Bad Time Berlin

Grumpy Cat at the Holocaust Memorial

Next stop on our journey was Berlin and sadly, things went down the toilet (toilette?) as soon as we arrived. We had had nothing but sunny perfect weather up to this point so we weren't prepared for the moment we got off the plane for it to be rainy and cold (we got spoiled, I know). On top of that our Airbnb host who had previously agreed to leave the keys for us at the mailbox had changed his mind and said he would meet up with us late in the afternoon to give us the keys. We got to Germany around 10am so that meant we were stranded out in the rain lugging around our suitcases for 4 hours. In those 4 hours Berlin did not make a good impression on us. Visually, it was not aesthetically pleasing; all of the buildings were ugly and run-down looking and everything was covered in graffiti. There were no cute shops anywhere and the people were not friendly. We walked around for ages trying to find something to eat until we happened across a bakery. I had a Danish (which was pretty delicious) and a cappuccino that burned the bejesus out of my tongue >_______<



Woodland Fairy

So anyway, 4 hours go by and we met up with out host. We thought he'd just do a quick hand over of the keys and be outta there. WRONG. This guy went on and on and ON for an HOUR. He went on this whole shpeal about all of the things to see in Berlin but immediately after telling us about a place he'd say, "But I wouldn't recommend it." This guy was the WORST. One thousand hours later he finally left and I went to use the bathroom and noticed that the lights didn't work in the bathroom. Awesome. Next we noticed that he'd only left us one blanket and zero sheets. Fantastic. On top of that the room was filthy and had giant dust bunnies and spiders. Ew. I managed to take a little nap despite all of these grievances. When I woke up we decided to get out for a little bit and maybe check out the nightlife. We went to this god-awful hipster bar for like a hour before bailing (a girl spilt her drink all over Melissa). After that we wandered around a little bit and ended up getting hecka lost. Nothing like being lost in a foreign city in the rain at 10pm. Ugh...We eventually found a train that would take us back to our flat and since we were 100% done by that point we didn't buy a ticket. Luckily, no one asked nor cared.



Amadeus and Me

The next day was an improvement from the first but it still wasn't great. Our day started off with us being kicked off the U-baun. Since no one had checked our ticket the night before we thought we could get away with buying a reduced fair student ticket. We were almost to our stop when two dudes started making the rounds and checking tickets. He looked at ours and we thought we'd gotten away with it until he stops and turns back. He grabs the other guy with him and they start yelling at us about having an "illegal ticket" and escorted us off the train. We were so humiliated/terrified. There's nothing like two angry Germans first thing in the morning. They made us show them ID then lectured us how the tickets we had were for children only (in our defense all of the info on the tickets was in German so would have had no way of knowing that). They demanded we buy new tickets so we did. However, as soon as we got new tickets they acted like NOTHING HAD HAPPENED. Like night and day. It was totally weird. Right as we got back onto the train an entire group of Asian tourists got kicked off too and they had no tickets so we didn't envy them (they all looked so scared, poor babies).

We hadn't had any plans to go to the Holocaust Memorial since that time in history makes us super sad town but it was right there when we got off the train so we took a quick look. To be honest, I didn't care for the design at all. It was kind of an eyesore and kids were running through it and jumping all over it so we crossed the street and walked through the park. The park was really pretty and we got to see some cute doggies. There was a monument of Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn in the park too so we took some cute selfies. Once the park ended we thought it would be nice to walk along the river and follow it to the palace. It was a lovely walk but it went on for ages and we never did make it to the palace since we got too hungry and had to search for food instead. Finding food was no easy task, I might add. Luckily, we stumbled upon a university and had lunch in their cafeteria for super cheap. My sandwich was pretty blah but at least we ate. Shortly after lunch it started to rain really hard so we got back on the U-baun and headed back into the city center. There was a mall there so we went inside for a bit. I was surprised by how gross all of the clothes were. There wasn't anything I wanted to buy (and I usually can always find something). Just a huge let down all around.



Bad Time Berlin Babes

We headed back to the flat pretty early and stopped at a Lidl grocery store for dinner stuff. I got a tiramisu for 1.50 euros and it was surprisingly good. Melissa made the best dinner of all time too. We had macaroni with cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, mushrooms and goat cheese and bread. I had three helpings if you can believe it. Best meal of the trip by far.

So yeah, bad times were had in Berlin and if we had it to do over again we would've spent an extra day in London and Amsterdam instead. But hindsight is 20/20 but our rotten luck in Germany made us appreciate Denmark so much more. We were there for three days so I'll probably write about that in a few posts.

