Day Twenty-Four: Florence

Though the forecast predicted thunderstorms and miserable weather, we were greeted in the morning with California-esque blue skies and piles of ivory clouds. The temperature was warm enough to go sans jacket, and it seemed like a very pleasant day was upon us.
With our own personal navigator, Nick, at the helm, we wandered through the streets of Florence to the Uffizi Gallery. Florence is absolutely beautiful, especially in young or aging light. The houses are all painted with warmth and the people display that same level of warmth. If I had to choose between Florence and Rome to live in, I would most definitely pick the former.
With only minimal difficulty, we made it into the museum and started our exploration. It's really quite a shame that neither Clarissa nor Joyce are blogging for this day, because they could provide a much better analysis of the museum. Nick and I went off by ourselves, as we tend to appreciate art much more quickly than the other two. We did actually stop and look at a few pieces this time around. My favorite was a set of paintings inspired by the seven cardinal virtues. We also saw the Birth of Venus, which is far less exciting in person. I also really enjoy the different interpretations of religious scenes. Each artist used their faith in a different fashion.
Otherwise, we really just ate, which will become a regular pass time for us in Italy. I will attempt to hunt down pictures, but they are scattered across cellphones at the moment. All in all, it was a wonderful day without too much excitement. Florence is beautiful.

Day Twenty-Three: Interlaken to Florence

Everyone had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 6 am to catch a one of the many trains that would take us to Florence, Italy. We switched from train to train without a hitch (thank God Swiss trains are known for their punctuality). Then we walked to our beautiful apartment with an amazing rooftop terrace. We quickly settled in, many of us taking naps until it was an appropriate time to eat dinner. After our delicious meal, we grabbed some gelato on the walk back. It was our first taste of true Italian gelato and we were hooked. After all of our meals we now needed a scoop (or two) of gelato for the meal to feel complete. Upon return to the apartment, everyone went to bed early, excited for tomorrow's adventures.

Day Twenty-Two: Interlaken

Nick's post!

Today was quite an eventful day for all of us. I didn't really think that much was going to happen. I had planned to maybe go tandem-paragliding for the first time, but I was worried because the weather looked very questionable. I signed up anyways for the 2 pm time slot. With a couple of hours to kill, I was able to watch Joyce learn to ride a bike. Yes, ride a bike. Almost 18 years old and Joyce still had NOT learned how to ride a bike. So, we rented one of the hostel's bikes for an hour and made her learn.

I'l admit I was not the most patient teacher and gave up after a little bit. Clarissa and Sarah were a little better and stayed outside with Joyce. It was a good thing, though, that I decided to go inside because it was there that I sat next to Chris, one of our fellow tent-mates. I hadn't really spoken a word to him the whole time we'd been here, so I was a bit nervous as I sat next to him to plug in my phone to charge. Although, it turned out that he is actually very amiable, and we started talking right away. Half an hour later, the rest of the group came inside (Joyce had been successful in riding a bike on her own aside from making left turns). They had decided to sign up for horseback riding instead of paragliding which disappointed me because the original plan was for at least one of them to take pictures of me in the air. Now their appointment coincided with mine. Chris piped up, though, and promptly offered to ride his bike to my landing spot to take some photos! Good thing I made friends with him.

When two o clock finally came to pass, we parted our separate ways as I boarded a small van to my paragliding spot and the females a bus towards the horses. 

Paragliding was one of the coolest, funnest experiences I have ever had. It felt like I had wings and could fly anywhere I wanted to. Being tandem, I could not go wherever I wanted to, of course, but it was great nonetheless. 

I could seriously see myself getting into paragliding on my own. Apparently there are small schools at which you can get your license and experience in two weeks. 

I got back to the hostel a couple of hours later and sat down with Chris and Rick, our tent mates, and Trevor, Rick's friend. We were all talking about my first time paragliding when the women walked in. They all looked content except for Joyce who, turns out, is pretty allergic to horses.

The rest of the night was very fun. We and basically everyone we had met all had a few drinks to celebrate our new adventures. I remember coming to the hostel on the first day and feeling a bit shy since everyone was talking in what seemed like their already-made cliques and whatnot. However, by this night, we were the ones talking loudly, playing foosball, and socializing with the rest of the hostel. It was nearly two in the morning when everyone finally parted for bed. It was a great day to finish off Switzerland!

