OUR EUROPEAN ADVENTURE: The Cruise

The next "phase" of our trip was a cruise on the Adriatic Sea.
It was a nice break from the craziness of our travels and a chance to get off the beaten  path and see some different cities and sights that are not as easy {or affordable} to get to by train!

We boarded the Norwegian Jade {yes, it might have been a Scandinavian boat with a Hawaiian theme cruising the Mediterranean} and had a BLAST!

We felt pretty special between the views of the water, the feel of the salty breeze, the warm sun and the time of pure relaxation! 

This picture is dedicated to Laura....thanks for my birthday gift:)!

Our last morning on the boat, we got up before anyone else was up....

..and watched the sunrise.  

 
Esteban wanted me to point out that his biggest disappointment of the cruise was that he never saw a shark.  He faithfully looked every day, but alas, we didn't see a single fish, let alone ones with an infamous dorsal fin.

So, the boat was NOT the reason we chose this cruise...it was the stops!

Embarkation was in Venice, Italy.

Then our first stop was the great walled city of.... DUBROVNIK, Croatia.

 Some highlights of this fortress, made before the 7th century during the Byzantium Empire, include walking around the city on the ancient walls and then jumping into the Adriatic Sea for a refreshing swim in the dark blue waters {the picture on the bottom 2nd from the left shows the "beach" that we experienced...just big rocks!}.


Our second stop of this trip was one of the world's oldest cities....ATHENS, Greece!
We loved being on the Acropolis and seeing the Parthenon along with great views of the city.

 

Greek figs..

 

Europe through the eyes of my husband take 3... 

Greek Orthodox life...

{I love how the bottom-left picture shows the church smack-dab in the middle of modern life}

Third stop was the ancient city of.....EPHESUS, Turkey

 Europe through the eyes of my husband take 4... 

It was so neat to be in in this ancient city that I've read all about in the Bible.  It's interesting to note that, contrary to what I thought, Ephesus is not a modern-day city.  Unlike Rome, where ancient ruins stand alongside modern buildings and the hustle and bustle of people going about their daily lives surrounds you, Ephesus is only filled with pieced together ruins and tourists.  This is mainly a result of the fact that "Ephesus was at one time a port city, but over many thousands of years, the river flowing down to the sea deposited silt and formed a delta which has now put the ancient city about 4 miles away from the sea."  

(The teacher in me must credit Karen Robbins for that description!  If you want to learn more about this cool city, go to her own blog of it.}

 

 If you start on the bottom left and go clockwise, ending with the biggest picture, you'll see the following:

- Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, has the famous swoosh in her garment flowing to the left of her body

- public toilets...notice the distance from each hole and the lack of a partition {maybe this is where Cabo Fish Taco got their inspiration}

- Temple of Hadrian 

- The lovely umbrella and tour guide that fearlessly led "The Royal Family" through the streets of Ephesus...oh, organized tour groups, how we missed our Rick Steve's podcasts!

- excavated homes of the wealthy Ephesians

-something cool??

- the arch of Hercules....notice how much stronger Esteban is after passing under the arch..

- Library of Celsus, the 3rd largest library at the time and possibly where Paul the Apostle studied 

And then, one of my favorite parts of Ephesus was the amphitheater found in Acts 19.

It is interesting to note that the acoustics of this theater are AWESOME and it used to be a popular location for concerts until Sting's concert caused some damage in 2007.

After the ruins, we went to a Turkish rug-making place and learned ALL about the process of getting silk from the silk worms, dying the material, hand-making the rugs and knowing the difference between materials used {so we won't be fooled by cotton when we are buying our silk rugs... in like 50 years when we can afford this luxury!}.

 

 

PS- The website I was using for my photo collages just decided to make some pictures red and I don't know how to fix it!  So, sorry for the long line of pictures.

This brings us to our FINAL stop of the cruise......SPLIT, Croatia!

In this last port city we had the privilege of meeting up with some friends of ours who are living there this summer!  I taught 6th grade with the wife last year and her husband is from this city in Croatia.  It was so nice to see them and just "hang-out" in this beautiful place!

Thanks Budimirs for such a wonderful time in Split! 
We hope to do this again sometime...with hopefully more time to explore:).

