Travelling and munich

This morning we woke up and packed and headed into old town. We wanted to grab lunch but Charlie only had a limited time so we ended up sitting with him while he ate at starbucks and then said good bye. Everything in the town was closed as far as shops and we didn't have too much time to kill. We ended up eating at the same restaurant we had lunch at the day before and it was still delicious! After linch we headed over to the farris wheel. It was pretty cool to see the city from up that high! It was a cable car ferris wheel and some of the cars were set up for a romantic dinner. It looked pretty cool! To bad I have no one to have a romantic dinner with. After the ferris wheel we went to catch our train. There was a problem at one of the metro stations and although we ran and sped walked we still ended up watching our train pull out of the station. Oops. It wasn't that big of a deal and we caught the next on 25 minutes later. That train ended up running late so we missed our connection and had to wait another hour for the next train which was packed! When we arrived in Munich we headed off to our hostel. It was a longer walk than the map indicated but we made it. The people here are so nice! We were lost and debating if we should keep walking or turn around and some guy walked by and asked where were we trying to go. So nice. Another man helped us too. Our hostel is a 10 bed dorm style which sucks because I was under the impression it was just us. Not the case! It's nice and clean though so I'm happy! After a while of catching up with life back home we walked across the street to a beer garden and had a couple beers and some dinner. We didn't eat until 10 so I wasn't really hungry anymore. I got a mix of meats on a plate and the skin on the pork tasted like bacon. Mmmm! I actually only ate the skin and none of the meat. Hah. We went back and went to bed and at about 3 in the morning our roomates came home and kept the light on for 45 minutes. Ugh. But overall a pretty uneventul day but fun! 

Traveling to Munich

This morning we woke up and packed and headed into old town. We wanted to grab lunch but Charlie only had a limited time so we ended up sitting with him while he ate at starbucks and then said good bye. Everything in the town was closed as far as shops and we didn't have too much time to kill. We ended up eating at the same restaurant we had lunch at the day before and it was still delicious! After linch we headed over to the farris wheel. It was pretty cool to see the city from up that high! It was a cable car ferris wheel and some of the cars were set up for a romantic dinner. It looked pretty cool! To bad I have no one to have a romantic dinner with. After the ferris wheel we went to catch our train. There was a problem at one of the metro stations and although we ran and sped walked we still ended up watching our train pull out of the station. Oops. It wasn't that big of a deal and we caught the next on 25 minutes later. That train ended up running late so we missed our connection and had to wait another hour for the next train which was packed! When we arrived in Munich we headed off to our hostel. It was a longer walk than the map indicated but we made it. The people here are so nice! We were lost and debating if we should keep walking or turn around and some guy walked by and asked where were we trying to go. So nice. Another man helped us too. Our hostel is a 10 bed dorm style which sucks because I was under the impression it was just us. Not the case! It's nice and clean though so I'm happy! After a while of catching up with life back home we walked across the street to a beer garden and had a couple beers and some dinner. We didn't eat until 10 so I wasn't really hungry anymore. I got a mix of meats on a plate and the skin on the pork tasted like bacon. Mmmm! I actually only ate the skin and none of the meat. Hah. We went back and went to bed and at about 3 in the morning our roomates came home and kept the light on for 45 minutes. Ugh. But overall a pretty uneventul day but fun! 

Vienna

This morning we all woke up early and headed off for the day. We are again without a blow dryer so our hair is a mess. We showered and then went to a little breakfast place on the shopping street. They all had a nice meal but in hopes of saving money I ate at mcdonalds. It was pretty good but a lot of mayo. They love their mayo in Europe. Too bad they don't know about ranch. After breakfast we walked down to the Nike store where I bought some brazil soccer shorts and promptly put them on. Ahhh so nice. I love sweatpants and I hadn't brought one pair. Have no Idea what I was thinking. These are heaven and I have vowed not to take them off until I get into America. So far so good on that promise. After Nike we got on the subway and rode into the old part of town. We walked through st. Stephans basilica. Another church another day. But the roof was pretty sweet. It had green and white and blue tiles in a cool v pattern. We then walked towards the castle to see what it had. We took some pics and walked around a little before we decided to tour sisi's living quarters. The while first floor was dedicated to china. Every plate they ever used. Bor. Ing. We had an audio guide that we could listen to the history of each piece but for some reason after the 3rd plate room and the 13th number the audio guide fell in my purse. Oh dang. It went all the way into the 50s. Many more rooms. Hot rooms. Very hot rooms. Charlie however was lovin it??? He wouldn't not listen to a number or fast forward. I waited on a bench. Hahah. Then we went up to see the living quarters. I glanced in a mirror on my way up... Wow. I had 2 giant circles under my boobs from sweaing so much and 2 half foot wide sweat marks on eah shoulder where my backpack sat. I looked rediculous. So rediculous I imediately changed my shirt. But not before I got a pic. Don't worry. The living quarters were a lot more interesting than the plates. I actually listened to the guide but def. Fast forwarded and skipped some. Grace was the slow one here. Get it girl. I was suprised by how small their space was. I'm sure it was bug back then but now days it would be considered tiny! It was actually very goregous though. Red walls with elegant white and gold ceilings. It was very cool to see. When we finished we went outside to wait for grace and much to our dismay the weather turned. It even threatened to rain. Ahhhhh so so happy. We walked around the corner as it rained on us in search of food. No complaints! We ate at the first place we came to and I am in love. They give you a card when you walk in and then you go get your food. You have the option of pizza, salad or pasta. If you get pizza you order it and they give you a buzzer. For the others though you walk up to the chefs and tell them your order and they make it right on front of you. I was in love. Such an awesome place. They all ordered pizza which I will never understand but I got pasta. They didn't have an English menu which makes it hard but you know it's better because they are catering to the locals, not the tourists. The shrimp dishes looked so good that I just asked the chef which menu options had shrimp. One with a tomato and one with a white sauce and spinach. I got the white sauce and chose my noodle. They had 8 different options of noodles which were made in house. It was top 3 meals of the trip. Cream sauce with a little pesto and big shrimp and Parmesan with spinach and tomatoes. Oh wow. And! At the table they had fresh herbs on the table. Like in pots pick a leaf of basil or thyme off fresh. ahhh. It was delcious. 

After lunch we went to go find the Freud museum. Grace was upset because we didn't see more of the castle so we went and looked aroud more. We saw the gardens and the city hall which they were setting up for a big Aids event with a giant red carpet. It looked awesome. It's just hard to make everyone happy because no one will voice their oppinions making it impossible to get things done. We walked all the way across town to goto the freud museum and when we got there decided to goto a wine garden instead. About then I put my map away and said I'm not navigator anymore. I'm follower. Tell me where to go and what to do and I will be happy. We took the metro to it's end and then got on a tram and took it to it's end and then imediately found a wine garden and went in. We had a glass of wine or two and talked for an hour or so and then headed back to get ready for the evening. On our way we went to go to a couple stores. I wanted another pair of shorts and a clutch so I can throw my purse away. It's entirely too hot to wear that thing around. Eww. Grace wanted a bra and we popped pit right in front of a place. That was the only store we went to. Everywhere closed at 6. Grr. Everywhere. And they weren't open Sundays. Ugh so we got more ice cream and headed back to the hostel. They all showered but I read instead. No point in showering without a hair dryer. Haha. Grace and sarah looked all cute... I wore my blue shorts hahah. We didn't leave until around 9 and we went to this food circus. Apparently Vienna puts on 60 free activities in the summer at the city hall for the people to enjoy and there are food stands along the sides. It ended up being the aids benefit which was very amazing. They had a giant red carpet and a orchestra with dancers and singers and amazing graphics. It was very cool. It was vey packed though. We had to push our way in and lost Charlie and Sarah once we got in. They didn't want to brave the crowd and grace was upset but I told her who cares let's just have fun. It wasn't that crowded when we got in or at least people weren't touching me but we only got to be there for about 15 minutes before the downpour started. I welcomed it. Anything but 105 degree weather is welcome in my book! We stayed for a couple more minutes and then headed off to meet the others. It took us 30 minutes to find them and when we got the grace was pissed and they had left us. We called and they came back and then she let them have it. I was the middle man tryin to keep the peace haha. We went back to a cook Irish pub we had found but they didn't serve food and it was now 10:30 and no one had eaten dinner so that was quickly vetoed. We ended up in another place with individual beer taps at each table but ours didn't have one. Sad. There weren't many food choices but I got wings. I was worried about wings without ranch but they were good. Plain with a sweet chili sauce. Mmm. And potatoe wedges. I was still hungry after though. We had originally wanted to go out for the night but after all the events we decided to just go home. When we went to go outside it was pouring rain again. It was interesting finding the metro but we did as we ran through the rain. It was so much fun. When we came out of the metro we declared it a race to the hostel and went out the wrong exit and ran in the wrong way. I was the first to realize which way was the right way... Behind us... So I went that way. The walked behind me but didn't follow me and grace ran across the street and the other two another way. I ended up waiting for 10 minutes for them to figure out where the were and then got yelled at. Awesome. Now Sarah was the middleman haha. We went back and I emailed my job to make sure I still have one to come back to and then read and went to bed. My bed was soaked from the rain because our window was open. Grr. But it was a pretty good day and night!    

