So, back to my EUROPEAN ADVENTURES, hopefully I have enough time to actually do this, or atleast a good bit of it....
Kristi and I thought we were so lucky to get our own compartment on the train, but we later learn that that particulair car was actully going to Frankfurt, so we had to switch at 4 AM to get onto a Munich car, and that was not nearly as nice. But we made it to Munich alright, and after relatively little confusion made it to the hotel we wanted, which had vacacies for us! Yippe! I loved this hotel because it was only 50 euro a night for our private double room, right in the center of town and next to the train station, and teh staff was soo friendly and helpful. In fact, pretty much everyone in Munich was friendly and helpful! Later that day Kristi and I headed to the castle (whose name I can never either remember or pronounce) build by the "crazy" King Ludwig. I can still remember sitting in Mrs. Cribbs 10th grade English class, staring at the poster, and pretending I was there, so it was really exciting to actually be there! The castle was lovely, but I think the best part was the view (the Alps, yay!) And, being such a huge tourist attraction, there were
excessive amounts of tourists, especially the loudy screaming kid kind, which really starts to get on your nerves when you have spent the previous night trying to sleep on a train seat. It started to rain, too, which wasn't really that bad, but it might have been nice to explore some of the hiking trails around. We got to take the horse carriage down! I can't believe that I was going to Germany but I hadn't thought of Baravrian pretzels or German gummy bears... This afternoon was accompanied by much eating! We talked to some more guys from Irvine on the train ride back. By the time we were back at our hotel it was pretty late, so we made friends with our Canadien neighbors and then just went to bed.
The next day we got up early and set off for Dachau, so we had a pretty solemn morning. We spent several hours there, trying to do it justice- there was a lot to see. Its hard to really describe the feelings in a concentration camp memorial... but I think it was a good experience. We were planning on making it back in time for the 4:00 Mike's Bike Tour, but that didn't happen. So Krisit went back to the hotel to try to sort things out for the rest of her trip, and I went sightseeing! I wandered around Munich and got a little lost, just looking at the city. It really is a beautiful city!! I saw the big clock do its thing, climbed up to the top of St Peter's and saw an awesome view of the city! Then I went to get Kristi and we got dressed up and ate at this really cute authentic German restaurant where we had authentic German food (assisted by our friendly German eating neighbors) and our waiter was really cute and gave us free pretzels... yum!! Then we got gelatto ice cream for dessert and were eating it at the fountain where we met these 2 crazy Austrain guys, and we ended up going to a karoake bar in a really 'happenin' area, and that was really fun, so it was pretty late when we finally got back to our hotel, and we had a train at 7:30 the next day!
I set the alarm on my cell phone for 5:30 to give me plenty of time to take a shower in the morning, which I had already done when I looked at my watch and realized that my cell phone was still on England time, so I had 45 min to wake up Kristi, pack, and make it to the station (thank goodness it was right across the street!) Amazingly enough, though, we made it!! And then we got to spend the next 14 hours with veyry loud Italian people. I would have considered it a very sucessful day of scenery and sleeping if we had been about to get our own compartment, or atleast share with someone a little more considerate. Instead, I had a little brat sitting across from me kicking my shins for 5 hours straight. So, after 14 hours, its understandable that we were not in our best decision making state, so our choice of hostel makes a little more sense then it would under better circumstances. What's so funny is that, the next day we found the cutest, cleanest, most centrally located hotel in Nice, and we ended up paying less for our room than we had paid the night before for a smelly shared room atleast 2 miles from the center of town! But Kristi and I decided to just forget about our temporary lack of judment and enjoy our last 2 days together.. in Nice!! This is where our luck turned, because we had teh most wonderful day, shopping, sitting on the beach, wandering around in Vieux Nice. Then we put on our dresses and ate dinner and a cute red and white checkered place by a fountain we had found earlier that day, and dessert was across the street at a gellato place with about 500 flavours! It was soo good! Kristi and I both had sorbet and we could really tell it was made from real fruit! Very impressive. It was Monday night, so there wasn't much going on, we found a student place where a small band was playing live, but it was really mellow and we were falling alseep, so we left to wander the streets for a while. There were lots of restaurants and shops open until 12 or 1(very unusual in Europe!), so we still had plenty to do.
