The Last Hurrah

“Five months to change my life.” This was the phrase one of our study abroad friends used at the start of the semester, and the phrase took hold in my heart. Five months to change my life. In the beginning, our study abroad adventure was about seeing something I’ve never seen before, experiencing something outside of Small Town, USA, and of course making the most of my college experience, all while putting a really impressive line on my résumé. Once I heard that phrase, I realized it was so much more than that. Now, I truly believe if you can study abroad for a semester in a country where no one speaks your language, you can do anything.

The first month in Prague was the hardest. I missed home. I missed talking to someone other than Ty and the very few acquaintances I’d made—half of whom were still learning English. I missed seeing the countryside. I missed going to Walmart and being able to buy five pounds of Velveeta at a time. I missed having an oven. I missed having a huge closet full of nothing to wear. I missed classes being challenging because of the content and not because of the language barrier. I missed my family. I missed being inside of my comfort zone. I was so disenchanted that I refused to call Prague “home” when I spoke with Ty. I would always say things like “when we get back to the dorm” or “when we get to campus.” Never home.

Ever so slowly, and sometimes against my best efforts, I was changing my life. In the USA I could count the “friends” I made at college on one hand. I didn’t need any fingers to count the amount of people that I still regularly talk to from my high school because I don’t. Being bullied and excluded in high school had left scars deeper than even I had realized. Sure, I made acquaintances at K-State I would like to say hello to and have a good conversation with, but hardly any friends that I craved spending time with. So, I did what any mentally gifted student would do: I threw myself into my studies at K-State and that consumed my time. Frankly, it was easy to do something I was good at (homework), than to truly put myself out there to make friends. I figured out pretty quickly at CULS, that just wasn’t going to cut it. I was lonely, and my classes were extremely easy with no tests and homework.

I can’t help but feel like the luckiest person in the world that on my first day of class Susan introduced herself. My friend Susan has to be one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. She is just nice; that’s the best way I can describe her. She genuinely cares about people, listens when they talk, and remembers small details about the conversation that the person speaking probably can’t even remember. Top that off with a great sense of humor and you have what you call that a best friend. I feel even luckier that I had four out of my five classes with her. We had fun making fun of the classes and how easy they were, and slowly but surely became friends. Pretty soon we were hanging out on the weekends, and she even came on a trip to Brno, Czech Republic with some of my new friends from America and me. I made more good memories in four months hanging out with Susan than I could have ever imagined.

This is Susan and I in Brno!

Lasma, a girl from Riga, Latvia, and I became acquainted later. The first time we really spoke was in Reproductive Biology when we were watching our teacher handle bull testicles. Nothing bonds you better than that. ;) In addition to Reproductive Biology we also took a class called “Animal Products and Processing,” a class so incredibly boring that even I didn’t take notes. Soon, I had one more best friend. What I love most about Lasma is that she just tells it like it is. I don’t think I’ve met a more honest person in my life. I always enjoyed her company and pretty soon it was Lasma, Susan, Ty, our American friends, and me hanging out.

This is a picture from Radost Fx, a club in Prague. On my right is Lasma, and on my left is Lilly. On the far left is one of Lasma's friends that was visiting for the weekend.

Lasma introduced us to Lilly. Lilly’s real name is Liene, but since no one can pronounce it right, she just goes by Lilly. It really is the perfect name for her because she’s so cute and sweet! Lasma and Lilly introduced us to some Italian guys later on in the semester. (Take American names and add an “o” at the end, and there you have an Italian boy’s name.)

Ty made good friends in his classes that quickly became my friends too. We especially liked a couple from France: Jon Mathew and Emeline. They were such a sweet couple. It was nice to meet a couple to hang out with in a metropolis that is obsessed with being single and clubbing. They introduced us to their friends from France, and we quickly had people to dance with at the clubs or talk to in the cafeteria!

Ty also took a diplomacy class with a girl named Goska from Poland. I feel really bad for her because the closest we could get to pronouncing her name was saying something like “Gosh-kah.” I know it’s not correct, but she’s nice enough that she just smiled and said “close enough!”

Susan and I took a class with a girl from Spain named Erica, who we spent a whole afternoon with attempting to play Frisbee. Well, everyone else through the Frisbee, and whoever I was throwing to played fetch.

Later on in my Reproductive Biology class I met a girl named Grey from Ecuador. She helped me practice my Spanish for Costa Rica, and was even nice enough not to laugh at me—too hard—when she asked me how old I was and I told her I had twenty anuses. (Good thing I’m practicing!)

In addition to that, we had our own little community in our debate class. Our teacher wasn’t the best about staying on task, so as a result we got to know our classmates pretty well! There were a couple of snobby French girls that didn’t really talk to us (or even show up to class on a regular basis) but we made some great friends named Toni—spelled with an i, NOT a y!, Guillem Gene, Stergios (don’t even try pronouncing his name right), Jorge, and Petr. I was really glad we took that class because we really had some fun times… even when Toni and Jorge almost got into a fight about Catalonia’s wish for independence.

