Where are you from?

I’m originally from Maryland.  Grew up in Catonsville, MD for most of my life.

What does your fridge look like?

Pretty boring and basic.  This was from when I first moved in, but I can’t say that much variety has been introduced.  I make a lot of basic stuff like pasta, eggs, oatmeal, etc.

Who is your favorite person?

My family (mom, dad, and brother) are definitely my favorite people, but I don’t like posting pictures of other people on the internet.

What is your favorite food?

I loooooove harvest cheddar sunchips… I gotta watch it when I have them in my apartment because I’ll eat an entire bag in one sitting.

Part of your Daily Routine:

Gotta admit that I floss every day because I hate when my dentist yells at me.

What color are your eyes?

What relaxes you?

I enjoy a nice hot cup of tea pretty much every day.  I’ve even started waking up earlier in the mornings so I can enjoy a cup of tea while reading up on Tpunk.

What does your letterbox look like?

What do you have planned for the next 12 months?

Grad school in Mechanical Engineering.  Hopefully it will take me 2 years to do so I can travel again before settling in to some work.

Where are you on a Sunday night?

I don’t like going out and doing stuff when I know I have to be at class/work in the morning, so I just relax on the computer.  I usually read also.

I was supposed to go to Nice after Gimmelwald and then spend 3 nights in Barcelona at the end of my trip.  Unfortunately, I put off booking the train too late and all the TGV´s were booked solid.  I ended up staying in Gimmelwald for another 3 nights and then taking a night train to Barcelona last night.  I spent a total of 10 days in the alps and I don´t regret any of them.  I hiked a lot, and I got to spend some time with some awesome people.  I have decided that 3 nights in a big city is just not enough.  You don´t get enough time to relax, you get burnt out going on trains all the time, and you really do not get to know people enough.  I think I will spend about 5 nights in each city for my next trip unless it´s a really small place.  Even in smaller cities like Sevilla, I wish I had spent anotehr night or two. 

Traveling around Europe has been great.  I have met some awesome people and experienced all sorts of things that some people will never see because they won´t make the committment to getting out there and visiting foreign countries.  I´m hoping this trip will allow me to help out new members on the boards whenever they have questions about the countries I have visited.  I´ll post more tomorrow when I´m home!

I will probably go to this free park in a little bit today, but mostly I´m going to relax and prepare for teh flight tomorrow.  See everyone soon!

On the plus side, this is an amazing location, and I would rather be stuck here than somewhere more expensive (food is expensive, but the exchange rate rocks!  400 USD = 389 CHF).  I also got to do an amazing rock climbing/hiking thing called the via ferrata today.  Basically you have a harness on and a helmet.  The harness has two caribiners (spelling?)  that you connect to a cable.  Some parts of the hike don’t really require this cable, but there are other parts where you are dangling on the side of a cliff, several thousand feet in the air, with only these metal rungs driven into the rock.  It is definitely terrifying, but exhilirating at the same time.  There are also these “bridges” that you have to cross.  Basically the bridges consist of 3 cables.  2 for your caribiners to click on to and one to tightrope across.  This was such an awesome experience and I did not really have the time to do it unless I stayed here longer.  The via ferrata is brand new this year and if you go on an unguided tour, it only costs 20 swiss francs (sweetest currency ever with giant 5 dollar coins) to rent the gear.  The guided tour includes a zip line portion, but it doesn’t look that long and a guided tour costs an additional 75 swiss francs. 

I’m pretty much relaxing the rest of the day.  I might go for a short hike tomorrow or I might just relax at the hostel.  I can’t wait til Bethany Beach though!

 Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald, Switzerland is amazing.  Definitely one of the coolest hostels I’ve stayed in (in addition to Samay Sevilla and the one I stayed in in Derry 2 years ago).  I’ve been doing a ton of hiking and relaxing in the free hot tub at night.  I’ve really felt at home here and I feel that I will stay in touch with the people I met here for a long time.  I wish I could write more, but I will definitely add more later.  I’m off to Nice, France tomorrow for 2 nights and then back to Barcelona for 3 nights.  I fly home on the 9th which is waaaay too close, but then again, I do miss some of the comforts of home. 

