On your mark...

This is the moment you've all been waiting for I know...I am finally going to post about spring break! I am going to write what I wrote in my journal, along with some additional comments if I so desire. I am also breaking them up into days so you don't have to read too much at one time if you so choose. Here we go!

27/03

Today I left St Andrews for Glasgow. I am not feeling that well (cold). I haven't been sick yet in St Andrews but I manage to when I really don't need it. Oh well... It was a long bus ride to Glasgow. I am with Pat and Katie until I get to London and then I am on my own to make it to my roommate in Bonn. Glasgow is big and quite intimidating. I don't like it nearly as much as Edinburgh, but everything seems that way when it is dark. Pat, Katie, and I dropped our stuff off at our hostel, a EuroHostel, to which Pat and I found a sleeping roommate at 9 pm. Who does that? We entered as quietly as possible and left the same. The handle for the door was a wee bit higher than I expected and when I went into the room, I missed the handle and it slammed, making quite the ruckus. Oops... My crew and I walked and found a pub where we were expecting pints to be more expensive, since we were in the city...not the case at all! We got pints for only 1.80...much cheaper than St Andrews! When we got in the pub, we sat down and Pat and Katie went to order and I held down the fort when Katie comes up to me and says I need to go to the bar and show them my ID. I wasn't even ordering yet...it was kind of odd, but worked out ok. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel and got ready for bed...I did make an observation that there are a lot of McDonalds and KFC's around. I mean a LOT.

28/03

I did not sleep well last night. Also, when we returned last night, I did not want to disturb anyone sleeping so I just crashed with my contacts in. Bad idea...I woke up to only having my right contact still intact and in my eye. Fantastic. I, luckily, have one spare for each eye and thus had to use my spare at the very beginning of my trip. I must be careful. We got on our train to the airport in which we got half off the price of the ticket for having our printed out itinerary from RyanAir. Almost all the airports that Ryanair uses seem to be not anywhere near the city they say. The flight from Glasgow Prestwick went well and we had a wee layover in London Standsted. Things are expensive in airports so I ate two croissants and had a coffee for dinner. It was finally time for me to board my plane to Dusseldorf Weese so I bid farewell to my companions until Berlin and hopped on that plane. The plane went fine and I got my third passport stamp at Dusseldorf. I think I should mention that I managed to get my huge backpack through security and on the airplane as my carry-on baggage. It was amazing. (Later, that is not the case...) So...here it gets interesting. I am in Dusseldorf and it is definitely a bit overwhelming. There is a lot of German flying around, which, of course, is what I expected. What I did not expect was that the bus to Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof (a 12.50 euro bus...) didn't leave until 20:30 pm. Not good. I had told Jon to meet me at Bonn Hbf at 21:00 and the bus takes 1h 20 min or so. I found an internet station and facebooked Jon that I was going to be late. I hope he gets it! I am banking on using my Eurail pass when I get to Dusseldorf; I hope it works. I do have to say this is quite the LAME start to my trip. It is dark and raining profusely outside. Bus comes and I get on...not too shabby. Still pouring. The bus doesn't drop me off right at the station...so I have no idea where to go. I start going left, but the people behind me go right, so I (as I find works very well most of the time) follow the masses and eventually find the station. I get my pass validated and get on the next train to Koln Hbf. When I get to Koln, I assume I will do the same as I did in Dusseldorf and just ask when the next train to Bonn comes. However, the information desk is closed and I am left to figure it out myself. I manage it, and catch the last train to Bonn for the night. While on the train, the conductor asks me where I am going and I say Bonn and he gives me a weird look. Some guy sits behind me on the train and is breathing very heavily. It kind of freaked me out because I am pretty much the only person on the car and there is this odd guy behind me. I had weird thoughts of him killing me. Luckily, that didn't happen and I got to Bonn! At 23:20! Only a few hours late... Now, to find Jon...I hope he is still here. I spot him across the tracks and I meet him. It is good to see him! He didn't get my facebook message so he was there for awhile waiting for me. We stop at McDonalds (this is quite late people...) since I had had nothing since those two crossants I mentioned. We walk back to his house, get situated and have a beer. It is good to enjoy a nice beer with a great friend. An awesome ending to a subpar beginning.