Well camera, we had a good run:( (May 9th)

It´s hard to write about today. The anger and violation I feel is hard to contain, but I will just let it all flow out.

I had to leave my seaside hostel today and head for a hostel much more inland and much more expensive. Sure, I COULD have saved €1.30, but I opted instead to get their in fraction of the time and save my legs a long walk with a heavy pack.

I said goodbye to the last of my newly acquired friends and headed for the Metro. If only I would´ve just walked...

After I bought my ticket, I ran into a few other girls from the hostel. I chit-chatted with them until our train arrived. It was packed, but I plowed me and my big bag into the crowd and urged the girls to do as I did. They tried, but ultimately there just wasn´t enough room on the train and they waited for the next one. If only I would´ve done the same...

The train was full of passengers and I kept on getting pushed around with the swaying of the train. I had heard that Barcelona was a TERRIBLE place for pickpocketers, so I was paying particular attention to my huge bag strapped to my back.

I felt bad cause I kept on plowing into this one guy and I tried to apologize to him. But when I made eye contact he gave me this weird look, but I couldn´t comprehend what he was trying to say. He then whispered something in my ear...but it was in Spanish and I had no idea what he was saying.

But there was something about the look he gave me. It was if he was trying to tell me, ¨Someone just stole something from you."

I was worried, but I had been watching my bag and I was pretty sure no one could´ve stolen anything of value from it...

What I didn´t realize, was that in all the tossing and turning on the train had distracted me and I didn´t notice that the pocket that contained my camera was now empty.

I thrust my hand into my leftside pocket, expecting to feel the shape of the camera I had used continuously on my trip...but it was EMPTY! I felt around my other pocket, but there was no camera.

Suddenly realizing that I had just been robbed, I turned to one of the passengers who had been next to me the entire time and brilliantly asked, "Did you steal my camera?"

Wow! Smartest move ever. Oh course he would just come right out and say, "Oh HO...yep, sure did...sorry about that. Here´s your camera back"

So dumb, but I just wasn´t thinking clearly at all as I felt like I had just been personally violated.

I´ll never forget that feeling of complete and utter helplessness as I got off the metro at my stop and watched the remaining passengers slowly passing by as the train moved along to it´s next stop. I almost expected the victorious thief to reveal my stolen camera and snap a picture of my dejected appearance as he safely escaped the scene of the crime. SUCH a terrible feeling.

I spent the rest of the day trying to cope with this injustice. I even had the receptionist at my new hostel call my previous one to see if I had absentmindedly left my camera there.

I held out hope, but I knew it was all just wishful thinking. I would never see my camera again.

I refrained from spending the rest of my day facedown in my own pillow, screaming, "Why...WHY!!!", as tears streamed down my face.

Instead I just chilled at my new hostel, which turns out was well worth the extra cast I spent on it.

It basically felt like an apartment, albeit one that you had to share with several other people. There were three other people in my room, but it was much less then 7 to 32 person rooms that I was used to staying in.

There was a living room and kitchen, which I expertly cooked ravioli in for dinner.

I decided to spend the night simply reading my book, Angels and Demons, which I had already read but found renewed interest in having visited Rome three weeks ago. I have to admit, I can definitely see why people think Dan Brown is crap as a writer, but it´s still an entertaining story in my opinion. George Lucas is a FANTASTIC storyteller, but writes some of the worst diaglogue EVER for his movies..."Good call, Anakin!"

So I have lost my camera, which will make posting pictures with my blog increasingly difficult. I need to figure this camera thing out before I get to Scotland, but for now, I´ve included some pictures of myself from the other day.

I'm...dancing...(said in Garth voice) (May 8th)

Hola!...just showing off my master of the Spanish language.

So, it's impossible to sleep late in a hostel. This one in particular is basically just a giant room with 5 separate "rooms." These "rooms" all have walls in between them, but there's 2 feet of space between the end of the wall and the ceiling...all of this means that if one person is snoring 3 rooms over, you hear it.

Not very refreshed, I planned on walking up to see the Olympic Stadium and any other cool things along the way. I got lost a bit, but that's the nice part about visiting a foreign land with no real agenda.

I wandered, I wandered...stopped for a swinging brake...Wandering, wandering.

