PARIS!! 7/18/11

Blogged by: Kenzie

We we have just been LOVING the apartment experience with Courtney and her sister&husband. Great to have a sense of home. Ate egg and cheese breakfast burritos when we woke and headed out to get our train ticket reservations from Amsterdam to Paris. Just run in and reserve a seat on the nonstop to Paris- easy enough, right? Thats what we thought,
too!! Well, we had a wait to get to talk to someone and when our number was called we were helped by a zero-nonsense woman who informed us ALL tickets to Paris were booked long ago... Whoops. Soooooo our dreams of "non stop" quickly turned into 5-stop- but anything to get to PARIS!!! Ahhh the land of the Eiffel tower and croissants!!

Courtney ken and I ran around Amsterdam for a while and keni bought a dress at Zara. Can I just take a moment to express my love for Zara?? This is a world class store right here. Somehow we have gone into a Zara in every single European city we've been to. You'ld think we would would know what they have by now, right? Well yes, actually, we do. But that doesn't stop us from going back!!!

A note on european shopping: we have been told that there are sales here twice a year, and we have been lucky (or unlucky?) enough to hit the summer summer sale perfectly!! I mean I've never seen such- 50&70% off everywhere I look. There is a specific skirt I've had my eye on for a while (at Zara of course) and I've seen it drop to €14 since we entered our first Zara in Barcelona. I'll probably cave in Paris and snatch it up :)


We said goodbye to Amsterdam, Courtney, and her sister and headed to the train station for our marathon push to PARIS NORD!

It was so fun to be with friends these past couple days. Keni and I keep talking about how much we have learned to appreciate Christian fellowship since the beginning of this trip. In Dallas its so easy to forget how blessed we are with people around us who spur us on and keep our focus on Christ. We miss that when we're traveling, and it was great to be with friends who encouraged us.

To Paris we go!! Hopefully we are leaving some of this rain behind us. In amsterdam we have been putting our umbrellas to some good use.

Keni knocked out over 200 pages of The Help on the train. I, the slow reader over here, read about 50 pages of The Street Lawyer, the new book I bought at the second hand bookstore in Amsterdam. There's not a huge selection of second hand English books in a Dutch speaking country but its pretty good so far!!





- our little wall of baggage we make on every train ride. We basically take up 4 seats wherever we go... Oopsies, what's a backpacker to do???

Well we got to MC's last night around 10:30 and got the tour of her Paris flat (I love using that word- flat). She is living with a Houston family who has been living in Paris for work. However, the family is on vacation in the states right now so us 3 have the flat to ourselves!! I had a whole room to myself to sleep in and I didn't know what to do!

SOOOO great to see MC. the last time I saw her I was sobbing in college station about to leave college station for good. So crazy that I'm now with her in PARIS!! she is studying at le cordon bleu cooking school for a year- what an adventure!!


This is the view from the Balcony of the flat!! Incredible!!

Xoxo Kenz & keni


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Day 27: Amsterdam in 24 hours

Blogged by Keni
07/17/2011

Court, Kenz & I took on Amsterdam in 24 hours today...

Our first stop we power walked through Red light District which lasted about a total of 5 minutes before we decided to head off to better things...

We walked through the main square where we witnessed some beach soccer and Kenz bought her stylish Longchomp bag.

We then grabbed salads at super market and enjoyed a picnic lunch in the main park.

We discovered the infamous "I Amsterdam" sign and attempted to fight off the numerous tourist in order to snap a shot...





Although we didn't make it into this famous museum in the 1,000 things to do before you die book we did get a picture in front of it!





The best event all day was enjoying the ultimate Heineken experience. We found out the origin of the family business and all the natural ingredient they use and the history. But the best part was our 4D experience where we got brewed. It took Court right back to Disney World...

















After a successful day of taking on Amsterdam and avoiding the rain we headed back to Natalie cute apartment on the canal and relaxed!!





She made delicious lemon chicken pasta and we chatted, played some spades, ate best gelato I've had in at least a week, and watched Americas sad World Cup defeat...all in all a wonderful day! Kenz and I were very surprised by how much we fell in love with this city even in the rain.

Location:Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Amsterdam

Blogged by:Kenzie

Well today we headed to Amsterdam. Really too bad that were going to miss the st gore hunters compete to find the new st gore king(at least thats we think is going on today) but we had a 10:30 train to catch! Our friend Courtney Jasperson's sister and her husband live in Amsterdam for his job, and Courtney is there visiting them, so we're going to stay with them too! From there we will go to Paris and stay with Mary Cameron, so this was our last night in a hostel.

Apparently our train ride was the place to be for bachelor/bachelorette parties. We saw three bachelor parties today and a bachelorette party. We had a bachelor wearing a ballet costume sell us candy. He and his party were wearing lays and told us that apparently that's a tradition in Europe?

