My First Week in Europe
Saturday May 25 - Sunday June 1
I had to repack my suitcase at the airport at it was to heavy. Everything went into my backpack, talk about heavy. I also unpacked my camera finally and rushed to catch my plane. Barely made it and then was the nice quick flight to Chicago. That airport is huge and somewhat confusing. I also had the hardest time trying to find a sewing kit so I could make my case for my laptop. Nothing of interest happened here except that I slept.
I arrived at London Heathrow Airport with no problems. The flight was ok, I prefer Lufthansa better though… the whole free alcohol thing is a BIG plus & the give you more food... I spent roughly 3 hours trying to figure out what I was going to do. From where to stay and what to do with my luggage. I tried to find the place where I could send it to France but I think it was in another terminal cause I didn’t see it where I was directed. I decided to use the Underground to get to London (as opposed to the Heathrow Express) cause it was cheap and I would have had to use the Underground upon arrival in London anyway. Can I just say that the Underground is NOT handicap accessible!!! I had serious issues with my suitcases between stairs, escalators, and the gap between train and station. Luckily, there were plenty of people nice enough to help mw with my bags, not as many as I would have thought it being England and all... the Home of manners and civility (so to speak). I was amazed at home many people just stood by and watched me struggle.
It found a place to stay that had luggage store and then went to see about shipping my bags to France. To much money and would take a long ass time so I decided to just keep it at the station. Went back to my hostel, read, and had the unpleasant experience of having a guy masturbate (while I was in the room reading), then apologizing, and then asking if I had any antibacterial ointment. Lets just say that I will never be staying at the Dover Castle Hostel again. They also had me in a room with all guys of which one made ME so uncomfortable my last night that I didn't even go back to the room and sleep until after 3 am. I spent a couple hours repacking my bags and took a nap...
Monday
Bank Holiday! There was a promotion going on called Totally London and I was able to ride the bus all day long for 1£. I decided to go to Hyde Park but got side tracked by Oxford Street, where I also bought my phone card. Tons upon tons of people and I got tempted by the huge Multimedia store there and bought stuff that I shouldn't have... Damn tourist trap with things I actually want. I can't believe how expensive CDs & DVDs are here.
Walked over to Piccadilly Circus and some African guy decided that he was going to walk and talk with me. While there found an awesome tea shop and found out that the REduced Shakespeare Company doesn't perform on Mondays. Guy got tired of following me around and finally asked me for my digits but i hadn't activated my phone (he had seen it) so he gave me his and I never called him. Walked back over to Oxford Street and had traditional afternoon tea at this place that had the nicest and cutest maitre d :-P
After tea, walk all around St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens (got to see my Peter Pan statue and of course I no longer have the pic as my first 14 pics got deleted by accident). I decided to get back onto a bus and head over to Trafalgar Square but my stomach sidetracked me and I got off near a Noodle bar between Piccadilly and Trafalgar. Good stuff, you should try it while in London :-D. Decided as long as I was there to head over to Soho and check out the G.A.Y. party as that is the gay quarter. It was funny cause to get to Soho had to go through Chinatown, and seeing a gay bar in chinatown was just amusing... Walked down to Trafalgar SQR but it was all dark so I just hopped a bus and checked out Westminsiter Abby, Parliament, and Big Ben on my way back to the hostel.
At the hostel had to deal with yet another African guy hitting on me but he crossed the line touching me (he was staying in my hostel room) so I ended up finishing Ender's Game in the Common room and then going to bed.
Tuesday
hehe... talk about a long, tiring, stressful day!!!
Woke up and realized that I had left my suitcase at the wrong station. Had wait an hour for a taxi to take me to the correct station. Missed my check in time at Standstead and therefore missed my flight. It was the only flight to Ostend/Brugge and had to take a flight 4 hours later to Charelroi-Brussels Airport. Went to check in and found out that Ryan Air had changed its luggage policy and only allows 15 KILOS of checked luggage!!! So I had to shell out roughly the cost of a regular plane ticket ($200-300) as there was no place to ship from at the airport. Get to Charleroi and decided that I've spent enough money for one day and decided to go straight to Frankfurt. I get sold a ticket for a train that left 5 min after I bought which also happened to be the LAST train that would catch the connecting train. Even with a cute Belgian guy helping me I missed the train and had to take the next one. That left me stranded in Liege Belgium overnight for which I had NO information on. My guide book was only for Brussels, Brugge, and Antwerp, needless to say I had to for out 40 Euros for a hotel room that was on the 3rd floor (6 flights of narrow steps). Left a suitcase at the station, hehe, and went in search on Belgian frittes. Liège was really dirty and I mean dirty and there weren't many trees. It is apparently a tourist area cause there were lots of neon lights and I saw a lot of backpackers (after I had paid for my room). I mainly tried to talk to people with my very limited french and figure out my phone card. As the one sim I bought in London wouldn't work in Belgium cause you have to call and have it activated to have it work outside the UK. Watched some interesting TV, German, French, English, and Flemish/Dutch shows.
