Well after another wonderful 12 hour day of train travel we finally arrived in Budapest Monday evening! A friend that sam met while studying abroad in Oslo who is from Budapest picked us up from the train station with his girlfriend. They were such a great help and brought us to pick up our tickets for sziget music festival and to the store to purchase our new accommodation for the festival. Our first night in Budapest we stayed with balasz and gyongi. We got some za' for dinner and then they took us up to the citadella- an area where you get an absolutely stunning view of the city. I had no idea Budapest was so beautiful. Pest is on the east side of the Danube river and Buda is on the west side... If you do the math of adding them up you get Budapest- crazy how that formula works out. But yes located along the Danube it's stunning. Parliament is such an extravagant building and all the other buildings have been so well maintained throughout the years.
Tuesday we went out for lunch and that evening sam and I went to sziget to see.... Dundundun- PRINCE! He was so much fun and we met some really cool guys from portugal at the concert. After the show we went back to pest and met up with balasz, gyongi, tibor (a roomy) and dori- another friend sam met in Oslo who is also from Budapest. We went to a lovely park on the pest side and shared some drinks and laughs before headin back to balasz's place to crash.
Wednesday was finally the day we were off to sziget for good. As luck would have it I miraculously got better from my sickness literally overnight. I was planning on heading back to the hospital to demand a blood test or something to figure out what was goin on in my insides. Anyways, Balasz dropped us off and sam and I went on a hunt for a place to pitch camp- or rather set up our cave. Thinking we were so smart we decided to set it up on the side of the reggae stage- haha you will hear more about that life decision later.
How to describe sziget tho? Nuts. Absolutely insane-unlike any festival I have ever been to. With 36 different stages and an attendance of 400,000 people all on one island, it was absolutely insane. Unlike countryfest, wefest or the like you are not allowed to bring alcohol in (well if your not a sneaky devil). And there are also not designated campgrounds- you pitch camp wherever your heart desires. And almost everybody tents out there, apparently some bring campervans but there is a designated area for that which we never saw. Plus it's not cool bc tenting out creates such a better fest experience. And there are food stands and alcohol stands everywhere! You would never have to walk more than 30 seconds from any area to find them. And talk about things going on constantly- not only were there 36 stages continually jammin but there were dance classes, circus shows, chess boards, bean bag and huka lounges, stilts and wooden things to play with, yoga, every kind of athletic activity (soccer, ball, vball, tennis, pong, foosball, skating rinks) you name it... Also had so many booth like tents set up for a library, HIV testing, internet, electronic charge areas, hammock hangouts- my goodness you name it and they had it. It was the coolest thing- none of the food and beverage places ever closed. And at cfest/wefest basically all you do is drink from the second you wake up until the second you pass out, but here there was just so much to do! Coolest festival ever.
So anyways after settin up camp we went walking around the island. We also met up later that evening with dori who set up camp next to us and we met our Italian neighbors who were way cool. Also met our Jamaican neighbor who later that week got arrested for dealing drugs- his telltale sign for people to find him was his nice red rag he had tied on the tree above his tent. So Wednesday we ended up seeing Omen and then saw Rise Against at the main stage. They were loads of fun and after them we went and saw Empire of the Sun, an Australian group thy were loads of fun. They played in the Burn Party Arena which houses electro/house/techno genres. They also dressed crazy and i sure hope to see them again in the future!
Thursday morning was something else. We were woken up by the reggae stage blasting music, which continued to happen every morning for the rest of the time. Also someone had rummaged thru dori's tent the night before and stolen her leather jacket and sunnies. Jerks. We went to the supermarket which is like a 10 minute walk from the entrance of the festival and a place to go and talk about the previous night. Hung out there all afternoon. We went and saw La Roux that evening at main stage, a band from the UK. They were loads of fun and after them we saw Good Charlotte. We were right up in the front for them and rocked out. They had a huge mosh sam almost got knocked into. Then for Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous they had the entire crowd squat down and when the song started we all jumped up to jam. After Good Charlotte Sam and I went to the Roma tent, which I'm not sure if there is a typical genre that plays there but I stayed and saw Amsterdam Klezmer band and DJ Scratchy (UK). Both were techno style and I jammed out there till the wee hours of the morning- wow was that a night of some crazy gigs!
Friday we finally showered haha and then walked around the island, bought some sweet gauchos, hung out at the sports area and then met up with Dori in the evening and went to see Skunk Anansie, a UK group that played at main stage. The main singer is a bald, black chick with the biggest mouth ever- but could she sing and get the crowd involved. Half the time she was running around the crowd singing, crowd surfing and a couple times she walked on the crowd- daring gal she was but so much fun! After Skunk we went to the Hungarian stage and saw Budapest Bar and ate a giant hot dog smothered in veggies. Later that night we saw Prodigy at main stage- a UK band that knows how to rock. They were one of the best gigs we saw there. YouTube them if you are a pop-rock fan.
Saturday morning we woke up and decided to indulge in Hungarian culture and went to the Lukacs bath. So relaxing -there were so many pools, saunas, exercise classes, ice baths and so many other things. Our favorite was the heated pool which had a small lazy river that you floated thru, big jets that shot down on your back and chair things that had water jets that massaged your body. After the bath we went to a nice little cafe nearby and enjoyed some burritos and wraps. Met up with dori and went to see Kate Nash whose from the UK. If you ask me, dont waste your time. We watched her scream the entire time and her lipstick rubbed all up and down her face from it getting on the microphone haha, at least we got a good laugh out of it. Later that night we went and saw 30 Seconds to Mars who were pretty good. Somehow sam and I later ended up in the A38 stage where we saw Digital Mystikz from the UK and then sam left but I stayed and rocked out to Gaslamp Killer also from the UK.
Well this brings me to Sunday, the last full day of the festival. We were up by 8am and headed to the spa again for the same routine and then ate at the same cafe but this time got an iced coffee and panini yum. Got some more vodka and Gatorade bottles. That evening we went and saw Kid Cudi yaya! Was a freaking crime scene trying to get into that tent, had to throw my elbows numerous times and pretend I was big and strong. Cudi was so nuts!!! We were pretty close to the front and the Burn Party Arena was absolutely packed. And talk about scorching hot- not kidding it a good 40 Celsius in there which is like 110f - maybe even hotter. We were in shorts and a tank and were drenched head to toe in our own sweat plus everyones who was around us, sounds delightful I know. Two guys that were rockin out next to us were from Cali so after Cudi we all went and had a beer together outside. After Cudi I was absolutely exhausted so I went to bed. Sam went and rocked out with dori and came back to the cave later that night. It was so funny because there was a couple rolling around outside our tent next to the side of the reggae stage shackin up. What made it extra funny was the fact that people from the reggae stage would always go to that area to pee and by this time the area was so raunchy smelling (bad for us) but my god idk how they were able to roll around in it! Finally they left and the stench was so overwhelming that sam and I had to evacuate our tent for a puke session. Haha!!!
Monday morning we were up by 6am to beat the mad rush out of there and the heat! It had been between 85-90 all week! Dori, sam and I caught a taxi to doris grandmas place in Budapest and crashed until noon. Then we had some delicious lunch prepared by gma, showered/de-sanitized and got some stuff figured out for the rest of out trip. Gma made a delicious soup, salad and chicken breast dinner for us and then dori brought us around the city center. Budapest is so beautiful!!! We walked around the main shopping street, saw scenic views of the city, went to a cheese fest and bought cheese, and finished up the night at a ruins bar. They basically take peoples junk and put it in this bar giving different areas such a unique atmosphere- you could be sitting on some type of chair, a toilet, a washing machine- basically you name it and it was there. We went back to gmas after for bed.
It is now Tuesday the 16. I have been traveling for a solid 3 months and have 2 weeks left to go- what a realization. I'm listening to Taylor swift Fairytale on the train to Vienna and cannot believe my fairytale summer is coming to an end and fast. We have some exciting plans for the rest of the month, most which consist of meeting up with friends from exchange and friends we have met throughout our travels. Crazy to think I will only have a couple more blogs from here on out! Until next time, enjoy the rest of august and see all you crazy Minnesotans very soon!
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Detox time
Split and bled were ultimate detoxification time. The ferry from Corfu to Bari was just terrible. Once again we had quite the experience in Italy. We got off the ferry in Bari and went to the train station to get a train to northern Italy. However, illegal immigrants from Tunisia and Libya were causing quite the ruckus and had burned the tracks so no trains could come in or leave Bari. Bc of this the Italians got terribly mad and started flipping out and soon enough the cops and military came to control the area. Some kids that had left Corfu with us were in line with us at the train station and strongly advised us to get the hell out of there straight away so we hauled ass back to the ferryport and caught the next ferry to Croatia. The workers at the port were all very arrogant and quite perverted. Unfortunately I think Bari gave us a terrible view on Italy. Once we got on the ferry tho all of the workers were so kind, quite the difference.
When we finally arrived in split we caught a bus to our hostel which was 10km outside of the city. The hostel was absolutely wonderful, a small family owned place right on the Oceanside. Our room was probably the best one there, it had a balcony that overlooked the ocean- perfect place to watch the sunrise and set! We stayed there three nights and literally all we did was hung out there Oceanside and met other translate staying there. I was extremely sick the whole time there- had zero energy to do anything. Our second day there we met nick and Jason, to guys from london. They were absolutely hilarious and we spent the rest of our time there hanging out with them. Jason also is a crazy good guitar player and singer so it added to the ultimate relax detox time. Our last day there, friday, I could barely walk around so Mario, the owners brother brought me in to the hospital. Doc said I was a very lucky girl as I had been suffering from a case of salmonella poisoning and an eye infection. So she prescribed me like 6 different mess to take. That evening was our last night there and we had such a lovely evening sitting out by the water talking with a few people till the wee hours of the morning. Staying at hostel Adria was exactly what we needed- not an epic party place but a fun relaxed atmosphere with an incredibly nice family that owned it.
After split we hopped a 6 hour train to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. We were meant to catch a train from there straight away to get to bled, Slovenia but our connecting train ended up being delayed. So after 17 hours of traveling we finally arrived in bled around midnight. By then the buses were all done running but some nice lady that closed a nearby cafe gave us a ride to our hostel. As soon as we got there we passed out. Saturday was lovely, we did a 12km hike to vintgar gorge. Walking to the gorge was perhaps the best part. We had no idea what we expected Slovenia to look like- to be quite honest I thought it was gonna be a bit dirty like Greece, but were we wrong. Bled and the surrounding area is absolutely breathtaking, comparable to Switzerland with all the little villages, gorgeous older houses, pastureland, cleanliness, green vegetation everywhere, beautiful lakes and lovely mountains. Our last day here we got some new roomies- a couple English guys and 4 Irish girls. They were all so awesome and we had a great evening swimming in the lake. The past week was rather relaxing and more than needed! Next we are off to Budapest for sziget music festival which is the biggest festival in Europe! Quite excited for it!
