Scotland! The land of bagpipes and Haggis. We all finished up our classes on Friday and were released for a week of wild adventures on Saturday. Though we were kicked out of our hostel Saturday morning, Andrew and I did not leave until Sunday. This was because it would have been less expensive to pay for another hostel and buy our airplane ticket for Sunday than it would have been to buy a ticket for Saturday. Fortunately, Ms. Florence Kelley Orr was able to hook us up in Munich to stay at her cousin’s loft so we didn’t have to get a hostel! Saturday morning Jeff, Tanner, Andrew, Kelley, and I headed off to Munich with a pit stop at the airport to bid Tanner and Jeff a farewell. We met Katharina downtown and she took us to her loft. We spent some time in a beer garden where I first tried obatzda, GOD’S GIFT TO MAN! It is a Bavarian Cheese dip comprised of many different soft cheeses, garlic, and other ingredients to which are unknown to myself. The Brazilian with a magnificent smile, Aurelio, joined us and we went to kill some time downtown. Aurelio, Andrew, and I were planning on attending Katharina’s concert that night in a small town outside of Munich. We went to the train station where Aurelio got our tickets and we made it just in the nick of time! It was classical music which I loved and they were fantastic! On the way back to Munich, they ticket checker people came to see our tickets, informed us we were on the wrong ring (whatever that means), and then started the process of fining us 40 Euros. No way jose! Aurelio and the checkers were conversing in German and me, knowing 0 German, just stared blankly at the woman’s face. I knew what was going on but was going to wait to say anything until she addressed me. She asked me for my passport and I gave her my license, then I said…. Well how are we suppose to do this cause we are leaving tomorrow? (which was Sunday) I then whipped out my charm and persuasive manner and got off the train with no fine. Thank-you Nicole. We were all famished so decided on a little Italian restaurant which was divine. We all stayed up talking and decided that Aurelio was going to call his other friend from Brazil and that we would go to the Deutsche Museum the next afternoon. We all went to beddy-by and at about 2:30 a.m. I slightly thought of day light savings, but fell asleep before that thought was fully completed. Enough to say we were an hour late because I forgot to set my watch an hour forward. Oopsie daisy. We met up with his friend and spent the day at the museum. I had lost the guys and started wandering the museum on my own. I already had not been to stoked about this whole museum business because quite frankly, I am museum-ed out. Plus the fact that all of the signs were in German did not add to my interest. While strolling I spotted a bench that was calling my name. I obliged and fell asleep on the bench for an hour and a half. I guess I was a little tired.

Edinburgh Castle

. Andrew and I then made out way to the airport to begin our journey to Edinburgh, Scotland. That night, I was in one of my moods which was quite entertaining for Andrew and the people around me. While on the plane Andrew and I whipped out my iPod and began singing Lady GaGa, the lady sitting next to us was starting at me and giggling. I chuckled. We didn’t touch down into Scotland until 11:10 p.m. and still had to go through customs. We were the last ones in line and had to fill out paperwork. It was getting late and the guard/officer was very jolly and said we didn’t have to fill them out and stamped our passports. Man! I already loved Scotland. Best customs I have ever gone through! We had one obstacle, we knew we had to take a bus to downtown, we just didn’t know where it was and it was so late that information was closed. But we found it and it took us to Waverly Bridge. Catriona, the girl who we were staying with, gave us directions from this bridge and so we started on the first step. We accidentally missed a street and ended up at Edinburgh Castle. Great! Sigh. By now it was probably 12:30 or 1 in the morning and I felt horrible because she was waiting up for us! We eventually found our way but morning was coming fast so we just took a cab the rest of the way. We talked for a bit, ate some pizza, and then went to bed. The next morning Catriona took us on the Royal Mile and on top of Calton Hill for the day. We then went to a pub and met up with our new friend Richard and ate some dinner. She took us to a grocery store called Tesco which is where I purchased bagels and peanut butter because I had access to a toaster!! I also had COLD milk, which German hostels apparently have not discovered yet.

