Forrest's backpacking Blog
05/28/2014
Day 1: I am on the flight to Lisbon, Portugal right now. I just realized that I forgot my ipad in the van so my blog posts might not be as frequent as I'd like them to be for the first two weeks. I just received an email from the agency in Korea that my interview will be on Thursday. I calculated the time difference and I will have to be up and interviewing at 5:00am in Lisbon, without my ipad, without a suit or tie & with no papers or resources from my application to look back to. This will be a very interesting interview indeed.
As I arrived to the Portuguese immigration area, there started off with only 3 officers for the 200+ people on my flight. After 45 minutes of waiting in line, one officer leaves and soon after another plane full of people show up. Half an hour after that, another officer leaves, giving us only one person to let us through immigration and there are well over 400 or 500 people waiting in line. This is by far the worst immigration passage I have ever been through in my life.
Once we arrived to the main section of town, we were repeatedly offered sunglasses followed by bags of fake marijuana, this happened about four times in less than an hour. We had a shit meal of a ham and cheese sand which that cost us 8€ and only had one slice of ham on it. We made our way after to our hostel on Santa Catalina street called Oasis Backpackers and got rooms for 14€ per night. This was my first hostel ever staying at and it was a blast.
Day 2
We woke up after a night of drinking and I had my interview scheduled for 5am but it was messed up..... we woke up around 11 and then took a great free walking tour by a white guy named Taylor who took us all around Lisbon. He took us through all the neighborhoods, let us get 1€ shots of the famous Lisbon Ginjinha which was made of liquor, cherries, sugar and cinnamon. Taylor later took us to a beautiful old church that was unlike any church I had ever seen before. Most churches I've visited are mostly the same, big and grand. However, this church caught fire during the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake that wiped out 1/3 of the population. People flocked from around the town to try and save it but it still burned. They rebuilt the church with the original stone still in place and you could still see the blackness of the fire that scars the stone inside. The columns were crumbling and the stone walls had so much character and story behind their disheveled appearance. Taylor took us to a beautiful Muslim building with original tiles that filled the entire inside. He also took us to Alfama, the poorest and oldest part of Lisbon. He told the story of how it survived the 1755 fire and was a Muslim area of town while the rest of the town was Catholic. After the tour we took two hours to tour St. Jeorges castle at the top of the hill above the Alfama district. This was €4 with a student discount. This castle was enormous with towers and walls that were over 800 years old. We scaled the walls and walked along them until we searched every corner of the castle. We then left to nap and then went to Barrio Alto to bar hop and eat dinner, we talked to an advertising guy and he showed us to a restaurant, we had fish for dinner for about €8 each, went from bar to bar ordering sangria and beer. Then we went to a shot bar and ordered a shot of absinthe, went to another bar that had a deal for 5€ we could get 16 shots. So I made the decision and picked absinthe again. Had to wake up at 7:00am to get train tickets to Madrid.
Day 3
Woke up and left late for the train station, once we arrived we were told the next two nights were booked for the night train to Madrid so we made the decision to get a train straight to Barcelona... which was a 17 hour train ride in total with one transfer.
After the train station we met up with a tour that we booked with the company We Hate Tourism. They picked us up in a dinky little van on the side of the road and took us straight to Sinatra. The girl who was in charge of our van full of Americans was a bright girl, graduated with a masters degree and did the tours for fun. We stopped by the palace in Sintra at a pastry shop first and had some local treats. Afterwards we left to go to Quinta da Regaleira, which is one of the most impressive establishments and gardens I have ever seen. It was told to us that the gardens were made into a labyrinth on the side of the hill for the neophytes of the Free Masons to navigate through different obstacles until they were initiated at the very end. The garden was comprised of a waterfall, with a grotto behind it and stepping stones on the lake it ran into. It also had a series of interlocked caves that connected to the initiation well that was 4 stories deep spiraling into the ground. It also had giant towers and walls strewn about the garden for people to climb in and onto that looked over the establishment.
