"croquis make my heart flutter"-melanie passons

"Harry coo" is the scottish way of saying hairy cow...the cows look like this:


Their "fringe" (british word for "bangs") is absurdly long, and I really cant imagine how they see clearly. As you may guess, I am now in Scotland because my friends went to Greece on april 9th, and so I didnt want to stay in Venice by myself. I found a couch surfer in Glasgow and flew into Prestwick airport that evening. My couch surfers are Ally and Craig, and they are wonderful. I have not had a bad experience with couch surfing which is kind of crazy and wonderful. Tonight I am going to stay with my Scottish friend, Rhona's, friend named cairene. I'm staying with her because tomorrow Rhona gets back to Inverness, which is where I'll be going until Saturday. (I know Rhona because I worked with her at Independent Pres. in Memphis two summers ago). So i suppose I should start talking where i left off, which was just after arriving in Switzerland. I still haven't decided if my life sped up or slowed down after Switzerland. p.s. I'm listening to Michael Bublé's version of "the way you look tonight", and I just simply think that song is one of the most romantic ones ever. I even thought that when I was 8 and saw Father of the Bride for the first time.
Continuing...Hannah and Rob-Jean (pronounced kind of like "robe-ee-yawn") from Switzerland were a very encouraging part of my trip--arguably the most encouraging I experienced while being away for 4 weeks. We discussed so many important things that I hadn't thought about in months. Without church, without believers, there is a sort of lost feeling in my heart, and conversation with Hannah and Rob-Jean was rejuvenating. Hannah and I got into a deep discussion about God's will and what is actually "right" and "wrong". How do you know? What is subjective to the person and what is Biblically, hands down, wrong for everyone...? Ya'lls thoughts are welcome. I decided that as weird as this may sound, I think there are some things that God just doesn't care about. I mean, I think He cares, but not to the extent we think He does. I think He has things spinning in the right direction, with the future planned out. I think we make mistakes, and we have to allow ourselves to fail. Yes, we want to do the right thing, but I also think there is a moment where you say "ok, Lord. I don't know what You want me to do. So I'm going to do what my heart tells me to do. It might be a mistake. But I still think You are sovereign, and have my best in mind." I think life involves a lot of surrendering choices to God and then acting according to what feels right. Not necessarily what you want, but what really feels like the best decision. Anyway...
Hannah and Rob-Jean are a very hilarious couple. They banter like brother and sister, but it's always affectionate....one day we went into Geneva, which was lovely. As usual, money is constantly on my mind, and Switzerland was no exception, especially because the Swiss Franc is about = the $. Except that everything in Switzerland is about 7 times as much. a tall coffee at starbucks is about 7 francs. Can you imagine paying $7 for a coffee? I'm still trying to imagine it. Lucky for the Swiss, they make about $20 an hour (Thats minimum wage), so nothing is really that expensive from their perspective. Sweet Hannah will be out west in the U.S. soon, and she will probably feel like a rich woman. She works at Starbucks and gave me, melanie, and lindsey free drinks, which was remarkable. My java chip frappacino (which will probably always remind me of Shannon Wallace) tasted better than it ever has. Even though there were chips of ice not blended in. Its amazing to me how much more easily life can be appreciated when the simplest things in life are unattainable...
The next day we went to Lausanne, Switzerland, which was breathtaking. We discovered an outdoor store, and I drooled over the climbing shoes and Patagonia sweatshirts (called "jumpers" here, btw). A basic Nalgene in switzerland is 20 francs. Compare this to the $7 Nalgenes in America. CRAZINESS. ok, done talking about how expensive everything is. My favorite part of Lausanne was Lake Geneva. Fog laced the Alps, sailboats floated in the choppy waters, which made for beautiful pictures. Melanie and I managed to lose Lindsey (or so we thought...apparently she was just enjoying the country and taking pictures, while we thought she was missing), which wasn't too unusual, since we lose her on a regular basis. Lovely Lindsey lives in a schedule-less world of no watches. Thankfully, she set a clock on her camera, and finally has access to the time. We had so much fun in Lausanne and came home to Hannah's, made dinner, and stopped in at the village grocery store for a carton of the best hot chocolate mix in the world--only available in Switzerland. Thank you, Megan Headrick, for introducing it to me in America, because I immediately looked for it when I got to the country. Hannah, of course, had bags in abundance, and we had it multiple time during the day. It's the richest, most incredible hot chocolate you will ever have. And you must have it. If you are nice to me, I might share with you when I get home...I made myself promise to not open it until I get back to the States. After dinner that night, my stomach began to act strangely, and I naturally thought it was just all the chocolate I was consuming (3 brownies with ice cream for dessert that night...). Rob-Jean told me the cure for any stomach ache is to place your hands on your stomach, fingers spread, and finger-by-finger, press on your belly. Sort of a "drumming your fingers" style. It looked hilarious, and Melanie and I died. Which made my stomach hurt worse. I proceeded to have diarrhea the rest of the night, every 15 minutes. Yay flu. I know you wanted to know this. The next morning, we had a train to take