I'm broke but I'm happy

The above line from Alanis Morrisette was my motto for the trip, but even more so now that I'm home, relaxing, and enjoying a full "summer break" since 1996. Wait, oh my god... was 1996 actually 10 years ago? It's almost too hard to acknowledge that! Big YIKES. but taking the summer off is something everyone should do a couple times in life. You may have to live on cheap food like pop-tarts and cheez-its for a while, and not drive your car much (can't afford the gas) but it is wonderful to not have to be anywhere.

Good news: I finished sorting my photos and put all my Europe Favorites up at: http://www.larasue.photosite.com I know, it probably seems like a lot to look at, but believe me, I scaled it way back from how many pictures I took!

If I have to pick a favorite album, I think the Holland/Belgium/Switzerland/ Germany one is the most fun. But there's lots of great photos in all the albums.

Lastly, I want to mention that in the last 2 weeks I've spent a lot of time getting reacquainted with the 20 gigs of music in my itunes which, of course I missed dearly, and I've realized now that one of the best things my trip to Europe gave me is that now when I hear songs or see photos about almost any country in Europe, I will have my own personal experiences to relate to the lyrics or the pictures. When one of my favorite songs, California by Joni Mitchell showed up on the ipod my first weekend home, it just hit me. It's even more a favorite song than ever before. here's part of it.

Sitting in a park in Paris, France
Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won't give peace a chance
It was just a dream some of us had
Still a lot of lands to see
But I wouldn't want to stay here
It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here
Oh, but California
California, I'm coming home
I'm gonna see the folks I dig
I'll even kiss a Sunset pig
California, I'm coming home

I can't stop blogging!

In the last week that I've been home, I've been getting a lot of "what was your favorite _____?" questions so I feel the need to address that here. This feels so People Magazine or something.

Coolest City: Barcelona
Runners-up: Lisbon & Ljubljana
Best BIG city that's still little and beautiful: Paris
Runner-up: Rome
Best country that I would want to live in: Holland
Runner-up: Belgium
Best scenery: tie for Switzerland and Tuscany
Runner-up: Southern France
Best shopping: All of Italy (but never mail anything home)
Best attitude from the locals: Cinque Terre
Best Everything - food, attitude, scenery, shopping, history: Greece
Best Trains: Germany, no contest!
Worst Trains: rural Portugal and Italy, no contest!
Best chocolate: Once you've had Belgian chocolate, there's no enjoying M&M's ever again
Most underrated: Ljubljana, Lisbon, Cordoba, Siena, Stockholm
A little overrated: Prague, Madrid, Florence, Copenhagen
Best Culture Shock: Istanbul
Top Places I want to go back to: For really active vacations - Portugal, Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome and coast), anywhere in Greece, Switzerland, and my favorite little runner-up, inexpensive and uncrowded Ljubljana. For just a lovely, typical Europe atmosphere, it's got to be Holland, Belgium, and France.

p.s.
I added a few more pictures to blogs below because I had wanted to during the trip and never had the internet speed, or the time (and oh, do I have time now). scroll down and check it out. email me if you're having trouble loading the page.

back to reality

made it home safe! glad to be home and spending a day to unwind & unpack. Not too much trouble adjusting to all the differences in culture yet, although I almost had forgotten how American toilet flushes looked, they're so different in Europe. And I also noticed right away, waiters in American restaurants are very attentive compared to European standards! Very very.

before I go I need to mention a huge Thank you to all my friends who let me stay with them in Europe, and who took time out of their schedules to show us around, I really really really really really really appreciated it! So Thank you Frank, Stephan and Verena, Anne and Jacob (& Andreas), Jorlan and Jeanine, Jessica, Jerry, Steve and Lali, Albert and Sara (& Jan & Oscar), Jennie and Baris, and Luigi.

