Finnish(ing) Up: October 2010

Well, we're back from our european vacation. How did it go you ask? Let me tell you.
List of thing that went wrong
1. Ryan Air on way to Germany, small annoying children jumping and kicking seat in-front of me for two and a half hours. Thank you cheap airline.
2. Getting two handed pushed off of airport shuttle by angry driver lady. Introduction into Dusseldorf, Germany. I have no idea what I did wrong even now...
3. Jolinna talking about the German girl on the airport shuttle, WHILE sitting right next to the German girl on the shuttle. Me: Jolinna, people in Germany can speak English you know, Joli: Oh, well, this girl still thinks your really weird" (or something like that. point is, my comment didnt save her)
4. got lost at 3:30 am in metro system in Berlin, Jolinna's hotdog sucked, and the hotdog guy gave us the wrong advice on which tram to take. 45 minutes later arrived at hostel to find boy in previously vacant bed.
5. Woke up at 7 am to leave.
6. Never made it to Amsterdam. Never even made it to Netherlands.
7. Horrible traffic = 13 hours of driving. Stopped at random gas station to buy really expensive petrol and had a good cry. Europe is hard.
8. Decided to go to Cologne Germany for the night. Madeline said she had a surprise for us. Got on metro, for just two stops, and a tram regulator stopped us and asked for tickets. I am an American, I didn't know we needed tickets?? .... not quite, but I kept quite anyways. We got off, 5 of them, and 4 of us. Madeline claims to be from Finland, I'm obviously American, Joli is more than obviously Asian, and Natella is Natella. I mean, she's definitely not German. The regulators argue, the red headed devil says we have to pay 160 euros for our mistake, 40 euros a piece. Madeline plays innocent very very well, and the regulators argue more in German. Madeline hassles the guy, she is also very very good at this, and it gets taken down to 60 euros total. 15 euros a piece, kissed goodbye. I hate you red headed German man.
side note: Madeline says that all the other regulators were telling the red headed man to let us go, they felt bad, it was stupid to have us pay. we didnt know better. leave us alone. but the red headed man lied to us "foreigners" about not being able to lower the price, it was impossible. bah. We know your secret. It also might not have helped the situation when i asked if they take quarters... the answer is no.
9. Jolinna stole my pasta noodles at Vapiano's.
10. Paris traffic was horrible! 4 hours of driving circles around Paris, ALMOST getting hit/bumped/scraped/wrecked. suddenly, no one in paris speaks english, even the police. THE POLICE WOULD NOT HELP US. the hostel man is a pompous you know what, who is probably a jobless man right now. He refused to help and yelled at me on the phone, loud enough for jolinna and madeline to turn around and look at me in the car.
10. Found Hostel. FRIEND'S HOSTEL (is badly employed). Man is just too tired to be polite and waves his hands in our face, yells at us, argues with us. calls our questions stupid. Has a temper tantrum of a 5 year old. tries to get us to pay the price for a 4 bedroom even though there was a fifth bed in there. seriously? We leave.
11. two more hours of driving around looking for a hotel/hostel that night in paris. It's not fun, dont try.
12. Didnt see any museums in Paris. We were there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. We got to the Louvre 4:00 on Monday, closed at 5:30. Didnt see any exhibitions, they wouldnt let us. CLOSED on Tuesday.... and Wednesay morning we got up early to go there, and something was abnormal, they were not open yet, this time being 10:15, scheduled to open normally at 9, and the line was 2-3 hours long.... CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! Tried to go to the Museum L'Orsay, and the Line was 30 minutes long, and cost 13 euro to get in. Must have been fate not to see history in Paris.... Maybe one day i'll appreciate it.
13. The whole trip was rain, rain, rain.
14. super expensive. one drink cost 13 euro. (and no, i didnt buy any drinks because of this)
15. Bought a really awesome plate for my friend. cost 25 euro, i had 40 left. what did i do? I dropped it... an hour later. Its broken, like my hopes and dreams of Paris being the most romantic city in the world. no worries, It's cool.
16. Natella very very very angry with us.
17. Didnt go all the way to the top of the eiffel tower. (this isnt something that went bad, but i think some people would disagree so it's on the list)
18. Staff didnt bring me my cheesecake at 9 am like Jolinna and Madeline planned, so that went wrong with them.
19. Jolinna- couldnt get to see the sex show. (she wrote that one)
20. Jolinna pocketed 3 times, Madeline 1, Me 1. nothing was stolen but that's probably a new record or something. Also the last time someone tried to steal from Joli, and the only reason they weren't successful was because i was laughing at her for blocking people traffic, and telling her to move out of their way, not realizing they were crowding her to try to get into her purse. Me laughing really loud was super scary i'm sure. I'm too naive for paris.
21. Poor Madeline spent about as much time driving as she did sightseeing. I owe her a big thankyou.
22. The List continues: get to the airport, dont have anything printed off, reservations or tickets, nada. cant do it at the airport because they are afraid of virus. have 20 minutes to get through security to plane, etc. running, sprinting through airport looking for someone with a labtop, doesnt happen. 7 minutes. we are forced to pay 40 euros to have our tickets printed there from their computers, mind you the tickets cost about 15 euros, so more than double the price....
23. I have lost my parent's credit card.

I am grateful for this trip, and I love my friends who came with me, more things went wrong than right, but i'll remember those times much more than if it went perfectly well. Pictures will be up soon. I am glad we went, I love you guys!!