So after our Oktoberfest weekend extravaganza, we used Monday to rest and had another tough, 3 day week of school. On Tuesday we were on the tram with one of our friends who mentioned how during winter break he would be going to Switzerland, specifically a place called Interlaken. Naturally this made me (Jen) very sad because I too wanted to go to Switzerland, and was fearing that our semester abroad was zooming by! So the next day after class I started seriously researching a trip to Switzerland, mentioning that we should go “this weekend”! So after a few hours of research (i.e. all day), including train prices/times, hostel prices, and figuring out actually where to go in Switzerland, we had it all figured out! Our Europe travel book finally came in handy; it said Bern and Lucerne were great, pretty places to visit and we took the Interlaken recommendation from our friend, so we decided to do Bern, Interlaken, and Lucerne! We decided to start in Bern since TrenItalia quoted a train price from Milan to Bern (it refused to for the other cities), next Interlaken since it was close to Bern, and third Lucerne since we could get a cheaper ride back (we had to work around TrenItalia’s refusal to quote prices/be efficient/not accepting american credit cards online). So after ALL of that, Friday we were off to Bern!

Day 1

So we had booked window seats for the train ride to Bern (which was a 3 hour ride) but someone was sitting in one of our window seats! : ( So naturally Chris was pretty upset but instead of asking her to move we took the better seats in the cafe car. Since we had woken up with just enough time to shower and leave, we were a little hungry (and tired) so Chris got a croissant, cappuccino, and blood red orange juice and got me a cappuccino as well!

I made mine a kitty!

While the train was riding past Lake Maggiore, we noticed two other english speaking 20 somethings were oogling at the beauty of the lake. So Chris says “Hey!….Americans?”, to which they turned around, and he added “That’s Lake Maggiore.” So after striking up a conversation about Lake Maggiore, we starting talking about where they were from, what school they went to, etc. So after 3 hours of great conversation, we had made some new friends! They were a couple who went to NYU, Havier and Casey. They too were going to Interlaken, but we convinced them to check out Bern since our travel book had said it was a nice town to visit. So they took our advice and did so! We found out they were staying at the same hostel we were for Interlaken (Sat night) so we decided to meet up for a drink the following night. From there we parted ways in Bern.

Once we got in Bern, I pulled out some Swiss francs (Switzerland is not on the Euro unfortunately) and we were off to find a good place to eat. We quickly came across a street market with a large variety of meats an cheeses. We were walking through looking for bread when one of the vendors pulled us over and convinced us to try his excellent cheese and beef. After trying each, they were so good that we had to buy some. So we bought a small block of cheese to eat for lunch, and a small package of the beef (marinated and vacuum sealed so it didn’t need to be refrigerated) to bring back to Milan to eat later.

So with our cheese we were off to find a bakery! We were quickly distracted by the large bridge in the middle of town which had a great view of the river below it, so we deviated for a bit from our bakery search.

Great view!

We found a bear statue too! (Bern = Bear)

So finally after our deviation, we found a bakery and bought some bread and pastries to go with our cheese!

Great lunch!

So while we were on the bridge we noticed a very large cathedral nearby, so that was the first thing on our list to do. Bern itself isn’t very large, so getting around was fairly easy and didn’t take much time.

We reached the cathedral quickly and took a look inside. Like many other cathedrals we’ve seen in Europe, we were amazed by the large amount of detail that went into all the art. We marveled at the beauty and then went outside to the cathedral’s courtyard.

Beautiful stained glass windows

Front row seats!

Trying my luck with the shaky bridge in the courtyard!

The cathedral courtyard also had a beautiful view of the river and the bridge we were on earlier. We asked someone to take our picture, who then asked us if we had gone to the top of the cathedral. Since we didn’t know you could go to the top, we quickly went back to the cathedral to do so!

Us in the courtyard!

View of the bridge from the courtyard

So back in the cathedral, we went in the gift shop to pay our surprisingly cheap 4 swiss francs to walk to the top of the cathedral. Good thing since we needed to burn off at least some of the calories from lunch! : p Now we had thought Cinque Terre had prepared us for intense stair climbing (remember the 382 stairs up to Corniglia?); this Bern cathedral had less stairs (292 to be exact) but they were on a windy, steep, narrow, circular staircase with very few windows! So we started climbing (with our heavy backpacks on mind you) around and around and around, with no view of the top or any idea of where we were. The stairs could have led us off a cliff and we wouldn’t have known until we were falling. Eventually though, after 254 stairs to the first floor (with some burning thigh muscles and shortness of breath), we had a great view of the city!

Hello Bern!

Me and Bern!

After a good view of the first floor, we walked up a concluding 90 stairs to the top! The view from up here was even better!

Admiring the view

So pretty!

Cathedral courtyard

Soooo many windy stairs!

After admiring the view for a good amount of time (and even going back to the first floor, back to the top, and back down again!), we descended alllllll the stairs and decided to find the hostel. Equipped with a map, Chris led the way to the hostel!

Down Bern’s main street is a giant clock tower, which we found very pretty and different from all the other clock towers we had seen.

See what we mean?

: )

Down the street from the clock tower, we found our hostel which is technically a backpacker’s hostel (which means no towels and soap), however the rooms were nice! The front desk was closed for awhile so we roamed Bern for a bit more and returned about an hour later. We paid for the hostel (in cash!) and dropped our backpacks in our room.

Bye-bye moniez, see you latterrr

View of Bern from our hostel

By this point in the day we were running a little on empty, so we stopped by a near cafe desperate for some cappuccino. We had been looking for cappuccino for awhile and hadn’t gotten any since every place we went it was at least 4 swiss francs (robbery I say!), but late afternoon we finally caved and paid the 4 swiss francs. We enjoyed some sweet, sweet cappuccino and continued on with our day.

When we checked into our hostel, Chris of course got a recommendation for where to find the best chocolate, wine and fondue in town. So after cappuccino we were off to the chocolate shop!

Now of course we were expecting a really good chocolate shop, but this one was amazing! They had so many types of chocolate, from large blocks of a bunch of different varieties of chocolates, to truffles, candies, and even cute mold chocolates in the shapes of animals! Plus they had shelves and shelves of packaged chocolate, which was fun to explore in itself.

MMMMMMM Swiss chocolate!

Hedgehogs!!!

"Just getting some Toblerone for the road!"

Chris was super excited about the chocolate, so we bought a small block of dark chocolate with hazelnut chunks, four truffles (one coffee, one hazelnut, one dark chocolate, one almond), and possibly some chocolate gifties for loved ones at home. ; )

Naturally, we needed good prosecco (sparkling white wine) to go with our chocolates, so our next mission was to find swiss prosecco! Nearby was a grocery store, so we popped in and came out with a really good bottle of Bern prosecco!

We almost passed this by b/c it was expensive, but we came back and bought it

We decided that our chocolates and prosecco would be a good after dinner desert, so we dropped them off in the hostel. Chris insisted on putting the prosecco on the windowsill to keep it cold, much to my dismay (and worry that it would fall off and we would find it broken in the street).

A botanical gardens was listed on our Bern map, so we decided that it was a good time to check it out. So we walked across the bridge in town and made our way to the gardens. When we arrived, a man was behind the gate and opened it to let us and his lady friend in. Later did we realize that the botanical gardens were actually closed; this guy had gotten us in after hours! So we were practically the only ones there, so we had all the pretty flowers to ourselves!

The botanical gardens was laid out on a hill that overlooked a park and a lake. It was filled with hundreds of different types of flowers, all labeled. Since we didn’t know or care much about flowers, we merely looked at the pretty ones and kept moving. Chris decided to shun his hate for gardening and *gasp* watered the flowers!

Who ever said Chris doesn't like nature?

I of course love flowers!!

So we spent a good amount of time exploring the gardens, and made our way down to the bottom where we thought we could go to the lake. Unfortunately we encountered a locked gate which blocked our path to the lake; it was then that we realized the gardens were probably closed. Our intuition was confirmed when we came across a frantic Russian girl who was trying to find a way out! Due to our lack of Russian and her lack of English, we exchanged minimal words but understood that we were both looking for an exit. Chris and I realized we should probably go back to where we had entered the gardens, and hoped the gate was still unlocked. After a climb back up the hill, we were happy to find that indeed the gate was unlocked from our side! We were free! We said goodbye to the grateful Russian girl and headed back to the other side of town for dinner.

