Week 4 in Europe: A (very) Late Recap & Phone Frustration

[Disclaimer- this post was written while I was still in Europe, and there it sat, sitting in my draft box, until now. What can I say...life got in the way! But here it is, freshly edited but nearly unchanged with the exception of an added bit at the very end. I hope you enjoy!]

Hey everyone! My, oh my…I don't even want to think about how long it's been since my last post. I'm happy to say, though, that I've been away for good reason- I've been busy having the time of my life! I now have several weeks to catch up on in terms of posts, but luckily this one will be relatively simple and (hopefully) fun! It'll mostly serve as a photodump/summary of the awesome things I got to do and see during my last week in Germany. 

Of course, no post of mine would be complete without some amount of moaning, so at the end I'll talk about the utter nonsense that I went through trying to get an international phone. Hopefully those of you who are planning to do some traveling in the future can learn from my mind-numbingly frustrating experience- I'll provide you with the perfect example of what not to do. 

Local Royalty and Weird Sex Paintings

One of the places I got to see while in Germany was the castle of Princess Wilhelmine of Bayreuth, locally known as Newcastle. It was really cool to learn about how influential Wilhelmine was in the history and development of the lovely city- she's essentially responsible for turning it into the fascinating and interesting place it is today! You go, Glen Coco! Aside from that, it was great to be able to just walk around and absorb the lovely architecture and grounds with my good friend Andrew. I love walking through old places and getting to imagine what they must have been like in the past. 

Newcastle in Bayreuth

A close-up of the fountain in front

The grounds 

A pond in the gardens

As beautiful as the castle was, the decor was a bit…shall I say…saucy. For example, there were a plethora of what I can only describe as renaissance-era S&M paintings. Andrew and I weren't quite sure how to react to these, but we had a blast trying to caption them!

Adventurous lover or overgrown man child?

We've all gone through that Emo phase

#casualbeastiality / #mancrushmonday ?

All in all, visiting Bayreuth Newcastle was a very interesting experience. There truly is something for everybody (and I mean everybody).

Oktoberfest: Dirndl Struggles and Drinking like a Manly Man

One of my absolute favorite experiences of my entire trip thus far was going to Oktoberfest in Munich. Attending this world-renowned sh*t show is on the bucket list of millions of people around the globe, but to be honest, it was never really something I cared about doing. That being said, I obviously jumped on the opportunity to go when it presented itself- who would say no to that?

Of course, being a spirited individual, I wanted to go all-out in terms of clothing. I will take literally any excuse to dress up, so I was super excited to wear one of the beautiful traditional German dresses (called dirndls). Now, good quality dirndls are a bit pricy to say the least, but luckily, Pia found one in her house that fit me! Well…kind of…I'm a bit more, shall we say, voluptuous in the chesticle region than than the original wearer, and it took at least two people to zip the top up (cue awkward turtle hands)! Poor Andrew…the morning of, he had to help stuff me like a sausage into a casing not once, but twice, because the first time ended up disastrous as soon as I tried to breathe. My fellow big chested ladies will feel my pain!

The struggle was so worth it though…I looked pretty freakin' cute, if I may say so myself!

Andrew and I with an Oktoberfest Horse

The whole day was quite a spectacle. From the towering statues around the event to the roller coasters to the food, music, and of course the beers, the whole experience was larger than life. My favorite place to go at home is the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, and Oktoberfest was like the Boardwalk on serious steroids. The spirit environment is intoxicating in the best way possible! Perhaps the colossal steins of beer contributed to that sensation a bit as well...I swear Oktoberfest beer is stronger than any other beer ever. The Queen of the Lightweights (as I'm called by those nearest and dearest to me) had two steins, and I swear by the time I finished I could see sounds. It was an absolute blast!

Just look at this monstrosity

Mani with the photobomb!

I will never forget how much fun I had at Oktoberfest. For those of you who want to go, definitely find a way to get there at some point, and for those of you who don't…you're wrong. I cannot wait to go back!!

Nature! Yay!

The day before I left, my friend Dorothee took me to see the Franconian Swiss, which is one of the most beautiful natural landscapes in Germany. I love hiking and being in nature, and the weather was absolutely brilliant, so I was overjoyed to explore the picturesque scenery. We got to see caves, rivers, castles, churches, and of course lots and lots of greenery!

We worked up quite an appetite walking around all day, so we went to eat at a traditional German restaurant. I got spetzle, which is now one of my new favorite foods.

