Spring has Sprung in Switzerland! :)

SPRING!!! :)

Sorry, I just HAD to start with this picture. It was too beautiful to hold in any longer!
Mmm, what a wonderful week it has been! Switzerland is soo beautiful... 
Haha, but let me catch up with myself first. :) 


So, yes, the morning of the the 18th, we went to Braunau. And what a beautiful town that is!! The purpose of the trip was for Frank to do some income tax things, but that took him about 3 minutes in total, so we spent the rest of the time looking at this beautiful little city. :) Frank parked kind of far away from the main part of town, so we would have to walka ways to get to where we needed to go. ..I was wondering why he would do that, until we got nearer to the middle of the town. ..So cool! The town was first mentioned around 810 and received the city statute in 1260, which makes it one of the oldest cities in Austria! It is right on the border between Germany and Austria, with the border on the River Inn, which is right on the edge of town. The old part of town, the original, was at one point all walled in, and you had to come through a gate to get into the town. They would close the gate at night so people could not come in, but also so people could not get out..! :) So, we walked through this old gate, and saw the walled in part of the city. Oh, it was beautiful. :) After we walked through the gate, but before we reached the Stadtplatz (Town Square), we were walking past all these little shops, when Frank stopped us, and pointed to a plain yellow building, looking like any of the other shops in the area, just.. there was nothing being sold inside.. 

The house Hitler was born and raised in.. Hm.. :)

This was Hitler's birth house. It was very interesting to see, but I definately had mixed emotions seeing it! The town doesn't know what to do with it either. It is still privately owned, but I think Frank said that the people don't want to live there anymore, because it is right in the middle of part of town with shops, and such. But the town wouldn't know what to do with it! They don't want to make it into a museum or anything, they don't want to draw attention to it. But would they want to make it into a store, either? Frank said it was a pretty major predicament in the town right now. Huh. In front of the house, there is a stone that was taken from one of the concentration camps, with writing on it, remembering the people who died. In German, it says, "für frieden freiheit und demokrate nie wieder faschismus millionen tote mahnen". And literally translated, (using Google Translator..) that means, "for freedom and democratic peace never again fascism millions of dead admonish". ..Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but thats because I don't speak German at all. I'm sure it would make more sense if you didn't translate it quite that literally. :) But you get the idea. Anyways, we moved on from there, and walked through the stadtplatz, to the edge of town. Here we reached the bridge over the River Inn! We looked across the river, and at a town in Germany. Then we walked across the bridge into Germany! 

Uh.. This yellow line is the border between Germany and Austria. :) Fairly extensive, eh?  

Such a cool idea. So, we were in Germany for about 4 minutes in total. :) It had stopped raining by this time, but it was still cold, so we didn't spend too much time in one palce. :) But we stopped in the middle of the bridge, where the little dividing line was, and hopped back and forth between Germany and Austria. Fun! We came back to Austria, :) and continued our tour of the little town. We saw the main theater of town, a school of music for children and an OLD hospital/church (built in 1417) that was now made into a public library. We also saw a public bath fro LONG ago. :)

The public bath of Braunau. :) I don't know, you'd think bathing in public would be awkward, but.. ..? Crazy Austrians. :)

 This is one of the very few, well-preserved public baths that was actually used when the city was first built!! It was so cool to wander around in a town where much of it is in the same condition it was in hundreds of years ago. It still blows my mind.. :) So incredibly different from Canada! :) We headed back to Mattighofen, and by this time, Elizabeth was home from school. We had lunch with the family, and then Elizabeth took us to Salzburg! Also, quite a beautiful city. :) First, we went to see the Royal Palace, and the gardens around it. The Palace was kind of just like any of the other Palaces we have seen on this trip, :) but the gardens were so nice!! Definately the nicest gardens I have ever seen. I felt like I was in a movie.

Dancing in Salzburg, at the Royal Palace.. Julia Roberts style..? "The hills are alive with the sound of music.. AaaAahhh..." and so on. :)

 Elizabeth said it would have been much better in the summer, and thats probably true, but it was so lovely  now, too! We'll just have to come back in the summer. :) Then, we walked past the Mozart University. MMmm, I would LOVE to study music there. :) Also, from just about anywhere you are, you can see the castle on the hill. The magnificent Hohensalzburg Fortress, apparently the "mightiest fortress in all central Europe", and I don't doubt it! It was incredible, and HUGE. Then, kind of right beside it on the same hill, was a little tiny castle..! We couldn't figure out what that was supposed to be.. But it was cute! :) And we walked down  Getreidegasse, to Getreidegasse 9, the address of the house where we saw the house where the Mozart's (as in, Wolfgang's family.. :)) lived between 1747 and 1773,  and here, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was born on the 27th of January 1756. Cool, eh?

