God Lives at the Beach

I know this is going up before the Rome post, but it just seemed appropriate after this weekend. Nice and the surrounding area had by far the best looking beaches I've ever been to. I wrote part of this last August in Perdido Key, FL, and finished it this spring. I've been waiting for the right time to post it. After this weekend, this seems like the right time.

GOD LIVES AT THE BEACH

by Bradford Smith

The early morning sun

Rises slowly in the east.

The Waves crashing on the sand,

Wash away footprints from my feet.

A dog is barking happily,

As he sprints into the water.

An old man takes his morning walk

Hand in hand with his granddaughter.

And every time I'm here,

It's like my soul is born again.

The ocean greets me with a smile,

Asking "How've you been, my friend?"

The troubles that I thought I had,

Seem so far now out of reach.

They melt away as my feet hit sand

When I meet God at the beach.

The ocean's just like God, you know.

It's steady as can be.

And when it feels so very far away,

It says, "It's you that left, not me."

"I'm always here, rain or shine,

Come any time and visit,

You can sit right there, just as long as you'd like

Or only stay a minute."

And though it's always the same old thing

It always feels so new.

Moon and stars give way to light.

And the sun paints the water blue.

The waves and sand have seen so much,

Imagine what they could teach.

I hear so much, yet there are no words.

When I meet with God at the beach.

As the life all around me starts over again,

I'm amazed this happens each day.

I sit there in awe at the simple complexity,

Knowing everything is always okay.

Though I never am here as I much I'd like,

I know it's right there waiting for me.

And I'm welcomed back like I never did leave,

When I meet with God at the beach.

No Kangaroos

Alrighty then… Sorry it's taken me so long to get this up. Rome was so busy that I never really got the chance to write. But, I'm in Lyon now, classes have started, and I have the time to write again.

Ok, Vienna. Vienna was a planned trip, but the length of the trip was not. Like I said in PROST!, we cancelled the Prague trip (though I've heard we shouldn't have) and we spent an extra day in Munich and two extra days in Vienna.

So, we left Easy Palace (which I highly recommend. Having stayed in 2 other cities, 4 including Paris and London in 2006, Easy Palace has been my best stay anywhere so far.) But back on topic. We left Easy Palace and got on our train to Vienna about 9:30. Other than the beautiful scenery as we made our way through the mountains, the train ride was completely uneventful. I wrote about Munich, Brad played video games, and the girls slept. About 1:40, we pulled into the Westbahnhof train station in Vienna. From there, we bought 3 day passes for the subway and bus system, which turned out to be completely unnecessary. Just as a side note, our passes were never checked. I was baffled by this. You'd never see it in America. They seemed to operate completely on the honor system. No gates, no attendants. But again, I'm off topic. We took the subway to the last stop on its route, the Ottakring station. Then we hopped a bus to its last stop, finally arriving at Palace Hostel - Schlossherberge. Yeh, we were WAY out there.

The bus stopped at this HUGE hotel on the top of a hill. "Hell of a hostel!" I thought. But, our hostel was on the side of the hotel. It wasn't anything special, but it was clean and that's all that mattered. We had a 4 person room to ourselves with 2 sets of bunk-beds. The guys got the top bunks.

After unloading our luggage, we went outside to take pictures of the city. What the hostel lacked in "extras," it made up for with its view. You could see the entire city and all of the mountains that surrounded it. It was a hell of a view! After snapping a few pictures, and figuratively catching our breath, we made our way back to the bus and subway to go to City Center. The trip didn't seem that long, but I later timed it, and it took about 35 minutes (20 on the bus) to get to the center of the city.

When you get off at Stephansplatz (Stephen's plaza), you emerge into what is called city center. In this instance, you come up the escalator, step out into the sunlight, and are greeted with a huge gothic style church; St. Stephen's Cathedral in the heart of Stephansplatz. The church was gigantic. Even with my smallest lens, I couldn't capture the entire thing. Huge spires shot into the air. And the steeple was so large, it was the one thing that was clearly visible, day or night, from our view at the hostel. The roof was weird. It was a multicolored tile roof with pictures made from the tiles.

