a cheeky trip to amsterdam, england and paris

 once again, I write this enroute aarhus from copenhagen!

this time we have just stepped off the plane from paris and have jumped on the train into aarhus.

 it's way cheaper to do it this way.

i had 3 hours sleep last night before our taxi picked us up at 3am and i don't sleep on planes so hopefully what i write will make sense!

well this is likely to be a large blog, so grab a cup of tea and a few bikkies and get ready. (for you, jan). 

on tuesday the 19th march, bridget and i began a european adventure. 

more than the one im on already in denmark.

bridget and i were able to do this because our lecturer doesn't quite believe in the 'conventional' way of teaching...

so we combined our 'free study days' with the easter break and took off on a trip i'll never forget. 

we began in amsterdam, then flew to meet my summer camp friend from 2009 in london who then took us back to his home town in bristol where he showed us bath and Exeter...before we finally flew out to paris to spend a glorious 3 glorious days with one of our dorm mates, eric. 

it was definitely an amazing trip to say the least - but as i write this blog, 

i need to admit from the outset :

i don't really want this to be all about what i saw, what i ate, what i did etc etc etc.

while they are all wonderful parts of my story which i will outline, i kind of want it to be something more than just that.

 i don't want to merely boast of experiences, because well that's just boring!

i guess for me writing this,

 i want to try to express the pensive, reflective thoughts i had WHILE i was doing all these things.

and

to try to convey those thoughts into a story rather than  "i did this then ate that." 

i want to write this way because those thoughts that swam around my head 

have begun to sink into my heart,

and  have begun to shape me as a person, as a future social worker, 

and has inevitably deepened my faith.

so it is my hope that I can tell the story properly! 

first off i'd like to start with a story that happened while i was prining out our itineries, 

ryan air.

ryan air.

...

they are a reallly cheap airline - like 20 dollars one way to london type cheap. 

but once you book with them, there ends up being aout $50 in hidden extra fees, and then about $90 to change any mistakes you might make on your boarding pass (which, if you don't print out yourself, also costs $70). 

the day before we left i was on ryanair.com filling in last minute reservation information. 

i needed to put my passport details in, and it was only after i'd clicked to confirm i realised i'd said i was from austria.

AUSTRIA.

GAHH! GET YOUR CRAP TOGETHER CAROL!

i desperately tried to click back, but ryanair doesn't let you go back.

i tried to email them, but ryanair doesn't have a customer reservations email. 

i tried to call them, but ryanair charges 50c per minute to call. 

i asked my danish friends what to do, and they said "good luck."

ahh!

$90 just because i'd accidentally become an austrian citizen?! nooooooo!

so i prayed. 

and the next day i prayed.

i've began to figure that if God was interested in the big things of my life,

 surely he is be interested in the little things too. 

He showed me this with my norway mistakes. 

i thought -

if God can blind border officials eyes to the stacks of bibles in brother andrew's car back during the european communist reign a few years ago, surely He could do the same for a much less noble purpose ...just because He loves me?!

we got to the airport and lined up to get our tickets and passport checked.

i was quietly somewhat excited to see what'd happen.

nervously, i walked to the front desk and gave the lady my ticket.

stamp, stamp. "enjoy your flight."

 the lady smiled back at me. 

ah!!

i took my passport and boarding pass back gleefully. 

oh but then we had to go through security IN THE SEPARATE LINE FOR NON-EUROPEAN CITIZENS.

but once again - check check, "enjoy your flight
:)

waiting in the boarding lounge...

so excited with Bridget that this had actually happened.

we got called to our flight and we got CHECKED AGAIN next to our passports!

but once again, check check, "enjoy your flight."

i couldn't believe it!
AND THEN.

as we were walking out to the tarmac, we had ANOTHER passport stop!

you've got to be kidding me. 

i've flown countless times and never ever have i had that many passport checks to my boarding pass.

the only time was when i'd made a $90 mistake!

but once again,  check check, "enjoy your flight."

i was literally on a high.

it seemed that the more i got checked, the more God was glorifying himself to me. 

showing me that He was bigger than all what 'should' have happened. 

it would seem that 4 times, he completely blinded the eyes of every official!