Finally I got to the stadium and was amazed that they let you walk around in the stands for free. I was suprised, it looked a lot smaller then Jack Trice, but apparently it holds 55,000 in the possiblity to expand it to 77,000 for big events....like the Olympics. Very small looking though, but a beautifully designed stadium.

Wandering, wandering....stopped for some gelato (up 6 now!)...wandering, wandering.

I had made plans to met up with the Detroit girls at Mercat Boqueria, which was a huge open air market with fresh fruits, meats and vegetables. It was complete sensory overload...I wanted everything! They had really cheap bing cherries, so I'll definitely be back tomorrow.

I tried to save money, so I went and bought some bread, ketchup, chips and HOTDOGS!!! I miss Iowa and summer food.

After my delicious hotdog dinner, the Cornell girls, a guy named Matt, and I went out on the town. We got to a bar and had Sangria, which is another specialty of the region. I was having a good time, but I then spied the ugliest thing I've ever seen...the Hawkeye logo. Ugh!

But it was on a shirt worn by a guy from University of Iowa, so I decided to shake off the rivalry and talk to him. It's nice to talk to people who have actually heard of the town you're from. I've been generically saying Iowa when asked about where I'm from...much like when you ask someone where they're from in Iowa, they reply with a corner of the state, not the town. But Cody, I think his name was, was from Dubuque, so we had a nice little chat about the good ole state of Iowa.

After that we went dancing at a discoteque, which was a lot of fun. I was hoping to dance some Salsa since I had mastered it in France, but alas it was just like dancing back in the states. Guys grinding on girls listening to overly bassed up remixed Pop music. All in all though, it was pretty fun. Knowing I would never see anybody from here again, I cut loose and unleashed my "moves." By the end of the night my pockets were full of the phone numbers of every girl at the bar...they INSISTED that I have them, which who could blame them....I'm a REALLY good dancer.

Spanish guys kept on wrangling Kim away from the pack and "dancin' up on her." (I have to put things like that in quotes cause I can't even TYPE like a "G") We all offered her rescuing, but she stuck with it for a bit. She eventually got outta there safely and we headed back to the hostel, sweaty and tired.

Matt, from Canada, got us all singing the Star Spangled Banner on the way home, which was very funny. An odd variety of music was sang after that, from Don't Stop Believing to A Whole New World...which just wasn't the same without Places Productions rocking it out.

Tone deaf and tired, I hit then bed and was out.

White boys don't tan, they burn (May 7th)

I woke up today ready to finally start enjoying some quality beaches. The day started off well as I got up in time for breakfast...something that rarely occurs. The nice part about this was that they had free pre-wrapped muffins, so I now have about 6 sitting in my bag at all times.

After breakfast it was time for the beach. Possessing very little sunscreen, I prioritized which parts of my body would be spared from the harmful rays of the sun...face, neck, ears and arms. By the end of the day, they were all fine, so my sunscreen worked. However the rest of my body looks like a dark pink ink blot, which I showed to this one guy and he saw the image of a bat on it. Huh, weird.

The beach was really nice. The wind helped keep me from sweating off the sunscreen, which was quite nice. There were also a lot more topless sunbathers...this time not so old. It´s funny how it´s not a big deal here at all. There aren´t pervy old men sitting around gawking or anything. It´s just the culture and people don´t think it´s a big deal.

After I was fully cooked, I went inside and got ready to see some sites. I was to go on the Gaudi tour, where we would see some of the great works of Something Gaudi. I got to the meeting point and I found out that there would be only four people in total on the tour and we were all from the same hostel. I met Sarah, Jaimie, and Casey, who were all from the Detroit area (the nice, rich part), and we were on our way to learn up on Gaudi.

Our tour guide was Polish, which made her pronunciation of Spanish words that much harder to understand, but we got through it.

So Gaudi was, from what I gathered, pretty much the father of mosaics, which are pieces of artwork formed from broken pieces of glass or ceramic. His works were quite intriguing...the San Grada Familia was my favorite...construction began in 1882 and is still going on today! Only one of the facade´s was finished before he died. And we also so the worldest longest bench! Very cool sites to see though.

It was kind of annoying because the tour ended very far from our seaside hostel, so we had quite a walk ahead of us. But it gave us time to figure out our plans for the evening.

After not having spoken much American English with anyone, I wasn't in any rush to get away from my new friends, so I sort of latched onto them for the night. We decided to shower up and then eat and watch the Barcelona/Real Madrid football match.

