Fugitive Diaries: Day 2

Parthenon

We woke up with the intentions of taking a walking tour of Athens. It seems like this is Déjà vu from our Scotland trip. There is a time change in Athens and I was not sure if I had changed my watch or not. Long story short we were a little bit late and decided not to go. Luckily enough, the tour had been canceled anyways! I think that subconsciously I knew it was going to be canceled, and that is why I forgot to change my watch. Hmmm, yup, I’m going to go with that. We decided to head to the Acropolis to take the tour. It was here that Andrew and I should have played a little game called “lets see how many times we can get yelled yet.” I blame most, actually all, of this on Andrew. He likes to touch things and cross ropes. The first time we got yelled at he was feeling one of the pillars. Ok, that I can understand, don’t touch the ancient ruins. Gotcha. The second time was a doozy.

If you all don’t know, Andrew takes a little figurine called Gumby to every city we visit and takes picture with him. He used my camera (he was a retard who forgot to bring his battery charger) to take a picture of Gumby and the Parthenon. This old Greek woman started trotting and yelling at us in Greek. She kept pointing to my camera and I was a little confused because I was at least 125% sure that we could take picture up here; especially considering the fact that there were about a thousand other tourists doing the same thing. But then she started point to Gumby and my camera. She kept looking over in the distance which I assumed to be beckoning for help. I had my camera in my hand and didn’t want all of my pictures to be deleted so I started to be sneaky and change my memory card. Holy moly bad idea. Chuckles. She turned around a little sooner than I had anticipated and she got irate. Grrrrreeat. Luckily, this nice lady came over and explained that we couldn’t take a picture with Gumby (in calm English) and asked me to delete it, which I did.

The moment they left Andrew remarked that there was no way we were going to leave without a picture of Gumby and the Parthenon. I thought I might as well be setting up bonds to bail us out of jail. We are also collecting rocks from everyplace that we go. Andrew bent down to pick up a stone that looked cool and pop! Out of the middle of no where was a man appeared and informed us to keep the rocks on the ground. For Heaven’s sake, they are rocks for crying out loud! These rock/picture Nazis are everywhere!! (This makes me think of the soup Nazi from Seinfeld) Andrew dropped the rock and grumbled some more, while I was laughing (inside my head of course). We were sitting on a platform where Andrew inconspicuously placed Gumby beside me and snapped a quick picture. Phew. No loud Greek words coming in my direction. He then devised a plan to accidentally drop an object on the ground where he dropped his precious rock and pick up both… but the rock was no where to be seen.

Goal: Take a picture of Gumby with the Parthenon. I could tell from the moment we ascended the marble stairs, the Greek woman was onto us. While taking the picture we were really cracking a hidden code within the Parthenon, The Da Vinci Code style. We were able to complete our mission before she apprehended us. While calling for reinforcements, I was able to switch my memory card to inhibit the sacred code being put into enemy hands. They checked my camera but found nothing. They had no choice but to let us go. We acted like we wanted to take another picture with Gumby to hide our tracks. Mission complete.

A cool fact about the Acropolis and other historic monuments: drinking fountains! This is the first drinking fountain that I have ever seen in Europe! I would assume they placed it here in Athens so people do not die of dehydration. After we wandered around the Parthenon we went to the Theatre of Dionysos which was neat-o because we had learned about this particular theatre in Art History. I perched here and took a quick snooze with the sun beaming. Mmmmmm. While I was waking up I looked up to survey my surroundings and bam! Fanny pack spotting! Giggles. Ooooh if a camera in one hand and a map in the other doesn’t signify a tourist, a fanny pack definitely does.

