Europe 2012- Day 2: A rainy day around town

Friday:

Even though I should have been really tired from jet lag, I couldn’t sleep after 4:30 AM. I laid in bed just waiting till everyone else would wake up. At 6:30 AM when Nate woke up for work, I got up and made ham and eggs with toast for breakfast. It was raining outside but around 9 AM Dave and I decided we were going out to explore. Kristie was really tired from the jet lag and so we left her to sleep and recover.

The first thing on our agenda was phones. I wanted to talk to T-Mobile about getting a SIM card for my old phone, and Dave wanted to look into the cost of a pay-as-you-go phone.  The guy didn’t think my phone would work, as most American phones have a locked SIM card. The guy was nice but didn’t speak a ton of English. 

We continued down the street and the rain really started pouring, as most of the stores were not yet open we only had a couple choices. So we hopped into a bakery for a morning snack. We tried a ham and cheese filled croissant which was very good. Then we hopped into a generic phone store that was next door.

A young man named Daniel who spoke really good English helped answer our questions. Dave and I were both surprised at the price. For only 15 Euros’ you can get a phone with charger and 5 Euros’ credit, and an additional 5 Euro if you register your phone. Plus you can buy credit in 10 Euro increments. We decided we would still look around a bit before getting anything.

Dave and I walked around town dodging in and out of shops to avoid the rain. Finally we decided to grab some Shoarma and bring it back to the apartment for lunch. We figured Kristie would be up and ready for lunch.

Around 2:30 if finally stopped raining and so all three of us went out for a walk. Kristie really wanted to see inside St. Catherine’s Cathedral so we went there first. Shortly after leaving the cathedral the bells rang on the hour. I started wondering how loud they were in the church. Later when we were wandering by and they started ringing we went inside, and I was surprised that you almost couldn’t hear the bells at all.

Inside St. Catherine's Cathedral

The Pipe Organ

Dave decided to go back to Daniel to get a phone, so while he did that Kristie and I stopped at a store to look for glasses. Our apartment only has a few and so I bought six plastic cups 6 I found for 1.25 Euros. 

Kristie and I went to the store to pick up food for making dinner. As our fridge is only about 2’x1’-6”x2’ on the inside we can’t stock up for more than a meal or two. Trying to figure out the difference between ground beef and ground pork can prove to be challenging when you don’t know the language, but with some help from someone working in the store we got what we needed for dinner. Potatoes, meatballs and gravy . . . yum!