Venezia

When we left Florence, two girls told us about a hostel that was Plus Camping in Venice and it was cheap and great, so why not. We got off the train in Venice and ended up wandering around a bit before figuring out that we got off 2 stops too late, so an hour later, we got back on the train and took a bus to the hostel. By the time we got there, it was too late to head into the city, so we took it easy, ate some dinner and hung out. The hostel was more of a camp ground with trailers, tents, a pool, small supermarket, and restaurant. It was fun to be camping again - even though Ally and I just shared a small trailer. But it reminded us of many summers spent camping in southern California! Good times :) We love camping, but camping isnt really how we wanted to experience Europe. Nonetheless, we were camping about 30 min outside of Venice.

We went to bed with the expectations of sleeping in and then heading into the city. We should have checked the bus schedule before we missed the noon bus. We had to wait until 3pm to catch the next one. We hung out for a while longer then finally got into Venice around 4:30 - long story, but we made it.

We walked around for a while and it was amazing. There was so many little shops everywhere, filled with glass things and masks.

We had tons of fun walking into all the shops and walking around a city surrounded by water everywhere!

Eventually, we made it to the Ponte Rialto, San Marcos square, and the rest of the city.

After plenty of walking and taking pictures, we sat down for our last Italian dinner :( very bitter sweet. Then we walked around more, bought some souvenirs and our last Italian gelato before catching the last bus back to the camp grounds.

Venice was a beautiful city! We didnt get a chance to take a Gondola ride, maybe next time, but we still had fun!

We were sad to leave Italy, but so excited to get to Germany and see some friends from camp!

Hope all is well at home :)

<3

A&A

16 Hour pit-stop in Florence!

Our Roma adventure lasted an extra day, but we still wanted to stop in Firenze one last time before we said Ciao to Italia. We left Rome Monday afternoon and got to Florence in the evening. Just enough time to check into our sweet hostel and walk around town. Our hostel was precious - Dany House. It was basically a house that a family rented out to young travelers. There was a common room with a computer and dining room table where everyone hung out, 2 bed rooms with numerous bunk beds, one shared bathroom with the smallest shower I've ever seen, and a kitchen that we could all share. We threw all our stuff down, changed into a clean shirt and headed out into town! Since this was a return trip, we knew exactly what we wanted to do - dinner at I Ghibellini and then gelato at Geletria Neri :) Ally's favorites!

At dinner, we sat in between some interesting people. To my left was an older man by him self. He offered us some of his Chianti wine because we spoke English very well.... considering its basically the only language we speak, we would hope so. Then as he was leaving, he told us to tell Obama hi next time we see him.... riiiiight!

To our right sat a nice couple from Manchester, England about our parents' age. We sat and talked with them a while then made our way to the gelateria before it got too late. After our dessert, we headed back to the hostel. When we got there, a few girls were hanging out in the common room so we joined them for a bit while catching up on the internet and skyping with our parents. We had tons of fun with 2 girls from Chicago and two from Australia. By 2am, we were told we were being too noisy and went to bed. Ally and I slept in a room with 6 bunk beds - 12 beds! It was loud and warm, but cheap, so no big deal.

We woke up in the morning, had breakfast with everyone that was staying at our hostel, then made our way to the train station with our new Chicago friends.

Next stop... Venice! :)

Arrivaderci!

A&A

Roma - 2

The next morning, Amanda and my feet hurt from all the walking we did the day/night before, so we started of slow by using the internet across the street from our place to check up with our parents, and track the package with our eurail passes. Since it was Friday, the package would have to be delivered today or else we’d have to wait until Monday - which would mess up our plan of leaving on Sunday. We grabbed some pizza (a daily necessity along with gelato when in Italy) and ate at our apartment. Then we began our second full day in Roma! 1st stop- Trevi Fountain!! We threw our coins in, making wishes that will hopefully come true (we’ll let you know when they do!).

2nd stop- Spanish Steps! Well, actually the amex office to check on our package. Unfortunately, it still wasn’t there. We got on the internet for the second time that day and emailed/chatted with our moms about the passes and how to contact DHL. Amanda’s mom was online talking to us while texting my mom who was on the phone with DHL trying to find a way to get them to deliver on Saturday. It was some great communication between all of us! After a while, there was no new news so Amanda and I decided to get some gelato and enjoy it while sitting on the Spanish Steps- yum : )

It was already close to sunset, so we walked around, finding new places in Rome we haven’t seen like the Piazza del Popolo, then went back to the Trevi Fountain to see it at night. It’s amazing during the day, but even better at night! While on the internet earlier, we googled the Trevi Fountain and found out that if you throw in 2 coins from your right hand over your left shoulder, it’ll bring you romance in the future (although I’m sure you don’t have to throw coins in the Trevi to have romance in the future). We took our coins and threw them in!! (We’ll let you know when the romance happens).

