Adventure is Out There: Italy/Switzerland Style

June 6, 2014

Today was a slow one. We woke up at like 9:45. Heather said we could stay in their vacation home so we moved upstairs to that. It's sweet! We get our own room, kitchen, bathroom, and living room. The best part of the kitchen is that it leads off to a GORGEOUS balcony. It's surrounded by other balconies and it has a ton of flowers. So Italian. So awesome. 

We finally got ready and Dave (heather's husband) gave us directions and some pointers on what to do for the day. He told us we had to get our bus tickets at the bar around the corner first because they have bus police and if you don't have a ticket that's been stamped, they'll fine you right there. So we headed to the bar right away. We couldn't find it. We had just arrived in Florence and we were already lost. So we went back to Heather's and asked Dave for more direction and he started explaining the bar to us and come to find out, he was talking about a cafe. That we had seen! That was strike one with Dave's directions. 

So we went to the "bar" and got our tickets and then we headed to the grocery store and got some brunch and took it to the bus station with us. We got on bus 13, just like Dave told us to do, and we were told we had to take the Piazzale Michelangelo stop. Buses in Italy are strange. If your stop is about to come, you have to press the stop button or else they may not stop there. On the way, there was an adorable old lady that got on the bus and I offered her an empty chair by me and she absolutely loved that! She didn't speak English at all but she was full of smiles and gratitude. So we passed a stop called Michelangelo but it wasn't Piazzale Michelangelo so we didn't get off. And then we passed a stop called David and the view was GORGEOUS but it still wasn't our stop and we thought our stop would be cooler so we stayed on. Then the bus started going down the hill we were on so we asked the people around us and they told us to get off and get on the bus across the street that was going back the way we came because we missed it. We think that's what they were saying. They kinda mimed it to us and said a bunch of stuff in Italian. 

So we got off and waited across the street. While we were waiting, I was frustrated with Dave's directions and myself for not getting off at the David stop so I stood on the curb alone for a bit and while I was there, an old man came up and apparently was full on looking me up and down. He kept on making eye contact with me and smiling and then he started asking me questions. Our bus came and he got on the same bus and he kept looking back at me and smiling haha so awkward. Finally we got off at the stop that we knew was close to David and it was at a basilica (surprise surprise...) so we decided to have our brunch on the fence of the basilica. It was overlooking Florence and it was incredible. So pretty. 

After brunch, we looked through the church and it was freakin creepy. Super dark. Silent. Eerie. Bah. So we walked down to the David overlook. Ashlyn and I bought matching shirts! They're pretty awesome. We looked out and saw where we could potentially want to go and we started walking down the hill. We crossed the river and it was a beautiful walk! We ended up just wandering. For forever. We were aimlessly trying to find Michelangelo's David. We stopped at a few cafés to use their wifi and a few souvenir shops to look and we stopped at a few big cool lookin basilicas (hey that's new!) eventually, after asking multiple people with no luck, we found it. And of course, it cost money. So we didn't go in. So we wandered towards the big dome in the middle of the city and of course, they too cost money. So we made a plan. 

Canollis. Buy a patch. Find wifi to find the bus stop. Home (as in Le Cure where we were staying). So we did as such! Found canollis (super good and creamy by the way), met a girl from Washington DC, bought an Italy patch, and found the bus stop! Nailed it. 

We got on bus 7, like Dave said to, and we went. While we were waiting for the bus, we made friends with one of the Italian tour guides. On the bus, there were 3 nuns and they all somehow ended up surrounding me. I felt like I was a part of some ritual. Anyway. Bus 7 took us to the top of some hill across the city and while it was a beautiful view of the city, it took us completely the wrong way. So we just stayed on it to go back where we came from so we could start over. On the way there, Ashlyn was looking out the window and I was looking on google maps and at the same time, we realized that we had found Le Cure!!! So we pressed that darn stop button and got off. It was perfect. 

We went inside and started planning the rest of our Italian adventures and our Swiss getaway and then we ran to the supermarket and picked up food for the next 4 days. Buying food at the supermarket saves so much money!! 4 days worth of food for €23 for 3 people. Wuuuudup. 

We got back and cooked up some tortellini. The oven in the vacation house wasn't working so we went downstairs to use Heather's. While the water was working on boiling, her 3 little girls out on a show for us. Mallory recited 2 Italian poems for us and then her Kiley and K...(crap forgot her name) performed Let It Go and Do You Want To Build a Snowman? For us. We were about to see Love is an Open Door but then our food was ready. Dang. They're adorable though!!! They didn't know all of the words but they knew every action that happened in the movie. So cute!! 

So we came upstairs and ate dinner on the balcony by candlelight and with huuuuge wine glasses (full of water) while listening to Italian music. Beauty. 

After dinner, we did our laundry and they don't have dryers so we had to hang our clothes on a clothesline! We are jumping right in to the culture, obviously. 

The girls from downstairs came up and we watched Tangled!! I got an ear full from Mallory about Barbie. So I now know everything. 

After the movie, Heather came up and told us that a live band was playing outside and we should go get gelato and watch. So we did! We went and I got the best gelato I've had thus far. Passion fruit and mango. Yum. Then we went and sat on the curb to watch the band. While we were sitting there enjoying ourselves, one of the waiters from the cafe by where the band was playing came over and he looked about our age and he didn't speak any English at all. He wanted us to go have shots (what I think he said) and we said no beber. No beber. And he asked why (again, we think so) and we said religion. Church. Iglesia. He wasn't taking no for an answer. He grabbed Ashlyn's arm and started pulling her. She wouldn't budge so he grabbed my arm and started pulling. We were nervously laughing because we had no idea what was happening! He wouldn't stop! Finally he started walking away and turned around and said be back. Five minutes. So we nodded and the second he was inside we ran as fast as we could back to Heather's. So sketchy! But we're alive, don't worry mom :) 

We ended the night by watching We Bought a Zoo. 

