Venice: Regaining Our Apetite for Adventure

Have no fear, we are both alive and well. Apologies for the two days without an update. Get ready for a swift summary of our last day in Interlaken and our time in Venice.

Beautiful Lake Brienz

After Heather came down with a virus, likely the same, we decided that canyoning would not be as much fun when you already feel like you want to die. Luckily Heather did not seem to have it as bad as Janelle did, or perhaps because she didn't try to eat or drink anything (lesson learned from the first incident) she wasn't as sick. She resembled a sloth for a good part of the day. Good thing Janelle didn't fall from a tree and need to be rescued! Nap on the hostel couch. Walk around town and take breaks. Attempt jumping photos. Nap on grass. Buy food for lunch. Attempt to eat soup, but briskly wave your white flag when your stomach charges again. Retreat to hostel couch to nap again. Wake up and switch couches. Nap another hour. Wake up and hear stories of how one person had been airlifted out of the canyons after breaking his ankle, a girl had crashed her moped and injured her hip, another person fell off their bike and ripped up the side of his face, and a final guy had smashed his chin canyoning. Maybe it was a good thing Heather had no energy to go canyoning (because we all know Janelle would have been one of those casualties)!

Poor attempts at timed jump shots

The Boys skipping stones.

Heather awoke to a note Janelle had left saying "I've gone for a walk, see you in a bit!" and soon joined Janelle with some new friends from Georgia Tech who are studying for a semester in Oxford. They had gone to visit beautiful Lake Brienz, one of the lakes of Interlaken (literally translated to mean "between lakes") and took some pictures to send home to mom. We celebrated one guy's birthday at Hooters (Yes, they have Hooters in Interlaken) before going out to the bar at our hostel. We decided that a good dose of dancing was just the treatment to kick the sickness, and got sweatier than RMC boys at Stages "Beach Slam". We got a few hours of sleep before waking up at 4:45am to make our early train to Venice. It was smooth sailing, but quite the long journey. We left Interlaken at 5:26am and arrived in Venice at 3:05pm. It feels a little like we've been living on the trains! We are so thankful that tomorrow's train to Florence is only 2 hours. Piece of cake!

When we arrived in Venice we followed directions to the hotel, which were misleading as Venice has the fewest streets signs and most convoluted streets. We stopped into a random hotel to ask for directions and a map, per favore! Much better! We then began the long walk along the main street of Venice (~ 30 minutes down narrow and over-crowded with people), only stopping temporarily under a store canopy to avoid the downpour of rain. We caught a bit of the shower before we were able to check in and take a proper one in our air-conditioned (WOOO!) hotel room. Well-priced and well worth it!

Our appetites slowly gained their strength and we have helped to fuel them with some pizza, fresh fruit smoothies, and gelato! We tried to make our way to a pizza joint that promised good food as Venice is known for having poor food at high prices, even by non-foodie standards. However that was simply too hard to find for our hungry, tired selves (Hungry Janelle = grumpy. Tired Heather = grumpy. Combination = Not likely to be friends when we return to Canada) and we settled for some pizza and house wine at a small snackbar. Perfecto!

Pizze and wine :)

Delicious Gelato

To-die-for smoothies

Taking the advice our mom's and pseudo-mom's had given us, we stayed in to rest and watched "Letter's to Juliet." A perfect tale of love in Italy with just enough plot to keep us awake but not make us think. Then we crashed for a solid 12 hours of bliss.

Dear Air-Conditioning, 
You were great last night. Keep up the good work. 
Sincerely, H Sizzle and J Tizzle.

Clock tower

Outside the Basilica

A picture we sneaked in at the museum

Today we started out with a natural kick of fruit smoothies to get our mojo going and help us navigate the streets and crowds to Piazza San Marco. From the top of St. Mark's Clock Tower we took in breath-taking views of the city, and caught a nice breeze to cool us off. We explored more of Venice's labyrinths and made our way to Palazzo Grassi. This is a contemporary art museum with displays of works that made you think. We also checked out Santa Maria del Salute, one of the most beautiful churches in Venice, and then took an AquaBus as a budget version of the gondola. Completely different. Probably not comparable in the slightest. Our ride: hot, sweaty, crowded with people who don't shower or shave. Our perception of a gondola ride: breezy, romantic, and 100 Euro more than we want to pay.

 We unfortunately missed out on St. Mark's Basilica because it had just closed by the time we returned to the square. We are devastated :( and kicking ourselves for not checking the time it closed. Since we depart at 9:30 tomorrow morning we won't be able to visit before we board the train. While we are disappointed that we missed this "can't miss" spectacular, we are very excited to go to Florence!

