Sorry this whole bloggy thing isn't going as I hoped. The plan was to write on the train so you're all caught up, but at the rate I'm going, you're not going to be caught up until I return to the States. I hope you can survive.
28 Dec:
Both Ryan and I were tired and we didn't want to miss our flight, so we arranged for a wake up call to happen around 9am. And it worked. We woke up, though I slept in later than Ryan because he had to shower and I wasn't going to shower until I get back to London. I believe I felt clean enough for that. Breakfast was leftover apples from Paris, which were still around for some reason. Who knows why we didn't pop them out on the train ride into Germany. Maybe we would have felt rude doing so when no one else had food. Anyway, the hotel didn't have free breakfast, which we were upset about as well, but what can you do?
Got to the airport maybe an hour or two earlier than we should have because I didn't want to miss anything and we weren't going to get any flight developments at the hotel without access to the Internet. We got there around 10am when our flight, as far as we were concerned wouldn't take off until 2pm. We went to the Ryanair desk to ask what we're supposed to do and they gave us a 5EUR voucher each for food in the airport and told us to check in like normal at the desk, show our boarding pass, and we'll get a new one there. They also said that their information said that check in for our flight started at 2pm and the flight was scheduled for 4pm. We said "That's odd. We were informed the flight left at 2pm." But we weren't going to argue so we just left it at that.
And then we sat and waited some more. Yippie. I journaled while Ryan watched the board which was more accurate than the night before. A couple came by to open a computer and check something on the Internet regarding their hotel. Ryan overheard them and bounced on the fact that they were American. They said that they had just flown in from Amsterdam and we told them our flight was delayed 12 hours. They said that sucked, hope you have better luck on your travels, etc. It was a pleasant conversation. They left for their hotel and we were alone and bored once again.
About this time, our flight came on the board and that's when we discovered that the Ryanair desk people were right --- our check in does indeed start at 2pm and our flight is scheduled for 4pm. There were aggravated sighs of relief of waiting another two hours just to get moving. Since this was around lunch time, we packed up our things and moved to the cafe at one end of the waiting area. While Ryan went to get us sandwiches, I found us a table. I remember my sandwich having this interesting, purple vegetable on it (along with a meat I can't remember and lettuce) that I thought tasted interesting. I had no idea what it was, though.
Lunch finished, we waited. I said I was going to go look for a deck of cards in the shops downstairs, and Ryan said he'd watch my stuff. But the shops didn't have decks of cards. They did, however, have GERMAN COMIC BOOKS! I was excited about that. German Batman, German Superman, German Avengers, German Justice League. But my favorite was the German Star Wars. GERMAN STAR WARS! I teetered on buying the entirety of the German Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, but since that was 20EUR, that went out the window. So I got the smaller, much cheaper comic book featuring a well-drawn Darth Vader kicking ass against some freaky Jedi. I also bought a sudoku book for 2EUR because I left all mine in the London and I was that bored.
Ryan rolled his eyes when he saw the German Star Wars, and as he struggled with the sudoku puzzles, he asked me to stop trying to pronounce all the German words. "You can turn down your geekery," he had said.
"But it's so fun!" I retorted.
"You're embarrassing yourself," he argued. "Stop making weird noises!"
Darn.
But I still attempted to read everything German, and I did understand the context of what they were saying by the pictures. Like the time Darth Vader steals the padawan's lightsaber and says something akin to "The force is strong with you . . . but not strong enough!" I felt proud of myself for figuring that stuff out.
Finally, I finished the comic and Ryan had me do a sudoku so he could see how it's done. I got a number or two right away and he was like "No way! You're amazing!" Well, not really, that's just wishful thinking. But he was impressed that I can take one look at a puzzle and immediately find a few numbers when he struggles for a few minutes on the first one. I still don't think I'm that good at sudoku.
