Our first 3 week class ended on Thursday and our final paper was due, but class was canceled. So we took advantage of having no class and left at 6 am on Thursday morning. Prague was our furthest trip away from Maastricht and it was 12 hours of traveling. We finally arrived in Prague that evening at 7 :30 pm! On the way there we took our typical bus to Aachen, Germany, got off at the correct stop this time and then immediately got on a train to take us to Frankfurt! It was a 2 hour train, so not too bad of a ride we talked most the way and entertained ourselves. In Frankfurt, Germany we had the freshest, most delicious meal in the train station. They had a cafeteria set up and every option looked delicious.

Anyways we loaded up on the next train that took us to Dresden, Germany which is right outside the Czech Republic . After that 5 hour train trip we arrived in Dresden and had to get a ticket to take us from the border of the Czech to Prague, since our rail passes do not work in the Czech Republic. Not a problem, by this time we have gotten the hang of the trains for the most part. The biggest hang up is still the language barrier.

On the way to Prague, the train was unbelievably HOT . The guy that the girls saw with in our cabin was from Holland, and we had a nice chat about the differences of Americans and Europeans, but I will be honest I was only half paying attention due to the heat level of my body!

Once we got off the train in Prague I was a little taken back. There were change stations that looked shady everywhere.. an indoor casino that was roped off… nothing looked well kept and it wasn’t the best first impression for me! But we found a metro ticket and headed off to our hotel to get rid of our stuff. Found it quite easily. The rooms were very basic, bed… desk… dresser… it honestly looked like a furniture storage room with everything thrown in. But we didn’t plan on spending much time in there anyways, we had three days to see the city!

We quickly got ready to go out for the night, some of us showered, all cleaned up a little from the sweaty train! The first night in any city is always interesting due to the fact that you don’t know your way around anywhere, or what area most of the people go to. We kept it simple the first night and spent the evening at a nearby pub. Some stuck to just drinks, but most of us ordered food.. splitting chicken nachos and Josh ordered a steak that I ate with him. Let me remind you I am not a steak eater, but this was for some odd reason delicious! We spent the night laughing until our stomachs hurt and enjoying each other’s company… celebrating making all the way to Prague on a train for the last 12 hours.

We closed down that pub and on the way home some of the guys wanted to stop for one final drink at another restaurant that looked low key. We sat down grabbed a drink, met some funny British men that we chatted with for awhile and finally decided it was late and we had all weekend to experience Prague.

We woke up at 5:30 AM to get to the encierro, which starts at 8 AM. It only lasts about 4 minutes, so if you’re late, you miss the whole thing. The girls got in line to get tickets for the bullfight, and the three guys went to the bull run course. We were about an hour and 15 minutes early, so we spent the time checking out spots to start, and being incredibly nervous. Two days earlier, two brothers had been gored by the same bull, and were still in the hospital. We met up with another guy from IU who had come from Barcelona for the day just to run with the bulls.

The area we started in was about 40 yards from the double bend in the course, which is the safest section. Our plan was to run up to the bend and there jump over one of the fences to safety. The streets were filled with people, until about 5 minutes before the start. People started running back from the start towards the end of the course and soon there were about 60% of the people previously in front of this. This could either be bad or good, good because there’s less people to trample us, bad because there’s less people between us and the bulls! At about 2 minutes to go, everyone started jumping and yelling and getting real excited. At this point, we were nervous as there was no turning back