We even made friends from K-State, which is ironic considering it took coming to the Czech Republic to do it. We spent many nights together playing cards and talking about the things we missed from back home. Elizabeth missed her boyfriend, Suzy missed cherry limeades from Sonic, Austin missed not having bed bugs, along with a host of other restaurants they don’t have in Europe. (Can anyone say Applebees?!) We really made lasting friendships with them, and I count myself blessed that I’ll have friends to see at K-State.

This is from the time we went to the PUB (Pilsner Unique Bar) and ran into Gandalf and Frodo. From left to right is Austin, Ty, Frodo, Gandalf, Suzy, me, Elizabeth. Our American friends!

Over the course of the semester, something changed. I wasn't constantly longing to go home. I wasn't sad or lonely. I was happy to leave the dorms because there was about a 99.9% chance I’d get to see someone I liked! If we went to the cafeteria, we almost always had someone to eat with. If we planned to go to a club for a crazy Erasmus party, there were about five or six people ready to go! Or, if I just wanted to get out of the room, I could always count on Susan or Suzy to share have a cup of vending machine coffee with.

I became used to not being able to understand all the writing around me, and even though it was frustrating, it was okay not to always be in control and know anything. I loved going out on campus and sitting on a blanket with my husband and a bottle of wine to pass the time. I enjoyed talking to my family on the phone and having something to share with them other than telling them how much I missed home. Before this semester planning a trip around Europe on a budget would have been daunting. Now, thanks to Pinterest, Google, and good old-fashioned practice, I feel like I could do it again and do it better.

These past five months haven’t been without surprises. In fact, they were frequent, but I still was taken aback by the final and biggest surprise of all. On the flight from Dusseldorf to Prague, as we flew into the Prague airport, one word came to mind: home.

I had changed my life. Despite my initial reservations, I have become a stronger, more confident, savvier, adaptive woman. Even though I dearly missed the pastures of Kansas, and our families, I realized they were always with us in our hearts. They were only a phone call away. My sense of home is no longer tied to a city or a house. In the words of a creepy old guy from Joe Dirt: “Home is where you make it.” I’m proud to say I found myself in Prague and a piece of me will always call it home.

It’s hard to be disCRETE when it’s 100 degrees outside!

Perfect balmy beaches. Beautiful, happy people dressed in designer swimming suits. Sand that somehow doesn't find a way to work itself into every nook and cranny. Bathtub temperature salt water. Perfect weather.

This is what I imagined when I thought of anywhere in Greece, especially the Greek islands. When you read about Greece you might hear about their financial crisis, but you’re more likely to read about its picturesque beaches, the delicious gyros, or maybe the identical houses with blue roofs that lineup around the coasts. In retrospect, it’s no wonder I had such a deluded idea of Crete. The media wins again!

If you want the short version of the story I can say it in about ten adjectives: 1) hot 2) desert 3) expensive 4) poor 5) sandy 6) BEACHES! -- 7) rude 8) God 9) Forsaken 10) Island – Now, don’t get me wrong, I had an absolutely great time in Crete, it just simply wasn’t what I expected it to be. (This seems to be a recurring theme with me, huh?) With that glowing introduction, I’ll walk you through our time on what will henceforth and forever more be known as “That God-Forsaken Island.”

Ty and I booked this trip months in advance. Ty’s grandma traveled to Greece for her niece’s wedding years ago and she loved it. I think ever since Ty heard about it from Grandma Mary Beth he’d wanted to go. And hey, what girl doesn’t love the beach? So I booked it as an actual honeymoon for Ty and I, even though we’d technically been on honeymoon for about five months. Because we booked it before our horrible experience with Ryanair (read my Friday the 13^th post) we had booked the flight through Ryanair and couldn’t cancel it. We were scheduled to fly out of Dusseldorf (Weeze).

Brace yourselves for an insurmountable amount of stupidity.

First, since I booked my flight with Ty, and labeled myself as a “missus” Ryanair automatically changed my last name on the ticket to “Stelting.” (My legal name is still Hoss because of the cost a namechange incurs.) I tried to call Ryanair to sort it out, but guess what, the number wasn’t right on the customer service sight. When I finally found the right number, the customer service only spoke German. Luckily, I happen to know some Germans! Katja called them for me to help sort it out. Funny story about that: even German telephone center people don’t speak the right language. Katja said it was some Asian lady who could hardly speak German and could speak even less English. Of course. Anyway, Katja sorted it out for us, and I had to pay ten euros to fix Ryanair’s mistake. What else is new.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30 in the morning. That’s fine for someone with a car, but for two people who rely solely on public transportation, it poses a big problem. Most public transport doesn’t start until at least five o’clock in the morning, and with Ryanair we were definitely going to show up two hours early. That left us two options: 1) pay an astronomical price for cab fare, or 2) sleep at the airport. We chose to stay at the airport because we usually go to bed at midnight anyway and since we wanted to be at the airport at 4:30 we only would have gotten about three hours of sleep anyway. So, we load up our bags and get to Dusseldorf airport. We go to Ty’s favorite place and ask where the gate is for Ryanair. Long story short, Ryanair doesn’t fly out of Dusseldorf airport. It flies out of Weeze airport, but calls it Dusseldorf because it’s “in the Dusseldorf area.” If Weeze is close to Dusseldorf, then I’m Angelina Jolie. Weeze is fifty miles and a sixteen euro (one way) train ride from Dusseldorf. I was thanking my lucky stars we decided to stay the night at the airport.

