Spain! Beaches, Castles, and An Old Friend.

June 22^nd-25^th

Pyramid on the beach.

Leah and I the castle.

     Annnnnnnnd we’re back. So that sleeper train? Yeah. Slept like a baby. It was great. When I made it to Port Bou, Spain, I knew it was going to be great. The ocean was reflecting the sunrise and it was gorgeous. I was staring out the window like a dog stares at anything that moves. Unfortunately, the super long Port Bou-Barcelona train was much longer than expected and I met Michal, my host, about an hour or two after I told him I’d be there. Oops. It was okay though! He was very nice and let me take a shower before taking me to the beach! Yay beach! It was great. Everything you expect it to be. Sun, Sand, Waves, and even beach volleyball. Surprisingly, I wasn’t half bad at that part. Loni must’ve rubbed off on me. Somehow, in conversation, they found out I was a cheerleader before and they enlisted in my help to build a pyramid. Pretty cool, huh?

Leah and I at the festival.

     We met for tapas a few hours later and then proceeded to a rooftop party in the city. Though it was fabulous and the people were great, I was exhausted from my travels and went back to go to sleep. I had an early train the next morning to Alicante, so I was careful not to wake up Michal. On my way to the station, a weird old lady caused me to miss my stop by yelling at me in Spanish when I tried to get off. I had no idea what she was trying to tell me, so I rode the metro until she let me leave and then back tracked to my station. Luckily, this did not make me late and I continued on my merry way to Alicante, Spain where I met Leah!! I found her in the station before she found me and it was great to see a familiar face.

I want a cactus.

     She took me to her host family’s house, pointing out awesome paper sculptures on the way, and when we arrived,  I promptly took my siesta nap like any good, respectable Spanish person would. An hour later, Leah and I bought some ridiculously good ice cream and then began our long trek up a mountain/hill thing to the castle at the top. We chattered and sweated nonstop the entire way and then, when we finally reached the top, we took about a thousand pictures of the views and each other. In this blissful fog of happy, we watched the sun set from atop the roof and probably took a thousand more pictures before eventually clambering back down into the city of Alicante, to our respective showers and beds.

Castle at sunset.

     Every day is beach day in Spain, so who were Leah and I to deny ourselves of that? On the next afternoon, we went to the beach and did beachy things after watching a massive fireworks display in the middle of the day. Leah said it was in the day because during festival (which it was), no one was supposed to sleep, not even for siesta. Back to the beach though, the waves were mean. They knocked me over and pulled off my top. Bad waves. Down boys. Down! They didn’t get down, so Leah and I went to go get a pina colada with her host sister, Kristina. That was funny because she didn’t speak any English which left Leah and I to speak to her in Spanish. She learned about the legend that is Rusty and Kacy through stories such as the water in the purse, fart in the box, and hairbrush on fire stories. Ahhh. The classics. AND I told it entirely in Spanish. With help from Leah. And a lot of sign language.

Spanish girls in cool dresses.

     With the past two days behind us, it was time for me to pack for tomorrow’s journey. Leah’s host mom saw that I had no clean clothes and very generously and sweetly washed and folded all of my laundry. It was so nice of her! She then took us all to the festival to watch more fireworks, this time from the castle, and to watch the sculptures burn. It was sad to see the beautiful pieces burn to the ground, but I know there will be more next year and the next and every year as there has been before, so I guess I shouldn’t be too sad. Before long, it was over and we were back at the house one more time. 

Me gusta la playa.

     I wrote a Google translate postcard for Leah’s host family and gave Leah a few things to take back to Oklahoma with her on her impending flight. Then I finally drifted off to sleep. Before I knew it, I was waking up and Leah was saying good bye to me at the train station. It had all happened so fast. My time in Alicante with Leah was wonderful but way too short. I wanted to stay, but the train was already taking me back to Barcelona and a whole new set of problems.

Seriously. Bad problems. Like worst week ever problems. Tune in for my next post.

Russell

Paris (The Part Where I Am Alone), BJ Novak, and CouchSurfing Central

June 18^th-21^st

Notre Dame. It's big and not a cartoon.

The inside is like a fine wine. Not really.
I just wanted to sound sophisticated.

     Hi again! Rusty here, checking in for another installment of my adventures. We are now two posts away from what I am currently doing (which is going to Switzerland Italy), and soon I can actually write about what just happened and not what happened two-three weeks ago! Unless I relapse into a state of non-writing. That won’t happen… I hope.

It's weird taking a pic in church.

Look a door and a good hair day.

     I left you as my parents and Loni left me: Alone in Paris. First thing I do after they leave is find a Starbucks and log into the WiFi. Hey now. Don’t judge me. I was waiting for 11 so I could attend mass IN NOTRE DAME! Suck on that. Plus, I had nowhere to sleep that night and needed to send out some Couch Requests. 

