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Europe Trip 2017
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  • celiajohnston

Europe Trip 2017

A 70-day adventure by celiajohnston Read more
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    Day 26: Split, Croatia

    July 16, 2017 in Croatia ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    Today we got up early to catch our bus to Krka, National Park. It takes an hour and a half bus and a thirty minute ferry ride. It was worth it as the Falls were really nice.

    We took the path around the park, checked out all the viewpoints, had some lunch, sat in the sun, swam at the falls and finished off with some chocolate crepes before heading back to the ferry. Our Airbnb host opened up a bad door by serving us chocolate crepes when we got here...

    After we arrived back in Split, we checked out Diocletian's Palace, walked around the city a bit and caught the bus back to Storbec. We then went to dinner. Oh dinner. Meals take forever in Europe and the time after you finish your meal, to getting your check and paying it, is the longest part of it all. But the food is usually really good so we can't complain too much. Apparently it's rude to bring the bill without asking for it because then it's assumed that you're being kicked out. When at dinner, we were also mistaken for Australians by a British guy. Never had that happen before.

    To end the night, we bought a bottle of wine and enjoyed it on our balcony overlooking the water. It was a nice end to Split as we head out to Hvar tomorrow.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 27: Hvar, Croatia

    July 17, 2017 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We got to Hvar and it's just simply gorgeous. Our Airbnb has such a nice view and the beach is just in our backyard.

    We took a walk and bought a few things at the grocery store and ended up by this really nice beach bar by the water.

    When we arrived, we asked the taxi driver what is there to do in Hvar. He said eat, swim and drink... so that's exactly what we did. :)    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 28: Hvar, Croatia

    July 18, 2017 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today we woke up and went straight to the beach till lunch when we went to Tango Bar. Fresh lemonade here in Hvar is certainly not like home. They essentially squeeze a few lemons into a glass and voila! Where's the healthy added sugar for my tastebuds?

    After lunch, we went back to the beach and then got ready for a nice dinner. We had the best time at Dalmatino's. The food was delicious, we got two free shots and dessert wine, the service was great and the waiters were cute (bonus).

    We then headed back and Zoe posted a snap pretending like we were at Ultra (but we totally weren't as it was a fortune). But the music was good and we enjoyed it from outside the big fences with the thousand security guards.

    Overall, it was a good day, but off we go tomorrow to Dubrovnik!    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 29: Dubrovnik, Croatia

    July 19, 2017 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    The ferry to Dubrovnik was pretty cool. We sat in a room that looked like a movie theatre and it took 3 hours to get there. Our travel routine is pretty simple, I'll watch Netflix, play games on my phone or read and Zoe will nap.

    When we got to Dubrovnik, we had some lunch, did our groceries for the next three days and then found our Airbnb.

    After making dinner (I cut up a whole chicken with the worst knife in the world so I'm pretty proud), we went on a hike to see the sunset and all of Dubrovnik. It took us about an hour the get to the top, but the view was totally worth it. The sunset was gorgeous and there were wild horses.

    Zoe and I then walked around and I sat and looked at the view for twenty minutes. Instead of walking around where we last were together, Zoe decided that I had walked off and spent that twenty minutes looking for me apparently.

    We then had to walk down the hiking trail to get back and we realized half way down that we probably should have taken the cart as it was pitch black and it was all rock. Anyways, we made it alive and our calves will feel it all tomorrow.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 30: Dubrovnik, Croatia

    July 20, 2017 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    One month already!

    Today was one of my favourite days. We walked the city walls of Old Dubrovnik, which gave us amazing views and a good workout. We will find out the whole story of Old Dubrovnik tomorrow as we booked a walking tour with kayaking and snorkelling (super excited).

    After the walls, we walked around the Old City for a bit. We got some candy and I got the biggest gummy bear and longest gummy snake ever that ended up lasting me the whole day. We even got to hold some parrots and one of them would have eaten me if he could have. He ate the top part of my hat, tried my ear and then started on my shoulder. He got switched out for his 41 year old sibling who didn't try to eat me, which was nice. They were gorgeous though.

