Cheese, Chocolate and Pocket Knives.

After having the pleasure of staying at Amber's grandparents house in downtown Brussells, and enjoying the late night conversations with her grandparents, we hit the train to Interlaken, Switzerland. We stayed in a hostel that is apparently in the "world famous hostels" list and it definitely lived up to it's reputation. Interlaken is most well known for it's extreme sports and it was hard to even look out the window without seeing sky divers gently floating back to earth on their parachutes, or hang gliders soaring through the perfectly clear skies. Some guys we met at dinner time had been canyoning that day (look it up on YouTube...amazing) and had the time of their lives. Andrew and I talked about it and decided that the expensive stuff wasn't for us, as fun as it sounded. We met some girls our first night in town and enjoyed watching the football matches with them and the beer specials at the hostel bar were amazing, so naturally Andrew bought them drinks the rest of the night because he is such a gentlemen.

Clubbing in Belgium...before I passed out

The next day we decided to tackle those big mountains that kept laughing at us from a distance. We took a bus to a town called Wilderswil and then a train to Lauterbrunnen and then the hike started. The trail was listed as 2 1/2 hours, and we had heard it would be fairly steep. While on this epic journey we had many stops, mostly by the waterfalls, and even a quick break by a stream to get a drink of the purest Swiss water I've ever had in my life. The hike was very difficult, but the views made it completely worth it. Once we got to Murren we sat down and started chow down on the bread, cheese, ham, and bananas that we had bought earlier that day from the meanest Swiss lady in the world. On the way down we took a gondola to Gimmelwald and then hiked down to Stechelberg and took the bus and then the train back to Interlaken. That night the whole hostel gathered round the TV for the Spain vs. Portugal match and luckily everyone was Spain fans so it was very fun when they pulled through in the end.

Getting some of that sweet, sweet Swiss spring water

Enjoying our view of the Alps from Murren

The trail we walked down to get to the bus station, the only downhill part of our journey

Today, we took the train to from Interlaken to Milan, and then to Rome. Andrew and I have enjoyed some Italian wine, and some Roman gellato while getting used to the southern Italian humidity. Already we've met a lot of people in our hostel and apparently we've got some dates for our trip to the Colosseum tomorrow, woohoo!

Get it done, Annu.

-Kennedy

--WHATTUPP--

So Switzerland was unreal. Literally. It felt like I had just stepped into some part of Disneyland.

Little Swiss homes, all complete with window boxes filled with little red flowers. Everyone with their own little garden and little fountain fixtures covered in flowers on every bock.

The hostel was legit. We've gotten really lucky so far and most of the hostels we've been to have been a blast and super social. It felt like a huge Swiss house and was decked out (like everywhere else in town) with Swiss flags. We had a good time our first night and then woke up the next morning for a big hike.

My life was the Sound of Music that whole day. The hike was INTENSE but so worth it. We got to the top at around 4000 feet and looked out at all the mountains that were surrounding us. On the way down we walked through several small Swiss villages...the whole thing was incredible.

Hamilton, proud of himself after the hike up (even though he complained so much we just carried him the entire way)

Time for bed...Rome awaits.