I made it to mass just in time for a snooty old hag to yell at me in French for wearing shorts to church. Sorry lady, but I don’t have an abundance of nice clothes in my tiny backpack. Pretty sure Jesus doesn’t care about my bare legs. I even shaved. So there. She shut up in time for the service to begin and I sheepishly covered my bare thighs with my owl purse (which you can see in almost any picture and infer that it totes didn’t cover much). I’m all talk. What can I say?

Shakespeare and Co. LOOK AT ALL THE BOOKS!!!

     After the service that I didn’t understand at all, I wandered through the cathedral, visited the treasury, and then aimlessly wandered about Paris, occasionally finding free WiFi and checking my Couch Requests. Accidentally, I wandered into a really cool looking book store and began browsing. From behind me, a girl was speaking with the cashier, gushing about how she’d always dreamed of visiting since she was a little girl. Wait. What? Where am I? Turns out I had wandered my little ole self into a Shakespeare and Company bookstore; only the most famous English bookstore in the world. Oh. That’s where I am. Hmm. Hell yes! Best place ever. I even played a piano that was upstairs. And embarrassed myself because my hands were shaking so much I couldn’t play. I bought a book and high-tailed it outta there and into the arms of their outdoor WiFi. Yes. Shut up. I NEEDED WIFI. QUIT JUDGING! How else would I have found out that a host named Guillaume, with a lot of positive references, could host me for the next few days?

GOLDMAN! YOU RUINED THE ILLUSION.

     I met Guillaume a half hour later and he took me to get some fantastic ice cream. Then we took a train out to his place in the suburbs and he gave me a rundown of the rules. Basically common sense stuff like turn the light off if you aren’t using it, keep your things tidy, tidy up the room immediately after you wake up. Stuff like that. No big deal, however, a couple Californian teens hadn’t respected his rules and were extremely messy and unapologetic. When they got back to his place after a day of whatever they did, Guillaume blew his top at them and started yelling at them to apologize. They did, but in a more scared/stubborn way than sincere and Guillaume kicked them out for a half hour because he was at his boiling point. By now, I’m like ‘Oh shit. WHAT did I get myself into…’ I mean, he’s really nice to me, but damn. The boys came back and told Guillaume they found another place to stay, he said fine, and they packed their bags. The boys held up a sign for me that read: ‘Come with us?’ And I thought about it for a second before deciding not to. After all, I hadn’t broken any rules and G was fine when they weren’t around. It was a nice gesture though, so I thanked them and asked them to Facebook me when they got to where they were going. They never did, so I don’t know what happened.

The love lock bridge! *Forever Alone*

     A little after that, Preston, the other CouchSurfer from the USA, returned from the city and G told him what went down. Preston and I talked a little and we three shared a delicious pasta meal that G made. Another hour and it was time for sleep. I lay on the couch, G turned out the light, and then he kissed me goodnight. That was kinda weird. And I really didn’t like it, but the French are very kissy people, so it was no big deal. Leave it to the French to kiss strangers they met that day. Preston asked if he could have one too. He didn’t get one.

Sean and Chelsea fell asleep in church.
*PLOT TWIST* There was no service going on.

     The following day, Preston left G’s house in hopes of getting a room in the Shakespeare and Co. upstairs quarters, Sean and Chelsea, a couple from California arrived, Noah and Steve, father and ex-step-son from Georgia, arrived, and On, from Korea, arrived. Sean and Chelsea were exhausted from the night before because they didn’t find a place to stay (literally EVERYWHERE was booked because of a festival) and they had to sleep in a hotel lobby. Steve and Noah offered Muse/Paramore tickets to G and his girlfriend, but since they recently broke up, I got the extra ticket. On was quiet. And late. This made G unhappy and he gave On a stern talking to. We spent the day in the rain, walking all over the city and seeing the sights. Noah and Steve decided not to stay with G and to get a hostel, so there went my Muse ticket. Oh well.

Yep. That's me. And BJ. We're engaged now. Sorry Pancho.

     The next day, Sean and Chelsea left and Ana (Mexico), Paco (Mexico), and Francisco (Chile) arrived. Ana and Paco were also sternly spoken to by G for their breaking rules on an Emergency request page. They had posted three times because, like Sean and Chelsea, they couldn’t find any accommodation whatsoever. I think G was impressed with their manners though, because he let them stay two nights. During the day, we visited Notre Dame and then I went to Shakespeare and Co. again for a reading by BJ Novak.

And they lived happily ever after. Unless he doesn't like Harry Potter. 

