hey. guess who's back??? me! the guy who runs this site! y'know, the one who made the walking dorito or whatever. so what am i back from? another damn continent, that's what. in case you forgot, i said i was going on a trip to Europe last month (in a smaller font than the rest of the post). well that trip is over now, and like these things tend to go, i have a lot to say about it. now that my mom is no longer a nervous wreck and we've returned to using a measurement system that makes literally no sense whatsoever, i can focus on what really matters in life. rant-filled blog posts on a web site nobody visits.
ok, enough sarcastic intros. how was the trip? for starters, it was... kind of a blur. like, it felt slow some days, but as soon as it ended, it was like "damn, june's already over?!" my ass was hurting more than my feet, and that's what two weeks of bus rides gets you. i was also waking up at 6am for a short time, which i didn't actually mind too much. despite what my body tells me, i really do like waking up early. having breakfast at 12pm sharp never felt right to me.
i'm pretty sure my mom was a bit disappointed with the amount of pictures i took, and i'm sure she's even more disappointed in the amount of souvenirs i bought (maybe a shirt would've helped). ah well, it's not like i'm going back- my mom is holding on tight until college. my parents also had a rather difficult time knowing what i was up to, since i barely post online, unlike the girls that only showed up to have a cool instagram story. was it worth the $6,000 investment?
well, there's the aftermath of the trip summed up. i don't think i was supposed to cover that part first... ah well. let's take it back to the beginning.
the trip started with a 10-hour flight to Portugal. no, we weren't "starting" the trip there, we just wanted to fly their airline. according to the teacher, TAP Air Portugal was the "safest" option to get to Europe. so we never got to see Portugal outside of its airport, which didn't even have a good view of anything. after that we headed to the Netherlands, where our trip truly began. once we landed, we claimed our luggage, very willingly took a group picture, then headed to our hotel.
everyone was separated by gender, probably so no one got too... intimate in their rooms. not saying i would've done anything, but you never know, i guess. rooms were chosen by the chaperones, but luckily i (often) roomed with two brothers i befriended during my theatre adventures. the room itself was... cramped. there was a single queen-sized bed and a foldable bed that came out of the closet. we were also on our own for dinner that night, since we arrived later than expected. so me and the guys had our first "poverty dinner", which consisted of cookies and a bag of doritos i neglected to eat.
most of our days were either walking + taking pics or riding the bus. day 2 was a nice walk around Amsterdam, and the day we met our tour guide, who i also have some thoughts on. first off... she was waaaaay too impatient and reckless. i don't care if you're the king of the goddamn country, you gotta slow down for us braindead tourists. she would often just openly jaywalk or cross when cars were literally speeding toward us, which made crossing the street more of a hassle than it should've been. the guide also wasn't particularly great at leading the crowd, which is a topic for much later.
after a pleasant (not for me) boat ride and crêpes for dinner, we were off to bed. me and a group of kids gathered after to discuss the first day, in what we called a "function". we had several attempts to host these, most of which fell flat. speaking of the group, all of the students were divided into two distinct groups. one comprised of bored/annoying sophomores and juniors, while the other comprised of (mostly) seniors and me, since i already knew half the kids there. the two groups didn't bother interacting much, and we usually just complained about their behavior whenever we brought them up. fun group dynamic.
the next few days were a mix between bus ride and walking. unfortunately, i cannot fall asleep on any moving vehicle that isn't a car. the other group of kids wasn't even being annoying, i just couldn't fall asleep. maybe having my music at full blast all the time doesn't help. at least i got to revisit plenty of albums i hadn't touched in a while. i usually listen to music in "phases", so it felt refreshing to finally break out of that for once. tally hall cannot be silenced forever.
our next stop was Munich, Germany, which was a big highlight of the trip for me. wherever the hell we were, i enjoyed it. we got a sizable amount of freetime that day, and it was fun to just walk around and mistakenly buy sparkling water. seriously, why is Europe so addicted to bubbly water? it's not that good.
when we got back to the hotel that night, we wanted to have another function and discuss our day and how it went. for whatever reason, after we'd all arrived, some people from the other group (the sophomores/juniors) barged into the room, stumbled into the bathroom, then said some random sh*t and left. we felt confused and slightly uncomfortable, which started our somewhat-feud with the other group.
