Interlaken Days 1 & 2

I arrived in Interlaken yesterday, and it was a very nice day. I caught a train from Bern at 10:00 and arrived in Interlaken at about 11. It took awhile to find the hostel, but it's a very nice place. As I mentioned before, there's free internet, but there are also great views and friendly staff! Yesterday, the reception guy gave me about 10 different hikes I could do. I decided to try one called Harder Klum. It's a pretty steep hike, and it should have taken about two hours to get to the top. Well about 40 minutes into it, the trail is closed off, and I wasn't allowed to pass through. I thought about hopping the rope, but decided that I didn't want to end up in a Swiss prison, so I just went back down. It was a bit disappointing, especially when it started raining, and it didn't stop until this morning. But I thought to myself, you know what? I'm in Interlaken, and I'm going hiking! So I set out in the rain (more of a drizzle really), and I used my map to go to the lake that's on the west side (Interlaken literally means "between lakes"). I walked around the lake and came to the river that would lead back to the city. I noticed on the map that there were these ruins on my way back, so I decided to check it out. It turned out to be a castle that had been built in the 1200's. It didn't look like much anymore, but you could still go up these stairs and onto the top that overlooked the field it was in. It was about 9:00 when I went here, so the stairs were really dark, and I was waiting to either hit something, or have the gangsters that are so prevalent in Interlaken (yeah right) attack me or something. Anyway, after that I went back to the hostel. I'm in a 4-bedroom hostel, and I was the first to check in. When I came back at about 9:30, I was still the only one in there, so I thought I had the whole place to myself. Well, at about 11:15, 3 people from Singapore came in and ruined my fun. The bathrooms in this hostel are actually in the rooms, so it's more like a hotel. I was really looking forward to having my own bathroom, but as fate would have it, that didn't happen. Oh well.

Today, I met up with Kirk, and we decided to go to First (pronounced Feersht) and hike up a mountain we saw on the map. We asked the attendant there which way to go, and he said the trail there was closed! We were sorely disappointed, but there were many other trails there that we were able to hike on. There was still snow where we were at, and great views of the Swiss Alps from up there. We ended up going off the trail to get to the top of this ridge we could see. This involved what Kirk liked to call "scrambling" which is like a mix of hiking and rock climbing. It was pretty fun, but then we had to figure out how to get back down. It took about 20 minutes to get up to the ridge, but about an hour to get back down. There were several times when we slid a bit, and our hearts jumped through our throats, but everything turned out alright. At the end of getting off the ridge, we actually did some sledding down the mountain, only without the sleds. We just decided to sled down on our butts, and we got going pretty fast. The only bad thing was that I was in basketball shorts, so I had to hold the legs up so I did get snow in my butt. It was a blast though. We got down alright, and we have another day of hiking planned for tomorrow that will bring us up to a place where they shot a James Bond film. That should be pretty cool. Then tomorrow night, I'm taking a night train to Rome. When I bought my ticket, the guy said that there would be a strike going on, but I should be alirght, and I might experience some delays. I said that delays would be fine, and he said, "No! Delays are not fine!" He seemed adament about this, so I just said, "Oh ok!" Anyway, I'm pretty sure Italy is less expensive than Switzerland, so that should be good. I'll post when I get there. I miss you all a lot!

