Asian Paradise...aka: Kim's trip to Germany
There's a lot in this entry. A lot. There will be ramblings and a general rundown on what happened. A good read if you're bored. Lots of pictures also. Lots. (Will be continually updated until finished)
[March 17th, 2004]
[Wednesday]
[Day 1 - Flights]
Waking up early never used to be my strong point. Lately, it has been almost too simple. So the morning of the trip there I was, awake at six, more than an hour before I needed to be up. Easliy occupied the time by the internet. Bam, problem solved. After checking off things on my last minute list, taking a shower, waiting anxiously, it finally turned into time to leave. I got to the airport right on time, and luckily for me there were still two people who needed to arrive. (I hate being the last person) Then Jacquelyn (rainydaysuicide) came over to me and introduced herself. Turns out that this is the Jakkie that Ali-kun (razorbladekiss2) talks about. Jacquelyn reminds me of my friend Liz in Ohio, they look the same, talk the same, and act the same. Good thing I like Liz. ;) Jacquelyn = super cool. Talked with Jacquelyn a bit and then we all had to check in. Checking in is not exciting.
In line is where I met everyone else (for the most part). There was Alana behind me, who had the same bag as me...her's was purdyer though. So many ribbions! Mary and Hayley were in front of me, they are fun. Behind Alana was Erin (starpance), then Jasmine, Jacquelyn, and then Lauren. I eventually found out that I knew Mary and Hayley already because they both worked up at the Dairy Queen on Broadway. Hayley got extra cool points because she always remembered what I wanted. :)
Check in went smoothly but we still had a few hours before our plan even boarded (due to early arrival and a delay in Chicago Airport). so Erin and I decided we were hungry, and off to Cinnibon we went! Yum, I love Cinnibon. Sat and chatted for a lil while, Erin = super awesome :) Back to the gate where the rest of us all talked about anything and everything... We're an interesting group of people.
The first plane to Chicago was pretty uneventful. I read my book (Chameleon...suggested by Danny mr_ashes, it's not too bad so far), talked with Hayley and Mary (they were behind me), and the flight attendant that was next to me. As soon as our plane landed all of the girls jetted off to the bathroom. Ahh, relief! Erin and I went off again and checked out all the little shops and things. Then back to the gate... where we chatted even more. The Chicago airport is really hot. I wanted less clothing on. (Don't I always want less clothing on?)
Then finally onto boarding our longer flight. I didn't sleep at all. Watched "Cheaper By the Dozen", which was funny, and "Intolerable Cruelty", which wasn't half bad. We got not so cool hot towels. They used to give you washclothes that were super hot, now they just give medium warm moist towelettes. What a bummer.
[March 18th, 2004]
[Thursday]
[Day 2 - Frankfurt to Rothenburg]
Got off the plane at the ripe morning hour of 5:30 am Germany time. Went through customs and things, got out luggage, met Franz, our tour director. After waiting for half an hour our bus finally got there and we met Frank, our supper awesome bus driver. After no sleep on the plane, we got onto our bus, (and met up with the group from New Mexico).
Mary and Hayley sat behind
Erin and I, and
Jacquelyn and Jasmine were next to us. We stopped at a rest stop, or what Franz like to call "Comfort Stops", aka: excuse to wake you up. I fought with the ATM machine to get Euros. (when in reality I had forgotten my pin number.) and took a super cool picture of a billboard.
It says (loosely translated of coarse): "The guest eats and remains King." I thought it was pretty cool. Our bus was a Benz, which was also super cool.
you know you love it. So then we were back on the bus.
Pictures from on the way to Rothenburg:
It's Africa! hehe. I really like how this picture turned out.
Got there around 9 in the morning. no sleep. Rothenburg is surrounded by a wall, and it's strange.
Alana, Me, Mary, Jasmine, Erin, Hayley, and Jacquelyn in front of the wall.
the wall. ohhh, ahhhh.
one of the towers. i love perspective shots.
Went inside the wall to the city. Took some more randome picutres.
random arch
the building the post office is in. This was in the Marketplaza.
A resturant thing in the Marketplaza. I love that style architecture.
a close up of the clock/sundial in the Marketplaza.
a view from the edge of a street inside the city.
Alana, Erin, Mary, Me, Jacquelyn, Hayley, and the place from where i shot the above photo.
that cool tower.
yeah, you envy my cool phototakin skillz. The inside of the wall.
So we all split up and did some shopping. Most of it was tourist places. There were Asian tourists everywhere, and it made me wish that I had brushed up on my Japanese before I left (there were even Japanese Kanji and things in the windows of stores and stuff). We were stuck in this little tourist city until 4 pm. That's seven hours in a lil po-dunk town with only tourist shops and expensive café's. By noon all of us were quite tired. We gave up and sat down on the steps of the post office. I had myself two Spaghetti Eis', cus they're just that damned good.
Bow before it! Finially got to the hotel after hours and hours (we even left early after waiting for Jasmine, Erin, and Jacquelyn to get back from the grocery that was outside the town walls). So that was good. Found our room. I ended up rooming with Hayley and Mary, which was very entertaining. :-D Everyone came into our room and we anticipated dinner, which wasn't until 7. Fucking 7 o'clock. *cries*. Dinner was pretty not good. Salade with a weird dressing, Chicken broth soup (bleh), and some pasta that was starchy tasting. I was so tired by then I didn't even stay for desert. I went and took my shower and then nighty nighty for Kim. Sleep is good.
[March 19th, 2004]
[Friday]
[Day 3 - Dinkelsbühl to Augsburg to Munich]
I woke up and felt horrible. Absolutley bad. My stomach was upset and I felt all woozy. I can't even explain what all was going on. Mary and I went down to breakfast and ended up sitting with John from the New Mexico group and Alana. I tried to eat a brochen, but failed miserably. Packed up everything and went onto the bus. We freaked Mary out on the way there because she drank a lot of the sink water and we're all pretty sure that the sign next to it said don't drink it cus it containded 3.5% sewage. Mary is paranoid about everything, so this was rather fun ;)
We made a short stop in the town called Dinkelsbühl. It was a really cute lil town. There was a church with this beautiful doorway and windows, and a shop with kindereggs for ,55 E (since I don't know how to make the Euro sign, you get an E instead. hehe. that means 55 eurocents, btw).
the church doors.
the huge fucking church windows.
a group pic. because we took a lot of those.
We made our way back to the bus after a short lil while and stopped off in Augsburg! I really wish I had been feeling well because I was born in Augsburg and would of really liked to enjoy it more than I did. It was a cool town, and I would even consider living there (even though I think I liked Munich better). I spilt off with Erin, Jacquelyn, and Jasmine to go shopping. Ended up getting an awesome purse that's army green colored, a cute belt (no more sparklies flying everywhere!) and a really cute pink mini skirt from H & M, which is an AWESOME store. I wish we had some over here in the states(not in New York and stuff). I still felt sick, so I didn't eat anything. Hayley got her walkie talky stolen, which is not cool. Had a fun time with the girls anyway. After a few hours we made our way back to the bus and onto Dachau!
