Life marches on

I'm home.

Jet lag was no fun. But that's over now.

...I'm broke.

Mission accomplished :)

I didn't have as easy of a day as I thought coming home, but I made it. I got up and went jogging (I figured I had to at least try it once. Noah did it, and so I couldn't wimp out and be the only one not to). I went down a ways, turned left, and found the Thames. I went jogging along the embankment of the Thames. If I could do that every day, I might actually consistently start jogging :)
I packed everything back in to my suitcase, which was a total surprise to me. I thought I'd have to buy a box or something. To be fair, I didn't buy many souvenirs (I'm too broke, lol) but it was still a victory in my book. I was planning on going and visiting the National Gallery and then coming back and checking out. I happened to ask about check-out times before I left, and found out that I had 5 minutes to check out. Whoops! Entire day = re-planned.
So I checked out and had either enough time to store my bags, take the Tube somewhere, turn around and come straight back to pick up said bags and head to the airport; or I could take my bags with me and try to visit one last site. I chose Harrod's. I got there, and the doorman (that's right, a mall with a doorman. Very cool) told me I'd have to store my luggage before I'd be allowed in. I went and found the storage- £7. Not worth a 45 minute shopping trip. I left and grabbed some lunch, and then I went to a touristy shop down the road. I found this awesome shirt that just screamed "English" to me. It's got Hitler "heil"-ing in front of a map of Europe, and then it says "European tour dates" with the dates that he invaded each of the European countries. Next to England and Russia, it says "Cancelled" and his final show was "Berlin Bunker". I laughed out loud when I saw that. All of the English people I know well have no problem rubbing it in Germany's face that they produced Hitler, and that (about 70 years ago now!) they were part of the force that beat Germany. Alexander Klein would do that all the time.
I headed off to Heathrow at that point. It was really no problem getting through checking my suitcase and security, so I had plenty of time to look around the airport shops waiting for my flight out. I had an aisle seat for the flight (sweet!) next to a nice old couple from Minnesota who had spent the last several weeks touring Scotland (cool!). We took off from London at 2:30 pm and landed just over 8 hours later at 5:45 pm. Time zones are crazy. So they served us dinner, and then later, they served pizza and ice cream. And then we got in to Minnesota right at what should have been dinner time there. My body was SO confused. So I had McDonald's there.
We took off from Minnesota at 9:55 and 3 hours later landed in Phoenix at 10:30. I slept for a chunk of that flight, and then when I woke up, I heard the people behind me talking about how there was supposed to be a meteor shower that night. So I looked out my window for a minute, and I saw a shooting star. I had enough mental capacity to think "hey, that's cool!" before I fell asleep again.
After a couple of mix-ups, I found the truck my parents had so nicely left for me that evening in the parking lot, and I headed home. Traveling 16 hours, but only having 8 elapse messed me up. I came home and dropped my stuff and crawled in to bed. I had to wake up at 4 that morning. "Welcome home"- now get to work with the Institute council :)
To be completely honest, Europe lost some of it's glamor for me with this trip. I still think it's incredible, and I'm still in awe of its age and wealth of history and culture, but it doesn't hold quite the same position up on a pedestal that I had given it while on my mission. This really was a once in a lifetime experience, and I've loved it from beginning to end (and I hope you did to!).

In the words of a random song that I googled by the group, Chicago: "The world's a funny place, you know?"

