Remember, at this point in the trip, I'm running off of less than 4 1/2 hours of sleep and have been awake for 12 hours when our plane takes off. All nine of us are now officially on our way to Dusseldorf, Germany. Despite our lack of sleep the night before (no one on our team could sleep), we are all feeling pretty energetic and excited at this point.
I have flown across seas only one other time in my life and it was miserable (the first mission trip to Slovenia). I couldn't sleep on the plane and I got extremely frustrated. I started to cry because all I wanted to do was sleep (I even drank some complimentary wine to help me fall asleep). I didn't even watch a movie the entire flight because I had intentions of reading my Bible and sleeping. This didn't work. Knowing all of this, I went into this flight with no intentions of sleeping. Becky, BJ, and I all started watching Cloud Atlas at around the same time. At about 45 minutes, I turned it off because it was too disturbing for me. I watched Legally Blonde instead. haha. It definitely passed the time.
At some point on the flight, I don't know when, I got to thinking about camp. Excitement totally overwhelmed me. I couldn't stop thinking about seeing the students that I was going to see again and the new students I was going to meet. I was flipping out. I then realized that there was a problem. I saw that my zeal for seeing the students was greater than my zeal for God and telling the students about Him. Not that being excited to see the students was wrong, but when it surpasses God, I'm in dangerous territory. I then spent a good 30 minutes asking God to change my heart attitude, to make my desire be for Him alone. I prayed for His movement at camp and for students to come to see Him. Boy, did He honor that prayer! More on that later!
After our long (8 hours) and extremely boring (except for 30 minutes) plane flight, we landed in Germany. From there we flew to Vienna, Austria. It's about 10 a.m. in Austria when we land. So at this point, we are running off of about 4 1/2 hours of sleep and have been awake for almost 24 hours. We went to our hotel before we could check in and dropped our luggage off. Then we walked to a nearby restaurant and got lunch. Here, exhaustion set in. All I wanted to do was go to our hotel room, get a shower, and sleep. After eating "wiener schnitzel," Josh, Bobby, Sam, Jesse, and I all went back to the hotel to take showers while Becky, BJ, Kiara, and Tori went sightseeing. The shower totally reinvigorated our group and we went out sightseeing as well. The best part was seeing St. Stephen's Cathedral. It was absolutely amazing and breathtaking. The other group saw a ginormous palace. After a long day of sightseeing, we all got pizza and went to our rooms and passed out at about 8:30 pm. That means, Josh and I were awake for 34 hours when we went to bed (with only of 4 1/2 of sleep before that). To say we were tired would be an understatement.
Do you have any travel stories where you had to be awake for over 24 hours? Leave a comment!
-Ashley
(This is the Vienna State Opera [Wiener Staatsoper] House.)
(I took this picture from the restaurant where we ate lunch.)
(Jesse, Bobby, Becky, and B.J. trying to stay awake at lunch.)
(Sam and Josh looking tired.)
(Graffiti everywhere!)
(Cool looking architecture everywhere too.)
(Statues...)
(statues...)
(statues...)
(and more statues.)
(The highlight of our day, St. Stephen's Cathedral!)
(Another view...)
(Proof that we were there!)
(Josh and I "looking candid" in front of a fountain.)
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