By this time in the day, I was feeling incredibly bad. My only goal was to sleep, and I wasn't getting much of that done. The whole time at Dachau the only thing I did was sit down. But all of the girls were really comforting.
"Work Sets Us Free" Gate.
me in front of the "Work sets us Free" Gate.
the memorial wall. If you can't read it it says: "May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow man."
the Gaurd tower (off in the distance) and the yard...aka gravel where the prisoners stood.
random building. i think it had the showers in it...
the close up of the creamatory
building that i think had the showers in it.
the two remaining barracks and the creamatory down the path
After all that we traveled to dinner (which was in Munich). The soup scared me, so I gave mine to Mary, (it was Alana, Mary, John and myself at a table). Then dinner came. Of coarse it was brautwurst and sauerkraut. I dislike both. The smell alone was enough to make me want to vomit, so I refused sexy-waiter (Slabo, or something like that. He had a really nice ass....) guy and wouldn't let him give me dinner, and I felt really bad about that. But I was just happy to sit and talk with my tablemates and not eat anything. Then nice ass comes in and places a plate down in front of me. I was too shocked to say anything, I couldn't even get out a Danke. It was some ice cream, whipped cream, and an apple pie type slice. It was huge, so I shared it with everyone I sat with.
After dinner we went to our hotel, which was so much better than the other one. The ParkInn of Munich rocks my socks! The blankets were hella cool. But yeah, we checked in, and I changed into my pj's quickly and was out like a light by 9 o'clock. (I was sick, remember?)
[March 20th, 2004]
[Saturday]
[Day 4 - Munich]
Ahh.. to wake up the next day and not be sick is a great feeling. Not much compaires to that relief. So happily Mary and I trotted off to breakfast! Mmmmm, crescents! (that's how that damned dictionary.com told me to spell it. you know, the moon shaped pastry...) The ParkInn also had cherry jelly. Oh man, it was so excellent. They also had the yummiest, most addictive applejuice I've ever had. Mary and I ate with John, and his friend Brian. Brian is John's friend from New Mexico who's a foreign exchange student somewhere in Germany. He came down for the day to visit with John. Time was leaving us, so we went up to the room to get our stuff and brush our teeths and things (also to make sure Hayley was awake) , and met our tour guide in the lobby.
The lady was really nice, but oh man, her voice is just like a lulliby. Erin, Jacquelyn, and Jasmine were late by late 10 minutes and they were yelled at. It also turned out that Mr. Ericson from the NM group was sick, but Brian kinda came with us in his place.
Some weird mansion thing we stopped at. (My fingers got in the way... I think)
The tour was rather blah (what I was awake for, at least). Drove by the BMW headquarters and Olympics stadium, I was kinda bummed out by that since we didn't get to actually go in. So then we headed to the Marienplatz,
which was awesome.The tour lady got us off at a statue/museum and took us to the Glockenspiel. That was cool just because there were a bunch of communist protesters
and the Polizei
were everywhere. I even got a flyer with the only English phrase is "Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity" hehe. There were also war protesters, cus everything had "krieg" on it.
The Glockenspiel
After waiting for that fucking clock to go off we split off. Mary, Alana, John, Brian and I went in search of the Hofbräuhaus. (the beer house). Amazingly we found it with little trouble, in a city of 1.3 million people who speak German, and very lil English if you're lucky. I was in search of a Hofbräu hoodie, which I got eventually (so did Mary ;)) John and Brian stopped to drink a beer there, but since school rules and my stomach were not permitting that, us girls went off on our own.
First was just by Hofbräuhaus, where we got out hoodies, then some place with postcards, then we wandered around the market. Which was completely cool. Really reminded me of living in Germany back in the day. there was an ice-cream store in every corner, but I resisted the urge! (besides the fact that spaghetti eis is 3,20 E) so we shopped a bit. I especially liked the H & M where I got a cream colored corset top for 20 E and a cute blue plaid mini skirt for 15 E. (which if you're on my "special" friend list you see in the pictures from the other day ~.^) Then we went off to go wait for Hayley, Erin, Jasmine, and Jacquelyn at the fountain by the Glockenspiel. There, 4 guys came up to us, and one starts speaking in German. The only thing I caught out the whole thing was "Wie gehts?" and I just laughed. I know that seems mean, but they were a lil sloshed already and it was only noonish. Then eventually one of them started talking in English. Asked us where we were from and why we were waiting so long. While Mary is next to me freaking out (she's phobic of everything) After around 20 minutes they left, and tried to get us to go with them! We all quickly denied them of that happening... It was funny and kinda creepy all at the same time, you would of understood if you were there.
Anyway, about 5 minutes after that the others showed up and we pretty much split up again. We gained Hayley and went to Mcy D's. It was so packed that there were no open seats. Went to more stores, and to the café at the top of a department store. I really don't miss having to pay for restrooms! Split up again and Hayley and I went to sit down, we both were very tired. Eventually we made our way back to the café where we saw Lauren waiting for her dad. (who we found out had gotten off on the wrong floor) Said good bye to her and met up with the other girls and started back to the statue/mesuem place. While sitting at the statue, we were taking pictures of all the girls in our group.
Mr. Egger and Franz were taking them and then all these Italian guys jumped in our pictures and started taking some of their own. Hayley, Jasmine, Jacquelyn, and Erin got captured by them and they started taking more pictures. Mary, Alana, and I were cracking up so bad this whole time. Then after kisses on the cheek and hugs, their tour leader got angry and made the boys stop and leave. (Erin - "I want to take a picture with her") Then after we all giggled for awhile a Pakistanie guy came over and forced his way between Alana and I. But thanks to Hayley's arm around me he didn't feel the need to put his around there too. So after that I headed over to the steps so I wouldn't have to take pictures. Damn camera whores. ;)
Then whitney, I believe (girl from N.M.) lost her pasport, so we had to wait for her and Franz to get back from the polizei station. Once they got back we traveled to same sexy waiter guys place. It was pork shoulder, and it was pretty good. Yum. I sat with Mary, Alana, John, and Brian. Talked with Brian a lot, actually had a lot in common. It's odd, but I would actually hang out with John and Brian given the chance, they're fun people and I felt like one of the guys (which is a feeling I enjoy). It was totally not fair, cus they could drink beer, and proceded to do so right in front of me. Bastards. :) After our highly entertaining dinner, with lots of laughs, and giggles, and pictures of Slabo's crotch...(which I can't get now cus the girl who took it erased it! oh well, Jasmine still has one of his ass. We're a dirty bunch!) we got on the bus and dropped the people off at the hotel that decided not to go on the walking tour (@ night). Then Frank, the awesome bus driver, dropped us off in München somewhere (sometimes i write Munich the English way... sometimes the german way... Munich = English, München = German both equal the same place) close to the Marienplatz. We walked down there, and around to the Glockenspiel
and then through the Hofbräuhaus (it was packed with all these people teasing me about how they have beer and I don't. Okay, so they weren't teasing me, but just drinking was enough. It's like mockery. There even was this lil kid who was like 8 that was drinking a beer! Not nice or fair to Kim at all. *folds arms across her chest*)
Then we went to the place where Hitler gave his speachers. After that we went to the Metro thing. While we were going to pay, but we ended up going downstairs and not able to get back up, so we just got on the SE train, and hoped that the ticket guy wasn't checking. About 10 minutes later we were there and we all jumped out, and there was even a sign to the hotel! (I'm easily amused) A minute later we were there and I was offered to go to the bar to watch soccer and drink with Brian and John, but I was rather worn out and decided against it. So I went and gave Brian a hug and ran up stairs to the room to go to sleep. Which turned out to be impossible since Hayley started running around in her undies and flashing Mary and I her bum. Then Mary and Hayley posed for pictures in the form of the Piata. lol. It was so wrong. Eventually after Hayley stopped molesting Mary, we got to sleep.
random sessy car i saw while sitting at the statue. my camera's zoom rocks my socks.
