Germany: A Friendly Visit

I arrived in Germany on May 30th. I had been counting down the days until I could leave my lonely traveling that I was actually starting to enjoy and be around people I knew again. So after spending he night in the Barcelona airport, third nigh stay of my semester in that airport, I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany. My friend Svea was waiting there for me and we headed to her school so she could give a presentation before heading to her house in Weisbaden. I took a nice nap once I got here before going out with her friend, Laila, and her to go grocery shopping and hang out a bit. The next day we went to this elevator much like the one in Bilbao expect it was run by water. It showed an okay view of Weisbaden and there was a pretty gazebo. We also visited a church that had built for this lady who had died so she had a resting place or something. It wasn't something I would've paid the 2 euro for if I had known what I would see upon entry for sure. Was rather disappointing. She also showed me a hot water spring in her town that had been turned into a fountain and then there was a smaller part of the spring that had been turned into a drinking fountain where people could get a cup of the water. Supposedly you're supposed to drink a cup a day because of all the minerals in the water.

Photo Cred: Mildred
Gazebo on top Weisbaden hill view

Photo Cred: Mildred
The Church

Photo Cred: Mildred
Hot water water fountain

The next day in Germany, Svea took me on a spontaneous trip to see a place called the Residenz. We went on a tour of it and the tour guide told us all sorts of fun things. For example, the chandeliers were made of pink glass that was transported there in barrels of butter because then it wouldn't break. There was also a room filled with mirrors that had to be completely reconstructed after world war 2. The rooms of the Residenz were sometimes used for entertaining guests obviously. Back in the day when you were entertains you didn't even leave the room to go to the bathroom. Instead you would proudly have the chamber pot brought to you and you would go in front of your guests. It was an honor to see someone of high power use the bathroom. Just imagine going home from the Residenz one day "Mom! I saw the king poop today! It was amazing!" How weird would that be in today's standards! After the tour of the Residenz we went and spent the rest of the day with her childhood friend, Marcel in her home town, Warzburg. It just so happened there was a town gathering the day we went there. They needed to get the most people at this gathering in order to win the honor of having an air show in their town instead of one of the other towns nearby. In order to do this, they bribed everyone with free beer and food. Then everyone was ushered into a fenced in area and held hands to walk out and be counted. They got to 1 thousand people before we left I believe. 

Photo Cred: Mildred
Residenz

Another day I was there, we went on a road trip to Koln. We saw a cool church that reminded me a lot of the church in Hunchback of Notre Dame. While we were there, a panhandler started chatting us up. Supposedly her daughter is married to Cher's son. I'd say she has a pretty interesting life. In Koln my favorite part was that one building had a huge ice cream cone that looked like it had been dropped on the building by a giant. It was giant sized after all making me want to search for Jack's beanstalk. After a few hours there we went to her godmother's house for the night. It was a beautiful house and very relaxing there. We watched Matilda with her godmother and husband after dinner. It was a really enjoyable time. On the way back to Weisbaden the next day, we stopped at a river side town and walked around there a bit. It was rather cute but then it started to rain. We headed back and chilled with Sveas friends after that. I wasn't all that amused with that part of the day, but that's not surprise because drinking and smoking aren't in my list of fun things to do. 

Photo Cred: Svea
Hunchback of Notre Dame Church

For the rest of my time there I spent the time at her house doing a Harry Potter Marathon. We also went out to dinner at a restaurant called Enchilada (I admit we actually went twice). Mexican food in Germany is different from Mexican food in the states. It was good though, just different. Then on the morning I had to head to the airport to get to London to see my sister, I found out we were planning on going to a different airport. It was my fault but how was I supposed to know Frankfurt had more than one airport! #notagermanyexpert So yeah that was my bad but I managed to get to the airport and on my way to London just fine.

A Reflection on My Solitary Travels

My decision to change plans was an extremely needed decision. When I chose my 10 days in Madrid I was skeptical about whether I would truly feel better about traveling alone. I was expecting myself to be miserable for the rest of my trip in all honesty. I didn't really think there would be a turning point. There was though. My days in Madrid were extremely relaxing and I even enjoyed myself. I made new friends on my time and didn't force myself to do anything but relax. By the time I started site seeing again, I was relaxed. I realize now that my original plan would never have worked anyway. I was too ambitious. No one can actively site see for a month nonstop in my opinion, it's just not possible without getting tired. By the time I was sitting in the Madrid train station, I realized I was content with what I was doing. I wasn't miserable or pining for home anymore, I was relaxed and ready to go to the next place and see what it brought me. 

In Bilbao, I continued with my relaxed way of travel and didn't rush anything. I spent a lot of time on park benches just watching everything around me. My time in Bilbao was really just me moving from bench to bench. I found I do in fact enjoy traveling alone. I never would get to hear all the stories I have if I had been with a group because we would've talked amongst ourselves. I enjoy the ability to chose exactly what I'm going to do that day, whether it's a spur of the moment decision or I ask someone else what to do. I like having the ability to decide "yes that's exactly what I want", "no I think I will sit here for awhile". 