they'd already been annoying the past few days, but now they were invading our personal space (the bathroom didn't even have a lock, may i add). we complained to the main chaperone about their behavior, but she did jacksh*t in preventing it, instead blaming us for "being too hostile". she seemed to favor the other group a whole lot more than us, which really got on our nerves.
our tour guide wasn't much help, either. she was actually beefing with Ms. G, the main chaperone, at the start of our trip. the chaperones as a whole were comically unorganized. they would sometimes argue in front of us about what they were doing, while the tour guide was pressuring us to get a move on. i get being in another country is stressful, but shouldn't have all this been planned out beforehand? what are we arguing about here?
there was just a whole lot of unprofessionalism and mismanagement on display, which was rather disappointing to see. it made the whole trip feel like this constant battle against the clock, constantly rushing to get to the next thing planned. maybe that's why the trip felt like such a blur- i never got to enjoy any of it. just came here for the souvenirs and left. to be fair, i didn't know what to expect from this trip, but i expected to at least get some time to enjoy it. you really think i'm coming here again? not for another decade, i'll tell you that much.
anyhoo, back to the trip. after Germany, we took a stop in Austria to visit a fancy jewelery store. i don't even know if it was planned or not, we all just went in. i'm not into bracelets or that kinda thing, so i just admired the pricetags. after that, we headed over to Verona for a day. it was quite nice there, and it's big on that one Shakespeare play. the second half of the trip was far more eventful than the first, which is why i'm speeding through the first couple stops. i will also add that the heat was almost unbearable at some points, and it didn't help that water fountains were a scarcity wherever we went.
another aspect of the trip i should mention was the food. now, i'm not a big eater. i'm actually a very picky eater whose diet is entirely chicken nuggets (exaggerated for comedic purposes). breakfast wasn't an issue- i mostly had croissants and other pastries. we were on our own for lunch, usually stopping at local places or the occassional fast food chain that had somehow made its way there. dinner was provided for us, some of the meals including beef stew and pasta. it was mostly good, but i wasn't a fan of stuff like sauerkraut.
the next stop was Venice, where stuff starts to get interesting. the halfway mark had been attained, and i was used to sharing rooms and my feeting hurting by then. we watched a glassblowing demonstration and got to buy some cool trinkets. afterward, some friends and i were looking for a place to eat lunch. one kid was insistent we continue walking in the hot sun to find a good place, meanwhile we'd just found a different spot that was apparently "less good". that kid eventually stormed off on his own, completely shattering the "no less than 3 kids in a group" rule that had been established.
another kid went after him, then a girl after him. these were the kids i didn't know in our group, so i didn't think too much of it. eventually, the two guys returned, but not the girl. she had actually lost her phone at the airport before we left, so we had no way of contacting her. somehow, she managed to locate a chaperone who brought her back to the group. she was in tears, and we had to console her as we finally made our way to lunch. i ended up sitting with those 3 kids, and the atmosphere was... heated. it started off dead silent, but the girl eventually yelled at the guy who initially stormed off and went outside.
i got to know them a lot more after this incident, and we ended up becoming friends. but yeah, that's how that afternoon went. later on, i went on a gondola ride with a couple friends, and it was surprisingly chill. but the second i got comfy, the rain began to pour. and it freakin' poured. not nearly as bad as that storm in Paris, but not a pleasant drizzle. we were all drenched, so we rushed to our boat and headed back to the hotel, where the AC was broken. it also doesn't help that we never actually went out to eat in Italy, we just stuck to eating in the hotel. if you're gonna rob me of good food, don't.
after that, we headed to Switzerland, which i'd completely forgotten we were even going to. it ended up being a sleeper hit of sorts, i have little complaints about the country itself. it had some absolutely stunning views and excellent chocolate. what i do have complaints about was our hotel room- or rather, the people we had to room with. it was me, two friends, and two guys from the other group. they turned the room into a "party room", inviting random ass girls to hang out and be annoying. it's fun waking up at 5:30 in the morning to a bunch of random kids in your room gawking at a view they could see at literally any other goddamn time.
i don't care if those guys think its "their room". it's OUR room, which means there's other people living here, dipsh*ts. this is also the part of the trip where my depression struck, but luckily the balcony view was great for some midnight brooding. to be honest, my mood heavily fluctuated throughout the trip. sometimes i'd find myself actually enjoying what was happening around me, but sometimes i'd just sit on the bus all sad, trying to remind myself that i shouldn't be feeling this way. eh, this whole depression thing has been an ongoing process. i've gotten used to feeling like crap sometimes.