     There was a crowd milling about outside, but I went inside, found a book and sat down contentedly in a corner. Preston was there, but he didn’t get a room like he had hoped. It was nice to see him again, though! Before long, BJ walked by and I said ‘Bonjour’ to which he replied ‘Bonjour.’ By being sneaky and having tactics, I scored the front and center seat for his reading. This meant that basically, his sweat was falling in my lap and if I moved my foot slightly, I’d kick him. He was THAT close. I mean, cool and all, but the wonderful part was that his short stories were actually good. REALLY good. I sincerely enjoyed his work. He is obviously a good writer since he writes for The Office US show. He had one piece about Elvis and how he used to be spotted everywhere after his death and he asked if we had heard about that because we were a relatively young audience. I nodded my head coolly and he asked ‘Okay cool. How old are you?’ ‘Twenty-One.’ I said in a totally not shrill voice. Moment of fame? Check. There was a brief discussion after and then he went outside for pictures. I asked the bookstore for the poster of the event and they gave it to me.

Reward: 10 bucks if found.

     I went up to BJ and we had a short discussion about his pieces and he said he recognized me from the front row to which I responded that he had favorite my tweet the day before. He remembered and I promised to put up a picture of us that he also favorite later. So after a few more minutes, I told him I didn’t want to monopolize his time and asked for an autograph on the poster and a photo. I got both, said goodbye, and slipped into the crowd for him to never see again until I’m famous and we do a movie together. No but really… I met up with Ana and Paco, showed them the poster, and we went back to G’s.

Sleeper train. 6 beds!

     In the morning, Louise, Emily, and David arrived and then it was time for me to depart, so I grabbed my things and then noticed my poster was missing. I looked all over, but I’m sure someone snitched it. I don’t know who, because they were all seemingly trustworthy, but if you stole it, reader, GIVE IT BACK. Please? It means a lot… You have my address. While waiting for my train, I met a CouchSurfer named Guillaume Peter, yeah. Another Guillaume. And he made fresh apple juice and we talked about our travels. He was a really nice guy and offered to let me stay with him in the middle of Paris next time I visited. Too soon, it was time for my train; an overnight, sleeper train. I met a neat family in my compartment and after a guitar session by the youngest boy, Adrian, we were all off to sleep and off to Spain.

The Notre Dame Damsel.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading that long ass post. The next one is shorter. I just wrote it. See you soon!

Russell

Paris! (The Part Where I Am Not Alone)

June 15^th-June 18^th

     Hi everybody! I’m catching up slowly but surely to where I actually am in my trip! The next couple of posts will be fast and furious. I literally am furious about some of it, but you won’t get to read about that part just yet as it happened yesterday and all of this happened two weeks ago. Whoops.

Omaha Beach! It's super pretty, but the barbed wire is a clue.

     So the family and I left the beautiful castle in Southern France that I am convinced should belong to me and headed to Paris! We promptly continued from our train into Paris to another train out of Paris. Short lived excitement, I know, but hey. At least there was a piano in the train station. That was neato. From Paris, we headed to another city called Caen which is in Normandy. The only reason why we were there really is because Loni wanted to see the Normandy beaches from World War II. Like the genius I am, I led us to a hotel and booked the last rooms there. Apparently some marathon was going on that weekend so it was tough to find a place with vacancy. I did though. First try.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Me in front of Notre Dame.

     After check-in, we ventured out into this strange new land in search of sustenance and found a creperie. Score. It was only fantastic. Seriously good stuff for relatively cheap. Not that I was paying; That is totes Dad’s job. By this time, we were all super tired, so naturally, I forced the whole family to watch “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” in preparation for our upcoming trip to Paris. We all got really into it except Dad who insisted it was a stupid movie and kept complaining, “Ugh. An hour left?!” “Seriously? 45 minutes until it’s over?” “I could be in REM right now but noooooo.” Pfft. Secretly he loved every minute of it, but you know guys. Have to keep up the tough-guy-hate-Disney appearance. It’s working Dad. Nobody knows your inner love for Quasimodo.

This picture has nothing to do with the paragraph next to it,
 but it is super awesome so I put it here.

     I finally let everyone sleep after the movie and the next morning Dad had us all wake up by dark-thirty to catch a non-existent bus that doesn’t even run on Sundays. So we got a taxi. And then waited three hours for the place to open. -__- I don’t like this trend. The place we went to was some museum that led a half-day van tour of the war beaches and after the three hour wait, we were off. Without breakfast. Seriously. The whole time I couldn’t even hear the tour guide over my rumbling stomach. It didn’t really matter anyway though because she had the weirdest accent I have ever heard. That reminds me. My food tasted like fireworks last night. I don’t understand that either.

Me and my friend. I am convinced he is a Decipticon.

     Moving on. Loni enjoyed the tour and we found crepes at the end so everyone ended up mostly content. We boarded another train back to Paris and this time we got to stay! I booked a much nicer apartment for us this time than the shit-hole we stayed at in Lyon. This one had an espresso machine with a milk steamer. YES. I got to practice my craft. Tolli would be proud.

