10/12/07- I have plans to take another trip to Europe in April 2008. So far it looks like it will be Dublin Ireland, Madrid Spain, Munich Germany, Salzburg Austria, Athens Greece, and Brussels Belgium. I may hop over to Amsterdam Netherlands for a day as well.
01/28/08- The plane tickets and hotels are booked. I am leaving April 3rd and coming back April 25th. I am so glad all the original planning of dates is over and paid for. April can’t come soon enough.
04/03/08- Woke up around 5am for my shuttle to LAX. Sharece and the kids woke up early as well to see me off. Big hugs from everyone and Sharece was in tears. The flight to Chicago was not bad. Some turbulence from the cloudy skies and I was wedged in the middle seat. No meal on the 4 hour flight and only snacks that you had to pay for. Rip-off! By the time we landed I had to go pee so bad I almost couldn't hold it.Almost a 3 hour layover in Chicago for my connecting flight to Dublin. It was cold and rainy so I expected it to be a bumpy takeoff, although we were in a large airbus. What is funny is while waiting in the terminal to board I asked the guy next to me if he could watch my seat for a second while I went to the bathroom. He looked me right in the eye and said he is not SUPPOSED to do that. What? I had been there for 2 hours and it is not like I asked him to watch my ticking time bomb. What a moron.
04/04/08- Arrived in Dublin at 9:22am after an hour delay. Half of the lavatories on the plane were not flushing properly before takeoff so they had to be repaired. No big deal though, what's another hour. The pain was when I waited for the 41 bus to pick me up to my hotel. I waited outside by the stop and saw the bus run straight passed me without stopping. I guess I had to literally throw myself in front of it for it to stop. Anyhow, I waited another 30 minutes for the next one to come by all the while it was windy as hell making it very cold. I am actually starting to feel annoyed over this when I look down and see an envelope that said Euros on it. I picked it up and realized it was MY envelope that had $500 worth of cash. Funny part is that I must have missed my laptop pocket when I was back at the terminal and somehow it stayed with my luggage until I got to the bus curb. If that first bus would have stopped I would have never saw that envelope sitting there and would have been out $500. Sometimes things work out.
Finally I am told that this other bus would take me there as well. Hmmmm. Anyhow, I told the driver where I was going and he nodded as if no problem. After about 10 minutes I see him pass the sign for the hotel, the Regency. I waited a moment to see if he was going to the next bus stop and doesn't. I then ask him if that was the stop and he tells me he never saw it, but I can get off at the next stop. I ended up having to walk about a quarter of a mile slightly uphill to get back to the next bus stop that is going the opposite way, this with all of my luggage. My legs were tired. Needless to say I crashed shortly after entering my room.
After a few hours nap I took a walk down the street. It was still cold and now it was rainy. About 10 minutes later the sun came out from behind the clouds and it was warm again. It's true that you can get all four seasons in one day here. Stopped by a local restaurant and got some chicken and chips with an onion ring. They made it right there which made it pretty good. On my way back to the hotel I saw a bus hit a car which in turn hit the car in front of it. All three were in the road holding up traffic. I naturally grabbed my camera and took some nice pictures of the damage. "Hello officer, I saw the whole thing?"
Back at the hotel I took out my laptop and got on the internet. The WiFi is not accessible in my room on the 4th floor so I had to go to the lobby. I purchased a 4 hour block of time not realizing that is was 4 hours consecutive. He gave me another 4 hours to use in the future since I misunderstood initially and already paid the 6 Euros (almost $10) for it. I also helped a fellow Californian out. He was asking the front desk about where he could get an adaptor to plug in his computer. I ran upstairs and gave him one- no charge. Apparently it was his kids birthday and he wanted to download pictures for him. He offered me a beer but I already had a drink at the time. I said I will be here for a week and most likely will run into him again. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
04/05/08- Early morning. I've been going to sleep in intervals so far. Four hours at a time it seems. I got my bus day pass (5 days for 19 Euros), but I had to purchase a one trip ticket on the bus to the spot where they sell the day passes. Doesn't seem right. I began my morning with a bacon sandwich from Burger King with tots and orange juice- it sucks you can't say oj anymore without thinking OJ Simpson. First place of interest was the Guinness Storehouse. Five floors of not so much stuff inside. I am not a beer drinker so maybe that is why I wasn't too impressed, but the museum was done up nicely. They even had a beer tasting booth set up which turned my stomach when I took a small glass. I found out I not only do not like beer but it makes me sick to my stomach to taste it. The more interesting part was the early advertisements of Guinness beer. They had an animated character stating "Guinness is good for you". That is hilarious.
