How to deal with bad luck while traveling

Ever gotten stuck in a traffic jam before? Or bit your lip while chewing? Spilled hot coffee all over your lap? Slipped on ice? Unless you're not human, you've probably had one of these experiences before. Bad luck. Almost everyone deals with it at least once in his or her life. But for some reason, me and my boyfriend, Mihai, were handed an extra dose of bad luck during my month visit to Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Maybe we walked under too many ladders? Or crossed too many black cats? Or maybe it's because our anniversary is on the 13th? Whatever the reason, I have a lot of funny stories to tell!

Mihai came to visit me in Schwedeneck and we cooked dinner together :)

During my first week, I decided to go visit Mihai in Kiel. It was my first time taking the bus from Schwedeneck to Kiel but Silke had showed me where the bus stop was and gave me the bus schedule booklet so I wasn't worried. However, knowing myself (I kinda suck at public transportation) I got to the bus stop 10 minutes early just to make sure I didn't miss it.

My bus was supposed to leave at 1:13 but even by 1:15, there was no bus in sight. Hmm... maybe it's just a little bit late?, I thought. I waited 5 more minutes then texted Mihai and asked him if he could use the DB Navigator app he had on his phone (I still hadn't downloaded it and had 0 wifi out in the middle of nowhere) to double check what time the bus was supposed to come. He told me that the app said that the bus had already passed my stop, Krusendorf, at 1:13. Uhh... no it didn't?? Crap, maybe I'm at the wrong bus stop... ? But Mihai had come to visit me just the night before and used the same exact bus stop so that wasn't the problem.

"Eh maybe that bus broke down or something, who knows, just wait for the next bus to come, the app says it'll come at 2:13!", Mihai told me. Thinking he was probably right, I just continued sitting on the bench reading for another 45 minutes or so. It was a nice sunny day out, no big deal. I could relax for a while.

At 2:13, once again, no bus showed up. Seriously... Now I was getting upset and worried. I called Silke and explained what had happened. She said that she wasn't sure what was going on because I was at the right bus stop and the bus should've come. She said that she hadn't heard of any bus strikes going on that day but she would double check online for me. I googled "bus streik Krusendorf" as well on my phone and found the same bus schedule Silke had given me but with almost all of the times crossed out. Yup, there definitely must be some type of strike going on. Silke called me back and said there was a strike, but only with my bus, #900. You've got to be kidding me. I was so disappointed because I was really looking forward to seeing Mihai that day.

I called Mihai and was about ready to give up and just go back to the hostel but he found an alternate route I could take instead. I had to take a different bus that would come at 3:53 and take me to another small town called Eckenforde, then from there I could take a train to the Kiel Hauptbahnhof (central station). Ugh. Back to sitting on the bench and reading.

Gelato ice cream with wild berry sauce mmm

3:53 rolled around and no bus in sight. I waited anyway. Any time I heard the faintest sound I looked up in hope of a bus but normally just a car or tractor drove by. A few minutes later, a white van drove by and the driver looked at me quizzically but I just shook my head no and he drove past. I was talking on the phone to Mihai when the same white van came back but this time the driver yelled something to me in German. I walked over to him and sheepishly said, "Ich sprechen kein Deutsch" (I don't speak any German). "Where do you go?", he asked me. Ah, this I knew! "Eckenforde!!", I answered. He signaled for me to get in the van and charged me 3 euros for a ticket. Woah woah, wait a second, this van was the bus?? Yeah, I really am in the middle of nowhere.

I made it to Eckenforde but had to rush to catch the train (or have to wait even longer). I frantically went to buy a ticket from the machine, only to find out that I had no change left and only a 100 euro note, which the machine didn't accept. Okay, I'll just use my credit card! Nope. The machine only accepts credit cards with the new microchip, which of course, I don't have. I ran inside the convenient store and bought a 1 euro donut with a 100 euro note. Using the change, I was finally able to purchase my train ticket from the machine! And you'll never guess how much that ticket cost. 8.70 euros. So much for making my budget today, I thought.