I forgot something...and now I can't remember what it was.
[March 21st, 2004]
[Sunday]
[Day 5 - Munich to Die Wies Church to Neuschwanstein to Oberammergau to Innsbruck]
Woke up hella early and went to Die Wies, a church in Heiland (I believe). It had pretty ceiling paintings. Got a few postcards and then back on the bus!
We made our way to Neuschwantstein, I slept, it was great. Went to get some snacks, I got a cheap (1,60 E) of Pommes Frites and a Fanta (1,20 E). John had a microwaved disgusting hot dog, and Hayley had a disgusting cheeseburger. Then we went up to the bus to wait for everyone.
View from the waiting spot. I'm an awesome picture taker.
One word of advice to everyone, do not walk. We walked up the fucking mountain to get to the Neuschwanstein castle. Never again. Fucking John carried Jasmine on his shoulders! (Well, she did pay him 3 E, but still...) We went around there, I took lots of pictures of the views.
Went back down to the bus and the other girls took pictures with Frank. Then we left. In Oberammergau everything was closed except for ice-cream places. We walked a little and then just went and sat by the bus cus it was closed. Drove to Innsbruck in Austria.
The Alps:
<----favorite picture outta most of these
And where you drive when your brakes stop working. Hehe.
I didn't really care for it. The hotel really sucked. Small little ghetto room and it was just so low class (and coming from me, just think about that...) The dinner sucked, but the desert was awesome! (Rassberry Ice Cream!) Went back up to the room and Hayley danced around in her undies again.
We stayed behind while they went and walked around Innsbruck. Then started talking about sex (of all sorts) and Mary came in, and we educated her to some things (not showed her or anything you sickos, we told her about things)... poor lil innocent Mary! Eventually we made it to sleep...
I love the faces Mary makes ;)
[March 22nd, 2004]
[Monday]
[Day 6 - Innsbruck to Liechtenstein to Lucerne]
Woke up and had a shitty breakfast. Drove around Innsbruck after dragging the suitcase down four flights of stairs. Drove past the Olympic site. Then stopped the bus for the "Golden roof" and some souvenier shopping. I didn't buy anything except for a chocolate donut at Mcy D's. It was yummy. There we were super touristy and took photo's inside of it.
Thought we had found root-mans, but they were not accurate enough for my liking. (I still don't have one. ) Then we left (there was a sign that said "Familie Egger" so the Egger's took pictures under it, that was cool) to the Coach! (cus it's a coach not a bus...)
Church in Innsbruck
Drove to Liechtenstein. Got some patches, a passport stamp, some kinder bars, and a cute lil liechtenstein shirt. Also tried Blood Orange Fanta (hey, Fanta is a special thing to me.) It tasted of Tangerines.
The Info board for Liech.
The Liech. bus. Everyone made fun of me for wanting to take a picture of it. But I'm glad I did.
Lots of driving, pictures of mountains:
The alps!
blah blah blah, finally got into Lucern, after lots of pointless stops.
Cool lake in Switzerland:
Checked into our hotel. We were on the fourth floor, it took us forever to lug our suitcases up there. Had a prison dinner of some sort of soup and bread. then Chicken and Rice! Oh my god, you don't knwo how happy I was to see Chicken! It was soooo yummy.) We had to use codes to get in our room, ours was CY14Z56, it was super cool. The others went on the city walk, I decided to take a shower since I didn't take one in Innsbruck. Our jail cell was awesome. Small, but still pretty cool The girls got back right I finished plucking my eyebrows :) (I'm obsessive even on vacation) We talked and eventually went to sleep. (Damn those beds were comfy.)
Our cell:
the raping^ it was prision after all. ^.~
[March 23rd, 2004]
[Tuesday]
[Day 7 - Lucerne]
Woke up and thought we were late, but this day we weren't leaving until 9, so in reality we were early. But it was a scare. Afterwards Mary and I tried to sleep more, but seemed to fail. Met our crazy tour director for Lucerne out in the lobby. I definatly should of worn more clothes. It was freezing outside and it was raining, which eventually turned into snow.
The Dying Lion:
Bridge thingy:
And a church I would actually go to. There was just the greatest vibe from this church:
The tour was hella boring and all I could think of was being warm. So as soon as it was over we ran back to the hotel and put on more pants, several shirts and sweatshirts. Ahhh. toasty! Then it was on to getting our money changed into swiss francs. My ATM card didn't work in any of the ones I tried, but we found a money changing machine so I put in a US $ 20 and got 20 something Swiss Francs. From there we made our way to Mcy D's... sensing a pattern? Hayley is obsessed with it (and usually eats 3 cheesburgers everytime we went, and she's a lil stick figure!). It took forever to find though cus the damn trash cans give bad directions. Then to the museum of modern art, which was cool. Lots of genitallia and the video of travelling through someone's mind was awesome. Alana didn't really like it, neither did Mary, but Hayley and I did a lot. It was worth the 10 SF I spent to get in!
Afterwards we went to the railway station aka:Bahnhof!
They have pay showers and toilets there, I took a picture :)
Then we found this giant vending machine, it was so awesome, I also took a picture of that.
Then we went shopping since we found out we didn't pay to go on the Mt. Pilates excursion (which was good since it started snowing and was only 19 degrees f. up there.) So Alana and I went shopping while Hayley and Mary went to the Picasso museum (I didn't go cus I dislike Picasso. hey, that rhymes!) I made it through stores without buying anything! Even through H & M *is proud* Hayley and I went to where she could go smoke a cigarette and then we found this cool sex shop! She actually went in with me, because she's cool :) then found Mary and Alana and went into this awesome department store. They had some super awesome over the knee fishnets (that I got in pink and white) and some cheap kinderbars. they also had both muse cds, but they were the same price as if I would order them online. By then we ended up meeting back up with John and he, Hayley, and I went off to find Pretzels and go in Ali Baba's Thrift Store.