We snapped a few pictures, but were mainly interested in finding lunch. Laugh if you will (and you will), but Vienna had my favorite food of the trip. They had a € 3 hot dog stand! And when I say hotdog, picture a pig-in-a-blanket using French bread and a foot-long bratwurst. They called it "spicy." I was warned about it every time I ordered, but I wouldn't call it hot or spicy. It was well seasoned, and it was delicious. I ate there all three days. After that, we got gelato (ice cream). Of the three cities I've tried it in, Vienna had the best gelato, hands down. It was actually pretty funny how popular it was. They literally had gelato restaurants everywhere. And they were all packed. All of them. The churches and museums had signs up that specifically forbade gelato. (No food! No gelato! - Apparently they're not the same thing over here.)

Anyway, after that, it was time to see the city. We had gotten a self-guided walking tour map from the hostel before we left. It highlighted 13 different sites within a reasonable walking distance of each other. We started back at St. Stephen's (#2 on the map) and made our way to St. Peter's Church, Michaelerplatz, the Hofburg Imperial Palace, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The girls got tired of the tour after the Imperial Palace and decided they wanted to do something else. So, we walked to the opera house to see about getting tickets for the Sunday night show. They told us tickets would be available Sunday, and we needed to get there 2-3 hours in advance if we wanted to guarantee we got tickets. (We decided we didn't want to go that badly.)

From there, we went to an amusement park Brad and Kierstyn read about in one of their travel books. When we got there, we were expecting a 6-flags type park where you paid upfront and got to ride everything. Instead it was more like a carnival. They had big rides, but you paid for them individually. So I rode this one ride, that was a BLAST! I still don't know what it was, but it was one of the better rides that I've ever been on.

After that, we went up on a ferris wheel, and got to see the city and the mountains at sunset. Vienna really is a pretty city. After that, we went back to the hostel for the rest of the night. The others got alcohol at a little store and sat on the hill drinking. I wrote for a while and then went out and met them.

Sunday, everybody was pretty much exhausted from the traveling and crazy sleep schedules, so we slept late. Then we split up for the day. The girls went and did their thing, and Brad and I went back to Stephansplatz, grabbed some lunch and gelato, and finally made our way to the imperial palace for the arms and armory tour. That was pretty cool. They had a bunch of old armor, old bows and arrows, swords, guns, etc. It was raining outside, so it worked out well that we were inside for the day.

Then we went on the treasury tour. Now, THAT was cool. It's absolutely ridiculous how extravagant some, or should I say, most of that crap was. The Bible talks about how hard it is for a rich man to get into heaven, and I think this is what He meant by "rich." The treasures inside of here were unbelievable. The hand-crafted intricacies, the gold, & the jewels of the crowns, the scepters (or whatever you call them), and the various other things in there was unbelievable. And all of it, strictly for decoration and showing off. Still, I'm glad I saw it.

But the best part of Vienna for me was the relic room on the treasury tour. And by room, I mean like 5. The Hapsburgs were very Catholic, and they had a ton of relics. Two really stuck out. One was a piece of wood about a 2"x 8" encased in gold and other jewels, that was said to be from the cross of Jesus. The next one, and this one really hit home, was supposedly the nail that went in the right hand of Jesus. Now I don't know if they were real or not, and I don't know anybody that could validate their authenticity, but nevertheless, it was something to behold. The nail itself was a lot skinnier and longer than I imagined it would be. And to see it, and actually realize the pain that thing must have caused, gave me chills. Seeing that alone was worth the trip to Vienna for me.

The two museums took about 3 hours total to see everything. We had a little bit of time left and it had stopped raining, so we finished the walking tour from Saturday, and then went meet the girls. Kierstyn had a friend from high school that lived in Vienna, so we headed to a place called Skybar to meet her. All the buildings in Vienna, with the exceptions of the major monuments and churches, are roughly the same size (about 7 or 8 stories). Skybar was on the 7th floor of one of the buildings near Stephensplatz. It had huge windows all around, but the only thing you really got to see was the tops of the other buildings.

Kierstyn's friend was late, so Brad and I left to try to find a bar with the LSU-Bama SEC Championship game on ESPN2. No luck. So we walked across one of the rivers to a not-as-nice part of town, walked a block, then turned around. As Brad described it, "This part of town isn't all cupcakes and gumballs." I don't know what that means. My understanding of Bama-babble is still very low. But we walked back to Stephensplatz and watched this guy do spray paint art.

