My family vacation with God; the rest of free travel

Dec 6
I slept more on the boat and took some great pictures of the sunrise. It was nice to relax on the boat. I also read Romans, which I thought was appropriate since I was on my way to Rome.
When we got off the ship we had to wait for a shuttle to get to the train station. We got there and the guy only spoke in Italian, so we hoped that we got on the right train to Rome. We did and we arrived in Rome. We walked to our hostel, which was pretty nice and had really funny roles in English, which was a nice treat. We had some great pasta for dinner. We found Kaitlin, Chanel, and Megan and then went to the Trevi Fountain and found the Spanish steps.
It was strange to sleep in another co-ed hostel and have a co-ed bathroom, but at least there were no guys in there while I was.

Fri Dec 7
We got up really early to pack up our stuff. We headed to the Vatican and waited in line for an hour and a half before finally getting inside. We hurried through to see the Sistine Chapel. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. The paintings were fantastic, but the one with God and man was not very prominient and it was hard to find.
We left and went to St. Peter's Bascillica. It was huge! I kept getting annoyed with all of these people praying to the Pope's and honoring them rather than God.
We got on the Metro and headed to the Colosseum. These gladitors outside wanted to take pictures with us. One insisted on holding my hand and kept kissing my face, which was awkward. We had lunch with Kaitlin, Chanel, Megan, Julie, and Courtney W. Gelato was amazing! Then we went through the Roman Forum. It was so cool to see all of these old buildings and ruins. We went inside the Colosseum, which was really neat as well. Finally we went to the Pantenon to take pictures.
Then we took a train to Florence. On the train the lady from our hostel in Florence called and told me to go to the different address. I could not really understand her.
We got to Florence and are dragging our luggage in the rain. We go to the original address but no one there answers. We can't get ahold of anyone on the phone either and we are walking trying to find whatever street she told me. It sounded like Bank. Just then a father and son about our age walked by and commented that we looked lost. We said that we were and they stopped to help us. It turns out that they were from Michigan. They had a map and were so nice to help us find the correct street. It turns out it was Banci...so close to sounding like bank. We walked in that direction and when we turned around, they were gone. They could have gone down another street, but I choose to believe they were angels from Michigan.

Sat Dec 8
We had our own room in the hotel, which was up like 4 flights of weird cement stairs. I've never seen a hotel on just one floor of a building. But at least we had a place to sleep and shower, and dry our clothes.
We went to the museum where the statue of David was. It cost a lot to get in, but it was really neat to see the statue. It was huge! I was very impressed.
We also went to the Duormo Cathedral. The outside is massive and the decorations are beautiful. However, the inside was very simple. We did some shopping at a market and also went to the Vecchio bridge, which was pretty at nice. The architecture of Florence was neat, but there was so much shopping and not a whole lot to do.

Sun Dec 9
We woke up and were going to go to the church that they go to at HUF. However, the buses we needed did not exist. So we tried to go to another church, but the bus was confusing and did not take us near there. So we rode on the bus for a while. It was cold and rainy and I could not feel my feet. We went to thaw in the train station and got some lunch. We went back and got our bags and sat in the train station reading magazines. At 8:00 we checked for our platform but it did not show up. So we asked at information and the guy freaked out because our train was leaving from a different station. So we freaked out and got on a train to take us there. The train seemed to take forever to leave. It finally pulled away from the station and then stopped before we got to the next one. I just sat there shaking and praying for the train to start and for us not to miss our night train to Paris. We pulled into the new station at 8:45 and our train was supposed to leave at 8:53. We checked the tv to find our platform and it was one over. We ran to that platform, but the train had not even arrived yet. So I just sat there praising God for getting us there in time.
On the train there were 6 people assigned to our cabin. There were 3 girls from America and then one Asian guy. We didn't really want him in there with us. The people who worked for the train were not helpful at all, but the guy did leave. So we locked ourselves in and had some interesting conversations and tried to sleep in the strange pull down beds. For me it was like being on a couch in a cave.

