finally, a post and some pictures

finally...i know its been a while and i wont promise tons of information but ill do my best to update. Its been an amazing time since I last wrote. I have fallen so in love with Europe and traveling in general I dont know how Ill ever leave it. From the people to the history to the amazing things ive been up to...its all so hard to give up for a day job in america.

But enough of that...Ive been having a blast here in Europa. I went to Nice, France and stayed in the awesome hostel that is a converted monastery. It is really special place because every single person that works there is a traveler who ran out of money and got a job doing odd things there and then in a few months will move on to another city. a lot of hostels around europe have one or two foreign travelers and mostly locals, but this place is a melting pot. plus, it had free breakfast and free internet. but the internet was super slow and always busy so i didnt really get to use it. the hostel also arranges excursions for you so i decided to go canyoning, which was AMAZING.

first i have to tell you about melanie and alana, two australians who met each other on busabout and who then met karissa and i and we have become very close and started to travel with each other. its been great...we do things with them during the day and cook big dinners together in the hostel every night so we end up eating very healthy(besides the copius amounts of wine) and having tons of fun.

so mel and I went canyoning and becuase it involves wet suits and just trudging straight through water i have no pictures of the actual event. but let me tell you, it was incredible. We jumped off of cliffs into aqua blue water and slid down mossy rocks into deep watery pits. it was like an adventurous water hike. really really cool. one of the coolest things ive done this entire trip.

we visited monaco, the richest nation in the world. apparently just to be considered for citizenship there you have to pay a non refundable 1,000,000 euro deposit...you read correctly. 1 million euros...just to be considered. apparently both tina turner and michael jackson were refused. that money is lost and gone forever. the yachts - huge, the egos- even bigger. it was a pretty ridiculous little town that i wish i didnt waste a day on. except that the grand prix was taking place and that was cool to see. i dont think it was the real thing but a trial...still had tv crews everywhere. saw the monte carlo casino...very ritzy.

next we headed to the swiss alps and stayed in lauterbrunnen. AMAZING, WONDERFUL, GORGEOUS, OHMYGOSH. LOVE LOVE LOVE switzerland. it is seriously a beautiful place. Lauterbrunnen is this tiny, tiny town in the middle of a glacier pass made a long time ago. mel, alana and i spent five hours in basically an adult playground. you are strapped in to harnesses, given a short instruction and then let loose... and there are five courses you can accomplish. the hardest one being extremely difficult. we were swinging from tree tops and ziplining down long paths through the forest and working our way through tunnels in the sky 20 meters off the ground. all the while the trees are turning a beautiful orange. it was such a fun day. the hardest course required a lot of strength and has left me sore until this moment, even. there was this one tarzan swing thing that required you to jump from a platform and make it across to this net ladder, which if you missed left you dangling helplessly in the middle. well, mel and alana made it across but of course i missed the net ladder and was left...helpless in the middle.mel and i were laughing so hard i couldnt move. my arms were extremely sore and i was laughing so hard it was really debilitating (sp?). I was just stuck there...cracking up. so i finally calmed down and pulled myself to the net ladder and made my way around but it was an interesting few minutes just hanging in limbo. a really fun day.

then i made a stupid, yet wise, yet stupid decision. the next day mel, alana and i rode mountain bikes up a swiss alp. you know how people say they do things that are hard but really rewarding and totally worth the incredible effort? this wasnt like that. it sucked. royally sucked. i ended up pushing hte damn bike all the way up. okay,..im glad i did it because we had some incredible views until we were up so high that we were in a could (literally) and couldnt see a thing. and we enjoyed some delicious soup at the top. but it was miserable the whole way up. really beautiful...but really, really painful. I have some bruises and definitely sore muscles from that ordeal. but how many people can say they biked/hiked up a swiss alp? not many.

so ive been mentioning mel and alana a lot. karissa during all this time wanted to see the french countryside on her own and practice her language skills so she stayed with some servas members out in draguinan. dont even ask me where that is. she enjoyed delicious meals and scottish-irish traditional dance.

so karissa and i are reunited and i was sad to have to say goodbye to my new ozzie friends who taught karissa and me a lot of great ozzie slang that i reckon ill be using for some time now. (just did) busabout is coming to a close and this was the last leg for a lot of the people weve met along the way so we had to say goodbye to all of them this morning as we left for zurich. leaving cities and new friends every week is a very hard part of traveling.

but now were in zurich with our new host, manuel meier. hes a 28 year old economist who lives in the most bachelor pad of bachelor pads. has three roommates...all economists...all young...its like college again. alcohol bottles on top of the kitchen cabinetsand whole pile of beer bottles in the corner ready for recycling. very homey. we cooked fondu (a traditional swiss meal) for manuel tonight and tomorrow we are making a big pasta dinner for all the guys and then going out.

will update more later...enjoy the pics

hi to karissas grandparents :)