Thanks for reading!

Amsterdam: Part I and II

Our journey to Holland started before the dawn. Since our flight was at 7am (again) we had to be awake at 4:30am (yuck). We called a taxi and it took us to the train station that would get us to Stanton airport. Stanton turned out to be in the buttcrack of nowhere so by the time we got there we were already late as heck. It was a nightmare! We had to run through the entire airport with our luggage in tow (my suitcase weighed about 30 lbs and there were stairs EVERYHWERE). I honestly thought my lungs were going to burst I was running so hard. And we weren't the only ones. Everyone else who had been on our same train was booking it through the airport as if the place was on fire. Luckily, the flight had been delayed so we got there with plenty of time but we vowed to be super early next time (unfortunately, this would happen to us again in Denmark).

Once we actually got to Amsterdam everything was fine, though. The flat we rented was an absolute dream and our host was super nice (her boyfriend was a dreamboat btw). When we arrived she still had some cleaning up to do so we went out for some breakfast. We found a cute spot down the road called Dave's Coffee and Nuts and we even made friends with a dog, Petyr, who lived there. I had the most amazing smoothie of my life and cheese on toast. After brekkie we walked down to the most gorgeous park. Since the weather was so perfect (another beautiful sunny day) everyone was out enjoying the park with their doggies. I even got to see some parrots there that I wasn't expecting to see in Holland. I think we took a little nap after our stroll in the park and later we went to a street market across the road from our flat and bought things for dinner. It was a quiet and peaceful evening, which we needed after our stressful morning.

Our next day in Amsterdam would turn out to be the best day of my life so far. It was something out of a fairy tale. Just a perfect day. We slept in a bit and took the bus into town so we could rent bicycles. We found a bike rental called Mac Bike and the man who helped us was so nice! For the entire day it was 14.75 euros to rent a bike; it was the best 14.75 I've ever spent. I never imagined that something so simple as riding a bike around town could be so wonderful. These bikes rode like a dream and as soon as I got on mine I was overwhelmed with happiness. I kept shouting over to Melissa, "I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN!!!" We rode over to the Nemo Science Center and climbed up to the roof and got an awesome view of the city. While we were taking photos up there a bird pooped on Melissa's phone and I just about died from laughing my guts out. We had talked earlier in the trip about how we'd never been pooped on by a bird so I couldn't handle it when it actually happened.

We rode our bikes all over town and it was so amazing getting to ride next to all of the lovely canals and boats. Our bikes had the cutest little bells too and it was so much fun getting to ring them anytime you needed someone to move out of your way. People kept walking into the bike lane so you'd have to ring your bell at them to wake them up. I wish I had a bell to ring in everyday life to signal folks to get the H outta my way! Amsterdam is super bike friendly but I'm still amazed that neither of us ate it or got hit by a car all day. I'm a pretty good cyclist but I was still impressed by ability to not die all day since people kept stopping in front of us.

The first thing on our list of things to see that day was the Vincent van Gogh Museum. Thanks to Melissa we didn't have much trouble finding it and when we did the line wasn't as bad as I had thought it was going to be. I think we waited less than an hour and tickets to get in weren't that expensive. I think it was about 15 euros. If we had had more time I easily could've spent all day in this museum. Vincent and his art are very special to me. I've always felt an affinity with him that I've never felt with any other artist. His work just moves me so much and has been such an inspiration to me.

We did manage to get in trouble at the museum so that was kinda lame. They only had a no photography sign on the first floor of the museum so once we got to the second floor we thought photos without a flash would be okay. WRONG. I was able to snap a few photos before I had a scary Dutch lady in my face. She was like, "I just told you to put that away. NO PHOTOS! Let me see you put it away!" while I'm like, "Just told me??" It was weird and super scary but at least she didn't insist that I delete them. My favorite painting we saw was "Almond Blossoms" and mostly because we got to learn that the painting was made for Vincent's new baby nephew and that he chose to paint almond blossoms for the baby since they symbolized new life and new beginnings. We were just so touched since we never knew the paintings backstory. The whole museum really touched my heart and I had to try realllly hard not to cry the whole time. His work just inspires so many feels in me (and the rest of humanity).