    After our walk around, we took a boat to Lokrum, where they film Game of Thrones. It was one of my favourite places in Europe so far. It reminded me of Cliffs of Moher from Ireland. The water was gorgeous and so clear, I did some cliff jumping and I could see all the fish that were swimming where I was about to jump and that was a good twenty feet up. It was amazing. I don't think I've swam that much in a day since I've been in Europe. There were so many birds and the cutest rabbits. The hiking trails were really nice and slightly challenging. We spent a good seven hours on the island and I wish we spent more.

    When we got back to the Old City of Dubrovnik, we walked what seemed like the 5,000 steps back to our Airbnb (it's actually 491 steps) and then made ourselves some pasta, chicken and zucchini before doing our laundry and taking it easy for the rest of the night. It was a good one month Europeversary.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 31: Dubrovnik, Croatia

    July 21, 2017 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Dubrovnik is incredible.

    Today we had a walking tour of Old Town in the morning and we kayaked around Lokrum and snorkelled for the afternoon. We ended up kayaking about 7.5 km in total and we certainly got a workout! We had a double kayak and we just couldn't keep it straight.

    The walking tour of Old Town was really interesting. Dubrovnik wasn't part of Croatia at first and was independent. Since they didn't have an army and wanted to stay that way, they paid the leader of the Ottoman Empire for protection. They even have a ten km portion of land so they wouldn't directly border any other country. So if you want to drive from one end of Croatia to the other, you have to have your passport because you have to cross through Bosnia for ten minutes.

    After the kayaking, we headed back to our Airbnb, did some laundry, made ourselves some dinner and took it easy for the rest of the night.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 32: Croatia & 10 mins of Bosnia

    July 22, 2017 in Bosnia and Herzegovina ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Today was a travel day. We took a bus from Dubrovnik to Zadar and then a bus to Plitvice Lakes. We caught our first bus at 8 am and got to Plitvice around 6:30 p.m. In between the bus rides, we stopped for a twenty minute break in Bosnia (that 10km we had to drive). They even stamped our passports. I bought a juice in Bosnia that I thought was orange juice, but turned out that it tasted like Sunny D, so I wasn't too disappointed when it wasn't what I thought. For some reason it's one of the only pictures I took today so I figured I'd mention it (lol) besides the route from the bus stop to our hostel.

    We ended up getting to Zadar exactly at 3:10, when our bus to Plitvice was scheduled to leave (our bus was 45 minutes late) so our hearts were racing that we were going to miss it, but turned out to be an hour late so we were lucky. I seriously don't know how we haven't missed one yet (knock on wood), but thank god we haven't.

    When we got to the hostel later (which is the best one yet!), we signed up for the communal dinner of Chili Con Carne. It was nice because we got to sit and talk with a bunch of people and then played Cards Against Humanity with a group of people for bit. We all had a good laugh and then Zoe and I even played a round of "quick play" Monopoly, but still after an hour, we weren't close to finishing so we called it (I won).    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston
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    Day 33: Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

    July 23, 2017 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Plitvice Lakes National Park is incredible. The water is so blue and so clear that we could see all the fish and even the branches at the bottom of the water. We ended up hiking a total of 16 km! The hike was really nice, but we ended up doubling up on one part of the hike by accident as the signs were confusing so we saw one part twice (not so bad as we didn't mind seeing the waterfalls again).

    Unfortunately, we weren't able to swim at the park as it is protected by its UNESCO World Heritage status, but was still totally worth a visit.

    When we got back to the hostel, we enjoyed the communal dinner of Penne Arrabbiata and ended
    up chatting with two people (Nicole and Tom) from Edmonton for over two hours. Turns out they booked the same kayaking/rafting tour as us tomorrow which will be a blast.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 34: Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

    July 24, 2017 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    You can't visit Plitvice without doing the Kayaking/Rafting day. One of the best days yet.

    We ended up doing the excursion with Tom and Nicole as well as two guys from Ireland (my Irish homies). They've been so many places in Europe, but never even went to the Cliffs of Moher!

    The day consisted of kayaking, cliff jumping (23 feet high!), rafting, getting stuck, being pushed to get unstuck, swimming, eating and dying of laughter from everyone going into the trees and weeds as we couldn't steer straight. We stopped at a section to jump and the guide told us when we jump, we'd get a little surprise. Turns out the water is ice cold compared to the water we were just swimming in! When we jumped back into the water higher up, it felt like a bath!

