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Published: June 19th 2008
It has been a long, fun 12 days since my last post, and with my flight from Heathrow back to the good ole US of A in about 12 hours, I figured that I needed to get some words down about whats been going on and some general stuff about the last 80 days. Although my experiences recently will probably not seem as deep and meaningful as my time in India or SE Asia, they were nonetheless just as important. So here's a quick rundown of the last two weeks or so.
After Innsbruck, we overnighted to Rome to meet up with some of the family. Our time there with Grandma, Grandpa, Joanne, Peggy and Lori was nothing short of wonderful. Heres the short list of what we saw: the Coliseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, St. Peter's Basilica, THE POPE, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish steps. Not to shabby for two and a half days. Unfortunately, the rest of the fam had to board the cruise ship for Turkey and Greece, and Brent and I were itching to get to Bern for some UEFA football.
After another overnighter to Bern, we arrived at about 7am and managed to make it all the way until noon before we cracked the first beer open. The game was Italy vs. the Netherlands, and from the looks of things, pretty much all of Holland was there. Brent and I bought some orange jerseys to fit in and have a team to cheer for, and we set out for the fanzone. Now I realize I might get some hate mail and/ or death threats for what I'm about to say, but the Dutch and European soccer in general puts LSU football to shame (gasp!). This place was unreal. 22,000 people dressed in orange standing shoulder-to-shoulder watching the game on a big screen, with live bands before and at halftime. Not to mention the fact that across town there was another fanzone that held about 10,000, as well as all the people left outside and all the fans in the stadium across town. To make a long story a bit shorter, the Netherlands whooped Italy 3-0 and we partied with the best of them.
With the game in town, there were no rooms to be had, but we just figured "we'll figure it out when we get there" which translated into "lets find a place to sleep in the train station." After almost getting arrested for falling asleep on a bench in the bus station, we relized maybe Bern wasn't the best place to be at midnight. So we hopped a train to Zurich, sleeping the hour and a half there, then found a cozy place on the floor and crashed until our 7am train to Paris. At least the tile floor was cool.
We were supposed to meet up with Thomas in Paris, but due to poor planning on our part, we couldn't get in touch with him. We wandered around all day, seeing the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Pont Neuf, before making our way to some famous tower I had never heard of... Effel? Iffle? Eiffel? Brent and I had a lot of fun laughing about walking up to someone in the park under the tower and asking if they could point us to it, then turning around and making a Three Stooges-esque surprised face... "Oh my god, thats it? I thought it was an office building!" OK so its kinda lame in hindsight but after a day of drinking and five hours of sleep in a train station, we were rolling in the grass laughing at ourselves.
After not hearing from Thomas, we decided to head out to somewhere else for a day. (I've noticed my internet money is getting short, so I'll have to hurry it up a bit.) We picked La Rocelle, on France's west coast, and got on the next train there. It was a beautiful, quiet town with a lot of history preserved in the city center. After days of sleeping on floors, trains, and in train stations, a day on the beach was much needed.
So after hearing back from Thomas, we went to Paris just for one night to meet up with him and a bunch of his architecture friends who are also studying there for the summer. They had been planning a weekend trip to Amsterdam, so Brent and I decided to tag along. Now I know what everyone is thinking... oh jeez, Amsterdam, drugs, sex, blah blah blah, but the city really does have a lot more to it than just that. Admittedly, you couldn't turn a corner without smelling or seeing something illegal in the US, but I think the pro's at least balance out, if not outweigh the cons of it. We had an absolute blast there for two and a half days... there were about 12 of us in total, which could be difficult at times when we were trying to decide where to go during the day, but it was so much fun at night. The Netherlands were playing France in the Euro Cup, and we caught the game in a bar questionably named "Bubbles" and watched the Big Orange run away with a 4-1 victory.
From Amsterdam, we separated from Thomas and his friends for a bit and headed to Brugge, Belgium for a day. This place had come highly recommended from my grandma as well as the architecture crowd who had been there the previous weekend, but we just hit it at a low point in our trip. We didn't plan well and didnt leave enough time to explore it properly, not to mention the fact that I started to get sick and it rained our second day there. Brent and I sat down to have a beer and watch the rain (since it was too cold outside to do anything in shorts and a t-shirt) and toasted to our first bad day of the trip. That may seem odd, but we figured that if we made it all the way to day 16 and hadnt had a bad day yet, then things are going pretty damn good.
