Cheers, Y'all: volcano

Wow, so much has happened since my last post almost four weeks ago! These past four weeks have been some of the best weeks I have had while abroad.  
I left Glasgow on April 4th for Brussels to meet up with my friends from Hendrix, Jordana and Rachel for two weeks of travelling. Jordana and Rachel are currently studying in Brussels so I met them and saw the city before we all left together. I really enjoyed Brussels. It reminds me a little of Glasgow, except it has a much more European feel. My favorite part of Brussels was all the food, obviously, after all, it is a big part of the cultural experience of Belgium. I ate several Belgian waffles and don't think I can eat an Eggo waffle ever again. Belgian beer put Tennant's, and dare I say, Strongbow, to shame. And the chocolate was just so damn good.

Early Wednesday morning backpacks and rolling suitcases in hand, me, Rachel and Jordana left Brussels for our first stop, Berlin, Germany. Berlin was by far my favorite city we visited. I felt like I just clicked with the city. It had a great vibe to it, and I never felt like an outsider. I do love Glasgow, but coming here I didn't even feel the immediate connection like I did in Berlin. I could envision myself living there. I would really like to go back some day and see more of Germany in general. Something I'll always remember about my time in this city was the first night we were in town and went into a residential neighbourhood. The neighbourhood was quaint and lively. Starving after a day of travel, we stopped to eat at a local restaurant. The weather was so that it was actually acceptable to eat outside. Coming from the UK I was soaking up the weather that allowed you to walk around outside without multiple layers of clothing or boots, and to actually see the sun uncovered by clouds. We had a great meal and then headed down the street to an English bookstore where European hipsters and intellects read selections from various books. Here we met the rest of the people we would be travelling with for two weeks. After the reading we went to a local bar with everyone. It was a great kick-off to the trip.

  After Berlin we went to Prague, Czech Republic. I thought Prague was the most beautiful city we went to. Unlike Berlin where I could see myself living, Prague was a great city to be in for a few days just to see the city and its architecture. A few things I will always remember from this city: The great meal we had (does anyone else see where this is going? Obviously, food was an important part of the cultural experience for me) at a Micro Brew on our second night in town. Stuffing myself with numerous carbs such as dumplings, potatoes, and beer, I was a happy girl. There's something so great about eating a nice dinner after a day spent walking around an unfamiliar city. I always appreciate sitting down at a new restaurant, trying to decipher the non-English menu, and usually being pleasantly surprised at the meal served to me. I'll also remember the cathedral. It was so intricate and had so much stained glass. It's been my favorite European cathedral I've seen by far. And the view from the top of the hill where the cathedral was was as equally beautiful.  

From Prague we went to Vienna. Something I should mention is that we took buses from Berlin to Prague and Prague to Vienna, Austria. I love bus rides. Most of the time I prefer bus to train. A nice, leisurely bus ride through the beautiful European countryside isn't such a bad way to spend your time. I liked Vienna, but not as much as I enjoyed the other cities we went to. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it and it is a beautiful city, but not beautiful in the way the Prague is or a place I would want to live like Berlin. It was also raining the whole time we were there which did not make walking around the city great. Something I'll always remember about Vienna are the museums we went to. I'm really glad we went to the museums. We saw Klimt's "The Kiss", and went to another Klimt museum that also had work by Egon Schiele, and artist who I'd never heard of who was inspired by Klimt. I really liked Schiele's work, maybe even more so that Klimt's and seeing "The Kiss" in person is something I will always remember. And of course there was good food. Vienna is known for its coffeehouses so we made sure to go to several. One day instead of a real lunch we had a delicious snack of various coffee drinks and cakes.

After Vienna we went to our last stop, Budapest, Hungary. We had heard bits and pieces of news of the volcano that irrupted in Iceland, but didn't realize how severe it was or how we would be affected until our flights back from Budapest to Brussels and Glasgow were cancelled. We found out on Friday when we got in that our flights were cancelled, so the only thing we could think to do was to go to the train station the next day and try to get tickets back to Brussels. Long story short, we basically had one full day in Budapest and spent most of it in the train station waiting in line to get tickets. We were actually quite lucky that we got tickets when we did and that we made it home on the day we were supposed to. We did have the evening to explore Budapest, which we spent walking around town in the amount of daylight that was left. Our hostel was in a very central location so it was easy to get around. Budapest was beautiful, not at ALL what I expected. I didn't really have any expectations of Budapest, but I didn't think I would like it as much as I did. It was so green and lush and had a lot of character. The weather was lovely and we were outside at the perfect time of day just as the sun was setting, my favorite time of day. We ate some great meals in Budapest. Hungary isn't on the Euro, and everything is very cheap. The first night we arrived we ate a three-course meal with a couple rounds of drinks for under 15 Euro. I would NEVER eat at a restaurant like the one we went to that night in Glasgow, not even in the U.S. 