FINALLY, I made it to Kiel by 4:50. I had left the house at 12:50. A trip that only takes 30 minutes by car or 1 hour by bus #900 took me 4 hours. Not to mention, the normal bus only costs 4 euros as opposed to 11.70. Yeah. Mihai better not ever complain that I don't love him.

So happy to finally have made it to Kiel!

Mihai and I ate dinner with his host family that night in Flintbek (where Mihai lives; a small town about 10 minutes away from Kiel). It was my first time meeting them and they were super nice but I'm not going to talk much about them yet, saving it for my next post! After dinner Silke was kind enough to let me sleep at her other hostel in Kiel so I didn't have to worry about trying to figure out how the heck to get back to Schwedeneck again late at night.

The next afternoon, Mihai and I were sitting outside a restaurant eating lunch, him a currywurst (literally a sausage dipped in spicy curry sauce), me a smoked salmon fischbroetchen (fish sandwich). Suddenly Mihai looked up and all around him in confusion. "What's wrong??", I asked. "Did someone spray me with water or something?!", he exclaimed.  Uh, nope. No surprise attack water-gunners. He was touching the back of his head and neck in puzzlement. There was a white liquid on him. "It's bird poop!!", I shrieked as I looked up and saw a black crow perched on the tree branch right above us. Hahahaha I couldn't stop laughing. It was as if the bird aimed for him! I could almost recognize a smug look on that crow's face.

The next morning I went to catch the bus and surprise, surprise, it didn't show up again. There was another strike that day. But at least this time I knew the correct alternative route I had to take to get home!

German breakfast <3

Only an hour south of Kiel lies the 2nd most populous city in Germany: Hamburg, an important port city connected to the north sea by the Elbe river. Mihai and I decided to take a day-cation to Hamburg one Saturday. We wandered all around the city, drank some beer, strolled beside the port, ate fischbroetchen and lastly hung out in the notorious St. Pauli's district. The Reeperbahn in St. Pauli's is easily one of the most infamous streets in Germany, known for it's crazy nightlife, countless bars, clubs, liquor stores and the city's red light district.

Am I dating a 10 or 18 year old?

The Hamburg Rathaus (the city hall)

Rainbow over the Alster river

The calm waters of the Alster river

Some type of street performance with bottle caps, I didn't really understand it much though

Beautiful day at the Hamburg port!

Idk why he wanted me to take a picture of him with these random metal sticks but he was so happy about it

After a long night on the Reeperbahn, complete with Doner (huge Turkish kebab wraps, the ultimate late night food), we decided it was about time to head home at 2 am. We made our way back to the train station only to find that the train we needed to take wouldn't run for a few more hours. Great. We should really start double checking these types of things... So instead we decided to take a bus to Neumünster, where we could catch a train back to Mihai's house. There were 2 buses, both going to Neumünster. One left in 5 minutes and the other in 20. We, of course, took the first option. However, what we didn't know is that the bus we took stopped at every single station along the way. I kept falling in and out of sleep, asking Mihai if we were there yet. We'd be the type of people to miss our stop because we were passed out. As more people got off we kept switching seats to stretch out and get more comfortable until we were the only ones on the bus. Finally we made it to Neumünster, nearly two hours later (it should'v only taken 45 minutes). Next, we had to wait 20 minutes for our train. Then there was an announcement that the train would be delayed 20 more minutes. Just our luck.

Matching hats!!

Took us three tries to finally get a picture without Mihai blinking...

By this time it was 4:30 in the morning and we were both exhausted, cold and thirsty. We bought two hot teas from the convenient store in the train station. As we walked down the stairs back to the platform, I tripped, fell down and completely spilled my tea everywhere. Mihai couldn't stop laughing but I was so mad I just kept picking up the empty paper cup and throwing it back on the floor again to try and let my anger out. To make me feel better we went back to the store to buy another drink.