We went to check in at 2pm like they said we should. In front of us were two women who looked as if they've been friends for a while, but a conversation with them revealed that they had met last night and decided to crash on each other's couches. One was German, the other British, and both their boyfriends lived in the opposite countries from which they live. To make that clear, the German girl's boyfriend lived in England while the English girl's boyfriend lived in Germany. How's that for long distance? Anyway, the German girl's sister worked/works for Ryanair and she told us about the fine print on the website, how Ryanair is entitled to compensate us for the hotel and give us an extra 250EUR because the flight was delayed because of them and not because of weather or any other external source. And you really have to push that because they're a sketchy budget airline and they're not going to give away free money if you just ask politely. We wrote down all the information we needed and thanked them for the information. They were really nice women, really.
But we were separated from them at security. Both Ryan and I set off the alarm, and I do believe it was because we both forgot to take off our watches. But the guards patted us down and I giggled at the fact that the handheld metal detector's noise was really really cute when it found metal. That, and she touched me in a sensitive spot. (Get your mind out of the gutter!)
Yay, more waiting. We watched the screen like a hawk and we ended up going to the same gate as before, waited in the same line as before, walked into the same plane as the previous night. I don't know why it was delayed if they didn't even bother to move the plane. Ridiculous. While sitting on the plane, a couple people came in bringing the stench of alcohol. We figured it was the loud guy, but as the plane was taking off (and again when we landed), a woman attempted to get the cabin cheering in delight. Did not work, but we did clap and cheer when the plane started moving to the runway. We got de-iced with anti-freeze and we took off and of course I put in earplugs for the entire trip.
Upon arriving in London, Ryan wanted to make sure our bus ticket would work for the easyBus. I said that it would planning on telling the bus driver our flight was delayed, can we join this bus if it had room for two extra people? As we waited for the bus, Ryan kept wanting to talk to the desk, but I finally cracked and said "No! If we check in with them, they're going to make us pay for another ticket, and I don't want to pay again!" Really, I didn't. Why pay for two tickets when you can totally use the one you got? Also, the last time I went to check at the desk for a situation like this, the woman made me pay, and I thought I could have gotten away with it if I didn't say anything and talked to the driver. It's not like I'm stealing, I already have a ticket, and the easyBus has proven a couple times that it doesn't really matter what time the ticket says, they'll take you if they have room. So there.
I felt kind of mean taking the window seat, but Ryan said he didn't mind, he can still see the city just fine. I mean, come on, the entire sides of the bus are windows! I also listened to my own music, but Ryan's iPod died so he had to listen to the corny live concert on the radio. Felt sorry for him. The guy having the concert sounded lame and only for old folks. I couldn't appreciate him, what little I heard.
Took the tube back to my dorm, where we dropped off our stuff and went out to dinner. Dinner was at an Italian cafe about a block and a half away from the dorm called Cotto's. When we walked in, immediately wondered why I didn't go to eat there before. The people were friendly and they spoke a little Italian and it was just so cozy. The walls were decorated with Christmas lights and other Tuscany features and our waiters were very nice and friendly. The owner was talking with a small group of people beside us. It was entirely in Italian so there wasn't a hope of joining in and/or eavesdropping. But I did understand that they were talking about things to see and do in London considering the only words I recognized were major attractions.
I ordered pesto, Ryan got a calzone. The calzone didn't taste the greatest, and neither did my pesto. Then again, pesto is now probably ruined for me because of that one time in Italy just like hot chocolate is ruined for Ryan because of that one time in Germany. Man, Europe, why do you have such good food? You ruin it for the rest of us.
After dinner, we retired to the dorm room. We unpacked, I do believe I sent Ryan down to do my laundry as I attempted to write a paper. He also started taking down my pictures and wall hangings as I wrote. Had to get the paper done. Ryan said that he would prefer I write my paper and get that done even if it means not seeing a lot of London. I said alright, I'll write the paper. When he was done with his end of the chores, I fell asleep on my bed. As I wrote, I pumped up the air mattress (it used a foot pump) which woke up Ryan enough to get under the covers. When I couldn't write anymore, or when I couldn't keep my eyes open, I tucked myself into the sleeping bag and fell asleep for the night.
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