Sleeping in an airport: not as absolutely horrendous as it could have been. Ty and I got a bench to ourselves, so we leaned against each other and fell asleep. At first it was difficult because I was worried someone would steal our stuff, but we wrapped our straps around our arms, and kept our really important items in our grasp. The only problem was it got really cold and I ended up using a skirt as a blanket and Ty had to put on an extra pair of pants. The plus side? The money we saved by not staying at a hotel paid for our train ticket to the airport. Yay us.

Of course I was unimpressed with Ryanair’s customer service, but the flight did what it was intended to do: we got to Crete. Finally. When I pictured Crete for some reason I imagined more vegetation. It looked more like New Mexico with shrubs everywhere and dry dirt. We made it to our hotel alright, and we were very pleased with our hotel. The woman who welcomed us the first day was really friendly and helpful. The best part of our hotel was the location: a two minute walk to the beaches that had lovely clear water. You can’t beat that, especially considering our hotel was only thirty dollars a night—the only cheap part of the trip! (Don’t ask me how much we paid for a 200 mL bottle of fifteen euro sunscreen.) That evening we went to the store, had ice cream cones, at supper, then went down to the beach for a walk. At night we ate our dinner on the patio by our room and listened to live music that was coming across the street. It was a really nice first day in Crete.

Here's a picture of my hubby by the beach. It was a beautiful place to go walking!

Much of our days followed the same way. We at sandwiches with meat, pesto, and feta cheese for lunch. After lunch we went to the beach.

Here we are at Iguana Beach. The chairs behind us usually cost to sit in, but if we went at night when the beach was "closed" we could sit in a chair for free.

After attempting to shower off sand we had spaghetti with red sauce and some bread for supper. We went to the store and bought these huge sundae cones that were absolutely delicious. The hot weather made them melt the perfect amount. Nothing says perfection like ice cream on a hot day. At night we sat outside (mostly in our swimsuits because we were pouring sweat 99% of the time) and listened to the music from across the street. One night, I made a special supper of shrimp and spaghetti, which is really impressive considering I’m from Kansas, and the closest I get to making fish is cheeseburgers. Our last day in Crete was really special because we went into town center for supper.

Town center was a really busy place. There were stores everywhere peddling anything from eight dollar "Raybans" or fishy pedicures.

Apparently the fish have saliva that disintegrates the dead skin on your feet. The fish get a perfect, stinky meal, and you have nice, soft, fishy feet. SCORE.

This is the side of the beach by city center.

Our supper was great. I tried quiche for the first time, and Ty had a really fishy pasta dish!

This is our meal complete with fishy pasta, smoked pork strips, quiche, Greek beer, and FREE water! Whoop whoop!

A little cheesy humor: pun intended.

Reflecting on the trip, I have to ask myself what the best part was. The answer? The conditioner! Just kidding, but I have to share about this conditioner. It was all in Greek, but it was literally the best conditioner I’ve ever used. Guys reading this think I’m dumb but they obviously haven’t been conditioned by their significant others to appreciate a good conditioner! (Ha, hair product puns. I could pun again, but I’d have to lather and rinse first! Ahhhh I’m hilarious.)

Warm fuzzy feelings about conditioner aside, our last day in Crete, I’m pretty sure we got extorted by a hotel employee. The last night in Crete we bought a bus ticket into town from the girl who was so helpful the first day and told her we were planning to use it early so we could go into the airport. The next morning, a male employee checked us out, and we asked him if he had any specific ideas about bus times. He said the bus doesn’t run before 7:00. (Strange, because in most towns the bus starts at five or six, but I let it go because Crete’s purely a vacation island.) We decided to take his word for it because the other hotel employees had been so helpful, and we said we’d just get a cab. The hotel had sent an email to us before we arrived saying it was about six or seven euros to take a taxi into town. This employee told us he would take us in for ten euros. Knowing this was too high, we told him we knew there were cheaper cabs, and he said no, now you’d pay ten euros because it’s before seven and they’re still using night prices. That’s the crappy part about being a tourist: he could have been genuinely trying to help us by telling all of this, or he could have just taken advantage of our lack of knowledge to make himself a few extra bucks. I’ll never know. But, since we had no idea how to even call a cab, or which cab company to use, or if one would even come get us, we took his word for it and he drove us into town. Despite my reservations, the trip was successful because we ended up in city center on time to take a bus to the airport.

We left Weeze, and made it back to Dusseldorf in time for our flight to Prague. 

