Madrid!! Finally!!!

So after all of this travel, I finally arrived in Madrid and met my study abroad group. I can’t say that the first two hours in Spain gave me a good start. From the time my plane landed to the time the ISA shuttle left was about an hour and a half. That should have given me plenty of time. Sadly, my morning just did not run that smoothly. I always place all of my electronics in my carry on, which means that my backpack is always pulled aside to be searched. I suppose that two camera cords, two camera chargers, a computer cord, a Zune charger, a battery charger and something like 20 different adapters (Every possible adapter for my computer and a handful for my non apple electronics) would look pretty suspicious in an X-ray machine. It doesn’t really bother me and it doesn’t take that long for them to look in it and decide I can’t make a bomb with it. However, this time I had decided to put my pick up information in my backpack. Do you see where this is going? Yup, when I got to Madrid I discovered that all of my travel documents were missing. Damn security people. I was lucky in that I remembered which terminal I was supposed to meet them in but I couldn’t remember the directions to the terminal, or where at in the terminal. But I had no choice but to wing it. However, it took British Airways over an hour to unload our luggage. At this point, I’m going oh crap. Once I got my bags, I basically ran to the bus stop that would take me to the right terminal. That stupid bus stopped a dozen times before finally dropping me off ten minutes before ISA left. I should have made that damn shuttle but my sleep deprived brain couldn’t figure out how to get to the arrivals area. I wandered up and down the first floor for the longest time looking for my group. By the time I finally figured out that a staircase going down usually means there is another floor, it was too late. So I missed the shuttle. Luckily, I had my hotel information and the number for a private shuttle bus. All I had to do was call them right? Sure, no problem. Now if only I could have figured out how to work the pay phones. I can’t even use the excuse that the instructions were in Spanish because I could read the instructions just fine. I just couldn’t get it to work. I punched the code for a coin call, inserted money and then . . . nothing. Over and over again. I probably spent a good twenty minutes trying to get the pay phone to work and when I finally gave up, I was almost in tears. Seriously, I wanted to go back to British Airways and beg them to take me back. I was done with Spain. Eventually, I decided to break down and pay the ten euros for the internet at the airport and email ISA for help. I asked someone for directions to an area that had chairs (most of the airport didn’t) and then promptly got lost. (Hey, it’s been a while since I had a conversation in Spanish!) Finally I just gave up and sat down against a wall, unpacked my computer and . . . found out the internet was down. 

I’m not making any of this up. All of this really happened.

Thankfully, just before I completely lost it, I looked over and saw a kiosk for the same shuttle service that ISA gave me the number for. At that point I just had to laugh. What else could I do? So it all turned out fine. I paid an arm and a leg for a shuttle and got to my hotel in about an hour. Well worth the days worth of food I will now not be able to buy. 

I took a nap, woke up and met my new roommate. We went to our first orientation meeting which was ridiculously boring. They actually made us read aloud the safety information from our handbook. I got it the first time I read it three months ago, and again when they sent it to us in our student portal. And then again when they gave us our handbooks. Come on people! 

After we finally finished our meeting, Meagan (my roommate) and I went out to explore and to find dinner. We ended up at this dinner where we both ordered a bacon and cheese sandwich and a beer. Mostly because we clearly understood what we would be getting and we weren't feeling particularly adventurous at the moment. The sandwich was yummy but the beer was disgusting. Bleck! We had ordered some beer con Limon because we figured it would be sort of like bud light lime. Not even close. It tasted like they mixed super sweet lemonade with lemoncello and then topped it off with an inch of beer. Sweet, sour and bitter just doesn’t work so well. After dinner we decided to risk getting lost and just walk around. 

It’s weird. Last year in Costa Rica, I was terrified of getting lost. This year, I look forward to it. After we were completely turned around and didn’t even know which direction our hotel was, we just asked a police officer how to get back. It sounds simple but since it was all in spanish, it was mostly just comical. We managed to ask for our hotel just fine, but then the officer started speaking really fast so we just nodded and hoped that the other person understood. That worked until he asked us a question and we just nodded and said Si. Then we realized that he had asked us what street our hotel was on. So we looked like idiots but I'm used to that!

Back to London :(

We left on Tuesday to head back to London (All together now . . . Awwwwww!) but we had one country left to check out on our way. We stopped for a few hours in Bruges for a walk around town, lunch and later a chocolate factory. The chocolate factory was completely wasted on me as I didn’t even try the free samples but most people came out with bulging bags that must have weighed 20 pounds. Then they complained about how it wouldn’t fit in their suitcases so they were going to have to eat most of it before their flight back home. Man, life is tough on the road. :)

Famous square in Bruges 

The US flag!