We settled on El-something, where we had some pretty delicious paella...which is rice mixed with a variety of seafood and meats with added spices. All in all it was quite delicious, though there were bones you had to look out for when you were chewing...almost broke several teeth!

Real Madrid POUNDED Barcelona and we were all deeply shaken...after all we'd been big fans of them for about 2 1/2 hours. But we got over it and decided to head back to the hostel rather then finding a bar or discoteque.

The night ended with me waiting up about 2 hours to use the computer only to find that they were working slower than molasses. Not wanting to punch the computer in exhausted frustration I turned in and climbed up to my bunk.

The sucky thing about his hostel was that they only gave you a sheet for free, so I was stuck trying find a way to cover my neck and feet with a blanket that was just too short to do both. Oh well, I drifted off to sleep and tried to block out the numerous voices in the hostel room.

Oh how fun it is to budget travel. Hopefully this whole lottery thing will work out so I can become independently wealthy and travel in style.

Beachside in Barcelona (May 6th)

Success! FINALLY, the weather turns bad on my travel day! Now it has to be nice when i get into Barcelona.

I left Marseille this afternoon and took the 6 hour train to Barcelona. Hope the good weather continues.

I woke up a bit late this morning, about 10 past 10. The cleaning lady was coming to our room next but I needed to shower still. She didn't speak English though so we played a nice game of charades before a frenchmen finally helped translate that I had simply woken up late but would be out of my room very soon. She said something that apparently meant "Ok."

After my shower, I ran down a bus headed for the city. It's weird riding buses now. I drove one for so long and you can't help but critique how each busdriver drives. This ride was a little choppy, but overal not too bad.

I eventually caught my train and I was on my way to Barcelona.

In order to travel by train in France you need to get a reservation for a seat. It's a minimal cost of about 3 euro and though it confused Scott and I at first, it really isn't a bad system. You have to pay, but you gaurantee yourself a seat and the trains are pretty nice...and FAST! They have what is called the TGV, which roughly translates to REALLY F-IN' FAST! They run around 300 miles per hour or something ridiculous and it gets you to your destination pretty quickly.

But with your reservation you can hopefully try to sneak a free day out of your Eurail pass. When the ticket taker comes by you show them your reservation ticket and they punch that, but oftentimes they don't check your Eurail pass like they should. Unfortunately, I had to show it to one guy, after already making it past two other ticket checkers, so I had to use a travel day. I had already planned on using it though, so nothing was lost.

The train ride was...you guessed it...beautiful. We hugged the Mediteranean the entire way and you could see the Pyrenees mountains in the distance...truly an amazing train ride once again.

When I got to Barcelona, I tried to find a map without any luck. I hastily took a picture of the google map website with the location of the hostel marked on it, but there was no point of reference I noticed. A Swiss girl named Virginia noticed I was trying to find a hostel, same as her, so she and I set out into the night to find it together.

It turns out that the hostel was quite close to the train station. We found our way and we found the hostel is RIGHT across the street from the sea! Awesome! Looking forward to spending some time in the sun tomorrow.

Luckily they had room in the hostel for her and we both got placed in the same room. There we met two American girls named Cynthia and Kim, which was great because they both spoke my language! We chatted for quite some time and now I am here....ACTUALLY typing my blog out about TODAY! Amazing!

But I forgot my camera cord so I can't post it now...but nevertheless I finished a blog on the day it happened!

Mar-sigh (May 5th)

Both glad that we met a native english speaker to hang out with, Alex and I set out on our way to see the city of Marseille. We thought we would trek it out along the seaside and make our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral. On the map, the walk didn't look TOO long, but as always, it was a lot longer than we thought. Oh well, it was beautiful outside and we didn't mind the walk.

So yeah...Alex. I really enjoyed talking with him at first, mainly cause he spoke my native tongue and that was nice. However, as the day wore on, he stated to get on my nerves more and more. He had some weird views on faithfulness in relationships and he wouldn't shut up about Canada and how everybody probably loved him BECAUSE he was Canadian. I held my tongue, but really I just wanted to spout off just how AWESOME AMERICA IS!!! Damn right!

He wasn´t as bad as Red Jared, but he was starting to wear on me.

