Sad to leave Berlin, but excited to see Brussels we hop on the train and head to Belgium. The train ride was uneventful and I slept pretty much the whole time and we arrived in Brussels at about 5:45pm. We eventually found our hotel (not hostel!) and were pleased with free breakfast, our own room, our own bathroom, and other hotel like amenities. Although there wasn't air conditioning =/ That night we didn't do much, just walked around and got some waffles! They were delicious!! We ventured into the Grand Place by accident. It was quite pretty and not too crowded, so that was nice. I got myself a doner kabob (popular over there) and we just relaxed for the evening. It gets dark late there (much like Paris at like 10pm) so it throws us off a bit.
On our full day in Brussels we woke up and got breakfast, and headed out to our first stop - The Mannequin Pis - Brussels most giggled at sight, and perhaps its most famous. When we got there we had a laugh because it was the smallest little statue! It was quite overrated, but something we had to see. After that, we went to the Hotel de Ville, which is just a fancy term for Town Hall. We took a tour and learned a bit about Brussels history and saw where official meetings take place and stuff. It's cool because they still seem to do things quite old fashioned-ly. They still have a King/Queen too, although they don't have like ultimate rule.
After that, we went to the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate!! How exciting! The museum itself was just like a little history of chocolate, where it comes from, how it's made, and why it's better in Belgium. But the best part was that we got free chocolate samples! YUM! I definitely took more than you were probably supposed to, but hey - When in Belgium! We saw some guy make some chocolate stuff, which was pretty cool.
After that it was funny because we were pretty much done with everything we wanted to see and it was only 2pm. I didn't believe people at first when they said you could do Brussels in a day, but you really can! We got some French Fries because they were invented in Brussels - they tasted like most fries, but it was exciting nonetheless.
Then we shopped around a bit. We went to several souvenir shops, chocolate shops, and beer stores looking for gifts. We figured we'd buy most of our gifts in Belgium since it was our last stop. I bought A LOT of stuff and my backpack was ridiculously heavy. After I got home, my parents were amazed with how much I kept pulling out of my bag! I had about 12 beers (all but 1 were gifts) 6 boxes of chocolate, 13 shot glasses that I had collected in each city, and a lot of other little stuff. One might wonder how I managed to fit 12 beers on a plane...well, I purchased some bubble wrap and put them in my backpack, because obviously, I couldn't carry on that stuff. My backpack was pretty much all full of beer and chocolate wrapped in clothes, while I carried around in plastic shopping bags clothes and toiletries and stuff. It was quite the scene and quite heavy! But I made it back with not a single thing breaking - although, all my chocolate did melt together.
Anywho, after shopping we got some more waffles - I think I gained a million pounds on this trip despite all the walking. That night we watched the USA vs. Brazil soccer game at an Irish bar, but unfortunately they lost =( We headed back to our hostel, showered, and watched a movie that I named Bears, and then went to bed.
Our second day was spent on a day trip to Bruges. We hopped on a train at about 11 and it only took about an hour and we were there. We walked out of the train station and headed to the brewery. At the brewery we took a tour. We saw how the beer used to be made and even got a view of the city from the top. Afterward, we got a beer - it was good! I have discovered on this trip that I'm a fan of wheat beers, or hefeweizen.
After that we walked around for a bit, I got a waffle, and we headed to the Markt square. It was pretty, but we didn't do anything there. We then headed over to some other square (Burg, I think) and sat on a bench. I had to go to the bathroom, so in an effort to find a place that didn't cost money, I wandered into a church. It turned out to be the church where they supposedly have a relic containing Jesus' blood. It was this big silver statue thing, so you can't be certain. And they didn't have a bathroom.
After finally just paying for a bathroom, we headed to the park where we fell asleep for 2 hours in the grass - lol. We came all the way to Bruges to sleep? I guess so. We woke up to these guys kicking a soccer ball over our heads - a bit scary!
There wasn't much else to do, so we headed back to the station. Along the way, I got some chocolate and were back on our way to Brussels. We took it easy once we got back, and this is when I attempted to pack. It was quite the task, but I did it successfully!
I suppose I will include our last day in Paris as well because it's quite the story. So we headed to the train station with all of our bags. I had my backpack, which like I said was pretty much just full of beer and chocolate, another bag with random things I couldn't fit in my backpack, a purse full of all my shot glasses and magnets, and my orange backpack with like 2 books and other things. HEAVY! We have some trouble once we get to the train station - we need reservations to get to Paris. We tried to make the 11:15 train, but the line was so long that we had to wait for the 12:15. Our bags didn't get any lighter and we had to pay 26 Euro and they didn't have 1st class available - Lame.
We eventually made it to Paris though and we immediately stored our bags at the train station. We went to buy a metro ticket to get closer to the city's center, but the machines were so confusing! It wouldn't take our cards and therefore we needed about 12 euro in coins - NOT easy to come by. Plus, we weren't even sure we were buying the right thing.
Finally, we get it sorted out and head to the Notre Dame area to do some shopping. We got our Paris souvenirs, pashminas, and I bought a dress from H&M! I felt European. By this time we were so hot and beat we got some food and decided to just make our way back to our hotel since it was near the airport. This is when everything started to go wrong. We get our ridiculously heavy bags and make our way to RER B - the train that goes to the airport. There were so many sketchy people there, we were a little confused. First, we got on the wrong train, which usually isn't a problem, but for some reason it stopped for like 10 minutes. There was no ventilation on the train and we were so tired because we had to stand with our bags on. Then to top it off, some scary guy started smoking directly into my face! I never thought we were going to get moving, but thank God, we did. We got turned around and back to the right spot only to find that there was a problem and the trains weren't running. We waited and waited and waited, all the while more sketchy people started to build up and we had no idea what was going on! When trains DID come, there was no way we could fit because people were literally falling out of the door it was so packed!
We retreated upstairs for a bit to try and wait it out. Luckily, after about 2.5 hours after we originally arrived at the station, it cleared up and we FINALLY got headed in the right direction. And God was on our side at this point, because we ran into some Canadian ladies and their kids who were staying at our same hotel, so we just followed them through finding the shuttle. Which was a good thing because we would have never found our way on our own! Everything went smoothly after that and we finally got to throw all our bags down, shower, and relax in the AC. I thought that that moment was never going to arrive after the day we had. We passed out and woke up in the morning and went to the airport. We didn't have any issues and made it back to Dallas safely without anything breaking - a miracle!
This was by far the best trip of my life and I can't wait to go travel again! It was the opportunity of a lifetime and I'm so glad I had the chance to do it! It was quite bittersweet returning home, but I'm so glad we made it through the whole trip safely and happily! Thanks for reading!
Love,
Chelsea
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Berlin
The train ride from Prague to Berlin was quite long, but we got a whole 6 person cabin to ourselves, so that was nice.
Once in Berlin, we got off at our stop, went the wrong direction, had to ask for directions and then turn around (this never gets old). We didn't do much that first day because we didn't get in until around 9ish, so we just relaxed at our hostel and planned our day. But this was the day we found out about Michael Jackson dying - I was shocked!
We decided to take a bike tour on our full day there - Fat Tire Bike Tours - originated in Austin! Our tour guide was named Enda - he was really funny and cool, so we had a really good time. I enjoy riding the bikes more than walking. It's funny because Fat Tire sells a shirt that says "Our Motto: Walking is stupid." I laughed.
We biked all around Berlin and it barely rained at all - yay! We saw the Neptune fountain, the difference between East and West Berlin's crosswalk lights (the East's were fancier), the TV tower, Checkpoint Charlie, where the wall used to be, fragments of the old wall, the area where Hitler's Bunker was, a big garden we rode our bikes through, and another beer garden. There, I had German sausage and the best beer I've tried yet - Edinger Hefewiesen. After the beer garden we hopped back on our bikes and visited a few more sights including, Siegessäule which is a famous victory statue, the hotel Michael Jackson dangled his baby outside of the window (ironic that we saw that the day after he died), Pariser Platz, Brandenburg Gate, Marx and Engels Platz, Museum Island, Bebelplatz (where Nazis had a big book burning event), Reichstag building and a lot more along the way. I really enjoyed it!! I think Germany has a fascinating history (although sad) and it makes it even more interesting that it happened relatively recently.
Afterwards, Steph and I headed back to the Checkpoint Charlie area where we read A LOT of free information about the wall and that time period. That took us about 2 hours, but we really enjoyed it. We then headed over to the Topography of Terror Museum where we read more about the holocaust and Hitler. It was creepy to see his picture. The (outdoor) museum was like in the same spot where Nazis would torture people and was home to many Nazi government buildings - creepy. We headed back to our hostel after that and just took it easy because if you can imagine, we were quite tired from a day like that!
I LOVED Berlin and really want to spend more time there some day! Germany as a whole was so cool and I definitely want to return. I would really recommend it to people - it's a really cool place!
Marx and Engels Platz (founders of communism)
TV Tower
Bebelplatz Memorial - Nazi book burning sight (It's a whole in the ground with a bunch of empty bookcases)
East side Berlin's crosswalk man
Note the one glove - Michael Jackson remembrance
Longest part of the Berlin Wall that's still standing
Brandenburg Gate
The hotel Michael Jackson held his baby from
Riding through the garden
Siegessäule
Reichstag building
That sign says I'm going into the American sector - West Berlin. The other side said I was entering the Soviet sector, a.k.a. East Berlin
Checkpoint Charlie
At Checkpoint Charlie, they put a picture of an American soldier on one side of the sign and a Soviet solider on the other to let you know that you are now entering what used to be Soviet run territory or American run territory
Me standing on either side of what used to be the Berlin Wall (they have those double lines of cobblestone all throughout the city to show where the wall used to be)
Once in Berlin, we got off at our stop, went the wrong direction, had to ask for directions and then turn around (this never gets old). We didn't do much that first day because we didn't get in until around 9ish, so we just relaxed at our hostel and planned our day. But this was the day we found out about Michael Jackson dying - I was shocked!
