiful French town. We ate dinner at a delicious restuarant and had a dessert of gingerbread and vanilla ice cream- so good! I'm going to be honest here...until this trip I thought that Normandy was a city instead of a region in France. To my great embarassment, I found out the facts from our tour guide. But hey, you learn something new every day! After an early night on Friday we woke up on Saturday morning and headed for a tour of Normandy's beaches. Normandy was the site of the D-Day invasion in World War 2 (which, thankfully, I did know) and its beaches were really something to behold. We first visited the Utah beach, and then the Omaha. It was really nice because for lunch, we all bought sandwiches and pastries and had a picnic on the beach. The weather was beautiful and warm, a rarity for Belgium/France this time of year. In between, we got to visit some cemeteries of soldiers who'd perished in the invasion, both American and German. It really struck me that some of the most beautiful places I've visited in Europe have been cemeteries. Anyway, the American cemetery was located near the Omaha landing spot, and it was really breathtaking. I learned a lot about the invasion, including American strategy and the million things that didn't go as planned. It was also really sad to see that many of the soldiers who'd died were younger than I am now or even around my age. That's really hard for me to wrap my head around. We got to see the grave of Franklin Roosevelt, Jr and one of the few women buried in the cemetery. It was a beautful day weather-wise, which really contrasted with the somber mood of viewing the cemeteries. I came away from the experience feeling really enlightened and humbled by the sacrifices that people are willing to make for greater causes. The next day, we got to see the Bayeux tapestry, which is housed in a museum in Bayeux near where we were staying. It is nearly 210 feet long and depicts the Norman invasionof England. Afterwards, we headed for home (another 7 hour bus trip). This weekend was the first that I have really felt homesick. I miss my family terribly, and I honestly am counting down the days until they come and visit. I'm so grateful for things like Skype and email that allow me to keep in touch with everyone that I love. It was also hard because my sorority had a function this weekend, and I really missed being there with my friends. I know the experiences that I'm having can never be replaced and I would never trade this trip for anything, but I sure could have used a little SC love this weekend! Next Thursday I head to Vienna, Austria and then on to Salzburg, home of the Sound of Music, where I'll be taking the Sound of Music tour. I am literally so excited- it is supposed to be beautiful!

Normandy:

German cemetery

German cemetery

the girls on my trip on Utah beach

hanging out on the beach

cathedral in st. mere-eglise

standing in the hole where a bomb shell hit- omaha beach

normandy

normandy memorial- omaha beach

oh beautiful, for spacious skies..

American cemetery

graves in the American cemetery

more of the cemetery

sister's sweet sixteen

I'm dedicating this post to my beautiful little sister, Hayley, who turns sweet 16 today!

I miss you so much sissy!

16 things I love about Hayley:

1) She is always, always herself. Whether she is rocking her latest edgy outfit or bouncing those beautiful blonde curls, Hayley is not afraid to be who she is. Not many people can say that, and it is a trait to be admired.

2) She's multi-talented: she is a swimmer, a runner, a beautiful pianist, a leader in her school, and smart. Whether she's been doing it for years (swimming) or just started (running), I love that she is so involved.

3) She has the best style. Hayley has an ingrained sense of style and the personality and confidence to pull off almost anything. 

4) She has a big heart. Hayley loves God, her family, and her friends with a passion and loyalty that makes me proud.

5) She understands me. We can sit in my car for hours, just driving around- sometimes talking, sometimes not, sometimes just listening to music. She listens to me and she gives me her wisdom- and she is usually right!

6) She has excellent taste in men (here's looking at you, Sam). She brought wonderful Boo Boo into our family and our lives, and we couldn't be more grateful!

7) She isn't afraid to try new things. She ran for student government and was in Miss Mayo, just to name a few things. She is always willing to put herself out there.

8) She is kind. Hayley is the type of friend and sister you want in your corner. She embraces people with her whole heart and always tries to see the best in others.

9) She is a makeup artist extraordinaire. Seriously, the girl has a talent! Can you come to Brussels and just make me look good all day?

10) She isn't afraid to laugh at herself. Hayley doesn't care how she looks to others- she'll laugh that deep belly laugh and just do whatever she wants!

11) She's smart. Hayley can help me figure out basically any problem in my life, and for a 16 year old, she's pretty wise. She has good grades and has a different type intelligence and way of thinking that I would kill for.

12) She's an otter. Kind of an inside family joke, but Hayley is way less high strung than Madison or myself, and so much more carefree! I envy her that, always.

13) She's beautiful. Seriously, do you know anyone with curlier, more beautiful blonde hair? Or a cuter little 5'1ish blue eyed fashionista? Whole package!!

14) She encourages me. I've always been blessed to be so close to my sisters, but I can't tell you how wonderful it is on a bad day to call your sister, and have her tell you everything is going to be alright. She's my biggest fan, and always there for me.

15) She'll sit up at night with me watching TV and eating brownies straight out of the pan. And we love it!