 :)

sneaky shot of my stamped and signed austrian boarding pass

we arrived into Amsterdam late at night and made our way to our hostel. 

we decided to stay at a christian hostel because .. we thought it'd be good to support it, it was in a great location... and it was cheaper than most other hostels!

there was such a cool feel about it - had real quirky character with interesting interior decor. 

i am all about the aesthetics of where I'm staying - so i loved it!! 

it was run by a group of young adult volunteers who were doing a community based discipleship training programme.

they ran a bible study and prayer meetings each night where they prayed for all the workers and guests.

i would often watch how they interacted with the guests :

they were so full of joy, love and friendliness!

we roomed with a French girl who wasn't christian,

and even she said the place had such a loving feel about it.

day one of amsterdam we caught the canal all around the city, but stopped off at the Anne frank museum, the floating flower gardens and did some general shopping. 

 

 we (well mainly myself!) are really into buying a coffee and trying the local sweets from a bakery while we are out sightseeing, so we save money and room in our tummy's by packing light lunches everyday. 

Add caption

wandering around, we saw some pretty cool things ...

the houses are all slanted inward to make them appear taller!
how funny.

we went to inglot too! since it closed down in perth, i've had to order online ... i've come to the end of my supplies so when i found out they had a store in amsterdam, i dragged bridget across the city to find the store!




i was literally so happy.

we went on a pretty cool canal ride all around the city.

for some reason, i look SO tired in all these photos.
i don't know why.

dad !
i thought of you!
you would have loved this man's job.
he cruised around the city all day,
humming to himself and waving to the other canal boat drivers. 

this store was the tiniest, most cluttered store i've ever seen. only two people were allowed in at one time, and the rest had to line up and wait. the store was perhaps 3meters by 3 meters.
it sold all your mothers trinkets plus your grandmothers and perhaps extending back 10 generations of grandmothers. i've never seen so many trinkets in such a small space.
weird.

weird

so i'm kind of still enchanted with the whole bikes and trees along the canal look.
i just think it's so great!

we then went to this floating tulip farm.
i've never seen that many flowers outside of a hot and humid nursery.

we explored downtown,

check out these floating houses!

the anne frank museum was really cool.
anne was a 14 year old jewish girl who hid with her family in the upstairs area of of her fathers business during world war 2,
until somebody betrayed them out to the nazis.
 during her time in hiding, anne kept a diary of her thoughts and feelings about the war;
being a jew, the nazis and what it was like for an adventurous young girl to be cooped up in an attic.
right before the war ended,
 anne and her sister died in the concentration camp of typhus.
her father was the only survivor of the frank family,
and when he went back home he found anne's diary.
 he then took it upon himself to publish her work so she could leave behind a legacy.
anne's father commented :
"while we can be so close to our children, I can only conclude that we really do not know them at all."
i thought this was pretty interesting!

i must admit though, when I left, I felt like something was missing.
but i couldn't put my finger on it.
however, i did gather a few thoughts and impressions after leaving her house.
anne loved to write.
... i think that ...
as we faithfully do what we love,
we are often in the training ground for something bigger that we may have no perception of yet.


if i look at my own life, I will go as far to say that it has been in the monotonous daily grind of life that have chiseled out of me patience, perseverance, faithfulness, endurance ... 

all lifelong qualities i would aspire for.

interesting.

 and also, since i serve a God who loves to bring all things together for good for those who love Him, 

it was in this monotony that i was able to recieve the best gift i could ever imagine. 

like getting to come to denmark and being able to galavant around europe!

