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Interlaken, Switzerland: A Tale of Ups and Downs

So, on Friday morning Sarah, Olenka, Will, and I headed off to the Swiss Alps! We flew into Geneva and then jumped on a three hour train into Interlaken. Nestled at the base of the alps near the lakes, it is one of the most beautiful places on earth and the extreme sports capital of the world! When we arrived however it was a little cloudy and rainy. We were very worried that we wouldn’t get a good view of the mountains and that we wouldn’t be able to pursue our grand plan: skydiving!!! We arrived at our hostel: B&B Rugenpark, and were amazed! A cute little b&b owned by Chris an American and his Swiss wife Ursula; it was super cute, with an amazing view, and Swiss chocolates on the pillow. Plus, they had a dog: Monty- sooooo cute. He was also amazing; he could open the doors all on his own. We had quite a good time with him. Anyways, Chris and Ursula were super nice and gave us tons of advice.

We explored the town of Interlaken, and then as the day was ending things began to clear up. We headed up to this tiny village in the mountains to check out the view. The sheer size and beauty of the Alps was unlike anything I could have possibly imagined. Note, though it was very warm at the base in Interlaken, up in the mountains it was pretty frickin cold. So to warm ourselves up we headed to a traditional Swiss fondue dinner. We had potato soup and cheese fondue. Now, I’ve had fondue in the states, but this was completely different. The cheese was super thick and sharp, plus Chris warned us that the Swiss eat in the winter because then you get this huge ball of cheese in your stomach and it takes a lot of work to get rid of it so it keeps you really warm. I didn’t really believe it, but yes, that night- huge ball of cheese in my stomach! I know, it’s very attractive. We also got Kirsch, Swiss cherry liquor, which is supposed to help digest the cheese, but I didn’t really feel it working.

So the next day was d-day: yes, we were going to go skydiving!!!!!! After a delicious coffee, nutella, cheese, and fruit breakfast we chilled in our room staring at the amazing (and super clear/sunny!) view of the mountains and played a little phase ten. We were very much freaking out. Will and Olenka made bets about when Sarah was going to cry, and we discussed the idea of wills and goodbye letters. Then we got the call: it was time to go! Alexis picked us up from the b&b, she’s a school teacher from New Jersey who married Steph the owner of the skydiving company and moved to Switzerland. They as well were so sweet to us. We met their daughter Skyler, and talked with them for a while. We decided to do skydiving from a helicopter! Apparently this is not usually available, especially in the states, and is supposed to be a lot cooler. For one thing the helicopter can hover so you don’t have to jump out of a moving object. We went to the hanger in the bottom of a valley, surrounded by mountains, and got trained for our mission. We were going up 12,000 ft, two of us at a time, tandem with Steph and Andy. Olenka and I went up first, I went with Andy. He was very sweet which was good since you know he was completely in control of my life. They were super funny though, talking and laughing with us the whole time. After getting suited up we got strapped to the guys and got in the helicopter. The door to the helicopter, oh yeah, not there! The scariest part was going up, there were these enormous mountains and glaciers right out in front of us! Olenka went first with Steph, they stood on the ledge and then just you know tipped over and fell out! Then it was my turn, ironically it seemed so incredibly unfathomable that those mountains were right there and that I was so high up on the edge of a helicopter that I couldn’t be scared anymore. It was just too unbelievable. Andy asked me if I was ready and all the sudden we were falling! It was the craziest most awesome thing ever. You know that feeling when you do drop zone at PKI and start falling and your stomach just drops? That feeling was completely absent! It didn’t feel scary, it just felt natural and of course pretty damn cold. The view was incredible and you feel like you’re flying not falling! It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done in my life!

After such an incredible experience we decided to have a little victory celebration at… Hooters. Yes Hooters, hey I have been without American food for three months! Plus I am very very broke, and Hooters in Interlaken is super cheap. So yeah, amaretto sours wings and burgers for all! Okay so fish for me, but still! We hung out for a while, grabbed some Swiss chocolate and stopped a crazy festival that was going on. Then it was time for sleeping!