Mmmm. Ciao :) 

June 7, 2014

We've lost track of the days. And the time. Those are two things you lose when you travel. And sleep. But that's besides the point. 

We had our tour of the Cinque Terre! We got up at 7 and got ready and we took a bus to the train station. When we walked up, Lavi (our tour guide) was holding a sign that said Cinque Terre so we got on the bus behind her. We sat at the very back of the bus and there was a guy sitting back there named Alex. We talked to Alex for a while and found out he was from Arkansas but lived in Florida and he was traveling with his mom Maria. He was super cool! We talked to him on the drive to the Cinque Terre while Lavi and Gloria (our other tour guide) talked on the bus intercom about literally EVERYTHING we drove past. We took a bathroom stop out in the middle of nowhere and we met Maria. 

We were all put into Lavi's hiking group. I fell asleep during the last stretch of the bus ride and I slept with my mouth open and so Alex took a picture of me and showed it to me when I woke up. That could've been creepy because technically a stranger just took my picture while I was sleeping but I just embraced it! I woke up to the bus climbing the twisted road up to the place where you can hike to the second city of the Cinque Terre, Coniglia. It was a joke. The roads and turns were TINY and our bus was huge. We caused a huge backup but we made it and that's all that matters. 

Once we got there, we broke off into our groups and started the first leg of the day. The hike was gorgeous!!! Lavi was still telling us about everything. She told us how they make olive oil because apparently the olive oil in Italy is way good. I have no idea what good olive oil tastes like, or bad olive oil for that matter so I tuned her out. The hike was so beautiful. You could see the first city from the hike and the second. We hiked through gardens and through forest and through rocks. Breathtaking. We all switched phones again so we could get pictures of each other on our own phones. We met so many different people that were in our group!! There were two people from Australia that we talked to. They were from Adelaide but it was so fun to hear their accents. We talked to Lavi about her life and where she wants to travel. We met girls from California and a doctor and his family from Tennessee. Our group was super diverse. 

After a bit, we got to the Coniglia. They made the hike seem like it was super strenuous but for us Utahns, it was a piece of cake :) from our day in Florence, I had gotten sunburnt and on the hike, I put sunscreen but It was pretty bad so when we got to Coniglia, I kept my eyes peeled for a bandana or scarf. I didn't see one. So we walked to this restaurant where everyone got a seafood tester appetizer where they could try octopus, sardines, anchovies, crab, and lobster. For those of us that don't enjoy seafood, they gave us ham and salami and bread. The location of this restaurant was prime. We could overlook the entire city and see the Mediterranean Sea as well. While we were eating our appetizers, I decided to "borrow" the super nice napkins that put at our tables and use it as a bandana. Hey, it was necessary. You'll find out why later. After appetizers, they brought us pesto pasta. Pesto was created in Coniglia so the pesto on the pasta was fresh and homemade and it was delicious! They put potatoes and green beans in with the pasta and it was so good. 

After we ate, we went to an overlook and took pictures and then we had to climb down 400 stairs to get to the train station. Lavi warned us that at this train station, there we're pick pocketers and they were all girls wearing baseball caps and backpacks so we needed to watch our stuff carefully. We had to wait for a bit at the train station so we talked to Maria and got to know her. She has traveled everywhere and she told us all about Thailand and we also found out that she's probably an alcoholic haha everything she told us had to do with alcohol ha then we got on our train so we could head to the next city, Vermazzo (I think). I put my bandana on and my sunburn felt much better. After we got to Vermazzo, they gave us about an hour of free time and told us to get gelato because apparently it was known for their gelato. So we decided to walk down to the sea along the rocks and take pictures and then I decided to jump in. It was hot and it looked way cool and so I went for it. Didn't bring a swimsuit so I just went in in my shorts and sports bra and sandals ha I ran in and Kinsey took pictures ha it was frigid. Soooooo cold!!! But it was so worth it. Super salty (weird, I know) as well. No one else was getting in so I started getting out and as I was kicking my way to the rock, I kicked under the rock and I felt my big toe hit something. I thought it was just the rock so I got out and put my tank top back on and and walked over to the path and I looked at my toe and it had three black dots in the perfect triangle shape. I realized I had kicked a sea urchin. It didn't hurt too bad yet so I just shrugged it off and we went and got gelato. I got melon and strawberry. It was pretty good but not the greatest. When we met back up with everyone, I asked Maria if she knew what to do about sea urchins because she's a nurse so it was worth a shot. She said I needed tweezers, which I had guessed, and I didn't have any with me (always carry tweezers with you when you travel). As I was talking to Maria about it, Lavi walked up and so we asked her if she happened to have any. She didn't ha but then everyone seemed to know about my sea urchin incident so everyone was looking at me and wanted to see my toe and I was just like, I'm fiiiiiiiiiine, it's whatevs guys! The doctor and his family were right there when all of this was happening and so they took a look at it. He took some of my hand sanitizer and put it on my toe, just to clean it out, and it freakin STUNG! But it was clean. From then on, it just ached constantly. 