 (not that that's a formala or anything ;) it's more like a pattern).

i've just finished corrie ten boom's biography,
and i heard that her house has been made into a museum and was just outside of amsterdam.
so we caught the train into harlem the next day.



corrie and her family were christians who hid Jews like Anne frank in their house.
corrie was a middle aged, unmarried daughter of a watch maker who helped out her father in his business.
 
when the Germans invaded the netherlands and began sending jews to concentration camps
corrie hid one or two jews in her house before sending them to her older brothers house where he sent them out into the country into hiding.
as the war drew on and more jews were sent to camps,
corrie's house became more and more popular for the jews.
since corrie and her family were known as being open, friendly and hospitable to everybody in harlem,
corrie found that when she needed help helping out the Jews - she had a alot of insider contacts.
she knew people who gave out food ration cards so she got extra for the jews in hiding,
and she knew policemen who helped give her suffice warning about house raids.
corries ministry toward the jews slowly grew
until she found herself  co-ordinating the hiding of 800 jews
with 8 of them living with them in her fathers house!
 one day, an insider official told corrie that her house needed to be more secure in case they got raided by the nazis.
 one of the jews who had architecture background built a secret compartment in corrie's bedroom by putting up a wall,
 and constructed it with a bookcase that lifted up for easy access into the secret compartment.

and this is corrie

everybody in the house had "practice drills" in case the nazis were to raid the house at any given moment. if corrie or somebody saw the nazi raid approaching the house, a "buzzer button" around the house was pressed and the 8 jews had to be in the hiding place within 70 seconds.

they would often wake up in the middle of the night to practice, which meant running up 2 flights of these stairs.

it was so surreal actually being in her house.

 as we sat and the tour guide explained corrie's story, i actually became really overwhelmed. 

the nazis found out about corrie and her families underground operations,

and one day they were raided.

the germans never found the jews (they got into the hiding place quick enough!)

but the germans had enough evidence to send corrie and her family away in a truck to a concentration camp as punishment. 

they were hearded down to the "grote square" by the nazis and piled into a truck.

the grote square

once inside the camp,  corries father was approached by an official and was told :

 "old man, you dont need to be here. tell me you wont do this again and ill let you go." 

looking the gaurd square in the eye, corries dad said :

 "if somebody comes to me tomorrow needing help, i will give it to them." 

corries dad got scowled at and was sent into the concentration camp.

he died about 10 days later, alone in an aisle of a hospital floor. 

.

while corrie and her family were in the concentration camp, the jews hid for 3 days in the hiding place until the nazis gaurding her house were 'mysteriously' replaced by "insider" offical policemen. these policemen let the jews out of the hiding place and they escaped over this roof and into a neighbors house.

it actually felt really weird to smile in these photos




. 

perhaps corries sister betsie was the one who moved me the most. 

she was thankful always, no matter how dire circumstance. 

when they first moved into their camp bunkers built for 200 but had 2000 women in it, , 

they realised immediately that their bedding and hay floor was infested with lice. 

this was almost breaking point for middle aged corrie,

 but betsie reminded corrie to be thankful. 

frustrated, corrie said " I CAN NOT be thankful for the flees!" 

betsie smiled at her and said "you'll see. the Lord works all things together for good for those who love him." well, it turned out that the gaurds would never step foot inside the bunkers BECAUSE of the fleas,

so corrie and her sister were able to do hope-filled, encouraging bible study's  each night with the other jewish prisoners.

they sang psalms and hymns long into the night each night without ever getting found out! 

not only did betsie love jews, but she was also filled with compassion, love and forgiveness for the guards that beat her, her sister and the prisoners. 

one time, as she saw the gaurds abusing some weaker prisonaers, she mused to corrie :

 "those poor, poor people." 

corrie thought she was talking about the prisoners, before betsie said :

 "they have no idea what theyre doing to Gods people. oh father forgive them." 

corrie, however, struggled with bitterness and unforgiveness toward the gaurds and she began to spiral into  a dark place. 

