My Semester in Copenhagen: Second Leg of Euro Trip 2010

So unfortunately my limited access to the internet over the past week means that once again, this is going to be a bit lengthy. I apologize in advance and will be thoroughly impressed with anyone who reads the entire thing and isn't my mother.

Day 1 (Sunday April 4)

I flew into Venice early in the afternoon and took a waterbus from the airport to San Marco Square to meet up with my friends. It was a minor miracle that we found each other because it was Easter Sunday and the square was even busier than it usually is. After dropping our stuff off at the hotel we headed out for some authentic Italian food. I ordered the ravioli and it was honestly the best pasta I think I've had in my entire life. The pasta was followed by gelati and wine and a walk back to our hotel in the pouring rain.

Day 2 (Monday April 5)

We woke up and went exploring through the markets in Venice and I found some great Murano glass souvenirs. But the shopping was short lived because we had to catch a train to Milan to meet up with one more friend. While on the train we got hungry and decided to get off in Verona for lunch. This decision was made rather quickly and in our hurry we accidentally got off at the wrong Verona station and ended up in the outskirts of Verona. On Easter Monday. In the most Catholic country in the world. Needless to say nothing was open. We managed to find a small bar that had people in it and through a combination of German and French we communicated that we needed food. The bartender was nice enough to make us some sandwiches and sell them to us for 1 Euro even though they didn't technically have food for sale. So all in all our first "oops" of the trip turned

out to be a very entertaining adventure. Once we got to Milan we stored our bags at the train station and headed out for a night on the town. We managed to get to the Duomo di Milano while it was still light out (Left) but the rest of the sights of Milan were seen in the dark. It was my friend's birthday so we had a big celebratory dinner complete with wine and gelati and then we went off to find a bar that was open. The whole Easter Monday thing made this a difficult task but eventually we found a great place with a friendly bartender who took good care of us. After the bar closed we went to a dance club and then walked 5 kilometers to the train station. We got there around 6 am and our train pulled up ten minutes later. We managed to get two train compartments between the five of us so we all were able to spread out and get a decent 5 hour nap in.

Day 3 (Tuesday April 6)

Around 11 AM we pulled into the Monaco train

station and we were a dirty but hungry group of girls. We recognized that this was one of the richest countries in the world and we all looked like we hadn't showered in days, stayed up all night and then slept on a dirty Italian train but our hunger overpowered any shame we may have felt and we decided to seek out lunch. Then, after checking out the Casino Monte Carlo and mingling with the rich and beautiful people of Monaco we hopped back on the train and made our way to Nice. Nice was our new favorite city, mostly because we were all able to take a shower but also because we found some cheap French baguettes and brie cheese and ate it on the beach. We explored Nice for the rest of the afternoon and decided to call it an early night since we had to get up at 4:30am to catch a train to Marseilles. We were in a 6 person room at our hostel so we had one random roommate who happened to be one of the best looking men I have ever seen in real life. His name was Steve and he was from Australia. Besides being nice to look at he gave us some of the worst but most useful information of the entire trip. When we informed him we might wake him up because we had to catch an early train he looked at us in shock and said, "You do know the French railways are on strike tomorrow right? Nothing is going to be running..." Well, no, we obviously did not know that. Thanks, Steve. It was at this point that I turned to my friend, Jess, and cursed her for saying that she likes France so much she never wants to leave.

Day 4 (Wednesday April 7)

First stop- Bus station. We knew there was an overnight bus to Barcelona and that had become our Plan B. Well, Plan B failed because the buses were booked for the next 3 days because of the strike. So on to Plan C- wait a day and just cut a couple cities out of the original plan. We were promptly informed that unlike most train strikes which only last 24 hours this one was indefinite and looking like it was going to be at least 3 days long. Fabulous. Plan D- rent a car. After adding in gas and the extra insurance since we're under 25 the price was more than flying there (Plan E). And flying there wasn't cheap. Plan F was my favorite. Go back to Monaco and convince an old rich man to take us to Barcelona in his yacht because one of us was getting married in Barcelona on Friday and the rest of us were her bridesmaids. We even walked into a bridal shop and were very close to buying a veil for emphasis before logic took over. Plans G -K consisted of horses, bikes, kayaking and other slightly unrealistic forms of transportation but they were the best we had. At this point things were looking a little desperate because I had started suggesting apparation, floo powder and broomsticks. We decided it was time to pause and reboot. We headed to the beach for a picnic lunch complete with mimosas and took a couple hours to calm down and enjoy the sun. In one last desperate attempt at the trains we went back to the train station and saw that there was a train to Marseilles in 2 hours. We didn't know what we were going to do once we got there but we did know it was further west so we headed back to our hostel, packed our things and set out for Marseilles. We got into Marseilles after dark and learned that a train to Montpelier was leaving at 6am the next morning. So we decided to continue with our plan to just keep working our way west and went with it. The hostel we stayed in that night was sketchy to say the least but we all made it out with all of our organs, something we weren't positive would happen when we checked in.

