Our first day, Saturday, was spent in Amsterdam. Well, I should really say that Amsterdam was our ultimate destination. The majority of our day, like most of those to come, was spent on a bus. We left London at 7:00am trekking from the Royal National to Dover to catch the ferry to France. Like much of my time on the bus, I spent a significant chunk of time sleeping. I had taken some motion sickness pills, which made me even more tired than my 5:00 wake-up already had, so I could not keep my eyes open. The bitch of it is, making me tired was about all the motion sickness pills did. I still felt queasy on the ferry. As some of the boys described, I get sea sick standing on wet grass (I was greatly amused by this description, hence the inclusion). We arrived in France after about an hour and a half on the ferry and made our way to Belgium. To be completely honest, I slept through the majority of our time in Belgium. But from what I saw, I don’t think I missed much. While I am sure the cities are lovely, my memories of Belgium are of pavement and flat farmland. Very exciting. After my nap(s), I woke up for our ride through The Netherlands, or Holland if you prefer. It was just like you might think, complete with tons of farmland, little ponds, and, oh yes, windmills. After a few more hours and a another nap, we were in Amsterdam. I had only known Amsterdam for its famously liberal attitudes about sex and drugs, with the Red Light District and the decriminalization of weed. But beyond that, there is so much more to the city! Amsterdam is absolutely beautiful, with a ton of cultural things all around. When we first got into the city, we went to the hostel and got all settled in before dinner. After our tanks were all topped off we all got ready for an exciting night out of the town in one of the most famous party cities in the world. We started the night off with a nice booze cruise on a river boat, floating through the canals. There was a spectacular view of the city, and it certainly didn’t hurt that it was all your could drink wine and beer. The booze cruise was the first group bonding experience of our trip. This was my first introduction to some really great people. First there was Jackie. Jackie is from Wisconsin, but she is living just outside of London, working as a kindergarten teacher. Along with Jackie there was Becca. Becca was also from Wisconsin, and she still lived there with her cute little daughter. In addition to these lovely ladies there was Lauren and Cristina, from New York, both still in school, and Shamus and Dane, from Sydney. Shamus and Dane were always a hoot, very entertaining, always looking for a good time. Shamus is a carpenter back in Sydney, looking to move to the UK, and Dane is a international politics student at the University of Sydney. We were all taking photos, dancing and socializing. Well, while we were all chatting it up, I decided to sit on the opposite side of the boat and chat with some of my fellow travelers. Well, less than two minutes after I sat down, a huge speed boat flew by, sending a huge wave of water in through the windows, soaking me to the bone. Although slightly traumatic in my largely white dress, it was hilarious. We cruised the canal for an hour and a half, ending near the red light district, everyone filled up on the social lubricant known as alcohol. After the river cruise, a group of us from the tour headed into the Red Light District to one of the many Casa Rosa for an infamous sex show. All of the girls were given penis shaped suckers, and the boys were all given condoms with some funny saying on them. The stands for the ropes outside the show were topped off with penises, which was very funny when the boys realized that they were not holding onto a normal post, but a penis. Great reactions from all. We stayed at the sex show for about an hour. In my personal opinion, a huge waste of money, but oh well. When in Rome, eh? It was not remotely sexy. In fact after about 10 minutes I was bored out of my mind. We were supposed to get two free drinks in the club, but I didn’t really understand how to redeem them, so I didn’t even get those. After the club a bunch of people went out to the various clubs and coffeehouses, but Brett and I followed a group home to the hostel, making a slight detour at the Hard Rock Café for some t-shirts.