"1 euro and 30 cents", the cashier said as she scanned the bottle of flavored water. We fumbled with our wallets to collect up enough change to pay because, of course, we had both spent all of our euro notes at St. Pauli's. We realized that we were 15 cents short and awkwardly looked at the woman, expressing to her that this was the only money we had left. She waved her hand, clearly irritated, and just snatched up our measly coins and handed us the water bottle. Pretty sure she just wanted our grimy butts to leave her the heck alone. Oops.

We eventually made it home by 6 am. The sun was coming up as we walked back to Mihai's host family's house.

Neumünster train station after I spilled my tea

Ever since I mentioned to Mihai's host family that I'm good at making apple pies, they begged me to make one for them. So one evening, Mihai and I were in his family's kitchen working on an apple pie together. I poured the sugar on the cut up apples and tasted one to see if it was sweet enough. After taking a bite of the apple, I recoiled back in disgust. It wasn't sweet at all but extremely salty. What the heck?? "This is sugar right??", I asked Mihai and pointed to a jar full of white granules that I had just smothered the apples in. "Uh no.. that's salt", Mihai said. Nooooooo. We explained what I had done to Mihai's host family and everyone just started laughing. Oops. Thankfully, Mihai's family had more apples so we threw all of the salty slices away and began again. 

Our 1 year anniversary; October 13th (is that unlucky??)

Mmm delicious authentic German meal

The love lock Mihai got me <3

Last but not least, comes the unluckiest day yet in Germany. It was my last day before leaving for Japan. Mihai and I woke up at his home in Flintbek and ate breakfast before setting off to Schwedeneck because Silke needed me to be at the hostel to clean up and let some guests in. Except there was a train strike so we had to take a much slower bus. We thought we'd be clever and save some money on the bus by sneaking on using a cheaper ticket than required. Except, we got caught. The driver announced something in German and then when we arrived at our stop she asked to see our ticket and angrily told us that we were 'black riders' (meaning we hadn't paid the correct fare) and now we had to pay a 60 euro fine. "What?! We thought this was the right ticket? Sorry, we're (stupid) Americans", we replied. Thankfully the bus driver showed some sympathy and only made us pay the original, normal fare instead of 60 euros. Phew. Never going to try that again.

Next, on the bus, I realized that I had accidentally forgotten my suitcase at the other hostel in Kiel and had no key to go get it. I called the hostel in panic; I needed my suitcase, I was leaving tomorrow!! She said that there should be a guest there later that night to let me in so I could grab my suitcase. Thank goodness. I couldn't go to Ghana without my malaria pills later this year. 

Like usual, Mihai had also forgotten his wallet at home that day. We had spent my last cash on paying for the bus tickets and had no clue how we would pay for the bus ride back to Kiel because there were no ATMS in Schwedeneck at all (remember, in the middle of nowhere) and we definitely didn't want to get caught as 'black riders' again. We took a bike ride to the local grocery store to see if they'd give us cash back but they said we had to spend at least 20 euros in order to get cash back. Great. Short on time, Mihai and I frantically ran around that grocery store searching for stuff to buy. I picked out the most expensive chocolates I could find to bring to my family in Japan and bought expensive salmon and shrimp to make for dinner for me and Mihai. We went outside to unlock our bikes and head to the beach but, of course, the bike lock was stuck. I started freaking out. "What are we going to do!? Just leave the bikes here?!". Finally after a good 15 minutes, Mihai got the bikes unlocked and we pedaled to the beach. 