We are meeting up with two of Heather's friends from elementary/high school who are as clever as they are fun. Alexandra has a whirlwind tour of Florence's historical landmarks planned for tomorrow afternoon, which includes dinner at her favourite restaurant and gelato to blow our minds. Wednesday we are going on a Tuscan horseback adventure before indulging in some amazing pizza and then an outdoor club. It will be a great break not having to plan what to do or how to get around, as well as a perfectly marvelous reunion!

Now that our legs are rested, we have cooled off in the AC and teased our tummies with milk and cookies (yes, we bought milk and cookies at a corner store...we are children at heart) we are heading out for some wine and a small dinner. If we are feeling up to it we may stay up past 10 like grownups do and check out some night life in Campo San Magherita (as recommended by our Georgie Tech friends).

Salute, Prost, Cheers!

HomeSICK

Okay, well it's likely not homesickness because I don't think I've ever seen a homesick camper vomit as much as Janelle did today. We don't know what it is from, but it is fierce. I will omit the details, but Janelle has come down with either food poisoning, the flu, or a short-term virus. This is an entirely solo post because my partner in crime is sleeping it off, or trying to at least. We have gotten all the necessary medications, as well as heart-warming generosity from Swiss women at a coffee shop who provided us with a damp towel, water, salt water, dry bread, and permission to lay on their couch for a few hours. Don't worry Tina, your girl is in good hands and is feeling much better!

We biked around Lake Lucerne for a bit before slowly making it back to the hostel. I biked around a bit more solo afterward to snap a few pictures of the quaint, yet tourist-laden town. I could have produced a delightful post of more touring, photo snapping, and adventures with symphonies of cowbells (which did happen!), but this is a better reflection of the day.

We caught our train to Lucerne without any troubles, and were only scolded twice for putting our shoes on the seat before we smartened up and took off the shoes. Apparently socks are allowed - little do they know these are in dire need of a washing! Two hours and a spectacular train ride later we made it to Interlaken. We are staying at the "first established private hostel" Balmers, which is unfortunately not right next to the train station. Janelle was a champ and powered on all the way to the hostel.

The rest of our plans are up in the air, but we are in Interlaken for 3 nights. It will be a nice break from the trains, and hopefully a chance to stretch our legs up the mountains. We are playing it by ear, as well as avoiding the bar. Interlaken is nestled between two lakes amid gorgeous mountains. The views are stunning (and will only get better and we hike higher up) and will be amazing to wake up to tomorrow morning!

Taking a page from my friend Matt's blog, here is a short list of a few of my favourite awful things to put a fun spin on the post:

1. Food poisoning - That feeling of complete body ache, nausea, and hunger from not eating for days. You thought that bite of sandwich, cheese, leftover meatloaf, or raw chicken was worth it, but your reasoning is being completely pummeled by your stomach. Never again will you try to pull a fast one. Your gut is punching with a strength and aggression that only steroid users know. You cry "Uncle", and then for your mom, but he shows no mercy. Your stomach won't even let you take a break for water. Food poisoning is a unscheduled opponent that has never lost a fight. Awful!

2. Smacking - The awful noise that your lips and mouth can make, but never should. Did your mother never teach you to chew with your mouth closed? Here's a quick lesson: It is not polite to share how much you are enjoying your food by replacing "mmm" with loud, vulgar sounds. If you are under 3 you can get away with this and I won't hold it against you because you are probably still cute when you do it. If you are over three and have control of your lips please keep their sound effects to a minimum, regardless of when/where/what/how much you are eating. Awful!

3. Being sick without your mom. There's nothing like the rub of your mom's hand on your back and the perfect chicken noodle soup she can conjure up to make you feel better. When you're without the comfort of her blankets, cool facecloths, and flat ginger ale, your sickness suddenly explodes by a power of 3. Drugs are no comparison for the power of mom medicine, and when you're without it you will likely become more dehydrated from all the tears you've cried. Awful!

So here's signing off from Interlaken, still with an optimistic attitude and some good training for my medical days ahead! We will be back in fighting force in no time at all!

Heather

Trainsitting

Our second evening in Munich included highlights of Weissebeer (although not nearly as much as the first night) and purchasing a few steins (half litre only) as souvenirs. If only we had Hermione’s bag so we didn’t have to feel the weight of our growing packs. Ah well – “character building,” we call it!

We visited with some hostel mates from Brazil and Finland in the bar after making up a few games and setting off some spectacular runs with some dominoes. Our conversation stuck mainly to discussing country differences and animals (did you know a sloth only moves 1m/hour? Sometimes if a baby sloth falls out of the tree the mama sloth moves so slowly that by the time she climbs down the tree the baby has died. Heather has a few more fun sloth facts for anyone interested!).

