Switzerland & Canyoning!

5 of us decided to head to Switzerland for the weekend to see Interlaken and go canyoning. We headed out on Friday night taking the slow overnight trains (which are cheaper and we will get there earlier) for our 16 hour journey! We had switch and take 5 different trains…we had over an hour in Milan til the next train so went to get milkshakes at midnight while waiting…then we had a 5 hour gap from 1-6am in a little train station along the border of Italy and Switzerland. I actually slept really well on the floor, clinging to my backpack! We got up at 6 to catch the next trains and were to Interlaken before noon on Saturday!

Once there, we set off to find and checkin to the hostel we booked (called the ‘Funny Farm’ hostel). It didn’t take us too long and the place looked really nice but we couldn’t go to our rooms for a few hours so we stored our stuff in room there and went to look around the downtown area and find the chocolate factory place we heard of to take a tour. The town of Interlaken is very touristy and mainly about the outdoor adventure sport things they offer (hiking, skydiving, white-water rafting, canyoning, etc.) so there are lots of hotels, restaurants, and souvenir-type shops. We looked at some of the shops and found the chocolate place but tours only ran at 5 or 6pm. The other 3 we traveled with went back for the tour while Rachel and I went canyoning. It was such a crazy change in temperature for us when we were there! Cloudy and only in the 60’s compared to temps over 100 and humid in Italy! I really enjoyed the break from heat and seeing all the mountains around in Switzerland. So as we looked around, I bought some Swiss chocolate to bring home and then headed back to find our room and change to go canyoning. We were informed that our rooms were not in the main hotel/hostel building we saw….we had to walk outside, around back through a business/storage place with wetsuits, boats, etc and then got to our place…the ‘barn style hostel rooms’. It was funny! Our room was teeny with 4 bunk beds, the showers were downstairs.

So at 4 Rachel and I went to meet our group for canyoning! I had registered us earlier online so we were ready to go. We met our guides who were both Australian—they rushed us to change and then get into our wetsuit things, boots, life jackets, harnesses, and a helmet (each had a random name on it that they called us…mine was ‘Pee Wee’). They took us on a 5 minute drive to the place, then a 10 minute hike up to the beginning of the canyon place. We then started to crawl through the

raging water on rocks, up a little to big rock cliff things, sometimes they helped us repel down, other times they made us jump straight off the rocks into the water below! (It was super scary and they always gave us all these specific instructions like jump to land on your side in superman pose so you don’t hit the rocky edge, etc.). Other times we got to lay down and slide down the slope-y waterfall rocks! That was fun until I went underwater for a but and swallowed a bunch. Overall I’m glad I did it but it was pretty scary since I just learned how to swim a few months ago. Afterwards we went back and got hot showers (the water was really cold since it came down from the mountains and it was cloudy and 60degrees!), a free drink, and got to see the pictures of the trip. They were super expensive so I didn’t get any. Later all 5 of us went out to eat and got burgers and fries, then went to sleep in our barn hostel.

We got up on Sunday to go hiking by the mountains nearby. We took a train to Lautterbrunnen, a few minutes away where we hear there was a trail we could walk to the mountains and behind a waterfall! It was so pretty there and nice out, even a little sunny. We walked and took tons of pictures…then we found Trumelbachfalles where we paid a couple franc (Swiss money, 1franc=about 1$) to go on a lift up into the mountain (instead of walking over 600 stairs), there we could walk through paths and stairs to see the waterfall that ran through the middle of the mountain. Afterwards, we walked back and caught the train back to Interlaken, got some food at a grocery store, andcaught the train heading back at 3. We had a few issues getting back because we had to switch trains a lot again…one train was

weird because they told us we had to get off at the next stop and walk down below down the tunnel and the street a bit to get to a bus thattakes us to the next station…we were confused but everyone did it so we did too. Once the stupid bus got to the station in the next town, we had missed our next train to Milan! So we had to call our Camp Adventure director and have her help us make a new plan, finding a different train to get home since we missed the last one back to Vicenza! She ended up picking us up in Verona (only about 30min away) with her car at 11. It all worked out but a long trip getting back late and working at 6 the next morning!

Vicenza!

Last weekend we were planning to stay close-by to save some money with our train passes running out of days soon. A couple of us were planning to go back to Venice to wander around and look for the day on Saturday...we decided to scratch that idea when we heard the the humidity and heat would be continuing and Saturday would be record high heat here! and rain possible later on...not the best for wandering outside. So on Saturday we planned to just hang out on base, go to the pool, and look around downtown Vicenza.

