Back in West Chester

I'm safely back home but I'm still going to put up the last week of travel stories. I'll have them up in the next couple of days!

How to Post a Comment

My mom said people have been having some difficulty posting a comment on the blog, so here's a quick how to.

-At the bottom of the blog entry you want to comment on click on the blue underlined word "comments"
-On the right hand side of the page write your comment under, "leave your comment"
-Below the comment box is "choose an identity". This is part that I think might have been the problem. Select "Name/URL" and put your name in but not a URL.
- Click "publish your comment"

If this doesn't work let me know!

Traveling with Marieke

I arrived in Berlin and hobbled my way to my hostel where Marieke, my German friend who I was going to spend a few days with, met up with me later that evening. She arrived late so we just went to the beer garden for a bit. The next day we wandered all around Berlin and in the process we found me shoes! Finding shoes was such a huge thing for me because I had been wearing two different sandals for most of the trip because the cuts on my feet were in different places. I found a pair of gold-strapped sandals early on in Greece, which I like to call my Greek Goddesses, which work on my right foot. On the left foot, I wore the Haviana flip-flops I had picked up. So to find a comfortable pair of matching shoes that didn't hurt my cuts after three and half weeks of those other ones was such a Godsend!

The second day in Berlin Marieke and I took a free walking tour that I had heard so much about. It was great! The guide was very funny and told a lot of interesting stories instead of all facts and numbers. I think I have a good knowledge about the history of Germany during WWII but I knew very little about the years of communism. The day before the tour, we walked around and the city was full of pretty buildings and open parks. After the tour though, the city meant so much more to me as we walked by the square where the infamous Nazi burning of the books took place. We saw the Berlin wall, checkpoint charlie, the Reichstag, and the location of Hitler's bunker where he killed himself at the end of the war. Most of Berlin was destroyed during the war, and later East Berlin was partially rebuilt in the cold austere style of the communist era. After the fall of communism in 1989, more modern buildings went up and the end result is an architecturally diverse yet also confused city.

After Berlin Marieke and I took a train to her village in Northern Germany. I learned that the stereotypical idea of mountains and flora is actually Southern Germany. Where she lives it is almost completely flat and primarily farmland. Marieke's friend Inika picked us up from the station and took us to Marieke’s house where the girls made a typical German meal for me. That evening four of her friends came over and made raspberry cocktails, and with each cocktail their trepidation decreased and their English improved. We walked a few minutes down the road to the soccer fields. In their small village, soccer is the primary means of entertainment. The girls started introducing me to the team and I quickly saw how connected they all were with the team consisting of their cousins, brothers in laws, and friends from school. Everyone knows everyone and that's not an exaggeration. I loved it! During the game we drank beer and sprite, a common favorite. It's actually really good! And of course I couldn't pass up my new favorite food, bratwurst with mustard and ketchup. After the game, we went out to the big pub a couple of towns over where all the young people go. It was the best night out I'd had so far! The next morning was the worst I'd had so far. Marieke, Eva, Inika and I took the local train into Hamburg and in our fragile condition opted for a bus tour. Later, when we were feeling better, we took a boat tour and it was great just relaxing on deck and talking with the girls. That evening Marieke and I road bikes 5 minutes down the road to the pub, one of the two stores in town. There about 15 locals were seated around 3 tables placed in a U shape around the big flat screen. The Eurocup was on and Germany was playing. To tell you the truth I can't even remember if they won or not, it was just fun being there during the cup!

A weekend in Venice

Jessica and I took a long train ride to Venice and were walking out of the Train Station when we ran into Natasha, my friend from high school who I still keep in touch with. She is backpacking with a friend as well and we didn't know we were both going to be in Venice. Jess and I were at a loss as to where to begin looking for our hostel and the curt information woman was no help at all! So when Tasha and Liz said they had a hostel and knew how to find it we quickly followed them. The hostel turned out to be full but they directed us to a woman, Anna Stefano, who lived nearby and had two bedrooms she rented out. They were perfect! Jess and I even had the forgotten luxury of a private bathroom! That fist day in Venice was also my birthday. I was reluctantly turning 23. I had this great idea that if I slowed the aging now when I'm 40 I'll only be 30. So I let the girls attending my birthday soiree know it was my 22nd birthday, again. We found a great Italian restaurant tucked away in the labyrinth of Venetian streets. Seeing Venice at night was such a special gift. It was so quiet and the streets were filled mainly with Venetians. San Marco Square, the largest square in Venice, was nearly empty in comparison to the dominating crowds the following day.

