Well, it sure has been some time, but all stagnation ends with movement! In this case, this movement happens to be a month long trip in Europe with the family, followed by a month in limbo on the continent myself after they depart, and then an indefinite amount of time teaching English in Prague, Czech Republic after that. Quite the happenings happening on this side of the pond and I will blast out a brief summary (with lots of pictures!) of proceedings each week to two weeks.
I am currently typing from my Air BnB bed in Milano, Italy. How I got here is a long story which mainly consists of a long journey. I began my travels at 4 a.m. on Thursday morning (the 28th) in Albuquerque, NM. I then proceeded to fly to Salt Lake City. Then flew to Los Angeles. Then flew to New York. I bought this flight with Delta miles...if you don't actually pay for the flight they don't actually care about you.
In JFK airport in New York I hung out for a cool 22 hours as I waited for my international flight on Singapore Airlines to Frankfurt. As I had forgotten to pack food these days of travel consisted of a final American McDonald's binge, not so much out of patriotism so much as economics when it came to prices of airport food.
I boarded my Singapore flight at 20:25 and sat between a lovely lady from Heidelberg and a lady I could only assume was on her way all the way to Singapore, this making her no less lovely. We landed at 10:30 and I disembarked and promptly went to the airport train station, where I found out my credit card wasn't working. I traded in US dollars at the local ReiseBank for basically no Euros and then took the train to the main train station. At the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) I traded in more US dollars for almost no Euros (all legitimate banks are closed Saturday afternoon and Sunday in Germany) and then grabbed a snack before boarding my bus to Salzburg.
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| This receipt tells you a little about how bad the exchange at the airport was. The highlighted numbers are the rate and the fee. |
I bussed for a few hours then walked about the München station for a few hours. I then got on my second bus and bussed for a quite a few more hours before arriving at the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof at 00:40 Sunday morning. Johanna Egger (a good friend of the family and Mackenzie and mine) was there to meet me, along with her boyfriend, Johannes, and Mackenzie (my sister). Mackenzie had been staying with the Eggers for the previous week after a semester of studying abroad in Florence, Italy.
This is where the trip becomes fun. We spent the day with the Eggers and woke up to the most fantastic breakfast of fresh fruits and vegetable before we went on an amazing bike ride to a local gorge, Lammerklamm. It was beautiful. We followed this up with a trip to go get Eis and I indulged in 1 Kugel Dunkelschokalade and then 1 Kugel Kaffee Mokka. Delicious! Perfect for a hot day. We went back to the house and relaxed, dozing in the sun. Johanna, Gertha (her mother) and Katha (her sister) spoiled us by making the best Käsespaetzle that I have ever had for dinner. We ended the night off with some cards, a classic game of 7s.
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| Me, Johanna, Johannes, and Mackenzie |
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| The gorge |
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| Classic biking selfie...the cousins would be proud |
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| This is what biking in Austria looks like. |
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| Mackenzie and Hans chilling after the ride |
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| Katha (left) and Johanna (right) on Käsespaetzle duty |
The next morning (the 1st) Katha dropped Mackenzie and I off at the train station and we took a quick train to Salzburg before beginning on our 11 hour bus ride to Milan, where we will meet Nathaniel (my brother) and Curtis (his friend and a friend of the family). We arrived in Milan at 23:15 and after some frantic rushing about on the metro, a 20 minute walk through the dark streets of Milan, and some brilliant navigating by Mackenzie we finally arrived at the house we are staying at at about 1:00 the morning of the 2nd.
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| Mackenzie and I set for the bus ride with our juices |
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| Iconic church outside of Salzburg |
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| Mackenzie and our Meinfernbus ride |
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| Casually sipping a beer on the bus to Milan |
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| Swiss countryside |
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| ...and again |
And so here we are. On the 3rd floor of an apartment in Milano, Italy, with the whirring of the pizza machine audible from outside our door as our hostess and her significant other begin the pizza making process. We are in one room that has bedding for 4 layed out and our hostess is in another room. There is a shared kitchen and bathroom.
However, enough talk! Time to hit the streets. We plan on seeing a few different places today, first and foremost an espresso shop! The end goal of the day is to meet Curtis and Nathaniel at the train station.
A doppo!