At 8:00 AM, they fired the cannon letting us know that the bulls were released. It only took about 30 seconds until we could see the bulls down the street. We all yelled ‘El Toro!’ and turned and ran. As we got to the fences, the bulls were upon us. The guy right in front of me dove through the fence, and I jumped up after him, right as the bulls rounded the corner and came through. One of the other guys got on the end of the fence and was nearly gored by the bull running by. It was only 6 seconds and the bulls were already gone. We couldn’t believe how quickly they got to us. Most people try and make it down into the bull ring, where you can have your own amateur bullfight with the bull, but we didn’t know that they closed the gate as soon as the bulls passed, so we weren’t able to get in. It was pretty wild watching random people try to go one on one with the bull. Pretty stupid.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around. The city was pretty gross from the 8 previous days of partying. The last thing we did was go to the bullfight that night. This is something that we would rather have not seen. It was very cruel, and I wouldn’t recommend seeing it to anyone. I won’t really go into any details, because you’d probably rather not hear them. If it was not for running with the bulls, the trip probably would not have been worth it. I hope I can go to Spain again, to Barcelona or Madrid and see a different side of Spain, because I was not very impressed with Pamplona.

All in all, it was worth the experience, and I’m learning new things every week.

We decided to head down to Pamplona, Spain for the weekend for the end of the festival of San Fermin. This is the festival that’s famous for the ‘encierro’, or Running of the Bulls. Each morning for 8 days, they release 6-8 bulls who run half a mile through the streets of Pamplona to the bull ring, for the bull fight later that night (more on that later).

Getting to Pamplona was a hassle. We had to pay 80 euro on top of our Eurail passes just to get to Paris, because we didn’t make a reservation. I do not like Thalys trains anymore. This, followed by the most uncomfortable overnight train we’ve taken made the trip almost not worth it. Upon arriving in Pamplona, we were happy to see that the hotel we booked was actually an apartment with multiple bedrooms and a kitchen (plus balcony!). It was the 2nd nicest place we stayed after the hotel in Zürich.

We checked in and cleaned up and went out to look for our bull running uniforms. We couldn’t believe how many people were wearing them. Every person had at least the red bandanna around their neck, most had the full uniform of white shirt, white pants, red belt and red bandanna. Not wanting to be left out, all the guys who were running paid 23 euro to get the full uniform. Check out the pictures to see us in all our bull-running glory.

We ate some Paella, a Spanish rice dish for lunch. It was disgusting. It was rice with shrimp, crawfish and mussels. It wouldn’t have been that bad except all the heads, eyes, legs and antennae were in the dish. I think shrimp legs were actually the main ingredient. Gross. At least we tried it.

We went home to get some rest for the last day of the running with the bulls.

Interlaken is supposedly a huge hot spot for the extreme sports. It is located right in the middle of two lakes in the Swiss Alps. To save money, I mentioned we decided to drive the van into Interlaken. We woke up super early to go pick up the van and all piled in, while Danielle, a girl we were with drove the huge van up into the Swiss Alps! It was a 2 1/2 hour trip that i don’t think i have ever laughed so hard. This whole trip was very unplanned but was working out perfectly for us! We got there without a wrong turn, and took hundreds of pictures along the way. Driving in the Swiss Alps was one of the highlights of the trip with scenery that was unbelievable!!

So besides the fact that we had to get accustomed to the clutch, couldn’t read any of the signs, we eventually found our way to Interlaken and had to find directions to the company ‘Outdoor Interlaken’. We had decided as a group that we were going to go White Water Rafting which was a compromise between all of the options of skydiving, canyoning and biking through the Alps. We signed up, but could not get in until 4 that afternoon. We grabbed some lunch and then walked around the little town and enjoyed their shops and the scenery. (Josh really really wanted to go canyoning, but white water rafting was very fun)

Around 3:30 we got back in the fun bus and drove to the base camp to start our lessons on how to raft through the Alps! We all got into our bathing suits and put on the gear. The gear consisted of full wet suits, life jackets, boots, bright yellow helmets… we looked very funny! We did a quick info session and practiced in the boats on land. Next, we jumped in the van and drove to where we were loading on the river. It was a little nerving how we got off the van and were expected to jump into the boat and start rafting, but once in the water it calmed me down a lot!

