20 Things I am Not Going to Miss About Germany

1. Walking everywhere!

2. Carrying heavy groceries

3. Hard and boring classes

4. Catching the bus or train

5. Sorting all of my garbage

6. The tiny refrigerators

7. The extremely odd weather (especially since its usually cold)

8. Outrageous prepaid phone plans

9. Over priced soft drinks

10. The size of a so called “large” soft drink

11. Not being able to read the menu because it’s all in German

12. Having to pay for public bathrooms.

13. Delayed trains!

14. Not being able to stay out late unless you want to stay out all night!

15. CNN being the only channel I can watch and understand because everything is in German.

16. Not having my favorite fast food restaurants.

17. Not having a dryer and having to hang all my clothes and wait for them to dry.

18. Stores closing at 6pm and nothing being open on Sundays!

19. Horrible internet connection.

20. Not having doctor pepper, maple syrup, and peanut butter easily available!

20 Things I am Going to Miss About Germany!

1. All of my wonderful friends from all over the world!

2. The beautiful scenery…vineyards everywhere.

3. Ease of Travel to other countries

4. Toni’s Ambstkeller

5. Schnitzel

6. Berliners

7. Doner (even though it’s not German)

8. The 2 Euro bottles of delicious wine.

9. Franziskaner (pretty much the only beer I like)

10. Having wine with every meal.

11. Primark and the Cheap Clothes!!!

12. Pork Knuckle

13. Feeling safe walking home alone after dark in this little town.

14. Hearing everything in German and picking out the words I understand!

15. Sitting at the bar and not understanding a word everyone is saying, but still having a good time!

16. All the exercise I get from walking a lot.

17. EBS parties and house parties.

18. The beautiful architecture,old buildings, and parks.

19. Saying Danke, Bitte, and Tschus all the time!

20. The fresh baked goods everywhere, especially pretzels.

Departure from Barcelona

I woke up at 3am, threw my clothes on, and looked out the window to see if there were any taxis sitting around and there were 2 by the hotel.  Pauli had told me to check for some before I called one.  So I knocked on her door (she wanted me to wake her so she could watch me leave).  She came out and I headed down to ask about the taxi.  When I got down there, they were both gone!  I called back up to her and she let me back in.  She called the taxi for me and I stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting. After about 10 minutes she hollered down at me, I don’t know where they are, I am calling them again.  Then this stupid street washing machine was going by, she yelled down that there were several taxis stuck behind it!  I was like great!   

Finally it passed and I went out to stand by the road.  Three taxis passed and none of them were mine, she was yelling at me that she thought it was the next one and I was pointing and yelling at her and she was like yes and the guy in the car was nodding his head, so I walked over and jumped in.  He asked me something in Spanish, I assumed it was where to? So I just answered Estacio Nord.  We hit almost every read light and my bus was supposed to leave at 3:45…it was 3:37!  We finally got to the station and he was talking to me in Spanish and I was like I’m sorry I don’t speak Spanish and he was like do you need a receipt and I was like oh no lol. 

Then I ran into the station to find the gates were closed and the passage to where the tickets and information were was closed!  I headed down the stairs to the platform freaking out because I thought I couldn’t buy a ticket.  It was pretty dead there because it was like 4am!  I saw this guy sweeping up trash and I was like do you speak English and he shook his head yes and I was like is it too early to buy tickets?  And he was like Girona?  And I was like yeah and then he started rambling in Spanish and pointing and then I saw a group of people with suitcases so I headed over there.  I tried to go through the doors that I thought the guy was telling me to go through, but they were locked too!  I just stood there wondering what to do for like ever and then I saw these two girls with tickets in their hands and I was like excuse me do you speak English and thank the Lord they were like yes very well!  And I was like great, where can I buy a ticket?  And they pointed me in the right direction and said to go up the elevator.  

I finally got my ticket and got back down and on the bus.  A few minutes later it left.  I ended up being on the 4am bus rather than the 3:45 bus, but I was hoping I would still get there in plenty of time for my flight.  Online it showed that I should, but also online it said people on my flight should take the 3:45 bus.  Anyway, I couldn’t sleep on the bus, but luckily it had free wifi!  So that and my music kept me entertained! I finally reached the airport, but after getting through security, the screen still didn’t show which gate I was supposed to be at!  I decided to go to the cafeteria area to get something to drink and some breakfast.  Even though it was ridiculously over priced and I try to never by anything in the airports, I was dying of thirst!  

After my breakfast, I was beginning to worry because the screen still didn’t say what gate and it was nearing boarding time.  Finally I realized that the words flashing on the bottom of the screen were switching through languages and it wasn’t all in Spanish!  That’s when I realized that they don’t post it until 1 hour before departure…which I find kind of stupid if the gates are supposed to close half an hour before departure, but whatever!  

Finally I got on the plane and there was this kid sitting behind me that was screaming and kept kicking my seat!  I was like great this is gonna be a fun 2 hour flight!  Luckily, I guess I was tired enough that I finally fell asleep, but only for about 30 minutes.  After arriving to Frankfurt Hahn, I had to wait an hour and a half for the next bus to go to Mainz.  Why they don’t have more busses running I don’t know! :(  Anyway, made it to Mainz and had to wait a little less than 30 minutes for the train to Wiesbaden and then in Wiesbaden I went to Vodafone finally and then the train was delayed so I had to wait there too.  After a long morning of traveling and waiting…I finally made it to my house around 1:30!  