End of prague and vienna

This morning we woke up and packed all our stuff. We woke up late and it seemed to take forever and we didn't end up getting over to Charlie and sarahs place until around 12. It's another incredibly hot day so when we went to eat lunch air conditioning was a major requirement. Haha. We only had a short time to eat before our train left for Vienna, Austria, so we inhaled our food. I got some beef with cranberry sauce and dumplings. I don't know what I thought dumplings were but not a dense piece of bread that's for sure. But that is the gyst of what they are. The meat was delicious. After lunch we hurried back to the apartment to grab our bags and then got on the metro to the train. It was leaving late which was fine. Should have gotten snacks. Grr. We got on the train and sweated our you know what's off for about 6 hours. Dripping sweat. Literally. It was so so so hot. I couldn't take it. I ended up putting my water bottle behind my neck which helped but still hot. Took a couple naps and read my book and sat there in boredom. It seemed so long. When we finally got to vienna we found a map and headed to the metro to find our hostel. We were staying at the strawberry hostel which was about a block away from our metro stop. We dropped our stuff and headed off to find food. Our room is nice, 2 beds and 2 couches that are pretty much beds. We are travelling with their friend from school, Charlie. He is nice. Talks about his girlfriend a lot, but nice. We weren't too far from the main shopping strip and after a few menu searched sat down at a cafe. They brought us drinks and then our bill. I think they were confussed that we wanted dinner too. I got a carbonera with egg and white sauce and bacon. It was ok. Nothing to write home about. After dinner Charlie had been noticing a steady stream of people with ice cream walking towards us so we headed off in an ice cream search. Oh my god. The place we found was soo good. Best presentation so far! They dolluped it on the cone in the side, then put another flavor next to it and then a third. They weren't stacked on top of eachother, but next to eachother. So cheap and so much ice cream and so good! We walked with our ice cream and looked around for a while and then headed back to our hostel and called it a night. When we got in I took the coldest shower that it would let me. To the point of goosebumps. It felt so nice but the coldness did not last long! Then i curled up and went to bed. Long day of travel... Another one hahah.    

Prague day two

This morning i slept in until around 9 and then got ready to go out for the day. Grace had already left so I was kinda confussed on where I should go but decided on the castle. In prague they have a tram and a metro system and I don't speak Czech and therefore really Sony understand the trams so I took the subway which is a lot easier. I should have grabbed breakfast somewhere but I didn't. Stupid girl. When I got off the metro I was confussed on where to go and ended up taking the really long route to the castle. It's ok I like the scenic view. When I got up there I walked through the main gates which had guards and were gold encrusted and went and bought a ticket. I stood in like to go inside the church which was pretty inside but again I feel like they are all starting to look the same. The stain glass windows in their was my favorite part! They were ginormous and beauiful! After the church i went inside 2 more buildings. Both very boring and I was famished at this point so my stomach was my #1 concern so I took a few pictures and then got back on the metro to meet up with grace in her class where they fed me haha. Traditional Czech food. Dessert was amazing haha! After lunch we went souvy shopping. Or they did. I walked behind in the intense heat and groaned haha. It's so flipping hot here that if I had my umbrella with me I would no question about it be "that" tourist with an umbrella up in the sunlight. Hah. We got to see the square which was awesome and then after a while of walking around we went back to get ready for the night. We ended up being about 20 minutes late to dinner but it ended up being good because we didn't have to sit inside in the hot unair conditioned, un-fanned building. We got outside in the somewhat breeze. Ahh. Dinner was alright and after we headed to a place called the pub where you could pour your own beer at the table and it would keep track on a big screen and at your table. We lost the competition but some people were like 65 beers deep so I'm ok with the loss. It was a pretty cool idea though! After a few drinks we headed back to one of their apartments and then off to absinthe time. I've had it before and think it's disgusting so i just watched as everyone lit their sugar cube and shot on fire and then took it. Then we walked across the street to a club to get our dance on. We ended up getting another fish bowl and dancing for a while. I was out of money and didn't feel like going to an ATM again when i knew I wouldn't need that currency for much longer so I didn't hop on the drunk train with everyone. This was a good bye night for grace and all her class so there was a lot of crying for some. It took forever but we rounded up everyone and headed to another club. But in the forever time it took to round up everyone I lost my enthusiam to go out so I got a smazny syr aka fried cheese on a bun, which they had been raving about since I got there and headed home with one of graces friends. It was a fun night but a little wierd. We leave for Vienna tomorrow and 7 days until I come home! Haha

Prague day one

This morning I woke up and thought grace had left me without anything because her class started at nine and it was definately past nine! But I went and looked in her room and she was still sleeping too haha. We ended up just hanging out in her apartment all morning. I wrote my blog while she slept haha. At around 11 we started moving for the day. We got dressed and headed out to catch a tram and a metro so we could meet her class. We ended up going to the modern art museum. It took forever to get there and the heat in this town is unbearable. No ac anywhere. No fans either. And it has to be over 100. Unbearable. It was giving me a headache and we all just walk around in silence. It's too hot to talk. We walked into the art museum and they had this giant egg that you could push and It would wobble and a bell would chime. I was so excited that the whole museum was going to be like that. It was not. It was pretty boring art but some of it was cool to look at. I saw some picasso and Monet but after 2 hours I was starving and ready to leave. We left and decided to goto Charles bridge and see the sights but first we stopped and got a bagel. Tuna is wierd over here. I can't wait for some American tuna haha. After a hot a sweaty lunch we got on another tram and headed for the bridge. We stopped in a few shops just to use their air conditioning. Haha. After a while of walking we made it to the bridge. Very cool but oh my god the heat. Grace and Sarah wanted to shop for pictures so I found myself perched under the statues for shade. It was cool to see but honestly I'm done looking at buildings. I feel like after you have seen a few thousand you've seen them all. After the bridge we hoofed it to some famous architect's building grace wanted to go have a coctail on top of. No shade. Coctail hour was cut little short. After the building we headed back to her apartment to take a nap and get ready for the night. Nap time lasted a little too long and getting ready took forever so we were a lot late getting out. We went and had dinner in this incredibly loud and hot restaurant which was pretty good! Fetuccini with Alfredo and chicken. Mmm. Then everybody from her class showed up outside so we headed out for the night. The night was a bust. We took a long tram ride to this bar where a pub crawl was going on at. It was so hot and steamy in there that I lifted a foot to step in the door and as soon as I opened it turned around and said I need another minute in the cool air before I brave that. Keep in mind cool air is 75 degrees still. Whew so we ended up sitting on the corner watching all of these tools and their nice cars and bleach blonde bimbos parade around eachother. Haha. Quite entertaining. After all of that we all just wanted to goto bed so that's what we did. :)   

Travel and Prague

So this morning i woke up to the hotest train cabin in the world and an hour early. The lady said she would come by and wake us up an hour before  the train arrived at 11:40 and she woke us up 2 hours early. That should have been my first clue something was wrong. My second should have been we weren't moving.  The whole night they froze us to death and now that it's morning and the sun is blazing in. Nothing. I thought I was going to pass out from heat stroke. We sat still for over an hour and a half. Ugh. When I went to bed at night there was a car attached to the barthroom. When I woke up an engine and when I came out of the bathroom. Nothing. Just the track hahha. So we sat there forever and ate our roll for breakfast. Long story short they messed up and we didn't get into Prague until 4:40. Five hours late. Awesome. Apparently we were late and our engine didn't wait for us. I don't know. But after all my creeper experiences I'm getting good at detecting the non creepers to sit with. I found a nice mom and daughter from Texas or something. I got my magazine fix too! Ahh. When I arrived I was starving because all they fed us was a roll and I got one more from the asains. I had to get a subway pass and get krowns. Now I have four currencies with me. Yay. So I took 2 subways and met up with grace! It's so good to be with my friends again! I sat with them while they did their homework at a pub and then we went to her apartment. It is so nice!! Free washing machine and a hair dryer and an actual apartment! I get to sleep on the couch but I don't care! It's comfy and it's free and it has amenities! Yay! We all got ready and went out to a jazz festival in old town. The square is goregous and it was a lot of fun to be in that scene! I got ham from a vendor for dinner and later found that I was ripped off. Mine was so expensive comared to theirs! And the prices here really freak me out! I have been here 2 days and still have to pull out my converter to see how much I'm spending. Dinner is about 250 krowns which is about $12.50. I just had to pull out the converter to tell you that. Haha. I'm so confussed. We sat and watched the festival for a while and then went out to meet the others and find a club. We went a had a beer at an empty place and then headed off to another club. There were more people at this one but the music was terrible. Not terrible but it wasn't in any of my top picks. It was 90s American music. Music from at least ten years ago. When I asked the dj if he had anything more recent he had no idea what I was saying. I still don't know how to say please or thank you or anything in Czech. We ended up getting a fish bowl drink. Which is exactly what it sounds like... They make one giant drink and put it in a fish bowl and shove a lot of straws in it hahha. We had a lot of fun but it was kinda dull. There ended up being a little drama at the end of the night but grace and I just ended up going home and going to bed. But it was still 3 in the morning haha. Long day but good to be with friends again!  

