After all the intense travel throughout Amsterdam, Vienna, and Prague, a relaxing weekend and week to follow were most definitely in order. Only 3 days of classes and then the Karneval celebration starts that Thursday! Our Differential Equations class was supposed to have an exam after the morning parade, but luckily our professor allowed us to move the exam to a day earlier. Big shout out to our professors for that one!
Now HERE is where the week really starts to break into a full sprint straight ahead...
To begin, we must first start with the parade! This was something that was very exciting to experience and be a part of. It reminded me a lot of the high school pep-rally parades we would do with the football team but much, MUCH longer!
After walking through the city of Bonn and throwing candy to all those along the streets, our Biosciences crew was ready to party! We quickly made it back to AIB, got changed into our costumes, and then were back out on the street in no time.
Spoiler Alert.
Our travels there would not hold a candle light to the troubles we dealt with on our journey back... we got trapped in Norway after a blizzard hit the day we had planned to return to Germany. The snow shut down the ONE road that took us back to Kiruna, Sweden (the location of our train station) and after waiting the entire day to make it through with 2 hours left even after that, there was not a chance in the world we were making it on time.
Now picture this: you pull up to Kiruna with your homies, you drop off the van (driven by Ashley ONLY), and boom. We've got nothing but our luggage and our own two feet. Oh, did I mention it was 11pm at this point?
If I were in your shoes and listening to me tell this story right now, I might ask: were you scared? Concerned about how severe your situation actually was?
Nah. Not in the least.
We make our way over to a nearby pizzeria, and by the end of our meal we had everything worked out; new flights leaving before the sun is up the next morning! Hooray!
We found a nearby motel to crash in for the night too, so that saved us from sleeping on the floor in the airport... which is nice I guess. To be honest though, I was ready to crash on the floor to save ourselves even just a few dollars haha.
We decided we would take the public transit to the airport the following morning, and all was right with the world...
WRONG.
the bus never came.
Now here we are, waiting for a bus that isn't going to come that we DESPERATELY needed for our hail-mary flight purchase from the night before. Man I tell ya, never seen a group of people come together so quickly and efficiently when your Rosen Montag experience is on the line!
Just when it seemed there was no hope left for us, we get in contact with a taxi service. They send us a van, and I'm pretty sure we tried bribing this guy to break the speed limits to get us there in time (he didn't take the offer by the way).
We finally arrive at the airport with approximately 4 minutes till our flight cuts off boarding. If it weren't for Kiruna being the smallest airport I have ever seen in my life, we wouldn't have made it...
But guess what!
WE MADE IT.
From that point on, it was some very well-deserved smooth sailing. And the nightmare we experienced getting back? Yeah, I wouldn't trade that for anything.
So what made it all worth it? Was it because this was my first time seeing snow on the ground? Maybe because it was my first time skiing? Or was it the Northern Lights?...
It was definitely the Northern Lights. Yep, no doubt.
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