So we used to hostel worker’s recommendation and went to the restaurant that had good (and according to her, inexpensive) fondue. The restaurant itself was nice and full of young people, so we felt welcome. There were four fondues to choose from, and since we hadn’t a clue how to read Swiss-German, we asked the waitress which was the best. So we got whichever fondue she suggested, but there was a catch! You had to buy two servings of fondue at a minimum! So 250 grams of fondue was 25 francs (reasonable), but we were forced to get 500 grams for $50 (not so reasonable). Since we were in Switzerland and wanted good fondue, we caved and payed the 50 swiss francs. We pretty much agreed to live off of bread and pastries for the remainder of the trip.

So we were sitting near the kitchen, and behind us was a giant block of cheese clipped to some sort of heating device. So every time someone ordered something with cheese, we got to watch the waiter melt the cheese off the block and serve it. That cheese looked really good, which made us even more hungry and excited for fondue!

Soooo much cheese!

Toooo much cheese x.x

Unfortunately, 500 grams of cheese was a little much for us, and we were completely sick of cheese about half way through. We stuffed down about another quarter of cheese before we surrendered, which is a shame because the waiter said the bottom is the best part (there was garlic at the bottom). But seriously, how were we supposed to eat that much cheese!? Anyway, we got about 40 of our $50 worth of the cheese, so we felt successful.

Once dinner was over it had gotten dark out, so we decided to head back to the hostel and get some much needed rest. We had been awake since 6:30am and didn’t exactly go to bed early the night before (we were actually blogging about Cinque Terre!). Anyway, we didn’t care much for Bern’s nightlife, which consisted of expensive bars, so we decided to call it a night. Also, remember the chocolate and prosecco for dessert? Well we pulled an “us” and made it breakfast the next day because we were stuffed from dinner. We should really stop expecting to have wine/prosecco and chocolate for dessert; it always turns into breakfast!

Day 2

So our second day began with an early wake up (we had to be out of the hostel by 10am) plus the realization that the hostel didn’t provide towels or soap! We were disappointed but then decided to wear out same clothes from the day before and shower at our hostel in Interlaken when were arrived. Chris was lucky enough to bum some shampoo off of someone else staying at the Bern hostel, so one of us had clean hair!

So since we had chocolate and prosecco, we decided to go pick up some bread and revisit the cathedral courtyard for a scenic and yummy breakfast. We were on the way to the bread shop when we ran into another food market! Today everyone was handing out free samples, so we walked down the street tasting every meat and cheese as we went. Towards the end of the market, we found some delicious looking bread called “Butterzoph”, which means butter bread in German. So we picked up the bread and were off to the cathedral courtyard!

This YUMMY cheese....

...was made by these fine looking cows!

Once we reached the cathedral courtyard, low and behold there was another market! This market was a handcraft market, which consisted of jewelry, hats, wooden toys, plush animals, etc. This was quite the jem to stumble upon!

Handmade wooden animals!

So first we ate our breakfast of champions (you know the usual high-carb high-calorie variety)  and then decided to explore the market. We didn’t really buy anything for ourselves but we might have picked up some nice presents for other people. ; ) They were handing out free balloons so Chris very quietly snuck and grabbed me one! He also got me a tiny wooden kitten from the collection showed above. : )

Since we unexpectedly ran into two markets, we ended up leaving Bern later than we had anticipated. On the way we wanted to pick up some soap in order to properly clean ourselves so we stopped into a couple different pharmacies. The last one we stopped in we found what we needed as well as a nice surprise……… MOO’S BABY!!!

MOO'S BABY!

Chris INSISTED that we leave without buying Moo’s Baby, which I guess was economical because he was 60 swiss francs. : ( I really want him though!!! Look at how cute he is!!

I really can't have him?! : ( : (

So after saying goodbye to Moo’s tinier half, we made our way to the train station so we could travel to Interlaken. Bern to Interlaken was only about an hour, so in no time we were in a new city in the foothills of the Alps!

Isn't Interlaken pretty?

Interlaken, we quickly found out, is very different from Bern. The town itself has far less people, and is a haven for adventure seekers. Also, it is a lot more what you would expect Switzerland to look like.

Once we arrived in Interlaken, we walked a small distance and reached our hostel. We checked in and got a ton of information from the lady at the front desk! She explained how to go up the mountains (through various buses, trains, and cable cars) and what extreme sports were available if we were interested. We were actually interested in paragliding off the Alps, but once we found out the price was 170 swiss francs per person we quickly passed and decided it would be something to do in the future when we have more money. : ) So we dropped our backpacks in our room and finally got a refreshing shower! From here we walked to Wilderswil, which was only a short distance. We had the option to take a bus but we would have had to wait at least a half an hour, and we were too anxious to get started!

The walk to Wilderswil from Interlaken was mostly along a major road, but we did get a nice surprise of a field of cows!

I was so excited to see cows!

Unlike cows in the U.S., which are black and white, these cows were brown and white and sported traditional cow bells! The cow bells created a nice effect; since cows are constantly moving and eating, they are constantly ringing! So as we walked by it sounded like the cows were chiming; very pleasant to say the least (probably not the same for the cows themselves).

Once we reached Wilderswil, we took a train to Lauterbrunnen which was a good distance up into the mountains. The train ride was nice and scenic; one of our best train rides! Lauterbrunnen was much different from Interlaken, in that is was quite literally in the mountains!

Willkommen zu Lauterbrunnen!

One side of the town was a cliff, and the other side was mountainous. Every view was absolutely gorgeous! We had heard there were waterfalls nearby, so we hiked through the town and onto the trail to find them! But not before Chris used his few euros to get some Toblerone (the only thing he purchased with his own money  in Switzerland)!

Towards the end of the residential part of the town, we stumbled upon a small field of cows that were really close to the road! I again got excited and ran to greet the nearest cow! The cow of course wasn’t very interested in me, but it did MOOO a few times!

Me holding the cow!

We continued along the main road and soon found even MORE cows that were near the road! We made a lot of stops to look at cows during the day!

This cow was watching us the whole time! Chris unfortunately named her 7-0-0-5 after her tag number. >: (

As we continued along the road, the surrounding area changed from numerous houses to numerous cattle farms. We were also getting closer to the mountain with a white top which was positioned between two other mountains!

Soon enough we had reached one of the waterfalls we had heard so much about! It was literally water falling out from the top of the cliff. There were stairs leading up closer to where the water was falling, so naturally we went closer to explore! Part of the path to the falls was on a grassy hill occupied by many ringing sheep!

The falls, the sheep, the path, and Chris! See him in there?

The path lead to a tunnel (which is only open during the summer and part of the fall, so we were lucky!), which lead to more stairs that were actually in the mountain. We finally reached the top and had a breathtaking view of Lauterbrunnen!

Me and town

Chris and the falls

After spending some time at the top of the falls, we made our way back down and continued on the path into the mountains. Right across from the falls was a sheep farm, so naturally I wanted to pet the sheep!

The owner let me pet the sheep!

I really can’t express how beautiful this part of Switzerland was; every inch was like walking in dream! We continued along the road passing many farms along the way. At one point Chris noticed that there was “something I would really like”, and so he called me over and I got super excited!

BABY COWS!

We found baby cows!!! I tried to pet them but they kept trying to lick me, it was cute! I fed them some grass before saying a sad goodbye. : (

They were hungry! And cute!!!!!

As we continued walking, we realized we could get a picture of the both of us if we used the fence posts as a tripod! So we started taking pictures of the two of us on the trail.

Chris was going to carry me up the mountain!

Always time to stop and smell the flowers!

Getting closer to the pretty mountain scene!

Almost at the next town!

After being on the same road for a few hours, we finally reached the next town! We ended up walking to an area where there were cable cars to take you up the mountain. I was really looking forward to taking a cable car, so we asked the lady which town we should go to. She mentioned it was getting dark and we should come back the next day, but we insisted. Since the first town up the cable car lift was only a hostel, we decided to go to the second town for 20 swiss francs roundtrip (not a bad price)!

So we waited a bit for the cable car to show up and watched the sunset. By the time we got on the cable car, it was dark out, which was unfortunate because the view would have been pretty spectacular. We reached the town on the mountain pretty quickly and were able to see the houses below light up in the darkness, turning into sparkles the further away we rode.

