Back in Paris - Feb. 13 2016

So much of our lives are spent trying to recapture the moments we've already had.  So many times, we think that if we just return to that one place, we will be who we once were. Why do I crave the past that once was as present as today?

Rain drops in Paris that glimmer like scales on cobblestone streets. The Sacre-Coure where I once fell in love with myself again, I woke up at sunrise to take it all in. It's cloudy and chill and my socks are wet from puddles. But no second time is like the first -- I'm coming from the other side, and so I see parts I had never seen before, the steep staircase and ski lift that takes you up from this side to the cathedral and the most divine view of the city. It's raining in Paris and I'm caught in it.

You'll be somewhere better when you're gone
You'll be wrapped in tongues that never tell

We spend the day walking to the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs-Elysees and past the Moulin Rouge and back to the apartment. Along the way, we stumbled upon the cemetery I found four years ago, the one whose name I didn't get before (Cemetiere de Montmartre) and I found the statue that inspired me to write this poem way back then.

We do not think at all, really

We breathe, we move...

from want of excess

to want of scarcity

Never balanced, always tipping

over the edge

Until someone walks by our tombstone

and says,

"She must have been loved."

I don't understand how I can keep looking around me, and seeing the world, and keep falling in love with it all. I'm constantly falling in love with the silliest of places. At every corner -- Iowa, New Hampshire, Paris -- it doesn't matter; I see a future where I'm turning around it. And I allow myself to imagine that future, the decades that would come, its tragedy and wonder. But I know I can never turn them. It fills me with this bone-deep sadness and I can hardly breathe. What terrible beauty, all of this is.

The Trip-in-Review, Awards Show, Thing-a-ma-bob!

Hey everyone!

So I've really wanted to do a recap of the trip as a whole, just so that I can think for myself of my favorite things and compile them in one place. Also, during this trip it has been very difficult for me to give credit to all the people who made me going to Europe truly possible and it really is a shame that I can't give them all due credit, so I will try to do that here.

So starting with the thanks, I really don't know where to start! There have just been so many people who have made this dream of mine a reality and honestly, I don't know how to thank you enough.

- To my mom, who was the beacon of motherly support (and concern) throughout the process. This trip never would have even been a part of my imagination without hearing her stories of how she backpacked across Europe with her friends and how it was one of her favorite memories. She's always fostered in me a spirit of curiosity and adventure and that spirit allowed me to truly take advantage of this trip and opportunity. When I called her up at midnight a week before the end of the semester, most moms would probably have told their sons that they were crazy, but she told me to go for it and, even though it was hastily planned, it was definitely worth it! Thank you mom for supporting me even when I sound like a raving lunatic - that is true love :)

- To my dad, who like always came up big when it came to making my dreams come true. Dad, you've always been one to not let money or lack of planning to keep you from making an adventure out of life and truly enjoying the world around you. You helped me so much to make this possible through your support and your constant love.

- To my grandma Yiya and my Aunts Didi and Lisa: well first of all, you guys are the best and I love you all to death. Also, while money isn't everything, the reality is that I couldn't have done this trip without funds, and your birthday money was a huge chunk of the cash I used to pay for it all. You guys always have been so good to me and I love you all to death. Then when I ran out of money in the middle of the trip, you guys went above and beyond and gave me the extra funds I needed to finish it out (and not sleep in outdoor train stations lol). I love you guys!

- Also to my grandma Meme, whose birthday and christmas money helped out, but most of all, her support throughout the whole trip, which was great because it was always nice to hear from her when I was exhausted or downtrodden or just confused lol. My Aunt Mahi and Uncle Brendan, who I actually got to speak with a few times over facebook and who gave me many tips and also were great - I love you guys to death! Thanks so much for everything.

- And of course to all the people who allowed me to stay with them during the trip, including Phillip in London, the Puttmans in Munich and the Esareys in Vienna. It was so nice meeting you all and really getting a chance to see the cities with such great families. Andi and Christine Puttman were so good to me and I really enjoyed your great conversation and your equally great wine! And of course I can't thank the Esarey's enough for housing me for four days and Katie, for showing me such a great time!

I know I'm missing people (I always do), so for everyone else who helped me along my trip, thanks for everything you have done for me!

And now to the Awards.

I think it's most fitting to use a Top-Five, Top-Ten format for this part, so for every section I will be listing my favorite moments, descending downwards, so the top one will be the last one.

