photo time.

we finally got a chance to upload some photos, taking advantage of our host's computer here in Dubrovnik. our cards have been filled and dumped about 7 times, so there were way too many to choose from. unforunately we don't even feel these are the absolute best, but a couple of them are favorites. these were selected to give you a tiny taste of what we've been doing and the places we've been in the past few weeks.

trust me, when we get home we'll have tons and tons and tons to show you!



the sun setting over the coast of San Sebastian, Spain



paris at night! enjoying the Eiffel Tower  light show at 1 am.



the glorious fall colors as we rode the classic Golden Pass railroad across Switzerland




detour through the woods, riding bikes around Bern, Switzerland






the view from Gimmelwald, Switzerland! 17.10.10




the view from Gimmelwald, Switzerland! 18.17.10




taking advantage of the sunny day.




buying chocolate in Switzerland! (we got 6 bars)




the gate to Dachau, a concentration camp outside Munich. it reads: Work Brings Freedom.




actual photo, not a postcard! Neuschwanstein Castle, southern Germany.




is it too early to celebrate Christmas? it feels like December here! so we enjoyed the beautiful Christmas ornaments crafted in Salzburg, Austria.




Salzburg at night. Home to Mozart, and full of lederhosen.




the view of Dubrovnik, Croatia from the city walls.




windy day in Croatia!








looking down the wall, over the coast.





hope that was fun! we'll post more when we can.

Days 28-42: Paris, L´Abri, Swiss Alps, Munich, Salzburg

there´s no way we can summarize all of these days. but, we´ll do our best to give you an update on our travel lately! it´s been an amazing time, and blogging has been hindered by expensive internet and the inability to load photos on internet cafe computers. but here we go!

*we updated the settings so you can comment without needing a blogger account. sorry, we didn´t know it was set up like that! please comment!!

okay...Paris.
everyone seriously walks around holding baguettes. and lots of them have little dogs.
Sophie ate three crepes in two days. (and Jared helped)
Petite Ecolier are the best cookies we´ve found so far.
our priciest purchase was macarons from the original bakery on the Champs Elysees.
we ate at a restaurant where they filmed Inglorious Basterds. they don´t advertise this, it was just recommended to us by a local for the food. and it was delicious.
Aunt Debby saved us by hooking us up with her friends apartment as a place to stay. in conversation later we voted Debby a hero of the trip. (tied with Marte Samuelstuen for upcoming Prague and India connections!)
we ate picnics at the Eiffel Tower...twice. and then we went back to watch the lightshow at 1 am. beautiful.
Sophie got a haircut. she failed at using very good French at the salon, but luckily it still came out great.

Switzerland.
the keyboards switch the Y and Z in German speaking places, aka Swityerland, Munich, and Salyburg for us.
we stayed at L´Abri for 3 nights. we loved it. check out the place here: http://www.labri.org/swiss/index.html
the view was incredible...but it was covered by clouds, so we have to trust what people say. but it was still an incredible location nonetheless.
We worked half the day and studied half the day, with formal discussions over lunch and hangouts at night. Super welcoming people and best food ever. We would go back if given the chance!

Let´s play Switzerland word association: chocolate, cheese, cheese smell, EXPENSIVE, cows on road, green fields, base jumpers, Swiss flags, wood piles, garden gnomes, cows on hills, snow on Alps, Asian tourists, puppet theatre, bears.

the Lauterbrunnen Valley felt like Yosemite valley surrounded by rock cliffs and too many water falls to count. (Actually, Rick Steves said there are 72 -Sophie)
We ate fondue and other cheese foods, rode cable cars up to tiny villages, and wandered the area. It was a great relaxing stop.

Germany.
let´s start with the word association...beer, beer halls, bratwurst, and people wearing lederhosen. It´s everywhere. Bavaria (the southern province of Germany where we were) started brewing beer in the 1300s. Munich means 'monk' because the monks founded the city and invented beer for the purpose of sustaining through long fasts. the city is very proud of their culture and their food/drink products.
we´ve had some amazing pork products and some of the best pretzels in the world. Sophie even enjoyed the meat.
Munich is full of Nazi history. we saw the hall where the Nazi party got a big start and Hitler gained power, then we walked the route of an important march.
Couchsurfing. we had our first surfing experience with a very proud Bavarian named Michael. he was full of helpful information for making the best of our stay in Munich. it was a crazy experience. we´re excited to tell stories when we get home.
for a day trip we went to Neuschwanstein castle, the castle Disney modeled his Sleeping Beauty castle after. we were surprised by the snow there, but it mixed beautifully with fall colors. and we ate fried dough balls with sugar...might be better than State Fair mini donuts! it was a wonderful day trip with great photos.