Sunday morning was a little bit rough waking up after a late night, especially since we had to be up and at breakfast at 7:00am. I barely dragged my bum out of bed, but I made it down for breakfast, but then was forced to pack in a hurry as we were heading into the city for the morning. Once we were finally in the city, a large group of us, including my California Asians (three boys who just got out of university in California), walked over to the Anne Frank Haus, the house of Anne Frank that Stephen Spielberg (with the money from Schindler’s List) converted into a museum. The house was actually surprisingly more large and comfortable than I had expected. It was completely unfurnished (which may have made it seem larger) but was full of all kinds of artifacts from the Franks, including Anne’s original diary. Very cool. After we had thoroughly explored the house, Brett and I wandered the city a bit, visiting the infamous floating flower market (which surprisingly had very few live flowers and was not really very floaty, but the stores kind of just hung over the river). I picked up a few bulbs to give as gifts (although, disappointingly, the coolest of the flowers could not be imported to the States) and Brett and I sort of wandered the city. While we were wandering we ran across a cute little market, where we both splurged a little on some bags. They were made from former gas mask bags from the fifties, made more stylish with real vintage fabric from Scandinavia in the 1970’s. They might not have been exactly in the budget, but I probably would have regretted not buying one later. After we finished at the market, we tried to go into a coffeehouse just to get the experience, a few of which were advertising that they had juice bars. None of them did. At least not that we could tell. They were really pretty dodgy really. I’m sure they were more sketchy because it was the middle of the day (well really the morning, still). After giving up on all of that, we went meet up with the rest of the group to catch the coach and head to Germany. Once back on the coach, I caught up with some much needed sleep as we made our way.Tuesday we left Munich bright and early, as always and set out for Austria, home of the VonTrapp family, birthplace of the Governator, producer of RedBull, and worshipers of all that is David Hasselhoff. The bus ride was full of its normal mix of napping, good music, laughter, and checking out the sights as we drove by. This trip was especially glorious as it was punctuated with the musical talents of The Hoff, and a full bus sing-a-long to “Do A Deer” from The Sound of Music. Glorious. As we got close to Austria, the view continuously got better and better. The view out the window of the Austrian Alps was able to compensate for the windy roads (that always make little me so car sick). After about two hours of driving, we arrived in Tirol to do a bit of whitewater rafting. It was simply brilliant. The water was freezing, but it was overall completely worth it. Our guide Mike was a hoot. Just after we got onto the water Mike admitted that he was still slightly drunk from the night before. Fabulous. The rapids were the perfect size, enough to dunk you a bit, but never risk falling out or getting hurt or anything. Some of the rapids we actually rode down standing on the outer edges of the boat, supported by our oars inside of the boat. We did our fair share of swimming down the river, which was tons of fun, but the downside was that the water was so cold that your hands went numb after a minute. We were on the river for about 2 hours, but the time absolutely flew by. On the river there was a great view of the surrounding area, including the mountain that is used for the Paramount Pictures logo. Very fancy. All along the river there were all kinds of bridges, old bridges, new bridges, steel bridges, wooden bridges, everything, and lots of pretty little beachy river banks. After we made it to the end, we all took a shot of schnapps (which was horrible, for the record), returned our equipment, grabbed a spot of lunch, and hopped back on the bus. After another two and a half hours or so of sitting on the bus we arrived in the cute little town of Hopfgarten. Hopfgarten is at its peak during the winter ski season, nestled at the foot of a mountain, prime for skiing. Once we reached Hopfgarten, we split into three different groups, one going into town, one going paragliding, and my group, going on a biking tour of the city. We biked for about an hour and a half, getting a little tour along the way. The church in the center of town was so adorable. It was painted bright yellow, and apparently the inside was gorgeous (so I heard from the group that had gone into town). We biked through the woods surrounding the town, the main streets of the town, down to the Trout Farm (where you could catch and eat your own fish, but we didn’t have enough time—the theme of the trip), then up to a little playground/amusement park. Once we reached the little amusement park, we all had some cake or ice cream. I opted for the plum cake, but after tasting the ice cream, I will admit that would have been a better choice. This sundae had all kinds of fruit, a