Sorry

I apologize but Internet time abroad is expensive. I am giving you a list of places I have been and am going. I will write all about them later.

Sat- Barcelona
Sun- Barcelona
Mon- Paris
Tue- Normandy
Wed - Amsterdam
Thurs - Amsterdam
Fri - Berlin
Sat -Berlin
Sun -Hamburg
Mon Hamburg

I will talk to you later...Take care.

Chase and I at the Eagles Nest. Great Views. I can see why Hitler enjoyed this area.

All of us drinking at the worlds biggest pub. Notice the size of the glasses. I Love Bavaria.

The random guys are guys from New Zealand we met from Ireland. (L to R) Bevan, Your Truly, Herbie, Chase, Kenny, Chris, Carl, and Mark.

All of the guys before the big dinner.

We have a lot of projects and stuff due, so the lab is congested. I will update when I can. Austria and Germany easily trumps Switzerland.

Later

Quick Week Update

Tue:

• Did way too much laundry
• actually worked on homework
• went to Epoca...Baghet (the owner) gave me a tshirt. Ahh the benefits of being a regular
• Class is starting to get monotanous, well especially thr problem solving class.

Wed:

• Nothing exciting. Had lunch at Epoca, awsome as usual.
• Got out of class early, played full contact football with about 10 guys. You can tell we are all getting older. We were all sore as heck the next day. I guess that is why those guys wear pads

Thurs:

• During class, we had to name places that we would not like to work. I got a chuckle by saying Blacksburg and Huntington.
• Visited API Plastic Factory. It was actually pretty cool. They are an intermediatary between raw materials and final producers. It felt very Mafia like due to the fact that every major position in the company is held by a family member.
• Had an eqiquette class...and a quiz right before hand. Needless to say I, nor did very few, score very high on it. I guess that is why they wanted to have the class.
• Went to our gourmet dinner. 5 Courses, really good. It was on top of an old castle that is converted to a restaurant. The views were sweet. I really do not like wearing a tie when it is this hot. It should be illeagal.

Fri:

Getting ready to leave. Going to Austria and staying in Salzburg tonite, and then the highlight of my trip, Hitler's Eagle's Nest on Saturday. We then head to Munich for some beer and sightseeing for the rest of the weekend. Talk to you soon.

Swiss Sunday

We slept in late because we were so tired. It was some of the best sleep I have had since I have been in Europe. We decided to rent bikes, but so did the entire town so we only found 4 of them. Kenny and I walked around for awhile and Mike D went for a run. Herbie went hanggliding. I purchased some goods for the family, and we met the guys so we could switch the bikes. I rode by myself towards one of the lakes to get some views..which I never found.

Made my way back and cleaned up. Went to Brassiers for dinner which was in the basement of another hostel. It was actually really good food. Mike D, Herbie, and Ryan tried Absynth. I was a little leary. We had some of the best wings I have ever had...imagine that. Along with fries, corn on the cob, and fondue.

We made our way to a small pub and played some foosball. Thanks to some Mon EMS training. My team never lost. They closed early. I did find that they had a Munich Beer (Weiss) that was awsome, and Ruger Brau Dark (Swiss Beer) that was really good as well. They ended up closing early, and we headed to Balmers. This is another supposed hot spot...but like funny farm, really sucked.

They guys wanted to go to a strip club and I was not really feeling it. There was only one in town..and it looked shady. She Mike D, Burns, and I decided to head back to the hostel. However on the way back we found a hooters. Since Nick and I have our quest, I had to stop and have a beer. Well, to say the least I wish I would have given this one to nick. It was the Worst hooters I have ever been in. One girl working was semi attractive, but that is about it. I even think I saw a pregnant woman in the kitchen. Classy. Oh and they close early.

So we went to another bar, which is one we tried the first night. It was still the same old place. Had one beer, and made our way home.

Monday.....

Got stuck on the trains (In Italy for hours) The trip that was supposed to take about 8 hours...ended up taking almost 12. Other than that...It was a great trip.

Talk to you soon.

Saturday in Switzerland

Since we had to change Hostels, we had to get up early. The boys wanted to do some canyoning, but since I still had a few sniffles I decided to stay out of the cold water. They scheduled their time of departure and we made our way to breakfast. We ate at a small place overlooking the field where the hanggliders and paragliders landed. It was nice seeing them all come in. Somehow, the waitress misplaced my order and didnt bring me any food. When she realized her error, she brought it out and it was a great traditional breakfast. Eggs, some almost as good as mom can cook bacon, and bread. Since she replaced my order, she either fogot or left out my order on the final ticket. So we all payed (except me) and went on about our day. That was the first of more good things that were going to happen to me that day.

