They say life is
about the journey not the destination right?! Well that would be my spring
break with best friend Angie. With nothing but a one way plane ticket to Paris
and a train ticket from Munich to Florence this was definitely going to be
about the 11 day journey.
Angie arrived Thursday afternoon on
a train from Milan to Florence. We had an hour to get ready and then headed to
the train station to catch our train to Pisa. When I say we had to sprint, I’m
serious. So picture 2 girls, backpacks and duffels flying through the train
station and just after we get on the train departs. Just in time! (this would
be the first time we rain and there would be at least another 15 times that we
did after) We took the usual tourist pictures holding up the leaning tower and
then caught a taxi to the airport or else we would’ve missed our flight. After
landing in Paris at BVA we took the bus to the city center and the metro where
sprawled out across the seats. After 10
minutes on the train we look out and what do you know it’s the Eiffel tower! A
few minutes later a group of excited, drunk teenagers hoped on and welcomed us
to Paris asking if we knew any French words and admiring Angie’s red hair. They
insisted we come out to the clubs with them, but I’ve never really seen people
carry their backpacks while they go out, so we passed. The comment of the night
came from them as we took a picture before we exited the subway (after missing
our stop) “you take selfies in America too?” well why yes we do. Haha “Selfie”
is now part of the Oxford dictionary after originating in 2002 thanks to a
drunk Australian and it’s a pretty universal thing. We eventually made it to Emily’s(friend I was
abroad in Chile with) hotel and Ang and I squoze into a twin bed for much
needed sleep.
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| The Louvre |
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| Notre Dame |
Friday and Saturday were filled
with miles of walking and plenty of sights. Notre Dame, Latin Quarter, Jewish
Quarter, Love Lock Bridge, the Louvre, L’orangerie museum, Luxembourg Gardens,
the Eiffel Tower were all seen. Holiday on Ice happened to be in Paris and so
we were able to go see some skating friends (thanks Lauren Farr!) We also tried pesto escargot. Better than I
thought, but still digging a snail out and eating it is just an interesting
concept. We ate the best quiche of our entire lives and indulged in a few
éclairs. People often say that French people, especially Parisians, are stuck
up or snobby but that wasn’t our experience at all. Cole Fox had reassured me
that we would meet some of the nicest people in France and he was absolutely
correct. Our happiest moment was siting on the steps of the Sacré Coeur at
sunset enjoying a group of young guys play various instruments with hundreds of
people drinking beer and clapping along. It’s inspiring to watch people doing
what they love and sharing their passions with others.
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| skiing Brevent |
We booked an overnight train from
Paris to Chamonix 12 hours before it left. Going to sleep seeing the Eiffel
Tower and waking up in the French Alps is a dream. We enjoyed the ski towns surrounding Mont
Blanc. We skied Brevent on a 60 degree, bluebird day. I still think Utah has the greatest snow, but
the views and terrain of the French Alps is hard to beat.
We found ourselves in Geneva,
Switzerland touring the UN headquarters.
It brought a whole new light to the good old Model UN days back in High
School. I’d love to work for the UN one
day, but don’t know if I’d like living in Geneva. Everything was incredibly
expensive ($17USD cheese pizza) but they have Tolberone McFlurries so that’s
quite amazing. We made it to Zermatt that night and headed to a bar. 20+USD for
a drink there, but listening to a live band, being in a ski town and meeting a
Brazilian and 2 British musician made the experience well worth it. I wouldn’t
recommend staying in Youth Hostels unless they’re you’re only option, but it
did the job. After a hike and plenty pictures of the REAL LIFE MATTERHORN we
were on another train. The Matterhorn has been one of my favorite rides at
Disneyland and seeing it in person just gives it a whole new meaning. We made it to Luzern after another beautiful
train through the rolling hills. Ang had cheese fondue and we went to Legend’s
Bar to meet Billy the famous bartender we heard about the night before. We had
long chats with older guys and learned what a “Jewish Dilemma” is. We took a
lake cruise and realized how much we both love lakes. There’s something about
being in the open with nothing but water surrounding you that just makes the
heart happy!
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| The Matterhorn |
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| Luzern, Swtizerland |
We spent an afternoon in Zurich
touring the Swiss National Museum and walking around doing any free activity we
could like getting free snickers bars from some kids at the train station. We
don’t speak French or German but we do understand “want some snickers?” We made
it to the YMCA hostel in Basel where rooms are complete with Bibles and made a
dinner complete with egg roles.