betsie always encouraged corrie, though, to allow God's love to penetrate that hatred:
"there is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still."
"love is larger than the walls which shut it in."

corrie and betsie were incredibly close during their time in the concentration camp and they partnered together in holding each other up and encouraging each other. 

one night, bêtise shared with corrie a vision she had of a big, beautiful house post war in which prisoners could come and heal from their experiences in the concentration camps. 

but it must also a place in where they could extend love and forgiveness toward all the german soldiers. 

soon enough, though, betsie's ill health gave way and she died a week before corrie was released. 

it broke corries heart. 

harlem

once corrie was released "by error" (all women her age were sent to the gas chambers the week after she was released. her releasing was actually a clerical error.), corrie took some time to heal,

before she began talking about her experiences.

corrie's story was more about glorifying God than anything else she or her sister did. 
corrie began to talk about her experience and how she had to allow love to surpass all the hurt, bitterness and hatred.
 it was the only way to forgive and heal.
at one of the meetings, a lady approached corrie and said that she would like to offer a house fo her rehabilitation centre dream.
corrie went to check the house out, and realised it was the exact same house betsie had described in her dream before she died.



after the war,
corrie opened the home and allowed the now homeless jewish people to come, rest, eat, talk if they wants to...
she ran bible studies and worship sessions for those who were interested and shared about the love of God and how love can conquer the darkest places.

one time when corrie was speaking in a church in germany about love and forgiveness,
 she was approached by an ex-gaurd who had beat betsie as she was ill.
 corrie internally struggled with this man and told God :
 "i cant forgive this man. i hate him. i cant do this, you need to forgive him for me."
out of politeness, corrie simply extended her hand out to the guard . . .
but as she did, she felt completely overwhelmed with a new found forgiveness and love for this gaurd. . .
she said that their handshake was like electricity.
corrie could honestly tell the man :
" i forgive you for what you did."
the man then said to corrie :
"well if you are able to forgive me, then there must be a God."

Again, corre was somebody who simply did what God brought across her path to do :
she helped protect a few jewish people at a time.
she did it faithfully, and her ministry toward the jews grew and extended throughout holland
. . .
and as she allowed God to continually transform her heart and mind,
she was able to proivde a place of healing and refuge for people who depserately needed it. . 

this is so inspiring for me in so many ways.

however,  as a future social worker, i realise that.

i don't need to forge my way into the world to make a name for myself,
or to accomplish some good will cause.
no, because i believe that as i do whatever it is that God brings across my path to do,
and if i do it with all my heart,
 putting him first in all my life,
He will bring the right opportunities into my life to fulfill all the purposes He has for me.
 i dont need to make ANYTHING happen myself
...
i'm not in control of ANYTHING.

it was surreal to be in the place that someone I deeply admire once lived in!

corrie also had this illustration she carried around with her until she died.

sometimes we just see our lives as a jumble of dark and light coloured threads -
nothing really making sense or taking form.

but we forget that God sees the upperside, and we see the underside.
if we simply trust that one day God will unroll the canvas, he will explain why
. . .
for the dark threads are as needful as the gold and silver
all according to the pattern he has planned :

amazing.

 

i think that it was this extra dimension was what i sensed was missing in anne frank's museum

 

 

.. 

later that night,

we got chatting with a volunteer here at the hostel, thiriza,
whose grandad actually hid jews in his house.
i asked her why the Jews were hated so much, and she said nobody really knows, but if you look at history people have always hated Gods chosen people.
(The Jews are historically known as the Israelites)..

i couldn't help but notice thiriza's teeth were tiny and spread apart.
she said that this generation of young people still have teeth problems because of the lack of calcium in the lack of food supply during the war!

thiriza then told me some of the atrocities that happened in the camps, particularly for the women.
prisoners were often used as guinea pigs to test their endurance on torturous acts for the guards sick interests and pleasures.

i sat, stunned, taking in for the first time what everybody else probably learned in high school.

simply and calmly, thiriza said "it's still happening today, you know. these conditions still exist in places like north korea, rural china, parts of africa. thousands of christians are being held in refugee camps and enduring exactly the same thing."

the room spun a little slower right then.