Went to the orignal hostel, and the lady still had our reservations. It actually turned out to be a really nice, quiet, clean hostel. We met a Welsh guy there named phil who was really cool. Since she screwed us over on the night before, we talked her into giving us free blankets. (Of course I didnt need them) but the guys are wimps and get cold easy.

Burns is not the adventurous type. Since I was not feeling well, he decided to stay with me above water. We headed to the Jungfrau region and decided to hike around. The ride up these train systems to high in these mountains is amazing. We took a train to Keine-Scheidegg(I will check spelling later) and the hiked to Mannlichen, another train stop. Everyone we met along the trail was extremely nice, touists and locals. After getting to the train stop before hiking it got really cold due to weather and our altitude. I changed to pants and my gore-tex jacket. A few minutes into our hike it started raining....so much for me staying out of the water. After arriving in Mannlichen, we took a Gondola down to Wengen. Unfortunately, there were not many views until we got out of the clouds a little bit. (I also kicked a pile of snow in July...way cool)

The town of Wengen was really quite cool. Small, cozy, swiss mountain town. Also, when you cross the border between Italy and Switzerland, it is amazing how the architecture changes. All of these swiss towns were post card perfect little towns and all were neat and clean.
We ate a local pub (I would say very crockett's like). I had Snitzel, and it was great. Followed it up with a pint of Carlsburg...it was actually a really good meal. The one thing I did notice is that people had dogs everywhere. They would come into restaurants, trains, stores, and no one said anything about it. Actually during my time in the country we say many dogs...and I never heard one of them bark, even when there were 5-6 in a store together. That is discipline I like.

Met back up with the guys. They had a blast Canyoning. They wanted to head to a beach volleyball tounament, and we followed along. They got their ass beat in the first two games and we headed to dinner. The game was held at a very popular hostel called the funny farm. Really big dorms, lots to do, but it is not my style. The place was filled with americans, and although there was a lot to do, all that was there were americans. I can drink with americans in Morgantown. It was kinda like a Frat/Sorority party anyway which you all know I love. So I was glad to get out. It was also not the cleanest place in town, you can tell american college students frequent it.

4 of us decided we wanted mexican and went to a place where a guy walked around and sang mexican songs all night long. Really good atmostphere. Something I do not understand in Europe. It takes forever to get a refil on drinks and to get your check at the end of the night. I know we drink a little faster than Europeans, but it takes forever. Also, it took like 20-30 mintues to get the check. I guess they just try and make the meal more of an experience than we do. oh well...

Hunter and the Guys wanted to go to the only Casino in town. So we made our way there. We had to pay a 5Frank cover charge, which I thought was odd. The casio was actually well run, but all they had was Roulette, Blackjack, and Slots. I watched the guys for a while play roulette which I think is a stupid game all the way around. I also watched the boys play some blackjack.
I decided to go get beers for the guys, and went to the bar I ordered 4 beers. The total came to 16 and I gave her a 20 Frank bill. She gave me back 16 franks and walked off. I took the beers to the guys and decided with my luck I should play a few hands of blackjack. I bought in for 100 franks, and in a little over an hour I doubled my money. I gave a tip to the dealer and walked away with 80 franks to the good. (I had a par level of course, but never hit it!)

After the Casio ~1:00 am everyone was tired from hiking and canyoning all day so we headed home. It was a great saturday.

Later...

Friday - To Switzerland

Hello Again.
I am going to break this up into a few posts. First of all, go to Switzerland. Besides Mountaineer Field, It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The mountains are amazing, the temperature is a nice mid 60s, dry, and even the rain was nice. Everything is clean, neat (you know I love), and the trains are ridiculously on time. If it says the train is arriving at 11:24 and leaving at 11:27...you better be on it at 11:27. It is amazing the efficiency of their system. The mountains, rail, and tunnel system are all amazing. We were in a tunnel for miles and miles going through some big mountains. Actually, they let people drive onto the train cars and stay in their cars in this one tunnel because its a 30 minute train ride or a 4-5 hour trip to the nearest pass. Easy decision I think....

Moving along.
We got in late, and the lady that said she would be at our hostel was no where to be found. We called numerous numbers and go no answer from anyone. We were able to walk around and finally found a place that had enough room for us for Friday night only. It actually turned out to be a really nice hostel, and the guy running the place was really nice. We all cleaned up, and headed for the bars. Since it was late, we went to some places we heard about. Lets just say they were not impressive. They were mostly guys, and looked to be a bit funny if you ask me. Luckily we went to another bar that was not as bad but still questionable. We ended up back at the bar in the basement of our hostel and it turned out to be a good time. On to Saturday....

