I did end up wandering around Cologne that evening. I found the beer hall (where I planned to eat) around 6pm, which is unacceptably early for dinner in Europe. Instead of eating there I wandered around the city in a big loop, crossing a pleasant bridge before heading north, under the train tracks, and into a district where my hostel’s free map warned there were “Turks, Kurds, and women practicing the world’s oldest profession.” It didn’t seem so bad. I ended up back where I’d started, still too early for dinner and a little footsore.

I had so much extra money (like 25 whole euro) I ended up hopping on the U-bahn and riding to some hopping platz full of restaurants and eventually eating at a Mexican restaurant. My chicken quesadilla actually had a little bite to it — easily the spiciest thing I consumed in tame-flavored Germany.

Getting to the airport in the morning was simple: five-minute walk, ten-minute wait, fifteen-minute ride, and I was there! My flights each sat about an hour on the tarmac, but they made up most of the time in the air (no four-hour delay / overnightmares like poor Brendan). I watched an absurd number of bad movies on the planes: “My Dog Skip,” random chick flick, “Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events,” “Blades of Glory.” To kill the time in Newark I watched my own movie, “Metropolitan,” which was cynical and entertaining. Better than the plane fare.

And now I’m home! I’ve been home for a few days, actually…not sure how much there will be to write about here, although Grandma Jean and Grandpa Tom are visiting for the weekend, which is a rare treat. We attended the opening of the new courtroom this afternoon and will be having a small dinner social at our house tomorrow. Three weeks here, then I will (probably) take my GRE exam and then leave for Norway on August 12th.

I’m on my own now, enjoying free wireless in the common room of my Cologne hostel. Well, enjoying may be an overstatement. It’s only 3pm, but there’s a huge group of British kids drinking and talking loudly about their tattoos and romantic affairs…obnoxious. The place is nice despite them. My single bed is small and saggy, but the room is clean and roomy enough and the hostel is wonderfully close to the train station. It shouldn’t take me longer than 30 mins to get to the airport tomorrow.

Munich was beautiful, but it was dreadfully hot. It’s pretty warm here, too, but Munich was sweatier. Brendan and tried to wander around the city after a lovely brunch yesterday, but we ended up wilting on the sidewalk. Everything was closed because it was Sunday, so we couldn’t even find a place to buy any water. The museums were closed, too. That sounds pretty crummy, but it wasn’t so bad…it just meant we had to wander in the morning and evening and nap through the afternoon. The architecture was lovely, and all of our meals were great, culminating with a tasty Bavarian dinner of steak and spatzle.

I haven’t decided what to do tonight. I feel like I should wander around Cologne, but I’m awfully sleepy and my photos are uploading very slowly to Flickr. I wish I could get this wireless signal in my room, alas. I’ll probably wait until it gets a little cooler and darker and go out to dinner. Have a few more euros to blow (although I’m sure I can find a use for them next year, too). I’ll be sleeping in my own bed tomorrow night!

Just returned from a lovely dinner with my cousin Leslie and some of her friends from the music program. We met at 6.30 in front of the town hall and talked and hugged and took pictures before heading for dinner. She was all dressed up and looked very cute; this was the first time in a whole month that I mildly regretted sending my makeup home as I felt a tad scruffy in comparison. Her friends — all girls — were pleasant and chatty. We ate at a Mexican restaurant and then had icecream before parting ways. The girls have a big shindig tomorrow morning, so they needed to get rest, and Brendan and I are both pretty tired. Brief as it was (about 3 hours) it was really fun to see her and reassuring to know she is doing well. All the girls were taking German classes, but Leslie appeared to be head translator, so that was impressive.

The internet in our room is broken, which is a disappointment, so I am writing from the lobby. Despite the broken internet, I really can’t complain about this hotel. I booked it before I knew for sure that Leslie could reserve us dorm rooms and decided to keep it when I heard the dorm rooms would be 35€ per night per person. The hotel room was a little more than that, but not much, and it is super nice. It is pure luxury to have a whole bathroom to myself! The staff is incredibly friendly — one girl came to our room twice trying to get the internet to work, and when it never worked out she offered free drinks and snacks.

Graz seems like a nice city. Brendan and I wandered around a few hours while Leslie was in class. We walked down the river and through some of the hilly historic district. There are loads of flashy clothing shops everywhere, but the architecture is quaint. There are lots of young people around, and it seems like a nice place to be spending the summer (especially if one likes shopping). It seems like Leslie is having a blast.

We are heading to Munich tomorrow morning (a 5 hour train ride). I don’t really know why I should be sentimental about leaving Europe as I will be back in Norway in a few short weeks, but this trip has been a lot of fun. Brendan has been a good goofy and relaxed travel companion, and we have experienced some great places.