On the train ride we watched national lampoons European vacation on kenis phone- quite funny, especially when you're in Europe.

Courtney, Natalie, and John were waiting for us at the train station Starbucks. I mean does it get more homey than a welcome crew AND Starbucks?? They walked us through town to their apartment where we will be staying. So cute!! They live in the top floor of a building that once was a single house. The family who once lived here ran their spice and slave trading out of this top floor. But now there are no spices or slaves and it's just a cute apartment that we are SO Thankful to be staying in. Seriously- their hospitality is blowing keni and I away.

Natalie made us all queso and margs when we arrived, and then started cooking a roast. I mean can you say taste of Texas?? It was raining all night so we hung out at the apartment thankful we were not wet:)

Natalie and John live on a canal, and there's boats right outside their door.

This is so random, but I really appreciated being able to keep my toothbrush next to the sink overnight instead of packing it back in my bag while I slept. Ahh it's all about the little things :)



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Day twenty something I lost count

Blogged by Keni
07/15/2011

Well today is a fantastic day! We decided to take the Rhine River Cruise down the river and see the beautiful views and castles. All the way from St Goar to Rüdesheim. I woke up to go shower in the little shower. We pondered sadly on the fact that this was our last hostel shower probably ever. But quickly we got over it considering I was standing in a pool of water that wasnot draining and water pressure that barely dripped from the shower-head. We had an amazing breakfast included (frei is the one word I have learned in German). We then walked on down to the super market to pick up a piece of fruit and a coke and headed down to the dock! To our relief we asked our lady if there was a student discount and just like that we cut our boat price in half to 10 euros to cruise 3 hrs down to Rüdesheim get off and explore for 3 hours and then a 3 hour trip back. Not a bad deal, especially when we got on to discover an amazing terrace, full restraunt and bar, and the speakers relaxing us with some Norah Jones and John Mayer tunes. Once we got our great seats we both looked at each other and said this is going to be a great day. The first thing we went by was the famous Loreley Rock and we think the German and English translations are a little messed up cuz after the speaker told us what we were going by, they said they would now play the famous Loreley song and John Mayer came on. Nonetheless, we don't hate it. Life is good on the Rhine River.






We continued down the river for 3 hours soaking up some sunshine and enjoying the ride. We finally got to our destination of Rüdesheim which is such a cute town. It famously ha a monument built on top if it that was put there when the French and Germans finally quite fighting. Also right next to it has large amounts of vineyards where they make this very tasty red wine. When we found our "I" in town we asked if we could do a tour of the vineyard but she exclaimed that they were too busy making wine to take people on tours and let them wine taste. So instead we found this little alleyway that apparently is famous and has all these shops and amazing wine gardens with live saxophone, piano, and accordion music. We picked one of them and enjoyed some German food and music.


After lunch we shopped thru the towns and then went to a local wine shop where we tasted the wines produced in the area and bought our favorite. We got back on our boat and cruised back to our little St Goar.



My stomach has been acting up (most likely from the French fries and liters of beer in Munich) so I have been in recoup mode and attempted to tell the Asian lady at Asia Kim that I just wanted some steamed rice cuz eating something bland like that is usually good, but she spoke no english and it was a bit of a struggle when she brought out a fried dish. Dinner was a bit of a struggle, but the rest of the night was one of the better events I have ever witnesses. as we turn the corner (keep in mind this is a town that has one small road with about 10 restaurants, a small supermarket, 2 drug stores, a Wustoff knife store, and a Birkenstock store) we see a huge band dressed in maroon followed by about 40 men dressed in these Forrest green suite and funky fedoras with feathers. Not sure what the heck is goig kn we joint he parade and follow them to he en of the street where they have a stage and band set up with a couple tents sellinng BBQ and beer. The whole town has joined in for a celebration! Obviously Kenz and I have no idea what's going on and no one seems to speak English so of coarse we join them. Words would be spoken and we'd all yell stuff which I still don't know what and cheers with beer and sing. We listened to live music and awards were given. Finally Kenz turned around to ask this little old lady what we were celebrating and is all we got is target sport shooting king. Hmmm...but we did come to find out her and her friends were camping in town (impressive when you see 65 year old women camping with their husbands). Still not sure what is happening, everyone gets up and assembles a circle and begins breaking out it dance. We were determined to get a picture with one of these old men in green before we left so we followed one with a semetric mustache and asked if we could take a picture with him. He grabbed Kenz and I took a poc, but then he exclaimed another one and grabbed me. Whw went ahead and asked him what was goin on because he seemed to speak English better. He tolbus every year in St Goar they have a big festival where all the men dress in their sporting suits and go try to kill the king with bow and arrow. Well apparently the king is some stuffed something but whoever kills the king with bow is king for the next year and gets a metal on their jacket and patch sewed on I mean some of these men had like 50 metals. It's insane. Our little man said he women in 1977 an 1990! When we told him we were from Texas he goes, "TEXAS...that's where all the big, strong men" and we exclaimed you are absolutely right! So Texas men, know that the German men are quite intimidated of y'all and your strength! After the old man apologized for his broken an English and says it would be better if he hadn't just drunken two bottle of wine, we decide to go ahead and move along.