For dinner we had- I bet you could guess- pizza!! Amanda actually had a calzone, which is almost pizza.
The next day, Saturday, was going to be our last day in Rome as long as DHL was kind enough to deliver our passes to the amex office before they closed at noon. We woke up early (7:30!!) and started our day by checking for any news from our parents about the package. Since there was nothing, we decided to go to the Vatican City in the morning and make our way to the Spanish Steps/amex office just before it closes.

We only waited in line for a short while to get into St. Peter’s Basilica. After making it through the metal detectors (with Amanda’s swiss army knife!) we met a lady who told us she was giving a complimentary tour. While waiting for more people to join, she told us some facts about the Basilica and Vatican City. Since we didn’t have much time before we had to get to the amex office and we didn’t want to rush through St. Peter’s Basilica, we went inside without her and admired the church. It amazes me that they could make and design a structure like this so long ago. We have so much more technology and science in the 21st century but don’t make anything as astonishing as what people made thousands of years ago.

We also walked through where the popes have been buried. Although our feet were killing us and Rome has exhausted us over the past few days, we walked across the city to the Spanish Steps- an area we have come to now quite well- crossed our fingers, went to the amex office to check if our passes have been delivered. No luck. We sat on the steps, waiting till just before the office closed, and people watched for a bit. Amanda caught a lady using a magnifying glass to look at her cell phone. When the office closed, they still hadn’t received our passes : ( Stuck in Rome for another day, it could be worse!

The rest of our day was spent taking a very long nap, getting pizza for dinner (of course) and watching a movie on our computer while eating some delicious gelato.
Sunday was now our last full day in Rome. Too bad almost everything is closed on Sundays. We went to the store the night before and bought bread, eggs, and what we thought was butter. Amanda made us French toast! I tried to find an open supermarket to buy some butter, but Sunday is not a good day to go shopping. We meant to make it to the Sistine Chapel on Saturday, but didn’t have enough time so we thought we would go today. Unfortunately, the Chapel is closed on Sunday. How is that I have been to Rome twice and missed out on the Sistine Chapel both times?? We ventured around the city for a little bit, but spent most of the day putting away our laundry which was finally dry after a few days, packing up our stuff, reminiscing on old times while looking through Amanda’s photos, and watching another movie while it rained outside. Tonight was our nice dinner, which meant wine! Amanda ordered lasagna while I ordered pizza and we split them, along with a bottle of Chianti red wine. For dessert we went back to the same gelateria as the day before and Amanda decided that the mint chip and triple chocolate that she ordered was some of the best gelato she has had besides the grapefruit she had in Florence.
On our official last day in Rome, we made more french toast, eggs, and regular toast for breakfast. It was hard to make a decent American breakfast with only a hot plate, but we made it work! Then we dropped our baggage off with Paula and headed off to the amex office. When we checked at 11am, nothing was there for us. We sat on the Spanish Steps for an hour, people watching, then checked in again at 12pm and- tada!!- our package had arrived!! We opened it up and read the letters from our families (yay!) then got our baggage and left for the train station! Now we’re on our way to Firenze for a night, where we plan on enjoying some yummy pizza and gelato! Pretty soon we’ll be out of Italy and done with the food, so we have to enjoy it while we still can!
Thanks moms for all your help with the passes, we love you!
Ciao Ciao for now,
A&A

When in Rome...