Bern Days 1 and 2

Alright, there's free internet here at my hostel in Interlaken. I got on the train in Paris to go to Bern, which was about a 5 hour trip I think. Anyway, I had to connect in Lausanne, but my train was 40 minutes late and I only had a 30 minute layover... so if you do the math, I missed my connection. It turned out to be ok because my eurail pass made it so that I didn't have to make a reservation for that segment. That was pretty cool. Anyway, so I made it to Bern, and found my hostel. I looked at some of the restaurant prices, and none of them were under $20 per plate! I couldn't believe it. I just decided to buy some stuff at the grocery store there and eat by the river Aare, which was a very nice river. After relaxing and getting to know the city better, I decided to go to bed early. I did have to end up using my earplugs while I was there because there was a guy that was snoring really loud, but it didn't bother me too badly. Also, I woke up in the middle of the night, and my bedlamp was on. I'm not sure how it happened, and it took me a while to figure out how to turn it off, so that kind of weirded me out for a bit. Anyway, the next day, I decided to buy a Berncard, which gave me free public transport and free entrance to a bunch of museums for 24 hours. First, I saw the bears that are apparently famous in Bern because that's where the city derived its name. Then I went to the Einsteinhaus. For those of you who don't speak German, that roughly translates to Einstein's house. This was the place where Einstein formally put together his theory of special relativity! I know a lot of you probably are not as excited about that as I am, but I took a class in relativity last semester, so to see where these ideas were put in writing was pretty cool. So from there, I hiked up the Gurten, which is a trail that leads up to the top of a big hill. The elevation at the top was about 2500 feet, and I got a beautiful view of the city. I tried to take pictures but the camera really couldn't do it justice. From there, I went to the history museum, where I learned how Bern was founded, and attached to that was the Einstein Museum, which had a bunch of rooms dedicated to Einstein's life. From there I went to the Museum of Natural History, where they had an exhibit with a bunch of full skeletons of over 1000 animals including a huge whale! It was really cool, and it's amazing to see how closely the apes skeletons resemble human ones. From there I went to the Kleinmuseum which had a bunch of art, some was interesting, some was... really weird. There was one movie of just a light bulb that was shining. About 5 minutes into the movie, you saw a moth flying around in slow motion, then there was another 5 minutes of nothing but the light bulb. It was definitely the biggest waste of 10 minutes of my entire life. By that time, everything was closing (everything in Bern closes at about 6:00), so I decided to go back to the Aare River and just sit and read a book for a while. While I was walking back, I looked in at the McDonalds to see the prices... it was $12 for a stinking big mac! That's ridiculous! Anyway, today I got to Interlaken, and I am very impressed so far. The hotel receptionist guy was really cool, and he gave me all these tips on what I should do while I am here. He also gave me a free shot of vodka, and I haven't eaten lunch yet, so I'm kind of feeling the effects of that. If anything in this post doesn't make sense, then that's probably why. Anyway, I'm going to the train station to see if I can get my ticket to Rome sorted out, then I'm going to spend some time hiking through the Swiss Alps. I'm really excited about this.

Last Day in Paris :(

Well, today was my last day, and it was pretty eventful. I met Megan at 10:30 this morning. It took me about 30 minutes to walk to her hostel from mine. It actually worked out quite well, because she and I got there at the same time. She checked in, and then we decided to go see the Basillica. It was really pretty in there, and there was a great view of the city from up there. This was obviously a very touristy area because there were a bunch of people trying to sell us these things called friendship bracelets. It's basically where a person comes up to you with these multicolored ribbons, and they tie them around your finger. They distract you by asking you where you are from. After they tie them on you, they demand money from you! I had about 4 guys come up to me and say, "Hello. Where are you from?" And all of them had these little bracelets ready to tie. I just ignored most of them, but one guy actually came up to me and said, "Give me your finger," and tried to grab my hand! I slapped his hand away, and he left me alone after that. It was actually kind of funny. Anyway, from there we went to the pantheon, and underneath there, there are a bunch of different tombs of famous French people. We actually got to see the tombs of Voltaire and Rousseau, which was pretty cool. After spending some time there, we ate at this Greek restaurant which sold these really yummy pita bread taco things. That was probably the best meal I've had so far. Then we went to where the Bastille used to be. We both actually thought the Basillica was still standing, but after about 45 minutes of searching for it, we overheard a tourist lady reading to her husband from her book that the Bastille was the most famous monument that was not standing anymore, so we felt a bit foolish. It had started to rain a while back, so we tried to find something to do inside. We were going to go to the Louvre, but it closed at 6, and by this time it was about 5:15, so it wasn't really worth going in at that point. We then tried to get out of there, but we took a secluded way that nobody else was going because it was really crowded there. It took us to this huge parking garage, and we finally ended up getting out on this road that didn't have any sidewalks. It was a bit scary, but we managed to get out alive. Anyway, after that, we decided to stop for a nutella crepe, and I had forgotten how good those were. We sat and talked under a shaded area in an outdoor cafe for a while, then we parted our separate ways. It was a fun day, but I am excited about going to Switzerland tomorrow. I have to be at the train station by 12ish, so it should be a pretty relaxing day.

