'ello from Merry Ol' London, again!
I walked about 11 miles today, my legs are sooooo tired. I went on a walking tour that went from Monument by the Tower of London to Parliament and Westminster Abby. That was almost 3 miles. I'll tell you all about the tour in a sec. After that, I had a little bit of a meltdown (details in a few) and then went back to Monument to see if I could go up inside it. On the Metro on the way back I realized that every other attraction was closed because I looked in my guide book, so when I got off, I wasn't surprised to see the Monument was as well. So, I decided to take a walk along the Thames. Walking near water always calms and soothes me. 4.5 hours later I arrived at my hostel... It was a very long walk.
Back to the tour, it was one of those free '[insert city name] Walks!' that I took in Amsterdam and will also be taking hopefully in Paris and definitely in Berlin. It was a lot of fun and about 3.5 hours long. Our guide was interesting, his name was Jessie. I met two other cool guys, Simon and Jon on the tour. Simon was staying at an amazing hostel, St. Christopher's and he and I talked about our hostels and city experiences. Jon was studying to be a London Walks! tour guide, he was really cool, but he and I talked mostly during the walks between stops, because he had to take notes. He told me his first tour is on Saturday and that he's super nervous and is going to do it hungover. I laughed.
The tour ended at Westminster Abbey, my number 1 place I want to see while I'm here, and Simon and I actually tried to sneak in on advice from Jon, but they were closing it for Mass. After that, Simon tried to help me out by giving me the number for his hostel so that I could try to switch rooms, unfortunately the rates they gave me were far too steep, but it was nice of him nonetheless to wait with me while I made the calls. He's going to be in Berlin in a week and a half or so, after I get there, I told him to give me a ring so that I could stop by with him and his friends that he's traveling with and we could check out the city, maybe take the Berlin Walks! tour.
Simon left and I continued to try more hostels, but no go. I was getting upset by then, because I really don't like my hostel. I broke down and called Nick, even though I know it's going to hit me when my bill comes and I was interrupting him at work. I was all weepy when he answered the phone and talked to him for a few minutes. He wasn't very sympathetic about it, but I can't blame him, he's right that this was my choice to stay in London in a hostel and that was the chance I took. However, on the other hand I really can't afford any of the other options. He did send me a sweet email that I got a little while ago, and that cheered me up a bit. Though, I'm starting to worry about my hostel in Paris now. Lets hope it's better than I'm expecting (eh Jenna?).
After off I got off the phone with Nick was when I took the metro back to the Monument, and then began my walk. I walked by the Thames to the Millennium Bridge by St. Paul's, and then crossed and continued east along the Thames, crossing back at Westminster, then went south passed Big Ben and Parliament. I turned away from the Thames at Lambeth Bridge and made my way to Victoria Station, then from there up Buckingham Palace Road to Grosvernor, which led me to Hyde Park. I walked around there, saw the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain (I think, it was a little unclear) and also saw the Peter Pan statue. That, was amazing. Absolutely incredible. If you know me well you know I absolutely love Peter Pan, and seeing that statue meant a lot to me. I then turned back south to leave the park, crossing into Kensington Gardens passing the Kensington Palace at a distance, and then exited at the Queens Gate. I walked the block to Palace Gate and turned down that. Palace Gate soon turned into Gloucester Road, and then it was only a few short turns to my hostel once I reached the metro station.
To make that shorter: I walked from City to South Kensington. In a round-about way.
I don't know if that meant anything to you, or if it was just boring, but I like having a record.
I think I got sun today, my face is really hot. I'm probably going to get stupid glasses tan lines. Oh, yeah, about that. My first night in Amsterdam, I put my contacts in my case that night, and woke up in the morning to find that the left one had shriveled and cracked, and I left all my others in Berlin with my luggage. Boooo. So, glasses from now on it is.
Well, that's all for now. Seeing (hopefully) the Tower and WESTMINSTER ABBEY tomorrow!!!!!
Love to all at home,
*Miranda
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Ever On and On
If you can tell me where I got the title for this post from, you're a nerd - but really really cool to me
This is me, standing at the entrancy to 'skinny st'
Amsterdam was an amazing city. Right now I'm really missing it.