Wrapping it all up

I sit here, my final night in London. I think I'm finally to the point where I feel like I'm ready to come home. I've had an amazing run, got some perfect pictures, and made some fantastic memories. It's time to be in my own bed once again, using my own shower once again, paying for things in dollars once again. Little things that make me grateful to have a home to come home to.
These last three days have been incredible in London. On Monday, we grabbed some breakfast and I did my laundry (clean clothes are such a necessary luxury). We went down and looked at the “Britain at War” museum, but I didn't really want to pay 9£ for it. Noah was a really good sport and came with me to the Tower of London where we did the Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) tour. It was fun, and we learned a lot about the history of London- a good overview. In addition to that, we got to walk through a room and see the Crown Jewels. Noah and I joked:
“Look down at your ring.
Now look at mine.
Now back to yours.
Now back at mine.
Sadly, your ring is not 530 carats. But it could be...”
I wanted to meet up with Steve Peris at this organ recital he'd said he was going to. We got there 20 minutes late, and the church was already locked up. I think we may have gotten the time wrong or something. We had authentic Fish and Chips for lunch. It was super greasy, but tasted pretty good. If I have to eat fish, that's how I'd choose to do it :)
We decided to head over and get our free boat tour of the Thames, so we got in line for that. I bought a thing of milk on the way, and so I drank that while I was standing in line. We've had absolutely perfect weather here (Monday was bright and sunny), but standing in the sun, on a pier, waiting for a boat to come is not the best time to down 2 pints of milk. Needless to say- I didn't enjoy the boat tour as much as I could have :/
We headed up to the British Museum next. As it was described to me “At one point, the British Empire was everywhere, and they took all the cool stuff from that time, and put it in one museum”. That was pretty much it exactly. We saw the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian statues and Greek columns, Chinese jade and Assyrian tablets. It was a really great glimpse around the world.
At that point we came home and got ready for the theatre- we went to see Les Miserables that evening. We went to the Queen's Theatre, and sat down to enjoy the show. We had some German high school students sitting behind us, which was kind of cool. Until the show started, and they didn't stop talking in German. For the entire show. The show itself was incredible. Noah and I agreed that Marius had a bit to much “warble” in his voice for our liking, but everyone else had phenomenal voices. I've only ever seen Les Mis as performed by Westwood high school earlier this spring, and had just assumed that some of the show had been cut and simplified a ton for high school theater, but (as far as I could tell) apart from the rotating stage (which I LOVED!) the show was exactly the same as what I saw here on West End. Impressive.
Tuesday was quite the adventure. We went to the Science museum first thing, which was good because as we left at noon, the line was out the door and around the corner- so many little kids with the summer free. We went to exhibits on steam power (of interest to Chemical engineers), the progress of medicine (for someone thinking about pharmaceuticals, interesting), the history of plastics (a huge branch of chemical engineering), and the history of telephony (just interesting in general).
So, in Tempe, I signed up for Zipcars, this company that lets you just rent a car (gas and insurance included in) by the hour. I noticed a while ago that they'd expanded to London. And thus the idea was hatched “why not drive through London?” Now, driving in London is stupid. You can get anywhere around the center of the city faster with public transportation than you could with your own vehicle. So I had to get more creative- where could I take a car?
To the TEMPLE!
That's right, I got a reservation for 5 hours for a Mini Cooper from the train station at Waterloo, to drive out to the London temple (about 10 miles out of the city). What an absolutely brainless, stupid, dangerous, challenging, awesome idea! :)
The Mini was unfortunately broken, so we had to get a free upgrade to a BMW 318 (I know, major bummer right?) Noah sat in the passenger seat on the left side of the car and navigated, and I sat in the right seat behind the steering wheel and pretended to be able to drive on English roads.

It was, without a doubt, divine protection that kept us from any major accident.