I imagine the first couple sections will be quite silly and this post is going to be pretty long, so if you want to skip over the first ones to get to the more interesting ones, I understand:

Top Five Dumbest Mistakes

On any trip, you are going to make some mistakes. On any trip where you only planned during exams the week before, you're definitely going to make mistakes. And on any trip where you are Nick Fouriezos, well...you get the point.


5. Record mishaps
So my sister, Ari, had one request - get me an Italian record for Christmas. I agreed that I would get her one, thinking it wouldn't be so hard.

Little did I know the troubles that would befall me.

In La Spezia, the train station near Cinque Terre, I had a few hours to kill before my train left for Rome, so I went to a music store and bought her the record. I went to the post office to send it to her, but after waiting for an hour and a half (and getting nervous about missing my train), I finally got to the table to pay. At the end, the man asked for 14.50 Euros. I counted out all the cash I had - 14 Euros exactly. The man flat out refused to accept less and I was stuck with the packaged record and no way to send it.

So I figured I would send it away from the Rome post office, once I got some cash from an ATM.

Of course, when I arrived in Rome after my train ride, I forgot to grab the shopping bag with my record in it. DUH!

So I waited until my second to last day in Rome to get Ari's record. I first went to an address I looked up on Google, only to find that there was nothing there. Then I tried to find another record store, only to get lost. Finally, on my third try, I find a place that sold records and got her an Italian record.

Since the record was too big for them to ship, I would end up carrying the record in a little plastic bag from Rome to Munich to Vienna to Brussels to London, a span of 12 days or so, and now Ari has a record that has been in at least five countries.

4. Cameras? Please...Cameras ain't got **** on me.

Okay...so I took a lot of great pictures on this trip.

However, I also broke two cameras and didn't have anything to take pictures with after Munich lol (for Vienna I got pictures from a friend). I didn't want to admit this on my blog, but that is why I didn't post any pictures the last few days.

Both of them had problems with their respective lenses - both got stuck outside and wouldn't close. Bleh.

3. Three paid for plane tickets and 3 unused plane tickets

So during my trip I set up three plane tickets, one from Paris to Barcelona, one from Barcelona to Rome, and one from Brussels to London. The airline, Ryanair, gave really good discounts that were "great" deals.

I ended up not taking a single flight with Ryanair.

I missed the plane from Paris to Barcelona because an American girl I met told me it made more sense to skip the flight because they would charge me huge baggage fees and just take a train, plus I would get an extra day in Paris. She convinced me and well, you know what happened - I ended up missing Barcelona altogether. Because of that, the second ticket was useless because I woudn't be in Barcelona anyway.

The last ticket I missed because I had travelled all the way to within twenty-minutes of the Brussels airport, but had no cash on hand and no way to get 3 Euros to pay the bus fee to get to the airport.

2. A cold, winter's night in Florence, Italy

So I decided that I was going to get my whole homeless thing going and arrive in Florence with no housing arrangements for the night. There was nowhere to access internet, so I couldn't look up a hostel, so I just said, "What the heck, I'll roam the streets of Florence all night long."

Big mistake.

After walking around until 2 in the morning and attempting (and failing) to sleep in a city park bench, I returned to the train station only to find that the train station closes after like one in the morning. So I was locked outside of the train station with an ensemble of crazy people, including "Mumble girl" and "Crazy Eyes". I was also freezing to death and was shaking uncontrollably from the cold. When I finally got a train at six in the morning it was basically a life-saver.

1. So...about Spain

Haha. When I planned this trip, I actually wasn't nearly as excited to see London or Paris as I was to see Spain. I was looking forward to drinking Sangria and speaking muddled Spanish with the locals. However, that all failed when I went to the train station and realized that they had given me a ticket for 7:00 am instead of 7:00 pm. I ended up going to Venice instead but I will have to visit Spain on my next "Eurotrip".

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Top Five "Phrases"

These were the words, or thoughts, that got me through the trip. No, really, I probably said or thought these things approximately once every thirty seconds.

5. Hallo?

The German word for hello was literally the only word I knew going into Germany, which meant I was in trouble :) Luckily, I got through Munich with the help of strangers speaking English.

4. S'il vous plait

So in Paris, which was my first real experience of getting around a big city and not knowing anything about traveling, I found that using the French word for please was a big crowd-pleaser. I started by saying, "Bonjour," pointed at my map and the place I wanted to go, and added, "S'il vous plait?"