In the morning we woke up and went shopping! Then we bought sandwiches and ate on the beach, swam, laid, fell asleep, and decided next time we came to Nice we would go parasailing. After the beach we went back to the hotel and I got my stuff and we walked to the train station, shopping along the way. Saying goodbye was sad, but its wasn't really goodbye since Kristi is coming to see me in London, so we made it not too bad. It was mostly sad because my vacation was over and we had such an AMAZING time!! The train ride to Paris was a good time to gather my thoughts and enjoy the view- Provence is absolutley beautiful!! Just like you would picture it. I escaped my seat in the smoking car and found an empty seat next to a nice French guy from Paris who had done the same- its great that I can actually hold a coherent conversation in French!!
About Nice- I really think I may have found the most perfect place in the world!! Nice, I said to Kristi, is like California in Europe- the best of both worlds!! If I didn't feel this inexplicable tie to England, if my family didn't live in the States, I could happily spend the rest of my my life in Nice! It is so beautiful, so amazingly beautiful, that I don't have words to descibe it! I just kept wandering around, wondering, how does a place like this just HAPPEN?
Kristi and I have decided to open up a shop, in Nice or one of the smaller towns on the Cote D'Azur, called "Rachel and Kristin's favourite things" or <
After getting to Paris, I had some adventures getting to the airport, lets just say that if there are 5 nice people in Paris, they all helped me that night. But I made it, and I met 2 British guys (both named Paul) on the train, and an Austrailan named Meagan at the airport,all on my flight, so I stayed up all night in Charles de Gualle chatting and playing cards, perfectly safe and sound. Even if I was a bit smelly, worn, and edgy (not to mention sunburnt, but that was a result of Nice) by the time I got to London.
Memorable Quotes:
"Are you a soprano or alto?"-Rachel "Oh, you used to play the violin?"-Kristi, "Your name in Ucla?"-Crazy Austrian Guy, "Do you ship?"-us "Yes"-them "Ok, we'll take it"-us "Take what?"-them "The whole thing"-us "The whole what?"-them "The whole store..."-us, "We saw the hills that were alive!"-Kristi.
Fri Sep 06 2002 18:12:
Wow! I have had such an adventurous day today! First, just as I was finally getting out the door, I was closing the window to leave, and I looked down onto the balcony type thing below and I see something that catches my eye- a picture! I'm looking at it and I realize its one of my pictures! Then I look at the rest of the balcony and I see all 4 of my rolls of recently developed pictures scattered all over!!! Alll 4!!!! They must have fallen out last night through my window- because I had them on the sill and I remember closing my window when I went to bed! Of course it has been rainy and windy all morning! So I flip out and run to get Kathy yelling "My pictures are everywhere!" The only way to get onto the balcony is to go through on of the flats on that level, but no one was home! So we are running down to go through the courtyard and see if we can somehow climb up (this is very urgent because it is still windy so the pictures are still blowing around everywhere and not only have my pictures fallen, but the negatives, too!!) and we see a mantinance guy coming in, so we beg him to let us onto the balcony, which he does even though its illegal, and I eventually collect all of my wet and dirty pictures. Then, Kathy and I head back up to our flat to drop of my renegade pictures and get our stuff to leave, and we seem to be having some trouble with our keys... we keep trying to get the lock to turn until we realize we don't actually have Kathy's keys, but someone else's similair keys that must have gotten left at our flat! After sitting on the ground laughing for 5 minutes we remember our friend the maintinance guy, and go off to find him so he can let us back into our flat! Ofcourse, he thinks we're the craziest people alive, but atleast we got back in! We finally made it to the center to buy our books and we ended up having a long and interesting conversation with the girl in charge!