After that we stopped for a picnic lunch comprised of cheese, fatty pork, bread and wine. Then we were taken to Cascais beach where we tried the oldest gelato in Lisbon which was delicious. At the near by beach we watched giant waves crash into the shores and windsurfers tackling them in good sport. Then the tour ended and we walked up to the park overlooking the river and laid down for an hour and had a beer and talked for a while. We ate a great and disturbingly unhealthy dinner at the House of India (which served traditional Portuguese food and no Indian food). I ate the local soup and deep fried bird sausage with french fries and an egg on top for 6.5€. Afterwards we headed to the train station and awaited for our departure on our 17 hour journey to Barcelona. God help us.
Day 4: Train, Weston, club
Day 5: Today we took the hop on-hop off tour bus for 27€ around Barcelona and saw all of the major sites. We got off at Camp Nao (FC Barcelona stadium) and took pictures. Then we went back on the bus to go to the Olympic Stadium of 1992. From there we went up the gondola of monjuic park to the castle on top of the hill that overlooked the city. We just happened to run into Weston and his apartment mates at the top of the hill so we toured the castle with them. We left after that to go back to the apartment for a quick nap and then went to drink and have tapas at Tapas Gaudi. We ordered a "tall" glass of beer (10€) which ended up being a liter mug so we had to drink all of it and we ordered about 6 different dishes of tapas, all about 4€ each. We went back to the apartment to play drinking games and then fall asleep because we had to wake up at 5:30am to get train reservations.
Day 6: Beach
We woke up today at the crack of dawn and headed to the Sants train station to book our tickets for the evening train. Afterwards we took pictures in front of Sagrada Familia church and then went on a 45 minute walk to find Cuban cigars, which ended poorly. We took a cab then to the beach where we took a few naps and ate some tapas. Once we got on the train to Avignon I sat next to a girl named Lilian from France and we all began to talk and hangout. Our train delayed by 2 hours on it so we just bought beers and talked on the train together.
Once they initially announced the train was delayed we said that we probably brought bad luck and that it was our fault, the random guy behind us then said, "thanks fuckers" lol
Day 7: Avignon/Marseille
We finally arrived in Avignon at 3:00am after a two hour cab ride from Marseille. The train company paid for our can, which ended up totaling 230€. We fell asleep and woke up at 10:00am to tour the town, I absolutely loved the little town of Avignon. Beautiful history, small streets and friendly people. This is somewhere I would consider moving one day. We toured the Place Du Palais (Pope's palace) which had incredible architecture and paintings. Then we toured the Pont Saibt-Benezet which is the half built bridge that people dance on, tickets for both totaled 15€. We then had amazing quiches and salads at a local shop for 11€, very cheap for the quality and quantity if food we got. Then we jumped on a train and headed to Marseille.
In Marseille we jumped off to Vertigo Hostel where we had a private room for 28€ each. Then we went down to the bay area and ate at a great wine bar called Caravella on the right side of the port. It had a gorgeous view of the port and the church on the hill and the prices for wine and food was reasonable. We had a bottle of Pinky Noir for 28€ and a plate of cheese and bread for 8€ which we all split.
Day 8: Marseilles/Aix-en province
We woke up today and had crepes for breakfast. We booked a boat tour to the coastline of Marseilles and the french riviera that was about 3 hours long and cost us 26€ with a student discount. We then toured the Notre Dame de la Garde church that overlooked Marseilles. All of the churches we visited were free and beautiful. We ended our day in the evening and took a bus to Aix-en Provence.
Day 9: Aix-en Provence/Lyon
Today we started out by touring the town of Aix and all it had to offer. We ate a fantastic and cheap lunch at the market, the guys got paella for 7€ and I got sausage and potatoes for 5€ which was big enough to save half of it for dinner. The people in Aix are incredibly friendly, much more welcoming and helpful than in Marseille. The women here are gorgeous as well, I felt like I was back at Miami University where every other girl who walks past could be a model. Most of the stuff that is in Aix-en Provence lies outside of the town, since we didn't have a car we couldn't see many of the great sights it had to offer. Having a car here is a must. I will certainly be back to this place because it is by far my most favorite city I've been to in France.
