INTERLAKEN (Spring Break Part 1)

and the stories begin:

First stop on the SB2K14 European Adventure: Interlaken!

First off, let me say this is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. Ok, now I'll talk about the trip...

Day1: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

6:30 AM
Taxi to the airport
Plane to Barcelona
Plane to Vienna
Plance to Zurich
Train to Bern
Train to Interlaken
8:00 PM

So, as you can see it was a longggg day of travel but most definitely worth it because as I hopped onto the platform off the train at the Interlaken train station, my jaw dropped at the beautiful snow topped mountains surrounding me. Interlaken is a very small town surrounded by mountains on the north and south sides of the city, and lakes on the east and west sides of the city. Which is why I consider it to be so beautiful! 

After finding wandering around we found our hostel and it was so adorable! It was like a little ski lodge/ cabin backpackers hostel and it was just precious. After tossing our stuff in our room we were starving for some real food (that wasn't airplane snacks). We asked our hostel for a recommendation for some authentic swiss food and they sent us to a fantastic and reasonably priced (reasonable for Switzerland) restaurant on the main strip! She also recommended that we get Rosti, which is a potato/ hash brown dish served a million ways. I had it with cheese, tomatoes, and basil and it was absolutely fabulous!

After dinner, we wandered around the town (which is super small, so it didn't take long to get acquainted!) We admired a very large and beautiful hotel and decided to take a peak inside. It was so beautiful and we found a pool table, so we decided to kill sometime and play a round. After a game of pool we headed back to our hostel, chatted a bit and hit the lights after an exhausting day of travel!

Day 2: Jumping over waterfalls

After a wonderful breakfast of toast with PEANUT BUTTER (the real reason I loved this hostel) and some delicious granola our adventure began!

That's right. Sara and I signed ourselves up for a real adventure. It's called Canyoning and it's the most thrilling and exhilarating experience I have ever had. What is Canyoning? It's going down a canyon via jumping over waterfalls and rocks in to small pools of water, sliding down natural rock water slides, rappelling down waterfalls and rocks, and a bit of climbing as well! Basically all the things I love! 

Want to know more about what I did? Watch this video! (It's not a video of me but this is exactly what I did!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gihw1sZl2o

Some highlights for me from canyoning were jumping and landing face first/ belly flopping on the first jump (which was about 15 meters) right after our guide told us "whatever you do, don't fall on your face." Whoops. Yeah, it hurt but I'm alive to tell the tale. I also enjoyed doing a front flip off a rock over a waterfall into a pool of water! It was terrifying when they told you "Ok, don't go too far to the right, there's rocks there, and if you go to the left, there's a strong current that will take you in, so jump righttt there, ready? 3, 2, 1, GO!" and after I asked a million questions to make sure I understood what I was supposed to do, I jumped slid or flipped into the water! There was one jump where it was a tiny crevice/ waterfall that you had to jump through (or your could slide down) I decided to jump and after I made it to the bottom and looked up at what I had just done I was absolutely amazed that I didn't crash against a rock! 

but don't worry, we were fully suited up: a wet suit, 2 wet suit jackets, a life vest and a personalized helmet! All the helmets had different names on them and I was "Sexy." HAHA So I got to hear, "Alright sexy it's time to jump!" many times. 

Our guides were great and we had a fun group too! The group consisted of two brothers (in their 30s) and their dad (probably in his 60s--BADASS) from Texas and a couple (26) from Germany.

After an amazing and beautiful and exhausting trip down the canyons they brought out the fooood. Some authentic swiss cheese, bread and veggies to make some sandwiches! A very well deserved meal!

We then headed back to the hostel where we showered and took a quick nap! We then got the craving for some swiss fondue so we headed to the strip and found this cheap fondue place after a man wearing cow pants pulled us off the street and into his restaurant (he didn't literally pull us, just told us the prices and we gladly walked in.) We had some cheese fondue and then some chocolate fondue for dessert, NOMS! The man in the cow pants (owner I assume) was so hilarious and entertaining. He would always come over to our table to check on us and took my fondue fork and taught me the correct fondue technique, which is called "roll and blow." I started laughing so hard. He also would randomly ride his bike past the front of the restaurant and play his tuba inside. It was bizarre, but very entertaining! 