3. Escusi

So when I arrived in France, for some ridiculous reason I used the word, "escusi" to say "excuse me" for the first two days. I didn't realize my mistake until I used the word, asked for directions to a place, and then the lady asked me if I was Italian. DUH!

2. Beautiful

So I must have said this like a billion times. Seriously, we need to have more words to say "beautiful" in the English language, because I killed the thing. Really. I was having a conversation with someone, describing my trip, and I realized that every other word was the dreaded b-word.

1. Ooh...what's that?

I actually said this out loud quite a few times. It was ridiculous how applicable it was - when I was lost and I would see the tip of a statue jutting out, I would suddenly turn around and race down the alleyway I saw it from. Some of my favorite moments were "ooh...what's that?" moments, including the time I hiked up the mountain road of Montparnasse to find one of my favorite views of the trip. You never know what you can find if you trust your instincts and that little voice within you that says, "Ooh...what's that."

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Top Five Songs

Of course, music always plays a huge role in my life - my siblings can tell you how often I'm humming to myself or singing at home. I don't know why. It probably has something to do with being so A.D.D. but that's okay.

5. Taylor Swift, "Change" - catchy, one of my favorite TSwizzle songs

"You can walk away and say we can't do this,
but there's something in your eyes says we can beat this
cause these things will change"

4. Glen Hansard, "Falling Slowly" - not very well known song, but beautiful. Youtube!

"Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can't go back
The moods that take me and erase me
And I'm painted black

Well, you have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It's time that you won"

3. Ella Fitzgerald, "My Romance" - song I learned for a musical in high school

"Wide Awake,
I can make my most
fantastic dreams,
come true.

My Romance,
doesn't need a thing but...
you."

2. The cast of Wicked, "For Good" - great song, some of the best lyrics out there

"I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
if we let them
And we help them in return"

1. Billy Joel, "Vienna" - I was singing this song way before I got to Vienna. Perfect song to describe this trip.

"You got your passion you got your pride
But don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize
Vienna waits for you"

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Top Five Pictures

Pictures that contain the moment, preserving it so that I should not lose what I have gained by the insufficiency of memory.

5.


4.

3.

2.

1.

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Top Five Places

1. Paris
2. Cinque Terre
3. Vienna
4. Rome
5. Munich

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The Finale: Top Ten Moments

I'm probably going to miss some here, but I have to do it anyway:

10. Gelatto at the Trevi Fountain



So I get my first taste of Italian ice cream while also looking out at one of the most beautiful fountains in the world. It was awesome.

9. The Bus ride from London to Paris

Met my first friend of the trip and got to Paris with the whole world ahead of me, super excited to finally be fulfilling my dream of going to Europe.

8. The night in Florence

So it was one of my worst mistakes but also kind of a cool experience in retrospect - would never do it again, but it was pretty cool that it happened anyway. I'm still surprised I survived that night.



7. Karaoke night in Vienna

Wow - what a night. Got to do some awesome karaoke singing with Anna and Katie, though Katie didn't sing. Featured my terrible rendition of "Summer Nights' from Grease, but also was a fun experience, especially when I got to sing U2's "Where the Streets have no Name"



6. Crepes, crepes, crepes!

Met up with Jay, who lives in New York, and his Parisian host for my first experience with Crepes.



5. Getting lost in Paris

So when I arrived in Paris, I literally walked around for five or six hours just trying to find a place to stay for the night. It was a great walk though and one I wouldn't have traded in the world.



4. The Winston Churchill Museum/British War Museums

Made me truly appreciate one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century. I don't know...something within those chambers resonated within me. Maybe it was the promise of blood, sweat and toil, or the idea that I could improve myself and become a leader of men. It was inspiring, to say the least.

3. The Viennese Globes Museum

I just love globes...toootally. Actually, it was really neat, and I had good company. Followed it up with a movie, a pizza dinner and a walk along the Danube and you couldn't ask for a better night.

2. New Year's Eve

What can I say? It was simply amazing - a concert, good friends, waltzing at midnight while watching a gorgeous firework display. Crazy hats, Brazilians, weird dancing and a feeling of home. It was definitely my favorite group moment of the trip.




