Switzerland

Hey everyone!

So this weekend I traveled to the amazing country of Switzerland. Allison, Bintu, Claire and I headed out on Thursday night on a night train to Interlaken, Switzerland. We had to switch trains in Zurich and in Bern to get to Interlaken, though. We got in the town around 9:30 on Friday morning. As soon as we got off the train, we realized we were surrounded by the Alps! They were magnificent. The clouds covered the top, but you could see that the peaks had snow all over them. By that point, we were really hungry, so we headed off to find some food. We walked to the nearest cafe - Des Alps - and had the best breakfast ever. We finally got to have bacon and scrambled eggs. After we ate, we just sat and read coffee table books and had some hot chocolate until we were warmed back up. It was pretty cold up there in the Alps... Once we were full and warm, we headed outside. In the middle of the town is this park/field area. In the field there is a fenced in area that holds about 10 Swiss cows, complete with cow bells. It was so funny to see these cows just wandering around in the city square!

We walked through the town for a little bit, stopping to get the occasional post-card or patch. We eventually ran across this flier that advertised trips to the waterfalls near Interlaken. We were intrigued, so we found the place and went to talk to the people. Well, it turned out that the same place did Vespa rentals for really cheap. So, we decided to rent two Vespas and ride around Interlaken for a while. I rode on Allison's bike, and Claire rode on Bintu's. I was too nervous to drive, and I didn't have my driver's license, so it fell on Allison to drive. It took us a while to get the hang of it, but eventually Allison and I got it. We sped around town for a while. Then we headed to the train station and waited to catch our train to Lauterbrunen. From there we took a cable car up to Murren. We went right up into the Alps on that cable car. It was kinda scary to see Interlaken fade into the valley as we rose higher in elevation.

Once we got to Murren we tried to find some food. Murren, however, was a ghost town. I am not even kidding - we saw one person out in the city - and all the lights were off in the town. It was only 7 at night. We eventually found a restaurant that was open. Apparently all of the town was there. It was like a scene from a movie when we walked in: four girls with backpacks enter the local watering hole - only to be starred at by the whole town (30 people) as the room becomes suddenly very quiet. We ordered the traditional cheese fondue and ate until we were full. Then we caught our bus down to Gimmelwald where our hostel was. Once we checked in, we hung out for a bit. We played cards and Scrabble until we were tired.

Saturday morning we woke up to the Alps. I mean, we looked out our room window and were surrounded by snowy mountains. Once we got up and going - we waited to catch our bus to Murren - where the food was. We ended up going to the same place we had gone to for dinner. We sat and ate and drank hot chocolate for a while.

Funny story: So, Bintu and I got really excited that this place had bacon. It was called "Swiss Air-Dried Bacon". So we decided to split and order of it - because it was rather expensive. So when our bacon came - we were shocked to see that is was still raw. They gave us raw - air-dried - bacon to eat. It was so gross. Lost in Translation at it's best right there.

After eating we decided to wander the town for a bit. We had thought that the ice rink would be open for us to ice skate- but it was closed and melted. We were there in low season- so most things were closed. We hung around and played in the snow for about 2 hours until we were freezing. We went back down to Gimmelwald and got our packs and then headed to the cable car station to go back to Interlaken. There, we ate a huge Chinese dinner and got on our train to Bern - then from Bern to Zurich - and then from Zurich home to Vienna.

It was such and amazing trip. Switzerland was by far the most beautiful place I have ever been. The mountains are amazing. We had so much fun just hanging around and playing the snow for a weekend. I would definitely go back there.

The Christmas Markets opened yesterday- so last night we all headed to the Rathaus. We got to see all the Christmas stuff (Think Gatlinburg except less cheesy). We had traditional Christmas food and cider and walked around for a bit. They are open until we leave- so we just did a little last night. There is actually an advent calendar in the windows of the Rathaus - so I can't wait for the first days of December - so we can see what comes out of the windows.

This week is just another school week here in Vienna. This weekend I am going to try and go to Germany- probably Berlin. Other than that, we are all just preparing to head on back to the States. I think the count is 15 days now. I can't wait to see everyone!

C

The Rest.

Hey all! So I have finally finished the rest of Fall Break! Enjoy!!

