Hey Cool People!
So the past week has been a crazy week of travel: traveling between three different countries within four days, and they all have been absolutely amazing in their own unique way.
Day 83: Traveled from Cinque Terre to Nice, France
Day 84: Traveled from Nice to Lake Como, Italy
Day 85: Stayed in Lake Como
Day 86: Traveled from Lake Como to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
Day 83 Sunday, August 9th - We woke up, got ready and made our way to our pick-up point at about 10:30 am. The bus to Nice had some of the most amazing views. We pretty much drove up on this giant cliff with views overlooking the Italian and French Riviera. Driving by, looking down at Monaco was absolutely amazing; yachts everywhere. It is hard for me to explain how amazing everything look.
Our ride into Nice brought us to Fragonard Parfumeur, a perfumery that makes perfumes, soaps, lotions, etc. We took a tour of the factory: learned a little bit about the process of making perfumes and had the opportunity to buy some stuff. None of us bought anything their because there was nothing that we could absolutely live without. At around 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm we made our way into Nice.
When we got into Nice, a few of us were staying a hostel about a 10 minute walk from our pick-up / drop-off point, so we all walked over together. Again, we got a small upgrade in our booking. Originally we were suppose to be in a 10 bed dorm room and we got upgraded to a 5 bed dorm room.
The hostel we were staying at had free wine for all of us starting at 7:00 pm, so, of course, we enjoyed a few glasses of wine. During that time, I was able to call home and take to my mom for a little bit too. After we enjoyed a few drinks, Me and our new friend John decided to make dinner for us and the girls.
Dinner was simple: pasta!!! We enjoyed some penne in a tomato sauce and for dessert, Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches. After dinner, we hung out in the courtyard and had a few more drinks before making our way to bed waaayyyy later than we should!!!
Driving along the French Riviera
Day 84 Monday, August 10th - Hoped on the bus bright and early at 8 am to travel to Lake Como, Italy. The bus ride went pretty quick, arriving in Lake Como around 1:30 pm. We stayed at a cute little hotel named "In Riva Al Lago." Lydia, Jess and I had our own private three bed room there. It has been nice since Jess joined us over a month ago because it has been easier and most times cheaper to get a private room now.
After we checked in, we took siesta until about 6:30 pm. Lydia was tired and passed right out. I wasn't tired and couldn't sit in the room for that long, so I had asked the man at reception as to what to see and where to go in the city. Main thing, I asked where we could get good food and gelato that night. Well, I decided to walk along the lake front for about an hour before returning to the room. When I got back, Lydia and Jess were waking up from their naps and we were all keen to get some dinner by then.
For dinner, we walked to an area the guy from reception said had a bunch of good local restaurants. We walked over to Piazza Mazzini, which had a bunch of restaurants that had plenty of outdoor seating and decided to sit down. Dinner was pretty good, I had spaghetti carbonara and some Vodka mixer, which was incredibly delicious; it had vodka, sugar, lime and strawberries. After dinner, we walked over to the gelateria that was recommended to us before going for a nice walk along the lake front.
Day 85 Tuesday, August 11th - Today we got up pretty early and enjoyed the free breakfast provided by the hotel. Breakfast was a buffet of breads, pastries, cold-cut meats, cereals, fruit, coffee and juices. After breakfast, we walked over to an area that had a little outdoor market going on.
The markets were similar to a flee market, people selling selling their different clothing and trinkets from tents lined up along the street side. We walked up and down the street and looked at the different venders, I didn't find anything that I really couldn't live without, but Jessica was the winner that day, buying a dress and a couple scarves for under €15. Lydia also got herself a scarf for I think 1.50.
After we got the shopping out of us, we walked over to the lake side, with the intension of taking a ferry over to the Bellagio; Lake Como is pretty large and is make up of many different towns, we were staying in Como town. Well, we quickly decided against that when we looked at the prices, a little out of our price range. So we decided to walk along the lake shore, opposite of what we did the day before. It was a very relaxing walk, with a few breaks in-between to enjoy the view.
On our walk back, we stopped at a small outdoor cafe where me and Lydia enjoyed some cappuccino. We relaxed in the hostel for about an hour before making our way to the super market to grab essentials to have a picnic that night. Dinner was pretty good until the sun started to set and the mosquitos started biting. By this point we were all done with dinner and decided to leave and go get some gelato. It was a pretty early night, going back to the room shortly after a failed attempt to find some postcards.
Day 86 Wednesday, August 12th- It was our last morning in Lake Como. We all woke up pretty early, showered and got our stuff together before heading down for breakfast. After breakfast, we checked-out of our room. The hotel was nice of enough to store our bags while we went on a morning hike up to the light house that overlooked all of Lake Como.
At around 9 am, we took the funicular up the mountain and from there we were going to hike to the lighthouse. From the bottom of the mountain, it looks like it was going to be a level, leisurely walk, but that was a false assumption. It was a 45 minute uphill hike to the lighthouse. However, the view was amazing. When we got there, the lighthouse was closed still, but we were able to still capture some incredible views of the lake.
We made our way back to the funicular and down the mountain. We still had about an hour and a half before the bus was coming to pick us up. I decided to go to the post office in that time to mail my broken phone home. That was a struggle. First, I had to explain I needed something to ship my phone home to this woman who didn't speak any english. She finally gave me an envelope and the paper work to fill out in order to ship it home. Second, I had to get back in line and found out I needed an Italian return address, so I used the hotel I was staying at. Finally, I had to pay, which sucked because I had to pay in cash. I hope my package makes it home. The bus eventually came and we hoped on, making our way to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.
The bus ride was not suppose to be too long, with a scheduled departure at 1:45 pm from Lake Como and a scheduled arrival in Lauterbrunnen at 6:30 pm. Well, things don't always go as planned. First, when we boarded the bus in Lake Como, we were delayed a little bit because there was someone who was missing. We waited for about 20 minutes before leaving. The guide thinks she decided last minute to hop-off in Lake Como and forgot to tell the guide. Second, stand still traffic in Switzerland. When I say standstill traffic, I mean the bus was in park for 45 minutes before we started moving again. We arrived in Lauterbrunnen about two hours late, at around 8:30 pm. It wasn't the worst bus ride, considering the views didn't suck.
Lauterbrunnen is a small town with one pub. A bunch of us were staying at a hostel down the road, so we all walked over to the hostel together, checked in, before deciding to go to the Campground where most of the bus was staying for dinner. Switzerland is expensive!!!!! Luckily for us, the Swiss Frank is almost equal to the US Dollar, but when a plate of food is CHF 25, it's still expensive. Despite the cost, dinner was delicious. I got Lauterbrunnen Rösti. Rösti is a traditional Swiss food, kind of like hash browns with a bunch of shit on it. Lydia and Jess and --, a girl staying at our hostel, got burgers and two other girls got fondue.
We were pretty lucky for arriving in Lauterbrunnen when we did: there was a performance going on at the campground stage, celebrating one of the local villages. We stayed and chatted with a few people before making our way to the Bombshelter, the bar at the campground where everyone was dancing like crazy. We didn't have anything to drink at the Bombshelter, knowing we had an 8 am bus ride the next day to Milan. We stayed out until about 1 am before walking back to the hostel and calling it a night.