I have to put “major” in there as a qualifier. I did a really good job at staying in the left lane (so hard!) and turning and everything. At one point though, I drifted just a bit to the left and my passenger-side mirror clipped the mirror of a car parked on the side of the road. It broke our mirror, but that was it. I called and reported it to Zipcar, got everything squared away, and then we continued on to the temple.
The London temple is incredible! I mean the temple itself is huge, but the grounds are breath-taking! There are green rolling hills and open meadows, glens and ponds, paths and bridges. I wandered around just thoroughly enjoying the light English rain that was falling all around. We didn't have enough time for a session, so we didn't get to go in to the Celestial room, but the rest of the temple was still wonderful.
I did really good driving home as well. At one point, I was going 65 mph. In 3rd gear. My truck might be able to do that in 4th, but probably would have to shift by then to 5th. We were in a really nice car. I tried to do my best taking care of it and driving right back to the spot. I thought we had it, no problem. Until we got lost coming back in to town. I think at one point, we were planning on taking a street from a roundabout that was one-way no entry (PS- roundabouts got the opposite direction in England. BLOWS my mind!) so we all of a sudden were driving over the London Bridge. Whoops :) We did get the car returned, just in time to get to rush across the city to watch “Love Never Dies”.
Andrew Lloyd Webber waited 24 years to release the sequel to “The Phantom of the Opera” and my dad has been listening to the music to the show since it came out. He was at least a little bit jealous as I informed him one of my Eurotrip stops was “Love Never Dies”. And that I'd be seeing it with the original London cast.
The show was really good. It's set at coney island- so it's a lot gaudier and more vaudeville than Phantom, but it was amazing. We saw the understudy for Raoul, but other than that, we got the original cast, and they did fantastic. Weber has still got it.
This morning, Noah and I decided to split up. He went back to the science center and I had some shopping and touring that I wanted to do. I went first to Leiscester square to see if there were any good matinee shows on sale, there weren't, so I headed over to Covent Garden. I wanted to visit the infamous market that they have there. I was actually quite disappointed. There were only a dozen or so stalls set up, and they were either shirts and whatever, or really high-end boutiques. I only bought a couple of small things.
My next stop was through Green Park to St. James' place to see a bit of the “Changing of the Guard”. It was insanely crowded there, so I didn't stay. I went and caught a tube and rode the line as far as I could. I came up looking for somewhere that I could get a Cornish Pasty for lunch. To my surprise, there was a stand right at the exit to the underground. It was really good (see the uploaded picture).
I then went and met up with the free walking tour of London (same group that did the ones I'd enjoyed in Berlin and Paris). Giles was my guide this time, and he was pretty good. The tour wasn't nearly as good as the Berlin or Paris ones, but I think that that was because London is so much biger and spread out that you just can't walk and see it all. So we focused on “royal” London, which was still cool. He told us about a pigeon-eating pelican, about various break-ins to Buckingham Palace, but my favorite story was the best method that the city of London found to clear the pigeons out of Trafalgar square- They feed the pigeons and lace the food with pigeon-contraceptives. Apparently, the pigeon population has dropped greatly :)
I came home and took a nap (those walking-tours will drain you!). Our plan was to head off the the Royal Albert Music Hall and see a Proms concert. In checking the dress code, Noah noticed that I'd originally looked at the wrong Wednesday, and that they was no concert tonight. Plan B- download a free audiotour of St. Paul's Cathedral. We got that all lined up, and then walked over there to find out it was already closed for the evening. :(
Plan C... Shopping! We went and got some dinner and did a bit of souvenir shopping on Oxford street. By the time that was wrapping up, the sun was just starting to set, so Noah and I headed over to the Tower Bridge and watched the light fade and the city light up. This could have been a really romantic trip if I had been traveling with a wife in stead of an old missionary companion. It's been really good though. We spent a while reminiscing and talking about the trip, and then decided to head home so he could pack. He flies out at 8 tomorrow, I have until 2:30, so I'll pack tomorrow.
Well, this may be my final blog from Europe. It's been good while it's lasted! Hope you feel the same :)

I love London

Yes, I know it's touristy.
Yes, I know it's cliché.
I don't care, cause that's pretty much how my view of London is going to be.

I &hearts
London

It's been so much fun, and I've barely been here a day and a half. I'm doing laundry right now, so that gives me time to blog :)
I'm staying in a hostel less than 100m from the St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Every hour, I hear centuries-old bells tone the time.

I &hearts London.

Saturday, we bought food for Sunday (no fridge in the hostel, so it's all dry stuff) and then hopped on a tube. That's right, we got on a tube, and THEN decided where we wanted to go. We're crazy tourists like that. So we walked around Westminster Abbey and Big Ben (both HUGE) and then came back to the hostel to change. We wanted to be dressed a bit nicer to see WICKED.

I &hearts London.

