Spring Break: Switzerland, Spain, Italy

Well..better late than never. I have been on a whirlwind of traveling through Europe. Spring break began April 3rd and ended April 13th. Over that time I went to Switzerland, Spain, and back to Italy. I left on April 3rd and took a train by myself to St. Gallen, Switzerland. This was an adventure in itself. The train left from Florence’s Santa Maria Novella station at 8am. It took about 2.5 hours to get to Milan. Once in Milan I had about an hour and a half to grab some breakfast and get on my next train. 10 minutes before my train was set to depart that station I went over to look at the board which tells you the track the train will be departing from. Trains always, ALWAYS run right on time in Italy. Which is a good thing, but kind of unusual for us Americans expecting delays every time we try to travel. I noticed after a few minutes the track wasn’t coming up on the board, so I figured maybe the train hadn’t pulled into the station yet. Plus there were 30 other people around me who seemed to be doing the same thing. 2 minutes before the train leaves someone yells..”hey, the trains here…it’s over on track 7! Quick its gonna leave!” We all go booking it over to the track..we’re looking at the train…and it simply..pulls away. Yes..this was an interesting moment. Apparently they forgot to post the track on the video monitor but has posted it on the board AT the track the train was leaving from. Umm..not helpful if you don’t know where that is. So now I’m pretty concerned because I have to hope there is another train leaving that day going all the way to Zurich, Switzerland and that they don’t charge me to get on it. Let’s just say: God was looking out for me. There was another train leaving for Zurich in 2 hours and they switched my ticket for free. I was laughing as all this was happening because all I could think was.. “My life. Classic Jill Walsh struggle #1.” I got on the train 2 hours later and rode that train for 4.5 hours to Zurich! That train was crowded but really not too bad. I passed the time reading and going to the restaurant car to have snacks and drinks. HaHa. That was my favorite part. The ride was also beautiful. We were driving through some of the prettiest land I have ever seen. Right through the Swiss alps. Unfortunately (struggle #2..obviously) when I went to take pictures, to my surprise my camera wasn’t working because…the battery was for some reason..not inside. So now I’m thinking…”Okay, I left my camera battery in the charger in the wall in Italy and have no camera for spring break. Crap.” All I have from that scenic beautiful sunny trip are images in my mind. I don’t think pictures would’ve done them justice anyways. I wish I could’ve put all of you on that train with me to see what I saw.
I finally arrived in Zurich around 7:00pm. Here I got off the train and now had to make my way to an inner city train to get to St. Gallen (Where my friend Lindsay lives) I figure by this point I am a train expert and it will be no problem. This elitist attitude was quite defeated once I got off the train and realized everything was now in German. Ops. A small detail I didn’t consider. Not only that but this train station was the most crowded, insane station I’d ever been in. Maybe because it’s basically central Europe…but whoah! Thankfully I found someone who spoke a little English and was able to purchase a ticket to St. Gallen. You should’ve seen me getting on this inner city train with all my luggage. Quite, quite comical. These are the kind of trains people ride home from work with nothing but a briefcase. So needless to say: They hated me. After an hour train ride, I finally arrived in the cute swiss city of St. Gallen! Lindsay was there to meet me and we were ready to begin our Swiss adventure! That evening I was quite tired but managed to go out to dinner with Lindsay and her friends. Here I discovered why I was glad the majority of my vacation would be in Spain and not Switzerland. To my surprise, SWITZERLAND IS THE 2ND MOST EXPENSIVE COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. (Right behind Norway) To give you an idea of what that entails. They use the frank. Which is very compareable to the US dollar. I went out to eat and got a salad and 2 beers. My bill was 34 franks!!! YEP. Get me outta there! Of course that didn’t stop us from going to get chocolate fondue right after. They’re not kidding when they say the Swiss have good chocolate. That night we went back to Linds, where I slept extremely well. On Saturday Linds showed me around St. Gallen and we got pretzels and hot chocolate. At this point I randomly suggested maybe we should purchase on train tickets that we needed for a week later for when we flew back into Switzerland and needed to take the train to Italy. We debated whether or not to do this because usually we just buy our tickets 2 days in advance. Well…..needless to say the lady at the train station LITERALLY laughed in our faces. (The Swiss are very rude..FYI) Apparently we didn’t consider we were trying to take a train back to Italy on EASTER WEEKEND..AKA The busiest holiday of the year. She simply said… “All trains are booked.” We tried Thursday and Friday. All booked. Linds and I then left the train station basically in shock wondering how the heck we were going to get back