Cathedral at Cologne

DSCN1631, originally uploaded by Sam Lambson.

We left Berlin without enough time to get to Paris, so we figured we get halfway by going to Cologne. The cathedral was spectacular there. What we didn't realize was that Cologne was about the same distance from Paris as Berlin. So worth it though.

Fin (maybe)

Well, Paris cleaned me out, but the city was beautiful. Turns out my rent check (that I paid well before we came out here) just cleared and I hope I will have enough cash to get home.

This trip has been so great. I feel like we could have come home two weeks ago and still be happy, but there is so much more to see and do here.

We'll see how many days we can go without starving.

ps - please don't think we are going to starve - we'll be okay (poor, but okay).

Paris

A home in East Berlin

Tom and I took a full day to travel up to Berlin from Interlaken. Beautiful trains in Germany, by the way. When we arrived in Berlin, we were about to look for the cheapest hostel or camping we could find, but I was approached by a woman who has an appartment in East Berlin to rent. When we agreed, she took us to the house - the only un-remodeled appartment complex in the old quarter - and gave us the key. It´s a nice appartment, and she´s only charging us €30 a night to sleep there. Not bad huh. Berlin is awsome. Zer Gut.

Nirvana, Mecca, Jerusalem, Salt Lake City... and Gimmawald

After a night of unmet expectations in Interlaken (mostly due to the weather) we ended up taking off in the morning to a city called Gimmawald. A couple girls we met in Florence, Lizzy and Chrysanthemum, were staying there and we figured anything would be better than another night in Interlaken. To get there we took a train until it was too steep for trains, a bus until it was too steep for busses and finally gandola up the side of a practically sheer mountain side. We stepped off the gandola and there it was, the Mountain Hostel.

This was no ordinary hostel. It was a quaint log cabin style tavern with beds. It is also the local bar. It sits on the edge of a deep valley and looks out on the Jungfrau, the Eigr and of course behind it was the Schilthorn (where a James Bond movie was filmed). The weather cleared up somewhat and something inside of us told us that this was the place where we could finally resolve whatever it was we came to Europe to resolve.

We happened to arrive on Swiss National Day, so it was better than any normal day. In the evening, Petra, the hostel´s owner, lit a bunch of swiss flag lanterns and all 50 or so of the residents marched the streets of the little city of Gimmawald laughing and cheering to the locals who came out to see us wearing their traditional Swiss garb.

National Day ended with a bunch of fireworks, so close to us that hot ashes would fall into our eyes (it was a good thing -- nobody was injured). After the fireworks an old Swiss guy and a younger guy (that I´m not convinced was Swiss) started playing traditional Swiss music with two accordians. Everyone -- no matter where they were from-- joined in for the yodeling parts. It was an absolute blast.

The next day Tom, Walter from Holland, Scott from Tucson and I took advantage of a somewhat sunny daz and climbed to the very top of a huge mountain. The name of the peak is the Schilterhorn. We left at about 10 and didn´t get back until about 9 pm. It was a long day, but absolutely amazing. The peak is at 9700 ft. When we got to the top, we ate soup and bread at the revolving restrant. It was pretty amazing.

Something happend to our spirits in Gimmawald as well. It was as if our trip had been accomplished. We finally felt a connection to something beyond ourselves. Maybe there is something to climbing a mountain. It did wonders for Moses. It did something to me that I´m still trying to understand.

A.S.A.G (American Study Abroad Girls)

Our stay in Zurmatt was short. A day of skiing for Tom and a day of hiking through the hills for me. We left a little late in the day (debating on staying to see if we could get in good with the locals and score a free night´s stay), but things were so good there that we would never have left if we didn´t get going. We went to the next hot Swiss town, Interlaken. A bunch of kids in Florence were all heading up there when we were heading to Venice, so we thought we´d go to see what all the hype was about. I bumped into a Singaporean who could have sworn that he´d been in a hostel with me the week before in Germany (don´t ask me), and he told me that he was in Interlaken when all the American kids showed up. He told me that when they came his whole experience went sour and he couldn´t even get a good night sleep because of all the noise that they made.

That is an interesting observation. Tom and I have noticed that the American kids, especially the study abroad kids, do nothing to take advantage of being in Europe. They hang out in their American appartments all day, chat on the internet with their significant others and go shopping, then they go out and get pissed with all of the american kids at night, make a lot of noise, and make a bad name for our country. We bumped into a girl in Florence, asked her for suggestions about seeing the city (mind you she´d been there for a couple months). She said, and I´m not exaggerating, "I really havn´t seen much of the city," followed by a dumb stare. I was dumbfounded.

Yes, I am convinced that much of what kids get out of study abroads is a month of getting wasted the same as they would if they had no parents in suburban america. Meanwhile, the parents think their kids might actually learn something by living in Europe for a couple months.

Plans are for the birds - A word from Tom

I have not contributed to the blog enough. So this is my attempt to do better. First off I want to say that skiing in Zermatt on the last day of July may have been the highlight of the trip. I dont think this was emphasized enough. I am still considering going back to switzerland before the end of August.

One thing that I have realized in the last week or so is that living out of packs with minimal planning, has really changed the way that I think about cities and distances and just living in general. Waking up in the morning not knowing where you are going to sleep that night has become our routine. And as a result I now feel comfortable in just about every situation we find ourselves in. Tonight we came into the Berlin train station and started to look at Hostel addresses etc. Out of nowhere this old lady came up to Sam and asked us if we wanted to stay in an apartment she rented out. We followed her downtown, while she explained in detail the history of every building and monument we passed. Then she told us all about life in east Germany, how she had been imprisoned for 2 years because of trying to fake a passport out of the country. But how she still sympathizes with and votes for the communist party.
Anyway what I am trying to get at here is that things work out. I think people tend to err on the side of inaction, to avoid risks(I include myself here). But the way things have been working out on this trip, I am more and more convinced that when we act, while there will be setbacks, ultimately things fall into place and we find ourselves with opportunities we would never have anticipated. So stop reading this blog and go outside. Either that or come join us in Berlin.

Another country, another world -- the swiss alps

So we finally made it to Switzerland. A couple months back when we were preparing for this trip, Tom suggested that we hit Switzerland and I told him, "Well, it would be cool, but it's really just another Italy."

I was completely wrong. This place is like no other place I've seen before. We spent our first day or so in a city called Zurmatt, which is in the shadow of the Matterhorn -- you know, the Dysneyland ride. This was a seriously extreme mountain. Tom had decided to go skiing on a glacier and I took a little hike. Pictures would be the best waz to expain. Enjoy...

A midnight train breakdown

No no... our midnight train did not break down. We broke down after taking a midnight train. We left florence at 2 am on our way to Venice. We figured we might as well see venice for the morning on our way up to Switzerland because our train pass is valid for 24 hours once we get going. The train was unexpectedl^y packed and we couldn't lay down to sleep. I ended up sitting in the hallway, and no one else could sleep. We got to venice at 5:45 and made it downtown by 6:30. Venice was silent. NOt a boat in the water (and no cars because there are no roads). We got to a little piazza and I layed down my bags and fell down. I ended up sleeping in that piazza for 6 hours. So much for getting to Swityerland.

Florence

beautiful