long overdue

It has been far too long since I last posted on this blog so I thought that I might as well add some pictures :) And the best part is, they are even new pictures!

We were laughing so hard in this picture. And as you can tell, the wind was also blowing pretty hard.

I look like a stoner, but Sister looks cute, so hey. haha.

We LOVE you wind!

And by far, this one is my favorite of the bunch. It also happens to be my desktop picture.

slowly catching up...

We are officially WAY behind on our blog. Internet access was essentially non existent for the last half of our trip. Here is the quick rundown of what happened:

Day 8: After our day in Delphi, we went into Athens. We kind of just had a free day to hang up and catch up on some sleep. It was much needed. 

Day 9: Early this morning we went and got on board a cruise of the Greek Islands. I have never been on a cruise before so it was definitely a good experience! Our first stop of the cruise experience was at Mykenos. It is a cute little island where all the buildings are white. They say that they painted everything that way so that pirates would get confused when they were trying to raid and pillage the little villages. I can see how that would be very effective. Also this day we spend a lot of time under the sun working on our tans (or sunburns in my case...)

Day 10: Day two of the cruise was very similar to day one. Our stop this day was at Patmos. We were able to get off the ship and play on the beach. Britt and I made it a point (along with a few other people from our party) to swim out to the little lighthouse/buoy thing. We didn't realize quite how far out it was until we were trying to swim back. It felt good to be able to go for a good swim though! And on the Mediterranean Sea nonetheless!

Day 11:  Day three was another duplicate of day one and two. The difference is where we stopped. We went to Santorini this day. We rode something that is very similar to a ski lift up to the top of the volcano that is the island. We walked along all the little shops and bought some killer gelato before walking down the cliff. Sister and I both wore flip-flops and both of us fell straight on our behinds once and slipped many times. Flip-flops + Marble staircase = bad. And it was HOT! But it too was a good experience.

Day 12:  We unloaded off of the cruise ship this day and toured all over Athens. We saw the first modern Olympic Stadium and the Parthenon with its surrounding buildings. It was very interesting to finally see all the things that we have learned and talked about in school all these years.

Day 13: Trip home! Our first flight (which was supposed to be to Frankfurt, Germany) was delayed which would have meant that we would miss our flight to Chicago forcing us to stay another night. So after some quick switching around, we were rushed onto a flight to Munich and then to Chicago, where we are now. In all this hustle and bustle my lot of luggage was lost - mine included. It took the original path to Frankfurt. Oops.

Day 14: We have been awake way to long seeing that it is already 6:40 in the morning. Readjusting to the time change is going to be killer. In a few minutes we will be going down to breakfast then proceeding to the airport for the final leg of our trip! Utah here we come!

Greece!!!! :)

we just got to greece this morning! we had to ride on a ferry overnight to get here! it was... different! haha! there was a casino and a bar on the boat and we spent the night listening to people party! and they were crazy! sarah tiff and i spent a while playing cards, then tiff was off to bed and sarah and i were up til two a m playing spit and egyptian rat screw! oh and we played phase ten with blake! (mom we taught him 'i want it'. he loved it. definatly a pro! we are gonna have to call him over for our daily phase ten parties!) i won at phase ten. ps. just in case you were wondering! lol! a ton of people from our group spent the night throwing up and moaning about weak stomachs which was rough, but overall it was a good night! i love boats! and i loooove the ocean (or the meditteranian sea. haha. i just love water)... the sights are incredible here in Greece. its so amazing! golly geez. i love it! we learned some new words. in greek this time. nero is water. efharrysto is thank you. and yasis is hello. no i didn't spell them currectly. i spelled them so you all could actually try to pronounce them! ;) haha! oh boy i love the beautiful water scene. the houses. just everything. its great. we played in the water today! it was a lot of fun! its so humid here, i just gave up on my hair! haha! we are spending the night in Delphi and we go to Athens tomorrow! i am very excited! i will try to update you during the cruise (which is in two days) i cant wait. its currently 9 hours ahead here. so i already lived what ya'll will experience in utah throughout the day! haha. i miss you and love you all!

the airplane :]