Afterwards I headed over to Kilmainham Gaol, which is an old reform prison built in 1789. It housed inmates of all kinds: men, women, children, political activists, petty thieves and such. It also held numerous be-headings which were viewed as entertainment by the public, including around 90+ executions of activists during the 1916 uprising of the Irish against British rule. And during the potato famine of the mid 1800s where millions of people died of starvation, many people resorted to crime in order to be placed in prison for free meals and shelter.
Next stop, the city center. Although I did take the long way around. I took the bus to O'Connell Bridge and got some souvenirs for the family. I also took the Liffey River boat cruise and then toured Temple Bar before making my way back to the hotel. I did grab this apple, cinnamon and custard with vanilla waffle flavoring crepe. It was very, very good. I will definitely get another one of those before I am done here. It's funny because while I was walking this guy in this blue condom suit was following me while these people from the pub were laughing at him. I pretended not to see him, but suddenly I turned around with my camera and took a picture. Everyone laughed so hard at the pub.
I got back to the hotel around 6pm and slept only to wake up around 11pm. Tomorrow is my side trip to tour Malahide Castle so I will need to get some more sleep before that.
04/6/08- Went downstairs to start my tour and apparently the bus picks up around 9:15am. I was told 10am. They were able to reschedule me with no problem to the 2:15pm one, however I had to find my own way to the pickup spot in Central Dublin. The bus ride to Malahide was quite enjoyable. It actually snowed for about 2 minutes but very nice weather the rest of the time. Malahide Castle was nothing really to be excited about. It was fairly small for a castle and didn't take long to filter through the rooms. Photography was also not allowed but I managed to sneak in a few pictures when no one was looking.
After the tour was over the bus dropped us back off at O'Connell Street. I made my way around Parnell Square searching for a watch to carry around with me. Without a cell phone here in Europe I was in badly need of a time keeper. I walked into a toy store (like KB toy store in the USA) and had my choice of either the Bratz or one with Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Both were pink and very, very girlie. They didn't have any tough ones like Spiderman around. I had a laugh with the lady behind the counter as I told her it was for me. After some thought I decided to go with the Disney girls one (it was smaller and easier to stow away in my pocket). I finished up the site seeing just walking around the financial district and grabbing a few more souvenirs for the family. Somehow I managed to stay away from McDonalds or Burger King today. I went to a place called Seasons licensed restaurant. Yup, it actually states LICENSED in the title. Interesting. Anyhow, the food was very good- probably more so because this was my first real meal in the past 3 day.
04/7/08- Day 4- the day began early for the Newgrange tour. It made me question my kinship as I mentioned before as the temperature outside felt like 20 degrees (Fahrenheit). It did warm up as the day went on though, however it rained on and off. This was an interesting site to behold. The Newgrange area was built over 5000 years ago (around 3200 BC) and was possibly a ritual site for the stone age people of Ireland. This was actually built 500 years before Stonehenge and before the Pyramids of Egypt. Unfortunately they did not allow photography in the tomb itself (bloody bastards), but I was able to sneak away to the smaller site and snap some close up pictures there. Inside the tomb was very small. Literally we were in there for only 10 minutes, but the man power and engineering it took for these people to develop something of this magnitude is simply amazing. The site was actually unfounded until around 1700 and for 200 years it was unkept and vandalized with graffiti until the government stepped in to close it off for excavation. You can see signatures carved into the stones dating back to around 1837.
The tour continued on to the old cemetery of Mainistir Bhuithe Monasterboice. The old Celtic crosses are just amazing with vivid detail carved into the stone. The cemetery is still being used today so you see a mixture of the old gravestones with the new and many unmarked ones from the 12th century.
04/8/08- My father-in-law Dale flew in from Springfield this morning and arrived at the hotel around 10am. He will be with me for the next two weeks. We began by taking the bus to O'Connell Street and getting some Euros for Dale. After taking in a lunch from Burger King we ventured off to Trinity College and then to Dublin Castle. We had a good laugh at one of the signs that read "Please keep off the playing fields". Why call it a playing field if you can't play on it?
We went back to the hotel for a few hours since Dale was still tired from the trip over and went back out to the city center to take some night pictures. I was very impressed with how well the city lights up at night. The Custom House was simply awesome.