Calton Hill
"Athens of the North"

Normally, one would see a heart and think "oh how cute." If you thought this you were wrong. Every Scotsman who walks by this heart spits on it. It represents the tax booth that once stood. Once, a man thought that it was a romantic spot and he proposed to his soon to be fiance. Of course he was kneeling.... but what he did not know was he was kneeling on spit. Mmmmm!


The next morning, we woke up and it was SNOWING! We brought it from Germany!!!! It was freezing and there was no way we were going outside. Because of this, Tuesday consisted of lots of sleep, working on papers, The Office, and movies! We did venture outside once to get some Chinese food and couldn’t get back in the building because the locks are messed up. My fingers almost froze off from frostbite, but luckily Trina let us in. That night I was freezing my buns off in the loft. At our hostel in Regensburg, Courtney always uses the hair dryer to warm up her bed… which I thought was brilliant. So I plugged in the hair dryer right next to bed and used that as my heater. Worked like a charm. Wednesday we took a walking tour of Edinburgh which was awesome! Our tour guide was awesome and I had never realized how much history was in Edinburgh. From volcanoes, wars, witches, authors, philosophy, and of course HARRY POTTER! I was able to visit the coffee shop where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, I felt enlightened. At train stations Courtney an I always look for platform 9 ¾ but are never successful. Hogwarts doesn’t want me. But maybe after this they will be able to recognize my appreciation and I will be expecting to receive an owl in the mail with my letter of acceptance to Hogwarts. I also learned the history of many phrases such as “Saved by the bell.” Back in the day, grave robbing was quite common but it was not illegal. If someone in the family had died, a relative would sleep on top of his grave for 7-10 days so no one would take his body. They constructed cages that surrounded the casket of wealthy men and women in the ground that went fairly deep on inhibit these robbers from stealing the cadavers. When the grave robbers were successful, many empty caskets had surfaced in which they observed that 1 in 4 caskets had fingernail scratches on the inside cover, which meant 25% of the people were buried alive! Can you imagine being buried alive! They figured that many people would slip into a coma and doctors would misdiagnose the come for death. Some inventor came up with the idea of having a bell on top of the grave and a string going down into the casket, so if a man would wake up and he was in his casket, he could just tug the string and then bell would ring above ground, indicating that they had to dig up a grave to save the man. Saved by the bell! This was a good idea but there is quite a lot of wind which caused most of the bells to ring, so they mostly ignored the bells… but I am sure that it saved a couple of people! On this tour we were recommended to try deep fried Mars Bars and a soda called Iron Brew. We had seen deep fried Mars Bars advertised and there was no way I was going to eat that! But our tour guide coxed us into trying it and talk about feeling your arteries close up when eat them! But surprisingly enough, they were better than I had expected. I had never even eaten a Mars Bar before so this was an experience. Matt, our guide, also convinced us of trying Haggis, neeps, and tatties which we did later on. Once again I was pleasantly surprised.. haggis is quite tasty. We were expecting it to be served in the stomach and having to slit it open with all the juices and meat bursting out, but luckily enough it was presented normally on a plate. Haggis is basically the scraps of the scraps left from the cuttings of animal meet mixed with spices, oatmeal, and other things. Neeps and tatties are potatoes and turnips. Had I mentioned that it was raining the entire time we took our tour?? Even though it was rain, I was thankful that it was not snow!!

Fried Mars Bar Iro-Bru

J.K. Rowling sat in the middle Where Rowling wrote Harry Potter

Cage around grave

Hogwarts!

Grey Friar's Bobby

View of Castle from Princes Street Gardens

After the tour we returned to the loft to work on our paper that was due and then we went out for a night of fun at some pubs and clubs. We made some Australian friends who were really nice who are studying in Florence… we are now honorary Australians! Yah!!! There was also karaoke which was very entertaining. Andrew and Charlotte sang a song from Greece and I was so disappointed that my battery died for my camera so I couldn’t record it. We had some fun for the rest of the night and went to bed quite late. The next day we met up with 2 of our Aussie friends, Charlotte and David, and joined them in the tour of the Edinburgh Castle. . We were able to see the Stone of Destiny and the crowned jewels of Scotland. After the tour we met up with Cara and ate an early dinner. This was when we tried our Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties which tasted like a pasty or a mince meat pie. They wanted us to go out with them that night but we had to finish our papers because they were due at midnight. We had planned on renting a car for the week but it had been raining and snowing so much that places were flooding and it would not have been worth it. Because of this, we decided to go on a Highland Tour which was awesome!

