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!

The internet here is horrible!

we tried and tried again to add photos but the internet doesn't like us. hold tight, we will try again after a few glasses of wine.

THIS JUST IN......THIS JUST OUT

Heather just upchucked her dinner.....looks like we have a long night and day ahead of us! Good thing no cliff is too high to climb over for the two of us.

I added some pictures from Lucern below, and also did a new post from Interlaken. We will post more pictures tomorrow, as I have a killer headache and need some rest!

Night!

Interlaken: Onwards and Upwards!

After approximately 13 hours of sleep last night I finally woke up with a bit of an appetite, a headache as if I was hung over, and unfortunately still tired. HOWEVER, no sickness! So, do you know what that means? Time to scarf down a breakfast and hit the mountains because there is no time to waste when in Switzerland!

We took the train up to Grindelwald, which is at about 1000m elevation and then began our hike up to Mannlichen (~2200m) . This hike was suggested to take approximated 4.5 hours, and to cover over 1km in elevation. We began this steep ascent with lots of energy and wide eyes for the views we would see along the way, however after outpacing this suggested time at the half way point we decided not t0 play hero any longer. Exhausted beyond belief because I had not eaten anything yesterday and fearing the clouds rolling in overhead and ghosting the views of the gorgeous giants we were climbing, we decided to jump the gondola up the rest of the way. Lucky for us and our skills at getting things for free, the attendant was in the back so we jumped the bar and into one of the slowly creeping carts as it strolled through the landing. SCORE! This sneaky plan saved us 2 hours of climbing, probably 40 Swiss Franks and some great views along the hike at the top, as the clouds had not yet fully masked our view.



From the peak, we hiked across the mountain for about an hour (probably more with all of our stops to gawk at the beautiful views) to Klein Scheidegg (~2000m) and had lunch at a little restaurant near the rail before heading back down. At this point the clouds had come in so dense that we could not see the peaks of the surrounding mountains (Jungfrau especially) and the rain was coming down in sheets. So, we then hoped the rail back down to Interlaken with many pictures delightfully stored in our camera, and the dire need to shower and do laundry.
The rest of our evening consisted of making delicious omelets with some new friends from OC California, and enjoying some Happy Hour beers with a guy from Texas we met in the train on our way to Lucerne!

Heather, unfortunately, seems to have a really bad stomach ache and went to bed early all in hopes that it is nothing serious (such as what she had to see me endure yesterday). So hopefully she will wake with energy for our day ahead! Early morning wake up at 7am to either hit the canyons at 8am for some canyoning, or hit the rapids at 9am for some white water rafting - yet to be determined yet as we like to fly off the seat of our pants sometimes.

So, thanks for the kind posts from yesterday because they must have helped me get over that darn bug so fast :) Send some luck over for Heather now that she doesn't wake feeling like a bag of shit like I did yesterday!

Love and miss you all,

Janelle

Much Better!

Janelle is feeling MUCH better. On a scale of 1-10 where 10 is "I want to die," yesterday was an 11 and today we're at a 3. Game on!

The dehydration and lack of food has left her feeling a little sub-par (similar to a hangover, but without all of the prior fun), but nothing compared to yesterday. We are back to eating again, which makes for a much happier Janelle.

Someone mistook us this morning for two girls going canyoning. Janelle vetoed this prior to the trip, knowing her bad luck with jumping from heights into water. Break my cheekbone once, shame on you. Break it twice, shame on me! For someone to mistake us for two girls crazy enough to jump off waterfalls and cliffs means we must be looking much perkier!

We are off to explore the mountains, taking our time, lots of granola bars and water, our camera, and rainjackets as the weather looks slightly precarious.

Thank you for all of the get-well wishes, they really mean a lot. It's nice to know you have such support when you feel like you want to die. Thank goodness it is over, and Heather didn't have it to. Otherwise who knows what state we'd be in. Or country.

Love and miss you!

Janelle and Heather

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