      But we didn’t have much time to lounge about because we wanted to go on a night boat tour. We did and it was nice. The best part had to be when I saw the Eiffel tower. I know. Cliché, but I had not seen it while travelling to our apartment and my goodness. I couldn’t have picked a better time to see it. There was some African celebration going on and the tower was lit in red, blue, and green shining in the night. (I hope those are the right colors. I wrote this before I double checked my picture.) People listen: The Eiffel Tower is HUGE. It is soooo much bigger than tv or movies could ever have portrayed it. It was beautiful, yes, but what took my breath away was the sheer size of the beast. Great first night in Paris! And then I got us lost and was pissed off because we had to take a taxi home. Typical.

The Moulin Rouge! I haven't seen the musical yet, but I'm sure it
will mean alot to me when I do. So here it is. I took a picture.

     Next day! One of the girls in the castle recommended an antique market to my mom so we planned on going there first, then a bus tour, then the Eiffel Tower. Since it was rainy all morning, we didn’t get out of the apartment for a few hours, and when we did, we had to stop and buy and umbrella for me. Immediately, it stopped raining. Of course. Dad bought tickets for a bus tour and after seeing a lot of Paris, we got off at the Moulin Rouge because it was situated near to the antique market. We walked and walked toward this place, but the streets became scarier and scarier. I’m surprised we weren’t mugged. (Apparently I just had to wait for Barcelona on that one.) 

Arc Du Triumphe. See it? It's the triumphant arc over there.

     There were so many people and all of them looked shady. People on the street trying to sell you sunglasses or anything else they could carry and shove in your face. Mom got more and more stressed until she finally made us stop looking and leave. Well then it got worse. We were down in the metro with shady characters pressing up against us to get closer to our bags. To make matters worse, the ticket machines were all out of order except one and the line was out the wazoo and uber slow. There were two American women and their kids in front of us, just as afraid as Mom, with a tall black man standing basically on top of them. Dad didn’t have enough change so we had to go through this awful line twice, but we did finally escape and made our way to the Arc Du Triumphe!

On the second level in the Eiffel Tower. I just can never get my smile right.

     At the Arc, we stopped to eat and then continued to the Eiffel Tower. The tower was everything you expected it to be. Tall, Metal, and a bunch of stairs. I was seriously covered in sweat after the first level (300+ stairs). And then there were more stairs. UGH. But whatever! I succeeded! Look at the sheen of sweat on my face in the pictures though. I totally earned that view. When Loni and I finally reached the top, it was just beginning to rain, but it felt nice on our hot, sweaty skin. I think I walked around the top more than 8 times. It was only about an 80 foot loop, so I kept going round and round until an announcement came on warning that pickpockets were active in the tower. 

On top of the world.

Then we took our pictures and left. Short-lived (kinda. Mom and Dad waited for us for three hours at the bottom), but worth it. After buying Dad some Cherry Garcia ice cream, we headed back to the apartment where I made lattes again and we promptly fell asleep.

     The next morning, it was time for the family to break up once again. Although I had originally planned to accompany them to the airport, it was super pricey and I was not willing to waste that much money. (Money that Dad left for me. Thanks Dad. :)) So we woke up early, said our goodbyes, and that was that. They were gone and I was alone again, in Paris. xx

TO BE CONTINUED

Russell

That One Time In France When I Slept In A Monastery And Then A Castle

June 15th-June 18th

Southern France is gorgeous! Like Emma Watson.

    Howdy doody. Remember where we left off? Sleeping in the worst apartment ever? Yeah? Okay good. Well not really cause it sucked. But anyway… Lyon left a bad taste in my mouth. I was ready to leave the next morning and we did. Thank the Lord. We took a couple trains to get to La Bastide where we planned on staying at a monastery for four days. I found this place online and thought it would be a cool experience, especially for Mom. To be honest, this didn’t start out much better than Lyon and I was already in a bad mood from the night before, so the lack of buses and 3.3 kilometer hike uphill on gravel with our luggage in the heat was not my idea of a good time.

Notre Dame des Neiges. And cool fluffy angel clouds.

     When we actually did get to the monastery, we had to search for which building we would stay in and no one, I mean NO ONE, spoke English. About an hour later, we finally got where we needed to go and I took a much needed shower. Unfortunately, the shower took longer than expected and I missed the bells for dinner. I was not about to show up late either, because they took dinner in silence and it would have been very awkward if I had come in late. So I sat in my room instead, eating dry oatmeal packets I had packed and pouting. Mom came in after with some delicious bread and an orange, so I didn’t starve. Dinner was at 7:20 PM, so soon after we all hit the hay.

Monastery hiking is just as bad as normal hiking.

