Google maps and H&M...

Friday afternoon, I left Florence for free travel, and I cried. Alot. I cried when I hugged Robbie, Mona, Leda, and Paola. I cried when I walked out of the villa. I cried when everyone else sent us off. I cried through the whole van ride to the bus stop. I cried when bus 16 started moving. I cried when I got off bus 16. I cried when I hugged Ryan and Andrew bye at Santa Maria Novella. I cried when my train left SMN. I cried when my train left its stop in Milan. No joke. And the ridiculous thing is that I'm going back to the villa in a week. Robbie and Mona and most of my HUF family won't be there, but I'll be back in Florence. I'll see Florence again. I'll see Leda and Paola again. And I'll even see Andrew at the villa and Ryan in London. I felt so silly.

I made it to Zurich safely and was immediately confused by my google maps directions. I wandered around the giant train station, going out and in every exit, until finding an ATM, getting some francs, and going up to the taxi stand. The cab driver first greeted me in Italian. How incredibly ironic. I pointed to the address on my map.

"You go over the bridge and then turn left," he said pointing out the bridge.
"Can you driver me there?"
"It's 500 meters!"
"Uh, okaaaaay..."
"Just go over that bridge and turn left."

I went over the bridge and turned left. By now my 18.5 kilo backpack was KILLING me. Then I wandered around a Zurich neighborhood in the dark for 45 minutes before finally finding my hotel. At one point, I walked down a street, realized that I had gone the wrong way, and turned around and came back uphill. When I got back to the intersection where I had started out, I realized that I had been standing in front of a big sign with the hotel logo on it. It had a big arrow and said "30m" on it. So I followed the arrow up a shady alley and arrived in my hotel room at midnight.

Zurich was not shady at all in the daytime. It was really beautiful actually. I walked to the train station. (It took me 7 minutes to walk what took me 45 minutes the night before.) After finding out that I didn't need a reservation to get to Frankfurt or Amsterdam, I set out down the street that is supposed to be like the main shopping drag in town. I went inside H&M and then realized that I could buy NOTHING because I had NO room in my backpack and no money to spare. Next time I come to Switzerland I will make sure that I have lots of money and an empty suitcase before I set off down Zurich's Bahrnhoffstrasse. Ok, I don't rememeber if it was called "Bahrnhoffstrasse" exactly, but it's the best I can do with these street names.

Then I went and saw the largest clock face in Europe at St. Peter's Church steeple. Corrie ten Boom would be proud. Of course, you can see it from all over the city, but I went up to the church. I think it was a holiday or something, because there was something going on at the church and there was a parade all along the river. I went down this cute little walkway right by the river and went into some of the little craft shops. I bought some postcards from this erally sweet and cute little lady that pretty much only spoke Swiss-German. Good thing I know the most important word: "Danke."

Except I kinda said it like an Italian or a Spanish-speaker would say it: "dahn-keh". Apparently it's supposed to be pronounced like "Dahn-kuh", or maybe it's just "Dahnk". Anyway, I don't know if she was correcting me or just thanking me back, but I've tried to say it right after that. I went on to the Coop, finding it very familiar. One entrance and not enough exits. Tons of people and very long lines. But I got some stuff to eat. My stomach had been growling and I realized that all I had eaten from my sack dinner was a clementine and a Mars bar. And I hadn't gotten up and ready in time for breakfast. It had been over 24 hours since I had eaten anything even resembling a meal. Welcome to free travel, I guess.

I left Zurich at 8 am the next morning and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany at noon-ish. I ate some sack lunch and waited for my train to Amsterdam, which arrived at like 1:30. We were supposed to get in to Amsterdam Centraal Station at 5:30, which would have given me enough time to catch the little connection to Haarlem at 5:40. We didn't get in until 5:45. I was proud of myself though. After a very short period of freaking out time I went and look at the departures for another train that would stop in Haarlem, which is like 15 minutes out of Amsterdam. Train run all the time and I missed the next one, but before I knew it, I was in Haarlem, which is just as cute as can be, even in the dark... and the rain. But it wasn't coming down too hard, so I found my hotel pretty easily.

I've decided that Haarlem is the Scandicci or the Netherlands. My hotel is on the square and all day there has been a little market going on. It was pouring down rain when I went out today. My clothes were soaked in just a matter of minutes, and my umbrella was useless against the wind. I started following my google maps directions to the ten Boom museum and, of course, walked the complete wrong direction. I can see right down the street from my hotel and somehow missed it. I turned around and came upon it. I didn't realize that Corrie ten Boom grew up next door to H&M... Anyway, her house is now. But the museum is closed on Mondays. Apparently in most of Europe, Monday is just like another weekend day. Which sorta seems like a good idea, but it was some poor planning on my part. I meant to leave for paris tomorrow, but I'll be staying in Haarlem another day. I mean that is the whole reason I came here. And that's ok. Paris will wait for me. And I can get lost again with my google maps directions...

:)