Finally found Pretzels, and got another Fanta to feed my desire. Ali Baba's stuff is really expensive and has holes in it, so we left and went to the hotel to relax before our Swiss Folklore evening. Suddenly, like 5 minutes before we're supposed to leave we find out we're supposed to dress up fancy'like. So all three of us tear apart our suitcases. I ended up in my corset top that I had bought and my pinstripe pants (you can dress me up but you can't take my style out of it!) I was looking pretty snazy. We ran downstairs and saw people all nice looking, and I felt really really stupid.
Off to dinner! Swiss cheese fondue! Well, I hate swiss cheese, but fondue = fun! I love the fork things, I would love to do that again. Then it was a salad, which was alright. The show started. They did lots of different things, dancing, yodeling, Alphorn blowing, flagthrowing, bell ringing, and lots more singing. they brought out dinnner. The chicken and potatoes were yummy. But I wasn't hungry. They brought people up to learn how to dance. Then people up to yodel. We made John go up right away. they yodeled, we laughed. They played the chicken dance too! All of us girls minus a few got up immediatly and started dancing. We probably look like the biggest dorks, but it was a lot of fun! Eventually the evening ended and we went back to the hotel, and on the way this black Jamaciany guy walks towards us and goes, "Liars! You're all liars!" and it was scary, so we immediatly turned back around and started cracking up.
Folklore Evening Pictures:
that cow was awesome! I gave hima kiss :-D
When we finally got back to the hotel I went and changed into some jeans and my super cool new belt. Went down to the bar with Jasmine, John, Hayley, Erin, and Jacquelyn. Hayley and I went "Hudga, hudga, hudga" and these guys went "hey hey!" so we giggled and left after smiling at them. Sat at the tables and the bartender was being a dildo so we had to leave right after one drink was finished. He didn't even give us any relaxing time to see if we wanted another one. I repacked the suitcase and took a shower (that shower had awesome water pressure, my boobs were bright red when I got out!) and I talked with the girls and then finally went to sleep somewhere after midnight.
[March 24th, 2004]
[Wednesday]
[Day 8 - Lucerne to Black Forest to Heidelberg]
Woke up hella early at 6:30. That was killer. Went down and ate breakfast. Felt dead the whole time. Lugged the suitcase down 4 flights of stairs (66 stairs, mary says) and got on the bus. Hit traffic all the way from Lucerne to Zurich. Stopped in some lil po-dunk place with cookoo clocks.
the po-dunks view of the Black Forest
they were too expensive and too big. Also didn't know if mom would want one. More driving. Finally got to Heidelberg after a few stops.
One of the stops:
Went to the castle and took some pictures. I remembered it, but at the same time I didn't. Then we did a lil walking. then some shopping. I bought a german flag and patch.
i just thought it'd be cool to take a picture of the cigarette machines they had all over the place.
part of the castle
our group and some of the nm-ians by the wine barrel (which you can't see in this pic) Prior to this picture Hayley licked my tongue...I didn't think she'd actually do it!
Then it was off to our shitty dinner that we got lost on the way to. (Bad directions). It was fish. I didn't eat a bite of it. The potatoes were nasty. Very very gross dinnner. Had a werid desert thing, and then we had some cake because it was Connies B-Day (some guy from NM)
Went to the hotel, I was quick to get my suitcase and get a room. It was just Hayley and I this time, and it felt odd without Mary in there. I was there first (I even rode the elevator all alone with some guys I didn't know. I made it okay! The fear of elelators is still there though.) After we got into our room some guy starts yelling down the hall. "Eh, All americans are stupid!" he was yelling at the connie guy because he didn't know wehere to get off on the elelator. (If you've never been in Europe, a lot of the times their first floor is equivilant to our second floor. It goes Entrance level, 1st, 2nd...but it's not always like that, so it depends where you go. It can be confusing.) So connie yelled back, "Like you Germans should talk!" (or something to that effect.) and the guy was like, "I'm not German, shows how little you Americains know." So then Hayley goes, "Excuse me sir," in this offended tone, "not all americains are stupid." and she was gonna say more but I pushed her into the room and locked the door cus scary german man was coming down the hall towards us.
So then we find out that he ended up saying that our president was stupid and blah blah (which he is) and John (the other John from NM, not the one that's usually written about here) I guess was in his room and the older blond girl from NM (Christie, I believe) was between scary guy and John. Telling him to back off and shit. So we had an intereesting time there. Took showers and repacked, again. Then Mary wanted to sleep with me and Hayley, so we pushed our beds together and went into our room to chat some more and hang out. Meanwhile those sneaky Jasmine, Erin, and Jacquelyn girls were getting plastered in their room. *tsk tsk* hehehe...( I love you girls! )
[March 25th, 2004]
[Thursday]
[Day 9 - Flights]
Woke up, put on my socks and shoes and wabbled down to breakfast. We didn't even get a real one. We had to sit in a room seperate from the "Paying Patrons" and we got bread, ham, toast, and juice to eat. A fucking third world country eats better than that! Then it was back to the room to get our suitcases and say goodbye to Germany. We got on our bus with Oliver, our cute bus driver. ;)
Then to the Airport when we said goodbye to Franz at the check in. We went and checked in, then to security and then passport stamping. (Everyone had me thinking that I went in the wrong line and that's why my passport wasn't stamped.) Then we went to the gate and sat til boarding.
My seat on the plane was awesome! The crew members rest area was in front of me so they had one row missing between me and the next seat. It was so awesome. The guy next to me in the window seat drank a lot of alcohol, but he wasn't bothering me at all, so that's good news.
Watched "School of Rock" It was good. I thought it was pretty funny, I really like it. Then I started watching "Beyond Borders" with Angelina Jolie in it. Damn, it was an excellent movie, so sad, but good. Plus Angelina's a sexy biatch. It sucked though because the whole movie reminded me of Andrew...which promted me to start a draft of an e-mail that I would send him....not that it does me any good, but I just can't think when it comes to him. Got all discombobulated after writing it from crying and shit. Bleh, stupid boys, alwasys making me like them. I tried to watch "the Haunted Mansion" but I turned it after 30 minutes becasuse it just wasn't funny. So I switched to the map. That map thing is so cool, tells you all the stats (I almost wrote specs...that tells you I've been looking at waaaaay too much car stuff, lol) of the flight and the wind speed and the temperature and things.
Finally landed after the 9 hour flight. Picked up our luggage, traveled through customs, immigration, and then dropped our luggage back off as we headed to our terminal. Then back through security, and finally to our gate. Our boarding time was constantly being pushed back, and we ended up in line on the runway for +30 minutes. We finally got out of there at 6:30, and made it into KCI with little problem. Saw mom, said good bye to everyone (gave Mary back her pj's that wouldn't fit in her suitcase because she bought that much chocolate.) got my suitcase and left.
I didn't miss home. Not at all. I missed certain things, such as the internet, that silly boy (but that's a constant miss T.T)red dew, not paying for toilets, and my bed. But overall I would of loved to stay for so much longer. I recomend an overseas trip to anyone and if you don't have fun while you're there then you suck a lot!
The only thing not here now are the scans of all the cool documents and pamplets and postcards I picked up.