Day Twenty-One: Zermatt

On day twenty-one we took a train through the beautiful mountains of Switzerland up to Zermatt, from where you can see the Matterhorn. We got a bit turned around, however, and ended up in Bern, so we explored the city a bit before getting onto another train and heading up to the very touristy mountain town. We learned that Switzerland is a difficult place to visit on a tight budget, as everything, from food, to clothes, to activities is very pricey. Thus, there wasn't too much to do in Zermatt. It was very picturesque though.

It was too cloudy to really see the Matterhorn, but just being so close to it was cool. Here, have an internet picture!

Overall, it was a very relaxed and scenic day.

Day Twenty: Munich to Interlaken

The train ride itself was fairly uneventful. We were worried about the eight minute layover, and while our first train was indeed delayed by twenty minutes, our connecting train was delayed by forty minutes. Our connecting train ended up stopping in Basel rather than Interlaken because the Swiss do not like belated trains. Instead of having the train be late, they just canceled the train. But, we managed to catch another train and made it to Interlaken safe and sound. The train ride was pretty beautiful. We passed by water that was impossibly blue and large lakes that seemed to stretch into the horizon. The clouds billowed across the sky, and little bit of blue shone within the cracks. It was astounding.
When we arrived in the town, it was raining in a sort of miserable way. We made the trek to the hostel only to be told that we had to walk longer to the tent village. Dragging our suitcases behind us like large sacks of flour, we somehow stumbled to what was our home for those three days.
The tent village was a collection of small tents with a large meeting tent. The specific tent we received had six beds in them. Four of them belonged to us, and the other two belonged to an Englishman named Rick and an Australian named Chris who sleeps like the dead. The bathrooms were all coed and smelled slightly. This was not like the luxurious apartments that we had become accustomed to.
We went out for a diner of enormous kebabs and falafels, and then eventually settled in our beds and went to sleep.

Day Nineteen: Munich

We all woke up surprised to see breakfast already made and set for us. After eating lots of bread with various toppings, the twins (Valerie and Natalie ) took us out to the main part of town. There we walked through different stores, weeping about of lack of money we had to spend. Then we were taken to a restaurant that served traditional German cuisine which is essentially just meat and potatoes. And also the largest beers any of us have ever seen. With our bellies full of yummy food, the twins continued to stuff us by taking us to a very famous and busy dessert place. By the end, hardly any of us could move, so we decided to go home and take a nap. Again we woke to more food, though this time it was delicious barbecue steaks and sausages. I swear we did more than just eat all day. After dinner, we all went to a 16+ club. There we had a few drinks, danced, and enjoyed everyone's company. By midnight, those under eighteen were shooed out of the club so we headed home. Here's a picture of everyone before going home:

We all had a great night and quickly fell asleep once we got home.

Day Eighteen: Berlin to Munich

It's Nick -

Super short blogging post since we just traveled for most of the day. For some reason our train ride took six hours to get from Berlin to Munich, but it was just more time to sleep. We arrived at the train station in Munich and greeted Sarah's friends Valarie, Natalie, and Rita. They were all very nice, but they all spoke German to each other and Sarah so the rest of us would awkwardly stand to the side not understanding a thing. We rested at their house where we were staying before going out into the town with them. We grabbed a few drinks, toured a little bit around Munich, and then went home to sleep.

Day Seventeen: Berlin

We're back! We're in Florence now, but back to Berlin. Our only full day in Berlin began with us going to see the historic East Side Gallery, a portion of the remaining Berlin Wall that has been painted over by artists. It's very cool and very moving.

Joyce and I then went to a Salvador Dali exhibit without Sarah and Nick because they're still kunstbaunausens. Dali is an interesting artist, partially because you go from works like this:

To this:

He had a bit too much fun with the glitter glue.

We all met up and went to the Berlin branch of Vapiano and then devoted the rest of the day to Nick's cousin Claudio, his wife Cleo, and their baby boy Liam. We all ate more food and then went to a park, suffering through the heat the whole time. Cleo and Liam went home, but Claudio took us to the restaurant where he was married and we sat and chatted for quite a while until we were interrupted by a very sudden and very violent thunderstorm. The wind and rain made it impossible to stay on the restaurant's patio so we sprinted back to our apartment through rain the likes of which I've never experienced in sunny California. It was fun :) After that, we changed into dry clothes and went to bed.

Hey all. I know that we're behind, but there probably won't be any new posts for a few days as our access to internet is spotty here at our Swiss hostel. Don't panic, all is well, but don't expect to hear from us within the next three days.