From there, back to Paris (3rd time of the trip!) for a night, where we rejoined the architecture crowd and headed out to the Eiffel tower at sunset with one bottle of wine per person. We drank a bit then climed to the top just as the sun was going to down. What an amazing view- it was worth every bit of the 10 or 12 euros we had to pay to do it. We went back down and finished the wine, then headed back to the hotel.
After a whopping 4 hours sleep in Paris, we awoke to head to the train station and take the Eurostar to London at an amazing 200 mph. From there, it has been two days exploring one of the truly great cities of the world (in my opinion). Again, I'm running out of time, so thats London in a nutshell.
And now for the deep stuff...
If you have been reading, then you know what an impact this trip has had on me. Travelling alone cannot be encapsulated in any one emotion or moment... it is best described as a "schizophrenic chameleon" as I was recently told. Everything changes from minute to minute, day to day... I honestly have trouble with it myself. In the end, I think that I will not notice the changes that have come about as a result of this trip, because I have done this on my own. I hope though that there have been changes for the better that have been brought about by my experiences away from the people that I know. All I can say is that I think it will be slightly difficult for me to go back to the "real world," if only because this has become my "real world"; living out of a suitcase and only staying in one city for 3 days (max) at a time has become my reality and not the world in New Orleans with the room and the clothes and the job and the family and the friends. The absolute last thing I want to do is glorify what I have done, but I really feel that my experiences have been unique to me and have changed me in a way that I don't realize yet. I'm having trouble putting anything else down in words, but if you want to ask me more, feel free. I'm already planning my trip for next summer, so jump on board if you're interested.
So now with the fun stuff. A quick list of the way cool, cool, and not cool of the trip (throwback to BJ and Nick (?))
Best moment: absolutely, without a doubt, a dead tie between meeting my father in Singapore and seeing my grandparents in Rome.
Worst moment: realizing 1£ = $2
Most awestruck: Taj Mahal
Biggest letdown: Singapore
Best hotel: Hotel Phnom Penh, courtesy of dad
Worst hotel: the two places I got bedbugs, Bangkok and Mumbai
Coolest cities: Auckland, Rome, Amsterdam, London
Most disappointing cities: Kuala Lumpur, Paris (whats a synonym for miserable? Parisian!)
Best beer: Chang (Thailand), anything from Austria
Favorite food: India!
Least favorite food: fish and chips
Best scenery: Thailand
Best experience over an entire country: India (easy guess)
Most inefficient mode of transportation: longtail boat in Thailand
Most used form of transportation: train
Cheapest to live: India (averaged $15 per day)
Most expensive to live: London
Place I would most like to live: Auckland
Place I would most likely visit again: India, Cambodia
And here are a number of my "oh shit" moments (pardon my French, but I've made it this far without any cursing)
6) looking at the map on the in-flight tv on the way to Fiji and watching the plane cross the equator, realizing how far I was from home
5) literally having my breath taken away at the sight of the Taj Mahal
4) sitting on a train from Varanasi to Itarsi (in India), on the top bunk of a sleeper, and suddenly realizing what an experience I am having, absolutely in the middle of Indian life.
3) staring up at the oculus in the Pantheon in Rome, completely blown away at its perfection.
2) each time I arrived in a new city by plane, realizing I was arriving in a new adventure.
and the number one "oh shit" moment:
1) when I kissed my mom goodbye at New Orleans International on April 1st. As soon as she pulled away, I knew I was on my own and I had no one to look out for me. It hit me like a punch to the gut, but I suppose it worked itself out because I made it this far.
So thats been it. The highs, the lows, the air-cons, the bed bugs, the friends (old and new), the family, and the places. It has been a wonderful journey, and I have appreciated your comments and emails more than any of you know. For the habitual readers out there, don't worry, I've already got next summer's plans in mind.
I don't want to be too sentimental, but I'd like to thank my friends and my family for the words of encouragement, because without them I would have thought I was crazy from the start. Most importantly, I'd like to thank my parents who supported me while I was planning this trip (both financially and emotionally). This wouldn't have been possible without them. At this point, I suppose I only have one thing to say, straight to my mother:
I guess I got on the firetruck.
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Alyce
non-member comment
All I can say is WOW! What a great post, and what a great person you've become.