Running Through the Alps with Wild MooMoo's

We decided to spend our time in Switzerland in the Jungfrau region! We'd heard that this was one of the most amazing areas and we couldn't agree more! We decided to take a gondola up to the top of one of the peaks so we could stay in the tiny town of Gimmelwald at one of our now favorite hostels, Mountain Hostel! 

After getting a good nights sleep we woke up early our first full day there to hike around the alps! We met some friends from all over the U.S., but two boys were actually from Corloado too! They study at CSU in Fort Collins and we all decided to hike together. After chatting and meeting a bunch of fun people we got a little group together and ended up becoming fast friends, which is what made Switzerland twice as fun as most places we went! Anyway, we spent the whole day (9 hours and 12+ miles) hiking through endless cow pies, rushing waterfalls, bright wildflowers and even meeting a few cow hoarders! If that wasn't enough, we found the cows to be super friendly and each ended up with multiple moomoo kisses! 

Id love to raise a baby cow after seeing how sweet they are! At one point we thought we may have gone on the wrong trail because for miles we were on such a steep incline that my calves were literally on fire! But as soon as we got to the top it was worth all the sweat because the view from the top was unlike anything I've ever seen before. 

We now call ourselves the crazy 8's although this photo is missing 2 :( 

Here's a few more photos from our wonderful day of hiking! (Viewer discretion advised- there may be a photo of the boys mooning us on top of the Alps!) 

The next day, before heading to our next stop we made a quick trip to Interlaken and rented a tandem bike! We biked around the lakes (until it started raining) and had a little picnic lunch around a fire pit we stumbled up during our journey! 

Oh, and I almost forgot! We drank the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted (made with Swiss chocolate- so go figure!) and enjoyed our last night with our new little friend-fam and celebrated our newest cherished memories with the Crazy 8's! 

Munich

Munich was one of our first biggest screw ups when we arrived to our hostel to find out that we had actually made reservations for the following day and that they were completely full! The crazy thing was though, there was a man with the same last name as me (even the same spelling!) staying that night so everyone was just super confused. Luckily we were right next door to two other hostels and one of them had room for us for the night! Although we weren't in Munich long it was quiet memorable as we spent a long afternoon at Dachau. It's always so shocking to learn about the horrible and inhumane things that went on under Hitler's command, however seeing it for your own eyes makes it even more gut wrenching. We walked through tiny barracks and the overall camp which was probably about the size of our old high school campus that at times held more than 200,000 people. I couldn't even imagine seeing that many people there, I'm not even sure how they had space to move around. The video that was played showed some of the most horrendous and heart wrenching images I've ever seen; the 75 year old man sitting in front of me along with his entire family all had tears streaming down their faces, at which point I wondered had they had family members trapped in that hellacious place? And as we walked through the gas chambers and stood in the center of the room, peering up at what had been deceitfully inscribed as the shower room, I felt sick. And with the incinerators almost within arms reach I can only wonder how can one human possibly inflict such inhumane treatment upon another human? In respect to those who suffered in these terrible places, I will not be posting photos.

After a long and eye opening afternoon at Dacau we ended our day doing a little sightseeing around the city center and headed for Switzerland in the early morning! 

Oh, and I got my favorite candy in the whole world that I discovered while studying abroad in Spain many summers ago, at the train station and my heart was overjoyed! 

Vienna and Salzburg

Phew! Finally caught up with my blogging as I sit on the train leaving Austria, sadly. After watching the sound of music at least 200 times throughout my lifetime, I somehow knew I would fall in love with Austria! It is absolutely beautiful. So green, clean, and fresh! Although both Vienna and Salzburg are cities, they felt much more like home to me than many of the other huge cities we've been in! Probably because the ambiance was much more relaxed and in tune with the outdoors! In both places Monica and I rented bikes to make getting around from our hostels and the city, easier! I can say confidently that this is one of the smartest things we've done because biking versus walking saved us a lot of time and allowed us to see much more in both places! The only downfall is perhaps my very sore butt! Haha. Anyway, both places we really enjoyed, but I absolutely loved Salzburg! However when we were in Vienna we did lots of sight seeing and even went to an opera! The opera was one that I had sang pieces of when I was still studying opera so it was kind of fun to see it performed in such a world renowned place of music! 

Oh! I alsmot forgot one of the best parts of Vienna- the worlds most famous chocolate cake we are! I know, I know, cake is gluten. But how was I supposed to resist the most famous cake in the entire world? I couldn't! And I'm surely glad I didn't even try, because it was delicious! 