The next morning when Jess and I started off the streets were still relatively calm. We spent the morning wandering the touristier and well known areas and stopped for lunch at a restaurant suggested to us by a local. What started as a warm Italian welcome quickly turned cold when we declined to pay for bottled water and opted instead for our water bottles we had filled from our hostel tap. Asking for free water, or tap water, also seems to be passé but Jess and I were not deterred from saving the extra $5.00 at every meal. Despite the owner’s dislike of us, the pizza margherita was still amazing! We spent the afternoon wandering around the quieter local areas of Venice. At every turn, Jess and I would find which street had less people and we would walk down there. It led us to small streets and bridges filled with families returning from church or meeting for lunch. I loved everything about Venice except for the stares. I am in no way exaggerating when I say people stopped in their tracks to stare at me as I hobbled by on my crutches. I had unfortunately chosen that day to bare my battered legs for the first time since Greece. I thought the cuts had healed significantly, but apparently when pared with crutches I was a spectacle for tourists and Venetians alike. It put a damper on the otherwise perfect day.

In the evening, we met Tasha and Liz again for dinner then said our goodbyes and went to the station to catch our night train to Budapest. As we neared our sleeper cabin, we were approached by a family who wanted to switch cabins with us so they could all be closer together. We had no problem with this so the conductor took us 6 cars down to their cabin, which as luck would have it, turned out to be a first class private two bed room. It came complete with our very own sink, mirror, outlets, and fluffy comforters. We were in backpacker heaven. In our excitement we decided to video tape our train and cushy compartment. Jessica began recording when we heard, "Hallo, Hallo!" She turned around to find the conductor waving his arms disapprovingly. As you can hear on the tape, she replied, "None of that?" He ushered her into the compartment and made it clear that we were not to leave again, causing our elation to turn to fear as we realized we were prisoners in our own compartment. It was a first class compartment though so we didn't care. After several video recordings of our favorite new song, "The Strugglers", we went to sleep. Unfortunately, we never slept for long because we were woken up four different times that night, each time with a loud banging on the door followed by, "Polizia! Polizia! Open Up!" We'd done the border patrol passport drill before, but never 4 times in one night! Apparently, our scroungy backpacks and disheveled appearances aroused suspicion because several times they radioed in all of our personal info to the station. Luckily, we had decided to stop all of our drug smuggling activities the day before.

The trip came full circle as we left the train station and we walked to our hostel in Budapest, the one we had started in 3 weeks earlier. Despite our disappointment that it was Jessica's last day we tried to make the most of it and went to the baths, similar to the Turkish baths. They are large marble carved rooms with hot pools of water. At the end, we both got well deserved massages! The next morning we were pretty much on time for the airport (except for those few minutes lost from me falling back to sleep, oops) until we got off the metro and onto the airport bus. The driver told us the wrong place to get off and we ended up at the wrong terminal and very late. We threw our stuff in a cab and I quickly told the cabbie, "We need to get to terminal 1 VERY fast!” Apparently that was all he needed to hear to transform from a Budapest cab driver to 007. He was off and running as we averaged 100 miles/hr., weaving in and out of traffic the whole way. Jess made her plane though! I reluctantly said goodbye and I hobbled off alone to catch my flight to Berlin. I've been missing my Sherpa ever since! It's just not the same without her!

Flying over the Swiss Alps

Jess and I reluctantly left Grindelwald and took the train down the mountain to Interlacken. The hostel was the worst one we've stayed in so far, ok maybe not as bad as the one with the dead bugs. It's called Balmers and is clean enough and has a big kitchen, both very important. But it had so many rules that I heard more than a few people comment it felt more like a boarding school than a hostel in the Swiss Alps. But I won't dwindle on that.