1. Drinking wine while looking over the view of Corniglia, in Cinque Terre

So I said favorite group moment for the last one because, as good as that night was, this was the day of my most personal growth, all on my own as is necessary for such moments. Walking up that mountain and reaching the town, then convincing the store owner to let me have a glass of wine and soak it all in - that's when I realized how lucky I was, how far I had come, and how special this Europe trip truly was.




Well that's it - it's been a great ride and a lot of fun. Unfortunately I'll be late for class if I write anymore, so "Caio!"

Twenty-second Day, JAN 6th - One last walk in London

It was 6:30 in the morning, the beginning to my last day in Europe.

I had a lot in my mind, which was maybe why I was awake. It used to be that I couldn't sleep when I had a lot on my mind, but last night I had been so tired that I fell over at 10:30 or so and didn't get back up for anything.

But though I had set my clock for 7:30, I was up at 6:30 anyway. And then I couldn't sleep.

I got up around 7:00 and started getting ready, dressing warmly – that means I was fully garbed in long underwear (yes, I did just say that) and multiple shirts. I brushed my teeth, rubbed my eyes, grabbed my mini-day pack, and set out to make one last dayfull of memories before heading home and back to University life.

It began with a walk down Uxbridge road, a large highway that I would follow to get from my host's apartment to the closest underground station, “Shepherd's Bush.”

I was surprised to find that it wasn't light outside, since I figured that with the earlier sunset there would be an earlier sunrise. Apparently not though, as it still was dark and only just getting lighter.The walk was a pleasant one though, with only the slightest chill. I was cozy though – long underwear, and all.

I stopped by a small restaurant and ordered an English breakfast, which came with a huge cup of steaming-hot coffee. I had forgotten to ask for it black, so it was interesting to taste cream and sugar in my coffee for the first time in years. The bacon/ham was really good and the meal itself was perfect for getting me off on the right foot.

I passed by a tattoo parlor called “Forevermore Tattoo” - I like the name, considering it makes perfect sense with the fact you're pretty much stuck with whatever you get “forevermore”.

After a twenty-five minute walk that saw the sun begin to rise in neat layers of pink and red hues, I finally made it the Underground station and paid for a ticket, set to make it to the London Tower to start my journey for the day.

Well I made it near the Tower, but not quite – for some reason, the Tube had closed down the station (the Tube is notorious for this, with the Underground trains often suffering mechanical errors and stations being shut down, sometimes for months at at a time). With the station closed, I got out near the river Thames and crossed it to get to the “South Bank” - which is being renovated with tons of upscale buildings after being the demolished remains of WWII for a long, long time. Apparently there is a lot of optimism in London about this area's new growth.

Anyway, I stopped by Shakespeare's Globe and peaked around there and also went to the Tate Museum of Modern Art, but the latter was closed so I took another walk across the river, this time across the Millenium bridge. The Millenium bridge is a nifty structure – later I was told by Rica that it used to be called “the Wobbly bridge” because it was wobbly early after it's construction so they had to make reinforcements on it over the years. It held up fine for me though and I got a sparkling view of the Thames as the city began to rise all around me. I made sure to dip my hands in it before going forward.

I reached St. Paul's Cathedral around 9:30, got to check that out gaain, then went to the London Monument, a skinny, but very tall tower that was built as a monument to the London fire that wiped out a 1/3 of the city, I think in the 1800s. I paid the 2 pound fare then got to work climbing up the tiny staircase, which was pretty claustrophobic. After 300-something steps I was puffing, but it was worth it to get a beautiful view of the whole city from all angles.

I got back to Rica's workplace around 11:30 and we were able to go to a nearby pub for a quick lunch, which she was very generous in covering for me. We had a fun discussion about all things European and American, including the general pessimism that clouds over European cities as opposed to the natural optimism of Americans. I told her that many Europeans told me this was so, but I was about to say that I wasn't sure if I believed it when she cut me off and said, “Oh, that's definitely true.” Lol...so take it from a woman who has lived in the U.K. for a bit now and is from the U.S.

From there I took the Underground to get to Trafalgar Square, which is really impressive. Last time I was here I tried to visit the National Art Museum, but wasn't allowed in because of my backpack. This time I was carrying just my daypack, so I checked it into the cloak room and then made my way through the art exhibitions, which were pretty cool.

There were a lot of portraits, which was good because I thought the pictures with people in them were much more interesting than the landscapes. The paintings were very interesting, most either based off of famous historical figures or famous scenes from the Bible or Mythology.