The town we went to was Murren, and once we exited the cable car we realized how much colder it was up on the mountain. Specifically, it was FREEZING! We only had sweaters on and I was really cold; Chris on the other hand was doing all right. We quickly walked through the town to see if anything was open, and came across a Chinese place which was convenient because we were hungry. We passed by a ringing bell as well; there was a cow that was still awake and eating!

Murren at night

So we decided to eat at the Chinese place since they had wonton soup, which also gave us a chance to warm up. We each got wonton soup and split steamed dumplings, which were pretty good. After dinner we faced the cold again to go back and take the cable car back down, but on the way we found some kitties! One was roaming and looking to be pet (although he scared me because he was black and it was pitch black out) and another was seriously trying to catch some sort of bug. They were cute!

Get the bug kitty!

We took the cable car back down and then caught a bus from the cable car station back to Lauterbrunnen. From there we took a train to Interlaken Ost, where from there we walked back to the hostel. I was freeeezing by this time so Chris was extra nice and gave me his sweater for the walk back. : D

Now we had told our friends from the train, Havier and Casey, that we would be meeting up with them at between 9-10pm, and by now it was 10:30pm. The hostel had a bar, which was where we were supposed to find them, so that was our first stop. Luckily we ran right into them on the stairs down to the bar! The bar was full of young kids, like 15 and 16, so we were all kind of irked by this and decided to get some drinks and go sit somewhere else in the hostel. We both got a cider beers and sat in the kitchen upstairs with our friends and had a nice chat. : )

The hostel owners were quick to kick us out, so after relocating to another room and then back to the kitchen, we decided to see if any restaurants/bars were open nearby to continue our socializing. A few doors down we found a restaurant which was close to closing up, but they let us sit and have a drink before closing. We all split a bottle of merlot and chris got a beer. Havier was nice enough to buy the whole bottle of Merlot for us and the beer since we were having a good time and he convinced us to order. All in all we had a lot of good conversation and really enjoyed the company of our new friends! It quickly turned late so we all decided to go to bed and have breakfast the next day.

Day 3

So Chris, Havier, Casey and I all met to go to breakfast the next day in the lobby. Chris and I actually had tickets for free breakfast from the hostel, but opted out so we could eat with our friends. Chris grabbed himself and I some cappuccinos before we left, which we realized later probably weren’t part of the free breakfast.

So Havier and Casey were raving about these omelets they had had the day before in town, so we agreed to go there to get some tasty omelets! We got to the restaurant and found out it was closed for another 30 minutes, so we walked around a little more and stopped in a bakery to get a small snack. Chris and I split an apple (apful!) strudel, and Casey got this cool pretzel with pistachios on it. During this time Havier was attempting to make a phone call but was having difficulties. After killing some time in the bakery and some gift shops, we went back to the breakfast place and got some yummy omelets! They were indeed good, but since they were kind of pricey, Chris and I split one which left us kind of hungry. During breakfast we were treated to a nice surprise; a yodeler with an alphorn (those really long horns) came by and played and sang for us! We thought he was really cool so after we finished eating, Havier asked the yodeler to do his song again so he could record it. The yodeler responded enthusiastically and began his routine again!

Us and the yodeler!

Havier attempted to tip the yodeler but he refused, saying something to the effect that he loved to do it (the yodeler spoke switz-german and no english). So we’re not exactly sure what motivated the yodeler to sing and play, but we assumed it was the love of life. Watching him walk away with his alphorn was entertaining as well; it was really such an odd encounter!

The last stop on our Switzerland adventure was Lucerne! We wanted enough time as possible in Lucerne since we knew we would have to leave around 8pm to head back to Milan. So we parted ways with Havier and Casey, who were leaving Switzerland that day. Before grabbing our train, we stopped at a few gift shops and a 4 star hotel toilet so Chris could use the bathroom in style. : P

The train from Interlaken to Lucerne was the most scenic and pretty train ride we have ever taken. First it started off along Interlaken’s lake which had the alps in the background. The train then started going up part of the mountain, high enough that our ears started to pop, which gave us a beautiful view of Switzerland! The train then again rode along a large lake and ended in Lucerne. All in all it took maybe an hour and a half, but it was more an experience than a means to get from A to B. I really enjoyed the fact that no matter where we went (along the lakes, up the mountain, around the mountain bends) there were fields of cows! We would go up the mountain and there were cows! Along the sides of hills there were cows! COWS EVERYWHERE! Even small strips of grass by the river, someone had paid for and put their cows there. I loved all the cows!

Interlaken's beautiful lake

See how pretty?

Lots of towns tucked in between mountains

A cute lake town!

The train we were on was really cool because you could lower the whole window more than half way. It seemed kind of dangerous given the fact you could stick half of your body out the window and probably hit a telephone pole but it seemed to go with the general safety theme of Europe: It’s your own fault if you’re stupid enough to do it!

So after a beautiful train ride, we were in Lucerne! Lucerne was very different from Interlaken and Bern; a large portion of the town kept its medieval decor. First we needed to get our tickets back and some batteries since we used up all of ours from taking so many pictures! We started in the middle of the town, which was having some sort of carnival, and made our way around the town to explore. Our first stop was the medieval bridge which went across the city’s main lake.

Medieval bridge

We learned from a nearby sign, which actually had an english translation, that the “tower” in the middle of the bridge used to be a prison/torture chamber. We also found out, that after centuries of surviving untouched, that a fire in 1993 destroyed part of the bridge and the beautiful artwork that graced the interior. What I don’t understand is why after surviving for so long, that in 1993 they couldn’t prevent a fire! Really?! 1993?! They have smoke alarms and fire trucks by this time! And camera surveillance! I digress…

The bridge had triangular artwork that was put in when the bridge was built; a good number of them burnt

The bridge and it's previous torture chamber

After exploring the bridge, we wandered around the town looking for affordable food. We finally found a bakery where we got a cinnamon roll and more butterzopf! We figured this would tide us over for awhile and would prevent us from caving in and buying an expensive dinner.

After a recharging lunch, we decided to climb to the back part of the town to find the medieval city wall! It was a distance up, but like every other city we’ve climbed, the view was spectacular!

The city walls!

Lucerne from up high!

So we went into a part of the wall where we could climb up and walk along the top portion. Wow were there a good amount of stairs! It was odd because the wall was made of stone, but the majority of the stairs (and even an entire floor) were wood that were of course put in recently. So I was trying to figure out how the people originally climbed up the tower, but then we figured that a lot of the original stairs had broken or worn away.

So once we made it onto the city wall, we were able to walk to different wall structures and even the watch tower! The watch tower was the best by far because it had the best view.

Me at the top of the watch tower!

Lucerne from the watch tower

Chris and our Bern balloon from two days previous!

The back side of Lucerne

So after spending a good amount of the day on the medieval city wall, it only about an hour and a half from 8pm which is when our train from Milan was leaving. We had one more stop that we needed to make, so we quickly hurried in that direction!

Our last stop was a large stone wall with a beautiful lion carved in it. From what we were told the story behind the lion involved a raid on a swiss town by an opposing swiss force. The raid was meant to kill the king and queen but they had already made their escape, so hundreds of loyal soldiers and civilians died protecting the city. This incident caused the swiss to dramatically change their stance on warfare and become the infamously neutral country that they are today.

The beautiful stone lion

After the lion we made a few quick stops in some nearby stores and ran across the most detailed and beautiful cathedral we had seen thus far.

The lovely cathedral in Lucerne

We spent some time by the cathedral but our remaining time was ticking away, so we headed back to the train station via the river. We still had time for one more picture!

Us and the Lucerne lake!

We finally made it to the train station with a total of maybe 20 minutes remaining. Since our lunch wasn’t particularly filling our tummies were also hungry so we riskily stood in line so that we could grab a bailey’s and chocolate crepe to go. We had made the most out of the swiss francs I took out, so we only had 18 left and 8 went towards the crepe. We ate the crepe on the train which was very yummy!

All in all our trip to Switzerland was fantastic; we saw a large variety of landmarks, scenery, and visited some really cool towns. We also tasted some really good food! We both agree we want to go back to Switzerland in the future, and maybe even paraglide down the Alps and relive our experience once more.

