Back home in the U.S. of A

As you probably guessed from the title of this post, we're back! I'm sitting in my parent's kitchen in good old Morton, Illinois enjoying my first morning back with my family.

Our flight home was, for the most part, uneventful. We made it through the 8 hour flight from Rome to Montreal, quickly cleared Canadien customs and then flew about 2 hours from Montreal to Chicago. We had a two and a half hour layover at O'Hare in Chicago before our final flight to Peoria, so we celebrated being back in America by eating at Chili's, an American classic!

We were met at the airport in Peoria by my dad, Dan, Joe, and Barb. After waiting a few minutes for our baggage to come in, we finally completed the last leg of our journey........the drive home.

As I reflect back on our month in Europe, I'm amazed at all of the places we've been, people we've met and things we've learned in such a short time. A quick list of the cities we were able to spend some time in: Warsaw, Bardejov, Zilina, Vienna, Salzburg, Munchen, Breidenbach, Paris, Strasbourg, Bern, Gimmelwald, Rome, and Ostia Antica.

I'm also struck by the incredible debt of thanks that we owe to so many people. The first two weeks of our trip that we were able to spend with Ed and Wendi in Bardejov we're so enjoyable, relaxing and fulfilling. I immensely enjoyed being around each and every member of their family and the memories I built during those two weeks are ones that I'll treasure forever. Honestly, I can't thank the Rumbold family enough. Can't wait to see you guys in the states next Summer!

In the two weeks since we left Bardejov we owe a big thank you to Brano for his hospitality towards us in Zilina, The Kovacs' family for hosting us in Breidenbach, and Laura and Phoebe for the kindness they showed us in Paris.

Personally, I would like to thank Grant and Phil for being great traveling companions and for putting up with me 24/7 for a month. On top of that, I owe Grant much thanks for all of planning and logistical work he did for us and Phil for all of the photographical documentation he provided.

Lastly I'd like to thank everyone who has been following this blog for the past month. Your thoughts and prayers were all greatly appreciated. I'm excited for the opportunity to catch up with many of you now that we're back in the states!

What a trip! Our travels are over, but the memories remain.

For the final time, this is Ben signing off from Morton.

The Vatican, a day on the beach and our last night in Europe

As I sit down to type this post the reality is hitting me that this will be the last time I blog in Europe. I'm sitting in the computer lounge at the Litus hostel in Ostica Antica right now. Grant is at a computer to my right and Phil just retired for the night. It's about 10:30 and we have to catch the bus to the airport fairly early tomorrow morning so I'll probably check out as well soon after putting up this post.

The last time I posted, I believe we had just finished up our first day in Rome (Monday) in which we saw the colliseum, the forum, etc.... We got an early start yesterday (Tuesday) morning because we were headed to the Vatican, and we were pretty sure it would be packed if we didn't get there early enough.

The Vatican opens it's doors at 9:30, so we got there at 8:45 just to be on the safe side..............however, there was already a huge line. There were a bunch of tour guides standing around the line promising that if we bought their tour package (for like 15-20 euro) we could skip the 2 hour wait in the line. Since we were feeling risky and somewhat economical we decided to take our chances with the line. Turned out to be a good choice......we were at the front of the line in 27 minutes!

Once inside the Vatican we went straight to the Vatican museum and started slowly digesting the layers and layers of church history that were stored inside. It really was a fascinating place. They even had a display of a small robin that was given to one of the popes as a gift by Richard Nixon.

After the museum, we walked through the Sistine Chapel. The rumors are completely true....the ceiling is amazing! It was quite an experience just going through the room. You're shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other tourists and everyone is looking up at the ceiling as they walk around. I imagine the Swiss guards must pull up the Sistine Chapel security tapes when they're board (which brings up an interesting discussion question: if you're a Swiss guard, when aren't you board?)