to geneva in order to take another train to Rome at 8 am. However, Rob-Jean needed someone to take him to the train station at 4:45 that morning, and Hannah couldnt do it. I was the only one who drove a stick shift, so I volunteered. I did this BEFORE i got sick. sigh. So I basically flew to the station, stalling along the way in the rickety no-automatic-steering car, and then flew home just in time to go to the bathroom again. We went to Geneva (after missing the train out of hannah's village and having to wake her up and beg her to take us to geneva to catch our Rome train...yes, we compensated her for gas), caught our train, and I was ill for the 7 hour trip. I hadn't slept the night before at all, and I couldn't make my stomach settle to sleep on the train to Rome, so by the time we arrived in italy, I was miserable, exhausted, homesick, regular sick, and did NOT want to be in Italy. I wanted to be in a bed, sleeping, preferably in Cookeville, TN, with my mom nearby. I turn into a real baby when I'm sick, and traveling wasn't a good ingredient to add to my pathetic state. My friend who I had met in Paris put us up in Rome, and we arrived to his apartment to find some make-shift beds, which I immediately fell into at 6 pm that night and slept until 9 am the next day. Poor Mirko. He had wanted us all to go out in Rome and party to welcome us, but we were not a joyful group to employ for such a tiring task. The next day was fun, even though I was still recovering. After still feeling sick all day and being mentally exhausted, Melanie and I both broke down near the Coliseum, tearfully mourning our normal lives. We had been gone for two and a half weeks, and traveling was definitely beginning to take its toll. We love traveling, but decided that doing it consecutively was so much harder than we anticipated. That night we went to bed early and the next day I woke up feeling a lot better. Lindsey split up with her friend from home, and they went to the Vatican. Mel and I also went to the Vatican and stood in line for several hours. The nice ticket guy only made us pay 8 euro to get in, and it is normally 15 euro. That made our days. We took pictures of everything important and finally arrived in the Sistine Chapel, where, while sneaking a picture of Adam and God on the ceiling, I got kicked out. Melanie laughed. I was embarrassed. Afterward, we went to St. Peter's Basilica and sat in the courtyard in the sun, eating oranges and napping. It was heavenly. The day was very warm and gorgeous, and both of us needed some Vitamin C and D and Zzzz. Did u know the inside of oranges in italy are red? I think they look undercooked. However, they are very juicy and more tasty than normal oranges and make red orange juice. I'll post pictures of them on facebook.
The next day was Easter Sunday, and we had tickets to the Papal Mass to see the Pope. We stood in line earlllly that morning, hoping for the same sun to shine in the courtyard of St. Peter's as it had done the day before. Not a chance. It poured. I huddled under a Romanian lady's umbrella in my seat, while Melanie, prepared as she is, had brought a rain jacket. I had Sunday clothes on and a thin cardigan. Lindsey and her friend from home sat elsewhere and stayed for the remainder of the service. After about two hours and still no Pope, I gave up and went to stand under the covered area in the courtyard. For some reason, security didn't like this, and forced all the cold, wet, faithful Catholics (and 1 Presbyterian) back into the rain. I left, snapping a quick pic of Mr. Pope on the big screen on the way out. Melanie and I got mochas and pastries and headed to the Spanish Steps to meet my friend Hope (remember the one who didn't get to go to Belfast with us?), as well as other UT friends, Evan Story and Tyler Underwood, and then Hope's Worcester friend, Katie. Melanie and I were soaked, but it was SO good to see them. She didn't know them at all, but by the time Melanie and I left that evening, we were all family. We went to the Pantheon, which was half under construction :(, and then to Giletti's, a supposedly amazing Gelato place in Rome. I didn't get any ice cream, because I had overdone sweets in Switzerland. At this point, I had been in Italy for 4 days and still hadn't experienced Gelato. Just a side note. We then proceeded to the Trevi fountain, where we, loud americans that we are, yelled "1-2-3!" and threw coins over our shoulder into the water. So, apparently we'll be back in Rome one day. Evan got run into by a horse-drawn carriage twice in 20 minutes, which made for a really wonderful laugh. I think maybe he doesnt like horses anymore. At the tomb of the unknown soldier, we all remembered that somewhere in Rome was the Mamertine Prison of Peter and Paul. I'm so glad that someone remembered it, because I had totally forgot that was in Rome. I managed to figure out where it was from an Italian security guard who barely knew English. Apparently it was directly behind the tomb of the soldier, right by the Coliseum and Roman Forum. We found it with no problem and seeing Roman 6: 8-11 written on a plaque on the gate of the Prison, I began to cry. It appalled me that Paul had written such a beautiful letter to these people during his time in such a miserable place. Words like 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Apparently, Peter was in this prison before being executed in Nero's circus on Vatican Hill. It was incredible to see this with fellow Believers. Such a humble experience to have with people who also love the Lord. Out of all the sites we saw in Rome, this was only one where me and my friends were the only tourists. I suppose that's sort of telling. People around us snapped pictures of the Roman Forum, and someone asked "wait, so why is this important? who was here?" Historically, Mamertine was the most significant to me. I loved it.
