I keep finding it harder and harder to update this blog. I do want to keep everyone updated and have this as a reminder for myself of the amazing experience I am having, but that may mean posting less frequently than I had hoped. Since you last heard from me two weeks have gone by and I have been to two more countries. Two weekends ago I went to Interlaken, Switzerland through this program called Bus2Alps. We left Thursday night around 8 P.M. and filled up a coach bus and headed on our way to Switzerland. There is some type of law that the bus has to stop every 3-4 hours so we watched some movies for the first 3.5 hours and then stopped at this gas station/cafe. We stocked up on snacks and stood around for 45 minutes and then we got back on the bus to make the rest of our trip. I pretty much slept the entire time and when we got there it was about 3 A.M. so we just got off the bus and went up to our room at the hostel and passed out. We were staying in a 10 person room at Balmers, a well known hostel. There were 8 of us that came together and 2 random girls were put in our room. They both turned out to be really nice and normal so that worked out well. The room was pretty small for 10 people but it was manageable. I'd say the worst part about the hostel was the bathrooms. They were coed and so were the showers. Also, we were lucky enough to have the sinks right outside of our room so each morning I got to wake up at the crack of dawn when people were getting ready to go skiing. I barely slept the three nights I was there, so needless to say I'm not jumping the gun to stay at another hostel anytime soon. I had booked paragliding for Friday morning, so when I woke up I got ready and went to wait in the lobby area to be picked up. The rest of the people that I came with were all going canyon jumping, and I decided that I would probably chicken out right before I was about to jump, so I mine as well do something else. After waiting for a few minutes I was picked up and found out I was the only one on this paragliding trip. A little freaky, but it turned out fine. Me and my pilot got dropped off on a mountain and we hiked up a few minutes. We then started to make a path in the snow and he set up the parachute. When everything was ready we both put on harnesses and he stood behind me and we ran down the mountain until the wind picked us up. It was an amazing experience. I basically was flying over Interlaken for 15 minutes and could see all of the lakes, rivers, buildings, mountains and trees from such a different view. There was a point when I was on the top of the mountain alone with this pilot that I thought he was going to murder me and no one would ever find me or know what happened, but luckily that didn't happen. The rest of the day I spent walking around with Amanda and exploring the town. We went to this Thai restaurant right next to the hostel for dinner that was recommended by many people. It measured up to its expectations, the pad thai was amazing. That night we went to this club called Metro Bar which was actually located in the basement of our hostel. It was fun, but there were a lot of creepy Swiss guys lurking the club. It seems to be a recurring pattern, creepy Europeans... Saturday Allie, Alexa, and I went on a day trip to Zurich since we were the only ones of our friends not skiing. One of the perks was that we had a two hour bus ride so I got to take two naps to catch up on the sleep I did not get the night before. Right when we got to Zurich we saw Starbucks on every corner and went running for it right away. It was probably the most expensive drink I will ever get at a Starbucks, but it was worth it. We really had no idea what we should do in Zurich but luckily some other people on our bus had an itinerary and told us we could follow them. We took this tram up to a high point in Zurich that gave you a great view of the city. It was a gorgeous sight and we stayed up there for a few minutes taking it in and snapping pictures. Afterwards we just started walking around, and these people told us part of their plan was to visit these two churches. We decided we had seen enough churches since we have been in Europe and were going to separate from them. We found our way to a main area with shopping and restaurants and wandered for a couple of hours until it was time to head back to Interlaken. Zurich was definitely the highlight of my weekend. It was a beautiful place with a lot to do. Since I don't ski, for me I found Interlaken a little boring. It was very pretty but there was not much for me to do there. That night we all went to Hooters for dinner, taking the recommendation of people who had been to Interlaken previously. Let me tell you, I don't think I've ever had a grosser meal in my life. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was pretty vile. I ordered breaded chicken strips, and they looked like dead baby chickens and tasted like dog food, or at least what I think dog food would taste like. Definitely won't be going back to Hooters anytime soon, or at least until I start my summer job there (just kidding, I'm not actually working at Hooters). Sunday it was raining and we weren't leaving until 4 P.M. so we had a lot of time to kill. We ended up eating lunch at a pub next to our hostel and just sitting there for a few hours. Once we couldn't occupy the table any long we went back to the hostel and sat around the lobby until it was time to leave. The bus ride home was not bad either, and we arrived back in Florence around 11:30 P.M.