My lunch in Bruges. No way was I not going to get a waffle!

My Belgium Taco. Was more like a curry hot pocket. Deep fried.

I love these fork/knives. Genius! 

Ketchup flavored chips. BTW, they are Disgusting! 

On the Ferry back to the UK

When we finally got to London and unloaded our bags it was like a mass free for all of goodbye hugs. Everyone was running around making sure that they got one last goodbye in. I was lucky because my favorite people and I were going to meet for dinner after we stashed our bags at our different hotels so I got to postpone the drama of “I’m never going to see you agaaaaaaain.” A friend from the group lent me his extra phone so I could use google map if I got lost on my way to the hostel. When I first heard that he had two Iphones, I had created this theory that one was for his numerous girlfriends while the other was for everyone else but he assured me that one provider has better rates for the international calls to his family in India while the other has better rates for in country calls. Personally, I prefer my theory. Either way, I managed to make it to my hostel without it, mostly because I didn’t have a free hand to pull it out of my purse. Numerous flights of stairs, three tube changes, and a four block walk with my luggage must have left me looking rather rough because the first thing the employee at the hostel asked me when I walked in was “Would you like me to get you a glass of water?” Which rather deflated my “I’m a total badass that can handle anything.” ego. Oh well. 

I met up with the rest of my friends and found out that half of them had decided that dinner wasn’t as important as a bed. So I didn’t have to say goodbye at all. I’m kind of glad that for a few of them, I got a see ya later instead of goodbye because goodbyes are exhausting.

The group that stuck around were all from India although none of them actually live in India anymore. Once they discovered that I had never really eaten Indian food before they decided that we had to go to the Indian area of London and enlighten me to the joy of Indian cuisine. So we did. They chose the menu and then I tried a little of everything. Oh man, I ate so much it hurt to breath. They wanted me to try something from every different area of India which equaled a lot of food. I was full before we even got through the appetizers. Which might have been because they ordered at least three but it might have been four. I lost count. We talked about the Indian culture and how it changed for them since they moved to the US or England and all kinds of stuff. At some point, I made a comment and then said “what am I, the only white person here?” We looked around and almost died laughing. I WAS the only white person in the entire restaurant. At the back of the restaurant there was a mirror and all I could see was brown, brown, brown . . . blinding white me, and more brown. And when I went outside, I was the only white person I saw as well. I thought it was great. Once I stopped laughing, I just shrugged and said “Welcome to the minority Brittany” and kept eating. 

We got done eating around midnight and all of us hopped back on the tube. We made it through a couple changes before we realized that all of them would be getting off before me, leaving me at 12:30 am alone on the London streets. (Mary breath! I’m alive enough to write this aren't I?) One of the guys offered to walk me to my hostel and I gave it serious thought before realizing that midnight at home is different than midnight here. That sounds like it doesn’t make any sense but it does. There were hundreds of people still on the tube, security guards all over the place and on the street, shops and restaurants were still open and people were everywhere. It also helped that I only had to go two more stops and my hostel was less that 200 feet from the tube station with a security guard at the entrance! ^_^ It took me less than a minute to walk. And once I got to my hostel, there were about 25 women in pajama’s, sitting on picnic tables and talking. Midnight really is different in London. 

When I woke up the next day, I wanted to sing and dance. For the first time in 12 days, I was alone. No one to talk to, no plans. Just me. Until one of the guys from my group wrote me on facebook asking to meet with me that morning so he could steal the pictures that his camera had eaten. Luckily, I had copied his memory card to my computer for the Toga Party pictures. I didn’t have the pictures from after that of course but at least he got a ton back. And I got a free breakfast out of it. So it wasn’t too terrible to give up my morning of solitude. But the rest of the day was mine! I checked out of the hostel and had them store my bags. Then I just walked around. I started out in the direction of a further away tube station, planning on discovering if it had less stairs for my return trip with my suitcases but before I got there I discovered the London Eye. From there, I walked across the bridge to Big Ben and then went on to the Buckingham Palace. I loved it. When I got hot, I stepped into a gift shop and stole some AC while I read a children's book “Does the Queen wear a crown to bed.” When I was hungry, I stopped at a store and bought some food and ate it in St James Park. Then I randomly decided to walk through Hyde Park to my last hostel and see if they still had the book I had left there. (It’s been haunting me. I want to know what happens Damn it!) They had found it but unfortunately, one of the staff members had borrowed it and he wasn’t there. Bummer. Eventually, I went back to the hostel to play on the internet until it was time to leave for the airport. The tube line that I had planned on taking was down due to who knows what and since the other options either had a billion stairs and no lift, or cost me a million dollars, I tried to wait it out. One benefit to spending the night in an airport is that even if you leave two hours later than you planned, you’re still not going to miss your plane. However, after a while, I gave up on the easy way and headed out anyway. 