Besides, cake for lunch was probably our cheapest lunch meal thus far! 

A few of the places we saw included palaces and gardens and we even bikes to a carnival! 

As much as I loved Vienna, I was secretly quite excited to get o Salzburg so we could finally pretend like we were in the sound of music! In fact, our hostel in Salzburg actually played the movie every single night! Last night is the first time I've watched a movie in over 3 weeks! Crazy. Anyway, all day we rode our bikes to a from places we'd seen in the movie as part of a self guided tour we found online and it was so fun! Salzburg is beautiful and the weather was perfect and nowhere we went was ever too crowded! 

We even went to a traditionally beer garden where Monica enjoyed a nice mug and I enjoyed people watching! 

I even found a stand that served grilled fish on a stick- and yes, it was actually the entire fish! 

 Freaky! From there we went to a restaurant a man at the reception of our hostel suggested to us and it was delicious!

I went to bed happy and excited to get to Germany! 

Ciao Italia

Our last stop in Italy was Venice, and as adorable as it is, I think I was ready to move on. Italy is amazing. I really loved every part of being there, however we were ready to move up into the smaller towns and cities in our trip! But, Venice was definitely a great way to wrap up Italy! We met some really nice fellow backpackers from Boston and to offset the pricey cost of a gondola ride through the grand canal we decided to all 4 go together! It worked out perfectly, and we've come to realize that almost everywhere we go we will meet some pretty cool fellow backpackers! 

 Monica and I are also experts at getting lost, however, somehow she managed to direct us all over Venice and over thousands of little canals so we got to see all the best sights! 

 After exploring all day we had a night train to catch that was going to take us to Austria! We weren't super excited because we were unable to get beds for the trip because they were supposedly sold out. However, come to find out, there weren't even any beds on our train! You know it's funny how life works out sometimes, like the fact that our six person reserved cabin ended up being all young girls backpacking through Europe! Monica and I, two young girls from Colombia and one girl from Germany! We had so much fun all together and ended up making all our seats into one big giant bed and practically slept like sardines with our limbs flailing all over one another all night! I couldn't stop laughing for much of the night because we were all having such a great time. Those are the little things you'll always remember because sometimes the things you think are really going to suck, end up being some of the funnier, sometimes dysfunctional but always memorable experiences! 

 

 

Impromptu Visit: Slovenia

Of course the one place we don't even plan to spend a day in ended up being the place I may have liked most. As soon as we walked out of the train station in Slovenia, in a city called Ljubljana, we instantly fell in love. It was probably the first city we've been in that was actually really clean! And on top of that it just had a really great vibe to it! It felt sort of like a mix between boulder and Fort Collins we decided, and if I were to ever move abroad, I would highly consider moving there. Not to mention it was my favorite meal we've had thus far at this adorable, quaint, yet hip tapas bar! 

The Most Beautiful Place on Earth: Plitvice Lakes National Park

There are no words to describe the beauty that is Plitvice Lakes. While I can say I was a bit annoyed with the almost 7 hour bus ride, I have never seen anything as beautiful as Plitvice, in my entire life. The night before when we first arrived in the "town" more like 3 farms, that sits near the National Park, we had so much fun at our hostel! Apparently not many people realize that there is a hostel right out near the lakes and we'd not been anywhere quite like it. It kind of instantly felt like home, it was a pretty good sized cabin and everyone there was so friendly, by the end of the night it felt like we were one big happy family!

 People from Canada, Germany, Asia and the U.S. sat around the table and we laughed and laughed for hours. It was a little chilly out but I didn't mind being wrapped in a big blanket and being able to look up at the bright stars. See, being out in the middle of nowhere, there wasn't anywhere to go out to eat! So a nice man we met took our host up on an offer to run to the market and came back with what he was told was chicken- but was actually two giant turkey legs! We cooked them on a big outdoor brick oven while everyone else at the hostel busily prepared their meals too! The next morning our host took rounds driving us all to the national parks where our stop in Plitvice got even better! 

Words cannot do this beautiful place justice. Hell, pictures can't even do it justice! I have never in my life seen more crystal clear water. I swear out in the middle of these lakes you could still see the bottom it is so pristine! Honestly, I can't even put the right words together to describe its beauty so I'll just attach the thousands of photos I obsessively took. 

Seriously I could spend years at this beautiful place, but unfortunately we only had a day, and it was so depressing when we had to say goodbye!