"but you know what," she added, "wherever there is persecution, believers grow in their faith and churches get bigger. it happens all the time. we are such comfortable Christians, living such comfortable lives, we find it hard to even read our bible. but these people, their faith is on fire. and when prisoners get set free, they often go back into their persecuted countries to spread the gospel and often die for it

."

I was so humbled

.

we asked her how it was being a christian in amsterdam.
she said that since it was a democratic country, everybody is free to do and believe whatever they like...
as long as you don't impose that on anybody else.
i thought this sounded a bit like Australia until she elaborated.
she said that people often lost their jobs as a result of this attitude.
if doctors refuse to do abortions, they can loose their job.
if lawyers refuse to marry gay people in a church, they loose their job.
thiriza actually chuckled that its difficult for a christian to find a celebrant for them!
so while it is deomocratic, there are always two sides to the coin

and this is thiriza. .

having already wandered around downtown,

 i had begun to notice all the things that hinted to the underworld of drugs and prostitution.

 i guess it was my social work training, but it was very easy to spot and wonder about. 

with the abundance of brothels, marijiuana cafes ... thoughts swirled around my head 100 miles an hour.

"it's so normal"
"people travel from all over the world for this 'bliss'"
"do those girls want to be there?"
"How did they get there?"
 "Are they trafficked?"
 "What kind of upbringing did that pimp have who just asked me to come in an see the live sex show?" "What kinds of things happen to those people who smoke drugs all the time? What are the mental illness statistics? are there a lot of people with schizophrenia in Amsterdam?"
 "What has a hold over this city to make this all ok?... It's only ok in this city? How? Why? Yes it's a result of democracy, but what about the unseen forces?"

"God, your heart must be breaking."

i mentioned to thiriza that i thought Amsterdam was a beautiful city, but it seemed to rest on an undercurrent of drugs and prostitution.

thiriza said that 80% of these girls in the windows are forced.
i asked "how is that even possible in society today?!"
she explained.
it's done in stages.
men will travel to africa, asia, russia and other poverty stricken places and search for beautiful girls to tell them that they would make it as a model in amsterdam.
they promise them that they have contacts to high end fashion labels and invite them to email them their picture.
after a few pictures, they say
"well these are very good, but this high end fashion label wants a naked picture of you."
so the girls might send them a naked picture of themselves.
this turns into an invitation to a visit the man so they can "meet" the fashion contacts.
there, in amsterdam, the men promise these girls a decent wage, shelter, food, a vast network of modelling contacts.
and just think of the family back home they can support!
but, he says. in order to secure this modelling deal, you must sleep with this man's friend.
so she compromises and she does.
and then she must sleep with this man and this man...but all for that modelling deal.
and all of a sudden she finds herself in a brothel in amsterdam still trying to make it big as a model.
little does she know that she has become a mouse inside a wheel running furiously for everybody to see.
i saw these girls later the next day as we accidentally stumbled into the red light district,
and it broke my heart.
i looked into their eyes as they stood in the window, and their gaze was so hard.
distant and hard.
i saw african, asian, eastern european. 
all with the empty hope of money and bound by the security of some pimp owning them and giving them money and shelter from whatever they are running from.
definately still mulling through this one.

. . . . . . . . 
..

but moving on ...

