Final Days in Europe

 9/20/23 I combined the three days in Europe as they don't have as much content as the other days. The day after going to Liverpool we had a more relaxing day. I slept in longer than I meant to then Kez and I got ready and went to brunch at a place called 19 Cafe Bar. I got a smoked salmon bagel and lemongrass tea. It was obligatory that I got tea while in England. After having brunch I got to go to Primark for the first time. I had wanted to visit a Primark after hearing about them from British YouTubers I watched in high school. (Zoella, etc.). Primark was really fun and cute, and I could see myself spending some time there if I lived in England. The US equivalent to Primark is probably a mix of Target and Marshalls. Kez lives about 2-3 blocks away from the Arndale Center, which is Manchester's largest mall. We also stopped by a game/novelty store where Kez bought a puzzle which we ended up doing later that day. The puzzle was of Whitby Harbor, which Kez had traveled to before. Lastly we went into Lush. I've been to the Lush's in America, but wanted to go to one of the actual ones in England. I didn't notice any differences besides that it was a little cheaper than in the US, but so had been the jacket that I purchased 2 days prior. I ended up buying a bath bomb and Kez bought a shower bomb. I'm glad that the bath bomb was cheaper because it ended up being pretty disappointing. A bath bomb I had bought in the past had made my bath tub pretty galaxy colors (blues/purples/glitter), while this one didn't change the bath water color but smelled nice. 

    When we got back to Kez's apartment we started doing the puzzle while having "You've Got Mail" play in the background. Kez's roommate had made a Bolognese pasta and made too much so we had that for dinner. Upon hearing that we went to Primark and I described it as cute, Kez's roommate stated that cute isn't the word she would use for the store. Apparently it can get pretty crazy in there with teenage girls. So it's a good thing we went during a Wednesday afternoon. Despite looking through the puzzle box repeatedly and being sure we had gotten out all of the border pieces, we couldn't complete the border and thought for sure we were missing pieces. (As Kez discovered the next morning, we weren't missing any pieces we had just done part of the puzzle wrong. Connected too many pieces together on one side, etc.)

9/21/23  I had originally planned to travel to Wellington, England on 9/20, but decided against it. My luggage was falling apart by then, and the family that was going to host me had had an accident occur. I was going to stay with one of the Living Light Wellington elder's and his wife and their daughter. The Sunday before I was supposed to arrive the wife had fallen and broken her wrist. With her wrist being broken they wouldn't be able to take me around the area, but I could still stay there. Kez said that Wellington was relatively small without much to do especially without a car. She said that most people visiting are taken to the areas around Wellington, so I'd probably have little to do just staying in Wellington. I had originally also planned to go to Wellington to visit my friend Manu. She would have only been able to meet for a short time as she had to take her daughter in for a check up the same day we would have met up. Manu had just given birth a few weeks before, and her daughter had, had some complications, but was doing well. Manu's in-laws were also in town at that exact time to help out which is why I didn't stay with Manu. Since I hadn't planned in being in Manchester the 21st and 22nd, Kez had to go to work, so on this day I explored Manchester by myself. (In hindsight I'm super glad I had chosen to stay in Manchester longer. I had already traveled so much this trip that traveling 4 hours from Manchester to Wellington to just stay in Wellington for a super short time and do a ton more traveling just seemed like a bad idea. It was good to be able to spend more time with Kez and not have to rush and have more relaxing time.) I walked with Kez to the public transit before starting my day by first walking to the Arndale Center. Kez worked until 5 but had an hour window where she could bring me back to the apartment if I wanted to go back earlier. I had originally planned to spend most of the day at the shopping center, but thought I should do something other than be at a mall. Especially on the sunniest day I would spend in Manchester. I went into a few stores before making my way out onto the streets of Manchester. I was pretty tired this day so I wasn't much in the mood for exploring at first, but then got a second wind thankfully. I went into Black Sheep Coffee again to start my journey with a caramel mocha which I had, had two days before and then made my way towards the John Rylands Library. 

    Kez and I were thinking of going to the John Rylands Library on Monday, but it had been closed. Luckily it was open this day (Thursday). The John Rylands Library is dubbed the "Harry Potter library" as JK Rowling got inspiration for how she wanted Hogwarts to look from the library. It was definitely very Hogwarts looking on the inside. The library is located right in the center of Manchester and even looks cool from the outside. It is a neo-gothic architecture building, and is free to visit and even study inside of. The library also has a few display cases with one containing a fragment of the gospel of John. The specific fragment displayed is the oldest Bible manuscript of the Christian Greek scriptures ever found dating back to 100-150 AD. The library also tells of the history of the building, and how it came to be. The building was another one of the most stunning buildings that I saw while in Europe and pictures do not do it justice at all. 

   After visiting the library I aimlessly walked the streets of Manchester with no clear destination. It was coming up on the hour window which Kez could take me back to the apartment but I decided to stay out exploring and stay for the long haul. There was a lot of pretty/artsy things I passed on my walk. After walking for a bit I came across the Manchester canals. The area was a bit more rundown but the canals were still beautiful. The waterways used to be used to transport items like coal into Manchester. Manchester was the first ever industrial city in the world. 