Enjoy!
(at least with no lj cut you saw the entry. Happy now, Stephie?)
[March 17th, 2004]
[Wednesday]
[Day 1 - Flights]
Waking up early never used to be my strong point. Lately, it has been almost too simple. So the morning of the trip there I was, awake at six, more than an hour before I needed to be up. Easliy occupied the time by the internet. Bam, problem solved. After checking off things on my last minute list, taking a shower, waiting anxiously, it finally turned into time to leave. I got to the airport right on time, and luckily for me there were still two people who needed to arrive. (I hate being the last person) Then Jacquelyn (rainydaysuicide) came over to me and introduced herself. Turns out that this is the Jakkie that Ali-kun (razorbladekiss2) talks about. Jacquelyn reminds me of my friend Liz in Ohio, they look the same, talk the same, and act the same. Good thing I like Liz. ;) Jacquelyn = super cool. Talked with Jacquelyn a bit and then we all had to check in. Checking in is not exciting.
In line is where I met everyone else (for the most part). There was Alana behind me, who had the same bag as me...her's was purdyer though. So many ribbions! Mary and Hayley were in front of me, they are fun. Behind Alana was Erin (starpance), then Jasmine, Jacquelyn, and then Lauren. I eventually found out that I knew Mary and Hayley already because they both worked up at the Dairy Queen on Broadway. Hayley got extra cool points because she always remembered what I wanted. :)
Check in went smoothly but we still had a few hours before our plan even boarded (due to early arrival and a delay in Chicago Airport). so Erin and I decided we were hungry, and off to Cinnibon we went! Yum, I love Cinnibon. Sat and chatted for a lil while, Erin = super awesome :) Back to the gate where the rest of us all talked about anything and everything... We're an interesting group of people.
The first plane to Chicago was pretty uneventful. I read my book (Chameleon...suggested by Danny mr_ashes, it's not too bad so far), talked with Hayley and Mary (they were behind me), and the flight attendant that was next to me. As soon as our plane landed all of the girls jetted off to the bathroom. Ahh, relief! Erin and I went off again and checked out all the little shops and things. Then back to the gate... where we chatted even more. The Chicago airport is really hot. I wanted less clothing on. (Don't I always want less clothing on?)
Then finally onto boarding our longer flight. I didn't sleep at all. Watched "Cheaper By the Dozen", which was funny, and "Intolerable Cruelty", which wasn't half bad. We got not so cool hot towels. They used to give you washclothes that were super hot, now they just give medium warm moist towelettes. What a bummer.
[March 18th, 2004]
[Thursday]
[Day 2 - Frankfurt to Rothenburg]
Got off the plane at the ripe morning hour of 5:30 am Germany time. Went through customs and things, got out luggage, met Franz, our tour director. After waiting for half an hour our bus finally got there and we met Frank, our supper awesome bus driver. After no sleep on the plane, we got onto our bus, (and met up with the group from New Mexico).
Mary and Hayley sat behind
Erin and I, and
Jacquelyn and Jasmine were next to us. We stopped at a rest stop, or what Franz like to call "Comfort Stops", aka: excuse to wake you up. I fought with the ATM machine to get Euros. (when in reality I had forgotten my pin number.) and took a super cool picture of a billboard.
It says (loosely translated of coarse): "The guest eats and remains King." I thought it was pretty cool. Our bus was a Benz, which was also super cool.
you know you love it. So then we were back on the bus.
Pictures from on the way to Rothenburg:
It's Africa! hehe. I really like how this picture turned out.
Got there around 9 in the morning. no sleep. Rothenburg is surrounded by a wall, and it's strange.
Alana, Me, Mary, Jasmine, Erin, Hayley, and Jacquelyn in front of the wall.
the wall. ohhh, ahhhh.
one of the towers. i love perspective shots.
Went inside the wall to the city. Took some more randome picutres.
random arch
the building the post office is in. This was in the Marketplaza.
A resturant thing in the Marketplaza. I love that style architecture.
a close up of the clock/sundial in the Marketplaza.
a view from the edge of a street inside the city.
Alana, Erin, Mary, Me, Jacquelyn, Hayley, and the place from where i shot the above photo.
that cool tower.
yeah, you envy my cool phototakin skillz. The inside of the wall.
So we all split up and did some shopping. Most of it was tourist places. There were Asian tourists everywhere, and it made me wish that I had brushed up on my Japanese before I left (there were even Japanese Kanji and things in the windows of stores and stuff). We were stuck in this little tourist city until 4 pm. That's seven hours in a lil po-dunk town with only tourist shops and expensive café's. By noon all of us were quite tired. We gave up and sat down on the steps of the post office. I had myself two Spaghetti Eis', cus they're just that damned good.
Bow before it! Finially got to the hotel after hours and hours (we even left early after waiting for Jasmine, Erin, and Jacquelyn to get back from the grocery that was outside the town walls). So that was good. Found our room. I ended up rooming with Hayley and Mary, which was very entertaining. :-D Everyone came into our room and we anticipated dinner, which wasn't until 7. Fucking 7 o'clock. *cries*. Dinner was pretty not good. Salade with a weird dressing, Chicken broth soup (bleh), and some pasta that was starchy tasting. I was so tired by then I didn't even stay for desert. I went and took my shower and then nighty nighty for Kim. Sleep is good.
[March 19th, 2004]
[Friday]
[Day 3 - Dinkelsbühl to Augsburg to Munich]
I woke up and felt horrible. Absolutley bad. My stomach was upset and I felt all woozy. I can't even explain what all was going on. Mary and I went down to breakfast and ended up sitting with John from the New Mexico group and Alana. I tried to eat a brochen, but failed miserably. Packed up everything and went onto the bus. We freaked Mary out on the way there because she drank a lot of the sink water and we're all pretty sure that the sign next to it said don't drink it cus it containded 3.5% sewage. Mary is paranoid about everything, so this was rather fun ;)
We made a short stop in the town called Dinkelsbühl. It was a really cute lil town. There was a church with this beautiful doorway and windows, and a shop with kindereggs for ,55 E (since I don't know how to make the Euro sign, you get an E instead. hehe. that means 55 eurocents, btw).
the church doors.
the huge fucking church windows.
a group pic. because we took a lot of those.
We made our way back to the bus after a short lil while and stopped off in Augsburg! I really wish I had been feeling well because I was born in Augsburg and would of really liked to enjoy it more than I did. It was a cool town, and I would even consider living there (even though I think I liked Munich better). I spilt off with Erin, Jacquelyn, and Jasmine to go shopping. Ended up getting an awesome purse that's army green colored, a cute belt (no more sparklies flying everywhere!) and a really cute pink mini skirt from H & M, which is an AWESOME store. I wish we had some over here in the states(not in New York and stuff). I still felt sick, so I didn't eat anything. Hayley got her walkie talky stolen, which is not cool. Had a fun time with the girls anyway. After a few hours we made our way back to the bus and onto Dachau!
