...And Life Continues

We're back. It's kind of sad to be back. Not to say that it wasn't refreshing to walk into my own room again, but the traveling was just so fun! I was just finally getting into the groove of things, and then I had to go home. Bah. (Heh, sheep). Oh well. Now it's time for a not chronological recap.

Sarah and I decided to take a bus from the airport to Freiburg this morning. I had to pee, but I thought we were taking a train but then I forgot and got on the bus. Sometime during the bus ride, the need to use the bathroom becamse severe... and that's when we ran into a few traffic jams. I could tell the driver was upset about the traffic, so I didn't want to ask her to stop so I could go to the bathroom. I managed to hold it until Freiburg, where I ran out of the bus and into the train station. I found the bathroom but realized that I had to pay. As I approached it, I reached into my pocket and took out its contents: many English coins but no Euros. So I burst into the room and said to the attendant with my Pounds held out, "Ich muss unbedingt, aber ich habe nur englisches Geld!" (I really have to go to the bathroom but I only have English money!) An older lady next to me offered to pay for me and I was quite grateful, but then the attendent let me go in the handicap bathroom. Ahh. When I emerged from the train station and told Sarah the story, she said, "only you..."

I really don't want to look at the balance of my bank accounts.

During the entire Ireland/UK trip, we traveled in trains, planes, busses, double decker busses, a horse-drawn carriage, a car (driven by me and Jos), taxis, a ferry, and a boat. It was an intense trip. I definitely had to drive on the left side of the road in Ireland. It was stressful, but I eventually got mostly used to it. And now, because my first round-abouts were on the opposite side of the road, the normal round-abouts in Germany seem backwards. Round-abouts are are actually fairly efficient. In some cases, they are definitely better than 4-way stops.

I took so many pictures... and I really liked London. I want to go back... but I pretty much want to go back everywhere.

We took a tour of the Tower of London, which is an old prison where they held political prisoners. The guy who did the tour, Dave, was really cool. He was a guard of the Tower and actually lived inside it's walls (the Tower is kind of like a fortress including a now empty mote). He was just hilarious.

We had to get up at 2:50 this morning to take a taxi to the airport in order to make our flight at 7am. Blech. We didn't enjoy that, but I'm not too tired now.

Yesterday I saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, and some other things. It rained and it was chilly, but it wasn't bad.

We met a lot of cool people during our journey, but I'm too tired now to write (it's now 12:30am). More tomorrow!

Scotland, England, Wales... oh my!

Well, I'm in England now. Yesterday was a bit nuts. We traveled (starting in Edinburgh, Scotland) for a grand total of 13 hours and ended up somewhere in Wales without a place to sleep because there were issues with the hostel we had booked. Lovely. Some of the issues were our own fault (poor planning) and some were their fault (poor information/assisstance). We freaked out at a t#random train staiton in Wales and were directed to a different stop (we were going to Llandecwyn but were advised to get off in Barmouth). We finally found a hotel in Barmouth after being turned away from a bed and breakfast because it was after 9pm. Yeah, we were a little annoyed with that B&B. The hotel came through for us though, and it even had an amazing free breakfast in the morning. There was actually a menu, and when we couldn't decide, the really nice manager/cook guy (who had given us our room the night before) offered to choose for us. We ended up with an egg, real bacon, sausage, fried bread, potatoes, and a tasty tomato...and all of that was after our coffee and toast. It was an English breakfast. The hotel was right on the ocean and so we went for a walk on the beech in the morning. So... live, learn, and hope that at the end of the day there is a nice Welshman to give you a place to sleep.

Now I'm in Birmingham, England. The hostel is cool but the city is kind of blah. Tomorrow we'll be in Salisbury and on Thursday we'll be in London. It will be nice to finally be back in Freiburg on Saturday.

SCOTLAND! (just a wee bit of excitement)

Hello, one and all. I am now in Scotland and I'm enjoying it. It's beautiful but cold. Apparently it snowed earlier this week. Yesterday Sarah and I saw Loch Lomond and today we are going to see Loch Ness. Woot. We've met some interesting characters on the way. One was an Irish drag queen and another was a guy in Glasgow who took our leftover pizza (we offered it to him). It's been an adventure. The other two in our group (Mary and Joslyn) went home after Dublin and Sarah and I continued to Nothern Ireland and Scotland. Bis spaeter!