Mon Dec 10
We arrived in Paris and took the Metro to Nord to catch our train to London. We checked in and waited for a bit. It was nice to take the Chunnel because it was only like 2 hours to get there! We sat across from a couple with an adorable baby girl.
Being back in London was incredible! It felt so good to be home. We dropped off our stuff at the flats reception and were able to change. That felt good. We went to eat at Nandos and then went to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park. It was not really what I thought it would be. It was a really expensive carnival type place. But after that we walked around and found our way to Picadilly and then looked around Burlington Arcade. We walked back down Shaftsbury and stopped at Starbucks and Borders. It was so nice to be in familiar places. We headed back to the flats to relax and we met up with the girls that were supposed to be taking the shuttle to the airport. The guy was really difficult and sent a little car. We got it worked out and were able to get us all to where we needed to be, but it was frustrating.
Kaitlin, Chanel, Courtney, and I slept at the airport. We didn't get much sleep but it was free.

Tue Dec 11
I sat by Liz and Megan on our 10 hour flight to Atlanta. The Harlem Globetrotters were on our flight. I watched "Hairspray," "No Reservations" and "Transformers." I didn't sleep at all which was weird. They fed us so much, it was crazy. I was not used to eating that much.
I got off and had an hour to get through passport control, get my bags, go through customs, re-check my bags, go through security, and find my gate. Thankfully my gate moved closer to me. And my flight to KC was the only one not canceled. God is good. It was great to get home. And my luggage made it as well.

This semester was wonderful and one that I will never forget. I feel so blessed to have had this experience.


Barcelona: http://harding.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059061&l=54244&id=71005171
More Barcelona: http://harding.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059437&l=652e1&id=71005171

Civitavecchia and Florence: http://harding.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059436&l=97cce&id=71005171

Rome: http://harding.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059439&l=127e9&id=71005171
Rome: http://harding.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059441&l=29dc8&id=71005171

You've Got to Take the Lord With You Everywhere You Go

December 1
I got up early to shower and finish packing. Sarah, Courtney, and I got our luggage down all 74 stairs and headed out. It was an adventure trying to take our luggage from our flat to the Tube. Sarah had one of Jason’s bags too, so there were 4 big suitcases, plus our backpacks and some smaller bags for us to carry around. Thankfully many times some nice people helped us carry stuff, but usually we would take a round up the stairs, then I would wait with the bags and they would bring up the rest. Europe really needs to get some elevators.
We got checked into our coach. I slept for a lot of it. The coach drove into what looked like a cattle car for coaches and it took us across the English Channel.
Once we got to Paris we had an adventure of trying to figure out what Metro line to take to our hotel...or even where the hotel was. We figured out what line we had to take and thankfully we didn’t have to change lines, but we did have to ride for 21 stops to get there. Then we had to drag our bags to our hotel. The room was very small, with one full sized bed, but we had our own bathroom. We relaxed there for a bit before heading off to the Eiffel Tower. It is beautiful at night when it is all lit up. It even sparkles, but only for 10 minutes on the hour. The line was too long to climb it.
Back at the hotel Law and Order: SVU was on dubbed over in French. I had seen the episode before so that was really funny.

Sun Dec 2
We got up and got some really good croissants at the bakery across the street. Then we helped Sarah get her bags down to another hotel where the shuttle picked her up to take her to the airport. Courtney and I headed to Notre Dame to meet Chris and Dave. After sitting in mass and walking around for an hour, we still could not find them, so we did some shopping and headed to the Louvre. The weather was so cold and rainy.
At the Louvre the line was so long that it was wrapped around the glass pyramid. We checked our phone and the boys had called and were really lost, so we went to go get them at Notre Dame.
We were all starving so we ate some lunch and then took Dave to catch his train. Chris, Courtney, and I went to the Moulin Rouge to take pictures outside. Then we went to the Eiffel Tower again so Chris could see it. The line was short so we got to go up to the second viewing level. The weather was so rainy and windy that we could not go up further. The view of the city was beautiful!
When we came down it was a torrential downpour! We were soaked. I came back to the hotel and took a hot shower and went to bed.