By this time in the day, I was feeling incredibly bad. My only goal was to sleep, and I wasn't getting much of that done. The whole time at Dachau the only thing I did was sit down. But all of the girls were really comforting.
"Work Sets Us Free" Gate.
me in front of the "Work sets us Free" Gate.
the memorial wall. If you can't read it it says: "May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow man."
the Gaurd tower (off in the distance) and the yard...aka gravel where the prisoners stood.
random building. i think it had the showers in it...
the close up of the creamatory
building that i think had the showers in it.
the two remaining barracks and the creamatory down the path
After all that we traveled to dinner (which was in Munich). The soup scared me, so I gave mine to Mary, (it was Alana, Mary, John and myself at a table). Then dinner came. Of coarse it was brautwurst and sauerkraut. I dislike both. The smell alone was enough to make me want to vomit, so I refused sexy-waiter (Slabo, or something like that. He had a really nice ass....) guy and wouldn't let him give me dinner, and I felt really bad about that. But I was just happy to sit and talk with my tablemates and not eat anything. Then nice ass comes in and places a plate down in front of me. I was too shocked to say anything, I couldn't even get out a Danke. It was some ice cream, whipped cream, and an apple pie type slice. It was huge, so I shared it with everyone I sat with.
After dinner we went to our hotel, which was so much better than the other one. The ParkInn of Munich rocks my socks! The blankets were hella cool. But yeah, we checked in, and I changed into my pj's quickly and was out like a light by 9 o'clock. (I was sick, remember?)
[March 20th, 2004]
[Saturday]
[Day 4 - Munich]
Ahh.. to wake up the next day and not be sick is a great feeling. Not much compaires to that relief. So happily Mary and I trotted off to breakfast! Mmmmm, crescents! (that's how that damned dictionary.com told me to spell it. you know, the moon shaped pastry...) The ParkInn also had cherry jelly. Oh man, it was so excellent. They also had the yummiest, most addictive applejuice I've ever had. Mary and I ate with John, and his friend Brian. Brian is John's friend from New Mexico who's a foreign exchange student somewhere in Germany. He came down for the day to visit with John. Time was leaving us, so we went up to the room to get our stuff and brush our teeths and things (also to make sure Hayley was awake) , and met our tour guide in the lobby.
The lady was really nice, but oh man, her voice is just like a lulliby. Erin, Jacquelyn, and Jasmine were late by late 10 minutes and they were yelled at. It also turned out that Mr. Ericson from the NM group was sick, but Brian kinda came with us in his place.
Some weird mansion thing we stopped at. (My fingers got in the way... I think)
The tour was rather blah (what I was awake for, at least). Drove by the BMW headquarters and Olympics stadium, I was kinda bummed out by that since we didn't get to actually go in. So then we headed to the Marienplatz,
which was awesome.The tour lady got us off at a statue/museum and took us to the Glockenspiel. That was cool just because there were a bunch of communist protesters
and the Polizei
were everywhere. I even got a flyer with the only English phrase is "Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity" hehe. There were also war protesters, cus everything had "krieg" on it.
The Glockenspiel
After waiting for that fucking clock to go off we split off. Mary, Alana, John, Brian and I went in search of the Hofbräuhaus. (the beer house). Amazingly we found it with little trouble, in a city of 1.3 million people who speak German, and very lil English if you're lucky. I was in search of a Hofbräu hoodie, which I got eventually (so did Mary ;)) John and Brian stopped to drink a beer there, but since school rules and my stomach were not permitting that, us girls went off on our own.
First was just by Hofbräuhaus, where we got out hoodies, then some place with postcards, then we wandered around the market. Which was completely cool. Really reminded me of living in Germany back in the day. there was an ice-cream store in every corner, but I resisted the urge! (besides the fact that spaghetti eis is 3,20 E) so we shopped a bit. I especially liked the H & M where I got a cream colored corset top for 20 E and a cute blue plaid mini skirt for 15 E. (which if you're on my "special" friend list you see in the pictures from the other day ~.^) Then we went off to go wait for Hayley, Erin, Jasmine, and Jacquelyn at the fountain by the Glockenspiel. There, 4 guys came up to us, and one starts speaking in German. The only thing I caught out the whole thing was "Wie gehts?" and I just laughed. I know that seems mean, but they were a lil sloshed already and it was only noonish. Then eventually one of them started talking in English. Asked us where we were from and why we were waiting so long. While Mary is next to me freaking out (she's phobic of everything) After around 20 minutes they left, and tried to get us to go with them! We all quickly denied them of that happening... It was funny and kinda creepy all at the same time, you would of understood if you were there.
Anyway, about 5 minutes after that the others showed up and we pretty much split up again. We gained Hayley and went to Mcy D's. It was so packed that there were no open seats. Went to more stores, and to the café at the top of a department store. I really don't miss having to pay for restrooms! Split up again and Hayley and I went to sit down, we both were very tired. Eventually we made our way back to the café where we saw Lauren waiting for her dad. (who we found out had gotten off on the wrong floor) Said good bye to her and met up with the other girls and started back to the statue/mesuem place. While sitting at the statue, we were taking pictures of all the girls in our group.
Mr. Egger and Franz were taking them and then all these Italian guys jumped in our pictures and started taking some of their own. Hayley, Jasmine, Jacquelyn, and Erin got captured by them and they started taking more pictures. Mary, Alana, and I were cracking up so bad this whole time. Then after kisses on the cheek and hugs, their tour leader got angry and made the boys stop and leave. (Erin - "I want to take a picture with her") Then after we all giggled for awhile a Pakistanie guy came over and forced his way between Alana and I. But thanks to Hayley's arm around me he didn't feel the need to put his around there too. So after that I headed over to the steps so I wouldn't have to take pictures. Damn camera whores. ;)
Then whitney, I believe (girl from N.M.) lost her pasport, so we had to wait for her and Franz to get back from the polizei station. Once they got back we traveled to same sexy waiter guys place. It was pork shoulder, and it was pretty good. Yum. I sat with Mary, Alana, John, and Brian. Talked with Brian a lot, actually had a lot in common. It's odd, but I would actually hang out with John and Brian given the chance, they're fun people and I felt like one of the guys (which is a feeling I enjoy). It was totally not fair, cus they could drink beer, and proceded to do so right in front of me. Bastards. :) After our highly entertaining dinner, with lots of laughs, and giggles, and pictures of Slabo's crotch...(which I can't get now cus the girl who took it erased it! oh well, Jasmine still has one of his ass. We're a dirty bunch!) we got on the bus and dropped the people off at the hotel that decided not to go on the walking tour (@ night). Then Frank, the awesome bus driver, dropped us off in München somewhere (sometimes i write Munich the English way... sometimes the german way... Munich = English, München = German both equal the same place) close to the Marienplatz. We walked down there, and around to the Glockenspiel
and then through the Hofbräuhaus (it was packed with all these people teasing me about how they have beer and I don't. Okay, so they weren't teasing me, but just drinking was enough. It's like mockery. There even was this lil kid who was like 8 that was drinking a beer! Not nice or fair to Kim at all. *folds arms across her chest*)
Then we went to the place where Hitler gave his speachers. After that we went to the Metro thing. While we were going to pay, but we ended up going downstairs and not able to get back up, so we just got on the SE train, and hoped that the ticket guy wasn't checking. About 10 minutes later we were there and we all jumped out, and there was even a sign to the hotel! (I'm easily amused) A minute later we were there and I was offered to go to the bar to watch soccer and drink with Brian and John, but I was rather worn out and decided against it. So I went and gave Brian a hug and ran up stairs to the room to go to sleep. Which turned out to be impossible since Hayley started running around in her undies and flashing Mary and I her bum. Then Mary and Hayley posed for pictures in the form of the Piata. lol. It was so wrong. Eventually after Hayley stopped molesting Mary, we got to sleep.
random sessy car i saw while sitting at the statue. my camera's zoom rocks my socks.