We got to the next city (don't remember the name....) and we had another hour of free time. We just chilled and walked around. Then we headed to the next city. This city had a new and an old portion. You had to pay money in order to use the beach in the new portion so we headed to the old portion and went to that beach, which wasn't as nice but whatevs. We all got in the water and it was even colder than the last city!! We spent most of the time in the water talking to the girls from California. We got out to dry for a bit so we wouldn't be super wet and cold on the boat ride and so we went to the plaza and sat on some benches and we were getting the weirdest looks. It was because Ashlyn and I were in our sports bras and shorts, with the whitest stomachs that probably any of them have ever seen, and Kinsey was in her white tank top and shorts but her white tank was see through and it was sticking to her pink bra just in her boob region. Hahahaha it was the funniest sight. Kinsey laid on the ground and when she got up, she had the perfect water outline of her boobs and the rest of her body hahaha hilarious. We met up with Alex and Maria when it was time and we headed to the boat. We got our tickets from Lavi and got in line and ran when we got on the boat so we could get seats on the top. Ashlyn and Alex sat behind Kinsey and I and we had the best ride from the 5th city to the 1st city and we saw all of the cities again. At the first city, we got off and wandered during our free time and the city's main road was seriously straight uphill. But we killed it and walked right up it and followed Gloria to another overlook. Then we wandered off on our own and tried a different path and it led us around and around and we ended up in the same place we started haha so we went back the way we had come and met everyone at the train station. At this point I was ravenous and super tired. 

We took the train back to La Spezia and hopped on our bus. Before the bus had even moved, the doctor and his wife were back sitting by me. The wife was holding my foot on her lap and the doctor was kneeling down in the aisle examining it. They had Lavi make an announcement so she could ask if anyone had tweezers or a safety pin. "Luckily" someone had a safety pin. The doctor used my hand sanitizer to cleanse it and then he started digging into my toe. I'm pretty sure I know what the pain of labor is now. It felt like he was shoving the safety pin under and toenail and lifting up as hard as he could. I had a death grip on the handle on the chair in front of me and my chair. Kinsey was trying to talk to me and distract me, bless her heart. She thought I'd get distracted if she asked about a certain someone and it worked for a bit, but the pain brought me back to reality. Alex tried playing music on his phone and giving it to me so I could hear it, which was super nice. The doctor was seriously sweating. His head was dripping with sweat. His wife just kept saying "your toe is gonna be so sore tomorrow... You're ok darling (talking to me)... It's almost over...." I was dying. The pain was awful. They kept saying, oh that was a long one! Oh it's almost out! So to lighten the mood, I made eye contact with Alex and mouthed "that's what she said" and he laughed but then I was right back where I started, which was trying not to cry while the doctor tore my toe off. Eventually, and after what seemed like hours, the doctor got the last of it out. He cleaned it out with hand sanitizer and that stung pretty bad and then he wrapped it up in gauze and tape that they had found in the first aid kit on the bus. He told me to keep it elevated. I was just glad it was over. I thanked him so many times and then Alex, the doctor, Kinsey, and Ashlyn signed my bandage. Then I took off my bandana because it was still wet and I was cold and my sunburn had been so bad that it had blistered and the blisters bled. So my bandana was covered in blood. It was a rough day for me, but such a blast at the same time! Then we arrived in Florence. My feet looked homeless. They had tan lines from my Chacos and blisters from walking so much and a giant bandage on my big toe and dirt everywhere. I was a mess. We said bye to everyone and then got the bus to head back to Heathers. 

I showered the second we got back. It felt wonderful. So good. Then we ate spaghetti out on the balcony and then we went to bed. I passed out SO HARD. 

June 8, 2014 

The plan was to go to church. Their church started at 9, they were gonna drive us there, we were leaving at 8. So we woke up at 730 and Heather came up and said they ended up not having room in their car so we would have to take the bus and it started at 930 and it was stake conference. So we decided not to go because we weren't getting the sacrament and we would've just been listening to a bunch of Italian just like every other day. So we went back to bed and slept until noon ha it was nice. We were exhausted. Then we got up and just laid around. At 1 we went down to Heather's because they invited us to eat lunch with them. We helped cut stuff up for potato and macaroni salad and they brought a girl from church home to eat with them as well. She was from Orem and she was living in Italy for 3 months going to culinary school. Some people live really cool lives. 

We had chicken and rice for dinner. So we didn't even get to eat the stuff we helped make ha at dinner, my phone started freaking out and making loud fuzzy noises. Heather gave me some rice and I left it there for a while but to my dismay, the volume on my phone is now gone. It only vibrates. Which is fine while I'm traveling but when I get back in the states, how do I get ahold of Jeff when I'm lost in the Charlotte Airport??? It'll be a struggle but I'll have lived without calling someone for 3 months by then so I'll be fine ha it's just dumb that it decided to break now! 