The voyage here was crazy. the time change is quite difficult to adjust to. :/ our plain ride from chicago to germany was app. 9 and 1/2 hours! ah! we were served dinner and breakfast on the plane. sarah, tiff, and i sat on the very back row of the HUGE aircraft! while tiff slept, sarah and i decided to introduce ourselves to the little girl in front of us. come to find out, her name is eveanna (we called her eva! off of the movie wall-e. ya kno!?) she is five years old and travels often from america to serbia to visit her grandparents. she speaks serbian! crazy huh!? she taught us a lot of words and yes i wrote most of them down so i can teach all of you. :) we laughed with her most of the way, played a lot of cards, ate quite a bit, and had a lot of fun. the landing was rough. eva... well... she threw up. on sarah's flip flops. and we had to sacrafice our blankets to cover the throw up til landing. it was ... disgusting! but we still like eva. and once in germany, first of all, it's wierd. no airports are like what we are used to in america. it's so quiet everywhere and there are stairs more than you could imagine. sucks kinda. :/ tiff and i felt kind of at home though considering all the airport workers didn't even stutter when pronouncing our last name! :D something us heidenreich's arent so used to! eh fam!? you woulda been proud! we surely were! anyhow, interesting experience flying. loved the big plane. fun to meet eva. and great to sit by tiff and sarah! lucky me! now to italy! :) ps: now no phone. whole new world for me and pretty rough. i just wanna text ya'll every morning and night! ah! miss you!!!!!

quick update!

On my left hand side at another computer, Brittani is blogging as I speak. Chances are, many of the things that she says/has said will be duplicated in this post. But, I figure since my internet time is very sparse and I have been a big slacker at updating I will give it a go too. Be ready for blog overload!

We are one week into our trip, with one week left to go. It has been truly amazing! I am so greatful that I have been able to experience this! I will give a quick run down of week one:

Day 1/2: we traveled. A lot. Clear across the world in fact. After arriving at our hotel we basically ate and crashed.

Day 3: Rome! We were able to explore Rome with our group as kind of a free day. It was fun, but without being completely current on my Roman history, day 4 turned out to be way more interesting.

Day 4: Again, we toured around Rome. We saw various places such as the Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi, the Roman Forum, and the Coleseum. It was pretty much amazing! We took tons of pictures that will have to be uploaded at another time. But, I promise I will share them!

Day 5: More touring around Italy. This day we went to the Isle of Capri. It was BEAUTIFUL! We walked all around the whole island. I love the island environment. It actually reminded me of a more expensive, European version of Hawaii. Weird I know. haha.

Day 6: This day we went to Pompei. It was incredible to see how well preserved everything was and to realize the real archeological gold mine this little city is. After exploring all the ruins Pompei had to offer, it was off the the coast to board a ferry to head to Greece.

Day 7: Today! After sleeping on a boat for the first time in my life (I did very well by the way. Turns out I have a pretty strong stomach or something), we loaded on a bus and headed up to Delphi. On the way we stopped at a beach and played in the Mediterranean Sea for a couple hours. Everything about it was beautiful and so much fun!

Anyway, I am running out of time but I promise more as the days go by. And, when I get home I will post tons and tons of pictures so all you faithful followers can see the beauty! Here we go with week 2!

Italy :)

well hello parowan and relatives and friends! oh my goodness i miss you all! italy is an AMAZING place! its a little difficult to communicate considering very few people speak our language. or they do speak ours but we don't speak theirs so we never kno what people are saying. we went to st. peters church which was really interesting. saw a ton of statues, very ummm detailed :/, we call that porn in utah! ;) haha. walked a lot! ice cream, this is where it's at my friends! if i could bring it home to you, i would! wow! i could eat it all day everyday. however, i have done my best to only buy one a day. then we get it free every day after dinner. its a great life. i miss you all soooo much! not much internet opportunities which makes blogging difficult. i learned three words in italian. acqua (water obviously), gratsia (thank you), and chow (hello & goodbye). we are taking a ferry to greece and i can't wait. the trip is almost half way over. sad but very exciting! LOVE YOU ALL!

peace out united states!

Wow! How crazy is this?! Tiff and Britt in the Chicago airport on their way to ROME! First stop: Munich, Germany my friends! An eight and a half hour flight from the good ol' US of A! :) 

Next on the list: Rome.

No big. It's just right next door. ;)