So Sunday turned out to be an unexpectedly eventful day for me. We were heading back to Geneva on a 10am train, so we decided to pay for our lodging before breakfast. So I go to pull out my credit card, and oh yeah, I don’t have my wallet! Shit. Shit. Shit. This was not good. We searched the room, but it was clearly not there. And don’t mistake the severity of the situation. Brilliant person that I am not only does my wallet contain my credit card, it contains my cash, my debit card, my drivers liscense, my student id, and oh yeah my passport. Very very bad. Okay, I thought, so it had to be at Hooters. So it’s like 8am, but I run to Hooters, and apparently Hooters in Interlaken serves quite a hopin breakfast. Nonetheless, the manager wasn’t there and he was the only one that could open the safe, and guess what? He wasn’t showing up until 2. I told the girl I was supposed to leave at 10 but I had lost my wallet with my passport and she said: shit. Helpful. So I run back and check the train schedule, the train that leaves at 2:10 arrives in Geneva at 5:30 and our flight is at 6:10. Not good. So we reconvene and I send the others on to Geneva. Being the amazing friends that they are they offered to stay, but I wasn’t going to make them miss the flight they paid for, and oh by the way we all had exams Monday morning at 9:30. Sooo, Sarah paid for my room, gave me an unsigned credit card and her phone card, and Will gave me 50 bucks, and I headed back to Hooters to hope the manager showed up early. I went in and the same girl saw me, I ordered a hot chocolate and she let me have a table for a couple hours and brought me a free croissant. Seriously, I can understand that the Swiss are neutral; they are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Well, the manager showed at 12:30, but sadly enough he hadn’t found a wallet the night before. I felt really sorry for that girl when she had to tell me. So, I was contemplating how I was going to get to the embassy and call my parents to stop all my credit cards and then pay for a new flight and a hotel, when I passed by the chocolate shop. Hey, I thought, it’s worth a shot at this point- guess what? Did someone find a wallet here? Yeah, is this yours? I have never been so ecstatic in my life, except for maybe the skydiving. I jumped on a train asap and made the flight. It was really an intense trip!!! So, no more of me loosing stuff would be good, but thanks to my awesome friends who got my back. And that is a really long entry so I’m impressed if you made it this far. Buona sera!

Yeah! Victory for Royal Blue!

Barcelona, Spain

Hola! So after 4 years of Spanish education, I finally got to use it! Unfortunately, the official language of Barcelona is actually Catalan, but mostly everyone still spoke Spanish. I would have never thought I could get by with what I knew, but after living in Rome off about 100 words in Italian, I felt like I was fluent in Spanish. Plus, we apparently spoke well enough that people responded to us in Spanish, whereas in Rome they usually just start speaking back in English. Romans we have decide are very much like New Yorkers, thy have a thicker accent, they loathe tourists, and they identify as Romans not Italians. Barcelona was a very unique and exciting place. Guadi is the artist responsible for most of the architecture in the city, and he has a very crazy and unique style: modernisma. Everything is very colorful and eccentric looking, but it fits in very well with the city. I had an amazing time! It reminded me a lot of Paris, similar city feel with lots of architecture, art, shopping, and food, only it was much more Bohemian instead of "in style" and much cheaper, which was a very good thing for me!

Well, we got in on Thursday night and arrived at our lovely hostel. We knew there was some sketchiness going on when it turned out the hostel was named something different than it had been listed online. Instead of "Omni House" we were apparently stay at "Buba House" (pronounced booba). Our rooms had everything we needed: beds. In our room, the window had apparently been broken by the wind, so instead we had a plastic garbage bag, but no worries, it was hot and it wasn't accessible to anyone from the outside, it actually looked into the bathroom. So when it was hot at night and we opened the window, we could also see directly into the bathroom which proved quite interesting, especially when guys went into pee, and then looked directly in our room. It was quite entertaining, whenever the light turned on in the bathroom we would just hit the floor so as not to cause any awkward situations. Ahhh, hostels. It was alright though, clean and in an amazingly good location. We got up Friday morning and strolled down Las Ramblas. This is the major street in Barcelona, filled with vendors, flowers, and street performers. About halfway down is La Boqueria, which is this huge produce market. We haven't seen fresh fruits and veggies in a very long time. Mensa (our cafeteria at the JFRC) is not to big on freshness or anything other than pasta pomodoro (pasta with tomatoes). So we were pretty damn excited. I purchased a Pintahaya, which is this crazy fruit with a pink leafy outside and a white kiwi-like center. Not bad, and also kiwi juice! Yum!!! After wandering about for a bit, we headed to the Placa to meet up for our bike tour. Yeah for Fat Tire Bike Tours Barcelona!