We decided to take a bike tour on our full day there - Fat Tire Bike Tours - originated in Austin! Our tour guide was named Enda - he was really funny and cool, so we had a really good time. I enjoy riding the bikes more than walking. It's funny because Fat Tire sells a shirt that says "Our Motto: Walking is stupid." I laughed.
We biked all around Berlin and it barely rained at all - yay! We saw the Neptune fountain, the difference between East and West Berlin's crosswalk lights (the East's were fancier), the TV tower, Checkpoint Charlie, where the wall used to be, fragments of the old wall, the area where Hitler's Bunker was, a big garden we rode our bikes through, and another beer garden. There, I had German sausage and the best beer I've tried yet - Edinger Hefewiesen. After the beer garden we hopped back on our bikes and visited a few more sights including, Siegessäule which is a famous victory statue, the hotel Michael Jackson dangled his baby outside of the window (ironic that we saw that the day after he died), Pariser Platz, Brandenburg Gate, Marx and Engels Platz, Museum Island, Bebelplatz (where Nazis had a big book burning event), Reichstag building and a lot more along the way. I really enjoyed it!! I think Germany has a fascinating history (although sad) and it makes it even more interesting that it happened relatively recently.
Afterwards, Steph and I headed back to the Checkpoint Charlie area where we read A LOT of free information about the wall and that time period. That took us about 2 hours, but we really enjoyed it. We then headed over to the Topography of Terror Museum where we read more about the holocaust and Hitler. It was creepy to see his picture. The (outdoor) museum was like in the same spot where Nazis would torture people and was home to many Nazi government buildings - creepy. We headed back to our hostel after that and just took it easy because if you can imagine, we were quite tired from a day like that!
I LOVED Berlin and really want to spend more time there some day! Germany as a whole was so cool and I definitely want to return. I would really recommend it to people - it's a really cool place!
Marx and Engels Platz (founders of communism) 
TV Tower
Bebelplatz Memorial - Nazi book burning sight (It's a whole in the ground with a bunch of empty bookcases)
East side Berlin's crosswalk man
Note the one glove - Michael Jackson remembrance 
Longest part of the Berlin Wall that's still standing
Brandenburg Gate
The hotel Michael Jackson held his baby from
Riding through the garden
Siegessäule 
Reichstag building
That sign says I'm going into the American sector - West Berlin. The other side said I was entering the Soviet sector, a.k.a. East Berlin
Checkpoint Charlie
At Checkpoint Charlie, they put a picture of an American soldier on one side of the sign and a Soviet solider on the other to let you know that you are now entering what used to be Soviet run territory or American run territory
Me standing on either side of what used to be the Berlin Wall (they have those double lines of cobblestone all throughout the city to show where the wall used to be)
Praha
Once arriving in Prague we had to get some Czech koruna (their currency), which was a task in itself. It's like 1 koruna to 0.05dollars, so, 300kr is like $15. We try to buy an 18kr metro ticket, but of course we can't use our cards, so we have to find an ATM. Well, we need enough money to sustain us for 2 days, so we each pull out 2000kr. We return to buy our metro tickets, and the guy behind the desk won't take that big of a bill. This was one of the most frustrating things about being abroad - everyone always wanted small bills and coins, but the ATMs never gave you small bills! So, the guy made us go to the store and buy something in order to break up our bills and then we finally got on the metro - the whole ordeal took like 45 minutes, but luckily we made it out. And it was a good thing too, because as soon as we got down into the metro, these scary police guys came and checked out tickets to make sure we had gotten them validated! Phew!
We found our hostel (after of course walking in the wrong direction first) and got settled. It was in a really great location - right next to Old Town Square, and in walking distance of pretty much everything. We headed to the market and bought some dinner, and while we were putting our groceries away, we met some guys from Ireland - Kevin and Neil. We talked to them while we ate dinner, and then tagged along with them (and others) to a couple of bars. We peaced out early, and headed to bed.
On our second day in Prague, we decided to go on The Ultimate Tour, which took us to all the big sights, fed us a Czech lunch, took us on a boat ride, and a tram ride. Unfortunately, it rained pretty much all day. Luckily we had ponchos, and it never got as bad as it was in Munich.
We started our tour in the Museum area, headed toward Old Town Square, then to the Jewish Quarter. After that, we got on a boat and cruised along the river for a bit. We went underneath the Charles Bridge! Our tour guide was a Czech native and told us all about Prague's history in communism and its freedom. It was cool, because he had lived through a lot of Prague's history.
After the boat ride, we went back through the Jewish Quarter and Old Town Square and went and got some Czech food! I got beef goulash and dumplings. It was good. The dumplings are just like bread though. After lunch, we walked across the Charles Bridge and to the tram. We hopped on and headed to the Prague Castle, which is like the biggest in the world or something. It wasn't what I was expecting - it seemed much more modern and not so medieval, like how I usually picture castles. I don't actually know how old it is though. We went inside the church, which is in the center courtyard of the castle. It reminded me of the Notre Dame.
We took a bunch of pictures, and our tour was over, so we headed back to our hostel. I wanted to try this place called Bohemia Bagel because my friend Ilona suggested it to me (she studied in Prague). We walked there and got some delicious cheesecake and enjoyed the atmosphere. It was a lot like American restaurants, which we appreciated at this point in our trip - English! After that, we went to an Irish bar and just sat and watched USA vs. Spain. I had my first Guinness (I liked it, Alex) and USA won - so it was a good night! After the game, we went home and fell asleep!
The next day, we had a little more time in Prague. We finally saw the sun, and just walked around to little shops for the beginning part of the day until we had to catch our train to Berlin. Prague is a really cool city, and I'd love to visit again when the weather isn't so ugly.
A lot of my pictures are just scenery because I tried to get my camera out quickly to avoid the rain, so I don't have as many interesting ones to post. But here are some good ones...
Me on the boat with The Charles Bridge
Beef Goulash and Dumplings
The View from The Prague Castle
Me and Prague
I just thought this was cute
Bohemia Bagel for Lonny
We found our hostel (after of course walking in the wrong direction first) and got settled. It was in a really great location - right next to Old Town Square, and in walking distance of pretty much everything. We headed to the market and bought some dinner, and while we were putting our groceries away, we met some guys from Ireland - Kevin and Neil. We talked to them while we ate dinner, and then tagged along with them (and others) to a couple of bars. We peaced out early, and headed to bed.
On our second day in Prague, we decided to go on The Ultimate Tour, which took us to all the big sights, fed us a Czech lunch, took us on a boat ride, and a tram ride. Unfortunately, it rained pretty much all day. Luckily we had ponchos, and it never got as bad as it was in Munich.
We started our tour in the Museum area, headed toward Old Town Square, then to the Jewish Quarter. After that, we got on a boat and cruised along the river for a bit. We went underneath the Charles Bridge! Our tour guide was a Czech native and told us all about Prague's history in communism and its freedom. It was cool, because he had lived through a lot of Prague's history.
After the boat ride, we went back through the Jewish Quarter and Old Town Square and went and got some Czech food! I got beef goulash and dumplings. It was good. The dumplings are just like bread though. After lunch, we walked across the Charles Bridge and to the tram. We hopped on and headed to the Prague Castle, which is like the biggest in the world or something. It wasn't what I was expecting - it seemed much more modern and not so medieval, like how I usually picture castles. I don't actually know how old it is though. We went inside the church, which is in the center courtyard of the castle. It reminded me of the Notre Dame.
We took a bunch of pictures, and our tour was over, so we headed back to our hostel. I wanted to try this place called Bohemia Bagel because my friend Ilona suggested it to me (she studied in Prague). We walked there and got some delicious cheesecake and enjoyed the atmosphere. It was a lot like American restaurants, which we appreciated at this point in our trip - English! After that, we went to an Irish bar and just sat and watched USA vs. Spain. I had my first Guinness (I liked it, Alex) and USA won - so it was a good night! After the game, we went home and fell asleep!
The next day, we had a little more time in Prague. We finally saw the sun, and just walked around to little shops for the beginning part of the day until we had to catch our train to Berlin. Prague is a really cool city, and I'd love to visit again when the weather isn't so ugly.
A lot of my pictures are just scenery because I tried to get my camera out quickly to avoid the rain, so I don't have as many interesting ones to post. But here are some good ones...
Me on the boat with The Charles Bridge
Beef Goulash and Dumplings
The View from The Prague Castle
Me and Prague
I just thought this was cute
Bohemia Bagel for Lonny
Thursday, July 2, 2009
München
Our train ride to Munich was a little rough. We decided to not pay for a sleeper car since last time it was 72 euro, and we figured we've been able to sleep in our seats to other cities, we'll be fine. Well, this train was by far the most uncomfortable we've been on - how convenient, right? It was set up with six seats in one little cabin and it was about the size of a closet. The seats were equivalent to a bench in my book. So as you can guess the night was a bit rough; I ended up sleeping on the floor and I'd like to never know how dirty that floor actually was.
On a brighter note though - we didn't get lost on the way to our hostel!!! Perhaps it was because it was literally less than a block from the train station. We got in really early and so we did laundry!! Never have we been so excited! The hostel was really nice, so we had a little room to do laundry in. Well, we needed to wash the clothes we were wearing - so, what to do? I was dressed in my jacket and wrapped my scarf around my waist and Stephanie had a long shirt on..and we did laundry. It was great. And we showered in probably the best shower we've had yet - our day definitely started off well!