Salzburg.
we came here planning to spend one night, and now we´re here for a couple! it turned into a relaxing weekend.
Mozart was born here and they are VERY proud of it. we went to church today where he was baptized and was later the organist.
we found the best chocolate shop we´ve ever seen.
we followed a Rick Steves walking tour to see the Old Town, and stumbled into a few places playing  jazz for the weekend jazz festival.
it feels like Christmas is around the corner with chilly weather and Christmas decor stores.
in an attempt to see a dance performance in a dance festival, we attended what turned out to be an installation with some speeches and readings, all in German. maybe being able to read the festival program in German would have prevented us from being 2 of the 5 audience members, watching a 6 person performance. hahaha.

after lots of research and internet catch up, we´ve figured out some route details. We head to Croatia next! we´re excited to see some of Eastern Europe. we´ll be making our way back up to some other countries in Europe before heading to India. we have 2 weeks left of European adventure.

we love you. keep praying for us. Go Giants.
Jared and Sophie Callahan

quick update from the Swiss Alps!

hello everyone!

just as we said to ourselves, hey we should update the blog more often, we landed in Switzerland, where internet costs 12 dollars an hour!! yikes.

but we are loving it here, even in the cold and clouds. the Swiss towns are so charming.

Paris was epic. we ate so much food...crepes, chicken, duck, hot chocolate, pastries, and bread bread bread. basically all we did was wander the city and eat. it was fantastic.

L'Abri was absolutely fantastic. we stayed for 3 nights and instantly felt like we were part of the family. we both wished we could have stayed longer. we studied and worked in chalets in the mountains, and sat around discussing books, life, and playing card games with everyone.

now we are in Lauterbrunnen/Gimmelwald/Interlaken area. hopefully we can update when we get to Germany, if internet turns out to be affordable. we head to Munich tomorrow.

we love you all! write comments or emails and tell us how you're doing. we would love to hear from you!

Sophie and Jared

Days 24-27: Taize, France

bonjour! we arrived at Taize after a sleepless night of travel. we are about to train to Paris, but with some free time we came to check email, baseball scores, and update for all of you. this computer is terrible...please forgive the terrible typing.

Taize is a monastery in France. Brothers live here year round and people come from all over to spend a day, a week, or months here. look up taize.fr.

to sum up our time here, Jared said this morning, "I feel like all we've done here is eat, pray, and love." Hahaha. it's a pretty good summary though. we've had lots of bread and chocolate (Sophie is thrilled). we spend time in  common prayer services three times a day. and we've met lots of interesting people on their journeys here.

we attended a great seminar on the eucharist led by a brother. there has been a lot of singing in different languages. sophie is grateful for all her times in Catholic mass and that she took french...it's helped! we have had a lot of down time, so we both read a ton. Jared finished "extremely loud and incredibly close" and Sophie read "traveling mercies" by  Anne Lamott.

we're off to 2 days in Paris, then Switzerland where we are going to L'Abri. we'll update again when we come.

avec amour,

soph & jared

"we played volleyball" - frans from sweden (on how he helped grow the young adult group up from 2 in his church of 300)

Days 13-23: Portugal and Spain

Portugal is EPIC! (This is Jared typing this entry, if you couldn't already tell, haha!).  Anyways, we flew in Lisbon as the sun came up over the city.  The taxi ride to the pension was amazing.  The city has a young trendy vibe amongst buildings and streets that have been paved since Christ.  There are cute tiny little yellow tram cars that cart tourists and locals alike up and down the winding hilly streets. 

Lisbon, Portugal

Tomb of Vasco De Gama.

We saw lots of the city's sites. We visited an old cloister and saw the tomb of Vasco de Gama.  It was crazy to be standing three feet from the grave of a man who literally changed the world. My favorite moment of the day was the old castle that was out apparently floating on the sea... 

Sophie's favorite was the pasteries made in the same shop with the same recipe since 1837. So good. We met some fun people and had a great time in our neighborhood, Barrio Alto.

Then we took off to the South.  We trained to Salema, a forgotten little fishing village about 15 miles from where all the backpackers land in Lagos.  We stayed with a cute old couple named Francesca and something that started with an "A". {Sophie says - "I think it was a version of Josue. Apparently female names are easier since Francesca only learned mine as well"). As it turned out, we were the only Americans in the town.  The beaches here are gorgeous.   We have done a lot of resting, exploring, and eating.

This is the best churro ever. It was stuffed with Nutella.

The beaches in Lagos were gorgeous as well. This is Sophie trying to skip rocks.{Sophie says - "Jared is really good. I am not."}. It was a relaxing day in a town we didn't expect to see. We met some other fun travelers and even ran into someone from PLNU... small world.

Sophie looking for perfect skipping rocks.

We rode the night train to Spain, doing a full day and night of travel to get to my favorite city, San Sebastian. Even with the super windy first day, Sophie could see why I love it. It's got the perfect mix of beach and European style, historic old buildings and great beach/surf culture. The next two days were perfect and sunny. Apparently this is the week of food tourism...we ate sandwiches at Jared's favorite shop, dark chocolate chunks, croissants, and tried multiple gelato flavors.

The best news that traveled overseas to us is that both our baseball teams made it to the playoffs! Go Giants and Twins!

We're off to Taize to spend a few days in the monastery. We hope it is a time of growth and rest. We really want to add more pictures, but internet cafes aren't the easiest place to upload a couple choice pics from our thousands of options. We'll do our best, but the photos to show you when we get back will blow your mind.  I wish you could see some of these things now.

We love you all and will post again as we can. 

- Jared & Sophie