The Email that Never Came
So after "The Paris Train Incidient", we discovered that we forgot to tie up some loose ends. Before Adrienne hung up the phone on her parents at the Paris Train Station, she told them that she would call back in 15 minutes. Her plan was to call back at the hostel. At the hostel, we discovered that there were no phones that could dial out internationally. In our tired state, we ended up just eating and sleeping while her parents were still expecting a phone call.
We forgot to follow up. We also overslept our train to Milan, Italy and were already tackling our next problem of "Where do we want to go?". The person checking for available seats just looked at us with an incredulous stare each time TravelingPartner and I opened our mouths and sprouted out that we whimsically wanted to visit said country. The conversation went like this:
William: "We overslept our train to Milan, Italy. Is there any more available seats today for Milan?"
Train Employee: "Let me check... nope, not for today"
William: "How about to Italy in general?"
Train Employee: "Let me check..."
Adrienne: "I've already been to Italy. Can we go somewhere else?"
William: "How about Bern, Switzerland?"
Train Employee: "Let me check... fully booked for today"
William: "You want to go to Barcelona?"
Adrienne: "Sure!"
William: "What about Barcelona, Spain?"
Train Employee: "Um... let me check... none available today"
Adrienne: "What about Vienna, Austria?"
Train Employee: "Let me check... yep, I can get you two to the next train in an hour and a half, but it leaves from another station"
William and Adrienne look at each other.
William: "Perfect, we'll take it!"
We asked for trains to Bern, Switzerland all the way to Barcelona, Spain. and ended up just going to Vienna, Austria. It was pretty hilarious at that point; we were so accustomed to going wherever the train would take us that it was beginning to be fairly routine. Paris was also starting to get very expensive so we just wanted to get the hell out of there.
While we were contemplating where to go, Adrienne's parents were still concerned about the welfare of their daughter. Before we left, Adrienne had left her parents the contact information to reach my parents in cases of dire emergencies. This situation neatly filed under the "Dire Emergency" category.
Last they knew, their beautiful daughter was in a foreign country where she did not know the local language and had no place to stay. They knew that it was nightfall, we had little cash, businesses were closed, and we had never been to that part of Paris before. I was also a mysterious person who they've never met and who only knew their daughter through Peace Corps.
So Adrienne's parents called my parents. Little did they know of me and my reclusiveness. The call did not alleviate their concerns, but only frustrated them more. From what I've asked around, here's what happened:
AP = Adrienne's Parents
MP = My parents
MC = My cousin
Adrienne's Parents call up my house.
Ring Ring!
My parents pick up the phone.
My parents: "Hello?"
AP: "Hi, is this William Liu's parents?"
MP: "Yes. William's not here right now, he's in Europe somewhere."
AP: "Yes, I know. This is Adrienne's mother. William is traveling with my daughter."
MP: "Yes, William is in Europe."
AP: "Yes. The last I heard from them, they had no place to stay, they were in a train station they've never been, they didn't have much cash, and they said they would call me back in 15 minutes, but I haven't heard from them in a couple days. I've emailed them and I haven't gotten a response. It's not like my daughter to ask for help, and then stop all communication. When was the last time you heard from William?"
MP: "William's in Europe, he'll be back later. Don't worry, William always finds a way out of sticky situations"
AP: "..."
MP: "Do you want to talk to his cousin? She knows computers, they might have contacted each other."
AP: "Umm... Yes please"
My parents pass phone over to my 16 year old cousin.
My cousin: "Hi"
AP: "Hi, when was the last time you heard from William?"
MC: "Last week"
AP: "Do you know where he is and if he's ok?"
MC: "Yeah, he's in Europe. He'll be back later."
AP: "Have you talked to him recently?"
MC: "No, but he always manages to get by. Don't worry"
Adrienne's Parents repeat our dire situation.
MC replies back "No worries, they'll be fine."
AP: "........."
AP: "Ok, thank you. Bye"
MC: "Ok, Bye!"
Adrienne received an email from her parents and her friends. I received not even a single email! Let's not go into further details about that...
