The End of The Rainbow

Becca, finally arriving in Interlaken

            From Innsbruck we went to Interlaken, and I could hardly wait to get there. I’d heard so many great things about it, and nearly everyone I knew who had studied abroad said it was a must on the itinerary. One bus, five trains, and nearly eight hours later we were approaching Interlaken. I couldn’t tell through the window glare and delirium how pretty the scenery was, but it had better look like the front of a post card from the minute we get to the train station after this journey.

Balmer's tent village

            Getting off the final train, Interlaken exceeded my expectations. Rows of snow capped mountains surrounding lakes that were such a bright green they seemed to be color dyed. We stayed at a tent village at the base of the Alps, which looking back now was really cool. At the time, after traveling all day I wasn’t exactly thrilled about sleeping on a bed made of plywood and some blankets. We did need a good nights sleep after all, because come 8am we’d be catching a bus to go skydiving.

Skydiving in Interlaken

            It was my second time to go skydiving but Becca’s first. I went in Texas last summer, and the one thing I said to my instructor after I pulled the chute and was floating through the sky above flat Texas plains was, “I’ve gotta do this again, except somewhere with better scenery.” On the flight up you could see snow capped mountains for miles, with lakes and grassy plains between. It was sunny and clear and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. When the plane door opened and ridges of ice were in close distance, my nerves skyrocketed. It’s gonna take more than once for me to feel at ease about jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet. The second time around was better than the first for obvious reasons, and I soaked up every second of the way down, taking in the views and feeling my adrenaline rush.

Firework show in Geneva

            We finished the trip and the summer in Geneva. We figured we’d get fondue somewhere by the lake and go to bed early, but when we got there, there was a huge festival going on. A carnival wrapped around the entire perimeter of Lake Geneva and there was a firework show better than any 4^th of July I’d seen. We joked that it was Europe’s way of telling us bye, and I still like to think it was. It was weird saying bye to Becca the next morning since we hadn’t spent a single day apart the past 2 months. In a short period of time she had become one of those rare friends life hands you. I knew it wouldn’t be long before I see her again, but I’d miss her none the less.

Rainbow we saw from a train in Austria

            I met my mom in England for two days before going home. It was the perfect way to wrap up the summer and catch my breath before going home and dealing with reality. To say this was the summer of a lifetime is an understatement. The purpose behind going abroad was for an international business and cultural experience. I went to work everyday in an incredible office in Dublin for a successful advertising agency and saw campaigns I personally worked on go up around the city. I went to a Mosque in Bahrain, sat on the edge of the Cliff’s of Moher, climbed Arthur’s seat in Edinburgh, sailed the southern coast of Portugal, went to the clubbing capital of the world, International Bier Festival in Berlin, skydiving in the Swiss Alps, among many other unforgettable adventures throughout Europe and the Middle East.  The business and cultural aspects were fulfilled, and with that I earned so much more. Doing this trip was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The things I’ve learned, the people I met, and the memories I made will stay with me for the rest of my life. In some way, I did find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. 

Culture Shocks

Lunch in Munich's town square

Our original plan was to stay in Munich for one night, but when we didn’t get there until 11pm and didn’t feel like doing anything, our plans changed.  The one thing I wanted to do while in Bavaria was go to Neuschwanstein Castle, but there just wasn’t enough time. We walked around town, ate lunch in the square by the cathedral, went to Hofbrauhaus and on a pub-crawl. These were starting to feel like swaps freshman year, the standard way of going out at night and meeting new people. We met quite a few people from Australia who all do a similar program called “hop on hop off.” The buy a standard ticket, something similar to a Eurail pass, and a bus comes to various towns throughout Europe every 2 days. Some of them stay in one city for the bare minimum of 2 days while others would live and work there until they feel it’s time to move along to the next city. I loved every Australian I met, and it made me want to go there more than ever. 

Becca lounging on the Train

            We “accidentally on purpose” sat in first class on the train from Munich to Innsbruck. We paid for the upgrade and met the nicest Italian man sharing the car with us. We usually didn’t like sharing cars with other people, especially if the train wasn’t very crowded. When the Italian man opened the door to the small cabin he looked identical to the guy in the movie Eurotrip who has no concept of personal space. I thought “if this train goes through a tunnel and that dude is sitting on my lap saying ‘mi scuzzi’ I’m gonna freak out.” (you’d have to see the movie to understand.) He ended up being the nicest man and even insisted on paying for our glasses of wine, making our first class train experience that much better.

A Brazilian Headlock 

            Becca’s sister studied in Innsbruck two summers ago, so she recommended us to her favorite restaurant for dinner. The beautiful town is nestled between the Alps and has perfect weather in the summer. It’s no wonder hundreds of Americans come here every summer. We had met plenty of wonderful people from all over the world the past few days, with the exception of the Brazilian’s in Prague. They have no boundaries and don’t understand the meaning of no. Before even given the chance to object, they will kiss you smack on the lips faster than a bat out of hell. So naturally after this occurred a few too many times, we were so excited be around some Americans and familiar faces. A guy in a New Orleans Saints jersey sat down next to us, and it didn’t take long to see he was beyond drunk. He knocked over Becca’s beer, stole the shots we ordered and already paid for when the waitress brought them, then threw up a few close centimeters from Becca’s shoe. “This is the reason European’s hate American’s,” she said, moving her chair to avoid the vomit. My craving for “southern hospitality” was gone in a hot minute, and I wondered what was worse: the puking Saints fan or the face-raping Brazilians in Prague?