But anyway, we walked around the city and stopped a few times to get some beers. On our walk home, I decided that I wouldn't join him and his friend for dinner that night...he just annoyed me too much.

When I got back to my room I ate my grocery store ham and butter sandwich (mmmm yum!) and read Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown. I thought it would be cool to reread that seeing as how I've actually been to some of these places now.

I was just finishing up my meal when the a new roommate walked in. His name was Mike and he was a Brit who had, get this, been motorbiking around Europe for the past 19 months! How insane is that? Granted, the first thing he did was make fun of what I was reading, but it didn´t matter.

He was a former sports writer and he spoke French and Spanish and probably Swahili along with every other language on the planet. He actually helped translate a conversation between me and my French roommate...both of us couldn't understand the others language, which made our conversations a bit confusing.

Mike was 42 and he was actually writing and filming a bit of his journey that he hopes to someday make into a book or television show, which I think is a great idea. Just a very interesting guy.

We chatted for a good long while. He was great to talk to cause he was very layed back and seemed interested in my past as much as I was of his. Great conversation.

After that, I hit up the beach AGAIN and tried to duplicate last nights wine and sunset experince, but alas, there were clouds covering the horizon, completely blocking the sun. Oh well, probably wouldn't have been the same anyway.

The wine, however, was the same and sure enough I staggered back to the hostel again. I was glad to see that Mike was still up. We chatted for awhile longer, bought a few rounds, then headed off to bed.

No sunset, but no problem.

Posts!

Alright, I just posted my last 5 days since Scott left, with the exception of yesterday, which will come soon.

Scott is taking his sweet ole time in finishing his long overdue posts (come on, he has better things do back home?). But when he does finish them, we will post them, but they will come up in order by date. So you will have to scroll down to check them out.

Watching the sunset in Marseille (May 4th)

Grateful for morning, I caught the first train out of Geneva. Probably should've stayed for at least a day, but I had seen enough from my park bench to not feel bad about leaving.

I was looking to head down to Barcelona, but I knew I couldn't make it in a day, so I settled on Marseille, France and hopped on the train. I was going to Marseille...no poorly planned detours for me anymore:)

The train provided a much better bed then the park bench and I slept all the way to Lyon where I then caught the train down to Marseille.

After writing some blogs, I got to the hostel and I sat on my bed and instantly felt the exhaustion from the last few days. Every fiber of my being wanted to lay down and go to sleep, but it was 3 in the afternoon and it was gorgeous outside...time to head to the beach!

I got to the beach and noticed a few things were different from the American beaches I had been on before.

1. There was no sand...simply small pebbles covered the beach.

2. Man, I am WHITE! I almost felt embarassed to take off my shirt! Hold a piece of computer paper up next to me and you'll find no difference. I was easily the whitest person there.

3. It was legal for women to lay "sans top." Yes, I saw quite a few pairs of naked boobies...but not the good kind. Most pair belonged to women whose young days were far behind them. Not the best sites to see, to put it lightly.

Anyway, I foolishly brought my shower towel that had just been cleaned a few days ago and used it as a beach towel. Dumb.

I was so exhausted that I layed down and drifted off to sleep without putting on any sunscreen! Luckily, the sun wasn't so bad and I escaped unscathed. Hopefully I will be able to get a tan within the next few days in the sun....not a big red burn.

I showered the stank off of me from the two previous days and discovered that I hadn't eaten all day! Bringing back Vietnam-like war memories, I dreaded trying to find a good French restaurant. I actually found a couple right away, but they weren't open yet and I didn't have a small fortune to spend, so I sucked it up and ate at a crappy Quick Burger.

I swear, when I get home I'm going straight to McDonald's and I'm going to enjoy getting the crapload of ice they give you in your drink (making it about 95% water if they ice melts) and I'm going to get about 50 ketchup packets and lather it on my fries Mah style. So excited! (sorry Mah, it was more funny to say "Mah" style then "Brandon" style, even though he aced you out in the ketchup eating contest).

I could've gone to bed then, but it would've thrown off my sleep schedule for quite some time, so I went to the store, bought a cheap bottle of wine, and headed to the beach to watch the sunset.

Tip: Watching a sunset is a very romantic thing...bring a date if possible.