Day Sixteen: Amsterdam to Berlin

  This is going to be brief, unlike the horrendous train ride we endured on this day. We woke up in the early morning and made our way to check out of the apartment. Unbeknownst to us at the time, the office does not open until nine in the morning, and we met the cleaning lady instead. After trying to speak with the women, who had difficulty with English, we just threw the keys in the mailbox and left. We had a train to catch, and we were not about to try and find new transportation.
We then had to get our EuRail passes validated, making our catching the train uncertain. Somehow, we made it with fifteen minutes to spare. What we didn't know, in spite of poor announcements, was that the train was pulling in backwards. We entered in the back, and were told to go to the front in the two minutes we had before the train was to leave. Needless to say, it was a mite bit stressful.
We then entered the car we were to sit in, and were hit by a wall of stale air. I actually had some difficulty breathing. The AC had broken down, as well as the fridges, so we had neither cold air nor cold sustenance. It was mildly irritating.
About five hours into the ride, we saw everyone getting up to disembark the train. It was not the final stop, so we were very confused. It turned out that something was wrong with the train, and we were to have to get on a new one. At the very least, the new one was much nicer.
We made it to the apartment an hour late, and had to walk in sweltering heat to get there. Though the apartment was very nice, we felt strangled by the warmth in the air. I laid on top of my covers and just suffered until I fell asleep.

Day Fifteen: Amsterdam

It's Nick's day to blog!

Though, not a very eventful day to blog about, I must say. We all woke up really late today around 1 in the afternoon. We were hungry and so decided to eat, yet again, at Va Piano. Fortunately, their food is pretty good and there is enough variety so that we don't get bored within a few days. 

After we ate, we decided to walk home to look up something to do in Amsterdam....except that we got side-tracked in our apartment by napping for a few hours. But once we finally got up, we decided to go to Amsterdam's large park, Vondelpark. There were a lot more people than we expected, with many of them bicycling, sitting and talking, or even barbecuing in the grass. We walked around, excited that we had found where many of the locals go to hang out, and found a very large tree that looked perfect for climbing. It is from this small event that the only picture of this post comes.

They call me Tarzan

We also sat and played Wizard in the park for a while before leaving. We walked back to our apartment and decided to be lazy bums for another few hours before going once again to the Waterhole and enjoying the lively atmosphere and live music for the last time. 

Day Fourteen: Amsterdam

The entire group slowly rolled out of bed early in the afternoon at around 12:30 after our first night out. With our tummies rumbling for actual food, we went to our favorite restaurant, Va Piano. This restaurant was sent from heaven above and graciously bestowed upon humankind for all to enjoy.It's essentially a pasta and pizza bar, where you can order what you'd like to eat and see the food being made in front of you. It allows customers to interact with cooks (where else did we find out about The Waterhole?) and choose exactly how they want their food made. Did I also mention how affordable the food is as well? Thank goodness since all of us are on a poor traveler's budget. But best of all, this restaurant had what we all needed the most: free wi-fi. Clearly, I can go on and on about how wonderful this place is, but we did things other than eat pasta and use the Internet. We also went to the Van Gogh museum! Well, more like Clarissa and I went to the museum while Sarah and Nick ran through the displays and sat at the cafe using their wi-fi. While the two of us slowly strolled throughout the museum unlike the other two kunstbaunausens, we saw many of Van Gogh's greatest works as well as the works of other artists that influenced him. I believe these are two of our favorites.






















So that was exciting, though I think the rest of the group was more excited to go out to another bar. We tried to branch out and search for other bars but sadly, no bar was as cool as The Waterhole. So we ended up there...again. I even branched out far enough to drink a tiny bit of beer. We all had a great time exploring both the bar scene and Amsterdam at night.

Day Thirteen: Paris to Amsterdam

Our day began way too early so that we could catch our 8:25 train to Amsterdam. Aside from the hell that is taking suitcases up and down stairs, the morning was uneventful. A three hour nap later, we pulled into the train station. 

Amsterdam, we learned, is a very interesting city in that it is absolutely impossible to navigate it effectively. Even the locals seem a bit lost, and none of them give good directions. Apparently, left and right mean opposite things in Amsterdam. Who knew? Getting lost was alright, however, as Amsterdam is quite possibly the most beautiful city I've ever seen.

Eventually, we found our apartment, which is located not to the left of McDonald's, but to its right and directly above Asian Kitchen. As I said, the locals' direction-giving was questionable. We battled one last flight of stairs and settled into our large apartment.

Earlier in the day, we had received a tip from a waiter that a bar called The Last Waterhole is popular among Amsterdamians, so after changing into appropriate attire, we set off for our first ever bar. On the way, we stopped to sit on the edge of a canal and wave to passing tourists like the Parisians do while watching the sunset. Some of the tourists even too pictures of us.

