The USA vs. Europe

t tn Europe:
Five things that the United States does better than Europe:
1. Mountain Dew
1. Mountain Dew.
In the United States, it comes in abundance – over here, we have only seen it once. This cultural shortcoming is self-evident, and raises serious questions about the progressive nature of European society. Here you can see a can that we found in Sweden . . . Keith is saving it for his birthday.
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2. Visible landmarks.
Granted, the USA has relatively few historic sites; nonetheless, we generally maintain them without hideous cloaks of scaffolding. In Europe, we have discovered that at least 80% (no exaggeration) of the most significant buildings are being repaired and renovated at a pace that will surely last for another 500 years. The most disappointing was the fairy-tale castle Neuschwanstein – we had to hike a long way, in order to get the picture below!

3. Public air. m
In the United States, we have a decreasing number of truly heavy smokers. Europe still hangs in a nicotine cloud, however, because each person is required (by law) to smoke at least four packs a day. In many cities, they are also required to blow their smoke into the faces of tourists.
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4. Laws against stealing things.
In the United States, it is illegal to grab somebody’s purse and run with it. It’s illegal in Europe, of course, but . . . if it happens to you . . . don’t expect the police to share your outrage.
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5. Public Facilities.
Europeans have a keen eye for business opportunities, but there are certain moments when you don’t want to be fumbling for a Euro. If there was ever a justifiable reason for American military intervention overseas, it would be the “pay toilet.”
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Five things that Europe does better than the United States:
1. Chocolate.m
We have chocolate back home, of course, but Europe appears to have more. In many neighborhoods, houses are built with Alpenmilch Schokolade, and the streets are frequently flavored with hazelnuts. It is a very good thing.
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2. Well-behaved dogs. Austrians, in particular, take their dogs everywhere – to the store, on the train, and through the city. Sometimes they come with Beißkorb and Leine, but they hardly ever make a sound, and they seem to know all the rules of canine etiquette. It’s horribly charming.
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3. The capacity for rest.
At first, this can be pretty annoying – when you go to the store at 8:30 pm, you might expect the place to be humming with shoppers. People here, however, don’t seem to be driven by the lust for excess, and they work with a certain kind of Sabbath principle. Stores close early on Saturday, and most of them stay shut until Monday.
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4. Languages.
Most Europeans speak more than one language, and they do it with remarkable ease. People frequently know a little English, even if they pretend otherwise! Signs are written in several languages, and nobody seems to be particularly insecure about protecting their linguistic preferences.
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This is the subject for another blog, but it definitely belongs on our “best of Europe” list. While we were in London, we got used to "minding the gap" between the train and the platform . . . every city, however, seems to have a mass transit system, and the networks of tunnels are absolutely everywhere. Rail travel is easy, it is clean, and it takes trillions of people off the roads. The USA needs to get on board this train!
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Ten Exhausting Days

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We have returned from ten days of traveling through Germany and Scandinavia – and it’s pretty difficult to give you a snappy summary of all the things that we saw! We managed to follow the plans we originally made, and it was quite a remarkable adventure.
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Most of the trip went smoothly – Allyson lost a pair of jeans in our Munich hostel, and we lost Caroline for a few minutes, before we even left Vienna – but our trains were almost always on time, our lodgings were consistently nice, and none of our stuff was stolen.
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Life on the train.m

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We rode eighteen trains (for an approximate total of 68 hours), visited four countries, worked with four different currencies, and spent more money than we care to report. We had a lot of sunshine, a couple of rainy days, and a few hours of snow. By the time we reached Vienna, we were exhausted and glad to be “home!”
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Keith's first snowball of the season, near Myrdal, Norway.m

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Favorite moments would include the Neuschwanstein Castle (Germany), a riverboat tour from Mainz to St. Goar (Germany), and a long walk through the city of Copenhagen. The grownups really enjoyed the scenic train ride across Norway, and we all enjoyed the Viking ship museum in Oslo. Favorite meals would certainly include the Hard Rock Café in Copenhagen!

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A lot of our travel information came from Rick Steves, but he didn’t prepare us for everything . . .
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Top 10 True Things That Rick Steves Did Not Tell Us:
10. Old bicycles never die – they go to Scandinavia. m
9. It is impossible to walk a straight line down a European sidewalk.
8. European universities don’t understand the importance of T-shirts.
7. True to stereotypes, Scandinavia has a bunch of blonde men named Sven, Lars, and Thor.
6. Denmark is officially sponsored by 7-Eleven.
5. It is good to preview the channels your children can watch in their German hotel room.
4. You should not expect to enjoy a foreign city until you have been there for at least an hour.
3. Scandinavian restaurants understand the importance of ketchup.
2. If your child is unable to squeeze into a train, it will leave her standing on the platform.
1. Ten days of family togetherness is probably too much.

