What I learned about Traveling

I'm back home and i've sort of gotten used to the time change, Frankfurt was ok, I met 2 new people and went to a huge garden with them, but not much else happened in Frankfurt. I think after Bruges I needed to regroup. I did, sort of, i'm still regrouping. Anyway I wanted to share with everyone things I learned while traveling, not about myself, that goes on another blog. Here we go:

No matter how prepared you think you are for a trip, you always feel overwhelmed in a new and big city

Get advice from anyone who has had a Eurail pass, otherwise you're left to figure it out yourself, people who work in the ticket offices will explain, but because of language barrier you sort of understand but you don't really.

Always go ahead and reserve a seat on the train, otherwise most seats are reserved and you either sit in the walk-way or roam around the train trying to find a free seat. It only costs 3 euro's to reserve a seat, yes it can get expensive, but it's worth it.

Anytime you're in a new train station, either walk around the day you get in and know where everything is, or arrive early the day you leave and walk around.

Anytime something unexpected happens, embrace it, don't freak out, you always have other options.

Pack jeans, you may as well, everyone wears them, it's easier to fit in, it's ok if you don't have jeans, but you miss them after awhile, plus it can be cold in Germany, or anywhere.

If you didn't pack long sleeve shirts or enough socks, go shopping, like every blog says you can always pick up the essentials in malls

Trains are on a schedule, there are small boards in every train station, don't refer to your Eurail booklet, it doesn't always have correct train schedules in them.

French trains leave at the time they say, no sooner no later, if you're early great, if you're late, it sucks to be you.

Make sure to read reviews on hostels, otherwise you're stuck with a bad hostel in a bad neighborhood

It's better to reserve hostels before you leave on your trip, don't just show up at a hostel, because a.) most if not all hostels have reservation policies, b.) chances are the hostel could be booked up, and depending on the hostel, they'll point you to another and possibly help you book it.

You can always cancel a reservation that you made at one hostel and just reserve at another, at Hostelworld.com it's pretty easy

No matter how many people you meet, the majority of them are either Canadians or Australians

Beer from another country has more alcohol content in it, 8% or 9%, depends on who made the beer, so don't drink too much, unless you can handle it.

Always go to a clock tower or church
The church to rest and figure out what you're doing next
The clock tower to get spectacular views of the city, if there's something to climb in each city, do it

Chances are you'll meet someone from your hometown, I did, or you'll meet people who just met someone from Colorado a day or so ago.

Take chances with people, don't just write them off and think they're dodgy, if you do that you'll never meet and hang out with new people in every city, whether it be for a day or 3 days.

If you think that you're just going on a little nature hike, chances are you're wrong, and you'll end up hiking up a very steep hill.

The best stories come from unexpected people, don't know who Chocolate Dragon and the Key Master's real names are and you've been hanging out with them for half the day? It's ok, you might find out after a lengthy but awesome story at 2 or so in the morning.

It's ok to drink beer in the park, everyone does it

Going for fries? Do it at 1 in the morning with a little alcohol in you, they'll taste much better

Everything and I mean everything comes with fries, steak? comes with fries, roast chicken? comes with fries, Moules (mussels)? comes with fries

If you're on a budget just go for the mixed rooms, some hostels will end up putting girls together anyway, other hostels will do mixed rooms, sometimes you'll be the only girl in there or the desk booked you into the wrong room.

Ear Plugs are a godsend, people snore, loudly, people will come in at 3 or 4 in the morning making a lot of noise. Only drawback is you may miss your alarm

Don't bother getting up too early, nothing opens til at least 9:30 or 10 anyway. I thought I was going to get up around 7 everyday, I ended up getting up around 8ish everyday. Relax, that's why you're in Europe, right?

Most places are closed on Sundays and sometimes Mondays, it depends on what city you're in, so prepare to just sightsee or take a bus tour.

Bus tours or boat tours are the best way to orient yourself in a new city, so then you know where things are

Get emails from people that you meet in hostels, I didn't until the very end, because you may end up in their city and need a place to stay.