mango/raspberry ice cream, vanilla ice cream, raspberry sauce and cookies (plus a little party sparkler kind of thing in the top). Delicious. After we were reenergized with some sugar, we biked back up to the town to catch the bus again. To our surprise, we were told that we were receiving an upgrade from the hostel that we were supposed to be staying at and we would be staying in a hotel instead. And what an upgrade it was! This hotel was absolutely ADORABLE, a little chateau with almost every room having a little balcony with a flower box. And even better, dinner was fabulous! We had a proper 4 four course meal with soup, salad, pasta and dessert. Very nice (Borat style). After dinner we all went upstairs and got ready for the White Out party that was taking place that night. Brett and I thought that we would for sure win the contest of best outfit, as he dressed in a kilt (which admittedly looked like a toga) made from one of the bed sheets and I was dressed in white ghetto clothing (Brett’s shorts, a white tee shirt, a white head scarf, a bandana around m arm and a Nelly-esque Band-Aid drawn on with a highlighter). Unfortunately, we were out done by Jerry, one of the South Africans, who wore only a pair of white boxer briefs and a pair of white sunglasses, with money hanging out his shorts and belt. Well played, sir. Well played. We had plenty of fun, assisted by the schnapps shot tray special (strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, kiwi, a blow job, and an obstler—a disgusting 80% alcohol content drink of death), and the lady’s special (vodka, strawberry schnapps, and strawberry juice). We were celebrating a 20th birthday of Farid, one of our American travelers. Once we were all properly happy, Janelle (the tour manager) and I, along with the assistance of other girls, got every single boy’s shirt off in the group. It was absolutely amazing. You can’t even imagine how hilarious this night was. A proper tribute to the awesomeness of Austria.
For a change of pace, we thought we might get an early start on Wednesday (note the dripping sarcasm from this sentence). After the same breakfast of deli meat, cheese and rolls (fourth day in a row) we packed up all of our bags and hopped on the coach we call home. After about an hour of driving we were in Italy, on our way to the beautiful city of Venice. It was another long day on the bus, not too exciting (although there was a bit of a view of the beautiful Italian Alps—but I was sleeping for a lot of it, as usual). We finally arrived into our campsite, got settled a bit, and headed via boat into the city (sea sick—yuck). Venice itself was quite beautiful though. We started our expedition off by walking to St. Mark’s Square, the most famous area of the city, just outside of St. Mark’s Cathedral full of pigeons (but no pigeon poop because the pellets they give to people to feed them with are constipators and simultaneously kill and sterilize all the pigeons!). After looking around the square a bit, we went into a Venetian glass shop and were showed exactly how Venetian glass items are made. It was actually really amazing. The demonstrator made a glass horse in less than a minute. It was really impressive. Inside of the shop there were about a hundred things that I wanted to buy, from vases, to chandeliers to jewelry, but zero that I could afford to buy (sad face). Coming to grips with this conclusion quickly, Brett and I headed over to St. Mark’s to get in line to go inside. This turned out to be very fortunate, because only about 10 people in total (not in our group) got in after us because the Cathedral was closing! So we just barely made it in, and if we would have stayed in the shop any longer we would have missed one of the greatest parts of Venice. Inside of the Cathedral, everything was breathtaking. The entire floor and ceiling was in these beautiful mosaics (sorry, no pictures allowed!) in brilliant colors and gold. The actual floor was very uneven because it was sinking along with the rest of the city. After we had seen the interior of the cathedral, we set out to find a bottle of wine for our gondola ride. That was quite an adventure, but eventually we found a store (but no one had a bottle opener, so we had to either get twist caps or champagne, which was warm… we ended up with a bit of both) and headed back to St. Mark’s Square to meet up with the rest of the group for our gondola ride through the city. There were six of us in the boat, and Brett and I got the “love seat,” a little couch sort of thing right in front of the gondolier. Sadly, our gondolier would not sing for us, so Brett and I were forced to compensate for him and thus Brett and I spent the entire ride serenading the rest of our boat with everything from The Elephant Love Melody (Moulin Rouge) to I’ve had the Time of My Life (Dirty Dancing). Everyone in our boat was quite entertained by it. We rode around the city for about 45 minutes, and finally returned back to dry ground. Because it was getting late, Brett and I decided to grab a bite to eat. Long story short, it was unimpressive, I will spare the details. Then we did a bit more shopping (we had done some before the gondola ride), picking up a few random