Enjoying random festivals in Munich!!

Location:Rhine River, Germany

St. Gore

Blogged by: Kenzie

Bye Munich!! You were the biggest surprise to me on this trip.

Honestly- didn't Think I would like Munich and it's now on my "return to" list. Didn't get to see the residenze- maybe next time :)

At the train station we were standing on the platform to get on the train- the name was on the platform board and everything! Suddenly the train name disappeared and our departure time came and went, and we were still just standing there waiting! Our train didn't come, so we hopped on another train going to the same place thinking we had solved all our problems. Not so!! We had hopped on some sort of tram system that made stops every 2 minutes and took an hour longer than our original train. Well, we misses our connection train. Thankfully, I'm traveling with a train station expert who took one look at the train time table and somehow rerouted us straight on to St. Gore. How she did it I'm still not sure, but we arrived in St. Gore without any more problems!

Next obstacle: we didn't have the address of our hostel. No worries there!! If Keni and I have learned one thing on this trip it's how to spot the information "i" in any town from a mile away. We just scooted on over to the information desk and got directions to the hostel.

LOVING St. Gore!! Have you ever been to Kubys in Snider Plaza? Well were basically in a town version of it. All the buildings have wooden planks over white stucco. And the castles!!! We can literally see 3 castles from the porch of our hostel.

This area is famous for making Riesling wine, and the woman who works at the hostel told us about a little vineyard about 15 min from our hostel. She told us that the restaurant at the winery would make us say "Ahhhh now THIS is holiday!!" Well of course we had to go!! We headed down the road to the winery and tried the Riesling. Very tasty indeed and we couldn't help but say "AHHH NOW THIS IS HOLIDAY!!!"

We ate dinner at a pizzeria because our stomaches were telling us they needed a break from the heavy German food. We can only eat braughtwurst so many meals in a row:)

Love Germany, Love St. Gore!



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Day 23

Blogged by Keni
07/13/2011

Well today was a little bit different then yesterday. We woke up and got breakfast and waited for our tour of Dachau to begin. As we were waiting, Kenz realized she left her cliff bars in the room. Well as she went up the group left so I went running after her. When we returned, the group was no where to be found. We sprinted to the train sation where we barely made the train with our group. We both loved the tour. It was definitely more emotionally then we thought but were very glad we did it and learned a lot for the guided tour.



When we returned from Dachau we decided we needed a booster for our spirits. So we went shopping. After we were going to go see the residence museum especially because it was frei. Well when we got there apparently we had missed the small font in our book that said they stopped letting people in an hour before they closed. After asking the guard lady if we could just peak our head in, we were rejected saying there are 90 rooms and simply not enough time to them. After coping with the rejection we headed on down to the University area because we were told it was the place to be. When we passed the university we discovered there was sand placed in the middle of the courtyard with umbrellas and lounge chairs as they served snacks and beer. As an Aggie alum, I am going to recommend they apply this German tactic to our campus because LMU (the famous university we went by in munich) produces some of the most brilliant people in Arts and several other fields. So clearly what they got going on works. We then came upon a little Italian Restaurant. We pick our restaurants by recommendations or wherever the most people are. Clearly if it's popular it most be good is our thought process. So we sat down and a elite German woman told us to get the black truffle pasta because our pick of the cheap pizza we apparently not the right choice. So we did just that and ate fresh warm bread.

We then picked one of our Let's Go Europe bar recommendations in the area and headed to go watch Our American women defeat the French. We went to a really great pub like place and to our relief they had the game on a big screen. We ordered some local German appetizers (since clearly splitting a pasta dish does not satisfy our Europe appetite) and drank some Liters of beer (they don't do 12 oz beers over here) and headed back to Wombats.

Location:Munich, Germany

Day 22: Munich, Germany

Blogged by: Kenzie

Today we said goodbye to the country and headed to the city- Munich, Germany!

We hopped on a train to Munich and talked to a couple from Yorkshire, England all the way to Salzburg. We asked about the royal wedding of course, and we
All gawked over Kate middleton. They told me not to worry- I still
Have a chance with Harry.