Geneva and travel day... Soon to be days.

This morning I woke up, got all my stuff packed, cleaned up and headed out the door. Still without a hair dryer mind you. I'm pretty upset about this hairdryer thing. I think I'll kiss mine as soon as I get home. Maybe buy it some ice cream. Anyway I checked out and then tried to explain to them that some lady said she would drive me to the train station. Her husband ended up doing it. Yay! Let number three random ride continue. So once we were in the car he attempted to tell me the bus was the best route, where was I going? When did train leave? Turned out it didn't leave for a while. Oops bad planning on my part because that town would have been awful to sit in for hours! But luckily the nice man said I drive you in geneva direction. Aka I'll drive you there. He spoke very very little English but we tried to talk the whole way. It was exhausting. Language barrier equals exhausting terrible conversation. I've had to learn their English because it's not the same. I'm on holiday... British thing. And I goto university. Not school. Not college. But university. I drove through the town bill wanted me to goto viruez en sallaz. And I got some sweet pics of the signs and town. Not great because French man was cruisin, but ok ones. That is the town the sallaz's are named after. Still haven't found ooley-ville but I'm looking. He dropped me off at some train station light rail thing. And after much concussion hopped on. Made it into town and the tourist office!!! Yay. They have become my biffles. (best friends for life BFLs). Put my stuff in a locker at the train station and headed out to kill 7 hours. I was bored and lonely and don't have money to shop so it was a pretty boring day. I did jack the apple stores Internet connection and use their new ipad to reconnect with the world to an extent. Yay! Also charged my phone a little. Shh. But for the most part i walked around old town and looked at old stuff until I thought I was about to melt from the heat and the humidity. It was insanely hot and humid. Insane! I was pouring sweat. I grabbed a cheap lunch and then went shopping a little. Not because i wanted to shop but more because I wanted air conditioning. Ahh. Finally I got the brilliant idea to goto a movie so I went back to my biffles and asked where on was. I had to kill 2 hours so I went and looked at the jet d'eatu. A giant fountain that shoots really high in the sky and has a pier out to it. You can get drenched on that thing and as much as I wanted to decided not to. I went and saw eclipse!!! The twilight books third movie. Read the books. I don't care what age you are. Read them. Please. They are amazing. Movie was good and then I grabbed what I hopped was orange chicken (it wasn't) and headed to catch my train. There were some kind of traffic problems and it didn't leave until 30 minutes late and so now my loose travel times were getting a lot less loose. Had to change trains which also left late. I asked the ticket man about my next connection and he told me platform 9. So when I got off the train I ran to platform 9. When I got up the stairs the train was pulling away and I was freaking out. But I looked at the clock and I still had 5 minutes and trains don't leave early. So I checked the platform. It was 10. Yay! Train still there. I got on and made my bed... It was a sleeper train. I was with 5 asains which was fine. Alot less creepy than some frenchmen! Our train left 20 minutes late but i didn't care. And I attempted to fall asleep. Those are really hard to sleep on! Thanks for the eye patch ma! I used it a lot. Next time put those yoga pants in my bag when i'm not looking. HAha goodnight! 

Tour de France and the world cup!!!

This morning I woke up around 7 and got all my stuff ready quickly so that I could catch my train. When I got downstairs to have reception call me a cab no one was there so I called the number of the cab that had picked me up the night before.  No answer. Called again and asked for a taxi... his reply. No. No? No. Alrighty. About then the lady who runs the place came in and called a cab for me. Same cab company and same answer. No. She told me to go into town and a taxi would be there. No one was there. By now I am really late and freaking out. I went into a restaurant that was open and she gave me a list of cabs. No one answered. She called and got someone to come get me. Yay! But I had offically missed all of the trains and so I had to have her drive me another town away. Cost a fortune. I decided not to stay another night because it was so expensive and so far away which meant I had all my stuff with me. When she dropped me off at the train station I was planning on putting my stuff in a locker there but it was the tiniest town ever and therefore the tiniest train station ever so no lockers. I went and grabbed breakfast and asked about a hotel to stay at. No hotels. I was not having a good morning. At all. So I started my walk to the tour. I had planned on walking to the tour but not with my giant pack on my back and my day pack on my front. When I got to where the sidewalk ended I was really freaking out. It was such a busy road!! So I called my mom at like 1 am her time to see what her input was. Take another taxi or walk. About then a guy appeared from behind his fence and asked on French where I wanted to go
I think. I told him tour de France. He said hold on and disappeared. I got off the phone with my mom and was about to hoof it back to the train station to get a taxi when I heard a car start so I waited for a second. A hillbilly Frenchman ended up driving me up the road to the tour. I was only a 10 minute drive but I was terrified the whole time. The only thing that made me comfortable was that his 15 year old daughter came with. He ended up dropping me off on the side of the road and I started walking. I walked from st. Jeoire to mieussy which took about an hour and a half. Keep in mind I'm still Sherpa-ing all my stuff around. There were already people set up with their cars and their rv's and their attentas and radios all along the road. I also got passed by a hundred cyclists. It was so cool to see everyone so excited about the tour. It was only 10am and they didn't come by until at least 2:30. So after I walked forever I came into mieussy. The first thing I came to was the tourist office. Didn't speak English. Of course. But I asked about a hotel and a taxi. I wasn't sure I had it in me to Sherpa back down the mountain considering I had already walked 4 km. When I got into town I grabbed some breakfast and water and continued on. The whole town was decorated with white and red for the climbers jersey. Bikes painted everywhere. Big jerseys hung up. Scare crows on bikes. It was awesome. As I was about to go up the first round about I saw a hotel up the hill so I turned around just to see what was up consdering I had already sweated out half my body weight. I asked about vacancies and how much a taxi would be in the morning. She said 50 and she would drive me. Deal. So I dropped my bag and continued on with my smaller pack. I could have stopped anywhere but I wanted to be far enough up so when they passed me they wouldn't be one huge peleton. So I hiked and hiked and hiked about 6 km up the mountain. It took me about 2+ hours but the scenery was amazing. Thousands of people lining the roads. Bushes decorated. Flags flying from all countries. It was so much fun to see!!! Really amazing how big of a deal it is in Europe! Very cool. I have a lot of pictures! Along with all of the cars I was passed by hundreds of cyclists! So many in all shapes and sizes! Mountain bikes, crap road bikes, the nicest bikes, young, old. Everyone. I was so jealous! When I finally decided on a spot I still had about 2.5 hours until it started. I tried to nap but I was affraid I would miss it. About an hour before the riders there was an entire parade. It was the craziest thing ever. You hear about the riders but you don't hear about the show before hand. Advertisments throwing laundry detergent, maganets, candy, jerseys, caps. Everything! And they are all bumpin music and in big flashy cars... Like modern day floats! One company even had people riding their bike a foot off the ground on rollers attached to a tiny segway looking thing. It was really cool and I got a lot of loot out of it! Although I threw a lot out... that pack is heavy enough. They also had a travelling store and I was looking at the pics in my official guide because i can't read what it says. French. And i saw the official kit. Yep a van drove by and I bought it. Talk about instant gratification. So now I had the shirt and a wristband! Yay! 

It took about another hour for the riders to come by. You could tell they were close by the 5 helicopters swarming overhead. They have so many team cars!!! Each one must have at least 20! They came before, during and after the riders. They came by in 5 or more different groups. The leaders (2), four chasers. The peleton. A couple stragglers. Another peleton. And more stragglers. They weren't going very fast but yet they were. And no. I didn't specifically see lance. But it was amazing to see the whole thing. The riders, the fans, the towns decorated, everything. An experience of a lifetime!

