Photo Journal

Our photo journal is updated and getting bigger all the time here is the link
http://evenezer.myphotoalbum.com/

Welkommen to Switzerland!

This will be incredibly brief for all you out there that do read these posts. We finally made it to Switzerland and we will be here till Monday. We are staying in a mountain town in central Switzerland far from pretty much everything except amazing natural beauty. We are ending our Europe trip with Alpine slides, chocolate factories and two birthdays (mine and dave's). Monday we all part ways and the three Pettit kids will drive across Switzerland to Lyon, France where we will be dropping off our well-used vehicle and hopping on a plane for London. In London we all share one more night together and then I fly to Tel Aviv and my sibilings fly on to Chicago. I must admit I'll be sad to leave them but I have one more very needed month in Jerusalem. All in all this has been a wonderful journey!

Driving from Salzburg to Prague

Driving from Salzburg, Austria to Prague, Czech Republic
I’m in a Peugeot with Rachel, Stephen, Abby and David. We are driving through the countryside of Czech on our way to Prague. It is halfway through our Europe trip and so far our adventures have been full of surprise and wonder. To be honest there has been very little frustration over this trip, the mood is in general casual and relaxed. Each one of us is contributing to our journey in his or her own way. It is the first “vacation” that we’ve taken on our own. Almost every other trip or journey has been under the guise of study trips. The week in Austria was surprising for me. As a student of history, the Hapsburg Dynasty and history of Austria was tucked away in my mind. The place we stayed was in the lake district of Austria and was truly gorgeous. The host family was kind and the apartment had that German clean look. I felt like I was staying at my Grandma’s house. The Austrian alps were so amazingly beautiful and almost hard to describe. We were very close to Salzburg and we journey around the village. I didn’t realize how small it was. It had the feel of a village, it was very quiet and people bicycled freely through the streets. It was quaint and picturesque. The feel of Austria was quiet, reserved and civilized. It was hard to believe that any part of World War II could of taken place here.
An interesting part of our journey has been our interaction with various Jewish ghettos. We have on occasion randomly run into the section of town that was either once a Jewish ghetto or continues to be. In surprising places and at odd moments we have run into these places. Unlike Israel they feel empty quiet a shadow of something that once was. The vibrant “chutzpah” like environment I’m used to has not been in any of these places. Each time we have run into it I begin to remember Jerusalem, the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, and the hills of Judea, Samaria, and the Shephelah. It is hard to imagine those Jewish people that I live with in Israel in these places. We ran into a memorial in Vienna for the Jews who had been killed during WW II when Germany invaded and occupied Austria. The memorial looked modern and symbolic just like the memorials in Israel. It was so reminiscent of those kind of memorials. It brought me back to Jerusalem. We were hosted for a day by Todd and Sarah Hudson, a very hospitable couple who live and work in Vienna. Todd is the Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church and they have been living here. Our first stop on the quick tour of Vienna was the Juden Platz where the memorial for the Austrian Jews who had been killed during World War II stood. As we walked around throughout the rest of the afternoon I was amazed by the beauty of Vienna. The street musicians entertained the tourists and the locals alike and architecture accompanied the beautiful music perfectly. Throughout the day I was drawn back to our first moments at the Juden Platz. I asked Todd, “Does Austria have a culture of remembrance in regards to the events of World War II?” He answered, “ No not really. It is like the American culture or the Japanese culture. Japanese don’t have any animosity towards the United States for dropping a nuclear bomb on their country. It’s like that here, its in the past.” I was stunned by his answer and quickly compared it too my last three years in Jerusalem. It was such a contrast the culture of remembrance that had penetrated my thoughts for the last three years. The Israeli society is built on the remembrance of the Holocaust, and those soldiers who survived the fires of Europe and died in the establishment of the state of Israel. The one of the most sober days of the years is during the spring when the country recognizes the Holocaust and Heroes Remembrance Day. On that day there are three sirens heard throughout the whole land of Israel. When the sirens begins every car driving, every pedestrian walking and every household stops and stands at attention. The streets are eerily silent and the stone faces represent an active remembrance of child and adult alike. Todd’s answer came back to me. What a different place this was. This society of remembrance was the epicenter of my experience in Jerusalem. Remembering is an active, built in part of every person’s life in Israel. The soft barrier of time is torn away and the reality of history is laid bare. Walking through Austria, I saw the representation of some form of remembrance. The time of the Hapsburgs was celebrated far and wide and the glory of the Holy Roman Empire was evident at every turn.
Now we are driving through Czech the first part of our journey that was once under the Soviet Iron Curtain. Looking around the beautiful farm land stands out as the beauty of the place. Gorgeous! The architecture has definitely taken on that Soviet Bloc look and the place in generally has taken on a much more disheveled look. The greenery is amazing. The rain falls freely here, and I am reminded constantly of the dry parched summer that is in full bloom in Israel. I am enjoying the time here, but I can’t stop myself from thinking about the history of these places and how they have direct correlation to my life and belief system. The environs of Europe and especially the Holy Roman Empire have direct effect on my faith’s progression, evolution and digression to and from truth.