A note about Zell am See is that about 90% of the tourists there are Arab. Keni and I have been trying to figure out why everyone from the Middle East all decided to come to this one town for holiday. Well, our Yorkshire friends told us that in the Koran it talks about a town with mountains with snow and a lake and so that's why all the Arab people come to Zell am See. Who woulda guessed!!

Everyone thinks keni and I are dutch- we don't know why! On the train a girl came up to us smiling and talking in Dutch- she asked us if we spoke dutch and we said no and then she just kept smiling and started waving at us- very strange situation that we have no explanation for.

Loving Wombats hostel in Munich! Quite the high tech place with fancy shmancy lockers that lock when u press ur key on them- we b livin highhhh classsssss

We threw our stuff down and headed out to see the city and find the meeting spot for Mikes Bike Tour. Have to pat ourselves on the back for deciding to do the tour because in 4 hours a city that was overwhelming and confusing became one we can't wait to explore. I actually like this city wayyyy more than I was expecting! It's walkable and is chalk full of history- the bike tour gave us a bit of an overview on the history which helped because neither of us really had known who exactly Ludwig was or why he has a Castle. On our tour we road through the residenz, the royal gardens (where musicians have to pay €200 and sit in front of judges panel to be allowed to play), marienplaz, the isar river, the yellow brick road, the English garden, and Max Joseph plaza. If we have time I'm dying to take a tour of the Residenz, the palace!






The bike tour stopped for dinner at a beer garden and keni and I were so German in our dinner choice- we shared a huge pretzel, a white brautwirst, potatoes and chicken. probably will be my last brautwirst here, but hey I did it!!

After the tour we went to the most famous beer hall in Munich- the hauffbrau house. It used to be only for Royals, but now us commoners are allowed in. We shared a table with some men from Marseilles (we held our tongues about our Marseilles experience) and ordered our beer. To my surprise they only sell their beer in liters!! I got laughed at when I tried to order less. Our waiter was quite the character- I insulted him though when he told me I look like a German woman. I asked him if that was a compliment or an insult and looked at me shocked and said "a compliment!! Are you INSULTED to look like the women of my country??!" woops.. Then he told us he wanted to leave work and come hang out so he made me get up from the table and kick him in the shin so he could be injured... I didn't quite know how to handle that situation.





The english garden is this awesome park that's 300 acres bigger than central park where all the Munich university students hang out- Keni and I want to go try and fit in there tomorrow.

This is the first place in Europe where I have seen joggers! Everyone rides their bikes around and walks their dogs. I'm telling you- all anyone told me about this city is "beer beer beer," and while I have seen quite a lot of beer there's seriously so much more here!!

Inside the old royal residence there is a courtyard that gives incredible acoustics. Tonight there was a Cuban band playing, and keni and I walked over after the hauffbrau House to see if we could hear the music from the outside. The concert was just getting out, but we did watch the German people walk out all dressed up and we could walk into the hall to just sit and look around.



Great day in Munich!!

Miss you all,
Kenz&keni

Day 21: Cruising down the Austrian Coutryside

Posted by Keni
07/11/2011

Well today we woke up in this little town not knowing what to do. Our hotel is really nice...so great to have our own room for once! We woke up and had the most amazing free breakfast ever. From every kind of cereal to yogurt to eggs and bacon to coffee and juice. It was incredible. We've been settling for cliff bar breakfasts so a little break from that was quite the treat. We walked over to the information tourist office across the street to see if they had any suggestions. When we got there the cute little Austrian woman was telling us how we needed to climb the mountains, but considering Kenz and i's butt and thighs still hurt like no other from our 10 hour hike, we were not about to do it again. Atleast not quite yet. So we walked around the Town for awhile trying tofigure out what our day was going to consist of. We decided maybe we should rent a car and go see he nearby waterfalls and drive to Salzburg, but just as we were about to do it, we realized the little tiny car we wanted to rent was a manual. Considering I have never touched one, and Kenz has only parked them at Sewell we thought it wasn't worth the risk of dying.

So we walked on until there we saw it...
RENT A Bike


Why not bike the Austrian countryside? Only problem was I didn't even know if my sore legs would make it on a bike ride. But our little man surprised us with a new concept...the ELECTRiC bike! He said, "easy, easy, easy...you can zip up a mountain with one of these" he then sent Kenz on a test drive and immediately she exclaimed that we have to do it! So we rented them for the day and headed off into the country on an adventure.

We decided our first stop would be to bike to the little town of Kaprun where we could see picnic by the waterfall. Once we got into the town we stopped at a super market and got picnic stuff which included a weird mix of pretzel bread, salami (these people don't ever have turkey), goat cheese, tomatoes, and a jar of pickles with 2 Austrian beers...

They even had a little mustard tube for Kenz...

We then headed to claim our picnic spot under a tree and had one of best sandwiches yet.