Last weekend I went to Amsterdam with Heather and we met Rebecca and Gilbert and their London friends there, and Sydnee was there too. Me and Heather were staying at the Marriott with some girls from Florence that she was friends with from high school. The beds lived up to their standards, and it was so nice to stay in a clean room with a clean shower. The hotel was also in a great location, only a 2 minute walk from the best food places there. We got into Amsterdam on Thursday night around 5:30 and headed to our hotel to meet the other girls. We were given a list of places to make sure we went while we were there for the weekend so we decided we would start off with dinner at one of those places. There is this place called Wok to Walk which is basically like Stir Crazy or Big Bowl, except so much better. We got that for dinner and then headed to Jamin, the best candy store in Amsterdam and got our first bag of candy. We hung out at one of the famous cafes called Bulldog and then got Chipsy King. Let me preface this by saying that I probably ate more than I ever have in my life this weekend, and that's saying a lot for me. Chipsy King is this place that has cones of french fries and you pick different sauces for them to put on the fries. We got fries with frite sauce, which I don't know exactly what it is but it was delicious. We sat in the main sqaure and listened to some music before we went back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep. Rebecca and Hannah weren't getting in until Friday morning so we had made plans to meet there for lunch. Hannah had a plane ticket for the wrong day so she ended up not getting in till late afternoon, so we met Rebecca and her two friends Andie and Jessica from London. We ate lunch, walked around, went to the Amsterdam sign, and explored the city. It was extremely easy to get our bearings in Amsterdam. I knew my way around after the first time I walked through the streets, and that made things a lot easier. Of course Rebecca, Heather, and I continued to eat throughout the day, getting Wok to Walk as a snack and trying a stroopwaffle, which is two thin waffles with a caramel-like syrup in the middle. Our friends that went to Amsterdam a few weeks ago told us to go to this all you can eat sushi place for dinner called Sumo so we made a reservation for that night. The way this place works it that you pay a fixed price of 26 euros and you have 6 rounds of food. Each round you can order up to 5 things, which means technically you could have a total of 30 entrees. The catch is that you have to finish all the food you order or you have to pay extra, so you really need to make sure your eyes and your stomach are on the same page, which is a hard thing for me to do. We started off by all ordering 5 appetizers for the first round. I got crab salad, wontons, spring rolls, beef teriyaki, and shrimp tempura, all of which were really good. I was already full but knew I still had a few rounds in me. Next we all did a sushi round, so I got 5 different rolls. I got shrimp tempura, salmon, eel, and tuna. I had never tried tuna, eel or salmon before, and it was a mistake for me to order them when I had to finish them. It was a struggle forcing the food in my mouth and was a pretty nauseating experience since I did not like any of those fishes. There were still a few things that I wanted to order so I went on to my third round and got udon noodles and and fried rice, both of which were great. All in all I had about 13 entrees, so that was an eating experience you don't get every day. I hate to say it but we weren't even that full afterwards so we went to McDonald's and got stroopwaffle McFlurries, which were even better than the stroopwaffle we had earlier. That night we saw a sex show in the Red Light District. Enough said. As we were leaving we ran into some our guy friends from school and home. It was quite an interesting place to see people you know. It was pretty light by the time this was over and we were going to the Anne Frank House early in the morning. We made it to Anne Frank's House at 9 A.M. because we didn't want to have to wait in a long line. This museum was the most touching most interesting museum that I have never been to. I have been known to say that I HATE museums, but I absolutely loved this one. Being Jewish, and having learned so much about Anne Frank and the Holocaust throughout my life, this one really hit close to home. I read every description and watched every video and took my time going throughout