After this we decided that an afternoon laying on the beach was in order. We went to our hostel to grab our swim suits and get directions. We got off the tram at the first beach we hit. Not the greatest beach in the world, but it had sun, sand, and water which was all I wanted. We spent the first few hours sleeping and then we swam in the Aegean Sea. It was quite chilly at first, but you got used to it real fast. Ouch!!!! Sun burns! But hey, I had tan lines and that’s all that really mattered. There are about a bagillion vendors walking the beaches trying to sell swimsuits, sun glasses, and the such, which gets quite annoying. One guy just decided to take a squat next to us. It was a very interesting conversation…. He asked if we were married….Weird. Sigh. Flipping-A…. NO. But wait it gets better. I heard him ask Andrew something and Drew had a weird look on his face and said “ummm.. no.” The vendor was like why not? Andrew’s response was… “well I don’t even know ya man.” Then the vendor told me I was beautiful, chatted for a few more seconds then left. I turned to Andrew and asked what he had asked him cause I had not heard. Turns out he asked Andrew to give me to him! EXCUSE ME?!? Hello… what century and country are we in? I was a little perplexed and creeped out. We were then joking that this was the 2nd time someone has asked us if we were married. Andrew commented that he was sick of explaining to people that we were cousins. Bing! Lightbulb! I bet that if we pretend we’re married we’d get free stuff! Even better… we’re on our honeymoon! So that is our new plan, if anyone asks us if we are married again we are going to say yes and that we are currently on our honeymoon. Hopefully this works!

TAN LINES! Or rather Burnt Lines.

Our speculations have been confirmed. They have infiltrated the entire Greek system. We cannot trust anyone. I suspect the street vendor was hired to squeeze information about our personal lives…trying to hit us at the core. Failed attempt. I could read him like a book and would not fall smooth talking. The boss is not going to be happy when he returns empty handed. Currently preparing for any further attacks in the future.

We then headed back to our hostel to check into our new room. Keep in mind that this volcano has continued erupting and the wind is blowing the ash in our direction. 2 of the 4 people in our room had their flights canceled and they were going to Rome. On top of that, the chick was pit-pocketed and lost everything except for her passport! Talk about bad luck!! We were going to go to Rome, now we need to re-think our plans. The other 2 guys, Andrew and John Mark (yes that is 1 name) were heading to Spain in 2 days and were hoping that their flight wouldn’t get canceled. After chit chatting for some time, Andrew and I went out to the Plaka to get some din din. We stopped at a restaurant which was serving rabbit which Drew wanted to try. Mmm, it was quite tasty. During the middle of dinner I looked up at Andrew with a serious face and said “You know you are eating the Easter Bunny.”

We then took a walk around the Acropolis while it was lit up and zig-zagged through all the shops and restaurants. Athens really does come alive at night. More and more people start to come out when the sun goes to bed. We then took a mini-hike to the top of the Acropolis to take a breath-taking view of Athens. If you held your breath and listened real hard, you were able to distinguish the different street performers playing in the different areas of the Plaka. It was very serene. We talked for a bit up there about life and our plans for our trip, and since this volcano business is still giving people trouble and we don’t want to get stranded in Greece or Italy, we are now going to 86 Greece and head back to Germany a couple days before our return to the States just to be safe. This is a big bummer, but there is to much crazy business and hectic going on with airports and flights. We are going to take a pilgrimage back to Regensburg, chuckles.


We are changing our direction and not staying in places for long periods of time so our scent wears off. They think that they are one step ahead of us. Once again they are wrong. Catch me if you can.

Fugitive Diaries: Day One

Day #1. Officially a fugitive. This day was dedicated to a lil R’n’R. I first time I awoke from slumber was due to the noise of our roommates leaving. And then the next awakening was from the maid changing the sheets.

We had figured that the authorities were suspicious of us and the maid confirmed our speculations. While “changing the sheets” I saw her go through my bag to look for the “goods.” Luckily, I was one step ahead of her and had planted my fake passport in my purse. Hahahah.. suckers.