We only stayed in the museum about 2 hours because we were about to drop dead from hunger. However, the tomato and pesto sandwich I got for lunch didn't settle that well so I had a mini freakout. I got to experience my first pay toilet, though, which was really weird. It was 50 pence to use the bathrooms and Melissa came with me. When I walked into the stall I could totally see her and she could see me! I was like, "NO! How come the door is see-through?! I can't go if everyone can see me!!!" but when I closed the door the door instantly fogged up! It was totally bananas! After that bit of drama we kind of just rode around aimlessly and wound up at another beautiful park. Even though we had the bikes all day we thought it would be best to return them while the shop was open so we could make sure we didn't get charged any late fees or anything. It was rough letting the bikes go and having to walk again, haha.

We found a super cute ice cream shop in town and Melissa and I both got pistachio because we're awesome. While we were sitting there eating our ice cream a little fat pigeon scored a waffle cone that someone had dropped on the ground. He was so cute as he gobbled it all down :) It was really nice to just sit and relax after riding our bikes all day. After our little ice cream break we walked down to the Red Light District since it was almost dusk and we didn't want to be there after dark. It was pretty gross, which we were expecting but at least we can say that we saw it. We took the train back to our flat around 6 or 7pm and Melissa made another very tasty dinner. It was just such a lovely day and I'll never forget how exhilarating it was to ride bikes down the streets of Amsterdam on that beautiful spring day with my favorite girl.

Next stop was Berlin where things went a little...sour! Thanks for reading!

London: Part II (The Making of Harry Potter tour)

Our second day in London was a very special day, indeed. A dream 12 years in the making came true: I got to visit Warner Brothers Studio where the Harry Potter films were made! To be honest, this was the main reason I wanted to visit London. Let me tell you about our magical day!

Me and Melissa

I had booked our tour months in advance so we already had our tickets but when I booked them I had to pick a time for our tour. I chose 10:30am since I knew it was going to take a while to get there since the studio is in Watford. Google Maps had estimated it would take an hour and a half by bus so I thought we should leave 2 hours early just to be safe. However, the night before Melissa did a search and it said if we went by train and transferred a few times that it would only take 40 minutes. I figured 40 minutes sounded a lot better than an hour and a half so we decided to go by train. We wound up leaving around 9:15am thinking we'd have plenty of time. FALSE. The train ride wound up taking just as long as the bus! Our tickets said that any late arrivals could not be guaranteed entry so every minute that ticked by caused a bit of internal anxiety. However, I wasn't tooooo worried. I just had a feeling that everything would work out and that we'd get in even if we were late. A shuttle took us to the studio itself and that was my first time in a double decker bus. It was so high up that tree branches kept smacking into the windows and freaking everybody out. We finally arrived at the studio at 11:20am and I was prepared to cry and tell the lady it was my birthday if she told us we were too late for our scheduled tour but she just stamped it and sent us on our way. (insert sigh of relief)

Dumbledore's owl podium is my fave!

 When we walked in there was a queue we had to wait in with the other people in our group (there were about 50 of us) and right next to the line was the cupboard under the stairs--like, the ACTUAL CUPBOARD UNDER THE STAIRS! If I could've sobbed without looking like a freak I would have. Before the studio tour began we watched a short film to get us hyped up. Daniel, Emma and Rupert got us all stoked and shared some memories they had made going to this studio for the majority of their childhoods (I just love those three so much). When the film was over the screen lifted and behind it were the doors to the Great Hall! The Great Hall was totally wicked and I still can't believe I got to stand in it! Watching the movies will never be the same because now I'll be like, "I've been there and there and THERE!" Inside the Great Hall they had the student uniforms from all the 4 houses as well as the staff's costumes.

Luna's shoes and jewelry

The next room had the majority of props from the films in it. Luna's costumes and jewelry were my faves :) In this portion of the studio they had the boy's dormitory, the Gryffindor common room, Dumbledore's office, the Weasley's kitchen, the Potions classroom, Hagrid's Hut, and Umbridge's office. As far as props go, I think I was most excited to see all of the Horcruxes (the locket was so beautiful up close), the Philosopher's Stone, and the Tri-Wizard Cup. There was just so much to look at that it was a bit overwhelming. Honestly, I could've spent the entire day looking at everything. One really cute thing that I absolutely loved was this wall with photos of all of the animal cast from the films. There was a picture of each critter with its real name and a description of that animal's personality (for example, one of the Crookshank's was really bratty and kept biting everyone so she had to be used in shots that only involved running). I think they had used about 8 different Fangs so I'll have to look for that next time I watch all of the movies to see if I notice if they look different at all.

