Lessons from traveling abroad: How to meet people and make friends

When I arrived in Interlakken, I was suffering from a serious case of homesickness so I was thrilled when a girl stood in the middle of our dorm and announced,

"Does anyone want to go hike up a mountain on Friday?"

Everyone else kind of just looked at each other and basically ignored her but I was game, not only for a hike in a few days but also for everything else: "grocery" shopping (code for buying wine, chocolate, and cheese), half priced drinks at the underground beach party, cooking dinner together in the kitchen, meeting other Americans, giant chess, lounging in the not-so-secret hammock room…

Because Suzy knew the secrets to making friends on the move:

The art of accidentally meeting people

Ok, I'll let you all in on a little secret: I wasn't that fond of Northern Ireland.

So Sunday morning, I got up bright and early and headed for the bus stop so that I could be whisked to the ferry that would take me away to Scotland.

I was lucky enough to meet fellow Mid-Westerner David at the bus stop because then I had a ferry buddy for the trip!  (Even if poor David was never supposed to be on my ferry to begin with...long story.)

We split in Glasgow so I could go to Edinburgh and find out what the Fringe Festival is all about and he could go on down to Liverpool to see the home of the Beatles (as I understand it to be, anyway).  

Scotland was beautiful!  Just look at that upper right corner of the collage.  It's threatening to storm but there's still and abundance of bright green trees and comforting purple heather.  At least I think that's called heather....

My good luck continued when I walked into my amazing hostel to find I would not be the only girl in my dorm!!!  Yay!!!!  Not only that, but Sam invited me to go out with her and her two new friends (Anna and Julia), all of whom turn out to be fangirls of one kind or another.  

Needless to say this has led to a lot of really excited Harry Potter/Supernatural/Doctor Who/Sherlock talk!

Zadar at night

I had one whopping night in Zadar before my flight to Dublin and I was lucky enough to run into Tegan (below) in the lobby of the hostel.  After enjoying an afternoon beer and snacks, we walked downtown as the sun set and admired both the water and architecture.  We chose a really popular Italian style restaurant that had what looked like a half-excavated archaeological dig in the front.  (They had ridiculously good seafood!)  Then we wandered along the water again, listened to the sea organ, and goofed off on the solar panels that become an LED show at night.  

Zadar is actually a very cool little place.  At the end of the night we went to a bar that our hostel recommended.  It was along the top of what appeared to be an old city wall that overlooked the port.  It was quiet and posh, which was great since I'm not really into the party scene anymore (contrary to what my pictures with the LED solar panels seems to suggest!)

It's a small weird, weird world - The Parisian Edition

[CAN CAN GIRLS]

When you think you can't
You'll find you can can!
[SOPHIE]
Everyone can can can!
[SOPHIE AND CAN CAN GIRLS]
You can can can too!

--Anastasia Soundtrack, "Paris Holds The Key To Her Heart"

The lyrics really have absolutely nothing to do with my trip, but Anastasia has been my favorite princess ever since I learned of her existance when I was in grade school, and this song is so fun to sing.

What else is fun and a little bit obnoxious?

Selfies!

Interlaken: Outdoor adventures by day, party underground at night.

For the first time I met girls to hang out with!  YAY!!!  As soon as I entered my dorm room Susy was asking if anyone wanted to take a train up a mountain Friday and I was like "Yes!!" so that is the plan for tomorrow.  She also showed me the supermarket so I got to make my own food for the first time since leaving Romania (God I missed non-mass produced deliciousness), and introduced me to her friends Jill and Scott.  At dinner we also met Shannon and Michael.  Yay for meeting people!!!

The theme at the hostel bar the first night was "beach party."  Half price drinks if you were in your bathing suit.  Susy and Jill were lucky enough to score free shots, I just settled for my half-price hard cider.

Today I went on my canyoning trip: rappelling, zip-lining, jumping off of cliff edges (flash backs of Angela's accident kept me from trying one high jump), and sliding down nature-made slippery rock slides for a couple hours.  And then a nice picnic of bread, cheese and veggies (and beer, of course, I may actually come back to the States a beer drinker at this rate!) at the foot of the Alps.

Now, a walk around the eastern lake, a trip to buy wine and chocolate, and then more partying in the underground bar (the hostel's way of taking care not to break the Swiss law saying no loud noise after 10pm).