Wanderweg

I have been exploring the great outdoors since my last post. We went to Jungfreau yesterday. It was a two hour train (the train looked like a Disney World excursion) ride to the top. Once there, it was absolutely amazing. We could see glaciers and mountains for miles. We decided to hike to a lodge from the base. As we tredged through more snow than I have ever seen in my entire life, the sky started to close in. That is right, we were stuck in a white out. I could not see my hand in front of my face. But, the pursuit of beer always prevails and we continued to hike toward the lodge with hopes of a clearer view from the top.
We eventually had our beer. It actually tastes better at 12,000 feet. Unwilling to wait any longer for the clouds to disappear, we trudged back in the white out. It was really surreal. I could barely see David next to me. Once at base, we explored an ice castle (unnecessarily touristy) and stopped for more beer (David) and hot chocolate (me). Despite the white out, it was nothing short of amaying. The white out was a pretty fun adventure too. Afterwards, we returned to Interlaken to fetch our stuff for Lucerne.
We spent today in Lucerne. We listened to the advice of a receptionist at our hostel and headed on a free trail toward Pilatus. To say it was a mistake would be the understatement of the century. We climbed for five hours directly up hill through a swamp. It was exhausting. Unfortunately, when we reached the top, it was too cloudy to see all of Lucerne. We rode the cable car down. To give you an idea of the distance, it was a 25 minute cable car ride. I have never been so exhausted in my life. I guess we can say we climbed it? Once at the bttom, we treated ourselves to Swiss beer by the lake. It was certainly the most successful part of the day. At least we got our Swiss hiking in. Headed to our final stop, Zurich, tonight.

Nice Mouth Awareness

There is no possible way to describe what I saw today. It was so wonderful that I had to call my mom from the top just to tell her what I saw. We hiked through one of the tallest mountain ranges in the Alps today. In addition to taking David's hiking virginity, it was an extraordinary hike. The Alps are so majestic. I had to continually remind myself where I was as they are overhwhelmingly enormous and beautiful. There were peaks on all sides. It was an amazing and humbling experience to see them from below yesterday as a rafter and from within today on my hike. I will see them from above tomorrow on our hike to Junfreau, which should really be the icing on the cake. Clearly, Interlaken is one of my favorite stops thus far.

Looks like David is ready to trade his Converses in for hiking boots and that I am particularly greatful that my family instilled in me a love of the great outdoors. I really cannot get over how amazing it is here.

Anyway, we are clearly exhausted and will be retiring soon with hopes of seeing the sunrise over Junfreau tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night....Lucerne!

Deaf Lesbians

I have been fortunate to see a lot of wonderful places in my life, thus I have a frame of reference. In Pollock-Goldberg family terms, today I spied "a pretty thing." An exceptionally pretty thing. It exceeds many other pretty things.

The weather in Interlaken has been pretty rough, but that was no deterrent. Today we hiked to see a set of seven waterfalls in the alps. It was extraordinary. The waterfalls ran through the inside of a mountain, and we got to go inside and see them. The glacial water formed immensely interesting and varied patterns in the rock which in turn created fascinating waterfalls. This was a top not set of waterfalls and I am a true (self-proclaimed) connosieur.

This afternoon, I left Davd in the hostel for a rafting adventure. Despite the chilly water (it was seven degrees celcius), it was a great trip. Everywhere I looked, I was surrounded on all sides by the alps. The river was glacial so the water was incredibly clear. We ended the trip, which was a pretty tough paddle, in a brilliantly blue glacial lake. Every mountain top was covered in snow and I was in awe. I went for a refreshing (read: exceptionally cold) swim in the lake and enjoyed the scenery. I feel like I need to pinch myself it is so beautiful here. Still thawing out, but loving every minute.

Stay tuned for the hike to Junfreau tomorrow.

Cow Stomach

I arrived in Geneva last night to meet David. It was a night of lessons. He whisked me away on a whirlwind two hour tour where we saw a large fountain and a famous clock. Seeking Swiss cuisine, we stopped in a boulangerie.

Enter French language lesson one: boulangerie means steak house. Neither of us eat cow or pig. We share broth and a salad. We chase with McDonald's (which is astronomical in USD by the way).

Lesson two: do not order shrimp and avocado wraps at McDs as David did.

Disappointed, we headed to sleep in the hostel where we were greeted with a freight train as a roommate.