Again, we left our town at 6:00pm to arrive in a new one, this time it is Lyon. We got to Lyon and stayed at a great hostel called Cool & Bed for €26, the staff was super gregarious and the place was so clean and welcoming. We stayed in a 12 bed dorm and met two British girls as well as a Columbian guy. We talked to them most of the night until we fell asleep around midnight to get up early and tour the city at 7:00am.
Day 10: Lyon/Lucerne
Lyon was a beautiful city, we toured the roman amphitheater first and then stumbled upon one of the best churches I've seen in my life. Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere is situated on the top of the hill overlooking Lyon. It had the most intricate and extensive tiling artwork I have ever seen in a church. Besides the burnt church in Lisbon this is also in my top 3 churches of all time. After touring the church we went to the miniature cinema museum for 6.5€. It had miniature movie sets and clothing/props from hundreds of iconic movies, such a great museum to visit.
Once we left for Lucerne, our transfer train arrived late at the Geneva station at 5:13pm and our train was set to leave at 5:15pm, we sprinted from platform 1 to platform 5 weaving in and out if the crowd finding any space we could just to sprint faster. We jumped on the train with about thirty seconds to spare. A few unlucky ones behind us didn't make it onboard and we watched them look on in despair as our train parted without them on it.
Day 11: Spent most of the day wandering around and trying to find a place to stay for the night. Saw the dying lion statue and Lucerne's shitty defense walls that looked like Mr. Kim from South Park built to keep out the Mongolians. We did find a great spot on the lake to rest and get in the water for a few hours. We ended up buying cheese, bread, jam and bananas from the local weekend market because everything else in Lucerne is so expensive.
Day 12: Lucerne/Zurich
I had the most delicious milk I've ever had in my life at the hotel breakfast. We hopped on a ferry and took it to Weissen about 30 minutes away from Lucerne to hike the Rigi mountain. It took us 3 houra to get up to the stopping point before we decided to take the 4 minute cable car down to the bottom. At one point on the hike, Chris stepped in cow poop and then accidentally threw his WVU bag in the pile, once he picked it up he had it all over his hands haha
Day 13: Gimmelwald
Stayed at the mountain hostel in Gimmelwald. Absolutely pristine view of the mountain side, I woke up at 7:00am to watch the sun rise over the mountain, which didn't happen until 9:00am. The Mountain hostel provided free breakfast and we all had to clean up after ourselves. We met up with a group of five who were hiking the same route we wanted to take so we all went together. Holly, Cathy, Justin, Ethan and Shayla
We hiked straight up the mountain to a waterfall that I initiated all of us to jump under for a cool and refreshing break. We hiked for about three hours up, it was a narrow path most of the way especially when we got near the top, there was a ridge that was only about three feet wide and we went across that for about fifty yards. Hiking down was the worst part, it gave a toll on our knees all the way to the mid section of the mountain. There was a little self-service shop there, it amazes me the amount of trust and honesty the swiss have. These shops are mostly unattended and you take what you want and leave your coins in a basket. Once we left the house/shop we took a wrong path down a herding trail that led to nowhere. We had to maneuver across a small river with strong currents by having one person jump across while another was helping the rest pass on the other side.
Gimmelwald: Backpackers special- Pension Hotel from 6-7pm only 10€
Honesty shop & other houses with signs that have self-service cheese, milk, meats, fruits, etc. Very reasonably priced from 3-10€
Breakfast is provided, to save money on lunch I used a spare plastic bag and scooped up some granola and white bread to bring.
Hiking- there are water spouts everywhere, you will drink your big water bottle fast but you can refill it at random spouts along the trail. The mountain water is also incredibly fresh so you can drink most of the stream water if it looks clear enough.