This should be our last post for the month of September and then only two more events and we should be all caught up! Now with that being said, time to fill you all in on our weekend adventure to Munich/Oktoberfest!

Where we last left off we were getting ready for our trip. This is almost a lie because we really didn’t pack until 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave buuuutttt we where geting mentaly prepared at the very least : ) . So unlike our other adventures, this trip was with a big group of fellow bocconi students. We had some friends going along which definetly made it better than if it was just us (somthing about drinking at 9 am doesn’t exactly scream romantic weekend vaction).  Also unlike our other trips, this one was by bus; a night bus to be specific. So what this translated to was very poor sleep for Jen and no sleep for me. My one saving grace was that I had about 11 hours of sleep the night before, so I was completly dead when we arrived. The ride over was really dark and we made a couple of stops to get some food to recharge our batteries. We finally arrived in Munich around 7 am.

Now for those who don’t know what exactly Oktoberfest is, let me explain. The event takes place in this giant fair grounds (emphasis on GIANT) that is right outside of the main part of Munich. Their are tons of carnival rides and little shops selling everything from tastey food to bierstiens. The main attractions though are the huge beer tents. Now unlike most tents I’ve ever been in, these seemed like they were almost permanent structures (although they weren’t) and could also fit a couple thousand people. I want to say that there were maybe 8 or so of these tents. Each tent had different decorations inside; our’s had a traditional German theme and and area in the middle where a traditional German band, completly decked out in liederhosen, played. Oh, also if you dont get into a tent by about 9:30 or have a researved table, you most likley won’t get in! The meaning behind the festival was to celebrate some German princess who got married (at least thats what we’ve been told); however, it seems more like a festival devoted to yummy, yummy beer in mass quantites.

The view of the Beer hall from atop our table

So back to our adventure. At around 7:30 we started standing in line for the beer hall to open at 9, and no we were not the first ones by any means.

It was also really chilly

Once we got in we quicky found a table with some of our friends and claimed the space. There were these homemade pretzels about the size of a medium pizza that we had to get, after all our stomaches were hungry and needed to be prepared for the beer! Around 9:10 the lady searving our section came around and took our orders. Since it was Oktoberfest Jen also got a beer, although she didn’t really like it too much since it was a light colored beer. Soon after our beer arrived! Now beer at Oktoberfest is of course searved from taps but instead of a normal cup they are searved in 1 liter glass steins! (which is 3 beers) and are around 8 percent.

Jen with her only beer!

About to enjoy our first drink!

Our progress at 9:37am! Mine on the left

So as you can tell, I thoroghly enjoyed the beer (Sarah we wish you could have been there! Some day we’ll all have to go!). After my first of three we decided to get some traditional sausage with some sort of dipping sauce. Just like the beer, the flavor of the sausage was no let down.

Has you seen mah bucket!?

Jen being silly as well : P

The time flew by almost as fast as the beer, but before we left the tent the German band started playing in the middle. When they started everyone in the tent got up on the tables and cheered! The atmosphere inside was very fun, happy, silly and of course loud. Some day we really want to go back with as many friends as possible since we know exactly how much fun it would be! A little bit after 12:30 we decided to leave the tent with some of our friends and go explore the rest of what Oktoberfest/Munich had to offer.

German hat Jen wanted me to get!

Once we left the beer tent we wondered around looking at different attractions and shops (some of us wondering off a little more than others : ) ) and eventually left the fair grounds. The first stop we made was at a cool looking church that was close to the grounds. We walked inside and looked at all the different sculptures and paintings.

Inside of the Church

We then continued our walk through Munich, occasionaly stopping into a store and looking at pretty German dresses that Jen wants to get. : ) After about an hour of walking we stopped in a little store to get some food since we were getting hungry. Jen got another sausage, which was very good! I on the other hand was still a little full from all the beer so I only got something to drink. Now normally I wouldn’t say much about what i got to drink buttttt since we were in Germany I was able to finally get my favorite soft drink ever! Mezzo mix!! : D So far I have only seen it in Germany. Theoretically I could make it in the states since all it is, is basically coke and fanta mixed to gether, but despite my attempts I can’t find the right amount to mix.

The place we stopped at was very close to a cool looking square that had some pretty buildings. We walked around here for a bit taking pictures as we went.

Jen and the girls we were with

Me in the Square

Untill this point we didn’t have much of a direction so one of the girls had heard of this place called the english gardens and since we had no better place to go to we decided to head there. The gardens were on the exact opposite side of where we were so it allowed us to get a really good tour through Munich. There were so many little shops hidden throughout the buildings, so it took us even longer to get there. Right before we got to the gardens there was small garden like area that was prime for taking more pictures!

The center of the garden

Us being silly : P

The English gardens weren’t far, which was good since we were starting to lose light and after pulling an all nighter and drinking, we were starting to get pretty tired. The english gardens is sort of like a central park type deal, in that its located in the city and huge. We walked through about as much as we could before pictures started being really difficult to take due to the lack of light. On the way out we came across something very unexpected; people surfing! There was this river going through the gardens and it started near this one bridge. They must have created some sort of pump because the water was jetting out really fast and created a fake wave like reaction when it hit the bottom of the lake. This made for good surfing conditions apparently and there was a group doing exactly that!

Surfin: Bavarian Style

Normally the walk back seems to feel shorter, but since we were so distracted from looking around during the walk to the english gardens, the walk back seemed to take forever. Eventually after getting lost and then getting unlost again we made it back to the Oktoberfest grounds!

By this time it was around 9:30 so we were very hungry and still had 2 hours to kill. We immidiately found the first sausage vendor and chowed down! We then meandered around until we found a nomy looky sweet/bakery shop that had some pasterys with crazy names like Kirschwasserkrapfen. Around 11pm we found our way back to the bus and slowly got into our seats (we were really beat from such a long and exciting day). Just when we thought the excitement was going to end, one of our friends who was with us in the beer tent showed up (after being in a beer tent all day) and realized she forgot to get a beerstein. So Jen offered to go and run with her to try and find a vendor who was still selling them. Meanwhile one of our other friends and I were getting worried about them because the bus driver looked like he was getting us ready to leave! Fortunately they made it back in time; however, unfortunately our friend tripped and fell on the jog back and broke her stein : ( . From here the bus ride to our hotel was about 45 minutes.

So you would think that the way they would handle the hotel rooms would be simple. It’s not like it’s that hard to hand out keycards. I mean heck, even the guy at the front desk felt this way. Welllll our italian group leader found a way to make the process very, very, very slow (we miss american efficiency). Thankfully I was able to use my broken german to pursuade the guy at the desk to give us our keycards and therefore bypass the system our group leader had put into place. The hotel was a best western so our beds were nice and comfortable and we had our own bathroom and shower (it was nice not having to share it with a bunch of people like in the hostels). It also allowed for a very sound sleep!

The next day we had to be up by 9:30 in order to catch the continental breakfast. We weren’t in too much of a hurry since pretty much every contenintal breakfast we’ve had is somthing simple like soggy eggs, bland coffee and small boxes of cereal. Much to our surprise the german idea of a continental breakfast was pretty much a polar opposite! The had freshmade eggs, exotic teas, tasty coffee, fresh meats and fruits, sausage and hot homemade chocolate croissants (as well as normal ones). We made sure to eat about as much as possible since we knew that this was the last time seeing such a great free breakfast!

After we were stuffed we rushed to the bus to start our journey back to Milano. About 15 minutes into the drive we pulled over at a rest stop. It seemed a bit early to take a rest so we asked why we were stopping and apparently one of the group leaders (who’s responsable for organizing his bus, coordinating the students etc..) didn’t make it on his bus in time and was stuck at the hotel! Our leader seemed pretty annoyed about this and after 15 minutes of him not showing up, we got back on the road again without him! Gotta love the Italian sense of time! (now i know where Jens habit to be late comes from : P ) The ride back was much better than the ride up. We came to the consensus that Austria and Germany have some of the most beautiful landscapes!

German country side

Austrian country side

The Austrian picture does not do it justice, so we will have to take more when we go back in December! (I’ve written it so now its a statement of fact and we have to go : D ) Thanks to the view, the ride back wasn’t so bad. The previous nights rest allowed us to have enough energy that we decided to go to Navogli (an area where there are canals and good apperitivos) as opposed to grabbing a pizza for dinner. I had a ravioli dish and Jen had an odd version of shrimp scampi. All in all the meal was very good and we were glad that we decided on going there as opposed to getting a pizza since we found out that the night we went was the last night for outside dining in Navogli : ( .