I also got to try something called frozen hot chocolate, which is essentially a hot chocolate float. Yes, it's exactly as good as it sounds!

Visiting the Franconian Swiss with my friends was the best way I could have possibly spent my last day in Germany…it was peaceful, quiet, and relaxing, with views that could calm the most tumultuous of souls.

Reminiscing on the Little Things

It's been a few weeks now since I've left Germany, and while I do wish I could go back and re-live my crazy fun experiences there, what I miss most about it are the things that I think I often taken for granted at home. I miss sitting around the table in the evenings with Dorothee and her family playing (or in my case, losing) Phase 10. I miss laughing with my friends every time something got lost in translation, or every time one of us completely butchered a word in the other's language. I miss waking up to newfound familiar faces and spending the days with friends who fell into my lap as though Fate herself had placed them there. And I miss the way the sun would set in Mistelbach, lighting the sky on fire in a way I've never seen before. 

My International Phone Fiasco

When I left for Europe, my initial plan was to subscribe to an international phone service based in France that would connect me back home throughout the duration of my stay. I began my quest to find such a service basically as soon as I stepped foot off of the plane, and it didn't take me very long to find what I was looking for. My host father, however, was not on board with the idea at all. I'm not quite sure why, seeing as I was going to be paying for it myself, but nothing he did made much sense...I took his resistance to me being able to contact home as one of many red flags (consult previous posts for a recap of my hellish time in France).

After talking to my mom about this nonsense, we decided it would be best for me to purchase a SIM card from AT&T and have her ship it over to me. AT&T has a HUGE European presence, and they offered a phone plan for $50 that allowed unlimited texting and X amount of minutes from anywhere. The phone would simply connect to whatever local service was fastest wherever I happened to be. I could just slip the SIM card in my iPhone (which I brought with me), and my over controlling host father wouldn't be any the wiser! It was perfect! I bought my SIM card without much trouble, but of course, the hell had only just begun for me.

When France ended up falling through, it became even more imperative for me to have some method of communication, as I was to be traveling in the great unknown completely alone. Once I had made it to Germany in one piece, my mom and I determined that the best thing to do would be to express the SIM card to me at Pia's house. Simple enough, right?

Wrong.

First of all, three-day express shipping a tiny little SIM card cost my mom about $80. No, you're not hallucinating. 80. Eighty freaking dollars. We chalked it up as a necessary expense for my safety and her sanity. All would be well when the package was delivered to Pia's house! 

But it never came.

Three days passed. Then four. Then five. Nothing. We were able to track it as far as New York, but after that, the paper trail went dark. We made calls to all of the local post offices, but to no avail. Eventually, we got word from one post office that they had received the package at first, but that they sent it to another post office because they couldn't read Pia's address. The good news- we located my SIM card! The bad news- it was over an hour away, and we found out at 3pm. On Saturday. 

But, as usual, Andrew&Co. came to the rescue, and we flew to the post office as fast as the Autobahn would allow. FINALLY! I HAD MY SIM CARD! All of the hassle was over! Or so I thought. 

Foolish.

At first, the card worked great! I was able to text and call and all was right with the world. However, after about five minutes, the service completely stopped. You can imagine the string of expletives that spouted from my mouth at this point. Between my mom and my investigative work over the next several hours, we were able to figure out that AT&T had halted service to the card because of "suspected fraud." The only way to clear it up was, of course, for the account holder (me) to call AT&T and resolve the issue. The obvious issue here, aside from the time difference, was that I didn't have a blasted phone to call from!

Over the next several days, not without a huge amount of frustration and tears, my mom and I worked our hardest to get service back to me. The company wouldn't talk to her because she wasn't the account holder, despite the fact that we had BOTH explained the situation (her via the phone, me via the internet). I was starting to seriously think that the situation was hopeless. But then I had a Jimmy Neutron-style brain blast! I remembered that Skype could be used to make phone calls! Of course it didn't work the first time, and I had to try several times before the connection was steady, but eventually, finally, it WORKED! I got my cell service back, and this time, after all the trouble, I finally got my happy ever after.

Now, I don't want you to walk away from this post scorning AT&T. Everyone I talked to was incredibly kind and seemed to genuinely have concern for my situation (I guess my mom had a less than pleasant experience, but I digress...). And, once I got the phone to work, it worked AMAZINGLY for the entirety of my time in Europe! It would literally connect to any network at any given time, giving me the fastest connection that was locally available, where ever locally happened to be at the time! 

