London...Wasn't It Loverly

Well, sadly but true, the first five days of my Christmas break didn’t go exactly the way I was hoping they would.  I've got  to say that this was the most epic adventure of my life.  I had quite a few incredible experiences and learned many valuable lessons.  Life Lesson #15 I learned on this adventure: Nothing is perfect, no matter how much of a perfectionist you are (like me, unfortunately) and that things don't always go the way as planned. So here’s my sad/turned out to be happy story in a nutshell:

My cousin Glenna arrived in Salzburg on Tuesday night during finals week. The plan was for us to leave Salzburg early Friday morning and take the train from there to Munich. Since we have been having loads of snowy weather here in Salzburg for the past two weeks, our train was extremely late. So we were waiting at the Salzburg train station for about 2 hours until our train finally came. The train ride from Salzburg to Munich takes around 2 hours, but since our train was so late, we arrived Munich quite late. The flight we were going to catch to Dublin was actually flying out of Memmingen, which is about 2 hours outside of Munich, so we had to change trains in Munich to get all the way out to Memmingen. This is the part when we knew for sure we were definitely screwed! Instead of two hours, this train ride from Munich to Memmingen took us well over 4 hours. The whole way it was snowing like crazy, so, yeah, we definitely missed our flight to Dublin. It was late in the afternoon, so there was nothing else flying out of Memmingen, but we did notice that there was a flight to London the next morning. So we just thought we might as well go spend a few extra days in London and just get a hostel for four nights before my Aunt Marge and cousin Ann got there. After a long and exhausting day of traveling, we got a cheap hotel room in Memmingen above a German Gasthaus (restaurant) that was in a totally red German-style A-frame-ish shaped building. The next day, we went back to the airport, checked in, went through security, customs, and waited in the terminal for an hour until we learned that our flight had been canceled due to the mass snow in London. Here we were really screwed and  had to come up with a plan C, so we took a bus from the airport back the Munich train station. Since the snow was so bad, we just decided to give up on planes and trains and decided to take the bus to London. That would mean going through the Chunnel, which I had always wanted to experience doing, but honestly, it was not exciting at all.  The bus didn’t leave until Monday, the 20th in the late afternoon, so we got a hostel for two nights in Munich and spent two days exploring the city. I’ve been wanting to explore more of Munich, so it was okay. We tried to make the best out of it.  We went to the Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Market), did some shopping, went to a Medieval Market (totally reminded me of PT!), ate some of the traditional German wurst, had awesome Indian food, and went on a historic tour of the city.  So, yeah, I'd say we made the best out of it, although I was really dissappointed that I didn't get to go to Ireland.  But heck with it!  I'm still here for 5 more months!  Alles gute!

Trying to get to London through the snow was very challenging. Going through the Chunnel was something I thought I would never get to experience doing.  The entire bus ride from Munich to London took 24 hours. It left Munich at a quarted the 6:00 in the evening.  Luckily I slept most of the way, which was a really good thing since I hadn't had much sleep since the beiginning of finals week. We arrived to the Chunnel the next morning.  To take the Chunnel, you have to go through A LOT of security.  If you are taking the Chunnel by bus, everyone is required to get off with all of their luggage, go through French customs, get their baggage X-rayed, and then get back on the bus.  It was a pain since I was really tired and my suitcase was somewhat heavy. But after that, there's more. When we got back on the bus, we had to get off the bus again (but without our bags thank God) and go through British customs.  It makes sense why both the French and the British would have such high security at the Chunnel, but still it was a hassle and very exhausting.


We arrived in London the day before my Aunt Marge and Ann got there, so we got a hotel near Victoria Station.  We had some good Turkish food for dinner that night and then went back to the hotel and crashed.  24 hour-long bus ride= EXHAUSTING!  The next morning we went for a nice walk through Kennsington Park.  It was so nice not to be rushing to get anywhere or carrying heavy bags.  We were just able to walk through and absorb the beautiful nature of Kennsington Park. My favorite part in the park (and all of London) is the bronze statue of Peter Pan.  As an English major, of coure, I've thought of so many differnent interpretations of James Matthew Barrie's renowned play of the boy who refused to grow up.  I wish I didn't have to grow up! London was absolutely beautiful. All of its archtecture, scenary, and history are all so fascinating.  Walking the streets of London made me feel like I was in scene from Mary Poppins- and I was constantly humming songs from the movie, too. The next day we went on a tour around London on a double-decker bus where got to see all the famous landmarks of the city such as Big Ben, Parliment, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, etc. That night we went to the stage performance of Dirty Dancing, which was absolutely amazing!

It was absolutely wonderful being in London for Christmas, but VERY different from what I'm used to. I was happy to spend it with family, but it was a little strange not to be celebrating Christmas with my parents.  Our Christmas was very simple. On Christmas Eve, we went to Harrods, which is a humungous department store with pretty much everything you can imagine- designers clothes, perfume, make-up, electronics, toys, appliances, you name it they've got it!  Then Glenna and I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollow.  We spent all Christmas Day in our nice little town-house-like hotel that had a kitchen.  We made crepes for Christmas breakfast, opened stockings and presents, listened to music, watched movies, and had a nice and simple dinner.  Although I did miss my parents and friends back home, this was the most relaxing Christmas I had ever had. 

After all what I had been through trying to get to London, I was really happy to get back to Salzburg. My flight left London precisely on time and returned back to Salzburg safe and and sound.  I'm here in beautiful Salzburg for the next four days until I leave for Spain on New Years Day.  Better use these days to catch up on sleep!  Happy New Year!