Mozart's haus..! Cool! :)

 It was fun to see. Apparently, there is a great museum inside, too, but.. it cost money.. :) We are being as frugal as absolutely possible! (..What good children we are, right parents? :) We spend our money very wisely.) We continued on from there, just walked some of the streets. We came upon this huge church, and right in front of the church was a souvenier shop, and we got looking at some Sound of Music books. No, we did not buy them, but it did give us an idea to ask the shopkeeper if the locations where they shot the movie were, indeed, in Salzburg. He said, "Well.. the cemetary is right over there..!" :) For all you who have seen that wonderful movie, :) do you remember the part when they are hiding in the cemetary, right at the end of the movie, before they leave to run over the mountain? Well, we possibly saw that cemetary!! It looked a little different, but I think you could tell it was the same one!! Very cool.

..Look familiar, anyone..?? :D

 I would have loved to go and see all the locations it was shot in, because it was shot in Salzburg after all. But, alas, we didn't have the time, energy, or, most importantly, money. :) We were soon done our day/afternoon in Salzburg, and headed back to the car for the ride back to Mattighofen. It was a beautiful day, so, Schlessmann family, if you are reading this, thank you so much!! It was wonderful. :) We got home, and watched three episodes of How I Met Your Mother with Elizabeth. She loves that show!! Apparently, it helps her with her English. Which really does make a lot of sense, because then you learn a lot of the every-day language people talk, instead of only what you learn in school. :) At about 7:30, we went upstairs to have supper, and met a family from Belarus that were going to be staying there as well! :) They were very nice.. but didn't speak English at all. So that was a very interesting, and fun, dynamic. :) The mom was just learning German, I think, so there were three different language groups represented, all of which were not quite fluent in each others languages. :) 

Our Austrian family, plus the Belarusian family that visited. :)

It was fun! We visited, signed the guestbook, and prepared for our last night in Austria. :( The next morning, I went upstairs, and found a surprise! Sometime during the day before, while we were walking around Salzburg, we had mentioned to Elizabeth that we had really wanted to try wiener schnitzel while we were in Austria, because it is an Austrian speciality. ..But we were very quickly running out of time, so it didn't look like we were going to get some. :( Oh, well. But then, unbenownst to us, Elizabeth called her Mom sometime during the day, and so Johanna brought home some meat for making the schnitzels! And so, I helped Johanna make schnitzels, and we had them for breakfast. We were always calling them "weiner schnitzels", and soon found out that "wiener" means "from Wien", (meaning, Vienna) and thats where they originally come from. And those were typically made out of "baby cow"... or, veal, as we call it. ..Baby cow just sounds so ..sad. :) The ones we made, we made with pork meat. It was good! And now I know how to made schnitzels. 

WIENER SCHNITZEL!!!!!! SO good. :)  ..  :D

They are SO good. They even made us take some for our lunch on the train, as a sandwich. (It was not very hard to convince us..) We left shortly after that, and Elizabeth offered to drive us down to the train station. :) So, we said a sad goodbye to Frank and Johanna, :) then went to the station. She dropped us off, promising to be Facebook and CouchSurfing friends, and then we were off for our next adventure. 
..To SWITZERLAND! :) MMmm, I can't say enough about it, really. Maybe its because I have three good friends from here, and so I feel sort of patriotic to this country. :) And we were going to be staying with the family of two of those good friends! For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, :) I went to school, CLBI in Camrose, with two sisters, Esther and Obeth. And so, when they learned were might be coming to Switzerland, they volunteered their family's house as a place to stay! They would not be able to be here, Obeth still at CLBI and Esther working abroad, but their family was very willing to take in some weary travellers for a few nights. :) And we are SO grateful they did! We became friends with their Mom, Käthi, on facebook, and then communicated about when to come and how to get here, to the ltitle town of Ilanz, Switzerland. So, we left on the train from Austria with some idea of how to get to her house, but not really sure.. :) We arrived in Ilanz, and took a post auto bus, like Käthi had told us to. It took us up the side of a mountain, and up to their farm. We were told to tell the driver to let us off at "Albertushof".. ..ok.. :) When the bus let us off at what apprently was Albertushof, there was Käthi, waiting for us! She took us up to meet Ernest, who was working in the garden. :) Then she gave us a choice of where we wanted to sleep: the loft in the barn, which had been made into a spacious bedroom, but would probably be quite cold at night, or the living room couch, which was a hide-a-bed, and folded out into a bed, which would be warmer and we wouldn't have to walk so far to get to a bathroom. :) ..You guess which one we chose. ..Of course!! The loft. 