(Societal) lesson three: If you snore, don't stay at a hostel.

We ditched Geneva this morning and headed to Gruyeres, home of the cheese and the castle. Best known for the cheese. Sidenote, the informational video prelude to the tour of the castle had a higher production value than Avatar. Let's see James Cameron try to pull off a hologram-medieval costume-talking head hybrid.

After visiting the castle and the cheese factory, where the tour was dictated by a potentially menopausal cow with a superiority complex, we headed to a local fondue restaurant. It felt very authentic as Gruyere cheese fondue is quite potent. With a minor wine buzz as a complication of extreme fondue ingestion, we left a great day in Gruyeres behind for adventure in Interlaken.

Melted Hits

It is hard to know where to start on yesterday as we did the jam packed tour of Paris. We started the day at the Arc de Triumph and we did not stop until midnight. We walked down the Champs Elysee and through other famous shopping streets to see the obelisk and a famous park. After refilling with lunch, we headed to the Pantheon. It was really beautiful and the pendulum was reminiscent of my fourth grade science project. Tons of famous Parisians are buried there and I certainly would not want to be locked in the crypt at night. Right outside, we stopped in Luxembourg Gardens. It was hopping with Parisians. Finally we headed to Notre Dame and did the requisite crowded walk through.

For dinner, we decided to challenge ourselves and head to Chinatown. Lesson to all readers: if you do not speak any of the primary language (Chinese) or any of the secondary language (French) of a restaurant, do not attempt. It was an epic fail, but at least we got some Evian out of the deal as we could not communicate tap water. It was the best darn water I have ever had. We promptly followed our Chinese "food" experience with some vending machine cookies in the Metro. Even for intrepid traveleres like ourselves, Chinatown was definitely pushing it.

We finished the night with a nighttime view of the Eiffel Tower lit up. We briefly considered taking romantic prom pictures in front of the tower, but decided better of it and headed home to crash.

Today is our last half day in Paris and then Valerie sadly leaves. Next stop for Shayna: Switzerland.

Stripes and Ballet Flats Galore

We had a fabulous first day in Paris! We started our morning in Vosges Square. It is dubbed the best planned square in France and it is home to the first useable balcony. Of course I loved it! After the square, we wandered around the area for a while and popped into lots of adorable shops. Everything seems so Parisian! Valerie picked up another pair of shoes, but I am still looking for a perfect souvenir. Exhauted from all of our shopping, we grabbed a quick bite at a delicious falafel stand on "rue de falafel." We deemed it as good as or better than Israel.

We spent the afternoon at the Pompidou. A lot of it was really abstract and we had to do the end of the museum Pollock-Shuping style, but it was a good experience. There was a temporary exhbit on India that we both really enjoyed.

We had our nighttime drink and people-watching in another part of town and then went to Bastille for dinner and ice cream. Now we are prepping to go out in the hostel. It was a great first day and we are psyched for our final Paris push, but sad that it is almost over.

Parlez vous anglais?

We are currently in a library in Aix en Provence, so I decided to take advantage of the free Internet. So far, France is great! We keep getting mistaken for real French people, which is so flattering until strangers asking for directions realize that we only know the words for "one" and "two" as well as a few phrases like "fleur de lis" and "nouveau riche." Anyway, Villefranche sur mer was quintessential south of France, with colorful houses, cobblestone pathways, and a clear ocean. We took two day trips to Nice and to Eze, and while they were nice to see (pun intended haha), we still liked Villefranche sur mer the best. We finally found the center of town after walking around and had this amazing dinner of goat cheese egg rolls with fig and salmon cooked on one side with wasabi and walnuts.

Now we are in Aix en Provence; and it is great. Definitely top two at least of the places that we have visited. Our hostel leaves something to be desired, but hey, I guess we are getting the true backpacking experience. A shower head that you have to hold in your hand at all times? No big deal. Last night we had another great dinner that included gorgonzola and pear ravioli that was to die for. Don`t worry, we withstood the embarrassment and took pictures of most of these dishes for the benefit of posterity and you, our loyal readers. Today we went to this museum of an artist that created a lot of optical illusion art. Luckily we got the audio guide, or else we would have had no clue what we were looking at.

Tonight we go to Paris: I can't believe that this trip is almost over! So far, France has certainly lived up to my expectations of glamour, good food, and lots of shopping, and I am sure Paris will do the same. We will try to update you when we are there.

Au revoir!