ITALIA roma (kebabs. kebabs. kebabs.)
rome. what an awesome city. we also found our favorite kebab place which we returned to a couple times a day during our time in rome. oooh i miss it already. but who knew that we would be eating kebabs so many times on our trip?
ofcourse it was also so amazing to be standing in front of the ancient buildings i had studied in arch. class. . .i did not remember much, but the tourist pamphlets helped refresh my memory. haha. we stopped by a lot of the sites the first day, and our first was the colosseum. it was so grand and cool, and the sites kept getting more amazing as we walked through the ancient city, to the pantheon, and through the sistine chapel and vatican city. what was most strking to me was the famous ceiling painting by michaelangelo. i never imagined that the portrait of adam reaching out was such a small part of the overall ceiling. . .
that night, we participated in the spanish steps pub crawl. it was fun and i had not done anything like it since the booze cruise in cabo, where a shit show is almost guaranteed. the first hour at the bars is all you can drink beer and wine, and then a free ’shot’ at every bar afterwards. we did not get too shitty but it was funny since we made friends with one of the guys running it, and he admitted to us that the ’shots’ are actually just juice. we were like, “we knew it!” weak sauce.
SCHWEIZ interlaken (hip hop hooray)
the second night, we got placed in the main hotel part of the funny farm, which turned out to be a room with a huge balcony that was shared by two other rooms. the room was just asking us to throw a party. we ended up inviting people we had met, but also hollering at people walking by down below. it was a crazy night, as the crew of naughty by nature hung out with us. tyson and vinnie also had the most ridiculously nerdy conversation about phones and gadgets, and it was hilarious to see the both of them pumped.
interlaken is like queenstown in that it offers numerous outdoor/adrenaline activities. we went canyoning the next morning!!! to be outdoors breathing in fresh air is the best thing after a night of partying. it was also a wonderful group-bonding experience, since you are genuinely laughing and sharing the moment. we started by rappelling down into the canyon, and then down through the rocks by jumping off them, zip-lining through, and of course sliding down the huge crevices. i look forward to doing it again!
oh yea, i also pushed tyson into a drinking fountain when he was leaning over. he didn’t get too wet since he caught himself. . .with the junk in his trunk! hahahaha. alex caught it on video and it is still funny the 10th time around. . .lets just say it was revenge for the night before.
SCHWEIZ interlaken (don’t waste beer)
met up with tiff, tyson, and alex! it was the greatest feeling to see them waiting for me in the lobby, as i felt like my europe trip was finally starting. the place we stayed at (funny farm) is ridiculous. the front looks like a nice hotel, but the back where the hostel is is a converted moldy barn that they out bunks in. the murals portray cracked out and drunk animals with phrases like, “don’t waste beer”. one of the mattresses in our dorm smelled like vomit, and it probably had not ever been cleaned. but overall, it was such a fun place to chill!
this place also had the biggest dog i have ever seen, which was a st. bernard named spliff. we took her for a walk in the woods, and then ended up getting ditched by her. it was such a relief when we finally got back to the hostel and she was on the lawn…we also got back in time to kick it at a party with lots of booze and food on the outside terrace. we were walking by when some guys asked us if we wanted some wine, and after talking to them when we realized they were NAUGHTY BY NATURE! man, talk about elementary school. the guys were so nice, and we ended up talking to them for a while…the dj even hooked us up with some shit which was really cool.
afterwards, we went back to the pool to drink, when tiff and i got really hungry. so we walked back to the party and started eating the appetizers. when we got to the samosa plate, some guy told us that it was a private party… so we go back to the pool and convince tyson to grab some samosas ninja style. it was hilarious cuz i guess no one said anything as tyson grabbed the whole plate of samosas and then ran out with the ninja mask over his face. and the samosas were delicious. what an awesome first day together, as i have never laughed as much as i did that day. our stomachs hurt for a couple of days after wards too. . .
SCHWEIZ bern (bern bear, bern beer)
in bern i got to meet up with my friend matt, who i had met in christchurch! i did not know much about the town, but matt had grabbed a tourist guide for me to look at. it really helped me scope out points of interest, and we were on the tram right after i set my stuff down!
bern is such a cute town! we walked along the river trail into town, and then got a beer at at an outside bar. . .i am such a fan of sitting out in the sunny patio. right next to it, there are two bears that are in an enclosed pit and are a symbol of bern. (bern’s flag is also of a bear) it was a pretty hot day, so the bears were being lazy, and it was really funny since one of them was on its back and looked like it was scratching its balls with this stick in its hands.
back in town, it was really awesome to climb up the münster (minister) of bern. since we had climbed up the one in christchurch, we decided to do it, and the view was spectacular. it overlooked the whole town and we also got to see the trail we took.
on our way to the famous clock tower (with wooden characters that move on the hour) we stumbled upon a process honoring the mayor of the town. they had old school swiss officers in two lines outside the office following the commands of an officer. i was really surprised when they actually shot the guns, so the video footage is pretty funny since i almost drop my camera. . .
SCHWEIZ zürich (yo j.t.!)
zürich was memorable as well. . .and it all started with layla, danielle and i drinking in our room before going out. it was past midnight by the time we left, and we did not know if we had missed the last tram into town. so layla was jokingly putting out the hitchhiking sign when a car stopped. turns out the guy (francesco) was meeting some friends and invited us along. they were all super nice and we went to a couple of bars with them before getting dropped off at a bar where there was an after party for the justin timberlake concert.
since we had not planned on clubbing, we were not dressed appropriately and got denied by the bouncer. he probably did not like my sneakers and sweatshirt. haha. regardless, we spent the next half hour outside on the other side of the red rope. damn groupies. afterwards, we found a club to enjoy and danced till we were ready to head back, but what a bizarre night.
SCHWEIZ geneva (time machine what!)
europe has been a whirlwind of a trip so far. something weird or oddly cool has happened at every town i have been in. let´s start with geneva, switzerland!
one morning, there was a knock at the door of our hostel room. when a girl in my room (tomoko) answered, it was this thirty-something lady who asked if she was japanese. when tomoko replied yes, this random lady started accusing her in japanese of running a ´dream machine´ which was apparently giving her nightmares. this crazy shoved her way into the room after tomoko tried to close the door, and at this point tomoko ran over scared onto my bed. i was still half asleep since i had just woken up to the commotion, but i still knew that i had to pretend that i did not speak japanese. . .and so this crazy spent a few minutes yelling at this poor girl about some machine while rolling her sleeves up as to punch her as we sat there trying to hold in our laughs. all of a sudden, she was like, “i am calling the police” and ran out of the room.
tomoko, svenja and i sat there for a minute trying to see if that really just happened, and then ran downstairs to see if she was calling the police. sure enough, she is madly calling someone. we just laughed and kept tomoko away, as we went for breakfast at the hostel. it only got better as she actually brought the police back to the dorm (which was directly below ours) and was trying to describe this machine. the police must not have had better things to do, because they laughed and listened to her story, but was there for a while. . .and it finally ended with the crazy lady huffing away into the shower, with the last words “turn off the dream machine”. weird. just weird. what a way to start off my trip.
besides that, geneva was a nice city, with a lot of important sites to see. the hostels and hotels all issue a ´geneva transport card´which is good for trams and buses, so it makes it a lot easier to get around. i had the chance to go to the united nations office and get a tour of the place, which was really awesome since the guide was really patient about everyone´s questions. the security was tight since there was a conference going on, but it added to the official feeling of the tour. i also got a visitor´s badge with my photo on it which is definitely going in my scrapbook!