Buckingham Palace

The soy sauce that came with my sushi!

My picnic in the park

This woman was meditating or something.
She stood there humming the entire time I was there

Once I got to the airport, I picked a spot next to a charging center, plugged in my computer and skyped Jesse for three hours. Then I locked my laptop in my backpack and locked my backpack to my chair and slept for a couple hours until it was time to check in for my flight. For all that I was freaking out at the idea of crashing at an airport, it wasn’t that bad. There were always people around. Another girl on her own set up shop on the other side of the outlet and there were families and groups of friends huddled around too. It kind of reminded me of camping. The worst part of it was that since I was traveling by myself I had to bring my luggage with me to the bathroom and risk losing my spot. So I held it. My bladder might vie with my computer for hating me but I survived just fine. 

Holland and a not very interesting Amsterdam story

Leaving from Boppard was hard. We all knew that we had only one more night before the end of our tour and none of us was ready for it to be over. Not to mention, when you spend 18 hours a day with someone, you are basically forced to become close. Otherwise, there’d be a bus full of dead bodies. It’s like a crash course on friendship. I think we were all dreading arriving in Amsterdam, simply because it was our last night. 

On our way through through Holland we tried to fit as much in as we could. We stopped at a million wooden windmills for pictures and visited this little tourist town for souvenirs.

Windmills!

Wooden Shoe Museum

 For the first time since coming to Europe, I shopped. For myself. On purpose. And then I spent the next hour feeling guilty. Obviously, I’ve got problems. 

See, I have a shopping bag!

After my shopping spree we hopped back on the bus and headed for a little sea town for lunch. I had sea food of course. We also absolutely had to take off our shoes and roll up our pants to walk in the ocean. Even though it was freezing! Of course, we took pictures of that too. Are you noticing a theme here? My computer may never forgive me once I finish uploading all of these pictures. 

Later we went to a cheese and wooden clog factory. Apparently, they use the shavings from the shoe making to smoke the cheese. How convenient. I really wanted to buy some cheese for my mom and little clogs for my niece but I’d then have to carry it around for 5 more weeks, so I resisted. It was hard. Wouldn’t Hannah look adorable in some little wooden painted shoes? 

We finally arrived in Amsterdam just in time to get ready for dinner. Basically everyone under the age of thirty decided that we should stay out after our walking tour and see what Amsterdam had to offer. Which meant I had to run barefoot between the rooms half a dozen times to see what everyone else was wearing before I got dressed. Don’t ask me why because I ended up wearing exactly what I had planned on anyway.

Our tour of Amsterdam was almost entirely of the Red Light District. Obviously, I had heard of the area and I pretty much knew what to expect but actually seeing it was a different story. It’s just alleyway after alleyway of half naked women standing in glass doorways with bare mattresses behind them. All in all, there must have been hundreds of them. Some of the women were sexy and some were adorable, but others were fat, or old or just plain ugly. One part that cracked me up about the girls, was that none of them seemed particularly interested in anything outside of the their rooms. They were talking on the phone, texting or chatting with each other and most of them didn’t even look outside their window. It seemed like bad business sense to me but what do I know. However, the craziest part to me was not that there were all these women in bras and panties, or precisely placed straps, it was that this Indian family brought their eleven year old with them. I mean, Kevin was telling us the history of legal prostitution, and talking about sex slavery and even pointing out when a ‘transaction’ was taking place. She seemed pretty unfazed by it all but it kind of freaked me out. I wanted to cover her eyes and tell her to come back in ten years. 

Amsterdam

So many Bikes!

Amsterdam used to tax according to width. which explains the skinny buildings!

The only statue in the world celebrating prostitutes.