The moral of this story is simple. Plan ahead. The next time I go to Europe, I'll definitely be bringing an AT&T SIM, but I'll be purchasing it BEFORE my flight leaves, so it's ready to go upon my arrival. It's that simple! I hope that this story will stay poignant in your memory the next time you need to travel internationally. If only I had known!

Thank you as always for reading.

Hugs!

Hayley

Week 3 in Europe: Lessons in Optimism

Hey, everyone! I'm sorry that this post is coming to you so late- I've been busy and a bit ill for the last couple of days. That being said, it's impossible not to appreciate the beauty of my current situation. I may be trapped inside with a nasty head cold, but I'm trapped inside in Germany. It's hard to stay grumpy when I meditate on that! 

This week has been absolutely full of similar silver linings. It's incredible how quickly your mind can adapt to strange situations, if for no other reason than self-preservation. I have always been a creature of habit, and I'm not known for stepping out of my comfort zone. To my friends and family, I can seem like a pessimist, but I've always seen myself as more of a realist (is there a difference? Can someone call a philosopher?). The way I see it, I'd rather be prepared for the worst and surprised by anything better, than expect the best and deal with any disappointments that come my way. However, the last few weeks have taught me that while it may be logical to think "pessimistically/realistically" in some situations, it doesn't work well when you have no plan, no idea where you are, and no choice but to find a solution. Leaving a situation that would have been miserable, yet stable, for a situation that is wildly chaotic and unplanned, yet amazing, has been the best and most unlikely decision of my life (cue "The Hobbit" soundtrack)! There's so much I could write about, but there are four stories in particular that stand out to me from this last week of my adventure, and I'm going to share them with you!

The Best Last Day Ever

My last day in Nice was the first of the weeks' silver linings. I was taken in ever so generously by my lovely friend Christi, and we got to spend most of Monday exploring the city together! It's hard to believe that I was living so close by for two weeks, but I only got to spend a few hours there. It's an amazingly quirky city, full of things to see!

Thumb Statue…Why, you ask? I have no idea.

We were lucky enough to eat lunch in a pub visited by none other than Snoop Dogg himself…

Slizzle was Hizzle

Christi even got a free meal out of it, thanks to the friendly little green caterpillar on her sandwich!

Blurry due to copious amounts of laughter

 I got to taste some of the best gelato known to man...

Fenocchio's Gelato- mouthgasmic!

 And I even got a little dose of my favorite cruelty-free comforts! 

The statues and city art were interesting to say the least, and we took full advantage of that fact!

I'm so scandalous

We literally have no idea who this man was

Naked glowing men?

They even changed colors!

 We ended the night with some yummy drinks at the Caterpillar Pub (as it will henceforth be known), rocking out to an absolutely AMAZING 90's and early 2000's playlist.

The kindness and generosity of Christi and my other friends in Nice, combined with my excitement from getting to experience even a taste of something new and different, made my two weeks of misery feel totally worth it. Now, when I look back on my time in France, the first thing I think about is how happy I felt on my last day. The negativity that engulfed the majority of my stay there seems so much less important now. Before leaving home, I would have clung to those bad memories for dear life, using them as justification for staying in my rut and never taking chances. The Best Last Day Ever managed to completely skew my perspective for the better. Instead of feeling discouraged and heading right home, I felt more motivated than ever to go out and see the world, and I could not be more thankful for that!

"Ich spreche kein Deutsch!"

On Tuesday, I lugged my colossal suitcases to the bus station (of course with the invaluable help of the lovely Christi once again), and took off to the airport to fly to Germany. I was definitely nervous; I speak zero useful German (I can say "I lost my fried egg" and "I am a ball point pen" …don't ask…), and I was responsible for getting myself from the airport to one train station, and then from there to another (much bigger) train station, all without any means of communication with the friends I was meeting. Interestingly, the always-prepared-pessimist in me was (for once) unprepared for the confusion that would ensue. I ended up buying too many train tickets, getting lost in the platforms, and asking futilely for help from everyone I could find (believe it or not, no one at the Berlin Airport Train Station spoke English). Eventually, I got on a train, and just sat there hoping it was the right one. It wasn't. BUT, I figured it out anyway, got to where I needed to go, and found my friend with little trouble upon my arrival to Leipzig. 