After the riders went by and the end of the stage van I packed up my loot and headed back down the mountain. It took me only half the time to walk down, but I was so sweaty and exhausted that it felt like forever. I was also starting to get pretty lonely... Travelling alone can do that to you sometimes. When I made it to my hotel it was awesome because they had the tour on tv and I got to watch the last 20 min. And I have to say... It is amazing to see the tour when you goto it and experince the culture... But not to watch it. It's kinda hard to see a 200 mile stage in a football field distance. You just don't get the whole gyst. After the tour I went upstairs s to shower and watch a little French tv and right when I was about to hop in the shower the power went out. Annnd therefore if you know me you'll know I didn't shower. Still afraid of the dark haha. So I went downstairs and waited... They had said five minutes and 30 later still no dice so
I went out to eat. I wanted to watch the world cup so I went to the only bar in town and found out that it didn't start for a while anyway but I decided to grab a bratworst like thing anyways for dinner. Just ok. I had an hour to kill so I went back up to the hotel and showered and then headed back down for the world cup finals. Hup holland!!! There were a lot of people there. Families and then the normal bar crowd. I watched the whole game in french, good thing soccer is kind of self explainitory. The waiter came up to me and said something in French... I think he was asking if this guy outside could buy me a drink but i didn't understand so he left. Haha but after holland lost... Sad day... And I walked outside that man approached me and asked again.  I was bored so I was like why not. I asked first if he or his friends spoke English... He obviously didn't and after talking to his friends they barely did. So I drank my beer and he was like oh you want another? I told him no but he wasn't having no so he filled it up... They had this contraption at the table. So I thought to myself ok drink it he fills it so I just won't drink it all. I drank the next one and left a fourth of it in the glass and set it on the table behind me. We talk for like 45 min. That was all I could take. They would speak French to eachother and laugh and I would speak the basics with his 2 friends but it was so dull and so hard to understand eachother that it was just pointless. Everyone once in a while the guy who bought me a drink would try and say something to me but I could never understand what he was saying and you could tell he was annoyed I wasn't talking to him. Whatever. So I went to take my last sip and head home. When I turned around my glass was full and I was just like no way. Not because I was drunk but just because I  couldn't stand that dull conversation any longer  so I said goodnight. They were all like you go home with alex? And I said no no I go home alone. Not with alex? No. By myself. Alex was obviously upset by this and he was like you have to finish your beer. I told him I'm sure one of his friends would drink it. Nope. Going to bed. Apparently when a boy buys you a drink over here there are expectations and we were warned of this but it hadn't been true throughout Europe yet so I thought I was fine. Not fine. I did wise up and stop saying that I was alone though haha. But alex definately expected something. I left and talked to some Americans for a minute and then headed up the hill. As soon as I was out of sight I started running. Best decision of my life. I ran until I saw my hotel and then I walked up some stairs and across the parking lot. When I was halfway across the lot a car came ripping around the corner. I am now sprinting towards the door. When the car saw me it stopped. Put it in reverse. And came speeding into the parking lot. Meanwhile I'm punching in the code as fast as I can. Thank god there was a code to get in and thank god I remembered it! Door unlocked as he pulled up and I slipped inside, barely looked at him and waved goodnight and went imediately upstairs shutting every door behind me. Wow. Creep. I don't know what his plan was once he found me but I don't want to know. I need to invest in pepper spray. But I am writting this story days later, I'm not travelling alone anymore and we have boys with us! All is good. I'm nessled safely on graces couch! After that I was careful about shutting my blinds before I turned on my lights and I went to bed. Whew. Great day... Scary end!

End of chamomix and travel.

This morning woke up and moved my matress back into my room, packed my things and then got on my way. I decided to hike to lac blanc today so I stored my big bag, got breakfast- the most delicious croissant of my life- and then got on the train. I had to go just one stop down to a different cable car-le flegere. I headed up the car and started my hike. I decided to go the long way because the ticket lady said it would be worth it. The scenery was goregous as always in chamomix, with the alps all around me. I hiked for an hour and a half up to lac blanc. Along the way I found the most goregous waterfall! I have a sligh obsession with waterfalls. Also I was passing everone on the trail! I was proud of me, but I also didn't have a giant pack on. But they had good shoes and ski poles on their side! Whatever ski poles do??? The end of the trail was intense! Ladders and wood bolted into the rock as steps. Intense. But I made it and at the top I even got a omlette from this little restaurant! Sooo good! The French have a thing with saying Bon appetit before you eat and the group of old men next to me said it before I started eating. How nice! Haha. I sat there for a while... I wanted to sleep on the table but I resisted. I checked out the lake a bit and then headed back down. The lake was pretty cool because it had snow in it that you could see, kinda like mini glaciers. Scary to walk on though! Especially with my traction! The way down was all down! No flat or uphill, all down! It was nice :) when I got down i hopped on the cable car, then the train and then headed to grab my stuff at the hostel. I got some gelato on the way- fresh fruit blueberry! The best. I picked up my bag, talked to my mom for a sec and then found my train. It wasn't a long ride- only about an hour an a half but when I got there I was in the tiniest village ever! Not happy. I had to call a taxi which cost me a fortune, literally. And when I finally got into Les cerroz I was so tired and grumpy. My room was pretty bad for what I was paying for it. No hair dryer. Doesn't seem like a big deal but it's those little things that can make a bad day terrible.  I went to the tourist office to see about a better place. Nothing. I phone charger. Nothing. Bus to town. Nothing. So I forced myself to eat- they laughed at me when I said just one for dinner. Jerks. After food I felt much better and I made the 20 min hike back up to my hotel and showered, watched some french tv and went to bed. 

Chamonix day 3

This morning I woke up and grabbed breakfast with the isralli boys who bought it for me! Yay free breakfast!! nothing special but still nice. After breakfast I headed off to the cable car to make my way up the lapelle d'midi. It was really expensive and I couldn't extend the pass I already bought but it was definately worth it. I took one car up to the mid point and then a second car all the way to the top. On your way up you see a small glacier towards the too and when you get on top of it the small glacier has at least a 30 foot face on it. Also when you are are the mid station and even in town all the mountain around look just huge, but when you get on too of the alp du midi everything looks small. The mountains accross the way look like small hills. It was so amazing. I could stand in France and see Switzerland and Italy from the top. It is such an amazing view of the mountains and the glaciers that are all around. When I got there I went from observation deck to observation deck just looking around. It was freezing up there also!! About 85 degrees in town and goosebump degree up top. I stayed and looked around for about 3 hours! So it turned out to be
A good thing that I missed the cable car yesterday. Also while I was up there I figured out what all the people had all of their equipment for... People were coming out of every oraface of the mountain!! Rock climbers repelled down a 150 Ft face and then climbed back up it. People were climbing on another really tall rock near an observation deck. People were coming up from the rocks with cramp ons on and then climbing up a ladder to an obsevation deck. And then there were the people actually cloming mont blanc. I couldn't see them on the summit but the were definately coming down from it. Tiny tiny black dots in groups of 3s and 5s coming down and winding around to where we were standing. Wow is all I have to say. The mountaineers were tearing apart that mountain!!! I'm impressed. On one of the decks I met a guy from Canada who was also travelling alone but in Europe for a lot longer time. He is going to the tour tomorrow with some friends so I might try and meet up with him, although it's a big course and after what happened last night I am staying in a private room from now on haha. I'll get into that later though. I talked to dan for about an hour and then we went our separate ways. I ended up watching some climbers for a while until Frostbite was about to set in and then I made my descent down the mountain. As soon as I got down I went and grabbed lunch and headed back to my hostel. I was debating between going to Lyon or not but after talking to my mom decided not to 8 hours of travel for 6 hours of a visit. Not worth it. So now I had a little bit before I could check back in so I went for a nice walk around town. Found the spot where the world climbing championships are going to be held and watched them practice for a bit. Wow do they have nice bodies!!! Haha. After I checked in I went for another stroll and then came back and found the israli boys an went to dinner with them. My first steak in Europe! Food good, service terrible. That's ok though, it was nice to have company. After dinner we tried to find a nightlife in town. Unsucessful. So we went back to our bar at the hostel. I went into my room and got sucked into a convo with my new roomates. 2 brothers a little older than me. Seemed really nice. Then around 12:30 I went to bed. Around 1:30 I was woken up to the boy who was sleeping below me standing right next to me. I was on the top bunk and he on the bottom. He had climbed up my ladder and I have NO idea what his intensions were. Glad I didn't find out. I woke up and I was facing away from him and I turned my head around to see him hovering over me inches from my face and my first reaction was "whoa!!" and then he quickly climbed back down the ladder and got into bed. The more I thought about it the more freaked out I got so I grabbed my phone and went to the bathroom. On my way downstairs I ran into a nice couple and asked them if they had an extra bed in their room. They didn't but he offered to take my matress off my bed and move it into their room and let me sleep on the floor. So that's what I did. So creepy! So so so so creepy! He acted so guilty in the morning too. Wouldn't even open his eyes and look at me. So the rest of that night was a little sketchy. Girls screaming outside, boys yelling. But I was safe!!  