After laundry, we headed out to the Dachau concentration camp. We got an audio tour and explored the site. (We got lost on the site, I don't know how that's possible, but we managed to do it). We listened to our audio tour and learned a lot about Dachou. We went through the museum and read a lot about the holocaust. It was a lot of reading so we spent quite a bit of time in the museum. We tried to watch a 15 minute film about the camp, but due to our train ride the night before, as soon as the lights were dimmed, it was a struggle to keep my eyes open, despite the fact that I really wanted to see the film! After the film we headed to the Bunker. We saw where prisoners were held and rooms that they tortured people in. Then we walked over to the dorms. All of them had been destroyed, so they had recreated what it was like on one of the dorms, the rest were all just cement foundations. After that, we went over to the crematorium and gas chamber - creepy, I know. It was quite disturbing to see this part. I don't understand how people used to subject others to that.
At night we went to the University area and walked around. I forgot my camera at night though, so I didn't get any pictures of that area. It was pretty though.
The next day we decided to go to the Deutsches museum. It is the biggest museum about science and it was way cool! Apparently the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is modeled after Deutsches. We saw how subways are made which was one of my favorite parts because all the metro systems have fascinated me! I didn't understand how they built these massive tunnels under these huge cities, so it really interested me! We also saw boats, planes, chemistry, math, musical instrument, and lots more. We spent like 4 hours walking around - it was great.
After the museum we decided to take a bike tour of the city! A FREE bike tour, nonetheless! We headed to the famous Marienplatz where our tour was meeting and walked around a bit and then met up with our tour. Steph had a bit of trouble with the bike, but it was really fun! Our first stop was the Hofbrauhaus and learned about how Nazi's used to meet there. Then we saw some opera hall, and Odeonplatz. It was raining on us on and off but it wasn't too bad (yet). I think Germany has a really interesting history so I really enjoyed learning about everything!! After Odeonplatz, we headed to The English Gardens - the largest metropolitan park in the world. We headed to the Chinese Pagoda (beer garden) and had some Hofbrau beer. Afterward we headed to the Ice Bach, which is a river where people can surf! It was cool to watch them! It was at this point that it started to POUR on us!! We saw the rest of the sights so quickly that I don't even remember what they are. We got so soaked but it was a good laugh! I'm sad though that we didn't get the chance to experience Munich in the sun though, because it is such a cool city!!
At night, after getting into some dry clothes, we went to the Hofbrahaus to have a Bavarian dinner! The place is huge!! There were so many people!! And the beer was 2 liters! Stephanie and I both got some Bavarian original beer and lemonade mix - it's called a Radler - it was good!
We considered staying in Munich another day, but the weather was predicted to be bad all week =( I'll definitely try to make it back to Munich some day when it's not raining. But overall - an AWESOME city!
Stephanie's laundry outfit!
My laundry outfit! Haha...
"Do I smile?" "Yeah, because it's over!"
The gate to the camp, it means something like "Work will set you free"
Deutsches Museum!
Subway systems!
Yay for learning!
In Marienplatz
Me getting ready for the bike ride!
Stephanie about to take off!
In the English Gardens
The Chinese Pagoda
Making foam mustaches!
The Ice Bach
SOAKING WET!
Stephanie and her 2 liter Radler
Drinking my Radler
On a brighter note though - we didn't get lost on the way to our hostel!!! Perhaps it was because it was literally less than a block from the train station. We got in really early and so we did laundry!! Never have we been so excited! The hostel was really nice, so we had a little room to do laundry in. Well, we needed to wash the clothes we were wearing - so, what to do? I was dressed in my jacket and wrapped my scarf around my waist and Stephanie had a long shirt on..and we did laundry. It was great. And we showered in probably the best shower we've had yet - our day definitely started off well!
After laundry, we headed out to the Dachau concentration camp. We got an audio tour and explored the site. (We got lost on the site, I don't know how that's possible, but we managed to do it). We listened to our audio tour and learned a lot about Dachou. We went through the museum and read a lot about the holocaust. It was a lot of reading so we spent quite a bit of time in the museum. We tried to watch a 15 minute film about the camp, but due to our train ride the night before, as soon as the lights were dimmed, it was a struggle to keep my eyes open, despite the fact that I really wanted to see the film! After the film we headed to the Bunker. We saw where prisoners were held and rooms that they tortured people in. Then we walked over to the dorms. All of them had been destroyed, so they had recreated what it was like on one of the dorms, the rest were all just cement foundations. After that, we went over to the crematorium and gas chamber - creepy, I know. It was quite disturbing to see this part. I don't understand how people used to subject others to that.
At night we went to the University area and walked around. I forgot my camera at night though, so I didn't get any pictures of that area. It was pretty though.
The next day we decided to go to the Deutsches museum. It is the biggest museum about science and it was way cool! Apparently the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is modeled after Deutsches. We saw how subways are made which was one of my favorite parts because all the metro systems have fascinated me! I didn't understand how they built these massive tunnels under these huge cities, so it really interested me! We also saw boats, planes, chemistry, math, musical instrument, and lots more. We spent like 4 hours walking around - it was great.
After the museum we decided to take a bike tour of the city! A FREE bike tour, nonetheless! We headed to the famous Marienplatz where our tour was meeting and walked around a bit and then met up with our tour. Steph had a bit of trouble with the bike, but it was really fun! Our first stop was the Hofbrauhaus and learned about how Nazi's used to meet there. Then we saw some opera hall, and Odeonplatz. It was raining on us on and off but it wasn't too bad (yet). I think Germany has a really interesting history so I really enjoyed learning about everything!! After Odeonplatz, we headed to The English Gardens - the largest metropolitan park in the world. We headed to the Chinese Pagoda (beer garden) and had some Hofbrau beer. Afterward we headed to the Ice Bach, which is a river where people can surf! It was cool to watch them! It was at this point that it started to POUR on us!! We saw the rest of the sights so quickly that I don't even remember what they are. We got so soaked but it was a good laugh! I'm sad though that we didn't get the chance to experience Munich in the sun though, because it is such a cool city!!
At night, after getting into some dry clothes, we went to the Hofbrahaus to have a Bavarian dinner! The place is huge!! There were so many people!! And the beer was 2 liters! Stephanie and I both got some Bavarian original beer and lemonade mix - it's called a Radler - it was good!
We considered staying in Munich another day, but the weather was predicted to be bad all week =( I'll definitely try to make it back to Munich some day when it's not raining. But overall - an AWESOME city!
Stephanie's laundry outfit!
My laundry outfit! Haha...
"Do I smile?" "Yeah, because it's over!"
The gate to the camp, it means something like "Work will set you free"
Deutsches Museum!
Subway systems!
Yay for learning!
In Marienplatz
Me getting ready for the bike ride!
Stephanie about to take off!
In the English Gardens
The Chinese Pagoda
Making foam mustaches!
The Ice Bach
SOAKING WET! 
Stephanie and her 2 liter Radler
Drinking my Radler
Florence
So, I'm going to try to make these posts shorter and a quicker read!
Florence seems like such a long time ago, but it was such a cool city!! It was definitely our favorite place in Italy.
We got there mid day and found our hostel (after of course getting lost - but it wasn't our fault! My lets go book had the hostel in the wrong spot on the map!! Luckily we had our phone and called and eventually got there!) After we got settled we headed to the Duomo. It's like the third biggest Dome in the world (next to the Vatican and some other dome in London). We climbed about 500 steps to the top and could see all of Florence!! It was so awesome! And the weather was perfect! We sat up there for quite a while and took lots of pictures! The city just gives off an awesome vibe - similar to the one we got while in Interlaken, but not as quaint.
While in Florence we had the best gelato ever!! It was at a little place called Grom. I can't even explain how good it was, you just have to trust me. If you ever go to Florence, you must try it!
We saw Piazza Della Signoria which has a bunch of replicas of famous sculptures like Michelangelo's David.
Our second day in Florence started off with the Academia which houses the real David. It's crazy how big he actually is! He's like 14 feet tall! Definitely a cool sight to see! You can't take pictures in there, but don't worry, I snuck a few ;)
After we ate the most delicious lunch we've ever made, we went to this famous shopping plaza called Piazzle San Lorenzo. It's made up of all these little stands selling purses, pashminas, and other little trinkets. We stayed there for a bit and had fun looking at all of the stands and just taking in the atmosphere.
Our favorite part about Florence was just walking around. We really enjoyed the atmosphere, and the buildings are quite tall so it's fairly shaded everywhere you go, making the weather perfect. We walked along the river and Florence's most famous bridge, got more gelato, and just soaked it all up before we had to leave on our night train to Munich.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Florence and I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Italy!!!
Me climbing the stairs at the Duomo! So many steps!
The awesome view!
Me on top of the Duomo
Stephanie and me on top of the Duomo!
Yay! The Duomo from outside!
Outside of Grom! Best Gelato ever!
My sneaky picture of the David statue!
In Piazzle Della Signoria - Do you see me?
The delicious paninis we made! They were so good we HAD to take a picture!
Hookem' at Piazzle San Lorenzo
Florence old Bridge
Florence seems like such a long time ago, but it was such a cool city!! It was definitely our favorite place in Italy.
We got there mid day and found our hostel (after of course getting lost - but it wasn't our fault! My lets go book had the hostel in the wrong spot on the map!! Luckily we had our phone and called and eventually got there!) After we got settled we headed to the Duomo. It's like the third biggest Dome in the world (next to the Vatican and some other dome in London). We climbed about 500 steps to the top and could see all of Florence!! It was so awesome! And the weather was perfect! We sat up there for quite a while and took lots of pictures! The city just gives off an awesome vibe - similar to the one we got while in Interlaken, but not as quaint.