Next on our agenda for the Vatican was Saint Peter's basilica. We had to wait in another enormous but otherwise fast moving line to get in there. Once inside, it was easy to see what all the fuss was about. This place is gigantic, lavish, and extraordinary! Easily the most impressive cathedral we've seen on this trip (and believe me, we've seen some impressive ones). In fact, Saint Peter's was so big and so packed with people that Grant and I lost Phil for about 45 minutes (or he lost us, depending on how you look at it).

Just outside of the basilica, right off of Saint Peter's square was a fairly new museum dedicated to the late Pope John Paul II. It was quite well done and informative. I wish I could go into detail about all we learned about him, but it would take up to much space in this post. You should go read about him yourself. He was quite a guy.

We also got to see the Swiss guards on the outskirts of Saint Peter's square. I took a few pictures of them. They must have the most mind-numbing job in the word, standing around all day wearing ridiculous multi-colored outfits and holding sticks. (Here's another discussion question: can you be a Swiss guard if you're not Swiss?)

At this point it was getting fairly late in the afternoon, and we were about all Vaticaned out (yes, I realize that I made up that word). We went back to our hostel and spent a little time in the room recovering from our big day before heading out again for some dinner.

After much indecision and walking around, we finally found a reasonably priced place that looked like it had a pretty solid Italian menu. We were seated at an outdoor table and immediately given appetizers on the house! There was even a guy who came out with an acordian and serenaded the patrons! This was a great place!

The food was also tremendous! We completed our Italian dining experience by stopping for gelato on our way back. I rated it as a surefire top 3 choice in the "meal of the trip" rankings (up there with Momma Kovac's culinary ingenuity in Breidenbach and Wendi's home-cooking specialties in Bardejov).

When we woke up this morning (Wednesday) we checked out of our hostel and stored our backpacks while we took a bus outside of town to the ancient catacombs! We paid 8 euro for a tour, which honestly, could have been better. Because of safety reasons and water damage only about 3% of the entire network of underground catacombs is open to the public. It was a pretty quick tour. However, I'm glad we had the experience. It really would be dark and creepy down there without any artificial light.

When we were done with our catacomb tour, we somehow lost our return trip bus tickets, so we ended up walking most of the way back. Needless to say, we were hot and tired by the time we fetched our packs and boarded the metro to head out to our final destination of the trip.

However, when you're hot and tired there's one destination that can easily fix all that.....the beach! Thankfully the hostel Grant had booked for our final night in Europe was right on the beach in Ostia Antica (as well as being close to the airport). Major bonus points for Grant! (actually, I'd like to take this opportunity to give Grant a huge shout out and thanks for all of the work he's done booking hostels and making travel plans this trip).

Once we had checked into the Litus hostel, we grabbed some McDonalds, which was the only thing open at 3:00 in the afternoon, and hit the beach! The beach was absolutely fantastic! It felt great to relax on the sand and swim in the cool refreshing Mediterrenean Sea. I even took a walk down the coastline, walking for about half-an-hour before turing around and walking back. I bet I covered over 3 miles of coastline! Grant and Phil also enjoyed the previously stated activities, as well as Grant getting himself covered in sand and Phil sunburning the entire front half-of-his body.

This evening we enjoyed our last dinner in Europe by eating pizza and calzones at an outdoor cafe. We even had Italian tiramisu for dessert! We arrived back at the hostel after dark and are now enjoying our final relaxing evening on this continent. Our plane leaves for Montreal at 1:00 in the afternoon tomorrow, after which we will take connecting flights from Montreal to Chicago and Chicago to Peoria. We are scheduled to arrive at the Peoria airport at 10:14 pm CST.

Until next time, this is Ben signing off from Ostia Antica.

First day in Rome!

Well, I'm currently sitting in our room at the popp-in hostel in Rome. It's 9:30 on Monday night here and I'm paying one Euro for an hour of internet (so I'm on the clock).

We got up at 7:30 this morning and had our free breakfast of a croissant and orange juice provided by the hostel. Then we headed out into the Rome morning with plans of locating the Coliseum.