When we finally arrived in split we caught a bus to our hostel which was 10km outside of the city. The hostel was absolutely wonderful, a small family owned place right on the Oceanside. Our room was probably the best one there, it had a balcony that overlooked the ocean- perfect place to watch the sunrise and set! We stayed there three nights and literally all we did was hung out there Oceanside and met other translate staying there. I was extremely sick the whole time there- had zero energy to do anything. Our second day there we met nick and Jason, to guys from london. They were absolutely hilarious and we spent the rest of our time there hanging out with them. Jason also is a crazy good guitar player and singer so it added to the ultimate relax detox time. Our last day there, friday, I could barely walk around so Mario, the owners brother brought me in to the hospital. Doc said I was a very lucky girl as I had been suffering from a case of salmonella poisoning and an eye infection. So she prescribed me like 6 different mess to take. That evening was our last night there and we had such a lovely evening sitting out by the water talking with a few people till the wee hours of the morning. Staying at hostel Adria was exactly what we needed- not an epic party place but a fun relaxed atmosphere with an incredibly nice family that owned it.
After split we hopped a 6 hour train to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. We were meant to catch a train from there straight away to get to bled, Slovenia but our connecting train ended up being delayed. So after 17 hours of traveling we finally arrived in bled around midnight. By then the buses were all done running but some nice lady that closed a nearby cafe gave us a ride to our hostel. As soon as we got there we passed out. Saturday was lovely, we did a 12km hike to vintgar gorge. Walking to the gorge was perhaps the best part. We had no idea what we expected Slovenia to look like- to be quite honest I thought it was gonna be a bit dirty like Greece, but were we wrong. Bled and the surrounding area is absolutely breathtaking, comparable to Switzerland with all the little villages, gorgeous older houses, pastureland, cleanliness, green vegetation everywhere, beautiful lakes and lovely mountains. Our last day here we got some new roomies- a couple English guys and 4 Irish girls. They were all so awesome and we had a great evening swimming in the lake. The past week was rather relaxing and more than needed! Next we are off to Budapest for sziget music festival which is the biggest festival in Europe! Quite excited for it!
Thursday, 4 August 2011
The things that will never be spoken about Corfu, Greece
Well first of all sorry it has been so devastatingly long since my last blog, that't what too much fun and deadly sicknesses will do to a person. I believe I left off with our goodbyes with Luke and Ted in Ibiza.... well we made it to Ibiza airport where we caught a flight at about midnight to Rome. Thus was the beginning of our terrible sleeps...spent the night sleeping no the floor in the airport-so much fun, not- and then caught a 630am flight to Rome. We caught a bus from the airport to the train station...what a joke that was. We got to the train station and talk about people galore! In Italy you have to make reservations for all of your train journeys so Sam and I made our way to the death line. We waited in line for hours to make a reservation to the eastern coast of italy to a turdhole town known as Bari. As we were waiting in line we found out that the tracks had caught on fire (later we found out the true cause of this which i will inform you about then) and that basically no trains were going to be coming into or leaving Rome. We literally just wanted to get the hell out of there, it was so hot and so many people were around. So we waited in the train station for 5 hours praying that our train would be one of the lucky ones to get out of there...4 minutes before its departure time there was nothing on the board...3, 2 minutes before and still nothing... finally it just flashed up on the board and thank goodness we were watching b/c it disappeared straight away so sam and i bolted to the train and literally right after we got on, the doors closed and it took off. So we finally get into Bari and caught a bus straight from the train station to the ferryport. (we really had no idea what our plans were to get to the Pink Palace in Corfu, Greece we were just compiling what people had told us and hoping for the best)... get to the ferryport and are asking the workers if we can catch the ferry that night to Corfu..they couldnt understand us so they went and got the head honcho.. we literally got so lucky, he held the ferry and told us to run to it, so once again, packs in gear, sam and i bolted it. Just barely made it onto that ferry but thank goodness we did, Bari is quite the disgusting, creepy sh**hole of a town. So night number 2 of terrible sleeping...we obviously cant afford a cabin on the ferry amongst numerous others that couldnt, so we had to find a spot on deck to plop down... have we informed you yet how much we hate ferries? haha
Right so, its monday now and we finally arrive in Corfu, Greece (big high five!) Once we got off the ferry we had no idea how to get to the Pink Palace, but as bad luck comes in 3's, i reckon good luck does as well. We saw a bus for the Pink Palace 20ft in front of us...so we went to the driver and told him we had no reservations, we had just heard about the place and wanted to come. he said no worries and we hopped on board (another big high five!) We got there around 7am and they greeted us with a shot of ouza, traditional greek alcohol, and then brought us into our room and told us if we got more than 8 people in our shower, it would be a new record.....haha k? So this place costs like 25 euro a night which includes cooked breaky and a 3 course dinner. And while i'm at it i must explain the flippin hike down to breaky....seriously the worst walk ever- especially on a hangover...you walk downhill the whole way- a good 100 stairs plus all teh hills...wait till i post pictures when i return home and you will feel my misery. So sam and i got some food in us and then went and passed out all afternoon IN A BED! YAY! Another thing about the Pink Palace, they have happy hour from 6-11pm...i guess you could say that's a whole new way of defining 'happy hour.' 1 euro everything, yep count us in. So we went down to reception bar (rec bar) where happy hour is from 6-8pm. My first beer there was from a cat named Adam....to be completely honest i was scared shitless out of him... he bought a few beers and told me to slam one with him, so naturally i did....but idk, something about this guy just scared me a bit. A bunch of us then started a massive game of tippy/flippy (w/e you prefer to call it). Dinner there starts at 830...so about that time we went down to the Palladium -->same direction as breakfast except not quite as far, you only have to do the stairs to get there, not all the hills as well. The main level of the Palladium is the club level where the party moves to after dinner. and dinner is on the top level. this place was huge...there were about 300 guests there the entire time of our stay...so basically you dont ever have to leave this place b/c there is always something going on. Dinner was always amazing...soup + salad + meat/veggies. And also happy hour continues down at the Palladium from 8-11pm. Dinner is also such a social event, meet so many people there alone. After dinner we went down to the main level where sam and i danced the night away....this was the first night we invented the (long forgotten) piggyback, where i piggyback sam and we run around like idiots....but its legendary so its fine.
Tuesday morning I couldnt sleep so i was up at 7 and naturally, made my way down to the rec bar. It was this morning that i met Ryan, Adam and Erin- three infamous aussies who will be in the rest of my stories in the Pink Palace and Joe, a cali guy who went there for vacation and ended up getting a job as a bartender. We drank all morning long and finally around noon it was time for the quad safari. We all rented quads (erin and ryan had to share haha due to ryan not having a license for reasons im sure you can figure out) and drove around the island all afternoon.. talk about seeing some amazing scenery, at one point we could see albania and the greece mainland! It was so much fun, ryan adam and i just kept slamming into eachother and b/c they werent our quads, naturally we didnt give a crap what damage we did to them so we tore shit up. This kind of stuff would never fly in the states... most of us were in sandals, we were riding on cliffs that had no siderails and had verticle dropoffs, and to top it all off on our way back we stopped at a pub and Cristo, the guide shouts 'lets get drunk!' ....since when will a quad guide tell all the people that have yet to return back to the hostel to get drunk?! haha oh how i love greece. That night we continued with our evening happy hour of tippy which is where we met Jeff (aka gus), a crazy canadian who had come with his friends, however when it was time to go he said goodbye to his friends and stayed! We finally made it down to dinner (one of the best parts of everyday, perhaps b/c its the last thing we can all vividly-ish remember). There was also a bar on the same level as the dinner which we closed down at 1130 everynight...they always had to ask us to move downstairs so they could get things cleaned up. It was this night that i was introduced to a suicide shot by ryan and adam...you snort salt, take a shot of tequila, and literally smash and smush a lemon in your eye! This night we also had a flippy tourny in the club...unfortunately our team made it to the final 4 and then lost =( Every night we always somehow made it back up to the rec bar b/c the club music was so loud you couldnt even talk to anybody and the rec bar was like a family.... either joe or sue were always bartending and it was always the same 10 of us there drinking. loved it!
Wednesday Sam and I woke up in time for the infamous booze cruise...unfortunately our aussies woke up in time to watch us sail away. I will not speak of most the things that occurred on this booze cruise but will give you the PG version. We left around noon and the cruise starts off with everybody shotgunning a beer- classic. we then cruised around the waters for about an hour or so- seriously this was the most beautiful water i have ever seen, UNREAL. eventually we made it to these oddball cliffs that are in the waters where people can jump the 50foot death fall. By doing certain 'things' you could win 2, 3 or 6 free beers. After the cliff jumpin we set sail again and eventually made it to a bat cave. We all jumped into teh waters and swam into this bat cave- it was SO cool but did smell a little funny, guano. After the bat cave we cruised around until we made it to a secluded private island in the middle of nowhere, where we played games and further enjoyed the sun. Finally we all got back on the boat and made the journey home where we arrived just in time for happy hour! ..that was probably the shortest summation i have ever made of the booze cruise....if you want the details, just ask. So every wednesday night at the Pink Palace is cross dress night.. Once again we all celebrated happy hour at rec bar, headed to dinner and then down to the club. we had kind of forgotten about the cross dress theme so we all switched clothes down there....ryan and i, sam and adam and erin and jeff...we looked good as you can imagine. this night was sooo awesome, i think i piggybacked everyone on the dance floor, poured everyones beer down their mouth and sam did her infamous bendover move. at one point this night sam was sitting in a chair dancing, so ryan sat on her and started dancing and then i sat on top of ryan and started dancing. The legs on this chair literally gave out and we all crashed to the floor, but it was cool we just kept dancing on the foor! haha. Later that night Cristo and some other guy circled everyone on the dance floor and did some greek dancing for all of us...then they went around, gave everyone a shot of ouzo and broke a plate over our heads. and what happened after that....your guess is as good as mine!