Australians!

View from Castle: Scots Monument, Calton Hill, Arthur's Seat, Hollyrood Palace

Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties

Our departure time was at 8:00 so we had to leave our loft at 7:20. I was planning on waking up at 6:20 in order to have time to get ready and grab a Starbucks. I woke up without my alarm, looked at my watch and it was 7:12!! Blasted! We had 8 minutes to get ready!! Thankfully, we were quite speedy and made it to the travel agency on time. On this tour we passed through Glencoe, Dunkeid, Fort Augustus, and of course Loch Ness!!! Our tour guide the epitome of an awesome Scottish man. His primary language was Gaelic and he didn’t learn English until he left the island at 18! He had a hilarious sense of humor and was also very knowledgeable in the subject areas of our stops and the history behind them. The best part of the entire tour was being able to stop at Loch Ness and look for Nessie! Tanner had requested that I leave her some oreos in hope that she would come out and eat the filling. I wrote her a note and left them there for her. On one of our stops, we were able to see a Highland Cow! These things are massive and adorable. Their hair hangs over their eyes and I cannot understand how they are able to see! The rest of our weekend in Scotland was dedicated to walking around the Royal Mile and Princes Gardens with stops at Hollyrood Palace, Scott Monument, Parliament, Arthur’s Seat, and many other attractions.

Highland Cow Bagpipes!

The Highlands

Since this was technically a “reading week” we had quite a few books to read before class began. I spent many hours in Starbucks but became quite distracted with people watching outside the window. Throughout all of our travels, I was the most diligent on this trip. I usually don’t read anything while traveling and just don’t go to bed during the actual school days to catch up on my reading. But somewhere in the depths of my soul, I found some sort of fragment of motivation to actually read the material beforehand. It also helped that this was a literature class and I did not have to read any more history books. Do not get me wrong, I love history. But I can only take so much reading about the Reformation. I am all Luther-ed and Calvin-ed out. When we were on our highland tour, Andrew had ordered a tuna melt and I had been craving it ever since. I did not want to eat at some stupid fast food place or Subway and so I was searching throughout Edinburgh for a small little café that served tuna melts! FAILED ATTEMPT! I had only found one café but they had celery in their tuna melt which is unacceptable. I walked around for 2-3 hours on this quest and came up short! When ever you don’t want something you see it everywhere, but when you actually are in search for a single specific thing, you can never find it! I ended up at the mall where I was faced with the temptation of shopping but I was able to pull myself away by hearing my stomach growl at me. I ended up eating at Subway, big surprise, I know. BUT when I do go to subway I usually get white bread, turkey, and a LOT of lettuce. No sauces, no cheese, no other vegetables. I am proud to say I am broadening my horizons and I can now order a Tuna Sub. My father would be so proud. Since our flight did not leave until Sunday morning, we were able to sleep in which was nice. On our plane there were many guys who were attending some snowboarding festival in Austria and we just so happened to be sitting next to one. I was not in the mood for conversation with strangers and was thankful that I was sitting by the window. Poor Andrew was in the middle and I ditched him and fell asleep for the majority of our flight. Haha, sucker! When we landed in Munich, Andrew turned to me and asked if I got the address of our hostel. Pshh. I turned and stated… “Who do you think I am?” Not only did I have the address, but I looked up directions! We made it to the correct subway station and we were examining a map when I could hear these lone footsteps which at first creeped me out. I turned around and this creep turned out to be Jerry! Yah!! He pointed us in the direction of our hostel where we got our rooms and settled in. And I almost forgot that Sunday was Easter! It was somewhat depressing because I have never EVER missed a holiday. Andrew and I were sitting there and thinking of the food that we could potentially be feasting on, especially strawberry pretzel salad! All in all, Scotland was gorgeous and I am definitely planning a return trip when it is late spring/early summer. I hear that the farther north you travel, it becomes even more magnificent.