and Jose & Sannerijn - I really owe you guys big time for the upload of your huge music library to my new ipod. I know I teased you about all the Classic Rock and 80's shit, but Aimee Mann and many others saved my life on days where I was ready to go bezerk on Kate, or at the freaks that were staying in our hostels, or at the kids that were kicking the back of my seat on the plane. It totally made a huge difference to my experience. That being said, I'm about to purge the library any second now! A little sad, but it means I'm home.

keep in touch y'all. peace homies.
Lara

half-way home

writing from my lousy hotel in Montreal simply because I am feeling so bored and whiny...

it never ceases to amaze me that when a woman is traveling alone, the stupid hotel clerks don't think twice about putting her in a far away room, way down the end of a long hall, nowhere near the elevator (for ease of carrying all her heavy luggage) and nowhere near an emergency exit (for ease of exiting in an emergency, like if a rapist breaks into my room). I guess this is Canada, but I prefer a little extra caution when travelling alone.

So I asked for another room and they acted all burdened. And now I'm in a smoking room which really doesn't seem any closer to the elevator. I hate stupid Ramada. Also it was freakin' hilarious-pathetic, their van driver today did not lift a single person's luggage, he just opened the back door, and stood there with an expression on his face like, Right then, help yourself.

Welcome back to North America. Actually so far I haven't experienced the culture shock of everyone speaking English or anything, but I have had a couple Canadian strangers look at me funny when I speak slowly and clearly to them, like as if I'm treating them like idiots. Gotta break that habit.

And I have noticed that I now have an uncanny ability to guess what country people are from without hearing their voice, just based on what they're wearing. Seriously! Well I guess you can tell I was bored in the airport and waiting in long lines today. Germans and Italians are seriously so unmistakable to me now.

So the night train last night was a little scary to do alone, but I survived it. They do pair females together in compartments, so that was a relief, but I was really anxious from horror stories I've heard of people being mugged, even though my luggage was locked down, and even though I have nothing worthy of stealing, which is quite obvious from the looks of my bags.

The problem with the Sweden night train is half of the journey is over water, and there's no tunnels from Germany to Sweden, so the train car goes on a ferry (yeah, trippy). And while the train car is in the cargo hold of the ferry, there is like no air to breathe even with the windows wide open. The compartment was SO HOT that I couldn't keep our compartment door closed, and then I couldn't sleep, because I was nervous that the door wasn't locked. This lasted like 2 or 3 hours. Sigh.

But bad hotel or not, I am glad to be stopping over a night now before flying home, because I don't want to get home all crabby and needing a shower really badly. Oh... just noticed it's like 3am Europe time right now, so I reallllly gotta stop whining and get some sleep now.

But one more thing -- I can't believe no one has commented on the jackass dude yet - that is worthy of comments, people. And also shocked there weren't more comments about Kate's random unexplained owl picture on her site. That was supposed to spark discussion.

Bon Voyage (literally)

Today is my last blog from Europe but it's still going to be a long journey before I'm home.

This morning I woke up at 6am to see Kate off at the bus station in Stockholm. This afternoon I'm taking a train to Malmo, Sweden which is 4 hours, then an overnight train alone (scary!) from Malmo to Berlin (8 hours), then another 3 hour train from Berlin to Frankfurt, oh - and then I have to take one more train to the actual Frankfurt airport. but wait - it's not over. Then I take a plane to Montreal, and I'll spend a night in a hotel there, because my flight to Denver is not until the next morning around 8am.

So really, I have 2 full days left, but it will all be sitting in cramped spaces, and hopefully listening to my ipod if I can find a place to recharge it. I know, you're all saying, you don't feel sorry for me, I've been in Europe for 3 months for God's sake. True!

Well Sweden has been gorgeous, see Kate's page for a quick descrip, but one thing I need to mention to my college roommates: The Swedish fish is not good here (neither the gummy nor the ocean fish). Stick with the 5 cent fishes from Boston. And the famous "Swedish meatballs" totally taste like Chef Boyardee meatballs, oh my gosh, bizarre. Moving on...

