a rediculous train ride

this was supposed to be posted last thursday but apparently wordpress is gay.

well there were actually two. but the one on the way to prague was almost as crazy as the way home.

we left tuesday night at 730 (after eating some space cake) and got into prague around 930. that’s right, fourteen hours. the first three or four were ok because it was just our group in the compartment. then we got into germany and this smelly man with a huge bag of food and breathing problems got on and of course sat in our compartment even though there were plenty of other open seats. for some reason all europeans are really obsessed with sitting in the seat they were assigned to. around midnight the train just got packed so every seat was filled. luckily the space cake kicked in and i passed out for a few hours.

i think it was in hannover the train was stopped for about 45 minutes. at one point some middle-aged american man (i met him later) yelled out “why aren’t they moving the goddamn train?!” his question was met with silence.

i slept on and off for the rest of the train ride. the worst part was when our compartment emptied out a little and the german man with the breathing problems was still there. he sounded like darth vader or something. then he started to pull out his bag of food and eat in the most annoying, loudest way possible. then at 530 in the morning he whips out his cell phone and starts texting or something. this normally wouldn’t bother me but he had the volume on the keypad and the ringer all the way up. i think he finally left at 630.

around 900, we left our compartment to ask some of the other people on the train if they knew when our stop was coming up. that’s when i met the middle-aged american man. the first thing he asked me was “did you hear those hillbillies get on the train in germany?” this really confused me because 1. i didn’t hear them and 2. there are no hillbillies in germany. if anyone was a hillbilly the middle-aged american guy was. then he proceeded to tell me that he had come to prague once a year for sixteen years or something and then asked me where i was staying (awkward). then he said if i didn’t have a hostel already i should stay at the one he was going to. thank god i already had a hostel. i politely declined his invitation and sat back down by the rest of my group until we got off the train.

this is the first of several posts about prague btw. it was a long trip that was really fun with a lot of great memories so it’s going to take a while to write about it all. and right now it’s midterm time. and i’m leaving for london today. i wish i didn’t actually have to go to school while i was here.

i think i believe in karma

my parents didn’t want me to study abroad but i did anyways. and now things at home make me wish i was there.

it’s march already?

what the hell have i been doing here? it seems like not much considering it’s already march 1st and i think i’ve been here five weeks now. crazy. i leave for prague (yaaaaay!!) tomorrow night at 730. we’re taking an over-night train. i think it’s like 14 hours but one of the girls going bought some space cakes. that should help make the ride a little more interesting. i still have a presentation and paper outline that i have to do between now and then. the problem is i just bought temper trap and the local natives on itunes. listening to their music is keeping me from working but it’s so good. i also could not fall alseep last night. i remember seeing 300 in the morning and i woke up at 730. the wind was just raping the shit out of my windows. i think maybe it was so loud because i’m on the 17th floor. the next two-ish days may blow, but the rest of this week is going to be amazing : )

i’m never doing tequila shots again

i had two last night. why? because someone gave them to me for free and i was already drunk, that’s why. i don’t remember anything after those two shots. then i woke up at 1100 this morning in someone’s unit on campus. they told me that i was lost from 530 to 630 in the morning and when they found me i told them i had been sleeping on the floor. that very well may have been the case. i also had two people tell me already that they have no idea what happened to me last night. they had been looking for me at the bar but couldn’t find me. my life last night was the hangover and i am doug apparently.

antwerp shit show

it really was. friday we left around 430 and got to antwerp around 630.  i think we started drinking around 730 or 800. our hostel was literally a minute walk from the big cathedral in the center of the city. in the square/circle around the cathedral there were a bunch of bars and we went to one owned by some french and swiss guy. he was super cool and recommended a bunch of really good really strong belgian beers. after three i probably should have stopped for the night. instead we headed to a mini market thing and got the cheapest beer they had. we got 12 for three people for some reason? i still don’t know what the logic was behind that decision. at the hostel we sat out on our balcony that had an awesome view of the cathedral and drank a few of the cheap beers. then from the first floor of the hostel (which was an irish pub) we heard some music. there were about ten to twelve people just sitting around a table playing irish music. it was so cool and really good. one girl that was with us met this one irish guy chris who apparently got arrest for being in the ira or something? not sure what the story was there because i bounced to get some fried food. i had falafel and a whole plate of fries and then felt it was necessary to go to mcdons and get some mcnuggs as well. as you can imagine i couldn’t eat them all so i brought them back to the hostel for to eat saturday. we went back down to the irish pub to listen to more music and drink a few pints. we finally passed out upstairs. not sure what time that happened but considering how early we started and how much we had, it probably wasn’t later than 100. how sad.