16) She puts up with me. Whether I'm being whiny or mean or just downright grouchy, Hayley takes my moods with a grain of salt and loves me despite it all. I know that even if one day we're having a knock down dragout fight and pulling each other's hair (which hasn't happened in oh, you know, a few months or so. Yes, we're 16 and 20.) I always know she'll forgive me. She's my sister and she loves me unconditionally.

There are so many more things I could say, but I just want you all to know how lucky and blessed I feel to have Hayley as my sister. I miss her more than words can say over in Belgium, and I am literally counting down the days/hours/minutes/seconds until we are reunited. Life just isn't the same without her.

So Hayley, have a wonderful, beautiful birthday. I'm so sorry I can't be there- but know that I'll be thinking about you all day! I hope you have a fantastic day, you deserve nothing less!!

picnic and ieper

What a beautiful weekend! The weather was SO nice. On friday since we didn't have school or work, Sey, Anna, and I decided to go have personal day. We bought some delicious salads and soup at a local store, then headed to Park Cinquantenaire for a picnic. It was sunny but not too hot, just the perfect picnic weather. Cinquantenaire is one of the few places in such a big city with such nice greenery, so it was nice to sit and hang out with a beautiful view that wasn't all cement! About midway through our picnic, some young Belgian boys came over and started talking with us. I use the term talking lightly, as they could barely speak English. There were about 5 of them and they looked to be about 16, so I think they were trying to be cool by talking to older foreign girls. Their English phrases included "what is your mother's name" and "where is lamp". It is amazing to me that despite this, we were still about to talk for about 20 minutes. After living in a foreign country for a while, I've come to find out that gestures, tone of voice, and body language are sometimes all you need to have a conversation. Between my passable French and their little English, we talked about their view of US politics, their musical taste, and where they were from. It was a fun little experience. After our picnic, we headed down to Grand Place for a quick visit to the Chocolate Museum. This was pretty disappointing- it was only a single house with a few informational posters. After the museum, we decided on a little retail therapy. We hit up H&M, which is a really popular store over here and really reasonably priced. I ended up buying quite a few things and left for home happy. The next day we got up early to meet the bus to go on a Furman group tour of Ieper, a Belgian city that has a lot of World War 1 memorials. It is in the Flemish province of West Flanders. While there, we checked out several cathedrals and many cemetaries. Iepers occupied a strategic position during World War 1 because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the north. The cemetaries we visited were beautiful, but it was sad to think about the amount of lives lost. World War 1 truly was such a devastating war, and all those gravestones just really drove the point home. We also got to visit the "In Flanders Fields" museum, which was quite enlightening. All in all, it was a beautiful and reflective day. Tomorrow I'm heading to the church I've been attending, called St. Andrews. It is affliated with the Church of Scotland and reminds me of St. Luke at home, just with a Scottish pastor! Hopefully I'll also get to check out the marketplace. It's something that happens in Place Flagey (a square near where I live) every Sunday and is full of vendors selling delicious foods and other items. Here's to a restful Sunday!

our delicious picnic!

the view in the park 

"in Flanders Fields the poppies blow,

between the crosses, row on row"

Belgian countryside

german babies and castles

Today I got a really unique opportunity to do something different while in Belgium. Let me explain. Another girl in my program, Lindsay, recently posted in our group forum about a babysitting opportunity through her work. She explained that her office was having a leadership retreat, and that they needed someone to watch the children while the adults were in sessions. The retreat just happened to be at a German castle, owned by the Prince of Merode, a personal friend of one of the people who worked at Lindsay's internship. It sounded fun, and I knew that I would otherwise just be having a lazy Saturday in Brussels, so I agreed to do it. I got up early this morning and headed to Gare du Midi, the main train station in Brussels, to meet my ride. Of course, because this is me we're talking about, I made it to the station but subsequently got lost. I was supposed to be meeting my ride at 9 AM at one of the stations, but when it got to be around 9:10 and no one had showed up, I got a little suspicious. I called the trip coordinator, who tried to put me in touch with Tobias, who was my ride. It turns out that I'd been sitting at the opposite end of the station from where I was supposed to be, so I had to somehow navigate through the massive train station to find Tobias. I finally managed to do that, and we got underway around 9:45. I soon found out after meeting Tobias that Lindsay's internship was with a massive church organization called The Well. It is something like Newspring, for those of you who know what that is. You can find out more information here: http://www.thewell.be/ Anyway, there were two other girls riding in the car as well- Annaleah, who is a Canadian working as an au pair, and Yvette, who is from Peru and is also working as an au pair. They both attend The Well and were going to the leadership retreat as well. When we finally arrived, I was truly stunned. It was a real German castle, moat and all! I soon got to meet the precious children I would be taking care of- Rachel, an 11 year old American girl who lived with her family in Brussels (and is originally from Irmo, SC- small world!), Maximo, a precious 3 year old, and Jonathan, a 13 month old baby. Clearly Rachel didn't need much supervision, and Jonathan's dad was also there, so I just began playing with Max. He was truly too cute. We played in one of the rooms in the castle until lunch, which was a delicious array of sandwiches. Afterwards, the Prince of Merode gave us a personal tour of the castle. It was so gorgeous! I can't imagine having actually grown up in a place like that. After the tour, I decided to take the children outside to play. We found a small play place on the grounds, complete with a trampoline, a sandbox, and swings. Max bounced around on the trampoline for a while. In retrospect this probably wasn't a great idea because he'd just eaten, because he bounced so much that he promptly threw up. Throw up is not my speciality, but thankfully 3 year olds can only produce so much. Afterwards he smiled, took a short break, and went straight back to bouncing. We then built sandcastles and played soccer, and I really enjoyed just getting to act like a kid for a little. We played for a while longer then took a walk around the castle grounds. Some of the adults told Max that there was a dragon who lived in the castle, so I had to spend most of my time convincing him that the dragon was a friendly dragon and wouldn't come and hurt him. We spent the rest of the afternoon outside and then loaded up the cars and headed for a restuarant. By then all of the children were ready to go home, so I said goodbye to Max, my wonderful friend for the day. I had a lovely dinner with all of the people from The Well, and found out that some of them had studied at the Christian University in Columbia! It really IS a small world. After that, Tobias dropped us back off at Gare du Midi, and I headed home by metro just in time for it to start pouring. I had a lovely 15 minute walk in the pouring rain back to my apartment, but it was definitely worth it. I'm so glad I got to try something different and meet some cool new people. It's truly what I think the study abroad experience is all about! Unfortunately, tomorrow I'll have to spend all day writing a paper. I'm planning on trying a new church here in the morning though, and then heading for another run in Cinquantenaire Park, which is totally beautiful! Until next time...


