Frites, Beer, and Chocolate......Brussels......The 36hour detour to Dublin

As mentioned in the previous blog, there was no chance that Renee and I were going to make it to Dublin, or for that matter England with the way the standby situation was at the airport, so we hopped on the flight to Brussels. We had planned on visiting Brussels, but that was to be about midway thru the trip. If you could have seen us at the airport when our names were called, it was a sight to be seen as we were the last two standbys called. We may have been "those" passengers. As soon as we got on the flight (and of course asked a gentleman to switch with us) we pulled out the Ipad and bought tickets on Aer Lingus as the flight attendants were telling us to shut down our electronic devices. We could rest easy knowing that we had a confirmed way to Dublin, or at least Renee could. (anyone that knows her, knows that she can sleep ANYWHERE, and by that I mean, I had to put my neck pillow around her, so Chip (super cool guy from Las Vegas, sitting in our row, that offered his floor in his hotel room, if we didn't find a place to stay in a nice Dad kind of way) and I would stop laughing at her head bobbing.

The only problem was the fact that we really had not planned on being in Belgium, so we had no where to stay, and we had not done our research (because we had planned on doing it later). After we landed and waited 50 minutes thru passport control, we sat in the airport, bought Wifi for 6euros and looked up hostels. We booked the second one we found (only because the first one was booked) and it ended up being in a great location. The hostel called On the Go 2, was only 2 stops from the airport, 10 minute walk Grand Place Market, and a great central location for Brussels.

We first arrived at the hostel 5 hours before check in time, but the "front desk guy" was nice enough to let us shower while we were waiting to check into the room. Since it technically had been 2 days since we had taken a proper shower. We booked a luxurious bunk bed (made Ikea style, at which any moment I expected Renee to be on the bottom bunk with me) dorm room shared with 2 cool german chicks, 3 party english girls, one guy of Asian decent, 2 Italian boys (at least that's what the language sounded like) one british chick on holiday break from her chick, one quiet chick that never spoke and read her book, a mexican hippie, and a weirdo man that was from Snellville, GA and two super cool "older" American chicks, named Katie and Renee. Of course the super cool older chicks, not only took afternoon naps, but also were the first ones in bed.



We spent the first day roaming the streets, and admiring the beauty of an Old town. The Chocolate shops, churches, and buildings were absolutely amazing

We decided to eat out this evening and ended up at an Italian Pizzeria. Not your normal Pizza Hut, but a woodfire creation, with ham, artichokes, mushrooms, and fresh pizza sauce, but I can't lie, the best part was the 2euro local beer on draft and the view!

Wouldn't ya know, we were sitting across from two pilots! With my expert ease dropping skills, we became aquainted with two Air Canada pilots and even shared our chocolate with them. It was a great first night in Europe!

We were in bed by 10pm on the first night, and by far some of the oldest people in the room, but we were one the first ones up the next morning to enjoy our last 12hours in Brussels. We started our day the European way with some stiff coffee!!

illy coffee

We decided on the second day to try and find the "silver balls" that we saw out of the train window on the way from the airport to the hostel. The correct name of these Silver balls are the Atomium, and were apparently built for the world fair that took place in the 1950's. The Atomium looked pretty cool from the train, but they were even better in person. One of many pieces great peices of art in Brussels!

After we left The "silver balls" we headed back to the town square to have some famous Frites....aka French fries!! Brussels is known for not only there frites but the 50 different sauces you can choose to go with them. They lived up to their expectation and made for a cheap lunch! Highly recommended!!

After lunch we went back to the Hostel and hung in the common area for a couple hours before our flight to Dublin! Renee had officially experienced the hostel way of travel!!

We made it to Brussels airport and anxiously awaited our flight to Dublin, the place we were destined to go!

Thanks Brussels, you were great!! Til next time, Peace and Love ~KT~

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A little flight attendant lingo....

Well it's been a long 26 hours....where shall I start??

I guess I should start by telling you that we had decided to start our trip in Dublin. Although this was a pretty spontanious trip, we had booked a rental car and B&B in Ireland giving ourselves two days to get there. Sounded like a great idea, and plenty of time for travel woes as we would be flying standby. What I did NOT take into account is the the fact that Notre Dame and Navy are playing a football game in Dublin this coming weekend. So for those of you that have never flown standyby this means that pretty much all flights leaving from the East coast to Dublin are going to be full with "paying" passengers, and that standby was going to be a long shot!