Our room for a week.. SO SWEET. We loved it. :)

The sitting area of our room. Note the footstool..! So awesome. The two best countries in the world. (Maybe excluding Norway..) :)

I LOVE lofts, and we both love sleeping in rooms that are a bit cooler. So it was perfect!! I was SO excited to go to bed. Not because I was tired, but because we got to sleep in a LOFT! :) 
Also at home with Ernest and Käthi were their two youngest children, Erigao, 18 and Samuel, almost 16. :) They have been SO much fun, too!! Samuel decided on the first evening we were here that we needed to have fondue, done the Swiss way. He even made it himself! He is quite good in the kitchen, we have found out. :) So we had cheese fondue!! It was a beautiful first Swiss meal. The next morning, we went with Käthi and Ernest to a neighboring town, Landqart, for church. They normally have church in Ilanz, but this weekend, and for the next 4 weekends, there is a big Evangelical Event going on, with all the Free Evangelical churches in the area! SO, it was quite a big congregation this Sunday, compared to their normal size. :) It was fun to be a part of, though. God is going to work in a big way, here in Switzerland. I can feel it! :) The service was in Swiss, but Ernest and Käthi sat Anna and I in between them and translated most of it for us. :) Many of the songs we recognized, however. And it was fun to add another language to the singing. (..English.)  :) Some of the songs were even in Romansch, the language of the people who live higher up in the mountains. Käthi speaks it a bit, she is actually taking lessons to learn the language, but most people don't speak it. But it was interesting to see most other people in the congregation struggling to pronounce words, with us! :) After church, they took us sightseeing around the area, and hiking. 

Hikin' the mountains first day in Switzerland. Awesome! :)

We even had a wonderful picnic on the side of a mounatin! We drove up to a town that was really high up in the mountains, and then walked up a little bit more. It was soo fun. And so beautiful!!! Seriously. Why can't the prairies look more like this..? Haha, nah, just kidding, I love my prairies the way they are!! But the mountains are SO beautiful. ..I do miss walking on flat ground though. :)

Our picnic on the mountain-side, first day in Switzerland. Awesome. :)

 They took us back to Ilanz a way that is actually shorter, as the crow flies, but longer because it went over and around a mountain, and through a valley.. :) Ah, it was so lovely. Maybe when I retire, I can have a summer home in Switzerland.. Its wonderful here. :)

Ahh.... :)

Suisse = amazing? :) I think SO!

Up in the mountains first day in Switzerland. :) ..We did a lot on the first day in Switzerland! :)

The next day, Erigao was working, and Samuel had school, so we didn't see much of them until the evening. That afternoon, Anna and I went on a spectacular hike across the side of the mountain to a village a little farther east on the mountain, called Falera. It was possibly the most wonderful hike I have ever been on. There wasn't much uphill, which I liked, :) and the scenery was BEAUTIFUL. Don't worry, I took lots of pictures. 

On our hike, we wanted to leave a environmentally friendly Canadian  souvenir in Switzerland. So.. this was our attempt at an Inukshuk. :)

As good a spot as any to sit and view the beautiful Swiss Alps, I suppose. :) ..Are you kidding?! The  view from here was absolutely, breathtakingly, stunningly, beautiful.  ..No joke.:)

Celtic stones on the side of the hill. (See paragraph below for explanation)

This is the beautiful church in the mountain village of Falera. It is built on the site of an old ancient Celt worship site. I believe they worshipped the Sun.. or something. Churches in Switzerland, at least in this part of Switzerland, are almost always set on top of a hill, in a prominent place. On the sides of this particular hill, there are stone pillars arranged geometrically all around the church on the hill  that are said to date around 1500 B.C. Wow!! Much later, around 840 AD the town decided to put a Catholic church there, to redeem the place.  (I know, right.. 840 AD. Its practically new in comparison..) However, now there are mixed emotions about the older church. Many people go there to worship, because they believe that there are good 'vibes', good spirits there.. Not a great reason to go and worship.. It was very interesting to look around, though. SO much history. :) We decided we were done with our day in the sun, and caught the post auto bus back to Ilanz. Have I told you about the post auto's? (I don't think so. If I repeat myself, pardon me.) :) The post auto's are almost an icon here in Switzerland. I am told they are called "post autos" because they used to be used also for the postal system. But now they are just a form of transportation, like a bus. Its a school bus, a handicapped bus, a "Greyhound" bus.. all in one. :) They always have the right-of-way on the mountain roads, they have a special horn, a "three-tone horn", that if you hear it, you MOVE. :) Its funny! They are so respected, and revered. :) Anyways, we got back to Ilanz, but there were no buses at that time going up to Albertushof, so we decided to walk up. Whew.. :) Haha, just kidding. It wasn't too bad a walk! The road you would use to drive up to their house is all twisty, and full of shwitchbacks. The one you walk up is just.. straight up. :) This road leads almost directly to their house, because the Haab's house used to belong to the monastery. And the old road that led right to the monastery. Did I tell you about their house belonging to the monastery before it belonged to the Haab family? :) Sorry.. this is going to get really long again, I just want to tell you every little detail!! The farm was owned and worked by the monastery that is right across the road from their house. The nuns used to live in the house where Käthi and Ernest and family now live, and would work the farm. In 2003, I believe, (Erigao just filled me in on some of the details. :)) Erigao's aunt rented the farm from them, and then the nuns didn't work here anymore. Now, they just live and work in the monestary. So, the house that Käthi and Ernest and family live in is a 3 floor building, kind of like an apartment building, each floor having different renters. And it is rented from the monastery. Anyways, enough about that side story.. :)