After all that stress, we eventually relaxed a bit and swam in the Baltic sea on the Surendorf beach. Okay, not really swam, more like quickly dipped our bodies in and ran back out, me screaming from the extreme cold. The water was also very shallow and there were sharp rocks, not sand, on the bottom making it not too enjoyable. We vowed that we'd return in the spring and take a real swim with flip flops so our feet wouldn't get cut up this time! After that we rode our bikes home in the darkness and made a yummy homemade dinner with our fancy seafood purchases. Although it wasn't the last day in Germany that I had imagined, it turned out being perfect, simply because I was with Mihai. Bad luck won't get us down ;) Being with someone you love is definitely the best way to deal with bad luck while traveling. But even if you're alone, whenever something bad happens, just remember that although at the moment it may not be funny, it'll make a great funny story or blog post one day!

Just like an old married couple, looking at our scrapbook together and eating our last breakfast of leftover apple pie (not salty) & cappuccinos

Before boarding my flight to Tokyo

Tutto con calma

So I've been in Italy for a while now and SO much has happened... I honestly don't think I've ever been so busy in my entire life! Every single moment we're doing something fun, it's been crazy! Today is the first time that we're just relaxing at home for a couple hours because it's raining so we can't go to the beach :( but that's perfectly okay with me because I finally have the opportunity to write a post! Hmmm so where do I start... ?

Reunited

Oh how I missed genuine Italian pizza <3

Well the last time I wrote, I was on my flight to Rome so I'll start there! I had a 10 hour layover in Rome but that ended up turning into a 12 hours because I missed my flight :( Everyone asks how I managed to miss my flight after having so much time, so let me explain. Basically, on my ticket, my gate was listed so I went there with a couple hours to spare. The gate started boarding people for a flight to Milan and I was confused because my flight to Bari was supposed to be boarding. So I went to look at the departure board and saw a different gate listed for Bari, I sprinted there because I only had 15 minutes. However, once I got there, it turned out being the wrong gate again... The lady said she had no clue which gate my flight was taking off from. I went to the information desk and finally discovered that my flight was at a completely different gate that was neither listed on my ticket nor on the departure board. I had 5 minutes until the flight was supposed to take off so I darted across the airport all sweaty, knocking into people, dragging my huge carry-on suitcase, and dropping my passport. I arrived at the correct gate just as the flight took off. I started freaking out. I was so exhausted... I had barely slept at all in the past 24 hours, I was beyond sick of sitting at the Rome airport and all I wanted was to get to San Vito :( I went to the information desk again and thankfully the woman working took pity on me (probably because I was crying) and gave me a free new ticket for the same flight but at a later time. Well I guess I learned my lesson from this experience, from now on I'm always going to go to the information desk and double check to make sure I have the correct gate!! I told a lot of Italians this story and they all say the same thing, that the Rome airport is a crazy, unorganized mess! So if anyone ever travels through the Fiumicino airport, be extra cautious ;)

First night with Sabrina and Leo!

Only 3.50 euros!

Besides the little mishap in Rome, everything else has been great! The moment I stepped out into the Bari airport, my host sister Sabrina ran up to me and hugged me! It was so nice to see everyone after 2 years! It seems like nothing has changed at all. We talked the whole hour long car ride home to San Vito dei Normanni. Just to clear things up though, Sabrina and her family weren't my actual host family during my year in Italy. I stayed in a different city called Torino in northern Italy with another host family but I did a weeklong exchange in the south and that's how I met Sabrina and her family! I loved them so much I went back to visit again that summer for 10 days! We just fit together so well, I feel like part of their family :) Anyway as soon as we got home, as I was expecting, Sabrina asked me if I was too tired to go out with her and her friends that night. The exact same thing happened two years ago when I arrived at her house late at night! Sabrina said all of her friends had been waiting for me at this bar down the street and were so sad when my flight was delayed. So obviously we went out that night to the bar where Sabrina's boyfriend, Leonardo, works. I love Sabrina, she's always so fun and full of energy!

Disco!!