Paris Day 3

Last night I went on the pub crawl with some people from our hostel. There ended up being 90 people that went on this, which was a lot. We basically went to 4 bars and then a nightclub. It was pretty fun. Kirk and I went with one of Kirk's roommates whose name is Peter. It was enjoyable, but it was really crowded every place we went to, and it was pretty hot most everywhere. Other than that, I had a good time hanging out with people and making some new friends. Today I woke up late and did some laundry. The dryer actually dried my clothes this time, so that was nice. I then went to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, but it was really crowded there and there were a lot of people selling things outside and begging for money, so I didn't actually get to go inside. Then I read a book along the Seine River and walked along the Champs Elysees. It was a long day of walking, but it was fun. There are a lot of shops that are overpriced on that street. Also, I bought my train ticket to go to Switzerland on Tuesday. It was really easy to do, and for some reason I thought it was going to be harder than it turned out to be. Megan and I have set up our meeting for tomorrow, so that will be fun. I also made plans to see Dave Smith, who is a friend from high school. He got married to a German girl, and they are living in Germany right now, so Andrew and I are going to visit them. It should be a good time. Hope things are good at home!

Paris Day 2

Alright, so last night I had an egg, cheese, and meat crepe, or une crepe complete. It was delicious. I've already had a few people ask me if I speak French, even though I wear shirts and things that have English phrases on them. Whatever. Anyway, on a whim, I went to the Louvre last night and at the bottom it said that people who were under 26 could get into the Louvre for free after 6 pm on Fridays. Well, it was 6:30, so I said, "Sweet!" I went in and looked at all the Italian paintings, which were mainly about Christianity or Roman mythology. It was very interesting, but by the end, I was pretty tired of walking around. I went back to the hostel and decided to go to the walking tour the next day. I was in bed by midnight and I got up by 9:00. It was nice. Anyway, I went to the free breakfast at the hostel, and I met a cool English guy from Birmingham, England. His name is Kirk (maybe Curt?), and the only way I can think of to describe him is like a British Paul Mueller for those of you who know who he is. Paul, if you're reading this, don't worry... that's a compliment. He is intelligent and likes to have a good time and talk about interesting things. We have the same type of humor, so it was easy to have fun with him. Anyway, we went on the tour together, then went and walked around Paris. We decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower, but that was a bad idea at 4:00 on Saturday afternoon. There were people everywhere. So we then decided to go hang out around the Arc de Triomphe. After being there for a few minutes, we came back to the hostel where he had to check in. We decided to go on the pub tour tonight, along with some other people who were on the walking tour, so that should be pretty fun. Anyway, tomorrow I plan on walking up the Champs Elysees and probably going to some of the cathedrals. Nothing's set in stone as of yet, so it'll be an adventure. I also found out that Kirk will be in Interlaken the same time I am, so we might have to try to do some hiking together. Anyway, that's all for now. I'm out.

Arriving in Paris! Day 1

Well, I made it. It was a relatively uneventful trip. They served us a light snack on the plane, so I'm really hungry right now. The security at the Edinburgh airport was pretty low. They didn't even check ID's at the security line, but the guard singled me out to take my shoes off. I looked around and saw that I was the only one doing this, so I felt awkward, but whatever. I guess I look like a terrorist or something. Anyway, I'm one hour ahead from where I was in the UK, so that makes me 7 hours ahead of Dallas and 8 hours ahead of CO. The hostels I've stayed at have been really nice! They've been clean, and the one I'm at now is like a hotel. I traveled down a hallway to my room and there is a sink in our room! It's very cool, and I'm glad I decided to stay here one extra day. Finding this hostel was not quite as smooth as in Edinburgh, but that was to be expected, since Paris is a much bigger city. One interesting thing that happened was the immigrations officer. France must be sucking up to the US or something because all I did was show them my passport, the guy didn't even look at my immigration card and he stamped my passport and let me through. I thought he would be worse than the UK guy, but I was wrong thankfully. Anyway, I'm going to grab some dinner, maybe a crepe or two, then find a nice place to relax and read the book I've been getting through. Hopefully I'm meeting up with Megan Newman on Monday night, but we haven't set anything in stone yet. Catch you guys later!