saturday we headed to an art museum that had a ton of paintings from the 1500-1700s. they were gorgeous. some were a little trippy (one had dinosaurs, flying babies, and dancing chipmunks among other things) but overall really cool. after that we headed to a restaurant where i had my first belgian waffle. then we found a little market street with some touristy shops. then it was nap time which was awesome. after my nap i had my leftover mcnuggs (a little chewy and not so tasty) and some chocolate. can you say dinner of champions? drinking started fairly early again (around 800) with some asshole, fuck the dealer, and circle of death (that everyone called king’s cup because they were all from new york and california). after a fair amount of pregaming we headed to another irish pub (who knew there were so many irish in belgium?). i got to try some cherry beer that was delicious, but i think i still like berryweiss better. we headed back to the hostel pretty early again and had another pint.

the only person i really met in belgium was a 52 year old spanish guy that was in our hostel room. friday night it was just the seven people from our group and we had a free bed. Then the 52 year old guy came on saturday. he got the top bunk above one of the guys that goes to uc with me. he actually got back later than us on saturday (again how sad). he apparently was having some issues getting into the top bunk so my friend from uc had to give him a boost up. i feel like they bonded over that moment.

sunday we went to another art museum but it was some painter’s house (ruebens? or something). after that we headed to the train station and got more waffles. this waffle was a lot better than the other one and way cheaper too. so advice to anyone heading to belgium: buy the waffles from the street vendors not the restaurants. overall it was a successful trip minus the fact that my body hated me when i went for a run sunday afternoon. it did not appreciate physical activity after a weekend of belgian beer, waffles, and chocolate.

karneval

i had to look up the correct dutch spelling on wikipedia. is that sad?

anyways i went on sunday to maastricht in the south where it’s more catholic, or something. sunday is the first big day even though it had been going for several days before. on the train ride there, everyone was in costumes and face paint. we sat next to a couple of dutch people (probably in their mid-30s) totally decked out. two of them looked like they belonged at versailles in the 1700s. they had some of the best costumes that i saw all day. these same people gave us some chocolate eggs “for energy”. every once in a while we would pass a city (most of the ride was through the country which looked exactly like wisconsin except they had miniature horses instead of cows. what the hell is the point of so many miniature horses?). the cities all had red, green, and yellow banners and flags. the colors of karneval apparently are different than the colors of mardi gras.

once we were in maastricht, we headed to the student housing and hung out there until about 630 when we left in search of cheap alcohol we could pregame with before hitting up the bars. unfortunately this is europe and everything was closed because it was sunday. luckily the albert heijn (the biggest supermarket chain here) had a to go store in the train station. luckily they also had twenty four packs of atlas. we hit up a schwarma (sandwich-like wrap according to wikipedia, mine was with falafel and absolutely amazing) shop for some dinner and headed back to the student housing.

each atlas can is probably twice the size of a normal beer can at home and is 8.5% alcohol. i had three. as you can imagine it was a good start to the night.

i think we left around 10? the timing is a little fuzzy. we went to some bar in the city center and immediately found a ledge to dance on. after some time, we headed out to find the rest of our group that had disappeared sometime during the walk. like any other drunk night, a stop at mcdon’s was necessary. chicken mcnuggs never tasted better.

we headed to a club called mete afterwards. one of the people we were trying to find kept texting me about being at mete which i totally didn’t understand because there’s a girl named mette at uc, but she was in eindhoven for karneval. i thought he meant he was with her. if i had figured out it was a club, we probably would have been there instead of walking around the city for an hour. anyways, at the club we danced the entire time. i’m not sure the amount of time, but it was pretty long. we finally left at four in the morning because we had to head back to the student housing to get some of our stuff. on the way back i took my first ride on the back of a bicycle. it was a little scary but not too bad. that’s probably because i was too out of it to be adequately afraid.

eventually we made it back to the train station for our 530 train. we got into utrecht at 730 in the morning and went straight to breakfast at the dining hall. this means i went there with face paint in a sequin dress with only one hour of sleep that i got on the train. thank god there were only like seven people in there.

monday was one of the longest days of my life but totally worth it. the best part abou karneval was the fact that everyone dressed up. dogs, babies, senior citizens. if they were in maastricht, they at least had some face paint. like someone here said, karneval is what you would get if halloween and mardi gras had a baby.

biking

it seemed appropriate that i should write about biking because people do it here no matter what: come rain, snow, sun or they’re drunk, high (maybe even both) the dutch are always biking. i feel like maybe i participated in some rite of passage last night as i very drunkenly rode my bike home at three in the morning. they have bike lanes here but they’re usually separated from the car lanes by a median. there’s one part of my daily route that doesn’t have a median, but the crazy thing is there’s two bike lanes and only one car lane. car traffic goes both ways still. bikes also have their own traffic lights.

everyday you see parents with sometimes as many as three kids on their bikes. some kids balance on the handle bars or on the back. there are even some covered wooden box-wagon things that kids sit in. it reminds me of the bike carriers that you have in the us but these go in the front. kids aren’t the only ones that have to balance on bikes though. i see plenty of people who are in my classes hitching a ride from a friend. they balance on the back of the bike if they’re friend has a flat rack that goes above the back wheel.  i think these are for strapping packages to the back of your bike but i guess it works pretty well for a person. i don’t think i’ll be trying the whole balancing thing any time soon.