Ready for Torr

The next day, I slept until 5:30! I woke up and talked to my host mom, Gabriella and Sabrina for a while. Even though I was in Italy for a year in Torino, there's still so much to learn about the country and culture. Especially because the north and south are so extremely different. Anyway, I never knew this but there's apparently no strongly enforced minimum wage in Italy. Sabrina's mom, Gabriella, works at a sandwich shop at night and they pay her 25 euros for "one night" of work (which equals out to 8 hours of work; so 3 euros an hour). Gabriella explained to me that there's very little work in Italy so people are desperate and have the option of working for 3 euros an hour or not working at all. Due to the extremely small pay, to save for college, Sabrina's boyfriend, Leonardo, works 2 jobs, totaling over 100 hours of work a week. However, I noticed that there's also not as many regulations in the workplace. For example, Leo works as a bartender but he can sit and relax with us for a bit while he's at work without any problems.

Anyway, later that night we went out to a discoteca (Italian nightclub) called Torre Regina Giovanna. Teen nightlife in Italy is so different to the U.S. Since the drinking age is 16 for beer and wine and 18 for liquor, it's common to go out to a bar and relax with your friends and smoke a cigarette and drink a beer. Also clubbing until the sun comes out is very normal. We stay out almost every night until at least 3 in the morning.

The jam-packed beach

Amiche :)

Saturday, we went to the beach all day with a group of friends. Puglia, in general, is extremely crowded in August because of Ferragosto. Ferragosto occurs in mid-August when many Italians take a week or two of vacation from work. Puglia is like the Florida of Italy so the beaches are packed! Even though there's a lot of people, I like being in Puglia for Ferragosto because there's lots of festivals, concerts and special events going on! I feel like a true Italian on vacation :)

That night, we went to a city called Ostuni, which is also known as la citta bianca (the white city) because all of the buildings are white. The streets were filled even at 1am. Ostuni is a really pretty, cool city! If you're in the Brindisi area of Puglia, I would definitely recommend spending an night in Ostuni. That day, Leonardo and his friend asked me and Sabrina if we'd want to talk a quick little trip to Naples for one night! It was so last-minute, I've never been to Naples and I was so excited! But I'm not going to talk about Naples just yet because that's what my next post will be about!

Mia sorella :)

The white city

Anyway, Sunday night, everyone slept on the beach (it's a tradition in San Vito every weekend in August). Except since we were leaving for Naples at 5 am (when Leonardo finished working), we didn't actually sleep on the beach, we just stayed the entire night. It was so much fun!! Definitely one of my favorites nights in Italy so far. The beach was filled with tents and almost everyone from Sabrina's school was there. We spent the night talking, drinking, laughing and joking around. It was so nice because everyone is so fun and I truly feel accepted into Sabrina's friend group! There was also a huge meteor shower that night so we spent a lot of time laying on the sand watching the sky for shooting stars. The sun also rose right when we had to leave, it was so gorgeous!

L'alba (the sunrise)

One last thing before I finish, I just want to explain the title of this blog post! Like I said before, southern and northern Italian culture is vastly different. Northern Italy is more industrialized whereas southern is more agricultural, thus causing differences in personalities. I don't want to generalize anyone, but typically, Northern Italians are known to be more reserved and hard-working whereas southerners are more open and relaxed. In a way, the cultural differences resemble those in the United States. Sometimes northerners will criticize southern lifestyle and vice versa. Northerners consider southerners lazy and southerners consider northerners cold-hearted. Anyway, back to the title, "tutto con calma". Sabrina always says this phrase, which means everything with calmness. I can't think of a better way to describe southern Italy; no one is ever in a rush to do anything. Lunch may take up to 4 hours sometimes because everyone is simply just enjoying each other's company with no hurry. Sabrina and I may not end up leaving the house to go out until midnight because we were taking our time getting ready. The southern Italian lifestyle is extremely stress-free and I honestly love it! In this way, Southern Italy reminds me a lot of my time living in Australia. I feel like both southern Italians and Australians just know how to enjoy the simple things in life without any worries or rush :)

Well that's all for now, my next post will be all about our spontaneous week-long vacation to Napoli, otherwise known as Naples! Ciao tutti! :)