We were momentarily distracted by a very ornate basilica (which doubled as a Gailileo shrine) but eventually made it across town to the ancient ruins of the Coliseum......only to realize we didn't have enough cash on us to get in. Since we weren't certain of the fact that we could pay with credit cards, we headed back out to the streets of Rome in search of an ATM.

After ascertaining an appropriate amount of euros, we headed back to the Coliseum. After waiting in line for about 45 minutes, we were finally inside of the monumental ruins! It was definitely well worth the wait.

After seeing all there was to see at the Coliseum, we continued on to the Palatine and the Roman Forum (which we had access to with our Coliseum ticket). It's amazing to think about just how old some of these ruins are and to imagine what they must have looked like in the full glory of the ancient Roman empire!

Once we had exhausted the ancient ruins, we headed back to the city streets and walked over to the Pantheon. This huge center of pagan worship had been converted to a basilica in, I believe around the 5th or 6th century.

By this point it was about 4:15 and we were extremely hungry, having skipped lunch and walking around all day. We found a reasonably priced pizzaria and enjoyed sharing 3 different kinds of pizza (a very Italian experience, if I do say so myself).

We returned to our hostel around 5:30, completely exhausted from walking around and being out in the sun all day. After about a two hour period of shower/nap time, Phil and I headed out to McDonald's in search of free wi-fi. Unfortunately, you apparently need an Italian phone number to get free wi-fi in Rome, so we returned to the hostel and begrudgingly payed our euro for an hour.

Well, I need to wrap up this post so I can upload some pictures for you to see on here before I time out. We're getting up early tomorrow morning to go to the Vatican!

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

Ben, Phil, and Grant vs. savage territorial Swiss cattle

Today (Sunday) we are literally traveling all day. We took the cable car down the mountain at 8:30 this morning and are scheduled to arrive in Rome at 11:00 tonight! Right now it's about 3:15 and I think we're somewhere in southern Switzerland.

So far the scenery from the train window has made impressive seem like an understatement! We started out passing through a dazzling array of mountain lakes and hillside villages. Now the terrain is composed of rocky cliffs looming high on either side of the tracks.

While I've got the computer out to pass the time on the train, I might as well fill you all in on the events of yesterday (while taking periodic breaks to admire the view out the window). We awoke around 8:00 yesterday morning (Saturday) with the intention of taking an early morning cable car up to Schilthorn, the very precipice of the mountain. However, because of the dense fog that had descended on the mountain that morning, we were advised not to go up to the scenic overlook. Instead we decided to take the cable car up to the next village (Murren) and seek our fortunes (as well as breakfast) there.

After walking around Murren for a while, we finally found a decent looking place to eat breakfast. Turns out it was a great choice! They had a classic swiss style all you can eat buffet for only 15 francs (about half what you pay everywhere else). They had several different kinds of breads and marmalades, along with meats, cheeses, yogurt, granola, and orange juice. We easily ate enough to make eating lunch later in the day completely unnecessary (which you'll find out later, will come in handy).

Once we were finished with our breakfast, we decided to save the cost of a return cable car to Gimmelwald and hike back down ourselves. This seemed like a great idea......until we got lost. We ended up completely abandoning our first trail and heading back the way we came, eventually coming to a fork in the path with one way leading steeply up the mountain and the other way leading horizontally off the beaten path. We chose the more off-road choice of the two and quickly ended up in thick mud and knee high grass.

Not to be dismayed, we pressed on, knowing we were going in the general direction of Gimmelwald. We crossed a fence into a large mountain-side pasture area and continued on the trail. However, we were soon confronted by a herd of about 10-15 cows and bulls completely blocking our path. We stared them down for a minute or two while we cautiously talked about what course of action to take. The cattle just stared back at us without budging, each party trying to impose their will on the other.