You would think that I would have passed out, but I didn’t.  I stayed up and added pictures to facebook.  I went to the store to get some food to last my final week here in Germany and then my house mates had a party because they were going home the next day!  It was a great night and I am really going to miss those guys!  Hopefully I can go visit them some day in Singapore! :)  

Final Day in Barcelona

I woke up around 5ish to Nasha talking on the phone with the taxi driver.  I stood on the deck and watched her get in the cab before going back to sleep.  Pauli was going to meet me after she got off work at 2.  I ended up sleeping until about 1.  I got up and took a shower and then Pauli showed up shortly after.  She asked what I had done and I said slept!  I guess I was just really worn out from all the sightseeing we had done for the past week!  

So she said we would go shopping for a bit; she wanted to get something to send back with me for Cherie, Isaac, and Troy.  For those that don’t know, they were her host family when she was in the US 5 years ago.  Anyway, we found some cute things and she showed me this store I fell in love with.  It’s a Spanish store called Blanco and everything was so cheap!  I bought yet another bag for 4 Euro and some sunglasses for 3!  They had swimsuits for 8 Euro, both pieces, but I had already bought 2 here in Europe so I decided I didn’t need anymore! lol 

After shopping, she took me to her university to show me around and she needed to return some books.  On the way, we passed through this beautiful little park!  Its so nice to see people actually using the parks here in Europe.  You don’t see a lot of that in the states, but then again you don’t see parks that nice either! lol We ate lunch at the little snack bar there on campus.  We got a sandwich and a beer for 2 Euros!  She was trying to talk me into studying there.  She said all the masters classes are in English and that they have a lot of students from America there.  She also told me that the tuition for her entire masters program (just one year there) was only 2500 Euros!!!  I was like what?!  That is like the same price of just my summer classes!  

Anyway, I am considering it, but I don’t know what my mom would say! lol Plus I will be graduating in December and I don’t think I would be ready to turn around and come back to Europe in January and I doubt my mom would be happy!  Not sure if I would take a semester off or what.  We will see what happens I guess.  So after our lunch, we walked around a bit more and then we decided to go to a little café because I wanted to try Churros!  She said that you dip them in hot chocolate.  So we got a cup to share; they were nice and warm and delicious.  The hot chocolate was really thick and I thought that was interesting.  Then we decided we would get frozen pizza and some wine for dinner.  After dinner we decided to go to bed somewhat early.  I had to be up at 3am to call the taxi!  My flight left from Girona at 6:40am!

Barcelona Day 3: Stadium, Picasso Museum, and Magic Fountain!

Karis and Phyllis were flying out this day, so we were on our own this day.  We woke up late again since we were out so late.  We headed to the stadium and since it was Sunday it was closed, but it was still cool to see it and take a few pictures.  We wandered around that part of town, but it was pretty dead and not much to see, so we decided to head to the Picasso Museum.  On the way we found a McDonalds…well the sign anyway!  It took us awhile to actually find the place!  But when we did, we found chicken nuggets and onion rings on the value menu!  I got 6 chicken nuggets and like 6 onion rings for 3 Euro!  Yummy!  

Then we jumped on the metro and luckily the stop we needed for the museum was the one a friend of mine had told me I would find a chocolate store that sold the chocolates I was wanting.  I walked in there and bought 3 of what I thought I loved!  I tasted it to find out it wasn’t the same thing!  It had like dried fruit in it instead of nuts! :(  It was so disgusting!  I was so disappointed!  Anyway, we got to the museum to find this huge line!  On Sunday’s after 3 you can get in for free, so there was a big line!  I guess they were regulating how many people were in the museum at a time.  The artwork was great for  the most part!  I learned some interesting things about Picasso that day.  He started out good, then got into this weird sexual phase, and then became obsessed with Pigeons!  Lol…it was very weird.  His last set of work was probably my favorite.  After he stopped with the Pigeons, he used a lot of shapes and made misshapen portraits.  They were very unique and interesting!  

After the museum we ran into this guy on the street selling these little paper characters that were dancing.  They danced to the music and when the music stopped they stopped and then they started again they were really cool and everyone was hovering over him looking for the characters they wanted.  We were just walking by but of course they guy had to talk to us and show them too us and he kept shoving them at me and pretty much wouldn’t take no for an answer.  I was like ok my little brother will like these, so I got some.  They came in a package of 2.  We did some more souvenir shopping and I found another chocolate store that had chocolates that looked like the ones I wanted, so I bought one to try and it was the right one, so I bought one more!  Yay!   

When I got back to the house, I took the dancing things out of the package and tried to get them to work with the music of my phone, but they just fell over and didn’t do anything!  The instructions were saying something about a string and we were like what no!  Because we stood there and watched the guy drop it and use the music.  We were so confused!  I was so mad I was like did I just pay 3 Euro for a some stupid pieces of paper!  And Nasha started busting up laughing.  I am hoping they will work with a speaker when I get home because he was using like an older style boom box.  