sort of knick knacks. Wandering around a bit, we spotted Janelle, our lovely Tour Manager, in St. Mark’s Square, which was beginning to flood with the incoming tide. Janelle suggested that we go to a particular bridge before we had to meet up, and so we took off. But before we made it very far, I got the nose bleed to end all nose bleeds. I am pretty sure I terrified about half of the population of Venice (that is an exaggeration, I only saw a few people, most of whom were in this little restaurant where I sought sanctuary). I know I certainly terrified Brett as he ran to get me some napkins, only to turn around and see me behind him with blood all over me and running down my arms (too graphic? I will stop). The people at the restaurant were so nice and let me use their bathroom and the little bartender (who was probably in his late 60’s or so) kept coming in to check on me. After about 20 minutes, when my nose finally started to cooperate and allow me to leave the bathroom, we set out for this bridge again. Unfortunately, we never made it to the bridge, but had to turn around in order to meet the group (stopping along the way to get Brett a gelato). It’s a pretty good thing that we didn’t dawdle getting back to the square, because about ten people ended up getting left in the city to find their own way back to the campsite. We walked through the city to the boat pick-up, and rode back to the campsite. Although the camp’s bar was supposedly legendary, we decided to pass, mostly because I was feeling sick from blood loss (and the connected sore throat from the bloody nose) and because I was a mess, with my dress covered in blood. It’s enough to put anyone off. Instead we watched EuroTrip, and I called home from a payphone (I broke down and bought a phone card). I guess no one in the group was really able to enjoy the bar, though, because it was just ridiculously crowded, and by the time that we got in, everyone else in the bar was properly toasted and therefore obnoxious.
Thursday was the first time that we had a proper breakfast for the first time on the trip. Because it was a Contiki campsite, there were people there who were assigned to cook for us and thus, in addition to our normal cereal and yogurt and toast, we had OMELETTES! Woo Hoo! A good way to start the day. It was a big driving day as we made our way from Italy all the way to the Swiss Alps. Not a ton to say I suppose about the drive. We stopped for the afternoon in Lucerne where we walked around a bit taking in the sights. One of the cool things in town was a memorial which Mark Twain described as one of the most moving monuments in the world. It was a giant lion carved into the side of a mountain, commemorating the commitment of the 100 Swiss guards protecting Louis the XXIV during the French Revolution. Every single one of these guards was slaughtered protecting the castle and the king and queen had already fled (unknown to them). This story reminds me of one of my favourite things about the Swiss, that they are fucking crazy. Up until very recently it was mandatory for every able bodied man to be part of the Swiss army (now some people are allowed to be conscious objectors). Every single military member (therefore pretty much every man) is required to have 50 rounds and a rifle in his home and this is checked twice a year. Pretty much every town has its own armory and the whole country is littered with airfields and hangers, many of which are camouflaged from the sky. It is crazy. And it only gets better. All of over the roads there are effectively booby traps, explosives set to make the roads untravelable upon detonation in case anyone was to invade. It’s pretty nuts. Ok, back to the topic at hand. The city also had this amazing wooden footbridge that was painted very intricately with flowers and historical scenes. On the other side of that bridge we went to a little shop selling Swiss army knives and Swiss watches, in addition to a cute little chocolate shop. Gotta love the heights of Swiss industry. As always we only had a little bit of time to look around before we had to get right back onto the bus. After our little break, we got back on the rode and headed for our camping area at the base of Jungfrau, one of the highest mountains in the Swiss Alps. When we finally got into town, which was decked out to the nines in Swiss flags, and highlighted by beautiful waterfalls throughout the town, we quickly unloaded our stuff into the “loft” and headed down to dinner. The accommodations in Switzerland were some of the best out of the whole trip (second only to Austria, I would say). We had a huge room to ourselves in the top floor of the building, with a skylight, and the food was actually quite good. We got started off with some cheese fondue, then we had some really good chicken with salad (! Yes, I said salad in Europe) and some dessert. After dinner, we headed back to the room to have another movie night, this time inviting the boys that are now affectionately known as the BCB, the British Columbia Boys (Devin, Walker, Ben, and Liam, for those of you dying to know). We started watching The Producers, and I feeling a little under the weather, fell asleep in the middle! Ops.