I forgot something...and now I can't remember what it was.
[March 21st, 2004]
[Sunday]
[Day 5 - Munich to Die Wies Church to Neuschwanstein to Oberammergau to Innsbruck]
Woke up hella early and went to Die Wies, a church in Heiland (I believe). It had pretty ceiling paintings. Got a few postcards and then back on the bus!
We made our way to Neuschwantstein, I slept, it was great. Went to get some snacks, I got a cheap (1,60 E) of Pommes Frites and a Fanta (1,20 E). John had a microwaved disgusting hot dog, and Hayley had a disgusting cheeseburger. Then we went up to the bus to wait for everyone.
View from the waiting spot. I'm an awesome picture taker.
One word of advice to everyone, do not walk. We walked up the fucking mountain to get to the Neuschwanstein castle. Never again. Fucking John carried Jasmine on his shoulders! (Well, she did pay him 3 E, but still...) We went around there, I took lots of pictures of the views.
Went back down to the bus and the other girls took pictures with Frank. Then we left. In Oberammergau everything was closed except for ice-cream places. We walked a little and then just went and sat by the bus cus it was closed. Drove to Innsbruck in Austria.
The Alps:
<----favorite picture outta most of these
And where you drive when your brakes stop working. Hehe.
I didn't really care for it. The hotel really sucked. Small little ghetto room and it was just so low class (and coming from me, just think about that...) The dinner sucked, but the desert was awesome! (Rassberry Ice Cream!) Went back up to the room and Hayley danced around in her undies again.
We stayed behind while they went and walked around Innsbruck. Then started talking about sex (of all sorts) and Mary came in, and we educated her to some things (not showed her or anything you sickos, we told her about things)... poor lil innocent Mary! Eventually we made it to sleep...
I love the faces Mary makes ;)
[March 22nd, 2004]
[Monday]
[Day 6 - Innsbruck to Liechtenstein to Lucerne]
Woke up and had a shitty breakfast. Drove around Innsbruck after dragging the suitcase down four flights of stairs. Drove past the Olympic site. Then stopped the bus for the "Golden roof" and some souvenier shopping. I didn't buy anything except for a chocolate donut at Mcy D's. It was yummy. There we were super touristy and took photo's inside of it.
Thought we had found root-mans, but they were not accurate enough for my liking. (I still don't have one. ) Then we left (there was a sign that said "Familie Egger" so the Egger's took pictures under it, that was cool) to the Coach! (cus it's a coach not a bus...)
Church in Innsbruck
Drove to Liechtenstein. Got some patches, a passport stamp, some kinder bars, and a cute lil liechtenstein shirt. Also tried Blood Orange Fanta (hey, Fanta is a special thing to me.) It tasted of Tangerines.
The Info board for Liech.
The Liech. bus. Everyone made fun of me for wanting to take a picture of it. But I'm glad I did.
Lots of driving, pictures of mountains:
The alps!
blah blah blah, finally got into Lucern, after lots of pointless stops.
Cool lake in Switzerland:
Checked into our hotel. We were on the fourth floor, it took us forever to lug our suitcases up there. Had a prison dinner of some sort of soup and bread. then Chicken and Rice! Oh my god, you don't knwo how happy I was to see Chicken! It was soooo yummy.) We had to use codes to get in our room, ours was CY14Z56, it was super cool. The others went on the city walk, I decided to take a shower since I didn't take one in Innsbruck. Our jail cell was awesome. Small, but still pretty cool The girls got back right I finished plucking my eyebrows :) (I'm obsessive even on vacation) We talked and eventually went to sleep. (Damn those beds were comfy.)
Our cell:
the raping^ it was prision after all. ^.~
[March 23rd, 2004]
[Tuesday]
[Day 7 - Lucerne]
Woke up and thought we were late, but this day we weren't leaving until 9, so in reality we were early. But it was a scare. Afterwards Mary and I tried to sleep more, but seemed to fail. Met our crazy tour director for Lucerne out in the lobby. I definatly should of worn more clothes. It was freezing outside and it was raining, which eventually turned into snow.
The Dying Lion:
Bridge thingy:
And a church I would actually go to. There was just the greatest vibe from this church:
The tour was hella boring and all I could think of was being warm. So as soon as it was over we ran back to the hotel and put on more pants, several shirts and sweatshirts. Ahhh. toasty! Then it was on to getting our money changed into swiss francs. My ATM card didn't work in any of the ones I tried, but we found a money changing machine so I put in a US $ 20 and got 20 something Swiss Francs. From there we made our way to Mcy D's... sensing a pattern? Hayley is obsessed with it (and usually eats 3 cheesburgers everytime we went, and she's a lil stick figure!). It took forever to find though cus the damn trash cans give bad directions. Then to the museum of modern art, which was cool. Lots of genitallia and the video of travelling through someone's mind was awesome. Alana didn't really like it, neither did Mary, but Hayley and I did a lot. It was worth the 10 SF I spent to get in!
Afterwards we went to the railway station aka:Bahnhof!
They have pay showers and toilets there, I took a picture :)
Then we found this giant vending machine, it was so awesome, I also took a picture of that.
Then we went shopping since we found out we didn't pay to go on the Mt. Pilates excursion (which was good since it started snowing and was only 19 degrees f. up there.) So Alana and I went shopping while Hayley and Mary went to the Picasso museum (I didn't go cus I dislike Picasso. hey, that rhymes!) I made it through stores without buying anything! Even through H & M *is proud* Hayley and I went to where she could go smoke a cigarette and then we found this cool sex shop! She actually went in with me, because she's cool :) then found Mary and Alana and went into this awesome department store. They had some super awesome over the knee fishnets (that I got in pink and white) and some cheap kinderbars. they also had both muse cds, but they were the same price as if I would order them online. By then we ended up meeting back up with John and he, Hayley, and I went off to find Pretzels and go in Ali Baba's Thrift Store.