Anyway, we decided to get some dinner with Pauli and her boyfriend.  They took us to this cute little diner where we had some delicious burgers and milkshakes!  Nasha and I had planned to fill their fridge with their favorite type of beer in appreciation for their hospitality, but it was late and it was Sunday and Nasha was leaving early in the morning and we hadn’t bought it yet, so we decided to get their dinner for them instead!  We walked up to the bar to pay and Pauli was getting out her money and we were like no no we have it.  And after a little bit of a fight lol we won and got to pay for it! :)  

Then they walked us to the Magic Fountain because we almost forgot about it and it was Nasha’s last night.  The fountain was so beautiful, but it was hard to take pictures because the wind was blowing water drops on our camera lenses.  After the fountain we walked home to get some sleep!  Nasha had to get up at 5 am to take a taxi to catch the bus to the airport at 6am!  

Barcelona Day 2: Mountain and Castle!

We slept in pretty late the next day, but that was ok because we had planned to meet the others at about 1 to climb up the mountain to the castle!  We met at the plaza again and before heading off to the mountain, we looked for a Vodafone store…I was completely out of minutes and needed to be able to communicate with Pauli.  We couldn’t find it and information told us to go into this one mall and we searched all like 4 levels and nothing!  So we went to the bus stop to wait for the bus that took us up the mountain.  I thought someone knew where we were getting off at since they knew which bus it was, but they didn’t.  We rode it all the way to the end and then it did this U-turn and started back down, so we jumped off.  Then we found some signs that told us which way to walk.  We finally made it up to the castle after making a quick stop at this little bar halfway up to use the restroom and get some water!  

Once at the top, we had a beautiful view of the city and the water.  We had a nice long photo shoot!  Then we headed back down and went through a park.  The park was nice with fountains and a little waterfall.  We waited forever to take pictures in front of the waterfall because there was this group of old people that were taking pictures and then this one guy climbed up like practically in it!  And then he stood there forever and was waving at the rest of his group.  Some lady finally took a picture of him and then 2 other ladies decided to climb up there with him.  It wouldn’t have been as bad if they were taking pictures in front of it like everyone else, because you can do different angles to crop them out; but they were literally like in it!  You couldn’t take a picture of the waterfall without them being right in the middle of it!  We were so annoyed.  Finally the guy got down, but then those ladies stood up there forever!  Even after they were done getting there picture taken, they just stood there!  Can you tell how annoyed we were?! Its annoying me just talking about it! lol Finally I got my picture, which took all of less than a minute!  See its not that hard! 

Phyllis had walked away from us to go look at the water and we were standing there waiting trying to get her attention; we didn’t want to walk all the way over there and then the funniest line of the weekend came out of Karis’ mouth… “What the hell is she doing over there?!” *in the tone like it made no sense for her to be over there*  I am cracking up just writing about it…you need to hear it in her Chinese accent!  It is so funny…Nasha and I were laughing about it for the rest of the trip!  Then we were walking along the sidewalk and came to this other park, the sign had some writing in brail and Nasha was pretending to try to read it.  Then these people with a dog walked by and we started to leave.  Nasha was like I can’t see!  And Karis *very concerned like* was like What?! And then Phyllis was like…”Do you need to borrow that dog?”  Lol…it was hilarious!  We were laughing all the way back down the mountain!  These Chinese girls can be so freakin’ funny!  I love them!  Nasha and I told them they should make a tv show!  

When we got to the bottom of the mountain, we realized we were pretty close to Phyllis’ hostel, so she went back there to have some lunch and then she was going to meet us at this restaurant we found.  We were eating one of those 3 course meals like we had the day before, but it was not near as good.  I had some Brazilian rice, which was good, but there was too much!  Karis finally had Paella, but it was awful!  The rice was totally mushy and I think she said the shrimp wasn’t good either!  I felt bad because she had been wanting to try it for awhile!  I had meatballs for my second course and they were really salty!  Luckily I was already full from the rice, which by the way had an fried egg on it! We didn’t even get our dessert and the guy was just sitting around not working…we finally had to like yell at him just to get the check.  We were disappointed luckily we only paid 8 Euros for this one.  

Then Phyllis met us and we headed to her hostel.  I wanted to use the wifi to look up the addresses for Vodafone shops.  I wrote them down and then we were discussing our plan.  We wanted to go see the fountain, but then Pauli had messaged me asking if Nasha and I wanted to go to dinner with her and some friends.  We had just ate, but I wanted to hangout with Pauli as much as I could while I was there, so we were going to go and just get something small.  She didn’t want to go until 9 anyway.  So we decided that Phyllis and Karis could just go to the fountain without us.  Her hostel was leading a trip to there, so they would be able to find it easily.  Karis and Phyllis were arguing; Phyllis was like I will just go with them then.  And Karis was like what about me?! (Are you imagining this in a Chinese accent, because it might not be as funny if your not…lol…but I am cracking up).  And Phyllis was like you can come too!  And Karis was like oh ok.  Then they were arguing about something else and Phyllis was like why are you always so mean to me?! And then like 2 seconds later Nasha and I were like ok we are leaving and then Phyllis was like I want to go to the grocery store and Karis was like me too lets go together!  Its just hilarious how one minute they are at each other’s throats and the next minute they are best buds!  They definitely kept our trip totally entertaining!  