I have never experienced colder water… it was such a thrill and a fun experience!! Josh was in the very front , while being the only girl on my raft and the weakest of the group i was in the back near the guide. (At least if i fell in i knew i was safe!). We had the best guide of the bunch…. you could tell he was experienced and loved what he did. Throughout the trip when the waves were small he would have us all stand up and balance and play games of who could last the longest. At one point he had us get out of the boat and he told us we had to walk it for a few steps (we should have been suspicious when the other two rafts with us did not have to get out of their boats) but after we walked a few steps he told us to run and jump in. At the very moment he told us to jump in the bottom of the river went out and we all plunged into the freezing water again. It was such a perfect joke that none of us could be mad.  2 of the guys fell out when we hit a huge wave, but the other guys in the boat (Josh especially) were quick to save them!! When we were finished we all got free drinks and were able to see pictures that a photographer had taken along the trip for us to purchase.

Once we were done with our fun in Interlaken we headed back for our last night in Zurich, finally arriving home around 10:30 pm. Since it was our last night we wanted to spend it on the town and see as much of Zurich as possible. The festival was still going on and so we decided to head out in that area where we were laving yesterday. Half way down the main road of the festival our group of 8 got split and the crowds were suffocating! I was amazed at how many people were on the streets and there was no control. Glass bottles everywhere with people going every way possible. We were scared. We did not want to be in these types of crowds especially separated from the other group. The 4 of us turned around and waited awhile for the crowds to hopefully die down. When there was no signs of people going anywhere we found some back streets that took us to the main road and got back to the train station. The train to our hostel didn’t leave until 2:15 AM, so we hung out and talked and ate tons of food in the train station until it was ready to leave. We had bratwurst, crepes, pretzels, chicken & potatoes, and lots more. Our stomachs hurt the next morning. Got back to the hostel and fell asleep but had a train out at 6 am the next morning.

So sleep wasn’t much of an option this weekend! But it’s ok.. you are only in Europe once and I can catch up on sleep in a few months when i am done seeing the world !

After a long night of sleeping on the train… well sleeping is a little bit of an exaggeration, but hanging out on a train with our eyes closed for 8 hours, we arrived in Zurich at 7:30 am. We were all super tired and very hungry but nothing was open that early in the morning. We walked around endlessly in a city that we didn’t know anything about, and found two choices, McDonalds or Sam’s Pizza ( with a big American flag as its symbol). So on the principle of not eating at McDonalds, we choose Sam’s Pizza, who only had sandwiches available for us to eat. So between salami, tuna, or mozzarella, we all chose a sandwich and enjoyed it greatly! It was weird because no one in the entire place spoke English, yet the walls were covered in English signs, like an Applebee’s or something like that. There was even a sign in English that said ‘No Smoking’ yet smoking was allowed in the restaurant.

After eating, we went back to the train station hoping that the tourist information and ticket bookings were open. We spoke to the ticket counter and discovered that our day trip on Saturday to Interlaken would cost everyone 120 euro on the train to get there ! This was an unexpected expense that we didn’t want to pay but we also came to Switzerland to visit Interlaken. We stepped back and looked at all of our options and decided to look into renting a van for all 8 of us. Yes, at first this probably sounds crazy considering only 1 of us could drive a stick, we couldn’t read any of the signs on the road, and this is still our first week in Europe! But it ended up saving us over 100 euro by renting the van.

Since none of us slept on the train we went directly to the hotel and took a 4 hour nap. We all cleaned up after we were re-energized by the nap. Got dressed and headed out for our first night in another country. We got back to the train station and saw endless stations of different foods and carnival type games. There were people everywhere and we were confused as to what was going on. It turns out the weekend we chose to come to Zurich was a once in every 4 year festival that rotates around Switzerland. This festival brought in hundreds of thousands of people and was extremely busy! But it gave us a lot to keep us busy. We ate well, saw the fireworks show, watched the air show put on by some jets, and played some of the carnival games.

The city was beautiful, the weather was perfect, and all of the people made it exciting to be there! We were planning on leaving early so we did not stay out late. Went home early to get some sleep, as we were leaving there were crowds of even more people coming out to the festival! It was crazy!

