Adventures in Europe-ROMANIA!!!!

 I loved Germany. We all loved Germany. But Romania was a time that was, and still is, a very special time for us three. Our time there was marked with laughter, games, and a barely organized chaos of kids. It was a time where us three 17 (and newly turned 18 year old!) made time to PLAY.

 

First things first though...after arriving in Romania we went to a town called Timisoara (once again...spelling?) to a church family's house for lunch. It was delicious, of course. Two of the guys from the family took us around to see the city. It was VERY different from Germany. While Germany is very well kept, or at least all the parts we saw, Romania had a run down feel to it. We walked around until it was time to go to the second service at church (we flew into Romania on a Sunday).

 

 

The Timisoara church

Everyone at the church was very kind and welcoming to us. We had dinner at the church, and shortly after dinner we left for Vladimirescu and Antioch. Antioch is the real reason for the trip. My Opa is involved with it, and has been for years. It is a food and clothes distribution center for those in the church and community who are in need. While we were there, it was more like a loud, wild and crazy playground!

 

 

When we pulled into the compound, it was during the late evening. Some of the kids had come to welcome us, but we met the whole crew the next night. Everyday we killed time until after dinner when all the kids were there. We taught them Dutch Blitz, played Mafia, tag, hide and seek, and one evening we surprised them with a water balloon fight! Jo packed the balloons along in her suitcase. All in all, it was AMAZING.

 

Killing time until after dinner...

 Dutch Blitz!

 

 

 

 

"Please don't make me be it!!!" hehe...perfect timing on this pic...

 

You may be thinking that someone is a terrible photographer...in truth, this is actually among my favorite pics because it shows how it actually felt. Kids running, screaming, laughing...my goodness, it was crazy.

 

Explaining a game...

 

 

 

 

Hmm...think we have enough water balloons?

 

After the water balloon fight!! I somehow managed to stay mostly dry, but most everyone else was SOAKED!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hide and seek...a little cramped?

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of our time in Romania, all three of us were sad to leave. We really connected with the kids, especially the older girls. We have been keeping in touch, and will hopefully remain friends for a long time. Leaving Romania also meant that our time in Europe was drawing to a close, also a terrible thought. However, we armed ourselves with the beautiful memories and the wonderful friendships that had been made, and we went to enjoy the next part of our adventure.

 

Adventures in Europe-Part 2

Ok...now I may do less explaining and just upload a bunch of pics. Obviously I am a little behind on posting. Oops.

 

 

The Pfister's house where we stayed in Germany and the typical pretty German village

We went to 2 castles in 1 day! On our trip to the second castle we were joined by this cutie, her baby sister, and her mom.

 

This is the view from the larger tower at the Castle "Schloss" Braunfels

 

 

Mimi in the stocks

 

The Princess Room (one of the few places we were allowed to take pictures indoors)

 

 

Group pic at the castle

 

 

The second castle was in Marbourgh (spelling?!) and after we briefly saw that, we shopped around. This character was playing a guitar and kazoo in the street. Who knows what he was singing (language barrier) but we found him very entertaining :)

 

 

One night we ate at this restaurant. It was really good! Afterwards everyone was given a complimentary (I think...I didn't pay for it at least!) glass of pear wine. It. Was. Gross.

 

The pictures got all mixed up in the files, so we probably did some other stuff before leaving for Romania, but there will be more pics from Germany in another post. More later!

 

 

 

 

 

 

European Adventures-Part 1

As stated in my last post, I left for Europe on May 20th with my Oma, Opa, and my cousins Jo and Mimi. Now, May 20th seems to be a lifetime away! The trip was so full of fun and many MANY friends and memories were made :)

 

Bear with me, as I am planning on doing the trip in several different posts, first of all so it doesn't become a huge bore to you, and secondly, so it doesn't take me as much time! This first post is about the trip there and the first day we spent in Germany.

 

Our flight left in the evening, but we left for the airport around 2 from Oma's house. At the airport Opa had passes for all of us into a lounge. We just hung out there for a while, snacking and walking around, until it was time to go to our gate.

 

Oma and Jo in the lounge.

 

We met a really nice family at the gate. They were from Iran and had a little boy, probably around 7 years old. Later on the plane they asked if we would trade seats. The plane had 3 sets of 3 seats, instead of 2 and we were on the right side at first. They traded their seats in the front row of the middle set of seats where there was a TON of legroom!! It was a great deal for us! We got a meal pretty soon after taking off and the rest of the trip we watched movies, read, slept, or talked quietly.

 

 

Yum! (not.)

 

Oh...and we (meaning Jo), managed to break the magazine holder off the wall in front of us. It was hard to keep from busting out in laughter, but somehow we managed to only giggle a little bit. Might have had something to do with the incredibly grumpy man across the aisle from us...

 

 

Almost there!!! We arrived in Frankfurt at 9 a.m. local time and went straight to the hotel. We stayed at the Sheraton connected to the airport. We had to wait a while for our rooms so we "enjoyed" a cappuccino while we waited. We quickly learned that an American cappuccino and European cappuccino are two VERY different things...blech.

 

 

 

After resting for a few hours we walked around the airport a bit, just looking in different shops. I got my first souvenir there!

 

 

 

Making fun of the exit sign in the airport...it actually just looks like he is running into a wall.

 After shopping around we went back and played some scrabble.

 

Wednesday morning we had our first truly European breakfast. It isn't near as good as what we had later at the Pfister's or at Antioch, but it was a good first breakfast! We said goodbye to Oma and Opa's friends at the hotel. Since they stay at that hotel 2 times a year they have some people who know them well and take care of them.

 

Me, Enver, Mimi, Jo, Ahmed

 

Well, this may take more posts than I thought! Hopefully you aren't already bored, although I promise the trip gets MUCH more interesting!