[Updated] It's been a few days since I've been back and during a dinner my mom casually said, "Oh, while you were gone, someone called for you. It was someone's mom. They wanted to know where you were."
I laughed.
Friday, March 30, 2007
The Paris Train Station Incident
The Paris Train Station Incident
Almost all of our traveling was done by train due to Europe's highly efficient and relatively cheap public transportation system. With a magical ticket called the "Eurail pass", we were able to travel with ease from country to country. While this was another way to cut cost and maximize our time (sleep on the train ride so we don't have to pay for a hotel), as we found out, traveling from country to country doesn't necessarily mean a place to stay in each country (Read: The Night at Bruges Train Station). This was the case once again after we finished our day trip to Lyon, France.
It was approaching late evening when we returned to Paris and Adrienne reminded me that we had no place to stay for the night. Argh, I forgot about that! I think the adventure of traveling is sometimes ruined by trivial questions like "Where are we going to stay for the night? Where are we going to eat?" Not only do you have to answer those questions, but they're reoccurring questions that keep coming back night after night or every 4-6 hours.
This was another one of those nights that I forgot to pay attention to those pesky questions. Normally we would reserve a place to stay a whole 12 to 24 hours in advance. Today was not one of those days. We needed a place to stay at that exact moment, but couldn't find any help to locate a hostel. There was no one to ask for accommodations and no Internet access around. We were tired, hungry, and we had all our belongings with us. It looked like we were carrying so little, but it began to weigh exponentially heavier as time pressed on. Businesses had closed, including the restrooms, and even the train station looked like it was about to close soon. It was a depressing situation.
Adrienne looked around and started a desperate plan. She had the look of a caged animal trying whatever was necessary to impede the fate of sleeping at another train station. She probably remembered her near death experience in the Bruges Train Station and used that as fuel to help us find a place to stay. She came up with an elaborate plan of calling her parents in the United States in order to give them an update on our sad predicament, hoping that they could locate a nearby hostel online.
Unlike Adrienne, who was coordinating her complex plan that involved communication across 3000+ miles and relaying information from the super information highway, I had a much simpler plan. I walked outside the train station and poked around.
To be honest, at that moment, even though it was 10 p.m., we had no place to sleep, we didn't eat in the last 6 hours, and there was a group of hobos forming at the base of the train station, I only had one thing that preoccupied everything; I needed to pee.
Fueled by my urge to relieve myself, I hastily moved out while Adrienne stayed inside the train station to rest. She must have thought that I was looking valiantly for a nearby hostel. I was mainly searching outside the train station to look for a place to pee. I can't believe the restrooms were closed! How cruel are the French to close restrooms?! As my bladder began to fill and verge on the point of exploding, I started hating France and its stupid design!
Why couldn't they put a dark alley here or there? Who needs a restaurant there when it could be a nice dark alley?! While normally any sane traveler would dread approaching any dark alley, I was running around looking for one. I thought about asking people, but that would be slightly awkward even for me. "Excuse me sir, can you point me to a nice dark alley? I'm friendly, I promise I won't mug you!"
In my search, I finally found a hotel! I went inside to inquire about the price. We were desperate, but we were also very poor. 70 Euros a night for two people?! You've got to be kidding me! I thanked the concierge and walked out. I visited 3 more hotels before I found out that hotels within the vicinity ranged from 70 to 100 Euros per night, which seemed normal, but still much outside our price range. Still too stubborn, I continued on my quest to find a reasonably priced sleeping accommodation when I walked around a corner only to see our luck change.
Not more than half a block away I saw my miracle flashing before my eyes in a bright neon orange sign clearing stating "HOSTEL". Woot! We're saved! I asked inside and the price was approximately 35 Euros for two people with breakfast included. We had to hurry though, they only had one room left, they didn't accept credit cards, I didn't have enough cash on me, and there was no bank open.
I made it back to the train station and found Adrienne still on the phone. She had reached a snag in her complex plan. Apparently, she didn't expect her parents to put her on hold. Adrienne was pissed off that her family had put her on hold when she was calling halfways across the world (though in all fairness, it was her sibling's birthday and they were bringing out the cake).
