A Wonderful European Experience
The trip into Europe was extremely exciting, as well as long and tiring. We began by gathering at the Church parking lot, checking passports, luggage, and people. Once everyone was there, we climbed into the vans and left for Logan Airport in Boston. We took a flight to Frankfurt Germany, which took about 6 hours, then we finally took a connector flight to Budapest, Hungary where we spent our first two days in Europe.
At this point, it was our second day in the trip even though we had not been able to sleep for almost 36 hours (some got a few hours on the plane, but I didn’t). We met our tour guide, Inka, at the airport and began our tour of Budapest, Hungary. After a little while we went back to the airport to pick up the other tour group, and returned to touring. On that day we saw the city center, several Cathedrals on Castle Hill, Ancient Roman ruins, and we crossed the beautiful Danube river several times. At lunch time we all stopped in the city center and split into groups for our first European meal. I had a meal called Viener Schniztel, which was made out of pork instead of veal. We returned to the hotel, ate dinner, and hit the sack! I have never slept so soundly as that night.
The next day we went to Hero’s Square, where we learned about several of their Kings, including their first king Saint Stephan, who was the former of the Hungarian Kingdom. From there we went back to castle hill, and went into Saint Stephan’s Cathedral, where we saw the mummified right hand of the said king. This hand was of course the most precious relic of their nation. We then ate dinner, and had our first worship service in Europe (it was very nice).
The next day we packed our backs, and hopped on the bus to Vienna, Austria (no kangaroos live in Austria). On our way out we visited a small village where we ate marzipan, and bought very nice secret boxes!
Once we arrived in Austria, we went to one of the summer palaces of the Hapsburgs. It was pretty sweet being in a medieval castle for the first time. It had however been converted to a more modern building, but it still retained it’s awesome form.
When we arrived at our hotel, we found out (to our dismay) that ALL the boys were in one room. Then we saw the room, and re-concluded that the situation was actually quite nice. It was a two floor sweet, with a balcony overlooking the distant hills. This was a perfect place for worship (which we did corporately later that night), and for alone time. Vienna was a beautiful city, with parks everywhere, and fuss ball (soccer) courts everywhere! As a group we dressed up, and went out to dinner in a Viennese restaurant. The meal was delicious, but lacking in quantity. After that we went to a park next to the concert hall where we would be watching a Mozart an Strauss orchestra play later that evening. Jacob and I took the opportunity to gravitate towards a soccer cage where some Austrian boys were playing our favorite sport! They began to jabber in Austrian to us, at which point we explained in English that we were American. At this their eyes lighted up and they started saying American slangs and bragging of relatives living in America. Seeing as I was in my “dress up” clothes, I proceeded to take off my nice clothes as much as was decent, and joined them in playing soccer with Jacob! The game was intense, and went on to 10 points. I am proud to say that we actually did well, losing only by one point (9-10). Jacob did some radical moves, and scored several times. I played offense for some time as well, but spent most of my time in the net, or trying to steal the ball from the Austrians so that Jacob could score with it. After our game, I put back on my nice clothes (at least as much as I had taken off), and ran back towards the concert hall. The concert was quite good, with live actors, and opera singers to boot.
The next day we again toured Austria for some time looking at the sights. One thing we saw was the Austrian War Ministry from World War I. We also saw an extremely interesting apartment building that was made to look different from all others. It had hundreds of windows of different sizes, and shapes. Its architecture was made to be out of the norm. I will admit, it was pretty sweet. Near this building was a street vendor who happened to have a sword for 25 Euros for sale! This was my favorite souvenir by far! Next we went to the Hofburg or Imperial Palace where the Austrian monarchy formerly resided. It was a magnificent building with flags from every country, and statues of all their heroes from ancient to modern times. From here we walked around the city, and some of us, including myself headed towards a cathedral in order to climb it’s bell tower. On our way, we saw a pillar honoring the victims of the plague, and we also saw more roman ruins!!
The next morning we once again mounted our trusty steed (the bus) and headed out for the Czech Republic. On arrival at Prague, we checked into our hotel, and immediately headed out for the old town square. This had been our second time crossing the former “iron curtain”, and I must say, I was very impressed with how far Prague has gone, and how little they associate with their soviet past. In the old square we saw the statue of Jan Hus, one of the first men to burn at the stake for denying the Pope as the ultimate authority. We were able to go to their “yellow house” which is the Czech equivalent to the American “white house”. We saw the changing of the guard, and took pictures with those said guards although they never moved, and we were not allowed to touch them.
We were then able to into a medieval castle in which we were able to see all sorts of swords, spears, armor and shields. We also go to go into a dungeon, which in and of itself was pretty cool.
After this we again got back into the bus and headed out to Munich Germany. We did not stay in Munich long, but we did get to see several sights, including Nazi headquarters, Dachau, The Glockenspiel, another grand palace, a beer brewery, and a pair of infamous stone lions. The story behind these two lions is this. One day in the mid 1920’s, a group of radical socialists were lead into a square. These men violently protested, and were all but one man killed by Munich police. The only survivor was a young man who ran behind one of these stone lions and hid himself. His name was Adolf Hitler. Many believe that Berlin was Hitler’s stomping grounds. This is however a fallacy; Hitler ruled mostly out of Munich, which explains why the head of SS resided there, and Dachau, the first concentration camp was not far away.
Many others will no doubt linger on the subject of Dachau. Because of this I feel it is only necessary to mention one thing. There were so many reasons to be angry at the people who could do this, but right in the doorway was an object that inspired unbelievable pride. There was a plaque that sat there commemorating those who gave their lives to free those prisoners. The plaque remembered not Englishman, not Frenchman, not Russians, but the American soldiers who died fighting for their freedom!
One of my favorite experiences during the whole Europe trip was definitely the overnight train ride from Munich to Berlin, simply because it was incredible to be in Europe on a train just like in all the movies! This trip took place about a day after we arrived in Munich. We left our hotel, and headed out to the train station where we said goodbye to the other group (from North Conway) and boarded a train for Berlin. Once on route, we pulled out the beds, closed the curtains and went to sleep (as this was our only night time). The ride was long, but comfortable, and we were served an acceptable breakfast.
We arrived at the newly constructed Berlin Main Station (which had been thoroughly destroyed and rebuilt) at about eight o‘clock (Central European time). We grabbed any food and souvenirs that were quickly available, and went off to find our bus. We immediately picked up our tour guide and drove around the city (often stopping to take pictures of different sites). It was amazing seeing so many buildings that had survived the heavy allied bombing of World War II. It was also slightly humbling to ride through a town with buildings that were once magnificent, and knowing that it was my country that destroyed these works of art. But at the same time, it was with the help of American power that Hitler finally fell. We drove across the East-West Berlin line several times, went to “Check Point Charlie”, and even saw one of the last remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall. Then we were able to visit the Reichstag. Going through security was definitely interesting, as several times we were asked questions which the language barrier stopped us from answering. During our visit there, my mind was full with thoughts about when this famous building had been burned by Hitler, and how it was amazing that they could rebuild it so grandly!
We after our day was over we returned to the hotel, and met as a group. The next day we packed our bags and headed for the Berlin Airport. The plane ride home was uneventful, although it was interesting to see the difference in European security, and American security. The Europeans cared only if you were bringing something dangerous, while the Americans wanted both the proper papers, and anything that could be harmful.
All in all, our European trip was amazing! We saw places that are in textbooks, and in movies. For me it was amazing to see how much Europe had been through, and the rebuilding that they have accomplished.