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