Saturday, July 3, 2010

Meeting up with Kendra

Hello dear friends. So this is the first blog post of my trip with Kendra in Europe. Her is how our trip began:
Kendra was in Brussels with the Benjamins, Watkins, and Vandeputs. I was in Cyprus. We met at the Frankfurt airport. She took an earlier trian from Brussels and had to wait a few hours for my plane to arrive. Neither of us had working cell phones so we were grateful that we were able to find each other with no problems. After our joyful reunion, we scoped out the empty and quiet airport terminal for a place to get comfortable for our 6 hour wait. We found a spot close to a phone charging station and were able to plug in my laptop. This was great because we were able to watch a movie. We were afraid to fall asleep and miss our train and it was all marble so I don't know if we could have slept if we wanted to. Finally, around 6am we went to catch our train. It was so wonderful that all of our trains were practically empty, so we had a whole table and four seats to ourselves. We took a 7 hour train to Vienna and then took the underground to a different train station where we caught the train to Hainburg. The train ride was great. It was beautiful and peaceful scenery, and Kendra was able to sleep most of the time (which was good for her because she wasn't feeling too well). I, on the other hand, was not able to sleep, but I did get some crochetting in :)

Upon arrival in Hainburg, were were welcomed by the beautiful view of the Danube river, although we were not greeted by any persons. It was good that we had the address to the house because it turns out that there was  a bit of confusion as the the time of our arrival. So, we had got to start off our trip with a bit of adventure in finding the house. It was quite fun. The town is beautiful and we enjoyed walking through it. It was comical finding the house. I don't think we would have had the courage to walk through the old unmarked wooden gate to find the house had it not been for the man accross the street yelling in German and pointing at it. He was very sure that that was the place we were looking for. Father Peter later told us that the neigbors know that any young person coming to Hainburg with bags is bound to be going to his house (This quiet town is not the typical stop for young backpackers).
We did find the house, and were so happy to be there. Father Peter took us on a tour and showed us all of the rooms and the garden and the back house. He showed us the prayer room and the chapel and the beautiful view from the roof. This is truly an amazing place hidden in the midst of history. He was pointing out arches and such from the 13th or 14th century. We also met Mike and Beryl, a couple from England living there, and Sister Mary Paul from Texas. After dinner, we went on a walk with Sister Mary Paul and Father Peter. They showed us around the town a little bit and then treated us to ice cream. The perfect ending to a long day of travel.

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