World travels...

Where to begin?  Last I wrote I was in Germany- so much has happened since then...

Now I am back in Alicante, Espana, for the last few weeks of my semester.   The rest of the trip went smoothly; there were no more train problems, everything went according to plan.  We ended up having make reservations on most trains, with the exception of Italy.  The trains were very convenient, easy means of transportation and I wish there were more of them in the US.  They came on time, left on time, and were pretty relaxing.

This is a pic of me on the Old Bridge in Heidelberg, right outside Brian's apartment.  You can see the castle in the background.  Brom and I took a little tram up to the castle, explored for a bit, and hiked back down.  Heidelberg was very cute and homey.  We went out to watch the Euro 08 soccer games every night and all the locals were very into it.  The weather was great and we got to see all of the old downtown area.  Very successful.

We had an early (I mean 6:00 am early) train to Lucerne on the morning of the 10th.  Brian's army friend Claudia, who also met us when we arrived to deliver the keys, was nice enough to come and take us to the train station at 5:30 am.  She was a great and very helpful.  We made it to Lucerne no prob.

Lucerne was beautiful.  It is a smaller city right on Lake Luzern (the swiss spelling of Lucerne).  The water was perfectly clear; you could easily see the rocks all the way down at the bottom.  Mountains were all around in the distance, which we could see despite the fog.  On a clear day there would be much more.  The houses and apartments are adorable, with flower boxes and balconies everywhere.  The streets were all extremely clean and all the city buses ran on electricity.  Switzerland was amazing.

From Lucerne, we took the Golden Pass scenic train to Interlaken.  It was the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life.  The train passed through tons of tiny swiss villages in the middle of mountains in the middle of nowhere.  The houses were like life-size cuckoo clocks with shutters in all colors.  The train went over a mountain and through a clearing  with waterfalls coming down the Alps in all directions.  All of the lake water was more than drinkable; it was the best water I have tasted in my life.

Interlaken got its name because it is positioned between two lakes, with mountains all around.  It is internationally known for its extreme sports: sky-diving, para-gliding, canyoning, white-water rafting, canyon jumping, bungee jumping, it goes on and on.  Bromley and I went biking the first day down the edge of one of the lakes.  It was beautiful and peaceful and a nice flat ride.  We took some sandwiches and had a little picnic in the middle of nowhere.

The next day we were signed up for canyoning, (I'm not even sure what that is, but Bromley wanted to try it...) but by some mix up we were put into a group of white water rafters.  We went with the flow, thought it would be fun and extreme nonetheless.  Our guide, Drew from New Zealand, was quite a hoot.  He has rafted all over the world for the last 15 years: Africa, Australia, Europe... He was very into it.

So he was telling us all about the dangers of the river and what to do it you fall out, the correct way to float or get back in the boat, how you never stand up because you could get caught on a rock... he basically scared the wits out of me.  He told us everything that could go wrong.  Then he was like, "Ok, none of that will happen, let's go!"  

He loaded us in the boat, two Australians in the front, two little british boys in the middle, Brom and I in the back, with Drew right behind me.  He said that way he could grab me if I did anything wrong.  He had no faith in me.

Everything went fine.  We made it, obviously.  Anytime there was a big rock coming, Drew yelled, "Watch the bump!"  If things were really rough he would yell, "Hold on!"  The problem I had was that the rope to hold onto was outside the boat, and I was scared my hand was going to be peeled off by the giant rocks.  If things were really rough, Drew yelled, "Get down!" which means that you needed to dive into the bottom of the boat.  So, whenever I was scared, I got down.  I never fell out, so that seemed to work.

Bromley was a natural, of course.  None of us fell out, which was nice.  The water was fairly shallow and there were rocks everywhere, so I definitely didn't want to fall out.  Also it was water coming down from the tops of the mountains, so it was freezing cold, even through the wetsuits.  There were a few calmer parts of the river that Drew let us jump out of the boat and swim around, and it was invigorating, to say the least.

So from Interlaken we trained down to Milan for the night, mostly because Milan is a big city and lodging it relatively cheap, at least compared to Switerland.  In the morning we had a few hours to walk around and see the castle, Duormo (or basilica), and a few of the major streets.  (Would have been dangerous to stay there longer, there was some serious shopping.)

So then we trained over to Venice, or Venezia.  It was beautiful, everything you would expect it to be: canals everywhere, boats, gondolas, italian architecture.   We got a little lost on the way to the hotel (See Venice album for pics...).  Bromley had both of our bags and was hauling them up and down the stairs of the 410 bridges.  He had a map and was sure he could find the hotel himself, and eventually he did, after 3 hours of exploring with all the luggage.  I followed behind with a few little carry-on bags and my camera, takings pics.  That night we grabbed some pizza for dinner (Bromley had pizza for every meal in Italy) and walked around the city.  Visited Piazza de San Marco which is where their duermo is, as well as a giant clock tower. 

Afterwards we decided we had to go for a gondola ride, in Venice it is practically mandatory.  Our guide's name was Tito, but he told us to call him Bond, James Bond.  He was quite the character as well.  He and his twin brother were born and raised in Venice and are both certified Gondoliers (he showed us his license to prove it).   He showed us the palazzo where Marco Polo lived, where Mozart lived, and the city hall and many other city sights.  He was talking all about his new Brazilian girlfriend and showed us her picture on his video phone.  We have a ton of video of him and his antics.  He showed us how to row the gondolas and let me try it for a minute.  It was classic Venezia.

From Venice we trained over to La Spezia, a small Italian town on the riviera that is one starting out point for Cinque Terre.  Cinque is the italian word for '5' and is a series of five fishing villages on rocky mountain slopes right on the oceanfront.  Hundreds of years ago peasant farmers converted the mountains into terraces for farming lemons, other fruits and many vineyards.  They also grew into famous fishing areas.  The houses are adorable, all bright happy colors and lining sidewalks.  There are no streets and no cars.  From Cinque, it is train or boat to leave.  In-between each town are hiking trails, which were all along the water, winding through the mountains and the vineyards.   

From La Spezia, we ended up in Pisa.  In Pisa there isn't much to see besides the Leaning Tower and the piazza it is in.  We checked that out, took the mandatory pics (holding up the tower, pushing the tower down... etc.) and decided to explore the countryside a bit, especially since we had our rail passes and all.  

So we trained once again to the little town of Siena, between Florence and Pisa.  The ride there was amazing; vineyards and villas scattered along the rolling hills.  It was picture perfect Italy.  Siena was a great little town, a little bigger than I expected it to be.  The cathedral was amazing, with an octagonal pulpit and perfectly preserved Renaissance frescos.  We didn't get to see as much of the town as we would have liked because it started sprinkling right when we arrived and slowly began raining harder and harder.  We took cover in the cathedral for a while, but then headed back to Pisa. 

We had a Ryanair flight our of Pisa the next morning at about nine.  If you have never flown any of the European budget airlines, Ryanair in particular, you can not imagine.  There are no assigned seats, so if you are not careful you will end up sitting by a rando.  Everyone always claps when the pilot takes off and when they land, as if celebrating they made it through the flight.  If for some reason there is turbulence or a quick bump or something, people scream. I don't think it is so much them being afraid, they are just crazy.  There are also an unusually large amounts of little kids, usually crying, chatting away in foreign languages, or kicking the back of the seats.  The plane ride from Pisa to Alicante is only about 2 hours, so it was tolerable, but an experience none the less.