For those that check regularly, you might be confused, as there are suddenly three new posts. Yay post dating! I wrote the other two in my notebook but wasn't able to get them online until now. You may also notice new pictures. It's amazing what I get done when I'm procrastinating packing :) . It's ok, I have just under eight hours left in Heidelberg. Since I was traveling, I forgot to call the shuttle service before today, so instead of leaving on the 7 a.m. shuttle, I have to leave on the 5:30 a.m. shuttle. JOY. Lord knows I love waiting around airports. At any rate, my last day in Germany (excluding traveling tomorrow) pretty much consisted of me sweating and sweating some more. Apparently today was the hottest day this summer in Heidelberg. I'm craving air conditioning like no other. On the plus side, I have a lot of crap that I need to pack, well repack, and then I'll be home, kinda. Today I hung out with my host sister. She's so cute I just want to take her with me. We went shopping and then grabbed some ice cream. She asked me if I really couldn't stay with them longer. I told her I didn't have enough money to stay any longer, and my flight was already booked. I'm sure she'll have plenty of fun this summer anyway; she's going to a camp in Croatia. Well, I suppose, I should actually do something productive, especially since I'm coming home with one more bag than I left with. Hope you all like your souvenirs!

Well, I thought today would be a nice relaxing day. I was wrong. Around 9:30 I heard someone open the door and say “Bitte einsteigen” (please get up). Screw that noise, I thought. Around 10, I was sitting in bed and the cleaning lady came in. We muddled through her Austrian-German and my American-German and figured out I was staying in the room. At least, I thought I was, since I had paid for two nights and had only made it through one. Having settled that, at least in theory, I hopped in the shower. I had just finished up and was reorganizing my stuff when the one owner of the hostel came in. She told me that the room as reserved and I couldn’t stay there. I was flabbergasted. I had to pack up my stuff and head downstairs. I received another room, located in the back house, which would require a 10 Euro deposit for the key. I moved into my new room, reorganized my stuff and steamed about what had just gone down. I calmed myself down by going to the grocery store and getting my food for the rest of my travels. I splurged and bought cherries. I like cherries. I came back and met one of my roommates, who is Australian. I later met the other one, an American , and we were joined by an Austrian who speaks excellent English. The day ended on a happy note, so I guess that’s all I can ask for.

It’s still hard to come to terms with, but I was in the main fan zone for the finale of Euro 2008. I snagged a couple of free papers today and I simply cannot imagine I was in a mob of people that huge. And I wasn’t just there; I was a part of it. I had my team colors on, my face was flag-ified, and I was cheering. It’s an amazing feeling inside the mob. You cheer for your team and the guy next to you cheers for his, but everyone’s cool with it. And even though it was a sea of white for the most part, the Spanish fans cheered just as proudly. When we were walking towards the fan zone, sandwiched between two groups of German fans, were two Spanish women chanting “Deutschland Deutschland Auf Weidersehen, Auf Weidersehen”. The Germans fans would counter with “Spanien Spanien alles ist vorbei, alles ist vorbei, alles ist vorbei”. This continued back and forth, with both groups having fun and not getting upset. Even though we lost, it was an once in a lifetime experience. Give the fact that I had already had plenty of fun that weekend, it’s probably better, at least for me, that I didn’t have to celebrate after the game.

So now I’m in Innsbruck, and it’s beautiful. I wish the mountains had more snow, but it is summer time and there is a heat wave in Europe, and that whole global warming thing. My hostel is part of an old castle, albeit a tiny one. I’m a bit disappointed in the people though. I’m in the region of Austria known as Tirol, and all I really know is that they traditionally wear lederhosen. So I came expecting something similar to happy fun Bavarians, especially in a tourist city. So far, aside from waitstaff, no one’s been particularly cheerful. Most of them have been slightly rude. I don’t know if they’re worn out on tourists right now or what. Maybe it was a city-wide bad day. Hopefully tomorrow everyone will cheer up. If not, I’ll be back in Heidelberg on the 2^nd.