Saying goodbye to Hope and Evan and Tyler and Katie was super hard. It was so awesome to have a piece of home, but then so sad to have to let them go. As melanie and I got on our metro, and the other four got on their metro, we could see each other through the windows of our different train cars, and I so wished we could have all traveled together for the remainder of our trip. Hope is coming to see me in Swansea soon, but I'll miss evan and tyler. Have a safe trip back to the States, friends!
The next day we headed to Pisa. We spent about an hour taking clíche pictures in front of the ol' tower and then decided to head on to Florence. We arrived in Florence to discover our campsite. We had booked a hostel that was at a campground, but i think we didn't realize how much it was actually camping. I loved it, but I think it was harder for my friends. We had tents with bunk beds. It was definitely cold at night, but they provided a ton of blankets for each of us. The coolest part was the view we got to experience every day, which was at the top of an area called "Michelangelo", overlooking all of Florence. Gorgeous. I didn't take a ton of pictures, because we were only there a short time. Sadly Melanie got the same flu bug I had had, and she was ill during our time there. That was especially hard because we were camping, so I think Florence was a lot less fun for her. Kind of like the first couple days in Rome for me. I discovered gelato while we were there and of course had it 3 times a day for the rest of our time in Italy. Not kidding. My favorite flavors were the dark chocolate and the tiramisu. Together is good too. I used to hate dark chocolate. Now I prefer it over milk chocolate. What has Europe done to me?? After florence was Venice, which was definitely my favorite of all the Italian cities. Although Hope and the guys were to Cinque Terre, which I so wish I could have seen, because judging by their pictures and opinions, it looks like it would have been my favorite city. I love villages, especially on the water. Venice wasn't a village, but it sort of felt like it, because its so compact and quaint. We didn't go on gondola ride; they are like 80 euro. However, we did have a sweet dinner by the water, complete with a bottle of wine (Scott and Ruthanne :) ), and then gelato afterwards. It was a fabulous two days. I took a train the next day to Milan, which I didn't really like out of the 5 cities. I met a friend on the bus to the airport, and we chatted and had coffee before we had to catch our flights. I once again snuck more bags on the Ryanair flight than is supposed to be allowed. I swear I'm going to get caught one day. But I only have one more Ryanair flight, so wish me luck. You can even pray if you want. I just hate paying the check-a-bag fee, cuz its like 18 pounds. I arrived in Glasgow around 1 am after taking a bus from Prestwick airport into Glasgow and met Ally, my couch surfer, at Oran Mor, a church-turned-club on the west side of Glasgow. I will say it makes me sad to see so many old, gorgeous churches here defaced. It's amazing how many churches in Scotland are bars and malls. It kind of breaks my heart. So much history destroyed. I love old buildings and the stories behind places, so seeing a church or a cathedral that has completely lost its charm in the name of a bar is disheartening. Not to say I don't like clubs. I do. But why a church? seriously.
After a run in the park on this beautiful day in Glasgow, I met up with Cairene and her friends, and Cairene's room mate Fiona made dinner for us. They are awesome. They have connections with RUF because they've been to the States so many times and because their home church (they are from Inverness but go to Uni in Glasgow) has connections with some of the PCA churches in America. It is weird hearing a Scottish person talk about RUF. It really made me miss that part of my life. We sat around eating sweets and popcorn and proper Scottish soda (i cant remember the name) and discussed wedding plans (Fiona is getting married in a couple months....p.s. her fiance, Roddy, is one of the best photographers I've seen..his photos i saw today were so incredible) and differences between the States and the UK. I feel so at home with Cairene and her friends; it's amazing how just one evening hanging out can spark a friendship when people have a lot in common. I'm sort of sad to leave tomorrow after just getting to their flat. But it will be awesome to see Rhona and meet Cairene's younger sister and Rhona's other friend, Suzi, who apparently has a lot in common with me. I thought I would be sick of traveling by Scotland--and I am tired--but I also feel so at home here. I think Scotland has been my favorite place in the UK. Although I do very much love England...I think I'm realizing once again how big the world is...why cant places be closer? How will I come back here?