Amsterdam

Amsterdam was....nicer than expected. No doubt about that. Sometimes the smell of weed was overpowering, but mostly it was a very practical city. Our tour guide kept stressing that the Dutch are extremely practical people. Like the way they move into their homes, for example. It's hard to see in the picture, but the houses are all tilted forward a bit, and have metal bars attached right outside the window of every floor that allow a pulley-system to get furniture to the upper stories of the house. That would be because the stairs are too narrow.

Like a parking garage for bikes!! Everybody rides a bike. Sometimes it was funny, cuz you would see a woman in stilletoes and a nice dress-suit riding a bike! I don't really understand the system though - i feel like the accident rate could get very high! They should have more of those convex mirrors at intersections so bikers [like me] aren't constnatly stressed about running into zooming cars. I think I'm the only the one that was really concerned about it though.

One of the many coffeeshops in Amsterdam. But THIS ONE was in Ocean's Eleven: the scene with Matt Damon and George Clooney where he makes the best 'lift' Clooney has ever seen. i think. As a tribute, they have Ocean's Eleven playing on loop!

hello!

hannah CHA.

Hannah and I kept thinking about how we wanted Thai food very very badly, and we got the perfect substitute: Coconut Curry Stir Fry from Wok to Walk. It was deeeeliiicious.

I had meant to go to the Van Gogh Museum, and instead landed up at the Dutch History Museum. I still don't know how that happened. hahaha, I was very confused on the first floor, and just kept thinking "isn't anyone else wondering where the Van Gogh is??" The garden was very pretty though.

Plus: hostel breakfast! [three pieces of bread, butter, jam, and 2 hard-boiled eggs], sunday morning church at a slightly more conservative group than normal - it was still amazing.
Minus: Just the Van Gogh museum mix-up. I was really looking forward to it, but after going into a different museum, I didn't have time. I did get to see some Rembrandt though.

It was the first of many many European cities.

London

mmmk. so following Hannah's lead, I've decided to go more in-depth about each location. This way, I'll remember more about my trip too!

London was in a league of its own because 1. THEY SPEAK ENGLISH 2. The architecture is just so cool 3. it's expensive!

They say silly things like "mind the gap" in the subway station, when they actually mean "stay behind the yellow line," but it's become a hugely commercialized phrase and people have shirts that say it too. I must admit, it's very catchy!

And wow, I just realized I have no visual memroies of my 2-day stay cuz I forgot to get them from Hannah's computer buut the sites seen were

Buckingham Palace - the changing of the guards

Hyde Park - twas beautiful. and cold! but huuuge.

Victoria and Modern Museum - oook.

The National Gallery - GREAT. Favorite painting is below. =) thanks to the National Gallery's website.

Trafalgar's Square - I think I was too distracted by the huge sign that said FREE for the National Gallery, [they're adjacent to each other] and all I remember now are some lions?

The Tower of London - it was closed.. but people actually live inside this place! And, I guess they close it at midnight and NOBODY is allowed in or out until the morning - they even have a doctor inside for emergencies.

Tower Bridge - absolutley beautiful! And, I waved to people on a boat tour of London that happened to be passing under the bridge. Too bad I was just a tourist - they were excited though!

Harrod's - laughably ginormous and extravagent.

Westminster Abbey - GREAT. you can make a peep and it'll echo throughout that entiiire place.

The Boulevard Montmarte at Night, Pissarro, 1897.
I reaally realized how different things can look at different times of the day. I'm sure there's a completely different approach to 'night' versus The Boulevard Montmarte at Sunrise. or Midday. or Evening. And then, it's not even just the lighting that'd be different, but also the action in the painting. What's great though, is that it's all the same boulevard.
[i like to store these kinds of realizations to apply to interpreting piano pieces at some point...=]

ALL OF IT WAS SO COOL! And now that I think back to it, very BIG. But London is not geographically big, so it must be like harry potter where everything seems big but is magically very compact. =)

amsterdam, paris, rome

i for some reason have become horrible at aligning pictures! Buut for the past 3 weeks, i've been with Hannah Cha doing a brief 'europe tour.'

London
Amsterdam
Stockholm
Paris
Rome
Venice
Florence

It was INCREDIBLE!!!!! Not only because the places were beautiful, with cleeaarr blue skies in each city, but because I really think I've learned more about myself during those 3 short weeks than the whole time i've been in Thessaloniki. so much to say! but i won't bore you guys. =) I am just so grateful.

I only have pictures from Amsterdam, Paris, and a little of Rome for now.

yellow bike-riding in Amsterdam. Hannah loved it! I was waayy too clumsy to be on this thing in the midst of cars and many other bikers. According to an Amsterdonian - "if you can't ride a bike, GO HOME!" hahahaha. Rachel, it's 10 times worse than campus.

Paris was definitely one of my favorites. Especially the garden at Versailles!!!! Just loooook. It never ends. You need a full day ON BIKE to get through the whole thing. ahhhhh i loooved it. =)

Hannah eating mushroom pizza with the Collosseum in the background!!! The restaraunt was called "Trattoria". haha!

Hannah and I with the eiffel tower.

It was BEAUTIFUL at night.

lots of h.w. to catch up on!!! and then next week = athens + crete with RACHEL LIOU AND HANNAH CHA!

you guys- i'm SO EXCITED!!!!!!

Athens, Greece

Athens was great. I couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like to have studied abroad in Athens instead of Thessaloniki - it's a bigger city, more diverse, maybe...more like America, but with all the Greek influence that you'd expect in the capital of Greece. More parks, museums, scenic roads, etc...
On the flip-side, I think Thessaloniki's really starting to grow on me. It took some time, but better late than never!

statue of runner. the coolest statue i saw in athens.