I'd never seen this before, but there are a bunch of other youtube videos if you want to watch others. It was pretty cool to see in person.

By this time, it was just about dark, so we hopped the subway to take us back to our hostel, hoping we'd be able to catch the game on ESPN360, do some laundry, catch up on correspondence back home and just take it easy. Well, as luck would have it, their internet was down. They told us sometimes when the weather was bad they lose the internet. Well, we could see the stars outside, so I don't know what the real reason was. Regardless, we still took it easy. We put on music and played ping pong until late that night. (Brad killed me. There may be more to this GUMP theory than I originally realized).

The next day was a bit strange. We were leaving for Rome that night, which normally would mean checking out and going to the train station, but instead, we booked a night train. We still had to check out by 10:00, but we also didn't have anywhere to be until 7:00 that night. So we packed up, checked out of the room at 10:00, and finally left the room at 11:00. It was raining and cold outside this day. I literally could see my breath when I left the hostel. So we decided to stay put for a while. (The girls left.) Brad put on a load of laundry, and we went back to the ping pong room, where I quickly lost all the games again.

Round about 1:00, we loaded up our stuff and headed to Westbahnhof station. After losing € 8 to the locker machines, we finally found a security guard (whose only job seemed to be to take care of the problems with the lockers) who got everything straight for us. I forgot something at the hostel, so I headed back and Brad headed to city center. Round trip to get to Stephanplatz took me exactly an hour. I stopped by the hot dog stand again, then we went walk around the sketchy part of town again. We went to a random costume shop and a couple of other random stores before we figured we'd seen just about all we were going to see in Vienna. So we grabbed some more gelato and bid auf Wiedersehen to Vienna.

We got to Westbahnhof about 5:00 and found the girls already waiting in one of the lounge rooms around the station. (They had seen enough as well.) We watched the departure screens for a while, waiting to see which platform we would need to be on to leave. Well, our train never did show up. So we decided to look at the ticket. Wrong station. Luckily the correct station was only two metro stops away and we still had right at an hour before it was time to leave. I think when we got to the other station, we still had about 45 minutes to wait. Finally, the train arrived and we loaded up for I was hoping would be the best city in Europe. (It didn't disappoint.)

And that's Vienna.

It really was a beautiful city, but that's about all I can say for it. Great to see, but not much to do unless you're into museums and all that other stuff, which I'm not. The food was all I could ask for. It tasted great and kept me full. And, I will also say this for Vienna, (as I'm writing this two weeks late), Vienna had by far the prettiest women of any of the cities I've been to so far. Now that could be because this was the only city I was in on a weekend, and there were a bunch of tourists, but take it for what it's worth. If you get a chance to travel across Europe, sure, make a quick stop in Vienna. There are things worth seeing. But I probably won't be going back. If I make it back to Austria, I think I'll stick to the mountains. Nevertheless, I'm glad I got to see it!

Rome is next!!! auf Wiedersehen!!!

CLICK HERE for the rest of the pictures from my trip

PROST!

Munich, Germany - Wednesday, May 26

"Listen, this is the beer capitol of the world. We don't "screw" around."

Welcome to Germany! And yes, we're in the beer capital of the world. Before going into details about the trip, I should probably start with my expectations heading into Germany, which have been met and far exceeded.

What did I know about Germany? Not much: It's France's neighbor, borders the sea to the north, and famous (at least to my generation) for the wrong reasons (World Wars and the Holocaust). The people yell at you when they speak. Even if they're not trying to be rude, that's just the nature of their language. Brad, our resident German language expert, informed us on the night train that all you have to do is yell and sound angry and you'll fit right in. In all actuality, Brad is from Alabama. He pulls for Alabama. And the only thing he is really an expert on is Star Wars, overalls and white shrimp boots. But I digress. I had heard Germany was really clean and had a very low crime rate, which only enhanced my vision that Germans were probably rude, angry and very strict. I still figured I would have a good time just because I was getting to see something new and going to a new country. But in all honesty, I didn't know what to expect out of Munich, so I hadn't set a very high bar for it to pass. I heard good things about the city. Heard it was nice. Heard it was fun. But I wasn't expecting much. I was glad I was going to get to get to see a new country.