04/9/08- The fire alarm has gone off the past two nights in our hotel room around 2am and a few more times tonight. Apparently the fire alarm wiring in the hotel is going haywire and the hotel staff is scrambling to fix it. As one of them is in our room surveying the problem he asks Dale if he is an electrical engineer by any chance (just making a joke). Sure enough Dale replies that he has been one for 22 years. The guy explains that the fire martial is breathing down his neck to either fix the problem or evacuate the building and asks for Dale's help. Within 20 minutes the problem is solved. The hotel was so pleased that they offered us the executive suite. Well since we only had barely 2 nights left we asked that we just have free breakfast in the morning and an internet card for the night (which I am using now). I also got free laundry service out of the deal.
Oh and we also went to a few places of interest today. We started our day at the National Museum of Ireland. It was free admission however they did not allow photography which seemed unusual. Of course we still took pictures when no one was looking. Afterwards we ventured to St Stephen's Green park and then around the mall area to rest our legs and warm up from the windy cold outside.
Continuing on we took some pictures of St Patrick's Cathedral. We didn't go inside since it cost money for admission and it didn't seem worth it. Instead we went to Christ Church Cathedral which was one of the largest churches I have seen yet. As we stepped inside we noticed the person behind the admissions counter was not there, so we just walked right on in. A guy comes towards us and I am thinking he was going to ask if we paid, but sure enough he tells us that the crypt is closing and that we should make our way downstairs now to view it before it does. Well that was convenient.
Tired from the days walk we took the bus back to the hotel and ate dinner at this nice Italian place nearby.
04/10/08- Took a day tour out to Wicklow Mountains. We saw the town of Glendalough as well as Avoca (a hand weaving mill). The mountains were awesome with excellent color to the grass and lakes. It was definitely a nice break from the city. Although in the middle of the trip it actually started hailing for about ten or so minutes. Coupled with the wind it got real cold for a spell. My hands were actually frozen and I needed the hand dryer in the bathroom to warm them back up.
We got back to the hotel around 6pm and ordered out a pizza from Dominos. Dale asked for the works and they put corn on the pizza. Weird! Later I went to try the jacuzzi but I was 30 minutes too late. Sure enough though the night manager let us right in by ourselves and just asked us to lock up and give him back the key after we left. He even offered us to stay another week in the executive suite on them. Problem was our flight to Madrid leaves tomorrow and we have seen enough of Dublin to be satisfied. Tomorrow we plan to just take it easy before our evening flight out. The free breakfast at the hotel this morning hit the spot and we are getting it again tomorrow. So far this has really turned into a great trip. I can't wait to see what the next few weeks brings our way.
04/11/08- Travel day. We left Dublin for Madrid. We had an evening flight so we just took it easy for the day playing cards. The hotel gave us a personal ride to the airport which was very nice of them.
After arriving in Madrid around 10:20pm (delayed almost an hour) we quickly grabbed a travel pass from the metro and went to our hotel. Little did we know that the changes we had to make to other trains would involve tons of stairs. With all of our luggage it was definitely a chore. We were dead tired when we finally arrived to the hotel (Hostel Las Murallas). Only to find out that we had to travel another 4 flights of steps to even get to the room. Yeah, no elevator.
So now we are in our room, tired and smelly yet we decide to have the bright idea of walking the streets of Gran Via at 1am. We were literally hounded by people tring to give us fliers for their hostels and since it was Friday night the young crowd was everywhere. We grab a quick bite to eat and get back to the hotel only to realize that one of those street walkers snatched our camera. Not my professional one thank god but the backup Sony. Ouch to say the least. Good thing we downloaded all of the pictures already.
04/12/08- First full day. We met a fellow from Montreal who was also staying at our hostel and went out to eat in the morning around Plaza Mayor. Okay it was already almost noon but we were tired from the previous days journey. After lunch we went on a camera hunt. With no luck we decided to start enjoying the sites. First up was Palacio Real. Right after going in I started to take a few pictures when suddenly a guard stopped me, pointed to my camera and said I needed to delete the photos I just took. Well I showed him the photos but I only acted like I deleted them. He also showed me handcuffs and all I could say was 'me comprende'. They are really strict at the royal palaces I guess. I didn't care I snuck some more pictures anyhow.
Afterwards we finally found a camera at a local shop and continued on to the Parque de la Montana then to the Museo del Prado. Since we got there the last 2 hours before closing we got into the Prado for free. I love free.