Oh wait... on Friday night a few of us went to the 'Soldiers Theater' on base to see one of the ladies some of the girls work with at the daycare (she was supposed to play the bongos in her band but didn't end up coming). It was still fun anyway--I guess once a month they have 'music cafe night'. There was one girl who was scheduled to do a mini concert playing the piano and singing and then the stage, equipment, guitars, drums, etc. were open for whoever wanted to play that night. There weren't very many people there...maybe 25-30 and we sat at little cafe tables and they gave us free snacks as we watched! Most of the audience was filled with people who would eventually sing or play or something...we didn't know what was going on and they kept asking us if we had anything (jokes or songs)--we didn't. There was one guy who played the guitar, a couple who sang and played, and then a crazy family who kind of took over the show. The three siblings were home from college in California in Italy with their parents for the summer--they played and sang..sat down, but then kept popping back to play with other people, on the piano, and suddenly one had a trombone. It was actually cool to watch and everyone was really good.

Saturday: We went out to the pool for awhile because it was SO hot! A few of the families who we knew from watching their kids every day were there so we played with them in the pool and Megan and I played with one boy in the playplace at Burgerking later. At night we went to check out downtown a bit and saw some interesting things! In the picture below I am trying to pose like the statue of Palladio--some super famous architect in all of Europe who was from Vicenza and designed most of the city here!

Later, walking downtown we saw this lady walking her dog--and the dog was wearing little red shoes to match the collar and leash! It seems like everyone here has cute dogs that they walk around

the streets, parks, and go shopping with.

The tower and building below are from the main square part of downtown Vicenza.

The strangest thing we saw was in the main square when a group of guys came marching down a street with a torch thing, a guy in a caveman outfit and bamboo cage! They were yelling stuff and tried to talk to us in Italian--I couldn't understand much and they were crazy so we walked away and then watched from farther down. The guy's friends put him in the cage thing with a ball and chain and then ran farther off--some people stopped, took pictures, wrote things on paper, and on his arm, then he started running around the cage--his friends laughed! We had no idea what it was--maybe publicity for a play or a bachelor party or something--finally one of the guy's friends came to explain to us in a little English that he knew--he would be married in a week...he was supposed to stand in the cage, we could write things, and draw on his arms if we wanted. I guess it is their form of a bachelor party thing always a week or so before a wedding, I was right! The two of us decided to walk back to base instead of using a bus pass and we got to see more too...on our hour walk back we stopped at a grocery store place and got cheap pasta to bring home and some ice cream to eat.

On Sunday, Megan and I decided to hike up the Monte Berico hill thing to look over the city and

mountains because it looked really clear out since it rained and cooled off overnight. By the time we got all the way up there though, it was a bit cloudy but still a good walk and view! We got back to base, ate, and later went to the bowling alley to take advantage of their Sunday deal--bowling for $1 ! Three of us went and had fun bowling a few games and got some pizza there.

Vicenza & Slovenia Beach Day—July 10-11

On Saturday morning we planned to look around Vicenza and go shopping a little but we just saw the bus we needed pulling away as we walked off post. Oh well, we would wait for the next one!...we waited in the heat (well over 90degrees I think and in the sun) for 45 minutes and then when the right bus still wasn’t in site, we decided to walk back to post since we would only have a little bit of time to shop anyways since we wanted to be back for a movie later. So that was a bit pointless! Hahaha We got some ice cream at Burger King on base and then got our tickets for the Eclipse movie, went to the pool fo

r a bit, then back to actually watch the movie. After that we hung out and figured out how to get to the restaurant and outlook area on the big hill overlooking Vicenza.

We headed out on the bus and then had to walk for about a half hour up this hill (Monte Berico) to get to the outlook and restaurant area. It was really pretty to see the town from way up above and I got pizza at the restaurant (Sette Santi)!

Sunday-We headed out at 6am from base to go to the beach in Slovenia. The trip was through the Outdoor Rec company on base so we took a pretty full charter bus. I was surprised it was only about a 3-hour drive to get to Slovenia! The town we went to is called Portorose which is along the coast, a ‘resort area’, and famous for the beaches and I guess the casinos!

