one year anniversary.

today marks one year to the day that i was on a plane flying half way across the world to begin one of the most amazing adventures of my life. it all started with an add in the byu-idaho school newspaper that talked about a study abroad to europe. 

i thought there's no harm in applying. then i got an email to be interviewed... 

i thought there's no harm in being interviewed. then i got accepted... 

i thought there's no harm in going to europe...

be prepared for pictures and stories of this adventure i embarked on only a year ago. i want to mainly do this for myself so that i don't forget what it was like. it's a long post, but i just hope i can do europe justice.

rome, italy.

the pantheon

rome was the first place we went as a study group, and the first place 

i fell in love with europe.

i remember being so tired from barely sleeping in 24 hours and not caring about it. i was in rome. who needs sleep? seriously. i was ready to go. we did a little mini tour around some of the main sites. it was breathtakingly beautiful. 

we stayed in a convent right outside the piazza navona (if you've seen angels and demons, this is in the end of the movie where tom hanks goes into a church and there's a huge fire). the nuns were wonderful to us. such sweet ladies! they fed us bread and hot chocolate each morning, which got old, but i wasn't complaining. i was in italy.

we toured so many things over the next few days. the pantheon, vatican city, the colosseum, basilica after basilica, the forum, and palatine hill. my favorite spots: vatican city and the colosseum - so much history, pain, war, and love. i could've spent hours upon hours in these two places. 

some things that i loved the most though were the food, the people, and the gelato. i ate so much gelato. what i would do for some right now! italy will forever remain my favorite spot.

pisa, italy.

typical picture to take in pisa. we weren't here long, but really enjoyed this place. it was a lot smaller than i thought, but still a place one needs to stop!

florence, italy.

me at the cinque terra

i loved this place. it was so quiet but so incredibly beautiful (as you can tell). the only way you cold get to this town was by train and that's something that made this place so unique. there are 5 different towns spread out over this cliff type deal. all of them were so colorful and the people were so nice.

my two friends, kelsey and drew, and i enjoyed our lunch on some huge rocks sitting in the mediterranean sea. the day was gorgeous and it was totally worth every penny.

wittenberg, germany.

castle church

home to martin luther. what an amazing place this is. probably one of the top favorites. there is so much history found in this tiny, quiet town in germany. we got to see everything that martin luther did. there was a really cool museum that had a lot of artifacts from him. it was so surreal seeing them. made everything that much more real though. very humbling indeed. 

president boyd k. packer once said something that touched me while studying for this trip: 

"we owe an immense debt to the protestors and the reformers who preserved the scriptures at translated them. they knew something had been lost. they kept the flame alive as best they could..."

how true that is.

berlin, germany.

holocaust memorial


i wasn't a very big fan of berlin i have to admit. although, the one place that i was deeply touched was at the holocaust memorial. when i first heard we were going to this place i thought it was going to be a museum with artifacts and what not. instead, it was a huge art piece with hundreds and hundreds of these cement blocks in varying sizes and heights representing each person that died.


we had a little while to wander through and to think of what occurred those many years ago. this was another very humbling moment for me to experience that was filled with a sweet spirit. 


paris, france.

the effiel tower

i have been to paris before and enjoyed my time, but i also have to admit this was not another one of my favorite places. there are some fabulous sites to see. one of my favorites is the lovure museum. some of my favorite, if not all, pieces of art are found there. i would love to go back and just spend a whole vacation walking through it and studying the pieces it has.

preston, england.

country side england

this was a beautiful part of england to see. i've been to london, but not the countryside so it was fun to see this part. the best part about it was we got to study and see the places that prophets and apostles from the church, have been to. we saw where the first baptisms was done and where some very meaningful revelation was given. now that was a very, very humbling experience. 

preston temple

the other cool thing we got to do as a study group was visit the preston temple and actually do some baptisms. what peace and comfort it is to know that no matter where you go in the world, you can feel of the love that bother heavenly father and the savior have for you. the church is the same wherever you go.

london, england. 

westminster abbey

london. i love london. the culture. the food. the people. the many amazing things to see. but most of all the history. i love the history. one of my favorite places to go is the tower of london. what dark and sad history that place has. definitely an eye-opener for sure though!

it was here that i fell in love with the delicious magnum bars. i'm not a big chocolate and ics cream bar fan, but there was something about these bars that i loved. oh man. i also tried me some fish and chips and loved that too!

copenhagen, denmark.

fredriksborg castle

copenhagen. the home of my ancestors. what a cool place to see. this castle was amazing. holy cow. it was so detailed and huge! the coolest apart about it though was inside it had all of carl blochs paintings of christ's life. the power of the spirit felt in this room was strong, but i have to say not as strong as it was when i was standing before the original Christus statue. the only word that can describe that experience is: love.

christus statue

this was the highlight of the trip and i am so glad that it was the end. that was the point of the trip. we began with this statue that is also located in salt lake city, utah at temple square. my teacher described it this way:

"we are starting and ending with christ. it's kind of like he's the bookends for our trip..."

how cool is was to have a trip so centered on this gospel. it made studying the reformation and the restoration mean that much more to each of us that went. 

to all my travel buddies -

happy anniversary

let's go back soon, ok?