mas fotos de suiza

Train up to the slopes


My Switzerland girls!


View from our hostel window

SUIZA! SWITZERLAND!

Switzerland...one of the best weekends of my life!

I traveled with three of my girlfriends from my program here..Ali, Katie, and Lawren. After a pretty unpleasant journey there, (flight getting delayed multiple times, a "night" slept in the tiny Geneva Airport, and two trains into Interlaken), we were so so excited to arrive at our hostel, Balmers Herberge, and to see how awesome of a set up we were about to have! The hostel was picturesque..dark wooden shingled with red shutters and red and white paint trim..right in the middle of a 360 degree view of the SWISS ALPS. Once inside and sitting by the fireplace after checking in, we were looking at brochures and discussing what activities we were going to sign up for, when...8 cute guys bust into the reception area and immediately theres introductions, shouting, claims of parties in their room...just an absolutely hilarious half hour. Turns out they are all army officers..all went to West Point together..and are staying in our hostel for the weekend as well. Uh-Oh. Needless to say, we hung out with them the entire weekend..went to the singular club in Interlaken with them both nights, and spent a whole day snowboarding with them. We've since kept in contact with all of them..and plan to visit with them once we're back in the states, (they are on Christmas break/leave for the next couple of weeks before all getting deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.. :[ ). This weekend was full of awesome life to-do list things, per usual for my recent trips! The hostel served us a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, pretty genuine, and we enjoyed it with a table full of Swiss people..such an interesting cultural experience. The Swiss are awesome! The four of us went to an authentic fondue restaurant as well, which was yummy, although not quite as good as The Melting Pot! Of course we sampled some swiss chocolate while we were there, and purchased some really awesome really warm knit Switzerland hats!


We decided to rent gear and clothing and hit the slopes for some snowboarding. I had never done any sort of winter sport up until this point...so this was QUITE the experience. I fell no less than 100 times..and when I say fall, I mean I really fell. Crashed may be the better word. Thankfully the army guys were up there, and one just happened to be a children's snowboard instructor..he was nice enough to take over an hour to just help me along and teach me everything..so that after that little session I was able to keep up with my friends! So awesome! This learning process may have been easier in a location equipped with bunny slopes..these were the Swiss Alps, aka no beginners area at all. All in all, amazing time.


The last half day we spent just hanging out in the hostel by the fireplace, just talking and having a great time with our new favorite group of guys ever. Actually pretty sad saying bye to them, we'd become pretty attached ;)

One of the guys, Mike, (there are actually 3 mikes haha), and I have kept in contact daily..you can read between the lines on that one. So as part of my long winter break I went to visit him, and got to see the rest of the guys there as well. So fun..to be continued...

more amsterdam!

the houses all look like doll houses!

Checking us in at our hostel, Flying Pig Downtown!

I AMSTERDAM...Museumplein park!


in the Heinken Factory!!

AMSTERDAM.

I. LOVE. AMSTERDAM. I'm just putting up some pictures for now..more to come later. Also, quite unfortunately, I left my camera at home here in BCN while I was in Amsterdam. Therefore, can't take credit for any of these pictures :(

Amsterdam is so so so gorgeous. It is a MUST see in anyone's lifetime. The canals, parks, streets, people..all exceptionally beautiful. The atmosphere is friendly, there are thousands and thousands of bikes everywhere, and the food is so great! (they are actually known for their Indonesian food??)

There are of course, Amsterdam's two most well known neighborhoods, the Red Light District and the Coffee Shop neighborhood. My hostel was in between both, and happened to be the best hostel ever, with some really friendly staff..I ended up meeting a lot of other travellers there as well!! These neighborhoods/areas, while fun and extremely interesting, (and obviously unique to Amsterdam), are wildly misunderstood by the rest of the world. I honestly didn't know much about the city or country before visiting it..and it is so much much much more than legalized prostitution or decriminalized marijuana. When walking down the streets of the red light district, for example, you can look up and see a breath taking cathedral while passing by the working women's windows. There are museums everywhere, the city was beautifully decorated for Christmas, and the tram, while already efficient, is actually free!

Chase and Danny from CofC were also there in the hostel with my roommates and I, so that was wonderful to see them again! We toured the entireee city as much as possible. We walked and explored all day every day. I went to the Van Gogh Museum, which really was a life to do list accomplishment for me, seeing as the first art piece I ever remember really loving and respecting was Starry Night, (Mom, i'm sure you remember that up in my middle school bedroom). The museum did a great job of telling the artist's life story, and I got to see some of his most famous paintings, like the Sunflowers, (Starry Night was in a museum in NYC, USA..how ironic, eh?).

My entire group of friends that I stayed with in the Flying Pig, our hostel, went together to the Heineken Factory! I've never particularly been a Heineken fan one way or the other, but this was such a fun tour and the guides were really loving their jobs! We got to be "in" the process with sort of brewing simulation ride, got to sample the hops and barley, etc etc, and picked up some good souvenirs, (Happy Xmas, Pat :) ).

More to come when I can steal some of Chase's photos :)

Paris continued

4. (on my continued life to do list accomplishments)- See the Eiffel Tower!!



















5. GO TO TOP OF EIFFEL TOWER! CHECKKK!















6. Have French Onion Soup IN FRANCE

:)

CREPES

OH YEAH

PARIS is for lovers..and shoppers..and foodies...and..todo el mundo!

Okay, so I wrote a very extensive, very detailed blog entry last night...and right as I finished my computer deleted the whole thing..without saving a bit of it.

Needless to say, I was a little upset, and this new post will be more pictures than written description simply because I am still a little bitter about blogspot's little mishap of yesterday :)

So..Paris. I'm going to organize this by the things I checked off of my life to do list, (or things that I didn't know until I did them that they should've been on there).

1. Went on a walk as soon as we got to Paris with two of my girlfriends..and happened upon the most beautiful park in the backside of Notre Dame & ate fresh streetside-made mushroom & cheese crepes there~




2. Went to THE LOURVE. and actually didn't think it was all that great :/ but I did see the MONA LISA & some pretty awesome sculptures~




3. Went to Musee d'Orsay..saw Renoir, Monet, Manet, Degas, VAN GOGH (but couldn't take pictures)

....to be continued...stealing internet at Starbucks right now!