Wednesday & Thursday
Ate breakfast, walked around Liege and took pictures, caught the train first class to Köln (Cologne). They never even checked my ticket and I got fed!!!! Got there and HAD to take a picture of the Cathedral... but I couldn't get it to fit in one picture :-( Called Limi and let her know that I was in Köln and the time I'd be in Frankfurt. Upon arrival at Limi's place (around 1pm-ish i believe) I promptly went to sleep and didn't wake up until the next day.
Thursday was a Ascension Day and therefore a holiday and nothing was open. Went downtown and walked around Frankfurt. There was some kind of festival going on and lots of different kinds of food. Went to the Nuttellaria, had Apfelweis (Apple Wine), and potatoes with a yummy cheese sauce. My Camera died when I tried to take a picture of the bull in front of the Stock Exchange place :-( used up both my batteries. Went to Limi's work place and played online the rest of the day :-D. Talked to Basti about visiting him, Wasti was going to come up from Bavaria to see me :-) Ate Pizza, returned chez Limi and called Paul, my mom, and my dad. I wish I had a plan that allowed me to call the US at $0.03 a minute. Watched Ghost Dog & QAF Season 2 and then slept.
Friday & Saturday
Went to Kassel and met Sebastian's (Basti) family and his girlfriend and her family. I got to try Frankfurt green sauce...YUM Kassel is pretty, its in the middle of Germany, lots of hills, and lush green landscape. Hung out with Sebastian's friends, went to Mc Donald's and hung out at a movie theater. The movie theater bar had a Ginseng Beer that I just had to try it was green!!! Its pretty good too and gives you that extra kick to wake you up. Basti's friends are a trip, they all were afraid to speak english around me and kept saying that their english was bad. His girlfriend and family were the same way, but I didn't think their english was too bad. Much better than my french at that point.
Saturday, Wasti (the other Sebastian) arrived and we hung out around town. Bought a charger for my camera charged my batteries. All and all I nice relaxing two days chilling with my friends in Germany :-D. Hopped on a train and went back to Frankfurt to pick up my stuff and catch the night train to Paris. Caught the night train to Paris, slept in a couchette, took forever for me to fall asleep. I think it was around 3 am when I finally fell asleep.
I had to repack my suitcase at the airport at it was to heavy. Everything went into my backpack, talk about heavy. I also unpacked my camera finally and rushed to catch my plane. Barely made it and then was the nice quick flight to Chicago. That airport is huge and somewhat confusing. I also had the hardest time trying to find a sewing kit so I could make my case for my laptop. Nothing of interest happened here except that I slept.
I arrived at London Heathrow Airport with no problems. The flight was ok, I prefer Lufthansa better though… the whole free alcohol thing is a BIG plus & the give you more food... I spent roughly 3 hours trying to figure out what I was going to do. From where to stay and what to do with my luggage. I tried to find the place where I could send it to France but I think it was in another terminal cause I didn’t see it where I was directed. I decided to use the Underground to get to London (as opposed to the Heathrow Express) cause it was cheap and I would have had to use the Underground upon arrival in London anyway. Can I just say that the Underground is NOT handicap accessible!!! I had serious issues with my suitcases between stairs, escalators, and the gap between train and station. Luckily, there were plenty of people nice enough to help mw with my bags, not as many as I would have thought it being England and all... the Home of manners and civility (so to speak). I was amazed at home many people just stood by and watched me struggle.
It found a place to stay that had luggage store and then went to see about shipping my bags to France. To much money and would take a long ass time so I decided to just keep it at the station. Went back to my hostel, read, and had the unpleasant experience of having a guy masturbate (while I was in the room reading), then apologizing, and then asking if I had any antibacterial ointment. Lets just say that I will never be staying at the Dover Castle Hostel again. They also had me in a room with all guys of which one made ME so uncomfortable my last night that I didn't even go back to the room and sleep until after 3 am. I spent a couple hours repacking my bags and took a nap...
Monday
Bank Holiday! There was a promotion going on called Totally London and I was able to ride the bus all day long for 1£. I decided to go to Hyde Park but got side tracked by Oxford Street, where I also bought my phone card. Tons upon tons of people and I got tempted by the huge Multimedia store there and bought stuff that I shouldn't have... Damn tourist trap with things I actually want. I can't believe how expensive CDs & DVDs are here.