Kate and I have both been reflecting a lot this week about the trip and how culture shocked we'll be when we get home. And actually, this was so funny, we took a boat trip through Stockholm's gorgeous foresty archipelago (a series of islands) yesterday, and the survey they gave us to rate the trip, had questions like "Did the trip provide you an opportunity for reflection?" and also "Was the trip inspiring?"- really random (only in Scandinavia!) but it was very fitting!

I think a lot of people will be curious, so here's a few ways that this trip has changed me...

- I have totally un-intentionally become a vegetarian because 95% of the time I'm scared to try the meat in restaurants.

- I tend to eat ice cream like it's going out of style. It's cheap and cold on a hot day, and gelato especially I will dream of for the rest of my life.

- Coffee comes in small doses here, but really good and really strong. The other day I got a Starbucks in Germany and I couldn't believe how huge the smallest size looked! Not sure I can ever go back to watery American coffee. Capuccinos from now on.

- I haven't lost weight but my legs are as muscular as a horse because there's hardly any elevators in Europe and escalators tend to always be broken. At the same time, my knees have become like an old lady, I don't know what the deal is, but they've been bothering me every day since early May. Getting old. : (

- I feel like I can figure out signs in a Metro or Train station regardless of what language they're in - even if they were in Chinese, I can quickly guess which one says Toilet and Exit and Tickets and Tourist Information because of where the words are placed, and the picture next to it.

- When I hear that a city has a Fine Art Museum, I'm like "Sign me up, I'm there" which really was not the case before. I have learned a ton about modern (20th century) art and can recognize the artists and name the styles. Prior to this trip, I had only taken a class in Art History through the 16th century, but on this trip, I have mostly paid attention to modern art (though I hate most Contemporary art... story about that on my photosite)

- I have a newfound respect for foreign tourists visiting our country, since the U.S. doesn't offer menus and signs in their language, unlike Europe which offers most everything in English - however I have a newfound disrespect for American tourists! They are so obnoxious, loud, and instantly recognizable. Kate and I always wanted to pretend we were Canadian or Australian when we sat down near Americans.

- I am always looking out for someone trying to steal my wallet now, because petty theft, though non-violent, is much worse in Europe and you just don't ever carry your wallet in your pockets, it's always gotta be strapped onto you somehow.

- I appreciate how everyplace in the U.S. takes credit cards! Half of our hotels took cash only.

- I will appreciate the multiple choices for salad dressing in an American restaurant.

- I am totally never staying in a youth hostel ever again! Even the good ones sometimes don't provide you with what I consider basic human rights (!), like a pillow, or like soap next to the sink, or paper towels to dry your hands with, or a shower drain that DRAINS, or other little things I take for granted like... a window. They seriously need to increase the standards for European youth hostels.

- I am really disgusted with the fact that most of the U.S. doesn't recycle now! The entire rest of the universe does. Even the tiniest villages have public recepticles for plastic, bottles, and paper here. Even the airports and metro stops do. Collecting the additional recycle bins creates more jobs. The U.S. is completely pathetic on this issue.

- I pretty quickly adapted the habit of having wine or beer with lunch, which is a strange one to take home. Even (or especially) Europeans who are having a business lunch don't think twice about having a glass of wine or two before returning to work. This probably won't be acceptable in the U.S. anytime soon, though!

- I definitely won't take my home for granted, or at least not for a while. I miss Chris, I miss the dog, I miss my car, I miss my clothes, I miss my refrigerator!!!

and that's about as deep as it gets! but really, the 3 months was perfect - perfect timing, perfect weather, perfect extended vacation. Can't wait to come back to some of these (16!) countries in small doses in the future.

see you soon. Lara

P.S.

and speaking of stupid americans... I think I just saw Pontius or Steve-O jogging through the park across from where I was eating lunch here in Stockholm... the g-string and Spiderman mask kind of gave him away, plus, there was a bunch of guys in orange shirts giving him cues on when to go. bummer Kate missed this!


I guess we'll find out if it was really them (or an impersonator) when Jackass 2 comes out in September.