Unfortunately the school part of STUDY abroad has caught up with me. The past couple of weeks has been really busy trying to study and write papers before we leave for our month of backpacking around the Mediterranean.
The weekend after Switzerland was spent here in Maastricht. We took a day trip to Cologne, Germany and got caught up on school stuff. I honestly love this city, and could see myself living here one day. Just staying here on the weekend made me appreciate it so much more.
The following weekend (March 12-15), Jazzy, Briana and I went to Prague. I loved it! It had a different feel than the other cities we've been to and we were blessed with good weather and wonderful people in our hostel. I spent a whole day hanging out with a girl named Sarah from San Francisco studying in Denmark, an Australian named Angus (who we nicknamed Beef), a guy named Kevin from NYU studying abroad in Spain, and a guy named Dominic, from New York, working for an engineering company in Sweden. Jazzy and Bri did their own thing for one of the days and it was really fun hanging out with new people from all different walks of life. Angus, for example, is traveling for 11 months straight around the world, literally. He started in Asia, is now in Europe, then does a 63 day WALKING tour of South America, and finishes up with a 10 city tour of the U.S. I invited him to stay with me when he comes to Denver and/or Austin (hope thats okay mom and dad!) These Aussies are hard core about their backpacking!
The American guy working at the hostel was doing an imitation on how intense Aussie's are about backpacking and it was really funny. He was like "First I swam across the Indian ocean, then road a camel up to Russia, where I met some gypsies and they gave me a piggy back over to Prague, slept on the street, then hitchhiked to Berlin, chugged 3 pints in 10 seconds as a bet for some guy to buy me dinner, it was a good eat though, especially with a little Vegemite." It sounded a lot funnier with the guys fake accent.
Prague was beautiful though, and very inexpensive. A nice three course traditional Czech dinner was 200 KC..around 8 euros, including a stout (and not very pleasant) Slovak beer. If you ever get a chance to go to Prague, do it! Ill have to post pictures when I get a little more time, or go check them out on facebook.
Last weekend, I went and visited my mom's cousin in Mannheim, Germany. He was stationed there for the army in the 1980's and ended up marrying a German woman. They were excellent hosts, and it was awesome having a home cooked meal, a hot shower, and a nice bed. They also took me to Heidelberg to see the castle ruins and it was an adorable little town. It was a lovely weekend.
Classes ended on Thursday, but I am still in Maastricht trying to finish a 10 page paper on Eastern vs. Western philosophy and perspectives on travel. We got to pick our own topic, so I thought travel was fitting.
Bri and I leave tomorrow night for Berlin, where we catch a flight to Athens. We spend a night in Athens, meet up with Jazzy and then head to Santorini for 5 nights. Then back to Athens for a night and we take a ferry to Ancona, Italy, where we take a train to Florence. We spend two nights in Florence, three nights in Cinque Terre (so excited!). Then one night in Milan and a flight to Barcelona, where we spend two nights and then fly back to Brussels, train back to Maastricht. Then the next day, April 15th, my mom flies in to Amsterdam. The two of us are spending the next 9 days in Maastricht, Bruge or Luxembourg?, Delft, The Hague, and Amsterdam.
Then back to Colorado! Its going to be a crazy 4 weeks, but Im really looking forward to it! This has gone by entirely too fast, but at the same time I'm looking forward to spending the summer in the beautiful Rocky Mountains, then back to Waco in August. Its actually weird how much Im missing Waco, I think its a sign that its really became a home to me the past year and a half. Missing Colorado is a given, but when I start to yearn for frontage roads, Rudy's bbq, and humidity, you know I've been away too long! haha. Probably a lot of it is just missing my friends there, because I don't think I've appreciated all of them enough until I came on this trip and have been forced to be one of the few people who didn't know anyone before we left. It's been a little hard, feeling like everyone was such good friends or sorority sisters before this trip, but it's forced me out of my comfort zone for sure. I've become a lot more independent, and comfortable being by myself, alone in thought and able to absorb all of my surroundings. Not to say I haven't met a lot of awesome people, but still.
Anyways, I gotta get back to writing my paper, and then packing 16 days worth of stuff into a backpack..Yikes!
With love (and a longing for vacuum bags),
Taylor
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