Lavender Kay

So I haven’t written in a long time so if anyone reads this, I want to thank you in advance for being a dedicated follower to my blog!

I originally started this blog for my European adventure and now I have decided to extend it to the rest of my messy, thrilling life.

To start – I am getting married!  Jonathan and I have decided to spend the rest of our lives together and I couldn’t be happier.  For those of you who don’t know our journey together, here it is.  We grew up next door neighbors. His sister Joy Anna, was my best friend and Jonathan was just the older brother who gave me rides to school.  We became friends before I graduated high school but soon after we lost track of each other for almost 7 years.  Then last year found each other again.  We fell in love and it has been nothing but joy and laughter ever since.  I never believed people who said when they got engaged they just knew it was right.  Until now.  Saying yes to Jonathan was one of the easiest decision I have ever made.  Thank you Jonathan for being the most wonderful person I know.

So we picked a date, April 9th and will get married in the White Room in Spokane, WA.  I have never really wanted a conventional wedding and by the way we have planned this celebration, I think I will get my wish.

Stay tuned for more on our wedding plans and the exciting future ahead!

Muenster:

Three years ago I got the privilege of meeting Stefan and Andrea in Muenster, Germany and ever since I have been trying to find a way to make it back.  Last week I got to stay with them for a few days and explore their wonderful city.  They were willing to open their home to us and my time there was wonderful.  I am amazed by their hosipitality and friendship.  I left feeling like I had made two lifelong friends.

Muenster is a beautiful university town thriving with people and bikes!  There is a statistic that says for every one person in Muenster there are two bikes!  We rented bikes one of the days we were there and rode all around the city and along the lake.  So far, Muenster has had the best weather out of all the places we have been and we were able to enjoy the sun as we rode around the streets of city.  My time with Stefan and Andrea was rich with laughter and great conversation.  Two of our nights there were also spent meeting their friends and it was so wonderful to just take part in their lives for a few days.  I am lucky to have them as my friends and it is my hope that this meeting wasn’t our last. That one day I will make it back again.

Frankfurt:

We got the unique experience of attending a banquet for the ministry Justin and Heather Tillery run in Germany.  This banquet was a celebration for their trip to Romania and a time of affirmation for the people involved.  Justin and Heather picked us up at our train stop and drove a to a beautiful home outside the city.  We ment many wonderful people and helped them prepare for the banquet.  We all decided it was nice to take part in normal life activities for a change.  At the end of the banquet we watched a slide show illustrating the past year in Youth Compass.  Justin and Heather are doing such a wonderful job ministering to these students and their community.   I went to Germany with Justin and Heather 3 years ago and it is so exciting to see them back here again and making a difference in the lives of people here.

The day after the banquet we were able to spend some time with Justin and Heather.  They showed us around their wonderful city.  We had lunch at an outdoor cafe and enjoyed ice cream as we walked along the river.  It was so good to see them in their ministry and here about their lives.

London is full of daffodils.  They are everywhere.  We visited so many enchanting parks during our stay and the color yellow surrounded us.  We probably had an abnormal London experience because the weather was beautiful making it possible to be outside all the time and walk everywhere.  (Aside from using the wonderful underground tube!)

We rented a room in an old couple’s flat and were not prepared for what we experienced there!  The wife was away in Switzerland skiing and we were left with 77-year-old John for our entire stay.  I wish I could put into words what this man was like.  He is an self taught artist with art in the famous V and A museum which he reminded us about every 3 minutes.  He would walk into our room randomly just to chat if we didnt keep our door locked.  He gave us a 6am wake up call to remind us about breakfast at 9am AND supposedly his son is in the Russian Mafia One day at breakfast he was telling us his agent never paid him our deposit.  Here is his quote, “My son can contact his people and they will blow his head off.”  Very interesting man.  But dont worry, we made it out alive.

Here is my favorites list for London (in no particular order):

1. Wicked

2. Sitting in lawn chairs in St. James Park

3. Walking across all the bridges

4. Big Ben and the House of Parlament

5. Meeting up with friends we met earlier in our travels

6. Billy Elliot

7. Jogging through Hyde park with Laura

8. Platform 9 and 3/4 (of course)

9. The underground

10. Daffodils.  So many daffodils.

11. Getting a library card and feeling like we were home for a week

12. Sunday church at Westminster Abby

London was incredible.  All that I hoped it would be.

Ireland

Ireland is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.  We only spent one night in Dublin before travelling to the west coast.  We chose to stay in a town called Dingle in a hostel called Rainbow Hostel.  This is one of the most interesting hostels we have stayed in so far.  There was a large common room with long wood tables and a wood fire place.  Everyone cooked and ate together and it felt like a family.  We also rented a car while we were there!  This was quite the adventure.  I thought the hard part was going to be getting used to driving on the left side of the rode but the scary part was how narrow the streets were!  A two lane rode was actually the size of an American one land road! 

Our second day in Dingle we spent driving along the coast.  There were high cliffs, beautiful beaches and rolling green hills.  Everything I had imagined.  The pictures can’t even begin to capture the beauty of Ireland.

I am amazed by all the friends we have made along the way.  People have been so generous and kind.  It has been incredible to share in other people’s lives and listen to their stories. 