04/13/08- Day trip to Segovia. We took the 10:45am train (Earliest time for a Sunday). It was very efficient to get there (about 35 minutes on the train and 30 minute bus ride). There we saw the Roman aqueduct and the Alacazar castle which inspired Walt Disney for the Castle in Sleeping Beauty. It was a sight to see. They also had a car parade of all sorts of colors. We left around 4pm to get back to the train station and oddly enough the bus ride back only took 15 minutes with 2 stops. The way up there took twice as long with zero stops. I wander if the driver got lost the first time.
We got back to the hostel around 6pm and took to the streets again. We ate around the Plaza and took a few night shots before retiring for the night.
04/14/08- Our flight to Munich didn't leave until 7:45pm so we took the morning to stroll around the Parque del Retiro. This was one of the largest parks I have ever seen. It was actually larger than the inner city of Madrid itself. Very impressive.
We had our hostel hold our bags for us since checkout was at 11am and went back around 3:30pm to pick them up. They told me the total for 3 nights there was 120 Euro (Which I already knew) but I told her that I thought it was supposed to be $120 US which is around 70 Euro. I said all I had was 85 Euro on me and she took it. I know, I was wrong for doing that but I have to skimp where I can and as long as she said it was okay I was fine with that. Beside 35 Euro savings is around $60 US.
We found an easier way back to the airport, still taking the metro but avoiding the stairs this time. We finally arrived in Munich around 10:20pm and it was blistering cold. The wind chill was nasty. We took the S-Baun, which was free for us by the way to the Central Station and walked the rest of the way to our hotel a few blocks down, TRYP Muenchen. This time we decided to stay in and not walk the streets for the first night. Still a bad taste in our mouth from Madrid. Although I will say that the rest of the time in Madrid was awesome. A very beautiful city indeed. You can really tell that they put a ton of effort into their buildings.
04/15/08- Raining in Munich. Regardless we took the tour of the city by foot. First of all we purchased a 3 day U-Bahn pass for 21 Euros (10.50 Euros each). Turns out there is nobody even watching you as you enter the stations so why anyone would pay for this ticket is beyond me. We began with a decent Turkish meal and then went around the Marienplatz area and looked at the Residenz. Later we went down to the Duetches Museum (free after 4pm) and did the speedy walk through. This was full of gadgets and inventions that was a nice change from all the castles and artwork we have already seen.
The real adventure came at night. I found an internet cafe several blocks away from our hotel. I got on around 11:30pm and stayed for around 3 hours updating my pictures and sending emails. At 2:30am I went to take the S-Baun back and it was closed until 4am. I had to walk all the way back to the hotel in the blistering cold with my laptop bag and camera on me. One things for sure is I felt completely safe doing it. Munich really does seem like a safe city to live in if you can get past the cold breezes and cloudy days.
04/16/08- Woke up early to catch our tour of Neuschwanstein castle out in the middle of the Bavarian Alps. The double decker bus was nice and warm and quite comfortable and the snow on the ground was simply amazing to look at. We did have to spend an extra 15 Euros for entrance to the castles and had to pay for our sit down meal in Euros as well (no credit card accepted). Those were the only drawbacks though. The tour was very nice.
We found an info booth at the central train station and got tickets to go by train to Salzburg Austria for the day tomorrow. I can't believe how easy it is to travel around Europe. You can go to the station and purchase a ticket to leave in 10 minutes and be on your way across the border. Too bad the US isn't as efficient as that. Oh and we looked around for some food other than Turkish and only found Burger King. I swear they have a Turkish restaurant on every street corner.
04/17/08- Our last day in Germany, so how did we spend it? By going to Austria. We arrived in Salzburg around 11am and stayed until 5pm. It was quite an experience. The food was good, the sites were very nice to view, the Fortress there was incredible and the people seemed very friendly. Overall this place is really a must do if you visit the Bavarian Alps area. We also saw a McDonalds delivery car. Too funny! Dale ordered a variety of meats platter that came with a strong sauerkraut and horseradish tasting side. It was so strong that it literally burnt your nose every time you breathed.
We returned to Munich and went out to find a true German restaurant, finally settling on a place called Augustiner am Dom. Extremely good food and very fair in the price.
04/18/08- We woke up around 4:30am to get ready for our 8:05am flight to Athens. I only had 2 hours of sleep and I barely got any sleep on the plane. Once we arrived we can instantly feel the change. The weather was very warm (unlike all the other cities we visited), and the people seemed more pushy. Either way we took the metro and arrived at Hotel Aristoteles around 1pm. My suitcase has really taken a pounding now. My front wheel is completely worn down to the nub and the case is actually rubbing hard against the pavement. I am just hoping it can make a few more trips before I retire it once I get back home.