OUR EUROPEAN ADVENTURE: Italy

Italy.
The Big three.
Our favorites:).

ROME

Everything is so OLD here!

 

 We're speaking to you in Italian...can't you hear it? 

Pestoalapastalaprimaverarigatoni....prego!

{in case there's ANY confusion, that word is used in Italy for MANY different circumstances!  It's kind of like an "enjoy" or "cheers" word.  My usage has NO connection to its stateside "twin," alluding to a small child growing inside a woman.}

 The waiter told us to show more "love"...the best we could do with a table in the way!

Notice my "Esteban smile"

 The Vatican.  Where....

...Esteban "didn't" pay attention to the warnings....

...Megan dressed like she was going to the "beach" {literally what some devout, Roman Catholic woman told me as I was sitting outside St. Peter's Basilica because they wouldn't let me in.  Oops for not remembering that slight detail!  Thanks Esteban for the picture:)!

 Europe through the eyes of my husband take 1...

 Did I mention that we were EXHAUSTED at this point...and looking forward to being able to rest on the cruise!

 

FLORENCE

Europe through the eyes of my husband take 2... 

 VENICE

 Just because Venice has canals instead of roads and boats instead of cars doesn't mean that they don't deal with the same issues that we do.

{Read left-right, up-down}

 sometimes you just need to be towed...parallel parking....traffic jams....texting while driving

 

  Notice the Gondolier behind me while I eat fresh shrimp all fried up and yummy!

 As big as my head....

 Cappucino per favore.

OUR EUROPEAN ADVENTURE: Paris

I don't know if it's because I spent about 2 1/2 months there...or because I went during the off-season where there aren't HORDES of {obnoxious} tourists....or if it's because I got to know the city with a friend who would have made Buhl, Idaho exciting! But needless to say, I LOVE PARIS!

So, when planning this trip, even if it seemed a little out of the way, we just HAD to go to Paris!
And our time there was no exception!
I don't know if Esteban would say that he LOvEs Paris the way that I still do....but I know that he enjoyed it:)!

One more thing about us....is that we love planning to NOT have a plan.
Yes, we had the "must-see-sights" for each city....but we loved just wandering around in hopes to find the "real" city.
And thankfully, we did {or at least we're assuming that what we saw was a reflection of the culture of where we were...or it could just be a show for all of the suckers like us that are waiting for this...}! 
Some of our best memories are from unexpected finds like an "x-games" by the Seine, chess in the park, "chin-chin" with all 4 clerks of a little shop, an outdoor band concert and more.

Here are just some of the moments we were able to capture in the City of Light.

Oh....before I jump into the tourist pictures....here are some "candids" from our flight fiasco at the beginning of our trip.

In BWI before leaving...the US Airways line we waited in for about an hour only to be told that we had to fly out 2 days later, completely missing our first stop of the trip

At this point in the trip, all of this was a SAD thing.  

However, don't let the utter looks of devastation fool you...

..we were both still pretty psyched to be heading to Paris on FIRST CLASS!

And we made it!!!!

 

One day we stopped in a cute, little fromagerie (cheese shop) and with a variety of languages, sound effects and hand gestures, we left with a nice spread for a picnic!

We enjoyed our little picnic in the Luxembourg Garden where we experienced another taste....the French CHESS culture!

{Yes...my husband won that game:)!}

I'd like to think that this picture is not a result of the wrong setting, but a reflection of the heaven-like paintings and ethereal effects found in one of our favorite museums, the Orsay.

Some of the more exciting sights that we stumbled upon....

I'll end this post with probably the 2 most popular Paris icons....

Including all three pictures might seem a little excessive for this one, but I thought that our facial expressions were priceless {zoom in if you have a second}  and the one of both of us instigated one of our favorite quotes of the whole trip....."What did you win?" 

Doesn't she know that this is the Arch of TRIUMPH??!!

Whatever.