On my first night at the Pig (for that was the name of my hostel, I met three guys at the hostel bar, their names were Ryan and Chris (brothers) and their travel partner Derrick. We played pool for a couple rounds and then decided to go out and check out the city at night. First came the endless search for a working atm in which we ran into this CRAZY local who provided us with quite the entertainment. We checked out couple bars on our walk around and then some coffee shops so the boys could buy some stuff and we could get some snacks. We went and walked around the red light district once it was fully dark, which was pretty mind blowing. Btw, Amsterdam, I've decided is in some sort of paralle univers from the rest of the world, because it doesn't get dark there until almost 11 o'clock at night. It was really strange. But anyways, back to the red light district.
This is me, standing at the entrancy to 'skinny st'
All those windows with the red lights
over them are display windows. The
prostitutes stand in them trying to attract
customers. The best part is my back is
over them are display windows. The
prostitutes stand in them trying to attract
customers. The best part is my back is
5 ft from a church in this picture.
Get your sin and salvation all on the same block!
Get your sin and salvation all on the same block!
Having fun in the
chill area of my hostel.
It's a big platform of pillows
next to the entrance. No shoes allowed!
This is the street my hostel is on. If you look reeeeally closely you can see it. Right side of the st. It's the small square white sign and the skinny sign above it that says
HOSTEL in orange.
Sara and her daughter Phoebe, two people I met in line for the Anne Frank House (see the plaque
by Phoebe's head) They took a much better
picture than I did.
I've got a lot more pictures from Amsterdam, but they will have to wait for another time! I did a lot in A-dam yesterday, went on a 3 hour walking tour, visited the sex museum (!!) and hung out with the people from my Hostel one more time. I played several disaterous games of pool with Ryan as my partner. Poor guy.
I'm in London now, flew over from Schipol airport this afternoon. I landed in London Gatwick and then took the shuttle to Victoria station, and then the Metro to Gloucestor Road. I'm all checked into my hostel, butI don't like it. First, it took me aout 30 minutes of walking around this neighborhood with all of my packs to find it, and then the lady at the reception desk in teh basement didn't have any change for me. How do you run a business and not have any change?! It's a very quiet place and even my roommates don't talk to me. Oh well, it's a great incentive to get up in the morning and head out for the sights and the tours.
One last picture to leave you with...
This is what I look like today! So you don't forget me :)
Love to all at home,
Miranda
Monday, May 28, 2007
The Mishaps of Transportation
Wow. A lot has happened since my last post. Let's recap shall we?
Last time I posted I was in Madrid, Spain, hanging around the airport waiting for my connection. That flight went smoothly, but just as we started our descent I looked at my watch and saw that I had not only missed my train to Frankfurt, but ALL of the trains to Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and other connection cities.
I needed to be in Amsterdam by Monday (today) because that was when my reservations for my hostel started. My original train reservation had me going to Frankfurt, having a seven hour layover, then continuing onto A-dam. So, sitting on the plane I started searching through the EuRail timetable along with my hosteling book to try and find a train/accomidations to spend the night. I found a train to Hamburg (where a train for A-dam was leaving from the next morning) that I MIGHT be able to make depending on whether or not I could find my way to the train station, I still however would have no hosteling accomidations in Hamburg and if I didn't make the train, I didn't have any in Berlin as well.
You can imagine my distress as I stepped off the plane. You wouldn't have known it to look at me, but I was freaking out. I was in a foreign city with only a passible grip on the language. I didn't know anyone in the country, practically the entire continent and I also had no idea where to go or what to do. Ah.... adventure.