Strolled around Athens to grab a bite to eat and take a look around the ruins area. We were approached by two old guys trying to find out about us and asked if we wanted to have fun. We just walked away. What idiots.
04/19/08- Went to the Parthenon in Agora. It was pretty impressive however they were doing some major restoration in the area that took away from the view. Also I was a bit disappointed with the amount of the ruins itself. Rome definitely had more to offer and in a vast area. Overall though you couldn't beat the view of the city from the high points. We also paid 12 Euros to enter which seemed outrageous at first, but later we found out that the ticket was good for many other ruin areas of Acropolis, Temple of Olympian Zeus and more.
Turned out to be a good deal after all. Surprising there were guards everywhere that were constantly blowing their whistle telling people what not to do. We got whistled several times for standing on broken ruins pretending to be statues and taking pictures of it. They are very strict with that sort of thing. One lady even made me scroll through my pictures to delete some. I put the advance 10 pics at a time option on so she wouldn't see all of them I took.
We took a walk down the major flea market area and found a great souvenir shop nearby. Since there was major construction around it they were holding a 60% off sale on all of their items. Best of all they took credit card, which is rare for this area. Found some great gifts including a thing called worry beads (of a sort). At first it looked like a religious thing when I saw Athenians flipping these beads around only to find out later that it is used to keep the mind occupied in case of worry or smoking or whatnot. I had to get some myself.
Ate an authentic Greek dinner which was quite nice and called it a day.
04/20/08- Went back to the Agora area to finish off the site seeing of the ruins. This time around nobody whistled at us. Later we had a tour setup to go see the Temple of Poseidon. The temple itself was decent but it was the views of the sea that really made it a great trip. This is what Greece is all about. The water is just so blue and there was just enough wind to relieve you from the sun. I may have to plan another trip in the future just for the Greek isles itself to vacation and relax.
04/21/08- Nothing much today. Dale leaves early in the morning tomorrow so we just took a walk around the markets and ate. We did see a fight between a taxi driver and a motorcycler. Apparently the guy on the motorcycle was run off the road unintentionally. When the taxi driver came outside to see the damange the other guy hit him in the face with his helmet which started the brawl. We were able to catch most of it as we walked by. Finally it was broken up. Funny part is the police came strolling down the street a minute later not even phased.We ate dinner at this cafe (which accepts credit card) and noticed the hookers were no longer on the street at 8pm. I guess they only work on the weekends.
04/22/08- Dale left this morning to go back to the States. He had to take a taxi at 3:30am to make his early flight. Me on the other hand had most of the day before my flight to Brussels at 8:50pm. I'm glad too because the bed here was just a box spring mattress where you can actually feel the springs. Ugh!
After checking out I left my bags with the hotel to store and ventured off to the Archeological museum down the street. 7 Euros to get in seemed very steep and guess what? They do not take credit cards. Go figure. Actually I have had a hard time finding places that took Visa. For some reason everything is cash only, especially for restaurants. You would think they would get more business by accepting credit now. That is why I love living in America so much. Oh well, I ended up withdrawing another 40 Euros from the bank. Hopefully that will last me until I leave this Friday. I also almost lost my passport. Walking down the street I felt something hit my leg. It was very slight but I turned around anyhow and found it lying on the ground. Imagine if I had lost that sucker. Damn! I have been very fortunate so far on this trip with things like this.
After getting back to the hotel around 2pm I still had a few hours to kill. Bored out of my mind I decided to spend the time at the airport. I was going to call a taxi but I felt I could make it to the nearest metro station of Omonia (luggage and all) and save some extra money. First of all I got turned around trying to take a short cut. Not a good thing to do when you are pushing around 25 kilograms and a bum wheel. I finally found the station and thank god it had an escalator. I connected to the main metro station and continued onto the airport. However, a few stops down the metro stopped and asked everyone to get off. Apparently most metros don't go all the way. I had to wait another 24 minutes for the connecting metro train to arrive. Exhausted and still early for my flight I wasn't too bothered by it.
I arrived 4 1/2 hours early and found that I couldn't check my luggage in until 2 hours before departure. So now I am roaming around the airport trying to waste time with full gear. I found a luggage cart on two occasions but this lumberjack for an airport guy grabbed it both times before I could. I finally found someone with an empty cart and he kindly let me have it. Made the rest of the wait so much easier to bare. While waiting for my flight I found an awesome shirt at one of the shops. The price tag was 50 Euros. What? I asked the guy there to confirm and he said that is what it is. It's a t-shirt! Is it self-cleaning? Does it come with a set of keys?