Our apartment in Barcelona was absolutely amazing. It was smaller, but perfect for the four girls. We had a bed, two pull out beds, a kitchen, bathroom, washing machine, and a terrace.


Sunday morning we woke up late and just hung out for a while, catching up on things we meant to do and resting. We ventured out into the city briefly to get train tickets, but other than that we simply relaxed. That night we made a stir-fry of sorts and ate up on the terrace. It was so nice to relax and just enjoy ourselves. Monday was exploration day in Barcelona. We took of in the morning and started walking around the city. We visited several of Gaudi’s famous buildings, including the Sagrata Familae Cathedral. The Cathedral was never finished, and is still under construction to this day. It is a magnificent though. It was built in a style that was to reflect natural structure and elements. I thought it was beautiful. After visiting the church, we went in search of the Barcelona Market. By the way, markets are my new favorite things. There are so many unique and interesting things you can find! I found an amazing collection of early 1900’s cameras that we still working. Unfortunately, they were in the upper 80-euro price range, and couldn’t afford one, but I will be on the look out now. We picked up a couple of fun trinkets in the market and enjoyed walking around. After our day of exploring, we headed back to our room for a bit and rested. We then attempted to find the beach. I say attempted, because in the process we, inevitably, ended up shopping. We did get as far as the Marina and Aquarium, but we quickly got sidetracked in a mall, which was equipped with, you guessed it, a H&M. We did see huge yachts in the bay though. HUGE yachts. After our little shopping rant, we headed back to the apartment and crashed.

Tuesday was our last day in Barcelona. We got up early and hiked to Guell Park, which is Gaudi’s Park in Barcelona. I say hiked, because Barcelona is one of those cities built on a slant. For the most part, we were on slightly titled ground, but Guell Park’s climb felt like a real haul. However, the park was really cool. It was had several tiers, with beautiful mosaics on each level. After having our fill of the park, we headed back to the apartment to finish packing our things. Unfortunately, during the night it had rained, and Val and Amy’s laundry that was drying on the terrace had been soaked, so we had to make a pit stop at the laundry mat so they could dry their things. While that happened, Allison and I ventured into a little vintage store. If you know Allison, you know that this was where she loved to shop. She ended up with like 3 shirts in 15 minutes. I didn’t get anything, because I was waiting for Paris. After our laundry, we headed to the train station to put our stuff in lockers, for our train did not leave until 7:30 that night. After stowing our stuff, we were exhausted. The lack of sleep, combined with the 50+ packs (plus all the other bags we were toting around) just wiped us out. We went in search of food. Well, naturally, we ended up at the shopping district again. We got some excellent lunch, and went in search of churros. Now, you would think this would not be such an unusual venture, considering churros are an authentic food around Spain. WELL, there are no churros to be found, my friends. Seeing as how we had more time to burn, the girls decided we would go shopping again. We shopped until it was time to head to the train station. There, we had to catch a short commuter train to another station 3 hours from Barcelona where our Paris overnight would leave. Ok, so you know when you watch a movie and you see the train station where there are only 3 or 4 tracks and absolutely nothing busy going on? That was this station. The waiting area was not heated, and it was about 35 degrees outside, so we, and everyone else waiting for the train, wore pretty much everything we had with us. We had planned on getting dinner in the station, however, everything was closed. So for dinner, we had M&M’s and Buggles from the vending machine. Mmmm, nutritious and delicious. We then caught our train to Paris.

