Imagine the most lavishly decorated house you can. Now triple it, and you will have some idea of what Versailles Palace is like. Famous as the last residence of Marie Antoinette, Versailles Palace is overwhelming in it's oppulence. After only a few rooms, my eyes and mind could take in no more. The over-abundance of paintings, decorative molding, the gilt, the staues...The rooms went on and on. The hall of mirrors was impressive, but Marie Antoinette's room was the most impressive. Every surface was covered, the bed and it's hangings were fantastic, but, of course, its big draw was fact that it was Marie Antoinette's. They had the door that she escaped through the night Versailles was attacked open. In order to truly appreciate the splendor of Versailles, one would probably have to spend a few ... read more

This year for Thanksgiving, Deb, Jane, and I rose very early, almost as if we were going to make a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, but instead we hopped on a flight to Munich and trained down to Salzburg before lunch time to partake in a wonderful Advent/Christmas tradition: outdoor Christmas Markets. Once we had dumped our bags at the hotel, we headed towards the old city of Salzburg, below the looming fortress and surrounded by churches. In between the Residence and the Dom (the main church/cathedral) were the main Salzburg Christmas markets. Thus began our shopping tour. Luckily for us, if not the Austrian economy, we are not really impulse shoppers - the only thing I bought as soon as I saw it was the candied almonds. After meandering around the markets for a while, we got ... read more

Our first long weekend of the year! And off to Slovenia we traipsed! After a long bus ride Friday night down to Skopje - where we had wonderful hot chocolate cake - and a very early morning - our flight was at 5:30 - we flew off to Slovenia. Within an hour of landing we had eaten breakfast, rented our car and were almost to our first stop, the Postojna caves. In Slovenia, there are over 10,000 caves, but Postojna's are probably the most advertised. The Postojna caves lie underneath the castle, and there are 21 kilometers of caves. They were discovered by a local man in 1818 and have been open since for tourists to view. In 1872, the railway was installed in the caves, and in 1884, a full nine years before the capital ... read more

Today, the fifth through eighth grades went on a field trip to Novo Brdo. Only about an hour outside of Prishtina is a landscape of rolling hills topped by an ancient fortress, the ruins of which were once built and occupied by the Ottomans. Once a teaming metropolis - an old saying says that a cat could walk for 13 kilometers without its feet ever touching the ground - Novo Brdo is now quiet and unoccupied. Our guide, Fitim, explained the history and showed us around the fortress and the ruins of the cathedral. All of the students loved the scenery and couldn't believe that this place was so close to Prishtina and none of them had been there. The rock of the fortress was interesting as some of it - called simply red stone for ... read more

With the Kosova Constitution Day holiday, Deb, Jane, Cate, and I decided to be adventurous, rent a car, and drive to Budva, Montenegro for some sun, sand, and seafood. Since all the vehicles here, or the majority at any rate, are manual instead of automatic, this gave us pause, but, luckily for us, Cate is an expert stick-shift driver. We cruised out of Prishtina right after school on Friday the 8th and headed south. We made it through Kosova fine, but ran into trouble almost as soon as we entered Albania. Imagine that you are going on a road trip. You have your map, snacks, clothes for the weekend. Your car is full or friends and laughter. Every time the road turns or splits or divides you see, as you would expect, road signs telling you ... read more