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!

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

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.

 

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!

 

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!

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!      

I have... Amsterdam

I don't even know how to begin this one... I guess where it began for me. As soon as we got off the train in Amsterdam the smell of green herbs floated thru the air. Typical Amsterdam. Our first night we got in late so we found our hotel straight away- yes we decided to go big in Amsterdam and got a hotel, mind you it was only a one star =) our room was on the top floor and to get to it we had to go up a spiral staircase that was incredibly narrow and steep- got stuck in it with my backpack on and basically crawled up them everytime! Anyways after settling in we were thirsty for a drink so we went to a bar that was just down the road for drinks. Made friends with the bartender and it was this night when sam and I invented the game 'I have.' I would name something I have done and if sam had never done it, she would have to drink and vice versa. It's quite the game! After finally deciding to head home for the night we got passed on the road by a bicycle person pulling a cart full of guys. Some of them jumped out to talk to us- turns out they were a bachelor party from Manchester, England. Since their hotel was next to ours we went and partied with them for a couple more hours that night. Such a goofy and fun group of lads- oh and did I mention they had lost the bachelor that night?

That Saturday we spent walking around the city, bought a 1 person 30 euro tent (bc we were going to camp at the San fermin festival), bought some food and liquor. Absinthe mind you. Oh and when we walked out of the liquor store, I got royally shit on by a bird... I think that's the third time on this trip that that has happened. Saturday night was epic- we went to this gig at the Amsterdam arena that is called sensation. They have djs playing from midnight until 6am and it's a huge dance/techno fest with 25000 people! It was absolutely nuts... And everyone has to be dressed in complete white... Something worth googling.

Sunday we had a slow start to the day as one can imagine. But we eventually made our way down to vondelpark and hung out there most of the afternoon- was a real lovely day and free concerts going on. After the park we went and walked thru the red light district. It's really something to see haha. I'm sure you have all heard about it so I'm not gonna waste time explaining it. Bu my fellow pot smokers, heads up: the Netherlands are outlawing the selling of pot to non European citizens by the end of this year- so if that is your main reason to go to Amsterdam, you should probably consider christiania instead. Besides the typical cliche of being the capital city of marijuana, Amsterdam is truly a beautiful city and I would recommend anybody to check it out.