So Nasha and I decided to go look for the Vodafone shop and then head back to the house.  We went on a freakin’ goose chase for these stupid shops!  Each one we went to said that they couldn’t help me because it was an international number!  We went to every single shop in the city and not one could do it; even thought the night before the guy told me that the larger store could do it!  

We got home and Pauli told us that her friends were going to a sushi bar and she wasn’t sure if we would like that and she didn’t really want it, so she decided to just not go.  She told us about this concert on the port that we could all go to.  So we had drinks at the house; Pauli the ex-bartender made us some cocktails.  She also showed us the proper way to pour the liquor.  Then she even put orange slices on the rims!  Then she showed us how to make this flaming orange vodka shot inside the other half of the orange!  It took awhile to light on fire because I guess the alcohol has to be a really high percent and the cheap one we had wasn’t.  Anyway it was cool looking when it finally worked!  After our drinks, we headed down to the port for the concert.  After the concert, we headed back to the house and stopped at the statue to take some pictures!  Nasha and I climbed up on the big lion!  It reminded me of the time we did that in London, but this time the lion was smaller.  It was still hard to get back off of though!  Then we headed home to pass out for the night, we were so tired!  

Barcelona Day 1: Park Guell and Flamenco

The first day, we woke up and met at Plaza Catalunya.  Luckily everyone was there this time!  We then headed to Park Guell.  This is an architecture park with the works of Gaudi!  I love this artist…he is so unique!  The park was amazing and great for beautiful photo opportunities!  After spending a couple hours there in the park, we headed towards the cathedral.  After snapping a few photos there, we decided to look for a place for lunch.  We were looking for Paella again, or some type of Spanish food, but weren’t having any luck and were starving.  We decided to go to this little home cooked place.  They had a special for an appetizer, a main dish, a drink, a dessert, and coffee for only 9 Euros!  The food was delicious!  I had melon with ham (more like bacon) for my appetizer.  Then grilled pork fillets with the most delicious fries!  They were made fresh right then…not the frozen kind!  Then for dessert I had a bread pudding thing with caramel sauce drizzled on it!  It was so good, and so much food for that great low price!  

After our lunch, we jumped on the metro to go find these two houses also designed by Gaudi.  They were so cool!  Then we did a little shopping before Nasha and I headed back to the house to rest and freshen up before going out.  On our way, we found a huge market!  She bought some fresh pineapple and I bought a thing of raspberries, each for only 1 Euro! They were delicious!  When we got back to the house, we checked our facebooks and emails and next thing you know about 50 minutes had past!  We rushed to get ready and messaged our friends that we would meet an hour later for the Flamenco show.  We ran to the vodafone shop because I really needed minutes and the guy told me that he couldn't do it because it was an international number; I would have to go to the larger shop and he gave me directions but it closed in 10 minutes so we wouldn't have had time to make it so we just went back to the house to let Pauli know that she wouldn't be able to get a hold of me, so she said she would just meet us at the bar after the show.    

We met at Placa Reial because that is where the bar was for the show.  Again, Phyllis was missing!  I even told her that the show started 15 minutes before it really did because I didn’t want her to be late!  Finally we decide to go in without her because we wanted to make sure to get seats and the show was going to start in about 10 minutes!  Once inside we sat there talking for a bit and then someone was like we should go check for Phyllis and no one was moving.  So I got up and started to walk outside when I heard her voice, I get to the door and she is walking away!  I yelled at her and she turned around and then the guy at the door was like “oh!”  He had told her that we came, but that we had left!  

Finally we were all inside and we took some pictures and then the show began.  The music was quite interesting and I was surprised that it was completely live!  I figured it was going to be a recording they were dancing to, but no!   They had a guitar player, a drummer, and singers!  It was great and very moving even though I didn’t understand the words!  Then the dancers came out.  The first half of the show was 2 girls together.  It was interesting because I had like heard of Flamenco but wasn’t really sure exactly what it was.  I didn’t realize that they do sort of a tap dancing type thing!  Those girls were moving their legs so fast it was crazy!  And the extensions…wow!  The second dance was just the one girl and it was amazing!  I am so glad I got to see this show and that it was only 8 Euros!  

After the show, Pauli met us there at the bar and we went to grab some Doner for dinner real quick because Nasha and I didn’t have time to eat before we went to the show.  The guy was like you want everything and I was like everything except the chili sauce and he was like your a strong girl, you can handle it...and then he put a giant scoop of it on there and handed it to me!  I walked away shocked!  Nasha was like I would have handed it back to him and made him make you a new one.  Luckily it was towards the side so a lot of it dripped off, and it wasn't that bad because I like spicy stuff I just wasn't really in the mood for it then.  Then Pauli took us around to several of the bars that she usually goes to.  We bought the specials and then we ended up at the bar she used to work at.  We got a discount on our drinks because she was friends with the bar tender!  Then we headed back to the house to get some sleep.  

Ibiza to Barcelona

The next day, we took our time packing our stuff up; we didn’t have to check-out until noon!  Then we left our luggage in a storage room and headed out to walk around the town one last time.  We bought a few last minute souvenirs.  Then we were hot and tired and bored.  We sat in the lobby of the apartments for like an hour using the wifi and then we called a taxi to take us to the airport.  