With that, we are finished with the month of September and will update soon on our adventures with the moos in switzerland!

-Chris

So the day after Lake Maggiore (Sept 13th) we got together with some of our asian friends from our dorm and had a Korean/Japanese food-fest. Most of the food was Korean but since my roommate is from Japan he wanted to give it some Japanese flavor by making some sushi! As I am sure you know, we love asian food, so this was an excellent way to end the week. Jen and I did our best to help them cook but since we had no idea how to make pretty much most of the dishes we mostly watched and learned (although we did cook a little bit).

Me cooking some Buchimgae (basically Korean omelets)

So after a few hours of cooking we finally finished and went back to our rooms to rest for about an hour. We had made enough food to feed an army so it felt like thanksgiving in a way. As the sun was starting to set we got all the dishes together and started the feast!

Korean party noodles

Buchimgae

hotdogs with eggplant and ketchup

Korean Miso Soup (which Jen loved)

Our party of 8 or so people continued to grow throughout the night and by the time that we decided to head back to our rooms there must have been at least 20 or so people who had gathered around. After we left the party we decided that we were to tired to try and wake up early the next day to go to Parma so instead we got some much needed rest!

The next day (Sept 14th, no class on Mondays!) we got up early in the afternoon and decided to head in to town since I needed to clear some things up with American Express. After some talks about logistics with American Express and a quick stop into a store (Jen: Alcott, they had good prices!) to get Jen a sweater (Jen: for 13 euro, wohoo!), we stopped by a bakery and enjoyed some food and of course cappuccinos. We were bored of always going to the same grocery store so we felt like trying one out in the city. The grocery store didn’t really live up to our expectations but it did have an interesting fish display.

Pesce! Notice the swordfish head? o_O

The next day (Sept 15th, almost a month after Maryland classes started!) was our first day of real classes! Now it may come as a surprise to some people (namely my dad) but we were actually looking forward to starting classes. After taking classes in America for so long it was interesting to see the approach Italians would take; also we were looking forward to bringing lunch as opposed to buying it every day. Our course load isn’t exactly heavy, so we weren’t worried too much about classes being hard. Our first class was Political Economics, which is our favorite class. The course focuses on the development of democracies and the formations of the welfare state (primarily focusing on European countries). The teacher was a very fluid speaker and had very few ums or pauses, so the class went rather smoothly. Our next class was organization theory, which was surprisingly very unorganized. The teacher was a little hard to understand (although she has gotten much better in the past few weeks) and didn’t know how to teach to a large class. Since then she broke the class into two parts and has started to be more organized in her approach. The last class that day was fashion management, which Jen was very excited for. The teacher is also a little hard to understand but her enthusiasm for fashion makes up for it. I actually think the class is interesting since it is more about how fashion is run then focusing on the fashion culture itself. After fashion we went back to the dorm had dinner and got ready for day 2!

Now unlike our “heavy” load of courses on Tuesday, we had a more manageable number of classes on Wednesday; that being one class. : )  Our only class that day is international management. This class, like organization theory, was too large for the teacher to teach by himself so he split it into two sections. Unfortunately Jen and I got split up   : ( but the class goes pretty fast. The style of the course is based on a series of case studies where two groups present on one subject each day. The 2nd group that presents is more so a discussion group and often gives a different approach to the case. Thats about all I can say, although the teacher for my section does have an interesting taste in fashion. One day he was wearing a dress shirt which the front half was one colour and the back half was a different colour and of course he had a solid tie that matched both colours. My favorite moment thusfar; however, was one day he was talking about how he had two sets of slides for lecture and the reason he was going to use the set that he did was because he liked the colour much better. The colour of the slides (a charcoal grey) also happened to be the exact same as the colour of his pants!

Usually after this class we go and get coffee from our favorite coffee shop Linos. One of the Baristas knows our names and also gives me a 10 percent discount each time we come in!

Italian style Lattes from Lino's

So after a very taxing two days of school we head back on Thursday for our final day of the week which is also our most class intensive one. At 10:30 we have political economics then organization theory at 12: 30. Usually we’ll go get a cappuccino or a shot of espresso between the two classes. Then at 2:30 we have international management (usually eating lunch before hand) and then we finish the day with fashion management at 4:15. Since each class is an hour and a half long it works out that our longest day is the one before the weekend. This pretty much sums up what our normal school week consists of; class, coffee, class, food, class, coffee, home cooked italian dinner and almost always an episode of The Office : P.

Now after this week of school we wanted to go to Parma for a day trip but unfortunately Jen fell ill : (. Thankfully I was able to find a couple Chinese and Japanese restaurants so I could get her soup to nurse her back to health! On Sunday (Sept 20th) she was starting to feel better and we wanted to go out for Chinese food. On the way to the tram; however, we ran into this little festival/streetmarket thing going on outside of our dorm. After about 10 seconds of walking around we found a little tent selling fried dough, which Jen always loved as a kid so we had to try some!

om nom nom

Since we had gotten up pretty late, the tents were starting to close down, so we headed into town and had some tasty Chinese food. The next day (Sept 21st) we took it easy, since we wanted to make sure Jen got back up an running before Oktoberfest. We did go into town for a little bit so that I could finish my problems with Amex. Afterwards we went across the street to this restaurant where we discovered our favorite pizza here thus far! The pizza’s are meant for “one person” so we each got one.

So much pizza!

Needless to say, we didn’t feel like stuffing ourselves to the brim, so we took half of each pizza home and had it for dinner! The next day we had classes again. Like the week before it went smoothly. After the week was over we packed our bags and got ready for Oktoberfest!

-Chris

Anyway, so our friend Avalon from the UK asked us if we wanted to go to Lake Maggiore with us, and of course we said yes. So on Sept 12th we went! We left around 9 in the morning and reached the lake in about an hour. It was a good idea to go early; I told Chris we should start doing day trips earlier!

Lake Maggiore is similar to Lake Como; they share the same “lake between the mountain” look and possibly some of the same mountains. Geographically they are near each other. Lake Maggiore is different in one respect from Como because it had three mini islands on the lake which you could visit; the Fisherman’s Island, the Gardens Island, and Isola Bella (“pretty island”). We of course wanted to see the islands, so once we were in town we sought out one of the many tourist boat places to check prices. We could either see 1, 2, or all 3 islands, each option with increasing prices, so we chose to see 2 since we weren’t particularly interested in seeing the Gardens Island for the incremental price. So we bought our tickets and had a some time before the boat departed, so we all got a chocolate croissant and a café.

Lake Maggiore from the Stresa train station

Stresa town; very touristy and modern

Chris and Avalon; while we were waiting for the boat

After our croissant and café, we waited near where the boat would pick up and visited some nice, large ducks.

Quack!

Once the boat finally picked us up, we were off to the Fisherman’s island! The boat was small, maybe big enough for 10-15 people, and the ride around the lake was fun!

Chris and Avalon on the boat

Isola Bella - view from the boat

Pulling into Fisherman's Island!

Fisherman’s island was full of tourist stands and places to eat. You could walk around the whole island in maybe 10 minutes, just to give you an idea of the size. We walked to one side where you could get a good view of the lake, and then settled on a restaurant for lunch.

Fisherman's Island - Souvenir stands on your left, restaurants on your right

Fisherman's Island - Chris and I plus a view of the lake

Us at lunch; seafood ravioli!

So after a nice lunch which included white wine, seafood ravioli for Chris and I, and a meat sampler and some sort of pasta and tomato sauce for Avalon, we decided it was time to visit the second island Isola Bella! The boat took us right from the first island to the second, which was convenient.

Royal Palace on Isola Bella

So Isola Bella is an island with a royal palace on it. It cost a good bit of money to be able to go in the palace, and since Avalon wanted to view the inside Chris and I decided our cheap selves should as well. And we were very glad we did!