The news of finding a hostel made her beam with happiness. She hung up the phone and we left for the hostel. We ended up having to combine our cash in order to barely have enough to pay for the night. We were paying the last couple Euros by scrounging up some of the .20 Euro coins that we had in our pockets.
We later found an ATM and were able to get some cash for dinner.
P.S. I was finally able to pee. Best. Piss. Ever.
Almost all of our traveling was done by train due to Europe's highly efficient and relatively cheap public transportation system. With a magical ticket called the "Eurail pass", we were able to travel with ease from country to country. While this was another way to cut cost and maximize our time (sleep on the train ride so we don't have to pay for a hotel), as we found out, traveling from country to country doesn't necessarily mean a place to stay in each country (Read: The Night at Bruges Train Station). This was the case once again after we finished our day trip to Lyon, France.
It was approaching late evening when we returned to Paris and Adrienne reminded me that we had no place to stay for the night. Argh, I forgot about that! I think the adventure of traveling is sometimes ruined by trivial questions like "Where are we going to stay for the night? Where are we going to eat?" Not only do you have to answer those questions, but they're reoccurring questions that keep coming back night after night or every 4-6 hours.
This was another one of those nights that I forgot to pay attention to those pesky questions. Normally we would reserve a place to stay a whole 12 to 24 hours in advance. Today was not one of those days. We needed a place to stay at that exact moment, but couldn't find any help to locate a hostel. There was no one to ask for accommodations and no Internet access around. We were tired, hungry, and we had all our belongings with us. It looked like we were carrying so little, but it began to weigh exponentially heavier as time pressed on. Businesses had closed, including the restrooms, and even the train station looked like it was about to close soon. It was a depressing situation.
Adrienne looked around and started a desperate plan. She had the look of a caged animal trying whatever was necessary to impede the fate of sleeping at another train station. She probably remembered her near death experience in the Bruges Train Station and used that as fuel to help us find a place to stay. She came up with an elaborate plan of calling her parents in the United States in order to give them an update on our sad predicament, hoping that they could locate a nearby hostel online.
Unlike Adrienne, who was coordinating her complex plan that involved communication across 3000+ miles and relaying information from the super information highway, I had a much simpler plan. I walked outside the train station and poked around.
To be honest, at that moment, even though it was 10 p.m., we had no place to sleep, we didn't eat in the last 6 hours, and there was a group of hobos forming at the base of the train station, I only had one thing that preoccupied everything; I needed to pee.
Fueled by my urge to relieve myself, I hastily moved out while Adrienne stayed inside the train station to rest. She must have thought that I was looking valiantly for a nearby hostel. I was mainly searching outside the train station to look for a place to pee. I can't believe the restrooms were closed! How cruel are the French to close restrooms?! As my bladder began to fill and verge on the point of exploding, I started hating France and its stupid design!
Why couldn't they put a dark alley here or there? Who needs a restaurant there when it could be a nice dark alley?! While normally any sane traveler would dread approaching any dark alley, I was running around looking for one. I thought about asking people, but that would be slightly awkward even for me. "Excuse me sir, can you point me to a nice dark alley? I'm friendly, I promise I won't mug you!"
In my search, I finally found a hotel! I went inside to inquire about the price. We were desperate, but we were also very poor. 70 Euros a night for two people?! You've got to be kidding me! I thanked the concierge and walked out. I visited 3 more hotels before I found out that hotels within the vicinity ranged from 70 to 100 Euros per night, which seemed normal, but still much outside our price range. Still too stubborn, I continued on my quest to find a reasonably priced sleeping accommodation when I walked around a corner only to see our luck change.
Not more than half a block away I saw my miracle flashing before my eyes in a bright neon orange sign clearing stating "HOSTEL". Woot! We're saved! I asked inside and the price was approximately 35 Euros for two people with breakfast included. We had to hurry though, they only had one room left, they didn't accept credit cards, I didn't have enough cash on me, and there was no bank open.
