We have had such a busy week, that I don't even know where to start! I'm not a huge fan of the super long blog posts because I know people get bored and don't want to finish reading it, so I'll put in a disclaimer now: Read this when you have nothing to do...I most definitely do not want to bore you!
I wanted to start with just letting everyone know the amazing work that God is doing in my heart. He is opening my eyes to so many wonderful characteristics of who He is and his redemptive work in my life. It is such a beautiful thing to see Him work so purposefully. Every day I am more and more joyful to see the work of his continual grace. So to everyone who has been devoted to praying for me, thank you, and the Lord is ever faithful.
So to be honest, I have no idea how we managed to navigate ourselves around 3 different countries in 7 days. It was a really good idea to put London at the beginning of our travels, because that one took the most out of us. The first afternoon/evening we were there it literally poured down rain...and we thought it'd be a good idea to walk through. I think I was the worst at the rainy weather because I managed to step in maybe 8 puddles. At the end of the night I just had to laugh. But we did get to see St. Paul's Cathedral (gorgeous) in the afternoon, and Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey at night. Our hostel wasn't that bad (clean wise) but we found out quickly that it was a party hostel. Try sleeping to Linkin Park blaring outside your door...it's like a fun game that you never win. The next day we managed to hit the Museum of Natural History, the Globe Theatre, London Tower and the Tower Bridge (London Bridge), Buckingham Palace again, the London Eye, and the Houses of Parliament (Big Ben). We got to take a wonderful ride on the London Eye and it was sooo worth it. We managed to get our tickets right at sunset and saw the sun set over the city. So beautiful.
Paris = amazing! I have to admit that I was slightly nervous about how I would feel about it because we've been warned that the French:
1) hate Americans
2) are extremely rude
3) are extremely rude
so you can understand that we were a bit nervous. But in Paris I experienced none of those things. I think it really helped that I had Lauren to speak French for me, but even when we spoke English most people were very helpful. Lauren did a wonderful job speaking the language and I think most of the people we talked to were really impressed. Paris just had a magical feeling all together. I can see how people easily fall in love. In Paris we went to the Louvre, the Champs-Elysees, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Troimphe, Notre Dame (where we saw a man get tackeled and arrested!!!), the Catacombs, the Pantheon, and Moulin Rouge. I don't know how we managed all of that in a day and a half, but our feet were definitely tired. After our long day we decided to have an "authentic" French meal and went to a wonderful fondue place where they loaded us with bread and cheese and wine out of baby bottles! It was sooo tasty! Lauren and I had an extra day to ourselves in Paris on Wednesday because Danielle, Marissa, and Angie headed to Luxembourg, Brussels, and Amsterdam. We decided to walk around a really cute shopping area and have a yummy crepe and my first (and probably my last) espresso ever!!
Early the next morning, we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Switzerland. Apparently the Metro doesn't run earlier than 5:30 AM, so we had to get a taxi...our first time in a car since leaving home! In Geneva we managed to grab a quick baguette before our train to Interlaken. We found out that our new President was Barack Obama while we were in Paris, but they didn't have any newspapers out until we got to Geneva. It is amazing how the world is so interested in our politics. I couldn't even name what political system Switzerland has, but everyone we met managed to ask us about the election. Crazy. I tried to read a German newspaper about the election on the train. I realized I didn't know German though...rough. Interlaken is glorious! I have never seen such beauty in my life. I have never felt so small either, which reminded me how small I am in the big picture. We found a cute coffee shop for a quick cafe and walked through the town before finding a nice place for dinner. I had some really wonderful gnocchi...the fullest I've been since I left home. The next day we took a gondola ride up to Mount Schilthorn, one of the highest mountains in Switzerland. Everything that we saw just reminded me of how glorious and big my God is. It was such a joyful experience. I even got to eat some snow :). We ate some soup and had some coffee/hot chocolate and a nice ice cream situation at the revolving restaurant at the top of the mountain and headed down before the abominable snowman came to eat us.
We got back to Ormskirk yesterday afternoon and had a day to relax which was nice. Tomorrow neither of us have class so we're going with Danielle to try a waffle place in town, doing our laundry, and writing some of our papers. It'll be hard to get back to school after our week of adventures, but we'll be done soon, so it's time to soak up all of the knowledge that we can! There are so many stories that I didn't get to share, but this is already a novel, so hopefully I can tell you soon in person! I'll put up some pictures for everyone to enjoy tomorrow!