After our 3 day voyage from Greece, we finally made it to Rome!! On the train from Bari to Rome, it was hard to find a place to put our luggage since our backpacks didn’t fit in the space above our heads. Luckily there was room between the seats, but we really need to do something about the massive amount of baggage we have. It’s not good when people on ferries and in hostels are telling you that you have lots of luggage.
Anyways, we grabbed all of our stuff and headed out the doors of Roma Termini, the train station. We searched for people holding up signs for hostels and accommodation but couldn’t find anyone. Finally, a man noticed us and asked if we needed a place to stay. While he was sorting out a place for us, a lady who spoke German came to us and asked a bunch of questions. Amanda had a perfect conversation with her in German while I had absolutely no idea what any word coming out of her mouth meant. We’ll get by so easily in Germany thanks to Amanda and her language skills! I should be able to say the same about Italy, but I can’t (even though I lived in Florence for 4 months!) The travel agent, Magdi, told us of a place that was only 20 euro/person a night for our own private room and had wifi, breakfast, and was in a great location. Thank you Magdi! It sounded perfect, so we took it and hopped on the bus towards our place. We couldn’t both take the elevator up at the same time because the elevator couldn’t fit us plus our luggage. Amanda went first, followed by me. When the man took us to our room, it was huge! It also had 4 extra beds. Well, apparently Magdi lied to us about our accommodation. The room was not private. That would have been fine if there was a safe place to store our luggage while we weren’t in the room, but there wasn’t. There were no other guests sharing our room on the first night, but we decided to only stay the first night and find a better place for the rest of our stay. Around 10:30, we finally ventured around Rome and found a nice place to eat our first meal!! Pizza and coca cola. It was absolutely delicious. Italy really does have the best pizza, there is no comparison. And of course, gelato was our dessert!
The next day, we woke up and tried searching for other hostels/hotels to stay at. A lady at gipsy travel pointed us in the direction of a bed&breakfast, so we looked there but it was 120 euro a night!! However, there was a man sitting there, Willy, and he took us to another bed&breakfast that was much cheaper. The owner, Paula, is the sweetest lady! She was very helpful and even gave us some helpful tips about Rome. Willy took us to our little apartment- our own apartment with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and terrace! We were pretty content with our new living situation : ) Since we had all this room, it was the perfect place to get some laundry done! Amanda washed in the kitchen sink while I rinsed in the bathroom sink. We hung everything up on broomsticks that we situated between chairs. Sometime in the morning, between doing laundry and getting ready for the day, the toilet clogged. It wouldn’t flush. We left it clogged, hoping that when we came back it would flush.
Our first full day in Roma was spent checking out most of the big sights!! We started at the Colosseum.

Last time I was here, I didn’t go on any guided tour, but this time we decided to do it! We thought it would be nice to know the history and facts while walking around the Colossuem and Palatine hill/ Roman Forum. Well- the tour guide for the Colosseum wasn’t that great, although he did make us laugh at times and really liked the phrase “do you get it?” He would say things like, “this is where the lions were kept, do you get it? And there were shafts that took them up, do you get it?” At the end of that tour, he switched us over to a lady from Canada who took us around Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. Palatine hill is where all the Kings and Emperors lived while they ruled Rome! She told us stories about when Rome was first founded and how the Roman Forum acted as a downtown does for us.

I didn’t know much about anything she told us, even though I saw all of this last year! It’s nice to know what all the ancient ruins were back when they weren’t ancient. By the time the tour was done and we strolled through the Roman Forum, it was time to eat! We walked around looking for a place to eat while visiting the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. In the piazza by the steps is the American Express office, where our moms sent us our eurail passes. We checked to see if they arrived, but they didn’t yet. So we headed home to get ready for the Spanish Steps pub crawl!

Our first night out since leaving camp! We have heard a lot about the Spanish Steps pub crawl and knew that it would be something we have to do while in Rome! We met up with all the others in front of the Spanish Steps then made our way to the first bar- where we received our free tshirt, endless beer, and pizza. Amanda saw a guy who she immediately thought was a Texas fraternity boy because of his polo and sperrys. Ends up that he’s from Baltimore and goes to school at Gettysburg- but he is in a fraternity! We spent the rest of the night hanging out with him and his friends, who are all studying in England for the semester. We had a conversation about the ‘euro diet’ to which they said consists of about 1 meal a day and protein bars. That’s pretty much what we are doing! Okay- its different in Italy because the culture is all about food- but we have definitely cut back on food and eat zone bars during our travels! Don’t judge us, its one of the only ways to save money that has to last us for a couple more months! It was funny to hear other people talk about this so called ‘euro diet.’ By the end of the night, we somehow crawled to the other side of the river and had to make our way back home. Good thing we had a map of Rome with us! Along the way, we stopped and got some food (it was hard to find a place open that late!)
　
Ciao from Italia :)

A&A

New Pictures!!

Hey Yall!
We are starting to upload more photos to our Picasa website so you can see them! The one that we used for camp is almost full... so now we are uploading them under a different account!
So far we only have our Greece pics up! So check them out!
We will keep you posted when we add pics! :-D
<3 Enjoy!
A&A

http://picasaweb.google.com/amandaandally

3 day Voyage to Rome!

