It has been a crazy few days of travel in some seriously
diverse places. Carly and I headed to
Switzerland from Milan at 4:30am and didn't book our train to Interlaken until
we got to the Milano Centrale station...talk about last minute! As soon as we got to our tent hostel at
Balmer's Tent Village in Interlaken I headed out for a run to see what this
crazy adventure city was all about. It
was absolutely incredible. I had to stop
every half-mile to take pictures because it was so breathtaking! There's no possible way that any picture can
do this place justice. It was so GREEN
and the people there were so active and friendly. The grocery store had a bigger bike parking
lot than car parking lot, and people would go out of their way to help you if
you were lost. After a long day of
travels, Carly and I were starving, so we headed to Balmer's Herberage for a
hamburger and a beer. There were a ton
of American college students traveling at our hostel, and it was cool to talk
to them about their travels and learn about everyone's hometowns and future
plans. We also ran into TWO other groups
of students who had just graduated from the one and only U of Arizona! Talk about a small world.
Switzerland was the most magical place with the most charm
of anywhere that I've seen so far. Carly
and I had looked into canyoning when we were in Verona, so we were so excited
to get into our harnesses and head up into the Swiss alps for some serious
thrill seeking! I was a little hesitant
about this only because I'm uncoordinated AND afraid of heights, but when in
Switzerland, do as the Swiss do! We
spent the day jumping, zip lining, sliding, repelling, and trekking through the
Grimsel canyon just outside of Interlaken! I'll post the GoPro videos soon, but
if I could reccomend one place for anyone that likes the outdoors to go- it's Interlaken! It's such a one of a kind place that escapes
the tourism of the big cities. Later
that afternoon, I ran into Angelica who was on our canyoning trip and she was
headed into Lautenbrunen to hike up the path by the waterfalls and asked if I
wanted to join her and her cousin Sarah.
Why not! This may have been the
most amazing part of my weekend. Walking
along this path for 3.5 hours with two people I had just met but seemed to have
so much in common with was truly incredible.
We talked about our travels, frustrations, and lessons learned on this
crazy adventure. Love making new
friends!
Our last night, we went to the only bar in town which was
conveniently located at Balmer's and waited out the pouring rain! It rained every afternoon we were in
Switzerland but it was pretty incredible because you could watch the rain roll
through the mountains and hear the thunder echoing throughout the Alps, then it
would leave just as quickly as it came.
Pretty spectacular!
The next day, I headed out for the next leg of my trip to
meet the Jenks family in Madrid! I was
pretty excited because my luggage made the 20kg weight limit by 0.1 of a
kg! Always a good way to start the
day. The highlight of this day was
meeting a woman about my age in the airport.
Caterina was from Madrid and she was heading home for the weekend. We sat in the airport for 3 hours talking
about life and love. I'm not kidding I
legitimately talked to a stranger for 3 hours.
She told me that Spain was special because people embrace life there
everyday. She spoke English fairly well
and we were able to converse about everything.
She was an angel when we landed and offered to give me a ride in her cab
to the apartment I was staying at in Madrid because it was only a couple blocks
from her house. This woman was one of
the most kind and genuine people I’ve met on my trip so far with the most
beautiful soul!
I was ecstatic to see the Jenks family in Madrid and excited
to explore the city with them!! When I arrived, Rebecca and I quickly tossed on
our running shoes and headed to the closest park. Running in Madrid is frustrating because
there are people everywhere, so we finally found Retiro Park, which is a HUGE
park near the train station in Madrid.
There were so many people out walking, running, and roller-skating in
the park! Afterwards, we headed back to
the apartment for some quick tapas and dinner!
Then we hit the streets of Madrid to see how these nocturnal people
live! Madrid is an amazing city that is
full of so much life! The city never
sleeps, so neither did we! Rebecca and I
went out to one of the biggest nightclubs in Europe called Teatro Kapital, which
is a 7-story discoteca that attracts people from all over the world. It was so fun!
Staying with the Jenks family was a blast because we used a
site called Air BnB to find people who were renting their homes/apartments for
a few days. This was so fun because we
got out of the busy touristy hotels and lived like the locals did! We had a full kitchen so we were able to make
meals at the apartment, which was so nice!
Our next city was San Sebastian, which is in the Basque
region of Spain. I was excited to come
to Spain to use the small amount of Spanish that I know but I quickly realized
that there are multiple languages in Spain.
Each region has it's own specific language that varies from one to the
next...so it looks like my 2nd semester Spanish at UA was not helpful at
all. San Sebastian is a beach town that
is in the north of Spain. We stayed
about 20 minutes walking from city center at an apartment that may or may not
have been an old folks home. Highlights
of San Sebastian include Brian and Rebecca teaching me how to body surf,
running to the top of hills that led up to 360-degree views of the Atlantic and
finally the DISCOTECAS! Becca and I went
to get some tapas then to La Rotanda club on the beach, but it was a ghost
town....at 1am. We didn't want to be the
only people in the club so we went to stroll on the beach for a while. This is when we came across our second
bachelor party of the night. This
bachelor group had come all the way from northern France to San Sebastian for
Bachelor celebrations. We even got a
half strip tease from the future groom to be! At 1:30 we decided to head to the disco and
start dancing. This is when we met yet
another bachelor party! This time they
were from London. They may have been the
strangest group of guys I've ever met but Rebecca and I had an absolute blast
dancing with them until 5am! We learned
the pineapple dance from Ollie and Chris the Bachelor was the best swing dancer
I've ever met! Leaving San Sebastian was
fun but Barcelona was calling! We hopped
on a bus to Barcelona where I read The Fault in Our Stars from cover to
cover. Let me tell you it's difficult to
hold back tears when you're on a bus in the middle of Spain.
I'm currently staying in Bellaterra, which is a little town
outside of Barcelona with Marisa and McKenzie!
They're studying here with internships from UA and have given me the lay
of the land on what to do in Barcelona!
Today, I explored the city and
went to two of Ghadi's works Casa Batllo and Sangrada Familia! I'm not one to really appreciate architecture-
but WOW! I am absolutely in love with
the unique style of Ghadi! I walked
around today completely mesmerized by the city and how completely different it
is! I have a couple more days here in Barcelona then off to Grenoble to ride bikes with Jimmy, head to Pampalona for some festival, then Ireland to meet my best friend Allison! 10 days left- 2 more countries!
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