We got into Paris around 9 the next morning. We actually were staying about 30 minutes out side the city center in a little town called Epinay sur Sein. After navigating ourselves and our ridiculous amount of luggage to the town, we ended up having to follow a little, old French lady to our hotel. After thanking her in our horrible, broken French we tried to check into our hotel (which was the only hotel in the city…by the way). Even though we had told them we would be arriving around 9, and the said we could get into our apartment then, they told us upon arrival that we would not be able to check in until 2:30. This is just excellent because none of us had bothered trying to get ready to be in Paris, fashion capital of the world, until we had showered in our apartment. So, after locking our luggage in the handicapped bathroom, yeah, of the hotel, we headed out to find some lunch. Well, it ended up that there was no café or restaurant open in the city until lunch. This is the part of the story when the hungry girls begin to make crazy decisions. We hopped on the next train into Paris, still clad in our PJ’s, glasses, and lack of any showering. After getting off the train, we practically ran to find a café. We spotted one off in the distance and went towards it. As we were crossing the street to get to the door of the café, we suddenly stopped in our tracks and looked down the street. And there it was: The Eiffel Tower. Right there. Our street ran right up to the base of it. For the first time on our Paris trip, it hit us. We were in Paris!! After taking a minute to appreciate how blessed we were, we went into our café and ate. In case you wondered, they do serve French fries in France. I them…however, I think ours are better. Another thing about Paris, it is waaaay expensive. Our lunch cost around 20 euros, but it was way worth it. After stuffing ourselves, we still had a couple of hours to kill, so we explored. We saw the Eiffel Tower, up close and personal. It is amazing, absolutely amazing. Surprisingly, it was more of a brown, brassy color than I expected. I had always pictured a steel or dark metal structure, but it was not. After taking several dozen pictures we started wandering around. We walked for a bit, and ended up on the Champs d’Elyes right in front of the Arc de Triomphe. It was a cool thing to see as well. After that, we were all pretty worn out. We had seen several of the major sights of Paris…and really need showers. So we headed back to our lovely little town. The rest of the night we just settled in and hung out. We ate Ramen Noodles from the Hotel Vending Machine for dinner and watched movies.

Thursday morning we hopped up bright and early to catch our train to the magnificent town of Brussels, Belgium. And, may I say, that traveling is so much easier when you don’t have a huge pack on your back. Our train ride was relatively short, and we got in to Brussels around 9ish. Our main focus in the early part of the day was finding WAFFELS. Again, this wouldn’t seem like such a daunting task considering it is kind of what Belgium is known for. Well, we searched for about and hour and half before we finally found the tourist center, and the infamous waffles. After deciding which lovely waffle place we would grace with our presence and growling stomachs, we settled into a lovely place. It was there that we ate the best meal of the trip. I had a Belgium waffle complete with homemade vanilla ice cream on top and a little pot of dark, pure chocolate sauce to pour over it. Add to that menu the most incredible hot chocolate you can imagine, and you would be in heaven. We ate until it was physically impossible to eat anymore. We then tried to find the city square and walk off some of the gross amount of calories we had consumed. The town square was so cool; it was literally a square with old, awesome looking buildings around. I loved it. Conveniently, the Chocolate Museum was located right off the square, and who were we to defy what was only natural in visiting the little museum. There we got to taste some of the pure chocolate, see cacao pods that were bigger than our heads, and have a lovely lady explain to us, in French and English how she makes the famous Belgium chocolate. Oh, she let us taste it, don’t you worry. After being chocolate-ed out, we needed to walk again. Remarkably, Amy and Val found some place to go shopping. They shopped for a while, and we then headed out to try and find the train station again. We ended up finding the famous statue of Brussels, which is a fountain of a small boy urinating. I realize this is very strange, but there is tale behind it.

The legend goes, that several centuries ago, some conspirators tried to blow up the castle in Brussels. This valiant little boy, saw the bomb intended to explode, and in a moment of genius, peed on the bomb to diffuse it. This is how this famous statue came to be. Now, the inhabitants of Brussels will make clothes for the little statue and leave them by the fountain as a tribute to the little boy. It is quite a hilarious story if you ask me. After seeing our little statue, we headed back and caught our train back to Paris. For dinner that night, we had French Baguettes (the best I have ever had) and pasta.