Chamonix day 2

This morning I woke up pretty early because my alarm was dead and I was affraid I wouldn't wake up. I got ready and grabbed some breakfast at the grocery store and went over to the train station to meet my canyoning guide! He was so nice and actually spoke English! Yay! We went and picked up the family that was going with us and headed for the canyon. When we got there and started to get dressed I quickly learned that the family who had 2 kids did not speak English. Only french which put me in for a lot of translating time with the guide as to what we were doing. We got all dressed in wet suits and headed up the mountain. I had to wear my tennis shoes which sucked because I wanted to go hiking later and they were about to get soaking wet. Grr. We hiked for about 20 min and got our instructions and hoped in the water. Canyoning is pretty much rafting minus the raft. You just slide around on your but down the rocks and off waterfalls and through chutes! It was so much fun!! I jumped off a 15 foot cliff, which hurt a lot less with the wet suit!!, and repelled down a 70 foot water fall. That was fun because on the last half you were sliding down the water fall with your back on it and water just pounding on top of your head. The kids were screaming and crying which was annoying but we all made it alive! It was so much fun! I wish I could have done the full day but I have plans for Sunday... Tour de France!!! Which I can't miss. It took us about 3 hours to get down and then we got undressed and in dry clothes and headed back into town. All my appliances were dead so I got a converter that didn't work and went and grabbed lunch at this bagel place. As close to American food as I could find. Pretty good too. I went back to my hostel and grabbed my wet shoes and put them on and headed off for the mountain. I decided that I wanted to see the ice caves so I took the the up to montevers. I was so tired that again on the way up I was falling asleep in the train again. Hahah. At the top I imedidately got onto the cable car and went down to the ice caves. They had a sign posted that there was 400 stairs both ways to the caves but I am so used to climbing that many stairs lately that it was no big deal. Just another stair case in Europe. Haha so I hiked down and walked into the caves and immediately regreted my clothes choice. Shorts and a tank top aren't too warm in an ice cave. I guess they have to recarve the cave every year and been doing it for some 60 years. Seems kinda silly to me but I guess I'm not trying to attract tourists either. The cave was realatively short and they had lights which would turn the whole cave blue and green and purple. It was really pretty. They also had carvings within the cave. A polar bear. A bedroom. A bar I think and other stuff. They also had a st. Bernard in the cave that you could pay to take pictures with.  Haha. Shouldve done it. Oh well. After the caves. I really wanted to see the top of auguille d midi. The really tall mountain. But I was running out of time considering it was 4. I thought about taking the train back and then riding the lift up but it would have taken an hour at least to do all that so I decided to hike the same route I did yesterday but backwards. And I was trying to make it in under 2:05 min. The hike was a lot harder this way. It starts with a giant mountain to hike up and then you go down for a little and then it's just a gradual uphill the rest of the way. The scenery was amazing. Arguably better than the day before. I didn't see anyone else on the trail going my way and only a few coming toward me. I ended up making it in 1:45 minutes. My butt is still sore. Haha. But the lady told me the wrong time and I was 10 min late to catch the last gondola. Grr. But it all worked out because I was exhausted and starving. I came back down the mountain and took a shower and then headed off for dinner. I ended up eating at the same place as I had the night before. When I walked in the same man was there and I was like hi! I'm back! And he looked over to this girl at the bar and told her this is the girl I was telling you about!! Haha apparently she is from Durango and out visiting and so we talked for a while before I ate. I had the same thing as the night before and it was still just as good. After dinner I headed back to my hostel and when my phone wouldn't charge I went out to see if the guy at the front desk would do it for me. I ended up talking to him for a while and  then te israli boys that were saying there too came in so I talked to them for a while and then headed off to bed. Pretty amazing day! Love chamonix!

End of school and chamomix

 

Today we woke up pretty early and headed off for bouveret. Because it's a Sunday I had a really hard time finding a train because apparently people don't travelon Sundays? I'm not exactly sure. So when i was looking for reservations it took me a while to find one but I finally did! Or so I thought. I printed the schedule off and everything and when we got off at our stop to get on the next train I realized that I printed off the schedule for Monday. Ahhhh so  we got online... This phone is a life saver! That or Italian... Still don't speak it. So we found our route and 12 hours later made it to school. Ugh long day! Nothing too interesting happened on the train. Reading, sleep, music, waiting and writing. That's about it! When we got into our station everyone was out at one of the three restaurants eating! So I ran up to the school to drop off my bag and grab the right currency. Stupid Swiss francs! I went back downstairs an ordered a 23 franc tortellini, this place is SOO expensive!!! And we sat there and heard about the stories and adventures of everyones travels. Pretty funny! One girl got so drunk she kept face planting and walking into poles on the walk home. She now has a black eye. I guess she made a pretty big scene in the morning still drunk on the train throwing her clothes all over looking or her eurail. Haha. They also woke her up by throwing bottles of water on her. Hahha. Another boy went out with his friend when steve went back with his girlfriend he stayed out partying. He woke up in the hospital with a gash in his eye with no recolection of what happened that night or where he was. Hahha. Oops! 
The mountains on this train are goregous and my camera is almost dead! Grrr. 
So after we finished eating we were about to get up when our teacher who taugh the cooking class and works at the school walked by! So we called him over to sit with us. The first thing Hillary said to him was I heard you went swimming! And he was like ooh ooh you heard about that!?!? Hah I guess he partied with the students from Vegas and did a power hour- a sip of beer every minute for an hour- with them and ended up dancing on the table and then going skinny dipping in the lake. Hahahha. Let me give you a visual of him... Grey hair Swiss man prob 55 who is a chef and worked all over the world. Was a playboy, still is, or tries. He is hilarious and harmless so stop worrying. We (ar me hillary and liz) ended up having 3 bottles of wine and talking to him for about 3 hours. He gave us life lessons about everything. It was really interesting to talk to him and also very funny. It was a really good night! Then we all went to bed. 

The next day we woke up and had class all day. Nothing special really happened. Stressed about travel plans and decided where to go. Worked on our project for the next day and did some laundry. We ended up grilling and I ate free! Yay. Talked to my mom a lot. It's so nice to have Internet so I can call her! And went to bed relatively early. 

Yesterday woke up early and put the finishing touches on our project and then went to class and presented it. We listened to presentations the first half and then just talked about food for the last half. I was looking online a lot of it figuring out where to eat for my birthday and looking at interesting restaurants and researching my trip. So I kinda only half attended class. After class a few of us went down and jumped into the lake for one last time! Then we got ready for dinner. On my walk back up from the lake Arleigh talked to me and said she had decided to travel alone. I kinda wanted to too but its just going to suck to be alone for a week. Im pretty stressed and worried about it.Things have gotten really wierd between the three of us. They are best friends now and I'm not in that. Oh well. I'm sure I will have a great time by myself! Or that's what I'm saying anyway. 
We went down to dinner which was a buffet style and sat for about 2 and a half hours eating and talking. It was kinda our last time with everyone. Bittersweet. During the dinner I was really worried about my travels so my mind was kinda off somewhere. I got to talk to my teacher about food and what to do with my life. Hah like I have any idea. I guess I'm learning though. This trip has definately helped me. After dinner I called my mom and dad and figures out my plans more. Also packed my bags and got ready to leave. I can't believe it's over. It went by so fast. Always does. I'm really glad to be done with school but it is really hard to see everybody get to go home. I wish I was too. But I just need to make it through today and tomorrow and I will be back on my feet. I have had the experience of a lifetime and the next 2 weeks will be no different. 

I headed down stairs and joined in on the last night of partying together. We all sat in a big circle and played cards and if I'm being honest drinking games with cards haha. We had a lot of fun just sitting around talking and enjoying eachothers company. That was the last time that I saw a lot of the people. Sad :( 
Side note: they have the wierdest bugs here. They are not American bugs. I don't like them any more. I might even like them less. I don't know what they
Are or what they do. I have a spider living above my bed and he drops all his dead things on my headboard eww. I let him live though. Big of me. 

I went to bed about one and then woke up at seven. It hit me pretty hard this morning that I was leaving to travel alone. Might have been tears involved. I'm making though. And I don't need any inspirational comments on this blog... They will prob just make me cry so don't even think about it. I had a momentary freak out about my hotel. Thought it was in the wrong town and emailed to cancel. Went to breakfast and then came back down slighty calmer. Not in the wrong town. Haha so emailed them back to add another night and remove a person. I called them. They still don't speak English ugh. This language barrier is getting old. I had to make a couple other calls. So difficult! I'll copy and paste the email so you can see what I'm dealing with. And keep in mind this is good English!
"we thank you for your booking and we work about it for you prepare a pleasant stay in our establishment" 
Whaaaat? That is probably exactly how stupid we sound when we use a translator online. The higher up this mountain I go the less I want to cry so I'm going to stop writing and start looking out the window. Mom I almost called you at 1:30 in the morning freaking out. But I didn't. And don't you dare say I could have. I love you all.

The Asian next to me just got up and moved seats because there was a fly on the window. Hahahha. I wish you could see the view I just got when I cam out of this tunnel! Snow capped jagged peaks of the French alps! Wow! Bill told me about an extreme skiing place called chamomix. I am going there today and I haven't even gotten off the train and I am in love! It is goregous here!!! Amazing. Can't wait to go hike all around and go canyoning! I may not even goto Lyon!