thursday was recovery day.... midday jeff, sam and i walked into town and each bought a couple pairs of ray bans and then went to the beach. the sand was so hot it burned the bottom of my feet! we finally headed back to the pink palace and by this time well, it was happy hour. finally made it down to dinner and after dinner we were at the dinner bar (yes we renamed them all) where ryan and i proceeded to have a flip flop fight. we then started a new tradition of drinking unrealistic amounts of tequila, great idea right? we finally headed downstairs and i decided to try to keep track of how many drinks i drank by putting the straw of each cocktail in my hair..sounded like a good idea until i realized they kept falling out. thursday night was not a theme night but we decided to invent crossdress x2 night so a bunch of us switched clothes again...idiots. it was this night that ryan did his classic break dance move where he would spin on the floor, stop and pose, spin on the floor, stop and pose, etc. it was probably one of those you had to be there moments but i am dying laughing right now typing this and thinking about it.
friday was another death day...they decided to have another booze cruise and since ryan, adam and erin had not been on it yet, sam and i decided to do it again- WORST DECISION EVER. not really. so we all woke up and had breakfast together and then boarded to ship. oh i forgot to mention last time, like 60 people go on the booze cruise and if this boat were in teh states, the max capacity would probably be 35....so you do the math and picturing in your head. it was this time that two different people did back flips off the cliff and landed terribly wrong..one ended up breaking his back and the other broke his knee. also did the bat cave and beach scene again and the epic journey home. seriously on this booze cruise i saw things in my life i never knew could exist....each cruise takes up multiple pages in my journal and what, 2-3 sentences on here? haha. Once again the cruise conveniently returned at the start of happy hour so we all joined in on the festivities at rec bar before going to dinner. Oh and before i forget to mention...on the cruise i met this guy john who i had met in galway months ago! funny....and we met mcclean and logan again at teh pink palace, two brothers we had met in interlaken! crazy world this is. Down in the palladium sam, ryan and i tried our infamous chair dance move again....this time wasnt so successful- we actually broke the chair this time and sam landed no the armrest giving her the biggest, nastiest bruise i have ever seen! sam, erin, ryan and adam ended up calling it an early night (ha and by early i mean 3am) but it was fine, jeff and i proceeded to close down the rec bar. I also met the owners son and daughter this night as they work reception during the night and had a good old time with them all night (the next day they were surprised i remembered haha).
saturday was the worst day ever. i dont think i have ever had such an immensely dangerous hangover, but thank the lord we were all in the same boat. i made my way down to the pool around 1pm but only lasted an hour b/c it was way too hot. so i went back to the room, cranked the AC down to 5 celsius and went back to bed. saturday night at the pink palace is one of the biggest nights of the week b/c its toga party- everyone wears a pink toga! i dont think the workers and other guests recognized the 5 of us (sam, me, erin, ryan and adam) ..by the time we got down to dinner we all had our very first drink in our hands and maybe a sip missing from them. very poor form as we were always the first ones down at rec bar in the mornings and last to leave the following morning. until about midnight all we were doing was literally just existing. when we finally made it to the palladium we grabbed a table and we all just sat there and watched ....none of us saying a damn word, none of us caring to talk to anyone. When i went back up to the bar i had a shot with Cristo (the quad guide and greek dancer) and hes a bit hard to understand and at one point hes like 'ok i'll find you later' and i was like ok. little did i know what i had agreed to do. once again that night cristo adn the other guy did their greek dancing with everyone circled around and then dr george, the owner of the pink palace came out and picked up a table that had a chair on top of it with full beers filling up the chair WITH HIS TEETH! and then he walked around and danced...i have it on video, its a true sick story. after that cristo came over and brought me out to the middle of the circle where he sat me down and i took 4 shots of ouzo...ughhhh not a good idea for this ailing stomach. and then he ran up from behind me and broke a plate over my head..ferkin hell did that hurt! later found out it hurt so bad b/c it was NINE plates that he broke over my head at once, i have now tied the record! ended up staying out till the wee hours of the night.
sunday we had to check out by 9am-->rough morning x2. the crew all went and had our final breakfast together and hung out all morning until the aussies left to catch their flight home...very sad moment. sam and i went to the pool that afternoon and that evening went to the ferryport where we caught another ferry back to bari.... did we mention how much it sucks to sleep on ferries yet??? Well this blog is overly long so I am goin to end it here and go socialize for a bit....my next blog may be one of the most interesting yet...full of scary things in life. but no worries, everything is just fine! hope i didnt bore you to death too much with this one. ciao!
Right so, its monday now and we finally arrive in Corfu, Greece (big high five!) Once we got off the ferry we had no idea how to get to the Pink Palace, but as bad luck comes in 3's, i reckon good luck does as well. We saw a bus for the Pink Palace 20ft in front of us...so we went to the driver and told him we had no reservations, we had just heard about the place and wanted to come. he said no worries and we hopped on board (another big high five!) We got there around 7am and they greeted us with a shot of ouza, traditional greek alcohol, and then brought us into our room and told us if we got more than 8 people in our shower, it would be a new record.....haha k? So this place costs like 25 euro a night which includes cooked breaky and a 3 course dinner. And while i'm at it i must explain the flippin hike down to breaky....seriously the worst walk ever- especially on a hangover...you walk downhill the whole way- a good 100 stairs plus all teh hills...wait till i post pictures when i return home and you will feel my misery. So sam and i got some food in us and then went and passed out all afternoon IN A BED! YAY! Another thing about the Pink Palace, they have happy hour from 6-11pm...i guess you could say that's a whole new way of defining 'happy hour.' 1 euro everything, yep count us in. So we went down to reception bar (rec bar) where happy hour is from 6-8pm. My first beer there was from a cat named Adam....to be completely honest i was scared shitless out of him... he bought a few beers and told me to slam one with him, so naturally i did....but idk, something about this guy just scared me a bit. A bunch of us then started a massive game of tippy/flippy (w/e you prefer to call it). Dinner there starts at 830...so about that time we went down to the Palladium -->same direction as breakfast except not quite as far, you only have to do the stairs to get there, not all the hills as well. The main level of the Palladium is the club level where the party moves to after dinner. and dinner is on the top level. this place was huge...there were about 300 guests there the entire time of our stay...so basically you dont ever have to leave this place b/c there is always something going on. Dinner was always amazing...soup + salad + meat/veggies. And also happy hour continues down at the Palladium from 8-11pm. Dinner is also such a social event, meet so many people there alone. After dinner we went down to the main level where sam and i danced the night away....this was the first night we invented the (long forgotten) piggyback, where i piggyback sam and we run around like idiots....but its legendary so its fine.
Tuesday morning I couldnt sleep so i was up at 7 and naturally, made my way down to the rec bar. It was this morning that i met Ryan, Adam and Erin- three infamous aussies who will be in the rest of my stories in the Pink Palace and Joe, a cali guy who went there for vacation and ended up getting a job as a bartender. We drank all morning long and finally around noon it was time for the quad safari. We all rented quads (erin and ryan had to share haha due to ryan not having a license for reasons im sure you can figure out) and drove around the island all afternoon.. talk about seeing some amazing scenery, at one point we could see albania and the greece mainland! It was so much fun, ryan adam and i just kept slamming into eachother and b/c they werent our quads, naturally we didnt give a crap what damage we did to them so we tore shit up. This kind of stuff would never fly in the states... most of us were in sandals, we were riding on cliffs that had no siderails and had verticle dropoffs, and to top it all off on our way back we stopped at a pub and Cristo, the guide shouts 'lets get drunk!' ....since when will a quad guide tell all the people that have yet to return back to the hostel to get drunk?! haha oh how i love greece. That night we continued with our evening happy hour of tippy which is where we met Jeff (aka gus), a crazy canadian who had come with his friends, however when it was time to go he said goodbye to his friends and stayed! We finally made it down to dinner (one of the best parts of everyday, perhaps b/c its the last thing we can all vividly-ish remember). There was also a bar on the same level as the dinner which we closed down at 1130 everynight...they always had to ask us to move downstairs so they could get things cleaned up. It was this night that i was introduced to a suicide shot by ryan and adam...you snort salt, take a shot of tequila, and literally smash and smush a lemon in your eye! This night we also had a flippy tourny in the club...unfortunately our team made it to the final 4 and then lost =( Every night we always somehow made it back up to the rec bar b/c the club music was so loud you couldnt even talk to anybody and the rec bar was like a family.... either joe or sue were always bartending and it was always the same 10 of us there drinking. loved it!
Wednesday Sam and I woke up in time for the infamous booze cruise...unfortunately our aussies woke up in time to watch us sail away. I will not speak of most the things that occurred on this booze cruise but will give you the PG version. We left around noon and the cruise starts off with everybody shotgunning a beer- classic. we then cruised around the waters for about an hour or so- seriously this was the most beautiful water i have ever seen, UNREAL. eventually we made it to these oddball cliffs that are in the waters where people can jump the 50foot death fall. By doing certain 'things' you could win 2, 3 or 6 free beers. After the cliff jumpin we set sail again and eventually made it to a bat cave. We all jumped into teh waters and swam into this bat cave- it was SO cool but did smell a little funny, guano. After the bat cave we cruised around until we made it to a secluded private island in the middle of nowhere, where we played games and further enjoyed the sun. Finally we all got back on the boat and made the journey home where we arrived just in time for happy hour! ..that was probably the shortest summation i have ever made of the booze cruise....if you want the details, just ask. So every wednesday night at the Pink Palace is cross dress night.. Once again we all celebrated happy hour at rec bar, headed to dinner and then down to the club. we had kind of forgotten about the cross dress theme so we all switched clothes down there....ryan and i, sam and adam and erin and jeff...we looked good as you can imagine. this night was sooo awesome, i think i piggybacked everyone on the dance floor, poured everyones beer down their mouth and sam did her infamous bendover move. at one point this night sam was sitting in a chair dancing, so ryan sat on her and started dancing and then i sat on top of ryan and started dancing. The legs on this chair literally gave out and we all crashed to the floor, but it was cool we just kept dancing on the foor! haha. Later that night Cristo and some other guy circled everyone on the dance floor and did some greek dancing for all of us...then they went around, gave everyone a shot of ouzo and broke a plate over our heads. and what happened after that....your guess is as good as mine!