Days 2 & 3 in Edinburgh

So I ended off last post with my free walking tour. On that tour, they told us what haggis was. It's a Scottish dish that consists of taking a sheep's heart and lungs, then putting it inside a sheep's stomach, throwing in some oatmeal, then baking it for a couple of hours. Gross! I had to try it! So I found some haggis that was middle-range priced and ordered it. The only way to describe it was like mixing oatmeal with Styrofoam. I did finish it, but only with the help of the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes that came along with it. I'm looking forward to going to countries in Europe where they are known for there food. Places like Italy and Germany. But I'm also having a great time here on the island. After I finished the haggis, I explored Edinburgh a bit, then I found an awesome place to go hiking. That got me really excited, so I got to the top of this cliff like thing and saw a mountain-like structure behind me. I decided to save that for the next day. I also got a good view of the ocean. So yesterday, I got to the top of this mountain and found out it was actually a volcano that had erupted a long time ago, and that's what gives Edinburgh its hilly structure. Edinburgh Castle is right on the edge of this cliff, which is apparently one of the hills that was caused by this volcano. It was pretty cool. So I hiked back down the volcano and decided I wanted to go walk to the ocean. After about an hour and a half of walking in the general direction of the ocean, I found the ocean and spent some time there just looking around. I went back, and found a Scottish church that was having some kind of a service there. I sat in on the balcony and during the songs they kept talking about someone named Sam. I couldn't figure out who it was, and then I realized that it was the way they said the word Psalm. I chuckled to myself a little bit and just listened to the choir singing the "Sam 138." They were very talented, and I'm glad I went there. Today I went and visited Edinburgh castle, which was pretty cool, but a little disappointing. I hadn't expected it to be as modernized as it was. They had renovated a lot of it, and there was a bookstore, a gift shop, and two cafeterias in the castle. It was still cool though. I also visited the Scottish national gallery today, which had some more artwork by famous Europeans. I fly to Paris tomorrow, so more to come later!

London - Edinburgh and Day 1 in Edinburgh

So I just remembered that I made a mistake in my last post. I said the Magna Carta was created in the 1200's, but it was actually in 1512 for those of you who are history nuts. Anyway, I left off going to do some laundry. I threw my clothes in the washer, and it took about 40 minutes to do. Afterwards, I threw them in the dryer, and the timer said 8 minutes, and I said to myself "Whoa! It's like a super-dryer!" More like a super-LAME dryer. It gave my clothes back to me still very damp, and when I tried to dry them again, it spit my money back out at me! So I said to myself, "Whatever" and took my wet clothes back up to my room. I tried to spread them out as best I could, but I was also trying to pack up to head to Scotland, so in the end, I ended up stuffing two pairs of wet jeans into my backpack. Now, I had purchased a bus ticket to go to Edinburgh from London and it was supposed to leave by 9:00. I got there around 8:30, but apparently there was major traffic and we didn't leave until 11:00. It was supposed to be a 9 1/2 hour bus ride up there, so at this point, we didn't get there until 8:30 at night. Other than that, it was a pretty cool experience. There were a lot of sheep on the way up, and I saw these two lambs drinking milk from their mother, and their tails were wagging like dogs while they were doing it. It was pretty cute. We also drove right next to the ocean, which was quite a cool experience. So we got to Edinburgh at 8:30, and this time, I actually took about 10 minutes to get my bearings and I found a map. I spent some time looking at the map, and actually found where I was and where I had to go. It only took me about 10 minutes of walking to get to my hostel, which was nice (using my super-manly sense of direction). Edinburgh is a much smaller city than London. I then spent about a half hour walking around the city and then went to bed.