Once I reached Barcelona, I was an expert at doing what I wanted to do without feeling extremely guilty for not being a complete tourist. I don't enjoy doing touristy things alone, but pretending to be a local I enjoy. Sure I do some touristy things still, but only ones that really interest me. I don't go to all the touristy places just because it's one of the things you absolutely "have" to do while you're there. I did what I wanted, which sure was sometimes not leaving the hostel. I didn't feel guilty about it though. People may say I missed out on seeing things, heck there are some places I learned about after being in that city I would love going back and seeing, but I don't feel like I missed out. I saw what I wanted to see, sometimes more, but I didn't force it. You can't force it or you'll be miserable. 

Traveling alone I have come to realize what works for me and what doesn't. I have become fully dependent on my own decisions instead of letting myself depend on others to make decisions for me. I have found I like making my own decisions. Usually I just go along with what everyone else wants to do, just the sheep following the leader, but I was my own leader traveling alone. Being by myself I could pretend I wasn't a tourist, lots of people thought I wasn't a tourist. For my future travels, I now know what I need in order to enjoy solitary travel and I'm glad I had the ability to figure that out. I know traveling shouldn't be stressful for me. I also found that I would be content living in a large city, since I spent so much time in Madrid. I stepped outside of my comfort zone during my exploration of Spain but not too far out to make me miserable. I found the line and succeeded in enjoying my travels. So yeah, traveling in solitary works for me actually, I just wasn't doing it right before. Having said that, I feel the urge to close my last Spain blog post with the customary saying to pilgrims heading to Santiago "buen Camino bitches" (okay we may have edited the saying). Spain it's been real, and I will be back in a little over 7 days, but next time I'll be a tourist instead of a pretend local. Buen Camino Bitches....

Barcelona, Spain

On my last full day in Spain, I went walking. I really wish I wore long sleeves, or at least not my shoulder shirt, because by the end of the day I was sufficiently sunburnt. I was also already sunburnt so my sunburn was sunburnt. It hurts to move right now. Luckily it's really only my shoulders that are burnt. My face seems to have survived the day. Anyhoo, I walked around aimlessly for about an hour before I decided I should probably find plaza catalunya, which I had been walking away from accidentally for the last hour. Once I got there I just sat and stared at people, it took an hour before beggars started coming up to me. By this time I was extremely bored and wondering how the hell I was going to waste the day away without going back to the hostel. I ended up wandering down La Rambla, very touristy place. When we went to Barcelona the first time we never walked the whole thing, but have no fear I did this time only to find there is a La Rambla de Mar! To get there I had to cross this roundabout that had this statue structure thing I think called the Mirador de Colon or some shit. It was quite large and everyone was climbing all over the lion statues at the base for a picture. My observations showed that you either took a picture riding the lions that were laying down or as most people seemed to be choosing, you took a picture with the butts of the lions that were standing, who had very detailed balls. I saw quite a few people take pictures of themselves grabbing the lion's balls. The statues were thoroughly violated to say the least. I didn't stop long enough to get a good photo, but here's the lion's ass.

Once on th othe side I went to the docks where there was a shit ton of sailboats and just sat there for awhile. It was peaceful other than th seagull giving me the evil eye the whole time. He literally just a stood by me until a ship went by about 20 minutes later. 

To be honest, these are the only two photos of Barcelona I took. I didn't even bring my camera with me for my outing. I stopped by Starbucks for lunch and to hide from the sun, my sunburn had started to really hurt when in the sun by then. After that I ended up at a supermarket, not the one I wanted because it was closed because Sunday, and bought this drink that was Aloe Vera Mango juice. It tasted pretty good but then I read th ingredients and realized the pulp that had been grossing me out wasn't even mango. I felt really lied to and didn't even drink half of it. Plus I psyched myself out by reading about the benefits of drinking aloe Vera only to find it sometimes is a laxative depends on how it's processed. Didn't seem like a good risk for my night in the airport. 

At 5pm I allowed myself to go chill at the hostel since my phone was dead, and stayed there until 10pm. A guy from Nigeria talked about how you have to learn English for science and business because you can't publish findings in anything but English to begin with. Otherwise it won't get the attention you want. He also said the first time you see the desert you will fall in love. Then a guy from Wisconsin, who sadly described his state as being a fist with a thumb instead of being a mitten, and also used Chicago to explain where Wisconsin was, started talking to me about the European university system. He had just finished a semester in Coimbra and had previously done a semester in Brazil so he knew differences. We decided European universities must like segregating language students from other students and regular classes. He also supposedly has heard of Loras, I'm skeptical though. Then I headed to the airport for my blissful night of reading.