I'm sorry about that, but that's really just how I feel, and it sums up the experience thus far :) Wicked was awesome. On so many levels. I'd bought my tickets like 2 days before. For 20£. They were "obstructed" but only if you were less than about 5'8", so I was fine :) The show blew my mind. I don't know why, but it never occurred to me that in London, the actors and actresses would all have British accents. Best were Boq- Scottish and Fiyero-Like Ringo Starr. The show was phenomenal, and that's makes 5 Wicked-viewings for me. Next stop: Osaka? Sydney? Mmmmm...
So, I'm getting ready for bed Saturday night, and I ask Noah "Do I need to grab my alarm clock out from the suitcase and set it for tomorrow?" To which he replies "No, I've got my phone set".
Fast forward to Sunday morning.
I awake to a poke from Noah. "Matt. My alarm didn't go off, and it's 8:20". The Hyde Park ward (which we wanted to attend) starts at 9. We threw on our Church clothes and tore out the door. It was like 35 minutes later as we were climbing out of the Tube to walk to the church. I noticed one of the subways was closed and the sign said it opens for walking through on Sundays at 8:30.

I stopped.

I looked at my watch.

7:58

"Noah, what time do you have right now?"

He hadn't set his cell phone back an hour (Paris to London is -1), so we'd gotten up an hour earlier than we'd though. Or, you could say at exactly what time we'd originally planned. So we were standing there, 30 feet from the church, and an hour early. I threw my head back and laughed harder than I have in a long time. That was absolutely hilarious to me.
Luckily Hyde Park was only down the street, so we walked around the park until it was time for church. It was so nice to be able to find a solid Mormon congregation to attend. I mentioned to Noah, it just feels like home, no matter what language the service is in, no matter where on earth you are, it feels like home.
We came home to shower, and then had some lunch. We went to the top of Primrose Hill and got a great panoramic view of the city of London. From there, we came back to St. Paul's to hear an amazing Organ recital. There was Fugue and meditation and all sorts of fancy playing in between. I absolutely loved it! I didn't actually get to see the organist playing (the console is hidden back by the altar I think) but it would have been quite a site to see.
I'd been recommended this bus tour of the city, so Noah and I decided to do that for the evening. It was incredible. The guy was funny (if a bit overly-punny) and we got to see pretty much everything around the center of London. We finished with just enough time to go hop over to Speaker's corner of Hyde Park and listen to a couple of people vehemently defending their positions and beliefs. It was a bit later in the evening, so it wasn't as busy as I'd imagined it, but it was still really cool.
The weather's been nothing but perfectly cooperative. We had a down-pour as we stepped out of the tube connecting on our way to Wicked, but that passed within 15 minutes, and it's been great since.
Did I mention?

..... I &hearts London

From the Chunnel!

07.08.2010

Adieu, Paris. J t'ai dit adieu.
I've now said my last goodbye to Paris, and am whipping across the French countryside on my way to London. It's been an incredible stay in Paris. 3 nights was just about perfect. If I had had a little bit more energy, I would have probably been able to keep going a little bit longer and been able to see everything that I had wanted to. As it was, I got to a whole lot more than I thought I would.
Everyone gives Parisians a bad name for not being friendly, but I really didn't have any problem with rudeness or anyone getting angry with me. I guess that probably is just as much due to the fact that almost all native Parisians are out of town on vacation from the first of August (2 days before I got there) until the end of the month. So maybe that was it: No Parisians=no rudeness ;)
We really did have a good time though. We got up on Thursday just in time to catch the free breakfast provided by the hostel (totally lucked out on this hostel: really nice rooms and amenities. It's just kinda close to the red-light district is all). We decided to head over to the Eiffel Tower and start our day there. We wandered around that part of Paris, looking for a post office. We found one, but it didn't open until 1, so we went in to a grocery store, I bought some Brie and Noah bought some Bleu cheese, and we got some baguettes and drinks and headed to the Seine to eat our French picnic in the shade of the Eiffel tower.
Verdict-
French Brie = fantastic
French Bleu = moldy cheese.
Result-
We both had baguettes and brie for lunch :)