Okay, so really I haven't ridden a bike in a long time, we stopped at the beach and got Cava (catalan sparkling wine), and the streets were super narrow and crowded. Probably not the best combination. We just rang our little bike bells and hoped people got out of the way and cars didn't hit us :-). Our tour guide was a young american guy, and all the people on the tour were about 20, so we had a lot of fun. The tour was very informative, but delivered with a good dose of college humor. We met some guys from Columbia University, and some girls traveling with Disney on Ice!- I was super jealous of them. The tour covered all the basics. As we had discovered, Barcelona was pretty proud of itself, and did not like that it is a part of spain, apparently it used to be its own county and kind of wishes it was again. Blame Ferdinand and Isabell who united Castil (Spain) and Catalunya, who's castle we saw by the way. We got to sit on the steps Christopher Columbus was greeted on! We also got to see some really cool Guadi architecture, including the infamous Sagrada Familia church. It is this crazy church with extreme detail that looks like it's melting. He worked on it until his death, but left plans for the church's completion, so they've been working on finishing it, but it will probably take at least 50 more years!! It is enormous and can be seen from everywhere in the city. In addition we passed by the Barcelona bull fighting ring, and got to ride out to the Mediterranean Sea, soo beautiful, a tad windy. We stopped out there and everyone got chickens and Cava, or me rice and Cava.

That night we decided to go to a Flamenco show! It is a type of spanish dancing, very intense with a lot of stomping and footwork. We hung out at the Flamenco club for a while and had some Sangria, because c'mon, it's spain! It was quite tasty, a blend of wine and fruit. Afterwards, we headed to a tapas bar. Spain is famous for tapas, little plates of appetizers essentially. Very scrumptious as well. It was a very long and crazy, but fun day. On Saturday we took things a little slower, revisiting La Boqueria and traveling up Park Guell, a famous park designed by Guadi. After this we visited the Olympic village, which was exteremly impressive. They had constructed parks, a huge pavillion, towers, and the "magic fountains" in honor of the games, on top of a hill above the city. Torino had not gone all out like this. We hung out there and saw the fountain show at night with lights and smoke and music. After, we headed back to the center of the city to pick up some Subway and Sangria to take home. We are super desperate for American food by now! Apparently there was some pretty extereme rioting, we were kind of oblivious. We saw the armed cars, police, and helicopters, but we were too focused on Subway to really be too concerned. If you want an entertaining read, this is what we were in the midst of: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4818180.stm (mom you probably shouldn't). We had an amazing time, and while we didn't stay up too late, we did leave our hostel at 5:30 am on Sunday and may I just stay, still mobs of people on the street- craziness. Anyways, back in Rome for now. Interesting update, my Calcio team won their first game ever last Wednesday!!!! It was quite the exciting event, the entire school was pretty shocked. Only about 6 weeks left here, than back to the real world. Miss you all! Ciao-ciao!

Sam Visits for Spring Break!!

So I've been many places and done many things, but this was by far the best week I've had in Europe :-). Nothing's easy however... Sam was scheduled to fly in Sat at 11am, Friday night he calls me from the airport, "hey, my flight's cancelled." I was like, wow you are really mean for joking with me like that, and he was like, "no, I'm serious". Luckily, it was only his connection from Chicago to Canada that was cancelled, and he was able to grab another earlier flight so he could still make it on the flight from Toronto to Rome. Of course that flight was an hour late in arriving-- so I was just really excited when he finally did walk through that arrival gate.

The first two days of his visit we spent in Rome. I tried to be a good tour guide, but all in all I have not actually spent a tremendous amount of time in Rome, so it was fun for me to be here as well. We got in the real Italian pizza and gelato at della palma, as well as the Colosseum, Castel San Angelo, the Victor Emmanuel Monument, St. Peter's Square, the Pantheon, and all the basics. I got roses, and we stopped in Piazza Navona and got our picture sketched by one of the artists by the fountain. Not gonna lie, Rome is ten times better with a boy :-).