It was really pretty of course and we could look around and swim or do whatever we wanted until 5pm when we had to meet the bus again. We looked around the shops, ate lunch, swam, and relaxed/read books. The beach was kindof weird because the sand area where people sat didn’t slope down into the water—there was sand, then a sidewalk and cement wall thing you had to go over to get into the water, which was not to cold but had a lot of grass floating in it. We still enjoyed swimming around though. We were back to Vicenza early (because traffic wasn’t bad) by 9pm.

Germany (July 3-5)

Since we had a three day weekend (Monday off for the 4^th of July) we decided to get our of Italy and go to Germany! 8 of us Camp Adventure people traveled together on the trip and headed out on the night train from Vicenza around 11 Friday night. We were hoping to get some sleep on the train since it was supposed to arrive in Munich at 7am Saturday. The train was rickety, hot, humid, and we were sitting with 2 smelly guys who we were afraidwould steal our stuff if we all fell asleep (we took turns staying up). The train stopped and sat for an hour in Verona to fix something we think—it was so hot and uncomfortable because no air moved even with windows open. Oh well, once we got going I stood with my head out the window looking at the scenery for a few hours and then tried to read an Italian newspaper I found because I couldn’t sleep.

Once we got to Munich in the morning @ 6, we took awhile to figure out the Metro tickets to get to our hotel. Kristine’s dad has some sweet connections in the hotel business and got us cheap rooms and half off food in a really nice hotel in Munich. We found it, dropped our stuff,

and changed clothes before heading out to the Dachau concentration camp on the edge of the city. It was free to walk around the camp and through the museums. It was really sad but worthwhile to see the barracks, crematorium, and read about the site in the museum. Afterwards, we called Kristine’s cousin who lives in Munich to meet up and go watch the World Cup quarterfinals (Germany vs. Argentina).We went to the largest beer garden where therewere over 8,000 people outside at tables, food stands, and a few screens with the game playing.We tried to fit in and be as German as possible with flag facepaint and cheering. It was extremely hot and we couldn’t get a spot in the shadeeven though we were there 2 hours before the game! Germany won 4-0 and we were ready to head back to the hotel after 5 hours of sitting out in the heat. Since we were all exhausted, we just relaxed at the hotel pool and sauna area for the night.On Sunday morning we headed out to Mariplatz (Munich’s center city square). We planned to look around the main attractions and touristy things walking from there. Everyone was gathered around watching this huge clock singing with figurines dancing so we watched too! When that was done, we were standing in a group looking at the buildings and coming up with agame-plan when 3 different bike tour people kept giving us fliers and information-we must have looked confused! ‘Lenny’s Bike Tours’ was only 10 Euro for bike rentals, a guide, and 4 hours seeing the main attractions so we decided to do it. I am SO glad we did! It was really fun riding on our bikes from siteto site (12 I think)—we would stop, listen to our guide (with a British accent), and take pictures before heading out again. We stopped at Munich’s 2^nd largest beer garden on the tour for lunch—all the food was delicious! Germans know how to eat with meat, potatoes, and yummy pastry funnel cake things. The tour included royal palaces, stuff about Hitler, churches, the royal brewery, the river (with people surfing), and a huge park-English Gardens. 3 of us climbed up the 300+ stairs of a church to see the view of the city! Then we went to meet up with the others to look around the Haufbrauhaus (royal brewery). We took the Metro to another part of town to see the BMW museum (but it was closed) and then walked to the Olympic Park & Stadiums! It was where the Olympics were held in the 70's--everything was huge. Back at the hotel, some of us at more VERY scrumptious german food at a restaurant in the hotel before going to the pool for a bit.

The plan for Monday was to go to Neushwanstein castle (like the Disney logo). We found out that it would be nearly impossible to get the right trains and busses to get there and back to Vicenza by night. L So we scratched that off the plan and went to hang out in Garmisch (a city in the mountains) for a few hours since we had to go through there on the trains to get back to Italy anyways. Garmisch is fairly touristy so we looked at the shops, got food, and then

headed on the train back home. The trainride home was one of my favorites because it was through the mountains so it was beautiful! I could actually see everything since it was daylight and even got some good pictures! We had to switch trains 3 times to get home—one time we only had 4 minutes at the station to switch and some Slavakian guy told us our first train was delayed so we would only have 1 minute to catch the next one! We had a pep talk and the 8 of us dead sprinted from platform 21 to 3, yelled to the conductor who was blowing the whistle and shutting the last door. Luckily he let us on or we would’ve been stuck in Austria for hours!