I see now why so much art comes out of the Netherlands, especially paintings of sunsets. It's very picturesque, and it takes a solid half hour for the sun to set. As it slowly got dark, we made our way to the Waterhole. Inside, there was excellent live music and we ordered our first beers, which ranged from palatable to disgusting. We drank them anyways, for experience's sake.

It was a good experience :)

Day Twelve: Paris

We woke up fairly early in preparation for a morning of haggling and spending precious euros. We took a long metro trip to the Puces de Vances, which is the flea market near the Porte de Vances. We saw an array of items, from old cameras to antique books to wooden pipes to beautiful suitcases to quaint birdcages. Probably half the items were junk that the vendors picked up out of the trashes, but there were treasures hidden amongst them. I managed to get a poetry book from the nineteenth century for seven euros! The others also picked up some knick knacks. I don't know how many of them were presents for friends, so I won't reveal what they are on this blog!

Upon returning to the apartment, I took an extensive nap. The others could have been up to all sorts of shenanigans and I would have had no idea. You can ask them about that.

We then decided that we would go see Paris at night. We weren't sure what Parisians did for fun other than walking, shopping, and eating small portions, but perhaps we would discover this under the cloak of nighttime.

So, of course, we did the most touristy thing available and boarded a boat on the Seine River for a sightseeing cruise. There was a large group of Chinese tourists with us, and we battled for spots on the top of the boat. The sun had set, and lights were beginning to turn on all over Paris.

In front of us sat a group of teenagers speaking a language unknown to us. Even though we knew that they could probably understand us, it didn't stop us from loudly talking about them and making fools of ourselves. To be fair, though, they started talking about us first. Here are excerpts of some of our conversations:

Nick: " Dey gay?"
*guys move apart
Nick and I: " Nah, dey no gay"

*girl flirts with multiple guys
Nick: Find the boyfriend!

*girl continues to flirt with multiple guys
Clarissa: "Polygamy!"

Clarissa: "Quick, let's all speak in different languages. Maybe we can confuse them!"

^This is a picture that Nick took. He made sure to wait until they turned around and was really obvious in doing so.


Eventually, Nick's friendly smile broke the ice, and he asked them whether or not they spoke English. One of the guys said they did in a tone that basically screamed "of course, you twats." It turns out that they are from Slovakia!

We then started talking with them a little bit. They all made fun of our expensive smartphones as in Slovakia, according to these trustworthy teenagers, there is not even internet. In fact, they just discovered wood and fire! Good for them!

One guy asked to take a picture with me. It was a little bit flattering!

We ended up talking more to the Slovakians than looking at the landscape, but it was really pretty regardless!

ALSO, WE FOUND THE PARISIANS. REPEAT. WE FOUND THE PARISIANS.

They sit on the edge of the river and drink and eat. We were very excited to find them!

The boat docked after an hour long cruise of laughing with our new Slovakian comrades. We then got a wee bit lost on our way to the metro, but managed to find it with a little help from a French jogger.

Upon coming to our station, we ducked into the first crepe place we saw and got for ourselves a little midnight snack. We came back to our apartment tired, but accomplished.

Day Eleven: Paris

Yet again we're falling behind in our daily blogging adventures. But today was an exciting adventure. At least for me and Clarissa, the two artists of the group. (I'm blogging about my adventures with Clarissa, essentially Nick and Sarah went to the top of the Eiffel tower.) We went to any artist's or historian's dream, the Musee du Louvre. (Also known as where the Mona Lisa is.) The museum itself should be a piece of art.







Throughout the museum Clarissa and I oo-ed and aww-ed at the spectacular paintings displayed. We would simply walk up to paintings and groan in unison together because of how great the art piece was. Or one would spot statues from afar, unable to formulate full sentences, and simply said words like "the fabric" or "the lace detail" with the other nodding in agreement. However, both of us flipped out over this one particular painting. It's called The Immaculate Conception by Anton Raphael.

                                             

That was essentially our day. I got to see amazing art by even more amazing artists, that can never be a bad day in my book.

Day Ten: Paris

'Tis Nick, as per usual on Clarissa's account.

Ah, what a wonderful day to be woken up by screaming children running up and down the apartment complex stairs, elderly women having loud phone conversations next door, and angry persons banging on the doors of other people. But that's alright, I had to be up early with the rest of the group anyways to go to the open-air market to shop for some fresh produce.