What I did not mention in the above romantic description is that of course Sam was severly jet lagged, and I, as luck would have it, happened to be severely ill. So of course on Monday we getting up at 4am to catch a flight to London went over real well. And interestingly, I think I had the most trouble I've ever had finding a hostel, though we were in a country where everyone spoke English. Nonetheless, we did find everything eventually. I really like London! Like Paris it is a very urban city, and it is the closest to America I've seen yet. We went to a pub our first day for lunch called the Rat and Parrot. It was sooooo good. I had "chips" but they are really french fries, and while I love pizza and pasta, they tasted AMAZING. After exploring a bit, we passed out from severe exhastion, and then woke up to go to Les Miserables! We got all dressed up, but I forgot my london outlet converter, soooo my hair was in a pony tail. But anyway, we went to see Les Mis at the Queen's Theatre in downtown London. Everything was busy and bustling, it felt really nice to be back in a real city. We had really good seats, and the show was spectacular. We even got to have drinks at our seats. Afterwards, we wandered around for a bit and found a fancy thai resturant to grab something to eat in. Other than pubs with fish and chips, london doesn't have much home cuisine, but they have chinese, thai, and indian places everywhere. The food wasn't the best we've ever had, but I also haven't had any spicy or flavorful food in two months, so I was super pumped. Plus, they put a purple flower in my drink, which i thought was cool. I guess we recieved some strange burst of energy b/c we kept going, and stopped at a casino we had passed along the way to the theatre. I felt a little out of place with all the pros in there, but we had a good time. Sam and I played blackjack for a while, and then I watched him play craps because lets face it I do not understand that game. All in all, a very fun night. The next day, Sam started to feel sick as well, and suddenly London got frickin cold and really rainy. Nonetheless, we decided we had to go out to see buckingham palace and westminster abbey. So we trecked out into the cold and rain. When we got to the palace there was a ton of people there, and all of these police everywhere. I asked one what was going on, and she said that the President of Brazil was visiting the queen, so there was going to be this huge "parade" and the queen was going to drive by. So it is pouring down rain, I'm coughing up a lung, and Sam's barly hangin in there, but hey- when again can you see the Queen of England. So we grabbed a spot and hung around. This really nice woman from Florida took pity on us a gave us her umbrella after she heard my lovely coughing for a while. The guards marched by, there was a band, and there were guys on horses, and guys with machine guns, and finally about 45 mins later, the queen herself drove past. Soo, I may have prolonged my sickness and got my boyfriend even sicker, but now I can say I've seen the queen!

That night we headed back to Rome. We didn't get in until late, and least to say we weren't up for going out. The next day was Wed, and our last day. We strolled around Rome again. We went to the spanish steps and the Villa Borghese, which is like the central park of Rome. I cheated a little because I'd been there before, and knew that there just happened to be a lake that you could rent boats on. So I got to rowed around a lake in a villa in Rome for a while. We also went to the Trevi fountain, and Sam got to throw his pennies into the fountain. That night we went to Alexanderplatz, which is a very hip jazz club that you have to be a member of to enter. We sat and talked the night away listening to a supercool band, and then after we found the famed 24 hour bakery that people have told me about and i have tasted things from, but that i have never been to. Omg!! Soooooooo good. But, yeah, then Thursday he had to leave :-(, not only was I very sad, but then there was some striking in the city and it took me about three hours to get home from the airport. Oh well, it was an absolutely amazing week!!! And I'm glad I have a couple days to recover, I have to leave for Barcelona on Thursday. Arrividerci!!

Paris

Ok, so I know everyone's like c'mon, just pick your favorite city already, and I honestly think this time Paris might be it. Lake Como is def the most beautiful place I've been, but Paris was absolutely amazing!! This trip was Sarah, Olenka, Lindsay, and I. As according to our no sleeping custom we left at 5am- yeah! And whoa, someone forgot to remind me that, oh yeah, Paris is frickin freezing right now! We got there and it was like low forties, and it was snowing by the time we left! I was a little bit frozen, and now, I'm a little bit sick, oh well. By the time we took our flight and rode a bus into the city, it was about mid day, and we ventured to our hostel: Perfect Hostel, which did a pretty good job to living up to its name. For a hostel it was pretty perfect, it had everything we needed, even a vending machine with beer, and fresh baguettes and cafe oles in the morning. FYI, best bread in Europe: France. Sorry Italy, they've got great pasta, pizza, and gelato, but France wins hands down when it comes to bread. Anyways, as I'm on the topic of food, of course that was our first mission of the day. We stopped at a reccomended cafe and I had real French Onion Soup!-- only it was just called onion soup, but it was super good! It resembled what we have in the states, but tasted a million times better!