My luggage made it with me to Berlin (thankfully) and I set off like a little pack mule through the Tegal airport. I managed to figure out that I needed to go out and get on the bus marked TXL and that would eventually take me to the Berling Hauptbanhof. My packs and I took up an entire two seats on the bus, and I sat nervously awaiting my stop, hoping I would know when it was. Lucky for me it was not only labeled 'Hauptbanhof' on the the bus display, but it was announced as well. Lurching off the bus I made my way through a croud of taxis, bicycles and pedestrians to the grand looking station. The station is a wonder in and of itself. The outside is glass and steel and it's a gigantic building; the covering over the upper tracks looks like a giant airplane hanger, something I've noticed is a reoccuring style for German Hauptbanhofs. Rushing into the station I looked at the boards reading off the times for trains and I noticed something about the times didn't look right. Checking my watch I saw that it wasn't reading the time that was on the board - it was an hour fast. Somewhat cheered by this, because it meant I could definatly make my train, I hurried over to the Eurail Aide desk area and tried in broken German to explain to the lady who spoke no English that I wanted to catch the train for Hamburg so I could get to Amsterdam by train tomorrow morning. She looked at me a little funny and printed out two reservations for me to choose from. Neither were trains to Hamburg, they were instead trains to Amsterdam, via different cites. Sweet!! So, I hung around the Hauptbanoff for about 4 hours untill my 00:35 (12:35am) train. (und, ja, Cathi, ich esse die Eis. Es war SEHR gut)
My train was a little late (surprise, surprise) and when I got on I was exausted. Luckly, I had the entire six seat compartment (think Harry Potter and you've got the right picture of the train compartment) to myself. I put the armrests up and laid across an entire side of seats to get some rest. Keep in mind that up to this point on Monday moring, I had had only four hours of sleep since Saturday, 8am.
Before I fell asleep I ended up meeting the guy in the compartment next to mine and he was overjoyed to find someone who spoke English. His name is Rodrigo and he's from Brazil. We talked for a little bit and found out that both of us were on the same connecting train out of Cologne to Amsterdam. His cell phone was dead so I told him I'd wake him up in the morning when we had to get off the train. I set mine, and drifted off to sleep REALLY hoping that it would go off at the correct time in the morning. I'm a little leery about this phone working all of the time and the conductor would not be warning us about the stops. So, I drifted off to sleep to the sound of the wind soaring past my window at incredible speeds as we raced across Germany.
I slept fitfully, tossing and turning as best I could on the seats, probably getting about four or so hours. It was cold in my compartment and I didn't have a blanket. I was awake before my alarm rang, and got up to ready my packs and prepare to disembark when it went off at 6:40am. I woke Rodrigo at 6:50 and we got off in Cologne. We had breakfast at this little food thing in the Hauptbanhof and I got some overpriced but delicious starbucks coffee. He and I wandered around the Hbf (Hauptbanhof) and outside of it for about an hour and then went to wait on our platform for hour high-speed train to A-dam. Funny story, our platform was track 5, my compartment on our previous train was 5 and my seat was 55. Considering how that's my family's favorite number, it was a pretty cool set of coincidences. We got on the train, whose speed was in excess of 190 mph and both of us fell asleep. The train that picked us up from Cologne had come from Frankfurt, and turned out to be the original train my reservation had been on, funny enough.
On our train I met two Canadian guys who I might get the chance to join up with to go out some night while I'm here in Amsterdam, which would be cool, they were pretty down to earth, cool guys. They had already been through about 15 countries on their two month backpacking tour.
Rodrigo and I parted ways at the trainstation and I made my way to my hostel, The Flying Pig Downtown. My hostel is really cool, has a nice bar and pool room with lots of places to meet people. It's fairly clean and well-kept, if you can get over the pervasive smell of Amsterdam Grass, you'r fine. My room is nice, five bunks, 10 people. The girl below me is traveling alone as well, she's from NY. There were four new guys sleeping in there the last time I went in and I know there is a couple on the bottom full buck in the back of the room, maybe I'll get to meet some of them tonight. The first thing I did after checking into my hostel was SHOWER! I needed one so desperately and it felt SO good. I changed my clothes and went out to wander the city. It started pouring as I walked so I'm now the proud owner of an Amsterdam umbrella. I went and saw the Anne Frank house and had fun hanging out with an English woman who lives in the Netherlands named Sarah and her daughter Phoebe. I shared my umbrella with them in line and they gave me half a peanut butter sandwich. (Yes, Nate, it was terrible, but I got used to it and hey, free food, right?) The House was so amazing and moving, it's hard to believe that I actually got to go to the Secret Annex and see how they lived. I've also walked through the red light district, which is everything people said it was and a lot more. I think I'm going to head back to my hostle now and relax in the common room. So, now you're up to date! I leave Wednesday for London!