After what seemed like a decent amount of time, the three of us took a few hard steps forward. Immediately, the herd of cattle starting moving quickly towards us, like a well trained defensive unit converging on an opposing ball carrier. Since we were outnumbered about 15 to 3 and they had the advantage in total mass by several thousand pounds we opted for the only logical strategy.....we turned and ran. However, once the herd of cattle saw that we had given up our initial ground they stalled their attack.

We stopped just outside the fence and re-assesed our strategy. The only way forward was straight through the herd of savage cattle. We couldn't go around them because they had the higher ground and the terrain below us and them was too steep and rugged to get across. Phil and I decided to try to scare them off the trail and picked up a few rocks to hurl in their general direction. Unfortunately, our nemesis did not budge. These savage territorial Swiss cattle where not going to let us pass without a fight.

Since we didn't feel like fighting savage territorial Swiss cattle at the moment, we turned around and went right back the way we came. Upon once again reaching the fork in the path, we ascended the trail going higher up the mountain. However, the trail soon looped around and we found ourselves once again headed on a downward slope in the general direction of Gimmelwald. Unfortunately, the trail soon led straight into another fenced-in mountain pasture where our friends, the savage territorial Swiss cattle, were once again blocking the path!

Those stinkers must have known that the only other way we could go was this path and they were once again ready to do battle for the right to their land. Since we still weren't in the mood to fight these guys (and still weren't to thrilled with the odds), we took our only other option at this point.......we went completely off the trail, down the side of the mountain and into the trees.

The terrain we were now on alternated between sheer drop-offs and slopes that you had to walk sideways on to keep your balance. It probably wasn't the safest route to take, but it was fairly exciting. We carefully made our way down the side of the mountain, slipping and sliding occasionally, but eventually popping out on the trail far below. We were wet, muddy, tired, and exhausted (yeah, I know that's kind of redundant) but we were back on the trail, far away from the vicious cows, and that was all that mattered!

After maybe another half-hour or so of following the trail, we arrived back at our mountain hostel in Gimmelwald! We had been lost out in the Swiss Alps for a good four hours but had had one of the greatest adventures of our trip!

The rest of our afternoon/evening consisted of reading, uploading some of our pictures, eating dinner, and playing cards. It was a very relaxing evening that all of us badly needed.

After hitting the hay fairly early on Saturday night, we got up at 8:30 this morning to take the cable car.........oh wait, I think I already told you that at the start of this post. Anyways, we're now passing a gorgeous clear blue lake down in a mountain valley. This is definitely the most impressive train ride of the trip!

When we get into Rome late tonight (midday for all of you in the U.S. of A) I'll put up this post along with any pictures that aren't up yet (providing we have wi-fi).

Until next time, this is Ben signing off from a train somewhere in what I think is southern Switzerland.

Up into the Alps!

So, I believe the last time I posted we were on the train from Paris to Strasbourg. If that's not the case, we'll just have to work around it. I'm once again writing from the train without wi-fi (so I can't check to see what I posted last). This time we're headed from Bern to Interlocken. From Interlocken we're planning on taking a cable car up into the Alps to a mountain hostel in Gimmelwald.

Right now I'm looking out the window to my left and taking in the breathtaking Swiss scenery. Our view is of a sparkling clear blue lake with tree covered hillsides all around and the snow capped Swiss Alps complementing the backdrop. You're probably wondering how we got to this point, trekking across the Swiss countryside on our way up into the Alps. Well, let me tell you..........

When we arrived in Strasbourg early Wednesday evening, we immediately found a wi-fi hotspot at a McDonald's right next to the train station. Thanks to this stroke of luck (wi-fi is harder to find than Waldo in Europe), Grant was able to pin-point the coordinates of our Strasbourg hostel and provide us with a bearing to walk there. After about a 25 minute trek (complete with backpacks) we arrived at our hostel. It was one of the nicer places we'd stayed at to this point and even had a wi-fi connection in the lobby (prompting Phil and I to declare it to be our favorite hostel thus far).