We have a short 4 day work week. I am figuring the kids out and it is more fun now. Some of the infants are starting to walk and crawl. One baby tried to eat a bee the other day though and it stung his lip so it puffed up! His mom works at the center so it was ok. One of our pre-toddler kids is moving up to the toddler room so we are transitioning him and are sad to see him go.

Rome! (June 26-27)

Last weekend 3 of us went to Rome. We had to take the night train from Vicenza to Rome Friday night and left around 10pm. We left right after Rachel got off work though so we could get to the station by 8 when the ticket windows close (she had to get her train pass stamped). The buses took forever and we were crazy and ran into the station at 7:58! The guy was flipping the sign ‘chuiso’ (closed) but we barged up there and persuaded him to stamp the pass which only took 2 seconds! Woo that was close! Hahaha We had seat reservations on the train and were planning to sleep and get there at 6:10am. That unfortunately didn’t happen because our seats were next to crazy people! The train had little cabins with 6 seats—we had 3 seats, an older Italian guy in one, a middle-aged talkative Italian in one, and an empty seat. They were trying to talk to us but we couldn’t understand much…I tried using my Italian Jiffy Phrasebook but could only say basic things. Suddenly the crazy talkativeguy got up and brought back another guy who he figured spoke some English…then made him translate his life story to us. It was interesting but we didn’t really care and the translator kept saying I don’t know why he is telling us this…I don’t know him! He was funny and we talked to him awhile and found out he was from Rome but in the Italian Army in Verona-going home for the weekend to visit family. He was interested in the U.S. base we work on and talked about the army in Italy. He also taught us some Italian words and placesto go in Rome! So we didn’t really sleep but I felt pretty excited and hyper when we got to Rome at 6:09am!

We had some breakfast, bought a map, and reserved our seats for the way home right away before heading out. Since we were there and going so early, we got a pass for the double-decker tourbus and had to wait for it to start running at 8:30. It took us to all the main attractions where we could get off and then back on since a different bus came around the route every 10-15 minutes. We saw the Collosseum, walked around Palantine ruins, and then up to a huge palace

with a free National Museum of some sort inside with historic army uniforms, flags, etc. it was cool and they had the changing of the guards on the tomb ofthe unknown soldier. We rode the bus again and headed to the Vatican. All three of us agreed that we wanted to spend time there and paid for a tour in English. It was a bit pricey and extremely long but worth it because we were able to see everything and skip some of the long lines! During the 4.5 hour tour Saturday afternoon I was pretty drained because of the heat, crowds elbowing, and being awake since 5:30am Friday! Afterwards we ate at a little place nearby with really good lasagna and gelato. The bus took us around to some more attractions (churches, fountains, and plazas). It rained pretty hard for awhile in the evening and my camera battery had died by the time we were to the Vatican earlier. It one of the plazas I spotted Teresa (a friend I go to college with who is doing Camp Adventure in Naples)! We had no idea we would both be in Rome the same weekend and actually ran into eachother!! Crazy

Because we were so tired, by 8pm we decided to head towards the hostel for the night. I knew it would be a little bit of a walk when we booked it but it was even further up and hard to find even with a good map! Most of the walk was fun , pretty at night, and we saw a lot of Rome we hadn’t planned to. I was able to ask a few places (using Italian) where it was and they kept saying straight. We were getting frustrated and some French people asked us in English if we knew how they could get a taxi! I said No, and you need to help us! Luckily the guy had a GPS in his pocket and showed us the way! Too bad we weren’t any help to them!

We didn’t get to the hostel until about 11pm—it was really big and we had 3 bunk beds in a room with 10 people. It wasn’t too bad and we could lock our stuff up at night. I am not sure, but I woke up somewhat sleepwalking looking under beds because I was having a dream that the kids I work with (infants) were there and climbing on and under all the beds!!! I hope nobody woke up and saw me crawling around-that would be freaky! We got up around 9 and had breakfast at the hotel (only 1 Euro and nothing great). We took the city bus back to sightsee more and found out our hostel was really close to the edge of Rome and the Olympic Statium complex! During the day we saw the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. Our train left at 2:30 that afternoon and we played cards/slept on the 7 hour way home.

Wow I wrote a lot! Sorry! I will try to keep it more brief next time.