Walked over to Piccadilly Circus and some African guy decided that he was going to walk and talk with me. While there found an awesome tea shop and found out that the REduced Shakespeare Company doesn't perform on Mondays. Guy got tired of following me around and finally asked me for my digits but i hadn't activated my phone (he had seen it) so he gave me his and I never called him. Walked back over to Oxford Street and had traditional afternoon tea at this place that had the nicest and cutest maitre d :-P
After tea, walk all around St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens (got to see my Peter Pan statue and of course I no longer have the pic as my first 14 pics got deleted by accident). I decided to get back onto a bus and head over to Trafalgar Square but my stomach sidetracked me and I got off near a Noodle bar between Piccadilly and Trafalgar. Good stuff, you should try it while in London :-D. Decided as long as I was there to head over to Soho and check out the G.A.Y. party as that is the gay quarter. It was funny cause to get to Soho had to go through Chinatown, and seeing a gay bar in chinatown was just amusing... Walked down to Trafalgar SQR but it was all dark so I just hopped a bus and checked out Westminsiter Abby, Parliament, and Big Ben on my way back to the hostel.
At the hostel had to deal with yet another African guy hitting on me but he crossed the line touching me (he was staying in my hostel room) so I ended up finishing Ender's Game in the Common room and then going to bed.
Tuesday
hehe... talk about a long, tiring, stressful day!!!
Woke up and realized that I had left my suitcase at the wrong station. Had wait an hour for a taxi to take me to the correct station. Missed my check in time at Standstead and therefore missed my flight. It was the only flight to Ostend/Brugge and had to take a flight 4 hours later to Charelroi-Brussels Airport. Went to check in and found out that Ryan Air had changed its luggage policy and only allows 15 KILOS of checked luggage!!! So I had to shell out roughly the cost of a regular plane ticket ($200-300) as there was no place to ship from at the airport. Get to Charleroi and decided that I've spent enough money for one day and decided to go straight to Frankfurt. I get sold a ticket for a train that left 5 min after I bought which also happened to be the LAST train that would catch the connecting train. Even with a cute Belgian guy helping me I missed the train and had to take the next one. That left me stranded in Liege Belgium overnight for which I had NO information on. My guide book was only for Brussels, Brugge, and Antwerp, needless to say I had to for out 40 Euros for a hotel room that was on the 3rd floor (6 flights of narrow steps). Left a suitcase at the station, hehe, and went in search on Belgian frittes. Liège was really dirty and I mean dirty and there weren't many trees. It is apparently a tourist area cause there were lots of neon lights and I saw a lot of backpackers (after I had paid for my room). I mainly tried to talk to people with my very limited french and figure out my phone card. As the one sim I bought in London wouldn't work in Belgium cause you have to call and have it activated to have it work outside the UK. Watched some interesting TV, German, French, English, and Flemish/Dutch shows.
Wednesday & Thursday
Ate breakfast, walked around Liege and took pictures, caught the train first class to Köln (Cologne). They never even checked my ticket and I got fed!!!! Got there and HAD to take a picture of the Cathedral... but I couldn't get it to fit in one picture :-( Called Limi and let her know that I was in Köln and the time I'd be in Frankfurt. Upon arrival at Limi's place (around 1pm-ish i believe) I promptly went to sleep and didn't wake up until the next day.
Thursday was a Ascension Day and therefore a holiday and nothing was open. Went downtown and walked around Frankfurt. There was some kind of festival going on and lots of different kinds of food. Went to the Nuttellaria, had Apfelweis (Apple Wine), and potatoes with a yummy cheese sauce. My Camera died when I tried to take a picture of the bull in front of the Stock Exchange place :-( used up both my batteries. Went to Limi's work place and played online the rest of the day :-D. Talked to Basti about visiting him, Wasti was going to come up from Bavaria to see me :-) Ate Pizza, returned chez Limi and called Paul, my mom, and my dad. I wish I had a plan that allowed me to call the US at $0.03 a minute. Watched Ghost Dog & QAF Season 2 and then slept.
Friday & Saturday
Went to Kassel and met Sebastian's (Basti) family and his girlfriend and her family. I got to try Frankfurt green sauce...YUM Kassel is pretty, its in the middle of Germany, lots of hills, and lush green landscape. Hung out with Sebastian's friends, went to Mc Donald's and hung out at a movie theater. The movie theater bar had a Ginseng Beer that I just had to try it was green!!! Its pretty good too and gives you that extra kick to wake you up. Basti's friends are a trip, they all were afraid to speak english around me and kept saying that their english was bad. His girlfriend and family were the same way, but I didn't think their english was too bad. Much better than my french at that point.
Saturday, Wasti (the other Sebastian) arrived and we hung out around town. Bought a charger for my camera charged my batteries. All and all I nice relaxing two days chilling with my friends in Germany :-D. Hopped on a train and went back to Frankfurt to pick up my stuff and catch the night train to Paris. Caught the night train to Paris, slept in a couchette, took forever for me to fall asleep. I think it was around 3 am when I finally fell asleep.