Vienna, Austria

Well it is about time that I posted something on this blog and I am sure you all are excited. And if you aren’t, then get excited…. Now. Well Saturday morning, bright and early, we all piled into the vehicles to make the drive to Vienna, Austria! Dalton, Jeff, Courtney, and I rode in Kelley’s car.. it was…. Cozy. One of the advantages to riding with Kelley is that she lets us plug in our iPods to play music. At times, this got dangerous. We got Dalton in the front seat who is a marvelous singer, me who loves to sing in the car, Courtney who adores singing and musicals, and Jeff who loves to listen to his hip hop. Plus we got some dance moves going on which proved to be quite entertaining. We had several scheduled stops along the way and Melk Abbey was the first. Out of all the places we visited in Austria, the library within this Abbey almost felt like a dream. You know back in the day when you would watch Beauty and the Beast? That library came straight from this Abbey. You walk in the doorway and there are thousands of antique editions carefully placed in floor length bookshelves. To reach the top shelve, they had a step ladder that leans on the wall and is secured by a rail at the top, the best part is that is slides along the wall. Even though they were roped off, lets just say I was very tempted to run up the ladder and push to see how far I could go. We all know my fascination of libraries and this is my #1. After we toured the rest of Melk Abbey, we all hopped back in to the cars (there was a small snowball fight between Andrew and I… and he partially whitewashed me) and continued to Vienna.

Our next stop was the Feud Museum. Can I just add that people in Europe are crazy drivers? It is quite ironic that Germany has a rule for everything, and yet when it comes to driving it is a free for all mindset. We had pulled into Vienna and were trying to find the street that the Freud museum was on. Parking is crazy there and Jerry was trying to find us a space. He found one but it was down a one way, and we were in the opposite direction. One ways? That doesn’t mean anything. Kelly pulls onto the street going in reverse, so technically her car is pointing in the right direction. Oh man, I don’t know why, possibly because we had been cooped up in the car for several hours, but we all thought this was hilarious. We finally made it to the Freud Museum where we spent several hours. It was kind of creepy and sketish-ish. There was a room with nothing in it except for a metal therapist couch where a patient would be asked “And how do you feel about this?” Once we got done with our tour, we took off to find our hostel.

That night was the Super Bowl so the boys and Dr. Trull were scouting our bars that were showing it. They found one: The Duke. Throughout our trips, we have found that the boys always get the better rooms (which is ok because at Regensburg, Courtney, Kammy, and I have the best room) but this time it was SOOO not fair. All girls were in one room and all the boys were in a room. We all trudged into our room with all our baggage and this room was tiny! There were 2 bunk beds and then a cot on the floor. The free space we had was probably 3 feet. We go into the boy’s room and it is GINORMOUS!! What the heck? We are girls and have way more stuff than they do. But they refused to switch, go figure. But it was quite cozy and hilarious staying in that room. That night, we were all craving Mexican and the reception desk told us of a good restaurant. We took off in the freezing night to find this place. We got a little lost and it took us a little big longer than expected. By the time we made it, we were all famished. And to top it off, it took us a million years to get our food. We got done with dinner and I had to decide if I wanted to watch the Super Bowl or not. Since we are in Europe it didn’t start until three in the morning or something and got done way late, or more so early in the morning. Plus our day was packed the next morning. I decided not to go which was a very wise decision on my part. Instead, some of us went in search of apple strudel (Vienna has the best) but failed. We did make it to a coffee shop and spent some time there. Went to bed that night and woke up in the morning with plans of going to the Schonbrunn Palace and an Orchestra later that night. We had been watching this movie Sissi, which is about Elisabeth of Bavaria, and this was her palace! It was gorgeous and very extravagant. The ballrooms were surreal and I could just imagine attending a party there. The rooms filled with people all dressed up with an orchestra playing ballads. Sigh, that would have been the life.



I had one mission for the rest of the day. Two words. Apple strudel. Courtney, Kelley and I went to a pub that had supposedly fabulous strudel. And let me tell you, they were CORRECT. It was funny because when we were eating it, the only thing that came out of our mouths were MMMMMMMMM. Delicious. One thing that was weird that first Courtney and then I found a ball of pepper (like salt and pepper) with the sauce. Either this was an accident or some type of secret recipe. We never did find out but it didn’t matter, it was sill scrumptious. Andrew, Tanner, Kelley and I went to the Strauss and Mozart orchestra. It was superb, I had never actually attended an orchestra concert so it was an experience. There were also ballet dancers (not my favorite) and opera singers. And I got to ride on a subway for the first time in my life. Andrew and I would race up the stairs, which kept us entertained.