Long Update

Sorry all, with the attacks in London, Class Projects, and people chatting computer space is at a premium. I am going to give a very borning update so we can chat about it later if you want. I apologize.

Last Friday,

• Went to Florence, checked in around 6.
• tip: Hotel Paseo really nice 1 star hotel, the people were really cool. Communal Bathrooms, but 3 beds to a room, along with a sink, safe, and locking door. Plus we had a great view of the top of the Duomo, along with some friendly pigeons.
• Early Night for Me due to Sickness

Saturday:

• I went to the Doctor and got Augmentin, some throat numbing stuff, and some cough medicine. I waited to get the cough medicine filled.
• Went to the Academy to see some art, and more importantly David. That was awsome.
• Ponte Vecchio, a bridge with stores on it. All jewelry stores. Really prettty cool, at night when they close up they all look like luggage.
• Museo de Opera - One really cool statue (need to look that one up) and the real golden doors with pictures from the bible on them.... awsome
• Went to some bar along the river...
• Went to some plaza everyone drinking. Sava talked Anouk to take us out.

Sunday

• Got up really early and me, Lenny, and Liz went to the Uffizzi. It's like the smithsonian of Italy. Lots of really old art. Nothing I could tell you about though. Still really cool. Works from Donatello, Michangelo, and Da Vinchi
• Lenny and I broke off with liz (she went to the academy) The rest of the guys had left. So we started walking. We went to the Piazza de Michaelangelo (Awsome views of the city)and a nice church above the hill from that.
• Then walked up to Fort Belvedere, more awsome views, not a lot to look at inside though
• After dinner, almost everyone went out. Had 2 beers and went home. I was way tired. I was getting better.

Monday

• Before we left, went to the top of the Duomo. A huge building in florence. 476 Steps up narrow winding medevil hallways. No where near ADA compliant. Great views of the city however.

Things to remember about the weekend:

The Capri Pants the boys bought, the Markets, the fake vendors and cops, and TOP SHELF TURTORA.

Tue:

Still feeling better.

• Went to the North Face outlet. It really sucked except for there were a bunch of other stores that no one else knew was going to be there. So I got to go grocery shopping. only a few people went cause they thought it was just going to be the north face
• Pizza for dinner, awsome
• Got a poker game... 4/8 finished

Thursday.

Got up at 700 and took taxi to train station to figure out our ticket. Got everything figured out and tonight we have a wine tasting.

I am going to Interlaken, Switzerland this weekend and maybe Bern. Talk to you soon.

THE STORY OF THE TRIP

OK, here is the story that if anyone tops, they might be coming home in a body bag. This is like stuff you read on myassholefriends.com "I'cant believe that you would be that stupid".

WARNING: Parents who have weak stomachs, or cant think that their kids would do something like this please go on to the next post. For those of you that like funny drunk stupid humor read on. KIDS DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

*The names have been kept the same to protect the morons.

Thurday night, as you all know, was a night that I felt bad. Since the stores here are all so well equipped. This one that most of my friends were going to has beer, wine, and ice cream. Since my throat was sore as hell, a big bowl of ice cream or two actually sounded really good. So I got to socialize for about an hour and eat ice cream which felt really good. I came home about 10:30-11:00 ish and went right to bed. My one roomate Kris* came home about 2 ish, and about 400 I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that Bryan* had not come yet. However, I remembered that he was talking to a coed classmate and had maybe been dicussing some class items really late. I went back to bed and about 600am he bursts in the door limping, and says "Boys, I know it is 600am, but this is worth waking up for." He Continues:

So, after walking back to the compound that night after the bar, a coed classmate Ellison, wanted to go for a walk and wanted someone to go with her. Bryan volunteered, and they started walking through the town. They came accross a park that was gated, but had some really good views of the city. They decided to jump the fence. They jumped the fence and walked around, soon it started to drizzle. This turned into a light rain when they got back to the fence. Bryan helped Ellison Over, and then started to make his way over. As he was climbing, he realized that he was in sandals, and they were getting a little damp. He started to climb over and actually said "Boy if I slip, I am in a world of hurt." Now you see what is building here folks, cause they don't have chain link fences in Europe. They have midevil style, black, gothic looking fences with pointed tips. I believe they are made to keep people either out or in, anyway...moving on.