So when I got off the train I went to the map to find the information office. Walked all over and finally went into a hotel and it was right around the corner haha. I went and got a map and went to find a converter. Closed. Then I went to my hostel to check in. Closed. So I put my pack in the back under a table and hoped that no one would steal it. I pit on my gear and then headed off for lunch and to hike. I was planning on hiking with my purse because I only have my giant pack or my purse. I didn't make it past too many backpack shops until I stopped in and got a small one. Best purchase ever! My heavy purse turned into the lightest pack ever! I then went and got lunch and chose which hike I was going to do... Decided on a traverse accross the mountain starting at one lift and ending up at another. I was looking aroun and saw the lift so I started walking toward it. Bought a two day pass and got on the gondola. When I got up to the top things didn't look right. I wasn't sure what they were supposed to look like but I had a feeling not like it did. I couldn't find where I was anywhere on the map so after a few quick pictures I went and asked the lift operator. Yep the mountains that I had just taken pictures in front of. That is where I was supposed to be. Haha so I rode the lift down and walked through town And got on the lift on the other side of the mountains. A giant cable car took us half way up. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough time to hike to the other lift so I was just going to hike around and ride the cable car back down. I asked another person what time the last train down was and when she told me I had enough time to make it I continued on my way. It took me about 2.5 hours to do the whole thing but it wasn't too tough and the scenery is breathtaking! I can't even describe how goregous it is here!!! Posted some on facebook. When I got to the train I bought a well deserved ice cream and got on the train. I was so tired that I was falling asleep on it! Oops. When I got down I made my way back to my hotel and took a shower. Felt sooo good!! When I worked up the energy I went out to find some dinner. I menu shopped for probably 20 minutes before deciding on a place. Oh my god it was amazing. So far I have cleaned my plate everywhere we go, but this place not so. And the guy spoke to me in English! ahhh english. So nice. It was top 5 best meals of the trip! Chicken pasta with penne noodles in an Alfredo like sauce and fresh Parmesan with mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes. Wow. After dinner I went to go watch the semi finals of the world cup. The pub the guy suggested was really busy so I went back to my hostel and got a beer and watched it there. When the game was over I passed out! Long day but such an amazing place! 

Cinque terre day two

Cinque terre day two! 

This morning we woke up around 9:30 and got ready for another day at the beach. We got our floaties and put on sunscreen and went to get breakfast. I got this delicious panini thing. It had olive oil and mozzarella with olives and oregano in a pita like thing toasted. Very good although I'm getting really sick of eating bread and cheese. I also got a peach and an apple and an apple pastry. The fruit is so delicious here and so fresh! They don't have a whole table of apples to choose from, just about 15 to 20. It's nice. So after we grabbed breakfast we headed down to the beach. When we got down there we finished blowing up our floaties and hopped in the water. It was already a lot busier because it was Saturday. I was reluctant to dive in because I knew my bottoms were going to come off and the water is so clear that the 6 old men sitting there were going to get a show hahah.  Those old men plan their locations well. We jumped in and just relaxed out in the water. The water was a lot rougher. More waves and more choppy! Where yesterday we were being taken out to sea, today we we being thrown into the rocks. Julie's raft has a small hole in it so after an hour or two she was practically sinking haha. We played in the water until about 12:30 and then headed back up the mountain before out hostel closed. We got ready to do the other half of the hike and headed out. We grabbed some more fruit and on our way ran into Matteo again hahha. Learned where he lived also that his mom is the one we buy our fruit from. This town is too small. We were originally going to hike there and then train back but it was so hot we decided to do the opposite. So we hopped on the train to the last village riomaggiore and walked down to the water to rent kayaks. Ar and Julie shared one while I got my own. We headed back toward the fourth village and as we were heading out we saw all these boys cliff jumping. Ah looked like so much fun. We kayaked to the fourth town and then decided to head to our village... It looked so close. It wasn't. Haha. The girls were going so slow so I went ahead and soon I couldn't even see them behind me haha. I paddled and paddled and finally made it to our beach! It was even more crowded now. I paddled up onto the outlet and pulled it out of the water and then went and dove in to wait for the girls. They never came. Haha so I just floated an swan for 15 min and then went and grabbed my kayak again. Turning it around was an interesting experience on the slippery surface to say the least haha. And no one speaks my language so it's not like I can easily ask for help. I managed and set sail back to the fifth village. Whew Long row! And so many boats were flying by. Some if the nice ones would slow down but the big ferries didn't. They were a ways away but I was still terrified of their wake. After a couple of them I learned that i wasn't going to capsize but it was still sketchy. Especially alone! I finally made it back after about 45 min of paddling to find the girls swimming in the water so I parked my boat and went to join them. People were still cliff diving from about 30 and 60 feet. Ugh I wanted to do it so bad but the girls didn't want to. Another group of girls was going so i swam up to one of them and asked if she would go again with me.  Haha. So we climbed up the rock face and she jumped first from the 30 foot one and then I followed. It was so high up!!! And you had to jump out away from the rock or else you'd die! Scary. But after a minute of looking at it I jumped off. It was so much fun but when I landed... OWWW my bum!!!! I didn't think I could swim to the rocks I hurt so bad! But it was definately worth it! I swam around and climbed out. Some goregous man helped me out ;) those local boys just sit there all day preying on girls like us haha. And it works well. Julie took a pic of me but it wasn't very good so I went over to those girls and they had an amazing one so I gave her my info and she is going to send it to me I hope!!!! I hope! It was so cool. Me mid air with my arms in the air. After all that acitivty I was starving! I went to rinse off with the hose. And queqe the second set of old men with good placement. Chairs set up 15 feet away from the hose off station. Awesome. So I showered off and put some of my clothes and we headed off to search for food. We ended up finding this nice restaurant where ar and I shared a beef carpaccio appetizer and the I got a seafood penne entree. It said prawn like seafood and out came whole prawns. The only helpful part was their head was cut off of their body. I'm down to try new things and I ate the tails but sucking whatever is in the head out of it like crawfish. Count me out. Ufggg that is just one step too much for my brain. If they pulled whatever is up there out I would eat it but I'm not sucking it out. Eww. But the tails and the pasta was really good. Pretty messy though! After lunch we headed back to the train station. When we were kayaking we could see the other half of the trail we were going to hike and it was pretty flat and paved... Where is the fun it that??? We didn't see any and we wouldve had to pay so we just took the train to the fourth village and walked around. We grabbed some gelato and then went for a swim at their beach. So much fun but it was a lot dirtier. We swam around for about 30 minuntes. Ar was tired so she stayed on shore while Julie and I checked out all the little coves. Happiest girls! After our swim we showered off and headed back to catch the train home. We arrived at the perfect wrong time so we had to wait an hour.  When we got back we hiked up the 365 steps and took turns showering. We then went to the place with the pretty view to watch the sunset. Suh a beautiful view from there! 3 of the 4 cities in sight. We took a lot of pics don't worry! Then about an hour later guess who showed up??! Matteo of course haha. Small town like I said. We talked to him for an hour or two and driled him more on what his life was like. The boys in Europe are so out going and more fun! He was singing and wanted to dance and everything. In america the only way a boy sings or dances is if he is really drunk and won't remeber it the next morning. He was a lot of fun singing lady gaga to us hahah. After a while we called it a night and got some more gelatto and ate it on our bench and then went to bed. We ran into him again on our walk up hahah.  We all packed our stuff up and then i wrote my blog and passed out. Another amazing day! 
Misses! 