After lunch we planned the rest of our trip in Italy and Switzerland and we found out that it's really confusing to get to Switzerland via train! So we took Bronsen, Heather's son, who's 16, to the train station with us so he could speak Italian to the train information desk. We got there and there were so many people there!!! We had to get a number and wait for our number to go up on the screen. While we waited we sat on the floor and people watched and Bronsen told us all about himself. He loved telling us stories about how awesome he is. We would be talking about something and then he'd jump in and tell us a story about how he taught himself how to play the guitar and sing and how his friend asked him to sing for her so he sang I'm Yours by Jason Mraz and she was shocked at how good he was and how some lady at church told him he looked like Edward Cullen, you get the picture. Ha luckily our number got called so we went up and figured out all of the trains we would need to take and the switches we would have to make and stuff but the information desk couldn't get us the tickets so we had to take another number and wait again. This wait went a bit quicker but the train station was BLAZING HOT. We were melting. So our number finally got called and the dude putting the numbers on the screen got button happy or something because he went through like five numbers way quick so our number was the last one up. So we got to the window and one of the numbers before ours belonged to this guy so I let him go ahead of us, trying to be nice and stuff, so the guy at the window helped that guy and then it was our turn and we had already given the guy our number before the guy before us went so when we got up there, he didn't think we had already been there so he closed his window down to go on a break! Bronsen and him argued for a while in Italian but he still closed it down. It was ridiculous. So we went to another window and this lady helped us. So we bought all of our tickets and it was a million dollars. Ok not that much but it was a lot of money. Haha 

When we got back to Heather's we went up to our room to eat and to go to bed because our train to Venice was leaving at 0435! When we are, we didn't have anymore sauce so we had buttered and salted noodles that were surprisingly good! Anything would've been good because we were starving but they were good nonetheless. We ate without forks because we could ha so we thought it was hilarious ha we got the early train because it gave us more time in Venice and it was way cheaper. So we passed out after dinner. 

June 9, 2014 

After a mere 3 hours of sleep, we were up at 3, getting ready. We had to leave at 330 because we had to walk to the train station. The bus system doesn't run that early. It was a sketchy walk. It was like 1.8 miles away and we had to go through a few alleys. There were guys at the park still up and drinking from the night before and a guy at one point passed us going the other way and then he turned around and followed us but he was walking super slow so we got some distance between us. We made it safely to the train station! We got on and we had to switch trains in Bologna. It was all a blur. We were in and out of sleep on each train and we got to Bologna late so we had to run to our next train because it was gonna leave us and because we ran and we were sleep deprived, we accidentally sat first class, so when the train officer came through to check tickets, he got mad and told us to get to second class or we would have to pay to upgrade. 

Finally we made it to Venice at 9am. We went to a hotel and asked for a map and we ran into our first sarcastically funny Italian! We didn't know how to take it because it had been a while since we heard sarcasm from someone who we assumed would yell at us! Phelps said the map was €10 but was kidding ha so Venice doesn't wake up that early so we just wandered around taking pictures and then the shops started opening and people started appearing everywhere. We took the phrase "get lost in Venice" literally. It's hard not to get lost there!! There is water for roads everywhere you turn and there are dead ends and bridges everywhere. And everything looks the same. Italians are rude ha i wanted a picture on a bridge so I stood on it and this lady and man walked past and they were disgusted with me! She full on threw her arms in the air and walked off. It was ridiculous! Especially because Venice is NOT a clean place!!! The water is yellow tinted because they drain their sewage into it and there are wrappers and cigarettes everywhere! And it stinks everywhere. It's a pretty grossly beautiful place ha 

We found a tour that was going through the city so we joined that for a while. The tour guide was Australian and we learned a ton from him! The people who live on the Grand Canal (the canal that runs through Venice) are the richest and Venice used to only be for those who were well off and they each had poles outside their houses that were color coordinated and that was like that family's colors and the girls all wanted to be blonde so they would sit out on their balconies so the sun would bleach their hair. And Venice is sinking so they put pumps under all of the buildings that can raise the buildings because Venice is worth so much money. We lost the tour though. He took us on the main bridge over the Grand Canal and then disappeared while we were taking pictures and we tried to find him but that place is a maze. So we wandered. A lot. Went into a lot of shops. All of the shops had masks in them and we were so confused why they were everywhere so we asked one of the store owners and he said that they were for a giant festival that happens in February and everyone wears them! He also taught us that Venice blows their own glass. And that was so cool to see all of the glass that they made. I bought a bracelet for myself and my mother that were glass made in Venice. 

We were starving and all we brought to eat were apples, carrots, and two PB&J sandwiches each. Also, public bathrooms don't exist. No one lets you use theirs unless you buy crap and we tried sneaking into a few but just got yelled at. So we ended up stopping at McDonald's to eat and use the bathroom and wifi so we could see where we were. 

We took this road back to the train station and it was surprisingly easy. I was getting the hang of Venice. When we got back to the train station, we got tickets to ride the water bus. We got the cheapest one and it was a one way ticket. In the line, we met some way nice Americans who had just gotten there! It was this old, hilarious couple and we told them how Italians hated us and they thought that was funny and they said not to get too close because they wanted the Italians to like them ha so we parted from them and went to one of the bus stops and waited but we weren't sure about what our ticket actually did for us so we asked this guy and he said it would take us all the way around Venice and back to the train station but we were at the wrong stop. We even asked a worker and she agreed so we went to the right stop and the old couple was there and they made fun of us ha when the boat came, we went to the back and got prime seats! So we rode on the boat for forever! It took us to Lido (another island) and we were nervous we would have to get off but they didn't make us and it was so fun!! The Grand Canal was super fun to go down! That was our gondola experience and it was everything we wanted. Ha we got off on some random stop on the Grand Canal because we wanted to "get lost in Venice part 2" and we had a LOT of time until our train left ha like 3 hours. 