Why isn't Dusseldorf a small town? Because it's Dusseldorf not Dusseldwarf! Get it? Dusseldwarf? haaaa :)

Dusseldorf: First worry, where’s the currywurst? You want to know how you can tell this is Ty once again writing the post? Because that joke would be lucky to even be called lame.

However, while we are on the subject of Currywurst…let’s take a brief moment to show you why I started my post with this.

mmmm….the best meal of all time. (Other than Döner Kebab of course)

And if you don’t like curry (*cough* Kelsie *cough*) you can always get it with just ketchup to enjoy the best bratwurst in Europe. This is what we ate first and ate last in city centre and it was delicious all four times we had it ;) The fries (or pommes frites) were salted perfectly and the meal could be bought for less than 3.50 euro ($4.75 people), that is why every time the line to it was five people long at least.

But enough about the food, let's see why Dusseldorf was the city to go and sit on one of the most important rivers in Germany. The Rhein river is an expanse of water that flows from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea 700+ miles. It is also the place where people in Dusseldorf love to hang out, have a brew, and eat at the amazing amount of shops and restaurants. They actually had a 150 meter long table for you to eat at right next to the river while the soccer game was going. 

Here is a good picture we took of the tower and bridge that overlooks the river and all of its glory.

After we saw the Rhein, we walked around the city centre and looked at all the buildings it had to offer.

Can you tell what is wrong with this picture before scrolling down and seeing the answer? Hint. It was caused by a cannon ball and they could not "quite" fix it.










Ready for the answer?

There is a slight bend to the tower and had it not been for Kelsie's friend Katja, who was showing us around with some very interesting facts about the city, we would have missed it. She was full of stories and I would like to thank them once again for showing us all the cool buildings and the river for the brief time that they had with us because of their packed schedules. As a tribute, here is a picture of us in front of the Rhein.

Names of people left to right: You know the first two by now,  Johanna Wilke, Alexander Gulcz, and Katja Fischer

As we ended the trip to this wondrous city of soccer fans and bratwursts, we decided to go out one last time and see the city on a quiet Sunday. This is a picture we captured of the typical European street that just makes you feel so invited and welcome.  

 I will end this post with two great pictures of the daring people who took this very long trip to Europe that was so very well planned by Kelsie (And our outfits too :)

Can I be Frank(furt) with you?

My junior year in high school, our school had seven foreign exchange students. Six of them were from various parts of Germany, and one was from the Czech Republic. Three of the German students stayed for only one semester, and the other four students stayed for an entire year. Now, you might be thinking: "Oh, cool, seven exchange students!" Well, when your high school only has thirty five students, seven is quite a lot. Still, I count my blessings that I was able to meet so many different people at a young age! As you've seen from earlier posts, I really cherish these friendships that I made.

Laura, was one of the six students from Germany, and only went to school with me for a semester.

This is a picture from my junior year of high school (FOUR YEARS AGO!) Laura's the beaut on the bottom left! And of course, there's me middle row second from the right. (Can I hear a teenage girl say "Throwback Thursday!") Ah, high school.

Anyway, it's crazy how many things have changed in four years! Laura picked us up at the Bahnhof (train station) in Frankfurt dressed smartly in a black suit! Man, we felt underdressed in our sweats and backpacks. She had just came from her internship at Deustchebank with her boyfriend to meet us. (Laura just graduated college pretty recently--good job!) We hopped in his car and rode back to Laura's house. That night we met Laura's boyfriend, Dominik, her sister, and her parents. They were all really sweet to us. Laura made vegetarian lasagna, which actually tasted pretty good! We had fun making fun of Laura's (very nice) small car, and they had fun making fun of us trying to say "five" in Germany. (The word is "funf" and if you say it right, it sounds like a big pile of snow dropping from a roof onto the ground.) They taught us a game, with a name I'm sure I'll never be able to pronounce, but was very fun!

The next day had a lot of excitement in store for us! We drove to Wiesbaden (it sounds more like "wee-spin" when they say it) which is somewhat of a resort town in Germany. It's in the hills, and if you take a tram up to the top, there is a very pretty view of the town.

Here's me, Ty, Laura, and Dominik in front of Wiesbaden!

This is where the real adventure began. At the top of the hill there is this HUGE climbing area. It's basically an aerial obstacle course. The people who one it has set up a climbing course that goes up to ten meters--about thirty feet--in the air. Laura and I got the hang of it pretty quickly, but I'm not sure the boys were too sold on the climbing.

This is the start to one of the easier courses.

Here's another example of the beginning of a course.

Because I have a big head and Laura was genuinely good at climbing, we decided to try a black course. Black is the second most difficult level, while the boys thought they would relax and go on a a blue or red course--the easier options. I got to the top of latter for the black course when I realized the black course might be a liiiiiiiiittle out of my abilities. But, getting my stubbornness from my dad, I wasn't going to admit it was too difficult, and by golly, I was going to climb that black course! (My pride wants me to segue into a tangent about how making the most difficult climbing course black would be considered politically incorrect, but the reporter in me will tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, because, as stated frequently on BET, "The truth will set you free!")

