Thursday, December 5th, Oreo balls are finished, I catch the bus to the airport at around 12:30pm and 20 minutes later I made it to the Salzburg airport. Everything went smooth and I boarded the plane with an amazing view as I walked onto the plane.
And then take off, see you later Salzburg!
The views were just incredible. I was able to take a short nap during the plane ride and then we arrived safely around 3:45pm. When we landed the girl next to me looked at me, we both smiled and then she raised her fist and said "still alive!" Haha. But my travels were not over yet, I was still about an hour away from Charleenes dorm (my friend from home for those of you who don't know, and she is studying abroad in London for the semester). I got a train around 5:15pm that should have only been 45 minutes but due to track delays it took a little over an hour. I got off at the stop Charleene told me to and it was a pretty huge train station, I was totally lost. Haha. (Took a selfie while I was lost and in an elevator).
Then I had to take a bus for 30 minutes and transfer to another bus for 5 minutes. Finding the first bus wasn't easy though. There were a bunch of stations and I asked some people but no one really seemed to know where the bus station I needed to go to was. I asked a group of older people and they told me I had I cross the street and go the opposite way but then when I asked on that side, a younger girl told me it was back across the street. At this point, I saw that my bus was just leaving so I had to wait another 15 minutes. By about 7pm I FINALLY got to the final station where I needed to meet Charleene and within minutes I saw her and her friend George walking down the street towards me. I was so relieved! We stopped to get food on the walk back to her dorm and ate in her friends flat. Their kitchen was so cozy and everyone was so nice! After we ate, we all headed into the main part of town to see the Christmas tree!
There were these huge lion statues in the area and Charleene told me that she has seen people climb them before. She didn't have to say another word...
We made friends with a security guard right after that too. Haha. And her friends were singing some carols and we just walked around enjoying the beautiful Christmas decorations all over town!
What a perfect first night in London. Afterwards we headed back to the dorm and hit the hay, we were exhausted.
Friday, December 6th, I can't believe I'm in London. I woke up and was so excited to go back into town and see everything! They all brought me on a little "touristy" walk. I saw beautiful churches, Big Ben, the London Eye and I was just in awe the whole time. Oh and the buses that you see in movies, they're so much cooler in person!
And the sun began to set as we crossed the bridge, it was gorgeous. We walked right behind the London eye too! And we saw some interesting performances going on around the market area that we walked through.
We eventually made it to our destination at a place called Wagamamas to eat (Japanese style food) and it was awesome.
I got this awesome curry chicken with white rice and then there was a small salad on the side. On the tables they had 4 different things you could add, I put on chili flakes and chili oil! So spicy and delicious. We were all here for a while because after we finished eating, we flipped the menu over and there were instructions to make oragamie! The server came over and gave us all a square sheet of paper and it asks you to write a wish and then your name. I obviously can't tell you all my wish but I did complete the oragamie and I left it in the jar at Wagamamas!
Now it was time to shop and walk around the beautiful town again!
We also passed a sick skate park which I heard they are trying to shut down, so they have a table in front of it where you could sign a petition to keep it!
And then there was an area that was pretty much an outdoor library!
At this point, Charleene turned her 3G on because had a Skype date with Ariana! (Ariana, miss you sosososo much and I cannot wait to see you so soon, I wish you were in London with us at that time too). If I thought things weren't too beautiful already, we were about to cross over a bridge and get an amazing nighttime view!
We headed back to the dorms/ flat and hung out. I got to Skype with my brother too! I hate that he moved to Florida sometimes.
Charleene and I started to get ready to go out and by 11pm we were off to find some clubs. The first 2 that we went to were pretty awful. The reviews that we read online made it sound awesome and full of young people but it was a strange little club filled with drunk 35+ year olds and bad music and bad dance moves. We took some jäger bombs but then we were off to find something better. Haha. We took a bus and sat on the upper deck and were the only ones up there!
And the lights decorating the town looked amazing as always.
We got off the bus and ran into a club promoter who brought us to this ticket room to get discounted entry into 2 clubs. So sure, why not. 15 euros later and we headed to the first one. It was pretty horrible again, the dance floor was the basically the size of my bedroom at home and that is no bueno. Off to the final club....it was better than all the previous ones but still nothing special. Took some more jäger bombs and the night continued. Basically it was a night of watching drunk people dance and mocking them with their dance moves. Also pretending to dance behind people is one of my specialities. Charleene and I had a grand old time. The club began to close so we left and started making out way to the bus. We stopped at a little Chinese restaurant and I got an egg roll and Char got some sesame chicken. We continued our walk, passing by multiple groups of drunk people and seeing them stumble by us was extremely entertaining. When we finally got to the bus stop, the entertainment continued. A drunk homeless man walked in from of everyone and said he was going to put on a magic show. He had a bandana in his hand that he was waving and he kept saying he was going to make it into a buffalo for about 5 minutes. I couldn't stop laughing. Haha. It was a long night but we made it back safely by 4:30am and then we finally got to sleep.