Friday morning was the official exploration day of Paris, and it was also Halloween. We started the morning off by visiting my most anticipated monument of my entire abroad experience, the Louvre. Now, I have been dreaming of seeing the artwork and the glass pyramid of the Louvre since probably Freshman Year in high school. It was the one thing that I needed to see on this semester. I was in awe when I first saw the massive expanse that was complex. The pyramid was a sight in itself. We entered the museum down through the glass chamber. We didn’t have to wait in too much of a line, because we got there 30 minutes before it opened, and it was a cold, rainy day. Once we got in and got tickets, we all set off on our journey. I started with the ancient Egyptian exhibit, and ended up getting lost in it and ended up in French painters. Some advice – if you are planning to take on the Louvre in under 2 hours…seriously look at the map. I was hopelessly lost in the Sully wing, trying to get to the Grand Gallery in the Denon Wing. After maneuvering through Egypt, I ended up in front of “Winged Victory” and got my bearings. I followed the cute little signs with the picture of the Mona Lisa on them until I ended up where I wanted to be. The Grand Gallery is like the jackpot of all art. The hall itself holds a huge amount of art, and then branching rooms of the hall hold even more. After seeing one of my top works – “Madonna on the Rocks” by Da Vinci, I wandered into a room and saw of the largest paintings, “The Wedding at Cana”. I was amazed by the detail and massiveness of the painting, that I failed to notice the huge crowd of people behind me. As I turned around, I realized that they were all looking at something. Low and Behold, there was the “Mona Lisa” on the wall. I probably stood there looking at the painting for a good 10 minutes. It is a weird feeling, finally seeing things that you have read and heard about for your entire life. It is a very surreal experience. After finally regaining myself, I wandered farther into the chamber and found the painting the Coldplay is using as their cover art/logo right now. It is a picture from the French Revolution, and it is awesome. After I had finished taking in all these works, and the others I have not mentioned, it was time to meet back with the other girls.

We had a nice lunch at Starbucks, yes there is one in the Louvre, and got to see the inverted pyramid, D.B. would be proud, we headed off into the city. We walked through the Tullieres, the garden outside the Lourve, up to the Champs d’Elyes again. There, Allison and I decided we needed a break for our poor feet. We sat down while Amy and Val went back to the Eiffel Tower to take pictures, because they had not been there during the day. Allison and I had a lovely break that included real French Éclairs and Café au Lait. Yum. We had agreed to meet at Notre Dame an hour later. I loved Notre Dame. Not only is the outside fadeout incredible, the inside is breathtaking. It was free to get in, so we hopped in line. The stained glass is just wonderful. I loved that Cathedral.
We wandered some more, trying to find the Church of St. Chapelle, but it was closed. The church is almost entirely made of Stained Glass, so I wish we could have found it when it was open. After seeing all the famous sights, we inevitably ended up shopping again. This time though, I finally found something I wanted to buy. I got this awesome black dress that is straight out of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and it was on sale. After this, we went back to our apartment to get ready for our Halloween out in Paris!

The four of us got all dressed up in our cute clothes (for once on the trip) and donned our masks we had gotten in Venice. We then headed to the Eiffel Tower to start. Until Christmas time, the Eiffel Tower is completely covered in blue lights. It is spectacular. All along our way, and at the tower, we had little kids shouting “Halloween!” at us, because we had our masks on. That made us feel better, that at least some one in France got that it was Halloween, and we went just crazy people in masks. We decided that we were going to go to the top of the tower, despite the fact that it was very cloudy, so you couldn’t actually see the top from the ground. On the ride up, Allison and Amy were completely having come-aparts, while Val and I were just excited. We went to the middle level first, where you can actually see out onto the city. It was beautiful all light up. There we met 3 guys from the Netherlands, who took a picture with us in our masks. We then caught a ride up to the very top of the tower. It is actually in two parts. The bottom of the top level is completely enclosed in glass, like an observation tower. Here there are little markers all the way around showing the distances to major world cities. We saw both of our homes on there – Wien and America! The next level up was more like a cage. It was open, but had caging around it, so you wouldn’t fall out. All you could see was blue fog, but it was still really cool. It is awesome to say I have been to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
After coming down, we decided to get some food. We had a nice dinner and headed back to the apartment to clean up and pack for the next day.
Saturday, we dropped our stuff off at the train station, and then caught a train to Versailles. Let me tell you first hand, that place is absolutely colossal. We took a tour of the grand palace, but did not have time to go into Marie Antoinette’s quarters. The Hall of Mirrors was probably my favorite room. Everything was either reflective or gilded. There was an exhibition going on in the palace, which I thought was ridiculous, but it was this show of these metallic objects like huge balloon animals and what not. I hated it. It drew attention away from the palace and looked completely out of place. Anyways. After we finished the Grand Palace, we headed out into the gardens. They are just spectacular. It would take forever to walk through them all. After wandering through them for a while, it got too cold for us, so we headed back to the station. We were starving by this point, so we went to the nearest restaurant, AKA the awesome huge Chinese Buffet. There was some sort of family gathering going on, but we just hung out and ate until we were full. We headed to the train station, but still had 2 hours to kill.