thursday was recovery day.... midday jeff, sam and i walked into town and each bought a couple pairs of ray bans and then went to the beach. the sand was so hot it burned the bottom of my feet! we finally headed back to the pink palace and by this time well, it was happy hour. finally made it down to dinner and after dinner we were at the dinner bar (yes we renamed them all) where ryan and i proceeded to have a flip flop fight. we then started a new tradition of drinking unrealistic amounts of tequila, great idea right? we finally headed downstairs and i decided to try to keep track of how many drinks i drank by putting the straw of each cocktail in my hair..sounded like a good idea until i realized they kept falling out. thursday night was not a theme night but we decided to invent crossdress x2 night so a bunch of us switched clothes again...idiots. it was this night that ryan did his classic break dance move where he would spin on the floor, stop and pose, spin on the floor, stop and pose, etc. it was probably one of those you had to be there moments but i am dying laughing right now typing this and thinking about it.
friday was another death day...they decided to have another booze cruise and since ryan, adam and erin had not been on it yet, sam and i decided to do it again- WORST DECISION EVER. not really. so we all woke up and had breakfast together and then boarded to ship. oh i forgot to mention last time, like 60 people go on the booze cruise and if this boat were in teh states, the max capacity would probably be 35....so you do the math and picturing in your head. it was this time that two different people did back flips off the cliff and landed terribly wrong..one ended up breaking his back and the other broke his knee. also did the bat cave and beach scene again and the epic journey home. seriously on this booze cruise i saw things in my life i never knew could exist....each cruise takes up multiple pages in my journal and what, 2-3 sentences on here? haha. Once again the cruise conveniently returned at the start of happy hour so we all joined in on the festivities at rec bar before going to dinner. Oh and before i forget to mention...on the cruise i met this guy john who i had met in galway months ago! funny....and we met mcclean and logan again at teh pink palace, two brothers we had met in interlaken! crazy world this is. Down in the palladium sam, ryan and i tried our infamous chair dance move again....this time wasnt so successful- we actually broke the chair this time and sam landed no the armrest giving her the biggest, nastiest bruise i have ever seen! sam, erin, ryan and adam ended up calling it an early night (ha and by early i mean 3am) but it was fine, jeff and i proceeded to close down the rec bar. I also met the owners son and daughter this night as they work reception during the night and had a good old time with them all night (the next day they were surprised i remembered haha).
saturday was the worst day ever. i dont think i have ever had such an immensely dangerous hangover, but thank the lord we were all in the same boat. i made my way down to the pool around 1pm but only lasted an hour b/c it was way too hot. so i went back to the room, cranked the AC down to 5 celsius and went back to bed. saturday night at the pink palace is one of the biggest nights of the week b/c its toga party- everyone wears a pink toga! i dont think the workers and other guests recognized the 5 of us (sam, me, erin, ryan and adam) ..by the time we got down to dinner we all had our very first drink in our hands and maybe a sip missing from them. very poor form as we were always the first ones down at rec bar in the mornings and last to leave the following morning. until about midnight all we were doing was literally just existing. when we finally made it to the palladium we grabbed a table and we all just sat there and watched ....none of us saying a damn word, none of us caring to talk to anyone. When i went back up to the bar i had a shot with Cristo (the quad guide and greek dancer) and hes a bit hard to understand and at one point hes like 'ok i'll find you later' and i was like ok. little did i know what i had agreed to do. once again that night cristo adn the other guy did their greek dancing with everyone circled around and then dr george, the owner of the pink palace came out and picked up a table that had a chair on top of it with full beers filling up the chair WITH HIS TEETH! and then he walked around and danced...i have it on video, its a true sick story. after that cristo came over and brought me out to the middle of the circle where he sat me down and i took 4 shots of ouzo...ughhhh not a good idea for this ailing stomach. and then he ran up from behind me and broke a plate over my head..ferkin hell did that hurt! later found out it hurt so bad b/c it was NINE plates that he broke over my head at once, i have now tied the record! ended up staying out till the wee hours of the night.
sunday we had to check out by 9am-->rough morning x2. the crew all went and had our final breakfast together and hung out all morning until the aussies left to catch their flight home...very sad moment. sam and i went to the pool that afternoon and that evening went to the ferryport where we caught another ferry back to bari.... did we mention how much it sucks to sleep on ferries yet??? Well this blog is overly long so I am goin to end it here and go socialize for a bit....my next blog may be one of the most interesting yet...full of scary things in life. but no worries, everything is just fine! hope i didnt bore you to death too much with this one. ciao!
Monday, 25 July 2011
Oh hells...Ibiza!
Ibiza sucks, it does the most terrible things to a person. We did catch our plane in Madrid! Caught a bus from the train station to the airport- got quite the scenic bus tour of madrid lol. But from what we did see it was a beautiful city, much more so than barco. Planes really are terrible with all the hours you spend waiting in the airports, I will forever be grateful for the train system throughout Europe! However we did make use of duty free and purchased 4 bottles. Once we landed in Ibiza we had to catch a bus to take us to the city San Antonio in the nw corner of the island. Some Scottish guys were also on the bus just hammered and were talkin to us the whole 45 minute ride to San antonion. They were so funny but super hard to understand! The actual inner land of Ibiza is so not attractive, makes the place seem like a shithole but the coastlines are gorgeous. We finally made it to our new residence, hostal montaña, a nice family run hotel. They really liked sam and I and were so nice- little did they know what was coming... So straight away we started boozing- were in Ibiza, that's just what you do there. The island is a melting pot of English folk during the summer, no joke the entire country of England practically heads there for summer holidays- or at least the 18-30 year olds. Across the street from us was another hotel and sam and I met some English guys who invited us to go to the club with them. We must have took too long to get ready bc by the time we made it outside they were already gone, oops. So we just decided to have a good ole randi-sam party. Go figure. So we spent the night out on the patio having a rockin good time.
The next morning we had breakfast and were hangin out on the balcony again figuring out what we wanted to do that day. We end up seeing those English guys again and when they asked what happened to us we told them they were already gone by the time we got out there but we headed to the club anyways- bc really I think it might be illegal to say you went to Ibiza and drank all night with your one other friend in the hotel room! So they invited us over to their hotel to go to the pool. We ended up deciding not to bc we didn't know how we would answer any questions about the club! So instead we went to the sister hotel of ours and played ping pong all afternoon and went swimming in the pool... Once again just us two, hangin out boozing. We did make a friend there tho, another English guy- go figure. Then he whips out some powder and snorts it haha right in the open. I can't remember what it was, something I have never heard of before. And don't worry, when he offered sam and me some we kindly rejected. So that afternoon we decided to head to bora bora, a club on the beach in Ibiza town. We got there around 5pm and it was just nuts! People partying everywhere just like any spring break beach. So we joined along with the festivities. These two people selling club tickets came up to us and asked if we were together, naturally were like yeah- we were hanging out talking with one another. So they snipe us into buying club tickets for the next three nights-TERRIBLE idea little did we know. So it's about 10pm by now and we decide to go home to change- it's like a 45 minute bus ride nothing quick. We finally catch the bus after changing to go back to Ibiza town and on the way we see all sorts of billboards advertising the club we bought tickets for for that night. Some weird pics were on most like of drag queens but one billboard finally did it in and connected all the dots for us 'europes biggest gay party of the summer!' ahh so that's why they asked if we were 'together'. So we decide oh well let's go rock it, gay guys are good dancers, it will be fun.
So we get to the area where we were all supposed to meet and a bus would take us to the club. But surprise surprise sam and I rock up late. The bouncer at the bar helped us out tho and gave us a pass to get into the club so all we had to do was catch a bus there. The two smart ones that we are couldn't find the bus and the taxis were all full. So we kinda just hung around and talked to other lost souls. We were even approached by ppl who openly said they were illegal taxis and could take us- yeah f*** that idea. Taken? I finally catch us a cabbie to bring us to amnesia, was a real cool guy. The club started out great, thought I was dancing with a neat 'gay' guy until he grabbed my face and tried to rape it. I finally got SAMs attention and we ran to a different part of the club. This time I was for sure I was dancing with a gay guy cuz we danced for ages and then he asked if he could kiss me and I told him no but he just wouldn't let it go. By now I'm just pissed off and we decide to leave but as we are some guy runs up, bear hugs sam and was like marry me! Sam told him to get off her but he wouldn't so I decked him! Don't know where it came from but I was done puttin up with anything more that night lol! We get on the bus to go home and the driver asked me how my night was, I told him fucking terrible and he starts laughin at me and was like 'I could have told you that!'
Decided to do something neat on Thursday so we caught a bus to calla Comte- the most beautiful beach I have ever seen! We hung out there all day, the weather was absolutely gorgeous! Drank screwdrivers, went swimming and bought some ray bans (AKa ray berries) and lounged out. Pretty rough life I would agree. We then went back to our hotel to shower up- I had just gotten out and sam was in the shower when I checked fb and read a message from Ted that said their ferry gets in at 6 and to meet them there.... It was 550. So we hauled it and ran down to the ferry making a pit stop along the way to buy beer- had to welcome them to the island after all! Our reunion was so awesome, big hugs all around! They didn't think we were actually gonna be there to meet them at the port. Ha and they told us that after interlaken they made a bet that the chances of seeing us again was 100% and that the highest anyone on the trip had gotten before that was only 30%. It just so happened to be lukes 21st as well! Sam and I decide we should go to bora bora bc we had free drinks there from 9-midnight and it's a pretty cool place for them to see. We caught the bus and when we got off there just happened to be a carnival across the street. Well placed carnival owner- naturally it draws our attention so we went and played games. It was then too late to go get free drinks so we caught the bus to go to the club- right after we got on the bus sam realized she didn't have her wallet so her and Luke went to get it and we decided to meet at the club. Who are we kidding this club is the biggest club in the world- fat chance of seeing them again. Sam and Luke ended up playing games at the carnival all night bc sam really wanted a giant spongebob and Luke spent loads of money trying to win it even offering the guy money to just buy it- long story short she came home with a medium sized spongebob, a toy motorcycle, and a little bunny. When ted and I were on the bus to the club he was awfully tired (not sober) and asked if he could use my lap as a pillow. Haha so Ted was cashed for the night so I just decided to bring him back to the hotel cuz he would not last two minutes in the club! End up gettin back like an hour later and maybe 30 minutes later sam and Luke rock up- they had all these stories about the games they played and I just didn't realize how they had accomplished to do all that and were already home- I guess a 15 minute cab ride explains it. We had an after party then and royally pissed off the neighbors who kept pounding on the walls. Leave it to Ted to pound back everytime too.