New Friends in Fun Places

I'm sad that my trip is almost over, but looking back i've had the best experiences, especially in Bruges, Belgium. I met two new friends, John from Glasgow, Scotland and Rebecca from Vancouver, Canada, and others that came in and out of the picture the last 3 days, Australians, Canadians, Irish, other Americans. The last 2 days in Bruges were awesome, the 2nd day was slow, especially after that long epic first day with the other American I met, Connor. 2nd day some of us hunkered down in the bar in the hostel, it was raining, I was going to do a bike ride, but no dice, didn't want to go out and get wet or cold. So new people new nicknames, i'm still not sure how the naming worked, and new stories to tell,  but no one will get any of that except for those that were there. I ended up going out to a club in Bruges, never thought I would do that, and the place was so crowded it was ridiculous, shoulder to shoulder with people, so the little group I was with went outside to sit and drink some beers, and it was just a great low key night, I never thought i'd be the person getting into the dorm at 3:30? in the morning trying to be quiet and not waking people.
The next day Rebecca, John and I decided to rent bikes and just ride, I thought we were going to the Holland Border to the beach, no, we followed John, and we ended up cycling to Oostend, which is 33 kilometers away. Yikes! But we did it! How many people can say they saw the Atlantic Ocean in Nice, France and the North Sea? in Oostend, Belgium, not many, I did and it was an amazing expereince. So after the ride we were all hungry and ended up at a little place that had food, we had a half a chicken each, and I though it was only going to be like a quarter, but it wasn't, it was literally half a chicken. We didn't cycle back we took the train and ended up in the oldest bar in Bruges (1515) drinking and playing scrabble, perfect end to a perfect 3 days, and going to a low key bar and eating a brat in the square, and then accidentally dropping said brat. Now it's time for Frankfurt again, which is where i'm at and started in and figuring out what i'm going to do the next two days.
Renting a bike in Bruges-Check
Eating Moules and Frites-Check
Eating Belgian waffles-Check.
Meeting people you can spend three days in a row with and not get sick of them priceless.

In Bruges

If anyone has seen that movie they know it's weird and the cinamatography is beautiful and it's a small place. What they don't know is that it's a tourist mecca and everyone comes here for only 2 nights, usually to drink and go up the Belfry. When I was waiting for a bus at the train station two girls came up to say hi to me, they were in the same hostel in Paris, I didn't remember who they were but faked like I knew them. I was tired at that point after the last week of spending 1 or 2 nights in a different city.

Being here for 2 nights so far has been the highlight of my whole trip, why you ask, because I spent the whole day on Spetember 22 with two people I met at the Belfry who are staying in the hostel i'm staying at.

So lets back up a little bit to how I met the two people, the day I had checked in, which was a Tuesday I had gone out to do laundry, yes I haven't done laundry since Munich, can anyone guess how long ago Munich was? Anyway after doing laundry I went to walk around town, and there are so many tourist shops, there were hardly any in Ghent, and there were so many people on the side streets, unlike Ghent, which was just eery until you got the central square. Where was I? Right i ended up having dinner in the square and guess what I had to eat. That's right I had Moules and frites, Mussels and fries, it was the one expensive meal that I was going to have in Europe. Mussels in white wine and cream sauce. Did anyone seen the movie Tremors? That's what the mussel shells looked like, the graboids, and the mussels themselves looked like little aliens from the movie Aliens. I know I have a imagination, but after that I tried not to look at them, I got a huge pot of the mussels, and I could only eat half. I have a picture which will go up on picasa later. After that I went back to the hostel and checked my email, when I went back up to my room, it was full of guys, great, another hostel room with roudy guys. After some of them departed one of the guys started talking to me asking what I was going to do the next day, who asks that? He seemed a little dodgy asking me that a couple of times, I kinda just wrote him off. Anyway the next day he asks me again, I said I didn't know and we went our seperate ways. At breakfast I was eating alone and there was this girl who came by and was going to sit by me, she kind of waivered for a bit deciding whether or not to actually sit down. But since the guy at the next table over was sitting with his chair far out she didn't and went to eat alone. I was going to ask her if she wanted to eat with me, but I didn't.

