And so it begins.....

Friends and family, I am starting this blog for the purpose of keeping those of you who are interested updated on the current happenings befalling myself, Grant, and Phil as we travel through Europe. This being my first post, I will attempt to fill you in on the adventures of our travels thus far.

We departed from the Peoria airport at 2:30 pm CT on Monday (that would be 9:30 pm here in Bardejov). It is now 8:30 pm on Wednesday here so we started our travels about 48 hours ago. After transferring to a larger aircraft at O'Hare in Chicago, we began the 7.5 hour flight across the Atlantic to Amsterdam. The long overseas flight was fairly uneventful, but I only slept for about an hour total (I was hoping for a lot more in my attempt to ward off jet lag).

We spent about an hour and a half at the airport in Amsterdam, before boarding a small plane for a 2.5 hour flight across Europe to Warszaw, Poland. The fun really started to begin when we got off the plane in Warszaw.

After exchanging currency and scoring a taxi to the central train station, we realized that our train for Krakow was scheduled for a 6:00 departure and it was only 1:30 in the afternoon. We decided to take advantage of this extra time by taking the opportunity to explore Warszaw. Some highlights of our several hours in the polish city included: Walking through a HUGE old catholic cathedral with a large statue of Poland's native son, the late Pope John Paul II outside, exploring the Warszaw ghetto, exchanging currency with a friendly Pole who spoke passable English, and eating at an authentic Polish bakery.

Then the time came for us to return to the station and board the train for Krakow. The ride was long and uneventful (so I'm told, as I slept through most of it) and our compartment, which would comfortably hold six people, was packed shoulder to shoulder with eight. However, we arrived safely in Krakow and Ed graciously made the 3 hour drive (6 hour roundtrip) from Bardejov to pick us up.

When we arrived at Ed and Wendi's home in Bardejov at 1:00 in the morning, Wendi was still awake to greet us! Not only that, but she had made us calzones and muffins and sat with us around the table (along with Ed) until we hit the sack around 2:00. Shaylee made an appearance at about 1:45, but she claimed no memory of it in the morning.

I awoke at around 10:00 this morning to find Phil already awake around the breakfast table with Ed, Wendi, Jalen, and Shaylee. The boys were already off at school and Grant had yet to surface (he wouldn't until around 12:30!) After a breakfast of muffins, coffee, cereal and orange juice Jalen and Shaylee introduced me to the main attraction in the Rumbold front yard, the trampoline!

After Grant finally came up for air, the Rumbold girls and Ed took us three travelers on a walk around the city of Bardejov. I was especially impressed by the town square, which is NOTHING like anything I've seen in America. It's wide open and paved in cobblestone with shops and buildings all around the wide perimeter. I took a lot of pictures on the walk, so I'll attempt to figure out how to add some of those on here. If any of you have facebook, they're all already uploaded on there.

Our walk continued, with Ed and Wendi treating us to ice cream and a trip by the school to pick up Gage. He joined us for the remainder of the walk back to the Rumbold house, passing a beautiful fountain display and a skate park. After we got back to the house, Ed, Grant, Phil and I got in the van and went to pick up Jayce and Tate from school.

The evening activities thus far have consisted of a scrumptious dinner of Chili and homemade bread, a Bible story and quiz game (the visitors from afar squeaked out a win against the Rumbold children only after Phil bested Gage in a game of "odd or even" to break the tie) and some wild games of "Hollyball". Yes, you read that right, Hollyball. This game, copy-write belonging to Jayce and Tate, involves throwing a basketball from one trampoline towards a goal on the other trampoline (yes, they have two trampolines). A goalie on the other trampoline attempts to block the ball before it contacts the goal in the net behind him. This game is great! Grant, Phil and I played for a while even after the kids all went in for bed!

Well, now it looks like our first evening in Slovakia is winding down. I feel pretty good, as far as jet lag goes. I wasn't tired all day today and it looks like I'll be ready for bed at a fairly normal time over here. I really can't thank Ed and Wendi enough! They have been so gracious to us allowing us be a part of their family while we are here. I'm having a blast thus far and I can't wait to see what further adventures are in store for us in the days/weeks to come.

I'll try to keep this updated semi-regularly for those of you interested on keeping up with us. If you have any questions/advice/thoughts/words of wisdom/jokes you can leave a comment and I'll attempt to get back to you as soon as I can.

Until next time, this is Ben signing off from Bardejov.