Unexpected Travel Problems

I have only really run into travel problems once before on this trip and that were not my fault at all, however, this time it was all me.

The first time was when I was making my way from Brussels to Barcelona and got stuck in Paris for two days. Not the most fun I've had all trip.

This time I had booked a ferry and three trains to get me from Dublin to Oxford (at both places I'm staying with someone I know, which helps). I need to preface this with saying that I am not the best with time management and the fact that this is the first (and last) incident like this is awesome for me. Prior to going to the port to catch the ferry I was watching a movie and doing laundry. I was not quite thinking about the amount of time needed to do those, get to the ferry and board it. First problem was my clothes would not dry. SO instead of taking 30minutes they took an hour and a half. Which means I didn't leave the apt until about 1350 to attempt to catch a cab in the snow for a 1430 ferry. The first 5 empty cabs I saw weren't picking up. I finally got a cab with about 15 minutes to get to the port. At that point I should have given up. But, no. I spent about 20euros to go all the way to the port to find out that I was right, there was no way I was going to make it there on time. Once at the port I realized that not only was the next ferry wasn't until 2040 and that once I got to the UK I wouldn't be able to Oxford because my trains would not be running. Changing the ferry ticket to the next day was no problem. The friend I was staying with had no problem with me staying for the extra day.

The train tickets however, were not as easy to change. First I had to refund them, which is not an easy process, considering I still have to print the tickets at the station and staple them to a form and send them to some company so they can approve it and then refund me. So then I went to book the new tickets and for some reason forgot to change the date and ended up buying the same tickets again. But I didn't notice in time to cancel it before they went through so I have to do that refund process times two. I finally found the right tickets and bought them for about half the price.

I decided since I was already online I would go ahead and book my plane tickets from London to Germany. First I was attempting to go to Munich for the day, but it proved to be too expensive, time consuming and annoying. So I found myself a ticket for Frankfurt for the day before I get on the plane home. I was being careful to pay attention to which airport in London the flight flew out of. And found myself an amazing deal. Even after adding baggage it was less than half the price to fly to Munich and really cheap compared to some flights the same day. I booked the flight. Sounds good right? Well it wasn't until after I was done paying that I realized that I had made the second booking mistake of the day. This time, I had booked a flight to the wrong airport, instead of Frankfurt I am flying to some smaller airport about an hour and a half away. I didn't book on Ryanair but the flight is Ryanair, which I guess means that I am not allowed to cancel with calling 4 different numbers and emailing 2 different people. Luckily I gave myself enough time to take a bus from the wrong airport to the right one.

There are a couple more things that I need to straighten out and book before I am done with this trip but I decided that I will do no more traveling arrangements today.

More than Halfway Through

So the idea was to write on this blog often, at least once in each country. But it turns out that I have been busy exploring and hanging out with new people to write, and when I do have time I have forgotten to write here. I have however, been writing. I have been keeping a journal of my thoughts and my activities, of course that is not so easily translated to this virtual page but I have some ideas of how to share that in the future (projects for back in the States).

I have less than a month left on this awesome adventure. I am currently in Paris. Today is my last day and I have spent the last week walking around, seeing the sites and going to museums, flea markets and photo fairs with my mom. Originally my best friend Kim was going to come meet me in Paris. I have been here before and I was looking forward to showing her around and having a little bit of home with me here. She discovered that she would not be able to join me. So I asked my mom if she would come join me and she said yes.

I have traveled with my mom before. When I was a Sophomore in Highschool my mom and I joined my dad on a business trip to Munich, Germany and from there we took an overnight train to Rome. We meet some other travelers and saw all the sites. We even took a train to a small town where my mom's grandfather was born and grew up. It was an amazing trip. This time, instead of me helping mom on her journey, she helped me on mine.

I came to Paris to see the Paris Photo Fair, its an international(mostly Central Europe) fair of galleries and photographers. There were so many photographs, inspiring me to try new things, and I was able to listen and learn about photographers and photographic processes.

Ok, but that's enough about Paris and my mom. (haha) I have been to so many places so far.
I started in Frankfurt, Germany staying with the daughter of my dad's German teacher's friend. I liked starting my journey with a person who expected me and showed me around. Then I went to Erlanger/Nuremberg, Germany to visit a good friend from middle school. I hadn't seen this friend in nine years when she moved away. Thanks to Facebook I was able to get in touch with this friend and go visit her. Then I traveled to Berlin, Germany. This was my first stay in a hostel and first city where I did not know anyone. There was definitely a large adjustment period there. But I had a great time, I did a bunch of walking tours where I met so other backpackers. From there I took a train to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Here I did a lot of the same things, took the tours, saw the sites, went to the contemporary and photography museums. On my last day in Amsterdam I met a girl from India that showed me how easy it is to make friends and how to truly enjoy the backpacking experience. I left Amsterdam for Brussels, Belgium where I have to say I had a pretty awful time, the weather was horrid and my hostel was out in the middle of nowhere. I think I was at a part of my trip where I just needed a break. I took one and then continued my journey. What came next was truly an adventure. I had a train to Paris at 8 in the morning and a train from Paris to Barcelona at 830 that same night. I arrived in Paris around 9 am and decided to go to Louvre and hang out in their food court and the park. I did this for about 10 hours, at about 7 pm I arrived back at the train station to find that my train was canceled because of the striking that I had heard about from other travelers. So, I had to wait until 830 the next evening to get a train to Barcelona. At the train station they had a train that I could sleep on for the night. I waited until midnight to be let on that train to sleep and then at 6am the next morning I was promptly kicked off that train. I then sat around the train station for 14 hours until I was finally on board my train to Barcelona. It was all worth it though. Barcelona was beautiful and warm and I had a great time. I spent time on the beach, looking at Gaudi's work, in art museums and hanging out with various groups of people I met. I then went to Madrid, which was not so warm and kind of gray. However, the day after I got to Madrid was MTV's European Music Awards, which meant that there was a free outdoor concert of 30 seconds to Mars, Katy Perry, and Linkin Park with a surprise appearance by Kanye West. It was an amazing concert and great considering it was not planned at all. From Madrid I made my way to Paris where I met up with mom.

Tomorrow morning I will take 3 trains and 1 ferry to Dublin to see another from middle school who is currently living and working there. Then to Oxford to meet up with a girl I met on my plane back from South Africa in August who is studying abroad there from Princeton. Then I will make my way to London. I just couldn't make a trip all the way over here and not go to London, I loved it there so much when I studied abroad. This time I am going to see some other cities (Brighton and Bristol) I make a short stop in Munich to visit a friend from YEP (the exchange program through my dad's office) and then I will be coming back to the states. Just in time for the holidays.

I am working on figuring out what exactly I plan on doing when I get back. I already have a residency to apply for and a photo contest of sorts, as well as planning my first solo show to be exhibited in the Alana Cultural Center at Colgate in the Spring.

Hopefully I will write again before this trip is over. I am trying to organize some photos so I can put them up or at least link them to some place to be seen.