TAPSExp

Hei! ("Hi" in Finnish)

Es tut mir Leid! ( I am sorry!) It has been so long since I have posted a new blog story. I have exams this weekend and for the next two weeks so I have been traveling and studying.

And now for Paris and Switzerland..............

The weekend after we went to Greece, we thought we had a class scheduled all weekend. Then our professor had to cancel class at the last minute, so we made last minute plans to go to Paris and Switzerland!

Me, Cayle, Cody and Madison all purchased Eurail passes and we were running out of weekends to use it within the 2 month time frame so we had to take advantage of every weekend.

We decided to take a over night train to Paris and then stay in Paris for 2 days and one night and then take a train to Switzerland and and stay there 2 days and one night. On this trip, our plans were changed and rearranged so much it was definitely by the grace of God that everything worked out.

We wanted to leave Wednesday night and arrive in Paris Thursday morning and stay in Paris Thursday night and on Friday take a night train to Switzerland. Come to find out there are no night trains from Paris to Switzerland so on the day that we were to leave we booked another night in the hostel in Paris and then we would leave for Switzerland Saturday morning.

Paris was really awesome! I loved it! I really enjoyed the Eiffel Tower. It is something about it that you can sit there and stare at it all day long. The weather was really nice while we were there and Paris was everything I expected and more! We saw the main attractions such as the Louve and we took a picture with Mona Lisa. We went in Notre Dome and Sacre Coeur.

In Switzerland, our first goal was to go hiking when we arrived (in Kleine Schidig in the Jungfrau Mountains) were were going to go hiking for about 3 hours and the go to Gimmelwald where our hostel was ("Mountain Hostel"---they weren't we were IN the mountains!). Well, somehow we ended up on the wrong train to go hiking when we arrived in Switzerland and and we were confused about the local trains and we didn't have a ticket. Thank goodness the lady that was checking tickets spoke English and was so kind to us. She recommended that we go to the hostel that day because it was too late to go hiking and she would help us to buy a ticket (.....and not fine us...yay!). So, with this plan we were actually on the RIGHT train to the hostel and WRONG train to hiking so it worked out very well (....again, by God's grace!).

So, hiking in Switzerland was AMAZING! We hiked for about 4 hours, but every minute was worth it. The weather was a little strange. It started out cold in the morning (we felt like were in Finland again). Then it warmed up and we took off our jackets. Then it rained, then it was warm and sunny again. All in all it was really cool!

Paris:

Switzerland

We also visited Greece! Greece was top on my list of countries to visit and I was so excited when I found a cheap flight. I went with Cayle, Cody and our friend that we met here in Munich from Canada. We landed in Athens and stayed there one night. The first day in Athens there was apparently a strike so the subway was closed and the entrance to the ruins were closed too. So we walked around the city and saw the Temple of Zues the first say and had Gyros for lunch. We also climbed to the highest hill in Athens called Lycabettus Hill and you could see nearly the entire city. From there, we went and saw the stadium where the first world Olympics was held in Panathinaiko Stadium. For dinner that night I also had a Greek salad.

The next day when everything was actually open, we did alot of of walking and alot of steps that day. We climbed to the Parthenon and the Acropolis. We also climbed another large hill to see the Filopappos Monument.

For dinner that night we had a Greek dish called, "Moussaka." Its is like a lasagne a little bit because it is layered, but it has a thick layer of ground beef topped with a thick layer of baked cheese. It had an interesting taste, but I liked it.

That evening we left for Napflio, the old capital of Greece on the coast. We spent the night in Nafplion and the went sightseeing and to the beach the next day. We went to the medieval fortress and then we headed for the beach!