Since free travel...

Hi!!!
I’ve heard that people have been asking my mom for an update. There’s a lot to say so if I don’t complete thoughts, I’m sorry…I’m just trying to get it all out at this point. The internet connection is still bad here at the castle. They tried to fix it many times but we’re right on the edge of the Vienna woods so it just comes and goes. Joe can attest to the fact that right after free travel I spent 35 minutes typing a blog just to lose internet connection while posting. I lost everything…even when I hit the back button, I had lost all that I had typed.
The free travel was great. It’s a wholt lot of fun to have opportunities to be with a smaller group of people for a while (a group of three to five) rather than the huge group of 36 (including sponsors).
Beginning in Bruges, Belgium: It was quaint. There was a chocolate museum that we went to but that was about all there was to see. We spent 2 nights and 3 full days there but I think it was a day too long. It’s sort of an island and a very cute place to visit. It’s referred to as the “little Venice” because it’s surrounded by a canal and you can go on canal cruises but seeing as we spent the same amount of time in the real Venice, Bruges got repetitive. We did get to see a vile of Christ’s blood. There was a church in Bruges that claimed to have a vile of Christ’s blood and we visited it while we were there. The blood was crystallized and in a “church” that was created just to hold this “blood”. I put quotation marks around those words because I find it hard to believe. I think it would be more believable if this were found in Rome or some place like that; simply because the Romans kept such good records of deaths, burials, and things of that sort. I just find it unfathomable that a random place in Belgium would gain access to such an important piece of Christian history. I also find it hard to believe that someone would take a random guy’s blood and put it in a vile and save it for so long. When you think about it, not many people even believed that Jesus was who He claimed to be so why would they take a vile of His blood and keep it safe for so many years? I say this but I still find it fascinating that people who were also visiting this church were so reverent. Religion is so different here in Europe. People find relics and put their entire faith in them. It’s almost a sort of idolatry, but it’s not considered that here…it’s simply faith. They find things that may help them grasp a sense of closeness to their God…most of the time it is God that they worship, but not always…and they run with it. I honestly don’t know if I’m making any sense but I’m doing this blog with a discussion of politics, a heated discussion, going on in the background and I’m doing the best I can with that HUGE distraction. On our last day in Bruges Joe and I rented bicycles for the whole day. It was funny because the bikes cost 7 euro for 4 hours or 10 euro for the whole day. There was a student discount for the whole day but not for the 4 hours. The student discount was 7 euro, so we paid the same for the whole day as we would for 4 hours. It was probably the best money we spent in Bruges because we had so much fun. I was scared to ride on the quite marrow streets so we stuck mainly to the bike paths and out by the canals and windmills. Yes…there were windmills…they were ADORABLE!!! They were just like you would picture them. Cute, big, and on a hill.

As for Rothenburg…it is the cutest place I’ve seen in my life. Think Beauty and the Beast when Belle is singing and walking through the town. We spent one night and 2 full days here but I could have spent the entire free travel. Rothenburg is the best preserved medieval town/city in Europe. It is so well preserved because while it was a thriving place in the middle ages, the 30 years’ war brought a siege and Rothenburg was unable to completely recover financially before we, the U.S. bombed it during WWII. Basically, while other places in Germany and the rest of Europe were “modernizing” and tearing down older buildings to freshen themselves up, Rothenburg was too poor to do so. The stories and coincidences about Rothenburg’s history are really great. Like how we bombed them on a cloudy day but only destroyed the North West 40% of the city then were going to go inside and take it by force because part of the German army had taken hiding in the city walls and the U.S. general called off the attack because his mother had visited Rothenburg as a tourist years prior and this general had taken a liking to the city. It’s a great story in detail…if you’re at all interested, ask me when I get home and I’ll tell you the WHOLE story. Rothenburg was 2 days very well spent!
Since we got back to Vienna we’ve been doing the norm…going to sights every day and having class early in the mornings. Yesterday, we visited Mauthausen concentration camp. … … … “…” is about all I can say about that in a blog. The feelings that I have about the whole thing can’t be expressed in a blog. Honestly, I don’t know that they can be expressed at all. The feeling you feel after visiting a place where such cruelty took place can’t be recreated for someone else, it’s something you have to experience for yourself. If anyone reading this is planning a trip to Europe any time soon I would suggest visiting a concentration camp over anything else. Sure, the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben would be nice to see but I promise you they won’t have the impact that a concentration camp will. It will give you a new perspective and appreciation for the life you’re living, no matter how you feel about it right now…I PROMISE. It is one of the hardest, most emotional, most religious, gut wrenching, most numb to the core all at the same time experiences you will ever have.
Love and miss you all!