   I was able to make it back to the Arndale Center area relatively easily, but I still ended up getting a little lost after wandering away from the area again towards the end of my journey. I didn't recognize where I was when heading back to the mall so I went into a fancy restaurant to ask for directions. It turned out I was like a half block away from the Arndale Center. :P. The more you know. For dinner I got food at a restaurant in the mall called "Slim Chickens". After looking it up, I guess its an American chain restaurant. Oops. Another fun fact about shopping in the UK is that they have TJ Maxx stores however they are known as TK Maxx in the UK. Another fun fact: The abbreviation for Manchester is MCR, so there were signs all around Manchester that said MCR and I love MCR. Even though they probably do love My Chemical Romance that is not what the signs were referencing. :P

   After I ate dinner it had started to rain so I waited for Kez out in the rain, luckily having had my umbrella with me that day even though the weather had been nice. Our meeting point was in front of the National Football (Soccer) Museum. We didn't go in as neither of us know much about professional soccer, but it's one of the more notable buildings in Manchester and is a fun shaped glass building. After returning to Kez's apartment we again worked on the puzzle and eventually completed it that night while listening to Kez's playlist which contained Phantom Planet songs. After completing the puzzle we walked to a nearby cocktail bar called "Be at One". The bar had dim lighting with neon signs and dance music playing. We didn't stay long but it seemed like a cool trendy place. I of course ordered a tropical drink. It didn't seem to have much alcohol in it as you could barely taste any alcohol and I felt perfectly fine afterwards. (I thought it might be one of those tasty but dangerous scenarios.) I joked about how people would usually think I'm under 21 (maybe not anymore), but realized that the drinking age in England is 18 so it that wouldn't be an issue here. 

9/22/23 and 9/23/23  Kez worked from home this day so she was able to walk me to the train station when it was time for me to go. I had bought train tickets to Bristol the night before which was a bad idea because they were way more expensive than usual. Kez made me hot chocolate before I left, and at the train station they even let her on the train to help me get my things situated before sending me off. I was able to get a bus from the Bristol Meeds train station that went directly to the Bristol airport (my 3rd time being at said airport in under 2 weeks), and thus started my journey back to the US. I bought curry for dinner at the airport before getting onto my flight to Zurich without issue. I arrived in Zurich around 10pm after leaving Bristol at around 7pm. (Switzerland is an hour ahead). My flight back to Chicago wouldn't be until around 10am the next morning so I had to sleep overnight at the airport. Switzerland is an expensive country so I wasn't able to find any deals for a hotel that wouldn't cost me over $200 for a night. The cheapest option which was still over $100 would be to sleep in an individual pod at the Swiss airport. I took my chances just settling for finding hopefully a comfyish spot to sleep at the airport for free. I was able to find a booth at a restaurant type place and all the people that were there left around 11pm. I thought there might be an increase of people that would come and have the same idea, but I was left alone, so I got a whole booth seat-like bench to myself. I had opted to have my big luggage to go directly onto the next flight instead of picking up my luggage in Zurich. It was a 12 hour layover but I still had what I would need in my carryon bag, so I had less to look after. During the morning time I made my way over to the terminal for American flights, and had to purchase more Wi-Fi. The Zurich airport lets you have 4 hours of free Wi-Fi before they charge you. Before getting on my flight I purchased two massive Swiss chocolate bars. (American chocolate is trash compared to European chocolate, especially Swiss, if you know you know). I ended up waiting at the wrong Chicago gate. Apparently their were two flights heading to Chicago from Zurich at almost the same time, however whatever gate I was at was indeed not Swiss Airlines. An employee luckily found that out in advance, and luckily my correct gate wasn't too much further away than that gate. 

     On the flight home they gave us all headphones for our individual TV screens however I'm pretty sure they weren't compatible with them because no one around me used them or used them quietly without headphones. I was able to sleep for a bit on the flight, luckily. When we were about to arrive in Chicago they made us fill out a piece of paper with our information and what we had purchased in Europe and were bringing back with us, and also what countries we had visited, along with total cost of said items. While filling it out it turned out that the 2 people next to me had been given their papers in German. They thought I must have been able to read German and could understand what it was asking, but mine was in English. It took awhile for my bag to appear at baggage claim but it was probably one of the first bags loaded onto the flight. My worst airport employee encounter happened as I was about to leave the O'Hare airport. When I had first got off the flight before baggage claim the employee said that he didn't need the paper I had filled out but to keep it with me. Once I had gotten my bags, I assumed that no one else would ask me about the papers and put them away. As I was walking out of the airport the employee ( a different one) asked for my paper. I forgot if I had put it in my big suitcase, carryon, etc. so I began searching for the paper while standing by the employee. After not being able to find it right away the employee had me stand in a different area while I looked for it. The employee must not have believed that I actually had the paper and asked me if I actually had it. I found it after a few more minutes in my big luggage and gave it to him. He seemed suspicious of me and asked me where I had flown in from, and seemed even more suspicious when I answered with Zurich. He also seemed confused as to where Zurich was located so I added Switzerland. He then let me go through with a rude attitude, and my brother and sister-in-law drove me back to Kenosha after. My sister-in-law insisted I stay up until at least 8pm that night and bought me a large caramel mocha from McDonalds. It was 12:30pm when I arrived in Chicago. It would have been 7:30pm Switzerland time, which is pretty insane. 

Thanks for reading about my adventures in Europe. It was the most amazing experience, and so fun to write these blogposts and share stories about my time. I hope you enjoyed reading as well.