Back through Italy, Hello from Switzerla

Published on Aug. 13, 2003 in Switzerland

I know, it has been a long time since I last wrote in my journal.  This one might be rather long because of that, but we shall just see.  So, I don't really know the last day I wrote in my journal, let me count back.  Ok, the stories start in Ios, where I jumped on the ferry.  I rode the 9 hour or so ferry to Athens, and slept almost the entire way there.  At Athens I jumped on a bust to Patras, which was especially amusing because the book I was reading at the time discusses Pireous, which is the port in Athens.  I rode the bus to Patras for a ferry at like 6:00, and got into Patras at like 12:00.  I found an Internet cafe and wrote a few emails, and then sat at a cafe and read, and read down by the port.  I kept on checking my PDA for the time, since I THOUGHT it was right, however it was an hour so.  So, I started to look for the ferry that I needed to board, and it happened to be the one right next to me.  Well, it left, and I wondered off looking for it, not knowing that it was my ferry.  make sense?  Ok, I realized what happened and got another ticket (well, changed tickets) for a ferry at 8:00 that was going to Anconda.  14 hours and one more night later I am in Anconda, walking down the street.  I jump on a train to Milan eventually, after seeing a friend I met in the Cinco Terra and meeting another friend that I met on I Ios.  Small world!  We sat on the train (Jill I think her name was) and talked about Ana a little, and just enjoyed ourselves in general.  Good times.  We arrived in Milan later in the afternoon, and I checked my interment.  I talked to Sibyl and we decided to meet up on the 10th, which left me two days, well, a day and a half, to go and explore Pisa and Florence.  I caught a train down to Florence, and then jumped over to Pisa.  Since it was getting late I fell asleep halfway in between Florence and Pisa, on a plot of grass.  The ext day I woke up and went to Pisa.  While in Pisa I saw the Tower, and found a good bookstore,  bought some more books, and just relaxed.  Since I didn't have any reservations I simply fell asleep outside the train station in Pisa.  The next morning I jumped on a train and went to Florence, where I wandered around for a while and eventually found a campsite called Michelangelo's Campsite, or something like that.  It was right next to Michelangelo's Plaza, it was great.  I took a shower, moaned a little I think (since it has been like 5 days since I last took a shower) and had already seen quite a bit of the city.  Amazing city, I wish I could spend five days there with some girl, in a hotel.  It would be VERY romantic!!  Maybe when I get a little older I can start doing trips like that.  When I woke up I wandered downtown and saw a couple Cathedrals, and went to another place where I THOUGHT David was, but wasn't.  I had to leave to get to Zurich before not-to-late, and jumped on a train to Milan.  In Milan I had 20 minutes to write an email to Sibyl about when I would arrive and then also jump onto  a train.  I did it!  But, decided to get food, so missed the train.  I knew I might miss the train so I sent Sibyl both dates, and was in Zurich by 11:00pm.  She and her friend Benni picked me up and we crashed at his place, an apartment just outside of Zuich.  Very nice guy, he gave me two beers, and I slept like a king on his couch. The next morning Sibyl and I jumped onto a train to Interloken.  A few hours later we arrived and eventually found a hostel, Balmers, which is one of the best hoesnls in Europe (apparently).  Good times.  We just slept pt away some of the afternoon, and watched a movie in the night.  The next day was a relax day also, as we scoped out a place to go Canyoning.  That night we watched another movie, ate like kings, and just relaxed some more.  Each night I went to bed at around 10:30 or so.  The first night was just miserable, people snored in the room and then people had sex above us and I got NOO sleep at all!  As a result I woke up at, wait, I got out of bed at about 5:15 and wandered downstairs.  The guy said: "since you are up, why don't you just go to the lake."  I wandered up the river and a while later came up to the lake, and I sate and watched the sunrise.  Very nice, amazing.  I got cold eventually and walked back to the hostel, got some food, and wandered around  some more.  Sibyl and I went downtown so she could get some gifts for her family, while I got a really nice watch.  Hopefully it will las time for the reset of my l life, although I need to adjust a few of the bands to make it fit perfectly.  That night we actually booked canyoning for the next day.  We went, on the 13ths it must have been, canyoning.  The entire experience was, well, expensive but a great experience.  It was hyped up to be really extreme, and although it was entertaining I felt in control the entire time.  Nothing too crazy happened, I was the first one to go off the first "big jump."  It was pretty big, but very safe :(  That n night we watched another movie and I crashed again at like 10:30.  Woke up, at breakfast, found an Internet cafe, wrote ana, looked into some hostels, and wandered out to the train station to catch our train at 9:44 to Amsterdam.  We didn't leave very much time however, unfortunately, and I ran the last little bit to the train.  Sibyl stayed  behind.  I got to the train in time, but somehow right as sibyl wandered up the doors closed and the train took off.  Bad luck!!!  We are getting on the next train at 12:44 or something like that, which is going to make having a hostel much more difficult.

A little speculation on the side, I am really looking forward to school, yet am still going to enjoy the rest of this trip.  I miss Ana of course, although more enlightenment has occurred in that department.  Well, pastry time, good bye!!!