Day 5 (Thursday April 8)

We rolled in to Montpelier around 9AM and immediately started seeking out ways to get into Spain. At this point we had given up on Barcelona and just wanted to cross the border. We found out that if we took a train to Perpignan there MIGHT be a bus into Spain. So that's what we did. Once we arrived in Perpignan we were informed that the city wasn't big enough to have a bus station so we would have to find an internet cafe. Well this tiny city didn't have one of those either so we convinced a hotel concierge to let us use their internet and managed to find a bus into Girona, Spain. When we finally crossed the border into Spain we all literally cheered--Success!! A hop, skip and a jump later we found ourselves in Barcelona! So instead of the one train we had planned on taking, it took us 4 trains, 2 buses and metro ride to get into Barcelona... But we made it and we were in good spirits the whole time. It could have been a disaster but we took everything in stride and ended up laughing at most of it. So for our "Yay we made it" dinner we decided to try some authentic Spanish food and took our waiter's recommendations. Probably not the best idea in hindsight but again, an entertaining adventure. We ended up with octopus and peppers which were both delicious and a stew that was not so delicious. The stew had boiled cabbage and potatoes with a Spanish sausage (tasty), shredded pork and beef (blah), a pig elbow (not sure how to eat it so I didn't try it)

and a pig ear (cartilagey). Luckily the sangria was delicious and they brought us tequila shots on the house. After a night out on the town we were making our way back to the hostel and noticed that we were being followed by two men. There were five of us girls and we tried to pull everyone in tighter and let them pass but that didn't work. One of the men went up to my friend, grabbed her arm, went for her purse and was immediately tackled by another friend of mine who just so happens to play rugby. She proceeded to rip his very expensive headphones in half and then he got up and ran off. Meanwhile the other guy cut the strap of Jess's purse and turned to run past me so I decided to punch him in the face. He stumbled a bit but kept running. At this point the police had been called and we basically sprinted to our hostel. All of the credit cards in the purse were canceled within 20 minutes and after some calculations we realized that there was only about 2 euro in the purse that was taken. The most valuable thing in the purse was a beer mug we had stolen from the bar we were at earlier in the night. In fact we had moved almost all of the valuable things in Jess's purse into my purse in order to make room for the beer mug. So all in all these two guys got their asses kicked by a bunch girls and only got 2 euros out of it. It was a frightening experience but it ended up the best way it possibly could have.

Day 6 (Friday April 9)

We had to go to the police station this morning and fill out an official report. Almost two hours later we left the police station and surprisingly the stolen cards had been returned, unfortunately the beer mug was not recovered. At this point we were all pretty upset with Barcelona in general and decided to spend the afternoon at the beach to give it a chance to redeem itself. This was a great decision and after a fabulous dinner of tapas and paella we were starting to enjoy Spain a little more. Then we found a free concert in an old square and a bar with 4 euro mojitos. After stumbling across the best Chinese takeout I've ever had, we decided to take a cab home and I would go so far as to say that we were all actually liking Barcelona at this point.

Day 7 (Saturday April 10)

We went on a fabulous free walking tour of Barcelona's Gothic quarter. I learned a lot of interesting fun facts and saw the less touristy side of the city. We had timed the tour perfectly so that once the tour was over we could go back to the hostel, get my things and get to the airport in time to catch my flight back to Copenhagen. However when we returned to our hostel and walked into our room all of our things were gone. Our lockers were empty, our suitcases were missing and we had no idea where they were or why this had happened. After a heated discussion with the hostel staff we found out that my friends (who were staying one night longer than me) had changed rooms but no one had told them this. They were not happy campers... After tracking my bag down, my friends escorted me to the airport slightly behind schedule but not in danger of missing my flight. At this point I was barely phased by this but the girls I was with were fuming. I learned that they got a full refund for last night and several vouchers for free drinks and food at local restaurants. Just as Barcelona had started to redeem itself it all went downhill again.

I had never been so happy to feel the airplane to touchdown and walking through the Copenhagen airport was incredibly comforting. Don't get me wrong, I had a great week. I realize it sounds like I did nothing but complain about everything that went wrong but through all of the mishaps we managed to keep a positive attitude and make the most of it. I saw some places I had never seen before, tried food and drinks I had never tasted, ate plenty of gelato, learned a lot about the girls I was traveling with and my poor pasty white skin got to see the sun. I had a fabulous two weeks of traveling around Europe and learned a lot but it is so nice to be back in home sweet Copenhagen.

More pictures from the trip:

Cannolis in Venice