saying goodbye

Mary and I are now sitting at an internet cafe in the beautiful, medieval lakeside city of Lucerne and experiencing our first downer day of the trip. Last night we said goodbye to two guys we had been traveling with for the last five days and it has dampened both of our moods. The greatest part about backpacking is meeting so many incredible but the flipside of that is having to say goodbye! We were so lucky to bump into two awesome guys while at Balmer's and to travel with them for the following five days! We are definitely going to miss our fabulous foursome :)
In lighter news, yesterday was the day of disasters that kept miracuously working out in our favor! Disaster # 1: Mary and I were planning on meeting up in Lucerne so she could finish her hiking trip. Yet when I got back to the Mountain Hostel, I realized our bags were locked together and she had the key. Resolution - There are definitely worse places to be stranded for four hours than Gimmelwald, Switerzerland though! Disaster # 2: We were desperately trying to catch the 9:04 train to Lucerne - the last one of the night - but the connector buses and trains were not running frequently enough to get us there in time. Resolution - Switzerland really goes have the friendliest people and the 18 year old boy working at the bus station drove us the 30 minutes to Interlaken as soon as he got off work. Diaster # 3: Turns out I still can not handle military time and the last train to Lucerne was at 19:04, not 9:04. Resolution - the amazing attendant found an alternate route that had just switching trains but only traveling 15 minutes out of the way! So the trip to Lucerne was quite an adventure but we made it all in once piece!
Italy in two days! Much love and miss you all, xoxoxo.

get busy living

I may have thought renting a vespa was extreme but I was very wrong judging by what came next! On Wednesday we went canyoning with some of our new friends from Balmer's. Canyoning is described as "white water rafting without the raft" and basically involves going into a canyon deep in the heart of Switzerland and jumping off 40 ft. cliffs, sliding down 20 ft. rock walls that curve back and forth, bouncing off of walls and into slides, rapeling down waterfalls - it was absolutely thrilling! It was definitely the coolest thing I have ever done in my life!!!
Later that day I relucently said goodbye to Interlaken and headed up to the tiny town of Gimmelwald which turned out to be heaven on earth. Today we took a gondola up to the top of a mountain and hiked back down the 3,500 ft. It was such a beautiful hike and I can not get enough of the mountains! And of course there is no better way to relax our aching muscles than to soak in a hot tub high in the alps with incredible views and awesome new friends that traveled with us from Interlaken! Backpacking really is the greatest way to meet people - the people we have met in Switzerland are so fun and exciting and kind - it definitely is going to be hard to say goodbye to them!

Highlight of yesterday: tired and starving, Mary and I each got a pizza and a coke for a great deal to eat on the train ride to Interlaken. We ended up riding in a little compartment with six seats and a door that closed - just like in Harry Potter! We were beyond content and amused by the Harry Potter-esque vibe :)
The frat house hostel really is all it was cracked up to be - we are loving Switzerland! Mary and I rented vespas today drove up to the mountain town of Grindelwald to hike up a glacier. Driving the vespas was a truly terrifying adventure (I think my parents might kill me when they find out...:)) but exhilirating as well! We walked up 1000 stairs to get to the glacier which offered a stunning view from a swinging rope bridge but I have no doubt that we will feel the effects of that hike in our legs tomorrow! Europe has been amazing but I am missing everyone back home!! Much love <3

Greetings from Geneva!!

So I made it safely across the ocean through London and on to Geneva! My flights over went very smoothly and I didn't feel any effects of jet lag! After a long 20 hours of traveling, Mary and I finally met up yesterday (yay!!)and stayed with our old neighbors in Geneva - they have two boys our age and I hadn't seen them in 12 years so it was so so so much fun to reconnect with their family! We went into the city centre to see the sights, had dinner and lots of tea, went for a (very) late night walk - it was the perfect way to begin our journey!
We are leaving this morning for Lausanne and Montreux for the day - I instisted on the Olympic museum in Lausanne and Mary on the mountain views from Montreux :) We are spending the night in Interlaken in the Balmers hostels. All the guidebooks describe Balmers as "a huge frat house" and "straight out of Animal House" so needless to say, we are pretty pumped to hang out with a bunch of other young travelers!! Tomorrow is our day for extreme sports and then we are heading up into the Alps and spending a couple days in beautiful Gimmelwald. I don't know when I will have internet access again but I will write again when I can! I love and miss you all!! <3<3<3