So we got lost and wandered and Ashlyn made up a horror story that made no sense about why Venice is a maze and then we found the train station again and we were starving so we searched for gelato but when we wanted gelato it was nowhere to be found. When we didn't want it, it was everywhere. Eventually we found some and ate it while sitting on the cement on the side of the Grand Canal. It felt so good to sit there and see the sights and take our shoes off and just chill. My feet were a wreck and I had broken out in hives ha I had hives all over my arms and neck and chest and hands. That's happened to me before when I've had too much sun exposure but yeah. My body is rejecting Italy in every way it can. 

Finally it was time for our train to come. Don't get me wrongs Venice is beautiful! And I'm glad that we went. But I'll probably never go back. So we hopped on our train and it was a straight shot to Florence. When we got back, we had to wait for our bus and we just wanted to get home. My feet were killing! Ha eventually we got there and we ate the leftover spaghetti and then the plan for me was to get my stuff all together and shower but I laid on the bed for like 2 seconds and I was gone. Still clothed in my Venice attire and everything. 

June 10, 2014

I slept incredible. So solid. Woke up at 7 perfectly content. Our train was leaving at 9 so I showered and gathered my crap and we were out! We took a few different trains, went through Milan and such, and we ended up in Switzerland! We had been searching for places to stay in Interlaken so I was on the Mormon couch surfing website writing everyone and I wrote one guy named Markus and he was the only one who responded. So I had been emailing him back and forth for a few days but he moved out of Interlaken to Bern and he wanted us to go there! He gave me the email of one of the counselors in the stake presidency in Interlaken so I emailed him but he never responded. Bern is about an hour away from Interlaken. Kinsey really wanted to go to Interlaken so I told him I wasn't sure but when I told them the situation, we decided a free place to stay would be the best. So the train took us to Spiez but we found out the train we were on went to Bern two stops after Spiez. So we decided instead of getting off, buying another ticket, and waiting for the next train, we would just stay on the train and hope they didn't do ticket checks. They had already punched our ticket so we assumed it would be ok but just to make sure, we pretended we were sleeping until we got to Bern so we could say we "slept" through our stop haha and it worked like a charm. We made it to Bern! The train ride was beautiful! The greenery was gorgeous. I loved Switzerland and I'd only seen it from a train. 

Once we got there we walked around the train station, trying to find food and wifi. Wifi was impossible to find! We couldn't read any of the signs. German is nothing like Italian ha weird.... So we went to this place called Papa Joe's American Restaurant because we thought they would speak English and it would feel like a piece of home. We sat down and they gave us menus and one burger was like CHF 22. It was RIDICULOUS. And they didn't even have wifi so we left haha it was awkward leaving. So we walked a bit further away and we were dying of heat. Our backpacks were annihilating our backs and we just wanted to sit down. So we chose Da Vinci's Pizzeria and we definitely lucked out because the guy spoke English and he gave us their wifi password. It was God sent. 

We needed wifi so bad because I needed to contact Markus and see where he lived and such so we ordered a margherita pizza (the cheapest thing on the menu) for CHF 17 and I spoke with Markus about where he lived. He also told us that he had electricity in only one room in his apartment and he had no wifi. At least we had a place to stay.The pizza was nothing. It barely filled a corner of my stomach. We shared it between the 3 of us and it was pathetically small. Nothing like the size of pizza in the US. We paid using euros because that's all we had and he gave us CHF (francs) in return. Why does everyone use different money?!? So frustrating! 

After we figured things out with Markus, we went down to the streets and walked around because there was like a farmers market going on! We didn't do any research on Switzerland before coming here so we didn't really know if the things at the farmers market were symbolic or if they were just there. There will a ton of dream catchers but they have no significance. As we were looking around, we started looking at this ladies' stand at her wooden rings. We got matching bracelets in Italy so we wanted bracelets from Switzerland as well but we were considering getting matching rings. So as we were looking at them and discussing it, the lady pipes in and says or you could have one for free! You are traveling. I'm a traveler. So have one! It was amazing!! The people in Switzerland are a thousand times nicer than the Italians! So we picked out our rings and talked to her for a bit and then kept looking around. After a while we decided to find our way to Markus so we went back to the train station and got help from a worker to buy our tickets to Biel (where Markus lives) and we headed to Biel. Upon arrival, we followed Markus' instructions to wait at the bottom of the "electric stairs" by the coop (their supermarket) and he would come get us. 

So that's what we did. And we people watched like crazy. It was prime. Eventually Markus showed up and we walked to his apartment and got to know him. He served his mission in France and his sister lives in Utah and he's 30. He was super funny haha very sarcastic. When we were almost to his apartment, he told us that he had just moved in like 4 days prior so he didn't have any furniture and he was not kidding. We walked in and it was literally empty. Wood floors and boxes everywhere. Haha I had no idea where we were going to sleep ha but I didn't worry about it because it's whatevs. We were sitting at his apartment and I called the counselor in the stake presidency in Interlaken to see if we could stay with him but his family was in town so he didn't have room. But he gave me the other counselors number so we tried to call but he didn't answer. After talking for a bit, we decided we were hungry so we started walking. The plan was the buy groceries and eat by the lake but the grocery store was closed so we asked him what food the locals eat and so he took us to a little shack and they sell doner kabobs and he said that everyone eats them. So we got our kabobs and we walked to the lake and ate them. And let me tell you, that kabob changed my life. It was SO INCREDIBLY GOOD!!!!! So good. It was so good either because I was starving or it was divine. Or a combo of both but it was amazing. And the view across the lake was beautiful. It started raining and apparently the Swiss hate the rain and they get out of it the second it starts so we had to get up and find cover for dear Markus. While we were eating, Markus got a call from the guy I had tried to call earlier and he spoke to him for a while. When he got off the phone he said, hey you now have a place to stay in Interlaken! We were stoked! 