My expectations have been far exceeded. Germany is GREAT! The people are, by far, the friendliest of the five countries I've been to in Europe so far (England, France, Netherlands, Belgium, and now Germany). Most of them speak a little English, at least enough to get you by. Their language is near impossible to understand. Every now and then, I catch something that seems remotely familiar. But, for the most part, their language seems like an endless string of syllables. (Though, we probably sound the same way to them.) But seriously, the people here are fantastic! They are very friendly. Very willing to help. And very proud of their city (Munich), region (Bavaria), and country. They're more than happy to point you in the right direction, and/or give you advice on places to go and things to see and experience.

Friends and websites were correct. Germany is very VERY clean. All the sidewalks and buildings look like they've been pressure washed. You don't see gum stuck to the streets or sidewalks. You don't see trash randomly accumulating anywhere. It's pretty nice. Germany is also supposedly the safest country in Europe, and Munich is the safest city in Germany. The crime here seems to be non-existent. Matter of fact, our bartender told us our first night that the police here literally have nothing to do. He said we had a greater chance of getting a jay-walking ticket than we did of witnessing and/or being affected by a crime. We didn't get a chance to really explore the city like some people might, but we hit the main parts and there wasn't a single time where I felt like we were in a sketchy part of town. It's almost as if troublemakers (if there were any) knew better. You get the sense that the German people are proud and wouldn't tolerate stupid crap like that from people.

Ok, so like I said in my last post, we arrive in Munich around 10:00am on Wednesday, 3:00am US central time). We were excited just getting off the train because the train station was much nicer, cleaner, and more convenient than either of the Paris train stations we had been to. We made our way to the ticket depot, which was an accomplishment in itself, because EVERYTHING was in German (imagine that). Thank God numbers are universal. They help get us on the right trains at the right time. But back on track now. There was a English only line in the ticket depot for dumb Americans like us. The ticket guy spoke perfect English and perfect smart-ass. He was our first introduction to anyone German, and I'm glad he was.

He explained how our passes work and how if we don't do certain things properly, we run the risk of having our passes torn up (which would mean $1100 down the drain). So, again, very glad we met this guy. After the debacle that was the Amsterdam to Paris train expedition, we decided to book our tickets for our next destination as soon as we got to our current stop. So, we were going to Prague next. Our German ticket guy informed us that we didn't need tickets for that train, because our passes would suffice (normally you have to at least get a seat reservation which costs at least 4 euro). "This is not France. This is Germany. We do things much better than the French." (which seems to be the universal sentiment of all Europeans towards France.) But, we did book our overnight train from Vienna to Rome on Monday night.

I'm not going to make a habit of talking the bathrooms I encounter on this trip, but the one in the Munich station was one of the nicest I had ever been in. You had to pay .80 euro to enter the bathroom, but once you did, you had showers available to you, shaving stations and sinks, and actual private bathrooms. It was cleaner/nicer (I know I keep using that word) than your average hotel bathroom, and worth the mention.

Ok. From there, we became your typical American tourists; lugging baggage around, randomly stopping in the middle of walking lanes to try to figure things out, endlessly staring at maps (which were in German and hard to figure out without help) and just walking around generally confused and lost. Kierstyn had directions to our hostel on her phone, but it was still hard to get our bearings and finally get there. Once we got our bearings though, it was not hard at all to find our place.

After about a 20-25 minute walk, we got tour hostel: Easy Palace Hostel and Hotel, Munich. Kierstyn reserved a room for us the night before from her phone. So we knew we had a place to stay. (The girls don't believe in "winging it".) But when we got there, Easy Palace's computers had screwed something up and instead of reservations Wednesday and Thursday, we had reservations for Friday and Saturday. But, it ended up working to our advantage. Instead of staying in a 4 person & then an 8 person room and having to deal with luggage on successive days, we got a 4-person room for both days. Their screw up turned out to be a good thing.

Having never stayed in a hostel before, I had no idea what to expect. I had heard both good and bad things. But, I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The room was pretty nice. We stayed in 310 (and when I put stuff like that in a post, it's mainly a way for me to remember little details later on). But, though we were 310, we were actually on the 4th floor. The room had 4 decent beds. I've stayed on worse. 2 of the beds were side by side. And by that, I mean they were literally touching, and the other pair of beds was a set of bunk beds. The girls got the side by side beds. The room had no A/C, but the window opened up & night temps dropped down into the 50s, so it was never an issue. We also had a closet, which was convenient. And, we also had a private bathroom. Brad and I were completely unphased by this, but the girls said this was a huge deal for a hostel. Apparently they're very rare. Anyway, beyond that, the room was pretty basic. But that's all we really needed. The room was 24 Euro a night per person. Not bad at all.