Friday Ted and I went to the store to get more alcohol and when we walked back in we got Yelled at by the staff- apparently they were getting complaints all night about us. Oops. So they tell me the guys have to go but that Ted could carry the grocery bags upstairs first. So we went upstairs and defying authority, started drinking again. We finally decide to make our way to the beach where we hung out all afternoon and drank way too much. We then decide in all our smartness that to make our friendship legit we are all goin to get piercings together. Long story short, between the four of us, two people walked away with an ear piercing, one with a nipple and one with a tattoo on their ass that says 'oh hells'. That's all I'm goin to say about that one. Use your imagination to try to figure out who got what.
During this whole experience we somehow lost Ted, he just disappeared. So we looked for him around town and then decided to head back to the hotel, he was surely bound to show up there at some point. We made a plan for me to go in first so I could get the key n for sam and Luke to bolt in a couple minutes after. I got up to the room and heard something in the hallway and when I looked it was Ted! So I got him in the room and then sam and Luke came up and we were all so excited our best friend was found- he didn't kno how he got to the hotel. So of course we decide to just keep celebrating especially after all the smart decisions that had been made by only 5pm that day. I have no idea how many times the staff came up to kick us out that evening haha but we kinda just put that recommendation in the back of our minds. Finally they said they were gonna call the police so Luke and Ted left and found a room at another hotel about a block away. When they came back to get their bags, the owner was standing in the door with his arms crossed. They asked if they could go up and get their bags and he told them 'not now, not ever!' so SAMs and I packed up their stuff and brought the bags down. At the office sam asked if we were being too loud haha and they told us we were too much trouble. They also then informed us that the police had brought Ted there earlier and that he was lucky he didn't get any charges! Oh hells. These poor owners just hated us by now.
So now it's close to midnight and we head to the new hotel- the owner there wasn't gonna let sam and I up but we told him it would only be five minutes. A half hour later sam and Luke are passed out and I'm bound and determined to go to the club. So Ted comes out with me and we end up passing by a pizza joint on the walk to the bus and had the most amazing pizza ever! We decided the bus ride to the club would be too tiring so we walked to downtown San Antonio and made friends with some people at a pub and then we went to a club and danced the night away. Ted about got in a fight with someone so I pulled him out and decided we had had enough fun for one day so we went back to the home.
Saturday was our last day together. Sam and I had to go back to our original hotel and clear out the room- talk about having our arms full- we had both our backpacks, two floaties, a ball, a bag full of Ted and luke's things, 5 liters of water, 1 liter of vodka and 1 liter of orange juice. Just looked like turkeys walkin out with all that! We hadnt done much eating there until Saturday, had subway for lunch which was so delicious. Then we got some beer and hung out at the beach all afternoon. Ended up the day getting Kfc for dinner. As a joke Ted asked for shots of vodka but they told us all they had was beer... On tap. Haha since when does Kfc serve alcohol?! Saying ciao to Ted and Luke was very devo but I guess that means a road trip to Canada in the future!
The next morning we had breakfast and were hangin out on the balcony again figuring out what we wanted to do that day. We end up seeing those English guys again and when they asked what happened to us we told them they were already gone by the time we got out there but we headed to the club anyways- bc really I think it might be illegal to say you went to Ibiza and drank all night with your one other friend in the hotel room! So they invited us over to their hotel to go to the pool. We ended up deciding not to bc we didn't know how we would answer any questions about the club! So instead we went to the sister hotel of ours and played ping pong all afternoon and went swimming in the pool... Once again just us two, hangin out boozing. We did make a friend there tho, another English guy- go figure. Then he whips out some powder and snorts it haha right in the open. I can't remember what it was, something I have never heard of before. And don't worry, when he offered sam and me some we kindly rejected. So that afternoon we decided to head to bora bora, a club on the beach in Ibiza town. We got there around 5pm and it was just nuts! People partying everywhere just like any spring break beach. So we joined along with the festivities. These two people selling club tickets came up to us and asked if we were together, naturally were like yeah- we were hanging out talking with one another. So they snipe us into buying club tickets for the next three nights-TERRIBLE idea little did we know. So it's about 10pm by now and we decide to go home to change- it's like a 45 minute bus ride nothing quick. We finally catch the bus after changing to go back to Ibiza town and on the way we see all sorts of billboards advertising the club we bought tickets for for that night. Some weird pics were on most like of drag queens but one billboard finally did it in and connected all the dots for us 'europes biggest gay party of the summer!' ahh so that's why they asked if we were 'together'. So we decide oh well let's go rock it, gay guys are good dancers, it will be fun.
So we get to the area where we were all supposed to meet and a bus would take us to the club. But surprise surprise sam and I rock up late. The bouncer at the bar helped us out tho and gave us a pass to get into the club so all we had to do was catch a bus there. The two smart ones that we are couldn't find the bus and the taxis were all full. So we kinda just hung around and talked to other lost souls. We were even approached by ppl who openly said they were illegal taxis and could take us- yeah f*** that idea. Taken? I finally catch us a cabbie to bring us to amnesia, was a real cool guy. The club started out great, thought I was dancing with a neat 'gay' guy until he grabbed my face and tried to rape it. I finally got SAMs attention and we ran to a different part of the club. This time I was for sure I was dancing with a gay guy cuz we danced for ages and then he asked if he could kiss me and I told him no but he just wouldn't let it go. By now I'm just pissed off and we decide to leave but as we are some guy runs up, bear hugs sam and was like marry me! Sam told him to get off her but he wouldn't so I decked him! Don't know where it came from but I was done puttin up with anything more that night lol! We get on the bus to go home and the driver asked me how my night was, I told him fucking terrible and he starts laughin at me and was like 'I could have told you that!'
Decided to do something neat on Thursday so we caught a bus to calla Comte- the most beautiful beach I have ever seen! We hung out there all day, the weather was absolutely gorgeous! Drank screwdrivers, went swimming and bought some ray bans (AKa ray berries) and lounged out. Pretty rough life I would agree. We then went back to our hotel to shower up- I had just gotten out and sam was in the shower when I checked fb and read a message from Ted that said their ferry gets in at 6 and to meet them there.... It was 550. So we hauled it and ran down to the ferry making a pit stop along the way to buy beer- had to welcome them to the island after all! Our reunion was so awesome, big hugs all around! They didn't think we were actually gonna be there to meet them at the port. Ha and they told us that after interlaken they made a bet that the chances of seeing us again was 100% and that the highest anyone on the trip had gotten before that was only 30%. It just so happened to be lukes 21st as well! Sam and I decide we should go to bora bora bc we had free drinks there from 9-midnight and it's a pretty cool place for them to see. We caught the bus and when we got off there just happened to be a carnival across the street. Well placed carnival owner- naturally it draws our attention so we went and played games. It was then too late to go get free drinks so we caught the bus to go to the club- right after we got on the bus sam realized she didn't have her wallet so her and Luke went to get it and we decided to meet at the club. Who are we kidding this club is the biggest club in the world- fat chance of seeing them again. Sam and Luke ended up playing games at the carnival all night bc sam really wanted a giant spongebob and Luke spent loads of money trying to win it even offering the guy money to just buy it- long story short she came home with a medium sized spongebob, a toy motorcycle, and a little bunny. When ted and I were on the bus to the club he was awfully tired (not sober) and asked if he could use my lap as a pillow. Haha so Ted was cashed for the night so I just decided to bring him back to the hotel cuz he would not last two minutes in the club! End up gettin back like an hour later and maybe 30 minutes later sam and Luke rock up- they had all these stories about the games they played and I just didn't realize how they had accomplished to do all that and were already home- I guess a 15 minute cab ride explains it. We had an after party then and royally pissed off the neighbors who kept pounding on the walls. Leave it to Ted to pound back everytime too.
Friday Ted and I went to the store to get more alcohol and when we walked back in we got Yelled at by the staff- apparently they were getting complaints all night about us. Oops. So they tell me the guys have to go but that Ted could carry the grocery bags upstairs first. So we went upstairs and defying authority, started drinking again. We finally decide to make our way to the beach where we hung out all afternoon and drank way too much. We then decide in all our smartness that to make our friendship legit we are all goin to get piercings together. Long story short, between the four of us, two people walked away with an ear piercing, one with a nipple and one with a tattoo on their ass that says 'oh hells'. That's all I'm goin to say about that one. Use your imagination to try to figure out who got what.
During this whole experience we somehow lost Ted, he just disappeared. So we looked for him around town and then decided to head back to the hotel, he was surely bound to show up there at some point. We made a plan for me to go in first so I could get the key n for sam and Luke to bolt in a couple minutes after. I got up to the room and heard something in the hallway and when I looked it was Ted! So I got him in the room and then sam and Luke came up and we were all so excited our best friend was found- he didn't kno how he got to the hotel. So of course we decide to just keep celebrating especially after all the smart decisions that had been made by only 5pm that day. I have no idea how many times the staff came up to kick us out that evening haha but we kinda just put that recommendation in the back of our minds. Finally they said they were gonna call the police so Luke and Ted left and found a room at another hotel about a block away. When they came back to get their bags, the owner was standing in the door with his arms crossed. They asked if they could go up and get their bags and he told them 'not now, not ever!' so SAMs and I packed up their stuff and brought the bags down. At the office sam asked if we were being too loud haha and they told us we were too much trouble. They also then informed us that the police had brought Ted there earlier and that he was lucky he didn't get any charges! Oh hells. These poor owners just hated us by now.
So now it's close to midnight and we head to the new hotel- the owner there wasn't gonna let sam and I up but we told him it would only be five minutes. A half hour later sam and Luke are passed out and I'm bound and determined to go to the club. So Ted comes out with me and we end up passing by a pizza joint on the walk to the bus and had the most amazing pizza ever! We decided the bus ride to the club would be too tiring so we walked to downtown San Antonio and made friends with some people at a pub and then we went to a club and danced the night away. Ted about got in a fight with someone so I pulled him out and decided we had had enough fun for one day so we went back to the home.
Saturday was our last day together. Sam and I had to go back to our original hotel and clear out the room- talk about having our arms full- we had both our backpacks, two floaties, a ball, a bag full of Ted and luke's things, 5 liters of water, 1 liter of vodka and 1 liter of orange juice. Just looked like turkeys walkin out with all that! We hadnt done much eating there until Saturday, had subway for lunch which was so delicious. Then we got some beer and hung out at the beach all afternoon. Ended up the day getting Kfc for dinner. As a joke Ted asked for shots of vodka but they told us all they had was beer... On tap. Haha since when does Kfc serve alcohol?! Saying ciao to Ted and Luke was very devo but I guess that means a road trip to Canada in the future!