In the midst of my anxiety at the airport and train stations, I caught myself thinking differently than I usually do; when I end up in a confusing situation or feel flustered in any way, my first instinct is to jump right to thinking of every bad thing that could happen so that I can prepare myself. However, this time, I found myself thinking things like "you'll figure it out," "take a deep breath," and "this time tomorrow you'll be waking up safe with your friends." And guess what? I was right. It worked. I was able to fight off tears and total panic in a scary and difficult situation, which is something I historically have been pretty much incapable of. I found my friends, and they got me safely to my temporary home here. As if that isn't amazing enough, I discovered what might be the tastiest creation known to man: the Smarties McFlurry. 

If I was a dessert, this is what I'd be.

Now, I won't lie to you and tell you that I wasn't scared out of my mind. I definitely can't say that my mind didn't try to go to its familiar dark places- I absolutely felt the strain as I fought to stay level headed. What's important, though, is that it was my inner optimist who won the fight within me that day. My refusal to give in to the fear in "preparation" for the worst that was yet to come allowed me to do what I needed to do to get through the situation. As someone who has battled crippling panic and anxiety for the better portion of her life, I can't even begin to explain how empowering it is to know I'm capable of that. There truly is no better feeling. 

 Mistelbach, Molasses, and the Most Unforgettable Birthday

On the train to Leipzig to meet my friends, I happened to look down at my phone and catch a glimpse of the date: September 16th. "Holy ****," I gasped, startling several unsuspecting fellow passengers. I had managed to completely forget that my 22nd birthday was two days away. Of course, being the amazing and generous people that they are, my friends (old and new) promised me that we'd do something special. I assured them that I really was just happy to be here. I mean, look at this place!

Bahnhofstrasse, Mistelbach, Germany 

Look how cute!!

More of Bahnhofstrasse

The garden

Mistelbach

Mistelbach

I was given a place to stay in this little slice of heaven free of charge, and I'm surrounded by amazing company. What more could I possibly ask for?

Of course, when my birthday came around, my wonderful friends went above and beyond even more so than they already had. I spent the day with Pia (my hostess), Dorothee (Pia's friend), Andrew (my friend from home) and Zach (Andrew's friend). I thought it would be fun to make chocolate chip cookies- I'd get a comforting taste of home, and they'd get to try a new treat! Chocolate chip cookies are simple enough, right?

Wrong.

 I completely overestimated the similarity between German and American grocery stores and ingredients. We ended up Macgyver-ing pretty much the entire recipe. 

Difference #1: No chocolate chips. To improvise, I bought a huge bar of baking chocolate, and we cathartically chopped it up into tiny chunks with kitchen knives.

Poor, brutalized chocolate :(

 Difference #2: No vanilla extract. They had some kind of vanilla essence, but it most definitely wasn't the same. We used it anyway.

Difference #3- and this is the real kicker- No brown sugar. My friends had no clue what I was even talking about when I described it to them! We called grocery store after grocery store trying to find it, but to no avail. Eventually, when all hope of cookies seemed lost, I remembered a blog post I had seen about making your own brown sugar out of plain granulated sugar and molasses. I had never done it before, but we had no other options, so we called around until we found a store that carried molasses, drove all the way into town to get it, and we made our own brown sugar. 

Much to my dismay, I added way too much molasses, which made for very sticky and molasses-y cookies. BUT (this is a silver lining story, after all), the texture of the cookies was absolutely perfect, the chocolate melted beautifully, and we even added some Smarties for a special Hayley-esque twist. They definitely didn't taste like I expected, but my friends and I enjoyed them nonetheless.

Our Molasses Monstrosity Cookies

In the evening, we went into Bayreuth for dinner. We had planned on going to a certain Italian restaurant, but (of course) my birthday happened to fall on the one week this year that the restaurant was closed! No matter, though- we quickly found another restaurant and we had an amazing meal, complete with free dessert shooters and a happy restaurant dog to keep us company!

My little birthday dessert

Goa, our little friend, waiting for Zach to toss a rock for him to fetch

After dinner, we met up with some of Pia's friends at a local Mexican-style bar. About 3 drinks later, Pia and I decided to go with them to a club- something I pretty much NEVER do- and we had such a blast that I didn't have time to take many pictures! The sole photograph from the night may present more questions than it gives answers, but I'll leave the blanks for your imagination to fill in!

Daniel, me, and a bigass dinosaur

Overall, my 22nd birthday was strange, exciting, alcohol-filled, and yet completely unforgettable. I met some wonderful people, stepped way out of my comfort zone, and had an absolute blast doing it!