Scotland

Scotland has been my favorite country thus far.  We rode a ferry from Ireland to Scotland and after an 11 hour journey we arrived in Banchory, Scotland which is in Northern Scotland and very small.  We stayed in a wonderful bed and breakfast owned by the Morrisons which are friends of  Laura.  I got a bedroom and double bed to myself…and it was the best sleep I have had so far!  We went to a Good Friday service at this small chapel with about 3o members and after the service we had dessert with the Morrisons and talked with them until late into the night.  They told us how Don Morrison, the father, called the house one night and said to not let anyone into the house because a wolf had stolen his car.  Then he drove home wearing a wolf costume!  So amazing.  He is one of the most wonderful people I have ever met.

Scotland was breathtaking.  After Banchory we travelled on to Edinburgh and I got to sit in the birthplace of Harry Potter.   J. K. Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potter novels in the Elephant House cafe because she had just gone through an awful divorce and was so poor that it was cheaper to sit in the cafe all day than to heat her flat.  The spot where she would sit overlooks the beautiful Edinburgh Castle.

Berlin:

Our time in Berlin went so fast but we had a wonderful time.  There was so much to see and so much history surrounding the city.  We went on a walking tour led by a guy from London who did his undergrad in German History.  He told us so many incredible stories and I felt like I learned more in 4 hours than I did in 4 years of highschool!  We also toured a concentration campwhich left a deep imprint on me.  Our tour guide told us that just last week he had a rocket shot at him from the road while giving the tour. I walked through the Holocaust Memorial and was overwhelmed by the experience.  Seventy percent of Berlin was bombed making most of the structures relatively new compared to everywhere else we have been.  We also found a random outdoor art gallery created by squaters.  It was extremely alternative and really cool.  We also found a cafe with swings for chairs…it was delightful.

Stockholm Top 5 List:

1. Getting to know the Downeys and learning the meaning of true hospitality.  Thank you Madeleine!

2. Bike riding along the Baltic Sea.  And walking on it because it was completely frozen.

3. Learning about Flash Mobs – a group of people who meet in an open square and perform a spontaneous choreographed dance.  People in Stockholm did a tribute to Michael Jackson.  Here is the link:

4. Eating lots of chocolate and having evening tea.

5. Exploring the city.  There are 30 thousand islands in the surrounding areas!

Prague makes bread on a stick! While we were walking around the outdoor market I found about 8 different stands that sell hot bread on a stick and it tasted wonderful. It made me feel at home. They call it Pikle.

Prague was simply wonderful. We only spent two nights in this enchanting city and I loved every minute of it.  We stayed in a charming hostel which is in the heart of old town and a two minute walk from the famous Astronomical Clock.  Our room was on the fourth floor and from our window we had a view of the Prague Castle.  My bed was tucked away in an upper loft with a latter to access it.  Yesterday I was in need of some space and alone time so I broke away from the group and went for a walk through the city.  After I found an outdoor cafe for a cafe latte and some time to read.

My favorites:

1. Sitting in the window sill of my hostel with the windows wide open while taking in the beautiful view.

2. Learning about the history of this country.

3. Walking across the Charles Bridge at night.

4. Prague Castle

5. Sitting on the bench over looking the Vltava River with the glorious Prague Castle behind it.  We stayed out there until late talking and sharing bread and cheese we had bought from the underground market.

6. The ghost tour.

There is this group throughout Europe called New Europe and they put on free walking tours in a lot of the major cities.  Although it is free they do accept tips and the tours are always pretty great since the guides are working hard for their tips.  We decided to do the walking tour for Prague as it came highly recommended and it was well worth it.  I was amazed by the history and culture of this city.  Our tour took us through the Jewish Quarter and we saw the oldest, still active Jewish synagogue as well as the memorial site representing over 77 thousand Jewish lives lost in the Czech Republic during WWII.  I was overtaken by these numbers and the individual stories behind their lives.  An underground art school was started during the Holocaust for children.  The children drew pictures of parks and their families representing the hope they had in life after the war.  Most of these children never lived through the war.   Each time I hear stories of Hitler and the Holocaust I am overwhelmed with emotion.  This country has experienced deep pain.  Standing in specific sites that were occupied by Hitler and learning about the lives lost during that time remind me of how fragile life is.

So first of all, I am sorry this is so delayed.  Second, the keyboards here are a little different and it is really hard!

Florence –

Florence was wonderful. It had more of an old town feel and was a lot smaller than Rome.  Shelby made me choose whether I would live in Rome or Florence and I chose Rome – who would have thought.

More favorites –

1. Secret passages tour in Palace Vecchio – there was all these secret staircases and rooms that we walked through.  A painting was opened and we walked through it to another secret staircase! 

2. The David – so incredible

3. The neighborhood cafe next to our hostel

4. We made friends with two girls who were travelling together. Mary was from Mexico and Jing was from China and they were studying in France and vacationing in Italy.  They were quite the pair and we loved them. 

5. Irish pub where we made some friends and watched the Florence Championship football game.  It was very exciting!

Venice –

I loved Venice.  This city is like nothing I have ever seen before.  There are no cars and the streets are either alley ways or canals.  The hostel we stayed at was so great as well.  We made friends with everyone staying there right away and ended up spending our whole time in Venice with them.  The owner of the hostel, Lapo, loves Lady Gaga and on our first morning there he was blasting the same song on repeat from his computer for about a half an hour.  It was quite funny.  We have found Europeans really like Lady Gaga.  We picked Laura up at the airport so now there are three of us!  My favorite thing we did while in Venice was ride a gondola.  It was enchanting and everything I hoped it would be!

Quick update – we abandoned our plans to go to Croatia which was hard and a little sad but the only scheduled train taking us to Zagreb would get us in at 4am and then we would still have another bus ride to our destination that would last 11 hours.  So we altered our itinerary and are now in Austria…which is nothing like I expected and quite wonderful.