Finally found Pretzels, and got another Fanta to feed my desire. Ali Baba's stuff is really expensive and has holes in it, so we left and went to the hotel to relax before our Swiss Folklore evening. Suddenly, like 5 minutes before we're supposed to leave we find out we're supposed to dress up fancy'like. So all three of us tear apart our suitcases. I ended up in my corset top that I had bought and my pinstripe pants (you can dress me up but you can't take my style out of it!) I was looking pretty snazy. We ran downstairs and saw people all nice looking, and I felt really really stupid.
Off to dinner! Swiss cheese fondue! Well, I hate swiss cheese, but fondue = fun! I love the fork things, I would love to do that again. Then it was a salad, which was alright. The show started. They did lots of different things, dancing, yodeling, Alphorn blowing, flagthrowing, bell ringing, and lots more singing. they brought out dinnner. The chicken and potatoes were yummy. But I wasn't hungry. They brought people up to learn how to dance. Then people up to yodel. We made John go up right away. they yodeled, we laughed. They played the chicken dance too! All of us girls minus a few got up immediatly and started dancing. We probably look like the biggest dorks, but it was a lot of fun! Eventually the evening ended and we went back to the hotel, and on the way this black Jamaciany guy walks towards us and goes, "Liars! You're all liars!" and it was scary, so we immediatly turned back around and started cracking up.
Folklore Evening Pictures:
that cow was awesome! I gave hima kiss :-D
When we finally got back to the hotel I went and changed into some jeans and my super cool new belt. Went down to the bar with Jasmine, John, Hayley, Erin, and Jacquelyn. Hayley and I went "Hudga, hudga, hudga" and these guys went "hey hey!" so we giggled and left after smiling at them. Sat at the tables and the bartender was being a dildo so we had to leave right after one drink was finished. He didn't even give us any relaxing time to see if we wanted another one. I repacked the suitcase and took a shower (that shower had awesome water pressure, my boobs were bright red when I got out!) and I talked with the girls and then finally went to sleep somewhere after midnight.
[March 24th, 2004]
[Wednesday]
[Day 8 - Lucerne to Black Forest to Heidelberg]
Woke up hella early at 6:30. That was killer. Went down and ate breakfast. Felt dead the whole time. Lugged the suitcase down 4 flights of stairs (66 stairs, mary says) and got on the bus. Hit traffic all the way from Lucerne to Zurich. Stopped in some lil po-dunk place with cookoo clocks.
the po-dunks view of the Black Forest
they were too expensive and too big. Also didn't know if mom would want one. More driving. Finally got to Heidelberg after a few stops.
One of the stops:
Went to the castle and took some pictures. I remembered it, but at the same time I didn't. Then we did a lil walking. then some shopping. I bought a german flag and patch.
i just thought it'd be cool to take a picture of the cigarette machines they had all over the place.
part of the castle
our group and some of the nm-ians by the wine barrel (which you can't see in this pic) Prior to this picture Hayley licked my tongue...I didn't think she'd actually do it!
Then it was off to our shitty dinner that we got lost on the way to. (Bad directions). It was fish. I didn't eat a bite of it. The potatoes were nasty. Very very gross dinnner. Had a werid desert thing, and then we had some cake because it was Connies B-Day (some guy from NM)
Went to the hotel, I was quick to get my suitcase and get a room. It was just Hayley and I this time, and it felt odd without Mary in there. I was there first (I even rode the elevator all alone with some guys I didn't know. I made it okay! The fear of elelators is still there though.) After we got into our room some guy starts yelling down the hall. "Eh, All americans are stupid!" he was yelling at the connie guy because he didn't know wehere to get off on the elelator. (If you've never been in Europe, a lot of the times their first floor is equivilant to our second floor. It goes Entrance level, 1st, 2nd...but it's not always like that, so it depends where you go. It can be confusing.) So connie yelled back, "Like you Germans should talk!" (or something to that effect.) and the guy was like, "I'm not German, shows how little you Americains know." So then Hayley goes, "Excuse me sir," in this offended tone, "not all americains are stupid." and she was gonna say more but I pushed her into the room and locked the door cus scary german man was coming down the hall towards us.
So then we find out that he ended up saying that our president was stupid and blah blah (which he is) and John (the other John from NM, not the one that's usually written about here) I guess was in his room and the older blond girl from NM (Christie, I believe) was between scary guy and John. Telling him to back off and shit. So we had an intereesting time there. Took showers and repacked, again. Then Mary wanted to sleep with me and Hayley, so we pushed our beds together and went into our room to chat some more and hang out. Meanwhile those sneaky Jasmine, Erin, and Jacquelyn girls were getting plastered in their room. *tsk tsk* hehehe...( I love you girls! )
[March 25th, 2004]
[Thursday]
[Day 9 - Flights]
Woke up, put on my socks and shoes and wabbled down to breakfast. We didn't even get a real one. We had to sit in a room seperate from the "Paying Patrons" and we got bread, ham, toast, and juice to eat. A fucking third world country eats better than that! Then it was back to the room to get our suitcases and say goodbye to Germany. We got on our bus with Oliver, our cute bus driver. ;)
Then to the Airport when we said goodbye to Franz at the check in. We went and checked in, then to security and then passport stamping. (Everyone had me thinking that I went in the wrong line and that's why my passport wasn't stamped.) Then we went to the gate and sat til boarding.
My seat on the plane was awesome! The crew members rest area was in front of me so they had one row missing between me and the next seat. It was so awesome. The guy next to me in the window seat drank a lot of alcohol, but he wasn't bothering me at all, so that's good news.
Watched "School of Rock" It was good. I thought it was pretty funny, I really like it. Then I started watching "Beyond Borders" with Angelina Jolie in it. Damn, it was an excellent movie, so sad, but good. Plus Angelina's a sexy biatch. It sucked though because the whole movie reminded me of Andrew...which promted me to start a draft of an e-mail that I would send him....not that it does me any good, but I just can't think when it comes to him. Got all discombobulated after writing it from crying and shit. Bleh, stupid boys, alwasys making me like them. I tried to watch "the Haunted Mansion" but I turned it after 30 minutes becasuse it just wasn't funny. So I switched to the map. That map thing is so cool, tells you all the stats (I almost wrote specs...that tells you I've been looking at waaaaay too much car stuff, lol) of the flight and the wind speed and the temperature and things.
Finally landed after the 9 hour flight. Picked up our luggage, traveled through customs, immigration, and then dropped our luggage back off as we headed to our terminal. Then back through security, and finally to our gate. Our boarding time was constantly being pushed back, and we ended up in line on the runway for +30 minutes. We finally got out of there at 6:30, and made it into KCI with little problem. Saw mom, said good bye to everyone (gave Mary back her pj's that wouldn't fit in her suitcase because she bought that much chocolate.) got my suitcase and left.
I didn't miss home. Not at all. I missed certain things, such as the internet, that silly boy (but that's a constant miss T.T)red dew, not paying for toilets, and my bed. But overall I would of loved to stay for so much longer. I recomend an overseas trip to anyone and if you don't have fun while you're there then you suck a lot!
The only thing not here now are the scans of all the cool documents and pamplets and postcards I picked up.
Enjoy!
(at least with no lj cut you saw the entry. Happy now, Stephie?)