After dinner we went back to the hostel and met our room mates, 2 girls that are studying abroad in SEVILLA. How crazy is that?? So we all decided to check out the hostel bar/club, which is apparently the most popular/ only bar/club in Interlaken, which means everyone in the town goes there. We also went with the group of super nice Canadian girls who we drove with to the Canyoning adventure!

The bar was located right underneath our hostel which was super convenient and they played great american music! Like I said, everyone in Interlaken goes to this bar, including the german couple from our canyoning group, and even our canyoning guides! It was a fun night!

Day 3: Hiked a Mountain

After another amazing breakfast we got moving on our second adventure: a hike. We chose this trail because it was said to have some of the most amazing view of Interlaken and the mountains and the views did not disappoint. After a 2 hour trek straight upwards (with many water breaks) we finally made it to the top. We took in the view and nommed on our packed lunches of apples, bananas and peanut butter that we snagged from breakfast. We also met 2 guys from England who were super nice and took some great picture for us after we took some for them! They then told us that they take a YMCA picture where ever they travel to with people they meet, so we happily jumped in and completed the YMCA on top of a mountain picture.

After our hike we went back and showered and met our new room mate from South Korea. We then went to a Chocolate Show! This was a very cool and delicious experience! We went into the back room of a chocolate shop and watched a video on how chocolate is harvested, then watched how the chocolate is made, and saw right before our eyes how the molds are prepared and how chocolate covered caramels are made! Then of course we had many many samples, which were all absolutely scrumptious!

After our chocolate feast we wanted to go to the lake! After 3 tries, stumbling upon some sheep and asking a random swiss family that was in their backyard we finally found our way to the lake! (You wouldn't think it would be that difficult to find--but hey we were a little tired!) and it was well worth the three tries because the lake was stunning! Surrounded by mountains it was so picturesque!

We grabbed a slice of pizza on our way back to the hostel and then were chilling in our lobby talking to a guy we met from Madrid! We decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to practice our Spanish, so we had a nice conversation in the beautiful language of Espanol! As we were sitting there, 3 guys wandered into our hostel looking for the bar. We told them it was closed on Sunday (which we also just learned) and they were bummed and wanted to go to a bar. Basically, nothing is open in Interlaken on Sundays, but there was a pub right next door to our hostel that was open until 12:30 so we decided to stop by for a drink with them. They were members of a swiss ball hockey team and they were a hilarious few guys to hang out with for the night! 

Day 4: Saying goodbye to a beautiful place

We got up and ate breakfast and went on one last beautiful hike. It was a much shorter hike (about an hour and a half total) but it still had some wonderful views! We then went back to our hostel to gather our things and print our boarding passes but strange thing is I could not for the life of me find my confirmation e-mail! I still don't know where it went (but luckily I was able to retrieve it at the check in at the airport)! On our way to the train station we stopped at the chocolate shop because we had an $8 Swiss Fran voucher from the chocolate show, so we got some chocolate tart and cheese cake, which was the most proper farewell we could have asked for after an amazing time in such a beautiful paradise.

Other notes from the trip: Interlaken is a part of the German province of Switzerland. There are four provinces: the German, French, Italian, and a small part that it Romanian. In Interlaken they speak swiss-german, and the only words I learned were Gesclossen Sontag which mean Closed Sunday... The currency is Swiss Francs, and one franc is equal to 1.13 US Dollars, so it was definitely the most expensive of the three places we visited. Also, we noticed there were a lot of Asian tourists in Interlaken and we were curious why...turns out "Interlaken was twinned with the Japanese town of Otsu in 1978. As a token of this friendship and these close ties a Japanese Garden complete with pond and pavilion were laid out adjacent to the Hotel Interlaken." --- according to Interlaken's website. Another fun fact is that it's super difficult to obtain a Swiss VISA-- which is terrible news because I could totally see myself living there! Lastly, Switzerland reminded me of Madison, Wisconsin-- located between two lakes, known for their cheese and cows, and so cute and perfect! (Now all Madison needs is some mountains!)