While in Florence we had the best gelato ever!! It was at a little place called Grom. I can't even explain how good it was, you just have to trust me. If you ever go to Florence, you must try it!
We saw Piazza Della Signoria which has a bunch of replicas of famous sculptures like Michelangelo's David.
Our second day in Florence started off with the Academia which houses the real David. It's crazy how big he actually is! He's like 14 feet tall! Definitely a cool sight to see! You can't take pictures in there, but don't worry, I snuck a few ;)
After we ate the most delicious lunch we've ever made, we went to this famous shopping plaza called Piazzle San Lorenzo. It's made up of all these little stands selling purses, pashminas, and other little trinkets. We stayed there for a bit and had fun looking at all of the stands and just taking in the atmosphere.
Our favorite part about Florence was just walking around. We really enjoyed the atmosphere, and the buildings are quite tall so it's fairly shaded everywhere you go, making the weather perfect. We walked along the river and Florence's most famous bridge, got more gelato, and just soaked it all up before we had to leave on our night train to Munich.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Florence and I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Italy!!!
Me climbing the stairs at the Duomo! So many steps!
The awesome view!
Me on top of the Duomo
Stephanie and me on top of the Duomo!
Yay! The Duomo from outside!
Outside of Grom! Best Gelato ever!
My sneaky picture of the David statue!
In Piazzle Della Signoria - Do you see me?
The delicious paninis we made! They were so good we HAD to take a picture!
Hookem' at Piazzle San Lorenzo
Florence old Bridge
Home safe!
We made it home safely!!
We got back yesterday and through customs smoothly! I'm going to work on getting the rest of our posts up and hopefully some pictures soon!
Love,
Chelsea
We got back yesterday and through customs smoothly! I'm going to work on getting the rest of our posts up and hopefully some pictures soon!
Love,
Chelsea
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Doing Well!
We are currently in Berlin, and we're planning our day for tomorrow! Everything is going amazingly and we're having the time of our lives!! We can't believe this trip is coming to an end in less than a week - we're definitely not ready to go back to normal life - we're having too much fun! Our eyes have been opened to so many new cultures, ways of life, people, foods, and so much more! We hope to never forget this experience and are hoping that the things we've seen and learned here will stay with us forever. It's bittersweet to come home on Wednesday, but hopefully this won't be the end of our traveling!
More city updates to come soon! Florence, Munich, Prague, Berlin, Brussels, and Bruges. You'll get to read all about it!
Love,
me
More city updates to come soon! Florence, Munich, Prague, Berlin, Brussels, and Bruges. You'll get to read all about it!
Love,
me
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
When In Rome
Day1:
So, remember how I said Stephanie and I have gotten quite good at getting lost - our arrival in Rome was one of those times. We made it out of the airport, and to the correct metro stop and everything, but finding our hostel was a task. We always seem to head like 5 blocks in the wrong direction, realize we've made a mistake, and then have to turn back around and walk the 5 blocks again plus the distance it actually takes to get to our hostel...with our backpacks on...in the Rome heat. Not fun.
We eventually made it though, and that's what counts...I guess. We showered and then set out to explore the ancient city! Our first stop was Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. When we got off the metro, it was really cool because the Colosseum was RIGHT in front of us. Not something you see everyday. We walked aimlessly for a bit through Palatine Hill (something Stephanie and I have gotten quite good at) and then we found a tour to slyly follow behind. That tour made all of the difference. I'm so glad we were eaves dropping because we actually learned a lot!! I really enjoyed the Roman Forum. I thought it was so cool to see the ancient city and really be able to visualize what it really looked like back then. That was much harder to do in Athens because the ruins were so scattered, as opposed to Rome where they're all still centralized and in the same area. Way cool.
After the Forum, we headed over to the Colosseum. It was cool because we got there when it was almost closing so it wasn't crowded at all. We explored it for a while and took a lot of pictures. It was crazy to read about all that used to take place there and about GLADIATORS! rawr.
After the Colosseum, we walked to Campo Dei Fiori. After aimlessly walking, we (Stephanie) finally decided on a place to eat. We got homemade pasta and bruchetta - oh Italian food. :)
After we sat and people watched for a bit, we headed back to our hostel and the Vatican was on our way! We stopped in St. Peter's Square for a bit. I'm really glad we saw it at night when it was less crowded, it was well worth it. Then, of course we stopped for gelato, got back to our hostel, showered, and went to bed.
Day2:
Wretched Rome heat. Masses of people. No AC. Blood. These words marked the first half of this day.
I'm not going to lie, Day 2 was rough for me. We woke up and went to the Vatican to go hear the pope speak! I'm not catholic, so I don't even know the pope's name, but it was cool nonetheless! He does like a mass on Wednesday mornings...which is where the wretched Rome heat and masses of people come into play. The mass is in St. Peter's Square, which isn't covered, so it was soooo hot! We only stayed out there for about 30 minutes because first of all, they don't speak English in Italy when giving mass, it was hot, and it was crowded. Being able to say I've seen the pope is a pretty cool thing though.
We decided to go over to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel. Initially, I was excited about this. My excitement quickly faded once I ran into about 20 tour groups of 50 or more people. For some reason, people find joy in annoying me - there's no other explanation to it. The groups just stood in the walkways and walked at a negative pace. All I wanted to do was see the Sistine Chapel - I didn't know anything else about this other art. Of course, the museum puts the chapel at the very end. And for some reason, Rome hasn't heard of the beauty of air conditioning. So we walked, at a negative pace, without AC, stuck behind tour groups for like an hour and a half only to get to the chapel and find it FILLED with MASSES of people. You couldn't take pictures inside the chapel, but to spite the museum, I did. The chapel itself was really cool. It was awesome to see something that you've seen so many pictures of. And I had watched Angels and Demons before I left, so it was really cool to see the pictures come to life.
We got out of the museum quickly after we saw the Sistine Chapel and then decided to go inside of the Vatican. We approach St. Peter's Square and are greeted with the longest line yet. Thrilled, we get to the back and are herded like cattle to the front of the building, only to find more people oblivious to their surroundings. Once again, the actual inside of the Vatican was cool - I tried to not let the masses of people ruin what I was seeing. I really enjoyed seeing the similarities between Angels and Demons and the real thing - I would run and tell Stephanie "this was in the movie!!"
Here's where the blood comes into play. So obviously, I'm already annoyed with the world for being oblivious, walking through my pictures, and taking up entire isle ways, so I'm just ready to move on. As we're walking out of the Vatican, we're going head to head with a huge tour group. Knowing I can't take on 50+ people, I'm pushed to the side of the walkway. It's here that I RAM my foot into something metal and proceed to bleed in the isle of the Vatican. I drop a couple inappropriate words before I realize I'm in like the most holy place on Earth. Looking back, it's a funny story, and perhaps the scar on my foot will forever commemorate it. Moral of the story - please don't be one of those people in the huge tour groups, save us all some pain.
At this point, the day got better. We saw the old popes' tombs and then headed to the Spanish Steps. We climbed all the way to the top of the steps, which in theory is fun, but in reality is quite tiring. But, cool nonetheless. We took some pictures, caught our breath, and headed back down. After we hung out there for a bit, we headed to the Trevi Fountain. It was packed with people, but we eventually found a place to just sit and enjoy the view. We sat there for a couple hours and at the Spanish steps for about an hour and then headed back to our hostel.
Day3:
We decided to head to the island of Capri on day 3. We got on a train and then a ferry so it took a while to actually get there. Once we got there we quickly bought our tickets to go to the Blue Grotto. We didn't have much time on the island because we had to be back to Naples to catch a train back to Rome by 9:30. We hopped on a little boat to go out to the Blue Grotto and it was so pretty! Capri is just a little island, and the coast is beautiful.
We got to the Grotto and then had to get in a little 5 person canoe to go into the Grotto. A grotto is like a little cave in the side of the island, and this one in particular is famous because of the blue water within. To get into the grotto, we had to lay down in the canoe and our guide guy had to pull us through.
Inside, the water was so pretty! It was a bright blue. I took pictures, so hopefully I can get them up eventually. The whole experience was quite short and we were back to the port within 45 minutes, and out 22 euro.
We didn't have much time to stray from the port, so we walked along it, got some gelato, and watched Brazil cream USA in soccer. It was a relaxing evening, and a cool place to see - I only wish we got to see more of it. Maybe next time.
You'll be pleased to know, that we did in fact make it back to Rome successfully (although it was the longest, most boring train ride of my life because I didn't bring a backpack to Naples because it's like run by the mafia, therefore I had absolutely nothing to do). We were ready to move onto Florence and had an early train in the morning, so we packed our things, showered, and went to bed.
Rome favorites - Roman Forum and Trevi Fountain
I hope these 4 posts are enough to keep you occupied for a while! We finally a free internet in Prague!! Yay! Enjoy.
hey case
So, remember how I said Stephanie and I have gotten quite good at getting lost - our arrival in Rome was one of those times. We made it out of the airport, and to the correct metro stop and everything, but finding our hostel was a task. We always seem to head like 5 blocks in the wrong direction, realize we've made a mistake, and then have to turn back around and walk the 5 blocks again plus the distance it actually takes to get to our hostel...with our backpacks on...in the Rome heat. Not fun.
We eventually made it though, and that's what counts...I guess. We showered and then set out to explore the ancient city! Our first stop was Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. When we got off the metro, it was really cool because the Colosseum was RIGHT in front of us. Not something you see everyday. We walked aimlessly for a bit through Palatine Hill (something Stephanie and I have gotten quite good at) and then we found a tour to slyly follow behind. That tour made all of the difference. I'm so glad we were eaves dropping because we actually learned a lot!! I really enjoyed the Roman Forum. I thought it was so cool to see the ancient city and really be able to visualize what it really looked like back then. That was much harder to do in Athens because the ruins were so scattered, as opposed to Rome where they're all still centralized and in the same area. Way cool.
