The Beginning of the End!

Sorry for the lack of posts! I have actually been quite busy here with class and warm, spring weather! One of my classes is completely done now, one finishes next week, and then I only have a few left until I am done for the semester!

I am off to Poland this weekend with the "Buddy Network" school group. We leave Thursday morning, and get back late Sunday night. And then my parents come on Tuesday!!!! I luckily only have two classes while they are here, so we are going to have lots of time to explore Vienna together, and then we are also off to Prague for three nights! I'm hoping the fantastic weather we have had lately holds through for their visit!

It's hard to believe I'll be home 4 weeks today for a few short days, before heading off to Indianapolis for my next adventure! I'm looking forward to going home - it will be nice to be surrounded by the wonderful English language, and see my friends! Oh yeah, and be able to go to Panera!!

More later!

Classes and Spring!

I've (actually? finally? unfortunately?) had a lot of class in the past week, so I have been in Vienna. Luckily the weather has turned from snowy and gray, to sunny and beautiful!

Our classes here have very unique schedules - some meet regularly, but others only meet 3-4 times for long periods, and then they are done! I had a class with that structure last week and over the weekend. It was somewhat torturous to be stuck in a windowed classroom from 9-4 on a Saturday, when it was 60 degrees and perfectly sunny outside, but the class is over now - and was actually quite interesting.

I am taking 4 business classes - this one was titled "European Law & Economics" and was based on the legal environment of the European Union, as well as the history and future of the Union. I thought it would be incredibly boring, but it was actually quite interesting, and I learned a lot. For example, we have all been wondering as we travel why some countries are not in the EU, and why some countries in the EU are not on the Euro - and we answered both of those questions right away! We have our final for that class this week, and then it will be out of the way! I am interested to see what my first final here is like - almost our entire grade is based upon, so hopefully it will not be too difficult!

As I said, the weather has been great here lately - spring has finally arrived after a very cold, dreary winter. I have been able to run outside almost everyday - exploring new areas of the city, and occasionally getting somewhat lost (but always finding my way back)! Most people were gone travelling this weekend, but my friend Caroline was still here. Today, we went to "Prater" - which is a carnival/amusement park in Vienna. It is free to get into, and borders the river. We walked around and then walked along the river for a while, before heading back. It was nice to see so many people out and about!

My favorite running path - the gardens at Schonbrunn Palace!

Interlaken, Switzerland

I left Thursday evening for Switzerland – which was AMAZING. I wasn’t sure what to expect – it was going to be a different trip than most of our others – with more outdoor activities and adventures than sightseeing. It ended up being oddly relaxing (even the whole jumping off a cliff part) – because we weren’t running around trying to see every church, monument and castle in a city in a matter of hours.

I had quite the journey on an overnight train, by myself. I had class until 7PM, so the others had left earlier in the day when the tickets were cheaper, and I was to meet up with them in the morning. I was very nervous because I had to make two transfers once in Switzerland, and had very little time in between trains to make up for being lost or confused – I had to know exactly what I was doing! My first train left Vienna at 10:40PM and I found a car to settle in to. The cars were different than trains that run during the day – but I had chosen the cheapest ticket, so I was not in a sleeper car. Instead, there were six seats in each enclosed room, and you could sit anywhere. I found an empty one – and three other people eventually joined me, as we were about to depart. It was going to be a long night – sleeping sitting up with all 4 of us in the little room. Luckily there was a seat between me and the man on my side, so we could at least put our bags between us and have a little elbow room.

About 20 minutes into the ride, an alarm started going off and we came to a stop, not at a station. The conductor came on and spoke for a while in German – and everyone in my car looked very concerned. I asked if anyone spoke English – and one of the men explained that there was a technical problem and we could be delayed for a while until they fixed it. As 5 minutes turned into 45 minutes, I was getting more and more nervous – my “layover” in Zurich was only 6 minutes long, and we were now almost an hour behind schedule. We found out (through my new friend that could translate for me), that someone had been smoking in one of the bathrooms, which had set the fire alarm off – and they just needed to reset the system and make sure they could continue on and stop the alarm. We ended up being about 55 minutes behind schedule.

The two men got off at a stop about an hour later, so the woman and I each got our own side. We each had three seats that we could then stretch out on, and attempt to sleep for a while. I was also a little nervous about falling asleep with all of my belonging laying out in our unlocked compartment, so I slept with my legs through the handles on my purse and hoped I would wake up if anyone came in. I ended up actually getting about 4 hours of sleep – although I woke up at almost every stop. The woman got off around 5AM, and I had the room to myself for the last 2 hours – well until a Serbian man came in and woke me up just to chat about tennis??

We had miraculously made up the time lost from the smoker incident, and I successfully made my first transfer in Zurich. An hour later, I had one more transfer in Bern – and I was finally on the home stretch to Interlaken!