We wanted to find the cheapest way to get from Santorini to Rome. We could fly, but that’s too expensive, so after some research done by Kathy (Ally’s mom) we figured it out. We had to take a 9 hour ferry from Santorini to Athens, then a bus across Athens to Patra, then a 14 hour ferry from Patra to Bari, Italy, then a train from Bari to Rome. Sounds simple enough right…. HA! Our 3 day journey turned into much more of an adventure. The first ferry to Athens was a breeze! We got on the ferry at 3pm on Monday (which was quite large and reminded us of a cruise ship) and found a place to sit next to 2 Canadians who we chatted with most of the journey. We made it to Athens by midnight. We planned on sleeping at the bus station in Athens then taking the first bus over to Patra where we needed to catch the ferry to Bari.

It was raining (of course) but we soon found a taxi to take us over to the bus station. While driving around, he soon found out that it was our first time in Athens and we really had no intention of visiting the city. He told us for the same price, he would drive us around the city and show us the important parts. We figured less time sleeping at the bus station so why not. He also told us he felt bad just leaving 2 young girls at the bus station - unless we had a gun…. I said I had my swiss army knife. That would have to do! So we drove around the city and we got to see the 2004 Olympic venue, government buildings, a university, the tomb of the unknown soldier, an Olympic arena, Acropolis and the brand new Acropolis museum.

By 2am we showed up at the bus station to find it all locked up…. Awesome! Our taxi driver wouldn’t let us stay there and insisted he find us a cheap hotel to stay for a few hours before leaving. Our taxi driver was amazing, he was so nice to us! The first place was a hotel where you can pay hourly rates for a room - also where people ‘go to make sex’. thankfully it was booked! So he took us to another hotel (each time we stopped somewhere, he had us sit and wait in the car while he went in and talked to the front desk). He found us a room at the Ionis Hotel for a cheap price and it included breakfast! We finally got up to our room and in bed by 3am. It was actually quite a treat because it was a legit hotel with 2 double beds and a full bathroom! We woke up in the morning for the free breakfast and loaded up on fresh bread, some cereal and drinks. I knew it was going to be an interesting day when I started it out by putting sand in my coffee. Well you see, I thought it was cocoa powder, so I was really excited to put it in some coffee (because I hate coffee, unless there is chocolate in it), then some guy stared at my and said, “um, that’s hot sand from the dessert” apparently its some ancient way to make an espresso by putting water in the sand and waiting for it to boil. Awesome. I decided it would be better to settle with hot tea instead. Besides that, we also managed to smuggle out some fresh bread for later! Score! We went back to sleep for a while, since it was a long night and all, then checked out by noon. We made our way back to the bus station - still lugging around all our luggage and breaking our bodies - and got on the bus! Three hours later we were in Patra. In Patra we booked our ferry tickets from Patra to Bari which was supposed to leave at 5:30pm Tuesday and get to Italy by 9:30am Wednesday. The ship ended up leaving at 7pm and it was pretty empty. We found a place to sit and made ourselves comfortable for the long journey ahead. On the ship, we read, watched tv, played cards, and eventually fell asleep on some benches (much more comfortable than the Milan airport!). On the ship, we managed to survive on our stolen bread from the previous breakfast and some other snacks that we got in Santorin at a grocery store. We finally made it to Bari, Italy a little before noon, so it was a 17 hour ferry ride, holy smokes, and there was 1 more leg left of our journey to Rome. We took a taxi to the train station and then a 4 hour train to ROME! Finally, we made it by 6pm Wednesday evening!!!!!!! What an adventure!

Santorini, Greece!

After our short stay in Ios, we were excited to get to Santorini! Everyone told us that this is the place to go in Greece, like out of the movies! We took a ferry from Ios to Santorini. When we got off the boat, we walked into a nearby accommodation place where some lady helped us find a nice place to stay. We were met by a van who picked us up and took us across the island to the Holiday Beach Resort. We are getting spoiled by Greece! For only 30 Euro a night (15 each) we had our own little room with our own bathroom, a fridge, tv and balcony. It was great!

After getting settled in, we decided to make our way over to Fira - the central town on the island. Our hotel was in Perissa, near the black beach, across the island from Fira, but only a short bus trip away.

The rest of the day, we wandered around the town, watched the sun before it set behind some clouds, bought a couple oil paintings, and ate a light dinner. We also stopped at a small bead shop and made some sweet key chains with our greek letters on them. I know we arent in college anymore, but when else would we be able to make something out of greek letters… in Greece!