to Italy after Spain. We basically…walked around and tried to think strategically. Oh and she also mentioned all flights would be booked if we had to resort to that. GREAT! Lol. So now we’re like.. “ummm..do we rent a car??” hahaa Lindsay and I driving from Switzerland to Italy..can you imagine. After thinking for an hour I finally decided the only option was to pull a Nancinator. Yes, my friends, pull a Nancinator. What that entailed was obviously going back to the train station…working with a different employee..refusing to work with Mrs. Attitude and sitting there until she found 1 train that still had to open seats either on Thursday or Friday. Waddaayaknow. Within an hour we had 2 seats booked for a train on Friday from Zurich to Italy. Thank goodness I’m not afraid to bust out the Nancinator when necessary. BahahaJ
Okay, so after Saturday experience Lindsay and I were ready to take off to Barcelona! We had to wake up at 3:30am Sunday morning because our flight was at 7:30am out of Zurich, which meant we still had to take a train from St. Gallen to Zurich. Obviously we had a minor problem and as we’re walking to the airport Linds decides… “Ya know..I think that we may not be able to get to the train station on time if we keep walking. We need to find a cab.” This put a worried look on my face. It was pitch black, 3:30am in this middle of a swiss town that you rarely see cabs in and we’re in the middle of a deserted road. At this point I thought we may literally miss our flight. Needless to say..God, once again, to the rescue. Thank God for answered prayers. At 3:30am in the middle of St. Gallen, on a deserted road, comes a cab driving on by. Lindsay flags him down, he stops, we get in, we make it to the train on time. And definitely would’ve missed it if we kept walking. I don’t know what it is with me..I’m always part of a random struggle but it always works out. That’s what makes my life comical. J HaHa. Needless to say, I’ll skip the airport details and just say..we made it to Barcelona!! Woo finally time for some fun in the sun!
We arrived at Barcelona airport and we were psyched! The sun was shining and we were ready to enjoy our spring break! I was proud of Linds and I at this point because we found ourselves now in a Spanish speaking land and managed to get ourselves on the right train, which lead us to the subway station, where we got on the right line, off at the right stop, and found out hostel in the middle of Barcelona! Woot woot! I feel like I could travel anywhere now. On planes, trains, subways, taxis, cars and be able to figure out how to get places. (obviously with numerous struggles, but none the less eventual success. Haha) Lindsay and I unpacked at our hostel, which was named “Kabul.” Which yes we referred to the whole trip as “Afghanistan..” because the name made us laugh every time and all we could think about was the middle east. We then went out and walked around Barcelona and toured the main street, Las Ramblas, which had a lot of great vendors and food. We also went and sat down by the Port which was beautiful. We had dinner that night typical Spanish Tapas. (Im so proud of myself for trying new foods! As we all know how picky I am!)And also had our first round (of many) of Spanish Sangria! (YUM!) I would also like to say I took Spanish from 6th grade to 12th grade and could probably remember all of 5 words. I know so much more Italian in one semester. Goes to show ya how great the language programs are at the middle school and high school. (BLAH!) Anyways, that night Linds and I sampled the “happy hour 2 for 1 Beer” special that goes on at our hostel every night. HaHa Hostels are a very funny place. They are definitely not my thing as far as having to share a room with random people, and sleeping in beds so many people have slept in, and kind of dirty etc…but the atmosphere is definitely me. I love how it’s a melting pot of people from all different places, backgrounds, cultures. There’s always music playing, people are always excited and laughing. It makes me happy. I love meeting people from all over and hearing what they have to say about life and worldly issues and listening to their accents. The first night there Linds and I met people from Manchester, England and listening to their views on the US and Obama were so interesting. (Some of them actually didn’t like him…can you believe it!?) That got me pumped! HaHa. That night (since we had been up since 330am) we slept very well once again!
Okay, instead of going with the day by day play by play here I think I’ll list some of the highlights from our next few days in Barcelona:
-Shop, Shop, Shop=Amazing paintings and jewelry. Definitely sucked Linds and I in.
-Sitting outside at a restaurant in 80 degree sunny weather watching the street performers coming up near our tables and singing, dancing, playing the guitar, juggling, doing comedy.
-The juggler that asked Lindsay to volunteer who proceeded to ask her to stand on his shoulders in the middle of the entire group of customers at the restaurant. When Lindsay agrees he stands all the way up with her standing straight up on her shoulders. Her face is priceless in the pictures I have. Not to mention the video I have of her putting her down, when a gust of wind comes, her skirt flys up, and she moons all of Barcelona. Priceless.