Renee and I were dropped off at the airport yesterday (8/25) at approx 3:30pm. We were pretty confident as we had 4 flights to get us close to Dublin. I had came to the realilzation that we probably would not make Dublin, and came up with alternate routes such as getting to Manchester or Heathrow and taking the Ferry to Dublin. The excitment of our trip and our friendship must have got us thru the first night..the first flight we attempted was Dublin. We get to the gate and they start boarding the aircraft. We know at this point that it is going to be a long shot. About halfway thru the boarding process the gate agent comes across the PA and announces they are goinng to stop the boarding process, that there is a problem with the air conditioning, and they are going to bring matinenance out. (As a flight attendant, I know this is bad in many ways: #1 being the flight could be cancelled #2 gives revenue (paying)passengers more time to get to the gates, thus lessening the chance for us to get on...We immediately get up and start walking to the Manchester flight. This is our second best option. We sit there as patiently as we can and watch as the flight fills and our names stay at the bottom of the standyby list, only to hear the gate agent announce the flight is full. Cool, at this point Dublin has a new depature time. We go back to the Dublin gate, to only watch that flight fill up and the gate agent announce that the flight is full. Okay, at this point the stress level is pretty high, but we are still on our game, we still have two chances to make it to London as there are two Heathrow flight leaving. We go to each of those gates only to watch our name stay at the bottom of the stanby list, by the last flight we are saying a little prayer to the standby angels... Obviously they were busy as Renee and I did not make any flight on the first day..4 flights, and we are still sitting in the Atlanta airport.

At this point it is almost 11pm. We could have went home and slept, but we made a decision to stay in the airport. We had already gone thru security, we did not want to unpack our bags, and we knew if we went home we would only get about 6hours sleep anyway. So yes, we made concourse F the hotel de Katie and Renee! We went to the batroom, changed into out Pj's washed our face brushed our teeth and prepared to sleep on the floor.

We made a cozy spot on the floor around midnight and we woke up around 6am freezing!!! When I say freezing, I mean freezing. So cold that I waited for Brookstone to open around 7am only to pay $50 for a blanket and pillow combo. My nose and feet were so cold that I was willing to cuddle and share blankets at some point during the night. So cold that Renee was rocking this look, and I was rocking socks with flip flops. So COLD that you get the point.

We get up around 10am and head to the bathroom to get "refreshed" to start the day. We have hot tea, lunch and regroup. I have figured out by looking at the map that we just need to get somewhere in Europe and soon, as Hurricane Issac is moving in soon. I start looking at ALL options to get us to the other continent. It seems after looking at all the flights that Brussels, Belgium is going to be our best chance. I had downloaded an app on my Ipad called Skyscanner (that will check any flight going from one destination to another and give you all flight options and send you to the booking website. On a side note a great app for frequent travelers) and realized that once we arrrived in Belgium we could stay the night, explore, and then buy a ticket on Air Lingus farily resonable and get us to Dublin, and only be a day off track.

So Renee and I book for Brussels! We think that it is our best option, but after talking to the customer service agent, she looks at us and shakes her head. Seems as if today might be a repeat of last night, and at this point, I think that I might be getting to old for this spontanious "standby" stuff! We sit and wait, and inbetweeen waiting we her that there is going to be a Church service in the chapel at 200pm..We go,and we are the only two people there. Needless to say, we are the last 2 standbys to get on to Brussels, in Economy plus at that!! Cheers to persistence!!

 

 

and just some fun pics from the plane!!!

Til next time, Peace and Love ~KT~

 

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The map

The Katie and Renee map
Click to see our "tentative" plans!!

Til next time, Peace and love ~KT~

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Euro trip 2012... I'm back!!!

Trying to figure out this blogging thing on my iPad so I can post pics and stay in touch with my family and friends!!

Next weekend Renee and I will be trying to get anywhere close to the country of Ireland as it looks like all Dublin flights are oversold (all part of the adventure)

Our plans thus far

1st of all, not only are we are going to try and fit everything into this little back pack, we are going to make it work as this is all we have allowed for our selfs. (should be pretty interesting!)

Here is a picture of the bedroom that I have now turned into the "Europe" room....This should make for an interesting Friday night!!

