London, Baby!

Yesterday night I came back from London - I had a great time there, sightseeing, shopping, relaxing...We (my best friend and I) had much fun and I'd say we saw everything that's important of London.
The Hostel we stayed in was quite good, too - but, when we wanted to check in (tired of the journey, at half past 12 a.m) the guy on the reception wanted us to pay 192 Pounds, because he didn't believe us, when we said that we had already paid over the internet. Well, we tried to convince him but he got quite angry ("Don't tell me how to do my job"...shit like that) and in the end we paid the money but went to the manager the next day - who gave us our money back. Apart from this small incidence everything was fine with the Hostel. Rooms were good (8 people in one room, so you can't expect a french bed ;) ), breakfast simple, but ok.
London was great, as always. One day we drove to Highgate and Hampstead, suburbs of London, but they still belong to London and are connected to the tube. It was really amazing, because you have a great view over the city center and Hampstead is full of idyllic lanes, unbelievable that this is still London.

Of course we went shopping, too. And - obviously - I spend most of my money on CDs. Next time I go to London I will sleep in the Virgin Megastore...;)

Well, the thing that REALLY was exciting - when we wanted to fly back to Salzburg, Austria:
We entered the plane, the plane started, flew for 20 minutes...and turned back. The pilot said something about a problem on the plane's backside and that we have to return to Stansted and continue our journey later. Well, that sounded OK - but when we landed in Stansted, they announced that the flight will be CANCELED, because the airport in Salzburg is closing and won't let any planes in. F*ck.
Well, so we had to book a new flight and because everyone in the plane wanted to do so, the good flights were soon gone. We told the (really nice) guy on the Ryanair desk, that we had to go on a wedding on friday, so we REALLY need to be in Austria by friday morning. If we had some money, we would have stayed a little longer in London, but w/o any money and no booked hotel we had no other chance than to find a flight.
We ended up booking a flight to Venice on thursday morning, 6.30. So we had to spend the night at the airport, where we met 2 nice girls from Salzburg. We had a blast together (oh, that sounds nasty ;) ), talking nearly the whole night in the arrival hall.
Nevertheless, at 6.30 we flew to Venice - this time without a return to Stansted. In Venice we took the next train to Innsbruck, both of us tired, dirty, sticky and exhausted. The journey to Innsbruck was OK, one italian conductor wanted to charge 50 Euros, because we forgot to put a stamp on our tickets (WE DIDN'T KNOW! Nobody told us...!) and since we didn't have any money left, he wanted our passports, to contact the embassy... Well, to put it in a nutshell - we were f*cked up (sorry for the strong language...). We went off the train at Verona and a nice italian lady, who heard the whole 50-euros-for-one-stamp-wtf? thing on the train, took us to the costumer service, where she told the whole story. In the end, they said that conductor didn't write down our names and won't contact the embassy...so we're well off. Who would have thought that italiens could be so nice? The lady who helped us, had to leave and we had to catch our train, so we couldn't invite her on a drink or sth like that...but she really helped us, so a BIG THANK U...if she'd ever read this ;)
The rest of the journey was calm...

Well, and in one week I'll be heading to SWEDEN. Finally I got an e-mail from Erasmus and now I can download the contract, sign it and send it to them. And I still haven't packed anything...! I'm starting to get really excited. I will arrive in Karlstad at 11 a.m, someone will pick me up from the airport (I already got a e-mail telling me where to go...Oh, I love how the scandinavians organize everything :) ).
I'm off now, trying to pack some things and sign the contract...
Manuel