After the Forum, we headed over to the Colosseum. It was cool because we got there when it was almost closing so it wasn't crowded at all. We explored it for a while and took a lot of pictures. It was crazy to read about all that used to take place there and about GLADIATORS! rawr.
After the Colosseum, we walked to Campo Dei Fiori. After aimlessly walking, we (Stephanie) finally decided on a place to eat. We got homemade pasta and bruchetta - oh Italian food. :)
After we sat and people watched for a bit, we headed back to our hostel and the Vatican was on our way! We stopped in St. Peter's Square for a bit. I'm really glad we saw it at night when it was less crowded, it was well worth it. Then, of course we stopped for gelato, got back to our hostel, showered, and went to bed.
Day2:
Wretched Rome heat. Masses of people. No AC. Blood. These words marked the first half of this day.
I'm not going to lie, Day 2 was rough for me. We woke up and went to the Vatican to go hear the pope speak! I'm not catholic, so I don't even know the pope's name, but it was cool nonetheless! He does like a mass on Wednesday mornings...which is where the wretched Rome heat and masses of people come into play. The mass is in St. Peter's Square, which isn't covered, so it was soooo hot! We only stayed out there for about 30 minutes because first of all, they don't speak English in Italy when giving mass, it was hot, and it was crowded. Being able to say I've seen the pope is a pretty cool thing though.
We decided to go over to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel. Initially, I was excited about this. My excitement quickly faded once I ran into about 20 tour groups of 50 or more people. For some reason, people find joy in annoying me - there's no other explanation to it. The groups just stood in the walkways and walked at a negative pace. All I wanted to do was see the Sistine Chapel - I didn't know anything else about this other art. Of course, the museum puts the chapel at the very end. And for some reason, Rome hasn't heard of the beauty of air conditioning. So we walked, at a negative pace, without AC, stuck behind tour groups for like an hour and a half only to get to the chapel and find it FILLED with MASSES of people. You couldn't take pictures inside the chapel, but to spite the museum, I did. The chapel itself was really cool. It was awesome to see something that you've seen so many pictures of. And I had watched Angels and Demons before I left, so it was really cool to see the pictures come to life.
We got out of the museum quickly after we saw the Sistine Chapel and then decided to go inside of the Vatican. We approach St. Peter's Square and are greeted with the longest line yet. Thrilled, we get to the back and are herded like cattle to the front of the building, only to find more people oblivious to their surroundings. Once again, the actual inside of the Vatican was cool - I tried to not let the masses of people ruin what I was seeing. I really enjoyed seeing the similarities between Angels and Demons and the real thing - I would run and tell Stephanie "this was in the movie!!"
Here's where the blood comes into play. So obviously, I'm already annoyed with the world for being oblivious, walking through my pictures, and taking up entire isle ways, so I'm just ready to move on. As we're walking out of the Vatican, we're going head to head with a huge tour group. Knowing I can't take on 50+ people, I'm pushed to the side of the walkway. It's here that I RAM my foot into something metal and proceed to bleed in the isle of the Vatican. I drop a couple inappropriate words before I realize I'm in like the most holy place on Earth. Looking back, it's a funny story, and perhaps the scar on my foot will forever commemorate it. Moral of the story - please don't be one of those people in the huge tour groups, save us all some pain.
At this point, the day got better. We saw the old popes' tombs and then headed to the Spanish Steps. We climbed all the way to the top of the steps, which in theory is fun, but in reality is quite tiring. But, cool nonetheless. We took some pictures, caught our breath, and headed back down. After we hung out there for a bit, we headed to the Trevi Fountain. It was packed with people, but we eventually found a place to just sit and enjoy the view. We sat there for a couple hours and at the Spanish steps for about an hour and then headed back to our hostel.
Day3:
We decided to head to the island of Capri on day 3. We got on a train and then a ferry so it took a while to actually get there. Once we got there we quickly bought our tickets to go to the Blue Grotto. We didn't have much time on the island because we had to be back to Naples to catch a train back to Rome by 9:30. We hopped on a little boat to go out to the Blue Grotto and it was so pretty! Capri is just a little island, and the coast is beautiful.
We got to the Grotto and then had to get in a little 5 person canoe to go into the Grotto. A grotto is like a little cave in the side of the island, and this one in particular is famous because of the blue water within. To get into the grotto, we had to lay down in the canoe and our guide guy had to pull us through.
Inside, the water was so pretty! It was a bright blue. I took pictures, so hopefully I can get them up eventually. The whole experience was quite short and we were back to the port within 45 minutes, and out 22 euro.
We didn't have much time to stray from the port, so we walked along it, got some gelato, and watched Brazil cream USA in soccer. It was a relaxing evening, and a cool place to see - I only wish we got to see more of it. Maybe next time.
You'll be pleased to know, that we did in fact make it back to Rome successfully (although it was the longest, most boring train ride of my life because I didn't bring a backpack to Naples because it's like run by the mafia, therefore I had absolutely nothing to do). We were ready to move onto Florence and had an early train in the morning, so we packed our things, showered, and went to bed.
Rome favorites - Roman Forum and Trevi Fountain
I hope these 4 posts are enough to keep you occupied for a while! We finally a free internet in Prague!! Yay! Enjoy.
hey case
Oh Santorini, how we miss you.
Day1:
So after our 5 hour long, noisy ferry we arrive in the Greek Island - Santorini! The ferry ride over, we weren't sitting next to a window, so our view was limited, but when we stepped off the ferry we were awed. The place is just gorgeous!! We were so excited, and couldn't have been happier! We had arranged for our hostel to pick us up, so we got there, and there was a man holding a sign with my name on it!! It was like I was famous. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but that would have been kind of weird. It was so awesome though, because our hostel in Santorini was by far the cheapest one we've gotten - 10 euro per person per night - and it was one of the most accommodating. We stayed at Perissa Aroma or something like that. If you ever go to Santorini and are looking for a cheap hostel, stay there - I'll give you the info. But anyway, our ride was free to our hostel and when we got there we were greeted with four beds in our room (who wouldn't want two extra ones), our own bathroom, and to top it off, our own kitchen! We were beyond stoked.
Our first stop was the grocery store and ATM and then...the BEACH!! We were staying in Perissa where the sand is black. Well, I wouldn't really call it sand - it's more like tiny little rocks (literally, I'm not quoting Jack Handy). There is like a volcano right off the island, and so that's why it's black. Nonetheless, it was amazing and so pretty!! We just relaxed on the beach for a few hours and then headed back to our hostel to shower and get ready to go get dinner. Nick, the owner of the hostel, suggested that we go to this place call Charlina which was along the beach and he gave us a card for free wine. We make our way down there and are walking down the road for way too long it seems, but people keep pointing us that direction. Eventually we come upon and find out after having ordered that there is another Charlina much closer to where we are staying. Oh well...they gave us the free wine anyway and they had good food. We were the only ones in the restaurant though, so it was a little awkward, but delicious nonetheless. Stephanie and I seem to have made a habit out of walking clear past our destination or getting lost. There are more stories to come about that...we don't understand how it keeps happening, but I suppose it provides a good laugh later on.
We spent the rest of the evening just sitting on the ledge that leads to the beach and watching the stars (a little romantic evening for us...haha). It was so pretty though!! I even saw a shooting star!! I had never seen one before. We went home and immediately fell asleep.
Day2:
The spirit of Santorini called for sleeping in. We needed the break, and it was quite nice not having to get up and go walk around a boiling hot city for the entire day. We woke up and ate some breakfast and brought our laundry to the laundromat. Right next door was a bakery and so we stopped in and got some balaclava! It wasn't very good, honestly. But I think we got a bad one or something. We packed a lunch and went to the beach to relax for the day. We stayed at the beach most of the day and then came back to our hostel to shower. After that, we decided to go to this restaurant called Grandma's Recipes. We ordered this huge gyro and split it - it was delicious. It was quite windy and chilly at night.
We met a few people at our hostel's pool - 2 girls - one from Texas and one from Australia, and 2 other boys, both from Australia. We hung out with them for a while, and then went to this place called Beach Bar and hung out there. It was fun. Steph and I left before everyone else, but I wouldn't exactly call it early because it was like 2:30 or 3. Sleep was definitely in order.
Day3:
Day 3 was one of, if not, the best day of our lives. We rented an ATV (a 4 wheeler) and set out to explore the island. It was so much fun to drive around, and the views were so beautiful!
Our first stop was Red Beach. It's pretty awesome to see - there is like this huge cut out of the mountain and it's all red, and so the sand/rocks are red too. The water was gorgeous - so clear!! The beaches there are all like rocks and not sand, so it's difficult to walk on, but the water makes it totally worth it. The beach was small too, so there weren't many people. We relaxed on Red Beached for a while and then saw his boat going to White Beach, so we decided to get on. White Beach was also so pretty!! But it was definitely the hardest to walk on because it was all big rocks. But I think it was my favorite. The rocks and background mountain thing were all white and of course the water was clear as day. Plus there were probably no more than 15 people on the beach.
Steph and I decided to get in and try to swim to this big rock sticking out of the water. Eventually the ground turned to sand, so it was easier to walk on, and then we noticed it wasn't getting any deeper! It stayed right below our shoulders (well, my shoulders, maybe Stephanie's chin...rofl) and so we were able to get to the big rock quite easily! We got on the rocks and jumped off of them. I pretended they were cliffs because we were sad to find out (although my mom won't be) that Santorini doesn't have cliff jumping, so the rocks were the closest I could get. It was so much fun.