After we finished we walked to Markus' friend Tommy's house to pick up Markus' car. Tommy was very shy it seemed ha he was a great hits though! Offered us chocolate and water right off the bat. Both were fantastic. They taught us a bit of German and French and Swiss German and all are very hard. I learned: 

Merci - thank you in French

Danka - thank you in German 

Pinte - you're welcome in German 

Bahnhof - train station in German 

Ich verstehe nicht - I don't understand in German 

Sie sind lustig - you are funny in German 

(They speak both languages here but mostly German) 

Then we left and Markus took us on a "road trip". He kept saying road trip? With good music! Ha our road trip lasted 15 minutes. Solid road trip. We drove to his other friends house and picked up some pads and air mattresses and sleeping bags for us! Then we went back to his apartment and set up our beds and talked for a bit and he gave us directions for Interlaken on how to get to the guys house. He sent me screen shots of a map of Interlaken but they were awful directions ha the map was just plain and then the guys house was a red dot in the middle of the map. No blue line indicating what streets to turn on or anything ha he turned the hotspot on his phone on for a second so I could receive the pictures and then we went to bed on our air mattresses on the wood floor ha during the night my air mattress completely flattened. It was lovely. So nice of Markus to let us stay with him though! So glad we met him. 

June 11, 2014

Markus had to go to work early so he wrote us a nice note and left his key for us and told us to lock the door and just put the key in his mailbox. He was seriously so great. So we got ready, packed up, and we wrote him a note back thanking him but we didn't have paper so we got creative and ripped a paper bag open and bam, it was a piece of paper. Then we left. Markus' directions to the train station were "go to the plaza, turn, find the other plaza, turn, then walk towards the bahnhof". Such great directions. So of course, we got lost finding it. But it wasn't long before we found it! So we got our tickets and everything was in German so we had to guess on what a lot of it said (all of it) but we actually got the right tickets! We're so savvy. We had to stop in Bern and get new tickets to Interlaken so we did and the train ride was beautiful to Interlaken. The ride was right along the lake. Gorgeous. 

After we got to Interlaken, we went to the grocery store and bought sandwich stuff and had a picnic! And Kins and I bought giant chocolate bars. Ha after we tried following the map Markus sent me but it was useless! So we had to stop at a store and asked these two guys for directions and they pointed us in the right direction and then we went in that direction and stopped and asked someone else and followed what they said and then we asked someone else a but further and it continued through like 5 different groups of people. Some spoke pretty good English and some barely spoke it so it took us a while to find their house. We were lost in their area for like 45 minutes. Their apartment was number 30 and we kept seeing 28 and then 24 so we would walk back because that was the direction that the numbers were increasing but then right after 28 we would see 19. We were so confused!!! Eventually we saw a building off in the back so we plowed through some bushes to get there and luckily it was theirs! It was an apartment complex and you had to ring their apartment so they could let you in. We rang them like 4 times but they weren't answering. After laying down on the cold cement with our backpacks finally off, we decided between stashing our backpacks in the bushes or on top of the cement ceiling thing over the door. We decided hiding them in the bushes was better. Even though, I feel so safe in Switzerland. Compared to Italy at least. We see bikes without locks on them and things just laying out and anyone could take them but they don't! But we hid our bags, just in case, and we went to find out about paragliding. We just followed where the paragliders were landing and it was just down the street from where we were staying and on our way to the giant open field, we walked past a place called Backpackers Villa and it had paragliding school written on the building so we went inside and found out that it was a hostel. A wayyyy nice one too!! They had a million brochures telling us what we could do and free wifi and a ton of couches! So we asked the receptionist about paragliding and she said we could either go in an hour or we could go the next day. We looked at one another and said let's go in an hour!!! So we signed up and we were going!! So we went back to our backpacks, got proper shoes on, and went back to the hostel. We found out the wifi password and we just chilled on the couches! Wifi when you're traveling is like water. You want it. You need it. Ha 

After an hour, a guy pulled up in a van that said Skywings so we walked out there and got in! He drove us over to the open field to pick up the instructors that had just landed and then we headed up the mountain! One of the instructors was majorly good looking. For blog sake, we'll call him Bo (we can't remember his name but it started with a B). So Bo was the one who was giving us the directions and when he finished he said, do you guys wanna pick your instructors or be assigned at random? I wanted to pipe up and say, can I go with you? But I was embarrassed. Ha the van was full of instructors and the three of us and an Asian guy that was paragliding as well. So we had to pick their name out of a hat and I got Alain. Kins got the girl, Sybill, and Ashlyn got Reuben. The Asian got Bo. Of course. 