I went out to explore the town and I ended up at the Belfry and waited in line, lo and behold the guy from my room was there with some girl, hmm maybe his next victim? It was nothing like that, I ended up on the second floor with them. John is his name, we started talking, and when we got to the 3rd floor, there was the guy who played the bells in his own little room, it was pretty cool. Then we got all the way up to the top, 326 steps I think, and it was narrow, I mean really narrow. The view was amazing and i'm glad I went up, probably the last belfry i'll be up in for a while. When I got back down to the bottom, I met the girl who John was with,  it was the same girl from breakfast, Rebecca. I ended up spending the whole day with them, and another guy named Connor. We all headed out and about, no real plans just wandering, we ended up going to a museum about Bruges and then went to Half Moon brewery for a tour, it was pretty awesome, and you got a free beer at the end. I hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning and the tour was around 1, guess who got really really tipsy, if you guessed the girls, you were right, no one showed that they were. Connor the guy had to split for his train and Rebecca, John, and I ended looking for a pasta place to eat lunch, and we found it, after that I felt so much better. It was just the 3 of us after that and we pretty much stuck together the whole day, it's not every day that you meet people who are traveling alone and you don't get sick of them.

We went to a park, just because, had a beer or two with ice cream, it was actually flavored beer, i had raspberry. After the park we went back the hostel, I signed up for the free walking tour. We had an hour or so to kill and we split for a while, but the walking tour was pretty fun, I got to see windmills. After the tour, it was the 3 of us again and we ended up wandering around looking for dinner, no one could decided what to eat or where, everyone was kinda getting antsy or on each others nerves, your pick. The place we ate was a greek place, it was really good. After that we went back the hostel, had a couple of drinks because it was happy hour. That was my day and I couldn't have had a better day or met better people. Like I said before you don't meet people like that every day that you can just hang with and not ask questions repeatedly. Bruges or Brugge? is a very picturesqe place, I had gone on a boat tour in the canal the day I had gotten here, and I have taken so many pictures. Today it's raining, haven't figured out what to do yet, I was going to take a bike tour, but i'm not because of the rain. So I have 2 more days here and then I leave for Frankfurt. I'm sad that my trip is almost over, but it's been an amazing month and I would totally do it over again.
Sorry about rambling, but when you walk around aimlessly for a month it's just a stream of thoughts that go through your head.

What Day is it and What City am I in?

Ok I'm tired now, I spent the last 3 days in three different cities, let's see if I can remember where I was 3 days ago, because I was talking to someone and I coudn't remember a place I had stayed the night. Ok here goes, after I left Nice I went to Lyon, and after Lyon and that situation, I stopped in Dijon where I spent the night because I missed my connection. Ok after Dijon I got to Lille where I transferred trains to Brussels, which it turns out was only a 1/2 hour train ride. Anyway I got to Brussels and figured out the subway pretty easily and I found the hostel, I couldn't check in the room until 3 anyway, so I went out. I bought a backpack because mine was getting heavy, i've only bought a couple of things, maybe my packing is getting sloppier, who knows. Today I took the train to Ghent, which is only a half hour from Brussels and when I got to the hostel boat, yes I am on an old barge and it's pretty neat. Pictures on Picasa to come soon. Anyway after I was able to check in I went to find the city center, I got turned around like I always do. Luckily I have a very handy map, one that locals made, there are maps like these in Bruge, Brussels, and Dresden, that's all I know of so far. When I stood on a street corner to figure out how to get to the center there was a couple with their phones trying to figure out how to get there. I figured out what street we were on and from there we followed the map. Turns out all I had to do when I left the hostel boat was walk straight for a half mile. Figures, but it's easier to get lost. Anyway the center is beautiful, again pictures to come, and I took a little river or canal cruise, they really stuff people into the tiny boats. The tour was ok, but I know where I want to go tomorrow now. I have 2 nights in Ghent and then I head to Bruge for 4 nights, I think, and then to Frankfurt and then home. I don't think i've had a full nights sleep in the last month, ever. Oh well, i'll have time to catch up when I get back in the U.S. Also I would love to do laundry but there hasn't been any places with laundry in them, except in the hostel in Brussels, but the dryer was broken. I haven't done laundry since Munich....how gross is that?