The next morning we got up very early for our train. We were ready to embark on our 14-hour train ride and get it over with. The first train we got on was fine, we all had seats. The second train we took which was the one that went through most of Germany was hell on tracks. The train was overbooked and we didn't have reserved seats, so we had to stand the whole time. OK, I'm being dramatic, we did get to sit but it was on the floor with our legs in awkward positions with absolutely no personal space. There was no toilet paper in the bathroom (did I mention we were right outside of the bathroom and right by the train doors so people had to walk by us when they boarded or wanted to use the bathroom?) and a woman fainted. Every time we arrived at a train station and more passengers boarded everyone groaned but really couldn't help but laugh just because the amount of people on the train was ridiculous. There were a lot of British people on the train to Brussels. The Eurostar train has a stop in Brussels, so most people trying to get back to the UK went to Brussels with the hope they could get a spot on the Eurostar. For the most part people on the train were in good spirits. Even though I don't know a word of German people seemed to be very friendly, cracking jokes, making room for people to sit on the floor, giving up seats for people who needed them more. It could have been an even worse situation if people weren't friendly but the fact that everyone was in a good mood made it so much better. It was such an awful situation that acting unpleasant would have made it so much worse. I wonder what Americans would be like in a situation like that. After we got off the second train we only had one more train to take until we arrived in Brussels. We had to stand on this one, too, but the train was under three hours and at that point standing for three hours felt like nothing.  

Once we got to Brussels I found out I couldn't get back to Scotland until Friday (we got to Brussels Sunday night) unless I was willing to pay an additional 300 pounds. So I had a week to kill in Brussels. At first I was frustrated just because after travelling for two weeks, and packing enough clothes to only last me one week, I just wanted to get to my wardrobe, my bed, my own shower, and I hate to say it, my laptop. I realized that this was the ideal place to get stuck in though, I had a free place to stay with friends, I was safe, it was easier to get to the UK from Brussels than other places in Europe...so I chilled in Brussels until my train left on Friday. It just gave me more time to eat more chocolate, waffles, and drink more beer. I also took a day trip to the lovely town of Bruges, which I'm really glad I had the additional time to do. Finally, on Friday, I took a train through the English chunnel to London via the Eurostar and then took a 9-hour bus ride from London to Glasgow. It was an exhausting day but was so good to be back in Scotland.
Then on very early Tuesday morning I left for Ibiza, Spain with some of my friends from university here. Ibiza is an island off of Spain and a very hot tourist spot for British vacationers. Almost everyone we ran into there was British, and all the restaurants were English style pubs. It was a lovely couple of days watching the sunset and laying out on the beach. It was good to see the sun and appreciate the warm weather. However, of corse the trip did not go as smoothly as planned when I was trying to leave and I nearly missed my flight back to Glasgow. That could be a whole other blog entry, in fact, I should start another blog about getting lost and missing flights and busses, but the important part is that I made my flight and arrived back to Glasgow on time.

Now I am back in Glasgow. I have a little time to breathe until my next departure. Classes officially ended Friday, and finals start next week. Angela, my close friend from Hendrix and roommate of last semester, is coming to town on Sunday so of corse I am excited about that! We are meeting in Edinburgh and staying the night and doing sightseeing things on Monday. After Angela leaves I have a week of down time and a final to take, and then I go to Italy for a week! After Italy I have another final and only two weeks until I get back to Nashville. I will be staying in the UK for those last two weeks, soaking up the time I have left abroad.
This afternoon I walked around Glasgow when it began to hail and pour rain. I was so angry! I am just over this weather. Wet and defeated, I came back home and went back out a few hours later. It was 7pm but the sun was still out and shinning bright, and I realized that I could never be angry with Glasgow or my life here. I have become really used to the city. I finally know my way around town, I have the same grocery store I go to and I know what store is good for what, I know public transportation here, I have a cognitive map of the city, I'm getting used to 24 hour time...It's all coming together after a full three months. I am not ready to leave yet but I will be ready to go home. Let's hope these last four weeks are as great as the previous four!