the museum. It felt so personal to be reading excerpts from her diary and seeing videos of her friends and her father speaking about her. I would say this was the best thing we did in Amsterdam and it is a must see in everyone's lifetime. We were told to go to the famous Pancake Bakery afterwards, but we had a few hours to kill before it opened so we walked around and then we camped outside so that we could be the first ones seated. Typical. The pancakes are all very large and thin, like swedish pancakes. I ordered an apple cinnamon pancake that had warm apples and cinnamon ice cream on it. For the table we ordered a caprese pancake which had tomatoes, mozzarella, onions, and pesto, and a bacon and cheese omelet. Everything was so good, I could have eaten there every day of my life. I'm usually not a big breakfast fan, but this place really had me enjoying it. We knew that we wanted to make our way over to the Heineken museum so we just started walking. We ended up walking for about an hour, but it was a nice way to see some new views. On our way there we stopped at this cheese store and tasted pretty much every cheese that they had. I tried aged cheeses, flavored cheeses, and more. It was all so good, and best of all, free! We already had tickets for Heineken so we made our way there and waited for Sydnee and her friends to get there and then began our tour. It was really cool to see how beer is made. At the end of the tour there are all these high-tech lounges with TV screens where you can watch commercials, take pictures, etc., and then there is a bar area. You could even get your own personalized Heineken bottle. It was a nice day out so when we were done there we went to go sit outside at a cafe and relax for a little bit. Sydnee came with us, and it was nice to get to see her, especially while traveling Europe! We all hung out and then decided that we wanted Wok to Walk again for dinner. As you can see it was pretty amazing because we kept coming back for more. We proceeded to yet again get Chipsy King afterwards and then stroopwaffle McFlurries. Hence why I said I ate more than I ever have before in a weekend. It was pretty early by the time we were done with the night but we were all tired and Heather and I had to wake up early for our flight back to Florence. Rebecca, Hannah, Jessica, and Andie came back to our hotel with us and we just relaxed for a little until I fell asleep, at about 9 P.M. I got a lot of sleep in the comfortable Marriott beds, which added to the success of the weekend. Amsterdam was definitely one of the prettiest and coolest cities I have ever been to. I absolutely loved it and would love to go back at some point in my life.
The weather this week in Florence has been gorgeous so far. It's been sunny and in the 60's, so I have been trying to take advantage of that. Today in my wine tasting class we got to class and my teacher told us we were going on a walking tour to taste some wine. We walked past Grom, a famous gelato place, and he told us we were actually stopping in there to see how good gelato is made. We got to taste the gelato as it came out of the machine and then we got our own to eat as we walked to the next place. Next we stopped at a small wine store where we sat in the basement at tables and tasted a dessert wine with biscotti. The owner of the store also owns a panini place called Pino's, which I have already been to, so we stopped there and he showed us all of their good food as well. By the time we got back to class we only had an hour left, so we tasted two wines and then I was done for the day. Now that is what I call my perfect idea of a class. After class I decided I wanted to go on a run outside to take in some of the views of Florence. I ran down the river and across to the other side and explored a little. It was the perfect weather for a run, and I got to see some more of Florence, so it was a great combination.
I am leaving for London tomorrow night for the weekend. It's hard to believe my next trip is here already, but I am so excited. We are staying with Rebecca and Hannah and they have a lot planned for us. I was just in London with my family this summer and absolutely loved it, so I am excited to get back there. We are going to Buckingham Palace (which I've already been to and loved), Westminster Abbey, Ice Bar, possibly a Broadway show, high tea, and going to wander around different areas to eat and shop. Sounds like the perfect weekend to me!
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