Monday night was filled with more family time, and good food. :) Anna skyped home, and I.. I dunno, did something else. :) Tuesday, Anna and I took a day trip to Liechtenstein! :) 

..Very self-explanitory. :)

It was so fun. ..Basically, its very similar to Switzerland. :) They use the Swiss Franc, they sell Swiss chocolate, its located in the Alps.. Its very beautiful! :) We went, primarily, to Vaduz, the capital. When we got there, we saw on an tourist information stand that there was a castle that was apparently quite beautiful. Naturally, we wanted to get a better view of it, so we followed a sign that said "Schloss Vaduz", thinking it would lead us to the castle, because we know that castle is "schloss" in German.. Well, we followed the road for a while, then happened to glance over our shoulders, and there it was.. in the complete  opposite direction, on the side of the mountain behind us. :) It WAS a beautiful view of it, but it did NOT lead us closer to it. :) But we were ok with that. After about an hour of walking around, observing the scenery of Liechtenstein, :) we came across a park, and so we played on the playground equipment for a while. One of our favorite activities. :) Then, there was grass in the park.. and so we laid on that for a while. :) ..Which is another of our favorite activities. :)

Lazy-ing in Liechtenstein.. :) MMmm...

(Note: the castle on the hill behind.. SO beautiful.)

 It was lovely. A nap in Liechtenstein. :) Haha, I just love that word. Liechtenstein. So fun to say! Try it. ;) (remember, the 's' is more like a 'sh' sound.) :) Its fun! ..Annnyways, then we started our search for a bracelet/necklace. ..As it turns out, Liechtenstein-ers don't like jewelry..?? We couldn't find anything (within our price range..) anywhere!! Seriously. I think we searched for about an hour and a half, and pretty much covered all of Vaduz, and couldn't find anything. ..sigh.. So, finally, I suggested that we go into this store that looked sort of like a hardware/kitchenware store, and see if we can find anything that we can MAKE into a bracelet/necklace. We looked, and looked... then in the basement of the store, we found some chains! Score! :) We fashioned them around our wrists/necks, and VOILA! Haha, I actually really like them. Not the most fashionable, but they have the best story behind them!! After confusing the sales-ladies with our antics, we headed back to catch the bus into Switerland, and then the train home. (Because although there are train stations, it is a very irregular train service, and trains passing through just don't often stop in Liechtenstein.. Cause, I mean, c'mon.. who really wants to go to Liechtenstein..? .. Me!! :) ) On the way back to Ilanz, we were sitting on the train right across from a nun! 

Can you spot the nun..? :) She was cute.  

..Really, we shouldn't be too amazed or surprised, because they live right beside a monestary that has about 130 or so nuns living there. :) But I am just really not used to it.. But its fun to see them, and to share train rides with them. :) We got home around 5:00 pm, and we had a barbeque outside with the family. :)

Ernest making a fire. :) It was a beautiful evening.

 They insisted that we HAD to try this Swiss special kind of hot dog/sausage. :) We did not protest at all! They were good! Also, while we have been here, Käthi has made us Dandylion salad and Stinging Nettle soup. :) You would be surprised at how good these funny-sounding dishes are!! Actually very tasty. :) She's a good cook! 

Dandylion Salad..! So good! ..Samuel thinks differently. But he's a boy. :)

Stinging nettle soup.. actually, QUITE delicious! :)

On Wednesday, Anna, Erigao and I took a mini-tour of Switzerland. It was beautiful! We went up and over a mountain on a special train. And at the highest point, Oberalppass (yes, there are actually two p's. :) Anna had a fun time trying to pronounce that. It ended up being just a big stutter.) we were at 2048 meters. Wow. :) And it was WHITE. And it made me really want to go skiing!! And the brilliant sun made looking out at the beautiful scenery SO difficult, with all the white snow!

Oberalppass! SO STINKIN' BEAUTIFUL. :)

 Then, we headed to Luzern, and looked around the city for a while. We saw the old wooden bridge it is famous for, the " Kapellbrücke", which is the oldest convered bridge in Europe (constructed in 1409). 

The wooden bridge in Luzern. So neat!

We also saw "Bertel Thorvaldsen's famous carving of a dying lion (the Lion Monument, or Löwendenkmal), found in a small park just off Lowenplatz. The carving commemorates the hundreds of Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when the mob stormed theTuileries Palace in Paris." ..And yes, I got that all from Wikipedia.. I wanted to let you know exactly what it was that we saw! :) 

The cool carving of the Lion in the Stone. Intense. :)

So, we found a deal on chocolate.. Anna found a deal on a sweet car! ..Just kidding, but she was wishin'. :)

Then, while we were walking around the city, Anna spotted a special sale in a store. ..10 Swiss Chocolate bars for 10 euros! :) I'D say thats a good deal. We could not pass that up.  So.. we both gave in to the temptation. (MMMM...) :) Soon after, it was time to head back to the train station, and continue our journey up to Zürich! Thats a beautiful city as well. Wow. We caught a tram to the lake, Lake Zürich, as its aptly called. Then, we discovered that a boat ride was included in our Eurail passes, and also in Erigao's student train pass! Yay! :) So, we hopped on a boat. :) After a while we hopped off the boat again, and walked along the shore of Lake Zürich for a while.