We left Basel in the morning and
ended up in Freiburg Germany (in the Black Forest) for lunch. Right before the
train departed Ang panics “we still have 40Francs to spend!” (that’s $45USD).
So that must mean we should go back to Switzerland for the night. We ate like queens after surviving on
oranges, bread and chocolate in Switzerland because everything was so expensive
($28USD for a hamburger, $18USD for pasta)!!!!! We didn’t know where we wanted
to go in Switzerland,but heard Saint Gallen was nice. I realized that
Konstantin (friend I studied with in Chile) lived there. He graciously welcomed
us to stay with him for a night and we made it there ready for a good night
sleep with no snoring people. I loved Saint Gallen. It was beautiful and so
incredibly peaceful. Ang loved the dogs, especially the two Newfoundlands that
we saw.
The afternoon was spent in Bregenz
Austria eating pizza with broccoli on it and walking around the lake that Ang
was convinced was an ocean. Another train across the border to Lindau, Germany
and a layover spent playing cards and we were on our way to Munich. We were all
settled in our cabin enjoying the scenery when a worker fires something off in
rapid German and follows in English with “putting your feet on the chairs is not
lady like” and walks away. Well excuse us ma’am. We navigated the subway system
and made it to Hotel Pension and then to Ned Kelly’s bar for some St. Pattys
day festivities. We consumed an American platter complete with too much fried
food, in Germany, at an Australian bar celebrating an Irish man. That’s
globalization folks.
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| St. Patty's Day lunch inMunich |
Sunday we attended the parade and enjoyed the Irish music which I love!!! The parade was a giant hodgepodge that even included an American Democrats group marching. Everyone was in good spirits enjoying their Guinness. We met up with Max (friend I met while in Costa Rica) and spent the night at his place. He took us to Nam Nam Thai which was delicious and a great change from pizza.
Monday we went to the Olympic Park site of the 1972 Summer games. We went to the top of the tour to see the whole city. Next to the park is the BMW museum. Ang and I found our dream cars (maybe souvenirs?) The best part of the museum was its price….FREE! We left and went to a beer garden for lunch for some traditional Bavarian food (white sausage and a pretzel with sweet mustard) We were so content and headed to the Nymphenburg Palace. Once we got off the bus we saw a chocolate cake in the window of a café so we obviously stopped and that’s when Ang said “Erin for real I don’t have my phone this time.” So began the next 5 hours of chasing Angie’s phone. The story is much better told in person, but it constituted of asking over 20 people to either translate, make phone calls, give us directions, or for the wifi password. I’m delighted to say that after 5 hours of sprinting around the city we did indeed get the phone back thanks to help from dozens of people. We also made in time to catch our overnight train from Munich to Florence with a few minutes to spare.
In the end there aren’t many people who would travel like
this; not knowing where your next meal(or what country it’ll be in) will be and
not knowing where you’re going to sleep that night, but if you’re ever up for a
challenge it’s a whole lot of fun. I’m
so fortunate I got to do it with my best friend. You meet a lot of really cool
people along the way and like I’ve said before it’s amazing how much you rely
on others to help you.
People often joke that I have friends in every country. Well
that isn’t quite true, but I am so fortunate to have met and become friends
with people from around the world. It’s a lot of fun when you stay with a local
somewhere and they get to show off where they live. I can’t thank Emily,
Konstantin, and Max enough for their gracious hospitality.
Highlights of the trip:
-running to catch planes, trains, buses, ferries and taxis.
We ran probably 75% of the time we had to catch some sort of transportation
-being twice as young as the majority of the people we met
in Switzerland
-learning what a Jewish Dilemma is-bagel with cream cheese
and bacon
-being so lost in translation that you just accept whatever
is happening
-carrying around our bags everywhere including museums
-eating Swiss chocolate everyday
-getting to Germany and realizing we could eat again after
food being too expensive in Switzerland
-conversations with people on trains including a man from
Zurich who said, “when too many people are around the place loses soul.”
-getting roses from Kyler as he welcomed us to Paris
-skiing the alps on a perfect day and taking a nap in the
sun
-having the Swiss Rail pass for $230USD for 4 days of
unlimited transportation on boats, trains and buses and museum entrances
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| Zurich |
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