Well, Germany lost, but I still had fun. We tried to bring wine into the fan zone, but we had to throw our bottles at the gate. Beer was really expensive, but we indulged and had some during the game. We made a lot of friends along the way, although I didn't get any names. It was sad, but I'll try to upload the photos I got later, but I should probably go to sleep since I have an early train tomorrow to Innsbruck. I also got a German hat thing, which I think will go perfectly with Mike's jersey. It survived in one piece, although it has the smell of the Fan Zone and some face paint to prove it was there. Well, I was just writing to let you all know I survived and I'll write more when I get a chance.

First of all, thanks to everyone that commented on the homesickness one. I'm now in Vienna and it's been an adventure so far. I exited on to the wrong street from the underground train and ended up at the wrong Starbucks. Luckily I was able to buy some internet at Starbucks and Leah came and found me. After that we went to her apartment, which is amazing. She even has a maid that comes once a week. Apparently Kent State knows how to take care of their students. She's also across the street from Theater an der Wien, which is where some of Beethoven's stuff premiered. Neither one of us could think of what exactly we should do so we wandered around Vienna, with beer. It still holds the thrill of feeling like you're doing something wrong, even though it's perfectly legal here. We were watching around Stadt Park (City Park) when it started to rain, again. We ducked into a little restaurant, but it was too expensive to eat there so we just had another beer. We thought the rain was done, but before we could even get out of the park it started again. We needed to find some food though, so we continued wandering. We ended up back on the street with the Starbucks. We went the other direction looking for food and finally arrived at this pizza place Leah knew. We each had a piece of pizza and an Edelweiss beer. Mine tasted like bubble gum. It was odd. On the way back, we cut through the underground area, since it wasn't raining down there. We came back to the apartment, grabbing another beer along the way, and watched a movie. It's been awhile since I've consumed that much liquid, let alone alcoholic liquid. Needless to say, I fell asleep on the couch after the movie got done. It's nice staying here though. I knew Leah from college and it's just nice to have a little bit of home around. She said the same thing. It's not like we were best friends, but we're friends and in a foreign country, so it all works out.

Well my battery's about to die and I need to shower and go exploring. Today I had pizza with bacon and corn on it. That's how amazing Vienna is.

Germany made it to the Euro 2008 Final!!! I cannot wait for the 29th now!

I’m not prone to homesickness. In school I never had a problem staying over at someone else’s house or taking weeklong trips. That’s why I’m so confused by it now. I’m in Prague, one of the largest and oldest cities in the world. Everywhere I look is historic, and there’s so much to do and see. Yet for some reason, I don’t want to. All I want to do is leave. I don’t know if it’s the language barrier, or the fact that I have to be a tourist here, or what, but I just don’t want to be here. I’m sick of sleeping on foam, especially the bed I’m on now. I’m sick of being alone. I’m sick of living out of a suitcase. I know that once I get back home it’s back to the grindstone, but at least it’s my life. I can sleep in my bed, with my pillows. I can fall asleep without tossing and turning for hours and without traffic roaring by. I can wake up in the morning refreshed, not feeling like I’m 70 years old. I can take a shower for as long as I want. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I did this and stayed longer to travel. I’m just tired and sore and cranky. I’m writing this for a couple reasons. I needed to vent and get it out of my system. I wanted people reading to know that homesickness does happen, even if you don’t think it will. And I wanted people to remember that I’m completely alone in a completely foreign land with no way to get home until July 3^rd. So excuse me if I’m a little snappy or if I don’t see everything you think I should. It’s my trip and my money. If I choose to spend my time in Prague feeling sorry for myself, that’s a decision I will have to live with. I will gladly go back and see more sights with whoever would like to. But for now, I’m going to be a little crabby and more than a little frustrated and I’m sorry if I lash out at anyone because of it.

Other than that, I don’t really have much to say. I have just over a week left and I’m going to make the most of it. I know Vienna’s going to be a blast (I’m going to go to Falco’s grave!) and in Innsbruck I can sit and stare at the mountains all day. And then back to Heidelberg to grab my stuff and say goodbye to my host family before flying out the next morning. And then after a weekend in the Cities and probably a night at the folks’, back to Brookings.