Love to all at home!
p.s. I can't check the spelling here, so please, forgive mistakes!
Last time I posted I was in Madrid, Spain, hanging around the airport waiting for my connection. That flight went smoothly, but just as we started our descent I looked at my watch and saw that I had not only missed my train to Frankfurt, but ALL of the trains to Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and other connection cities.
I needed to be in Amsterdam by Monday (today) because that was when my reservations for my hostel started. My original train reservation had me going to Frankfurt, having a seven hour layover, then continuing onto A-dam. So, sitting on the plane I started searching through the EuRail timetable along with my hosteling book to try and find a train/accomidations to spend the night. I found a train to Hamburg (where a train for A-dam was leaving from the next morning) that I MIGHT be able to make depending on whether or not I could find my way to the train station, I still however would have no hosteling accomidations in Hamburg and if I didn't make the train, I didn't have any in Berlin as well.
You can imagine my distress as I stepped off the plane. You wouldn't have known it to look at me, but I was freaking out. I was in a foreign city with only a passible grip on the language. I didn't know anyone in the country, practically the entire continent and I also had no idea where to go or what to do. Ah.... adventure.
My luggage made it with me to Berlin (thankfully) and I set off like a little pack mule through the Tegal airport. I managed to figure out that I needed to go out and get on the bus marked TXL and that would eventually take me to the Berling Hauptbanhof. My packs and I took up an entire two seats on the bus, and I sat nervously awaiting my stop, hoping I would know when it was. Lucky for me it was not only labeled 'Hauptbanhof' on the the bus display, but it was announced as well. Lurching off the bus I made my way through a croud of taxis, bicycles and pedestrians to the grand looking station. The station is a wonder in and of itself. The outside is glass and steel and it's a gigantic building; the covering over the upper tracks looks like a giant airplane hanger, something I've noticed is a reoccuring style for German Hauptbanhofs. Rushing into the station I looked at the boards reading off the times for trains and I noticed something about the times didn't look right. Checking my watch I saw that it wasn't reading the time that was on the board - it was an hour fast. Somewhat cheered by this, because it meant I could definatly make my train, I hurried over to the Eurail Aide desk area and tried in broken German to explain to the lady who spoke no English that I wanted to catch the train for Hamburg so I could get to Amsterdam by train tomorrow morning. She looked at me a little funny and printed out two reservations for me to choose from. Neither were trains to Hamburg, they were instead trains to Amsterdam, via different cites. Sweet!! So, I hung around the Hauptbanoff for about 4 hours untill my 00:35 (12:35am) train. (und, ja, Cathi, ich esse die Eis. Es war SEHR gut)
My train was a little late (surprise, surprise) and when I got on I was exausted. Luckly, I had the entire six seat compartment (think Harry Potter and you've got the right picture of the train compartment) to myself. I put the armrests up and laid across an entire side of seats to get some rest. Keep in mind that up to this point on Monday moring, I had had only four hours of sleep since Saturday, 8am.
Before I fell asleep I ended up meeting the guy in the compartment next to mine and he was overjoyed to find someone who spoke English. His name is Rodrigo and he's from Brazil. We talked for a little bit and found out that both of us were on the same connecting train out of Cologne to Amsterdam. His cell phone was dead so I told him I'd wake him up in the morning when we had to get off the train. I set mine, and drifted off to sleep REALLY hoping that it would go off at the correct time in the morning. I'm a little leery about this phone working all of the time and the conductor would not be warning us about the stops. So, I drifted off to sleep to the sound of the wind soaring past my window at incredible speeds as we raced across Germany.
I slept fitfully, tossing and turning as best I could on the seats, probably getting about four or so hours. It was cold in my compartment and I didn't have a blanket. I was awake before my alarm rang, and got up to ready my packs and prepare to disembark when it went off at 6:40am. I woke Rodrigo at 6:50 and we got off in Cologne. We had breakfast at this little food thing in the Hauptbanhof and I got some overpriced but delicious starbucks coffee. He and I wandered around the Hbf (Hauptbanhof) and outside of it for about an hour and then went to wait on our platform for hour high-speed train to A-dam. Funny story, our platform was track 5, my compartment on our previous train was 5 and my seat was 55. Considering how that's my family's favorite number, it was a pretty cool set of coincidences. We got on the train, whose speed was in excess of 190 mph and both of us fell asleep. The train that picked us up from Cologne had come from Frankfurt, and turned out to be the original train my reservation had been on, funny enough.