I found a spot well away from the couples making out and I sat down and finished my book. When I looked up I saw some of the most beautiful sights I'd ever seen in my life. The sun blazed the sky pink as it was lazily tucking itself behind a tiny mountain in the distance. It was amazing to see how quickly it truly sank below...a lot like watching sand trickle down the hourglass. Next thing I knew, it was gone.

I learned a pretty interesting thing as I sat there...one bottle of wine, sadly, gets me drunk. I popped in my headphones and staggered back to my hostel and came to the realization that I had just gotten drunk by myself. I'll be attending my first AA meeting when I get home. I made sure to pictorially (is that a word? welp, it is now) note this moment before I went to bed.

The hostel bar was full of people watching a soccor, eh football, game so I bought a beer and sat down. Soon I met a guy named Alex, who was from Canada...I'll talk more about him in tomorrow's blog, but we chatted for a good long while until I just couldn't stay up any longer.

My head it the pillow and I was out.

My day as a homeless person (May 3rd)

Today was my last day in Heidelberg and I made my way up the hill to see the castle. Again, a bajillion steps reminded me of my lack of conditioning, but after collapsing at the top, I quickly regained my form and set off for the castle.

As I tried to present myself as a student, I was nevertheless forced to pay the full price to the castle and the full price for the tour. SO wish I would've brought my ISU card!

The tour started and a German man with a perfect British accent launched into a bit of the history of the castle. Now, Scott and I had been our fair share of tours on the trip, so I've become somewhat of a critic of tour guides. While no one could top the horror of Red Jared, this guy was Captain Boryphill. He struggled to present concise information about the castle as he would pause for literally MINUTES to try and find the correct English word for something. So frustrating!

Overall, we saw about 3 percent of the castle and I lost one hour of my life and 4 euro.

Anyway...

I salvaged a bit by walking around the castle gardens, which were quite beautiful and provided a great view of the city. I also saw the WORLD'S LARGEST wine barrel, which could hold something around 220,000 liters of wine. Pretty sweet!

I speedily walked/fell down the same steps I gaspingly crawled up and I was back at my hostel. They had a lunch special for only 5 euro and I wolfed down the well cooked schnizel and potatoes. I think they might put crack on their food cause it tastes AMAZING!!!

After lunch, it was off to the train station where I was to head to Freiburg.

This is where things get a bit crazy.

I got on the train and I noticed the ultimate destination of Interlaken, Switzerland...where we had hanglided a few weeks before. I seriously comtemplated going back and meeting up with our Aussie gliders, but I decided that it would probably be weird going back there alone without Scott and Katy...just wouldn't be the same.

But I felt like I had my fair share of Germany and I was eager to get moving south. So I planned on spending a few days in Geneva where I would yodel a bit more and snack on some Swiss chocolate.

If only...

I pulled into Geneva around 9:30 and, as Scott and I had done without any problems so many times on this trip, I didn't have a place to stay. But no problem, right? I headed to the first hostel.

"Fully Booked."

No biggie. I headed to the next hostel.

"Fully Booked."

Awesome.

Alright, no hostels? No problem! I'll just get a hotel room for the night.

WRONG!

The most inexpensive hotel I found was for 130 Swiss Francs and as my strongest character trait is cheapness, I wasn't about to pay that.

Ok, no problem! There was a night train heading for Barcelona in a few hours that I would catch. I guess I'll just skip Geneva and France.

WRONG!

Of course, this train didn't run tonight.

I was stuck in Geneva with no place to stay. I would experience what it was like to be homeless for one night.

And to add to my troubles, I was back on the Swiss Franc, not the Euro. Luckily I got to chatting with a shopowner and I got some pizza and a Snickers (too bad I didn't have my emergency stash of Snickers!) and got some Swiss Francs back in exchange for some Euros. And the shopowner was also nice enough to offer me a place to hang out all night if I needed to, because his shop was open 24 hours.

Not wanting to spend 8 hours standing around a convenience store, I tried my luck on the mean streets of Geneva. I walked around the lake and I started to get drowsy....and it was only midnight!

I walked back and forth a few times between the lake and the shop, but I needed sleep so there was only one thing to do...pull up a park bench, get out my travel blanket, and try to get some sleep.

I truly felt homeless. I tried to bundle up against the cold of night and slept lightly so I would awake with every passerby, and hopefully be able to avoid any problems with the local police.

Time slowed down for me this night, but FINALLY dawn arrived....I had made it!