Mon Dec 3
Courtney and I got up and checked out of the hotel, stored our bags, and headed to the Louvre. There was no line, so we got right in and walked around for a few hours. I saw the Mona Lisa, but was not very impressed. I don’t know why it is such a famous painting.
We still had a lot of time to kill before our night train, so we walked from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe. It was funny to see so many Asian tourists there. I tried to get in as many pictures as possible so that when people go back and look at their pictures and say, “Who’s that girl in the background?” it will be me.
The weather was sunny and beautiful so we decided to go back to the Eiffel Tower to get some pictures during the day. We still had a lot of time so we went back to the hotel to get our stuff and upload our pictures online.
We took the long Metro ride to the train station. While we were waiting for our train, we changed the time of our train to London so that we would not miss that one. I feel much better knowing that I have more time to catch that one. God has truly been answering prayers and been with us every step of the way.
On the night train Courtney and I were in the same car but in different rooms. I was with two nice older ladies who spoke French, Spanish, and English. I could understand a lot of what they said in Spanish, but I kept getting tired and I would stop focusing on translating and then I would get lost. They translated to English for me sometimes. It is strange to me how comfortable European women are with getting naked in front of strangers. I don’t know if I will ever really get used to that.

All my Paris pictures:

The Louvre: http://harding.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058819&l=cc87a&id=71005171

The Eiffel Tower: http://harding.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058629&l=d81ba&id=71005171

Around Paris: http://harding.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058820&l=a57fd&id=71005171

Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge: http://harding.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058824&l=3b703&id=71005171

Tue Dec 4
We were woken up at 730 to say that we would be arriving in Barcelona soon. Once we got there we had a long walk to try and find the port to book our ticket to Civitavecchia. Dragging suitcases around lost for an hour is no fun. We knew we were close, but every building we went to kept pointing us further down the road. We finally found the building but their computer was down, so we waited for a while, but it was still down. So we got directions to the Metro and thankfully it was a straight shot to our hostel.
We checked in and showered and then headed out to take a bus tour of the city. We got a 2 day pass, which was great because we could get on and off at any stop and then get back on the next bus and see some more when we were ready. We went to the beach and took some pictures. It was great to have warm weather and not have to wear a jacket. I loved it!
We got some dinner and walked around the city for a bit, got our tickets for our boat the next day, and then came back and went to bed. Our room was for 12 people, but there were only 7 of us; 3 girls and 4 guys. I only met one of the guys, Collin, who was from Canada. He was nice. The others were asleep and I never met them. I met the other girl in the bathroom the next morning. She was very interesting. She gave me her card because she is a musician....She told me to drop her a line, but I’m not sure that I wil.

Wed Dec 5
We woke up, got breakfast, checked out, stored our luggage, and took the Metro to the Picasso Museum. A lot of his earlier portrait works were really good. Then there were some gross nudie drawings. So basically he was really talented, turned perverted, and then went crazy and invented Cubism.
We took our bus to Sagrada Familia. I loved this church! I can’t believe that it is taking so long to build it, but the carvings are so intricate and detailed. The stained glass was gorgeous as well. This was one of the coolest churches I have ever seen.
We ate lunch and then went to the Park Guell. This architect does some crazy things, but I really like them. The park was beautiful and had a great view of the city. We walked around some more and then got our luggage and headed back to the port.
We waited to catch our boat. We just bought tickets for a chair, not for a cabin, because it was cheaper. The room with the chairs was huge and there were only 8 of us in there. We met two nice American boys, Shaun and Nate, and we played Uno with them. They are from Oregon and doing a study abroad tour in Spain for a year, but this is their Christmas break. They are headed to Rome as well. 19 hours on a boat is a long time! But thankfully I slept a lot. Since the room was empty, I just stretched out over 4 chairs to sleep.

This trip has taught me so much about relying on God. It is only by His grace and help that I am safe and making my way around. I am so thankful that He is here. It’s like a family vacation with God. It’s great to see other parts of the world and what He created. I’ve learned to be more assertive and self-sufficient, but also to worry less. That is hard for me, but God has been taking care of us, so worrying is pointless. Earlier I was worried about not getting our boat and the song that came into my head was “Living by Faith.” As I sung the lyrics I kind of laughed and was like “Okay, God, I get it.”