After the afternoon and evening in Fira, we made our way back to our hotel. There we could sit at the pool/bar area of the hotel and use their internet. So we checked up on a few things and got to skype with our parents : ) Traveling around, we have come to realization that at home we take the internet for granted. But it was nice to catch up a bit. The next day was a perfect beach day! We walked down the road to the black beach where we spent most of the afternoon lounging on beach chairs and we split a delish fruit smoothie! It was a perfect day for the beach - it reminded us of being home! We got to read, nap and swim in the Mediterranean for the first time! After a warning from my brother (Robbie) we soon knew what it was like to swim in such salty waters! The water was so clear, we could see everything, and it was very deep. We tried to swim down to touch the bottom, but we couldn’t do it! It was the weirdest feeling, we were trying to swim down, but not going anywhere! After we were nice and tan we headed back to the hotel, then on to Oia to watch the sun set!

We took a bus to Oia (a town that is ideal for sunsets) and made it just in time to meet the other thousands of tourists crowed around and watched the sun set again behind clouds. Oia was very picturesque and lovely, so it was a great quick trip.

After the sun went down we walked around Oia looking for a place to eat dinner. We thought it would be a good idea to have 1 nice dinner in each country we visited, and Santorini was it for us! So we found a table at some Seagull Café and got dinner. We started out with some Tzatziki, which is like a yogurt dip with bread. All I wanted was a true Greek salad, and that’s what I got with chicken and it was sooo yummy! Ally got chicken soulvaki (skewer) with ‘mashed potatoes’ which turned out to be French fries haha. We also managed to share some amazing house rosé wine! Not a bad night. After that, we headed home and checked out the next morning. Now on to Rome!

Ios, Greece

Alright, we are kind of posting out of order, but here are the rest of the posts to keep you up to date! :)

After Mykonos, we arrived in Ios. Our friends from camp told us of a hostel called Far Out and when we docked in port, there were a bunch of people holding up hostel signs. One of them was Far Out, so we decided to stay there. It was more of a campground, but they had little huts to stay in.

We had one only a couple minutes away from the bathroom and a few minutes from the bus stop. After putting down our luggage and looking around the small hut, we went out to get some food just down the street from the hostel. Then we took a bus into town to figure out the night life. Unfortunately, we were a little early. We walked around window shopping for a while then sat down in the main square and enjoyed cocktails.

It was only 10:30pm and no one would be out for another hour and a half. We were sort of exhausted from traveling so we called it a night and figured the next day would be good. We planned on hanging out at the beach all day, then going in to town at night, We woke up to the sound of rain. Instead of the beach, we hung out in our small hut during the day- watching movies and reading and picking up some snack at the mini mart.

Eventually, the rain started to leak through the roof. Woo!! It was great. We called it an early night and woke up the next morning ready to Santorini!!

:) A&A

Stuck in Rome...it could be worse!

Well...our eurail passes didn't get to Rome in time for us to journey on as planned. We are stuck here until Monday, but Rome isn't a bad place to be stuck! We've visited just about all the sights to see here, but now we have some time to relax on a rainy Sunday in Europe! Rome is a pretty exhausting (but amazing!!) place, so its nice to have some down time.

Miss you all!
A&A

UPDATE!

Hey Guys,
So... its official, we have been in Europe for over 3 months! Holy smokes, where has the time gone? 2 more months, then home sweet Poway!
We are currently in Rome right now :) We dont have a lot of time on the internet here, but we will give you a quick update. We have 2 more blogs from Greece that we need to post, but there is no Wifi so you will have to wait a little longer.
In the mean time, we made it safely to Rome and are 'doin as the Romans do' We are staying in a precious little apartment, all to our selves! And we managed to do some laundry yesterday in the sinks and it is all hanging out to dry... still drying 24 hours later!
We have 2 more days here, then pit stop for 2 nights in Florence :) then 2 nights in Venice and then off to Deutschland!!!
Hope all is well at home.
Sending our love from Italia,
A&A <3

Mykonos, Greece

We've spent the last week in Greece and for the most part it was wonderful : ) Our first stop was the island of Mykonos.

When we arrived, we had nowhere to stay yet, so we booked a room with the travel agents at the airport. They set us up with a hotel in the center of the town and it was set up like a bed and breakfast. The owner, Kostas, was very kind and helpful during our stay. We had our own room and bathroom (with a shower that was just a shower head mounted on the wall of the bathroom) plus free breakfast!! After we got cleaned up from our long night of sleeping in the airport and traveling on the plane, we ventured out to town. The streets lead right up to the water, and it would come crashing over the sidewalks. It wasn't the best weather, but it was still beautiful!