Overall, it was an amazing and beautiful adventure through Interlaken--enjoy the photos!


Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

Our meals in Interlaken! Rosti on the left and fondue on the right!

 

Pre-Canyoning adventure!

HIKING! As you can see, we were very exhausted, but it was well worth it for the views! In the bottom right picture is the mountain we climbed! Can't believe we made it to the top!

 

Our adorable hostel and the view from our room!

 The chocolate show!

The amazing people that you meet traveling!

INTERLAKEN, YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL AND I'LL BE BACK ONE DAY TO REUNITE! 

 

 

It's Spring Break!

It's Spring Break!!!

Better late than never, right?

RIGHT. Because I'm about to head off on a bit of a crazy adventure starting tomorrow. 

I'll be spending 10 days traveling to three different countries in Europe. 

First, I'll be heading to Interlaken, Switzerland for some much needed nature and swiss chocolate.

Next up, Prague, Czech Republic for what I've heard is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe with lots of castles and colorful buildings!

Lastly, Budapest Hungary where I'll be hitting up the public baths and vibrant nightlife. 

I am going on this adventure with my friend Sara and it will be her 21st birthday while we are abroad so it will most definitely be a blast! 


Today was a busy day! I has two classes, ate, printed out a million boarding passes for this weeks trip, went to volunteer in Tres Mil and when we got there we found out that there was no class that day (they could have sent and e-mail?!?) so we had to bus it all the way back to Nervion! Then I had Finance and now it's 1 am and I'm still packing! Oy vey!

So I probably won't write again for around 10 days! So, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the cities that I'm visiting so you can see those places through the eyes of google :)


Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

Interlaken, Switzerland

Prague, Czech Republic 

Budapest, Hungary (A public bath, don't worry they wear bathing suits)

International Workout Friend

Today's workout brought with it an unexpected visitor!

After doing a warm-up with a group of 6 of us, I was explaining the workout circuit and a man approached us and asked (in very broken english) if one of us could take a picture of him. Then he asked if we spoke Spanish-- which we said yes to and I then took his phone to take a picture of him.

He was wearing workout gear so I asked if he wanted to join us for a fun workout. He said yes! Well, this meant that I had to explain the workout circuit in Spanish!! (Too bad I never learned how to say: squats, push ups, planks, or flutter kicks in Spanish class...so this is where the demonstrations started!) Eventually, I just told him to follow my lead. His name was Gianmarco and he was from Sicily, Italy. He studied abroad in Sevilla in 2006 (making him probably around 30?) and was back in Sevilla for the week to visit some friends!

He was impressed by our workout group and although we didn't get that much conversation in, because we were sprinting or out of breath, he seemed like a really nice and interesting guy!

It was cool to have a foreigner join the pack! I have tried multiple times to get some Spanish friends to come to the work outs but 9AM is just wayyyy too early for them!

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

Workout team with Gianmarco! 

The best pastry I've ever had

So yes, I am dedicating this entire post to one pastry treat.

Today after wine class my friend asked if I wanted to try out this pastry shop that she had wanted to go to. and of course, because I can't say no to food, especially treats, said yes! and OMG I am so glad that I did.

Turns out this is not your ordinary pastry shop--it's a classy cafe with beautiful looking desserts and food as well! We decided to split a dessert (since this was right before lunch) because they were alost 4 Euros each.

We decided on a Lemon Tart, very similar to one of my favorite treats-- a lemon bar! Its was HEAVENLY! The picture doesn't do it justice. I am so excited to bring my dad here when he comes because I know this is something that he would absolutely love!

Also, getting to sit on the steps of the cathedral on this beautiful sunny, 80 degree day and chat with a friend was a great break in the day!

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

It's the thing on the bottom! SO GOOD IT'S INDESCRIBABLE. The thing on top is called a torrija--it's a typical dessert of Sevilla, specifically around the time of Semana Santa. There are two types-- one type is coated in cinimon and sugar, and the other type is drenched in wine and honey. 

And then I came home to a wonderful chicken and potato lunch! 

PORTUGAL

A weekend at LA PLAYA! (THE BEACH)!

I was definitely ready for a relaxing weekend trip of laying in the sand and playing in the water. No trains to catch or museums to see...just BEACH!

Ok- there was a little bit more than just a beach in Portugal...

I went on this trip through a company called "We Love Spain," so they figured out all of the logistics and the itinerary for the trip! We started at 10am Friday morning and took a bus to our hotel in Albufeira where we got our room keys, dropped off our luggage and immediately hit the beach, which was about a 5 minute walk from our hotel!

On the beach, I was restless and just wanted to run around! So I played some football and frisbee with my friends! There were about 20 of us from my CIEE Business program so it was a big fun group! Plus there was about another 100 people on the trip! 

After about 2 hours on the beach we had a boat ride planned. We spent 1 hour on speed boats (and they don't call them speed boats for nothing), they were sooooo fast! At many points I thought that I was going to fly out of the boat! We boated along the beautiful portugal coast and saw the many cliffs and caves that make these beaches some of the best in the world. After our hour speed boat tour we had another hour boat tour, but this one was on a pirate ship. Yup, a pirate ship..decked out with costumes and everything! I have never felt sea sick before...but this ship was rocking back and forth and sideways so much that I honestly thought I was going to puke. So, needless to say I was not enjoying this ride too much. However, we did see DOLPHINS in the water so that was pretty darn awesome! After an hour of swaying around in our pirate outfits we finally made it back to shore.

We then went back to the hotel and then walked over to the supermarket to get some groceries for the weekend! We went back to the hotel and attempted to make some pasta for dinner in our kitchen (each hotel room had a kitchen) but we quickly realized that our stove wasn't working...so we went into our friends room and used theirs. Then we tried to heat up some sauce in our microwave, but that wasn't working either! Oh jeez. So we used our friends kitchen again. One thing that we couldn't borrow from our friends' room was heating. Our room was freezing!! We were constantly shivering and I had myself wrapped in a blanket at all times! There were four of us staying together, me, Sheila, Rachael and Sara, and we had two twin beds, and two pull out couches, but we all ended up sleeping together on the two twin beds to keep warm throughout the night! So that "4 star" hotel that they said we were staying at was probably more like a 2.5. but it was fine! We finally ate a good dinner and then went out on the pub crawl that our tour guides had planned.

On Saturday we got up and got on the bus for our action packed day (aka beach day). First thing on the agenda was a trip to the end of the world. Well, what was believed to be the end of the world before America was discovered. It was a beautiful cliff lookout point that we stopped at for about 20 minutes to admire the scenery and take pictures. 

We then headed to the much anticipated beaches of Lagos, which are said to be the most beautiful in the world, and they definitely did not disappoint. All the rocks, cliffs and caves added to the beautiful blue Atlantic and the golden sand. A few of us crawled through a tunnel to a dark cave (where we brought a cell phone that we could use as a flashlight to get around. It wasn't that big inside, but it was cool to see! Then I walked to the water and was rock hoping to see around the other side of the cave. When standing on a rock something flung itself onto my foot in the water and I FREAKED OUT. I have no idea what it was.. it could have been a squid tentacle, starfish, jellyfish, or maybe even just some seaweed, but it was slimy and gross and I almost wiped out in the water from freaking out so much.

After lying on the beach for a little bit I was again restless so we played some more frisbee and football. We even got a game of touch (american) football together! My competitive spirit of course came out and my team pulled through at the end for a win! It was so fun to play sports again--that is definitely one of the things I miss the most from home!

After a tiring game of football in the sand and under the sun, a few of us decided to test out the water and swim to some rocks. but BOY WAS IT COLD. I was freeeezing in the water but decided to suck it up and swim over to the rocks, and I'm glad I did because it was so beautiful to just sit on a rock in the middle of the ocean and admire the beauty around me. (and nothing grabbed my foot this time so I was grateful for that).

We then laid on the beach to dry off a bit before hoping back on the bus. We then stopped at another beautiful lookout point with a bunch of caves. We were then off to the city center of lagos where we were free to roam around, eat, and shop. A few of us were craving some fresh fruits and veggies so we went to a place called Bora Cafe where we had some fresh fruit smoothies and salads--all very delicious! We then went into some shops and looked around. We also stopped to see the first ever slave market. It was pretty interesting to see such a historic site and crazy to think that they actually sold people as slaves. We then walked around a little more, got some ice cream and hoped back on the bus to go back to the hotel. 

We hung out in the hotel for a bit before going out on another pub crawl, but a bunch of us left the big group after the first bar to go watch the Badgers play in the final 4 game! (Which started at 2:15AM). So we found a sports bar that let us stream the game! Unfortunately, once half time hit I was exhausted and took a cab with Sheila back to our hotel! and unfortunately, the badgers lost, but they played an awesome game and had a great season! 

Sunday we got up, packed our things and checked out of the hotel. We then headed to another beach in Albufeira where we layed on the beach for quite some time and soaked in the HOT sun. Today was the hottest of the three days and the SPF 45 was definitely in use. I only got a little burnt over the three days but definitely not as much as I imagined I would! We then took a break from the sun and went to get some mexican food, where I indulged in some quesadillas and guacamole (you can see this is a trend on my weekend trips). SO GOOD. We then spent a little more time soaking in the sun before packing up our beach bags, grabbing some ice cream (another trend) and jumping back on the bus to head back to Sevilla.

BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE.

On our way back to Sevilla, our bus was randomly selected to be checked at the border. What does this entail you might be wondering? Well, the pulled our bus aside, off the highway into some random parking lot. We all had to get off the bus and one by one grab our bags from underneath the bus and stand in a line with our bags next to us. Then the drug dogs (adorable golden labs) sniffed each of our bags. BUT WAIT... there was one bag that nobody claimed that was still under the bus...and yup the dogs were barking at it. 

It may have been a smart move to not claim your bag, but when you have identification in your bag they are going to figure out who it is! So, they found the guys passport in his bag so he obviously had to own up to it bing his bag. I am standing right next to the bus watching this all happen and I can tell that they guy is freaking out as I hear the police say, "Why didn't you claim your bag, do you think this is a joke?? We know you have drugs in here." They then proceeded to search through his entire bag and of course find some drugs, pretty sure it was just weed. but it was so interesting to watch such a thorough investigation.. they looked everywhere! Even opened up his deodorant! They took him into the office on the other side of the highway.

So, we left the kid in the Portugal jail and headed back to Spain.

JUST KIDDING. We had to wait in the bus for another HOUR while they filed a report and eventually brought him back on the bus. Not really sure of the consequences to that whole situation but I can't imagine him getting off that easy.

We finally made it back to Sevilla and after a long day in the sun I was drained and called it a night very early so I could get a wonderful workout in this morning!

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

Albufeira and Boat Tours

Hanging out at the end of the world!

We're in a cave.

Lagos

Roomie Dinner

 Bora Cafe for a yummy salad and smoothie!

First ever Slave Market

Drug search at the border. 

Beach in Albufeira 

Wine.Tapas.Wine

Today in my wine class our professor gave us a new assignment. He said we have to go out buy either a bottle or a glass of wine, drink it and write a paper about the experience. (Alright, it's a little more detailed than that, but hey drinking wine for homework?? I'm ok with that!)

This is probably the quickest I have ever started working on a paper after it was assigned--no procrastination here! My friend and I decided to head over to a bar right after class and get this assignment out of the way! We each had a glass of wine and a few tapas to share! We got the fried eggplant and honey, pisto, and patatas bravas! They were all sooo good! and I was glad to spend a meal at an authentic spanish tapas bar! The guy working there was really nice too! I explained that we had to drink some wine for our class and he even brought out the bottle so we could take a picture of it (because we needed to include that in our paper!) 

After Tapas I did some walking and wandering around the central until I met my friend Maaren at the bus stop for our weekly adventure to Tres Mil Viviendas for volunteering! Something must have changed in the water in Tres Mil, because the kids were great this week! They actually WANTED to learn! It was so fantastic! However, one thing did make me a little sad/ disappointed. I was working with one girl who was 16 and we were talking and she said she wanted to be a nurse, but then went on to say how that's a lot of work and years in school and she didn't want to do all of that. It's so sad that the motivation is not there for some of these kids, they know no better than what they've seen. They need to see a success story in order to know that if they work hard they can accomplish whatever they want!

After volunteering I headed off to my least favorite class-- finance. After 90 minutes of my teacher rambling on, jumping around to random pages, and basically having no control over our class I was so glad that the weekend had finally arrived. So, I went to grab some more wine with some girls from my class.

Moral of the day: You can never have too much wine. 

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

YUM

3 "Ah-HAs!"

I had a Skype interview yesterday and the first question the interviewer asked was, "So, what have been your 3 biggest "ah-ha!" moments from studying abroad.

and while the answers are fresh in my head I thought this was something I would share with you:

1. There isn't just one way to live. 

I further explained that life across the world is lived differently. Here, it's not a custom to get your bill directly after you finish your food. You could sit there all day and you probably wouldn't get the bill until you asked for it. Tonight we ate dinner at 9:45, and that's perfectly normal here. Family members come home from work during lunchtime (which is around 2:00) and then stay for a little nap before going back to work. The way people live here isn't "wrong" and there is no "right" way to do things. Just different. 

2. Try new things.

I then explained the extent to which I am a ridiculously picky eater and how nervous I was about liking my host mom's food. Even though I haven't like a lot of the new foods that I've tried, at least I tried them, and there were many that I did like. but trying things doesn't just speak to the food aspect of this experience, but also trying to integrate myself with Spanish students and trying to better my language of Spanish. It's important to always challenge yourself and never get stuck in a rut. 

3. Things don't always go as planned...scratch that... things never go as planned.

From having a million issues with my credit card not working, to having to ask strangers for money to get on a bus back to Sevilla because we only had pounds, to being lost in Paris and having strangers on the street google map us directions, to sprinting through the madness that is the Madrid airport to barely make a flight..it's safe to say that with every experience comes something unexpected. and what would a study abroad experience be if everything did go as planned? I'll tell you what--boring.(but don't worry--it's impossible for everything to go as planned). Stories are the best part of this experience. 

--

I was talking to one of the guys from our hostel in Paris a few days after our trip. He asked me how the rest of our stay was in Paris. I said it was good but we got a little lost going to Versailles. 

and he said, "ohhh how boring tell it the spectacular way"

Which made me realize that it's all about the stories. How will I tell the story of my study abroad experience to you all when I get home? Well, if you're reading this, chances are you've read a bunch of my other posts and already know a lot of the stories. 

but more than the stories that I will tell people, it's about the stories that I will remember and how I'll remember them. 

This seems like a very "the end is near" type of post but I've got about a month left on this crazy journey and I'm about to seize the story moments.

and one more thing. You don't have to be in a foreign country to live a good story. It's about everything from the people around you, the decisions you make, the trains you miss, the interactions you have with a barista at a coffee shop, what you choose to witness on your walk to class. You can create a good story anywhere. 

Sorry got a little deep there. Why? Had two good conversations today.

1. Talked with a friend from home and we shared stories from our semesters. He said he's so jealous and wants to go to Spain so he can have some of these good stories. but I realized, he had great stories too and he's in the US. Which is when I told him, yes, Spain is great, but you can create a good story anywhere. 

2.Booking hostels for my spring break trip with my friend Sara. We had a recommendation from a friend also studying abroad to stay at a "party" hostel in Budapest. While we enjoy to go out once in a while I wouldn't consider either of us hard-core partiers. but my friend highly recommended the hostel and then I remembered, try new things and we decided.. hey, let's create some stories...

Don't worry parents. I'll be safe and smart--and dad, I'll make sure to "Keep my head on a swivel." 

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

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