We went to go up the Eiffel tower. At first we wanted to take the elevator up, but then when we saw the price and, more importantly, the line, we decided to suck it up and do the stairs. No matter what you may think of the city itself, the view from the 1st and 2nd landings of the Eiffel tower are amazing. I think Paris is one of the most beautiful (if not the most beautiful) cities I have ever seen. We just spent as much time as we could, admiring the amazing view we got for 3.50 Eur and 347 stairs.
We didn't go to the top (an extra 2 hour-wait) but we got to see everything from the second level that you can see from the top. We saw L'hotel des Invalides, and decided to go check that out later in the evening. Noah really wanted to do a boating dinner cruise along the Seine that night, so I agreed. We went home to use the bathroom (and ended up using the internet for a while as well) and then headed out for the tour. We were thinking it was going to be a dinner and tour guide kind of thing, but it ended up just being us having a nice chicken dinner for 29 EUR as we floated down the center of Paris. Nice, but not really my thing.
We headed over to L'Hotel des Invalides (I let Noah lead the way, :) and that was fun). Unfortunately, it was already closed for the evening (we ran into some guards at one entrance, and I asked in a complete, logical and simple question “Are you already closed?” It was a major triumph for me, lol). Our plan was to go to a big outdoor movie after that, but we were both tired enough, that we decided to go back to the hostel and call it an early night.
In our evening searching, we found tickets to Les Mis and to Wicked in London for about 20 Pounds each, so we decided to go for it. Our London leg of the trip now includes “Wicked”, “Les Mis”, and “Love Never Dies” in that order. And we're going to try and fit another show and a Shakespearean play in during our stay as well (cue jealousy :)
Friday morning, we got down just in time to join the free breakfast. We headed out from there to Sacre Coure, a large cathedral built on one of the highest hills in Paris (just down the street from our hostel!) That was were we had the most... forceful shall we say? people trying to sell us tourist-y stuff. I actually had a guy grab me by the arm and hold on to me while he was trying to explain why it was important for me to let him tie a string onto my finger before I go into the church. Fearful of pickpockets, I wrenched myself free and walked away with my hand on my camera and a heightened sense of awareness.
Ps- the church was nice, but not even that geat :/
So, at about that point, I realized that I'd left my camera's memory card in the laptop as I was uploading pictures the night before. I went back to grab it, and Noah and I split up. He went to do the walking tour that I had done while waiting for him to get to Paris, and I went to do museums. I started by just popping up from the Metro at “Blanche” to take my picture in front of the Moulin Rouge. You're not supposed to live in Babylon, but there isn't wrong with taking tourist photos on your way through, is there?
I went to the Musée de l'orangerie (museum of the orange-tree greenhouse). At first, I was really quite disappointed by it. I went downstairs, and there were 2 main hallways with paintings lining the walls, maybe 100 in total. That museum had been really quite highly recommended by my tour guide. I went upstairs and realized why. There were two round rooms, with 360 degrees of Monet murals on the walls surrounding you. I walked in, and just gasped. It was beautiful. I walked around taking a panoramic picture of the whole room, and it took 26 pictures!
The Musée d'Orsay was next. I rented the audioguide for the museum, and it was definitely worth it. It was filled with Monet and Manet, Renoir and Roudin, Cezanne and Van Gogh among so many others. I was amazed when I looked at my watched and realized that 3 hours had passed by like that (*imagine my fingers snapping*)
I then rushed over to walk a loop through Notre Dame (there's an organ recital there this Sunday that I would have LOVED to have been able to see) and then met up with Noah. For dinner, we tried Paninis. (Thought they were amazing!) and then we headed over to the Louvre. I could tell that Noah really couldn't care less (he really isn't in to museums which might make London a bit tricky) so I had to pretty much drag him to at least see the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory. Just as he was petering out, we ran in to Maggie, a girl we'd met at our hostel from New York. I let Noah head home, and spent the rest of the evening with her. We headed over to the park in front of the Eiffel Tower and watched the lights come on and then saw the sparkle show on the hour at 10 and 11. You know what they say: “Que sera, sera.” :)
And now, I've left the beauty of France behind and am in the crushing depths, 100m beneath the English channel, zooming along at somewhere between 100 and 200 mph. So many cool experiences in so short a time. Paraphrasing the littlest girl from “Despicable Me”: “It's so [COOL], I could die!!!!”