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Avoid night trains at all costs
Oh espanya
Remember in the movie euro trip when the train would go thru a tunnel, it would get pitch black and when it was light again that creepy guy was doin his thing in the car? That shits for real. NEVER take an overnight train! I woke up to some lad trying to take a snooze with me. The bunks were three high and sam and I were each on the top bunk. As soon as I realized what was goin on I reckon I dealt with it quite well. I shoved the guy off onto the floor and then proceeded to jump on him. Long story short I can now say 'I have thrown punches at a grown man and only walked away with a scratch on my lip.' I think when mum reads this shes gonna wig out, but no worries the guy did not expect that one comin and hauled it out of our sleeping cart. Needless to say I now keep my pocket knife on me.
That was enough excitement for quite awhile! We finally made it to Barcelona in the afternoon. Found our hostel which was well just another good ole sleeping quarters for us. Decided to go make a reservation for a train to Madrid straight away to make sure we would catch our flight to Ibiza. After standing in the wrong line for half hour and waiting in the correct line for over an hour we still didn't make a reservation bc for once the ticket office had to see our eurail passes in order to let us make a reservation. Oh barco day 1 and you piss us off. Lol but if that's all there is to frustrate us I reckon our lives are pretty easy. We literally did nothin that evening but walked around a bit and called it an early night at midnight (mind you this was a Friday night and we didn't go out...)
Saturday we were up and at it by 8am! Record wake up time for a Saturday morning, not sure if I should be proud of that? Finally made a train reservation to the great city of Madrid. Then we rocked down to the beach. When someone tells you that they spent the whole day at the beach, I'm not sure it could be more well defined than what we did. We got there around 9 and stayed until 9pm and that night went to a club located on the beach. The daytime was gorgeous, perfect weather- had a nice breeze too. We even treated ourselves out to lunch that day- got a pizza, burger and two cervezas for 15 euro! Haha which is not cheap normally but for barco it is. We also walked down the beach to the W hotel- a 5 star hotel on the beach where rich folk and celebrities stay. In other words not a 21 year old budget traveler who thinks a 7.50 euro meal is quite the extravagant delicacy. But down on this end is where loads of naked people lounge on the beach- I'd say your average naked Joe was a 55-65 year old, overly suntanned, too comfortable about their body, saggy man. Yumm all you ladies make sure to put that place on your bucket list! Ohh Lordy and what made a capper to the naked beach area was when the words 'beached whale' became more vivid to my once innocent blue eyes. Now forever scarred. One of the naked joes was idk, rockin out a good 400 pounds and literally looked like a beached whale! Ha. Once 5 o'clock hit it was time for mojitos on the beach. All day and night people walk around the beach sellin cervezas, mojitos, towels, coconuts and massages (pronounced ma-sa-hay). A few other American guys came and joined us for some drinks on the beach and one invited us to join them in VIP at some club. Needless to say we ended up goin to a club called sotavento with our hostel. The girl who organized it was such a turkey! Haha we left the hostel around midnight and she had no idea how to get there- so sam and randi took over and miraculously herded the group to the club. The club was so great, they had a techno gig goin on that night and the light show was awesome! Made it home around 5 the next morning.
Sunday we were once again worthless human beings. We woke up, ate a piece of bread, went back to bed, checked out at 11 and then made our way to the next hostel where we proceeded to make it into our room and passed out again until 3pm. After we woke up we realized we were in quite the luxurious place tho- hell there were full sized pillows and air conn!!! Oh the little things we take for granted back home now never ceases to amaze us. Later that evening we made our way over to the fountains bc every sunday and Thursday night they have a water show correlated to music that plays for a couple hours (similar to the one in Vegas). I think we went there on the right night bc they played loads of Disney tunes-although sung in Spanish sam and I rocked out in our native tongue. They also played a bunch of 90s music so it was pretty neat. That night we went down to the beach and met up with ash, an Aussie friend of sams from uni in Oslo. We were sitting on the beach talkin about out travels and drinkin some beer when dj Yao rocked up. Write that name down folks he's gonna be famous some day. He was a lad originally from Africa whose been living in Spain for 7 years- oh and he hates Spain, but then told us he likes barco- oh the contradictions dj Yao! He also gave us a top notch performance of his rapping. Let's just say I consider rap and jamaican beat different, but that's just me. Finally we were able to part ways with our new amigo and we headed back to our luxurious resort for bed.
Monday morning the three of us went on the free gothic walkin tour of barco. Don't know how else to describe it but freaking terrible. Lol but I was enlightened with new knowledge. We then went to the beach to catch some rays and fry the bacon. U all kno the song 'rockin the beer gut' - ha I have now dedicated that song to myself =) when we were at the beach Saturday one of the guys we met told us about the yacht week in Croatia, google it, it's nuts. So Monday afternoon I spent the better half of my time lookin for yachts with two available spots for sam and I and bargaining our lives away. Nothin is set in stone yet but I reckon there is a 99% chance that from July 30-august 6 we will be rockin out island hoppin on our own yacht! Monday night was our last night in barco and one of ash's friends had gotten into town so we were all gonna go out. Turns out the metro closes at midnight and we didn't want to walk an hour to the club. But neatest thing ever, we ended up in one of those hole in the wall local pubs. Literally I thought we were walkin into a crypt but it turned out to be a huge pub that served giant tubs of beer or sangria. We stayed there until it closed, grabbed a kebab and then everyone went to bed but I thought it was a good idea to stay up until 530am chatting on the good ole facebookin machine.
Wasn't so easy wakin up at 730 to get to the train station tho. But heck, I didn't have a hangover so it was worth it. So we caught the train to Madrid and I passed out straight away. About halfway to Madrid our train broke down delaying our eta in Madrid 2.5 hours. Thank goodness we are early planners and planned for ample time because our flight left for Ibiza at 5pm. I'm actually still on the train to Madrid right now so I sure hope we catch this flight! Oh and remember Luke and Ted? They are meeting up with us in Ibiza tomorrow... This cannot be good. And for those of you who have made it to the end of this super long blog, kudos. Nothing ever happened to me in the night train on the way to barco, just wanted to give you all a good chuckle! Ciao ciao
Remember in the movie euro trip when the train would go thru a tunnel, it would get pitch black and when it was light again that creepy guy was doin his thing in the car? That shits for real. NEVER take an overnight train! I woke up to some lad trying to take a snooze with me. The bunks were three high and sam and I were each on the top bunk. As soon as I realized what was goin on I reckon I dealt with it quite well. I shoved the guy off onto the floor and then proceeded to jump on him. Long story short I can now say 'I have thrown punches at a grown man and only walked away with a scratch on my lip.' I think when mum reads this shes gonna wig out, but no worries the guy did not expect that one comin and hauled it out of our sleeping cart. Needless to say I now keep my pocket knife on me.
That was enough excitement for quite awhile! We finally made it to Barcelona in the afternoon. Found our hostel which was well just another good ole sleeping quarters for us. Decided to go make a reservation for a train to Madrid straight away to make sure we would catch our flight to Ibiza. After standing in the wrong line for half hour and waiting in the correct line for over an hour we still didn't make a reservation bc for once the ticket office had to see our eurail passes in order to let us make a reservation. Oh barco day 1 and you piss us off. Lol but if that's all there is to frustrate us I reckon our lives are pretty easy. We literally did nothin that evening but walked around a bit and called it an early night at midnight (mind you this was a Friday night and we didn't go out...)
Saturday we were up and at it by 8am! Record wake up time for a Saturday morning, not sure if I should be proud of that? Finally made a train reservation to the great city of Madrid. Then we rocked down to the beach. When someone tells you that they spent the whole day at the beach, I'm not sure it could be more well defined than what we did. We got there around 9 and stayed until 9pm and that night went to a club located on the beach. The daytime was gorgeous, perfect weather- had a nice breeze too. We even treated ourselves out to lunch that day- got a pizza, burger and two cervezas for 15 euro! Haha which is not cheap normally but for barco it is. We also walked down the beach to the W hotel- a 5 star hotel on the beach where rich folk and celebrities stay. In other words not a 21 year old budget traveler who thinks a 7.50 euro meal is quite the extravagant delicacy. But down on this end is where loads of naked people lounge on the beach- I'd say your average naked Joe was a 55-65 year old, overly suntanned, too comfortable about their body, saggy man. Yumm all you ladies make sure to put that place on your bucket list! Ohh Lordy and what made a capper to the naked beach area was when the words 'beached whale' became more vivid to my once innocent blue eyes. Now forever scarred. One of the naked joes was idk, rockin out a good 400 pounds and literally looked like a beached whale! Ha. Once 5 o'clock hit it was time for mojitos on the beach. All day and night people walk around the beach sellin cervezas, mojitos, towels, coconuts and massages (pronounced ma-sa-hay). A few other American guys came and joined us for some drinks on the beach and one invited us to join them in VIP at some club. Needless to say we ended up goin to a club called sotavento with our hostel. The girl who organized it was such a turkey! Haha we left the hostel around midnight and she had no idea how to get there- so sam and randi took over and miraculously herded the group to the club. The club was so great, they had a techno gig goin on that night and the light show was awesome! Made it home around 5 the next morning.
Sunday we were once again worthless human beings. We woke up, ate a piece of bread, went back to bed, checked out at 11 and then made our way to the next hostel where we proceeded to make it into our room and passed out again until 3pm. After we woke up we realized we were in quite the luxurious place tho- hell there were full sized pillows and air conn!!! Oh the little things we take for granted back home now never ceases to amaze us. Later that evening we made our way over to the fountains bc every sunday and Thursday night they have a water show correlated to music that plays for a couple hours (similar to the one in Vegas). I think we went there on the right night bc they played loads of Disney tunes-although sung in Spanish sam and I rocked out in our native tongue. They also played a bunch of 90s music so it was pretty neat. That night we went down to the beach and met up with ash, an Aussie friend of sams from uni in Oslo. We were sitting on the beach talkin about out travels and drinkin some beer when dj Yao rocked up. Write that name down folks he's gonna be famous some day. He was a lad originally from Africa whose been living in Spain for 7 years- oh and he hates Spain, but then told us he likes barco- oh the contradictions dj Yao! He also gave us a top notch performance of his rapping. Let's just say I consider rap and jamaican beat different, but that's just me. Finally we were able to part ways with our new amigo and we headed back to our luxurious resort for bed.