We all walked a short way to a nearby street in order to pick up some fruits and vegetables for cooking or otherwise snacking. It was sprinkling just a little bit, but not enough to require an umbrella. We purchased fine-looking lemons, tomatoes, strawberries, basil, and of course Paris' famous bread. We also ordered breakfast crepes, if you consider Nutella a nutritious breakfast. Which we do. Happiness is a nutrient. 

Anyways, after we were finished shopping, we noticed the rain falling just a bit more heavily and the wild just a tad more chilly, so we decided to stop back at the apartment for some thicker clothing and umbrellas. Then, we were out again, taking the Metro towards La Basilique du Sacre Couer de Montmartre, one of the large, beautiful churches of Paris. 

But first, we stopped at the square in Montmartre known as the Artists' Corner. By now, the rain was picking up some more and we were glad that we stopped back at the apartment for umbrellas. Much of the art was very astounding, but we weren't allowed to take photos. 

The church stood but a few minutes walk away from the square.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to have our cameras out while inside the church, as expected. Thus, this is actually the only photo of the day that we have. 

While inside, we gawked in awe at the magnificent aesthetics that filled the large cathedral. We lit some candles for some special people who have passed away then left.

On our journey back towards the Metro station, Clarissa stopped by a store to purchase a scarf to keep her warm. The rest of us waited outside in the rain, since we felt fine. However, as we were waiting a man walked up to us and started talking with us. His general questions about the weather, where we were from, and vacation turned into deep flirtation with Sarah. It was both creepy yet a bit comical. He made her promise to come back to the Artists' Corner and ask for "Paul" if she ever returned to Paris. Well, at least she can say that she got hit on by a French thirty-something year-old, every woman's fantasy. 

We again returned to our apartment to pick up even heavier clothing because, by this time, the rain was pounding pretty hard. We stepped in our door, wet with rain, and plopped down onto the couch. We were going to go out again and not be lame, I promise, but the hard rain was very dissuading to the point where we decided to stay in the rest of the day, watching movies and eating more Nutella. 

So we saw a few things today and had a good time anyways, even if we ended early and got no pictures.

Day Nine: London to Paris

Our last day in London was brief, we just cleaned and left. We then took a train through Paris. It's strange, the English countryside looked utterly English, and, though they were almost exactly the same, the countryside on the other side of the channel was utterly French.

We arrived in Paris and dropped our things off at our apartment (which is lovely despite the incomprehensible dryer) and headed off for an afternoon of sightseeing, beginning at Notre Dame.

The building is absolutely beautiful, not to mention huge. Joyce regaled us with facts about the architecture and history and explained the difference between a statue and a relief to Nick (A relief is cut out of the stone, but not fully three dimensional. The pieces the doorways are primarily reliefs). 

In the plaza in front of Notre Dame was an interesting street performer who followed and mimicked tourists for as long as he could without them noticing. This is him pretending to wrangle pigeons.

We didn't actually go into the church, as the line was rather long, but we appreciated it nonetheless. 

After spending some time looking at the church and watching the street performer, we slowly made our way to our apartment, meandering through Paris along the way.

There was the occasional drizzle, but that didn't decrease the beauty of the city. Paris, with its little cafes, frequent street performers, and breathtaking architecture, is just as captivating as it is rumored to be.

 Also, the bread is good.

Day Eight: London

Today was our last full day in London. The sky was lined with clouds in shades of gray, as if London desired to show us its true state of being. We woke up in the morning with vague plans and a desire to simply explore some of the more famous parts of London.
Our first stop was the London Eye, which is essentially an enormous Ferris wheel with viewing capsules and half hour rides. We managed to get through the line rather quickly and entered a capsule with a group of elderly people, all of which smelled a little bit too strongly of perfume geared towards a geriatric audience.

The capsules have glass that curves over the floor, which grants a 360 degree view of London. Seeing the sprawl of streets and buildings, with both modern and old intertwined, over such a large area was pretty brilliant.

The older ladies and gentlemen began to converse with us a bit. They were excited to speak with us about all the times that they themselves have traveled to our home state of California, and they also gave us a few tips for our travels to Paris. The friendliness of strangers never fails to land a smile on my face.
After the London Eye, we made our way to Harrods, which is a huge department store. It was basically a mall and ridiculously expensive. We all felt very much out of place. We looked through room after room filled with things ranging from amazing children's toys to beautiful home showrooms to extraordinary art pieces. Of course, I'd have to sell my soul (if I had one) in order to afford any of the things, but it was nice to look at.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. We took a long nap and ate a sit down dinner. It wasn't long before we all faded to sleep.