Potions Class

Another thing that was in this room was a place to have your picture taken on a broom. Really, only children were partaking in this part of the tour but as you know, I'm just a big kid so I jumped right in line with all the little ones. Let me tell you, this was probably the best part of the tour! You got to wear a robe and sit on a broom! There was green screen behind you and you got to watch yourself on a tv screen in front of you while the guy told you funny stuff to do like put your hand in the water then shake the water off. It was totally silly and cute and I loved it! The photo I bought was me in front of Hogwarts with the Dark Mark in the background. It's wicked smaaat.

Next we went outside and there was the Knight Bus, Number 4 Privet Drive, the Potter's house, the Ford Anglia, Sirius's motorbike, the Riddle family tombstone, the chess pieces from the first film and the large wooden bridge that connects the castle to the grounds. I was TOTALLY IN MY ELEMENT! It was just completely unreal and I'll never forget the excitement I felt getting to stand outside Number 4. They had a refreshments cart outside as well and I'm totally regretting not buying a Butterbeer. Melissa got one and I had a sip but I should've bought one for myself :/ Also outside we got to see some of the birds that had been in the films. There was a bird trainer there and we got to see one of snowy owls that played Hedwig demonstrate how the mail scenes were filmed. They train the birds to fly from point A to point B with a piece of cardboard in their beaks. Surprisingly, the ravens were a lot easier to train; to perform the same trick it only would take the ravens 2-3 days and the owls would take 2-3 weeks. Ravens are more intelligent than people give them credit for but that's a topic for another day, haha!

The Knight Bus

The last part of the tour was all about technical stuff, concept art, robotics, and prosthetics. We got to see pretty much every room that was created for the films as a miniature made out of paper. It was pretty neat to think about the process of making such monumental films like these and all of the pre-production that's involved. Diagon Alley was in this portion of the tour as well and it was awesome but I wish we had been able to go inside some of the shops (like Ollivanders). There were more owls in front of Eyelops Owl Emporium and we got to see an owl that played Errol. The final room had a bajillion wand boxes in it and on each box was the name of a person who had been involved in the making of the films. There was a dude in there who knew where every single person's name was in the room. (weirdo)

I think we wound up leaving around 4pm but I honestly could've hung out there forever (and ever). There were so many fun facts to read and amazing things to look at. It was paradise for any Potter nerd.

Number 4, Privet Drive

Once we got back to London we took at mini-break and had Thai food from a cart a few blocks from our hostel. We brought it back and ate in the lounge  and everybody kept giving us dirty looks for stinking up the room (they were just jealous). There was a group of American boys sitting across from us and Melissa got a taste of what I have to deal with back at home. Everything they were talking about was "totally sick, bro!". After we'd rested a bit we jumped back on the Underground and headed to Kings Cross Station since I was dying to see that in person as well. We made a beeline for Platform 9 3/4 and got our picture taken together. That was SO FUN! There was a dude there whose sole job was to twirl the scarves before the girl took the photo. Our picture came out pure cute and I can't wait to get it framed.

The last thing we did that day was go to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen's crib. It was dusk by then and the palace looked really dreamy. When we got back to our room we were 100% dead from our day and our flight to Amsterdam was early as heck so we turned in pretty early. Amsterdam turned out to be my favorite city we visited so stay tuned for my next post and I'll tell you the story of the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE (thus far).

LATERS!

 

London: Part I

First official buddy pic!

The morning we left for London started waaaay earlier than I would have liked. Our flight was at 7am so we had to be awake by 4:30am. Suffice to say, I didn't really sleep that night. Melissa had called a cab to take us to the airport since the buses don't run that early. We waited by the window but our taxi never came so she had to call another one. Luckily, that one showed up and it only took about 10 minutes for us to get there. When we got to the airport it was drizzling and cold which I took to be an evil omen, haha. Our flight was really short, only about an hour and 15 minutes but we landed in Luton so we were still quite a ways away from our hostel. We took a bus into the city and Melissa and I got to chat. It was the first time that we had really gotten to actually talk and it hit me that I was for real talking to the same girl who I had only known through letters for the past 5 years. I think it was on this bus ride that I finally got over my anxiety about her not liking me and was able to just be myself.