After a bit of window shopping, we found a little snack bar/restaurant that everyone was eating at so we decided to have dinner there. Gyro pita sandwich for only 2.50 euro! Thats a cheap dinner : )

The next day was our full day in Mykonos. We spent it at the beach. The southern part of the Island has some really nice beaches, so we spent time in a few different locations. We started in Platis Gialos and sun bathed for a while (surrounded by topless women- thats Europe for you!) then took a boat to Paradise. It was great when Amanda bought the tickets, asking for two tickets to paradise!! I dont know how much of a paradise it was, but we liked it minus the completely naked man and woman that we saw... That evening we went to a little restaurant called blu blu and watched the sunset. You can't go to Greece without enjoying at least one nice sunset!!

That night we had a bit of a freak out because we thought we'd be stuck on the island for another couple of days. There is only 1 ferry to Ios, and it was already booked. Luckily the next morning we found an alternate route and had a nice few hours to visit another island, Paros.

<3>

A&A

Sleeping in the Milan Airport

Last night we left Switzerland to move on with our adventures abroad. It was sad to say goodbye to Crans-Montana and ISCM and all the people, but we are really excited to be traveling now! We took the funiculaire (one last time) down the mountain to Sierre then hopped on the 8pm train to Milan. We just found out earlier in the day that our friend Lindsey Bracken was already in Milan for modeling, but there wasn’t enough time for us to meet up with her since we arrived around 10:30 pm. We do plan on meeting up with her later on!! When we got to Milano Centrale, everything looked familiar from when we were there a couple months ago :) An airport shuttle drove us passed the hotel we stayed at back in June and all the way to Milano Malpensa airport. By the time we settled down in the airport, it was well after midnight. We found some really comfy benches that were cold, bumpy, and pretty small.

Along with a few other people in the airport, we tried to make the best of it and sleep for the rest of the night. It was hard to sleep for longer than half an hour because you would have to roll around and re situate yourself to get comfortable.

Nonetheless, we did get some sleep and were ready to go this morning. When we woke up, we went to the departure part of the terminal and waited a couple more hours before we could check in. There were some chairs that were way better than the benches we slept on, so both of us fell asleep again and actually got a decent rest out of it! Now we are waiting to board our plane to Mykonos : ) Right now, we are bundled up in jackets and pants and sneakers, but hopefully the weather in Greece will be tank top and flip flop weather!!
Ciao ciao for now,
Ally and Amanda

Omega European Open!