THIS IS SPARTA!

at dinner

jen eating jap-chae!


korean food in athens! it was GOOOOOD too! tasted authentic, which was very surprising to me. pricey. but worth it.
notice: bibimbap, soup, ggo-chi-chang, kimchi.

This is where the first modern olympics were held. It's 26.3 miles from the site of the old olympics (a place called Marathon) to this stadium. That's why marathon's are 26.3 miles long today! if you look closely, the olympic 5-rings are waaay in the back center.

The Acropolis. And some distracting reconstruction work.

an 'auditorium' where, even to this day, they have performances.

parthenon

i don't know exactly what this building is called - but they are young virgins that serve as pillars.

After going up to the Acropolis, I think I understand why the ancient Athenians worshipped on the hill. Looking out from the top of the hill, all you can see now is the city completely sprawled out, but in the days of paganistic worship, i'm sure it was allll nature 360 degrees around. I couldn't help but think of the vastness of God and His sovereignty while being up that high.

St. Paul preached here.

Changing of the guards in front of Athen's parliament building.

baby girl, guard, me. =)

a little boy that liked the pidgeons.

First Professional Opera! La Traviata

I'd never been to a professional opera before, and it's funny that I finally got to see one in Thessaloniki, NOT Cleveland! We looked up the storyline for Verdi's La Traviata before we went because 1. it was in Italian and 2. There were Greek subtitles (they project the translation above the stage). It was SO COOL how much we could pick up from just the acting though! I loved remembering details from Wikipedia's summary by the cast's simple facial expressions. It was a great experience! (Though a little pricey comapred to those aweomse $5 student tickets to the cleveland orchestra. =)

The Theatre
Sitting inside, waiting

Daniella, Jen, Me. About as dressed up as we ever get.

A shot of a photo of the play. This is Violetta, the main character, who falls in love, breaks up with the man she loves for the sake of his family, and then eventually dies in his arms.

I think that from the entire opera, I liked the clapping at the end when the WHOLE cast comes out to take bows. Kinda like bloopers, when you realize these are normal people just doing their job, but that they're FANTASTIC at what they do.

Scuba Diving!

I was very very excited for this - mainly cuz I've wanted to go scuba diving my entire life!!! It was definitely memorable - though it rained the whole time - and I think I'll be doing it again while I'm here. =)

ewwwww wet suits. I couldn't really breathe in mine. way too tight. but it kept us warm! On top of this, we had to wear a 15 kg. weight belt and a pretty hefty oxygen tank. and masks. all in all, everything was so tight that i felt my air passages were half their normal size. hahaa



that's me! they took underwater pictures, and videos!

Cool fish that we saw. =)

Me...and then the instructor that was holding me in place. I kept plopping down on the ocean floor and couldn't get up cuz of all the weight! Thank goodness for the guy that helped me and propped me back upright.

We were really only under water for 30 minutes, and I definitely had a couple panic attacks, but all I could really do was tell myself "breathe! juuuust breeaathe." =D It was pretty awesome!!

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey!

Ups: Good food, cheap shopping, TURKISH DELIGHTS! Hannah Cha, of course. But she's not really Turkish.

Downs: Grey skies, lack of organization from the school, and 12 hour bus ride both ways.

What I thought said Turkey in Turkish. But no. I think it's the name of a city in Turkey though!
Though the clouds were grey, the flowers were superbly VIBRANTLY bright. They were incredible to see! The parks in Turkey were also very fun-looking. I kept eyeing the cool-looking rings (the kind you hang from) and jungle gyms they had. =)

Hannah REALLYYY enjoying her bread! We hadn't eaten a real meal since maybe 14 hours before. haha!

I was very excited to see Korean! AND there were Korean tour groups hanging around Istanbul as well. I really wanted to ask if they knew where the nearest Korean restaraunt was located, buuuut I didn't.
Inside of Aghia Sophia - the first Christian Church ever built!!! (Well, it was built as wood 5 times and burned 5 times, so the emperor got sick and tired of having to constantly rebuild it and decided to build this MONUMENTAL thing. 20,000 workers hired, finished in 5 years! This place was seriously huge huge. My neck hurt from craning to stare at the ceiling.) Later, it got turned into a mosque, so look! In Arabic, the green circular plaques say "Mohammed" on the left and "Allah" on the right. Then, between the two is a picture of Mary and Jesus. The Muslims respected diversity and didn't ruin any of the Christian emblems.
The Blue Mosque. We got to go inside during prayer time and we had to take off our shoes while girls with skirts/sleeveless shirts were given material to cover their bare skin. It was quite an experience hearing the instrumental-less singing of hundreds.
The awesome pita man rolling out the dough at the place we had dinner the first night!
The kabob man skewering his awesome kabobs! What a great picture.

Top to bottom: Apple, Orange, and Turkish tea
The Apple tasted like heated apple juice, the Orange tasted like heated fanta, and the Turkish tasted like...tea?

The impressive Turkish flag at the border.

Amazing scenery on the way home.

sooo. Other then Turkey, King Simeon the II of Bulgaria came to our school yesterday! He held a Q. & A. session about Bulgaria's entrance to the E.U. for the group of 30 students that came. And even though I didn't say a single thing, I had this silly smile the whole time because he kept mentioning prayer and referred to the "Good Lord." This man was so truthful in answering questions and his passion to see Bulgaria become a stable/successful country through HONEST means was very inspiring. Many times, I read the Bible and it seems so difficult to live my life that way, but he's trying to mold an entire country to reflect Jesus. And, random tidbit, he graduated from Valley Forge Christian Academy! (Grace Lee's brother goes there!!)

How cool. What a small world.

Tonight: My roommate and I are having Mexican for dinner! So incredibly excited for good food.

yay for Spring!!!!