Yoho- dive in lakes and streams, bathe in waterfalls, sled down snow covered hill sides, yell into the mountains for an echo. Do it all.
Day 14: Gimmelwald
Hiked with Holly, Shayla, Ethan and Karl. We hiked for four hours up the mountain until we hit a lake that had the bluest clear water I have ever seen. We put our bathing suits on and jumped in for about ten seconds each, it was absolutely freezing.
Day 15: Interlaken
Woke up and took the train to Salzburg, arrived at 8:00pm just in time to catch the opening game of the world cup. I met two guys from Marshall and talked to them most of the night
Day 16: Salzburg
Took an ice cave tour that I booked from my Yoho hostel (25€ per night) and the tour booking was $35 plus $20 entrance fee. It was well worth the money, it was the longest ice cave in the world. Gorgeous ice walls, tunnels and massive caverns. Discovered in 1897 the cave is always at 0 Celsius. The tour was an hour long. While in the cave, there was eerie silence when I walked in the back of the group. They give you small fire lanterns because without them it would be pitch black.
17: Train ride from hell. Tried to nap on my way to Zagreb but 5 others showed up and I couldn't lie down. When I arrived I met a guy named Daniel from SF and we toured around the town and visited the museum of broken relationships ($5)
18. Walked around with my new dutch friends and hiked a few trails until we found a castle on top of a hill. It was closed so we climbed the wall and had lunch inside of it. Later after the nap, we went above the city square to a small venue where we listened to a band play while we drank beer, took shots and even got a bottle of champagne to split with the bartender Zaltan. We went to the square afterwards and watched USA beat Ghana in the world cup!
19: Zagreb/Zadar
Daniel, Erno, Maartin and I rented a car to take down to Plitvice. Huge waterfalls, beautiful blue water, entrance fee is 110hk or 80hk for students (about $15). The upper lakes are more secluded, lower lakes were very crowded with large groups of tourists.
Driving away through the country side you can see stone structures still standing of churches or buildings that survived the Bosnian war
20: Zadar
We met an Australian girl named Emily who came with us to a few lakes south of Zadar. Entrance fee was 80hrk ($15) with student card. We swam in the waterfalls and brought lunch and picnicked in the grassy areas. We came back to watch the world cup from 6:00pm until 2:00am in the city square. Daniel, Emily and I went to the water front and jumped in once the sun set, i stripped down to my boxers and dove off of the docks. We stayed at the Drunken Monkey for about 28€ a night for a private four person room. Gets as cheap as $25 for mixed dorm. Good location and close to groceries and the water front.
21: Dubrovnik
Toured the city and Game of Thrones sites. Expensive meals and everything. Went to split and had a great night out, met two Swedish girls at the bar and talked to them most of the night.
22: Split
Big party town, night life is where its at. Booze and Snooze, $20/night, swam and played soccer with some locals. Left at 8:00pm on the ferry to Ancona, Italy and had a huge space on the Blue Line ferry all to ourselves, me, Australian girls and the 4 Aussie guys they knew.
23-25: Bologna
Train from Ancona to Bologna and met up with Alissa and her friend Ashley.
25-26th: Cinque Terre
Took a train to Genoa and then to Cinque Terre, met up with Nonna Emma and the two kids. Aunt Nicky let us stay in her beach house for the two days right by the beach. Laura surprised us on the first night and took us out to drink and have seafood. The next day we woke up and took the local train to four of the five villages, we missed Vernassi the second one. The tunnel of Love was closed so we walked from the 5th to 4th village. On the last day we surprised Nicky and met up with Gugi who drove us to Genoa and Nicky cried when we walked into the room. I also got to see Ceasre and have delicious Italian lunch at their home.
26th- Rome
Slept in the airport, what a cold, cold night.