Palmers Lodge: Swiss Cottage

We arrived at Palmers Lodge: Swiss Cottage at around 10am. By then all of my sleepiness had been replaced by the pure excitement of being in London for the first time. Since check in wasn't until 3pm we had some time to kill so we dropped off our luggage and headed out. We took a look at the map and it said that Regents Park was just a short walk away from our hostel. I had heard that Tom Hiddleston likes to go for runs at that park so we made a beeline for it. Unfortunately, we did not have a Hiddles sighting but the park was phenomenally beautiful. We were blessed with a gorgeous sunny day and there were flowers, birds and dogs (met a magnificent pug named Emilio) everywhere. It was like a dream! I was expecting London to be cold and gray so I wasn't at all prepared for a crisp spring day. We stopped for a bite to eat at a café at the corner of the park and I got a fruit cup and some cashews since my tummy still wasn't feeling 100%. While we were sitting there my lower back started to feel crampy which is a precursor that my moon blood is about to arrive. It did in fact start shortly after so we had to find a drug store in town. While looking for a drug store we found ourselves on Baker St. and that was very exciting! We passed the Sherlock Holmes Museum and the line looked a little long so we didn't end up going in. In retrospect, I really regret that we didn't even peek in the gift shop. I know, I know. I fudged up on that one.

Sherlock Holmes Museum was super cute (at least from the outside)

Goddesses of Spring

Next we walked over to the National Gallery. That proved to be quite a walk so we got to see a lot of the city and do lots of people watching at the same time. When we finally got there we were pretty tired so we just sat down on some steps and relaxed (ie: took some selfies). The museum was free to the public so that was nice. I hate to admit it as an artist but I tend to get bored easily at museums. It's shameful, I know, but that's just how things are. We looked around for about an hour and on our way out we saw a queue lining up for a van Gogh exhibit. They said the wait time would be about 10 minutes and at the time that felt like 10 minutes too long so we peaced out. Again, big mistake. The exhibit turned out to be of all of van Gogh's sunflower paintings and the fact that I could've seen all of them together in one place for free if I had only waited 10 lousy minutes is enough to make me want to scream so I won't say anymore on the subject.

Photo I almost died over

In the courtyard outside the gallery all the children were having their pictures taken in front of these awesome lion statues so naturally I wanted my picture with one too. I did find it a little strange that no other adults were having their picture taken but not enough to stop me from climbing up there. Hoisting myself up was a challenge but the bigger problem turned out to be getting back down. The reason why only children were having their picture taken was because their parents were needed to lift them up onto the pillar. When I looked over the edge I noticed the edge was curved and there was no foothold for me to climb down on. At that point I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be stuck on this crummy pillar forever. To my relief, a kind stranger came to my aid. A gentleman (they do still exist) who I didn't even share the same language with put his hand out for me to grab onto and then used his leg as a step for me to climb down on. At that moment I was filled with a surge of love for my fellow human beings (which is a pretty rare occurrence for me). 

Next on our list of destinations was Big Ben and luckily it was relatively close to the National Gallery so we didn't have to walk that far. The London Eye was directly across the street from Parliament so we got to scratch that off our list too. We didn't ride on the Eye (too cheap) but it was cool to see up close. It was about 5pm by then so we decided to just see one more landmark then we'd head back to the hostel. Being the super nerd that I am, I chose the Millennium Bridge since it was in "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". If I had known it was going to take us an hour to walk down there I would've chosen Westminster Abbey instead but hindsight is 20/20. We got to walk along the Thames though, so that was nice and once we got to the bridge we had a pretty good view of Tower Bridge as well. I was running on empty by that point so we took the Underground back to the hostel. When we got back to our room we were surprised to find that we had a new neighbor! A Japanese business man was to share our room with us so any plans to sleep in our underwear went out the window. But no matter, I had a bit of a lie down, which I sorely needed and felt much better. Around 8pm we went trolling for food and we found a cute Italian place a few minutes away. It was really packed but we were starving so we didn't mind that much AND all of the people who worked there were from Italy so that was cool. When our pizzas arrived they were absolutely humongous so we could have shared one but whatevz.

I think we turned in pretty early that night and I slept like a baby. I was shocked that I slept so good since my bed was itty bitty teeny tiny but I was exhausted so a pile of hay would've been good enough at that point. I wish I had taken a photo of our dorm since it looked like the dorms in Harry Potter. To be honest, that's why we chose this hostel in the first place, haha!

So in conclusion, our first day in London was great despite not getting to see everything we had wanted to see but there are only so many hours in the day. The next day we would journey to the Warner Brothers Studio and that turned out to be another great adventure. Get ready for lots of Harry Potter love in my next post!

Cheers!

There and Back Again: Courtney's Tale

To be honest, I've been super intimidated to update this blog since returning home from my adventure since there's just so much to tell and I don't want to leave anything out. Seventeen days is quite a long time so I've decided to write about my travels in Europe in segments just to make things easier on myself (and on you). So let's start from the beginning!