After we settled in, I guess it was about noon, it was time to eat and see the city. We walked for about 30-45 minutes in no particular direction until we found a little café. We sat outside and experienced for the first time that German waitstaff is never ever EVER in a hurry. We sat for probably 10 minutes before a waiter even acknowledged we were there. Every 10-25 minutes, the waiter would come back or at least close enough for us to grab him. They are in absolutely no hurry. The entire stop at the café lasted about 2 hours and all we got were sandwiches, water, and 1 beer for Brad. We waited about 30 minutes for the check before we finally had a chance to grab him and ask for it. (After 3 restaurants, we finally figured out that you have to ask for your check or they won't give it to you.) I hope I don't seem like I'm complaining here. I'm just trying to give you an idea of the atmosphere. We were fine with the waiting. It was relaxing. It was nice. And the food was delicious.

After that, we spent the next couple of hours exploring and taking things in. I believe they call this site-seeing. We found the old town square Marienplatz, snapped pictures, and continued wandering. We didn't & pretty much still don't know the history of any of the stuff we saw, but the scenery really was beautiful. The architecture is very unique (at least to me, for now. It may be the same in Austria), and if there is one thing I can say, the Germans LOVE their clock-towers. They're everywhere. After site seeing, we went back to the hostel for everyone to rest, shower and do whatever else they felt like doing.

About 3 hours or so later, we headed downstairs for a complimentary beer tasting. Our bartender, Alex from Canada, walked us through the history of beer throughout the world and then its history in Munich. Alex is responsible for the quote at the top of this post. (Side note: most of the people that gave tours and/or interacted with us on a substantial bases were not native Germans. We met workers from Canada, Ireland and Australia to name a few. They came here and never saw reason to leave. And I can definitely understand that. It's a nice life out here.) As Alex made his way through the making of beer and finally the making of beer in Bavaria (Munich's province within Germany), he gave us samplings of the various beers he talked about (Lite, Wheat, Pilsner, and Dark). With each drink, we would toast or PROST!, which means "cheers" in German (and I'm not even sure if I can use it as a verb. Probably not).

But, Munich is the beer capital of the world. They are very proud of this fact and they take their beer seriously. Everyone here drinks. Workers take a break… they have a beer. Get off of work… time for a beer. They LOVE their beer here so much that the Bavarian government started taxing beer and at one point got 25% of its tax revenue from beer taxes. That's a lot of beer! Alex said they looked at drinking beer as a part of their civic duty, and they did it willingly.

This tax lead to the Bavarian Purity Laws, which for us, all that means is that you can't get a hangover if all you drink is Bavarian Beer. It doesn't matter the amount. There are no preservatives (by law) in their beer. So if all you have to drink is Bavarian beer, you may wake up with dry mouth (which I did), but you won't have a hangover (which is true). We started PROST(ing) about 8:30 and went strong for about 6 hours.

From the Easy Palace bar, we went to Hofbräuhaus to eat and drink. Hofbräuhaus was a pretty cool place. They had a German band playing. The waiters and waitresses were in old time German garb. You seat yourself and sit at tables where there are generally other people. (This was true for other beer taverns as well.)

I was quite apprehensive of what I was about to eat. We ordered traditional German sausages with sauerkraut, bread, pretzels, and beer. And while it didn't look particularly appetizing, it was delicious. We drank and played cards until they kicked us out, went back to the hostel and drank a couple more beers. Finally the alcohol and the time change caught up with us and we went to bed.

Thursday, and this will mostly be another post, we went to a German concentration camp. It was a truly sobering experience. We met at the main plaza in the city and then made our way to the train. The camp was about 30 minutes outside of Munich and we pretty much spent the day there, getting back about 7:00 that night. On our way back to the hostel, we stumbled into a place very similar to Hofbrauhouse called Augustinerbräu and ate another traditional German meal (sausages and beer). I didn't realize it at the time, but looking over my stuff from home, this was one of the places Ms. Britany Cormier recommended I go. (Thank you mam!) When we finally got back to the room at about 10:30, we did a combination of sleeping, doing things on the internet, journaling, blogging, and whatever else.