    We also went down a lot of waterfalls (or waterways) with the raft and it was really cool. Zoe and I ate our soggy sandwiches for lunch (she says it's because I put the mustard directly on the bread, but it's debatable). Regardless of our not so fantastic lunch, it was an amazing day and our guide was really nice and funny.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 35: Zagreb, Croatia

    July 25, 2017 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Caught our bus to Zagreb today and made it to our hostel around 2 pm. Thank god we had stronger wifi here because Zoe noticed that our hostel in Vienna was booked on August 27-29 instead of July and one of our nights in Salzburg, Vienna was actually booked in Hamburg, Germany.

    After we sorted it all out, we went to the Museum of Broken Relationships (which was interesting), St. Mark's Catherdral and then went to walk around and relax in the Botanical Gardens.

    When we got hungry, we opted for Gyoza, a Japanese restaurant, where we had one of our cheapest, most delicious meals ever. We then went to Lush, got our samples (it's part of our every new city efforts) and walked around the city for a bit. It's actually really nice, but we had to run back to our hostel because it was starting to rain and the wind was really bad, even blowing over some tables. Zoe said the world was coming to an end, but we survived.    Read more

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    Day 36: Zagreb, Croatia

    July 26, 2017 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Last day in Croatia!

    We originally planned to go to Bled, Slovenia today as we heard from a few people that it's beautiful and really worth a visit. Unfortunately, the weather called for clouds and rain so we didn't want to take the two hour trip there and back. Good thing we didn't because it sure did rain.

    We ended up going to the museum of optical illusions which turned out to be pretty cool. We had a good laugh too. Afterwards, we went to eat our sandwiches in the park and walked to the movie theatre as seeing Spider-Man Homecoming was the perfect back up plan. Thankfully, Croatia plays all the movies in English and just puts Croatian subtitles at the bottom and their cinema was actually really nice and cheap! It cost 50 Kumasi (approx. $10 CDN) for my ticket, a popcorn and a drink!

    After the movie, it was still drizzling so we decided to go shopping. We've been checking the weather and it's been below twenty degrees (in Switzerland it's 13!) where we're headed so we went to get some long sleeves and Zoe needed some jeans. Thank you H&M for all your wonderful locations.

    When we finished shopping, it was nine o'clock so we decided to go grab a quick bite. When we sat down, a nice Swedish guy asked if he could join us. He told us a lot of tips for our upcoming locations and we tried to convince him that Canada should be next on his list (because he's been pretty much everywhere).    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 37: Vienna, Austria

    July 27, 2017 in Austria ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    Not all hostel stories are happy stories. This hostel story involves two stinky guys who desperately needed a shower and needed to stop closing the window as there was no A/C or air circulation.

    Zoe and I were really excited to leave the room to go and explore Vienna, which is incredible. We walked around the city, visited the Museum Centre of Vienna and took in a lot of sights. Zoe was happy to eat a Mozart cake and I was really happy to have found my first Starbucks of the trip.

    For the night, we decided to go see a Mozart orchestra. It was actually a pretty neat experience. Turns out I know three Mozart songs.    Read more

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    Day 38: Vienna, Austria

    July 28, 2017 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    The trick of Europe is to get up early if you want to see things without the large crowds and have a chance at taking pictures without other people in it. So that's what we did!

    We woke up early and walked a total of 25 kms today. We saw St. Mark's Cathedral, the Austrian Parliament Building, Rathausplatz, Burgtheater and the Spanish Riding School in the morning. We went to Piber Meets Vienna and we got to see the horses perform for an hour.

    In the afternoon, we went to the Belvedere and then off to Schonbrunn Palace. We could have spent the entire day at Schonbrunn Palace. I took the tour of the grounds, we did the labyrinth and then sat on the hill overlooking the Palace and Vienna.

    When we got back to the hostel, we went for our free drink on the hostel, sat with our roomies and some guys from Amsterdam for a bit and then went to the ferris wheel overlooking Vienna (which I don't suggest people spend their money on if they go). Turned out to be quite a bust, but overall Vienna is a must see.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 39: Budapest, Hungary

    July 29, 2017 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Today we travelled a total of 5 hours by train (there and back) to go visit Budapest. When planning the trip, we originally wanted to stay there a few nights, but we opted for Austria instead. As the last train was at 7, we didn't have much time so we spent the day at the Széchenyi Thermal Baths and it was amazing.