Our flight was supposed to leave at about 5, but it got delayed for about 30 minutes; we aren’t sure why, they didn’t tell us.  After waiting for what seemed like forever, we were able to board.  The flight was packed so we didn’t get to sit together.  We finally made it to Barcelona, grabbed our bags, and headed to information.  Nasha and I needed to take the bus to Plaza Catalunya where my dear friend Pauli would meet us!  I was so excited to see her; 5 years is way too long!  She met us at the bus stop and then showed us the way to her place!  

We had made plans with the others to go see a Flamenco show that first night and we were supposed to meet at the plaza.  Nasha and I walked to the plaza to find Karis, but no Phyllis.  We walked around the whole plaza and waited about 20 minutes.  We finally decided to try to make it to the Flamenco show without her because we had no clue where she was!  We made it to the show about 10 minutes late so we decided we would go the next night.  We decided to just walk around and explore the area.  We took some pictures, but it was too dark to get good ones.  Then Karis headed back to her hostel, Nasha and I grabbed some breakfast stuff from the store, and then headed back to Pauli’s house for some sleep. 

Ibiza Day 2

The next morning, we again woke up later than expected.  We had stayed up too late talking about random stuff!  This was our last full day in Ibiza and we needed to make it good!  Unfortunately, the weather was a little cooler than the day before, so we decided to do some souvenir shopping before hitting the beach.  We found this great store that had all sorts of awesome souvenirs and I of course bought too much!  My friends noticed that my Henna tattoo was completely gone!  I was so mad…its supposed to last like 2 weeks!  We passed this stand where this guy was doing Henna and he explained to us how it works and that they probably used a bad batch or something.  

Then it was hotter, so we decided to go lay out on the beach for awhile.  Phyllis and I really had to use the bathroom, so we went to search for one while Nasha and Karis found a spot on the beach.  We couldn’t find any public ones anywhere!  What kind of beach doesn’t have bathrooms?!  We decided to go into KFC.  We used the bathroom and then I bought a soda.  Phyllis said she didn’t really want to be out in the sun on the beach, so she stayed there and ate a salad and did some studying.  The rest of us layed on the beach for a couple hours and played in the water and took some pictures.  Even though I put sunscreen on, I still got burnt pretty good!  :(  

After the beach, we decided to take the Ferry back because it was much faster than the bus!  We had trouble finding the right one and the guy from the day before was sitting by one, but it was a different boat; we asked him and he said to get on.  So we did, then we say the little boat with the guys that drove us that morning pull up beside us.  They were telling us that we were on the wrong boat and we got up and started to move, we were so confused.  Then it started pulling out.  We were talking to them from the boat we were on and then they told us they were just joking!  We yelled at them and then hoped that we were really on the right boat.  We ended up being on the right one.  

When we got back, we searched for a Spanish restaurant to eat at.  We wanted to try Paella, however once we sat down, we saw that it was 14 euros per person and it was a small portion so we couldn’t share.  I ended up getting the daily special which was onion rings with chili con carne.  Karis and Nasha got roasted chicken.  After dinner, I went back to the tattoo shop to tell them what happened.  The lady was so nice and she redid it for me for free.  She even mixed up a new batch of paint to make sure it worked.  Then we walked to see this castle looking thing at the end of the street, where we found another beach.  There was a cute little beach bar, and we watched the sunset on the beach!  It was so beautiful!  

After that, Karis and Phyllis stayed in the room to study and Nasha and I went to search for a bar.  We had planned to check out Peppers because it had been hoppin’ the night before.  We were walking and passed this one with a mechanical bull and Nasha had been talking about that bull since we got to the island.  The guy came over to talk to us and told us that we could ride it for free!  He told us they were having a special, 2 cocktails for 6 Euros.  So we went to order some drinks before riding the bull.  I ordered a sex on the beach and the bar tender was like, “don’t order that, that’s boring, try something new!”  So I decided on a “Woo Woo” and Nasha got a “Purple Rain!”  

After we finished our drinks, the guy came over to talk to us about the bull.  He was like the game is going on so now is the perfect time, no one will be watching.  We headed over and he told us we could ride at the same time.  So we both hopped on…I sat in front because Nasha had a skirt on.  He took some pictures for us and then started it up.  As soon as he started it, the game went to commercial, so everyone was watching us.  It started out slow, but then of course he sped it up.  Nasha’s arm was like around my side, so when started falling off, I thought she was going to pull me down with her.  We were both screaming and holding on for dear life!  Then she fell off and I fell to where I had one foot on the bull and the other was standing on the ground.  He stopped the bull of course when she fell off and we were done!  lol It was fun though.  After that, we watched a little boy with his dad get on there.  It was cute.  Then we headed back to the apartment to have a drink on our deck and enjoy our last night in Ibiza.  

Ibiza Day 1

Our plan was to wake up early, like around 8 to start our first day in Ibiza.  However, we didn’t end up getting up until around 10ish.  We made ourselves some breakfast, threw our suits on, and headed to the beach.  We were somewhat disappointed with the beach that was near our apartment.  We walked around and took some pictures, but then headed back to the apartment to use the pool.  