We then headed back on our biking trail towards the lake. To our surprise the trail was full of gorgeous houses an castles just chilling in the countryside as intense bikers flew past us cruising on our electric bikes.




On our way around the lake we came upon all sorts of mini beaches so we decided to stop at one of them and get An ice cream, enjoy a dip, and watch the locals. We took a little nap on the shore as we watched these cute little Austrian kids running around with squirt guns.

After a little while we decided to make it over to the other side of the lake and go rent a kayak. The lake is truly just amazing and clear and so smooth. We kayaked over to Zell am see to the banks of a little water park and then back over. We then proceeded to take our bikes back to the shop to our precious little man and headed out to get some more amazing Austrian food.



Tonight we got another incredible recommendation and ate dinner at Lebzelter. We've been big in trying the local food so we ordered venison roulette and veal cordon bleu. Both so good. One thing I love about this food is it has a lot of meat and the apices they use always shock me. I love it! The corton bleu was veal, ham, and cheese in a chicken fried steak style and so good. We accidentally spent way too much on dinner, but it was amazing.

We then headed over to the Grand Hotel to check out the live music.



Clearly this hotel is Grand and gorgeous. We sat out on the terrace overlooking the lake with gardens and live music and enjoyed a local wine and some apple strudel as we people watched around us.

After a successful day of an adventure we headed back to our room realizing that today was an amazing day and excited to take on Germany!

Location:Zell am See, Austria

Day 20: Zell am See, Austria

Blogged by: Kenzie

Hello there!! Today we took off for Zell am See, a little ski town in Austria. We got to the 7 am gondola from Gimmewald in order to make our train from Interlaken.

We ran into a little trouble on the train from Zurich to Innsbruck because we weren't given seat reservations when we booked our tickets- I think it's because we are using Eurail. Anyways, apparently everyone else on the train WAS given seat assignments because we spent the 4hr ride moving from seat to seat whenever someone would tap us and say we were in their seat. One time we gave up and went to the train restaurant but all the tables were taken! Felt very homeless on that train.

Got to Zell am See and walked around the town. We ate a very Austrian meal of meat and potatoes with a fried egg on top. Not going to lie- great to have some meat in our diet! Loved all the carbs in Italy but nice to have a change:) This town is right on the lake, and tomorrow we plan to rent a kayak and explore. Actually- i saw that Its 10€ to water ski and i just may be doing that. Sorry for the delay in blog posts- Gimmewald wanted to charge us 5 Frank for wifi and we decided to Internet-fast.

Go American women In the world cup!! Were def planning to watch the game on Wednesday at a pub Munich. Looked up possible ways to get to Munchengladbach to watch the game but a beer garden may have to do.

If you think of us in your prayers, will you please pray for our safety and wisdom? It's been such a blessing so far that nothing has happened that we couldn't navigate but I don't want to forget that God has been taking care of us every day and that there have been plenty of times that things could have gone wrong. Praise Him for that!! Thank you for any prayers- we are so grateful.

Miss u all!! Seriously crazy how fast this trip is going by- can't believe we only have a week and a half left.

Xoxo
-k&k






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Day 19: We accomplish big things

Blogged by Keni
07/09/2011

Well today we felt invincible! After numerous people telling us we would never make it up the treacherous hike from Gimmelwald to the "top of Europe", we ignored them and took on the challenge. Everyone said we didn't have proper equipment or enough water or the ability to do it, but we were encouraged by one sole ranger...Nick. He believed in us. Maybe it was our Chi O shirts that people doubted that a sorority girl could not do such a hike, or maybe it was ....; nonetheless we proved them all wrong. Nick told us to meet him downstairs at 8 am. So we got up bright and early, grabbed some lunch, and waited ready for the adventure. Nick took care of us...he even gave us his extra little backpack to put everything in. As we left our Mountain hostel, one guy (who was going to take the gondola to the top to see view) taunted us saying he'd see us back in 20 minutes. Well we sure proved that lazy butt wrong. We headed out to take the Schlithorn on! We had just met our friend the night before, but we quickly bonded over our numerous hour hike. He graduated from Notre Dame a couple year ago and was now working in Atlanta for GE. We pretty much got his life story plus some ransom facts thru our random question game Kenz and I enjoy playing.

We climbed from 4500 ft to 1000 ft as we filled up our water bottle in stream along the way. Nick told us to just look up the mountain and see if there were any cows pooping in the stream, an if not we were good to go. After passing a monument devoted to some lords daughter being struck by lightening and several skull and cross bones warning signs, we were almost there. The last part of it we literally had to climb a mountain peak with no trail, snow on it and a little rope to hold on to with steep cliffs on either side. we finally reached our James Bond destination and enjoyed a pricey beer in the spinning restaurant as we scarfed down a sandwich r two. The only obnoxious thing was watching all the tourist jump off the gondola and snap a pic of the incredible peaks on all sides, as we stood breathless, in pain, but accomplished!