I made it back to the train station and found Adrienne still on the phone. She had reached a snag in her complex plan. Apparently, she didn't expect her parents to put her on hold. Adrienne was pissed off that her family had put her on hold when she was calling halfways across the world (though in all fairness, it was her sibling's birthday and they were bringing out the cake).
The news of finding a hostel made her beam with happiness. She hung up the phone and we left for the hostel. We ended up having to combine our cash in order to barely have enough to pay for the night. We were paying the last couple Euros by scrounging up some of the .20 Euro coins that we had in our pockets.
We later found an ATM and were able to get some cash for dinner.
P.S. I was finally able to pee. Best. Piss. Ever.
The Night at Bruges Train Station
The Night at Bruges Train Station
I woke up feeling fairly refreshed - well considering I had just slept 6 hours in a train station. I quickly glanced at my watch; we had another hour to kill before the train to Paris arrives. Feeling quite jovial about getting some decent rest and waking up on time, I looked over at Adrienne to see how she was faring.
Oh Shit! Adrienne looked pale, an almost deathly pale! My heart immediately began to beat faster and my mind raced with logical explanations. Its one of those feelings that makes you wake up instantly regardless of how deep asleep you were moments before. Who needs coffee to start the day when you could wake up to see that the only person you know within a 300 mile radius just might be nothing more than a cold corpse?
There has to be a logical explanation though. Maybe she just saw a ghost walking by. Maybe its normal for Adrienne to sleep with her eyes open and I just didn't make that observation until now. Or it could be the more likely scenario and the one that I dreaded; maybe she's borderline hypothermia. Freezing to death in a train station during Winter in order to save 30 Euros, how am I going to explain that to her parents?
I thought back. Before I fell asleep, she had complained about how cold the temperature was. I had given her my warmest jacket, a jacket that I used before for snowboarding. That jacket kept me warm enough in the harshest environments and although it was cold, I was wearing only a fleece in comparison. I thought it should keep her warm enough to survive in a building. Along with my snowboarding jacket, she also wore both her jackets, a sweater, a scarf, a beanie, and her thermals. She looked like a hulking pile of mismatched clothes.
At the very least I thought she would be a hulking pile of warm clothes. I poked her to see if Adrienne was alive. Much to my relief, she was. The conversation went pretty much like this:
William: "Hey. Adrienne. Are you alive?"
*Few seconds of eerie silence passes by*
Adrienne: "Yes."
William: "You feeling ok?"
Adrienne: "No."
William: "Ahh, sorry to hear that. Anything I can do?"
Adrienne: "No."
William: "Did you even get any sleep?"
Adrienne: "No."
William: "Ahh... ummm... Hey by the way, thanks for watching over our stuff. Just to let ya know I got some good sleep in. Why didn't you wake me up when it was my turn? Oh, we should do this more often. You know we just saved 30 Euros?"
Adrienne stares daggers at me.
I got Adrienne to get up and walk around the train station to get some blood circulation going. Whatever it was, she ended up throwing up. To say the least, we never slept at another train station for the rest of our trip. At that point we had traveled to three new countries, seen a lot of amazing new sites, and been in a few interesting predicaments (one which involved some stranger trying to sell us some ecstasy in Amsterdam). Needless to say though, this was the first time in our trip that I was really worried, if even for just a fleeting moment.
----------
The Amsterdam Story - Sorry, but you'll have to ask me in person about this one. If I don't remember, jot my memory by asking me what was under my pillow.
I woke up feeling fairly refreshed - well considering I had just slept 6 hours in a train station. I quickly glanced at my watch; we had another hour to kill before the train to Paris arrives. Feeling quite jovial about getting some decent rest and waking up on time, I looked over at Adrienne to see how she was faring.
Oh Shit! Adrienne looked pale, an almost deathly pale! My heart immediately began to beat faster and my mind raced with logical explanations. Its one of those feelings that makes you wake up instantly regardless of how deep asleep you were moments before. Who needs coffee to start the day when you could wake up to see that the only person you know within a 300 mile radius just might be nothing more than a cold corpse?