    All three outdoor baths are at different temperatures, but the coldest is about 22 degrees Celsius so you can imagine how hot they are. One of them has a strong whirlpool that the minute you step into it, it drags you right in and the indoor baths have healing minerals.

    It's too bad we couldn't see more as we heard from so many people that it's such a unique city. Next time (and when I visit the amazing baths again).    Read more

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    Day 40: Salzburg, Austria

    July 30, 2017 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    This morning was eventful. It took us an hour to get to the train (usually a 5 minute drive) because (1) the three Uber's that we called cancelled on us (one had car trouble apparently) and (2) some guy came in the hostel to charge his phone so he was getting kicked out, but he refused and the cops were called.

    When we finally made it to Salzburg, turned out we only booked for one night instead of three. Took them a while to find a room to put us in for three nights, but thankfully they did. The hostel is actually really nice. We then did our laundry, tried to go for Groceries (but everything is closed on Sundays) so then we had to go to a Greek restaurant. It was really really good.

    When we got back, we planned out our days, met our roomies and ate Ben and Jerry's (because cookie dough is the perfect ending to any day).

    P.s. I don't have any good pictures for this day so when I finally remember to take pictures of where we're staying, I'll post them!    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 41: Salzburg, Austria

    July 31, 2017 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Today consisted of food shopping, visiting the Mirabell Gardens and the House of Nature/Science Museum, seeing the house where Mozart was born, walking around the city and then taking a "short cut" which turned into a pretty steep hike with really nice views.

    As we were walking through town, I saw cute postcards with Dutch writing so I asked this guy to translate a few (turned into all of them) and he spent a good thirty minutes explaining them all. Turns out a lot of them are funny in Dutch, but it doesn't translate well in English.

    Our "short cut" through the park ended up being a really steep 3-4 km hike, but we ended up having really nice views. I thought I stepped in poison ivy by accident so I showered right away when we got back while having a slight heart attack, but then I googled it and it turned out it wasn't poison ivy... so all is good. :)

    We also met all 8 of our new roommates tonight. They are all super nice. Two are from Brazil, three from Minnesota, one from Sweden and Zoe met the last girl, but I didn't so I'll have to get back to that one.

    For supper, I ended up making chilli for the first time and it didn't turn out so bad! I consider it a success and we will for sure make more before our trip is over. #proud    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 42: St. Wolfgang, Austria

    August 1, 2017 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today, our plan was to take the earliest bus to St. Gilgen and grab the ferry to St. Wolfgang to then hike up Scafbergbahn (1,783 meters). People told us it would take us three hours and then we'd go swimming in the lakes for a bit before heading back for our 7:30 Marionette show of The Sound of Music. It didn't quite go as planned.

    We grabbed the earliest bus (with our new friend Anna from Sweden) and got to start hiking at 10 am. This hike was the more difficult hike I've ever done. At 1:30, we got to the first train station and Zoe decided to take the train back down. I didn't want to quit so Anna and I kept going to the top and we finally made it at around 3 o'clock.

    Took us five hours, but the view was incredible and I was so happy when I made it. Anna and I ate our lunches, walked around and took in the view from every angle. When we went to go get train tickets to get back down, the next available one was at 4:25. No time for swimming. :(

    Zoe ended up heading back early so she could shower before the show. Anna and I had to make every next transport on time or I wouldn't make it back to the show. We ended up having 5 minutes to run to the ferry and then 15 minutes to run through the town of St. Gilgen to grab the bus. I originally wanted to take a quick shower myself, but there was no time and I took the bus straight to the show, getting there just on time to freshen up quick and meet Zoe.

    Needless to say it was right down to the wire in terms of me making it on time, but I'm always last minute so nothing new there! The show was actually really cool and it was a fun way to see the Sound of Music for the first time!

    We then grabbed McDonalds and "walked" back. Zoe took us the longest way possible so I actually hailed a taxi with 1 km left because the 25 minute walk was already at 45 minutes and I was exhausted and so excited for a shower. That shower turned out to be the best one ever.    Read more

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    Day 43: Innsbruck, Austria

    August 2, 2017 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Today was such a good day.

