Free Internet

(I wrote this earlier today. Now I'm copy & pasting it for you)

I was planning to sleep on this train, but then I saw that it had free internet. But THEN it turned out that  it's free interenet after you pay. Ya, riddle me that. And I don't want to pay for internet, but I got all in the mood to write to you guys, so here I am - on a word document. Again. I'll copy and paste it later.

I was hoping to feel all better this morning, but that's unfortunately not the case. I bought another liter of oj. This one was 4.95 euros. Still totally worth it.

I'm on a train to Switzerland. One of 4. Some people don't like big travel days, but I do. Usually. If there are a million connections and little half hour train rides, it can be annoying. But a couple long train rides, I find that pretty pleasant. I like seeing everything. And it's nice to just sit without feeling like I should be out doing stuff.

It's raining outside. It looks. . . dreary. But the kind of dreary that would be quite pleasant if you were inside with a book and some tea. I'm hoping the rain will let up between 17:32-18:00 (when I have to walk outside), but other than that, it can rain as much as it wants.

It's funny this is summer.

No more hostels for a month (ish), so that's exciting. Switzerland with Lili, Switzerland with David, Amsterdam with Kat, Berlin with Nadja, Poland with Marta (may or may not need a hostel, tbd), Czech (hostel needed), Austria (hostel needed), California (no hostel needed).

Quite exciting.

I don't know what else to tell you. Umm. . . went to Bruges yesterday. Rented a bike and rode it around. Saw some windmills. The whole town looks like it's frozen in medieval times.

Okay, I'm ready to be done writing. Who knows, maybe I'll even fall asleep. Night/bye.

(much later)

It’s a couple hours later, and I’m sitting in the cockpit of the train. Do trains even have cockpits? I guess that’s a rater silly question. They must. I’m in one.

Or at least right near one. I’m at the front of the train, and I can see where the conductor would be if, in fact, we had a conductor instead of just being hooked to another train nose-to-nose. I wonder if the other train has a conductor, or if it’s all automated?

I think I’m in Germany, but I’m not quite sure. I’m on my way to Switzerland. I think I mentioned that earlier. It’s really beautiful outside. No longer rainy. Just big, white fluffy clouds and blue skies. I have a great view from here in the cockpit. PLUS there are only 10 seats. No crying babies. At first when I got in here, I thought I had stumbled into first class. But the number on the door said 2, so I figured I would just stay until they came around, checked tickets, and kicked me out. But that didn’t happen! So I get to chill here n the cockpit for another hour.

This is awesome.

And just think, if my original train plan had worked without delays or missed connections, I wouldn’t be having this awesome ride. Funny how things have a way of working out for the best.

Love you. 

(Now we're in current time as I'm posting this)

The day/night ended up being really, really great. I'm tired and it's late, so I'm not quite sure how much I'll write, but I'll go until I can't do anymore. Okay?

My friend Aur Elie (Lili) from Cal picked me up at the train station in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Technically, the "a" is wearing a little hat thing, but I don't know how to do that. It's a really adorable town. She said that all Switzerland towns are the same: cute old town, big lake, Alps in the background. All beautiful, but all the same. Definitely nothing to complain about. 

So when we met up, one of the first things she said was, "I hope it's okay, but we were thinking of going out on the boat." This after I had been drooling at the sight of the lake the whole way in, trying to figure out how I could bribe someone to take me out, or make friends with someone at the harbor or something. It was perfect! Just what I needed after a day of trains.

So we (Lili, her boyfriend, her friend, and I) went out on the lake, and it felt fresh and cool and breezy and fun. I think tomorrow I will walk down and go swimming. It really was quite perfect. When the sun started to set, we went back to the harbor and had a delicious dinner in the . . . boat kitchen. Crap, I was going to impress you with my boat lingo, but I forgot it. GALLEY! The galley! Haha! Got it. It was delicious.

Then when we were driving back from the harbor, we stopped for McFlurrys and ate them next to a castle.

Life is good. 

One thing that makes me laugh, though, is that Lili reads the blog (hi Lili!). It's funny writing about people and knowing they're going to read it. Or hanging out with people and having them think I'm going to write about it later, that happened with Fran too. She kept saying, "You're going to put this on your blog, aren't you?" (Hi Fran!). I feel like that must be how it's like to date Taylor Swift. Just wondering, "I wonder how this is going to sound in a song." I wonder if the whole time Taylor Swift is dating someone, she's constantly writing the song. Or maybe she just waits 'till the end when it all goes to crap. . . I don't know. I'd be interested to ask her. . . Actually, that might be rude, so I'd be interested to have someone else ask her, so I could learn the answer without being the rude one. Anyways, the point being, it's funny having overlap between the people I travel and stay with and the people that read my blog. That never happened when they didn't speak English (i.e. Central/South America). So. . . yep. To all of you that I'm traveling/hang out/staying with, if you feel like I leave something important out, let me know. And maybe I'll add it.

Okay, sleep for me. Love you all.