I wouldn't have liked wearing clothing during those time periods though – apparently the dresses women wear in such times never stay up, but are always sliding down beneath their chest. Maybe they should invest in some clothespins or a sewing kit?

I left there and took a walk through St. Andrews park, which was full of life. Since it had turned out to be a pretty good day, with a lot of sun and next to no wind, so there were geese and birds and bikers and walkers pretty much everywhere.

I stumbled upon the Churchill War Rooms on this walk and remembered that Rica told me I should go see them, so I stopped by and loved it. Churchill is one of the most interesting figures of the 20th century and the museum did him due justice, detailing everything from famous speeches (presented in audio, which was really cool) to letters that he wrote as a child. It was fascinating.

It was getting dark by now, so I stopped by Big Ben and Parliament to say goodbye and then headed back to my host's apartment for the night.

Before I got there though, I thought it would be fitting to write my last regular blog post in a London Starbucks, which is where I wrote my first one. This is the account of my last day and, like my account of my first day, was written in a London Starbucks so I thought it was neat.

Anyway, I will have one last post – a Summary of the Trip – posted sometime when I get home tomorrow, after the flight.

Until then though, good night and happy new year!

Nick

Twentieth and Twenty-first Days, JAN 4, 5 - Brussels then London

Okay - this will be really short. I'm going to write more when I get a chance to explore London tomorrow.

Got to go to a bar in Brussels that served chocolate beer, that was interesting but the beer made me feel kind of sick lol. Still, cool experience. Watched a movie that night and caught up with a friend, but that's it really.

Took the train on the 5th to London, didn't have any problems with that, though it was raining like crazy in Brussels - at one point some one opened the door to the restaurant I was staying in while I waited for the train and almost half the stores place-sets fell over from the gust of wind that entered. Watched two movies while waiting for my train and also on the train ride. Got to London around 2:00.

Found Rica's workplace around 3:30, got to have lunch with her, she was so nice and is really energetic and fun - I wish I had more time to spend with her, but of course, I will be having lunch with her tomorrow at the place she says is her favorite bar, so that will be good. Also met Phillip, who I'm staying with for the next few days - he's great, he helps Rica with the IPHONE app programming stuff and used to work on video games, such as the Warhammer game that came out, and also LAIR, which was a big project a few years ago. He's been really gracious as a host.

Anyway, all I was able to do today was take a walk around Hyde Park at night, which was neat with the winds and the chill, it made it more interesting. Very peaceful, then I followed Phillip back to his place where I'm staying in his guest room for the night.

Tomorrow's going to be a long day though, gotta get up early, so I guess this is goodbye for now. Sorry that I couldn't really put more in, but I'm exhausted! G'night!

Nineteenth Day, JAN 3 - A long train ride and a missed flight

“You have suffered enough, and warred with yourself. It's time that you won.”

So the plan was to go to Manchester and visit a friend before finally ending up in London for the next few days.

As we know by now though, my plans don't usually “go to plan”.

But first a recap of the last few days – I didn't write anything about the third, mainly because there wasn't much that happened. I left for my train early in the morning, the train left at 10:29, I arrived in Brussels around 9:29.

It took me longer than I thought to find my hotel, “The Moon Hotel”, a small, hole-in-the-wall type of place, but it was very comfortable and the room was perfect for what I needed.

I was really tired, so I went to bed and decided I would get up around 9:00 to see the city.

I got up at 9:00, showered, packed, and procrastinated until 10:15 and then checked out. I stopped by the train station to make sure I knew what train I would need to take later. It was easy enough, and the train to the airport (about an hour and a half outside of Brussels) wasn't leaving until 11:30. So I had about an hour to just explore for a bit.

I started my exploration by going to the “Grand Palace,” or at least, I think that's what it's called, a really cool town square near the train station. My guidebook calls it the best plaza in Europe, though I don't know about that. It was very neat though – a big, wide open space with giant, Gothic buildings surrounding it, each building covered in Gold. One of the big landmarks is the giant tower that shoots upward from what I thought looked like a Cathedral.Very historical and grandiose and very interesting. Apparently the famous fountain of a little boy peeing is here too, but I couldn't find it.