We skipped down the mountain to our hostel and finally got back around 5 pm. The first thing we did was to cure our cravings with popcorn, pickles, and an ice cold beer. Then we put our 1 frank in to take a quick 5 min shower (our first since Wed-having some all time lows in the hygiene field). Nick had earlier informed us if you push the stop button on water to put on soap, ect...then you only needed 2 min of water and then could just stand and enjoy the small amount of water for the other 3 min. We took his advice. We then made some pasta and played Spades until about 9 when we were so exhausted we jumped into bed and fell asleep. I honestly don't think I've been to bed that early since 1997. But our bodies were so exhausted that we went straight to bed.

Location:Schlithorn, Swiss Alps

Day 18: Interlaken and Gimmwald, Switzerland

Blogged by: Kenzie

Well this morning we woke up and headed to town center to walk around and look in the shops. Interlaken is the cutest town! Dad, I got you your birthday present so get excited for July 24th. :)

We have been keeping a list of "you know youre in Europe when..." and one thing on our list is "you know you're in Europe when people around you break out in song randomly." Well, maybe were turning European because y'all would have been blown away with our rendition of "These are a Few of my Favorite Things" that we sang on out walk around town.

We headed to the coop to buy groceries for lunch and dinner. Ate a picnic lunch of turkey swiss cheese tomato sandwiches and fruit except we accidentally ate too much of our allocated dinner portion so we may be heading back to the coop this afternoon. Went back to the hostel where we watched a little CNN about the Casey Anthony deision. Honestly hadnt been following it until a few days ago when literally every single tweet had to do with people's outrage over the situation. We've been in a news bubble over here!

Kenis not feeling so swell today so we went on a scavenger hunt to find Advil because it's apparently a very rare thing over here that's only sold at very special places.

Headed to the train Station and trained it 20 min to the gondola that took us to gimmewald, a little town on the mountain where We are staying for the next few nights. GORGEOUS!! We are literally on a mountain! When we checked into the Mountain Hostel we realized that sure enough we didn't have enough food for dinner and for our hike lunch tomorrow so we hiked up 30 min to Mürren, the next town up the mountain and the closest food store. Bought some pasta and sauce and cooked dinner at the hostel. However, there's these stoves here you have to light with a match. We had no idea how to do that, so we had to get some help from other cookers.












Theres a hike here to a place called the Shilthorn. It's a revolving restaurant on the peak of the mountain where a scene from James Bond was filmed. Keni and I really want to get up to the peak because supposedly the views are beautiful. However, the cable car is $100 and every person we talk to is very discouraging to us about the hike. We are at about elevation 4500ft and the peak is at 10000ft, and no one seems to think we're up to the challenge of the climb. The hostel is full of intense hikers and I think they think we're just not up for it.

And then we met Nick. We got to telling nick how we wanted to see the Shilthorn. He told us we COULD do the hike and SHOULD do it. Well, for better or worse we've decided to get up at 7:30 for a day of climbing 5000ft. I think part of us just wants to prove everyone wrong at the hostel wrong who told us we couldn't do it! Nick's hike splits with ours 2 hrs before the summit so he's going to hike most of it with us- I don't know whether to be thankful for our new friend or to wish we had never met him. Wish us luck!

So... We decided to hurry to bed to rest up for the big hike. Watched the bachelorette on my phone (go JP!!) and then went to sleep early for our 8 am start!!



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Day 17: Adventure is our middle name

Blogged by Keni
07/07/2011

Today is the day I send Kenz out an airplane!! She and Katie woke up this morning and signed a life waver and headed on out! Me, court, Megs, and Bekah on the other hand, begun our morning quite safe by sleeping in and eating some granola.

Kenz's experience:
The one word she uses to describe it is incredible. She did back flips an spinies in the air and trusted Danny with her life... She said that she screamed the whole way down. There's just something special about free falling over the Swiss Alps.



Kenz and the man she trusted her life to



So I look around some of the places we go and see these women with white hair and backpacks on and I don't know how they do that..I'm already having to take advil for my hip/knee hiking with 30 extra lbs and I just don't know how these people do it...when I'm that old I hope I'm able to afford hotels and a rolling bag.

The two kinds of food I have been craving like none other are mexican & Chinese/thai...there's a little Thai restaurant next to our hostel that I'm trying to convince Kenz to go to, but she's uncertain about swiss thai food. My defense is we are actually closer to China/Thailand here than in America so it must be better and more authentic...need me some Pad Thai real bad! Everything here is so dang expensive...it makes you think you should be fasting cuz every time you eat you feel guilty at the amount of money you spend.