This is when we met our creeper. This girl came up and sat behind us on the benches and starting talk to us. See was from the states, but worked in Munich. She was a rather butch type girl and she carried her camera with her. She pulled some sort of alcoholic beverage out of her bag and started drinking; even though it was obvious she had already had enough. She then began taking pictures of us and encroaching on our personal space. She even sat on Val’s stuff. However, the weirdest part was her taking pictures of us. She kept at it, until I said we needed to go check the train times. We got all of our stuff, and made a run for it to the nearest hiding place. Once our train platform came up on the board, we ran and hid in our compartment. We heard her once or twice in the halls, but we locked our doors and tried to be safe. We ended up sleeping a car with a man and a woman from Germany, so we slept with all of our stuff by our feet. We changed trains in the morning in Munich, and got on our last leg home to Vienna!

Once I got home, I unpacked and watch High School Musical 3 with Al and waited until Mommy and Gary got to Wien! It was so great to see them. We had an awesome time seeing Vienna together. We got to see at Ballet, though I am not sure exactly what happened in it, other than a very long dream sequence involving about 50 ballerinas. We got to see the Van Gogh exhibit at the Albertina, as well as the Klimt exhibit at the Belvedere and then Schonbrunn. We also got to go see a real movie in theaters…in ENGLISH! It was so nice. We say Burn After Reading… which is absolutely hysterical if you like that type of humor…which we do. I was sad for them to go, but I am excited to get home and see everyone in 3 weeks!!

If you read all of this, congratulations! It was a novel to write. I had an amazing 10 days traveling, and could not have asked for a better trip. I think the count of days until I come home is around 25 now. I hope you are all well, I am doing great here. I am headed to Interlaken, Switzerland this weekend…and I may be skydiving…more to come on that thought. Vienna is finally getting colder, and the Christmas markets are opening this weekend! Christmas time is coming up quickly here, and it is marvelous. Starbucks has already put out their Christmas cups, so you know it is coming. This past weekend, Claire and I stayed home to recuperate from break, and we spent a majority of our time listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies – so I will definitely be in the Christmas spirit when I get home! I am going to go study for my German test now. I love and miss you all!!

Love - C

Venice and Cinque Terre

Hey everyone! So I think I am going to write about Fall Break in segments. So, here are the first two days or so of my break. It is from Venice to Cinque Terre and then getting to Barcelona.

So Thursday was the first day of our spectacular Fall Break. After school we hoped on the train to Venice and started our adventure. On the train we met an awesome Aussie named Pip. She had been traveling since April, and was headed to Venice for 4 days. Once we got the Venice, we quickly found our hostel and got settled in. Pip was supposed to be in a different hostel, but it was really hard to get to, so she ended up staying in our room with us. We each had our own beds, which was great. We also had our own bathroom…but it wasn’t much bigger than a very small broom closet. It was impossible to wash your face without getting water all over the floor.

The owner/manager of the hostel was named Uncle George. Oh man, was he a character. We are pretty sure he had a crush on me, because he kept telling me I was beautiful and had a pretty smile. Anyways, he treated us like his own grandkids. It was so nice. He told us exactly where to eat dinner, and then this morning, he personally took us to breakfast and tried to pay for our Cappuccino and Croissants, but we wouldn’t let him. He also hoped on the train with us to the mainland of Venice, just to make sure we wouldn’t get lost. He was great, a little eccentric, but great.

Once we got into Venice Friday morning, we were amazed at how great our weather was. It was perfect. We started walking to try and find St. Mark’s Square. Pip stayed with us the whole day too. The way we chose to go was not the traditional tourist way to the square, and so we got to see a lot of the real city. It was wonderful. We stopped in couple of shops along the way and picked up a few presents, but didn’t get anything for ourselves. We wandered a bit more and found this amazing little store full of vintage Beatles gear. Allison and I of course had to go in it. It was fantastic, but expensive.

As we were wondering we were talking about our trip, and realized that Halloween falls on a day we were in Paris. Saddened by the fact that we would not be home to Trick or Treat, we tried to think of a way to have fun that day. About that time, we passed a Carnival poster. For those who don’t know what Carnival is, it is this amazing celebration in Venice around the middle of February (also the time of my birthday). During Carnival people dress up in these AMAZING masks. There were so many exquisite masks in Venice. They really were works of art. So this inspired us, and we decided we were going to get masks (cheaper ones…not the 300E ones we saw), dress up, and wear them around Paris on Halloween night. So just be prepared for the pictures. After finding our masks, we really had to get to the square.