I had set my alarm clock for 10:30; pffft, like that was going to happen. The next time I woke up was around 12:30 and I just laid in bed for an extra 30 minutes. I finally drug myself out of bed and took a shower. I decided I should start waking Andrew up now if I wanted him up in an hour. I might add that my attire for the day consisted of shorts and a halter top! I was wearing shorts and a halter top! We were finally ready for the day and disembarked our room at 14:00. Goal #1: Food. While strolling down the street, I could smell the sweet scent of citrus which was radiating from the orange trees lining the streets.

It was gorgeous outside. The rays hitting my pale skin and my ears taking in the Greek music from the various musicians throughout the street corners heightened my first impression of Greece. We made our way through the lightly crowded streets to catch our first glimpse of the Acropolis. We climbed the hill to find that it was closed. Blasted. But that was just okie dokie because we weren’t really planning on hitting it up that day anyway.

Acropolis from Mars Hill

We then climbed Mars Hill which gave us a spectacular view of Athens. Slightly hilarious, we didn’t even know this was Mars Hill until 2 days later.

 View of Athens from Mars Hill

We then took a stroll heading south and ended up at the Temple of Zeus. At this point I was once again tired and wanted to take a nap. We found a park where we sprawled our on the grass and caught some z’s. I woke up to Andrew throwing these ginormous plants resembling pea-pods at me. We have no idea what they were but they looked cool! We went back to our hostel to freshen up and started toward the Plaka to do some shopping and find some dinner. We were coaxed into a restaurant by a white haired, weather beaten, Greek man. We ordered our food and our waiter was quite friendly. Andrew and I usually get the comment about dating, but this time the “M” word was used.

 What is the “M” word you might ask? M-a-r-r-i-a-g-e.

Waiter: So are you guys married?


Us: *Rolling our eyes* Heck no! We’re cousins!

Waiter: There is nothing wrong with that.

Nicole: Hey, that is illegal in the States!

Chuckles. It was really funny. He kept joking with us and told us where to go at night to see the real Athens. Lesbians, gay, bi-sexuals…. It was slightly awkward/funny. At first I wasn’t sure if he was serious or not but he most definitely was. We were getting ready to pay when he brought out dessert on the house. A cake with hints of citrus and a berry sauce drizzled on top. As Campbells puts it, “Mmm Mmm Good!” After dinner we leisurely walked into the heart of the Plaka.We had been previously warned about all the puppy dogs scattered throughout Athens. When I pictured these dogs I had imagined these frail, hungry looking, timid dogs. These dogs are big, fluffy, and cute! Andrew made the mistake of petting one of these dogs and it then followed us around. Andrew couldn’t shake him off! We were going into shops and he would follow us. Blasted dog! At one point Andrew was at one end of the car and the dog was at the other. They were playing a little game.

Andrew would go one way and the dog would follow! Andrew lost the game (Which reminds me, I lost the game) and the dog caught up to him again. He kept biting his shoes and jumping on him I was laughing hysterically and the locals were also smiling. They attempted to help us shake this doggie off by calling him and offering him incentives, but nothing worked. Andrew had made a real friend. We finally entered a store, pretending we didn’t know the lil guy, and the owner shoo-ed him out. Greek! Duh! The doggie doesn’t know English, he speaks Greek. Note to self: look up “shoo” in Greek.

Andrew & His New Friend

 
We had finished our dinner where our cover was almost blown by our waiter. We were able to evade the situation and exit without any mishaps. The authorities must have planted undercover dogs within civilian dogs and given them our scent. As we were walking toward our second mission, one must have caught our scent and started trailing us. Every time we turned around he would look in the opposite direction, but he didn’t know that I have eyes in the back of my head. He decided to take the initiative and make the first move. He charged after Andrew and jumped on him, trying to take him down. This proved to be unsuccessful and we eventually lost him.