Rock Stacking! An art, really. :) And we were inspired by the best: Ralph Shareski.

 While we walked along the shore, we stopped to dip our feet in the water (it was warm. ..the air was, anyways. The water was freezing.), and to build some rock formations! We just wanted to add to the collection already started on the shoreline. :) We also happened upon Erigao's Grandma! She actaully lives in Ilanz, in the same building we are staying in, just on the 3rd floor. :) What are odds?! (Yes, Anna. Yes, Jordan, I know. 50/50..) It was fun to meet up with her there. :) We found a store where we could buy some jewelry for cheap-ish, then headed back to the train station, ready to head home after a full day of sight-seeing. On the train ride home, who did we meet up with again, but Grandma! So, we accompanied her home. :) During the day, Anna and I had told Erigao about a cup-game song we used to sing at our camp (for all those who know our camp, Camp Simmie, its the song that goes, "On a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday Wednesday..etc".. that one.), and so we wanted to teach it to her and Samuel! So, we did. It was so much fun. And then we played Pit, which was also so much fun.. Ahhh... I haven't laughed that much in a LONG time. :) It was so fun. They are wonderful people! I wish we could stay here longer.. :( We also got to "help" Samuel with his homework! :) Haha.. yes, "help". ..We did it for him. :)

Look at Samuel.. looking pleased as punch. He just gets to write down the answers. Lucky dude. :)

And that brings us to this morning, Thursday, our last full day in Switzerland. This morning was spent doing last minute preparation things for our next two weeks for adventure, and then we ate lunch outside. Oh... it was HOT! It was 18° C! (..beating the record for March 24, which was set in 
2001, according to the weather website I am on.) In the afternoon, we finally 
got time to take a tour around the farm! We saw their horses, pigs, sheep, cows 

and chickens! Its a lovely farm. 

 Käthi took us on the hike up to where they keep their sheep, up (farther up) on the mountainside.

The view from the sheep barn. So awesome. I LOVE SWITZERLAND. :)

..and on the hill there, thats their dog, Nala, running towards us. :)

Cows! :) Anna.. LOVED the cows. Obviously she does, she's going to be a farmer someday.. soon. Or, rather, she's gonna marry a farmer. :)

Haha, I didn't want to put a million pictures of animals on here, so I camde a collage!

SO, on thair farm, they had:

(top, left to right, if you can't see them:

Calves! (so cute!), two horses (so BEAUTIFUL), dairy cows (yes, bell included!), pigs!! (also SO cute!).

(bottom, left to right: :)

chickens (some laid green eggs.. cool!), sheep (with some little lambs! adorable.), and Nala, their friendly, trusty, throw-a-stick-and-I'll-bring-it-right-back-to-your-feet dog. :)

They were so fun to meet! It was a beautiful farm. One of the best I've seen, for sure! And made even better because it was on the side of a Swiss mountain. :) 

CHEESE! So good, and so MUCH of it. Apparently, this is the cheese cellar when its "empty". :) 

She also has bees, but we haven't seen them yet. 
Maybe tomorrow morning. :) Then, we went to a friend's house. This girl's name 
is Anja Janki, and she came to CLBI once, when Esther and Obeth's youth group 
came to visit them. It was so fun to see her, and we had a nice chat at her place. 
Then, we went to see a castle/fortress that was built into the side of a cliff..

The fortress built into the cliff.. AH! Crazy. :)

 It was incredible. I took pictures, but I really don't think they will do it any justice at all. :) 
Then we hiked to on top of the cliff, and that was an incredible view. MMmm, I 
am going to miss Switzlerand! We came back home, and had some supper. The 
rest of the evening has been spent writing on this blog. :) Wow, it takes me a LONG 
time! I love writing on it, though, and so I hope you don't mind reading it! :) ..You just 
need to sit down with a cup of coffee, cause I tend to be a tad long-winded at 
times.. :)
Well, y'all, thats about it until next time. :) We are off tomorrow morning to tour Spain 
and France for two weeks! Yippee! :)
God Bless, :)
Demara

5 countries in 5 days. :)

It seems like so long ago since we have written on this blog! I suppose it has been more than a week. We were just lounging at home in Kristiansand last time we wrote, right? ..Seems like months ago. :) 