After awhile, we decided to go explore the town a little more.  My friend Karis got her hair braided and I got a henna tattoo!  That store that we all wanted to go too still wasn’t open!  :(  Then we took the Ferry across the water to explore Ibiza Town!  The guys let us all drive the boat! :)  They even took a picture with us!  It was so fun!  We took pictures everywhere and we climbed up a mountain to this castle!  It was beautiful up there.  Then we were searching for a bathroom and someone told us where public ones were but we couldn’t find them anywhere.  We couldn’t hold it any longer, so Nasha and I decided to go in the woods.  After finishing up, we walked down the hill and around the corner where we found the bathroom!  If only we had walked like 2 minutes more!  However, our other friends went to use the bathroom and couldn’t open the doors.  We looked to see if you had to pay somewhere, but couldn’t figure it out.  

It was now starting to get dark, so we headed back on the bus which took forever!   We decided to get some dinner at a Chinese restaurant.  We decided to share so it would be cheaper and usually we can’t finish a whole plate of Chinese anyway; it ended up being the smallest portions in the world!  lol We were still totally hungry when we left.  We did some walking around looking at souvenirs and then headed to bed.  We planned to try to get up early to head to a different beach in the morning!  Earlier when we took the Ferry, we saw a better beach on that side! 

Arrival in IBIZA!

On Monday I woke up to take my last final and then rushed around to finish packing and get ready for Ibiza!!!  Our flight left around 6, so we left Oestrich-Winkel on the 2pm train.  We took it to Mainz and there we caught a bus to the Frankfurt-Hahn Airport.  We got there, checked our bags, and proceeded to security.  There we ran into some trouble.  We didn’t have our liquids in a plastic bag.  I thought the only liquid I had was my foundation; when the lady asked I said just this.  Then after I walked through, the lady stopped me and said you have more liquids and I was like I do?  She was like yes, and she was very rude about it.  I had forgot that I had a tiny bottle of lotion and my contact solution in my purse!  They made me go buy a plastic ziplock bag to put them in.  My friends got stopped because theirs weren’t in a plastic bag either.  Although mine were in a make-up bag with a zipper, which I think would be more protection than a stupid little ziplock! Anyway, we finally got through security and then we sat and waited for what seemed like forever.  

Finally we were able to board the flight.  Luckily there were plenty of open seats, so we got to sit together!  We arrived in Ibiza around 8pm.  It was already dark and so we headed straight to our apartment.  While we were waiting for the bus, some guy came up to us and offered us a ride saying he worked for some type of taxi service.  He explained how long the bus was going to take and blah blah blah.  We politely declined; this guy looked totally sketch!  Then he just walked around and kept watching us…very creepy!  Finally the bus got there, however we were going to have to switch busses later to get to our apartment.  After getting off the first bus, we had trouble finding the bus stop for the next one we were supposed to get on.  We had asked the lady before we got off the first bus, but we eventually found out that people in Spain cannot give good directions!  We finally found it and it was like around 10pm.  We were waiting and waiting and waiting.  There were a bunch of taxis sitting across the street, so we asked how much it would cost to take us to where we needed to go.  He said 22 Euros, so split between the 4 of us, we decided it was worth it.  We just wanted to get there!  

We finally got checked in and we decided to walk the strip to get some dinner and check out the stores.  And guess what we had for our first meal in Spain?  Doner! lol There was this clothing store that looked really cool and really cheap, but it wasn’t open.  :(  We bought some food and juice for breakfast.  We had a kitchen so we could keep everything cold and we could cook!  We also bought some Sangria to try!  Oh I forgot to mention, we had to use the room key card to keep the electricity working…it was so weird!  Then we started to take showers and realized the shower thing was broken.  The guy came up to look at it, and he got it to work, it just was hard to pull up.  Finally we got to sleep. 

Brussel, Belgium

I woke up and raced to get ready.  I realized that breakfast didn’t start until 8am!  So I got everything ready to go, ran down to gobble up breakfast, ran back up to get my stuff, and went to check out.  I got to the bus stop right at 8:20!  We stood there and waited for awhile and then someone asked me to look at the bus schedule on the other side there was a special notice, in Dutch of course, saying something about the first of May.  So I ran back to reception to ask if the bus didn’t go by there on holidays and they said that it does, just not as often, but that there would be one in about 10 minutes.  I went back to wait and the other people had left.  I stood there and waited and finally the bus was coming.  I gathered my stuff and then…the bus drove right past me!  It didn’t even stop!  I was sooooo annoyed!  I walked back to reception and was like which way do I need to walk to get to the train station because the bus didn’t even stop!  They sent me in the direction, but somehow I made a wrong turn because I ended up in the square! 

I sat down to wait for a bus there, but then a guy sitting next to me said that he didn’t think the ones going to the station go past there.  But he told me it was only about a 15 minute walk.  So he pointed me in the right direction and I headed off on foot again.  I found a stop and asked the driver of the next bus how to get to the station and he said to go to the big station down the road.  I walked there and started to get on the bus, but asked to make sure and he was like no the other side…so I walked over to the otherside and waited and then started to get on another bus and that driver was like no over there.  And by the time I figured out where these people were talking about, that bus was driving away and the next one didn’t come for an hour!  So I took off on foot the way that the bus had gone.  Eventually I saw some signs that said station this way and I finally got there!  Then I had to figure out the next train going to Brussels since I was over an hour late for the one I was planning to take! 