I took a turn, walking amidst the street corners and found myself back near the train station, this time at another very big plaza-like setting. I don't know what it's called, but it's basically a giant row of steps that lead up to what I think was the city (or country's) parliament building. The stairs were really neat – at the base of the stairs and across a small street was a row of “ridges” coming out of the pavement, like a half-sun announcing the entrance to the stairs.

Then you walked up the stairs, a whole flight of them that led up to this garden full of benches and shrubs arranged in different patterns. I finally got to the top and got a grand view of the city, able to see the tower I mentioned earlier, plus all the buildings as they faded downhill.

By now I had to get back to the train station, so I turned and made my way back. I made it to my train on time and made the first hour to the airport by train, like I was expecting. However, when I got to “Charleroi Sord” (I think that was the name of the station) I was supposed to get off and take a bus into the airport. However, from the online directions I had gotten, I thought I would be able to take another train, not a bus. The airport was twenty minutes outside of town.

The difference doesn't seem like a lot, but it was for me, since I have my Eurail pass that allows me to take trains for free, but I do not have a bus pass.

So basically, I went to get a bus ticket but it was three Euros, and I haven't had cash in the last two days (I was expecting some money to go into my debit card sometime today or yesterday, so that I could go to an ATM). I tried to use my credit card and it had an error. I talked to a money changer at the station, and he told me that apparently in Belgium they can't except newer cards because the card-readers don't read them correctly.

So without the ability to get money from my debit card or credit card, and without any cash, I turned around and took a train back to Brussels.

I will be fine – I will have to pay more, but I will probably be able to go to Brussels and pay for a Eurostar train ticket through the Chunnel, which would take me to London in 2.5 hours. However, it does mean I will probably spend another night in Brussels – maybe I'll finally get a chance to get one of their famous “chocolate beers”!

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Days, JAN 1st and 2nd

I believe that this will be the most difficult post I've written during my time in Europe.

It's not very often that I don't know what to write, but at this point I am facing that exact situation – words, which should come easy, are hard to swallow at times and even harder to ascribe to events which are so far beyond mere language.

In many ways, our ability to remember the past is limited by the capacity of language for such description.

It is easy to write an article about Sports. It has rules and laws, governed by the whistle of the referee and the ultimatum of the ticking clock that falls to 0:00. There is a score at the end, with either victory or defeat for each side. A sports story has one result – who won, who lost and how it happened.

But in life there aren't winners or losers nearly as often as there are just do-ers. People who act and move and breathe and stumble forward, through moments of ecstasy to moments of failure, but still always moving towards some unforeseen, but beautiful, destination.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that words aren't possible to describe the most important things in life, and yet, we try to use them anyway.

I will try to do so here too – and hopefully they will be enough to jog the memory of an old man some day, looking back at some of the best times of his life.

Mulled wine, good friends, Austrian folk music and broken chairs. Karaoke bars and badly singing, then singing well, then singing together. Late night stumble back to the house at 2 a.m. The next day, sleeping until 3:30 p.m. while Vienna waited hungrily outside.

Watching Anna's concert and the old lady behind me who looked at me strangely as I took sips of beer and spoke with my American accent. Hugs, british curse words and goodbyes. Pigs and ladybugs.

Really, really bad dance moves. Silly hats. Remembering names, good conversation with Brazilians, a pair of Vienna students, one with a very silly eskimo-esque ski hat. Good friends, easygoing friends who made the night pass by so fast, yet so vividly. Falling down by accident.

Explosive fireworks, dancing the waltz at midnight of New Years, broken park benches, a tree, sitting in the rain, bruises and scarfs.

The next day, uncertainty. Hope, then concern, then finding what could have been lost. Dorkiness, the National Globes Museum, watching a movie about America and crack-head, meth-addict, pimps. Discovering new truths in another, delving deeper and finding myself very happy with what I found. Uncertainty, but happiness. A private, candle-lit pizza place, good conversation and “good” wine (because I thought it was just fine).

Walking along the Danube.

Realizing the beauty of an imperial city trying to emerge from the shadow of it's intricate past while retaining the customs that made it so unique, so beautiful in a world full of tourist attractions and sell-outs.

Waking up on my last full day with the knowledge of having everything and nothing to lose, anticipation and uncertainty, but most of all, smiling. Knowing things do work out the way they are meant to and that we always find the right path in the end.

Ice skating, spins, falling down on purpose, talking about the little nothings that somehow mean everything in the end. A promise for return. Smiles among good, good friends.