Austrian Wonderland

From the first moment we entered Austria we all breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Italy is a wonderfully fun place of fast paced drivers, pizzerias, and happy people who greet you with a "bon journo" every morning. All of that was behind us and we were now in quiet, pristine Austria. The scattered houses, dark earth tones, and textured paradise of Italy slipped away as we quietly passed from the Italian Alps into the Austrian ones.

Right before we crossed the border we managed to squeeze in a very quick stop to Venice. It was a rainy day and so we followed the other tourists to one of the two parking garages in this watery city. Much to our chagrin parking was immensely expensive and so we sucked it up and parked. Everyone jumped out of the car and ran through the rain to the Grand Canal just in time to snap a few pictures and let Rachel see the water. Rachel had been dreaming of going to Venice ever since she was a little girl and my Grandma Pettit promised her a trip one day. Although circumstances never allowed Grandma and Rachel to go the stars finally aligned for us to run quickly to the Grand Canal and pretty much wherever else we could think of.
After truly being stunned by the beauty of Venice and at the same time feeling the strength of the Euro against the Dollar we decided to get going to make it to the Austrian flat as soon as we could.

As we crossed the border we saw the gas price drop, the cost of Coca~Cola drop and we all smiled a little. Italy was great but we were going to love Austria...

Alive and Well

We just got internet back! SO...we will be writing and posting more pics soon....

Going Dark

Hey everyone...well, next week internet availability is up in the air, so we'll see how much access we have :) we'll try hard to keep you posted!

Week One: Italy

Well, the week has flown by! Full of furious touring, magnificent art, and amazing gellato. All in all we are ready to get going to the next country. Italy has been fun but we all agreed one more week here and that carefully planned budget of ours would go right out the window. We spent the first day getting our bearings and wandered down to the Roman Forum. The second day was Florence where we wandered down almost fairy tale streets and saw The David, truly astounding! Every day took shape the night before as we decided on each course as a group. Our teamwork has been easy and although the Pettit's and Janis' clans each have had their own squabbles nothing to speak of :) Day three was the Vatican and we descended upon the heart of the Christian empire with much glee. The complex holds the housing quarters for many of the Catholic faithful as well as the armed guards of the palace, and the Pope, of course. But, the most amazing part of the complex is by far the Vatican museums which hold the masterpieces of many an artist. The complex stretches far and wide and is filled to the brim with tourists. The Transfiguration by Raphael was almost the immediate favorite of our little group. However, the Sistine Chapel left us awestruck and we all tried to savor the few moments we had to gaze at these world famous frescoes. We ended the day with a tour of St. Peter's Basilica, the seat of papal power and the biggest Basilica in the world. Walking around the basilica we came across the tombs of the popes, who each designed their own remembrance. Sculptures of the saints stood tall around us and we made our way to the front where the Catholic's remember the first pope, St. Peter. Here they say Peter lies entombed and so here the rest of the popes wish to be lain as well. The grandeur of the church is to say the least overwhelming, and make Jerusalem's churches and the holiest of them all the Church of the Holy Sepulcher look like its in the sticks. Abby said it was like the super-sized box of french fries. I think I agree with her. Everything is too big, to magnificent, to overwhelming, it seems like they are compensating for something. I wonder what the Apostle Peter would think if he saw myriads of people standing in line to rub the foot of his statue. Anyway, my second trip to the Vatican answered allot questions and provoked new ones. Day four was a little bit of a chill day and off to wander Rome, see the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and wander around. We definitely did our bit of wandering as almost every street we tried to turn down was blocked off by police officers. Pres. Bush was in town and apparently that meant we all need to walk around in circles :) Regardless of the extra man power we all found our way to the spots of interest and then some. We wandered into an anti-Bush/war rally and so we documented it as one more interesting part of our journey. Stephen was excited to see his first protest for peace. However, the poor attendance and overzealous flag wavers soon took the excitement out of the air and left him thinking it was all a bit pathetic. I agreed. Yesterday we drove about two hours down the coast and took the day to wander around the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Abby and Dave were by far the most excited I'd seen them. Pompeii is a city that was preserved for two thousand years when Mt. Vesuvius exploded and covered the city in ash, killing all the inhabitants and preserving the city in close to perfect condition. Besides the rooftops,which have basically fallen in, the ruins are almost perfect. Wandering through you can almost feel the ancient people weaving in and out of the streets going about their daily business. It definitely takes you back. We spend a good five hours wandering the site.

So today is clean up and pack day. The rest of the gang headed to an open air market (I get enough of those in Israel) and I decided to write this epistle to all those out there who would like to read it. There are several photo album documenting our trip at www.evenezer.myphotoalbum.com if any of you are interested in a visual journey. As they say in Italy, Ciao!