St. Marks’ Square is so fun. We saw the famous pigeons there. We even got them to land on our arms and take pictures. It was so fun. Pip didn’t want one on her, and Amy was scared, but I had like 2 on me at a time. They were so fun. We saw the Basilica and the Clock in the square. Then we wandered over the Grand Canal to check it out. Here is where the hilarious part of the day comes in.

So, I decide that I want a picture of me and my Chaco’s in the water of the Canal. So I step down onto one of the steps there that lead right down on the water. and I go to take the next step, which doesn’t have algae on it. However, this step is deceptively slippery. As soon as my foot hits the step, I slip and start sliding down all the stairs right into the water. The third step is completely submerged in water and algae, and that is where I land. During this whole thing, I chucked my purse up to the top of the steps, so thankfully nothing got wet…except for me. I got soaked. Also, all of the tourists in the square like turned and watched and laughed. It was awesome. So I was soaked the rest of the day. I got kinda scraped up in the process but it was funny.

After that whole ordeal, we decided that no Venice trip was complete without a gondola ride. We bargained with a ship owner, and finally got a good price. The tour was awesome. He took us through all the little back canals and let us see Venice from the water. It was amazing. I took so many pictures. After that, it was time to head to the train station and head to Cinque Terre. We grabbed a panini and said goodbye to Pip and hopped the train to our next adventure.


For day two of our Adventure, we headed to the little town of Cinque Terre, Italy. If you have never heard of Cinque Terre, I wouldn’t be surprised. However, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We got in around 8 on Friday night. After negotiating the confusing bus system, our driver dropped us off somewhere near our hostel. We decided that it would probably be better to eat and then find our hostel, so we headed to the nearest restaurant. There we met another study abroad group from Ohio that was staying in our hostel. Kyle, one of the guys, told us some great stuff about Cinque Terre for the next day. They were based in Rome, and had only been going for about a week. So we gave them tips on how to survive Europe in general. We all ate pasta and watched some ridiculous Italian game show until we were stuffed. Then we all headed back to our hostel and settled in for the night.

The next morning we woke up and got ready around 6. After checking out we caught the bus into Cinque Terre, or more specifically Riomaggorie. We dropped our stuff at the train station and headed off to explore the coastline. The view is incredible. The entirety of Cinque Terre is carved into the sides of mountains. The sea below is turquoise and rocks form the cliffs of the beach. There is no sand, but rather rocks. Because it is carved into the mountain, it is all steps. You either go up or down; there is no level ground. So we got quite a work out. The houses reminded me of what I had seen from pictures of Santorini, but these houses were brightly colored. In Riomaggorie, there is this rock pile that juts out into the water that you can clamber over to get a good view of the village. We hung out on the rocks for a while and then headed back into the village. There we got the most delicious strawberries I have ever had. We walked around the main part of town (which consisted of about 500 feet of street) and the walked to the train station to catch the train to another little village. We ended up going to Montorolla, which is the last of the 5 little villages on the strip. There we ate lunch and walked a bit on the beach. After that it was time for us to catch our train to La Spezia. From La Spezia we took a train to Milan. From the Milan station we had to take a taxi for and hour and half to the Milan airport. There we had to catch our RyanAir flight to Barcelona. The thing about RyanAir is that it is a little bit shady. We didn’t assigned seats; it was just a free for all. Luckily, we got the first row on the plane. Our flight was only about an hour, as opposed to the 31 hours train ride we would have had to take otherwise. Once we landed in Barcelona we had to take an hour bus ride into the actual city center where our apartment was. Then we had to take yet another taxi to our apartment.

Forth Coming

For all those who follow this, I just wanted to let you know that I am safely back in Vienna. Fall Break was amazing, and I am in the middle of writing a blog about it. So far I am on page 3 of the blog...and I am only on day 3, so be prepared for a novel. It should be published sometime today or tomorrow, so just check back soon!

Love and miss you all!
4 weeks until I am back in the USA.