27th-29th -Athens
Stayed on the outskirts of Athens and visited the national museum and took a great walking tour. We also had the best souvlaki in the world at a little place called Kostas
Day 1: I am on the flight to Lisbon, Portugal right now. I just realized that I forgot my ipad in the van so my blog posts might not be as frequent as I'd like them to be for the first two weeks. I just received an email from the agency in Korea that my interview will be on Thursday. I calculated the time difference and I will have to be up and interviewing at 5:00am in Lisbon, without my ipad, without a suit or tie & with no papers or resources from my application to look back to. This will be a very interesting interview indeed.
As I arrived to the Portuguese immigration area, there started off with only 3 officers for the 200+ people on my flight. After 45 minutes of waiting in line, one officer leaves and soon after another plane full of people show up. Half an hour after that, another officer leaves, giving us only one person to let us through immigration and there are well over 400 or 500 people waiting in line. This is by far the worst immigration passage I have ever been through in my life.
Once we arrived to the main section of town, we were repeatedly offered sunglasses followed by bags of fake marijuana, this happened about four times in less than an hour. We had a shit meal of a ham and cheese sand which that cost us 8€ and only had one slice of ham on it. We made our way after to our hostel on Santa Catalina street called Oasis Backpackers and got rooms for 14€ per night. This was my first hostel ever staying at and it was a blast.
Day 2
We woke up after a night of drinking and I had my interview scheduled for 5am but it was messed up..... we woke up around 11 and then took a great free walking tour by a white guy named Taylor who took us all around Lisbon. He took us through all the neighborhoods, let us get 1€ shots of the famous Lisbon Ginjinha which was made of liquor, cherries, sugar and cinnamon. Taylor later took us to a beautiful old church that was unlike any church I had ever seen before. Most churches I've visited are mostly the same, big and grand. However, this church caught fire during the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake that wiped out 1/3 of the population. People flocked from around the town to try and save it but it still burned. They rebuilt the church with the original stone still in place and you could still see the blackness of the fire that scars the stone inside. The columns were crumbling and the stone walls had so much character and story behind their disheveled appearance. Taylor took us to a beautiful Muslim building with original tiles that filled the entire inside. He also took us to Alfama, the poorest and oldest part of Lisbon. He told the story of how it survived the 1755 fire and was a Muslim area of town while the rest of the town was Catholic. After the tour we took two hours to tour St. Jeorges castle at the top of the hill above the Alfama district. This was €4 with a student discount. This castle was enormous with towers and walls that were over 800 years old. We scaled the walls and walked along them until we searched every corner of the castle. We then left to nap and then went to Barrio Alto to bar hop and eat dinner, we talked to an advertising guy and he showed us to a restaurant, we had fish for dinner for about €8 each, went from bar to bar ordering sangria and beer. Then we went to a shot bar and ordered a shot of absinthe, went to another bar that had a deal for 5€ we could get 16 shots. So I made the decision and picked absinthe again. Had to wake up at 7:00am to get train tickets to Madrid.
Day 3
Woke up and left late for the train station, once we arrived we were told the next two nights were booked for the night train to Madrid so we made the decision to get a train straight to Barcelona... which was a 17 hour train ride in total with one transfer.
After the train station we met up with a tour that we booked with the company We Hate Tourism. They picked us up in a dinky little van on the side of the road and took us straight to Sinatra. The girl who was in charge of our van full of Americans was a bright girl, graduated with a masters degree and did the tours for fun. We stopped by the palace in Sintra at a pastry shop first and had some local treats. Afterwards we left to go to Quinta da Regaleira, which is one of the most impressive establishments and gardens I have ever seen. It was told to us that the gardens were made into a labyrinth on the side of the hill for the neophytes of the Free Masons to navigate through different obstacles until they were initiated at the very end. The garden was comprised of a waterfall, with a grotto behind it and stepping stones on the lake it ran into. It also had a series of interlocked caves that connected to the initiation well that was 4 stories deep spiraling into the ground. It also had giant towers and walls strewn about the garden for people to climb in and onto that looked over the establishment.