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Bicycles in Copenhagen - a common sight!m

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We took over a thousand pictures, and we will try to get them organized before Christmas. For now, we are preparing to take another thousand or so, as we leave Vienna (on Friday) for another ten days – this time to Italy. If everything goes as planned, we will be visiting Rome, Florence, Pisa, and Venice. More on that later!
mAnother view of Copenhagen, on a really pretty day!m

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Planning a Ten-Day

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Tomorrow afternoon, we will be launching into a new kind of adventure: the "Ten-Day Free Travel."
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"Free," you should know, does not refer to the financial aspects of the experience . . . it simply suggests that we are liberated from normal time constraints, and we can travel wherever we please. It sounds pretty cool, and it is pretty cool -- but it takes a lot of planning.
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Why so complicated? Well, we are making plans for five people, and we are dealing with various currencies (and fluctuating exchange rates). We have Eurail passes, but they have lots of different products . . . some trains need reservations, and some do not; in some trains, "first class" is truly first class . . . and in other cases, it means something else! We need to find a balance between doing too much and doing too little, and we are trying to avoid long, uninterrupted stretches of traveling. We are also trying to decide which sites need to be seen while the leaves are still changing, and which sites need to be seen before the weather gets unreasonably cold. We need to visit some really interesting places (to satisfy the girls), and some really boring historical places (to satisfy Keith). And, on top of everything else, we are dealing with various languages and we are trying to save as much money as possible. It's a lot to figure out!
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Our students are required to make detailed itineraries. They must give us train schedules, housing accommodations (with contact phone numbers), and sightseeing plans. It isn't easy to do! Sponsors can afford to be less structured, but we cannot afford to fly by the seat of our pants . . . that would be very expensive, and we don't want to be stranded in the northern wastelands of Norway. So . . . Barbara has taken the lead: she has done the research, made the inquiries, and secured the reservations. Keith has made helpful suggestions. At the moment, our plans look a little like this:

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October 16: Vienna to Munich

October 17: Newschwanstein Castle

October 18: Munich to Mainz

October 19: Rhine River tour (depart for overnight train ride to Copenhagen)

October 20-21: Copenhagen (depart for overnight train to Oslo)

October 22: Oslo

October 23: "Norway in a Nutshell" fjord tour

October 24: Oslo to Copenhagen

October 25: Copenhagen to Munich

October 26: Munich to Vienna

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That seems like enough. We are planning another one in November, and we hope to visit Paris. For now, though, we are getting excited about Scandinavia, and we look forward to making a report when it's all said and done!

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Buda and Pest

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The Huey family spent this past weekend in Budapest, Hungary. There are actually two cities: Buda sits on the south side of the Danube, and Pest on the north. We stayed in Buda, because . . . let's face it . . . who wants to sleep in a place called "Pest?"
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Our first impressions were not very charming. As we stepped off the train on Friday, we immediately started to search for a honest money-changer, and we were besieged with men asking, "Taxi? Taxi?" We eventually got some tickets for the "173" bus, which groaned and gasped its way downtown. From there, we decided to walk the rest of the way to our hotel, which proved to be much further than we had anticipated!

Top: a view of the city from the Citadel; bottom: a view of the Parliament, from Buda Castle (all photos by Caroline).
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From that moment onward, however, things began to get better. Compared with Vienna, the city seems rather poor, and some of the prettiest sites are marred with graffiti. Nonetheless, its topography and its buildings are truly extraordinary: on Saturday we visited Buda Castle, and we passed by St. Matthias Church and the Parliament building. We stopped to see Margit híd (Margaret Island), and we especially enjoyed a nighttime view of the lighted city-scape.

A view from the front of Dohany Street Synagogue.

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On Sunday we got a tour of the Dohany Street Synagogue, the largest (and surely the most beautiful) synagogue in all of Europe. It is really quite stunning, and it does not have all the scaffolding that seems to be obligatory for impressive European landmarks!

Left: the Holocaust Memorial Tree; Right: closeup on the leaves of the tree.

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On Sunday morning we visited with the Church of Christ near Moszkva Square, and we enjoyed meeting Curry Montague, who is the minister there. We also looked through the guest book and discovered the names of Jeff & Pattie Simmons, Larry & Kay Norman, and Jim & Caye Randolph. It was nice to see familiar names, and it was a relief to know that they were going to church when they were here last fall.

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Left: Annika poses with a lion at Buda Castle; Right: the girls visit a fountain on Margit híd.

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So far, we haven't seen a place in Europe that we didn't like . . . let's see how long we can keep saying that!
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The Finest Art in All of Europe

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We knew, when we came to Europe, that we would be overwhelmed by the art that we would see here . . . and we have not been disappointed! There are hundreds of galleries around town, and many are owned and operated by the same curators. We have learned to respect Anker, Ideenbackerie, Der Mann, and other such institutions, and we keep coming back, day after day.
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Space does not permit a full description of each individual Stück. For the moment, we will introduce you to a few of our favorite masterpieces. In many cases, these pieces were produced anonymously, an obvious tribute to the modesty of their creators. Nonetheless, we will try to give you the best information we have.