There has to be a logical explanation though. Maybe she just saw a ghost walking by. Maybe its normal for Adrienne to sleep with her eyes open and I just didn't make that observation until now. Or it could be the more likely scenario and the one that I dreaded; maybe she's borderline hypothermia. Freezing to death in a train station during Winter in order to save 30 Euros, how am I going to explain that to her parents?
I thought back. Before I fell asleep, she had complained about how cold the temperature was. I had given her my warmest jacket, a jacket that I used before for snowboarding. That jacket kept me warm enough in the harshest environments and although it was cold, I was wearing only a fleece in comparison. I thought it should keep her warm enough to survive in a building. Along with my snowboarding jacket, she also wore both her jackets, a sweater, a scarf, a beanie, and her thermals. She looked like a hulking pile of mismatched clothes.
At the very least I thought she would be a hulking pile of warm clothes. I poked her to see if Adrienne was alive. Much to my relief, she was. The conversation went pretty much like this:
William: "Hey. Adrienne. Are you alive?"
*Few seconds of eerie silence passes by*
Adrienne: "Yes."
William: "You feeling ok?"
Adrienne: "No."
William: "Ahh, sorry to hear that. Anything I can do?"
Adrienne: "No."
William: "Did you even get any sleep?"
Adrienne: "No."
William: "Ahh... ummm... Hey by the way, thanks for watching over our stuff. Just to let ya know I got some good sleep in. Why didn't you wake me up when it was my turn? Oh, we should do this more often. You know we just saved 30 Euros?"
Adrienne stares daggers at me.
I got Adrienne to get up and walk around the train station to get some blood circulation going. Whatever it was, she ended up throwing up. To say the least, we never slept at another train station for the rest of our trip. At that point we had traveled to three new countries, seen a lot of amazing new sites, and been in a few interesting predicaments (one which involved some stranger trying to sell us some ecstasy in Amsterdam). Needless to say though, this was the first time in our trip that I was really worried, if even for just a fleeting moment.
----------
The Amsterdam Story - Sorry, but you'll have to ask me in person about this one. If I don't remember, jot my memory by asking me what was under my pillow.
Some pictures of backpacking through Europe
Chocolote Museum in Bruges, Belgium
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hamberg, Germany
Absinthe, 70% Alcohol, 10% Thujon
Prague, Czech Republic
Prague Castle in the Czech Republic
Me running out of money... where to sleep?
Adrienne getting ready to sleep in the train station!
Drinking + bowling = final score in the two digits range
Inside a church in Vienna, Austria
In front of the Louve at night
Moulin Rogue, how cliche...
New friends from Freiburg!
Hanging out in Freiburg, lucky me!
Sunbathing in Freiburg 101
Drinking in front of a police station in MunichTravels so far...
Traveled so far:
Lohne, Germany
Hamberg, Germany
Bremin, Germany
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Bruges, Belgium
Paris, France
Lyon, France
Vienna, Austria
Prague, Czech Republic (currently in)
Updated:
After Prague, Czech Republic, we went on to backpack through:
Berlin, Germany
Munich, Germany
Freiburg, Germany
Frankfurt, Germany
We haven't gotten too many responses back from couchsurfing. I think it's maybe because of the following reasons:
1.) We don't give enough notice.
2.) I'm an unverified member of couchsurfing.
3.) I'm carrying a large bush knife hacking away at a coconut on my default picture.
Travels have been fun so far! I have a few funny stories that I'll write about when I get back.
Edited: I'm back!!! I'll update the stories here.
Lohne, Germany
Hamberg, Germany
Bremin, Germany
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Bruges, Belgium
Paris, France
Lyon, France
Vienna, Austria
Prague, Czech Republic (currently in)
Updated:
After Prague, Czech Republic, we went on to backpack through:
Berlin, Germany
Munich, Germany
Freiburg, Germany
Frankfurt, Germany
We haven't gotten too many responses back from couchsurfing. I think it's maybe because of the following reasons:
1.) We don't give enough notice.
2.) I'm an unverified member of couchsurfing.
3.) I'm carrying a large bush knife hacking away at a coconut on my default picture.
Travels have been fun so far! I have a few funny stories that I'll write about when I get back.
Edited: I'm back!!! I'll update the stories here.
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