Monday morning the three of us went on the free gothic walkin tour of barco. Don't know how else to describe it but freaking terrible. Lol but I was enlightened with new knowledge. We then went to the beach to catch some rays and fry the bacon. U all kno the song 'rockin the beer gut' - ha I have now dedicated that song to myself =) when we were at the beach Saturday one of the guys we met told us about the yacht week in Croatia, google it, it's nuts. So Monday afternoon I spent the better half of my time lookin for yachts with two available spots for sam and I and bargaining our lives away. Nothin is set in stone yet but I reckon there is a 99% chance that from July 30-august 6 we will be rockin out island hoppin on our own yacht! Monday night was our last night in barco and one of ash's friends had gotten into town so we were all gonna go out. Turns out the metro closes at midnight and we didn't want to walk an hour to the club. But neatest thing ever, we ended up in one of those hole in the wall local pubs. Literally I thought we were walkin into a crypt but it turned out to be a huge pub that served giant tubs of beer or sangria. We stayed there until it closed, grabbed a kebab and then everyone went to bed but I thought it was a good idea to stay up until 530am chatting on the good ole facebookin machine.
Wasn't so easy wakin up at 730 to get to the train station tho. But heck, I didn't have a hangover so it was worth it. So we caught the train to Madrid and I passed out straight away. About halfway to Madrid our train broke down delaying our eta in Madrid 2.5 hours. Thank goodness we are early planners and planned for ample time because our flight left for Ibiza at 5pm. I'm actually still on the train to Madrid right now so I sure hope we catch this flight! Oh and remember Luke and Ted? They are meeting up with us in Ibiza tomorrow... This cannot be good. And for those of you who have made it to the end of this super long blog, kudos. Nothing ever happened to me in the night train on the way to barco, just wanted to give you all a good chuckle! Ciao ciao
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Interlaken adventures continue...
I forgot to mention that wednesday night the guys got upgraded to paris, a four person private tent- one that they got all to themselves so sam and i moved in bc we didnt know our new roomies and didnt want to make them mad comin in late. So now it's Thursday morning and luke somehow made his way out into one of the hammocks during the night. In the morning when he woke up he told ang to go wake up the den, bc we were now dubbed the 'lions den.' the four of us decide to head back to Neuhaus to enjoy yet another beautiful sunny day at the lake. We rented a paddle boat and the guys paddled while sam and I lounged and sunbathed- how perfect. Ang later met up with us and we swam for a bit. Ang has been a swimmer all her life so she went for an actual exercise swim, like where you go a distance and dont just splash around. When she finally returned the guys welcomed her back by clapping her in- that's so Luke and Ted!
That night the five of us (ang, sam, me, luke and ted) had a lions den party where we introduced the Guys to new drinking games such as pyramids and I have. That night there was a raging thunderstorm, thought the den was gonna blow away! Everytime someone would go to the bathroom or to grab another drink, if they didn't come back straight away Luke would run outside to look for his 'best Fran!' and it was a chilly night so each time he came back with blankets from the spare blanket pile until he managed to accumulate both piles of blankets into our tent! Haha such a turkey!
Friday morning we lounged around tv all morning and met one of the new couples who moved into Bern, a Canadian couple. We all (by now there is a group of 8 of us) went to neuhaus again-surprise surprise. On the bus ride home some elderly lady looks at Luke so he responds 'sup?' imagine the look on her face...
We got back to tv and played some ping pong and lounged in the hot tub. That night at tv they had extreme sport videos playing so all our guide friends we had met came for that. The party then moved to Bern, but as u can imagine 15 people in one tent doesn't work out too well so we all went down to metro bar. Rocked out there for the rest of the night but apparently the guys hadn't booked another night at tv, so Luke took my bed, I shared with sam and Ted snoozed in the main tent.
That night the five of us (ang, sam, me, luke and ted) had a lions den party where we introduced the Guys to new drinking games such as pyramids and I have. That night there was a raging thunderstorm, thought the den was gonna blow away! Everytime someone would go to the bathroom or to grab another drink, if they didn't come back straight away Luke would run outside to look for his 'best Fran!' and it was a chilly night so each time he came back with blankets from the spare blanket pile until he managed to accumulate both piles of blankets into our tent! Haha such a turkey!
Friday morning we lounged around tv all morning and met one of the new couples who moved into Bern, a Canadian couple. We all (by now there is a group of 8 of us) went to neuhaus again-surprise surprise. On the bus ride home some elderly lady looks at Luke so he responds 'sup?' imagine the look on her face...
We got back to tv and played some ping pong and lounged in the hot tub. That night at tv they had extreme sport videos playing so all our guide friends we had met came for that. The party then moved to Bern, but as u can imagine 15 people in one tent doesn't work out too well so we all went down to metro bar. Rocked out there for the rest of the night but apparently the guys hadn't booked another night at tv, so Luke took my bed, I shared with sam and Ted snoozed in the main tent.
Saturday was out of this world. We packed up our bags bc sam, ang and I were headed to Geneva for the lake parade festival and Luke and Ted were headed off to Avignon France but they had to transfer to a different train in Geneva, so we all traveled together. Sounds simple enough right? Nothin can ever turn out normal or simple with those guys. We still had half a bottle of absinthe so the guys decided they were goin to finish it on their way to france, after hearin all the previous stories about them this shouldnt surprise you. As were on the train some old lady walks by and steps on both Luke and teds feet on purpose bc they were wearing sandals. She then Starts talkin to Ted and says the most random things and then hits him on the nose, so Ted raises a fist at this old lady (out of instinct) but so hilarious haha! The. She goes away and eventually comes back with some little girl and makes Tex and Luke sing old macdonakd with them. She then starts counting in German and for every number she said she would tap teds nose. When she was finally done Ted taps her nose back and says 'ok' by this point I am laughin uncontrollably and she looks at me and says if I keep laughin I will pee myself. Thanks ma'am I think I have realized that by now. She the. Notices that there r three of us girls and only two guys so she taps the guy sitting behind us and says we can have him. She then looks at him and says 'ooh oops' bc it's a security guard. Haha she was something else! I had gotten quite a bit of that recorded on my camera so later on the train ride I was lookin to see how much storage I had left on my camera and somehow accidentally deleted ALL my pics! So devo!
We finally get to geneva, sad sad moment having to depart ways with the guys. Sam and I go to make a train reservation to Pamplona for Sunday to go to the running of the bulls- turns out you have to make reservations two weeks in advance for spain, so ha we had no idea what to do and decided to head back to interlaken on Sunday!
So how do I describe the lake parade festival? Nuts, absolutely insane! We met up with some friends ang had made at a festival earlier this summe in interlaken. They were so crazy, they bought us drinks all night! The festival consists of 14 semis that are all decked out that drive around the city from 4pm to midnight playing dance music and have people dancing on them. You party and dance all afternoon and like mardi GRAS, people are dressed in the wildest outfits! Then at midnight these semis stop at different parts throughout the city and you can go to any one you want and party the night away! It was absolutely insane, as luck would have it we ended up losing ang so at 4am sam and I made our way back to the train station, snoozed for a short bit and then caught the 5am train back to interlaken. This poor little town just couldnt get rid of us!
We finally get to geneva, sad sad moment having to depart ways with the guys. Sam and I go to make a train reservation to Pamplona for Sunday to go to the running of the bulls- turns out you have to make reservations two weeks in advance for spain, so ha we had no idea what to do and decided to head back to interlaken on Sunday!
So how do I describe the lake parade festival? Nuts, absolutely insane! We met up with some friends ang had made at a festival earlier this summe in interlaken. They were so crazy, they bought us drinks all night! The festival consists of 14 semis that are all decked out that drive around the city from 4pm to midnight playing dance music and have people dancing on them. You party and dance all afternoon and like mardi GRAS, people are dressed in the wildest outfits! Then at midnight these semis stop at different parts throughout the city and you can go to any one you want and party the night away! It was absolutely insane, as luck would have it we ended up losing ang so at 4am sam and I made our way back to the train station, snoozed for a short bit and then caught the 5am train back to interlaken. This poor little town just couldnt get rid of us!
Well back to interlaken we went. Didn't really surprise us nor our friends here. All day Sunday we spent hanging out with ang and some others at tv. We also made a train reservation to head to barco on thursday. That evening we finally decided to make ourselves useful and headed to balmers to do some laundry- laundry will never be defined so simply ever again. The last thing we had on our mind that night was consuming any sort of beverage that was not the h2o. So we headed down to balmers carrying our dirty clothes in kiwi grocery bags (kiwi is the grocery store in Norway). On the way we pass all the guides who were at happy hour at one of the bars. A lot of them are Aussies and new zealanders so naturally when they saw the kiwi bags it was quite funny...not to mention that they all thought we had finally left Saturday. But they invited us over to a bonfire after we finished laundry. While doing laundry sam and I got very frustrated bc we just had no idea what to do for the rest of our trip- so many options out there. I then realized it was happy hour at balmers so we each got a few drinks. Toby, one of the guides, came walkin by and told us to head to the next bar with all of them-they all have bikes, sam and I don't. So we rode on their handlebars- be advised, it's terribly difficult and uncomfortable! I'm not sure what the occasion was or if there even was one but all the guides were just raging that night. After that bar closed we headed back to the metro bar for the rest of the night. After a super late night out we didn't wake up till nearly noon. A bunch of the guides (10ish) live together in a house and told sam and I that we could crash there to save some pennies for the rest of the time we stayed in interlaken. So all afternoon we sorted thru our bags and I made the executive decision to mail half of my clothes home and to throw away my heels, the hairdryer and the hair straightner. Save my hair from fryin for the rest of the summer I guess! That night ang and I went to the local bar with the guides for a few drinks before headin to bed. Tuesday was workout day, by default. Ang sam myself and Dan (our Aussie friend who works at tv) all decided to go to the ropes course. We got lucky bc mustard (a guy who hangs out at tv often) was working and let us go for free! Woohoo and it would have coated 37francs! There were so many different courses, my favorite was one where you ziplined from tree to tree 20m above ground! But the really hard courses were some sort of a joke haha-I reckon bc I am terribly out of shape! Late that afternoon we had a wicked storm-like a hurricane! It tried to destroy the bar at tv but there were too many of us dedicated souls there holding it down and saving it from the storm. Later that night we cooked dinner for the house and chilled around. Wednesday was so rainy and gross out all day! When we were walking around town my sandal broke so I had to buy new ones =( it finally cleared up around 7pm and man was it gorgeous. It was crazy to vividly watch the storm roll away. You could see it bc it was halfway down the mountains and - just unable to be described. I would compare it to something like the northern lights. Wed night = beach party night. Sam and I snuck some beer into the bar to save some money lol. Eric balmer, the guy who owns balmers (no way!) was out partying too! Hes probably 75 is the reason interlaken is so crazy. 50ish years ago he opened up balmers and gave way for all the adventure sports here. He was at tv a lot so we got to know him, such a super guy. After beach party as luck would have it, it was pouring out again but hell walking home in the rain was quite fun! This brings me to exactly what I am doin right now- blogging on a Thursday morning. It's our last day in interlaken so we are off to say our toot-a-loos. Our train leaves tonight at 630 to barco. This will be our first overnight train- we get beds! We get into barco on Friday at about 1 in the afternoon. No idea where we are staying yet so until next time- whenever that may be- make sure you all update your bucket lists with a journey to interlaken. See how long this place can capture you for!