On our train I met two Canadian guys who I might get the chance to join up with to go out some night while I'm here in Amsterdam, which would be cool, they were pretty down to earth, cool guys. They had already been through about 15 countries on their two month backpacking tour.
Rodrigo and I parted ways at the trainstation and I made my way to my hostel, The Flying Pig Downtown. My hostel is really cool, has a nice bar and pool room with lots of places to meet people. It's fairly clean and well-kept, if you can get over the pervasive smell of Amsterdam Grass, you'r fine. My room is nice, five bunks, 10 people. The girl below me is traveling alone as well, she's from NY. There were four new guys sleeping in there the last time I went in and I know there is a couple on the bottom full buck in the back of the room, maybe I'll get to meet some of them tonight. The first thing I did after checking into my hostel was SHOWER! I needed one so desperately and it felt SO good. I changed my clothes and went out to wander the city. It started pouring as I walked so I'm now the proud owner of an Amsterdam umbrella. I went and saw the Anne Frank house and had fun hanging out with an English woman who lives in the Netherlands named Sarah and her daughter Phoebe. I shared my umbrella with them in line and they gave me half a peanut butter sandwich. (Yes, Nate, it was terrible, but I got used to it and hey, free food, right?) The House was so amazing and moving, it's hard to believe that I actually got to go to the Secret Annex and see how they lived. I've also walked through the red light district, which is everything people said it was and a lot more. I think I'm going to head back to my hostle now and relax in the common room. So, now you're up to date! I leave Wednesday for London!
Love to all at home!
p.s. I can't check the spelling here, so please, forgive mistakes!
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Madrid? Madrid.
Hola! I´m in Madrid! typing on the worstkeyboardever so please excuse staccato sentances and incorrecteverything. 1st lesson of my adventure - allow at least three hours for conections on Iberia and in Madrid. Our fliht left O´hare 2 hours late and i mised my connection to Berlin Iberia hasmyluggage and me on a 3:50 flight. i hope that will be enough time to catchmy train to Amsterdam.
It´s startingto reallysinkinthat Í´m doingthis anddoing it by myself. It sure is goin to be interesting. plane food wasn´´´t so bad. i´´ll postsome pictures later.
Love to all at home. Dad! Take your cell off silent!
It´s startingto reallysinkinthat Í´m doingthis anddoing it by myself. It sure is goin to be interesting. plane food wasn´´´t so bad. i´´ll postsome pictures later.
Love to all at home. Dad! Take your cell off silent!
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Leaving on a Jet Plane!
This will most likely be my last post from the States. My flight leaves for Berlin (via Madrid) at 4:45pm, today. I'm excited and nervous, but suprisingly pretty calm and nonchalant about the whole thing at this time. We'll see how I do with good byes tomorrow.
On a quick note, to answer a question I had from a friend about commenting. You don't have to have a blog or anything to leave a comment. You click on link at the bottom that says # comment(s). The # will obviously change with the ammout of comments that have been left. Then, you just click the little circle next to the "Other" and type in your name - don't worry about the web page part. Then you write your comment and click "publish your comment". That easy!
Hope to hear from you, I'll post again from Europe!
On a quick note, to answer a question I had from a friend about commenting. You don't have to have a blog or anything to leave a comment. You click on link at the bottom that says # comment(s). The # will obviously change with the ammout of comments that have been left. Then, you just click the little circle next to the "Other" and type in your name - don't worry about the web page part. Then you write your comment and click "publish your comment". That easy!
Hope to hear from you, I'll post again from Europe!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Commence Freak Out
3 days.
Or 75 hours.
Or 4347 minutes.
It's not hitting yet.... but it's starting to.
I'm kind of in disbelief that it's really happening.