This was our first trip in Europe traveling with a group. This trip began Wednesday night, thinking we were going to Prague, but after some research and some chatting we all randomly changed our minds to Switzerland..? Anyways we sat Wednesday night together looking for a hostel and hoping that we could show up at the station and get a reservation on the train. Looking back we were very lucky we even made it to Zurich and back , we were all very unprepared for what was ahead of us.

Thursday was our first day of class in Maastricht. It was a pretty basic first day, our professor seemed very laid back, and in total the first class only lasted 9 days. Class got out at 12:30 in the afternoon and 8 of us headed straight to the train station. We discovered it was cheapest to get to Switzerland if we took a bus first for an hour to Aachen, Germany and from there took a short train trip to Cologne, Germany and once in Cologne we would be able to book our trains to Zurich. So we left the train staion, we knew we would have to take an overnight train to Switzerland so we would have to be in Cologne no later than 11 pm. We went back to the guesthouse , all packed and planed to leave around 6:30 to begin the bus trip to Aachen. It was amusing in a sense to see the people who worked in the train station’s faces when we told them 8 people wanted to get to Zurich.. tonight! They thought we were crazy.. but we decided to do the trip anyways and hope for the best.

So we were on the bus to Aachen with no definite plans from there, just dreams of being in the Swiss Alps! On the bus we drove for awhile and at times we would all comment about buildings or scenery that we saw. Well, after about 55 minutes i saw a very pretty building and even took a picture of it. about an hour and a half later we are still on the bus and begin to see buildings that we have driven by before. Apparently we had missed our stop. We immediately got off at the next stop and saw across the street a block away the same bus we are on going back the way we just came. It was humorous to see one at a time, each of us get off the bus and start in a full sprint to cross the street to make this bus! Luckily we made it and saw our first bus driver laughing at us as we pulled away in our new bus. Making sure we didn’t miss the stop again, one of the guys sat in the front and waited for the driver to tell us when exactly to get off. It would work out that the one building i thought was pretty and took pictures of was the actual stop we were supposed to get off on!!

Finally we arrived at the train station and worker there told us about group tickets if you travel together and helped us save some money on the first train to Cologne! We finally arrived in Cologne around 10:45 and made it to the ticket window to get our final destination tickets for the overnight train at 11:55 pm. While ordering them we were the only ones in the ticket area and when we were done they had to escort all of us out the back door. apparently they close down at 11 and if we would have arrived 10 minutes later we would have missed the ticket booth and been stuck in Cologne for the weekend. To waste the last hour in Cologne we found a bar that was still open and grabbed a quick bite to eat for dinner and hung out! There was a beautiful cathedral (Dom) outside the back door of the train station that was lit up and a sight to see!

Once 11:55 pm arrived, we boarded our first overnight train and attempted the long night of trying out every possible position to sleep in. Literally.. EVERY position we tried and tops was probably 4 hours that any one person slept, and that was only because he brought a pillow. We were all happy that we finally made it and were on our way to Switzerland! It was a good first Thursday that everything seemed to work out in our favor!

Sadly today was our last day in Italy. We woke up super early to arrive at the bus stop, got on a 5:30 bus, to get on another bus… to finally get to the airport where we will fly back to Brussels! We were flying RyanAir again so we waited until half hour before the flight and did the cattle herding game again where we shoved past everyone. Some travelers had told us the secret of going in the back door of the plane and you can get a better seat. So we avoided the rush by sneaking in the back door!

The plane was a quick 2 hours to Brussels where we landed and had to quickly get on the bus to take us to the train station. If you remembered from an earlier post, we had left our baggage (including laptop) in the train station in Brussels… well now is the moment of truth where i am wondering and praying that it will still be there when I arrive. The bus from the airport was tricky because it was full… and then we got sent inside to buy tickets… until the bus driver ran in personally to catch us becasue the bus was leaving and he was letting us buy them on the bus! It was our lucky day!