We retired at a respectable hour of 11 so we could get our beauty rest (necessary to continue all the perks we’ve received from batting our eyelashes ;) ) and woke up bright and early for a run. We covered a flat 11km and tried to shake out the stiffness in the legs from our last workout. Unfortunately we think it might be another day until we’re doing our sit-to-stands without whingeing. Sorry to our friendly bootcamp boys for making your legs so mad at you. We promise we are suffering as well.

We read a message from Kevin this morning saying that he saw none other than Freddie and Zuzana from bodyrock in Kingston the other day. This was first time we were a little jealous not to be in Kingston! We got over the jealously relatively quickly with thoughts of the Swiss Alps, but what are the chances that we leave the 613 area and the bodyrockers come to visit?! If you are unfamiliar with the creative workouts of this inspiring duo check out their website. Heather may have done a backpack burpee this morning while waiting for the train. Then her legs yelled at her, so we will have to wait a bit before we do another workout in their honour!

As we learned our punctuality lesson the first time, we arrived early to our train this morning. However, the train did not show us the same respect. It rolled into the station 20 minutes late, which would not have been a huge deal if we did not have connecting trains. The original plan involved a total of 3 trains and got us into Lucerne just after 3pm. The final plan (revised as we went) involved 5 trains, one mistaken train stop (apparently Basel Bad SB is not the same station as Basel SBB, and they won’t open the d

oors of the train once they’re closed – even if they just closed them!), two overpriced Swiss coffees, lots of patience, and friendship building moments, and got us into Lucerne at 5pm. Good thing we went for a run this morning otherwise we would not have been able to sit still for that long. Crying babies, fellow travellers who also missed their trains, and massive sandwiches highlighted the journey, and we are so glad that we are making our way to the beautiful Swiss Alps. However, if our journey out of Switzerland is as long and potentially frustrating as today, we make no promise that any Swiss chocolate gifts will make it home.

Ps: Our weather for the next few days includes thunderstorms everyday. Just perfect. We don't like sunshine anyway. It's too easy.

This post was powered by Swiss chocolate and French wine.

Peace Out Berlin

Party on the S-Bahn

Cold, tired, wet, and slow.  Yesterday in Berlin reflected how we were feeling (not that drinking the night before helped). We took a trip out to a nearby suburb, Potsdam where we marveled at the peculiar architecture of the city. A past emperor decided to build the town’s structures to imitate buildings from all over the world. Nothing seemed to belong, which was exactly what he was going for. Due to the inclement weather and our lack of vivacity, we decided we would rather be idle tourists on a bus rather than drowned rats on bikes. With our international student cards in hand we received our first discount of 3 Euro :) We have been quite the proud, penny-savers!

Potsdam's own Brandenburg Gate.

 

Oh my! Bus tours rock! (not)

The city was beautiful with many palaces, gardens, barracks, arcs to the city, castles in the hills, and elegantly built mansions lining the streets. Although we could not get many decent pictures from inside the bus, we were still happy to have experienced the town with our headsets set to English and droopy eyes scanning the scenery.

After returning from Potsdam on the S-Bahn, we were feeling hungry and no more awake than when we left. Set out in search of a new hair dryer as we overheated ours the day before, and an optimistic dinner of salad, we hit up a department store. What type of department store, one with 5 floors nonetheless, doesn’t sell hair dryers? Preposterous! Not to mention Janelle’s fury that her hair straightener doesn’t work over here. Helloooooo one month of bad hair days!

Wake up sleepy head!

Heather bored on the S-bahn.

We left the department store with some cream cheese dip and bread sticks in hand and ended up finding a great little Thai restaurant on a side street close to our hostel. The food was absolutely delicious and served by a friendly man from Thailand who (guessed correctly by Janelle) had come to Berlin in pursuit of a love affair sparked with a tourist on vacation in Thailand. We decided we will only be bringing men back to Canada if they can cook as well as he did.

The rest of our evening was spent reading, blogging, finishing Janelle’s billing for work, facebooking, and sleeping (or trying to, at least). This was what we would be doing at home on a day like that, and exactly what we needed to refuel for today’s train ride to Prague and adventures in sight.

            This morning we woke with rain on the windows, a grey sky once again, and weather forecast from Prague not looking any better. Heather seems to have contracted a sore throat today so we may be taking it easy once again. We have finally made it to our seats on the train after annoyingly seat hopping due to everyone stealing or switching seats. Eventually a German mother took control and puppeteered the passengers into their rightful places. Danke! We are happy that we are simply moving towards Prague together, regardless of where we sit. “I would rather starve than miss the train” – as quoted by Heather. Well put!