Am I really leaving? Am I really going to travel off through all of these countries by myself?
It's probably all contingent on whether I can manage to pack, and right now, forecast is looking
grim.
I'm not hopping on a plane in 75 hours.....am I?
Or 75 hours.
Or 4347 minutes.
It's not hitting yet.... but it's starting to.
I'm kind of in disbelief that it's really happening.
Am I really leaving? Am I really going to travel off through all of these countries by myself?
It's probably all contingent on whether I can manage to pack, and right now, forecast is looking
grim.
I'm not hopping on a plane in 75 hours.....am I?
Monday, May 21, 2007
Ring ring ring ring ring! Banana Phone!
Well, here it is... My international cell phone! It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but it's most certainly a USED phone. It's so battered around the edges and looks like it's questionable about whether it's last owner survived the trip,which led my dad to say that it's perfect for me. I have a rather dubious track record with electronics. I broke my digital camera about two weeks ago and panicked that it wouldn't be back in time for me to leave. Never fear though, Nikon to the rescue! I next day aired it to them and they fixed it within a week and even next day aired it back to me for free. I highly recommend Nikon Cameras, not only for the great picture quality I get from my camera (coolpix L3!), but for their superior customer service as well. I've been rather crazy about taking pictures of things ever since I got aforementioned camera back, so I might as well show you a picture of the gear!
My pack! It doesn't look very impressive in this picture, slightly shrunken in on itself, obviously empty. But don't worry it's hiding the extremely intimidating Heart of a Lion! That will become apparent once I sew on the pirate patches. Haha. (*cough*Note the Obama volunteer hanger on the door handle. That's right, I'm awesome and I met him*cough*)
I'll give you one more
picture of the
pack for perspective -
I clearly dislike profile shots of my face. Especially "I-just-got-out-of-bed" ones. You can see the waist strap that will help balance the weight and take some of the strain off of my poor back. It's an outdoors pack so it also has a wire frame that makes it stronger and more supportive. I really like that. My parents got me it for Christmas. They went in and said to the store guy "Our daughter is insane and is backpacking through Europe. She's probably going to have a lot of stuff, and need something strong that can handle it. She's also disorganized. (I don't know why they'd say this, but I'm positive it was brought up. Always is.) She's be going here and here and staying in hostels, and need a place too store wet things like towels after she showers. For some reason we're going to be enabler's and want to help out. What's the best pack?" And voila! My beautiful blue baby. I should name it.
I leave in five days!!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Boy Scouts Motto!
The preparations of this trip are overwhelming, but I'm grateful that I'm almost done with all of my RA duties, and FINALLY done with classes.
Today's preparations have been all about my overseas cell phone. There are so many providers out there and so many options to choose from. I finally narrowed it down, with the help of my parents, to two sites: PiccellWireless.com and CellularAbroad.com. Both offered pretty similar plans, but had different takes on deposits and renting. With Cellular you actually had to put a down payment on the phone and then purchase it. If you didn't return the phone you wouldn't get your down payment back. You also had to rent the SIM card separately, which was a little caviot that I didn't catch until I was almost ready to make my decision.
With Piccell you had to pay a one-time processing fee and .35 cents a day for the phone and plan that I wanted, along with an additional .30 cents a day for the insurance on the phone.
In the end, I went with Piccell because I found out at the last minute that the program I'm doing my study abroad through (IES) has arranged it so that all of it's students get a rather signifigant discount on Piccell plans. I was even able to schedule my plan so that I get my phone before I leave for the backpacking part of my trip.
I'm sure this post wasn't very interesting, but such is logistical planning. It's how wars were won and vacations are planned. Or backpacking jaunts through Europe to be more precise. You should ask me how long booking my hostels took. Haha.
~M
Today's preparations have been all about my overseas cell phone. There are so many providers out there and so many options to choose from. I finally narrowed it down, with the help of my parents, to two sites: PiccellWireless.com and CellularAbroad.com. Both offered pretty similar plans, but had different takes on deposits and renting. With Cellular you actually had to put a down payment on the phone and then purchase it. If you didn't return the phone you wouldn't get your down payment back. You also had to rent the SIM card separately, which was a little caviot that I didn't catch until I was almost ready to make my decision.