While in Interlacken, I finally got the opportunity to get outdoors, but not in the way I had originally planned. I went hang gliding right off the side of a mountain. The instructor picked me up at my hostel and I think he was a little nervous when he saw my crutches, but after I did a few acrobatics for him he was satisfied that I would be ok. We drove up a nearby mountain for about 20 minutes, and stopped three quarters of the way up. We walked a little ways across a field until we came to a clearing. There were other hang gliders and paragliders taking off from there, so we got in line and waited for the wind to shift directions. We were harnessed in and with a few running steps we glided off the mountain. The instructor held the front bar and steered and I hung above him enjoying the ride. I thought while we were flying about how I would decribe it. When you look up at a bird circling above and think, "Wouldn't that be amazing to fly." That's how I felt. Like I had finally been given the opportunity to fly above the city and mountains from the point of view of a bird. It was very surreal.

The next day we took four different trains to reach Venice. On our third one the train stopped in a tunnel for over an hour because there were problems with train navigation functions all over the area. The couple seated directly across from us was Maria from Italy and her Swiss boyfriend. They had met in Sudan where they both worked for the Red Cross, Maria as a doctor and her boyfriend as an architect. They spent over a year working in Sudan and seeing first hand the atrocities of the genocide going on there today. They had just recently returned and Maria was going to Italy to visit her family. So her boyfriend took the train most of the way with her and then went back to Switzerland, just so they could spend the afternoon together. They were so adorable together and he kept saying what a wonderful doctor she was at the hospital in Sudan. Maria had me turn my ankle in different directions and she said she was pretty sure it would heal fine once I could finally rest it. Maria was the second doctor to look at my foot, excluding the Greek one. The other was a Japanese orthopedic surgeon on the top of the mountain in Switzerland. With the language barrier though it was a bit hard to understand the diagnosis.

I've got to leave now to catch my overnight bus to Prague, but I'll finish tomorrow!

The girl, the greek, and the Eiffel Tower

I´ve been asked so many times what happened to my legs and ankle that I'm tired of saying, "Oh that, I was just a breakfast monster running for free food and didn't see the one solitary stair and fell flat on my face." So I'll share with you some of my other versions that I told people when they asked me what happened.


Well, we were walking in Vienna when I saw a little girl walking across the street, right into the path of an oncoming tram car. I screamed, "No little girl, no!" and pushed her out of the way only to be pummeled by the train car myself. So I ended up with a few gashes and a sprained ankle, but it was all worth it to save the poor little girl.

Well, I was in Greece and this nice Greek guy asked me out for a drink. So I went out with him to a bar and we got talking when his girlfriend came in, who I didn't know about and she seemed just as surprised to see me. Her Greek temper raged and she came storming at me like a bull. Punches were thrown, a switchblade appeared (thus the cut up knees) and I was knocked down. By the time the police got there the damage was already done. But I'll tell you, I won't be going out with any Greek guys again any time soon.

Well, I was in Paris and I'd had a few too many drinks when we walked across the city to the Eiffel Tower. I decided that it would be a great idea to scale the Eiffel Tower to get a better look at the city. I made it about 20ft. off the ground when I lost my footing and fell. It was only the next morning when I woke up in a jail cell that I realized how hurt I was. Who knew it was illegal to climb the Eiffel Tower?


I always told the truth at the end. At Hostel Ruthenstiener in Vienna though, I forgot the last part. So apparently word of my heroic act spread and a few people began asking me about it. I was happy to escape my lies when we took a train to Switzerland the next morning. The other girls in our train compartment were from our hostel, and when we started talking about my ankle she replied, "At least it was for a good reason right? I mean saving the little girl from the tram car and all." I replied hesitantly, "Yeah, about that..."

The Strugglers

by Laura & Jess

(to the tune of the monkeys song)

Hey Hey were the strugglers
People say we struggle around
Ain´t no shame in strugglin
So just stop staring us down

Hey Hey I'm the hobbler
Breakfast monsters my name too
When people see my cuts and crutches
They saw now what did you do

Hey Hey I'm the sherpa
tbc....


Jess and I wrote this lovely ballad in the Turkish Baths in Budapest. We sang the song over and over trying to come up with lyrics and we very quickly cleared the entire bath.