We did a tour of the palace from the inside, which included  the majority of the first floor and basement. The whole palace itself has over 100 rooms, but the royal family that still owns the place keeps a lot of them private. Pictures were not allowed, which is unfortunate, but it gave us time to really soak in the beauty. The rooms were all lavishly decorated, mostly with marble wall and ceiling carvings which I thought were gorgeous. One of the rooms was actually made with plaster and decorated to create the illusion of marble (a fashionable thing at the time). Numerous beautiful paintings graced one of the rooms which was almost overwhelming. Some rooms, if I remember correctly, had the ceilings painted with scenes in the sky with angels gracing them. Some of the ceiling paintings were trimmed with gold, others with the marble carvings. All of the rooms were nicely color coordinated, and really brought out the objects in the room (i.e. gold dining room furniture in a maroon colored room).We visited the guest bedroom where Napolean himself had slept in at one point, at a time after he was at odds with Italy.

From here we went into the basement, which the royal family had requested to be built I believe in the 18th century solely as a place where they could “cool off” from the summer heat. This basement for “cooling off” consisted of 6 or so rooms completely covered in stones, decorated of course in beautiful designs and colors. The stones themselves only came from a variety of places, and none of them were modified in any sort of way. So you can imagine how difficult it would be to decorate 6-10 large rooms completely in unmodified stones, while creating gorgeous designs on practically every inch of wall space. It took the designers 100+ years to complete the basement.

From the basement we were lead through a large hallway with gigantic tapestries hanging on the walls. The tapestries all had scenes on them, and some had the royal symbol, the unicorn, imbedded in them in some way. So for example, one tapestry had a unicorn overtaking a lion with a humanistic face, which symbolized some sort of triumph for the family. The last tapestry in the room had a river which flowed towards the viewer regardless of their vantage point. So if you were viewing the tapestry from the right, it looked like the river was coming towards you; same result if you viewed it from the left. This illusion is similar to what you see with the Mona Lisa’s eyes, but alas, I only saw the river flowing to the right.

The tapestry hall ended the inside tour, so from there we were left to explore the royal gardens (hooray we could take pictures again!). As you can imagine, the royal gardens were gorgeous, dawning several varieties of flowers in beautiful formations. The gardens were slightly in the back of the palace, but mostly on top of it. Towards the top was a large fountain with many statues which I found very pretty, and at the top of the fountain was a flat part where you could really view the lake.

To the royal gardens we go!

Small view of the gardens

Trees trimmed in round shapes

White peacocks in the gardens!

The fountain structure I was talking about

The gardens and I

View from the top

I really liked the fountain : )

So after exploring the gardens, Chris got a café from the coffee shop on the edge of the gardens and I watched one of the peacocks walk in the cafe! It was cute because an Italian said all these words I didn’t understand but I knew she was saying “You want to go in the cafe peacock? You want coffee?”. I really liked the peacocks; they were pretty and made the gardens seem even more royal!

So by the point it was late afternoon (we spent a good amount of time on Isola Bella), so we took the boat back to Stresa and decided to head back to Milan so we would get there maybe about 8pm. Lake Maggiore looked like it was going to pour at any second, so I thought that was a good choice!

All in all we both really enjoyed Lake Maggiore and Lake Como; they were similar but at each one we did very different activities. Two fun day trips in two days!

-Jen

Stazione Centrale

Inside Centrale

And we got Cappuccino which I of course made mine happy!!

The trip to Como was short, maybe an hour-ish, and by 3pm we were there and ready to explore. We entered the city, which isn’t much to talk about, but we did run into a French market that was selling soaps, spices, paper flowers (?), and of course pastry!

Cardboard flowers

Spices

Anyway, so after going through the market we went to get close to the lake, which is beautiful! Lake Como is tucked in between large mountain structures, nothing like Switzerland but pretty big! We had heard that the thing to do in Como was take the slow boat through the lake, so of course we did that. The boat ride itself was about 2 hours, and it was really fun!

We got front seats on the boat : D

One of the other Como towns

We loved the boat ride

Lovely!

The boat dropped us off in Bellagio, which is northeast of Como. From here we explored Bellagio for as long as we could; since we arrived at Como at 3pm and had a 2hr boat ride plus some time in the french market, it was near 5:30 by the time we got to Bellagio (hooray time stamped photos). We went in a bunch of the little shops and attempted to get dinner, but 6pm is not a good Italian time to try and eat (they break between lunch and dinner; thats lost money in my mind!). So we walked around some more and realized the last bus from Bellagio to Como (where the train station is) was at 8pm so we caught the bus back around then. Unfortunately Como decided to start POURING and hailing (!!!!) once we got on the bus, so our scenic ride back was ruined (oh well). The bus took us back to the train station, which was unfortunate because we were HUNGRY and wanted to go into town for dinner but it was raining. : ( Luckily the rain eased up eventually and we were able to go into town, grab a pizza, eat it and then catch our train ride back!

The next day we went to Lake Maggiore… update coming soon I promise! : )

-Jen

After our return from Cinque Terre, we had one more day of Italian language class and then the final the following day (Tuesday the 8th). We did a decent amount of studying but it was hard to be motivated when the grade for our final wouldn’t count for anything. We recently got our scores back (yes a month later; things in Italy move much slower) and we both got a “Fair”, as opposed to an “Excellent”, “Good”, or “Fail”. So all in all we learned a good amount of Italian, and managed to do “fair”ly good on the final!

Anyway, so classes officially started on Wednesday Sept. 9th, but we checked our class schedule online and found out we didn’t have any classes until Sept 15th! Go Bocconi and it’s high standards for exchange students! Anyway, so with this plethora of time and nothing to study, we decided to do some last minute traveling. Unfortunately, if we had known earlier that our classes didn’t start for another week, we could have planned something more elaborate, like a trip to Rome for instance, but alas I feel as though we faired well.

So on Wednesday the 9th we took a day of rest after traveling and studying for multiple days previous, and I organized our Cinque Terre pictures and bought a really cool panorama stitcher called Calico for $40. It was totally worth it because all you have to do is select the pictures that you want to put together as a panorama, click “Align”, and viola! You have a panorama. Which I have been using a lot to stitch our panorama pictures since sometimes the only way we feel we can capture the area we are in is through panorama (examples: CInque Terre for sure). Anyway, so that Wednesday I played with pictures and we grocery shopped, etc etc.

The next day, Thursday the 10th, we went into town and went inside the Duomo for the first time. The Duomo from the outside is of course amazing but the inside is so unlike any church we have visited in Europe, or ever before. It’s very dark, or officially gothic, and it gives off the sense that you should have a quiet praise instead of a audible one.

Inside the Duomo;; my camera exposed longer so it looks lighter than it really is

Better representation of the darkness

My pictures aren’t the best because my camera doesn’t do well in darkness. Anyway, so we walked around near the Duomo looking for good shopping, but of course not much is affordable so there was a lot more looking than buying. Eventually we headed back to the dorm since we were invited to a friend’s birthday dinner at a Mozzarella Bar. Now Chris had been in love with mozzarella since we got to Italy so I had grown kind of sick of it, so I wasn’t looking too forward to a restaurant whose specialty was mozzarella, but WOW was it good!

Chris' prosciutto and mozzarella

Chris got smoked mozzarella and I had the sweet mozzarella. So the birthday boy, Khilen, brought two of his friends who had flown in from London to dinner and it was the five of us. The three of them are vegetarian Indians so a mozzarella bar made sense for dinner. Also apparently it is common in India for the birthday boy or girl to pay for the dinner, which was a very nice surprise. Afterwards Khilen took us to a VERY tasty desert place, where the five of us split gelato with pastry, “Willy Wonka” hot chocolate as we called it because it was so chocolaty, two milkshakes (one hazelnut and one chocolate), chocolate cake… and I think that was it. WOW was it YUMMY!

So we had promised our friends Aicha and Gemma that we were going to make it out to the bar Old Fashion for student night, which we eventually did at 1am! Old Fashioned is very nice and VERY trendy; it cost us 10 euros to get in with 2 drinks, which was a discount. Anyway, Chris, Aicha, her roomate Rehab, Gemma, her boyfriend Chris who was visiting, and I hung out at various tables during the night at Old Fashioned which we kept getting booted from because they were “reserved” for people who paid for tables. We had about an hour of chatting drinking and dancing before everyone got tired and we rolled on home. But here is what Old Fashion looks like (again crappy blurry pictures, unfortunately my camera isn’t sophisticated enough to take awesome night pictures):

Old Fashion - the club is outside if you can't tell

Chris and Old Fashion

The next day (Friday the 10th) we decided to travel to Lake Como, which I feel like splitting up into another post so follow me there!