 

the next day, we went to the markets. 

the markets were first of all marvellous, before they began to hint things of another world.
once I picked up on this, I needed to get out of there.

it was subtle.
men looking us up and down and whispering to each other.
trying a vintage jacket on and a man complimenting that he liked the girl more than he liked the jacket.
the thousands of beaded jewellery sold only by men.

i actually began to feel like this weight was on my chest, then I became nauseas and light headed.
i began to pray right away, before telling bridget i needed to leave.
we left then, before sumbling across a second hand vintage store.
 away from all the "gunk" outside, we browsed inside for an hour and bought some cool vintage clothes for really cheap.
so good!!

friday morning,

we flew into london and caught the train to victoria st to meet our friend tom.
by the way, you know it was a spectacular landing when everybody claps.
as you might bave picked up from previous blogs, im not the most carefree flyer.
very annoyingly, my body still floods with adrenalin during takeoff and landing . . .
make that two shots if theres any turbulence.
i've done all that's suggested for nervous flyers -
 even to the point of doing an online "fear of flying" course!
 sometimes it doesn't even make a difference. 

but this time as we descended through the clouds, as the plane was bopping up and down like a cork in water, i was flooded with peace.
i then had the scripture "my peace I give to you. I don't give as the world gives, but my peace I give to you." over and over again.
at this point I began to wonder if I SHOULD be worried!
then, BANG!!!
we hit the Tarmac hard and the plane bounced several times before swerved slightly across the runway.

well that was a surprise.

everything.

the most disconcerting landing but the most peaceful one too!

his gifts are made perfect in my weaknesses.

but anyway. 
we're about to meet tom . . .

and as the train pulled into the station, bridget said to me :
" how are we going to find him?"
I just said
 "you'll see. it'll all work out."
part of the fun travelling with complete dependence on God is seeing how he provides and orchestrates for your every need.
 sure enough, at the exact moment we moved through the turnstiles, we ran into tom who was looking for us in that exact spot in that huge train station.

:)

It w a grand reunion!! 

we definitely did London in a nutshell that day.

buckingham palace, the grand mall, london eye, big ben, trafalga square, abbey road, covenant gardens, a pub dinner, a broadway musical and then to a pub while we waited for a our bus back to bristol. 

buckingham pallace

trafalga square

grand mall

the london eye

gingerbread lattes

abbey road shot 1

abbey road shot 2

abbey road shot 3

abbey road shot 4

abbey road shot5

there were so many of us tourists all trying to get the same shot.

bet those cars regretted that route!!

we were so frustrating. 

then the musical! 

we saw Wicked.

before catching the 11.45pm bus back to bristol.

That 2 hour ride was one of the most harrowing experiences I've had yet. I'd been up since 5.30 and my eyes were still on stalks at 2am trying to fall asleep on a brightly lit bus next to a young middle eastern man who didn't appreciate the accidental head on his shoulder.

Harrowing.

But we slept in, before exploring Bristol. 

apparently jonny depp lives around here!

if i ran into him, i'd act cool calm and collected and be like 'sup jonny.'

another cathedral.
another one, i mean what!

scones with jam and cream in england!

i don't eat fish and chips, so this was my version. salmon and leek pattie's with salad and peas. ;)

then we met up with toms med school friends and did a high ropes adventure course.
it was maybe the coldest ive felt in a long time.
 i couldnt tell whether i was shuddering from the cold or fear of heights.
all i know is that for days afterward my tummy hurt from clenching my tummy muscles together in an effort to keep warm!

we then explored his college town of Exeter and had the biggest pizza I've ever seen.

but alas, all good meetings must come to an end and bridget and i said goodbye to tom and flew to paris on monday night.

Well.

I don't really know what to say.

I'm enchanted by the city of love and lights? 

I think the coolest part about Paris was that our dormate, eric, an american from Texas, flew to meet us here.

he'd been to paris before as a child and amongst being intellectually orientated,
he just had a head for logically navigating around. 

i can be a bit air-headed when it comes to navigating big cities -
ill have a few places I want to see and i'm am happy to just meander to them...
but while this can be fun, a lot of things can irritate me too.
like wasting time, backtracking, not allowing enough time to get to somewhere and it closing as we arrive... you know.

so having eric there was such a blessing.
as well as being a genuinely good natured guy who was fun and easy to be with,
naturally, he prevented other guys from hassling us - which i really tire of!
but the best was that he was a fresh addition to bridget and i's company, which I think we needed.
fresh eyes, fresh enthusiasm, fresh spark, fresh breath of air!!