We begin with a work entitled "Choco-Croissant." It is a variation on a medieval French tradition, but it betrays an unmistakable Swiss influence. Since the 19th century, this theme has been used to signify warmth, good health, and olfactory ecstasy. In this picture, you can see a dark swatch ("Choco") in the lower-righthand corner - it sits resolutely, and indicates something sedentary. -- Next, we have a famous work entitled "Sacher Torte," which was created in 1832. Notice the bold triangular lines, with soft and subtle stripes that lead one's eye toward a fork. As we look at this spectacle, we are left with a strong sense of incompleteness, as though we might be looking at the mere fraction of a larger whole. Notice also the small medallion, which, when viewed very closely, reveals the image of a fat guy reclining in a chair. -- Finally, we have one of Keith's personal favorites. It is the "Apfelstrudel," and is a traditional Viennese classic. You can see how the light plays across the top, with a slight suggestion of Alpine ruggedness. Darker, mottled layers move horizontally through the middle, symbolizing fruitfulness, sweetness, and the absence of motion. The light and whimsical mood is somewhat illusory, and becomes rather heavy with later reflection. m
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We have enjoyed these treasures, and we have been pretty focused on finding as many as possible. From what we gather, they are disappearing daily, from galleries all around town! If you have no other reason to visit Vienna, you should visit for the sake of the artwork -- and you should come soon.
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Weekend in Croatia

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When people talk about vacation spots in Europe, they rarely talk about Croatia. We didn't know what to expect when we visited this past weekend -- it was sort of a mystery destination.
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What a pleasant discovery! We had a wonderful ride through Slovenia, and found Croatia to be a beautiful place. We did not visit the coast, and we never managed to see the Plitvice National Park; those are, however, reputed to be incredibly scenic. We are very tempted to try to make a return visit, before the semester has ended.
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We had four groups of students, and we each went to different cities. The Huey family went to Zapresic, which is located on the west side of the capital city of Zagreb. Ivan Tesic is the minister for the Zapresic congregation, and our students helped with a "VBS" event in that congregation. We also visited an orphanage, and Keith preached on Sunday morning.
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The Zapresic congregation is very small, with approximately 20-25 members. Their building, however, is very nice, and it is designed to hold many more! It was interesting to talk with Ivan, and to get his impressions about the state of the church in his city. His ministry is obviously difficult (and frequently discouraging), but he is very passionate about the work he is doing.
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On Friday, we had a chance to see the city of Zagreb, and Caroline celebrated her 14th birthday! We were very excited to find a Hard Rock Cafe in the heart of the city . . . but we were disappointed to discover that the Cafe is currently closed for remodeling. In any event, we had a good time, and Caroline turned 14 anyway.

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Zagreb is a very interesting city, and it was fun to wander and explore for awhile. We visited with Vlado Psenko at the Downtown Church of Christ, and we saw the library for the Institute for Biblical Studies. We also met Mislav Ilic, from the Kuslanova congregation, where the Institute is actually housed. It was good to see the work that they are doing, and to meet some of the people they have taught.

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In just a few days, Ivan will come to the United States to visit with his sponsoring congregations. They are mostly in Texas and in Colorado, but he would be delighted to hear from anybody, in any part of the country. If you ever try to think of a special place to visit, or a mission location to support . . . be sure to think of Croatia!

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Evil in a Pretty Place

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1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. - Matthew 7:1-5

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The Mauthausen concentration camp sits halfway between Vienna and Salzburg, and, during Hitler's regime, it was the final destination for thousands of prisoners from various locations around Southern Europe. Jews, of course, were among the victims, but many others were imprisoned, for a wide variety of political reasons. It is a sobering place to visit, and its museum portrays the cruelties that were committed there.

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We went there last week (September 30). As we approached the camp, it was difficult to imagine that THIS could be the site for such atrocities: Mauthasen is a pretty, rural town on the Danube River, and even the camp itself looks rather benign, like a castle on a hill. Behind the walls, however, we saw the barracks, the gas chamber, the crematorium, and the mass graves. Evil things can be found, it would seem, in the most unlikely places.

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In a place like Mauthausen, a person is naturally led to ask some serious questions. Most important, perhaps, is this one: how could so many people get themselves involved with something so horrible? This question is particularly haunting when we consider that the SS guards were largely church-going, hard-working, family men . . . and they frequently committed their crimes with absolutely clear consciences. Once again: evil things can be found, it would seem, in the most unlikely places.

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How did it all happen? That is a question for the ages, perhaps, but one thing is sure: these people were entangled in the subtle web of "Christian nationalism," and they were unable to recognize the conflicts between Christ and Führer, cross and flag.

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So . . . we judge them to be evil. Jesus warns us, though, to be careful about judgements, because we, too, are susceptible to the allure of evil. In fact, we might discover that our sins are even greater than the sins that we condemn! If we refuse to confess that reality, then we are treading on dangerous ground. That is a difficult concept to swallow, but it one of the lessons of Mauthausen . . . and of Matthew 7:1-5.

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