Friday was spent in an unbelievably cold way, considering it is August. After a hearty breakfast, Brett and I, along with a selected few from the group, took an hour and a half train ride up Jungfrau. Apparently in the days prior to our arrival, the area around Jungfrau had received an abnormal amount of precipitation, meaning that there was an abnormal amount of snow on the way up to and at the top of the mountain. Of course being the goofball that I am, this meant that I initiated a snowball fight with those going up the mountain when we changed trains. On our second train on the way up the mountain, we made two stops on our route, taking a chance to snap a few photos of the surrounding mountains. When we finally reached the top of Jungfrau (via the highest train station in Europe) we took in the view from the windows of the station before heading into the Ice Palace. The Ice Palace is a series of ice caves with tons of ice sculptures and such. Literally EVERYTHING is ice, including the floor, which was at times problematic, but overall really cool (get it… ice caves… cool…I’m so funny). After we explored the ice caves, we headed out to the viewing area, out in the freezing cold. I, unfortunately only brought along my little slippers and sandals with me on our Contiki trip, meaning that I was out in the snow and ice with little pink slipper shoes. Not so easy. As we went out to the viewing area, we were forced to battle ice and snow, along with a really intense wind. Needless to say, we tired of the viewing area quite quickly and moved back inside to check out the highest point in the train station area, surrounded by glass and serviced by the world’s fastest elevator. After seeing all of this, we headed out into the cold once more. This time though, we were on a mission. Brett and I were going to be the first of Janelle’s people ever to hike all the way out to this château on the side of the mountain. It was not an easy task by any means, but we finally made it, along with one of the other girls in our group, to enjoy a bit of lunch. After our hour long struggle uphill, barely able to keep our breath, we felt that it was justified to eat pretty much whatever we wanted. The only problem, however, was the prices. Switzerland has one of the highest costs of living in Europe, and at the top of the mountain, there was an even more pronounced high cost. So, Brett and I shared a ridiculously rich entrée made of bread, egg, and ham covered in an overly rich cheese sauce. I finally surrendered to the dish, because it was just too rich (and came back with a vengeance as we were on our way back down the mountain). So the three of us hiked back down the mountain (which was much easier than on the way up, assisted by the sliding of my shoes down the mountain) and caught the train back down. As I alluded, I felt like vomiting, so I spent the majority of the trip asleep. When we finally got back down the mountain (past all of the cows and sheep and crazy Swiss people) we did a little bit of shopping (new hat!) and spying (oooh, one of the girls on the trip on a “late lunch” date with the bus driver, after having been in his room late the night before, oh la la), we headed back to the room for a nap. Unfortunately, neither of us actually fell asleep. Defeated, we watched High School Musical (not a bad consolation prize) and headed down to dinner for some burgers and fries. After dinner we gathered our BCB and Dustin, another one of the boys from the trip, and watched Freedom Writers. While we watched the movie, Brett took the initiative to get drunk, alone, with the bottle of wine that we had bought (by this time, I had full blown cold and was in no position to help him drink it). He also had to use the last of the Swiss francs that he had taken out, so he went down to the bar and bought a few frugles (a Red Bull flavored liquor) and came back up to the room. Crazy kid. What can you do?