     The next morning, we woke up early for breakfast which consisted of a bowl of coffee or tea and bread. We had to drink it like the milk left over in your cereal bowl. It was a bit odd to say the least. This was not enough to give me energy, so I promptly returned to bed until lunch where I was properly fed. In silence of course. After my first satisfying meal at this place, Mom and Dad decided we should hike to town. I have no idea what they were thinking because it was definitely hotter than a sidewalk-fried-egg-day, but we went and quickly sweated through our clothes again. The payoff was good though; there was WiFi at the bottom. Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you that Dad’s first words about the monastery were: “Do you think the monastery has WiFi?” Pffffft.

Cool as ice (which is pretty cold cause it's ice)

     Anyway, after a refreshing drink of raspberry juice and a satisfying amount of WiFi, we headed over to the river about 200 meters away and started fooling around on those different height wood step things. See pictures. First Loni and I went from opposite sides and back and then Mom and Dad went. Then I got in the river because I could. I would have done anything to delay that horrible 3.3 KM trek back up the hill. I couldn’t postpone it forever though because dinner was exactly at 7:20 PM and we had to have enough time to all take  showers beforehand. So we went back up, showered, had dinner in silence, and went to a French church service no one could understand. Dad wanted to go to sleep, but I forced everyone to watch that zombie movie, ‘Fido,’ that Marius put on my computer. Everyone thought it was weird and Dad complained the whole time, but I liked it.

Look at me. I'm mysterious and in a tower.

     The next morning was exactly the same. I went to get a bowl of coffee for breakfast and then back to bed again until lunch. I know I wasted time sleeping, but you gotta understand how exhausting travelling is. And I rarely have an actual bed, so I had to take advantage. Again when we finished silent lunch, the family went hiking and this time I played music from ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ because they both take place in France. Dad hated it and made me walk far enough ahead that he couldn’t hear the music. I got a sun burn. I don’t have more to say about that. When we got back to the abbey, the sky turned dark and it started thundering so I lay in bed and listened with the window open. It was lovely. Dinner happened and Mom cried because we were to leave in the morning and she was sad to leave so soon.

Look Dad! Dad! Look! Hey Dad! Take a picture Dad!

     At dark thirty in the morning, we made the hike to the station and found out our train wouldn’t be arriving until four hours later due to a train strike in France. SERIOUSLY!?!? WE COULD HAVE HAD A BOWL OF COFFEE!!! NOT TO MENTION MORE SLEEP. Well I suppose we did get more sleep. On the train station bench. Like homeless people. -__-  What. Ever. We did make it to Lyon eventually, much later than expected, to catch our connecting train and the station had WiFi. I took this opportunity to Skype my lovely friend Ethan. It was great to see him again, kinda. On my phone. Same difference, right? Not really, but it was better than nothing. We had a nice long chat until it was time for me to shepherd my family to the next train that took us to our next adventure.

     Our next adventure? A CASTLE!!! I booked a night for the four of us to stay in a castle in Le Creusot, France. It was beautiful! Every bit of it. Jeane, the owner, took us on a quick tour of the castle and the grounds before she returned to prepare dinner. One of the places she showed us was her art gallery inside the top floor of the barn. It was GORGEOUS. All of the pieces inside were done by her ex-husband and they were magnificent. It was great to listen to her explain the meanings behind many of the paintings. When we went inside, many more pieces were hung throughout the castle including pieces of her sons and many, many naked pieces of herself and other women. I guess, it’s her castle and she had a rockin’ body, so why not? She looked almost exactly like Lucy Liu.

This place is a castle and I was here. That makes me cool.

     Before dinner, we went hiking around the grounds a bit and then after finding a tick crawling on my leg, a massive slug, and a dead mole, we decided to return to the castle. We’ve seen wilderness before; not castles. And a castle with WiFi. (Of course). For dinner, Jeane prepared for us a delicious meal of salad, bread, and quail along with some red wine. She and her boyfriend attended dinner with us and we had some great conversations about her and her castle. She said many centuries ago the castle was occupied by Augustine monks. Apparently this order was very strict because they weren’t allowed socks or shoes and when one cheeky monk had cold feet and asked for socks, they locked him in the tower for eight years. EIGHT YEARS JUST BECAUSE HE ASKED FOR SOCKS! Goodness gracious. Poor guy. I bet his feet were colder up there.

My castle. Mine. I'm keeping it. Except not really...

     The bed in the castle was super comfy. Fit for a queen. HA! Cause it’s a castle. Get it? No? You are so daft sometimes. Loni and I slept in what Jeane called the Gold Room and Mom and Dad slept in the Lover’s Tower. Eesh. Anyway… so the next day, after a lovely breakfast, I wen exploring and found the tower Jeane spoke about last night. It was pretty creepy actually. The spiral staircase had two foot wide stairs and was very steep and cold. They led from the second floor to the top of the tower. And going down was pitch black.  Sadly, that was the end of our castle adventure and we left the next day. More later people. And don’t worry. I’ll be available for autographs when I return to the states. (One per person please).