We continued our shopping and for the next hour or so we never saw the doggie again. I went to go pet a cute little kitty and Andrew was like, “Nicole! Didn’t we learn our lesson the first time?!” “Ok father!” We then bought cool items from the vendors and continued on wandering the streets where Andrew spotted the same dog! Drew pointed him out and I didn’t believe him cause there are about a bagillion dogs that are black and look like that. We passed him and looked back to see the dog lift up his nose, take a smell, and look straight at us. He remembered Andrew’s scent! RUN!!!!!! And we ran into another shop, but he is a smart little bugger who followed us. He just sprawled out again on the floor but the shopkeeper didn’t mind. This little girl must have taken offense to it because she started screaming at the dog! It was hilarious. She had hand motions and everything. But the dog just looked up, gave her a smirk, and put his head back down. Once we left the shop, we were able to abandon the poor puppy dog and head back to our hostel. We of course had to make a pit stop for ice cream, I am glad to see they have it in Greece. That night we had the whole room to ourselves which was nice.

We were weaving in and out of shops, buses, cars, and streets. We did not want to face another encounter. As we were getting in place for our assignment, we passed our enemy. We were hoping that he wouldn’t catch our scent and we began to book it. We underestimated our opponent’s sniffer and he caught up to us. We devised a plan to use a little girl to distract our follower to be able to escape the vicinity of his nose power.

View #2 From Mars Hill

Parthenon from Bottom

Morphing into a Fugitive

Disclaimer: This is now the time from the end of school to the voyage back home. Due to European laws and adventure beckoning me, Andrew and I are now illegally in Europe. Funny, I know. A suggestion from Tanner was to create the Fugitive Diaries in which I am pretending to be a spy while the authorities are searching for myself and Andrew. The Fugitive Diaries are in bolded letters within the real blog. Note: The concrete content within these bolded sentences is real. Kids, don’t try this at home.


Morphing into a fugitive:

We ascended into the skies of Germany with the intention of landing on the soils of Greece. The duration of our flight was approximately 2 hours in which I ate the best airplane food EVER. This flight was one of the best flights I have ever been on. It was so laid back, they played Greek music, and once again, served the best food. Best part? It was all for free! Heck yes! Even though we had shortish flight, we got a full meal. We landed around 21:15 in which the metamorphosis process began.

Our descention into Greece was the opportune time to begin putting on our disguises. We began plotting out escape through the airport without going through customs. Task #1: Successful. Greece does not know we are in their territory. We then navigated our way through the Athens airport to board a tram heading toward the Acropolis, with our top secret mission unfolding before our eyes.

We retrieved our baggage and stepped outside to find the metro. Holy hotness! It was late at night and it was still quite warm outside! This warm weather gave a glimpse of hope to my pale skin with the dream of being tan. We made our way to the metro in which we knew our destination, but we were so tired that we were a little confused and missed our stop. BLASTED. Stories of our lives. It seems that every single trip starts with Andrew and I getting lost and Nicole getting irritated. Why would this trip be any different? I was tired and wanting to fall into bed. We then got off at the next stop, wandered around, went back on the tram, got off at the correct stop, changed trams, and got off on the correct stop and began the search for our hostel.

I believe we have been double-crossed. They must have given us the wrong directions on purpose with the intention of catching us in action. While we were “lost”, a man came up and asked me for change for a 2 Euro because he wanted to use the phone. I thought that was quite reasonable and pulled out my wallet to calculate the change he needed. He then turned sketch and kept inching his way toward my wallet. He seemed like he had a ploy plotted out in his mind and I could read it in his eyes. Well I am proud to say I have read enough Chuck Norris jokes to know he was trying to rob me and immediately exited the situation. If needed I could have used my military training where we watched Chuck Norris infomercials which taught how to round-housed predator buns or I could have used my Jackie Chan moves. I have also recently watched Miss Congeniality which refreshed my memory in how to “S-I-N-G”. Either way I would have totally come out on top of that fight.

We finally made it to our hostel in which our rooms are rad! We have a miniature kitchen in these babies! A fridge, stove, with pots and plates and the whole 9 yards! A nice clean bathroom and a terrace that overlooks a sweet concrete building. Yes!!! Our first night we had 2 roommates from Cali. I am SO thankful that we chose the later flight, not only for our luggage situation but also because there was a strike in Athens where every single type of transportation shut down. Many travelers got stranded and it was quite chaotic. But by the time we got on the tram, it was 22:00 in which they were up and running again. We had dedicated the following day to catching up on sleep and rejuvenating from our previous trip/school semester. I feel the need to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding… I’ll put it on my list of things to do.