The evening of April 7th I began my journey. I'll admit that I got a little emotional upon take off but let's be real here, this trip was a BIG DEAL and naturally there were a lot of feels involved. I had really started talking about visiting Europe when I was 22 years old. My anxiety had become semi-manageable and I had quite a bit of savings so I started giving a European vacation serious consideration. However, the boyfriend at the time had no money and to tell the truth, had no real interest in traveling with me at all. I was pretty upset at the time but after my experience last month I now realize that I went at exactly the right time in my life with exactly the right person. It was all meant to be.

I'm not going to lie, the flight sucked. Don't get me wrong, British Airways did their very best to make all of us comfortable but being trapped in a plane for nearly 10 hours is never fun. I still get nervous flying so I didn't eat a whole lot before departing so around 9pm I was pure starving. I started daydreaming about macaroni and cheese but then I noticed that I smelled something that kind of smelt like macaroni and cheese (very weird). I guess I was naïve but I honestly thought that all I was going to get was juice and a cookie on this flight. Boy, was I WRONG! The flight attendant asked me if I preferred the curry chicken or pasta bake. I asked her if the pasta was vegetarian and she said she didn't know. I took a peek at it but it was hard to tell so I told her I didn't want to risk it. A few minutes later she came back and plopped the tray in front of me and said, "You better taste it just in case. I don't want you to starve." Pure angel! The pasta did in fact turn out to be vegetarian but it also came with bread and butter, a side salad, tea, water, and coffee cake! My tummy was very happy! After my feast I tried to get some sleep but I don't think I was very successful. I drifted in and out of consciousness but I don't think I got any actual sleep. Yadda yadda yadda ten hours went by and I see London out of my window and got a dash emotional again. My layover in London wasn't too bad; I filled the time with people watching. I finally arrived in Glasgow at 5:20pm the NEXT DAY! Spoopy!

As I walked through the airport the excitement started to build. I was finally going to get to see my dearest, Melissa in 3D. I navigated myself through the crowd and then I saw her! It was again, very emotional! She was just so cute and we both were so excited. It was a Hallmark moment for sure. My first impression of Scotland was that it was SO COLD! I was not prepared for it to be so cold--yikes! We took the bus back to her flat and I got to meet her sweet mum and her adorable kitty, Shadow. We had Dominoes pizza for dinner which was funny for me since I wasn't expecting there to be Dominoes in Glasgow. I slept for a few hours but woke up at 1am wide awake. During that time I made friends with Shadow, the Creature of the Night.

The next day started off good. We took the subway into town and Melissa showed me her turf. We went into a super cute shop called Primark and she bought me an adorable blue dress with a black peter pan collar for my birthday. However, while in Primark I started to feel a bit...weird. My stomach started doing funny stuff and once that happens my anxiety will slowly start to kick in. We stopped at Hill Head Bookclub for lunch (even though I wasn't hungry) and I ordered a veggie sandwich thinking that would be the safest thing for someone who's feeling sick to order. BAD IDEA. Making myself eat made everything so much worse and I had to visit the bathroom more times than I'd care to admit. It took all of my strength not to vomit everywhere. After lunch we were walking to the subway when I had to tell the truth that I was feeling super nauseated and having a bit of a panic attack. A weird thing about Europe is that there are very few trash bins on the street. For someone about to hurl, this is not the best news. The thought of barfing right onto the street or on the subway was more than I could bear.

Somehow I managed to make it back to her flat without puking though. I had been so tired in town that day but when she left me alone in her room to nap I could not sleep. I felt so bad about feeling ill the first day of the trip. All I could think was, "Well, Courtney, you already fucked it up. You've ruined the trip. This was a mistake. You're not meant to travel the world." All of these negative thoughts kept rolling around in my head. It was the worst. I truly thought that the rest of the trip was going to be a disaster and that I'd let my anxiety win.

I'm happy to report that that wasn't the case. In retrospect, I can't believe I was so hard on myself. First of all, I was super jet lagged. It should've been no surprise that I felt super ill after flying for 12 hours and getting hardly any sleep. Also, I was in a new country with a girl I had never met in person (and was worried wouldn't like me). Combine all of those things and anyone would feel barfy.

The next day and the days to follow were gold. Next stop was London but I'll save that tale for my next post. We were there for 2 days and one of those days was spent at the Harry Potter Studio Tour so I might break those into two posts as well.

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Courtney