With Piccell you had to pay a one-time processing fee and .35 cents a day for the phone and plan that I wanted, along with an additional .30 cents a day for the insurance on the phone.
In the end, I went with Piccell because I found out at the last minute that the program I'm doing my study abroad through (IES) has arranged it so that all of it's students get a rather signifigant discount on Piccell plans. I was even able to schedule my plan so that I get my phone before I leave for the backpacking part of my trip.
I'm sure this post wasn't very interesting, but such is logistical planning. It's how wars were won and vacations are planned. Or backpacking jaunts through Europe to be more precise. You should ask me how long booking my hostels took. Haha.
~M
Sunday, May 6, 2007
the blog begins!
20days 6hours and 9minutes
left until I leave as I start writing this post. Welcome to my first travel-blog post! PLEASE feel free to leave comments and let me know who you are and your reactions to my adventures, which will hopefully be numerous!
For those of you who might not be so filled in on what my plans for this summer are, I'll recount them briefly here. I'm leaving May 26th for Europe and I'm flying into Berlin, Germany via a one hour layover in Madrid, Spain. I get into Berlin around noon on the 27th (due to flight time and time changes) and I will be leaving that evening for Amsterdam, which is in the Netherlands. I'll spend three days there, then fly to London where I will be spending another 3 days there. Then I will take the Chunnel to Paris, spend 2 days and then it's back to Berlin! I'll be spending a night in a hostel there and then on June 6th I will be going to the IES headquarters in Berlin and beginning my study abroad program and will live in Berlin for the next month and a half with a host family and study at Humboldt University!
I'm so excited and more than a little nervous. I'm going on this entire trip by myself; I don't know a soul in any of the cities I will be visiting. Oddly enough a group of 4 guys, some of them good friends of mine will be tromping through Europe at about the same time, but our itinerary's don't coincide anywhere. Traveling alone is going to have some pluses and minuses, as it is with anything else. I have to do a lot more planning and research about where I'm going and staying and how safe those locations are, and I also have only myself to blame if I screw up. On the flip side, going alone means you have no limitations. You get to do what you want when you want, and you don't have to balance your interests and preferences with anyone else's. It also is going to give me a strong feeling of strength and empowerment knowing that I planned this all myself, and now it's actually happening. I'm sure it will be lonely at times, but even more I know it will be a blast.
So, welcome to the adventure, I guess! Or perhaps better put, welcome to my wanderings.
left until I leave as I start writing this post. Welcome to my first travel-blog post! PLEASE feel free to leave comments and let me know who you are and your reactions to my adventures, which will hopefully be numerous!
For those of you who might not be so filled in on what my plans for this summer are, I'll recount them briefly here. I'm leaving May 26th for Europe and I'm flying into Berlin, Germany via a one hour layover in Madrid, Spain. I get into Berlin around noon on the 27th (due to flight time and time changes) and I will be leaving that evening for Amsterdam, which is in the Netherlands. I'll spend three days there, then fly to London where I will be spending another 3 days there. Then I will take the Chunnel to Paris, spend 2 days and then it's back to Berlin! I'll be spending a night in a hostel there and then on June 6th I will be going to the IES headquarters in Berlin and beginning my study abroad program and will live in Berlin for the next month and a half with a host family and study at Humboldt University!
I'm so excited and more than a little nervous. I'm going on this entire trip by myself; I don't know a soul in any of the cities I will be visiting. Oddly enough a group of 4 guys, some of them good friends of mine will be tromping through Europe at about the same time, but our itinerary's don't coincide anywhere. Traveling alone is going to have some pluses and minuses, as it is with anything else. I have to do a lot more planning and research about where I'm going and staying and how safe those locations are, and I also have only myself to blame if I screw up. On the flip side, going alone means you have no limitations. You get to do what you want when you want, and you don't have to balance your interests and preferences with anyone else's. It also is going to give me a strong feeling of strength and empowerment knowing that I planned this all myself, and now it's actually happening. I'm sure it will be lonely at times, but even more I know it will be a blast.
So, welcome to the adventure, I guess! Or perhaps better put, welcome to my wanderings.
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