Short version: I struggled about halfway through the course before I slid back along the rope and my arms were so tired I couldn't hold myself up. I was in the middle of the course with three people waiting behind me and Laura ahead of me when I yelled to a trainer to get me down. "Do you want to try and finish?" he asked. I literally laughed. Nope, just get me down. This Kansas girl does NOT have enough experience with trees! So, I swallowed my pride, he hooked me up to some fancy contraption, and I went to the bottom. Of course by the time I was on the ground, I saw Laura flying through the course on a zip line! She was really good at it!

By the end we decided it might be a good time to go gamble. Ty and I haven't gambled before, but there's a casino in Wiesbaden, so we thought we would give it a try. But since it was a public holiday--directly translated, the holiday is "Happy Cadaver Day!"--the casino was closed... I think God was telling me gambling isn't my thing. Instead, we ate ice cream, and went back to Laura's house. Her parents made us a delicious supper with eggs, asparagus, bread, and hollandaise sauce that was delicious! (Another thing I'm going to have to try to make at home.) We played a few card games with Laura and her parents. It was definitely a good way to spend our last night in Frankfurt.

Because Laura had to work the next day, it was the last time we really got to hang out. I'm still so glad we got to see her, and so impressed with her work ethic, and how much she's accomplished since leaving Weskan four short years ago!

We spent what remained of our time in Frankfurt in a museum. What drew us to the museum was the giant dinosaur replicas in front of it.

When we got inside, I realized pretty quickly that we were slightly out of place. 1) Everything was in German. 2) Every person there had brought a young child with them. Still, we enjoyed our time looking at all of the exhibits they had, because hey, you're never too old to see a "sharp tooth!"

They are VERY scary!

I also saw Hedwig!

And Laura, there are green eggs and ham. :)

ExpLOHRing Germany

One of the best things about coming to Europe has been reconnecting with people I never knew I would be able to see again! In high school, I was lucky enough to meet several foreign exchange students from different parts of Europe, and for the most part made wonderful friends. One of these great friends I made, Aileen, lives in Lohr, Germany.

Aileen came to Weskan for a year during my senior year in high school. During that time she made great friends, we my sister, Savannah and I. She is just a super sweet girl who makes friends really easily and is fun to hang out with! Needless to say, I was eager for her to meet Ty and see her hometown!

This is a picture of Savannah and Aileen cheesin' it up about three years ago!

When we first arrived in Lohr, we were immediately amazed by the town. It's nestled into hills covered in evergreens, and by German standards is a very small town of about 25,000 people.

This is the view from Aileen's house. The view is further improved by an ice cream truck. Yes, I'm twenty, married, and I still got ridiculously excited when Aileen told me to listen for the music. We made sure to get in line before the little kids could take all the good ice cream!

We were also really lucky to meet Aileen's parents. They were incredibly sweet to us and welcomed us wholeheartedly into their home. Ty and I were lucky enough to be able to chat with them, and eat the wonderful schnitzels that Aileen's mom cooked for us! We're really excited to try to replicate the schnitzels and potato salad she made when we get back to Kansas.

The first night in Lohr was the night Germany was playing Portugal in the World Cup. Aileen took us to a bar and we saw just how proud Germans are of their soccer team. (Or technically Futbol team.) Beer flowed freely, people were quick to yell at the screen at the players, and when Germany scored all hell broke loose, complete with jumping, screaming, noise makers, and toasts! I'm really glad Germany won, because I wouldn't fancy being around when they lost! After the game we walked to town square, and just about every car in town was driving around with German flags hanging out the windows, blasting music, and honking at everyone who walked by. It made for a really interesting night!

Our second day in Lohr was a nice day to hang out and relax.

We all had a really great time sitting on the deck in the sunshine!

That evening was when the fun began. We taught Aileen how to play BS. (BS is a card game that she won... with a little cheating!) And shocked her mom by staying out on the porch late into the night wrapped in blankets with a couple of candles playing cards.

Because we only had a short time in Germany, we left the next day to Frankfurt. It was hard to say goodbye to such wonderful people, but I'm glad Aileen will be visiting Kansas this summer, so I'll get to see her in about a week! Yay!

Anyway, we definitely enjoyed expLOHRing Lohr. (I had to slip one pun in there. ;)

One more day! One more night! One more bus ride, maybe I'll be satisfied...

This post is for my dad. Because when I told him that we were riding a bus to Ireland he scoffed at me and said, "Kels, you know Ireland's and island, right?"

Yes, Dad, I attended third grade.

Anyway, so this is how it worked. We rode a bus from Paris to London. To get to the UK from France, you have to ride on this underground/underwater train called the "Channel Tunnel" or "Chunnel" for short. You can read a little more about it here. Our driver boarded the bus onto a train and then we rode over to the UK. If I closed my eyes I could almost forget about the thousands of pounds of water waiting to crush me.