After that we stopped for a picnic lunch comprised of cheese, fatty pork, bread and wine. Then we were taken to Cascais beach where we tried the oldest gelato in Lisbon which was delicious. At the near by beach we watched giant waves crash into the shores and windsurfers tackling them in good sport. Then the tour ended and we walked up to the park overlooking the river and laid down for an hour and had a beer and talked for a while. We ate a great and disturbingly unhealthy dinner at the House of India (which served traditional Portuguese food and no Indian food). I ate the local soup and deep fried bird sausage with french fries and an egg on top for 6.5€. Afterwards we headed to the train station and awaited for our departure on our 17 hour journey to Barcelona. God help us.
Day 4: Train, Weston, club
Day 5: Today we took the hop on-hop off tour bus for 27€ around Barcelona and saw all of the major sites. We got off at Camp Nao (FC Barcelona stadium) and took pictures. Then we went back on the bus to go to the Olympic Stadium of 1992. From there we went up the gondola of monjuic park to the castle on top of the hill that overlooked the city. We just happened to run into Weston and his apartment mates at the top of the hill so we toured the castle with them. We left after that to go back to the apartment for a quick nap and then went to drink and have tapas at Tapas Gaudi. We ordered a "tall" glass of beer (10€) which ended up being a liter mug so we had to drink all of it and we ordered about 6 different dishes of tapas, all about 4€ each. We went back to the apartment to play drinking games and then fall asleep because we had to wake up at 5:30am to get train reservations.
Day 6: Beach
We woke up today at the crack of dawn and headed to the Sants train station to book our tickets for the evening train. Afterwards we took pictures in front of Sagrada Familia church and then went on a 45 minute walk to find Cuban cigars, which ended poorly. We took a cab then to the beach where we took a few naps and ate some tapas. Once we got on the train to Avignon I sat next to a girl named Lilian from France and we all began to talk and hangout. Our train delayed by 2 hours on it so we just bought beers and talked on the train together.
Once they initially announced the train was delayed we said that we probably brought bad luck and that it was our fault, the random guy behind us then said, "thanks fuckers" lol
Day 7: Avignon/Marseille
We finally arrived in Avignon at 3:00am after a two hour cab ride from Marseille. The train company paid for our can, which ended up totaling 230€. We fell asleep and woke up at 10:00am to tour the town, I absolutely loved the little town of Avignon. Beautiful history, small streets and friendly people. This is somewhere I would consider moving one day. We toured the Place Du Palais (Pope's palace) which had incredible architecture and paintings. Then we toured the Pont Saibt-Benezet which is the half built bridge that people dance on, tickets for both totaled 15€. We then had amazing quiches and salads at a local shop for 11€, very cheap for the quality and quantity if food we got. Then we jumped on a train and headed to Marseille.
In Marseille we jumped off to Vertigo Hostel where we had a private room for 28€ each. Then we went down to the bay area and ate at a great wine bar called Caravella on the right side of the port. It had a gorgeous view of the port and the church on the hill and the prices for wine and food was reasonable. We had a bottle of Pinky Noir for 28€ and a plate of cheese and bread for 8€ which we all split.
Day 8: Marseilles/Aix-en province
We woke up today and had crepes for breakfast. We booked a boat tour to the coastline of Marseilles and the french riviera that was about 3 hours long and cost us 26€ with a student discount. We then toured the Notre Dame de la Garde church that overlooked Marseilles. All of the churches we visited were free and beautiful. We ended our day in the evening and took a bus to Aix-en Provence.
Day 9: Aix-en Provence/Lyon
Today we started out by touring the town of Aix and all it had to offer. We ate a fantastic and cheap lunch at the market, the guys got paella for 7€ and I got sausage and potatoes for 5€ which was big enough to save half of it for dinner. The people in Aix are incredibly friendly, much more welcoming and helpful than in Marseille. The women here are gorgeous as well, I felt like I was back at Miami University where every other girl who walks past could be a model. Most of the stuff that is in Aix-en Provence lies outside of the town, since we didn't have a car we couldn't see many of the great sights it had to offer. Having a car here is a must. I will certainly be back to this place because it is by far my most favorite city I've been to in France.
