Home Sweet Home

Greetings Friends,
WOW, its hard to believe it was just two weeks ago that I left my little flat here in London all giddy and ready to go on a big european adventure. Now, Im back home(ps thats also weird, to think of London as being "back home") exhausted and broke. But a different person as well.

First, I'll catch you up to speed.

Luckily our ride from Florence went off w/o a hitch,unless you count the twenty minute delay. But we did make it to the right station and did fine finding it.

When we arrived in Milan we checked our bags in at some lockers and spent the afternoon walking around the city, beacause our flight for Brussels didn't leave until 9.

So, we explored the dirty,busy and smog infested streets of Milan, realizing that we were in one of the fashion capitals of the world,looking like a vagrant in my dirty jeans,sweatshirt and scruffy face.

We need to search for an i-cafe so we could try and book a hostel for one of our nights in Brussel's. GO US and being on top of things again and had the worst luck ever. I think a big reason was because it was so last minute but all the internet sites kept saying that they didnt have anything or that there was a high demand,which I totally knew was bullox since it was the middle of October and a wednesday. But we finally found a cute little hotel in one of the nearby cities.

We found a pet store during our exploration of the icty and played in ther for awhile. Making "friends" with some of the animals there. We met (and these are our names for them): Spycat-a pretty gray cat who Dana figures fights crime,steals jewels and is going to take over the world. Grey cat-an ugly little persian cat who liked to play with our fingers. Princess-another ugly persian with gross fur who played with our fingers. Special-a cat who was a persian and once again ugly but seemed to have a little issue playing with our fingers or even sitting up. There were also some cute little puppies in the window.

We then headed back to the train station to catch our hour bus ride to the airport.

We went through security fine and then once again, Ryanair is late and our flight was like 1/2 hour late. Its funny,because they claim to be "the on time" airline,but i've yet to actually fly with them on time.

We get into Belgium and catch a taxi to our lovely little hotel. Turns out the town is farther than I thought from the airport and I started to get worried,because we were going down all these side roads and dark and windy roads and I was just wainting to get lost or get dropped off in the middle of nowhere. WHICH PS, turns out the guy wanted to do. NO LIE. He was joking w/another taxi driver on their little walkie talkies in french about dropping us off in the middle of nowhere and we would have no clue since we are 4 young americans and Chelsea understood him because she understands french.

BUT he doesnt and we get to our hotel safe and sound and checked in. The next day we catch a taxi to Brussels and wander around the city.

We first visited the chocolate musuem and learned all about the history of museum,how its made and where it comes from. We got to see how chocolate is made by hand and had some quite tasty samples.

We went and had some delicious belgian waffles, i had mine covered in bananas,chocolate sauce,and whipped cream.

After lunch we went and visited another museum and then looked at a bunch of chocolate shops.

We spent a majority of evening at a tavern eating and talking,trying to waste time before we caught a train to the airport,where we were spending the night before our flight back home.

Our slumber party in the airport was fun. When we went to check in and told the lady we were just staying the night she gave us a really awkward look and asked why we would want to do that, before pointing us in the right direction. The girls who checked us in where very non friendly, probably just tired and ready for home.

But, we got checked in and camped out in the airport. I made a nice little nest under a row of chairs and it was actually quite comfortable and I slept better than I had in some of our hostels!

The flight back was uneventful and it was so great when we landed in London.

It was back to seeing everything in english and knowing what was going on and most importantly,where I was going and what I was doing. It was kind of weird realizing that I was really comfortable in London and knew what I was doing and felt at home.

But that brings us up to speed and since this blog turned out to be a mini novel thats where I will end today.

Cheers
Drew