Update!
As I write this, I just BARELY caught my train from Brussels to Luxembourg. Knowing that I'm not particularly blessed when it comes to directions, I left my host's apartment 45 minutes early. Of course, I completely forgot about the time change between Dublin and Brussels so I actually left 15 minutes later than planned. Grrr. Anyway, I MADE IT! Thanks to Kevin for amazing directions (leaving out the whole North/South bit and sticking with the Right/Left... awesome).
So, where did I leave off? I have no idea and I don't have internet to check, so I'll just start with the end of Strasbourg. We had a nice little going away party (with champagne in class... yes) and slowly people started trickling away to other countries. It was really sad to see everyone go, but particularly I will miss the Ukrainians... some of the nicest people I have ever met. From Strasbourg we went to Paris for one night, and all I can say is that it's a good thing I've been to Paris before, because all I saw was the inside of a (beautiful) apartment, a street, and a night club. We partied til about 4am and I was really sick the next day. Nothing compared to the food poisoning episode but bad nonetheless... at least it was voluntary. End of Paris chapter. :)
Went to London and stayed at the (beautiful) apartment of a friend of a friend. I must digress here: European men know how to decorate their apartments. Each one had looked like it came out of an Ethan Allen catalogue. London was fantastic, got to hear lots of sexy accents although there were TONS of tourists there.
From London, I missed my flight to Dublin... by 5 minutes. The lady told me there wasn't another flight til the next day, or that night if I transferred airports. Instead of waiting, I took the next flight to Ireland to a teeny town called Knock, and bussed it alllllll the way to Dublin. I got to see most of the Irish countryside and got to Dublin in enough time to go to a fantastic pub and hear some live Irish music. The people in Ireland are SO nice, especially compared to the northern frenchies... we'll see how the south shapes up. My host Sergei (first official couch host!!) had to work during the days but I felt completely taken care of. Cannot say enough good things about him or couchsurfing.
From Dublin I caught my flight (small miracle!) to brussels. I was only there for one night so my host Kevin did his best to show me everything, his friend David was really informative too. I was joined my Dominic, a surfer from New York, and Ben, a surfer from Yorkshire. We had an amazing time at pubs (met two girls from California) and a discotec (met two women from Spain who had the hots for Kevin). Everyone was very understanding about my need for handstand pictures despite it being a cold and rainy night.