Rusty

Germany and France and the Ridiculously Crappy Apartment

June 7th-June 11th

     And we’re back! Another post for another week. I promise that eventually I’ll be caught up to what I am actually doing at the time I post, but for now, I am posting about what I did two weeks ago. I’m in Spain posting about Germany. We haven’t even gotten to France yet. But we will in this post!!! At the moment, though, I am having trouble thinking in English. I’m not so sure if that’s good or bad… No se.

An old building.

     So leaving off from my last post: We awoke in Stuttgart and then took a train into Munich. The train ride was kinda long, so we were pretty much famished when we finally arrived. I had never been to Munich before, so we all just ambled out of the station and looked for ac  restaurant. My Mom HATES big cities and lucky us, we headed out of the train station to the worst possible area. Crazy traffic, many many people, and shady stores were everywhere we looked. Mom was not thrilled. We found a restaurant and ate amidst the chaos. 

I took a picture of Dad taking a picture.

     We decided it would be best if we stored our luggage in a locker and then took a bus tour around Munich rather than trying to fight our way through the crazy crowds. We had a few hours until we needed to meet our CS host in Dachau, so we did a one hour tour. It was nice I suppose. I REALLY felt touristy and I suppose I am, but I’m not used to such absolute tourism. But hey, we did get to see some cool stuff like, old buildings, trees, and more old buildings. I took a lot of pictures. Mostly of Dad taking pictures, though. Somehow he was more appealing as a subject.

     After the bus tour, we had a coffee, retrieved our baggage, and took a short train to Dachau where I promptly led my family 20 minutes in the wrong direction.  Then we walked twenty minutes back to the station and 10 more minutes to our actual destination. All of this with baggage. -__- My bad. 

Funny cup. Pahaha.

     When we finally did arrive, our hosts weren’t even home, so we ate pizza at a nearby (I’m talking literally next door) pizza place and waited until I saw them return. Our hosts this time were Fabian and Farah. Fabian was German and Farah was from Malaysia. Their cats were super cute too. Fabian’s birthday was the next day, so we watched them prepare some sort of weird looking cake with creamy berry Jell-o stuff on top. Fabian wanted to put more stuff on top, but Farah kept saying no because she was afraid it would over flow, so every time she looked away he would add a little more until finally he filled it a precarious amount. It was quite funny to watch. My family was tired though, so we all went to sleep before long.

     I’m sure for many of you, the name ‘Dachau’ rings a bell in your memory. Dachau is known for its concentration camp during WWII. Such a beautiful town with a horrible past. The next day, we went to the site of the camp and walked around for a few hours. I had visited Buchenwald before, so concentration camp stuff was nothing new to me, but it was new to Dad, Loni, and Mom. Needless to say, it was pretty sad regardless of whether I’ve seen it before. The movie was awful. Mom cried. Obviously.

Their Grumpy Cat.

     Enough sadness. After, we went to search for the palace in Dachau and ended up giving up in favor of lunch. The place I picked had a terrace with an amazing view, a funny waitress (who probably thought we were crazy), and tasty food. This lunch took nearly two hours. We did have a funny moment though, because when Dad asked the waitress something about beer, she responded and he said ‘Si.’ We all had a good laugh about that one (the next day, Mom said gracias, so Dad felt a little better). That was pretty much our second day completed.

     On third day, we convinced Mom to try Munich again and we set out for an open market we had seen on the bus tour. We found it, however, it was closed on Sundays. Great. New plan. Beer Garden for Dad. Garden for the ladies. Believe it or not, there was a beer garden inside of the English Garden which is basically just a really nice/big park. Dad got his beer, Mom got her park, Loni got her waterfall. We were content. And then we saw naked old men sunbathing. Eyes burning, we decided it was time to leave Munich. We had one last traditional German breakfast for dinner with Fabian and Farah and then the next morning we were on a train to France!

Dad loves his German beers.

     So we left Munich for Lyon. This is pronounced Lee-ON, not Lion as I had previously thought. I was quickly corrected by the French ticket man. Whoops. Anyway, we only wanted to stay in Lyon for one night, so I didn’t want to CouchSurf. I think it’s rude to only stay one night with a host unless it is an emergency simply because it really doesn’t allow enough time to get to know your host. So for this reason, I decided to book a little apartment for a night through Airbnb.com. This was my first time using it and I ended up picking a cute little apartment with a washing machine and WiFi. Both very important amenities.