Ljubljana is calm and pleasant. The universities have let out for the summer, so while the street cafes are full of young people in the evenings nothing is loud or really buzzing. Last night Brendan and I ate Chinese food (noodles were a nice break from all this fish and meat and potatoes) and then finished up with “hot chocolates” at a chocolate shop in old town. It was more like hot chocolate pudding: delicious, but only manageable with a spoon.

We woke up early today for a nice free breakfast at the hostel then rode the funicular up to Ljubljana castle. The view was lovely – apparently you can see 1/3 of the whole country of Slovenia from the top. There was also a rather amusing 3-D video giving an historical overview of the castle, city and country. The gift shop was full of high quality trinkets, and I wish I’d bought some souvenirs there because I didn’t find anything better in an afternoon of shopping.

We were going to eat traditional Slovenian food for lunch, but the menu turned out to be heavy on the pasta and we overdosed on Italian food in Croatia. Instead, we ate at a pleasant Indian restaurant, which made me happy because I love to eat spinach and drink mango lassis.

After lunch we tried to go to the Slovenian Museum of Contemporary History, which is located somewhere in Tivoli Gardens. We wandered all through the gardens, which we didn’t have a map of, but never found the museum. It was not a very comfortable place, poorly marked and littered with rusty remnants of decaying communist-era buildings. Given the surroundings, we were not too terribly aggressive at finding the museum and after about half an hour we walked back to town to check the schedules at the bus station; if the weather cooperates we’ll take a day trip tomorrow to Lake Bled.

Very strange to think the trip is coming to a close. Two more nights here, a night in Graz, and another couple nights in Munich. In a reaction quite delayed from its proper place at graduation, I’m beginning to feel very old.

Well, Brendan and I just survived a long, cramped night on a serpentine bus route through Croatia, from Dubrovnik to Zagreb. The guy in front of me kept snapping his seat up and then immediately reclining it as far as it would go, as if such a violent shift would force his seatback further into my personal space. I’m not sure he ever succeeded in that endeavor, but he did a fabulous job of jolting me out of the few comfortable positions I managed to curl myself into. We had a clever plan of grabbing dinner at the big grocery store between the harbor and the bus station, but it was Sunday and closed, so all I ate for dinner was a box of cookies. It was probably for the best, as so many sharp turns over jagged cliffs made me a little queasy.

I can’t really complain, though, as I slept more than Brendan did, and we were coming down from a few lovely days. The kayak thing did not go perfectly smoothly — we couldn’t find the guide when we first got off the ferry on Lopud Island, so we wasted a few hours on Saturday morning sitting around and trying to figure out a) where our rooms were and b) where the kayaks were. Luckily, after using up most of my cell phone minutes I tracked down a secretary who gave us garbled directions. These directions did not lead me exactly to the kayaks, but they got me close enough to run into another person from the company who could show us to our room.

After that, Saturday was perfect. We kayaked around a nearby uninhabited island and then along the coast of Lopud for a while. After a few hours we turned back in and washed up and had the most delicious dinner. We ate at a table perched just on the edge of the seaside promenade, with the cute town and church in the background and half a dozen sailboats bobbing between us and a pretty sunset. We both ordered the grilled fish, which was by far the best meal of the trip. I don’t know what kind of fish it was, but they coated it in salt and grilled it and gave us each a whole one. The meat dropped cleanly off the head and spine, it was perfectly moist and wonderful.

On Sunday we walked across Lopud (there are no cars or roads, just foot paths and harbors) to a sandy beach. It was much more crowded than I expected — lots of boats anchored offshore, and lots of kids in the water. The water was warm with only the gentlest waves, and shallow quite a ways out, like a sandy swimming pool. Brendan spent most of the morning reading while I splashed and swam. The sand looked light-colored, but it had lots of dark flecks in it was was VERY hot to walk on. I was happier in the water. After that it was lots of waiting and reading and catching the ferry and more waiting and then the bus ride. And now we’re in Zagreb.

Croatia has been stunningly beautiful, but I do have one complaint. They haven’t quite figured out the logistics of moving people around. The fact that cities like Dubrovnik are out in the middle of nowhere and tucked behind ranges of mountains isn’t all to blame — their public transit has been poorly labeled, overcrowded, and generally tardy. Our Zagreb hostel is out at the fringes of the city, so we’ll have to squeeze on another sweaty sardine-can of a trolley, but I’m ready to head out. It’s dinner + breakfast + lunch time!

(I typed this post the other night from the Zagreb hostel, right before I lost the Internet connection. We are now safely and happily in Ljubljana, will explore the city and report after this!)