My Favorite Things

Things I am going to miss about Germany:

Hearing church bells
Cobble Stone Streets
Gelato Stands
Hearing different languages
Apple Strudel for lunch
The Orrs
Experiencing new things
German comforters
Tony
Traveling
Obatzda
Our Band: European On My Boot: Album: What Really Happened
All Nighters
Gummy Bear Videos
Espn 8
Free lockers
Singing to the Dixie Chicks in Kelley's car
Popsicles from the Regensburg Hostle vending machine!
The Room
That what she said jokes (I don't want to like them... but they are funny)
Big Capri Suns
Bakeries
Cool McDonalds
Mocca Bar
Saying my favorite things!
Late night conversations with Ms. Courtney Baker!
Mr. Hufflepuff
Inside Jokes
Hits
Bounty
Much, Much, Much, Much More!!!

Things I am NOT going to miss:

Paying to pee
No blasted tap water
Crossing only on green
No more sausage! (for now)
Museums and Churches (for the time being)
Lack of carpet
Lack of Mexican/Chinese food
Lack of Rootbeer!!
Stupid German doors which I can never figure out if I should push or pull.

As you can see, the list of the things I will miss is far longer than the things I will not miss.But that is okay, because I am coming back.

Goodbyes=Gross

Our final day in Germany was covered with cloud of gloom which loomed us. We woke up in the morning for our final literature class with Dr. Hills and the afternoon consisted of finishing (starting for some) homework and packing up all of our belongings. For dinner we were fortunate to taste the barbeque style of Mr. Tony! Mmmmm! It was delicious! Just walking through the halls of our hostel you could smell the smoke wafting through the air from the barbeque. It gave me a glimpse of summer. All I needed to see was some watermelon, chips, and lemonade for it to be a real BBQ. After dinner we all congregated in the classroom for a slideshow of pictures throughout the semester that Kelley had put together. It was really fun to watch but mildly depressing because it solidified the fact that we were leaving the following morning. After the slideshow we were all given the chance to talk about our trip. Oh man, by the end of that speel if I wanted to cry I certainly could have. I love our group SO much! Even though we all had our partners, (Courtney!) together as a whole we meshed perfectly! This could easily be taken for granted but I am SO thankful to God for this factor. It made our time here in Germany enjoyable. During the slideshow I was fine, but once Kelley and Jeff started talking I could feel the tears flood my eyes. It was quite hilarious because once Kelley started crying, Heather said, “Guys! She does like us!” Chuckles. I wanted to say something, but if I did I knew I would start crying. And as you all know I despise crying with a passion. Plus, I couldn't find the words to describe what I felt anyways, but hopefully they all know how thankful I am and how much I love them all. And our little get together was 125% better because Kelley made her banana-chocolate-wonderfulness cake. Mmmmm. We were all told we had an evening activity, which we knew to be the scavenger hunt, and zero of us wanted to do it. The biggest reason was because we all just wanted to hang out together and be able to talk instead of running around Regensburg. We decided to change the rules and instead of having girls versus boys, we joined forces and went around Regensburg doing the challenges we wanted to do. It was a blast! Trespassing, scaring a Turk, reminiscing, and saying our final good-byes to Old School Sista! We figured that the point of this little scavenger hunt was to have fun which we most definitely accomplished.