Earlier this summer, Danny asked all the staff members if we wanted to work at a golf open the week after camp ends. Of course, Amanda and I said yes because we wanted to make some extra money for all our traveling! Unfortunately they didn’t have enough space for everyone who applied. One of the restaurants in town was in charge of the food during the open and they needed more helpers (some people couldn’t come because of the swine flu…). All of us who didn’t get the golf gig applied to work for them and got the job. Woo! Thursday morning we all headed off to work at the golf open. We didn’t really know where to meet the man who gave us the job but eventually we found each other. He took us inside the tent and asked if we all had serving experience. Then he looked at me (Ally) and Saoirse and said that we were going to be hat girls instead of servers. This man, Charlie, took the 2 of us outside and set us up with a table and hats. Another lady asked us what size jackets we needed then came back with really nice black omega rain jackets (that have orange vests you can zip off inside), omega polos, and lanyards. We stood at the table all day passing out free red omega hats to everyone who walked by. It was quite boring, but some of the people were very entertaining. They would ask us questions and talk to us in French but we had no idea what they were saying. I would just smile and say I have no idea what you are saying to me. They would usually just smile back and keep talking. Sometimes they would ask where I’m from and when I said California they would ask why I am in Switzerland. On the first day, one of the other staff members walked by and asked if we wanted cappuccinos…of course we did! All of the attendees of the open received a voucher for one free espresso, so on the third day when Saoirse and I were wishing that the guy would bring us another drink, she decided to just ask for some vouchers. They gave her 8! We each kept 2 (one for that day and one for the 4th and final day) and shared the rest with other staff members. The days were pretty long (9am to 4pm) but we got free sandwiches and dinner at the end of the day!
Amanda’s job was actually serving. I didn’t get any cool uniform things like Ally, but each day, I would get a while polo shirt to wear while serving. At the golf tournament, there was a big tent set up that had little sections for the sponsors of the event. Each sponsor had a separate section for their guests. Each day guests would come for a lunch buffet. It was my job to serve the drinks and clear the plates. Each day, I worked for the same sponsor, Zurich, which is a Swiss insurance company. They would have between 40 and 65 guests each day. Most everyone would start speaking to me in French, and I would respond with ‘I’m really sorry, I don’t speak French” and they would usually respond with some kind of question about where I am from, or what I am doing in Crans-Montana. It was a great conversation starter! I also worked with two other people, Laurence from France and a student from a local hospitality school (there was a different student each day). So the three of us would serve drinks together and clear the tables. It was a really easy job, but my feet got tired standing all day. The lunch buffet was open until 3pm, so I worked serving from 10:30 to about 4 with my sponsor. After most everyone left and we cleaned up, we got to go eat a meal of the left over buffet food (some days were better than others), but it was great that we got a free meal - especially because we also got a sandwich before we started! Gotta love free food! So after we were done eating, I would either go back to my area and help more (because guests could come back for drinks until 7pm) or I would help with the dishes. In the back, there were probably 15 people (from camp and just other workers) who would be drying dishes. It was not the most exciting job, but we were getting paid 22 Franks an hour, so why not! Drying did get boring, so I never stayed very late. I think the latest I stayed was 7:45 one night. So for 4 days, that’s what I did. I was lucky because every day I went back to the same sponsor, some people kept switching around, but I really got to know the Zurich reprsentative which paid off because on the last day he gave me a 70 Frank tip!!!! Everyone was jealous, but I thought it was amazing! I also got a 10 Frank tip that day from one of the guests - score! Because of the tips I got, I decided to call it a day. We got paid and then Jenny (a girl from camp) and I walked around the golf course a little bit, just enough to see Alexander Noren signing autographs - he was the golfer that just won the tournament. We also got to see the closing ceremony where Buzz Aldrin spoke! How cool, a fellow American : )
So we both walked away with over 600 Franks, pretty sweet for 4 days of work! And now onto the traveling…..
XOXO,
Ally and Amanda

Leukerbad

Before golf started, Ally and I had a few days to just hang out. We had moved into the Junior Villa (at camp) with all the other staff that stayed. Living in the villa was so much fun. It made me feel like we were in college, because we were all living together and sharing a kitchen. My favorite time was meal time because everyone would be sitting in the kitchen together, cooking food and eating and just hanging out. It was also nice to have a few days off to rest and just hang out. On Wednesday, before we started working at golf, Ally and I decided to take a day trip. First we wanted to go to Interlaken, but it was too expensive, so we will save that for next summer. Instead, our friend Zach told us about a small town called Leukerbad, where they have hot springs. Duncan (from Canada), Saoirse (from Ireland), and Doug (from Washington) joined us. We took the Funiculaire down to Sierre and then a train to Leuk; from there we took a bus up the mountain to the small town of Leukerbad. The weather was kind of cold, so we were really excited to find the hot springs. There were two different places to choose from, and we chose the one with the water slides! At first, we thought there were going to be natural hot springs in the mountains, but it was more like a water park. There were several different pools with jets and things, and a few slides. All the pools were warm, so it was very relaxing. There was also a room with natural spring water; it was so hot, we couldn’t actually sit in it, but we soaked our legs for a little bit. After a while, our hands and feel were very pruney so we decided to call it a day. We walked around town and had a little lunch before heading back to camp. We didn’t take any pictures of the hot springs, but you can only imagine how amazing it was to be relaxing in a hot spring and staring up at the Alps : ) Oh Switzerland!
That’s it for now!
Amanda and Ally

BUNGY!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys!

For those of you that havent experienced our first crazy swiss adventure, you might want to take a look.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ajyoung526/BungyJumping#

Camp ended this past Saturday. The next day, Ally and I decided to go bungy jumping!

Our friend from camp, Georg (who is from Austria, and sounds exactly like our sweet governator) drove us across the valley to Niouc, a small town with what we thought was the worlds scariest bridge - built in 1922.

We wandered onto the bridge and got strapped in for our 190 meter (or 624 ft.) plunge. I went first and it took me quite a while to convince myself to actually jump - except I more like fell off the platform. Ally, the champ that she is, took very little convincing and dove off like a pro!