            We have an “EPIC BIKE TOUR” planned for 5pm tonight with subsequent traditional Czech dinner and pub-crawl. Hopefully Mother Nature will be in better spirits this evening and let these girls have some fair-weather fun!

Farewell for now friends and family, we shall catch up with you when we get settled in Prague and have found our energy once again.

Amsterdam Adventures: only 40 Euro???

If there is one word to sum up Amsterdam it would be “cool”. The locals dress very casually, which was perfect for us in our worn-in clothes. The weather was quite cool, so it makes sense that scarves, layers, and baggy clothing was the uniform of the masses.

It was a great experience, and we definitely took it all in. We waited to check into our hostel by doing a bit of retail therapy for the colder weather. When we were able to check in to the hostel we were shocked by the state of disarray. Luckily the hostel was yet to be cleaned, because this was quite impressive. There were bottles beyond bottles, next to sheets in shambles. We would like to give a very thankful shout out to the cleaning staff at the hostel for doing such a great job of rectifying the late night events of travelers the night before.

We ventured through the streets of Amsterdam to find a canal boat cruise, and then leisurely enjoyed a Heineken before boarding the cruise. The cruise was enjoyable but a little too slow paced for our liking. The highly packed houses were beautiful, the houseboats wonderfully weathered, and the many bridges were charming. Everywhere you looked there were bicycles. Locked up in jumbles and heaps along every street possible. There is an old joke in Amsterdam that if you shout “that’s my bike!” at a group of cyclists driving past, roughly 5 of them will hop off and run away leaving “their” bike behind.

After the boat tour we continued to explore the city, walked through the red light district (not nearly as glamorous feeling as later in the night). We grabbed some dinner from the main street, bypassing the omnipresent dutch fries and mayo, and grabbed falafels yet again. We then toured the Sex Museum before heading back to the hostel for 7-8pm happy hour drinks. Two-for-one Heinekens? Yes please! Another round, OK! The rest of the night was QUITE the adventure featuring two new American friends, another view of the workingwomen of Amsterdam, and a trip to the infamous Sailor bar (Kev you would have loved it!). It’s probably a good thing we were only in Amsterdam for one night as we don’t quite know how we could top that experience.

This morning (Heather surprisingly cleaner than expected and not as hungover as Janelle) we toured the house of Anne Frank after waiting for 1.5 hours in line.  Well Janelle waited for the first half of the time while Heather searched for the near-to-impossible to find bathrooms in the city. Good thing she carried change with her because I think half of our budget has gone to liquid purchases and bathroom fares. Our patience was at our finest, and the time we spent was entirely worth it. What a remarkable piece of our history.  The rooms were larger than Heather imagined, but we could not imagine not being able to ever leave.  It was a deeply touching experience.

The line-up for Anne Frank huis

Missing my car, bb!

After Anne Frank we rented bikes and toured around the city. We went to Albert Cuyp market and wandered around before sitting down for lunch. Two large open-faced sandwiches nourished us and gave us the energy to hop back on our bikes (no helmets in Amsterdam), and ride around Vondelpark. This was much less chaotic and nerve-wracking than the cobblestone, pedestrian covered streets along the river. We managed to return the bikes in one piece without any accidents to report!

yummmmmmm!

We said farewell to Amsterdam with postcards, pictures, 2 American Air Marshall pins from Philly, a glass from the sailor bar and a tiny wooden shoe key chain (Tina – a substitute for ones for Janelle’s feet, as they would be too heavy to carry) as memories of our adventure. We then headed to the train station an hour prior to our scheduled departure as cutting it so close last time was a little too stressful for our liking. We took a 12 hour overnight train with sleeper cars and essentially slept for most of the journey. We met some friendly kiwis in our couchette and chatted for as long as we could keep our eyes open (about 2 hours until we passed out at 7pm and were awakened by the steward at 5am when we were to arrive in Berlin – I guess we were tired!). It was a fun experience, minus the loud snores of our couchette-mates that kept Heather up for half of the night. She still can’t believe how it never woke Janelle up.  

Our early arrival in Berlin (5:45am) meant that while we could drop our luggage off at the hostel but could not hang out there until after 8:00am. We searched for some coffee and food (settled for Dunkin' Donuts..we know we know) and had a bit of time to regroup and plan our stay here.

We are now strapping on our running shoes and hitting the bike lanes for some self-guided tours of the city! Love and miss everyone already, but we still aren’t ready to come home!

Love from Berlin,

Janelle and Heather.