-Going to the beach and having it be really relaxing until people try to sell us things every 5 minutes including massages, henna tattoos, beer, water, etc. Us finally giving in and paying 5 euro for 15 minute massages. When Linds is getting hers done the cops start walking down the beach and the massage lady stops massaging Linds and starts hiding behind her chair because apparently what they’re doing is illegal. Oh man..entrepreneurship at its finest.
-We get told we look European, not American. That was interesting.
-Climbing the Christopher Columbus Monument and being in the smallest elevator I’ve ever been in, in my life.
-Our daily necessary siesta, if we planned on fiesta later in the night.
-The way that in Barcelona no one even GOES OUT until 2am, so whenever an activity was planned at the hostel they asked us to MEET at 1:45am. Nuts.
-The amazing Flamingo show.
-The boy from Ireland who I meet whose name is Brian (like my brother) and has the same birthday as my brother. Very weird.
-The night Lindsay tried to get in the VIP section of the club and when asked by security “do you know these people?” She says, “Yes, they are my friends.” The security officer then looks at the people who actually belong in there and ask, “Do you know this girl?” The respond, “No, not at all.” Lindsay is then hated by all club security. Way to go Linds. Lol
-The night we go back to the hostel after being out and a random man comes up to me and claims, “It was rude of me not to say bye at the club and to leave him and OUR friends not telling them where I was going because usually when you come as a group you leave as a group!” I had no clue who this man was. Quite comical.
-Park Guell: Amazing Gaudi artwork.
-Sagrada Familia: I didn’t think this place was cool at all. Overrated and I’ve seen much more impressive in Italy.
-Petra: The most amazing restaurant ever! The menu was printed on wine bottles, the lights were made out of silverwear, the good was unique and amazing, and the pricing was unbelievable.
-Seeing 2 of our random friends from BABSON in the middle of Barcelona at 3am. Priceless. It’s a small world after all.
-Never having to show a passport or go through customs throughout this entire journey between Switzerland, or Spain or Italy. Pretty unbelievable.
-Realizing once I got to Spain I had my camera battery all along it was just in the side pocket of my bag still in the charger.

And so we got back on our flight to Switzerland On Thursday!! We spent Thursday night in St. Gallen, then woke up Friday morning and got on our train to Italy! (I know what you’re thinking..there hasn’t been a struggle in a while…something has to go wrong soon.) Don’t worry..IT DID!
Linds and I get to Milan and think we have 2 hours until our train leaves. Randomly I say to Linds lets double check the time. We do that and realize we had converted military time wrong (I know…pathetic on my part with my relationship being based off of it haha) and our train leaves in 2 minutes. We legit RUN to the train, hop on, and it pulls away. Once again..Thank you God. Once on the train Linds and I realize the lady in Switzerland must’ve not been kidding about how booked the trains were because it was absolutely nuts. We also realize she booked us on the last open train which just happens to be an inner city train, which means it will take us 3.5 hours to get to Florence, instead of 2.5. The train is so packed Linds and I can’t get down the aisle with our luggage and for 3.5 hours have to sit on the floor between two train cars leaning against the bathroom. BRUTAL. Actually at this point we were both laughing because it was honestly comical. We finally arrive in Italy at..I don’t even know..I believe 930ish. I take Linds to my favorite restaurant for an authentic Italian dinner that night..YUM! And we hit the sack.
High lights from Lindsay’s trip to Italy:
-The amount of people here. HOLY MOLY! I have never seen that many people in Florence ever. Apparently they weren’t joking when they said.. “Busiest holiday of the year.”
-Lindsay’s face every time she saw Gelato. Lol
-Pulling a complete Nancinator on the manager at Golden View when we have the worst service ever. Him trying to fix it by giving us free alcohol and me telling him, “I don’t want free alcohol I want better service. We’ve already been here 3.5 hours, we don’t want to be here one more minute and won’t be back.”
-Nothing being open because of the holiday so Linds not being able to do anything touristy.
-The amazing, BEST weather we’ve had here yet.
-Our amazing American brunch where we ate so much food because we both miss American breakfast so much.
-Easter dinner where we reminisced about our families and both got homesick but reflected on how amazing it has been being abroad.

All in all. It was a great spring break. I’m so glad I decided to go where I went, do what I did, and go with Lindsay. We had an awesome time and it was such an experience! Although hectic at times, everything always worked out and we managed to travel without any major disasters. And I actually came home without losing anything!! That was the most amazing part! J
Thanks for readingJ
*I would post pictures but lately it’s taken forever to post them on this site so I will most likely just show them to you all when I get home!*