When we got to the top of the mountain, we had to walk for a bit and so we all had to walk with our instructors so we could get to know them. Alain was cool! Very shy and timid. But cool! He knew so many things about Interlaken. I learned about the flowers and how long they let them grow and I learned about the mountains and the cloud formations ha when we got to the take off sight, Alain put me in my harness and he got the parachute ready. We were all stoked. The Asian and Bo looked so bored. Ha no emotions. Nothing. Ashlyn was the first to take off. Then it was our turn. Alain said to just run until he told me to stop. It was so hard ha first of all, the parachute is holding you back. Second of all, you have a giant harness on with a flat black thing down by your ankles that will become the chair you sit on in the air. Third of all, you're strapped to a grown man. But I ran as hard as I could. He even said to keep running and my feet were no longer in the ground. But we were in the air! And it was awesome!! The view was amazing! It was so much better than skydiving because I could actually breathe! While we were in the air, he told me about the lakes and the rivers and the good hikes and everything! I told him I could live in Switzerland and he said he would get me a job paragliding if I ever moved there. And he said all I needed to do was marry a Swiss man. I think he was hinting something.... ;) haha 

In the air, they let me take my camera so I took a thousand pictures and he took some on his camera that was on a unipod thing. I asked him if he knew any tricks and he said of course! So we turned left, then we turned right, and then he started spinning. Around and around and around. I lost complete perception about where I was. It was so trippy!!! I was so dizzy. Then he stopped and he asked if I liked it. I told him yes even though.... I don't think I did like it. Ha it was such a blast though!! We were up in the air for like 25 minutes and it was awesome! Then we went to the field and landed and he said I was a great paraglider. I said, yeah I know Alain, I'm amazing.... Haha just kidding. But he did say that :) 

After we landed, he uploaded the pictures to a tablet so I could look at them and they were sweet!!! So I bought them. Because apparently, I'm a millionaire. Or just dumb. Either or.... But they came on a USB that was attached to a mini parachute with Alain's name on it so that was worth it. Such a cool experience! 

After that, we went back to the hostel and hung out for a bit and then we went to see if the people were at their apartment yet. Their names are Elia and Yvonne. They weren't there yet, so we sat on the cement, looking homeless, and finally we decided to call one of their neighbors. We called the nicest looking name so we chose Valerie. Great choice on our part! She was home and she called Yvonne for us and Yvonne was gonna be home soon! 

When she got home, we found out that she doesn't speak English. Oh the language barrier. Their kids are adorable though. They don't speak English either ha their 3 year old tries to talk to us and we either respond with a laugh and a hello or a laugh and a yes ha so she just repeats herself. It's a mess. Ha their 1 year old is seriously adorable and she's just full of smiles. Elia spoke to us for a while, he's the only one that speaks English ha It was pretty awkward talking to them ha we didn't know where to put our bags so we just stood awkwardly in their living room with our backpacks ha then he asked if we had eaten yet and we hadn't so we went out to dinner with them to this pizzeria. They fit all of us in their car but we had to get in and out through the back ha at the pizzeria, we could only talk to him so his wife sat there awkwardly helping her children in silence. Everything on the menu was expensive so Kins and I shared a margherita pizza again because that seems to be the cheapest thing on every menu. They even charged for water! They are so stingey with everything here!!! No refills. No nothing. 

After dinner, our check came to CHF 122. That got four pizzas, two salads, and five drinks. That's it. We thought he was gonna pay for us but he looked at us and said what we owe haha so we gave him what we had ha after dinner, we got the key to their house and found out where we were staying and put our bags there and we left. We had no idea what we were sleeping on because the room we were staying in was complete wood floors and no beds or anything ha 

We left and walked around town, trying to get to know the area and see if any souvenir shops were open but it didn't last long because it was raining so the streets were dead. So we stopped at the hostel for a bit and found out they had free breakfast so we decided we were gonna do that and then headed back. We came back to three air mattresses, neatly folded blankets and towels on each bed, and a full chocolate bar on our pillows!! And the wifi information on my bed. It was so cool. We have been blessed with our sleeping situations this summer. Our plan was to get up early so we hit the sack! 

June 12, 2014

We got up at like 8 and we went to breakfast at the hostel ha everyone there thinks we're staying there Hana so we get free breakfast every morning and free wifi ha it's the best! The breakfast isn't like super great but hey it's food and it's free. We also took like 12 pieces of bread for sandwiches that day ha 

Then we headed to our first hike in the Alps. At the base of the mountain, we weren't sure where to start so we asked this girl if she spoke English and she was like yeah I'm from America haha so we found out she was going on the same hike as us so we hiked together. Her name is Halley and she's from Georgia but she goes to school in Colorado and her family actually lives in Utah! She went to high school at Juan Diego and we actually had some friends in common! She was way cool! We spent the rest of the day with her! Halfway up we stopped at this lookout and we met these three other girls who were traveling and they all played soccer and they actually played against Utah State! They were super cool as well. We talked to them for like an hour and we told them all about Italy because that's where they were headed. Everyone we meet drinks. They make it sound amazing and all but I'm just not convinced haha 

We continued on the trail and finally got to the top! It was freakin hard! But we made it to the restaurant at the top! We took a million pictures at the lookout and there we met Matt the Australian! He was hilarious and he told us all about Australia. We ended up sitting by them for lunch and hiking down with them. We ran down the whole mountain. We seriously made it down in like 40 minutes. And we're in the Alps! The mountains are huge! It was crazy. On the way down we passed an animal enclosure. It was so random haha there were antelope in there and that's all we saw. 

When we got down, we decided to rent kayaks with Matt and Halley! So we made our way to the kayak rental place and Halley and I rented on together, and Kins and Ashlyn got one together and Matt got a single. We wore these long sleeve wet suit things because the clouds had come in and it had started raining and we were feelin all legit. Ha The place we had to dock the kayaks was downstream from the lake so we had to paddle upstream! And it was HARD!! Halley and I worked well together though so we were kickin butt and takin names. We were ahead with Matt and Kins and Ashlyn were way far behind us doing zigzags back and forth across the river haha so we pulled to the side and held on to a dock and watched them. The literally just ran right into the side of the river where a giant bush was hahahaha it was hilarious to watch!! Then as they were zigzagging, a GIANT boat that took up most of the river was coming downstream. But they just continued to zigzag. The boat blew their horn and me, Halley, and Matt were like, they're gonna die. But they finally made it to the side and held on while the boat passed.