The next morning was out last day in Vienna and it was a free day. Andrew, Courtney, Jerry, Dr. Trull, and I wanted to go to the Papyrus Museum. We walked with the others part way and we stopped to take a picture by a monument. We learned one of the best lessons in Europe here: nothing is ever free. There was this chick who was handing us flowers and we were like “Oh cool!” And we were taking our pictures, and then she came to take the flowers back and demanded money. We got scammed… good. Courtney refused to give back her flower and just walked away. Chuckles. But we went to the Papyrus Museum where we saw an Egyptian Book of the Dead, which was sweet. And the best part of the entire trip, next to the apple strudel, was walking around the museum district and looking at the monuments and the architecture. It was beautiful! If we hadn’t gone to that district, I probably would have not liked Vienna. We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon strolling the area and getting coffee at Starbucks. It was way fun, plus Dr. Trull was hilarious and that was fun getting to hang out with him before he had to leave. We left back to Regensburg that day and got there just in time for dinner.

Egyptian Book of the Dead

We had presentations the next day and Courtney and I hadn’t even started yet. Haha. That was a late night! But we pulled it off smoothly. By this point we still hadn’t bought our Paris tickets so we also did that the night we got back. Friday night we went to 80’s night at a club. Oh man, so many funny stories. Hmmm…. Dalton, Jeff, Courtney and I went. It was very entertaining. Saturday we got to chill and relax and then on Sunday, Heather, Lisa, and I met up with Kelley and we went to church by Vilseck. It was really nice to be able to go to church where people speak English! We went back to Amberg and planned on eating at an Italian restraint. Unfortunately, all the places were closed until later but we were set on Italian so we had some time to kill. This was a day of eating. First we stopped at a bakery and got some pretzels and croissants. Then we went a different restraint and ate gelato. I love ice cream. Straciatella is the BEST. This was the beginning to my gelato addiction. We stayed there for quite some, partly because we were blocked in, and because it was warm inside! When I say we stayed there for quite some time, I mean hours. But it was relaxing just being able to sit and talk, it was way fun. After the gelato, we walked around and went into Basilika St. Martin to warm up. A men’s choir was practicing somewhere within the church and it echoed from wall to wall. It was beautiful. I probably could have sat there and listened to them for hours. Plus, it was very dark and the only light was the flames from the candles. Spectacular. It was finally time for Italian! We went to the restaurant and I had the best calzone I have ever eaten in my 20 years of life. Oh-my-lanta. I want to go back there and eat again!!! Plus the waiter was trickster, and those are exactly the people that I love. Back to Regensburg and the next morning we left for Paris!!

France

Paris! The city of love! We almost made it there on National Single Awareness Day but we arrived the day after. This was an interesting trip. Courtney, Andrew, and I had purchased our tickets less than a week before we left. We got them off the internet site for a fabulous bargain. The night before we left, I went to go write down my confirmation number and I realized that the return date was wrong! These things don’t happen to me! I always triple check everything before I confirm it! I am still not entirely convinced that it was my error, but unfortunately there are no other possibilities. So I must take it for what it is. I was hoping that it would all get sorted out at the airport. The next morning, Monday, we set off on our journey. We make it to the airport where I find out that they cannot change it and if I booked a separate return flight it would be 600 Euros! Holey Moley! Plus the lady was not very friendly which torked me off even more. That was more than my roundtrip ticket to Germany! By this point I was annoyed, and to top it all off I dropped my purse which had my alarm clock in it and it busted! I was more angry about my alarm clock than I was about my ticket! But I had already decided that I was not going to let this ruin our trip or the atmosphere so I was determined to have a good attitude. When going to our terminal, we just happened to pass a gelato stand so we took a pit stop to eat some. We all know that ice cream solves all problems, and it worked its magic on me. We boarded the plane, and took off and got above the clouds and there was the sun! Sunshine is very precious in Regensburg because the clouds usually cover its rays. It was BEAUTILFUL! Sunshine always makes me smile so that was also a factor that contributed to my good mood. We landed in Paris where none of us spoke French or really knew how to do everything. But I am proud to say that I navigated us successfully to our hostel in downtown Pairs, which was mildly sketch. We dropped off our stuff and headed straight to the Eiffel Tower. For anybody to go to Paris, make sure you see this grandeur monument at night! It was amazing! We walked around for sometime and decided to wander back to our hostel, but we kinda, sorta got lost on our way. We knew the general direction but had no idea where our street was. Luckily, this elderly lady came to our rescue and whipped our her detailed map of Paris from her purse, which was quite strange because it was late at night. What in the world was she doing?? We made it back to our hostel where we scared the beejeebers outta the guy who was already sleeping. Whoopsie daisy!

