The End

Well its been really good and I just wanna thank all the people who've made this amazing summer possible. Wish all of you the best of luck and hope to see you again sometime in the future.

Zermatt

Went to Zermatt and up to the Klein Matterhorn. Great view and good night out. Built a fort in our hostel room and told stories when we got back.

Jump

Went to street parade in Zurich.
















Jumped off a dam. Video below























Video

München

IAESTE Munich weekend! The best way to describe it is that its like charlie and the chocolate factory but replace chocolate with beer. For 35 euros they managed to give us souvenir mugs made of porcelain mind you unlimited beer and food (breakfast lunch dinner for 2 days ish), accommodation, a private party with unlimited cocktails on Sunday, and Bavarian flags and German chocolate for the winners of the city rally (team I can't pronounce this aka 1/2 of Zurich LC). Just a note I only had one beer there the whole time.
The city itself was beautiful! I would say as nice or maybe nicer than Milan. It was definitely cleaner and the people less... impassioned haha. But yea there were alot of people and the weather was amazing so all in all a great trip. Didn't see that many sights in Munich mainly because we were so tired and the group I went with was not down to go check out the Olympic park based on word of mouth negative reviews =P. So a lot of time was spent hanging out in the English gardens which are enormous.
The English gardens stretch about 10-12 underground stations at least? and just walking from one station to another through the garden took us about an hour.
Another cool site we went to was the top of this church which had a ton of steps but a view that was really worth it. Not quite so spacious or pretty on the roof as the Duomo but a great view nonetheless.
Saw the Hofbrauhaus, a famous beer hall where people normally dress in their leiderhosen and dirndls.
Passed by the lion statues whose noses people rub for good luck.
These statues were directly across from a monument where people would have to stop to heil Hitler and then there was one road that people could take to go around the monument and avoid association with the Nazi party however people going down that road were often subject violence =(.
There was an opera house nearby here too that had to have its roof renovated because it caught on fire. Unfortunately the fire brigades of that time were just a random collection of people who happened to be in the area ordered by the king to take beer from the local brewery and dump it on the fire. In a true Bavarian fashion they started drinking the beer as they worked and so the efficiency with which they put out the fire was ... diminished to say the least.
Shopped for dirndls and leiderhosen.
Watched surfers body surf and short board surf a current that formed a predictable 'wave'. They should really make one of these in the bay area. I'm sure lots of people would go.
Jumped into a river called Eisbach. As you might have seen on facebook it has a surprisingly strong current. It was kinda cold but not too bad since Sunday was so hot.

Milano

^^^^ Fashionable poses (just look at the attitude and the windswept hair) in the capitol of fashion. Not to mention the expert photography hahah


I am really happy I decided to go along with Mansi's idea and head to Milan for the weekend. Ever hear Jay Z and Rihanna in umbrella? These lines come to mind

We Rockafellas
We fly higher than weather

haha so yea it was really hot in Italy. We were in a train car with a bunch of people decked out in hiking gear and when we emerged from a tunnel to a clear blue sky they all started cheering and applauding. It was a 5 hour ride but it went by pretty quick because we were playing cards. Fortunately I didn't lose that many times because we were playing loser drinks extra. =X Got to the station around lunchtime and went to drop off our bags.
The hostel was good just kinda random for example in the corner of the bedroom there is a small shower. It wasn't sectioned off at all just put in the corner. But hey it had clean sheets and reception open at 4 am for 27 chf a person. Left the hostel to go sight seeing and shopping. First we stopped off at Saint Mary of the Graces which houses the Last Supper. Unfortunately tickets to go in have been sold out for months and I was lazy and didn't come to Milan the night before and camp out to try to get canceled tickets in the morning. Next we went to see the castle in the middle of the town. Although I think the girls were more impressed with the shirtless Italians tossing around a football in the courtyard. Scott and I were unimpressed with their lopsided spirals. Went to see this arch that I guess commemorated something but Im not really sure what. Yea I was not such a great tour guide. haha.
After that we went shopping. Did you know Armani makes furniture? and has a hotel? neither did I but thats probably because you and I dont have private numbered bank accounts in Switzerland haha. Apparently the stores don't even have prices kinda like back at home in the ritzy stores or even in jewelry cases cause hey if you have to ask you can't afford it right? I didn't actually see most of these stores cause I offered to go with Mansi to the hostel since she still had all her stuff and had just come from Venice. Conveniently I charged my phone so we could have sat nav at night probably when we needed it the most and then got some spending money at the bank. Met back with the group and started walking through the shops. Mansi did the spinning on the bulls balls (signifies good luck) but I think we all passed cause there was a really long line and alot of kids who usually get priority over us =P. There were quite a few street artists including this one asian guy we watched who made doves and flowers out of radishes potatoes carrots and other tubers. Got gelato =D. Then shopped some more until dinner time at 945 X.X Yea we skipped apperitivo to do shopping and changing into nice clothes for the night. By we I mean the girls ahah. Oh well I guess Ill have to do apperitivo some other time. I can't even really drink either so it probably wouldn't have been so good for me. BTW apperitivo is this deal at some restaurants where you buy drinks and you get free food like pasta and stuff.
Went out to party at what we thought was a regular club but turned out to be a gay club. In any case it was closed and we went to the club next door instead. Had to walk the last 3 km or so there cause the tram was really unreliable. According to the schedule two trams should've come by us but there was no sign of them... Not at all like switzerland haha. But it was a nice warm night so not a big deal. Also unlike switzerland though was the fact that there were still a bunch of places open. Even we left at about 4 am there was still a food stand open.
The next morning we got breakfast 'in bed' and then left for the Duomo. This church took 500 years to build and is one of the largest in existence according to Scott. It was really amazing. I remembered that the buildings in Vienna were covered in detail and how I was impressed by the variation in detail in the library in St. Gallen but this church had both a huge amount of AND variety in its detailing. Had lunch, met up with a guy who worked at the club we went to because we overpaid and then went to the top of the Duomo. The view of the city was expansive but honestly not much to see in comparison to the church itself. Then this guy, Daniel took us around and showed us some stuff. We got some more gelato and chilled in the park by the castle. Played in the fountain and tried to limbo under some of the water jets. Finally went home dead tired.

Interlaken

I went to Interlaken (again) but this time with IAESTE. Even though it was kinda cloudy and rainy the first day when we went river rafting it was still alot of fun. I thought paddling for dragon boat was hard but that was in relatively calm water and generally falling out of the boat was not an issue. This could be said of river rafting too cause only one person out of the whole group actually fell out but still. Most of us did get out into the frigid water (the source of the river was glacier melt off) during a calm part and also in Bernsee which was at least 10 degrees warmer. It was so cool as you put your hand into the river and it passed through the border between the lake and the river it warmed up to the point that it was almost comfortable to swim in. By the end of the trip I couldn't really feel my right hand. Our tour guide was really knowledgeable and also quite a joker. That night even though I was really tired to the point that I fell asleep right after dinner I still somehow made it out to party. Dinner was amazing but unfortunately I was a little too tired to enjoy it fully. Woke up the next day bright and early then went 'hiking'. Saw this really cool water fall then went up in a lift and walked down back to the train station. Had dinner at this purple house to go place where some asshole cut us in line then the cook/cashier gave me as many small coins in change as he could and couldn't even count out 1 franc in change properly. But other than that it was a really great weekend.