In London, I had a hellish time trying to get a ticket reserved to Dublin. Ty and I bought a fifteen day pass from Eurolines, so we could take the bus at any time within the fifteen days, and this was the last part of our pass. I went to reserve the ticket and the woman told me it would cost six pounds to reserve it. For one, I was upset because the fifteen day pass wasn't cheap, and it was dumb that they made us pay to reserve tickets. For two, I only had euros, which, of course, they wouldn't accept. So, I ran back to where Ty was sitting with all of our bags and got my debit card. Which, of course, didn't work. The woman reminded me she couldn't reserve our seats unless I paid to reserve them. The next bus wouldn't leave until the morning and I didn't have a hotel booked so I was really worried. Because I didn't know if I had time to go back to Ty to get a different card to try, I ran to a money exchange, and got extorted exchanging Czech crowns to British pounds. Anyway, I finally had enough money to reserve the tickets. Ty and I ate supper and waited to get on the bus.

In movies, they make British and Irish accents sound cute. In real life, it's like they're speaking another language. Not only was our bus driver incredibly rude to us, we also couldn't understand half of what he was saying. He started off the trip by refusing to let Ty take his backpack onto the bus because it was too big, even though I had just gotten onto the bus with a backpack the same size. Then, we had to stop for an hour on the road so he could eat his supper. He told us to get off the bus and then be back on at 9:15. At 9:05 he shouted at us "hey hey hey!" waved his hand and expected us to follow him onto the bus. Then made fun of us to other passengers as we got on the bus for being "late."

If the bus driver did one more thing rude to us, I was going to tell him this:


We had to go through customs twice: once at ten o'clock at night, and once at 2 o'clock in the morning. This included us getting off of the bus with all of our bags, letting someone look at them, showing the customs officials our passport, and then getting back on the bus. Soon, we were on the last leg of our trip. The driver drove the bus onto a ferry at about 2:30 AM. We had to get off the bus and go up to a lounge area, that I would have appreciated a lot more had it not been cold and 2:30 in the morning. (Did I mention we lost our coats in Rome and it was freezing cold all night?) I ended up using one of my long skirts as a blanket... that's some red neck engineering right there!

After about three and a half hours our ferry arrived in Dublin and we got back on the bus. By this time we had been on the bus from 8:00 AM (in Paris) to 6:00 AM the next day. I think next time... we'll probably just fly. ;)

In the land of white rappers....

Once upon a time, there was a "small" town called Osnabruck. This quaint little village was populated with only 25,000 people. Ty and Kelsie jumped with joy at being able to be in a smaller town! Especially since they were able to see an old friend of Kelsie's. Sabrina had kindly invited them to stay in her flat and see the city!
(Okay, this third person thing is a little weird.)
Ty and I rode a bus from Bremen to Osnabruck so we could see Sabrina! We were really excited because it would actually be somewhat of a small town. And by that, I mean there was less than 100,000 people there. Woo hoo! Of course while we were there Germany had to be its stereotypical self and there was a beer festival going on in town. It was really fun to walk around the city and hear live music while people peddled all different kinds of beer. Part of the festival was going on where Sabrina goes to school.

The result? German Rappers. I like to think of them as a hardcore version of the backstreet boys... with a lot of cussing.

Here's a picture of Sabrina's college. She actually takes classes in an old palace. Pretty cool!

Because the beer fest just wasn't enough we decided to do a pub crawl ending at "Plan B." If I was a club owner, I would have came up with a better name. This club just screams, "Hey, I'm a prettttttty good last resort!" And it was. We had fun and met some of Sabrina's friends. Ty hit it off with a guy named Jan (pronounced "Yan"). Overall, we had a nice day in a fun town!

Friday the 13th... worse than the horror movie!

Remember how I said Ty's and my travel adventures could be put into a comic strip? Friday the thirteenth we had one nightmarish day that definitely made us good candidates for the Sunday funnies! Well.. it wouldn't be so funny for us right now. (That's a theme that seems to be coming up a lot lately.) So, I'll tell you about our day.
We had booked a flight with Ryanair to fly from Dublin to Bremen. Ryanair boasts some of the lowest airfare in Europe, but a good thing to remember is that you get what you pay for, and they have to make money somehow. Basically: read the fine print. Because Ty and I have become fairly used to flying since we came to Europe, we did our duty and showed up at the airport two hours early to check into our flight. I know that there are a lot of airlines that allow you to check in online, but I'd much rather deal with a person than the Internet when it comes to flying... until I dealt with Ryanair.
1) They were not polite.
2) They were not helpful.
3) They really knew how to push that Kelsie's-going-to-turn-into-a-big-green-scary-monster-real-quick button.
Basically, even though we were two hours early they made us pay extra to check in (a lot extra) because we had missed the check in window by thirty minutes. We were really upset, but we knew going into this trip we were going to make mistakes--sometimes expensive ones. Ty and I did our best to shake it off. Our flight took off from Dublin, Ireland and landed in Bremen, Germany, so it was technically successful.

That's just the beginning.