It was scary and thrilling at the same time. It was amazing though! We enjoyed ourselves and are still alive to tell the tale :)

Our moms disagree with the whole adventure aspect of our travels... but it was good fun!

Stay tuned for more of Amanda and Ally's crazy adventures abroad!
XOXO,

Amanda and Ally

ISCM 2009 - Unforgettable!

Hello friends!!!
It is the first day of September, and camp is officially over! I cant believe 10 weeks at Summer Camp Montana have gone by. That means that we have been out in Europe for 2.5 months. It has been incredible thus far, but we are ready to turn the page and start some new adventures. Camp was amazing; being in Switzerland, meeting new people, and making friendships that will last a lifetime. What's not to love. Of course, there were some annoying campers, the seemingly endless hours of work and lets not forget the SWINE FLU.... but it all evens out.

Looking out over the valley from camp!

Now that its all over, let me give you a short recap of our adventures...

First session, Ally was a counselor of 8 senior girl campers and I was a night guard. Allys highlights included her amazing campers, river rafting, overnight hike, excursions to Zermatt, sliding down a glacier on trash bags, 4th of July staff party, and so much more. I personally enjoyed sleeping all day and soaking up the sun, but staying up all night was not so much fun. I did get to enjoy some nail painting parties with some of the campers and I watched a lot of movies and really enjoyed skyping with my family every night!!! This session was fun getting the swing of everything and falling into the routine of camp. It was kind of lame that Ally and I were on completely opposite schedules, but it worked out.

The Alps :)

Second session, I was a counselor of 8 younger senior girls and Ally was a night guard. My highlights included river rafting (by far my favorite activity), my entertaining campers, senior dinner (a nice dinner with all the senior counselors), going to Aqua Parc, being a role model to younger girls, excursions to Lausanne and the Olympic Museum, hanging out with all the other senior counselors, Swiss Day, the amazing hike up to the over night hut, and our staff wine tasting party. Ally loved all the friendship bracelets the campers made her, catching up on sleep, taking baths and reading books, and watching lots of movies and actually getting to talk to people via Skype. Second session was a busy session, and again Ally's and my schedule were crossed, but we made the best of it and looked forward to the last session.

Sunset from our balcony :)

Third session was an interesting session to say the least. Ally and I were finally going to be counselors together! She started out having 7 senior girl campers, and I was the senior floater (basically I took over for counselors on the days that they had off). The first week was a normal week, but the campers were different. This session there were many more campers that did not speak english very well, so the language barriers were difficult. Soon enough, the swine flu hit camp montana. Senior campers started dropping like flies. Campers were getting sick, some were leaving because they were scared of the flu, others were leaving because of school, and the senior section was shrinking. Before camp was actually over, we had over 30 senior campers gone out of the 120 campers we started out with. Because of this, all the groups started to merge. At the end of the first week, Ally was down to 5 campers with 2 leaving in a few days. The 8 senior girl groups merged into 6 and Ally and Heidi (our roommate from San Diego) were left without groups. I was still the floater and Ally and Heidi started to work in the infirmary to help out with all the sicko kids. During the second week, I started getting sick - swine flu had hit the counselors. I was put in quarantine with 10 other sick campers and counselors (including Heidi) for 3 days. I was never tested for the swine flu, but I def had some kind of flu. We learned that the swine flu is really no different from a normal flu - fever, body aches, worn out, and a cough. When Heidi and I were fever free, we went back to work, but not for the senior section, for the infirmary. Basically we catered to the sick kids every needs - bringing them movies, meals, and medicine all day long. We were sad to not be working with the campers anymore, but we were making a little extra money and we had fun getting to know more campers that we wouldn’t usually meet. Before we knew it, it was departure day; what was left of the campers and some of the staff members made their way home. After camp cleared out, Ally and I moved out of our apartment and into the junior villa with the other counselors staying to work for the Omega European golf tournament which is held here in Crans-Montana (the town that the camp is in).

Below camp at the Lake!

So that was the past 10 weeks, filled with camper drama, staff parties, excursions, and endless bonding with all our new friends!! The rest of this week will be filled with working as servers at golf, making a little extra money to be used on the rest of our travels. Last night Ally and I booked our flight from Milan to Mykonos Greece - our first leg of our travels :) The rest of our journeys will file in along the way.
Now that we will be traveling soon and going to different places, we will try to post more adventure stories so stay tuned :)

Ally and I on a hike around camp!!

Good luck with school to all of you who are starting again...
We love you and miss you all!
Lots of Love and Hugs,
Amanda and Ally