Back in November or so, when I was living and working in Eastend, I asked a relative of mine, Lester Morvik, if he knew of any people in Norway we could stay with. He came back a couple days later with a list of about 6 people that I should get in contact with while I am there. :) So, I tried looking them up on facebook, first, and Rasmus was the only one I could find, and he replied to my message, saying he would love to have us come and visit. So, now we are at Rasmus' house, and when sitting down for supper one night, Rasmus asked me if I had any other contacts in Norway. So, I went to get him my address book, where I wrote all the names and numbers and addresses of relatives that I got from Lester. All of them, excluding Rasmus, were living in a town very close to Bergen, called Morvik, Norway. Awesome, eh? :) Rasmus laughed when he saw the list! "That's my cousin, and that's my sister, and that's my brother.." and so on. :) He gave them all a call, and one of them, a man named Håkon, wanted us to stay at his house. So, Rasmus got it all arranged, and Håkon would meet us at the train station in Bergen. And so that night, the night of the 9th, we took a night train to Bergen, Norway. The trip across Norway, from Oslo to Bergen is spectacular. If you ever get a chance to do it, DO IT. :) It was beautiful in the winter, but I think it would be very good, if not better, in the summer. You go over a range of mountains, and at the top, we could not see anything but white. Once in a while, you could see a house poking up through the snow. It was clear that there was no one living there during the winter. The snow almost covers the houses! It was so fun to see. We arrived in Bergen, not really sure how we would recognize Håkon, but he came right up to us, clearly recognizing us.. How hard is it to miss two girls with big backpacks, clearly tourists? :)

So, he showed us the sights of Bergen, including this: a trip up a funicular railway, called the Fløibanen. It goes up the side of the mountin in Bergen, and has a great view of the city and ocean.

The view from the top of Fløyen mountain in Bergen. It was lovely. :)

Then we went to his home to meet more of our relatives! :) As it turns out, Håkon and his family lived in Eastend for 3 or 4 years, back in 1970's, I think, to work on Lester Morvik's farm. Their children went to Eastend School! Their daughter came over to the house while we were there, and it was fun to visit with her, someone who spent a few year of her growin up years in my home town. :) She went to school with my best friend's mom! Anyways, it was so fun to visit with them. Unfortunately, we did not have long in Bergen; we left the next morning for the trip back to Oslo. It was sad to say good bye after such a short visit, but I was excited to go to Oslo.

Bergen. There are so many beautiful houses, and Rasmus was telling us that they are all German architecture, and that it is the only city in Norway that is like this. Huh. :) Those Germans made beautiful houses, though! :)

Remember my Mom's cousin, Geir, whose house we stayed at, but did not get to meet last time we were in Oslo? Well, he confirmed that he was home this night, the night of March 11th, and wanted us to stay with him! So, we finally got to meet him. :) He was wonderful, and we had a great evening with him and his girlfriend. Back in the '70's or '80's, my mom's whole family, all her sisters and parents and even grandparents, (I think) came to Norway, and ALL of them stayed at Geir's house, the same house we stayed in! And then in the mid 1980's, my parents came back, along with my oldest sister Amanda, who was maybe 2 at that time. And they stayed in that house as well! So, now, I am part of the tradition. :) And Gier was a great host, and was so fun to visit with. Sorry, for some reason, I have no pictures of this time! :( Oh, well.
The next morning, we left for Kristiansand, to see our friends just one more time, then to take the ferry to Hirtshals, Denamrk. We got to Kristiansand around noon, and booked a place on the ferry that left at 4:30 pm. We hung out with Rasmus and Kari for one final afternoon. And while in Kristiansand for that afternoon, Rasmus took me to the shopping center, and we found a very good deal on a nice, digital, Canon camera! So, Rasmus chipped in a little money, (he kind of felt like it was his fault that my other camera broke..) and I bought the camera! So, now, I have a camera, and can take pictures once again. :) While we were in Bergen, Håkon bought us a disposable camera, :) and we used that until I bought this one. So, there are some pictures that you might not get to see until we get back to Canada and can develope the film, and such. :) However, you will notice down below that there are some pictures of Bergen. That is because Håkon let me borrow his camera while we were there, and then I got the pictures from him. :) So we have a few! Just no pictures of the trip from Bergen to Olso, or vise versa. :) You'll just have to trust me that it was incredibly beautiful. :) 
So, after hanging out with this wonderful couple for the afternoon, it was time to say goodbye, once again. 

Our family in Kristiansand, Rasmus and Kari Morvik. :)

Rasmus dropped us off at the ferry dock, and we made it onto our ferry, and into Hirtshals, Denmark, where, right away, we started our journey to our next destiantion: Berlin. However, we were starting this journey at about 9:30 pm, and we were hoping to find a night train that took us there.. No such luck. And so we train hopped all night, until we made it to Berlin. ..Not the most restful sleep, and also probably not the best for our health.. But we had no other option.. :) We made it to Berlin at about 2:00 pm on March 13th. Bleary eyed, but ready to be off the train. :) We explored Berlin for the afternoon. Wow. Now THAT is a city chockablock full of history. :) Unfortunately, we didn't have too long to spend there, as we were planning on catching an actual night train to Vienna at about 6:30 pm that day. But we saw the Brandenburg Gate, which was awesome.

The Brandenburg Gate, in Berlin.