After the beaches, we hopped back onto our ATV and headed to Fira, which is the main town of Santorini. We just stopped for a bit and then continued on to Oia where we planned to watch the sunset. We had heard it's really beautiful on that part of the island because it's like on the north east corner, so it sets right over the water. The ride out there so gorgeous! We ended up driving along the east side of the island, and so we had a clear view of the water the whole way there. It was awesome. My descriptions will never do it justice.
We ended up stopping at Katharos beach to wait for the sun to set. It was so empty - for a while we were the only ones on the whole beach!! The waves were huge too! We were quite early, so we sat for about an hour just watch the water. It was perfect. The actual sun set happened fast. You don't realize how fast it moves without a reference point like the horizon. It was way pretty.
Afterward we had to drive all the back across the entire island, and like I said before, it was cold and windy at night. We were in shorts and tank tops so it was quite the chilly ride. Luckily we huddled close together and it only takes about 45 minutes. We made it home safely, showered, and headed to bed. The perfect day.
Day4:
Our last day in Santorini - sigh. We didn't do much. We packed up, checked our flight info (we decided to book a flight straight to Rome instead of take the ferry because it would have taken two days of travel with the ferry - so we sucked it up and payed the money for the flight so we could spend more time in Santorini - it was worth it), bought souvenirs and got our last of Greek food. We sat by our hostel pool for most of the day with our Texan and Australian friend because it was really windy, therefore the beach would have probably been unpleasant. We took one last walk along the beach and then had to head to the airport around 7 to catch our flight to Rome. We actually had like a 12 hour layover in Athens, so that was our hostel for the night. It was fine - cold, but did the job. We eventually made it to Rome, but it was quite bittersweet. Most people would be thrilled to go to Rome, but we were already having Santorini withdrawals.
Casey - I wrote this and the Athens post in the same day, so I have nothing new to say to you...go read Athens, and you'll see.
Miss and love everyone!! Thanks for reading - I hope you all are enjoying this! Sorry that it's difficult to post on a regular basis, I'm doing my best!
Love,
Chelsea
So after our 5 hour long, noisy ferry we arrive in the Greek Island - Santorini! The ferry ride over, we weren't sitting next to a window, so our view was limited, but when we stepped off the ferry we were awed. The place is just gorgeous!! We were so excited, and couldn't have been happier! We had arranged for our hostel to pick us up, so we got there, and there was a man holding a sign with my name on it!! It was like I was famous. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but that would have been kind of weird. It was so awesome though, because our hostel in Santorini was by far the cheapest one we've gotten - 10 euro per person per night - and it was one of the most accommodating. We stayed at Perissa Aroma or something like that. If you ever go to Santorini and are looking for a cheap hostel, stay there - I'll give you the info. But anyway, our ride was free to our hostel and when we got there we were greeted with four beds in our room (who wouldn't want two extra ones), our own bathroom, and to top it off, our own kitchen! We were beyond stoked.
Our first stop was the grocery store and ATM and then...the BEACH!! We were staying in Perissa where the sand is black. Well, I wouldn't really call it sand - it's more like tiny little rocks (literally, I'm not quoting Jack Handy). There is like a volcano right off the island, and so that's why it's black. Nonetheless, it was amazing and so pretty!! We just relaxed on the beach for a few hours and then headed back to our hostel to shower and get ready to go get dinner. Nick, the owner of the hostel, suggested that we go to this place call Charlina which was along the beach and he gave us a card for free wine. We make our way down there and are walking down the road for way too long it seems, but people keep pointing us that direction. Eventually we come upon and find out after having ordered that there is another Charlina much closer to where we are staying. Oh well...they gave us the free wine anyway and they had good food. We were the only ones in the restaurant though, so it was a little awkward, but delicious nonetheless. Stephanie and I seem to have made a habit out of walking clear past our destination or getting lost. There are more stories to come about that...we don't understand how it keeps happening, but I suppose it provides a good laugh later on.
We spent the rest of the evening just sitting on the ledge that leads to the beach and watching the stars (a little romantic evening for us...haha). It was so pretty though!! I even saw a shooting star!! I had never seen one before. We went home and immediately fell asleep.
Day2:
The spirit of Santorini called for sleeping in. We needed the break, and it was quite nice not having to get up and go walk around a boiling hot city for the entire day. We woke up and ate some breakfast and brought our laundry to the laundromat. Right next door was a bakery and so we stopped in and got some balaclava! It wasn't very good, honestly. But I think we got a bad one or something. We packed a lunch and went to the beach to relax for the day. We stayed at the beach most of the day and then came back to our hostel to shower. After that, we decided to go to this restaurant called Grandma's Recipes. We ordered this huge gyro and split it - it was delicious. It was quite windy and chilly at night.
We met a few people at our hostel's pool - 2 girls - one from Texas and one from Australia, and 2 other boys, both from Australia. We hung out with them for a while, and then went to this place called Beach Bar and hung out there. It was fun. Steph and I left before everyone else, but I wouldn't exactly call it early because it was like 2:30 or 3. Sleep was definitely in order.
Day3:
Day 3 was one of, if not, the best day of our lives. We rented an ATV (a 4 wheeler) and set out to explore the island. It was so much fun to drive around, and the views were so beautiful!
Our first stop was Red Beach. It's pretty awesome to see - there is like this huge cut out of the mountain and it's all red, and so the sand/rocks are red too. The water was gorgeous - so clear!! The beaches there are all like rocks and not sand, so it's difficult to walk on, but the water makes it totally worth it. The beach was small too, so there weren't many people. We relaxed on Red Beached for a while and then saw his boat going to White Beach, so we decided to get on. White Beach was also so pretty!! But it was definitely the hardest to walk on because it was all big rocks. But I think it was my favorite. The rocks and background mountain thing were all white and of course the water was clear as day. Plus there were probably no more than 15 people on the beach.
Steph and I decided to get in and try to swim to this big rock sticking out of the water. Eventually the ground turned to sand, so it was easier to walk on, and then we noticed it wasn't getting any deeper! It stayed right below our shoulders (well, my shoulders, maybe Stephanie's chin...rofl) and so we were able to get to the big rock quite easily! We got on the rocks and jumped off of them. I pretended they were cliffs because we were sad to find out (although my mom won't be) that Santorini doesn't have cliff jumping, so the rocks were the closest I could get. It was so much fun.
After the beaches, we hopped back onto our ATV and headed to Fira, which is the main town of Santorini. We just stopped for a bit and then continued on to Oia where we planned to watch the sunset. We had heard it's really beautiful on that part of the island because it's like on the north east corner, so it sets right over the water. The ride out there so gorgeous! We ended up driving along the east side of the island, and so we had a clear view of the water the whole way there. It was awesome. My descriptions will never do it justice.
We ended up stopping at Katharos beach to wait for the sun to set. It was so empty - for a while we were the only ones on the whole beach!! The waves were huge too! We were quite early, so we sat for about an hour just watch the water. It was perfect. The actual sun set happened fast. You don't realize how fast it moves without a reference point like the horizon. It was way pretty.
Afterward we had to drive all the back across the entire island, and like I said before, it was cold and windy at night. We were in shorts and tank tops so it was quite the chilly ride. Luckily we huddled close together and it only takes about 45 minutes. We made it home safely, showered, and headed to bed. The perfect day.
Day4:
Our last day in Santorini - sigh. We didn't do much. We packed up, checked our flight info (we decided to book a flight straight to Rome instead of take the ferry because it would have taken two days of travel with the ferry - so we sucked it up and payed the money for the flight so we could spend more time in Santorini - it was worth it), bought souvenirs and got our last of Greek food. We sat by our hostel pool for most of the day with our Texan and Australian friend because it was really windy, therefore the beach would have probably been unpleasant. We took one last walk along the beach and then had to head to the airport around 7 to catch our flight to Rome. We actually had like a 12 hour layover in Athens, so that was our hostel for the night. It was fine - cold, but did the job. We eventually made it to Rome, but it was quite bittersweet. Most people would be thrilled to go to Rome, but we were already having Santorini withdrawals.
Casey - I wrote this and the Athens post in the same day, so I have nothing new to say to you...go read Athens, and you'll see.
Miss and love everyone!! Thanks for reading - I hope you all are enjoying this! Sorry that it's difficult to post on a regular basis, I'm doing my best!
Love,
Chelsea
Ferry and Athens
After wrapping my pashmina around us and huddling close together, we were ready for the train and ferry rides ahead of us, because it meant one thing - sleep. We pretty much slept all the way to Ancona, and when we arrived we experienced our first bit of rudeness. We kept being told the wrong bus to go to, so we were going back and forth between these two buses and each driver was telling us to go to the other. Well, the one we were supposed to be on was the jerk. We finally got through to him, that his bus was, in fact, the one that we needed. At this point he then proceeded to wait for 10 minutes in the parking lot just sitting and talking to his girlfriend, who was riding the bus just to keep hi company. It was ridiculous; we were the only ones on the bus and obviously had somewhere to be. I didn't want to jump to conclusions and just assume that he was waiting just to spite us, but while we were at the port, we saw him come by at least twice within about 10 minutes...so we knew he wasn't camping out at the train station like he did with us. Nonetheless, we made it to the port, got our tickets and boarded our ferry.
We were quite excited for this mini cruise. Our first goal is to find food. All we had had to eat all day was some gross cereal without milk – we were starved. I got a huge plat of spaghetti – it was like our first hardy meal we had had to eat in a while. I was satisfied. We went back to our room to go put our bathing suits on and go swimming. We ran into the girl we were sharing our couchette with and I greeted her with “hola!” our of habit of living in Texas. It was a good thing because she hardly spoke any English. Her name is Soledad and she’s from Argentina. She’s traveling around with her dad for a month and 3 weeks! She was like the only other girl around our age on the ferry – everyone else was like older Greek and Italian men..yiikes. We became fast friends and our little knowledge of Spanish was put to the test. I knew more Spanish than she knew English, so I got in a lot of practice, and my translator came in real handy!