Nervous and excited. A bar and then another walk through the city at night. Smelling wine – good wine – and getting lost. Then getting found.

A night that I will hold fondly in my memory, of revelation and uncertainty, then certainty comprised of emotion. Toes. Warmth. Happiness.

That people come into our lives, for a reason – and singing in the dark.

Beauty tinged by sadness, but beauty wins as it always should.

And the next morning, scarfs.

There – those are the little words that will have to suffice, because in the end nothing written can tell the complete story. And that will be the last introspective look at Vienna for now, ,since Brussels awaits, the next part of the journey and the next bend in the path and I will not move towards it with one eye looking back over my shoulder.

I don't need to. Vienna waits for me.

Sixteenth Day, DEC 31 - New Year's Eve!

Whoo, those Austrians can party...

New Year's Eve was an exciting look into Austrian culture that I hadn't gotten the chance to see lol - I spent last night watching a magnificent firework display as the whole town blew up with explosions, conversing with students from the University of Vienna, wearing silly hats, seeing Anna's band play for a small party and staying up until 6:00 AM of January 1st. What a day!

It began rather inauspiciously - like a good wine, it had to take time before it truly ripened into something really good. In this case, it took Katie until 3:30 in the afternoon to wake up (If you're reading this Katie, I'm sorry but I HAD to say that), but it actually worked out perfectly because we would both need the extra down time for what was in store for us that night.

Around 4:00 we took a walk down the street to see the work of a famous architect whose name I don't remember - but he was famous! He prided himself in doing odd-end architectural designs, such as designing gas stations in different and interesting ways, or in this case, a set of low-income housing apartments.



Note: not my picture.

We returned in time for dinner where we got to take in a whole slew of traditions - chili, pigs and ladybugs. Yeah, they don't seem like they have anything in common, but in the Esarey household they all make up an important part of the New Years tradition!

Every year they have chili for the New Year's Eve dinner, apparently because the first time they did it Katie liked the chili so much as a child that they decided it should be a tradition. Katie's grandma, who is from Chicago, kept on saying that the chili was really hot - and I agreed! It was really good though too.

The pigs and ladybugs are part of Austrian tradition that honors them as good luck symbols. Later on the tram we would see a bunch of little kids with pig costumes on. "Sylvester" as New Years Eve is called in German-speaking countries, is one of the most exciting holidays in Vienna and you can tell by the way the city bustles around in preparation for it.

After dinner we rushed our way to meet up with Anna, whose cover band was playing for a small New Year's Eve party.



The band was pretty good and Anna's singing was great, of course. They did a really good job with a lot of classic American rock songs, it was interesting to hear it from a bunch of rowdy Austrians enjoying their New Year's night. After the concert, me and Katie congratulated Anna before heading to a New Year's party that one of Katie's friends was hosting.

It wasn't a white-tie affair, but it was a silly-hat event, which meant that I obliged with one of Katie's hats - a great tribute to American awesomeness, if I do say so myself:




It was a very interesting night with a lot of fun moments. I hung out with a pair of Brazilians who I had actually met the night before - they were in Vienna for the last two days before they head to Germany to study German law for a month (apparently it's very similar to Brazilian law). At one point, the Brazilian guy fell over and everyone was worried that he was injured, but he was fine. One of my memories from the night was having a discussion with the Brazilian girl (I wish I knew their names...it sounds weird to refer to them like that lol) about weird dance moves - I showed her the "churning the butter" while she showed me the "cutting up the sushi".

Around midnight we walked down the street and watched the firework show. While Austrians don't kiss at midnight (well some do, but it's not as much a tradition as in the U.S.) they do waltz, so I enlisted the help from one of Katie's friends, Jana (pronounced "Yana") and learned how to do the waltz at the onset of the New Year! It was a great way to start the year off!



After I had a very hilarious set of moments when I tried to light three Viennese fireworks, only to watch all three of them blow up in the ground and cause a giant "explosion", it was finally time to leave.

(VIDEO OF FIREWORK EXPLOSION HERE: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150440959087811)

We returned to her friend's house and partied like it was 1969!

And of course, I got back at 6:00 AM and slept until 10:00 before getting up. I don't know why I do it to myself, but I honestly can't sleep much later than ten or eleven, no matter where I'm at or how late I stayed up.

Oh, and my German vocabulary has added: Bitte. So now that's two words. Woohoo!