Getting Home and Now

The most difficult part of my entire journey, Barcelona excluded. I left Amy and Jordan in Amsterdam and continued on my own. For this next part a map of Europe is handy. I was in Amsterdam and I needed to get to Salzburg, because that is where my two big bags of stuff were and they needed to come home with me. Once I had the bags I then needed to get to Frankfurt to fly home. Amsterdam is on one side of Germany and Salzburg on the other. I booked my train to take me from Amsterdam to Hamburg and then Hamburg to Munich and then to Salzburg. I was to leave Amsterdam at 7 in the evening and sleep on the train until 3 in the morning when we got to Hamburg. I was really looking forward to sleeping because I hadn’t got much the last few days. This, however, didn’t happen. I got maybe an hour if I’m optimistic. I got the train tickets fairly cheap and I soon found out why. This train was slow and stopped at every city in between Amsterdam and Hamburg. What was unusual was the fact that the stop was never called out. I never knew which city we were approaching. About 2 hours into the trip we pulled into a station and sat for about an hour and then the train left or so we thought. Instead of continuing down the tracks it stops about 100 yrds from the station and backs up onto another track. When I looked out the window there were giant army tanks, about 20 of them. We sat in this position for about 30 minutes while passengers from another train got onto ours. Then we started forward only to stop and back up onto our original track. We did this for over 3 hrs. Originally I had set an alarm to wake me up about 30 minutes before the train would arrive in Hamburg. The conductor told us we were taking out a few of the cities along the way, so I had no idea what time we would arrive in Hamburg. Sleeping at this point was almost completely out of the question. I would dose just a little in between stops, but I could never completely go to sleep for fear of missing my stop. I finally arrived in Hamburg an hour after my train was scheduled to leave. Thank goodness the lady at the ticket counter was nice. She was able to get me a new train that left for Munich in a few minutes from when I got there. This next train I did sleep about 2 hours, but I was getting ansy to be in Salzburg. I finally made it surprisingly only 2 hours later than I had originally thought. This gave me just enough time to walk through the Christmas Markets one last time, head to my host families house, shower, repack and get back on the train to Munich. Once I had repacked my bags, one was a giant backpack and the other a rolling suitcase, I had doubled my body weight. These bags were packed to the max! I struggled getting them on the bus to go to the train station and then lugging them through the train station and onto the train. Being on the train was the easiest part. A shining moment came when I was in the Munich train station and saw Tim. He was one of the other guys in the program. He helped carry one of my bags and it was just nice to see a familiar face. The train that took me from Munich to Frankfurt was suppose to be 3 hrs, but ended up being 5. Once in Frankfurt I got on another train and made it to the airport around 2:30 in the morning. My flight was leaving at 8 the next morning and I hadn’t booked a hostel. I was really glad of this decision, because that would have meant lugging those bags even further. So I found a nice bench and attempted to sleep. All in all I got about 2 hrs. When I went to check in I had this fear of being charged who knows how many dollars, because of the extra weight my bags were. Luckily the flying gods looked favorable on me and I wasn’t charged extra. By the time I made it through security we were almost ready to board the flight, so I grabbed something to eat and to get rid of my last Euros. When I got on the flight I found my seat, next to the window. I laid my head on the window and passed out. When I finally regained consciousness I looked at my computer screen and we were 7 ½ hrs into the flight. I also found out that we had sat in the airport an extra 1 ½ hrs, because the lights weren’t working on the plane. So I slept for 9 hrs on my flight home. I missed all the movies and free drinks, but it sure did feel good to sleep. It had been almost 3 days since I had had a good nights sleep. (Crossing the channel I only slept about 4 hrs that night and then maybe 2 or 3 on the train and in the airport the next two nights traveling.) So we landed in Chicago at the same time my flight was leaving to go to Tulsa. One of the scariest moments happened while going through customs. I had my temporary passport and when I got up to the window the man told me his supervisor was going to have to look at it. I had to go in a back room and wait with all kinds of police officers around, not really knowing if they were going to let me in the country. Thankfully they did! I had to reclaim my bags and figure out how to get back to Tulsa. The man at the ticket desk was very friendly and got me on the waiting list for the next flight and an actual seat for a really late flight. I got some food and watched a movie on my laptop and just waited at the gate to see if which flight I would be on. I made the early one. This plane was late leaving Chicago, but I made it to Tulsa around 6:30 on the evening of December 19^th. Almost four whole months in Europe.

