The market area is much more alive. Barriers block several streets, allowing pedestrians to succumb to their wanderings. Fruit stands are abundant, as are stands selling cheese, meat, vegetables, and flowers. Some vendors produce articles of clothing and jewelry. Others prepare hot food while you wait. Some shops along the market square are open, but are overshadowed by the colorful tents and displays of produce along the street.

A bunch of trains were booked for our trip back to Paris. By a bunch, I mean we could only possibly get on one on the 5th of January. So.. we’re in this coastal town for three more nights than expected.

Justin: Sea Turtle
Kyle: Bull Moose
Jenni: Lynx
Jenna: Giraffe
Maura: a swarm of Hummingbirds
JoeJoe: Beaver
Stephanie: Badger
Joe E: Barn Owl
Luke: Bloodhound

This is not an exhaustive list… but it kept us entertained.

Just added: Brie: male Peacock

Throughout our trip, we have been fixated on finding certain “treasures,” mainly me.  Treasures generally consist of finding something that someone lost, usually while drunk.  So far my treasures consist of a necklace from Cambridge, and a glove and hat from the Netherlands.  I’ve also got a new Spanish scarf that we consider sort of a treasure, but not in the same way as the others.

A brief digression, our trip from Copenhagen to Amsterdam was long.  Cold, long, and slightly miserable.  Turns out a lot of bus stations suck.  Hardcore.  Some stops that claim to be stations TOTALLY aren’t.  Anyway, as we were waiting at our miserable bus stop in Copenhagen, these two girls showed up, one of which was speaking English, so I immediately decided that they were also coming to Amsterdam and that they would be our friends.  After we got off the bus in Hamburg, Germany (After taking forever to ride the bus and then ride on a ferry across the Sund, on which I got a toblerone bar which I am still, currently, eating) we actually started to talk to them.  Turns out they were from Ohio, had been touring London, headed to Copenhagen(where they got kicked out of their friend’s house, because their friend is slightly stupid, and had to pay ~200 dollars for a hotel) and were riding with us to Amsterdam, and later to Dublin.  They both seemed pretty cool, though one was a little spazzy and nearly lost both her bus ticket and passport a couple of times, and we got to be friendly.  I especially liked them more when they were listening to Miley Cyrus’s party in the USA and decided that it was hardly as fun on an iPod, because you really needed to be able to put your hands up.

Anyway, these two are very important to the treasure story.  In true treasure fashion, after we had all loaded onto the bus bound for Amsterdam, I looked out the window and noticed that a book was lying on the ground at the bus stop right next to ours.  Naturally, enthusiastic about a German treasure, I rushed over and got the book.  Turns out it was in English, about The Man who was Thursday.  Only slightly wet, as treasures are wont to be, I accepted it and began on my way back to the bus.  However, it was just as I passing the two smoking Ohian girls that things took an unexpected turn for the worse.  The blonde curly haired one asked me if that was her book.  Naturally, unsure  if they were trying to trick me or not, I asked her what her book was.  Unfortunately, she got it right.  So i gave away my treasure, and got to be sort of friendly with them on the rest of the way to Amsterdam.  They definitely came out on the top end of that trade…

Anyway.  I started this post about a week and a half ago, while I was still in Amsterdam.  I’m two cities away from there now…so blegh.  Amsterdam was a pretty awesome time.  We met up with Maura, Bernice, Dave, Brent and Emma, and had lots of fun all over Amsterdam.  Some craziness, obviously, but once we figured everything out, and got Maura to figure out where she was, everything was good!  Munich post theoretically coming soon…

By the by – we arrived into the airport around the time that representatives of Bolivia and the Nigerian Delegates were set to arrive. Fun fact.

We spent a lot of time in the drafty train station that evening. Justin gets extremely worked up over Egyptian Rat Screw. This allowed us to burn 40 minutes – not the 2 or 3 hours as we had hoped. We then spent approx 1 hour outside in the cold waiting for a bus. A little woman spoke no language we could recognize, but was on our bus (and kept looking for the right bus), bless her heart. After a disconcerting stop on a ferry – which we had to figure out for ourselves.. it went something like this:

We have to get off the bus for 45 minutes? It’s three in the morning… where are we? Some sort of garage? Hmm… need to go up these stairs… Where ARE we? Is this a trap? There’s an outdoor deck… Oh, it’s a ferry. I want back on the bus where I can sleep.

I digress.
We were dropped at a bus station in Hamburg, where we, the little woman, two American girls, and several others were meeting our next bus, taking us to Amsterdam. The bus station was closed and freezing. After huddling desperately for warmth for a while, a man on our bus told us that part of the station was open where we could all sit inside. Huzzah! The bathroom costed money >< Anyway, I will let Kyle type about the American girls. They were cool. And from Ohio.
We were all awoken later by border control as we entered The Netherlands. In a creepy, trailer-ridden lot. The officers were nice enough… but the situation felt creepy all around. But then we all went back to sleeeeeeeeep.

Our hotel in Amsterdam is awesome. The shower in our room is awesome. The stores nearby are not awesome. They close early.

Ooh! Justin and Kyle were pickpocketed on our way to the Aerupuerto. The pickpocket failed. Didn’t remove anything of Justin’s and got an empty camera case from Kyle. They knew who it was too. He was wise not to mess with me, me thinks.

We have also decided that we like EasyJet significantly more than RyanAir. EasyJet doesn’t wake you up for fun, has less annoying colors, nicer stewardessess, comfier seats, and less annoying ‘dings’ on the intercom. I think they had more under-the-seat-room too, but this may not be true. I was sleepy after spending the night in the airport, flying out at 6AM, etc.

I’d like to thank McDonald’s for providing WiFi. And noms. But mostly the WiFi.

McDonald's in Spain - the first of many international Mickey-D's visits.

Beautiful, Impressive, Building

Above is the Universidad de Alcala de Henares. It was the first planned university and suppoedly educated the man who wrote Don Quixote. Apparently, they also educated 60 other artists/writers/great thinkers as well. It was a pretty building near a pretty plaza.

We spot some 'clever' graffiti on the way to El Universidad.

I think this one explains itself…

We walked through a pretty sketch area to get to Universidad. Kyle and Justin spent the majority of this time talking about zombie holcausts. We passed several possible outposts that were then analyzed. We also passed a building that resembled the ones where the diseased humans live in I Am Legend.