So we loaded up on the bus for an hour or so and reached the first train station we left our bags out. Luckily they were there and everything was in perfect condition! But boy did I NOT miss my 50 lb bag!! I was instantly glad we left it in Brussels .. best decision yet!! Anyways we got our bags and hopped on the train right as it was leaving for Maastricht.

By this time we had pretty much figured out the train travel and it wasn’t as stressful as the first few days . The train to Maastricht was a couple of hours but we were excited to finally have somewhere as a homebase! we wanted to unpack and meet all of the people we would be traveling with for the next few weeks! We arrived in Maastricht around 3 and easily took a bus for 1 euro to the guesthouse. We later found out that people got screwed over by taxis and payed upward of 30-60 euro to get to the guesthouse because they didn’t know how to get around. (I guess Italy helped out in some areas)

We waited for the rest of the group to arrive, I met Nicole my roomate from Western Michigan and Josh met his roomate Dave, also from Western Michigan. there are 15 people total in the program.

That first evening we had a “shopping tour” of the mall in Maastricht.. it was kinda pointless but it was all in good fun because it showed us where the grocery store was etc. It was raining the whole time in Maastricht, which we had just left 90 degree beautiful Italy weather.. that i instantly wanted to return to!

So we had survived a WONDERFUL week in Italy with no major disasters… and all amazing memories to take away! One of my best weeks ever i will have to say! more blogs are to come hopefully on the cultural differences and fun quirks we found while traveling!

Check out for the hotel began at 9:30 and we needed the earliest train we could get in order to maximize our time in Venice. We went to our favorite (only) grocery in Cinque Terre, got our usual fresh fruit and drinks to hold us over on the train and headed to get our tickets. The first train was late, which made us miss our connection train that we had originally planned on making. On the train we sat next to two really sweet Australian girls that were traveling europe for a few months together. They were two of the most talkative positive people i have ever met… i had to work to keep up with them and get words in.. it was crazy

We didn’t arrive in Venice until 5:30 ( a couple hours later than we had expected) but we knew what we wanted to see and we began quickly getting an overview of a city that i want to return to! We started walking around the city, through the canals and beautiful buildings. It was very busy and hot and i do wish we could have taken it at a slower pace, but i was glad we got to see it! We went right to St. Marks Square and it was exactly what i had pictured it to be! There were people everywhere feeding the pigeons and the pigeons were absolutely everywhere!!

**Sidenote: I recently learned that the reason you have to buy the food from the vendors located in st marks square is because they feed them some sort of birth control with the seeds to stop them from reproducing to quickly.

Anyways we enjoyed the square for awhile and then began walking back to the train to go to where our hostel was located outside Venice in Treviso. In Treviso, it was the smallest train station i have ever seen , it was basically a little one room building that was already closed when we had gotten there. So luckily our hostel was a short walk from the train station and we arrived there before dark. The lady that checked us in was the sweetest lady but did not speak a lick of English. Her son apparently was who ran the place, but he was out of town so she was helping us out. She was super upbeat and happy and wanted to help us out so much, we just dont speak any italian either. So we got through a few introductions and some checking in activities but eventually we needed to know directions to the airport.

She kindly called her son, and Josh and him spoke easily on the phone, we decided to take the bus in the morning to the airport.

After waking up in the most beautiful place I have ever experienced, Josh and I walked to our favorite grocery store in Riomaggiore and got a healthy fruit and crackers breakfast. We knew we wanted to do the hike along the coast line, we just didnt know what was waiting for us on that hike. What I thought was going to be a relaxing , romantic stroll along the coast turned into a rigorous up and down full out hike along what was still a breath taking sight!! Unfortunately since Josh and I didn’t expect the hike we wore our flip flops. The people passing us were in full out hiking boots and serious hiking clothes.