OUR EUROPEAN ADVENTURE: Preface

We are back from our big summer trip.
Europe.
It was amazing, let me tell you!
But before I post the gobs of photos that I'm dying to share with you, I have to tell you a quick story.
It's the explanation of the alluded to "troubles" {on facebook} that we had in Spain where Esteban and I were separated.
It's the backbone of our entire trip.
It's our little MIRACLE!
Ahem....
We've been planning this trip for a while.
Buying various plane tickets, reserving well-researched hotels, contacting family and friends who will be in our predetermined destinations, downloading countless apps on our phones that will aid in our travels, etc.
But, in our myriad of "to do's" we missed on HUGE one.
Figure out what kind of visa is needed for Bolivian passport holders.
Dang.
Big one.
I know, I know...how could we miss that???!!!
But that's where our little MIRACLE comes in.

It's called a Schengen Visa.
Esteban needed one.
He didn't get one.
We had NO CLUE.
Fast-forward to July 1, 2013.
Flew into France, NO problems.
Italy.  NO problems.
Croatia...Greece....Turkey.....Spain. 
NO PROBLEMS.
Miracle.
It wasn't until Spain that we even heard about this visa and started thanking the Lord for His provision.
But then, we had one more twist in the story that made us EVEN MORE thankful.
We went to catch our flight from Spain to our last destination, the UK.
It turns out that this little Schengen fiasco finally caught up with us and Esteban could NOT enter the UK without it.
Thankfully, no big deal.
He hung out with his cousin, Juan Pablo, in Madrid and I hang out with his cousin, Ximena, in London!
The airline changed his departure city from London to Barcelona (there weren't any flights from Madrid for a week) free of charge, and we both had a great time with the aforementioned family members.
But that's not what really makes this a miracle.
If some of you remember, we had some flight problems before the trip even happened.
We had weather issues and ended up missing our original flight and had to leave 2 days later and fly directly to our 2nd destination of our "well-planned" trip.
Paris, France.
Where did we originally plan on flying to?
London, UK.
So, we truly beleive that if it all would have gone as we had planned...we would have never gone!
Yes.
This is embarassing for us.
WHAT WERE WE THINKING??!!
But in the end, we have to focus on the big picture.
Our God is bigger than the organization of 26 countries in Europe.
Our God is able to transcend our human error.
Our God cares about silly things like a "trip of our dreams."
And yes, our God can teach us a lesson that doesn't have to be learned "the hard way."
We feel so humbled, blessed, grateful and full of praise!
Hopefully now the following loads of pictures will mean more to you as they do to us.
They shouldn't have happened.
But our Lord wanted them to.
And so HE made it happen.
Not us.

Changes...

So it's kind of crazy to think that our life could change more than it already has, but I guess that's how God is keeping us on our feet.

For one, ESTEBAN HAS A NEW JOB!
Blessing...he's doing what he studied {telecommunications engineering} and gets excited about.  YAY!
Change... it's in Maryland and after some prayers and pro/con lists, WE'RE MOVING BACK TO MARYLAND (to exactly the same place we were before!).  We're excited to be close again to family, especially with our new nephew who just arrived safely:)! 

This leads to the second big change, I've officially RESIGNED from my position at Woodley Hills and I'm looking for a new job in Maryland. 
Yay for cover letters and interviews again.
{Do you sense my sarcasm?!} 
But, just like last time, I know that God already has a place for me that He'll provide in His timing.

Third, I WILL NEVER WEAR GLASSES OR CONTACTS AGAIN!  Yes, I recently had LASIK.  And, so far, so good.  The Dr. was very competent and described the surgery as "perfect!"  Thank you LORD!

The last change I'd like to share is not as obvious.  It's more subtle, but just as real.  Lately, I have been sensing a change in my perspective of life.
Yes, I've always "known" that life is short and that Christ is all that matters.  But lately, I've been reminded that "I know that" can be decieving and untrue.  Those 3 words can take away from the urgency that I should feel while living in this world and the gratitude I should have every day for this precious LIFE I've been given!
Maybe tomorrow, like others I know, I'll be told that I have a terminal brain tumor and my days with my family are limited...or that even though my children recently lost their daddy, their mommy now has breast cancer...or other life-changing news that life is full of!

This life truly is a gift that I don't want to waste.
I don't want to get into a rut that causes me to care more about my little life than the big picture God sees.
Lord, continue to change my perspective until my focus is on You.
Not on houses...jobs...eyes....and all of the other good things in this world that simply don't compare to You.