It is at this point in saying he needs to be careful that his foot slips out of his sandal. He falls directly on a spike with his tailbone. This punctures him, and then slides back towards his rear end. Of course he yells, and trys to right himself. He does life himself off of the fence, and was able to get down, except now his shorts were covered in blood. Ellison freaks out, and thinks he is going to die (decent assumption). Anyway, she assisted him to a nearby house (I got onton her about that later), where he layed on the ground, and doesnt remember much else. She woke up the people in the house, and they promptly called (whatever the equivelent to 9-1-1 is over here) ....I should probably learn that, hmm....anyway: So an Ambulance came and took them both to the hospital, where he got alot of fluids. He woke up in the doggy style position on a table, with two doctors and a nurse trying to stitch him up.

They placed him on a bunch of antibiotics and painkillers and sent him home. That is when he came busting into our room at 600 in the morning. Keep in mind this is my roomate.
So from my point of view, I kinda felt bad. The one time I could have been helpful on this trip, I was too far away to do any good. I also said when he came into the room at 6 limping, "What did she or he do to you?"...so I felt kinda bad when I heard the real story. He is doing better now. He did go the hospital in Florence because his brusing was getting worse. I gave him the Nurse McCormick orders of "Take it easy, or you will never get better." Well, he didnt listen and did a lot of walking and sightseeing that day...which ended up in that trip to the hospital with increased bruising. He is going to go at it really slowly this week and try and recover. Hopefully be back to near good next weekend.

Like I said, if someone can top that...it might be something worth seeing.

I will update you on Florence, and the weekend when I get some more energy. Talk to you later.

Feet

Update on Sickness

Well, we were doing way to much moving for me to stop anywhere this weekend and post, sorry.

It's going to take a while for me to catch you up on everything I have done, cause you know I hate writing. I will keep at it. So of the posts from now on will have sporatic things in them to jar my memory. I will post stuff as I remember it as well.

This is a short one from Mom & Dad, Kelly, Mia, and Mom's other friends who are more worried about my sickness than me......Travel Tip: Dont get sick in a foreign country. It just sucks. Also, dont get a fever in a country that has less than 1% of all buildings with A/C.

Anyway, Went to Florence this weekend which is in the lovely Tuscana region of Italy. Got up Friday morning, felt worse. Sore Throat, Headache, Fever, Coughing, Weak, and I am fighting a river of snot coming out of my nose, which is still the only real problem I am having as of right now. My throat is slightly sore, and I blow my nose about every 20 minutes around the clock. I have got to be setting a world record in some kinda gross category. Anyway, I am going to try and get something else to dry me up with that tomorrow. Hopefully it will happen.

Got to Florence, went to dinner, and I immediately went back to the hostel. I wanted to try and give my body as much time as possible to revcover. Saturday morning, wasn't happening. Woke up, felt even worse but I think my fever had broken. I look through the library of guidebooks each of us had, and found a Tourist Health Service that can place you in contact with a doctor that can speak your language. It was actually a really nice service. They have 24 hr doctors on call of many common foreign travelers. I called this place on saturday, and the lady gave me a number to call. Turns out that you actually do call the doctor directly, as that is who answered. As soon as she heard I was speaking english, she immediately wanted to know what was going on. This was probably around 930-945 on saturday morning. She said that she could meet me at 12:00 at my hotel, or since we were staying pretty close to ger office I could meet her there at 1100. She had another patient she had to meet at 11:30. I told her that since she was going to be at her office anyway, i would meet her there. Well, being the promt person I am, I showed up about 12-15 minutes before 11. She was not there yet. About five minutes later this woman came around the corner on a motorcyle, full face helmet, complete with black doctor bag on the rear. She was late 40's and didn't really look like the motorcycle type. She pulled right up in front of me, as she took of her helmet and was like (pretend I am telling this now in my foreign voice) "You here for medical doctor" I was like yes. So she introduced herseld as Dr. HSomething? Silverhoern. She took me into her office and listened to my lungs, about made me throw up like Ednacot could by jamming all that stuff down my throat. However, she believed I had an upper respiratory infection, and prescribed me Augmentin, A gargle to help with the sore throat, and night time cold medcine to use if i cant sleep. It cost Euro 45 for the evaluation, but since her secretary was not there (being sat) I had to pay in cash. Who cares, I need Antibiotics. She did fill out a form that I should be able to get reimbursed from my travel insurance.

Made my way to the Pharmacy, which was awsome. They took the prescription, ran to two different drawers, and handed me the bag and told me the price. I was out of there within a minute. You can't get it that fast if you call ahead. I was back with the guys before 1230. Talk about service. NOw for some other stuff....