I decided that I had had enough of Geneva and it's inflated prices, so I hopped on the earliest train I could and got some sleep on the train.

Hopefully I won't have to go through a night like that ever again....

Clean clothes smell AMAZING (May 2nd)

Today was a so called "work" day for me as I was in desperate need of clean clothes and I was trying to plan out the rest of my trip...and of course update the blog, which has become increasingly difficult to update now that I am responsible for everyday.

As i sat in the internet cafe in my pajama pants and nicest shirt feeling like a goon, I began to wheep because I had just paid €10 to have my laundry done by a mean old fraü who didn't speak any English. It was sure interesting trying to convey to her that I needed to wash the clothes I was wearing as well, so I would need a place to change. Luckily we got it all figured out and my clothes smell spring time fresh.

Man, I think the thing I most take for granted in this world is clean laundry. I can't tell you how good it feels to go from wearing a shirt that smells of 15 days of travel to one that smells of absolute cleanliness...SO GOOD!!!

After sitting around in the internet cafe for 3 hours waiting for my laundry to get done, I was looking to get out into the nice weather. I took a walk along the Philospheweg, an uphill trek that showed a truly amazing view of Heidelberg and it's castle. I also learned a very interesting fact on my verticle walk: I am amazingly out of shape!

After I made my way down the hill, I came across a long lost friend: GELATO!!!! Foaming at the mouth I quickly approached the man and asked for a chocolate, mint, and cafe cone. He obliged and I found myself 3 scoops up on ole Scotty boy...and it still counts even though he's not here.

The hostel I was staying at (or should I say restaurant with rooms next to it?) served food and I thought I would give it a try. Here I think I had not only the best meal I've had in Europe, but the BEST MEAL OF MY LIFE! I had breaded pork with gravy and mashed potatos smothered in gravy. Seriously, the BEST meal. Add to that the liter of Bitburger Pils I had and it was a perfect meal.

I also met a German guy named something that sound like Carson...not Klotz as I first thought. He was studying at the University here to be a teacher and we chatted about all sorts of things. Very good to get to talk with him, but it also made me realize that I really haven't talked to someone who spoke American English since Scott left. Oh how different it is over here.

Fat and happy I set off into the town to party. As this was a college town not unlike Ames (though about 600 years older), I quickly ran into two bars that were across the street from eachother that was packed with students and loud music. Think Welch Avenue if Paddy's and Cy's was packed, but intstead of everyone crowding around in side, they crowded around the street in between the two.

As I quickly remembered how I often come to hate that type of atmosphere, I went back to the hostel and chatted with a few Canadian girls and an Argentinan guy that I had seen a lot that day, Herman. Soon Herman was fast asleep snoring quite loudly and the Candadian girls were asleep, earplugs in ears, and I read a bit more before going to bed.

Gelato consumed (in scoops):

Jordan - 3
Scott - 0

No May baskets for me:( (May 1st)

Well, I felt like i had exhausted everything there was to do in Brussels. Ok, I'm sure there was a TON more I could do, but I had had my fill of the city. It was a nice suprise and I'm glad I went.

I found a cafe after breakfast where I enjoyed a delicous Kriek bier, which for those of you that don't know is a fruit flavored beer that is absolutely delicious despite it's hefty pricetag. I planned out how I would get to Heidelberg and continued to contemplate my exact route down to Spain.

I finished my beer and left the cafe, not knowing that I had left my pen there until sometime later! I know...big deal, right? Very blog-worthy. I felt dumb though because I had given Scott crap about not being able to hold onto a pen for longer the 2 days the entire trip.

After a quick trip to the train station to solidify my days travels (and dealing with a rather rude person at the ticket booth as well), I went and had another Delirium at Delirium. Next time you're in Brussels you should go...in that highly likely situation.

Oh no! I spent a bit too long sipping my beer and I now had to rush down to my hostel and then back down to the train station. But don't worry, I made it!

(It's hard to add entertaining drama to my often boring travels, so bear with me.)

I had a lot of connecting trains, but my final train was a truly wonderful experience. The train made it's way south, hugging the Rhine river for much of the time as it cut through the absolutely gorgeous valley. By far the best train ride of the trip so far...even beating Switzerland!

Following this river I had this great urge to walk around in nature. One of my top priorities for when I eventually go back to Europe is float down the Rhine on a canoe and camp rather than stay in hostels...anyone want to go?