Rolling with the Punches

It has been a whirlwind of travel the last 2 or 3 days, in Nice after two days of fun in the sun, I went to the station on my last day to get a reservation to Lyon. I got one, the stop in Lyon was to get to Brussels, I didn't get too much sleep that night, I was the only girl in the room full of Canadians, who were nice but they went out and drank and came back at like 3 in the morning very loudly, one of them with a girl in tow, she didn't stay in the room, thank god. Anyway I got up to get to the station, my train left at 7:24 in the morning, in France they don't show the platform of the train until at least 5-10 minutes before boarding time. You better believe that they leave at the scheduled time, not a minute later, so if you're late for your train, too bad for you.

When I got to Lyon I went to the ticket center to book my train to Brussels, another line to wait in, not all the ticket people speak English, so I had to wait until an english speaking person was available. I got to the lady and told her i'm headed to Brussels, low and behold trains were full, why you ask? Not because it's the weekend but because of Oktoberfest, normally I wouldn't think anything of it, but it messes up my itinerary, which it did, more on that in a second, then damn i'm shit out of luck. The lady found a train going to Brussels, but first I would have to get off in Dijon and have 24 minutes to find the train to Paris Bercy, and in Paris I would have to change train stations, to Gare du Nord, I had about 2 hours to do that, from Paris I would get to Brussels at 12 in the morning. That was fine with me, so I went to my hotel, no hostels in Lyon that I could find online, found it pretty easily, i'm getting the hang of the subways. I spent the night and got up to leave at 11 in the morning, why at 11 when my train was at 3:22, becuse that's what time checkout was. So I got the the train station and I put my bag in a locker, these were secure lockers, you had to pass your stuff through an x-ray machine, very serious. Then what does one do when you don't know the city and you have 3 hours to kill? Why you go to the mall, which was across the street from the train station, I found my favorite store in Europe, it's called Pimkie. After I meandered around the mall I went back, got my bag, sat and read for a bit and got to my train, no problem.

Problem, about 40 minutes into the train ride it stopped, for no apparent reason, I asked a lady who was sitting behind me, she didn't know, even though she didn't speak english. About maybe a half hour to 40 minutes later the train starts going again, I already knew I was going to miss my train to Paris. The ticket taker, or is it the conductor? I don't know what they're called, anyway he comes around checking tickets and he says to me, "You aren't going to make your connection to Paris," No shit sherlock, that's what I thought but wanted to say to him. He shows me on his tiny computer other options, it didn't make sense, so I said thanks. I got to Dijon around 7 and I booked it to the ticket counter before it closed. The guy took a while to find a way to get to Brussels, but he did find a way, all trains to Paris were booked, I didn't care how I got to Brussels as long as I got to Brussels. So now i'm leaving Dijon tomorrow at 7:44 in the morning going to change trains in Lille, France (hey I wanted to go there anyway) From Lille I have a hour between trains, Lille goes directly to Brussels. So i'm all set for tomorrow, crossing my fingers and hope nothing goes awry.
When I got to Dijon I asked if there were any places to find a hotel, like a directory, the guy just pointed outside, it didn't make sense. So I went out and saw that there were a number of hotels outside of the station across the road. However becuase I didn't know the area very well I called my parents, they didn't answer, I forgot that they were headed to Texas. So I called my sister, she went online and I named a hotel so she could look it up. Campanille is the name of the hotel, it was fairly inexpensive, nice small room overlooking the train station, quieter then the last place I stayed at in Lyon.
So no freakouts today, however I had a small one this morning, I couldn't find my fanny pack with my passport in it, I tore everything out of my bag I packed the night before and it wasn't in there, what, where could it be? Turns out it was under my bag, I had put it there before I went out to eat yesterday, phew, crisis and freakout averted. So this is where I leave you, if you got through the whole blog, next time I write i'll probably be in Ghent