We also made the decision Thursday night to skip Prague. We heard mixed things about the safety of the city, figured we could party anywhere, and weren't ready to call it quits in Munich. And I'm glad we stayed too.

Friday, we split up. The girls wanted to see a garden in Munich (much like Central Park), and the guys wanted to see a castle. So, Brad and I caught a train to the south of Germany, pretty much in the Alps and almost to the Austrian border. The castle and trip there were beautiful. I'll do a separate post for the castle as well. But it was a great day. I'm very glad we stayed! Friday night we grabbed a meal and in the gathering area of the hostel drinking and just hanging out (well, they drank anyway).

Other Pictures:

And that was Munich. Saturday morning we packed up and headed by train to Vienna. The city is beautiful! It's going to be a great time!!!

And on a side note…. HOW BOUT THEM TIGERS!!!!!!

"Super Start to a Super Summer fellas"

That line comes from American Pie II, and it's the first thing I thought of after I left the train ticket portal in the Amsterdam airport. As I write this, I am tired. Scratch that, I'm exhausted. I barely slept the two days before I left, anticipating that I would sleep on the plane. Welllll, I didn't. I maybe got a 30 minute nap. Maybe.

And now I'm in Amsterdam. Or, at least, I'm in the plane and train station that's designated Amsterdam. I left off with the last post as I was boarding the plane. My reserved seat was the very last row on the left side of the plane against the window. That's not where I sat. I was one of the last ones to board the plane hoping that I didn't have to sit way in the back. Luckily, the plane was nowhere near full. I sat in the back section, but not nearly all the way to the back. I had two seats to myself, so I was able to sprawl out a little bit.

The plane left on time, right at 3:40. I don't think the plane ever stopped once it backed away from the terminal. We went straight to the runway and took off. No waiting anywhere. The plane ride was fairly uneventful. We landed at 8:20, right on time. Though, truth be told, we definitely could have made it faster. The pilot took a crazy route over St. Louis, then Illinois, then the Great Lakes, then just into Canada and finally out over the Atlantic. The sun sat right before we got out over the ocean and rose again like 3-4 hours later… Still over the Atlantic. It was pretty cool flying into Amsterdam. They have water everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It makes me wonder what Venice is like, because Amsterdam literally has canals all over the place. Fields have multiple "bayous" running through them. They're set up and run across the land so that they look like roads everywhere.

But other than the cool flight in, Amsterdam has not been the best. I picked up my luggage on the carousal and one of the back wheels is missing. (Welcome to Europe!) The continental rep said "That's awfully inconvenient, sir. You're just starting your trip." Thanks for that sir. Yes. Yes is it inconvenient.................... to say the least.

Thennnnn, I got to the ticket counter. For the rail system in Europe, they offer what's called the Eurail Pass. The one I bought allows me 15 days of travel to 21 European countries within a two month time period. So I talk to the lady at the ticket counter, trying to get my train to Paris. The plan was to meet Brad, Kierstyn, and Erica at Gare du Nord train station in Paris at 1:30. Whoops! The train I needed to take was completely booked. So, I had to wait. Really, didn't have to wait that much longer, 11:10, instead of 10:30. But, the difference in arrival times was going to be 3.5 hours late. I saved $100, but I don't know if it was worth it. The stress of possibly not being able to find my friends combined with it being 2:00 in the morning back home/I was tired, was not a friendly combination.

So, to kill time for 2 hours, I walked around the train station, looked at all the shops and sent emails back home and to Kierstyn to let them know how they should attempt to find me. And if there's one thing I noticed in all of that, Amsterdam is EXPENSIVE. Burger King wanted 3.75 Euro for chicken nuggets. That's roughly $5.00 and it wasn't for a value meal. I paid $4.00 for 15 minutes of internet(before the bank fee). Yes, it's a little expensive.

But now for the people. Everybody I've dealt with has been nice. They don't have quite the courtesy of US people, but they are nice. If they're talking to another worker or something and you walk up, they're going to finish their conversation or whatever they're doing, and then get to you. But when they finally do, they're nice and helpful.

Now for the train rides.