My train arrived in Heidelberg just fine and I navigated my way through the old town to my hostel.

I was worried cause I hadn't eaten for quite sometime and I needed dinner. But the only thing I saw open were Kebab shops!

Scott and I first encountered kebabs back in Dublin and we swore that we would never eat them again...though we both agreed that we would've rather had a kebab then those terrible fish 'n chips in Amsterdam.

For those of you who don't know, kebab's are basically really terrible gyros. And what adds to their lack of appeal is the fact that they have this HUGE leg of lamb rotating right there in front of you. When you order one, they carve a bit of meat off of it and then start it rotating again.

Luckily they also served a nice little Hawaiian pizza, which I polished off quickly and headed to bed, glad to have not had to eat a kebab.

Jordan's first day on his own (April 30th)

Awoken at 3 am with a tap on the shoulder, Scott was ready to go. This would be the last time I would ever see my friend...for one month. I got up and we hugged it out followed by a final Strength and Honor.

He had a big day ahead of him. Once his flight left Brussels at 7 am he would have about 21 straight hours of travel. Or at least that's how it was SUPPOSED to be...I'm sure you will read a lot more about his adventures from his blog about April 30th.

After going back to bed, I got up and began my first day as a lone traveler.

I headed toward the main part of the city and I honestly had no idea what I was going to do. Scott and I had always tentitvely had an idea of the days festivities, but today I was at a lost. Who knows what the day would bring?

I actually went and got a waffle at the same exact place that we had gone the day before. I sat for a good long while and contemplated my travel choices.

I really wanted to go to Greece and Spain and then head back up to Scotland before going to stay with Nath in Dublin. However, our travels in the first month, as Scott put it, "gutted" me. I was back in the middle of the circle we had just completed around Europe. So it would take a good long while to get to really anywhere I wanted to go.

I must've changed my mind at least a dozen times within the next 24 hours. Prague, Vienna, Corfu, Venice, Geneva, Nice, Marseille, Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga....I didn't know which ones to go to or how to do it most efficiently.

I knew I had to make a decision, but I just couldn't choose. Finally one was kind of made for me. Ryanair, the discount airline in Europe, didn't fly at all in Greece. Therefore, I couldn't go to Greece unless it was by boat, which would take about 22 hours from Venice...not looking forward to doing that one day and then doing it again a few days later.

So I had chosen Spain. It felt nice to have that narrowed down.

A few more decisions loomed, but ultimately I had decided on Heidelberg, Germany, a university town of about 150,000 that had a castle and a pretty amazing old town.

Ok! I had made a decision and I could enjoy the rest of my day.

Now, I was in need of a beer.

I was really excited to be in Belgium because they have ridiculously good beer and I wanted to try as many as I could before I left. Walking past bars and into beer stores, I had sensory overload with the plethora of beers to choose from.

Finally I found a cafe that had...get this...over 2,000 beers!!!!! Dear Lord!!

It was called Delirium cafe. Delirium was also the name of a beer, which I had heard from many sources (I think Jessie told me about it first) that it was absolutely fantastic. So went in there and had my very first Delirium in Delirium. Awesome!!!

After my delicious beer, I realized I couldn't really afford to have another one (expensive!), so I made my way up north where Scott and I had seen advertisements for an exhibit the day before.

The exhibit wasn't of some grand Belgian or even European painting that was famous around the world.No no, the exhibition was for STAR WARS!!! Bam!

I walked into the exhibit and immediately saw a giant timeline of all the major events in the Star Wars series, from the birth of the galaxy to about 30 years after the first filmed movie, A New Hope. Pretty darn interesting.

They had scale models that were used in the films and replicas of space ships and some costumes. Videos were all around showing the marriage of filming the actors and adding the special effects. There was a video you could make where you could dress up as a Jedi and engage in a lightsaber fight with your best friend that I was totally going to do.......but oh wait!!!.....my best friend wasn't here anymore!!!!!!! Dangit Places!

The exhibit was amazing and it made me really want to go home and watch the movies, but alas that will have to wait a few weeks.

My night was relatively tame as I didn't meet up with the 3 english guys we had played pool and talked sports with from the night before, so it was an early night for me.

But all was ok....not a bad first day. (that rhymed)