After getting settled into our 3 bed room at the hostel, we headed back towards the train station to try to track down some dinner. We experimented with taking a different way towards the center of town and ended up getting somewhat lost for about the next hour. Fortunately, we soon found a Turkish restaurant that served a slightly different style of doner kebabs (see the post on Breidenbach, Germany).

This place was nothing short of excellent, and left us full and satisfied as we headed back out into the streets of Strasbourg to make our way back to the hostel. When we got back, Phil immediately dove head first into some work for his Summer classes (the poor guy started a Masters in Business Administration on Monday and has class work he needs to attend to during this last part of our trip). Grant got to work doing some online booking of hostels and trains for the last week of our trip (he's kind of like the dad of the group), and I got busy watching an intense game of Austria versus Germany in team handball that was showing on the lobby television.

We all went to bed fairly early on Wednesday, needing a reprieve from several consecutive late nights. We got a fairly early start Thursday morning, checking out of our hostel and grabbing a quiche at a street bakery on the way to the train station.

After storing our backpacks in lockers at the train station, we decided to spend the afternoon walking around Strasbourg. Our initial plan was to locate the burial site of Samuel Froehlich, the founding father of the AC church, but after what seemed like several hours of fruitless searching we gave up for the time being.

Early in the afternoon we found a Strasbourg museum, which detailed the very interesting history of the city from about the 13th century on. Strasbourg has changed hands between France and Germany several times and has a very rich history from both the French and German side. Phil took a couple thousand pictures at the museum, so I'm sure it will be well documented. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Once we were finished touring the museum, we still had a bit of time before we had to be back at the station to catch our train. We decided to take another shot at locating Samuel Froehlich's grave and this time our efforts proved successful. It was at the St. Helena's cemetery, on the outskirts of town, that we finally found the final resting place of the great Apostolic patriarch. Grant was overjoyed that we had found it (as were Phil and I, having a lot of AC friends and relatives), and we stopped for a few respectful pictures at the gravesite.

We barely made it back to the train station in time to catch our train to Bern, stepping onto the platform just minutes before departure. After a trip of several hours and a stop to catch a connection in Basel, we finally arrived in Bern, Switzerland!

Our hostel was within very short walking distance from the station, making it one of our best locations of the entire trip. Once again, we were the only 3 people in our room, making for a very comfortable and private atmosphere.

After exchanging some of our Euros for Swiss Francs, we headed out into Bern for dinner. We found a very authentic Swiss restaurant and all tried the classic Swiss dish rosti (basically, hashbrowned potatoes with different meat, cheese, noodle, and vegetable toppings). After dinner we spent another two hours or so walking around the city. I think I may have covered the most distance on foot in a day since I ran the Chicago marathon back in October of 2008!

This morning (Friday) we checked out of our hostel at 10:00 and knocked out some more work in the lobby. Phil took a few quizzes, Grant booked some more hostels, and I got caught up the NBA finals on espn.com.

Now we're on the train headed to our mountain hostel destination up in the Alps. We just hit the end of the line as far as the train goes and boarded a bus to head further up into the mountains. There's no getting around it, this is really cool!

Well, it's now about 6-7 hours later than it was when I was writing the previous paragraph. In the meantime, we have arrived at our mountain hostel up in the Alps and since we have wi-fi I am about to post this.

While Phil worked on some late afternoon homework at the mountain hostel, Grant and I headed out for a hike in the Alps. We hiked for about 3 hours and saw some AMAZING scenery. Hiking for several hours in the Alps is not easy, so I'm sure I'll pay for it in the morning, but it was definitely worth it! In my opinion these mountains are even more breathtaking than the Rockies.

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

Paris!

If you're a regular reader of this blog and enjoy getting your daily dose of European adventures with Ben, Phil and Grant you're probably getting pretty antsy for a new post just about now. Don't worry, I feel your pain and I'll be putting up posts about the events from last weekend up until now..........just as soon as we have wi-fi.