After the lake, it was another 45 minutes to an hour up to the peak.  With all of the breaks, it took about 5 hours to get up.  We hung around at the top for a bit and then went separate ways.  Some guys were camping up at the lake (it’s pouring now, so I’m glad I opted out of that).  Some other people took the cable car back down, but one of the guys and I hiked back down in a little more than 3 hours.  I’ve got tons of cool pictures that I’ll show everyone once I get back.  I gotta get off of the internet now though, but I’ve got one more day tomorrow where I’ll probably relax a bit.  Then it’s off to Nice, France for 2 nights and then 3 nights in Barcelona before flying back.  I can’t believe I only have a week left of this trip! 

Today I just wondered around the city, and I will probably head on the other tour tomorrow that takes you to the more historical places around the city.  I leave on Friday morning at 6:30 am for Switzerland, but I’ve still got some time to enjoy Berlin while I’m still here.

So, things were going a bit too smoothly, and something was bound to go wrong eventually.  I’ve been moving around so much, that I forgot that I would be arriving in Munich on a weekend.  When I tried to book some of the hostels, they were all booked up for the cheap rooms.  I tried booking for Munich a day later even, but I couldn’t find anything good.  I ended up just changing things up and booked a hostel for 6 nights in Berlin.  I was still a little mad at myself for waiting so long to book, but once I got the train all settled for Berlin, I was fine.  I will just need to make sure I’m good with booking more than a day ahead in the future.

I spent the rest of the day doing some of the things I need to do while in Paris.  I saw the arc de triumph and the eiffel tower.  I also went back to Notre Dame so that I could go up in the tower.  I got some good panoramic views of the city and then grabbed a crepe on the way back to my hostel.  Not much else to write at this point in time.  I’ve got an early train tomorrow to Berlin and I should get there around 5 pm or so.  I will probably spend the first day recovering from all of the running around.  I will have plenty of time in Berlin to see the sights, so I can take it easy the first day.

I got here in Berlin yesterday around 5:30 in the evening.  I booked my train ahead of time for Switzerland so that I do not have to go back to the station until I leave on Friday.  Apparently the public transport is really good here once you get used to it, but it is kind of confusing at first.  There’s the U-bahn, S-bahn, Tram, and bus and you usually have to take some sort of combination of the 4.  I got kind of lost on the way to the hostel since I took the tram in the wrong direction, but it wasn’t too bad.  The Germans are very nice and helpful so far (the French really weren’t that bad, at least the ones I ran into in Paris).

The hostel I’m staying at is apparently one of the biggest in Europe.  They boast at least 900 beds.  I’m on the 7th floor and so far I’m the only one in the room which was nice when I came back from the club last night.  This is the first place that has actually charged for internet use, but it’s not too bad, only like €3 for an hour.  I’m pretty much taking today easy and then probably going on a free tour of the city tomorrow.  They offer those in a lot of the big cities, but I have not been able to take advantage of one since I’ve been rushing around a bit.  You usually tip at the end, but it’ll be a good way to see the city.  I also need to check out this random sandcastle contest they have in the middle of the city.  I saw it from the train and it looks pretty cool.  I really need to find a computer where I can charge my ipod because it was a long and boring train ride to Berlin without it.

The hostel I’m staying at is apparently one of the biggest in Europe.  They boast at least 900 beds.  I’m on the 7th floor and so far I’m the only one in the room which was nice when I came back from the club last night.  This is the first place that has actually charged for internet use, but it’s not too bad, only like €3 for an hour.  I’m pretty much taking today easy and then probably going on a free tour of the city tomorrow.  They offer those in a lot of the big cities, but I have not been able to take advantage of one since I’ve been rushing around a bit.  You usually tip at the end, but it’ll be a good way to see the city.  I also need to check out this random sandcastle contest they have in the middle of the city.  I saw it from the train and it looks pretty cool.  Anyways, I’m going to check some other things and then save some of this internet time.  I really need to find a computer where I can charge my ipod because it was a long and boring train ride to Berlin without it.