    We took the train from Salzburg to Innsbruck and got to our Airbnb around 3 pm. We settled in and then took the bus to Swarovski Kristallwenten and it was the coolest thing in the world. We walked through the coolest museum ever, saw the worlds largest cut diamond, went through the labyrinth and I went in the play park while Zoe stretched outside. The play park was for adults (too) and had trampolines, slides and rope spider webs. It was actually pretty cool.

    To finish off the night, we stayed for the outdoor showing of Burlesque. Can't believe I never saw that movie before because it was sooo good and it was so fun to watch it outdoors. If only we were staying in Innsbruck longer and could go to every movie showing.

    To get back, we had to walk 30 minutes to the train station, take a train and then walk another 25 minutes home. We didn't want to miss the train as it was the last one of the night so we asked the restaurant employees to call us a cab to the train station. Turns out she was headed our way so they offered us a lift. They were so nice and gave us tips on what to do on our last day in Innsbruck. They were angels.

    This is one of those posts where I wish I could add 50 pictures.    Read more

  • celiajohnstonEurope Trip 2017celiajohnston

    Day 44: Innsbruck, Austria

    August 3, 2017 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Everywhere you walk in Innsbruck you can see the mountains. It looks like the view is always out of a calendar.

    Today we took the Hungerburg Funicular up to the Hafelekar which is 7,400 ft up. We took pictures, enjoyed the view and met a bad ass two year old who's climbed the mountain with her mom over 75 times (according to the mom).

    We took a walk through the city and saw the famous Golden Roof and Triumphal Arch. Before we did any of it, we also grabbed breakfast at The Breakfast Club. It was priced really well for Austria and was really good! We were laughing because their breakfasts are 1/3 of the size of Canadian ones (but their menus make them sound so much bigger).

    For dinner, we wanted to try authentic Austrian food before heading to Switzerland. We found a good place on Trip Advisor and walked all the way there to find out it's closed for summer break until the 10th of August. We ended up going to a random restaurant to have Schnitzel and potato salad. It turned out to be really good.

    When we got back, we threw in our laundry and started packing for the next day. Whenever we learn how to use a machine we switch places and have to learn again. No one was there to help us with these machines unfortunately and google translate was no help. We ended up having our clothes in the dryer for three hours. Thankfully we hung the clothesline in the backyard to hang up the stuff that didn't.

    Note to self (and future backpackers) = clothesline and clothes pins are essential while backpacking.    Read more

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    Day 45: Zurich, Switzerland

    August 4, 2017 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    The first thing that came out of people's mouths when we asked them how they liked Switzerland was "its expensive". We knew it was going to be more expensive, but we really weren't expecting THAT expensive. To give you a good idea, it costs $9 CAD for a small coffee at Starbucks and $33 for a bottle of contact solution. If you want a Big Mac trio at McDonalds, you're looking at $20 CAD, but at least a Swiss Army Knife is cheap.

    After our minor lapse of shock, we took the scenic route to the Zurich Zoo. Zurich is actually really nice and the zoo was a lot of fun. We saw monkeys so up close. We saw gorillas, elephants, sloths (!!) and more. It was a nice way to spend the day and we even got to see a Seal show.

    On our way to our hostel from Zurich, we had to take three separate trains, but we made every one of them and was able to make the check in before 10 pm (woot).

    Zoe compared our running from station to station to make our 4 minute transfer time to suiting up for mission impossible. It must be funny to watch us run with our big backpacks on our backs, small backpacks on our front and two reusable bags full of food. We think we're running fast, but we look like two penguins.

    As for our hostel, it's really nice and cozy and our view is incredible. We've got a waterfall right outside our window.

    I heard that visiting Switzerland was my grandmother's dream. I'll try my best to see the most for the both of us. <3    Read more

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    Day 46: Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

    August 5, 2017 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    What do you do while you're in Switzerland? You hike (and eat a lot of chocolate and cheese)!

    So that's exactly what we did today. We took the cable car from Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp and hiked our way to Allmendhubel. The hike was challenging at times, but it turned out to be a really nice one. We had a gorgeous view of the Alps and saw plenty of cows. Apparently Switzerland has the happiest cows in the world.

    When we got to Allmendhubel, we hung around in the Flower Park and were waiting to take the last cable car down to Mürren. The waitress said it would warn us when to get on, but it didn't, so we missed it and had to walk to 45 minutes down. It wasn't too bad. When we got to Mürren, we took the cable car down to Stechelberg and bussed it back to Lauterbrunnen.