We've found that they are incredibly stingy with their wi-fi over here (making you pay for increments of time and requiring that you can read French just to set it up). Thus, we've been effectively "off the grid" for the last couple of days.

We're on the train right now from Paris to Strasbourg and I will HOPEFULLY have internet access there and be able to put up this post as well as the one before it, which details our adventures from the weekend in Breidenbach, Germany.

Anyways, let's get down to business and get you all caught up on our time in Paris. We arrived about the middle of the afternoon on Monday. We were met at the train station by Laura Tucker, a friend of Grant's from the Champaign AC church who is studying abroad in Paris this semester. Laura was a fantastic host and hung out with us the entire time we were in Paris. Her many talents include not only knowing the city forwards and backwards as well as knowing all the best places to see, but she also speaks French fluently (which comes in mighty handy in Paris)!

Monday afternoon we started off our time in Paris by visiting the Louvre (because it's closed on Tuesdays). The place is absolutely gigantic! I'm pretty sure you could walk around for 24 hours and still not get to every exhibit (unfortunately only we had about 2 hours until it closed). We were able to see several wings of paintings and a wing or two of sculptures before we were forced to leave. The Mona Lisa exhibit was crazy! You couldn't get within 20 feet of it and there were close to a hundred people crowding around the small space snapping pictures and jostling for a closer look. We were able to get a good picture of it though, because Phil's amazing camera has a zoom that's about 150X actual distance.

After leaving the Louvre, we walked around the city for a bit before settling on a place to eat dinner. On Laura's suggestion, I got snails as an appetizer. Apparently it's pretty common in Paris (they were good).

When we finished dinner we walked around quite a bit more before taking the metro back to our hostel for the night. This was one of the more interesting hostels we've stayed in thus far. It was in a pretty shady section of Paris and had absolutely no costumer service (or wi-fi) whatsoever. You even had to pay 2.50 euro for a towel to shower with.

We were awoken before 8:00 in the morning on Tuesday by the sound of much ruckus in the hallway. I put some clothes on and stepped out of the room to find about 20 small children crowded into the narrow hallway, all very rambunctious and jabbering constantly in French. Needless to say, we weren't getting back to sleep (and it was a good time to start our day anyways), so we got up and got ready to meet Laura at her place. On our way out we found that the downstairs lobby was also lined wall to wall with small children (I guess staying at a hostel in a shady part of town is a good idea for an elementary school field trip in France).

After meeting up with Laura, we took off for the Eiffel Tower! It's much bigger than I had even imagined and is definitely not overrated. We bought our tickets and climbed the stairs; first to level one, then to level two, and then took an elevator all the way to the top! (climbing the stairs to the second level is the equivalent of ascending to the 43rd floor of a building). The view from the top was absolutely incredible! You could see the entire city and then some. Laura, our fantastic tour guide, was able to point out many famous landmarks that were visible from our tower top perch.

After the Eiffel Tower we eat a lunch of French crepes and took the metro to the Arch de Triumph. It was raining at the time so we didn't stay there long, but were able to snap a few pictures and get the experience of this famous French monument.

Since the rain was putting a damper on any proposed outdoor activities, we opted to head indoors to a museum. We took the metro to the military museum which also houses Napoleon's grave. This was one of the more interesting museums I've been to, containing detailed histories from the French perspective of World War I, World War II, and the Holocaust.

We were hosted for dinner that evening by a friend of Laura's named Phoebe. Phoebe is originally from Zambia and had attended school at Oxford before accepting a job in Paris in the business of buying and selling petroleum. She was a very passionate Christian lady and was extremely educated and well read. Probably one of the most interesting people I've talked to in a long time.

Phoebe prepared a fantastic meal of chicken, sweet potatoes, rice, bread, and steam broccoli. After the main courses had been devoured she brought out crepes, toppings and ice cream for desert!

After walking by the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up at night, we took the metro back to our hostel (getting back around 1:30) and hit the sack. I slept like a rock. What a interesting, informative and utterly exhausting day!