Another thing that stinks about traveling Europe is Google Maps. Apparently Google hasn't figured out public transport over here yet, because 99.9% of the time it's wrong. Also, our hotel said on Expedia that it had an airport shuttle, so we figured we could just call the hotel from the airport and they could either pick us up or give us directions.

WRONG AGAIN.

At this point, I was feeling like that little boy.

But, all was not lost! There was still Ty's favorite place to turn to: Information. It shined like a beacon. Or maybe more like bacon, because we all know bacon is about 10394oilk324 times better than a beacon. Anyway, we went and asked. The woman who worked there was extremely helpful. She looked at the address of the hotel, told us where it is, how to get there on public transport, and sold us the tickets to get there. 

Finally, we thought, we are about to get to the hotel and relax.

We get off the train at the stop the woman from information told us to and looked around. No hotel anywhere, so we went to Ty's favorite place again--information--and asked that lady where the hotel was and gave her the address. She gave us a funny look. "Who sent you here?"

I sighed. "The woman at information at Ryanair." Stupid Ryanair.

So the new information lady (I'll call her "IL2") got on her computer and googled the hotel. The woman at information had sent us to the completely wrong train stop. IL2 told us which stop we should have gone to and sent us on our way. So we get to the next stop hoping that the hotel will be close, but guess what..... you got it. WRONG AGAIN. 

Like the good tourists we are we walked around and asked every public transport official we could find if they knew where our hotel was. No. No.

Stupid Consuela. ha

I think one bus driver finally took pity on us so he called us a cab and we waited about fifteen minutes for the cab to show up. When he showed up, we found out that he spoke no English, and--miraculously--the only thing he could say was "Ten euros." So, we paid ten euros to ride about a mile and a half to our hotel.

When we finally arrived at hotel, we were frazzled to say the least. We ordered a pizza, watched a movie, and prayed it wouldn't be Friday the 13th any time soon!

Dublin Up on Writers

Hello everyone! My name is Ty and I am sure you have heard a little bit about me from my wonderful wife who has, until now, created this wonderful blog that many of our friends and family love to read. Now, I know I won’t do as good of a job as she did but I hope to convey how great of a time we had in the friendly town of Dublin, Ireland. As you may have seen from the wonderful Belfast/Northern Ireland post, that many of the sights were picturesque, post-card perfect views from the heavens, but we wanted to go and see the big city and maybe catch some great culture while we were at it.  So, Kelsie booked us a wonderful hotel in Balbriggan, a small town 45 minutes from city center. Guys, Balbriggan was an amazing secret because it was a simple train ride away from the city, quiet (except one 5 minute fight), and right next to the shore line. We stayed in Bracken Court Hotel and if you go to Dublin, you should look this place up because it was the nicest hotel we stayed at so far. From the spacious room to the 5 minute walk to the train station and beach, we had hit hotel gold because it was also very cheap.

Our first day, we went to the beach and had a “delightful” time exploring what the tides had left behind in the rocks. Sadly, we neglected to take a camera the first day and missed pictures of thousands of snails, some hermit crabs, and one single star-fish that made Kelsie’s trip. It was the first time I got to hold one and it was a great feeling! I don’t what the odds are of finding a wild star fish but it felt like treasure to us! 

This is a picture of the beach the next night we were there:

This is me with my new-found trusty shovel to go exploring.

Kelsie is using her good looks plus a flower to coax out some additional sea creatures. All we could sea was more see snails. Hahahaha sea what I did there! Oh okay, I might have been fishin’ a bit for those puns.

We did find a great view of the moon as the tides washed in over the dark sand. As you can see, the town was as calm as the beach and that is what you get all to yourself in Balbriggan.

Here's another relaxing picture.

As for our sightseeing, it came to us as no surprise that everyone said two things to see, and that was to go and see an Irish Pub and the Guiness Factory Storehouse. Well, the first thing we did was go see where the wonderful dark beer of the world got its start. Guiness was a beer that Kelsie and I had tried only once or twice and we were told that the beer was the best when served fresh from the tap at the storehouse. Well, I still think that it tastes like coffee and beer mixed but Kelsie liked the stuff after it had a while to lose some of the bubbliness (my scientific word for the carbonation) but nonetheless, it was a great beer that came free with the tour and it was definitely a great experience.

This is a sculpture that was made and stands from floor to ceiling. It was captivating and stands for all the things it took to get Guiness where it is today.

 Before Kelsie and I went, we had to pass the “look pretty while your husband moves this large metal support” test. Very few pass it, but the judge said Kelsie was the main reason we passed. Stupid right hand….just needed a few more inches.

This is a picture of one of the beers that were in our possession and that caramel and roasted barley was really showing through. It was as fresh as it gets and every flavor was enhanced by its 6 degrees Celsius temperature.   

 We took in the wonderful view from the Gravity Bar where we drank our delicious half pints and capped off a tour just the way any student would ever want to.

After our tour, we made our way on the tram back to city centre (Europe got to me evidently) and ate at a classic pub where we got Irish stew and chunky chips. The food was filling, warm, and good. It capped off our trip to Dublin with a full stomach and a yearning for bed.