The gate itself was very neat..HUGE. And very interesting to read about, and learn about the history behind it. But what caught our attention almost more than the gate itself were the buskers that were performing in front of it. :) It was a group of about 10 guys, break-dancing! It was awesome. Sometimes it was choreographed, sometimes they took turns letting each other show their stuff. :) It was so fun to watch!

This guy was.. incredible. :) He was so fun to watch. This video is just a portion of the whole dance routine that the guys in front of the Brandenbourg Gate performed. I gave them a couple Euro's. They were goood. :)

After watching them till they were done, we made our way to.. Yes. The Berlin Wall. 

  There is a part called the East Side Gallery that is the longest stretch of wall still standing. It is 1.3 km long. We found our way there, and it was.. incredible. I defiantely had mixed emotions looking at the Wall. I was excited to be there, but at the same time, it just made me so sad at what the history of this place was. We walked most of that section, and if you have heard of the East Side Gallery, you will know that it is famous for its artwork. In 1990, the city gave permission to a select group of artists to paint on the wall. And the paintings are amazing! Here are a few pictures.


The beginning of the East Side Gallery, the longest section of the Wall still standing. :)

The infamous painting of the former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev kissing his East German counterpart Erich Honecker. ..We don't really know the history behind this painting, but its famous. :)

I thought it was funny. :)

The painting of the iconic East German Trabant car on the Berlin Wall, another really famous painting.

 It is said to be the longest-lasting open air Art Gallery in the world. It is incredible. The wall is right beside the River Spree, and so Anna and I lounged on the grass by the river for a while. And then it was time to head back to the train station.
We were planning on staying with a CouchSurfing family in Prague, but we told them that we would be there on March 14, and it was only the 12th. So, we had to have a place to stay for the night! Thats why we decided to take a night train to Vienna. Partly because I have always wanted to go to Vienna, partly because we needed somewhere to stay for the night. :) So, we caught our night train, and made it to Vienna. We spent the morning exploring Vienna, and it is a beautiful city. Someday, I would love to go to a opera or orchestra concert here. It just seems like the thing to do. :) We went to the main square, and explored the beautiful buildings around there. We saw the Parliament Buildings, (we only know it was them because it said so on the outside..) :)

The Parliament building in Vienna! So beautiful. :)

We didn't have a tourist map or anything, so we saw a lot of beautiful buildings and have no idea what they were. Down the street from the Parliament Buildings, there was a HUGE building we are assuming is a Cathedral. :) There is a picture below. It was so beautiful. I love Gothic architecture.

A large Gothic Cathedral in Vienna. It was HUGE.

We wandered around for a bit more, then made our way back to the train station.

We caught a train to Prague, and got into the city at about 3:00 pm. Using the very detailed instructions from our CouchSurfing host family, :) we made it to their home. What a lovely family! The parents names are Radek and Katka, and they have 5 children, under the age of 10. Yikes. :) It was so fun! They have 2-year old twins, a boy and girl, and they were SO cute. Me and the little boy hit it off right away. I think he sensed that I had a nephew about his age, and that I was missing my nephew terribly. :) It was so fun to hang out with them.

This is the twin I mentioned, part of the family in Prague. He was so cute. :) 

We stayed there for two nights, and both evenings eventually ended up in jam sessions. :) When their oldest daughter, Magda, 7 years old, learned that we played piano, she got us to help her practice-perform on her violin. She was actually quite good! We would accompany her while she played from this book of songs, with songs like Puff the Magic Dragon, and Ode to Joy. :) It was so fun. They also had a selection of recorders, a djembe, and the Radek had a contrabass! So, when we all got going, it sounded so cool, and sometimes very chaotic, but SO fun. The twins would take their recorders and blow away on them, with the 5 year old boy banging on the drum. It was the most fun I have had in a while. :)

This is one of our jam sessions with the family. The little girl you see once, then hear talking in Czech is the other twin. Her name was Elizabeth, but again, spelled and pronounced much different. She loved to talk, and she loved the camera. :) These jam sessions were so fun. :)

Anna, with Magda and the boy twin, whose name, we think, is Thomas, but they spell it and pronounce it completely different. :)

While we were there, yes, we did also explore the city of Prague. :) We sat down with Radek and Katka one night, and the took out a tourist map they had, and pointed out all the things that were necessary for us to see during our day in Prague. :) I don't think they thought we could do it in a day. :) We proved them wrong! We can do a city in a hour! Haha, well, maybe not quite. I mean, if we had to we would.. but its not so fun. :) It was fun to take a whole day to see Prague, we could take our time, and not have huge, heavy backpacks on our backs. It was fun. We started walking towards the infamous Charles Bridge, and on the way we went through Old Prague. It was so beautiful. Right before we got to the old square, we had to go through a Gothic tower gate.. :) On our map, it was called the "powder Tower".  :) We laughed when we saw what it was called, but then started thinking about why it might be called that. Anna guessed that it was because they used it to store gun powder during the war, and I was doubtful. It would seem silly, cause then it someone wanted to blow away the town, all they would have to do was bomb the tower.. :) But we just looked it up, because we were curious why it was actually called the Powder Tower.. And it turns out she was right! :) "Originally the tower was known as the Mountain Tower, but ever since the structure was used as a gunpowder storage space in the 17th century, it is known as the 'Powder' Tower."  Huh. Cool. :)
While we were walking through Old Prague, we came across this group of people, wearing bright red jackets which had Canadian flags on the sleeves.. Could it be..?