Ireland: The Land of Rainbows

Quick update:
I'm currently in Dublin and I'm enjoying it. We've driven from Dublin to Glendalough to Kilkenny to Cashel to Killarney to Limerick to Galway to Dublin. Sarah and I are leaving for Northern Ireland on Wednesday and then for Scotland on Thursday. I had to drive (on the left side of the road) and that was certainly an adventure. On Saturday, I woke up miserably sick (barf) and was out of commission for the day. Sarah got sick later in the day, but thankfully Joslyn and Mary took good care of us. Ireland is beautiful and there are a ton of sheep. It rains a lot but only briefly, it seems... and then there are rainbows... lots of rainbows. It's so very green. Also, check out the Cliffs of Moher. We were there on Sunday (yesterday?!?!) and it was incredible but also incredibly windy, as in the wind actually knocked me over.

Lyne: what is your Irish-roots last name?

You don't appreciate what you have until it's gone.

Hello. I'm going to Ireland tomorrow... And then Scotland, Wales, and England. So you probably won't be hearing from me until April.

Just to reiterate, Ross and I had a great time when he was here.

Yesterday I found a bookstore that has a rather large section with books just about Freiburg and the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). It excited me greatly and I bought a book about the history of the university.

Late Birthday Report

Sarah's birthday:
The first thing on my list for the anniversary of the day of my birth was lunch at a restaurant that I hadn't been to since September. Three of my good friends here in Freiburg were in Amsterdam, so I was alone. I went to the restaurant and odered tortellini alla pana, which tasted better in September than it did this time. As I was sitting there waiting for my food, a guy walked in that I recognized from the Fasnet parade. He was the German red cross worker that had to keep telling us to get behind a certain point, and he would also stop and talk to our group a lot (because most of them were very drunk and entertaining). So I said 'entschuldigung' (excuse me) and he turned around. He ended up eating with me and then taking me around Freiburg and pointing out stuff for a couple hours. Before we parted, he bought me a mini soccer ball for my birthday.

After that, I had to meet the Polish friend. He had two Polish newspapers for me and a postcard from Warsaw. We then went for a walk up in the forest. When we parted, I bought iTrip for my iPod and then went home, where I IMed Sarah and was offered leftovers for dinner. I accepted and went over to Sarah's. Afterwards, we went to Nacht Schicht (a club) and stayed until around 11:30pm. There were three male strippers performing, but they didn't strip. They just danced. On the way back to StuSie, I laid down on the Strassenbahn tracks and some guy sang to me. At the StuSie bar, there were some shots taken, and I went home after a couple hours.

Afterthoughts

I am still so exhausted from the time with Ross. It was sad sending him away on the train. We ended up having to ride bikes to the train station at 5:30 in the morning. That was annoying, but the Strassenbahn wasn't running yet.

On Saturday, Ross bought more stuff and climbed to the top of the Münster's tower. I had already done it and I was incredibly sore, so I waited at the bottom.

My room is so empty without his matress here.

Today (after getting Ross to the train station, going home, and sleeping) we finished booking hostels for Ireland etc. It was a beautiful day... warm and sunny.

Sore- and Crazyness

Well, I really don't know where to begin. It's been awhile because Ross is here annoying me to no end... (joke... I was hoping that he was reading over my shoulder, but he wasn't). We went to Paris and that was fun and intense and crazy. Then we went back to Freiburg and did stuff there. Today we went to Hechingen and saw a cool castle called Burg Hohenzollern. That was also quite fun. Ross seems to be enjoying himself.

In Paris, we saw the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, the outside of the Louvre, Notre Dame, Montmatre, Liberty flame, some cool bridges, a statue of George Washington, that one famous street, and other stuff. We ate French food and walked until we wanted to fall over. On Sundayu, we took an elevator to the top of the Eiffel tower. That was cool. Paris is unbelievably huge... pretty much as far as the eye can see.

We walked around Freiburg and saw stuff. On Thursday, we climbed a small mountainish thing and had a wonderful view at the top. Today we climbed another small mountain to the castle. Also on Thursday, we got a tour of the Münster (the cathedral in Freiburg). It's all been very enjoyable.

"Der Optimist hofft, dass wir in der besten aller möglichen Welten leben. Der Pessimist befürchtet, dass genau das wahr ist."