And a fun quote for you from Paris-
Me: “Noah, do you know what ecstasy is?”
Noah: “The noun or the verb?”
Me: “Uhhh....”

A beautiful day in Paris

Whoops, I head to Paris and all of a sudden I'm way behind on my blog! That's totally an indicator of just how crazy this trip has been. Let me explain:
In Berlin, I realized that the YSAs had all left for this Conference down in Switzerland, so I just missed most of them. Luckily (for me, not for them) both Yasmin and Farah had to stay in Berlin to work, so I got to see them. We met at the station at Südkreutz (after a few difficulties) and then headed over to Ikea to have dinner and catch up. It was cool to get a chance to talk to and see them in a setting where I wasn't a missionary, just a friend.
All to soon, I had to leave for Paris. I caught the last train to Paris and planned to sleep all the way there. That is, until I saw my seat. The Basel-Berlin sleeper was nice and way luxurious. This train was set up with the “seated” spots just like a normal train- 6 seats in a room facing each other. Of course there were “laying” spots, but those were sold out by the time I checked. :( We left at 8PM and were scheduled to pull in at 9:30AM the next morning. I got maybe a total of 45 minutes of sleep.
I made one last-ditch effort to make it to Marseilles. Once again, had I not needed a reservation, I would have made it no problem. Because I didn't have one, I was in Paris for the day waiting for Noah to show up that afternoon.
It took a while to figure out, but I got a 3-day transit pass and figured out where the hostel was. I haven't been in a large city and been so helpless in a really long time. That's one part of my type A personality- I need to be in control of where I am and where I need to go, and how to get there as well. So that became my goal until Noah showed up- learn Paris.
I started by dropping my bags off at the hostel and walking the street outside towards the main station. There was a good half-mile long open-air market that I went through after making sure my wallet and money were safe. I bought some fresh apples and thought about some gifts, but until I get to London, I don't have any spare room!
I saw a flyer for this free walking tour of Paris (same tour group that did the one I did [and loved!!!] in Berlin) so I went to listen to “the bells, Bells, BELLS..... of Notre Dam” (Disney reference, lol) as they chimed at noon, and then joined in on the tour. I met a couple of girls visiting Paris as well- Nikkola from Perth and Delphine from Quèbec. Our tourguide, Allison, from Sydney was a hoot. She's been in Paris for 11 months and her Visa runs out at the end of August. I learned so much about the city during our tour, in part because it was a 3.5 hour tour!
I went to pick Noah up from the train station, and saw that his train would be 30 minutes late. All of a sudden, I crashed. I was so tired and exhausted from going and going. I decided to step out of the busy train station and I found a massive cathedral just down the road (gotta love Europe!) where I could sit in silence and rest my eyes and not worry so much about pick-pockets.
Noah and I went and checked in the the Hostel, and our room is amazing. We have 3 bunk beds (so us and 4 roommates) and a really nice bathroom. Our roommates are from Toronto and Copenhagen, so it's really cool to talk with them and get their point of view on a Eurotrip as well :)
We decided to go out and try to see a bit of the Louvre that night, but it was only open for another hour and we decided to push that back a little bit. We tried to Louvre Ferris Wheel, but that was too expensive. In the end, we ended up climbing up the Arc de Triomph to watch the sunset and see the lights in the city turn on. It was a beautiful evening with a powerful storm that passed through. I got some amazing pictures, and we got to get a great angle of the Eiffel Tour.
By the time we got home, I was shaking I was so exhausted. We got online so we could buy tickets for Les Mis in London and plan our next 2 days in Paris, and then I crawled in to bed and collapsed. I'm about at that point again, so I'll have to fill you all in about today on my next post.

PS, go check out my picasa page. I may be spotty at uploading posts, but I do pretty good about posting pictures each night.