What makes a good tour guide?

            It came as no surprise that on our first night in Berlin – our first night of no longer being Dublin residents – that we ended up at an Irish pub. I can’t help but wonder if I’ll be drawn to Irish pubs for the rest of my life. Sure I always loved hanging out at Innisfree in Tuscaloosa before this trip, but now I feel as though and Irish pub is part of my own culture. It was a similar feeling to when I first saw there was a Forever 21 in Dublin – I absolutely had to go.

Fat Tire bike tour

            Becca and I were worried we would have a hard time meeting people since we weren’t staying in a hostel. Every guy that walked by in a polo shirt, Becca would ask, “What about him? Think he’s American?” Our problems were quickly solved when we met a group of about 20 guys from London who were all there for Beer Fest. They were crazy and loud and so much fun.

            The next day we did the Fat Tire bike tour of the city. It had been recommended to us by a few different people as an easy and fun way to see the city in a day. Our Australian tour guide, Randall, was hilarious and took us to historical places in Berlin we would’ve never found on our own. I think I know more about the city of Berlin now than I do about Houston. We spent the rest of the day at the International Bier Festival, then ended the night on a pub-crawl.

Bier Festival

Next stop was Prague, and everyone I had talked to that had been there said we had to go to the 5-story disco. Nobody knew the name, but everybody knew the place. Luckily, Becca’s cousin had been living in Prague for two years and acted as our personal tour guide. She took us to a cool underground restaurant and to other various bars before walking us to Karlovy Lazne, the 5-story disco. Each floor was a different theme, but when we heard “Sweet Home Alabama” playing in the Oldies Room, I made a mad dash to the dance floor and barely ventured to the other levels after that.

Becca dancing on the oldies floor

Prague is one of those cities where you stay out until the sunrises but somehow manage to get up and sightsee the next day. It’s one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to, and when I woke up to a sunny day I couldn’t wait to go look around. We had seen Edinburgh on a bus tour, Amsterdam and Portugal on boat tours, Berlin on a bike tour and were now going on an old-fashioned convertible tour of Prague.  Joseph, our tour guide, was one of the most memorable people I met all summer. Not because of his tour guide skills, because in fact he severely lacked in that department. He wasn’t as cute as Tom in Amsterdam or funny as Randall in Berlin, and definitely wasn’t as easy to understand as the recorded voice in Edinburgh. It’s highly possible that he was on drugs and probably shouldn’t have been operating an antique automobile. Despite being a native to Prague, his facts of the city were probably as credible as the National Enquirer. He was like a bad soap opera we couldn’t stop watching. Becca and I still talk about how we miss him on a regular basis.

Joseph driving the convertible

Another night at Karlovy Lazne resulted in us missing the 9am train to Munich. The next one isn’t until 5, so for the first time since I can remember I have an excuse to stay in bed with nothing to do. I love traveling and the fast-track life we’ve been living, but I’ve forgotten how nice it is to just lay in bed. 

Keep Dreaming

            It’s my last week of work and my last week in Dublin. Eight weeks has never gone by so fast. As I remember the whole reason I’m here in the first place, the reason I’ve been writing these blogs, and that “studying” abroad usually comes with a course number and syllabus, it’s hard to believe all this amounts for a grade. MC495: International Business and Cultural Experience… Go work in Dublin, live amongst the locals, learn about their culture, then come back and write a paper about it.

As I’m reflecting on the time I’ve spent here this summer, it’s almost impossible to account everything that’s happened even looking back through my previous blog posts. How can I put eight weeks on to paper? Yes I’ve learned invaluable experience, but doing what? Yes I’ve learned life lessons, but what was I taught? Yes I’ve made life-long friends, but who will I still be friends with at the end of my life?

No words can fully explain the experience I had this summer. I enrolled in MC495 to fulfill a credit and earn a grade, but in reality I earned so much more than that. Have you ever woken up from a dream and thought to yourself “wow that was such a great dream!” only to not be able to remember what happened an hour later? I’ve been living in a fantasy world this summer, one big dream that I never would’ve imagined. When I go home people will ask, “what was your favorite part?” I won’t be able to give them an answer because it’s all been wonderful and it all runs together. And whatever anecdotes or random stories I will remember will only be a small contribution to the entire summer story, unable to explain the magnitude of the experience as a whole.

Maybe that’s the case when we can’t remember a good dream – we wake up when it’s over and can’t pinpoint every specific part, but just know all of it was great. And you know the feeling when you’re subconscious in the middle of a great dream and don’t want to wake up? That’s why even though my program in Dublin is over on Thursday, I just booked a flight to Berlin on Friday. As if I were hitting snooze on my alarm, Becca and I are staying to travel for another two weeks…I’m just not quite ready for this summer to be over.