We plan on going to:

~Ireland for a week

~England for a week

~and the rest of the 3 1/2 Weeks spent traveling to Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, and end in Germany to go to Oktoberfest for my 31st birthday!

this blog is short and sweet...getting used to the Ipad

Stay tuned, until next time

Peace and love ~KT~

 

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My past that tried to enter my present

So, should I blog about this or not? I could rant and rave on my facebook page, but why clog up your news feed with my dirty laundry? So I thought, why not write a blog, get my feelings out and not feel ashamed. The people that want to read it will, the people who do not, will not have to. This is a situation that actually happened last week. A "old" boyfriend requested me as a friend on facebook.  I am not going to mention any names, but it seriously had me baffled. I mean sure,  the curious side of me, wanted to accept and see what they had been up to, I mean I did check to see if  his profile was private, and of course it was. But just as I couldn't see any info on his profile, I remembered duh....we are not friends in the "real" world so why I am I going to be friends in the "virtual"? So I immediately hit IGNORE, although I have to admit it's been on my mind all week. I hit IGNORE, not because I don't think about you, wonder, pray, and wish the best for you, but because I love, pray, and wish the best for me as well. I forgave you a long time ago, the part that was hard was to forgive myself. I hated who I had become, and continue to work to not ever be that person again. I hate to hear about the negitive things that have happened in your life, I wouldn't wish that on anyone, and I do want you to know that I have said a prayer to the big guy up above that things will get better in your life.
Not only do I look different, I am different, and sometimes ones past needs to stay there. Your not forgotten, but your not welcome here anymore. I know that sounds harsh, but I gave you a piece of my heart along time ago, and I'm sorry you do not deserve any more.


~It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finished chapters, it doesn't matter what you call it; what matters is to leave behind us in the past those moments in life that are over~ Paulo Coelho The Zahir

Til next time, ~Love and Peace KT~

My One Year Plan!!!

On May 21, 2011 at 7:51 am (central time) I Kathryn Victoria Neeley, am writing down for the whole world to see; my one year plan.... Actually more like my 1 year,  4 month, and 24 hour plan (it is always nice to get in the moving truck early!)

Sept 2011 My 30th Birthday, I am taking a cruise, and buying myself a fabuloso piece of jewlry in St. Thomas

May 2012 I will be out of my loft in East Point, GA. I will put my things that I want to keep in storage.

May 2012-Aug 2012 I will commute from my parents house in West Virginia. I will spend quality time with my family over the summer, as I have taken for granted in my younger years!

Sept 2012- I will finally travel Europe as I had wanted to straight from college...4-5 weeks backpacking

and when I return I will start looking for places to live in Grayton Beach....

disclaimer: I do know that things can change in a 1 year, 4 months, and 24hours.....But this is my plan, of course I have to make sure that I still have a job as a Southwest FA, that I pass all my training, and all that boring adult stuff that pays the bills! But I have decided I am much to young to not be in a place that I want to be!! Life is way to short! And look at this view that I have been missing all this time!

So go ahead, start planning a visit..... Cause this is where I plan on being!!! Til next time Peace and Love ~KT~

Mystic Fish 2011

 Mystic Fish definition for me: Some cool ass people preserving southern tradtion in a not so "stuffy" way!

So where do I start this blog? I guess I need to give you a little history.. Approxamitly 4 years ago I moved into what is known as a "crashpad" by people in the airline industry in a city called East Point in the Atlanta perimeter. A "crashpad" for those of you that are not in the airline industry is a house that is rented out to flight atttendants and sometimes pilots. They normally have anywhere from 1-4 bunk beds in a 2/3 bedroom house. The idea being that you pay anywhere from $150-$300 a month and you have  a place to stay before trips,  inbetween trips when there was not enough time to fly to your "real" home, or when you could not make your commuting flight home. A "crash pad" lets you feel like your not always living out of a hotel, and gives you such ammentities  as a kitchen. See the thing is, I kinda turned mine into my full time home. I seemed to be there more often than others, so I decided to get to know the neighbors. I don't remember exactly how it happened but I went over one day and knocked on the neighbors door and introduced myself. I met what I now know to be the "cool ass married couple" named Stacy and Tracy.  Yeah I know what you are thinking......It was really hard in the beginning to remember which one was Stacy, and which one was Tracy especially for someone like me that forgets names so easily!  From there on out I seemed to build a relationship with this couple that reminds me of a family away from my family. Sometimes people forget how hard it is to be in the airline industry and be so far away from home and on the road all the time. They, Stacy and Tracy introduced me to some "cool ass" art, food, drinks, wine and also some front porch fun on Linwood Ave! I introduced Stacy to jager bombs (in which I was sent home early that night by Tracy) They were even nice enough this past Feburuary to go and pick up prescriptions for me when I left a voicemail in which Tracy said "I sounded like I was dying or in trouble." All I needed was someone to go and pick up prescriptions for me since I was not able to make it out of bed. There was even some freshed squeezed orange juice and chicken noodle soup outside my door. When your momma is 8 hours away in West Virginia, it sure is nice to know that you have people like this to count on! So this is the part that I get to the Mystic Fish. Over the years of getting to know Stacy and Tracy I have learned that they are from Mobile, AL originally. I  also learned that they  were  involved in a group known as the Mystic Fish and it had something to do with Mardi Gras. I had said for the past 3 years that I was going to make it to Mobile and see what this Mardi Gras was all about. This year I finally scheduled my vacation around Mardi Gras,  recived my invitation from the Mystic Fish, made no excuses and planned a solo road trip to Mobile, AL.