     Let’s just say it didn’t start or end well. First, we couldn’t find the apartment and I had no internet to double check the address. After walking down the street about three times, I eventually found the place and lugged my baggage up three flights of narrow stairs. So okay. That’s not TOO bad right? Right. So then we walked into the apartment. At first glance it was okay. It looked much smaller than the pictures and way more dingy, but no big deal. Then we started looking a little closer. The apartment was NASTY. The couch looked as if it had never been cleaned. The living room was full of random things shoved into corners. This made it nearly impossible to climb the barely attached ladder up to the loft in which a large bed with unwashed, hairy sheets was situated. 

The English Garden's beer garden.

The light in the living room didn’t work, so I had to steal a light bulb from a broken lamp and put that in the ceiling fixture. I went to take a shower and there was no curtain on the window looking out into the street with more apartments and the shower was so small that if you closed the curtains, there was no room to move. Not only that, but the holder was broken so I had to hold the shower head above  me the whole time and that was only after I figured out how to use the broken knob to change the water from bath to shower. This isn’t all. Every time Mom opened the refrigerator, the apartment smelled like death mixed with the distinct aroma of rotten milk. The washing machine only soaked our clothes and never stopped, continuing all night long so we had to put our sopping clothes in plastic bags to pack them. All of this cost us over $150 for that one night. Seriously. WTF lady?! WHY ARE YOU RENTING OUT YOUR DISGUSTING APARTMENT?! NOT EVEN PRISONERS LIVE THIS BADLY!

     End of rant. End of post. The next one is much happier, I promise! Stay tuned folks! x

Rusty

Family Time!

June 5^th-7^th

     Hello peeps! When we left off, I was leaving Marius in Brussels, Belgium. Flash forward to me sleeping on the train and the ticket lady waking me up. Oops. My alarm didn’t wake me and it was going off very loudly for the whole car to hear. So… I guess I’m THAT person. My bad. I got all that stuff taken care of and soon I was in Stuttgart where I then had to track down my family in the airport. Not hard. I found them waiting like lost puppies in the terminal and herded them to where we needed to be. Well… I tried. I couldn’t understand the directions, so our CouchSurfer host, Chip, drove up on his motorcycle (mohawked helmet and all) and walked us to his place.

Giant pretzel in Germany.

     It was super nice and so was he. Turns out, he was a US Army Captain and he had to go to work. He left us his keys and the names of a few places we should visit and took off, just like that. Well, I wasn’t surprised because I had done this many times before, but Mom and Dad were a bit shocked that he just left us with his keys. I mean to be fair, we weren’t much of a match for him if things went down (3 women and a hobbit man), but the trust he put in us was still pretty neat. We didn’t have much time to be shocked though before the jet-lag hit the fam hard while I myself struggled to keep my eyes open after I opted for a night of Youtube and movies over sleep.

Mom in front of a building. Classic.

     So I had a mission now: Keep us awake until at least 8 PM. Sounds easy enough, but at this point it was only about 1 PM and we were fading fast. First plan: Eat! That’s usually a good idea, so I took them to the main street across from the train station to search for food. After walking a while, I found a German food restaurant. Score!! Schnitzel all around! Except for Mom who, of course, couldn’t have it due to her Celiac disease. She had a salad. Dad, Loni, and my schnitzels were really good, but Dad and I picked some nasty German soda drink. Ew. No. But Stuttgart made up for their crappy drinks with magnificent gelato. Just get in my belly. Just do it. Right meow. It was so good, Mom had seconds. Haha. The cashier was probably thinking something like: Typical American.

In the music museum listening to some tunes.

     So we stayed awake so far, but it had only been about three hours after we ate and walked around the sights. I ran out of ideas, so we headed back to Chip’s place and Dad and I got online while Mom and Loni both fell asleep on the couch. Luckily, just in time, Chip returned and invited Mom and Loni to go for a run with him since he knew she had workouts to do and they were roused and went out for a run. No I didn’t go. PAHAHA. Really? Me? Nope. So Dad and I fell asleep instead. Right as I drifted off, Mom was back and in panic-mode because Loni and Chip were missing. She was crying and screaming and so I left and found them and brought them back. It wasn’t that easy, but it wasn’t hard either. They had just stopped to do pushups at the top of busy stairs and Mom kept running and lost them. No problem. I saved the day again.

     Once again, we were on the brink of passing out when Chip dressed us all up in costumes and paraded us through Stuttgart on our way to an Irish karaoke pub. Though he assured us everyone dresses up at the pub, we soon looked quite out of place in my captain hat, Loni’s and Mom’s dog ears and Dad’s leopard print shirt. Like seriously. No one was dressed up except us. Like good guests, over the next few hours, we stayed and watched his karaoke performance of Backstreet Boys and made a few friends before eventually leaving the pub, eating a couple Yufalas (delicious fast food thingy), and sleeping like a bunch of rocks.

Don't ask.