our second-to-last stop was Paris, France, which was probably the most interesting of our stops. but for all the wrong reasons. we started off just walking around and enjoying the sights, and even took a tour of Versailles, that one palace by the Lord of the Sun or whatever. but once the evening started, things went upside-down real quickly.
we just so happened to be in town on June 21, the one day when the entire city becomes a street music festival. for some reason, the tour guide led us through a mosh pit in some large alleyway. we had to hold onto each other for dear life as we inched our way through the sweaty, uncomfortably tight crowd. eventually, we emerged from the pit, our faces coated in sweat and liquid from god-knows-where. however, one girl was missing- she was the shortest and had mistakenly gone forward instead of turning right, where we were. i couldn't imagine what it was like in there. i probably wouldn't have been able to move or even breathe.
thankfully, she made it out okay, and we carefully made our way to the boat ride we were somehow not late to. at least i got some good pics of the sparkling Eiffel Tower, it's truly a sight to behold. my vertigo was surprisingly tame throughout the trip, the worst being the shaky boat ride to Venice. our boat in Paris was big and stable, which made it pretty enjoyable. a well-deserved break from the chaos that occurred just an hour before.
soon after the ride concluded, we began our trek to the metro. but the streets were literally infested with huge crowds of people- like a city-wide party. after the mosh pit incident, we were sure to be more careful in navigating. we made our way to the station, entered our tickets, then... we stopped. after doing a headcount once everyone had used their ticket, 5 kids were missing. including me.
me and 4 friends had mistakenly gone to a random platform after going through the gate. the tour guide had been behind us, yet neglected to inform us which direction to head in. so we were lost in a crowded metro station on the busiest, loudest day of the year. needless to say, some of us were scared, others in tears, all in fear. it took over 20 minutes for the tour guide to find us, and she seemed rather focused in making sure we make it on time than keeping us together. yes, i am blaming her. she should've been in front of the line, or at least told us where the f*** we were going. this whole "just follow me" attitude doesn't work in groups of 30.
soon enough, we were back with the rest of the group. i kinda... distanced myself from everyone to really process what had just happened. in the span of 3 hours, multiple kids had gotten lost for prolonged periods of time, in an area we have no familiarity with. do you know how horrible that looks? lacking basic communication skills? i swear, everyone just brushed it off after like nothing had happened. i guess it was best to try and forget it happened for the rest of the trip, but looking back now? what a sick joke.
i think we all needed a good ending to this increasingly hectic trip. luckily, London was a blast and my favorite by a sizable margin. i dunno, i guess i just enjoyed the vibes. seeing stuff like Parliament or Big Ben was a treat, on a double decker bus, no less. half the kids were just making references to The Smiths the whole time (would've been my mom's nightmare). we also watched a musical to end off the night, which was fun. i don't usually go to those things, despite having been in one myself. which musical, you might ask? leave your guess in the comment section below.
to catch our flight home, we had to wake up at 2 in the morning to make it on time. yes, we got to our hotel at 11 at night and had to wake up 3 hours later. i and multiple others decided to skip going to bed, since it would be more of a nap at that point. i just watched Luca to pass the time, and started getting ready right after it ended. our hotel actually provided us with "travel breakfasts" on our way out, which was genuinely like, really nice of them to do. 5 star service if i've ever seen it.
as we rode the bus to the airport, i reflected on the trip a bit. we'd been traveling so fast that i hadn't really gotten the chance to look back on it. i made new friends, had been through 6 different countries, all while somehow knowing how to use a credit card. was i truly ready for it to end? yes, actually- my ass was killing me. and i still didn't know what day it was.
the flight home was... loooong. i swear, trying to entertain myself on that 11-hour flight was a struggle. it was basically a constant flip-flop between movies and music the whole time. the food was also less than stellar, but at least it kept us fed. i actually knocked out right before the food was served, so the girl sitting next to me had to wake me up right after. apparently, i was out cold, and she had to practically body slam me to get me awake. when that didn't work, she took one of my airpods out and- oh look at that, i'm awake!
so other than that, not much has happened. i uhh... made a new George 1.5 cutscene? worked on SSMB for a bit? but that doesn't compare to the crazy couple of weeks i've gone through. to you guys, nothing really happened while i was away. but for me, i went on a once-in-a-lifetime journey i'll never forget. 3 stars.
happy july 4th for those that live in the states. hope all is going well, stay safe out there