Talk about a sense of Deja Vu

I'm in Nice, France, and it's beautiful, not too hot and definately not cloudy or cold, however I can only bare to stay in the sun for a couple of hours. I'm really glad that the hostel is near the old town and the beach, i'm down the road from the beach, just have to cross the town square and i'm there! Although I did get lost this morning trying to find the beach, how does one get lost? It's me, I have no sense of direction. Anyway yesterday I had a 5 hour train ride from Paris down to Nice and the train passed Aix en Provence, where I once considered going, but I didn't see anything there. I saw Marseille and it was huge, the train went past Cannes, nice. When I got to the train station, oh, hey guess what it started raining, really I came down here to get away from that. Although it didn't last long.
I decided to go for a walk and go to the galleria across the street after I got checked in, I booked a mixed 6 bed room, 4 of the beds were taken by guys. Anyway I went to the gallaria, which is a very expensive place, 90 euros for just a t-shirt, I don't think so.  I would go out again tomorrow to find better clothing stores. I got back and there was a girl that checked in and was staying in my room, so I didn't have to bunk with 4 guys, all of whom turned out to be really nice and everyone in that room was from Australia. The hostel is really nice and when I went down for dinner, a girl was like hey, don't I know you from somewhere? We looked at each other and it took me a while to place her, but it turns out she was at Square Caulaincourt, the hostel I stayed at in Paris, she was in the room when I came in and she was leaving the next day. How odd, also in Paris I met a guy in the common room who lived in Monument for a year, and 2 people who went to University of Colorado, but both lived in California. Literally a small world. I found smaller shops today while walking around, and there are a lot of clothing stores that sell dark clothes. I guess i'll have to wear all my dark shirts. You can definately tell who came down for the day and who's vacationing down here, it's dark clothes vs. light clothes.

Paris is a City of Stairs

I spent 5 full days in Paris, I wasn't sure if I was going to get any exercise or not, in Germany I walked everywhere. In Paris i've been taking the subway. Also I am proud to say that I did indeed understand and conquer (sp?) the subway system. I also got lost in the Louvre, on purpose. Anyway today I walked from the Arc De Triomphe to the Louvre to Notre Dame. Long way but I got my exercise, i'm so tired, also I went to the top of the Arc De Triomphe, and I got a discount today, first time all week that i've gotten a discount. I could have walked up the Notre Dame tower, I could have walked up the Sacre Couer tower and I could have walked up the Eiffel Tower, I didn't, but I saw a lot of people that did. Yesterday I visited the Eiffel Tower and I chose to go all the way to the top, it was amazing, and crowded. However because of the crowds waiting to go down the elevator I decided to take the stairs, yes I took the stairs down, but it was worth it because I got to watch red faced people huffing and puffing on the way to the top.
I also went to Musee D'Orsay yesterday and it was amazing, I didn't do the audio tour, it's 5 euro's. I loved how figuring out the paintings by myself. Because it barely rained this week I got a lot of sunny pictures, I also have a lot more pictures of Paris then I do of Germany. Oh well cest la vie. Tomorrow i'm headed to Nice and then Lyon and then up to Belgium, which is prone to be cold or overcast or sunny. If anyone wants pictures email me at Alyssa.Rossbach@comcast.net and i'll send you a link to my picasa site. So i'm sure you've asked yourself what has Alyssa seen in Paris, key answer the tourist sites, I spent a majoirty of my time in lines, I had planned for that. I went today to see the Arc de Triomphe, the Tulieries (Gardens), the Louvre to explore more and boy did I, then to Notre Dame. Long day, I've been to Versaille. I also met a guy who had lived in Monument, Colorado, small world. Next time i'll be writing you i'll be in a Nice, hopefully sunny and with that probably getting a sun burn knowing me.