We had to catch our train to Strasbourg at 9:00 this morning (Wednesday), so we were up fairly early to catch the metro down to the train station. Once again, when I stepped out into the hall I was greeted by a small army of pre-pubescent children. I muttered a sleepy "bonjour" and they all looked at me like I was from outer-space.

Now I'm sitting on the train, enjoying the passing scenery of the French countryside and anticipating our time in Strasbourg. Hopefully we will have wi-fi at our hostel there and you can read this post as well as the one before it (I'll post them simultaneously when I get the chance).

Until next time, this is Ben signing off from a train somewhere in the middle of France.

The Breidenbach AC Church

Well, I'm writing from the train again. It's 10:00 in the morning on Monday and we're currently about an hour into our three hour train ride from Frankfurt to Paris. Earlier this morning we completed the first leg of today's journey with a short trip from Marburg to Frankfurt. We left the Kovacs' house to drive to the Marburg train station at 6:45 this morning. Hold on........you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. We've been without wi-fi again for about two days, so let me bring you up to speed on our most recent adventures.

In my last post we were winding down for the night on Friday at the Euro youth hostel in Munchen. We got up early in the morning on Saturday and spent several hours walking around. Munchen is a huge city and you get a very impressive feeling just roaming the streets. Similar to Vienna, there are many huge ornate sculptures and fountains. However, it also has a much more modern feel as well. The highlights of our morning in Munchen were touring a huge cathedral with a tower that overlooked the entire city and eating an early lunch at an outdoor restaurant that was founded in the 14th century!

Most likely do to our poor time management skills, we ended up having to book it to the train station to catch our 11:55 train to Frankfurt. We got there with several minutes to spare but our train had either left early or was never there in the first place. We ended up getting on another train about a half-hour later, but the delay caused us to miss our connection in Frankfurt.

We eventually ended up with a connection from Frankfurt to Marburg and were met at the Marburg train station by Grant's connection that he knew threw a friend in the Akron AC church, Roby Kovacs. Roby and his friend Kevin picked us up and drove us the 45 minutes from the train station in Marburg back to the Kovacs' home in Breidenbach.

I'll use this paragraph to formally introduce our gracious host family in Breidenbach. Momma and Poppa Kovacs (don't know first names) are Hungarian immigrants who speak both German and Hungarian but not a word of English (though there hospitality shone through in actions greater than would have been possible with words). They have 5 children who speak German and Hungarian fluently and also have a very adequate grasp of English. Balint (22), Linda (21), Roby (18), Arnold (15), and George (14) all were extremely welcoming to us and we enjoyed the short time we got to spend with them.

When we pulled into the driveway of the Kovacs' home at 6:45 on Saturday evening, Roby informed us that everyone was at church for their 6:30-8:00 Saturday night hymn sing. Not wanting to miss out on any of the action, we quickly got changed and headed out to the Breidenbach AC church with Roby and Kevin. We got in on about the last hour of the hymn sign......and it was awesome! I recognized some of the melodies but of course none of the words. Although I attempted to sign along in German, I probably got the greatest joy out of just sitting back and listening to the German singing! It really is a beautiful language to hear sung.

When we returned to the Kovacs' home after the hymn sing, Momma Kovacs made us a fantastic dinner! We had a Hungarian goulash dish that had pork and noodles and vegetables in it. We also had bread, which went great with the goulash and an amazing raspberry cheesecake desert. After first desert, she pulled out the ice cream for second desert!

After talking around the table for a while, we headed off to bed. They had graciously provided us with bedrooms and our own bathroom in the upstairs.

Our Sunday morning began with breakfast at 8:15. We had a classic European breakfast of bread rolls with meat, cheese, and butter. They also had jam, cream cheese and nutella on the table for a truly fantastic breakfast dining experience.