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
The adventures with Ted and Luke begin...
What was meant to be zero nights in interlaken, Switzerland turned into two which turned into four which turned into five eventually working it's way up to 11 days in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We got here on the fourth of July with intentions of findin fellow Americans to celebrate with. Ha were we in for a surprise. We checked in at the infamous hostel known as balmers herberge and straight away the owner of the bar told us to hurry and drop our stuff off and come back for the big 4th of July party. Deal. But we weren't staying in the actual hostel, we were stayin in the tent village. It's literally just that, and about a 12 minute walk down the road from the hostel. So we get to the tent village 'tv' and our tent was Bern ( each tent was the name of a city). These tents have a wood floor so they are elevated off the ground a bit and are box shaped. Our tent had three bunk beds in it. Straight away sam and I laughed like crazy, like how was this gonna be? Met two of our roommates, luke and Ted- two guys euro tripping around from Canada. Little did we know that over the next week the only time we wouldn't be laughin was, well, never.
These two guys became some of our best friends, I don't even know how to explain them. I have never met two more happy/easy goin, hilarious, out of this world, completely different from one another type of people. I also blame them for our severe liver failure. Oh and how could I forget, one of our other roomies was a 17 year old American whose parents made him go on a euro trip for the summer. This kid was some sort of different, like the plague, he never went away! He honestly meant well, but like I said before, the best way to explain him is some sort of different.
So the first night we went down to balmers and partied for the 4th at the metro bar. It was this night we also met angie and christine, two sisters from michigan who were on a 6 week euro trip and on week 3 stopped in interlaken and decided to stay for the whole summer and work. We saw some guy dancing around with his shirt tucked in and it just didn't look good so we dared sam to go untuck it. Not wanting to be outdone, she did and he thought she wanted to dance so he whipped his shirt off and tried to start dancing with her! Ha didn't turn out in his favor to say the least. Ted and Luke had been in interlaken for a couple days already and had been celebrating all day long. At one point we look over and Ted was passed out on luke's shoulder, classic Ted. So as Luke later rephrased it, he arranged for sam and I to walk Ted home. We were meant to go back to the bar after but were too tired to make the journey back into town.
The next morning we were up by 8am, for those of you who have been camping, tents don't allow you to sleep in! Sam and I went into town and booked rafting, canyoning and bungee jumpin excursions. This day we went white water rafting, it was both our first times and we went thru grade 3 and 4 rapids. So much fun except for the old man behind me. I'm not sure what made him think that everytime he was about to fall out of the raft, he should grab onto the small human in front of him but I guess for some reason that comforted him. Yes good sir, you are welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed keeping both u, myself and the young boy in front of me alive! Rafting was such an adrenaline rush tho, you don't have time to get scared it's either paddle or fall out and hope you don't smash into a rock!
After rafting sam, myself and 'the guys' (Ted and Luke) went to Neuhaus- a gorgeous lake and hangout spot where we played football and almost got attacked by a giant swan. We missed the last bus home so got to enjoy a two hour walk back to tv. We made it interesting tho, got acquainted with nature, did handstands in a hayfield, took all the wrong turns but eventually made it back. That night we were all pretty tired so we called it a night early.
Next morning sam and I went canyoning. How to describe canyoning? Well we drove up the mountains and finally we stop and the guides tell us to get out and have a look at the view. So we do and what we are lookin over is a 50 meter vertical cliff. Then they ask, 'k whose going first?' my reaction, ' ya fuck that. No way in gods good name am I goin down that!' but sure enough we started our way into the canyon repelling down the 50m vertical cliff. So basically you make your way thru this canyon doin whatever it takes... At one point that grabbed our feet and swung us around head first down a rock into a small pool of water. We had to zipline a couple times, cliff jump, do a baggage drop where a person on each side of u grabs u and chucks u down the side of a rock, there were rock slides. But I think the scariest one was when we had to stand on top of a rock and right below and about 3 meters in front was an area that if u fell into it, good luck gettin out. So u literally had to throw yourself against another vertical like cliff just right and u would slide along it somehow and miss the pit and land into another pool of water. It was so intense, I recommend if u ever get the chance DO IT!
That afternoon sam and I headed up to the stockhorn bungee. Those of you who heard about my experience bungee in new Zealand know that it was on my 21st bday, I was so scared I was crying and they eventually had to push me off. Well this bungee was the same height although the scenery was a bit different. Rather then jumping in between two cliffs, we jumped over a gorgeous lake up in the alps- most incredible scenery ever. My new strategy this time? To stare into the trash can until it was my time to jump and then close my eyes walking up to the platform... Then the countdown- 5-4-3-2-1- bungee! And I did it!!! Soo proud of myself =)
That night was the ritual Wednesday night beach party at balmers.It was the night we decided to whip out the bottle of absinthe we had purchased in Amsterdam- after all we deserved it right? We went down to the good old metro bar with Ted and Luke and danced the night away. And as one might not be surprised, Luke passed out on teds shoulder haha, typical Luke. It was pretty late as it was so Ted and I walked Luke home and put him to bed. Sam stayed with ang at the bar and it was this night when some guy wAs talkin to sam and then later he tried kissing her and told her that she had changed him. Really guys? Never use that pick up!
These two guys became some of our best friends, I don't even know how to explain them. I have never met two more happy/easy goin, hilarious, out of this world, completely different from one another type of people. I also blame them for our severe liver failure. Oh and how could I forget, one of our other roomies was a 17 year old American whose parents made him go on a euro trip for the summer. This kid was some sort of different, like the plague, he never went away! He honestly meant well, but like I said before, the best way to explain him is some sort of different.
So the first night we went down to balmers and partied for the 4th at the metro bar. It was this night we also met angie and christine, two sisters from michigan who were on a 6 week euro trip and on week 3 stopped in interlaken and decided to stay for the whole summer and work. We saw some guy dancing around with his shirt tucked in and it just didn't look good so we dared sam to go untuck it. Not wanting to be outdone, she did and he thought she wanted to dance so he whipped his shirt off and tried to start dancing with her! Ha didn't turn out in his favor to say the least. Ted and Luke had been in interlaken for a couple days already and had been celebrating all day long. At one point we look over and Ted was passed out on luke's shoulder, classic Ted. So as Luke later rephrased it, he arranged for sam and I to walk Ted home. We were meant to go back to the bar after but were too tired to make the journey back into town.
The next morning we were up by 8am, for those of you who have been camping, tents don't allow you to sleep in! Sam and I went into town and booked rafting, canyoning and bungee jumpin excursions. This day we went white water rafting, it was both our first times and we went thru grade 3 and 4 rapids. So much fun except for the old man behind me. I'm not sure what made him think that everytime he was about to fall out of the raft, he should grab onto the small human in front of him but I guess for some reason that comforted him. Yes good sir, you are welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed keeping both u, myself and the young boy in front of me alive! Rafting was such an adrenaline rush tho, you don't have time to get scared it's either paddle or fall out and hope you don't smash into a rock!
After rafting sam, myself and 'the guys' (Ted and Luke) went to Neuhaus- a gorgeous lake and hangout spot where we played football and almost got attacked by a giant swan. We missed the last bus home so got to enjoy a two hour walk back to tv. We made it interesting tho, got acquainted with nature, did handstands in a hayfield, took all the wrong turns but eventually made it back. That night we were all pretty tired so we called it a night early.
Next morning sam and I went canyoning. How to describe canyoning? Well we drove up the mountains and finally we stop and the guides tell us to get out and have a look at the view. So we do and what we are lookin over is a 50 meter vertical cliff. Then they ask, 'k whose going first?' my reaction, ' ya fuck that. No way in gods good name am I goin down that!' but sure enough we started our way into the canyon repelling down the 50m vertical cliff. So basically you make your way thru this canyon doin whatever it takes... At one point that grabbed our feet and swung us around head first down a rock into a small pool of water. We had to zipline a couple times, cliff jump, do a baggage drop where a person on each side of u grabs u and chucks u down the side of a rock, there were rock slides. But I think the scariest one was when we had to stand on top of a rock and right below and about 3 meters in front was an area that if u fell into it, good luck gettin out. So u literally had to throw yourself against another vertical like cliff just right and u would slide along it somehow and miss the pit and land into another pool of water. It was so intense, I recommend if u ever get the chance DO IT!
That afternoon sam and I headed up to the stockhorn bungee. Those of you who heard about my experience bungee in new Zealand know that it was on my 21st bday, I was so scared I was crying and they eventually had to push me off. Well this bungee was the same height although the scenery was a bit different. Rather then jumping in between two cliffs, we jumped over a gorgeous lake up in the alps- most incredible scenery ever. My new strategy this time? To stare into the trash can until it was my time to jump and then close my eyes walking up to the platform... Then the countdown- 5-4-3-2-1- bungee! And I did it!!! Soo proud of myself =)
That night was the ritual Wednesday night beach party at balmers.It was the night we decided to whip out the bottle of absinthe we had purchased in Amsterdam- after all we deserved it right? We went down to the good old metro bar with Ted and Luke and danced the night away. And as one might not be surprised, Luke passed out on teds shoulder haha, typical Luke. It was pretty late as it was so Ted and I walked Luke home and put him to bed. Sam stayed with ang at the bar and it was this night when some guy wAs talkin to sam and then later he tried kissing her and told her that she had changed him. Really guys? Never use that pick up!
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