Saturday was another big driving day. We were up and adam bright and early, grabbing breakfast at 6:45 (ouch) and hopping quickly on the bus. The rest of the day was spent on the road (blah!). But, at least the trip was spiced up with a few games, known as the Bus Olympics. There was the relay race, requiring certain items to be passed from the back of the bus to the front of the bus (with intense stealing at times). Things got a little intense in the Olympics, and quite amusing, especially when things that needed to be passed around were things like bras, condoms and tampons (yes, we are immature, but it was amusing). But in my opinion, the highlight of the game was when we had to pass a photo of a gondola to the front. Being at the front, I received the camera and was forced to find the picture within Gerard’s camera. To my shock, I did not find a picture of a gondola, but a picture of one of the Contiki staff’s (I think it was a bartender’s) almost nether-regions. Shocking, hilarious. Janelle and I were thoroughly amused to say the least. After the conclusion of this game, we started another game, proving that combined, Brett and I are the biggest losers ever. This game was a sort of Name that Tune game, where we were as a team supposed to identify the television show or movie’s theme song that was playing. Brett and I impressively got 42 out of 50 theme songs correct (with the assistance of our bus neighbors, Julie and Dustin, who did not want to play). Yep, we are losers. By around 5:00, we had arrived in Paris and immediately headed to the Eiffel Tower. As a group we jumped to queue and went up to the top of the tower, getting an amazing view of the city. A great introduction to Paris. After our trip up the Eiffel Tower, we took a thirty minute to the campsite that we were staying at. When we arrived we dropped off our stuff in the cabins, we went to the food tent to grab some grub. Before dinner we were greeted with escargot and pink champagne. Tre bien! After dinner, Dustin, who was also a bit under the weather, joined Brett and I in our cabin for a little bit of Harry Potter action. But, once again, I fell asleep before the end of the movie (which they apparently did not even reach because the boys got too tired as well).
Sunday, our last day of action. Sadness. The day started out in the usual way, breakfast. After breakfast, we headed back into Paris (with a little city tour along the way), to start the day off with a group photo in from of the Eiffel Tower. How romantic. Needless to say, there was plenty of picture taking by all. After our group photo, we piled on the bus and headed to a small perfumery for a tour. Before we were able to enter the perfumery, we were forced to sit outside and wait for them to be ready. Fortunately for (some) us, we were just outside of the National Opera House, the setting of the Phantom of the Opera (it unfortunately was closed, since it was a Sunday). Impressive, none the less. After about fifteen minutes, we finally got into the perfumery for a little history and tour of the perfume museum before heading into the store (everything ends in a gift shop now a days, doesn’t it?). Despite my best efforts, my stuffy nose prevented me from really getting a feel for any of the perfumes that they had. Oh well. By this time I didn’t really (and still don’t) have the money for any of these luxuries. After the perfumery, everyone (slowly but surely) piled back onto the bus to be dropped off at their choice of the two points in the city, at the Muse D’Orsey or (as we chose) the Arc de Triumph. At the Arc we met up with Brett’s friend Betsy who was living in Paris for the summer doing an internship. After meeting up with Betsy, we started walking around the city, heading into a park for some crepes. Betsy, in her perfect French ordered a couple of crepes for Brett and I (the real kind, not the sweet kind). Delicious. After our little snack break, we continued to walk around the city, taking in all of the sights. Before coming into the city, Brett and I decided to eat our way through Paris. So we did our best to do just that. After just a few minutes of walking, we found a little pastry shop (most pasty places were closed because it was a Sunday). So we stopped in and grabbed an éclair and a piece of cake and went up to the second floor and had some tea along with our desserts. After our dessert break, we hit the pavement once more, walking to the Louvre, taking our required pictures, then walking over to Notre Dame (of course stopping along the way in many of the little shops along the way). After Notre Dame, we walked across the river and along the little stands lining the river, selling everything from books, to paintings, to posters, to little souvenirs. I bought a lovely little painting to be paired with the other paintings that I already have. After walking along the river for a few minutes, we went into the area of San Michel, a very lively area compared to the rest of the city on that sleepy, cloudy Sunday. After wandering through San Michel for a few minutes (stopping and getting a crepe for Betsy). All too soon, it was time for us to meet up with the rest of our group for a group dinner. The dinner was absolutely