I arrived in Brussels very late and had to take the train to Central station to catch the Metro. Well I waited for the Metro for half an hour and none came my way. Four of them went the opposite direction though, what a crock. I was livid. I dragged my suitcase back to the street level and ended up having to pay for a taxi today after all. 10 Euros to go a few blocks? Hey it beats dragging my luggage around for 30 minutes like this morning. Oh and I had another 3 to 4 flights of steps to get to my room at the hostel I booked, Residence Les Ecrins. Does hostel literally mean "without elevator"? Hey, at least it is free internet and breakfast. I just found out that they are having a huge seafood convention here this week and everyone all over Europe is here for it. This will be a crazy few days I am sure.
Anyhow, I am happy because the main language is French. I studied French for several years so it gives me a chance to brush up on my skills.
04/23/08- Ate my free breakfast which was just continental and shoved off to the streets of Brussels. I roamed around the city for several hours just taking pictures everywhere I went. I was told that there was not much to do or see in Brussels and apparently they were correct, although I did get some nice pics. On the way back I grabbed a Belgium waffle with whipped cream (well I guess here they would just call it a waffle). Anyhow it was very good. I also purchased my train ticket to Amsterdam for tomorrow. It is hard to believe how cheap travel is here in Europe.
For dinner I stopped over to this place around the corner called La Boussole recommended by the owner of the hostel. Wow, is all I can say about the food. I was thoroughly impressed and even though they spoke English with me I had no problem ordering my food in French. Oh and I finally took a shower today, first time in a few days. This place has a shared bathroom but it is very nice. The last place I was at in Athens had a corner and a plastic chair to sit on as a shower. Wasn't going to happen. At least this place has a sink in the room.
04/24/08- Amsterdam was not as great of a place as I thought it would be. I walked around the town for 4 hours and mostly what I saw were buildings, boats, bikes (quick give me another 'b' word) oh and water. Lots and lots of canals. I was about to check out the home of Anne Frank but they allowed no photography. Since I was only here for the day I decided not to pay the 7.50 Euros.
Around 4pm I jumped on a train back to Brussels. Half way through the trip a guy says I am in his seat. Puzzled I just got up and moved to another one. Then it dawns on me, I boarded the wrong train. Sure this one also goes to Brussels but it is the faster train. Sure enough at the next stop someone checks my boarding pass and tells me I will need to pay 18 Euro for the upgrade. I asked her if there is anything else I can do and to cut me a break and she told me I could just get off at Antwerp (next stop) and hop on the correct one.
I was going to stay in Antwerp for an hour or so to take some pictures (I mean it was an unscheduled stop so might as well take advantage of it) but after looking around outside and seeing the rain I decided to just get on the next train that left in 10 minutes. I did manage a few pics however to prove I was there. I also saw a rainbow on my way back. Very cool thing to see up close.
Finished the night with a nice steak dinner at a nearby restaurant to my hostel. Again I spoke French the whole way- well until the end when I noticed they charged me 5 Euros for water. WATER???? I didn't know how to say WTF in French. Anyhow, sure enough it was on the menu as such. Tomorrow morning I will be traveling back home.
04/25/08- My tour of Europe has come to a close. I left the hostel around 7:20am. I caught the tail end of my Houston Rockets basketball game where they won. Nice! I trucked my luggage (for the last time in Europe) to the metro and then hopped on the train to the airport. This time I was able to check my luggage in right away however my plane was delayed about an hour and a half. This means I had to take a later connecting flight out of Chicago to LA. The lady asked if I wanted to stay an extra night in Brussels and leave on Saturday's flight that she'd give me a $700 voucher for American Airlines to use in the future. As tempting as it sounded I was just ready to go home. Plus I did not want to lug my luggage around another day.Before landing in Chicago we were informed by the pilot that we are delayed in landing due to weather conditions. Found out later that the "weather conditions" was actually a TORNADO WARNING. Wow! This also caused another hour and a half delay for my flight out of Chicago (Which was a very bumpy flight for the first hour or so).
I finally arrive in LA around 9pm (3 and a half hours later than what I expected) and waited 20 minutes for the shuttle to take me back home. After dropping off a few passengers ahead of me I did not make it back until 12 midnight. Was I glad to be home though.
END OF BLOG
