the end of my trip, as we know it

most of you probably have read ridley's account of our last weekend in dresden. (btw: i just figured out how to do that link ALL BY MYSELF!) the dresden trip was somewhat impromptu and unexpected..."somewhat" in this context means "could not possibly be more so." we stayed in the cheapest hostel in town, which is never a bad thing. they always have the most personality, and we are most likely to find people similar to ourselves. it was the night before halloween so they were showing The Addams Family in their make-shift theatre. ridley was totally engrossed, and i had to inform her forcefully that i, a non-German speaker, was not enjoying a movie about foreign-language-speaking monsters. we then went out on the town for our 3rd dinner. we found a kebab place (the guest book at the hostel sang its praises), which promptly brought out wraps the size of small pieces of firewood. they were delicious of course, and we learned that the human stomach can, indeed, accomodate log-sized dinners. we walked up and down the street, still marvelling at the fact that people DO NOT get arrested for drinking in the street! we made more tri- and quadri-lingual friends, to feed our insecurities, and all in all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. we ended the night back at the hostel with the decision to open our bottle of german wine for "just a taste". we could re-cork it and drink the rest in small doses with meals over the next day or two. we wrestled with the cork for a good 20 minutes before it came out in 4 pieces. we rejoiced, then stopped mid-triumph-dance, realizing that there was no way to recork the bleeping bottle. we got creative with one of the larger pieces of cork, and prayed that the bottle would stay upright.

the next day ridley woke me up, saying, "come on! it's ten-o'clock!" i groaned and rolled over, saying, "you said i could sleep 'til 11!" i realized we still didn't know where we were going to Mass, so guiltily got up and trudged downstairs. ridley greeted me, cheerfully stating that she had found a church!!! it was on the other side of town!!! she didn't even know if it was catholic or not!!! yay! so we set off. of course, it wasn't catholic and there were no services going on.

we found the cathedral on the other side of the river, but Mass was at 10:30. "what time is it now?", i asked. "11:15.", she answered. making a mental note that the next mass was at 4:30pm, we headed back across the bridge. as we walked ALL of the bells in the belltower started ringing enthusiastically. we couldn't really think of an explanation, but ridley thought it might be that thing where they ring all the possible sequences. weird.

so we went to a little german bakery and once again were impressed by how much delicious bread and goodies we could buy for so little money. we checked out of the hostel and headed for the train station. on our way we passed the bakery again, but it was closed. i noticed that it closed at 11am. i said, "wait, weren't we here after 11?" weird.

at the train station, the first train on the board was to meissen...we had been talking about going there. i said, "hey, we can go to Meissen!" ridley said, "yeah, if it were 45 minutes ago." of course, the time was wrong. they usually change the board right away after the train leaves, but not this time. wierd.

we headed back to old town and walked around. we ate the rest of our german bread and drank some of our wine. we saw the sights, and checked our email. finally it was time for Mass. as we walked up the church steps, i noticed that the clock said 3:15. i pointed it out, but we decided that they must not change the clocks for daylight savings time. stupid foreigners, why wouldn't they change the clocks? oh well, we weren't going to worry about the inefficiency of germans. we trotted into church, saying "hunh, daylight savings time. that should be ending soon, shouldn't it?", and knelt down to wait for mass to begin. after an excruciating length of time (and no priest in sight) ridley and i turned to each other, saying, "remember how the bakery was closed?", and, "yeah, and remember how that train left 45 min ago and they hadn't changed the sign?" ok, so we felt a little dumb...we had wandered aimlessly all day, waiting for a 4:30 mass because we "missed" the 10:30 one, we "missed" the train to Meissen, and it was "one hour" til mass so we couldn't eat a bratwurst. good times.

after the actual mass we rushed over to snag our last 3-Euro log-of-a-kebab to eat on the train and set off. ridley headed home, and i (after a nice nap in burger king) started off to frankfurt. i arrived in frankfurt at 7am, immediately realizing that i was NOT in the mood to begin sightseeing. also, i had NO money left, so i would have to carry all my stuff with me since the lockers cost one euro. so i got on the train to Cologne. i didn't know anything about it, except that it was 2 more hours of sleep before i had to do anything. (i was fairly burnt out on travelling at this point, and wanted nothing more than to be at home on the hill, with no pollution or people.)

the second i stepped out of the train station i realized that cologne has the most spectacular cathedral i have ever seen. i went right in, and dropped my bags in a pew. i just knelt there, marvelling the imensity and beauty of the place. i roughly estimated that the ceiling was 9 stories high. AMAZING!!! as i prayed a rosary, it became clear that they were getting ready for mass. i don't think i've ever gone to mass accidentally before. especially on a feast day (all saints day!). there was a full boys choir, which was absolutely wonderful...they sang many of the same things we did in the college choir, but it's a million times better in a church with acustics like that. as the procession went past i counted about 10 priests/monseniors, 3 bishops, and a cardinal. whoa.

i had to go to the bathroom terribly, and it cost 1.20 euro to use one. so (since i had a free day left on my train pass) i got back on the train--the train has a free potty--to frankfurt. i know it was horrible of me, but i was so burnt out that i didn't even see frankfurt. i just went to the airport. a good decision too, since i realized only upon my arrival that RyanAir flies out of another airport...1 1/2 hours away. ugh. eventually i got there and onto my flight, and immediately fell asleep. you know you're tired when you don't even remember take-off or landing. after some excitement (and yet another overdraft fee) i figured out the bus between the london airports. i tried to take a nap in the bus station, but became enraptured with a small drama taking place there--a couple didn't have the means to get to their flight at gatwick airport, and they were being quite entertaining (to third parties only, i'm very sure) about the whole thing. at the airport i did the homeless man thing and washed my hair, brushed my teeth, and plucked my eyebrows in the public restroom while waiting for my 8am flight back to the states. ok, i doubt that homeless dudes do the latter, but you get the point.

it was at some point in this last week that i decided: i am ready to finish college. i am ready to sit in one place for a year and a half. i am ready to make enough money that when i go to europe next time i don't have to sleep in bus stations, poo on trains, and live on a loaf of bread for a week. i'll be the first to tell anyone and everyone to do what i did this past month, but i doubt that i'll be out there doing things that exact way again. that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

ps: sorry this was so long.