We returned and the majority of us had planned on staying up all night. I was done with all of my homework but most of them had to finish up some assignments so I just chillaxed in the classroom. Luckily Kelley and Jeff were in there which kept me entertained. When I went outside to look for someone, everyone had vanished! I had hardly slept the 2 previous nights and was pretty tired so I just decided to go to bed. But when I went in my room there were people that were up and I knew Courtney still had to pack. Thankfully Kelley said that I could sleep in her room so I did. Pfffffttttt. So much for sleeping. We just laid there and talked for hours, which was strange because it didn’t feel that long. It was quite fun and interesting, but man! We needed to get up at 4:30 so by the time 3 o’clock came along we only had an hour and a half for sleep. We basically fail at life. The next morning I was just waiting to get a lecture from Jerry, but thankfully it never came, chuckles. I should have just stayed up because I am pretty sure I felt even worse after sleeping for 90 minutes. I woke up to talking in the halls and went into the classroom where I got the comment “Man you look tired!” THANK YOU CAPTAIN OVBIOUS. Giggles. That is what 3 nights of 3 hours of sleep or less does to me. Apparently some had went to Mc Donalds and when they came back they searched for me everywhere. Whoopsie Daisy! I then headed down to my room to pack the clothes that were still WET. Blasted German dryers at the hostel. I am not going to miss my clothes being wet. Jeff then came into my room and we talked for a bit. When 5:00 rolled around we had to say our good-byes which was hard. Ug, I am quite used to saying goodbyes but that doesn’t make it any easier. I then finished up packing and went for a final stroll around Regensburg. It brought back happy memories, which made me chuckles along the path I had trecked out.

There was one minor detail that Andrew and I had not figured out. Since we were going to Greece, we were not going to bring all of our luggage with us… and we did not know where we were going to store this. Half of this lack of decision was due to Andrew occupation with a certain girl, which was understandable and why I just went with the flow. From the fact that our group was leaving Germany and the unknown that laid before me kind of made me nauseous. I was tired, sad, and I didn’t feel good. Fan-freaking-tabulous. Jerry and Kelley returned from taking the first round to the airport and we all had our luggage waiting to be loaded. When looking at the huge pile we thought there was no chance that we were all going to fit into the 2 cars with our luggage. But wa-lah! It was like Mary Poppin’s bag! It all fit and we piled into the cars and made out final journey to Munich. While in the car I still was not able to process that this was it and we were all leaving. Even as I write this now it is hard to imagine. Then someone stated that the “grieving” process is 2 months. Holy moly 2 flipping months! I do NOT want to feel like this for 2 months and I am still in Europe! Sigh. Lame sauce. Hopefully the feeling will slowly melt away. We kind of made it late to the airport so we were all unable to say the appropriate goodbyes which were even more depressing. I attempted to put a smile on my face the entire time but I was tired which hindered me from enabling this smile to be real; I am not sure how well I sold that front off. Students: 8 down, 2 to go. To store our blasted bags at the airport would cost over 100 Euros! That is almost how much my blasted plane ticket to Athens was! Thankfully Kelley took us to the train station in Munich and even there it would be mucho bucks. Bottom line, she is a Godsend who once again saved our hinies and called her cousin. We were able to store our bags at the same place where we had stayed before we went to Scotland. The one true thing which made me laugh the entire day was that their loft is quite a few floors up, 130 steps to be exact. It was hilarious for Drew and I to lug our ginormous bags up the stairs. It didn't help that I was laughing the whole time which makes me weak, which made me laugh even harder. At least when we go back to retrieve them it will be easier to go down rather than going up!

Take 2 to the airport! While in the car I was Ms. DJ and decided to play Christmas music to lighten the exhausted spirits. Can’t say I have ever heard/sang Christmas music in April, but I guess there is a 1st for everything. We made it back to the airport for a 2nd time in which we said our final goodbyes. Gross. I was sick of goodbyes. And then Andrew and I proceeded to find the closest bench to where we had to check-in and crashed. I was then awakened by a man who was a journalist and apparently took a picture of us sleeping. He was doing some article on something (I have no idea, I will still tired) and needed our permission to use our picture. Pshh, heck yes you can put me in a German newspaper. We then waited some more, boarded our flight and ascended into the clouds away from German soil.

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.