Saturday, December 7th, time to leave London. I can't believe this trip was over already. 2 days was not long enough in London, I was having so much fun! I woke up at about 7:20am and by 7:45 Charleene and I walked to the bus stop. We said our goodbyes and after my 25 minute bus ride, I arrived at the train station to take the train back to the Stansted airport.
Everything was going so smooth. I arrived at the airport, checked in, went through security, got myself some food and starbucks and had a solid 2 hours before my plane was departing. Unfortunately, things only got worse from here. They made an announcement that there were some delays so I looked on the board and my flight was delayed 50 minutes, not too bad. Things only got worse once again. More and more flights were getting delayed. There was word around the airport that air traffic control was down and flights couldn't take off. At this point, some flights were even being cancelled. I started to become very worried. My flight on the screen now said "DATA ERROR" and had no estimated time of departure. All I wanted was to be on my way back to Salzburg. I was so tired and I wanted to shower. The airport was becoming complete chaos. I had already used my 1 hour of free airport wifi so I was just people watching at this point. I went to a free charging station for my phone and hung around for a while. There was a German lady yelling on her phone at the station. Then I started chatting with the man next to me. He was from Poland and his flight was delayed an hour so far. He was going skiing and he told me his girlfriend lives in South Carolina when I told him I was from America. At about 1 pm the gate number to my flight was released and it said now boarding (mind you my flight was supposed to depart at 11:50am). everyone was rushing to the gate and we waited for about 30 minutes, watching them load the bags into the plane. Then there was an announcement that said the flight was delayed due to air traffic control again and the next announcement for more information will be made in 30 minutes. Once this happened, everyone seemed a little annoyed and started sitting on the ground. This is insane.
10 minutes passed and they announced our gate is beginning to board. THANK THE LORD!
The view of the clouds during the majority of the flight was unreal. Flying through the sunset was a big plus. And another positive was that the couple I was sitting next to was so nice. They were from London and they were heading to Salzburg to go to a bunch of Christmas markets. We talked almost the whole flight and it was great. The family behind us was super annoying because they kept complaining about how they wanted free tea since there were so many delays. They were British snobs, sorry if I sound rude but if you were there you would have thought the same. Me and my London couple friends were making fun of them and she was hoping someone would throw free tea onto them to shut them up. I really love these people haha. (Mom, this couple reminded me so much of Aunt Margaret and Uncle Mike, it was like a taste of home). After we landed, they invited me with them to take a taxi into town so I didn't have to take the bus and they told me I wouldn't have to pay. Such kind people! Of course I went and we chatted a bunch more. At this point it was 7pm and we arrive to their hotel and I walked to the dorms from there, only about 15 minutes. I am so glad I met them and we took a nice photo so I didn't forget them!
So now safe and sound back at my dorm by almost 7:30pm, should have been here almost 4 hours ago but hey, not everything works out as planned. Later that night I finally hung out with some of the Austrians and other people that lived in the dorms in the basement common area. We drank and played cards until almost 2am! I was finally making friends with them but it was a little late in the game, however better now than never I suppose!
Sunday, December 8th, time to go snowboarding! Awake and ready to go by 8am for our 'Day In The Snow' field trip! We met up with Alex (the guy who came on most of the hiking excursions with us), got on the train, and after a little over an hour of beautiful views, we were there!
4 of the girls went to the thermal spa and the rest of us went skiing and snowboarding. We all took about a 10 minute gondola ride to the top of the mountain. I could not believe my eyes, I WAS IN THE AUSTRIAN ALPS! This all seemed like a dream. Gavin and I were the only ones who went boarding and knew how to so we were shredding on the mountain together for the majority of the time. I stopped multiple times to just sit and take photos because it really was unbelievable. I WAS SNOWBOARDING ON THE AUSTRIAN ALPS!!!! :)
Yeah, that was real life.
After some sweet runs on the open trails, we had to finish up and catch a train back to salzburg at around 4:30pm. We arrived back into salzburg a little before 6pm. When we got to the dorms, the 4 of us that live in the dorms made some American Mac n cheese and chicken nuggets! Then bed time. It was a perfect day!
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