After taking a few breaks we finally made it to the river and we waited while Kins and Ashlyn zigzagged to the lake. Hahahaha they made it though!! We all thought they were just bad drivers but we realized that the seats in their kayak were suuuuuper close together and that's why it was so hard haha so we fixed it and they said it was like ten times easier haha so hilarious. 

So the weather in Switzerland is like clockwork. It's sunny in the morning until about 2:30pm and then it rains off and on for the rest of the afternoon. They have incredible storms though. So we happened to be on the lake during the afternoon storm. It was surreal. We could see the rain coming towards us on the water. The sights around us were insanely pretty and the lightning above the mountains was so amazing to watch. Were we in the smartest spot during a lightning storm? Definitely not. But it was awesome! We let the current take us back to the shop while we watched the storm. The locals were all lined up watching us and shaking their heads haha we had the greatest time though!! 

After the river, we went to the grocery store and got ingredients to make breakfast for dinner. We decided on French toast and buttermilk syrup, eggs, and bacon. We went back to the hostel and went to cook In the kitchen. We found out that Matt was actually staying at the hostel so it was nice to not be sneaking around ha so we cooked the dinner and set the table and feasted. It was delicious!!! Such a good meal. Matt and Halley were so fun to get to know. During dinner we taught Matt how to play what are the chances and so we played that for a bit but then we cleaned up because we wanted to head to the pub to watch the first World Cup game! 

We got lost on our way to the pub but luckily we ran into these two guys and they were headed there as well! Their names were Luke and Pascal and they were super funny. We sat by them at the pub. The waiter there wouldn't leave us alone because the tv wasn't free to watch so we had to order something. We asked what was non alcoholic and we got so much crap for that! Everyone around us was like whaaaaaaaaa no beer?! We were like SPRITE all the way! Ha so we got our drinks and watched the game. It was Brazil vs Croatia and it was a blast to watch a game in Europe. Soccer is a completely different concept over here. It's huge! The support for it is unreal. Everyone in the streets were cheering and screaming and every restaurant we walked past had it on. It was crazy. So fun. We got to know the guys next to us, Jeff and James. They were awesome as well. We met sooooo many people that day!! The game was a good one too. 3-1 Brazil. But they got a PK and the goalie almost had it! It was crazy! There was this woman there that would scream her heart out when Brazil would score. Holy fetch, she was annoying ha but it was such a good night. Oh and Bo (the paragliding instructor) came to the same place we were at! Everyone was daring me to go talk to him but I didn't want to! But man, was I feeling the pressure! Ha 

We headed home after the game and said goodbye to all of our new friends. Matt said he'd come to Utah to visit ha we went home and passed out after taking the greatest shower of my life. 

June 13, 2014

Elia and Yvonne needed us out of their house by 7:30am because they had errands to run and they only have one key to their place so we got like no sleep and we went to the hostel for breakfast again. After breakfast, we headed to the train station and took the cheapest train we could find to the base of the Alps. We ended up going to Lauderbrennon (something like that) and we finally found some sweet bracelets for ourselves! Then we started the hardest hike I've ever been on in my life. 

It was seriously straight uphill. We hiked directly uphill for 5 hours. We took a ton of breaks and stopped to eat in Wengen and we tried listening to music, I tried writing in this blog, but nothing could take our minds off the pain we were feeling in our legs! We were already sore from the day before but this hike was ten times worse. We considered turning around at least three times. The thing that kept us going was the mountains. The mountains in Switzerland are ginormous. They make Utah mountains look like little hills. They are huge and gorgeous. Everywhere you look is amazing. There's waterfalls, greenery, snow covered Alps, flowers, ahhhhh it was amazing. Eventually, after 6 hours, we made it to the top, well as far as we could go without taking a tram, and it was breathtaking. The Alps are so much bigger than anything I've ever seen before. I seriously had a spiritual moment just staring at them. They are incredible. God has created some amazing things. 

The daily storm was beginning so we decided it would be smart to get off the mountain when the lightning started. The way down was just as awful as the way up. Our knees were going to shatter. My feet hurt, my legs hated me. Ugh. Misery. But at one point, there was this Asian man meowing at this cat in Wengen and so as we walked by, we saw the cat he was "talking" to and all of the sudden, it pounced! And was clawing and biting at the ground! We were like what is happening?! Ha so after like five seconds of that, the cat stood up all proud and walked off with a mouse in its mouth hahaha it was crazy!! 

When we were almost at the bottom, the rain started. It was fantastic!! It was pouring! We loved being in the middle of it :) we were soaked by the time we got to the train station. At that point, I couldn't feel anything but the throbbing in my legs. So worth it though. Such an amazing day!! I passed out on the train ride home and then we went to the Coop to get food for grilled cheese and tomato soup. We went to Elia's to make it but they weren't home so we went to the hostel and cooked our food and ate it there and then we chilled out in their TV room for a while and then we decided to see if they were home yet. We could barely walk. But we made it there and luckily they were home. So we went inside and got out of our wet clothes and collapsed on our beds. Such a beautiful feeling. And that was that. Bed time.