Schonbrunn Palace

Once again another long bus ride to Vienna but we did get enough time to shower and get ready for dinner. Our hostel was awesome, the best hostel I have ever stayed in. We had a nice traditional Austrian meal provided for us with yummy fried food lol. Even though we all sleep most of the bus ride here, we are all always exhausted and go to bed early. The next day we left the hostel at 9:00am (a late day for us) and headed to the Schonbrunn Palace, the royal family’s summer home. I decided to pay the fee to go in and look around with our tour guide, Emma. There were so many Maria’s in the royal family generations it made it so confusing, therefore I spent most of the day trying to figure it out. An hour later we got back onto the coach and went on a driving tour of Vienna, Austria’s capital. After the tour, my friends Evonne, Elise, Jenny, and I headed to the Hofburg Palace. Yep I went inside another palace but it was their winter home and it was amazing on the inside. We then headed to have a nice lunch to hold us over for awhile. We met back at the bus to head to the Schnapps Museum that has been around since 1875 and is still owned and operated by the same family. Next we headed to the Vienna’s famous amusement park, Prater Park, and home to the largest ferris wheel. I did not go on the ferris wheel but I did make it onto some of the other fun rides. All in all we had an awesome time in Vienna. Next stop… BUDAPEST!

Hofburg Palace

Courtyard at the Hofburg Palace

Schnapps Museum with Evonne

Prater park with Gene on the Swings

From the top of the Duomo... 463 steps later

After stopping off  in Pisa for thirty minutes, we arrived in Florence pretty late again. Since I was still not feeling well I had dinner and headed to bed. We are only staying in Florence for one night which was okay with me considering I lived there for eight weeks. The next morning we headed to the city. Everyone went on a walking tour and since I already knew everything about the city I stayed behind and hung out with our tour guide. Meeting up with a few of the others afterward, we stopped at Oil Shoppe for lunch then headed to Grom for some Gelato one last time : ( While the others walked around to the shops, I headed to my old apartment area to get some cheap toiletries. Then back to the bus to head to our next stop… ROMA! (Since I did not take any pictures, I will post pictures from my last weekend)

The roomies and I in front of the Santa Croce

My whole program

The beautiful Mediterranean Sea

Since it was Switzerland Day, we hit tons of traffic on our way to Nice, making us late for our dinner. It turned out to be another ten hour day on the bus…. UGH!!! On our way we found out about designing our own trip t-shirts which I helped out a lot with so that gave me lots of entertainment! After dinner we walked through the city and headed to a local pub to watch some live music. The band was really good and played lots of oldies. I headed home early because I felt like I was coming down with a cold. The next morning, I was feeling even worse so I decided to sleep in and meet up with everyone later. We met up to have some lunch and then headed to the beach. The water was nice and it was a perfect day for the beach, even if the pebbles made it a little uncomfortable. We headed back to the hotel in the late afternoon to get ready to go to Monaco to see the Monte Carlo Casino. Monaco is the second smallest country in Europe. Prince Albert designed the casinos after he sold the resource part of the land to the French. The casinos were meant to help make money to keep the city going. Therefore, Monaco citizens are not allowed to gamble there and they do not have to pay income taxes. In order to become a citizen of Monaco you must apply and make a large donation. Demi Moore was accepted as a citizen while Michael Jackson was denied! We first headed to the Palace of Prince Rainer and the late Princess Grace Kelly, then off to see the Monte Carlo Casino. I only took a look inside because in order to go all the way in you must pay ten euro and the minimum bets are twenty-five euro, which is about my budget at the Indian casinos in California. So a few of us headed down to the Sun Casino, where I got some water because I was still not feeling too well. We left about an hour later to head home for some sleep. Next stop… FIRENZE!!!

Beach Day!

Monaco

All my girlies!!!

Monte Carlo Casino

Lauterbrunnen: The Land of the Falls

The bus ride to Switzerland took about 10 hours with stops on the way. We got into our camping site around 7:00PM, where we had an onsite cook to make us all of our yummy meals! Switzerland was absolutely gorgeous and we were all kind of surprised, we had no idea how amazing it would be. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, way better than any other mountain areas in California. Lauterbrunnen, meaning the land of the falls because it is home to 72 waterfalls, is a small town of about 200 people set in the valley of the Swiss Alps. Our campsite had cozy little cabins overlooking three waterfalls. It was nice to be in a peaceful place and have some home cooked meals… but I added some excitement to my life… I headed to Skydive XDream the next morning! I made the mistake of calling my mom the night before whom about had a heart attack when I told her but I was too excited to not do it! The few people who decided to participate in the optional extra and I headed down to the jump site to find out we were jumping out of a helicopter! I had never been in a helicopter or skydived so I was super excited! My tandem skydive partner was Stefan, one of the head jumpers and he was an awesome Swiss man to be going with. He jumped with another woman right before me, once he hit the ground he ran into the hanger to grab another parachute and then back up he went! The views were absolutely incredible. I was super amazed that I was not nervous well I wasn’t until I was hanging out of the helicopter looking down 12,000 feet! What a rush! Next thing I know I am free falling and couldn’t be more excited!!! After he released the parachute we coast down while he spun me around in circles getting about five feet away from one of the waterfalls. As soon as I was on the ground, I wanted to go again! Too bad I had to rush to the train station to head up the mountain to go to Jungfraujoch, the Top of Europe. As soon as I arrived to the train station, I had to rush to find a phone to call my mom and let her know I was alive! I met with some of the other girls to make sure we got seats together on the train which was about two hours. The trip was so worth the money, the views were amazing even if when we got to the top it was about four degrees Celsius! COLD!!!! We were at about 12,000 feet above sea level, my second time in one day… AMAZING!!!! We got to go through an ice palace, pet huskies, and be on the top of Europe. It was an incredible day! Next stop… the French Riviera.

Preparing for Skydiving

Stefan my tandem skydiver/camera man!

Right before the jump

The beginning of the free fall

I screamed the whole way down!

Parachute opened...

Yay!!! I survived

On our way up to Junfraujoch

The Incredible Swiss Alps in the SUMMER!!!

The Top of Europe!

Ice Palace

Huskey!!! So adorable