After breakfast, we walked to church with Roby and Linda. They live very close to the church and it was a beautiful day! Church began at 9:30 and was very similar to every other AC service I've been to in the states......except it was in German. (Oh yeah, for the small percentage of readers who may not be familiar with the term, AC stands for Apostolic Christian). However, the language barrier was bridged through modern technology! Up in the balcony of the church they have several soundproof translation booths. Someone from the church sits in the booth and translates the service into another language (They commonly have visitors that speak English, Hungarian, and Romanian). We were given headphones, through which we could listen to the guy in the upstairs translation booth translating the service into English for us!

The morning service ran from 9:30 to 10:45, after which we headed out into the foyer while the members stayed behind for a members meeting. We found all of the people in the Breidenbach AC church to be extremely friendly and willing to talk to us. Most of them even spoke English well!

at 11:15 we all headed back into the sanctuary for a singing. We sang until noon and then everyone dispersed to their own homes for lunch.

Of course the lunch that Momma Kovacs had prepared for us was incredible! She started us out with a Hungarian soup. When we had finished that she went back into the kitchen and emerged with salads. While we were still working on the salads, she disappeared again into the kitchen and returned with chicken, fish, fried potatoes and a hot vegetable dish! By the time we had finished a plate of that, she brought out a strawberry cream cake! When we had polished of the cake, she once again brought out the ice cream (banana, mixed berry and chocolate) to round out the meal. That woman sure knows how to feed a guy!

After a relaxing afternoon around the house, we returned to church for the 3:30 afternoon service. The service ran from 3:30 to 4:45, after which we took some pictures out in front of the church and went for a walk with most of the young men around our age. The demographic of this church is very young. There were many young families with small children and lots of people around our age as well. While they did have the older experienced members that are vital for any church, they were greatly outnumbered by the early 30's and under crowd. There were probably 300-400 people in the church.

The walk we took after the afternoon service was incredible! The church is out in the country up in the hills. There are trails running around the church that lead further up into the hills with breathtaking views overlooking the houses down in the valley bellow. It reminded me somewhat of a scene I'd expect in a Norman Rockwell paining, with scores of small children running around in the grassy hills outside of a picturesque church set in the beautiful German countryside.

After our walk, we returned to the sanctuary for the 5:30-6:30 singing. This was followed by a short fellowship break (during which most people again headed outside). We regrouped again in the sanctuary at 7:00 for the 7:00-8:00 singing. These people really love to sing! If I had eaten a normal lunch I would have been pretty hungry by now (but if you've read this far you'll know that I had no normal lunch!)

When the final singing of the day ended at 8:00 all of the families went home, but the entire group of high school and college aged kids went to someone's house (his name was Edwin) to hang out and eat! We had turkish kebabs at Edwin's house (a classic sandwich that the Kovacs' had been building up for us all weekend). It didn't disappoint! The turkish kebab consisted of lamb meat, copious amounts of onions and cabbage, and a creamy vinegar based dressing on a hot kaiser roll. It was my first ever turkish kebab, but I sure hope it's not my last!

We didn't leave Edwin's house until a little after 11:00. The entire group was very lively and they all had fun and gregarious personalities. There were even some visitors from Canada (who had cousins in the church) that hung out with us as well. Grant provided one of the highlights of the night by telling one of his classic Grimm Brother's fairy tales (Gambling Hansel), complete with German accent! If you've never heard Grant tell one of his fairy tales before, it's an experience I highly recommend you make sure you have at least once in your life.

This morning Poppa Kovacs drove us to the Marburg train station and saw us off to our 7:30 train to Frankfurt. Looks like I've now come full circle and I'm back at the part where we're sitting on the train heading to Paris. Grant is sleeping in the seat directly across from my and he keeps bonking his head on the window as he nods off. This is providing Phil (who is on my left) and I with all the entertainment we need on the way to Paris.

Until next time this is Ben signing off from........actually by the time I'm posting this (5:00 on Wednesday) I have no idea where I was when I wrote this.