I got into Interlaken at 9:30AM, and met my friends at the hostel by 10. We were able to store our luggage for the day, while we explored the town. We got some guidance on hiking trails, stopped at the store for coffee (for me…) and sandwiches and were off hiking for the day! We decided to do the “3 Hour Route” – which we later found out actually means 3 hours up, and 3 hours back down – so 6 hours round trip. It was definitely the most intense hiking I have ever done! We had our heavy winter coats on – and we definitely did not need them, they ended up tied around our waists for most of the hike. It took us only 2 hours to get to the top – 1322 meters up above Interlaken! Unfortunately it was very foggy and we could not see much, but it was still worth it. There was a lookout platform where we stopped and ate lunch – and took some pictures against the white, fog backdrop. We headed back down and walked a little along the river and in town, and then headed back to the hostel to check-in and shower.

Mid-Hike

Beautiful views from the top!

The most we could see from near the top

It was the nicest hostel ever!!!! We had a beautiful view out the window to the alps and river, and we had giant, puffy comforters – I had the best night’s sleep that night, after my train the night before and the day’s activities!

View out our hostel window!

That evening, we went to a “Chocolate Show” that we had heard about from friends that had visited Interlaken earlier this year. At the show, they taught and demonstrated how chocolate is transformed from cocoa beans into all types of chocolate – and the difference in ingredients in white, milk, and dark chocolate. We also got to see how they made little bite sized, caramel filled chocolates, and also how they make hollow characters such as Easter bunnies. We were able to eat all of the chocolate we wanted during the show, and then we got a voucher to buy more chocolate from the gift store! It was delicious!!!

On Saturday we slept in a little, and then went out to explore more of Interlaken. We walked around most of the town – it is extremely small. It is such a tiny, cute, Swiss village! All of the houses and chalets had small gardens and flowers in every windowsill. We got postcards and sandwiches, and headed back to our hostel to prepare for our afternoon Canyon Jump!

We had been planning on doing this for almost two months now (although none of us had told our parents about it…). Of the four of us, only two were nervous so far – one of the guys and I were just excited.  One of the guys on our trip, Tyler, hadn’t slept at all the night before, and was extremely nervous all morning, and had been for a few days now. He wasn’t sure that he was actually going to be able to do it, and even shed a few tears on the way there.

The bus picked us up right on time, and it was a short drive to the mountain. We had picked up a few other groups along the way – and strangely enough ten of fourteen jumpers were from Chicago! Along the ride, they explained the whole process to us and had us sign waivers. We were also introduced to the team – Neil would be with us at the top, Ziggy would be at the bottom to help us out of our harnesses after we jumped, and Tatiana would be suspended in front of us taking pictures. The waiver we had to sign was actually quite funny, with phrases such as “I paid to have a crazy Swiss, whom I have never met before, put a harness on my with nothing more than two tiny climbing ropes, so I can throw myself off a platform, 90 meters into a small, narrow canyon.” Reading it aloud, did not make Tyler any more calm about the situation! He ended up going first in the group – and did great! He said he just listened to Neil and did everything he told him to without thinking about it – so when he counted down, he just went for it!

The canyon we jumped in - you can see the little platform near the top, on the left

Getting strapped in

I was up second – I hadn’t been nervous at all, even once seeing the platform, canyon, and Tyler’s jump, but once he started attaching the ropes to me, I got shaky. I wanted to do a swan jump off the platform, but I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to – I though my instincts would be to grip the rope with my hands. He attached the ropes, and brought me out onto the platform, did a quick check, and reminded me to look at the camera while I jumped – like it was that easy! He told me to put one foot on the edge, and counted down from 5, and I jumped! I didn’t hesitate at all – I knew if I stood there for any matter of time, looking over the edge, I would just get more and more nervous and wouldn’t do the swan dive. I let out a blood-curdling scream, but I looked at the camera and held my arms out for a few pictures! My arms eventually did go to the rope though, and before I knew it the free fall was over, and I was just swinging through the canyon! The whole thing went by so fast – we all wanted to go up and do it again, now that we knew what to expect. It was extremely beautiful in the canyon – the snow was beginning to melt so the rapids were starting to flow through! The whole experience was 100% worth it! It’s something that I will never forget – and luckily have videos and pictures to look back upon!

Should I do this?

Can't turn back now...

ahh...

AHHHHH

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Enough with the hands out, I need to grab the rope now...

We celebrated our survival with Toblerone McFlurries from McDonalds on the way back to the hostel – and then decided to do Switzerland right, and have fondue for dinner. It was very basic – just chunks of bread and cheese fondue, but it was soooo delicious, and surprisingly filling!

Overall, the trip was AWESOME! It may end up being one of my favorites, I think. It was different than any we had taken this semester – it was relaxing, and productive. We left Switzerland feeling as if we had done everything we wanted – chocolate, cheese, and extreme sports!

We spent all of Sunday on the train back – another 10-hour journey with two transfers, but luckily it was during the day. We got to see the countryside of Switzerland, and even passed through Lichtenstein for approximately 3 minutes! We were happy to get back, but I would love to go back to Switzerland someday and see some of the other cities – and maybe some blue sky! Oh, and possibly go sky diving…!  

We survived!!

Switzerland!

After an uneventful week in Vienna, I am off to Switzerland tonight after class! I am meeting friends there, but travelling by myself on an overnight train. I have to make two transfers throughout the night... so hopefully I will not sleep through those! I will be back Sunday night and will post more then! Happy April!