Before I sign off of this entry, I would like to thank Kelsie for all the work she has done up to this point. I know that without her, our trip would not have ever been as great as it ever was. She has taken wonderful pictures, sorted out so many of our affairs and did so many of them correctly. Also, huge thanks for putting up with me, that takes talent. I love her and hope she will like this post enough to think that it will leave a positive mark on this wonderful Prague Blog. 

Luck o' the Irish

Ireland. What can I say about Ireland? Well, first I should mention that my family's obsession with the green glens of Ireland quickly took hold in my heart. It was one of my "must see"s in Europe. So, with the last of our fifteen day bus pass (you can read more about that fiasco in the previous post) we rode a bus from Paris to Dublin, and then caught the first bus from Dublin to Belfast.

Having lost/forgotten our coats and umbrella earlier on the trip, of course it was freezing outside when we finally got off the bus. We thought it might just be worth the extra money to get a cab. But guess what: Northern Ireland--unlike Ireland--used the pound and, of course, we had only euros and couldn't find an ATM. However, most places in Europe that aren't on the Euro will also take pounds, so we tried our luck. The first cab driver said he only took pounds, and so did the second. (Imagine, for the first time in my life I'm wishing I had more pounds instead of less!) The third one finally said, "Yeah, I'll take euros!"  I could have jumped for joy! "How much?" Ty asked. "Twenty euros." I laughed out loud. We only wanted to go two miles. For those of us who aren't math majors, that's ten euros a mile!

With a cab being out of the question, we found an information desk, asked them where an ATM was and if a public transport bus went by our hotel (it did) and went on our merry way to find the bus. From this moment on I completely fell in love with Northern Ireland.

The bus driver waited for five minutes to give change back to a kid who forgot to get it, and then was so completely helpful with us. Most people are so exasperated with tourists, but this man was really helpful and even told us where to get off and how to get to our hotel from there.

Then, we made it to our hotel. A Bed and Breakfast. A middle-aged man let us in. By this time we had been traveling for 26 hours, and it was ten o'clock in the morning. Check in time was supposed to be two o'clock, so we knew we had a pretty small chance at getting a room so early. He seemed a bit flustered at first.

*Cue Irish accent.* "I'm terribly sorry, but we haven't got a room yet. Boy you look tired though. Maybe you could go have a bit of tea, get a bite to eat and come back? We'll give you the first room we have ready. Maybe you can try Springsteen's? They have great food there. Yes, just come back in an hour or so and we'll see what we have."

The biggest and maybe best plate of food we've had the whole trip, and one large cappuccino later we made our way back to the hotel. He let us in and said he's sorry, but he was going to have to give us a room in a house... We got a whole house to ourselves! So the first thing we did? Slept. For about five hours. Well rested in a cozy house, we went out and explored Belfast. It was a cute little town with a lot of shops and brick buildings. Finally, we bought some food for supper and had a really nice meal in our rented house. 

We were pleasantly surprised the next morning when we discovered what "fries" means in Ireland. Turns out a "fry" consists of toast, potato bread, eggs, sausages, and ham/bacon. It is true that a big breakfast is the start to a great day! This was the day we took a tour to the most popular sights in Northern Ireland.

First, we stopped by a seaside castle, and Ty tested my nerves as he crawled up and down rocks. Look at that face... It's the face of a daredevil! 

After the stop by the castle, we went to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope bridge. It's about ninety feet down to the water from the bridge and you have to walk about sixty feet to cross it. The bridge sways--especially when it's windy outside--as you walk across. Some people have to be coaxed to cross the bridge back. It's not so bad... as long as you don't look down.

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By some sort of miracle Ty and I survived the rope bridge! The tour guides must have thought the bridge would be tough on our nerves, so after that ordeal they took us to the oldest licensed distillery in Europe.

We followed the leprechaun tracks, and they led us directly to Bushmills Distillery! Bushmills even gave us a free sample of their "Twelve-Year Reserve." We didn't even get carded. The bartender asked how old we were, Ty and I looked at each other, I said, "Twenty." He shrugged and poured us a couple of shots! At this point, I fell even more in love with Northern Ireland.

As if the rope bridge, castles, and free whiskey weren't enough to make me love Northern Ireland, the view from the picture below sealed the deal.

This is a view from the Giant's Causeway. The rocks are impressive and all, but you can't beat that view!

These are the rocks that made the Giant's Causeway famous. They're all shaped like hexagons and perfectly lined up in layers. There's a pretty cool legend to go along with how the rocks formed. The legend is way cooler than the scientific way it formed. Read it here!

I really am at a loss of how to describe how amazing this place was, so since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll just use pictures instead!

After we saw the Causeway, we got back on the bus to Belfast and spent our last night there. Northern Ireland was definitely my favorite part of the trip so far. I could have spend hours and hours at Giant's Causeway and I never would have gotten tired of the view. Maybe it's because I'm part Irish, but I keep feeling luckier all the time!