It was too windy and cold to go swimming, so we just sat on the deck and watched the water and talked with Soledad for a while. We had dinner, explored some, took much needed showers, saw the sunset, and PASSED OUT. We were so exhausted from sleeping at the train station, our beds were much appreciated!
The next day we had to do a lot more traveling on trains which I also slept on (despite the fact that there was no AC, the conductor was blowing the horn a lot, and it was really bumpy…don’t ask me how). We eventually made it there though. We headed toward our hostel, and Soledad and her dad came along with us too because they didn’t have a place reserved yet. We got separated from Soledad and didn’t see her the rest of the evening…quite sad.
The best part of the evening was the fact that our hostel offered a home cooked Greek meal for 6 euro! There was no way we were turning that down! It was so delicious!! We had Greek salad, and the kabob things with this delicious tzaki sauce (I don’t know how to spell it) which is just like Greek yogurt, cucumbers, and garlic. We were staying in an 8 person dorm, so we tried to hatch out our schedule for the rest of our time in Greece and then we went to bed!
The next day we decided to do the walking tour put on by our hostel. It was quite hot outside, so I put on some sunscreen and we headed out. We picked up some others along the way, and our first top was the Gate of Athena! (I took a picture for you B). We saw these ruins that used to be a market. Then we went up to this hill, which was really slippery, but it was cool because you could see all of Athens from on top of it. We took a lot of pictures (which will eventually go up). I don’t remember the name right now, but apparently it was a place for judgment – like a court – in the past. And he said that Paul or Peter (from the Bible, I can’t remember which) supposedly gave a speech from that hill – so that was cool.
After that it was time for the Acropolis! It’s like one of the highest points in the city, so there was a lot of walking up hill, and through dirt paths – I did not wear the right shoes. The Acropolis was cool! We took lots of pictures in front of the Parthenon and walked all around it. There was a temple of Athena there B! But it was like under construction, so I just took a picture of the sign for you. That part kind of bothered me because I don’t want it to be reconstructed. I’d rather it stay the way it was found, just because I feel like if they reconstruct it, they’ll ruin it (no pun intended..lol). There were so many people there – quite frustrating at times.
After that, we went to the theater of Dionysus – some really old theater that used to seat like 17,000 people, but because of wars and stuff, it’s pretty much destroyed. We saw some other old temple that all that was left were some pillars. It was supposed to be like the first temple people saw when they left Athens because they were trying to create their own city, but it never worked out. It was crazy seeing all of this stuff and imagining the people who could have walked these streets. We also saw the first Olympic Stadium, the president’s house and the parliament building with the tomb of the unknown soldier, so there were funny looking guards outside of it.
Afterward, we ate some more Greek food with our group and cooled off in some restaurant. Then, Steph and I headed to the port to buy our ferry ticket to Santorini! We ended up having to pay more for the faster ferry because the slower, cheaper one was all full! It ended up being a good thing, because the ferry wasn’t any fun, so oh well. Then we headed back to our hostel, took much needed showers, realized I got burnt after all, and then ate our delicious Greek meal again! This time it was some lasagna type thing and Greek Salad. Well worth the 6 euro. We had to be up early to catch our ferry at 7:15 so we packed up all of our stuff, slept in the clothes we were wearing, and fell asleep.
Overall, Athens was cool with all the ancient things, but the city itself was a little dirty. But nonetheless, it was well worth seeing all of the ruins – I really enjoyed it, despite my sunburn.
Casey – I think about your puppies and it makes me so excited to come home!! Dad sent me a picture and they are SOOOOO cute!! I’m so glad that they are part of our family…I’m so excited to be an aunt..haha.
We were quite excited for this mini cruise. Our first goal is to find food. All we had had to eat all day was some gross cereal without milk – we were starved. I got a huge plat of spaghetti – it was like our first hardy meal we had had to eat in a while. I was satisfied. We went back to our room to go put our bathing suits on and go swimming. We ran into the girl we were sharing our couchette with and I greeted her with “hola!” our of habit of living in Texas. It was a good thing because she hardly spoke any English. Her name is Soledad and she’s from Argentina. She’s traveling around with her dad for a month and 3 weeks! She was like the only other girl around our age on the ferry – everyone else was like older Greek and Italian men..yiikes. We became fast friends and our little knowledge of Spanish was put to the test. I knew more Spanish than she knew English, so I got in a lot of practice, and my translator came in real handy!
It was too windy and cold to go swimming, so we just sat on the deck and watched the water and talked with Soledad for a while. We had dinner, explored some, took much needed showers, saw the sunset, and PASSED OUT. We were so exhausted from sleeping at the train station, our beds were much appreciated!
The next day we had to do a lot more traveling on trains which I also slept on (despite the fact that there was no AC, the conductor was blowing the horn a lot, and it was really bumpy…don’t ask me how). We eventually made it there though. We headed toward our hostel, and Soledad and her dad came along with us too because they didn’t have a place reserved yet. We got separated from Soledad and didn’t see her the rest of the evening…quite sad.
The best part of the evening was the fact that our hostel offered a home cooked Greek meal for 6 euro! There was no way we were turning that down! It was so delicious!! We had Greek salad, and the kabob things with this delicious tzaki sauce (I don’t know how to spell it) which is just like Greek yogurt, cucumbers, and garlic. We were staying in an 8 person dorm, so we tried to hatch out our schedule for the rest of our time in Greece and then we went to bed!
The next day we decided to do the walking tour put on by our hostel. It was quite hot outside, so I put on some sunscreen and we headed out. We picked up some others along the way, and our first top was the Gate of Athena! (I took a picture for you B). We saw these ruins that used to be a market. Then we went up to this hill, which was really slippery, but it was cool because you could see all of Athens from on top of it. We took a lot of pictures (which will eventually go up). I don’t remember the name right now, but apparently it was a place for judgment – like a court – in the past. And he said that Paul or Peter (from the Bible, I can’t remember which) supposedly gave a speech from that hill – so that was cool.
After that it was time for the Acropolis! It’s like one of the highest points in the city, so there was a lot of walking up hill, and through dirt paths – I did not wear the right shoes. The Acropolis was cool! We took lots of pictures in front of the Parthenon and walked all around it. There was a temple of Athena there B! But it was like under construction, so I just took a picture of the sign for you. That part kind of bothered me because I don’t want it to be reconstructed. I’d rather it stay the way it was found, just because I feel like if they reconstruct it, they’ll ruin it (no pun intended..lol). There were so many people there – quite frustrating at times.
After that, we went to the theater of Dionysus – some really old theater that used to seat like 17,000 people, but because of wars and stuff, it’s pretty much destroyed. We saw some other old temple that all that was left were some pillars. It was supposed to be like the first temple people saw when they left Athens because they were trying to create their own city, but it never worked out. It was crazy seeing all of this stuff and imagining the people who could have walked these streets. We also saw the first Olympic Stadium, the president’s house and the parliament building with the tomb of the unknown soldier, so there were funny looking guards outside of it.
Afterward, we ate some more Greek food with our group and cooled off in some restaurant. Then, Steph and I headed to the port to buy our ferry ticket to Santorini! We ended up having to pay more for the faster ferry because the slower, cheaper one was all full! It ended up being a good thing, because the ferry wasn’t any fun, so oh well. Then we headed back to our hostel, took much needed showers, realized I got burnt after all, and then ate our delicious Greek meal again! This time it was some lasagna type thing and Greek Salad. Well worth the 6 euro. We had to be up early to catch our ferry at 7:15 so we packed up all of our stuff, slept in the clothes we were wearing, and fell asleep.
Overall, Athens was cool with all the ancient things, but the city itself was a little dirty. But nonetheless, it was well worth seeing all of the ruins – I really enjoyed it, despite my sunburn.
Casey – I think about your puppies and it makes me so excited to come home!! Dad sent me a picture and they are SOOOOO cute!! I’m so glad that they are part of our family…I’m so excited to be an aunt..haha.
Venezia
Finally, I have time to update! Hooray! We just got to Munich about an hour ago (quite early in the morning - we had a night train, I slept on the floor...I feel so clean...not). But now, we're sitting in our hostel doing laundry! Oh how excited I am that laundry is being done!! (No sarcasm there). Even though it was two weeks ago, I'll tell you about Venice
Getting to Venice from Interlaken took a while. It was a day of train rides. I slept a lot on the train and only had some peanuts to eat, so I was definitely ready for real food. As soon as you step out of the Venice train station the Grand Canal is RIGHT there. It was a cool sight to see! It made us really feel like we were in Italy! There was water everywhere and it was such a nice day outside. But of course, our first task was to find our hostel, because these backpacks aren't getting any lighter! It was a bit difficult to find a hostel in Venice because Venice itself is an island and so most of the less expensive hostels were on the mainland. So we had to get a bus ticket and find the correct bus and then the correct stop, relying solely on our directions from Hostelworld.com and the zero Italian we knew. Well, if you haven't guessed by now, we got a bit lost. We were on the right bus but the stops didn't announce where they were, so we didn't know where to get off, and we were being whimps and were too intimidated by the new language and culture to ask someone right away. Well, we rode the bus all the way to the end, and then asked, and rode it back the other direction and the driver showed us where to get off (wish we would have done in the first time, but oh well). We walked in the wrong direction at first, and so we had to back track a little bit. At this point, gelato was definitely in order. We stopped and got our first Italian gelato! Delicious! After we get our gelato, we make the trek to our hostel. We seem to be walking through a sketchy bit of town, and through some underpass with graffiti everywhere, but nonetheless, we make it safely to Camp Jolly. We checked in and had our own little cabin thing, so that was nice.