Day one in cinque terre

So this morning Julie and I woke up early to goto the beach! We were so excited. When we walked out into this little square we noticed there was a van there with supplies like toilet paper and soap. We didnt really inderarand why but after watching for a bit assumed it was For the townspeople to get the stuff they need. Send one person into town for everyone. How crazy! We later asked matteo. The boy from last night, and he said it was just for the elders to get their supplies. Sill pretty crazy and also a good idea! We got breakfast at this cute little bakery and headed down the long stairs to the water. 3/4 of the way down you can see the beach and there was no sun on it. It was too early. Bummer because we were going down there to lay in the sun, not the shade. So we decided to hike back up and layout at our hostel... Also in the shade. Onto plan c. Talk on the bench until the shop opened. Ar was still sleeping so we went to get her at 10:15 and she was already gone. We were supposed to meet at the beach but we obviously weren't there. Ooops. So Julie and i went to the shop to get floaty rafts!!! After much debate we decided on 3 personal rafts that you would lay on in a pool. Except we were laying on them in the Mediterranean! Haha one better. Turned out to be the best purchase of the trip!! I also got a mask and snorkel which sucked because it let a lo of water in. Oh well...  So after we made our purchase we headed back down to the water and luckily ar was waiting for us. We blew up our rafts and got in the water asap. Ahhh it was amazing!!! We layed in the water on our rafts from 11 to 3. Best plan ever. You could get off and swim or just float and toss a leg in. So great. When I went snorkeling there were definately some fish but I was taking on water so it was a short lived experience. Ar and I went up to get lunch around 1 and we decided on a sit down place but had to run and get more money first... Hostel closed from 1 to 3. Grrr so we got pizza instead. We went back down to the water and floated some more and then around 3 decided to get out and head back to start our hike. We got all ready and walked all the way down to the train. I swear this place should just be called the stairmaster. No wonder Americans are fat. We don't have 365 stairs to get to the village from the train or god knows how many to get from the village to the beach. Whew. We took the train from the 3rd village, corniglia to the 5th village, montessero. We toodled aroud for a minute and then started our hike back to our village. 7km in total. We thought we were doing the easy hike but turns out we were doing te hard one. Bring it on. A crap load of stairs later (keep in mind when I say stairs in not talking about equal perfect stairs, I'm talking about bricks from rocks or just rocks that are all different sizes and heights and ugh stairs) and ups and downs later we made it to the 4th village vernazza. Ahhh. Ohh and i fed the homeless and unloved cats along the way! The bucket told me to! And arleigh pushed the button to call the fire brigade for help. She didnt read just started pushing buttons. Haha oops! We were singing the whole way! It was so much fun! We got into the village and looked around and then found a place to eat. Mmm I tried a spaghetti with clams and muscles. Clams and muscles I know. I actually like them! It was really good. After dinner we grabbed some gelato and headed off on our second leg of the hike. I specifically said that I dint want to be hiking with my ice cream but of course I barely got one bite on and we were off. We got some amazing pics on these hikes!  We ran ino some grad students from ???? And ??? Who were pretty nice. We hiked and talked with them for a while but they were too slow so we left them. We ended up hiking so fast! Practically running! I don't know where we got all the energy from but somehow we found it! By the end of the hike it was getting dark and we were all starting freak out while not breaking our ankles. Hard to tell what's a step or what's a rock or what's a rock step in the dark! We finally made it into town and we all started celebrating. I turned my head around this little building and saw this couple so I said ooh! And kept walking. Arleigh didn't see them. She layed down on the road right next to them and was praising the lord that we made
It. Meanwhile I'm laughing my ass off
Because I know those people are just sitting right next to her and probably think she is crazy! Haha about then she noticed them and we were all on the ground laughing so hard! We made it back to the hostel and took some showers and then headed off to the pretty spot to see what we could see. We ran into Matteo and talked to him for a second. Arleigh looked at the stars... We sang some more and then went to bed. Another day in paradise!!! Misses 

Florence, siena, banfi, and cinque terre

Italy!
So this morning we woke up early and all 18 of us headed to Florence. We left at 7 and got there at 2... Long travel but for some for some reason train travel never seems that long to me. One we got there 8 of us were staying in an apartment together but it was a walk away so we bought a map and headed off. Florence is so pretty. It's all arcitechture and shopping. A lot of shopping. We finally got to the street and had to be buzzed into this sketchy door where he the man informed us we were going to be split up and at 2 different locations. The Julies and Arleigh and I took the apartment. I was pretty nice. A place to sleep and a good view. We got ready and went to meet the other group. It is so hot here! This is what I envisioned when I packed a month ago so it was nice to finally get to wear my clothes. It's nice to be sweating instead of freezing! We waited and wAited and they were taking forever so we just left them haha. We stopped by the ATM and walked around. We Got some gelato and then grabbed a couple beers at this cafe. The man working there was hilarious. He kept trying to talk to us and we barely understood him. Like usual. The julies wanted piercings so we walked to the shop around the corner and one got her nose pierced and the other a part of her ear. Hahah. They were so scared and the guy was so funny about it. He wouldn't let anyone go in to hold their hands. after that we were just walking around and ran into the other girls so we went and grabbed dinner with them. We ran into the other half of our group who was eating too but no one wants to eat with a group of 18... It's hard enough with 8. We ended up eating in one of the major squares. 10 euros for dinner and a drink. I got the veal in a lemon sauce. It was terrible. I was so disappointed. The lemon sauce was a slice of lemon and the veal was so overcooked. It was rock hard. Not a fan. After dinner some people got gelato and we went shopping but the store close minutes before we got there. Not everyone wanted to go shopping so we decided to meet at this bar because we wanted to go out. Or so we thought. We finally got to the bar and the others were nowhere to be found so we just sat and watched the end of the soccer game and got our 5 shots for 5 euros. A great deal and they were tiny and watered down so we well got a lot of them and shared. Haha hours later they still hadn't come so we left to goto a better club. Right when we left the other showed up so we went back. We made some friends... About 5 girls from Scotland? So our wolfpack grew to 9. Haha. We all dance for a while and then headed to another club. They were break dancing which was amazing to watch but I was tired so the girls walked with me home where I went to bed and they web back until 3 am. It was overall a pretty great night.

The next day we all woke up around 9. I took all the stuff off my bed but then slept in Julie's. Haha don't even know. Arleigh slept in the other girls apartment so she called us in the morning and headed over. I hoped in the shower and started to get ready when ar comes in at like 9:20 and is like so bike ride today!?!? Haha the bike ride leaves at 10 keep in mind. So we called around 9:30 to see if we could go and they said they were full but then called us back and changed there mind. So now we are fratically packing to make it on time. Haha it's like 9:50 now and we didn't make it out the door until :55 haha. Hair wet and half of us still dirty. I'm impressed that we pulled ourselves together that fast! We ran to the place and this Scottish man was waiting in the middle of the street for us and knew it was us as soon as we came sprinting around the corner. Haha. We threw our stuff in his office and headed off to the van. Bad decision to drink the night before. But in our defense we didn't know we were doing a bike ride the next day. The drive seemed like forever and he was driving like a mad man over all the windy roads and hills. They had to pull over and put Julie in the front seat so she didn't vom all over. Hahaahaha. So when we finally arrived at the castle we toured the castle which was cool but I wasn't in the right state to appreciate it. The castle was a winery and they had oak barrels of wine bigger than me... Bigger than all of us. We hiked up to the top and got a nice view of Tuscany. We were in the chianti region. After the view we got a glass of wine.... Great just what we needed... And bread with olive oil. The olive oil tastes like olives, which you would assume, but back home ours doesn't taste like that. It is also spicy from the soil it grows in. Pretty cool. Just FYI I miss a lot of beautiful scenery writing these stupid things. We are on a bus right now drivinig through Tuscany to go tour a vineyard. It's goregous outside. I'm never coming back.  

Then we had the opportunity to buy wine and oil and headed off to the fun part. The bikes! I rode oompa loompa! Hahha so much fun. We split into 2 groups and then headed off into the countryside! It was a lot of downhill but they wouldn't let us go fast... Not that you really can on a mountain bike.  I miss my bike :(. Anytime you want to mail it over mom you just let me know. I learned by the end to be last and wait until they were half way down and then just fly down!!! Hahah system beat. It was so much fun. Experince of a lifetime. There are vineyards and olive trees everywhere here. That's all there is. It's amazing! We stopped for lunch which was salad, a creamy tomato Penne and dessert. Forest berries (boysenberry) ice cream. It sucked haha but the pasta was great. I think my full-o-meter is broken because I definately could have eaten another plate or two. Then we got back on our bikes and did a long flat section and 
Looked at the scenery. After about 30 min of riding we got to a hill where you could ride up or put your bike on the truck and drive up. Of course I rode it! But all my friends got on the truck. Haha. I think only about 6 people do it and they all pushed there bikes part of the way. It was a b**ch for sure. And the heat! It had to be 95! That was the killer. I made it up without walking but I had to stop a couple times as to not pass out from a heat stroke! I also rode on the wrong side of the rode. It had better shading :). We stopped at a cafe at the top of the hill and had a little water and continued on. The last part was a short ride back to the castle. We got the shirts there that say Tuscany bike tour on the front and "put the fun between your legs" on the back hahaha. Dad and bill I tried to get you one but they didn't have you size. So sorry! And mom I didn't figure you'd appreciate it to the fullest extent so... We loaded back up in the van exhausted mainly from the sun. Ugh I want my bike so bad. Maybe I'll just buy one and call it my souvenier. If bill can bring back a surf board (to colorado) I surely can bring a bike! I can at least use mine! 

So now we are in the death van a little less hungover and a lot more tired. I had to put my head down and close my eyes. The drive and driving is just too much. We finally got back and went to go get dinner. Sounds like an easy task. It's not. Not at all. We went to about 15 restaurants and they were all closed or sucked. When we finally found one I didn't like my meal (risotto mom. I didn't like the risotto) and only ate half of it. It was made with roclette cheese which was what we had in class, but it was so salty. Ugh. Not having good luck eating in Italy. Except for the pizza and champagne I just had for breakfast. Mmmm. Breakfast of champions! After dinner we headed to the train station. We were sitting on a Bench waiting for the train and ar went to get a drink and comes spriting back yelling the train leaves at 20:10 it was 20:07. Happens everytime. So we ran and caught the train. It was so hot on that stupid train we were literally dripping sweat. Just adding to the day of biking. We arrived in sienna at around 9:30 and asked where we were on the map. Not on the map haha. All they could say was taxi. So we took a taxi. Oh. My. God. We arrived and this little lady was creepin in the shadows who was actually the lady that checked us in. Haha.  