~Jen

So it has been a while since we have last updated but we have been busy. We will try to make the blog up to date by the middle of next week (we’ve actually had some school stuff to do this past week! : O   X__X )

So After Jen’s brother left, the next day (Sep 4th) we headed on a train for Cinque Terre (5 towns)! Which was only about 3-4 hours away on a slow train. Since we were only spending one night there we decided to take a train at 8 am. The seats we got were in a booth (kind of like the train seats in the Harry Potter movies) and since we had reserved them we didn’t have to worry about getting booted to the hallway; which happened to friends of ours who were going on a separate trip to Cinque Terre. Most of the view on the ride wasn’t particularly interesting but when we started traveling down the coast we were in a state of awe. The sea was so extremely blue (or bahloooooo as I called it).

So our first stop was Monterosso, the first of the five towns. We only stayed here for about 10 minutes while we waited for our train to Riomaggiore, the place where our hostel was.

So after a few pictures we got on a train that took about 10 minutes and finally arrived at our destination. Since we didn’t feel like lugging around our heavy backpacks all day so we decided to find our hostel, check in and then explore the town! We didn’t really know where our hostel was but since there was only one road going through the town and we were at the bottom of it we had a good idea of where to go. After about 3 minutes of walking up the hilly road and looking at little shops that we knew we had to visit later, we found the office for the hostel. The people were very nice (especially after we handed them 80 euros) and asked us if we wanted to stay in the building that was at the top of the town or one that was in the middle… of course we chose the one at the top. We thought that hey it wont be so bad to get to! The town is so small and the top is only a few feet away! Wellllllll after about 10 minutes, hundreds of big steps and ultimately a nice little work out we finally got to our hostel. The walking was well worth it; the view from the front of our hostel was well….

The hostel itself was pretty nice, the beds were comfy and clean and none of the other people in the hostel were loud or obnoxious. We rested for about 20-30 minutes then got ready to head back down into town. Before we left we noticed that there was a guest book that had been left and signed by Rick Steves which we thought was cool and unexpected. Instead of walking back down allllllllll of the stairs we had walked up, we walked down the road from the bottom of the hostel which lead us to a different part of the town. On our way we stopped and visited this small old castle (very small) and took some more pictures. Also on the way we noticed someone had made a little hut for some ducks to live in (Jen particularly liked this). When we got back down into the town we were rather hungry so we stopped by one of the local fruit stands and got some yummy yummy peaches and strawberries. After we were properly nourished we walked around the town a little bit and someone told us where there was a cool rock beach. Much to our dismay the water was a little too rough (i.e. unless the water is practically still, they consider it too rough due to the possible getting your head thrown into rocks hazard) so instead we settled for taking more pictures!

After walking around and taking about 50 more pictures, : P we were hungry once again and decided to visit a bakery where we proceeded to eat some moo friendly treats! After all this walking the day started to turn to dusk so while we could we walked up to the top of the town (back up the 50 million stairs) and walked to the other side. From here we admired the view for a bit before deciding to head back into town to try out the local cuisine! : D

Sunset

The view of our hostel from the other side

We almost forgot (both Jen and I are writing this post btw) once it started getting dark they had a live Beatles cover band playing outside near the water front. It provided a nice melody everywhere we walked (even way up where our hostel was). The music also served as a wonderful background to our dinner! Speaking of which, we had white wine that was made by the restaurant and we both got a fish dish. Jen had swordfish with veggies and I had a tasty but fishy experience or a nightmare for people who hate fish!

Fried Calamari and fresh fish (quite literally the whole fish)

Given that I had never really deboned a fish before, Jen was almost done with her meal before I was even a quarter of the way through! After I had finished the big fish and all of my calamari I was too tired to continue deboning the little fishes so Jen decided to give it a try. After about 10 or so minutes a little kitty walked up and went straight to Jen (smart cat!). Since the cat was obviously in need of food at that very second, Jen decided to share her DEBONED fish! Feed a cat fish and he’ll never leave your side….. or at least until you eventually stop and someone else starts feeding them. : P

see mother... deboned!

Cinque Terre kitties at night only want fish! not pets : (

After dinner we thought we would share a bottle of white Cinque Terre wine we had bought earlier in the day but when we got back to our hostel (again up the stairs…the bus ride is for sissys) we were too tired and decided to rest up! But not before sitting in the marina on the rocks enjoying the serene and wonderful foreign town we had been so lucky to visit.

We woke up around 9 the next day since we wanted to hike across the 5 towns, also since we had to be out by 10. For the last time we walked down allllllll the stairs and instantly returned to the same bakery (SO GOOD) from yesterday to get some healthy breakfast!  Our breakfast consisted of a chocolate pastry, cream filled glazed doughnut and the bottle of wine we were too tired to drink the night before! Oh and some peaches for hydration. : P

Our breakfast view - not too shabby

Once we finished our breakfast of champions we started off on our 9 km hike across Cinque Terre. But before we left Jen thought we should see if the rock beach was open that day. Now I did not have my swim suit on so I was at first a little skeptical but thankfully Jen convinced me to go anyway. Down in the marina, we reached the beach by walking alongside the cliff a decent amount. Once we rounded the corner of the cliff, we suddenly saw a cute rock beach tucked away in the cliff! There were a good number of Italians tanning on the rocks, which looked very uncomfortable, but we didn’t have time or the want to tan anyway. We navigated the large rocks to part of the beach where I could change into my swimsuit (with Jen holding up a towel for privacy) and we stashed our backpacks behind a big rock praying that no one would touch them. Walking along the rocks barefoot was another story; while Jen was able to skip from rock to rock at will without the slightest hesitation, I could barely move an inch without almost falling on my rear. After a good ten minutes or so we finally got into the water (oh, i also forgot to take my watch off so Jen took it for me and skipped backed to our backpacks then returned right as I reached the edge of the water). The water was refreshing and very clear; we could see the rocks below us and our feet! Jen was very jealous of the people who had snorkels and were admiring the exotic fish, so I promised her we would return one day and she would be able to snorkel and maybe even scuba dive to see her beloved pretty fish.

Riomaggiore rock beach

After swimming in the water for a bit, we decided we should get on the hiking trail so we would be able to finish before our train departed for Milan. So we got out of the water, I changed back into my regular clothes, and we were on our way.

Before exiting Riomaggiore, we stopped at a nice cafe that overlooked the sea and I enjoyed a coffee while Jen enjoyed the view (and the toilet which was the reason we stopped in the first place). From here we finally started our hike! The first part of the hike was a bit called lovers lane, and was for the most part completely flat. The route went along the coast and once again provided us with lots of great picture opportunities!

A view of Riomaggiore from lovers lane

At the end of lovers lane was the next town, Manarola! Being that we wanted to get the most out of our time here, we ventured into the city and up into the vineyards (through hidden sets of staircases). Even though it took a while to get up to the top, we were very glad that did it. The look down from up top was really pretty (you should be starting to see a theme here…..Cinque Terre = most beautiful place eva, or at least in Italy). After this short little diversion we got back on the trail again and headed towards Corniglia.

Manarola from up top!

The hike from Manarola to Corniglia was longer than from Riomaggiore to Manarola but nonetheless still very fun. Unlike Manarola, when we got to Corniglia you had to walk up hillside that consisted of 382 stairs (which weren’t actually that bad since they were short and long).

So many stairs!!!

Once we got up to the top we discovered that Corniglia was mostly vineyards and only a very small part of it consisted of buildings. Since it was about 3 or 4 and we hadn’t had lunch yet we decided to grab a sandwich. While we were eating we noticed that something in the distance seemed to be on fire. At first we thought nothing of it, but after a little bit the smoke continued to fill up the sky. We walked over to where we could get a better view and to our dismay what we thought was an insignificant fire was actually the beginnings of a wildfire that had been started by an exploding car! (thankfully we later found out that they were able to contain the fire during the night, and the town itself hadn’t been hurt).