Now

I’ve been home for almost a month and I miss Europe like crazy. I’m ready to go back. It is so weird being home. It is almost like time stood still while I was over there. Not a lot has changed, especially at OSU. I also went back to Camp for a weekend and this is where I really noticed how things hadn’t changed.

Amsterdam

Me and Amy arrived in Amsterdam around 11am and met up with Jordan, one of the guys from our program. It was a crazy thing that we found him. He was waiting for us at the station and we just happened to bump into him. It turned out his phone wasn’t working and if we hadn’t seen him in the station we may never have found him.

            It had snowed in Amsterdam the day before and there was about 3-4 inches on the ground. For Amsterdam this was the first snow in over 100yrs. It was throwing the city off a little bit and mainly effected the transportation systems. But for us it was fun to see the snow. We hadn’t really gotten that chance before.

            The first place we went to was the Heineken Brewery. Of all the breweries we went to this was the best. It was hands on and the attractions were well put together. Afterwards we found lunch and just walked around. The city is very unique in its style and there was plenty to just look at.

            We visited Anne Frank’s house and took a tour. When she says they lived in an attic this is only partially true. It was more like a flat or two story house on top of the warehouse. It was a lot bigger than I had anticipated.

            When it started getting dark Jordan took us to the red light district. I was really glad to have him along. There was about a 20 to 1 guy girl ratio. There wouldn’t have been any problems, but it was nice to have a guy along. Of all the things I’ve seen this may be one of the saddest. It hurts your heart a little.

Edinburgh

Amazing!!! If I had known I was going to like Scotland so much I would have stayed there they entire week after. The feel, layout and style of the city are hard to describe. Hopefully you can see pictures. It was just spectacular. I didn’t even get close to seeing everything worth seeing in just Edinburgh in a day and a half. That city needed at least 3 in itself and then the countryside and other surrounding cities needed a few days as well. I think I could have spent 2 or 3 weeks in Scotland and not have seen it all. It is always wet, not so much rain, but moisture in the air and everything has moss growing on it. Edinburgh is also so high on the globe that it is only light from 9-3ish. In the summer it is the reverse though.

            When we first arrived in town it was dark, but you could just see the castle looming over the city in the distance. The outline against the dark blue sky gave it a medieval, mystical feeling. After checking into the hostel we walked around and then did a walking tour. This one was fantastic! The guide was James and he knew a lot about Edinburgh and did a great job at presenting the city. It is old and full of history. I realized on this trip that I’m beginning to like history more and more and that I want to know more about Scottish history. I also decided that I’m going to watch Braveheart. I also learned an interesting fact. JK Rowling is credited with getting the idea for Harry Potter while sitting in The Elephant House in Edinburgh. From the windows in the café you can see Edinburgh castle and a school. The school was founded with the intent of letting at least 2 orphans be admitted every year. It also has four towers and “houses.” I ate in the café, but no great book ideas yet.

            That night we went on a ghost tour. It was great! Edinburgh has a lot of dark history and most of the stories of creepy things happening were explainable, some weren’t. We got to hear histories stories that are most of the time left out of textbooks.

            The next morning we visited the Scotch Museum and did a few last minute things, such as getting a picture with a man in a kilt and playing bagpipes. We then got on a train that took us to Glasgow. In Glasgow we walked through the city and got on another train that took us to the airport. From the airport flew back to London. Then another train to London’s central station and then from the central station another train to the coast. Once we got to the coast we then took a ferry, a really big hotel on the water, across the English Channel to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands we took two more trains to Amsterdam. All in all I do not suggest trying to get from Edinburgh to Amsterdam taking cheap transportation. Added up we might as well have gotten a flight. Oh well, I know for next time.

            Scotland surprised me. Of all the places in Europe it was not one that I thought I would enjoy or want to go back to. But I must say besides Germany it was my favorite place. I really want to see the Highlands and go to Inverse and see the Loch Ness monster. There is still so much to do there I hope to be able to go back and see more.