fabulous, with plenty of wine, delicious food, a crazy accordion player who thought that he was a sort of rock star. After I had had my fill of onion soup, duck a l’orange, cheese and dessert (and wine!) I headed out with the rest of the group to meet the bus once more, this time heading to the cabaret show. The show was very entertaining, full of dancing, topless girls, jugglers, acrobats, comedians, and other performers. Brett even ended up on stage as jugglers knocked a hat, a cigarette, and glasses right off of his face with bowling pins without hitting him. It was really impressive. This, however, made me incredibly nervous because by the point that Brett was on stage he was thoroughly drunk (after over a bottle of wine and half a bottle of champagne), so sitting still was not entirely in his grasp. But he lived, at least for another ten minutes. After that ten minutes was up, he passed out on my shoulder for probably another 20 minutes. I literally picked the kid up by his hair and he didn’t wake up. It was intense. Everyone else got a real kick out of it, but I was seriously pissed off. And who wouldn’t be. None the less we ended up in a huge fight (which he has no recollection of). After we finally got back to the campsite I put him to bed and met up with a few of my BCB. We attempted to go to the bar at the campsite, but it was entirely lame, so we headed back to their cabin. When we got back to the cabin, Liam was sleeping, so I took the liberty of hopping into the bed with him for some snuggles while the other boys (Ben and Devon) got settled in for the night. We had a wonderful time just messing around, and after a few more snuggles with Devon I headed back to my cabin to get some sleep.
Monday morning was very sad. After waking up to still-drunk Brett, we grabbed some breakfast at the food tent and finished packing. Then we had to say goodbye to about 20 people out of 51, those who were leaving from Paris to travel to other parts of the continent (or home to other countries in some cases). I had to say goodbye to my California Asians and (tear!) my BCB. The BCB was headed to Barcelona, so they were taking a train from Paris. The rest of the day was kind of depressing, knowing that we were headed back to London. Because we got rid of so many people, most people now had their own seats, so they sprawled out and fell asleep. Unable to sleep, despite my late night the evening before, I sat up at the front of the bus chatting with Janelle and Amos, our tour manager and coach captain, about everything under the sun. Between talking to Janelle and Amos and having my last little chats with Becca and Jackie, time just flew by. Before I knew it we were at the ferry and had to go through passport control. They thought they were going to have to leave me there because I ended up getting hung up with this jerk customs officer. When I was coming back from Dublin, I had accidentally thrown out the computer print out that had my return flight details and I never had an opportunity to find somewhere to print it out again, and they wanted to see these details when I was going through the customs at the ferry. They might have let it slide if I hadn’t had problems twice before (when I was first coming to London and when I was coming back from Barcelona) at immigration about my return flight. So then the guy asked me to show him some school ID to prove that I was a student. But all I had was my ISIC (International Student ID) card, which to him “wasn’t worth the paper that it was printed on.” So then he asked to see my drivers license and then tried to tell me that it was expired because it was 11-05-2007, which he read as May 11. So I had to explain to him that in America, the date is not read like that (what kind of immigration officer wouldn’t know that!?). So finally he let me through. Amos and Janelle were terrified that I was going to say that I worked for a political magazine, which they thought would cause the immigrations officers to want to empty the whole bus and go through everyone’s bag. Haha. But after all that drama we finally got on the ferry, where I quickly ate some lunch and fell asleep before I had the opportunity to get sea sick. After that, it was a blur and we were back in London and getting dropped off. After saying all of our goodbyes to everyone, Brett and I hopped on the Tube toward Ealing to be met by Gaby to go back to her house. After getting settled and taking a shower, Gaby, Brett and I headed over to Sam’s house to hang out for a bit and check our email before the four of us headed to dinner at a little Asian noodle bar (I tried squid for the first time!). After a lovely little dinner, Gaby and Sam headed out to a friend’s birthday party and Brett and I headed back to Gaby’s to crash.
So there it is. The entrée. I hope you enjoyed it. I know it was kind of dense, but there is just so much to say! I had a fabulous time, and now in comparison to this week my life is going to seem so boring for a while! Don’t worry. There is still a little dessert coming at you. My last day in London! How sad. So that will be coming at you in just a moment… I’m sure the anticipation is killing you…
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