    Thank god we made it back in time to eat a cheese fondue. We wouldn't have wanted the cheese to go bad. ;) It turned out to be so good. It's a mixture of cheeses that they serve with bread, potatoes, chives, onions, garlic and mushrooms. We devoured the whole thing and I got a Swiss hot chocolate and a mini chocolate bar which were amazing too. Thank god I don't live in Switzerland. It would be very bad for my health and my wallet.    Read more

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    Day 47: Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

    August 6, 2017 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    Today it rained, rained and rained, so we went to a cafe to figure out our game plan for the day and take advantage of the Swiss chocolate (or at least I did). Zoe is all about the cappuccinos. She actually made me laugh right when I was taking a picture as she made fun of me for being so excited about my hot chocolate and cake. The blueberry cake was exactly like how my grandmother used to make it! And the bathrooms had black toilet paper. She would have loved Switzerland. <3

    After our snacks, we took on the walk to Trummelbach Falls. It had stopped raining so we were confident that we could do the 40 minute walk. It starting pouring on us half way through and we got soaked, but we heard that the Falls were a good activity for a rainy day (the falls are inside a cave). Turns out, it's only inside for a small portion so we still got rained on, but the falls were really cool. It drains from the three largest Alps in the area and the current is so strong. We met a nice lady from Wisconsin who got lost on the walk there so we walked all together and she was nice enough to take pictures for us.

    After the falls, we took the bus back as it was pouring and we were so excited to shower. Once again, one of the best showers of this trip. We then made dinner, chicken with zucchini, mushrooms and pesto pasta. It turned out really good and we have leftovers for our lunch tomorrow. We also met two girls from Oregon who we will be meeting up with in Munich and a nice couple from Washington. Seems like everyone we talk to is heading to Munich from here so we seem to be heading in the right direction. :)    Read more

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    Day 48: Jungfraujoch & Lauterbrunnen

    August 7, 2017 in Switzerland ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Today we travelled to one of the largest glacier Alps in Europe, the Jungfraujoch. It was really neat (and painfully expensive), but it was totally worth it. We saw incredible views, went in the ice palace, walked in the snow and ate our lunch overlooking the glaciers.

    After we got back around 2:30, we read there was a community BBQ at the pool so I suggested we go check it out and spend some time at the pool. Turned out there wasn't much of a BBQ or people for that matter, but we enjoyed a nice afternoon nonetheless. The pool was overlooking the Staubbach Falls and the Alps. It was weird going from 0 degrees on the Jungfraujoch where we were freezing to sitting in the sun dying of heat. 12,000 feet surely makes a difference.    Read more

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    Day 49: Interlaken, Switzerland

    August 8, 2017 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    Today was awesome!

    We went Rafting in Interlaken and it was a lot of fun. We ended up choosing the day it chose to storm so we started rafting in the pouring rain, but it ended up being sunny the minute we pulled into the lake (which was at the end). Regardless of the rain, we all still had a lot of fun.

    We were on a boat of five so we had to do quite a few practice drills. Since our boat was lighter, we had more of a chance of flipping compared to the other two full boats. We each had to get in the water and be rescued. Since we were an odd number, I was rescued by our "Rafter Master" (not sure what they are called) and he ended up pulling me right out of the water with one arm onto my face in the boat. And then we had to rescue the other side so I ran to the front to pull in one of our boat mates and everyone else forgot to pull in Zoë. We all had a good laugh. We also all got beat. You don't realize how much of a workout Rafting can be!

    After rafting, we went back to take our showers and then went to relax in our favourite cafe. We had the best brownie and berry banana cake. When we got back to our room, our roommates had their portable rice cooker out and we're making a few servings. It was certainly one of the more interesting roommate stories that I've had on this trip.    Read more

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    Day 50: Travel Day

    August 9, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Today we travelled from Lauterbrunnen to Munich on a total of 4 trains in 8 hours. It was rough as we were so sore and stiff from rafting, but we made every train and I watched a decent amount of Netflix.

    When we got to Munich, we wanted to see how much a massage was. Turns out they are cheaper here in Europe so we decided to get one. She kicked the crap out of me.

    Before we had our massage, we grabbed salads at the restaurant just outside and they were so good. We've been eating so much pasta, sandwiches and chilli on this trip that salads were certainly a nice change!    Read more

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