Unfortunately, we got there so late in the day that the shuttle was only making one more trip and we wouldn't have time to go explore Venice for the evening and get our real Italia meal :( We could have taken the bus again, but we didn't want to walk through the sketchy area again. So we were stuck. We spent the rest of the evening just hanging out. Took some much needed showers, ate some pizza, and did some laundry.
The next day we finally got to go see Venice. Well, after some delay. We had to wait an hour and a half to catch the shuttle because it was booked until noon. Then we had to immediately go to the train station to book our train ticket the next morning to Athens and store our bags. And of course there were lines. So we didn't actually get to explore until like 1:30 or so. Blah. But of course, first stop - gelato. Just a forewarning, we got a lot of gelato while in Italy, so this may get redundant.
We didn't really have much of a plan for Venice, just walk around, and take it all in since we only had one whole day there. I thought it was really pretty. The walkways are really tall so it's sometimes hard for the sun to get through, so it makes it seem a little dodgy at times, but it was fine. We walked to Piazza San Marco; it took a while because Venice is hard to navigate! But we made it eventually. The Piazza as cool - big, pretty palace thing, and a bell tower. We didn't feel like going into anythig because there were lines, so we took some pictures and walked toward the water (which was like at the edge of the Piazza). We just walked along the water and looked at the little vendor stands and people watched. There were so many people - and pigeons! It was fun to just mosey around though. We sat for a bit and then went to go get some food.
After finding some calzones from a little store, we walked a bit more. We felt a little bad because we didn't actually DO anything in Venice besides walk around and see a couple of things from the outside, but we were happy with what we did. And it turns out, that's what most people suggest to do - just walk around and take it all in. A day was definitely all we needed.
WARNING: Mom, if you don't want to know, don't read any further. :)
We had a 6:30am train ride to Ancona the next day so that we could make our Ferry to Greece by 1, so we could NOT miss our train. We were afraid of another Madrid-Barcelona incident and so we decided to camp out at the train station. We weren't sure how early the buses started running, and the shuttle from our hostel didn't start until like 9. Our hostel was so far out, we would have had to get up at like 4am to make it in time, and we were just really afraid we would over sleep. So we canceled our hostel and decided to be brave. I had read in a couple of my Europe books, that if you ever find yourself without a place to stay, the train station is usually a good place to go - and sure enough it was. We went to a cafe/bar until 2am, and then made our way back to the station. There were a bunch of people doing the same thing. We thought we were going to be able to hang out inside the station, but it closed until like 4am. So we sat outside, next to some other English speaking kids our age until they opened up the doors. I was grateful for our safety, but boy was it a miserable night. I was a little too scared to sleep, and so I maybe got 30 minutes, and it was FREEZING! I was not dressed for it. Nonetheless, we made it through the night with no problems, eventually defrosted and successfully got on our train to Ancona!
Venice = success; next post - Greece!
Friday, June 19, 2009
New blog coming soon!
Sorry for not blogging recently!! We have been lacking internet for a while now! We're in Florence now (absolutely loving it) and we have internet. I'll try and get a new blog up soon! Hopefully even one with pictures!! We're having a great time and soaking in every bit of the time that we're here! I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks!! We've been here longer than what we have left =( We're in Florence for another day and then we head to Munich, Prauge, Berlin, Brussels, and Bruge! We're so excited! Florence is definitely our favorite place in Italy so far, even though we've been here the shortest amount of time. I'll definitely post all about each city eventually. We have learned that even though hostels advertise free wifi doesn't mean it actually works. But overall, everything is going great, and we're having the time of our lives!!
Monday, June 15, 2009
America, I mean, Interlaken: The Beautiful
Stephanie and I were quite excited to go to Interlaken - and thanks to my dad, I know that that means "between lakes." We had our night train and our little couchette beds, so I passed out. That's one thing that's changed about me on this trip, I can now sleep anywhere! I used to not be able to fall asleep on car rides, planes (as you learned from my first post about getting to Paris), or anything other than my bed. If I go somewhere (even just to spend the night) I'll usually bring sleeping pills just because I guess my brain gets angry when it's out of its element and it wont shut down for the evening. Anywho, back to the train ride - I passed out and didn't wake up once. I remembered Ilona telling me one time that when she took a night train it was really hot, and sure enough we woke up and were like drenched in sweat...not so pleasant. We had to make a stop in Geneva to get on another train to Interlaken at 5:45am. So we do all that jazz and finally arrive in Interlaken! We get off the train and start making our way to our hostel and are awed by how beautiful it is. We stopped and took a few pictures but had to get to our hostel because we were carrying our backpacks.
We start walking down this road, because we saw a sign pointing us to our hostel. We continue walking and realize we have been walking way too long and we were in a neighborhood....with houses and yards and everything. This couldn't be right. Tired and hot, we turn around and figure we must have passed it somehow. A 10 minute walk back in the other direction we come up on it. We had literally walked RIGHT passed it, we had even read some of the signs in the window but didn't realize it was our hostel. For the record, the sign was hard to see from where we were walking, so I blame that - not us.
Yay for getting to our hostel. We immediately sign up for hang gliding!! My mom's voice was in the back of my head and I could hear her freaking out, but I decided to ignore that and go for it. Sorry mom. We drove up the mountain and did a couple practice take offs, signed our lives away and then it was time! Surprisingly, neither of us were nervous at all. It was comforting to know that the guys we were flying with do it like 4 times a day. My favorite part was take off. You run down a hill until the wind catches you and then you're flying! They said it was a perfect day for flying and we got lucky because they didn't have any other appointments that day so we stayed in the air for 45 minutes!! I felt like Superman! And I can not emphasize how beautiful this place is, and to see it from that height - it was just stunning. He did a couple tricks which made me feel a little motion sickness, but we landed shortly after that, so it was all good. Unfortunately, the camera died mid flight so I didn't get a little video like Stephanie did, but we got some cool pictures before it died. They're on a CD, so I won't be able to upload those until I get back home.
After landing, they took us back to our hostel and Stephanie and I planned to go explore or go hiking or something. But our 4 hour nap changed our plans a bit. We woke up, said "whoops", but decided to satisfy our hungery rather than hiking, so we walked into the center of town to go to a pizza place that the hang gliding guys suggested. The walk there was just awesome. Interlaken is just so quaint and perfect. It was nice to be out of the big city, because we've been in them for about a week and a half at this point. (I'm not Interlaken right now, so writing this is making me remember how much I loved it). Our pizza was great and afterwards we stopped to get some good ol' Swiss Chocolate!! We split a pizza for dinner and so we ended up paying like 5 euro each, and then we spent about 10 euro each just on chocolate. It was so delicious!! We sat outside and just enjoyed the atmosphere and ate some chocolate - it was perfect. For the first time, I really felt like I was in a different place. The mountains, lakes, and rivers are just beautiful. I would go back in a heartbeat and definitely suggest it to everyone.
We headed back to our hostel and just sat outside and looked out onto the river (our hostel was right on the river). We just chatted and relaxed - it was (and I know I've said this three times by now, but it's true) perfect.
The next day was quite rainy and cold when we woke up. We had to check out of our hostel, but we sat in the kitchen for a couple hours trying to wait out the rain. Once it cleared up a bit we headed over to our other hostel (we had two because of our train mix up from Barcelona, when we went to try and change our reservation, our first reservation was booked the new night we needed, but we didn't want to completely cancel because we would have lost our deposit, so we figured we'd just stay two different places). It was like siesta time or something when we showed up, so we had to put our backpacks into lockers and we decided to go walk around for a bit and then go back to our hostel to check in at 3:30 because the lockers seemed a bit dodgy. We walked around longer than expected, so we didn't get to back to our hostel until like 4:30 and then it started raining. We were pretty bummed because we hadn't done anything all day, and it didn't look like we were going to get to go up to these waterfalls we had planned to go to.
We hung out in our hostel for a bit (we were sharing with two boys again - they were kind of weird). Then we decided to go hiking. What an amazing idea that was, for one it was free, and two, it's Switzerland - who wouldn't want to hike through it? Well, our hike wasn't really hiking, mostly just walking down a trail - but it was probably the prettiest trail I've ever set foot on. To your right is a river and you're like immersed in the wilderness, so it's quiet and just so pretty. We walked for about an hour and a half or so until we came up on the lake. It was so worth the cold and rainy weather, because the view was just amazing - my pictures don't do it justice. We sat on the lake for like 30 minutes just taking it all in. Behind the lake were the Swiss Alps, so it was just an awesome view - I miss it. We had to pry ourselves away because it was getting dark and cold (silly Stephanie wore shorts - I was smart and had on jeans and a jacket).
We were told that we could take the bus back into town, but when we came up on the bus stop, we couldn't read the schedule (because of the fact that we don't speak German) and we hadn't seen any buses, so we just decided to walk back. Mom, you'll be happy to know that we turned down a ride from a friendly looking stranger who was going into town - minimal eye contact was made. This walk was ridiculously long and we were already quite beat from walking to the lake. Then, it started raining. Luckily, we FINALLY made it back before the rain got too hard. We defrosted and chatted with some people in our hostel. They were all from Texas and went to A&M (we thought about Michael and Tracy). But, like I said before, I have this new ability to sleep under any condition, so I kept falling asleep on the couch while talking to them (Stephanie was doing most of the talking since I was dosing off), and then I went into our room and fell asleep with all my clothes still on, but it was a good sleep nonetheless. We had to be up early the next day to catch a train to Venice, and we didn't want a Madrid-Barcelona repeat, so sleep was justified.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)