The next morning we went straight to a bakery where we got the best croissants we’d ever tasted and I bought a baguette to have a fencing fight at the Eiffel Tower! We returned to the Eiffel Tower where we had to pose for the famous pictures that one is complied to do during their stay in Paris. Once we got those beautiful pictures snapped we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe and walked along the Champs de Elysees and along the Seine River. You wanna know why the French are so skinny and why they eat so many baguettes? Because they walk everywhere and need the carbs to stay alive! We continued along the road to make it to the Notre Dame. By this time, we were exhausted! We sat in the park with the sunlight on our faces for over and hour and a half!! I also fed the pigeons the remaining crumbs of my baguette which is always good entertainment. By this time, it was evening and we were exhausted so we headed back to our hostel. We got settled down and I began my quest for my return trip to Germany. I had to be back on Friday because we were leaving for Dresden on Saturday morning! It was frustrating because I was trying to find the cheapest way because I am a poor college student who is in Europe, chuckles. That night was unsuccessful so I headed back up to our room where I fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow. We had always planned to wake up early and go to breakfast but this is never what happened. The sleep button IS our friend. Might I add that we never exactly knew the time in Paris. We were not sure if there was a time change and there were 2 different clocks in our hostel that said two different times. But we never really cared what time it was and didn’t pay much attention to it.

Wednesday we got ready and dedicated the day to hit the Louvre. I never had preset expectations of this museum but I was impressed. This place is gigantic! Unfortunately, every time I think of the Louvre I always think of the Da Vinci Code, sigh. But I can’t help it. We saw all the famous paintings, the Mona Lisa, Code of Hammurabi, Venus de Milo, The Raft of Medusa, ect. We had previously planned at separating and decided to meet at a specific staircase at 17:00. While walking to one of my exhibits, I ran into Courtney so we decided to go to the staircase a little early because our legs were killing us. So we get there and are standing there, 17:00 comes and goes. It soon becomes 17:15…. 17:30…. And by this point we were getting annoyed and almost mad. Blasted Andrew, hurry up! We were so close to leaving him. And to top it all off, these group of boys came and asked us if we spoke English and we were like mmmhmmm. Then they kept pushing this girl towards us and it was sooo strange. Then they came up beside me and started talking. Then one told me I had a beautiful face and my response was “thank you??” What exactly do you say to that? Then they kept going off and eventually they left which is relieving. Andrew is suppose to protect us from these things happening!! We hadn’t eaten anything all day and we were famished, which did not help our attitudes. I kept seeing all of these people with Starbucks and wanted some!! Finally we ventured off to find it and were successful. We got our beverages and returned to our worn spot on the staircase. The entire time, we did not know what time it was in France so I asked Courtney to look at the time on her receipt at it was 16:40! Ahhhh!! My watch was an hour ahead! Blasted time in France. We could no longer be mad at Andrew, which particularly made me more annoyed. Sigh. But we did seem to be able to catch sight of the humor within the situation. By Wednesday I had purchased a train ticket to get back to Regensburg. Unfortunately, the train station was on the opposite side of town but I wanted to go there and make sure that that everything was ok so it would go smoothly without any problems on Friday. Andrew and Courtney took off to the Opera House and I started on my journey to the train station. Longest walk of my life. Plus, I had to go to some sketch ghetto which portrayed a scene out of Barber Shop. It was exactly how it was! These barber shops filled with Black people doing each others hair and talking loudly. It was actually kind of cool, minus the thoughts of being kidnapped. But after many miles, I made it to the train station where everything was set. I retraced my steps and made it back to our hostel Now I only had one more dilemma, my train left at 9:00 and the walk from our hostel to the train station was a good 2-3 hours. I was ok with it but my madre was not. All of the hostels up north were way more expensive so we made a compromise. She would pay half my hostel. I was ok with that. I wasn’t stranded in Paris any longer!