Again, we left our town at 6:00pm to arrive in a new one, this time it is Lyon. We got to Lyon and stayed at a great hostel called Cool & Bed for €26, the staff was super gregarious and the place was so clean and welcoming. We stayed in a 12 bed dorm and met two British girls as well as a Columbian guy. We talked to them most of the night until we fell asleep around midnight to get up early and tour the city at 7:00am.
Day 10: Lyon/Lucerne
Lyon was a beautiful city, we toured the roman amphitheater first and then stumbled upon one of the best churches I've seen in my life. Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere is situated on the top of the hill overlooking Lyon. It had the most intricate and extensive tiling artwork I have ever seen in a church. Besides the burnt church in Lisbon this is also in my top 3 churches of all time. After touring the church we went to the miniature cinema museum for 6.5€. It had miniature movie sets and clothing/props from hundreds of iconic movies, such a great museum to visit.
Once we left for Lucerne, our transfer train arrived late at the Geneva station at 5:13pm and our train was set to leave at 5:15pm, we sprinted from platform 1 to platform 5 weaving in and out if the crowd finding any space we could just to sprint faster. We jumped on the train with about thirty seconds to spare. A few unlucky ones behind us didn't make it onboard and we watched them look on in despair as our train parted without them on it.
Day 11: Spent most of the day wandering around and trying to find a place to stay for the night. Saw the dying lion statue and Lucerne's shitty defense walls that looked like Mr. Kim from South Park built to keep out the Mongolians. We did find a great spot on the lake to rest and get in the water for a few hours. We ended up buying cheese, bread, jam and bananas from the local weekend market because everything else in Lucerne is so expensive.
Day 12: Lucerne/Zurich
I had the most delicious milk I've ever had in my life at the hotel breakfast. We hopped on a ferry and took it to Weissen about 30 minutes away from Lucerne to hike the Rigi mountain. It took us 3 houra to get up to the stopping point before we decided to take the 4 minute cable car down to the bottom. At one point on the hike, Chris stepped in cow poop and then accidentally threw his WVU bag in the pile, once he picked it up he had it all over his hands haha
Day 13: Gimmelwald
Stayed at the mountain hostel in Gimmelwald. Absolutely pristine view of the mountain side, I woke up at 7:00am to watch the sun rise over the mountain, which didn't happen until 9:00am. The Mountain hostel provided free breakfast and we all had to clean up after ourselves. We met up with a group of five who were hiking the same route we wanted to take so we all went together. Holly, Cathy, Justin, Ethan and Shayla
We hiked straight up the mountain to a waterfall that I initiated all of us to jump under for a cool and refreshing break. We hiked for about three hours up, it was a narrow path most of the way especially when we got near the top, there was a ridge that was only about three feet wide and we went across that for about fifty yards. Hiking down was the worst part, it gave a toll on our knees all the way to the mid section of the mountain. There was a little self-service shop there, it amazes me the amount of trust and honesty the swiss have. These shops are mostly unattended and you take what you want and leave your coins in a basket. Once we left the house/shop we took a wrong path down a herding trail that led to nowhere. We had to maneuver across a small river with strong currents by having one person jump across while another was helping the rest pass on the other side.
Gimmelwald: Backpackers special- Pension Hotel from 6-7pm only 10€
Honesty shop & other houses with signs that have self-service cheese, milk, meats, fruits, etc. Very reasonably priced from 3-10€
Breakfast is provided, to save money on lunch I used a spare plastic bag and scooped up some granola and white bread to bring.
Hiking- there are water spouts everywhere, you will drink your big water bottle fast but you can refill it at random spouts along the trail. The mountain water is also incredibly fresh so you can drink most of the stream water if it looks clear enough.