Today, I went on another one of those cool, free walking tours and saw lots of cool stuff in the city. I took a few pictures, so when I get back, I hope to be able to remember everything and explain the stories that I was told. Tomorrow, I think I'll try to go on a hike up to the top of one of the hills there and pack a lunch. Anyway, I guess that's about it for this time. There's no free internet at this hostel (but I hear their laundry service is better), so I may not be online as much. Goodbye for now!

London Days 3 & 4

Alright, so I haven't really said much about jet lag. I mentioned that I went to bed at about 8 on Thursday night, and I woke up at 8 again. Friday, I was feeling pretty worn out by the afternoon, mainly because I went on a walking tour, so I told myself I would take a two-hour nap at about 6:30, but I actually just ended up sleeping until 8 the next morning. So I figured I would be fine for the next day! Maybe not. Last night, I went on another walking tour and then fell asleep again at 6:00, only this time, I actually got up at 9:30 and saw night time! I didn't actually go out of the hostel because it was chilly outside, but I went out to the common room of the hostel until about midnight. Before I left though, these guys came in, and one guy came near my bed and said, "Oh no!" I thought I did something wrong, but then this other guy came up and said, "How the heck did you lose your brother? You are a RE-tard!" I was just cracking up in my bed silently. Then these other guys came in and started shouted at each other, then they got really quiet and all I heard was one guy whisper, "Everybody hates us!" That made me laugh because it reminded me of something my brother and I would do. So after that I got up, read for a while, and went back to bed around midnight. When I got to my room, it was really dark, but I could tell that there was someone leaning on the bed next to mine. As I slipped past him, I could smell a lot of alcohol on him, so he was really drunk and didn't even realize that I had passed him. I got in bed, and watched him just standing there for about 5 minutes, then he slowly made his way up to the top bunk and basically passed out with one foot hanging out of the curtain. I then heard him making noise, and I'm just praying that he doesn't throw up. He doesn't. So then this other guy walks in (the guy who lost his brother) and he goes to bed (which is right next to mine and just underneath the drunk guy) and starts snoring really loud about 5 minutes later. I just laid there for about a half hour, when I finally decided to get my earplugs. Just before I get them, the drunk guy wakes up moaning something. He becomes more coherent, and I think to myself, "How is the drunk guy going to react to a loud, snoring guy?" So the drunk guy wakes up and he says, "Oh heck no!" A few seconds pass, then he shouts, "Get the heck out!!" After about 5 more snores, he throws something onto the ground, which woke up the entire room... except the snoring guy! He then gets out of the bed and just stands next to the guy saying "Shh!" every 15 seconds. After about a minute, he went somewhere else, and I put my earplugs in and went to sleep. I almost burst out laughing every time the guy snored. It went from sounding like a pig squeal, to sounding like an idling car, to sounding like a chainsaw starting.

So aside from the hilarious night, yesterday, I went on a walking tour around old London, where I saw the Tower Bridge, London Tower, London Bridge, and Big Ben among other things. I also went to the National Gallery where I saw several painting that I somehow remembered from Dr. Brettell's class three years ago. Among those were Van Gogh's sunflowers, and several paintings by Monet and Manet. I also booked a bus ticket to Edinburgh, which was only 18 pounds or $36, which was way less expensive than the $130 I would have spent on the train ticket. The only thing is I have to be at the bus station by 8:30 tomorrow morning. Anyway, today I went to the British Museum, the Tate Modern Art Gallery, and I figured out where I have to meet for my bus tomorrow. The British Museum was very interesting, as it had several original works by Shakespeare, a Guttenberg Bible, some of the original Beatles' manuscripts, an original version of the Magna Carta from the 1200's and several original works by Galileo, Da Vinci, and Newton! It was very fascinating. The modern art was interesting in a different way... sometimes I have to wonder how they decide what constitutes great modern art. Do they have an expert who looks at blobs on a canvas and says YES? Or do they have someone say, "Oh Piccasso did it? Put it in there somewhere." I'm not sure, but either way, it was very strange, as modern art tends to be.

Right now, I'm going to figure out how to do some laundry and pack up my stuff for tomorrow.