I left Amsterdam and traveled to Antwerp station in Belgium. The train ride was 2 hours long, and pretty uneventful. I watched the Dutch countryside for a while and finally fell asleep with my bags in my lap and at my feet.

When I got to the Antwerp station, the train I was supposed to take next was still an hour away. So, I sat at the station and talked to a couple from Florida that was literally backpacking and camping through Europe. They had a tent. They had just finished camping on the side of a lake in Amsterdam and were now headed to Paris for 4-5 days. We hopped on the same train together and headed to Lille, France. My next train (to Paris) was due to leave at 4:00, theirs at 4:30, and I was due to get into Lille at 3:52. We talked for a bit about how impressive the European trains were and how on time they were. If they said arriving at 11:53 and leaving at 11:54, that's what they did. As karma would have it, this train from Antwerp to Lille was late departing and arriving. We arrived in Lille at 4:07, so I had to find the train manager of the next train and get him to let me get on the backpackers' train.

I got on the next train without a problem, but still got to Paris at 5:30 instead of 5:00. Which meant Brad, Kierstyn and Erica had to look for me at Gare du Nord for 45 minutes without any way for me to get in touch with them saying I would be late. The train was one of the highspeed trains you've probably heard about, and it definitely went fast, but I'm not sure how fast. We made it to Paris in right at an hour, but still 30 minutes late.

I got into Paris right at 5:30, praying I would be able to find my group. I was decked out in LSU gear (shirt, bag, and hat), hoping that I would be easily identifiable. Couldn't find them. I walked all over the station. Nothing. Went to a balcony where I stood out and could see everywhere. Still… nothing. Our contingency plan was to head to Gare de l'Est, the train station that would take us on the overnight train to Munich, buy tickets and just (hopefully) meet each other right before boarding the train.

So, I left Gare du Nord, headed to an orientation stand to check out a map, and this crazy girl runs up to me and just stands in my way. Took a second to register, but as it did, overwhelming relief! Kierstyn found me. Thank you God! Goodbye anxiety! - In all seriousness, the odds of us finding each other were very small. The station was huge. There were people everywhere, and it really was overwhelming.

But there they were. They had started looking for me an hour ago, and finally went outside figuring they had a better chance of finding me once I left the station. We were all relieved. From there, we made our way to Paris Est, bought our tickets for Munich, and laid down on our luggage in the train station.

We got a sleeper car from Paris to Munich. It was supposed to be an 11 hour trip (8:20pm - 7:20am), which we were fine with because we wanted the rest. We were all pretty much exhausted by this point. The car itself was very very small. It had 6 beds but we only needed 4 and prayed they didn't stick anyone else in our compartment. Almost as soon as the train started moving, the girls started drinking champagne, Brad started playing video games, and I fell asleep. The train stopped multiple times throughout the night, sometimes for as long as 45 minutes. For the most part, everyone slept right through the stops. Sometimes when the train came to a stop, or was going slowly through a station, it would make this horrible screeching sound. Sometimes that would wake us up, but for the most part, it was a pretty relaxed ride. We all woke up about 5:00. We had gotten a decent little nap, the sun was already up, and our train was supposed to be stopping for good in about 2 hours. So we all started cutting up, making fun of each other, and eventually falling back asleep. And it's a good thing too, because we didn't arrive in Munich until 10:00 am.

I'm not going to lie. It was a hell of a trip to get here. From the time I left on Monday from Lafayette to the time I arrived in Munich, I traveled for a solid 39 hours. I spent 10.5 in the air & 18.5 on a train, with 10 hours of layovers. But I made it, and everything is fine. My next post will be about Munich and I'll try to have that up ASAP.

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I'm posting these late, because it's a circus trying to split one charger with 4 people. So my computer isn't always up and running. Thank God that Brad brought his transformer so our American stuff could work. Otherwise, we'd be out of luck. But I don't get to type as much as I'd like. So a lot of this stuff is written on notepads and stuff and then transferred. So that's why they're often a couple days late. But I am trying to catch up.

This post was written when I was EXTREMELY tired and things just weren't going right. But Munich has been awesome. We ended up cancelling Prague, staying an extra day in Munich, and then heading to Vienna early. Like I said, I'll get the munich stuff up pretty soon. But just know, this trip, so far, has been a blast.