The road gets a bit rougher

Well, it was nice while it lasted. So far, I've felt like one of the “elite” travelers going across Europe. With the ticket I bought, I get to get on any train in France, Germany or Switzerland any 5 days in a 2 month window. That means that I've taken nothing but the fastest, nicest, and newest trains. And I've loved it.
Alas, all good things must come to an end.
I showed up at the Train station in Basel last night expecting to catch a train to France and then down to the French Riviera to spend a couple of days in Nice. It was going to be a glorious trip to the beach...
Until I found out that all of the seats allotted for my kind of pass had been reserved, and that the only way I was going to get to Nice would be to buy a ticket, like $200. That's not a happy way to come back to reality. I'd much rather have kept on pretending that I was able to jet-set around Europe as I pleased.
No worries though- necessity is the mother of all invention. I just needed some inspiration for what I should do to get that attitude back. I hopped on a night train headed for Berlin, and I decided I would figure out just what it was that I'd do on the way up there. I slept a little bit. A very little bit. Good thing is that gave me plenty of time to think.
I pulled out my map of all the “fast” rail lines in Europe, and saw a connecting line Kiel-Hamburg-Berlin. When we pulled in to the station at Mannheim, I got on the internet for about 5 minutes. It was just long enough to find out that there was a train at 12:55 in the morning from Frankfurt (my next stop!) directly to Kiel. I checked on Facebook, and Yasmin had sent me a message saying it'd work better for her to meet me in Berlin on Tuesday than it would Monday, so it was decided. I was going to Kiel.
The best laid plans of mice and men...
I gathered all of my things together as we were coming in to Frankfurt, and then all of a sudden we were stopped. I looked outside, and we definitely weren't in the central station. I'd already made up my mind though, so I got off the train. I ran to catch an S-Bahn to the central station, and got there about 10 minutes after the train I wanted had left. The next train leaving would be at 3:15. That meant 2 good hours of waiting in a practically deserted train station.
I had a lot of stuff on the internet and other things to catch up on, so I sat down on my luggage (Goodwill, $7. One of my best finds yet!) because it's the perfect height to work as a chair, and I pulled out my netbook.
About an hour later, a man walking in to the station came over and asked me if I knew if any restaurants there were still open. I had no idea, so I mentioned something about seeing something around the corner. That's when I noticed he had a quad and a copy of the most recent conference Ensign in his hands. We got to talking, and I found out he's a recent convert in Frankfurt. Good, guy, but I'm not sure he was quite all the way there. It definitely livened things up a lot and made the wait go by quicker.
Eventually, my train did show up, so I had to leave my new friend. Why Kiel you ask? Good question. I wasn't really sure when I decided. It just seemed random enough that I went for it. I got to Hamburg, and had enough time to go get some breakfast and store my bags in a locker. My camera still doesn't have any charge, so I bought a single-use one, and felt like a true tourist. I'm sure I was a really easy target to spot- the camera, traveling alone, no real sense of purpose of direction, and then of course I don't sound like a native German either ;)
By the time I got to Kiel, I'd decided that I wanted to go there to go in the ocean. I started my mission in Greifswald, and we had a couple of p-days/YSA activities where we hung out on the beach. I, being the fresh from the MTC missionary that I was, didn't even want to wade in the water, and as such had never been in the Ostsee (Thinking back on it now, that's not true. I'd been in. Twice. But neither came to my mind this morning).
So, I decided to go to a stop on the bus map of Kiel that was labeled “Strand” (=Beach). Unfortunately, I got on the right bus, going the wrong direction. For 15 minutes. By the time that I got back to my starting point, I didn't really have enough time to go all the way over and make the trip to the beach, so I improvised. I walked down to the harbor, found the end of the harbor where steps lead down to the water level, and stuck my feet in there. I had a lady who was just sitting there take my picture. It was pretty cool.
I decided to complete the tourist image by heading back to Hamburg and going on one of the Open-top double-decker bus tours of the city. Dieter, our guide, was a pretty funny guy. He would start going off about something in German, and then realize that he was supposed to be saying in English afterwards as well, and then he'd switch, but then get distracted and eventually realize that he needed to switch back to German. I was glad I could follow him the whole time :)