I am already planning my first day back to the states (not cuz im ready to head back any time soon...I just know what im craving) and it will include...a day at movie theatre watching all movies I've been missing/both books I've read here (the help & one day) are coming out with movies, eating a mega chipotle burrito, drinking at least 5 Dr. Peppers my first day, getting a body massage cuz my hip literally feels like it is about to break off, eating wing stop wings and those Stinkin amazig fries, a hot bubble bath, watching some SYTYCD cuz I'm missing it so bad and so sad I am not discussing my favs weekly with Lana, JDs limeade, getting a pedicure if someone will actually touch them, & hanging with my man ...I'm starting to think I better save up for that day cuz its looks like day 1 back in Texas is gunna be a little pricey!

Once Kenz got back from jumping out of things we all went to the lake. It was a little windy but absolutely gorgeous.






We chilled by the lake for a while then headed on down, ate loads of chocolate, and went in town to all the cute little stores.

For dinner we grabbed amazing Thai food at Little Thai next store to Balmers and headed back to the hostel, watched our first movie in forever, ate chili pepper fries, and played cards until we could not play anymore...

When we got back to our room, one of our roommates whose from South Africa came stumbling in drunk and made us play an intro name game as we pillow talked from the top bunks...hilarious...half way thru the conversation he goes "where am I?" Then they start questioning Kenz if she is an ice skater cuz of her AMC date party shirt. He then goes on to chat about how he is going to go across America in full Borat style. We also learn that apparently we have to go to Pag, Croatia. Apparently it is gorgeous and so cheap. Maybe next time...

Then another guy came in and we told him we were from texas and he started talking about Tennessee and started doing this little boogie dance. Then started speaking in Spanish. Most random thing ever. Somehow we ended up in rooms with all men and it is hysterical. They then went on to talk about all their insane stories and climbed the ceilings like spiderman. They were quite the dynamic Manchester duo...the other guys in our room are like 18 and they were talking about when they put shaving cream, toothpaste, warm water and colleyflower all over this poor stranger they met...a lot of weird men around these parts...Kenzie and I both spent the night with our comforters pulled very high over our heads!

Location:Switzerland

Day 16: Interlaken, Switzerland

Blogged by: Kenzie

Today we headed to Interlaken, Switzerland! Took the morning ferry to the train station and, four trains later, we arrived in this adorable town.

Gotta say- the alps are incredible. Interlaken is nestled right between 2 lakes and is surrounded by mountains. Basically takes your breath away. This country is so picturesque and adorable. Just like all the pictures I've ever seen! Seriously everywhere you look are snow capped mountains.


Everyone in this town seems to be extremely athletic. Every other store is an extreme sports shop. There's canyoning, mountain biking, etc. In fact if the weathers good tomorrow I'm going to shell over the money to go skydiving! (mom is very worried about it- says she has been praying for bad weather.)

Keni found her first European dr pepper on the trip at the coop- big moment for her. We also saw someone get carded for the first time since crossing the ocean- they crack down over here in Switzerland!



We Met up with a few hs & collage friends who are here in Switzerland, too- Becca pyle, Meagan lanier, Courtney hynick, and katie wells. Great to see familiar faces for a few days!

For dinner we went to an "international" place in town. We ate salad bars to make up for the vegetable intake we have been having- or lack thereof.

One bad note is this place is very expensive. We thought we MUST be getting more franks for dollars when we saw the 17Frank sandwiches but then found out that the opposite is true- it's actually $111 to get 100 Frank!! Quite disappointing- We may just be eating cliff bars for the next few days! Maybe burn off some of that gelato :)

Were staying at Balmers, quite the hoppin hostel here in town. No joke we were told we could get half off any drink if we wore our swimsuits at the bar. Mmmm- gonna have pass on that, thanks. The hostel has been around for ages, and it's like an old house that winds all around.





Already missing Italy's gelato, but I guess all the Swiss chocolate will have to do for now :) I think I could stay in Switzerland for a while!

As i said, I'm jumping out of an airplane over the Swiss alps tomorrow, so if these are my last words, I love you all.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 15: a day in the life of George Clooney

Blogged by Keni
07/05/21011

So Kenz an I have this theory that all the good looking men seem to be boat drivers and fishermen in Italy. It never fails. My team is full of them. Looks like if we we are going to fall in love with an Italian man we'd be poor fishermen wives.

This morning we woke up and had toast and coffee with some new friends. One guy was from northern Ireland, and the girls from Canada. One Canadian told us about her horrific time in Australia with ex convicts and racist people. Quite the bad experience apparently. Nonetheless I still love the Aussies and want to visit their island. She explained her time there as the equivalent to slavery.