Corniglia on fire : (

You can’t see from here but the path we were going to take went really close to the fire so they shut the walking path down : ( (although it does give us yet another reason to come back while we are young). After watching the fire for a bit in sad awe, ashes began to fall and we realized we should be on our way. In order to reach the next town, Vernazza, our only option was to take the train, so we went back through Corniglia and back down ALLLL the stairs to the train station. From here we took the train to Vernazza, which definitely wasn’t as fun or scenic as the hike would have been.

After a short train ride, we arrived in Vernazza! As we quickly discovered, Vernazza is Cinque Terre’s shopping town and thus was full with cute little shops and tons of people (most of the other towns didn’t have very many people walking around). We came across a small tunnel opening that lead to the sea, so we took some pictures in the tunnel and then decided to get some om-nom-alicious gelato!

Girls with large lensed professional cameras take excellent pictures! (that means you too mom)

From here we explored the marina area, which ended up being very lovely. We sat down and watched the people; tourists speaking many languages to each other, locals taking their boats out to the sea, children playing in the water. We of course took more pictures.

Vernazza marina

Time was short so we decided to take the train to Monterosso since our hike was ruined anyway due to the fire. But we didn’t leave before following a kitty up many stairs just to take a picture of him! There were many kitties in Cinque Terre and we really enjoyed watching them and photographing them!

Kitty ran up 30 stairs to take a nap!

We picked up the train and again took a short ride to the next town, this time Monterosso. Monterosso is the flatest of all the towns and the least interesting to us (it reminded us of a typical beach town, just with some Italian flava : P), so we weren’t too heartbroken we only had about 30 mins to explore. We walked through the town, picked up some more Cinque Terra wine, and grabbed a pesto pizza then ran to catch our train back to Milan. But of course Jen followed another cat but alas this kitty was quick and Jen couldn’t get a photo! : (

Look familiar?

Well needless to say, this has been our favorite place that we have visited thus far! As for what the rest of our vacationerrrrrrr i mean STUDY abroad has to hold? Well check back soon (we swear we’ll update this week) and you’ll find out!

-Chris (with the help of Jen because she mostly didn’t feel like typing) : D

Anyway, so back 2 weeks ago, after our anniversary on the 1st, Sept 2nd we had our language class late in the day so we decided to go to aperitivo with Gemma, Aicha, and Avalon afterwards. We had a nice drink and chat for a good three or so hours at navili (the canals) which was a lot of fun.

Chris at Navili

Rob and I in front of the Duomo

Us and Gelati

Eating the Gelati!

So my mom has a few pictures to choose from for our Christmas card. Rob likes the one where we are eating the Gelato the best, while my mom likes the one in front of the Duomo. Me, well, I have no preference.

Anyway, so after doing our photo ops, and eating gelati since we needed it for the picture, we decided to head back to my apartment so Chris and I could drop off our backpacks, and then we took Rob to the restaurant Chris and I had gone for our anniversary since we liked it so much. Hidden away off the industrial streets of Milan was Trattorinia Toscana, which my brother was shocked to see the inside once we entered. Even a second time it was still so pretty! So since Chris and I weren’t breaking the bank for this meal, we decided to just get a primi and split dessert. We took Rob here since they have really good gnocchi, which Rob and I have loved since our grandmother used to make it back when she was alive (which makes me wonder, if she was still alive today and was able to visit me, what she would think of Milan?). So all three of us got gnocchi, each getting a different kind (Jen: tomato sauce, Rob: cheese sauce, Chris: pesto sauce) and of course tried a little of each others. After the primi, Rob decided it was so good he wanted a secondi, so he ordered steak similar to what I had gotten during my last visit but with a different sauce (the red salad/leaf sauce, there is no english words to translate what it is exactly). The three of us split a bottle of wine as well, and shared tiramisu for dessert, which Chris and I of course wanted to get again since it was so good. It was nice to have dinner with two very important 20-something guys in my life at my favorite Milanese restaurant in Italy, to say the least.

After dinner, the three of us went back to my apartment and Rob looked up some material on Napoli. The three of us then called it a night, considering Chris and I were to head to Cinque Terra the next day at 8am. I really enjoyed my brother’s visit and was really happy he came to see me, and I will definitely miss him during my semester abroad.

-Jen

Since we last posted there has been a decent amount that has gone on. Mostly good though and involving tasty food!  As i seem to remember the last post was made before we went out to a bar type deal here in milan. Imagine central park in NY, all dark and creepy at night with the occasional hobo sleeping on a bench, and in the middle of it theres a night club; well that’s bassically what we went to. Despite the sketchy walk (which no worries parents, we did get there and back safely) the bar was a lot of fun! The whole thing was outside and one story up so that it was nice and isolated. We met up with a friend from our language class named gemma (see below)

then proceeded to enjoy a couple of drinks while talking for a couple hours. At around 11:30 (which is rather early for the night life in milan) we all decided to call it quits for the night and head back to our places. So far the night life here is fun, just expensive (10 euros for a drink, but we got a discount since it was a bocconi sponsored event).

Over the next couple days and into the weekend we played it a little bit slower, since we were getting tired. That is not to say that we didn’t do anything though! That friday, Jen, Gemma and myself decided to go out for apperativo in this area of Milan called Navogli. The area stretches down this river that flows through parts of the city and is filled with lots and lots of small restaurants. For 8 euros we would be able to get a drink of our choice (which normally would cost at  a restaurant here between 5 or 10)  plus buffet. Unlike most buffet type stuff in america the food here is pretty good. As it ended up we ordered a regular dinner instead. I forget what gemma got but i know Jen and myself got Gnocchi, which was excellent although a little too cheesy. After that we were thinking about going to this big party/club type thing that was being sponsored by the same group at bocconi, but we were all exhausted and decided to go home instead.

For the remainder of the weekend Jen and I cooked as well as mingled with some of the people here in our residence (Archobaleno). We seemed to have made good friends with this one nice girl from England named Avalon and a bunch of really cool Koreans. I am not 100% sure on how to spell there names yet and since i don’t have my phone on me i’ll update this later. Basically every time we see them in the kitchen area they come out and grab us and offer us whatever food they’ve made plus wine or beer. One of these days we are going to return the favor and cook them some food that we know how to make.

Now i forget whether or not this next picture was taken on monday but it fits in well with what we usually do on our 10 min morning break from Italian class. This break usually consists of Jen, myself, gemma and two other friends of ours Lauren(an american who lives in sydney but goes to school in Dubai) and Aisha (lives in Moracco) going and getting espresso (called caffé) and maybe a cookie of some sorts. This picture is one Jen took from one of these outings.

He’s happy to be our nom!

Tuesday night, as some of you may be aware, was our two year anniversary !!!!! and with a little help from some of the normal full time students we were directed to go to this one place called Trattoria Toscana. This place could not have been better. From the front it looked like just any other place and the inside when you walk in looked more like a lounge than anything else. But then you walk past the kitchen (which is cool sice you get to see how they prep and cook certain dishes) and enter a room that has no roof in the middle as well as a little fountain.

Every table had a candle and we were immediately served bread, with olio (olive oil) already on the table. The only negative was that it was a little hot (VERY, VERY hot for me) but that was quickly solved by them getting a fan and pointing it directly on me !  Now since this was our 2 year anniversary dinner we got the full slate of dishes (wine, a primi which is normaly a pasta dish, secondi which is the meat dish, salad served after the secondi, and last but not least desert). For our Primi we both got Gnocchi, mine with pesto and hers with a red sauce. If anyone reading this ever goes to italy… you MUST have Gnocchi here, no exceptions (unless you are allergic of course).

OM! nom, nom, nom, nom, nom!

For our Secondi i got beef tartar (which is basically raw beef that is marinated so its tasty(not as good as uncle bills but still very good) and safe) and Jen got this very tasty steak dish that was comprised of thin pieces and a mushroom sauce.

Sorry moo but we gots to eat! :’(

The salads we very good since like all of the food here, it was extremely fresh. Which made us think that it was a good thing we ate everything since we are pretty sure there is no such thing as a “to go” container. Then lastly came our dessert. I got this Gelato that was doused in caffé and Jen got probably the best Tiramisu we have ever tried.

Squishy cow says dairy products better than steak!

Well since it is getting late, i should be going. The past couple days have also had their own tales but I will let Jen take over and update you all on that before we go to Cinque Terre this weekend. Oh btw, its official… we are going to Oktoberfest!

Till later!

-Chris

-Jen