When I got to Brussel, I hoped to put my stuff in a locker, but I couldn’t find any!  So I set off to explore the city!  I walked around, took some pictures, and then had some fries for lunch!  I was trying to find the Atomium, when I ran across Mannekin Pis.  I didn’t have a map because I couldn’t find one in the station and the info line was way too long to wait in.  I found a city worker that was there for this little street fair that was going on and they told me how to get there on the metro and I still couldn’t figure it out.  I rode the metro to the station I thought they told me, but it was wrong.  I asked information there and they told me it was this stop way on the outside of town and it was about 3pm and my train left at 5:30 and I was so tired I didn’t think I could carry my stuff around anymore, so I was gonna take an earlier train back  to Germany.  Unfortunately, there were no earlier trains! 

I ended up walking around the city a bit more, but then my ankle started hurting and I thought my arm was going to fall off from my bags so I just rode to the station where I would take a direct train to Frankfurt, and I waited outside on some benches for about an hour and half!  Finally I was able to get on the train home!  Then the train was like about 30 minutes late, so I missed my connection to Wiesbaden.  I was gonna go jump on one of the smaller trains, but I missed both of those as well.  I was headed back upstairs to look for another train, when I found one going to Wiesbaden and leaving in like 10 minutes!  I was so glad, and when I got to Wiesbaden, I took the very last train back to OW!  Thankfully I made it there in time because since it was a holiday, the busses weren’t running as late as they usually do!  I finally got home around midnight instead of 11pm!  I went straight to bed and practically passed out!  I was so exhausted!  

Beautiful Brugge

I woke up the next morning a little later than planned, but that was ok.  I grabbed some free breakfast and then headed out to explore the little town of Brugge!  I walked to the square and took some pictures of the Belfry Tower before heading to the Chocolate Museum!  The museum was great!  I learned so much about how chocolate was invented and about the Mayans and that it actually started as a drink with spices before it was made solid and eaten like we have it today!  it was so interesting and at the end there were chocolate sculptures!  There was even a chocolate Barack Obama!!!  Then we got to watch a demonstration on how they make chocolates with filling inside!  Then we got to taste them! =)  Then I got to go crazy in the shop buying chocolate and other souvenirs!  After the chocolate, I headed to the Friet Museum (French Fries)!  This museum was great too!  It talked about different kinds of potatoes and then about how to make the best fries.  There were posters about different types of sauce to eat on them.   There were old potato choppers and peelers as well as some fryers!  There was even a Fry Robot…a vending machine that actually makes fresh French fries!  Then there were some funny paintings of French fries!  After the museum, there was a fry shop and there we got 40 cents off an order of Belgian Friets!  I was going to get Joppy sauce, my favorite, but after seeing those posters, I decided to try the Andolouse!  It was delicious! 

After this museum, I headed back to the hostel to drop off my chocolate and souvenirs.  I decided to take a quick nap that ended up being about an hour instead of 20 minutes.  Then I jumped up and headed to find the canal tours!  It was nice to see the city from the water and I got to see a lot of the buildings that I hadn’t seen yet!  Then I walked around to find the beer wall and then went into several different chocolate shops and bought some stuff for myself and some for my family back home!  Yum!  It was hard to choose which shop to buy from because they all looked soooo good!  Then I headed back to the hostel, dropped my chocolate off, and headed the opposite direction to the windmills that I saw on my way in the night before.  I took some pictures and then headed back to the hostel for dinner. 

The hostel I was at was also a restaurant and bar!  The food was amazing!  I tried a traditional Flemish meal: Vlaamse Stoverij!  This is a beef stew cooked in a dark beer sauce and served with fries!  It was amazing!  I also got a free beer sampler for being a guest of hostel.  I got to try the Abbey, Wheat, and Cherry Beers!  The Cherry Beer was so good that I bought some bottles to bring back to Germany for my friends to try!  I also got one of the apple ones to try!  After dinner I was so stuffed I could barely move!  I went straight up to take a shower, pack all my belonging, and go to bed!  The one guy that was singing the night before was like do we scare you and I was like no and then he said kinda quietly she should be! lol It was so funny!  I was going to try to catch the 8:20 bus to the train station in the morning.

Den Haag, Netherlands to Brugge, Belgium

Sunday morning, I got up early again to jump on a train and head to the Netherlands.  It was a 7 hour train ride to Den Haag (and this was on the fast trains).  Once I finally got there, I jumped on a tram and headed to Madurodam.  This is a museum that is a miniature replica of Holland.  It looked so real it was crazy!  It was so cool walking around all of Holland!  I made a quick stop in the souvenir shop and then headed back to the train station to jump on a train to Belgium.  At the train station, I had a few minutes to check out a little grocery store and inside I found the Joppie flavored potato chips I was wanting!  =)  I was so excited!  Then I jumped on the train and headed to Brugge!  We made a pit stop in Antwerpen to switch trains and there I got my first taste of a true Belgian Waffle!  It was covered in chocolate and soooo good!  