After lunch we did a little wandering, we ventured up the hill from our hostel to the renowned Sacre Cour (church of the sacred heart). It is a huge church on the highest point in Paris. Interestingly, during WWII, a line of bombs fell right near the church, but landed all in a row, not killing anyone of damaging anything. It was built I believe during WWI to ask God to save Paris, and since it's creation there has been someone praying inside for Paris 24 hours a day every day. It had a beautiful view of the city, and there was a harpist serenading us with, oh yes, celine dion's my heart will go on. After this we continued to wander the city, it was so exciting just to wander around. There were crepe stands and pastry shops everywhere, and tons of really expensive shopping. We also found the Opera House, which just happens to be the one that the chandelier fell in, and inspired The Phantom of the Opera, it is an amazing building, but we couldn't go in because of a rehearsal.

Lucky us, this was Friday night, and the Louvre just happens to be free to students on Friday nights! I couldn't beleve that I was actually there. It contains pretty much every major piece of artwork I've ever studied. Plus, we were all going through the Da Vinci code in our minds :-). The museum was absolutely enormous, and I can now say that I've seen the Mona Lisa, which not gonna lie, not terribly impressive. One conclusion I did come to was that of all the palaces I've been in, I deffinitely like the Louvre best! I would live there in a heart beat, I even know where I would put my pool...

That night, we grabbed a light dinner, and Sarah and I tried our first Kir Royals: that is champange with berry flavoured liquour. Sooooooo amazing, it is an apertif, or pre-dinner drink, or in our limited financial state, a whole evening drink. Another fyi, the only true champange comes from France, everything else is just sparkling wine.

Saturday we split up, Olenka and Lindsay went to Versailles, and Sarah and I stayed to explore more of the city. Our first stop was the Musée d'Orsay, otherwise known as the impressionist museum. I actually liked this one much better than the Louvre. It holds artists such as Cassat, Renoir, Monet, Manet, and Van Gogh. We spent just as much time at this museum even though t was much smaller. Unfortunately however, the painting we most wanted to see, Stary Night Over the Rhone, was out on loan. Oh well, I guess I will just have to go back! After that, we walked to Notre Dame, which is actually on and Island. It was very cool, very gothic in design, and kind of had a creepy gargoyle feel. More interesting was that it was were Napolean was crowned and wher Joan of Arc was tried. Crazy to imagine we were walking in the very same place. When we crossed back from the Island in the center of the square there was a merry-go-round. So of course, we had to ride it. C'mon a merry-go-round in the middle of Paris! How do Sarah and I get ourselves into these romantic situations? Anyways, we felt pretty cool with all the little kids and moms. Good times. After, we headed back to the Opera House to take a tour inside. It was crazy elaborate with chandeliers, and a staircase out of Titanic. We thought we weren't going to be able to see the actual stage part though because of rehearsal, but just as we were about to leave we saw a group of people crowding into one of the boxes, I don't know if we did it illegally or not, but we rushed in to catch a glimpse- very cool! Of course we had to browse the shopping a little too, but Paris is definitely a city for the rich. We went to this "mall", and it was probably the largest mall I have ever seen, with the most expensive clothes ever!! In the women's dept we picked up a cotton sun dress and it was 675E! That's like $800! When I get rich I will vacation there from my Villa in Lake Como.

That evening we met back at the hostel and headed to the eiffel tower!! We took a million and a half pictures, and I got to cross another goal off my list, getting kissed under the effiel tower! Thanks girls! After, we had a true European meal- really really long, and we all tried escargot!! It really does taste good, but I don't think I could ever learn to eat it on a regular basis. Also, not sure if I broke any vegetarian rules there, but you know, you're only in France once right? Following our nice meal we headed to the Red Light District, not too far from our hotel, which was riduclous. Much crazier than new orleans as far as what they had to offer, but not near as many people. While we did not cater to any of the sex shows, we did stop to take some hot pictures in front of the Moulin Rouge.

Sunday, Sarah and I went to Mass in the Sacre Cour, which was pretty intense. We can understand mass in Spanish or Italian, at least get the major points, but French not soo much. We had no clue what was going on, but it was really beautiful, and there were a ton of school children in uniform dressed like Madeline, and a bunch of nuns all dressed in habits that were the choir. Interesting- all the nuns had white habits with black veils. We also hit up the Arc di Triumph, the effiel tower once more, and of course a final crepe. Oh I forgot to mention the crepes- to die for, especially the nutella ones!! I was very sad to leave, but it was an awesome awesome trip. Buon sua!

Lake Como Pictures