Home Again, Home Again!

Hey Everyone,
well we returned home safely on April 18th, and after a week of rest I'm feeling a bit more ready to start thinking about things like work, next fall etc. Its good to be home, but I am definitely missing all the fun times in Europe, too!
I've put a whole bunch of pictures up on a different internet site, so if you have facebook you can go see them or you can just click on these links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1928&l=7e3c9&id=511844214
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1927&l=78c78&id=511844214
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1923&l=b2dfa&id=511844214
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1922&l=525d0&id=511844214
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1921&l=9a304&id=511844214

I'm not sure whether I'll put any more updates on this blog or not, the posts may slow down a bit until my next overseas trip!

God Bless,
Starr

Stuttgart

Hello! Wow- only a couple of days left here in Europe! Craaaaazy. We got here to Stuttgart on Thursday, and we´re staying with Sarah Weiler who went to Capernwray with the girls. She went to classes on Friday and we three went with another guy from Capernwray, Patrick, for a hike through the woods and up to a castle called Solitude schloss. The weather here has been soooooo amayingly beautiful, I can't even believe it! Yesterday we finally got smart and actually put on some sunscreen, to keep from getting sunburnt yet again. Anyway, we went to a town called Tübingen for the weekend, a beautiful old town with a river running through it, on which we went for a paddle boat ride. We found the most beautiful chocolate shop, a little french place- wow everything in there was amazingly beautiful and interesting, like chocolate with Curry and Peppers in it? Too bad it was too expensive for us to buy any to try. We went to Sarah's parents' home for the rest of the weekend, which was so good. They are a very beautiful family, so generous and kind and welcoming. We were well fed too! :) We got to meet some of Sarah's friends, and yesterday went to church with her and saw about 10 people get baptized which was cool. Now we're back in Stuttgart, and today we plan on doing a little shopping at a chocolate factory where it is apparently very cheap! hahaha. We'll also probably do a little sightseeing, and go out for supper, and have a relaxing girls' night here at Sarah's. We're having so much fun here, but sadly tomorrow we'll head to Frankfurt for our last night in Europe! If you guys haven't looked at the pictures on Sheri's blog, you should do so, I don't have quite enough time to put any of my own on yet. I have thousands of pictures to sort through when I get home!

Love love love love
Starr

Back In Munich!

Hey everyone! So our time in Interlaken, Switzerland was pretty much incredible! The weather was BEAUTIFUL (I got another sunburn-oops!) and we did some super fun stuff such as kayaking and PARAGLIDING. We jumped off a mountain and flew through the air. We have pictures to prove it, which is good because I´m still somewhat in unbelief myself! Last night we had a campfire and it was all homey and BCish, what with the mountains, the lake, the birds chirping, night falling, the fire crackling. This morning we caught a bus at 6 in the morning, and took a train back here to Munich, just for one night. Its a really nice city, and I think that we´re planning on going to the Dachau concentration camp tomorrow before heading off to Stuttgard. Ahhhh one week left! Hope everyone is having fun studying for exams! (okay sorry that was kinda mean) I´ll eat some chocolate and think of you ;)

love love love
Starr

München

Hello, I'm in Munich! Hope you're all doing well, I kinda wish I could be home for Easter. Hopefully we can find some sort of a church to go to on Sunday? We'll go to Vienna on Saturday.... Life is fantastic!
:)
Starr

Prague

Hey Everyone! So I realize I haven't posted a blog in a while..... just thought i'd tell everyone that we're all alive and well, and lovin' life. We're heading to Munich in just a couple of hours (night train) where we'll be staying with some friends of Stephanie's. From there we plan on hitting Vienna and then goign back to Germany for the last leg of our trip! Ahh!!! Prague is where we are at the moment, and its a very beautiful city. All of the buildins- wow! We spent 3 days there, and pretty much just wandered the streets the whole time. The weather has been beautiful, and time is flying! I'm always thinking of everyone at home, I'll get to see you soon!
xoxox
Starr

PICTURES! :D

Hey everyone! So we finally got the chance to put some of these pictures onto our blogs, because we are staying here in Austria with some friends of Steph's who have a computer that actually works! These ones are pretty random: from Barcelona, Toulouse, Nice, Pisa, Rome, Corfu, Athens, Venice, Salzburg.... can't wait to tell the stories that go with them! :)

Greece

Well, our time in beautiful Greece is quickly slipping away! Its been so great so far though! :) We stayed at the 'Pink Palace' in Corfu, a world famous hostel that is actually very centered around partying, but since we were there at a slow time when there weren't many guests, we didn't feel very out of place. We rented quads one day, which was really fun (even though I flipped my quad and almost died haha) and we swam in the sea at 2 in the morning. I think my highlight was our last day when we simply lay on the beach for hours! I got a sunburn, but it was so worth it just to spend a day being totally lazy, reading a book and feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin! We took a night bus from Corfu to Athens, and got here at 5.30 am. We were on our way to our hostel, and things were all going smoothly, until we were stopped by security in the metro station and asked to show our tickets. Now we had bought tickets for the bus, and on the back they said "athens urban transport" so we had assumed that they would work for the metro as well. When we got to the metro station, we validated them in the machine, and it worked fine, so we figured that everything was good. But when we showed our tickets to the security guys, they said 'THis is not a valid metro ticket' and fined us 48 euros!!!! Each!!! We were outraged, and soo tired and grubby from our night on the bus. We tried to explain that it was a misunderstanding, but they wouldn't budge. Wanting to get the whole thing sorted out, we went straight to information and waited for it to open (which wasn't until 7.30) and when we explained everythign to the ladies there, they seemed a little sorry for us but told us that we could either pay right there, or go to the port and pay later. So finally we paid, begrudgingly..... it wasn't exactly the best way to start off our stay in Athens! When we got to the hostel (finally) they gave us a good breakfast and let us sleep on the couches for a few hours until we were able to check into our room at 1:00. For the rest of the day we just went for a walk and went out for some supper. I had yoghurt and honey for dessert, which is typically greek and very good! Our hostel here is pretty cool- you can go up onto the roof and see the acropolis which is all light up at night. Its also got a nice common room/bar/restaurant where you can meet lots of people, and everyone who works here is really nice. Today we went to the Acropolis with a girl we met in Corfu named Jayna, and it was really cool, I took a lot of pictures! :) We also walked around Plaka, a district where there are lots of little shops, narrow streets, fruit vendors etc. We plan on going out for supper tonight with a bunch of people, and tomorrow we're going to take a tour offered by the hostel all around Greece. We're all healthy and the weather had been amazing this week. I'm out of internet time- love you all and wish you were here!!!

starr