6.19.2013
Or, in Europe, 19.6.13.
That’s right ladies and gentlemen, this intern has departed the states
and is headed to Europe for a six week adventure! I apologize for not staying
up on my blog last summer, but this summer will be different: I promise.
A little background on what I’m doing and then we will get
into travels! As many of you may know, I
was honored to receive the English-Speaking Union—Kentucky Branch scholarship
and represent Bellarmine as an Oxford Scholar at Oxford University. I was lucky enough to have my friend from
school, Anna, win the scholarship as well (you can check out her blog here). With both of us winning the scholarship—which
provides 3 weeks at Oxford and one week in London—Anna and I decided we had to
travel together; hence the blog update.
We are headed to Frankfurt, Germany, first to visit our
friend Laura in Wurzberg. From there we will head to Munich and wrap up Germany
in Fussen. Our next destination is Italy—Capri
and Rome—before we head to Oxford.
Immediately following our adventures in London (mid-late July) we will
head to Interlaken, Switzerland and Prague in the Czech Republic.
Our travels began in Louisville, where we flew to Charlotte,
North Carolina. We were supposed to have
a one hour layover, but the plane was already boarding when we touched down, so
we made our way to the gate and boarded the airbus that would skip us across
the pond. In my life I never had the pleasure of experiencing jet lag before,
but I knew that would change shortly.
After a long trans-Atlantic flight, which was ahead of
schedule, Anna and I stepped off the plane and quickly proceeded through the
Frankfurt airport—where I received my first passport stamp! The transition was relatively easy, as I
frantically shot off emails, snapchats, facebook messages, and other messages
via the 30 minutes of free Wifi offered by the airport (Thanks T-Mobile!).
A quick chat later with the lady at the information desk,
Anna and I made our way down to the train platform—where I would soon board for
my first every train ride. On the train
we met an American couple who lives in Germany (he’s in the Army and she is a
dual citizen) and had a great chat, only to be shushed by other train
passengers because we were in the quiet car.
Ooops.
The train was late (so much for German efficiency!) but for
good reason. As Anna and I left the
station to meet look for Laura (our German friend), Laura was just
arriving. We literally were greeted at the
gates!
A quick jaunt on the tram took us to a café outside the
school Laura’s mother teaches at. The
three of us sat and chatted while we waited for our ride—Laura’s mother—to get
off work. Anna and I had our first
adventure when we went to use the restrooms in the café. We both arrived at two doors with words and
no pictures. Being Oxford scholars and
all, we quickly figured out that Herren and Damen were the Men’s and Women’s
room, respectively.
Finally, Laura’s mother stopped by the café and we headed to
her car. After a short car ride—on a
warm day—we ended up at the Schuster residence! A shower, lunch, and nap were
in order! After showering and enjoying a delicious lunch, I finally decided
that I needed to at least grab an hour or two of sleep before we continued our
day. A short nap later, Anna, Laura, Laura’s
sister and I were on the porch chatting, eating fresh pineapple and watermelon,
and pretzels. The snack was refreshing and
the conversation was entertaining.
However, Anna and I needed to work on scheduling, so we are currently
doing that…well, sort of. I’m blogging
and she is looking at train times. I
suppose I had better help! We might even
get around to doing some reading for our courses that start in less than 10 day
(yikes!).
There ya have it folks, intern-turned-world traveler
update! Stay tuned for lots of wonderful
adventure updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment