Swiss Cheese, Swiss Army Knives, Swiss Alps!

Well this weekend has quite possibly been the most amazing weekend of my life! Shandie, Natalie, and I went to Interlaken, Switzerland with Bus2Alps, a student travel service here in Europe. We left Florence late Thursday night, around midnight, and drove 8 hours on a bus to Interlaken. The ride there was one to remember, the whole bus was full...not an empty seat. Talk about the longest 8 hours of my life, I think I only slept for maybe 45 min. 

           We arrived in Interlaken at 6am and I was so happy to finally get there. We drove through the mountains just as the sun was coming up, it was amazing!  We stayed at Balmer's Herbage, the number one hostel in all of Europe! Balmers had everything, it was great! There were tons of people from all over! We stayed in one of the largest rooms they had, 10 girls total in a room about the size of my room back home! I'll just say it was an experience! There was two bunk beds, two twin beds, and for beds up in the loft. The room was so cute! Our roommates were all Americans studying in Prague so it was cool to meet them.

 
           So once we dropped off our backpacks we headed straight to the front desk to book PARAGLIDING!! Yep...that’s what I said...paragliding! All three of us jumped off a mountain and it was amazing! So, We met up with our pilots and took a van up the side of the mountain. Once we got to the top we had to hike about 5 min in about 10 in of snow! We got to the take off spot, suited up, and ran of the mountain!  That's literally what we did, just ran down a super steep hill until the chute caught the wind and lifted us off the ground!  

           Shandie was the first of us to go! It was hilarious because her first attempt at taking off with her pilot didn't work so well, she completely face planted when running done the mountain in the snow! It was great! However it made me a little nervous for when it became my turn to take off. I was the last of us to take off so I got to see everyone else take off and fly away. When it finally came my turn, I got really nervous for a few seconds but I think adrenaline took over! We started running and before I knew it, I wasn't touching the ground anymore...I was flying! It was absolutely amazing, the best feeling ever! It was so peaceful, quite, and the boat beautiful view I had ever seen. Imagine flying over the Swiss Alps with blue skies and snow covering the mountains...now multiply that by 100 and that was how great it was!  

            We flew right over the city and even got super close to the side of a mountain! There were mountains everywhere I looked and below I could see the two giant lakes the Interlaken sits between! My pilot, Fab, let me even steer, which was awesome! For our decent, he asked if I wanted to do dives and spins and of course I said yes! It was scary but so fun! Then I started getting a little nervous for the landing...but I nailed it! It was so easy, all I had to do was just stand up!  Paragliding was absolutely amazing; I would do it again in a heartbeat if I could!  Hopefully one of these days I can go back!

            After our extreme adventure, we decided to hike up to one of the lakes that Interlaken sits between.  It was an easy hike but still beautiful, I mean, we were in the Swiss Alps, what’s not beautiful!  We hiked for two or three hours and it was so fun, we went along the river then up the cliff to where you could see the whole lake! It started getting dark so we decided to head back for a chocolate tasting we heard about.  IT was pretty cool, we got to watch them make some truffles and other yummy stuff.  I definitely had my fill of Swiss chocolate then!

            The next day we took a train up to a small ski town called Grindelwald.  It was such a great idea, the train was about and hour long and we got to see some incredible views!  Once in Grindelwald, we walked around and shopped, then we decided to take a gondola up the slopes to a restaurant.  It was so fun, we sat on the deck, ordered some beers, and watched the sun hit the mountains, it even started to snow a little bit!  Talk about the most amazing views I have ever seen, you can’t get much better than the Swiss Alps! 

            From there, we took a trail that lead back down to the town.  It literally was part of the ski slopes!  There was snow everywhere up to our knees; we even slid down a few times!  The hike was great, it lead us all around the slopes and through a small village.  It was just like a postcard of Switzerland, there was a dairy farm where we saw cows and everything!  They even had this little self serve fridge where you could pick out a block of cheese and beef jerky!  The Swiss are so trusting, it was so cute!

            Once we reached Grindlewald from our hike, we stopped in this little restaurant and I had a dish called a Rosti, which is a typical Swiss plate that is hash browns, a thick layer of cheese, ham, and a fried egg on top, it was delicious!  Then we just headed home, we were exhausted.  Once we got back to the hostel, our roommates were crazy.  There was at least 15 other people in our room and they were doing who knows what.  It definitely an experience!

            Our last day we just chilled and hung out at Balmer’s, our hostel.  Oh, I almost forgot, we went to this chocolate store where we got some hot chocolate!  It was literally a chunk of chocolate in a glass then melted with hot milk.  It was the best hot chocolate I have ever had! Yummy!  Then we left for our 8 hour bus ride back to Florence, this time it was much more comfortable and we could see all the scenery!  It was beautiful, we could see huge lakes, giant snow covered mountains, and wide green hilly fields.  I loved Switzerland!

            

Valentines Day!

Well it was a great Valentine’s Day...minus the boyfriend being thousands of miles away! However, I did get beautiful flowers which made my day!  I love them! 

     Other than that, it actually didn't even feel like Valentines, I guess it is just not as big over here.  Anyway, it was a good day.  Shandie and I are in a photography class together and we got our first assignment, we are to take ten pictures of some of our first impressions here in Florence.  For mine, I decided that I am going to do public transportation.  I have never really used it back home and now it is my chance to check it out.  It really is a great way to get around the city, that is if you want to go all over.  We walk pretty much everywhere here, however, taking the bus is quite fun!  Shandie and I decided to take a bus up to the mountains to a small town that has the biggest cemetery in the area.  It was so nice to get out of the city and see the less touristy parts of Florence.  On our way up, we were the only American's on the bus.  The others on the bus were definitely wondering why these two American girls where taking a bus up the mountain.  Ha!  Well, it was still so fun, the views from the ride were amazing, I will get some pics next time we go.  We could see the whole city of Florence, rows and rows of olive trees, and vineyards everywhere.  The country here is just like the movies say it is, it never fails!  So that was just a great part of the day, getting to see parts of the town most students don't get to see. 

   Later that night, we heard about a free showing of "La Dolce Vita" a very famous movie that was filmed in Tuscany.  So we decided to go see it, well it turned out we never found the cinema and just ended up walking for about an hour.  It was fun though, the best times we have are when we don't really know where we are going and end up seeing so really cool stuff!  On our way back, crossing the piazza, we heard a guy singing some American songs.  Of course I had to stop!  It was this American guy just playing his guitar and he was just amazing!  Ali and Shandie went ahead back to the apartment while I sat and listened to him play and echo throughout the whole square.  There was actually a big turnout, mostly Americans of course, but still!  He played the Eagles, Beatles, and a bunch of other classic American bands.  It made me miss home....just a little!  ;)  Anyway, here is a video of him playing and the view we had!

COW STOMACH..SURE SOUNDS YUMMY!

    So for some reason I can't post pictures on here but I'm working on it....

    Today, for my cooking class, we went on a walking tour of different places to buy great food.  You know, those hidden little places where all the locals go!  So we started off heading to the Mercato Centrale, this market is where they have absolutely everything fresh.  You can get wine, pasta, fish, veggies, everything!  So our cooking teacher took us to a olive oil and balsamic vinegar stand.  We got to taste three different balsamic vinegars, one which was 24 years old.  It was absolutley amazing!
     Next we stopped at a little place that had tripe sandwich, the famous sandwich here in Florence.  Bet you can't guess what that is....it's the inside lining of a cows stomach...yep that's what I said!  I tried it and and it actually didn't taste bad, but the texture was too much to handle.  It was spongy and rubbery...ew!  But now I can say I have eaten cow stomach! 
    Next we walked a ways to a snack bar that specialized in truffles, not the chocolate, the mushrooms.  They are these fungi that grow underground and then dug up.  They have a very strong taste that won't leave your mouth for a least an hour!  Anyway, we stopped in this little snack bar and they let us all try a small roll with truffle spread on them.  It wasn't bad, just a little to much for me.  I might get some to bring back, they are seen as a very special food here.

   Then we walked to the Il Due Fratenelli, meaning the two brothers.  It is the little sandwich shop just down the road from my apartment, I literally go there almost every day.  But we got to stop and have a sandwich and glass of wine, which was nice.  After there, we walked a little some more to this place called Alessi, which is kind of like a small market.  They have a HUGE wine cellar downstairs that has bottles from all the regions of Italy, however, there is a whole room just for the Toscana wines!  It was so cool to walk around  and see all the different kinds of wine! Last but not least we went to Grom, a world famous gelateria.  They make all thier gelato right there and is fresh daily.  Ali, Shandie, and I have been there so many times already, it is just so good! It was a great way to end our tour of food!  Yummy!

LEATHER LEATHER LEATHER

    I'm sure you all have heard that Italy has some of the best leather in the world...well I think that's true!  We have been to the leather market several times since we have been here but today I decided to take a few pictures to let you see what all the market has to offer.  First of all, imagine hundreds of little rolling tents with gobs of all sorts of leather products.  They have everything from jackets, gloves, wallets, purses, boots, just anything you think could come in leather..well it's there.  Occasionally there will be a tent with tourist gifts and clothing.

   Then there are the vendors, which are mostly men, some old some younger.  Sometimes it's fun to just walk through the market and hear them talk to you.  Some are nice and some are just plain annoying. Today was the worst, it was like they were all out just waiting for the Americans to walk by so they could say "Ciao Bella" haha!  One guy tried to get my attention by calling me Lady Gaga, I don't know if I like being referred to that. HAHA  Then another guy stopped me telling me that he had the perfect leafther jacket to match my boots..he then proceeded to grab my leg and hike it up to where it was parallel to the ground and tried to drag me in his store!  Don't worry though, it wasn't scary, I laughed, and Shandie was there to help me not fall over! 

   Anyway, just wanted to share that funny little story! 
  

Did you say CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL?

Yep thats what I said!  Florence is having a huge chocolate festival just a few minutes from our apartment!  Once we found this out, we all had to go immediately.  In Santa Croce Square, they have tons of tents with all sorts of chocolate vendors, all selling thier own unique truffles and other yummy things.  There was so much chocolate, you could smell it block away!

So of course we had to check it all out to see what was the best, they had every sort of chocolate imaginable!  Thier hot chocolate here is literally like melted chocolate you drink from a cup, not the watery stuff in America!  Chocolate and hazelnut is huge here (hints: NUTELLA) so there was all sorts of that all around!  My favorite thing was the chocolate and hazelnut kebab. 

It is a tall pole with chocolate and hazelnut on it.  The guy just shaves it off and puts it in a pancake like thing and drizzles strawberry syrup on top.  However, what I got was this...

It is the hot chocolate (melted chocolate) with whipped cream and the kebab shavings on top!  It was the most amazing thing ever, i might have to go back and get one this weekend.  Or maybe later today..ha!

Volterra...vampires?

Alrighty so...like I said in my last post, Ali and I went to Volterra Saturday.  The city was absolutely amazing and I wish we would have had more time there.  To get there we had to take two trains and two buses!  To start, Ali and I caught the train to Pisa, from there we switched trains to get to Cecina. Then we THOUGHT that we would catch a train in Cecina to Volterra, however, once we got to Cecina, we found out that the train to Volterra was cancelled.  We thought we could catch the next one in an hour so we decided to explore this little city.  I think we were the only Americans there, no one spoke English!  So we came back to the train station to catch the next train, it was cancelled too! We were starting to think we weren't going to make it to Volterra.  So after talking to the train station guy and a little old man helping us out, we finally caught a bus.  It was the best idea ever, we drove through the hills and saw the real Tuscany!  We finally made it to Volterra!  Once there, we only had about 3 hours to see everything before the last bus left for Cecina.  The first thing we did was find the twilight map that shows you all the places where they filmed in the movie.  Then we just walked around the city, it was nice because there were no tourists, just locals going about thier day.  And the city is right on top of a big hill so we could see for miles, it was beautiful.  The last thing we did we stop in a little chocolate and wine bar, which was delicious! Then we took the bus back down while watching the sunset, it was great!

First weekend of traveling!

Well this weekend has been so much fun, we traveld to Pisa friday and then Volterra on Saturday.  Firday we have no class so we decided to take advantage.  A group of us met up and took the train about an hour to Pisa.  The city was not what I expected.  I had heard there was not a lot to do there so thats why I was expecting just the Leaning Tower to be the main thing there.  HOWEVER, it exceeded my expectations!  The city was much more quiet than Florence, which was nice, but Pisa still had several stores and restaurants to see.  We followed the main street all the way down to the compex where the tower, baptistry, and church were!  It was absolutely beautiful! It is a big open area with lots of grass and the buildings.  There were tons of people standing around trying to get the classic pics of holding up the leaning tower.

I had to!  Anyway, the day was perfect and we all had so much fun.  Here are a couple more from Pisa...I'll put up pics from Volterra later!