Day 2 in London

I must say, yesterday was one of the longest days of my life. I was doing pretty well until about 2:00, then it just hit me. I promised myself that I would go to bed no later than 8:00, and that's the exact time I hit the bed. There were some guys in bed before me though. I think I woke them up when I went to bed. I woke up at 12:00 and looked at my watch. The room was light, so I thought that I had slept for 16 hours! I felt like I could have the night before, so I sat up really quick, but then I realized that it was light from other people's bed lamps (each bed has its own light and curtain, so it's really nice). So it was actually midnight, so I went back to sleep. I slept until 8:00 the next morning, and those same guys were still sleeping. I don't know if they had gotten up beforehand or if they slept all the way through, but I'm sure I woke them up again when I got up. Then, just now I got back from all the sightseeing touristy things, and they were sleeping again! I couldn't believe it. Maybe they're nocturnal or something. Anyway, today I took a free tour of London and saw a lot of cool things. I also visited the British Museum, which is huge! I'm pretty sure I'll be back there before I leave. Tomorrow I plan to visit the National Gallery, maybe take the free tour of old London and visit Westminster Abbey. I actually found a grocery store, so I bought about 5 meals worth of things for only 6 pounds! That's like $12. I was pretty excited because when I look at prices in restaurants, I say to myself $2.50 for a sandwich? That's pretty good, but then I realize it's not dollars. They're prices are about the same as ours, but their currency just costs more is the way I see it. Anyway, I'll probably hit the sack early again tonight and maybe go on a pub tour tomorrow evening.

The First Day!

Well, I'm here, and intact. Everything went smoothly, and the guy at the passport checking counter was nice too. He asked me about college, but I'm not sure if he was being friendly, or if he was prying me to see if I was lying. Maybe I just don't look like the typical college student. Anyhow, I got through everything when I had to get from the airport to the hostel. I went to the train station, and they pointed me in the right direction and sold me a ticket. I got on the train when I heard something about passengers who were going to the place I was going to should get off. So I get off because I didn't want to get in trouble with anybody, but as it turned out, I got off for a train I didn't have a ticket for! I ended up having to wait a half hour at a stop because there are two different trains going to the same place, and I thought I had to go on the other one! Whatever. So I get to where I'm going, and I'm supposed to make a transfer, but I had to pay money to take the tram. When I looked on the map, I thought the hostel was fairly close from where I had just arrived, so I thought I would take a nice walk through London to get to where I was going. As it turned out, I had no idea where I was. I wandered through the streets of London with a very heavy backpack on and a roller suitcase with my bright orange folder in my hand shuffling through papers. I must have looked like such a tourist. On top of all of it, I ended up buying a map of London for a dollar and just staring at it for about 25 minutes trying to find any street name I recognized. Finally, after a couple of hours, I just went back to the train station and decided to just buy the train tickets. I ended up just buying a week long pass for the places I needed to go, which was totally worth it, as I intend on getting lost again sometime. So I finally get to the hostel, and I am here now. I get out my laptop, because the hostel boasts free wireless internet. When I turn on my computer, it all of a sudden goes berserk and I have no idea what happened to it. Right before I left, it was fine, then when I enter Europe, it dies on me. What's a guy to do? So that's kind of frustrating, but it's definitely not going to ruin this trip. I miss you guys already, but not enough to come back yet :) Talk to you guys later.

Pre-Departure Post

Here I am, sitting on the floor of my apartment in a bit of a daze. I'm not going to see this place for three and a half months, but that hasn't sunk in yet. It kind of makes me wonder how things will be different when I get back. I will have at least one new roommate, people I haven't seen in a long time will be welcoming me back (I hope), and school will be starting up again. I wonder if this trip will go by quickly or if it will seem longer. I hope it's a little of both. I'm excited to be able to go on this trip and meet new people, and also to meet up with my brother Andrew in Vienna. It's going to be a whirlwind of sightseeing, gaining experience, and making new friends. I hope to be able to communicate with people back home while I'm gone, and I'm not sure what to expect with the jet lag. In any case, I know it will be fun, and there will be good stories to tell along the way.