Yoho- dive in lakes and streams, bathe in waterfalls, sled down snow covered hill sides, yell into the mountains for an echo. Do it all.
Day 14: Gimmelwald
Hiked with Holly, Shayla, Ethan and Karl. We hiked for four hours up the mountain until we hit a lake that had the bluest clear water I have ever seen. We put our bathing suits on and jumped in for about ten seconds each, it was absolutely freezing.
Day 15: Interlaken
Woke up and took the train to Salzburg, arrived at 8:00pm just in time to catch the opening game of the world cup. I met two guys from Marshall and talked to them most of the night
Day 16: Salzburg
Took an ice cave tour that I booked from my Yoho hostel (25€ per night) and the tour booking was $35 plus $20 entrance fee. It was well worth the money, it was the longest ice cave in the world. Gorgeous ice walls, tunnels and massive caverns. Discovered in 1897 the cave is always at 0 Celsius. The tour was an hour long. While in the cave, there was eerie silence when I walked in the back of the group. They give you small fire lanterns because without them it would be pitch black.
17: Train ride from hell. Tried to nap on my way to Zagreb but 5 others showed up and I couldn't lie down. When I arrived I met a guy named Daniel from SF and we toured around the town and visited the museum of broken relationships ($5)
18. Walked around with my new dutch friends and hiked a few trails until we found a castle on top of a hill. It was closed so we climbed the wall and had lunch inside of it. Later after the nap, we went above the city square to a small venue where we listened to a band play while we drank beer, took shots and even got a bottle of champagne to split with the bartender Zaltan. We went to the square afterwards and watched USA beat Ghana in the world cup!
19: Zagreb/Zadar
Daniel, Erno, Maartin and I rented a car to take down to Plitvice. Huge waterfalls, beautiful blue water, entrance fee is 110hk or 80hk for students (about $15). The upper lakes are more secluded, lower lakes were very crowded with large groups of tourists.
Driving away through the country side you can see stone structures still standing of churches or buildings that survived the Bosnian war
20: Zadar
We met an Australian girl named Emily who came with us to a few lakes south of Zadar. Entrance fee was 80hrk ($15) with student card. We swam in the waterfalls and brought lunch and picnicked in the grassy areas. We came back to watch the world cup from 6:00pm until 2:00am in the city square. Daniel, Emily and I went to the water front and jumped in once the sun set, i stripped down to my boxers and dove off of the docks. We stayed at the Drunken Monkey for about 28€ a night for a private four person room. Gets as cheap as $25 for mixed dorm. Good location and close to groceries and the water front.
21: Dubrovnik
Toured the city and Game of Thrones sites. Expensive meals and everything. Went to split and had a great night out, met two Swedish girls at the bar and talked to them most of the night.
22: Split
Big party town, night life is where its at. Booze and Snooze, $20/night, swam and played soccer with some locals. Left at 8:00pm on the ferry to Ancona, Italy and had a huge space on the Blue Line ferry all to ourselves, me, Australian girls and the 4 Aussie guys they knew.
23-25: Bologna
Train from Ancona to Bologna and met up with Alissa and her friend Ashley.
25-26th: Cinque Terre
Took a train to Genoa and then to Cinque Terre, met up with Nonna Emma and the two kids. Aunt Nicky let us stay in her beach house for the two days right by the beach. Laura surprised us on the first night and took us out to drink and have seafood. The next day we woke up and took the local train to four of the five villages, we missed Vernassi the second one. The tunnel of Love was closed so we walked from the 5th to 4th village. On the last day we surprised Nicky and met up with Gugi who drove us to Genoa and Nicky cried when we walked into the room. I also got to see Ceasre and have delicious Italian lunch at their home.
26th- Rome
Slept in the airport, what a cold, cold night.
27th-29th -Athens
Stayed on the outskirts of Athens and visited the national museum and took a great walking tour. We also had the best souvlaki in the world at a little place called Kostas