Well, at the time of this writing, i’m in Prague. I don’t even know how to say hello in his confusing as hell language. Today, Saturday, my first full day here, i spent trying to simply learn how to say please and thank you. “Prosim” and “Dekuje,” or something like that (the spellings are definitely not correct, either). It’s a struggle.
The journey really began a week and two days ago, when i arrived in Philadelphia to visit my good friend who lives there. It just so happens, too, that his good friend from New Zealand was there, and the three of us hit the town Friday night, took a bus tour on Saturday, and took it easy Saturday night (two of my former CVV roomies came up from Baltimore to hang out for dinner, which was very cool). The city of Brotherly Love was a good time. I had my worst public bathroom experience, but i did get to run up the stairs to the art museum (just like Rocky) and got a picture next to his statue, which is located to the side of the stairs. Philadelphia was a very nice city, and though it was a short stay, it was a very good time.
A friend of mine then came and picked me up to go to Roselyn Heights, just outside of NY city. Again, i had a very short stay, but a very good time. We did some paintball on Sunday, which was a first for me. Definitely a lot of fun. Monday we just took it easy, and Tuesday was the day i “crossed the pond.”
Victor and me, guns ready
My flight out of JFK was actually not bad. I think, though, i ended up getting some bad apple juice in the airport prior to my departure. Yes, i know, you’re probably thinking, “bad apple juice? How the heck does that happen? I don’t think i’ve ever heard of anything so crazy!” But before you jump to conclusions, i say it’s bad because i had some of the same type in Denver, and the stuff in JFK definitely tasted different. Bad, actually. I only drank about 2/3 of the bottle, but it apparently was 2/3 too much.
My stomach did not like me afterwards, and the 7 hour flight to London was very…uncomfortable. Which kind of sucked. I flew Virign, which i would highly recommend to anyone, as they were very kind, the flight was nowhere near full (i had an empty seat next to me), and they had tons of movies, video games, music, and stuff to do on the flight. Not much it, though, made my stomach better, and several trips to the lavatory didn’t help much either. It wasn’t agony, but it wasn’t exactly how i envisioned the flight to be.
I arrived in London at 7am local time, tired, not feeling the best, and wary about the next 12 hours of travel i still had to go. It was nice, though, to see the sun again. The next step was customs in London, which, really, was more of a hassle than it needed to be. But i made it through, and then took the bus to one of the other airports in London. The hour ride was about the only sleep i got since JFK.
The folks at the next airport where very kind and helpful getting me checked in and such, and by 9:30 i was through security and ready to go to my 2:55pm flight to Toulouse, France.
I got some rough sleep in the airport waiting lobby area, spent too much money on a small meal and some immodium, but was at least feeling a little better as i boarded the plane to face the French.
When i arrived in Toulouse, close to 6pm local time, it was definitely dark, again. Thankfully, the airport wasn’t very big, and i found the bus to the train station relatively easily, and, apart from being “that guy” who has 100 lbs of luggage and is in everybody’s way on an over-packed bus, made it to my train with no problems.
Train rides at night are always a bit weird. There’s just a feel about them that isn’t there when riding during the day. It didn’t help when all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, my train just stopped on the track. My fears were not subsided when i saw nothing but darkness all around, and a guy came over the speaker, apparently explaining things in French. Nobody else in the train freaked, so i figured i shouldn’t either. I was too tired to, anyways.
Train started up again, and i arrived in Carcasonne about 15 minutes later than scheduled. But the sight of a familiar face reinvigorated me.
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