We could not believe what we were looking at, my batteries ran out of energy due to my constant picture taking! It was beautiful! I had to ask myself if the locals that lived there realized the view of italy they woke up to every morning. I honestly feel I would wake up every morning and thank God for his wonderful world he created. This was truly one of Gods blessings! The hike started easy, but gradually got harder. By the end of the trip our feet looked like we had dunked them in mud. They were filthy but it was worth it! We hiked through 4 towns, stopped for lunch half way through and ended in Vernazza. It was a perfect day! Josh and I enjoyed the trip so much!

In Vernazza we stopped for a snack and a drink, picked out a lovely spot on the beach and sat for hours just talking and enjoying the scenery. Once the sun began to set we headed back to the train and instead of enduring the long hike back, took a short cut on a 20 minute train trip! During this Italy trip we found some favorite foods here in Italy. Especially a drink called “Esta The”. It was a flavored Tea drink that was lovely! After a week of Pizza I was CRAVING a salad horribly! So Josh and I searched out a restaurant in the town and found a salad. We shared a pizza and salad, left and ordered our last gelato in Italy and headed back for the night. That evening we watched the movie “The Parent Trap” in Italian! It was fun for Josh and i to watch it and guess what they were saying!

Cinque Terre was the perfect place to end our trip! Relaxing, beautiful and nice people! I would recommend this town to anyone! A must see place in Italy!

We got up early to leave Florence and caught a train towards Cinque Terre. About half way to Cinque Terre was Pisa, Italy where the famous Leaning tower stands. We didn’t want to come to Italy without seeing something that we have heard so much about so we stopped over in Pisa on the way. Josh was worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to make our check in deadline at 5 in Cinque Terre , so he made sure this was a quick trip! Once off the train we had a differencing of opinions on whether or not to buy a map. I figured it was a straight shot up the road and we were there for a 2 hour trip , and Josh would rather have a visual of where we are going so not to get lost ( which is honestly the better answer to this problem) . Anyways somehow we ended up skipping the map and followed the signs and masses of people that we hoped were going to see the main sight of Pisa. After a VERY brisk walk that ended in a sweaty Josh and a glistening Caroline, we found ourselves in front of a leaning tower that looked fake.

I have always seen pictures on postcards and in books of what it was going to look like, but when it was in front of you it is hard to believe. We took the typical touristy leaning tower pictures of us holding up the tower and leaning on it. It was fun but we knew we had to head back to the train station as soon as possible. Right outside the tower we stopped at a little food stand to get something to eat. Josh bought some “Teenager Chips” with his meal which we got a kick out of!

Once we arrived back to the train station, we quickly and easily got back on the train to La Spezia and onto Riomaggiore, our final destination. Upon getting off the train we walked through a really cool tunnel into Riomaggiore and looked up! The main city street was a hike up. Very cool to see and look at! It was super colorful, and gave off an instant happy feel! I loved it!! We quickly found our hostel it was another uphill climb up stairs but such an amazing cute city! I would have to say this was our nicest place we have stayed while being in Italy. The first thing we did was drop our stuff off and then walk around to enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery.

Due to our hunger and Italian diet that consisted of Pizza, Coke and Gelato for a week, we decided to stop at a bar nearby to get some pasta. We should have been weary when there were a choice of 5 pasta dishes.. all for 5 or so euros as a selection.. but we were hungry! So i ordered food that I couldn’t pronounce, Gnocchi.. and Josh stuck to the traditional lasagna. My food was super pesto-y ( I love pesto but not the amount they put on it) and Josh’s food looked like it had been a microwavable meal thrown in for a few minutes. not appetizing.. but we got it down and decided to cancel out the not so good dinner we would get some delicious Gelato!!

Apparently Gelato is one of Josh’s favorite things in the world, and when in Italy was on a mission to eat as much of it as humanly possible. Luckily I have a sweet tooth and am very supportive of him in all his goals and helped in consuming the gelato.

After dinner we didn’t stay out late, we were tired and went to bed soon after. We agreed not to set an alarm for the morning (first time all week!) and got a great night’s sleep.