Since my last post, I went and did some exploring. I left KFC and on my way back ran into a protest. I have no idea what they were protesting or why. Yet another reason I wish I knew the language. While they were on one corner, there was a group of people with hay bales on the corner diagonally from them. At first I thought that maybe the two were related, but nope. After that little adventure, I went back to my hostel, dropped off my computer, and headed for Wenceslav Square. It was slightly crowded, and most of it was tourists. I wandered around for a bit and happened to find the Communism Museum. If you ever find yourself in Prague, don’t feel bad if you miss it. It was informative, since I didn’t know much about Czechoslovakia after WWII. The best part was the gift shop, since they’ve made up all these propaganda looking posters. I bought some postcards because they’re a lot cheaper and easier to get back with. They did however, have free maps. I like free maps. After that I made my way back to the hostel. Afternoons here are brutal and I’m drenched in sweat before I realize it. Luckily there’s no one to make me feel bad if I take a slightly longer shower. I think right now the thing I’m missing most is flat, level ground. Never thought I’d say it, but I actually kind of miss South Dakota. Not only is the ground not flat anywhere here, the cobblestones on the sidewalks are (or at least look like) marble, which is kind of slippery. I also miss the good German bread I was so used to eating. I tried looking for a grocery store today, but with no luck. I did find the water in the pop machine though. That was exciting. It’s so noisy here! There’s constantly police or ambulances going by with their sirens on full blast. I’m not that surprised though, after seeing how people drive here. At least in Germany it’s organized chaos. Everyone knows how they should drive there and it works. It may work here as well; I haven’t seen any accidents yet. It just seems a lot more out of control here.

Well, I don't have much else to say. Sitting at KFC really makes me want the buffet, but they don't have that here. Add that to my list of food I want when I get back. On second thought, I'll just warm up some lard and call it good.

So Hamburg was pretty much a waste. By the time I got there and got checked into the hostel, it was 2 p.m. When I stepped off the train, I was immediately hit with the humidity, which I’ve had quite enough of in Heidelberg. I finally convinced myself to go get some food since all I had eaten that day was half a bag of bacon chips. I walked out of my room and into another one that I had to walk through to leave the hostel. One of the guys staying in that room had just gotten out of the shower and luckily still had his towel on. I continued on my way with a slightly redder face. The hostel was located right behind a hamburger joint called “Hollywood Canteen”. I had a James Stewart (beef, cheese, bacon, lettuce, some coleslaw type stuff, and a sweet, but hot, chili sauce), complete with fries (and KETCHUP!) and a Fanta (with ICE CUBES!!!). It was wonderful, even if I forgot that ice cubes melt if you’re waiting too long for your meal. While I was waiting for my food, it started to pour. It was the hardest rain I’ve seen since I’ve been here. I walked back to the hostel inbetween showers and decided since it was raining again that 4:30 p.m is a good time to go to bed if you have to wake up 12 hours later. I ended up sleeping for about four hours, then helping some of the lads in the other room with their outfit selection for the night (they were using the mirrors in my room), and finally watching some Quantum Leap and going back to sleep for another four hours

I’m writing this in my notebook on the way to Prague. We just left Dresden and I have two hours left. So far it’s been fairly uneventful, aside from the business man across from me from Hamburg to Berlin picking his nose. Traveling is definitely better with a friend. Next time I’m dragging someone with. They have to pay their share though, and buy me sandwiches. These long train rides get a mite boring, although the terrain is finally changing again. That’s why I’m so excited for Innsbruck and the Alps. I’m excited for Prague and Vienna too, but MOUNTAINS! REAL MOUNTAINS! I haven’t seen any since Montanaland. There’s some cool cliffs outside of Dresden, which reminds me, I want to go to Norway. Any of you Hoiums win the lottery and decide to go, I’m tagging along. I’m sure the long lost relatives would be friendly and helpful.

It’s now the start of my first day in Prague. Yesterday was a bit frustrating as I ended up getting lost. The directions provided were not the best, although now that I know where it is, they make a little more sense. I ended up going to a KFC where I got some food and used their free wireless. I tracked down the hostel on google maps and finally made it there. I have a room to myself so far, and although this place has seen better days, it’s not too bad. The mattress is really hard though. My three nights here cost me 700 Czech crowns, but it’s really only about 30 Euro. My meal at KFC cost me 105 crowns, just to put it in perspective. At any rate, I should quit lurking in my room and go exploring. I think I’ll be typing up blogs and then uploading them when I can, which will probably be at restaurants. There’s a lot of free wifi in restaurants, but I can’t find any that reaches to my room. Well, until later!