 I learned that Mobile was the "Original Mardi Gras".  As stated on the website squidoo.com: Most people associate Mardi Gras in the US with the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is true that New Orleans hosts the largest and most popular Mardi Gras, but they were not the first to celebrate the Carnival season. That honor goes to their smaller neighbor to the east: Mobile, Alabama. Mobile hosted its first Mardi Gras celebration in 1703, long before New Orleans.

 

This was my first expierence with any Mardi Gras ever, and man it was awesome! The first day when I arrived there were already tents put up for the dinner feast we were going to have that evening! My first shrimp broil! And I tried crawfish for the first time! We called them craw daddy's where I am from and I used to catch them with my best friend Chad. When I say catch, I meant that I lifted the rock, and if we saw one, I would take off running while the boys tried to put them into an old drywall bucket! But down south they are a delicacy!

My first crawfish!

As if the delcious food was not enough, just look at what else was provided!!! Now the party has started!

There was a liquor bar with just about anything you wanted! Although the rain and storms moved in the first evening it sure didn't ruin our Mystic Fish Party! I was able to meet some "cool ass" people from all over the country and I have to admit I was looking forward to the next day when the "peoples parade" would take place! I was even given a look at some of the floats that were going to be in parades that I was going to miss, and man they were cool! From what I learned this is a year long process and they get started on next years float right after Mardi Gras is over. They hire professional people to make the floats and all! Who actually gets to say when they are little "When I grow up I want to make floats??"  This was no St. Albans, WV parade that is for sure!!!



Theme "Slow and Steady Wins the Race"



The next day consisted of some more Delicious food and some tailgating before the parade! Lots of tailgating before the parade. Up to this point I was still a little confused as to what was taking place.. What were the Mystic Fish and what were they going to do in the parade?  The only expierence that I had with parades was when my Brownie troop dressed up in our local Christmas Parade. That is a whole other blog since I was dressed as a Christmas present (made out of a cardboard box) and I kept tripping over it and falling during the parade..Needless to say that parade could not have been over fast enough...

When the "Mystic Fish" were ready to leave and head to the parade everyone got dressed, and the energy was high!

Before the Mystic Fish and the group of about 75 people headed out for the 1/2 mile walk to the parade a 5 person band showed up. This" ain't" no parade without some music ( and yes I know I used  a double negitive)  What I learned from Tracy,  this is a group of college guys that make money every year playing for the Mystic Fish.. I have to admit, the music was GREAT!! A littel southern stlye jazz/blues. Exactly what I would expect for a Mardi Gras parade!

The time was now.... It was time to head to the People's Parade. The band led the Mystic Fish followed by Mr. Hartley

It was a blast to walk to the parade following the Mystic Fish. I still was unsure if we were the parade, or what exactly was going to happen. And then we came upopn the main parade. There were thousands of people watching and collecting beads, candy and moon pies!  The Mystic Fish have some special powers I tell ya. Once they came upon the parade route the gates were opened just for them to get onto the parade route! They get to dance and party like it 1999 for a good 15 minutes!  It was a site to see, and peolpe standing along the parade route loved it!

The whole parade was an experience in itself. We headed back to the house, drank, ate some more food, and socialized throughout the night. When the kids decided to put on a parade for the adults, it was a highlight! I think we may have some Mystic Fish in training!

I can not say enough about my exposure to this Southern tradition. It was an honor to be invited and be surrounded by all these "cool ass people" that called tehmselves the Mystic Fish. The food was to die for, the drinks delightful, and the company as warm and welcoming as you would expect from the South.  It's hard not to get into the spirit of Mardi Gras, even the statues do!!

It was a weekend to remember!!!

til next time, peace and love ~KT~