It was a Canadian hockey team!! How random is that.. :) We talked with them, and they are from Toronto.. Of course. Are Toronto and Vancouver the only places in Canada..?! NO!! :)
We continued on our trek, and saw the Prague Palace, which was really nothing speacial, in and of itself. But the Cathedral that was on the Palace grounds.. WOW. It was probably the hugest, coolest looking building I have ever seen.

The Cathedral on the Palace grounds. It was HUGE. 

We carried on, and came across this tower called the Petrin Tower. There is a picture of it below, and in case you were wondering, no, we did not take a side trip to France.. :) This is a mini version of the Eiffel Tower, at one fifth the size of the original, and was built two years after the original. It is standing on the top of Petrin Hill, and with the added height of the hill, the top of the tower is at the same elevation as the top of the Eiffel Tower. :) I got a kick out of it. :)

The mini Eiffel tower! It was one fifth the size of the real one in Paris. :)

We went back down the hill, and slowly made our way home, back to the wonderful family we have come to love. :) It was so sad to leave them! We left at about noon on March 16th, and made our way to Salzburg, where we have another family we are staying with.
 And how do we know THIS family, you may ask? :) Well, let me back up a bit and tell you the back-story.
When we were in Mannheim, Germany, we took a day trip to Heidelberg. That evening, after our trip into Heidelberg, we checked our CouchSurfing account to see if there was any new information. Well, we had a message from a lady in Heidelberg! She had seen that we had logged onto our CouchSurfing account from somewhere in her area, and she saw that we were Christians! She is a new believer, and is desperate to find people who believe as she does. So, she wanted to meet up with us! It was sad to say that just that day we had been in Heidelberg, and would probably not have time to go back. So, she told us that her brother, Frank, lives in Austria, near Salzburg, and if we are going there, we should stay with him and his family! So, we got in contact with him, and viola! Here we are.

The town where we are right now! :)

 He and his family actually live in a small town called Mattighofen, about 40 minutes away from Salzburg. So when we got into Salzburg, we were supposed to take some other connecting trains to make our way to their Mattighofen. Well, needless to say, through a series of very unfortunate events, we missed every single train that was going to Mattighofen that night. Bummer.. So, we sent him a email, using an internet cafe, telling him that we probably won't make it to his house, because we missed the connecting trains.. We prepared to sleep the night in the train station, when suddenly a girl poked her head into the train station waiting room, where we were, and said, "Anna? Demara?" :) It was Elizabeth, Frank's daughter! She had driven to Salzburg to pick us up and bring us to their home. Wow. The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me. :)


The Lutheran church where Frank is the pastor. Or, priest, as they call them here. Also, the street where this church is on is called "Martin Luther Str." :) Awesome.

We stayed last night at their house, and it was MUCH better than a train station. :) They are so kind. As it turns out, Frank is a Lutheran pastor! They live in the parsonage, that is connected to the church. When we got to their home, they asked if we would like to try some sauerkraut. :) ..I normally don't like sauerkraut, but I had to try some Austrian homecooked sauerkraut. It was so good! So different from the stuff you buy in a jar in Canada.. :) This morning, Frank and Johanna, his wife, are out, and Elizabeth is 18 and in her last year of high school, so she is at school today. She LOVES English, and is quite fluent, and she had so many questions for us on the ride home last night. What does German sound like to you? What does my accent sound like to you? Will you help me with my English? It was so fun, and we are going to be interviewed for a project she is working on for her English class! Today, she is taking a 4 hour English exam.. Yikes. :) Our original plan for today was to go into Salzburg when she got home from school, around 2:00 pm, but it was raining, and so we didn't feel like it. :) Instead, when she got home from school, we did the interview for her project. It was about couchsurfing! :) Then we went for a walk around Mattighofen. Its so beautiful!!

"The hills are alive with the sound of music.. Ahhhh.." :) ..Or, the sound of rain, at least. :)

Its a small town, and they live right on the edge. This is the beautiful view of the countryside. :)

The town. :)

Anyways, thats about it! We are now planning on going to a town in the morning, called Braunau, and it is right on the border of Germany. Like, RIGHT on the border. There is a bridge, that on one side, you are in Austria, and one the other side you are in Germany. :) Also, it is the hometown of Hitler..!! Huh. :) And then, when we get back around noon, we are going with Elizabeth into Salzburg tomorrow to see the city, when she gets home from school.

And so that is our whirlwind of a week!! :) It has been crazy, and tiring and wonderful. :)

God Bless you, and we will write more later!! :)

From Mattighofen,

Demara and Anna