     The next day, we slept and slept and slept until noon. Chip left for work around eight, so he didn’t witness our shameful waste of Germany thank goodness. When we finally got up, we did some laundry and then went for lunch at a tasty pasta place because one can only handle so much schnitzel. Hey. I like that. I think I will use that as a catchphrase. “One can only handle so much schnitzel.” Catchy. So after that, we went to a musical instrument museum and then sat in the courtyard/park/public square area on a fountain where we watched a duck land by doing rolls. Haha. Clumsy duck.

    When we tired of the duck, we stopped at Starbucks for free WiFi and a cold coffee before heading to the pharmacy for my recurring throat infection and buying some ridiculously delicious tea and groceries. We cooked dinner at the apartment and then just kinda chilled out until the sleepy time she came.  

     Just like now. I am sleepy so good night and until next time! x
Rusty

Les Not So Miserables. In Belgium.

Brussels, Belgium June 3-5, 2013

They call it A Very Bad Trip. HA!

     On Monday, I left London via bus and made the six hour journey to Brussels. It was meant to be a quick two-night stop on my way to Stuttgart to meet mi familia, but it was actually a really nice time! As I said before, I am CouchSurfing across Europe, and this time I thought I’d shake it up a bit and stay with a new CSer without any references. Hey now. Don’t read at me with that tone of thought! I mean come on! Think about it. Someone went out on a limb for me before I had any references, so this was my way to help expand the CS community and pay it forward. Obviously I was a little extra cautious, but I really didn’t worry about that too long. You all shouldn’t be surprised after I’ve told you about making friends with many of my previous CS hosts. This dudes name was Marius and he was lovely.

Marius and I At The End Of The Day.

     After sitting on the curb like a lost puppy for a few minutes, he met me at the bus station and saved me from the mini-panic that always occurs in me when I am waiting for my CS host. On the way to his flat, he told me that he was from around Normandy, France and studied art. I could totes tell. He met me in a stylish hat and scarf combo paired with a tailor-made suit. Super artsy. It was kinda apparent that we were both a bit nervous at first, with him being a new CSer and me knowing this, but really it was no big deal and we became pretty comfortable together in no time. The first day, Marius and I relaxed in his quite large and surprisingly clean apartment, talking about ourselves, our homes, and anything we thought of. I showed him pictures of my family and friends and where I live on Google Maps. Many hours later, it was dawn and we were both like, “Oh shit. I need to sleep!” And so we did.

This is the prison in Brussels... THE PRISON. Someone arrest me.

     In the morning, we lazed about again (I mean really. What did you expect after an accidental all-nighter?) until we ventured to the train station to buy tomorrow’s ticket to Frankfurt. On the way back, we stopped for a few drinks at his favorite pub and he told me of his family, adventures, and really tried (God bless’im) to teach me a bit of French. My French was sub sub sub-par so eventually he gave up and we headed back to his place where he showed me his life through his Facebook pictures as I had done the previous night. Marius told me a story about some of the demonstrations that he participated in and I about died of excitement. No seriously. I Dreamed A Dream about this. I couldn’t tell anyone though because I was On My Own. Luckily I had a Red And Black cell phone which I used to Bring Him Home to my Heart Full Of Love. Then we had to go inside because there was A Little Fall Of Rain but that was okay because it was At The End Of The Day and after the rain, there is always One Day More. I could’ve sworn, though, that while it was raining I saw A Castle On A Cloud and then I knew I saw it because Pancho pointed to it and asked ‘Do You Hear The People Sing?’ And I was all like, ‘Thenardier Waltz.’ Wait what? Oh yeah. So as I was saying… My CouchSurfer host in Brussels was named Marius. He is French. He takes part in many protests In one he used barricades. He fought 1000 cops with the other protesters. They fought into the wee hours of the morning until there was only one barricade left. I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP. I just wish they all sang together about colors and furniture...

Speaking of missing friends...

    Anyway, Marius and I decided to watch a zombie movie, Fido. Watch that. It’s funny. Of course, the movie ended around 2 AM and with only 3 hours until I needed to wake up, I brilliantly decided to show him Jenna Marbles, Glozell, and several other Youtube videos he had never heard of before (how has France not heard of these geniuses?!) for another hour and a half before once again going to sleep.

     An hour and no sleep later, we rose, looking much like the zombies in Fido, and headed to the train station. Both of us were pretty sad to say goodbye because we really did have a good time, but then the train came and, sadly, we did say goodbye. I was on the train for a few minutes unpacking my stuff and claiming my territory and then, out of nowhere, Marius was coming to me on the train and hugging me again. He said he was already off of the platform when he started getting really emotional and decided he still had time to say goodbye. Again. That kinda sucked because then I felt really bad for leaving him all alone. UGH. It was a horrible feeling. CS should come with a warning: You will make friends and you will hate leaving them.