Side note: Jake just came up to mr freaking out and took off his socks and asking if the 3 bites on his foot were bug bites. Hahaha. Great. Good to know I'm the bed bug expert. I'll put it on My resume. 

So back to the hotel. The lady let us into our room and our jaws just dropped. We are in the most goregous place ever! It is so nice! 2 giant beds. A couch. A tv. A kitchen with a fridge and dishwasher and a table! And the best part. The bathroom! Ohhh myyyy. 2. Count em two bathrooms with giant showers and mirrors and it is luxurious. I am so so happy. So it was a fight to
See who showered first. I got second but that was fine because I got to
Take a long tome. Freezing cold shower. Ahhhh it felt so good. Nothing as refreshing. Especially after such a sweaty and hot day. We all then went to bed at around midnight. I didn't sleep at all. And I had to wake up twice to charge everything. Phones, 3 cameras. So that didn't help my sleep. Took me at least an hour to fall back asleep each time grrr. We were all so exhausted. I don't know why I didn't sleep. I wrote half of this last night, I bet you can tell where I picked up again. My change in mood was drastic.

Woke up and opened the shutters to an amazing view of Tuscany and vineyards. Oh my. Happiest girl. We took showers and headed off to catch the bus into town. Waited for the wrong bus. Naturally. So now we are in a franctic hustle to get a taxi so we can catch the bus. We had to go knock at that lady who checked us in's house. Haha. It was just down the road. She called us a taxi and we made it 8 min late but the bus waited for us! Yay. You know how you see in movies the roads lined with trees. I always thought that looked too good to be true. It's not. It's so pretty! We got on the bus and headed off fo the banfi vineyards. The drive was amazing but I sprang most of it writing this so I didn't get to see too much. We arrived at this castle and picked up our tour guide and drove down to the manufacturing plant. We got to see where they sort the grapes all the way through the barrels it is stored in for years. I thought it was a really interesting tour. Cool to see how wine is made. I would like to see it when it was more in use though. It's not time to harvest so it is pretty quiet. After the tour we drove back up to the castle where we had a wine tasting. 4 wines, one white and 4 red. They were delicious. I normally don't like red wines but these were smooth. It was an interesting experience but I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. Probably because I don't. After the wine tasting we went to the private dining room to have lunch. Oh wow. It was amazing. Ah- mazing. Noodles with a butter sauce and cherry tomatoes with a little sausage and asparagus. It was so delicious. The 2nd course was really good also. But nowhere as good as the first one. Beef that was so tender you could cut it with a butter knife and roasted potatoes. Mmm so yummy. Then we loaded back onto the bus and headed back to sienna. When we got in ar and Julie and I went into town to explore. We ended up finding the horse races which is this major event where every village has a horse and a flag and a song and they turn the major plaza into a horse track. Everyone sings for their village and wears the flag. It was so cool to see but the race was short because it was just a practice round. The actual race isn't for a couple of days but i'm glad I got to see the practice round. Once we got back I went for a walk and then went to bed. Good day. 

Today Julie slept in and Arleigh and I just talked until she got up. We packed up our things and the nice lady drove us to the train station. Ahh. We got there and met a nice group from California who we talked to for a while. The train was messed up so we had to take a later one and decided to goto the grocery store across the street. Had plenty of time to get our things and head out but if course we still ended up sprinting for the train. We took 3 trains to cinque terre which is 5 little villages on the coast of Italy. We are staying in corniglia which is the third little town. After hiking up a giant hill in the 90 degree weather we finally made it to our hostel in the center of town. It is pretty nice! Nothing compared to our last place but we have our own bathroom and room. But we put an extra bed in the room so it's a little tight but it's not like we spend anytime here anyway. After we got here we went and got gelato and then put on our suits and headed down to the beach. This village is tiny! We found the path to the beach down this tiny staircase with a little sign. Whew the hike down to the beach is a long and steep one! But once you get down there it is worth it! They're isn't any sand but there is a pier you can jump off of into the water and places you can layout and tan. They're are a bunch of little boats that I want to borrow and go for a row but I refrained. The water has so much salt in it that it is so easy to float. It's so muh in to lay out in the middle of the inlet and float on your back! And there are a lot of little hot pockets in the water. It's so refreshing! After a couple hours of swimming and tanning we headed back up the mountain of stairs. I'm going to have the nicest but after this. It's like a never ending stair master here! When we reached the top we found a little restaurant and went upstairs to eat dinner. I had penne with tomato sauce and pesto! Mm the best of both worlds! After dinner was more gelato and then cold showers. Ahh so nice. Ar and Julie went for a walk while I showered and when I was done it was entirely too hot to sit in the room so I went outside and found some benches with a nice view and went to sit an write this and read. These 2 boys walked up and stood at the railing for a while and one of them left while the other one came and sat next to me haha. He ended up being from corniglia and spoke pretty good English although I had to slow down and explain a lot of stuff.  It was really interesting talking to him because I got to pick his brain about the town and what's it's like and what italy is like! Apparently this is only a town of 300 people... Tiny wow! And there are more in the summer for the tourism. There are vineyards on the hill and they at just for the families of the village. They All make their own wine to drink for the year. He lives with his whole family and thought it was crazy that I live in the same town as mine but I don't live with them. We talked for a while and he wanted to take me to this place to watch the subset but I declined. After we talked somemore and I established he wasn't a rapist we went to the spot. It was about 2 min away and through the center of town. It was so wowed walking through town with him because everyone knows everyone And everyones business. I could tell they all were talking about him but I still don't speak Italian so I have no idea what they were saying. The view fom that spot was amazing! You can see 3 of the 4 towns from there! After a little I said goodnight and headed back to the hostel. The girls weren't there so i went back to the bench area and there they were!!! We talked for a while and I showed them the cool spot and then we came back and went to bed! Great day!

School in bouveret switzerland

School
So I haven't written in a whole because there isn't really anything to write about. I'll touch on the interesting parts though.  After day one we just had another day of class. Nothing special. This class is a lot more interesting Than the last class. We are actually learning abou something. The next day, we will call it thursday, we had a demonstration in the morning from one of the directors. He cooked around 6 dishes for us like crepe suszette and a beef dish, a chicken dish, a fish one, Irish coffee mmmm, ceassr salad and a shrimp cocktail. It was really about how to serve these items table side with russian service so it is pleasing to the eye. It was really interesting but he was hard to understand. Grace and sarah came and met me for lunch and then after lunch half od us got to cook in the kitchen. It was so much fun, but again hard to understand. We had roclette which is a traditional cheese dish. It's a big wheel of cheese and they cut it in half and then put it in this machine which toasts the cheese and when it's all bubbly you take it out and scrape it off with a knife. Repeat. So delicious. We had fondue and then a veal dish. Oh it was so yummy. We served it with these Swiss harhbrowns. Mmmm. Then we had a dessert which I was not a fan of. He put kirsch in it which is a cherry liquor. He put so much in I honestly think i could have gotten drunk from a piece. Definately off of the whole cake. 
Side note: we are triaining through the Swiss alps right now. It's goregous. Vineyards everywhere! 
The we had a grill out one night but I didn't partake for money reasons... Gotta save that dough. 
Friday we had class in the morning and then a wine tasting in the afternoon. It was really interesting and I learned a lonhut after hour 4 I was about to scream. This 2.5 weeks of class in one day kills me. Then finally we tasted the wine. It was good. Didn't learn too much about actually tasting but the last wine was Soooo good. Dessert wine. Gotta love them. 
After that we had a dinner. It was good. But we had to be in uniform and we were at the school so it just seemed like more class. In class from 9 to 8. Long day. 

Saturday they didn't serve breakfast. Grr. But we did have Brunch which was arguably better. Breakfast AND lunch! Wow. Then we got out of class early!!! And we went to motreaux to get our train tickets. Success. And we shopped for a minute. Got an adorable shirt. We got back on the boat and as soon as we got back got in our swim suits and jumped into the lake.  It felt so nice! The lake is the cleanest lake in europe... Or at least that's what we were told. 

Sunday we had to goto class at 8 instead of 9... Sooo early. 8 hours of class later and a lot of bad pictures and doodling we were done! Longest day of my life! We went swimming again in the lake. It was so busy! Everyone was out. Then we went to dinner and Eddi and I shared the fondue. Mmm steak in oil! it was so good but couldve been marinated more. After dinner I packed my bag and showered and then went to bed!

We woke up this morning at 6:25 for our 7:00 am train. Rough. Now we are all on our way to Florence! I am honestly most happy to not have school! I don't care where I am as long as it's not sitting in class. Sorry it was so brief. Nothing happened in that tiny town. Promise. 

I'll be better this week in Italy! Misses