The Show Must Go On (Even if it's Raining Sideways)

Over the weekend, Pia and I went with her mother to the village where her grandparents live to see her grandfather in a community play. Although I was unsure of what to expect, I was definitely shocked when I realized that the play would be taking place outside, despite the fact that it was absolutely pouring with rain. "Are people really going to sit outside and get drenched for this?" I asked Pia in disbelief. "Oh, yes- this is the most exciting thing that has happened in this village in years!" And with that, we donned our ponchos, opened our umbrellas, and found our soaking wet seats.

Pia and I smiling through the rain

I was doing alright for the first hour or so, but eventually I became a bit agitated. The play was in German, so I had no idea what was going on, and I was absolutely soaked to the bone. About halfway through, I started to wonder if I'd be able to last much longer, but then I had a sort of revelation; as I looked around me, trying to find someone as annoyed as I was to empathize with, I noticed how truly excited everyone was to be there watching their friends and family perform in this little village play. They didn't care about the rain. They had all worked so hard to make this event possible, there was no way they were going to let the weather dampen their spirits (I'm so punny). Here, in this soaking wet little German town, I witnessed authentic and sincere solidarity, and to me, that is cool beyond words. To make things even better, the actors ended the play with a literal bang- fireworks! My favorite!

A shot of the stage

Culture Shock 2.0: German Edition

•  Kinder Eggs: These little goodies are banned in the US because they are considered a "choking hazard" (survival of the fittest? Darwinism? No? Okay…). I just had to indulge on a few because, you know, I like to live dangerously.

•  Chinese food in Germany is absolutely nothing like Chinese food in California. It wasn't bad, but it definitely didn't satisfy my cravings. For example, the German-Chinese version of an egg roll was more like Chinese chicken salad stuffed inside of a thick pastry- think Chinese Hot Pocket.

German-Chinese Egg Roll

• The town of Bayreuth, which is the biggest town near where I've been staying, is the home of composer Richard Wagner. There are tons of multicolored mini Richard Wagners all around town, enigmatically conducting at passersby!

A Mini-Wagner

• Drivers here are MUCH better than in France. Seriously. AND, Germans are also completely aware of how insane French drivers are. It's not just me, I promise!
• If you meet a group of four guys anywhere in Germany, at least one of them will be named Tobias, and the other three will be named Florian. 
• If you don't like house music/EDM, avoid clubbing in Germany. It's all they play. And it isn't just modern hits either- the club we went to blasted some super-groovy remixes of hits like "Ice Ice Baby" and "Walking on Sunshine." Needless to say, my first time clubbing here was likely also my last.
• NOT EVERYONE SPEAKS ENGLISH. Consider that myth officially busted. That being said, those who do speak it typically speak incredibly well, and much to my delight, many Germans enjoy having an opportunity to speak English with a native speaker!
• German speed detectors smile at you when you're going the proper speed limit. So cute!

German Speed Detector

• The Autobahn is not the terrifying speedway I imagined it would be. People definitely drive fast, but not unsafely so. It truly is a wonderful thing when you're trying to get somewhere in a hurry!

What's Next?

A few nights ago, over delicious homemade chocolate cake, my friend Pia asked me, "how can you be happy?" I was caught off guard by this question- no one has really ever asked me this before. It took me a while to formulate an answer, but what I eventually came up with was this: the last few weeks have shown me that I'm the happiest when I do things I never thought I could or would do. Therefore, to stay happy, I have to keep doing those things: taking risks, saying yes to opportunities, pushing myself out of my comfort zone, getting a bit scared. These are the things that have led to the greatest happiness and sense of fulfillment I've ever experienced. 

I read a quote from Princess Wilhelmine Margravine of Bayreuth Newcastle (I'll talk about that trip in my next post) which perfectly sums up this sentiment: "I am like a blind person who is gradually learning to see and beginning to perceive things in quite a different way. Everything here has a leaning towards greatness." It is in that spirit that I take the next step on my journey, and begin to travel solo. I'm hoping to visit Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Oslo on my own within the next couple of weeks before meeting up with Christi in the UK for two final weeks of travel. Traveling alone is something I never, ever thought I would do, and that's exactly why I'm doing it. 

Here's to a safe, eye opening, positive, and life changing journey! I promise to try my hardest to post more diligently. As always, friends, thank you for reading and for your good thoughts. Talk to you soon!

Hugs from Germany,

Hayley