Thursday was the day we dedicated to souvenir shopping. We walked to the Eiffel Tower again and there are about a million hagglers trying to sell you Eiffel Tower key chains. Every time you turn around they will approach you. Not only are these hagglers annoying but there are also a bagillion little Bosnian women who will come up to you and ask “Do you speak English?” If you say yes they will hand you this sheet of paper that has the same story: my brother died, we’re stranded, no home, blah blah blah. It would be more convincing if 50 people did not have the same sheet of paper. Then they’ll pull out their cup beginning for change. While returning from our shopping we went through the same part. Courtney came up with this game to entertain us. We were going to haggle the hagglers. Our goal was to see who could get the most key chains for 1 Euro. After we made this game up, Andrew also had a brilliant idea. Not only were we going to haggle the hagglers, we were going to beg the beggars. GAME ON. The moment we walked down the stairs we were approached by a haggler. The dude was like “You want keychains?” and Andrew was like actually yah! 3 for 1 Euro. Ummmm… I need 10! The look on this guy’s face was priceless. Then Andrew went into this extravagant story of how he only had 1 Euro left and he needed to get all his friends key chains. While transaction is going on, Courtney and I were laughing our buns off. Andrew finally agreed on 6 key chains for 1 Euro. Our new goal was 7. Right when Andrew turned around here comes a Bosnian woman. Andrew, “Oh what’s this?” By this time I lost it. I was laughing so hard I was crying. “Do you speak English?” …. Andrew’s response, “Do you speak Bosnian?? Actually, we’re hungry? Can we have some money? I just bought some key chains you want one?” It was one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. For the next 2 hours our time consisted of seeing how many key chains we could get for 1 Euro. Safe to say that everybody is now going to get an Eiffel Tower key chain. Since Andrew and Courtney’s flight left early the next morning, they were going to spend the night in the airport and I wanted to get to my new hostel before dark. We went back to our original hostel and got our stuff. Andrew and Courtney really wanted me to ride a bus but I had previously decided that I was not going to press my luck any longer. As I was backing up I was like guys I’ll be fine, WHAM! I slam my head against the wall. Chuckles. Oopsie. No guys, for real, I’ll be okay!

So we split off. Once I left it started raining which was not very good because the ink on my map was beginning to bleed. And according to Andrew I was the perfect target, a female with a pink coat with a backpack and luggage. I really wanted to get there before dark but did not happen due to my minor detour I took. I wouldn’t say that I was lost, per se, because I knew where I was. It just took me longer. Went through the ghetto again and 3 hours later was finally on the street where my hostel was suppose to be. It was number 73. 70, 71, 72, 74, 75… what the crap! Where is 73? By this point I was not a happy camper. I was tired, wet, and annoyed. This guy must have seen my horrified facial expression and asked if he could help me. I asked him if he knew where the Vintage Hostel was and he pointed in the direction I had just come from. I just smiled and nodded but inside my head I was thinking “NO ITS NOT!” But I did not have any other choice so I started to retrace my steps. I finally decided to pop into this hotel to ask if they might know where it is and viola! This was my hostel! Thank the Lord. I got my room where I had some Australian roommates who were quite entertaining and slept soundly. The next morning I made my way to the train station where I boarded my train. Destination: Germany. At my stop in Munich, I almost missed my train to Regensburg so I was sprinting as fast as I could. I had to make it from track 4 to track 23 in 3 minutes! But I made it and made it back to Regensburg safe and sound. Now I had to unpack, do laundry, pack up my entire room and pack for our tour around Germany, which we left for the following morning. Over all it was very exhausting but still wonderful!!!