 

so for two days, bridget, eric and i went sightseeing around paris.
we graced ..

the louvre pyramids   

the norte dame, 

 the arc de triomphe,

the sacre` coer 

we ate dinner on the champse else`ese

we visited the versailles pallace, which was you know, just a summer home for a really rich king.

hello! i am ready for my breakfast!

 the orange museum to see monet's water lillies

which,
as bridget realised with devastation,
wasn't a botanical gardens with real water lillies.
i could not. stop. laughing
at her disappointment.
thankfully we are at that stage in our relationship.

the moulin rouge, 

 

the monte markets,

where AMAZING talented artists paint and draw all day.
i could watch them for ages!
so much talent in one area.
i bought a few canvases and oil paintings.
i've no idea where i'm going to put them or how to pack them.
: /

and a whole bunch of other interesting, picturesque places, but i can't quite remember what they were.

this was cool actually!
people write their names on padlocks and padlock them to the bridges to symbolise their "unbreakable love".

bridget is my ridiculous love.

side note:

i found out that she is leaving me in three weeks as she finishes her semester.
i never cry.
like ever.
a few tears fell from the corners of my eyes!
oh golly. but no point thinking about this now.
a journey for a later time. 

why not?

but my favourite was definately the clichet.

the eifel tower.

 we took so many ridiculous snaps.

and then we went back the next day for day photos . . . 

of course!

i don't think eric's taken this many photos in a very long time.

ahh!! 

On our final day in paris, so thursday, bridget decided to go to disneyland and so eric and i continued to explore paris.
it was the best day!

not only was he patient and compliant with all my subtle hints, like
"how about we do this?"
"would you mind terribly if we did this?"
"how do you feel about going here, then there?"
and he was always so up for it, and so easygoing!

but i think the best part was that eric taught me a bit of french culture.
he helped me to realise that if you go into a cafe or restuarant,
you go in for the experience that they offer you.

this is opposed to going in as an individual customer with a diverse array of preferences.

we were sat in a cafe and i ordered an extra not non fat cappacino, before the lady looked at me impatiently
and said
"we do milk."
eric politely quietly said to me just to take it as it came.
so a tad confused, i ordered just an expresso
when the waitress had gone, i said to him :

 "but a whole cup of full cream milk? that will make me sick! I can't drink that!"

eric kindly said "yeah but nowhere you eat in france is burger king, kate.
you can't just specify what you want here.
if they have it on the menu, you order it as it is.
that's obviously how they think it tastes best so you just experience it as that."

it was such a good lesson for me to learn!

i needed to realise this because I think I can be far too fussy when it comes to food and drink. 

while paris is the extreme, it did help to balance me i think.

(however, saying this, i've only been back two days and i've already specified my order everywhere i go. be where you are ;) )

but i tried most french cuisine!

crepes and cappacinoes

macaroons with tea.

chocolate eclairs

french baguette

duck salad

chocolate croissants

salted butterscotch escargot

.

and ok this is italian, but it was the best vegetable lasagne i've ever tasted. i dont usually eat lasagne because i don't like the cheese but the cheese didn't taste like cheese. it tasted like white fluffy goodness packed with vegetables.

the madeleine theme song was stuck in my head all week - so i had to get a photo with her station!

and that basically was our trip to europe!

we got up at 2am on friday morning

and flew back to copenhagen as the sun rose through the clouds.

where i had my own little good friday service up in the air.

we got home, unpacked our stuff, did washing and went to our friend jemery's from church house for a passover meal.

it was actually the coolest good friday ever.
i might write an easter blog because this whole easter has been wonderful. .

but this is actually the biggest, longest blog i've ever written 

and i'm exhausted

!!!

so stay tuned

 

"this is what the past is for. every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see." - Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place.