After we had our fill of window shopping, (:p I couldn't resist) the rest of the group left and we had Amsterdam to ourselves. Well along with five million other tourists. I had been really disappointed that we didn’t have time to go to Ann Frank’s house and museum. We were pretty sure that it was closed but my group decided to run over there anyway just in case. I don’t think I will ever forget the memory of running through Amsterdam in my mini skirt and flip-flops. Unfortunately, we were right and the Frank house was closed for the night. I know I’ve said this for everywhere I’ve been, but I really hope I come back to Amsterdam because I was really disappointed that I didn’t get to see the place where she lived when she was hiding from the Nazi’s. :(

Eventually we made our way back to the Red Light District because some of the group wanted to check out the famous coffeeshops. The one we went to was a bar upstairs and downstairs was a buying area and a smoking room. And yes, I went downstairs. For the million people that have been asking me, yes I bought a space cake.

Space cake!

 No I didn’t get high. Due to an unfortunate allergy to Marijuana, (Yes, I am serious) and the fondness I have for breathing, I didn’t get to go crazy in Amsterdam. But I refused to go home without at least some attempt at an Amsterdam story! So I shared a piece of pot cake with a guy in my group. The three bites I had did nothing to me but whatever, it was fun. A couple guys in our group scarfed theirs down in like three seconds flat. And then they went wandering around looking for more. The few of us left just sat outside the coffeeshop on the water, drinking and talking. It was a lot more chill that most people think of when they think of Amsterdam but I had fun. And we got to see all the tourists acting like idiots, fighting and falling down drunk. Free entertainment! 

Oh, I finally finished adding the pictures on the previous post for the cruise and such. 

Sleeping my way through Germany

I slept through most of Germany. I’m being serious. In a 30 hour time period, I slept for 25 of them. I woke up in Venice, ate breakfast, got on the bus and slept until we stopped for lunch in Austria, got back on the bus and went back to sleep until we stopped for dinner in Munich, Germany. Then I went back to sleep until we got to our hotel. Then I went to bed and slept 8 hours. Then I got up and went back to sleep on the bus. This is when my cold really started to kick my butt! I felt terrible! 

Pit stop on the way to Austria

Restaurant in Austria

Desert in Austria

Munich was CRAZY!!! We were supposed to stay the night there but Munich made it to the finals in some football tournament and the hotel realized they could make a lot more money by canceling on us and charging the fans an arm and leg. Tens of thousands of fans came to Munich to watch the game in a bar! What??? Of course that may be because the cheapest nosebleed seats were over a thousand euros. These people really like their football. The Superbowl does not come close to comparing. The city was packed with drunk people in red or blue. And they walked around chanting and yelling at people supporting the other team. Think of the crowds in Bloomsday but with everyone drunk. There was broken beer bottles everywhere. I didn’t have the choice of avoiding stepping on glass because there was not a clear space in the entire city. I didn’t see anyone throwing bottles (at least before the game) so I think it was more of a Thor “This is good, I want another” SMASH kind of thing. Insanity. I think I am glad that the hotel canceled on us because we were a good two hours away when Munich lost the game. Having seen them when they were celebrating, I would hate to see them when they were drinking away their sorrows. Scary thought. 

Street in Munich

Crazy fans!

We went to a traditional beer hall for a German dinner. Three types of brats, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes. It was pretty good but the drama outside kind of overshadowed the food. The restaurant even had a security guard checking to make sure we weren’t smuggling in whiskey and such. As soon as we could, we got out of town. Too much for us. The game started while we were on our way to the bus and the streets went from being packed to completely empty. Still loud though. 

The next morning we actually got to sleep in for a few extra hours and then we were on our way to Boppard Germany. We drove for an hour or so and then we explored this tiny town. We entered this wine shop and overwhelmed the employees. I think some of the group tried ever single thing they carried . . . twice. People were so impressed with this peach brandy that they would buy it for 20 euro and then ship it home for 90 euros. What??? 

Screw buying a bottle, I'm going for the entire keg! 

After eating lunch, we went on a river cruise on the Rhine. That was fun. I felt like death but there are worse places to feel terrible at. :D We took a million more pictures and at one point the young married couple wanted to take a Titanic picture. We all had to pitch in with advice for the perfect angle and when they had finally taken it, the song from titanic came on over the speaker. In German. We were all trying to sing along and then went, Wait. What? Why isn’t this working out right? 

My quail salad. Delicious! 

I love Germany thiiiiiiiis much!

The cruise ship

When we got to Boppard we walked around town and then after dinner we went down to the river and sat talking for hours.  Almost half the group came out. That was probably my favorite part of all of Germany. I’m sure I would have liked Germany more if I hadn’t been sick and if we hadn’t have been stuck in football fever. Even with it, I really liked the hometown feel of most of the towns we stopped in. 

Is it weird that I find these adorable?

And I loved being able to say that I had breakfast in Italy, lunch in Austria, and dinner in Germany. How many people can say that?