Pictures!!

gorgeous view of the entrance to the castle and moat

picture of the castle from Max's and my walking tour

Max and baby Jonathan

precious baby Jonathan

Max was giving me kisses- what a cutie

the cutie himself

aachen and antwerp

This weekend we visited Aachen, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium. We boarded a bus on Friday night around 6 to head to Aachen, Germany with the whole group (all of the kids on the Furman trip and our professor and his wife). We ended up getting there and checking into our hotel around 8 PM and got a delicious dinner. The next morning we got up bright and early and headed to Charlemagne's Cathedral. We went through the museum first, where the bones of Charlemagne and a fragment of the crucifixion cross are housed. It was really crazy and impressive to see the relics and I really enjoyed the museum. Afterwards we toured the cathedral, which was absolutely breathtaking. The pictures I have simply don't do it justice. Soon after we got to have some free time in Aachen, so we walked to a nearby park and got a kebob and some gelato and just enjoyed Aachen. It was a really nice town and not too tourist-y. We then loaded the bus and headed for Antwerp. In Antwerp we again settled into our hotel and walked to the big city center for dinner. We had delicious pizza and beer and then headed back to the hotel. The next morning we were up early for a 3 hour walking tour of Antwerp. Not my favorite thing since my feet are still in pretty bad shape, but it was still interesting. We got to see the river and the huge tunnel that runs under it (there are no bridges connecting the two sides!) and the red light district, which was honestly quite shocking. I'll spare you the imagery but needless to say I've never seen anything like that in the US nor do I care to see anything like it again. After the 3 hour (!!!!!) walking tour we had free time in the afternoon. A group of girls and I decided to go to the Diamond Museum in Antwerp. Antwerp is famous for its diamonds and diamond shops and dealers were everywhere so I was really excited. The museum was fabulous. I learned all these crazy things about diamonds (including that the mold for the glass Coke can is carved by industrial diamonds) and got to see a lot of beautiful replicas. The food in Antwerp was delicious as well. We tried chocolate, my first Belgian waffle, and these DELICIOUS homemade cupcakes. I honestly cannot tell you how all Europeans aren't fat. The food here is just so...tempting. We headed home from Antwerp on the bus, and on the way back got a glimpse of an old concentration camp. It was a pretty sobering experience, especially considering that today is the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. There isn't as much memorial coverage over here as I'm sure there is in the states, but the connection of those two horrific time periods just really struck a chord with me and made me think. Again, I feel just so blessed to be able to be having all of these truly wonderful, learning, and life-changing experiences. I'm lucky enough that I have a family to support me and a military that keeps me safe, and I'm lucky to be an American. Today of all days, this is especially clear to me. I also got to talk to my sister Madison tonight, which is so wonderful because I miss her so much (Hayley, if you're reading this, SKYPE ME!). Being able to keep in touch with my family and friends has been great. I got to call my grandfather on his and my grandmother's 60th wedding anniversary earlier this week, and once again I was just humbled by the love and unconditional support I have. To all of you reading this- thank you so much for being you and loving me enough to keep up with me! I miss you all terribly. All for now- the workweek starts early again tomorrow morning!


Some pictures:

the bust of Charlemagne (with bones inside!)

in the cathedral

the group in front of the cathedral

the Antwerp river

the most delicious cupcake EVER!