Once I got to Brugge I was looking for bus 6 or 16 because that was which one I was told to take to get to the hostel.  I was standing there looking lost when a guy that looked like he worked with the busses walked up to me and asked me where I needed to go.  He informed me that the numbers changed at night and he directed me to the correct bus.  The bus driver told me where I needed to get off at and after he pulled away, I was lost!  I didn’t see the hostel anywhere and I didn’t have a city map yet.  I started walking one way but it didn’t feel like I was going the right way so I turned around and then I found a map.  I was looking at the map trying to figure out where the street I needed to be on was, when this nice couple asked me where I needed to go.  I showed them the address and they pointed me in the right direction!  It was only about 300 meters away!  I got there and checked into my room to find that I was in a room full of guys!  There was some type of Frisbee tournament in Brugge and this group from France had reserved 13 of the 16 beds in the room and all of them were guys except for there was one girl!     There was one guy singing “I’m Sexy and I Know It” and then apologized and was like “I know, bad joke.” Lol it was hilarious!  After getting settled, I went to the reception area to use the wifi and then once the group left to go out for the night, I took my shower and went to bed.  There was a cute guy in the group that had invited me to come out with them, but I decided I was too tired.  

Europa-Park

On Saturday, Nasha, Karly, and I jumped on a train and headed to Europa-Park!  If you don’t know, this is a huge Amusement Park in the southern part of Germany.  Inside you can visit different countries in Europe such as France and Greece!  After a long 6 hour train ride, we reached the park around noon.  You should have seen us…we were acting like kids as we entered the park!  We were so excited!  Once inside, we only had 6 hours to see the entire park!  We had a battle plan to hit all of the roller coasters and then go through and look at the other stuff if we had time. 

The first ride we came to was a roller coaster in the dark!  It was in this giant silver ball and during the ride you saw stars and lights…it was like you were traveling through the solar system!  After that ride, we went to a bigger roller coaster that was outside…it was fun!  Then we got one one that took you up inside these towers and and then when you got the top the coaster started and while going around all the turns and hills, you were spinning around!  So half the time you would be going backwards! And the other half of the time I was in the very front! Ahhh!  Anyway, it was pretty small coaster. 

After this one, my friends wanted to go on Blue Fire!  This was the one ride I said I didn’t want to go on because it went upside down.  They were like come on and I really didn’t want to wait for them to get off because we didn’t have a lot of time in the park and that wouldn’t have been any fun!  So I jumped in line.  The entire wait I was freaking out and by the time we got to the front of the line my eyes were starting to tear up…I was so scared!  We sat down and the ride and before it even shot us out, I was crying!  And when it started moving I was screaming!  I had my eyes closed and screamed the entire time!  I had no clue where in the coaster we were and I couldn’t make myself open my eyes, I was asking Nasha if we had just went around the upside down part and I guess she didn’t hear me otherwise I didn’t realize her answer.  But there was one other upside down part…not a big loop, but a little spiral thing.  And she was yelling at me to open my eyes!  I finally opened them right at we were coming up on the spiral and I shut them again really fast and started screaming again!  That was the worst part of it!  Worse than the big loop!  Finally the ride was over…and it wasn’t actually as bad as I thought it would be, but I was shaking for like ever after we got off! 

Then we grabbed a quick drink at one of the snack stands and jumped in line for the new big wooden roller coaster.  This was the longest line we had to wait in; it took about 30 minutes. We got so lucky that there were barely any lines and it was great weather all day! After the disappointment of what was supposed to be this big bad coaster, we decided to grab some food!  We headed to Greece to get some Gyros and Water!  After eating, we went up into the tower to look over the whole park.  We realized there was a coaster we hadn’t gone on; we thought it was a water ride, but from the tower we realized it wasn’t.  But by the time we got to the entrance, we decided the line was too long and we wouldn’t have time to go on before we needed to catch the bus. 

So we decided to go grab some of the delicious, cheap cotton candy we had passed earlier and then head out to the bus to beat some of the crowd out of the park.  We had so much fun, even though I got sunburned!  Then we had a long 6 hour train ride back home.  On the ride home, Nasha was talking about Blue Fire and she was like “I looked over and you were crying…like seriously crying and I was like I don’t know if I should be sad too or keep having fun!” This made me like roll of the floor laughing…my stomach was hurting so hard from laughing!  Our train was also late and so we ended up having to take a bus back from Wiesbaden because we missed the last train…which made us get home even later because the busses take longer!  Finally we got home, I took a quick shower and jumped in bed because I had to be up early! 

Automotive Brand Management

So I haven’t written very much on here about school, but I wanted to write about this class!  This was my favorite class all semester!  We got to learn a bunch of inside stuff about Porsche!  It was fun to see actual concepts put into action through Porsche!  After the long 2 days of class, we formed groups and had to write a paper and create a presentation.  My group, after very careful consideration, decided the future of Porsche needed a new sports car! We came up with a name for the car and slogan and everything!  “Kuasa…the Road is your Kingdom!”  I even got a limited edition drawing from a friend to use in the presentation!  It was so much fun!  For once I think I am going to get a good grade in a class at EBS!