i may have taken my first drunk bike ride (and almost fallen over several times in the attempt) but i’m far from dutch standards of acceptable biking. i have yet to pass anyone. i get passed by everyone from senior citizens (who are clearly in their seventies) to couples who are holding hands. i like to blame it on my bike. click here for a description. i think i have a long way to go but hopefully in the next few weeks i won’t be so slow. 

i have not yet fully opened my eyes yet today

and it’s already one in the afternoon. i think it has to do with the fact that yesterday i woke up at seven in the morning for school and i remember seeing five in the morning last night/early this morning and i was still up for a while after that. why are tuesdays so rediculous here?

where to begin…

shitbeans i need to do this more often.

last week saturday i went to amsterdam with a few people. while waiting for the train we met some guy from perth, australia who was going to be going to uu (the other university in utrecht) and he lives in my building apparently. he was also going to amsterdam for the day and like idiots none of us asked him what his name was. i was not the only girl who regretted this later in the day. in amsterdam we walked in the red light district a little. this was during the day so don’t jump to conclusions. i did see a girl in a window though. probably one of the most awkward moments of my entire time here. i didn’t realize what was going on at first so i did a double take and realized what was going on and walked away super fast. after that we walked to the van gogh museum. it was so awesome. i got to see all of his self portraits and the potato eaters and a bunch of other paintings i didn’t even know existed. i definitely plan on going back.

sunday was a coffee shop day….enough said.

monday was the first day of classes. it reminds me of high school so much. all the classes have 25 people at the most. i think all of my classes have less than that actually. and some of the professors already know my name. ucu has about 750 students total i think. i guess people can get caught in the bubble there. ucu is gated (they actually close and lock the gates at night, but you can get out if you want) and on the campus are all the dorms, the dining hall, the bar, and all the classes. you could totally just stay on the campus and never need to leave for anything. i’m kind of glad i’m off campus.

monday night me and my roommate made pralines…it was like david after the dentist….enough said.

tuesday i had more classes. and i guess tuesday is a big night to go out? we went to the campus bar and i was just as rediculous as i always am. i don’t think i’m doing a very good job as a representative of wisconsin’s drinking abilities.

wednesday i had no classes (thank god). i finally got a bike though. it’s clearly from the early 90′s. it’s a guy bike but purple. it reminds me of saved by the bell for some reason (just the general color scheme). it’s a little tall for me even though i have the seat all the way down so i have to kind of hop onto it. i guess i won’t be riding it when i’m wearing a skirt or dress.

thursday i went for my first run and saw my first worm here. it was a sad day.

friday was another full day of classes and then a full night at the uc bar with lots of stanky leg and a new butterfly dance (to that one butterfly song  “come my lady you’re my butterfly…”). i can’t wait to show people back home. it’s an instant classic.

saturday was shopping. i got some new jeans that gave me smurf legs today when i wore them for the first time. i also got a sequin dress from h&m. i plan on wearing it for carnivaal this upcoming weekend. i think i might also reuse it for halloween next year and be a disco person. it’s comforting to already have my costume figured out; that’s always so stressful.

sunday was homework. i’m still being true to my nerd nature here.

pictures are coming asap. i brought the wrong camera cord here so i guess i have to wait for my mom to mail it. it usually takes my mom about a week to respond to emails so if translate that into actual mail, i might be uploading pictures in two months. if i’m lucky.

lesson of the day: i need to update this thing more often.

is it really friday night?

it doesn’t feel like it. it definitely doesn’t feel like classes start monday. i’m almost glad. my liver needs a break. every evening activity has been at a bar and i’ve failed to drink responsibly three  out of the last four nights. last night was sailor and school girls night at the college bar and i didn’t get home until 5 in the morning. i was a total zombie at breakfast and for most of the day until i took a three hour nap.

last night was probably the best night yet. we started out with fuck the dealer. i think me and the other two madison girls were really excited to teach everyone that game and make them get as drunk as we were. then we hit the dance floor where i made a complete ass of myself fist pumping like a champ (like jersey shore) to almost every song. i think i danced on this one table thing twice too. i also attempted to teach the c-walk to two guys from kenya? i think we left the bar at 330ish to go to someone’s room on campus. we left there around 400 and walked back to our apartment (did i mention i live off campus? well i do). i think the sober walk from ucu is about 30 minutes but the drunk walk from ucu took an hour apparently because i remember seeing 500 on the kitchen clock before i passed out in my bed. some of the details are fuzzy but it was definitely an awesome night.

yesterday we took a city tour and i didn’t take any pictures. i probably should have because my parents are probably going to start getting mad that i haven’t taken any yet (except for a few drunken ones last night). i just didn’t want to look like a total tourist but i kind of am so maybe i should just embrace it. i know a few people took pictures yesterday and i’m hoping i can steal a few on facebook perhaps.

lesson of the day: never stay out until 500 in the morning unless you can sleep until at least noon.