Today we decided to buy an all day ferry pass and go visit each of the small towns on the lake as we shop, eat, and enjoy the incredible views. This lake is just gorgeous with all these quaint towns on the cliffs surrounding it. Has a bit of a Starbucks fill with the rustic yellow and oranges covering the buildings.

First stop: the infamous Belaggio. Here we ate incredible gelatto at 11 am, had a lunch over a gorgeous view, and shopped at store after store. I managed to come away with a sun hat and necklace from Milan that I love! In one of the shops we were in a woman in broken up english said she liked my butterfly necklace and then before i could even say thank you, she had ripped up her shirt to show me her huge butterfly tattoo that covered the whole side of her body. What a shocker. We also met this little old man who worked at a shoe place who very adamantly ordered us to never touch his shoes. Some funny little guys here. We then processed to use our all day ferry pass and cruise through all the little quaint town along the Lake. We managed to cover Varenna, Menaggio, Cabenabbia, Bellagio, s. Giovanni, Villa Carlotta, Tremezzo, and Lenno. Quite a successful day. We even managed to say a little hello to George Clooney in his ridiculous lakeside mansion...


We came back to our little town and ordered take out pizza and set on our little beach scoffing it down. Somehow we both our hungry all the time here...the amount of food we can take down should be some kind of record. I get that we are probably exorcising a lot more, but i can't afford the amount of food my body is constantly hungry for. We then spent the evening playing cards on on a patio overlooking the lake enjoying good convo before calling it a night.

Goodnight Italia!
KTKC

Location:Lake Como, Italy

Day 14: travel from Positano to Lake Como

Blogged by: Kenzie

Travel day! Today we left our beloved Positano- very rested and very sad to go. Goodbye, Amalfi Coast, you were very good to us.

Knew we had to be very efficient today in order to make it all the way from Pasitano to Lake Como in one day. So, we woke up early to catch the morning bus from Pasitano to Sorento. However, after sitting at the bus stop for a bit with no sign of a bus, we were told by the cafe owner next to the bus-stop that "maybe the bus strike is still on." With that reassurance we decided to look for another way of getting to our destination.

The owner of our hostel is quite the authoritative woman, and she told us the best way to get to Naples via ferry, where we would catch the train to Milan.

An Australian journalist from our hostel was trying to get to the same place we were. I think he kindove felt responsible for us, and we were only more than happy to hand over full responsibility. We followed him to Naples where we had a 1.5 hr layover. You guessed it- we grabbed our bags and b lined it back to Pizzeria da Michele. (remember- the rumored worlds best pizza?! We had no choice!) We had a 20 minute wait, so we left Stew, our Aussie friend, at the restaurant and grabbed a take-out box of pizza for our train ride.



Pizzeria Da Michele is a very old establishment- this is Machele, the founder...



And THIS is Michele's son, the 89 year old current owner- when I saw him standing in the corner I wasn't about to let this photo opp get away...


Next up, we boarded the train from Naples to Milan. Now, I've been hearing all trip about the "fast trains," but I hadn't experienced one yet. When I boarded the train I knew I had found my kind of train!! This thing is NOTHING like the trains I've been riding- I'd compare it more to a very nice airplane that races along the ground. There are tray tables, food service, and optional music! I mean I'm living the life, basically. Best yet, the train only stopped in Rome and Florence before reaching Milan...



Our train- "fast train" style



Keni enjoyed the fast train so much that she got some zzzzz's

We made a stop in the Milan train station- that's about all we will see of that place as just about everyone told us not to go. We did see a lot of extremely mal-nourished women and realized we were in model-town!

Took the train to Varenna and the ferry to our hostel. Almost missed the train stop because it takes time to heave a pack on our backs and get through cable cars without hitting passengers with the packs. When we got off there were people hanging out windows to see if we had made it. I saw people laughing at me and realized my dress was caught in that dang pack! Oh well.. You live and learn :)

Turned out the last ferry to our town had already left so we had to take the ferry to the town 3km past our hostel. On the ferry, the very attractive boat driver asked us if we wanted to come up to the cockpit of the boat and drive the ferry. Well of course we said yes, but were a bit sketched out when we were greeted by 5 very drunk ferry drivers who put a sailor hat on us, told us to drive, and gave us wine out of a water bottle...(which we did NOT drink!) We drove the ferry for a bit because honestly we were probably more qualified at the time to drive than they were!


We took a taxi to our correct town, and we're finally here at our hostel! The owner placed us at a "social table" to meet other people while we ate. An american table had bonded together to celebrate their American pride on the 4th, and they all toasted us and welcomed us to their table.

Can't wait to explore this place tomorrow!!


Quite an unconventional 4th of july, but loves the American flag that greeted us at our hostel:)