The Last of the E-Mails

Douchebag at Hadrian's Villa



Hello all,

Since I last talked to most of you, I had already been to beautiful Siena, San Gimignano, Hadrian's villa, and St. Benedict's monastery at Montecassino. I can't get enough of all the history, beauty, and culture I am surrounded by. Everything is so surreal. It's like being a living part of a history book.

Classes have started to pick up more and more, and I am truly enjoying them. Luckily, I'm only taking 4 classes (Italian 101, Philosophy in Politics, Italian Film, and Emerging Financial Markets). The classes are tiny (I am 1 of 5 people in my finance class), but it makes for really interesting lectures, discussions, and also makes me stay on track because I'll look like a jackass if I don't go or study. Besides, we eat, sleep, and go to class all in the same small building on campus. Oh, for those of you who don't know Loyola's campus is called the John Felice Rome Center and it's located in Monte Mario.

This past weekend started a lot of people's traveling ventures through Europe, and this guy didn't want to be any exception to that rule. I went with a big group of people from Loyola, plus some students we picked up in Florence, to Interlaken, Switzerland! I can't even begin to describe the scenery in Switzerland. It was a lifelong dream to be able to go there, and it was everything I hoped for and more.

We left last Thursday from Termini in Rome via a double-deck bus around 8 pm-ish. Everyone was really excited, but the girl who planned this whole thing (she works for some student travel company in Europe) really f-ed everyone over by telling us the trip would take around 8 hours at most, but in reality it took about 14. Nice having more than half a day sitting on your ass in a smelly bus. Oh, and the company refused to open the bathroom for some God awful reason so we had to stop a lot more just so people could pee. Great lakes, great times. Either way, we got to Interlaken safely around 10 am. We stayed at the world famous (suprising, cause I had never heard of it) Balmer's Herberge. It was a big hostel, but it was nice. They gave us breakfast each day which consisted of concentrate orange juice from a box (think Franzia of juices) and 2 slices of bread. I've never so much wished for prison food (see earlier Michigan State post for further reference).

Switzerland couldn't have let me down even if it tried to. I started taking pictures IMMEDIATELY, of course. Oh, and I posted a link to my flickr site on my facebook profile links so you guys can start to see the pictures I'm uploading. I have so many to upload and so little time. But I'm trying to name them all so you know what you're looking at. It'll take some time, but be patient.

Ok, so back to Swiss cheese story time. That Friday we checked into the hostel and I stayed with all my friends in a cozy 8 person room. We put out stuff down in the room, ate some tasty toast, and went exploring.

Most of my friends and I started just wandering around the town of Interlaken, and we would take pictures of everything. And by "we would take pictures" I mean me. Taking pictures of everything. EV-ER-Y-THING.

After realizing I couldn't possibly take any more pictures at ground level, I noticed a big mountain that was practically begging to be climbed, so I did. We hiked about 3000 feet up (it took a few hours). From being on the street level to venturing through the clouds into thin air was an incredible journey. It started to rain and become really windy, but I just asked myself W.W.B.G.D (what would Bear Grylls do?) so I kept climbing. We made our way to a waterfall that was initially a trickling stream, but now was rushing with fresh mountain water. We indulged ourselves with some tasty Alps water from the waterfall. It was glorious and now I am going to use my mountain man abilities to bottle, distribute, and sell Swiss Alps water. Ignorant Americans are going to eat (and drink) it up. Hello financial independence!

So, blah blah it was rainy and wet and not dry and cold...andddd I was now miserable walking down a mountain after reaching the almost top. (We almost got blown off a cliff cause the winds were so strong, so we turned around.) We met a random American who was climbing alone as we were turning around, so we hiked down together. His name was Forrest, not Forrest Gump. And he just graduated from Butler in Indianapolis. I guess it is a small world after all.

That night we ate at a small pizzeria next to the hostel and then went to the most popular bar in town -- underneath our hostel. That was a blurry night so I'll try to tell you more of the next morning.

So we woke up bright eyed and ready to take on the Alps on Saturday. Some people went skiing, others went canyon jumping, and I (along with 6 other brave souls) went into another town to do nothing. (I forgot to tell you that Interlaken is the EXTREME SPORTS CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!) Nonetheless we took a bus to a train to a town called Grindelwald -- feel free to call it Grundel World. We saw a great snow sculpture competition and walked around town until we got bored with the little people, and made the decision to take a gondola ride up the mountain. Initially we were thinking we should take the gondola to the very top, right? Yeah, but then we realized there were hefty prices involved so we decided on the shortest, cheapest route we could find. Instead of getting off at our supposed destination, we beat the system by staying in our gondolas until the very top! (Ha ha Swiss! So much for the honor system!)

Well, being at the top of a mountain was a lot easier when you're staring up at it from a street 7100 feet below. Once we were forced out of our gondolas at the very tip top, we had no choice but to rent some form of transportation to get us down. Imagine 7 Americans (myself in sweatpants, tennis shoes, and a backpack) whom are all under-dressed for any type of snow activity, just tramping around the top of Europe -- sounds exhilarating eh? So we all chose the best way down would be to use the ever-trusty sled. Now I'm not talking your neighborhood hill, let's go to Lincoln Hills sledding time; I mean we are at the very top of Black Diamond ski runs in the Swiss Alps with some of the best skiers and snowboarders in the world. Looking back, sledding was probably one of the most insane things we could have done pretty much because we were so unprepared. The only way to stop our sleds from their grease lightning speeds was to use the "Flintstone technique" and slam your heels into the snow, and pray like hell you'll stop before hitting something or someone. We made it down the mountain safely, though, so no need to worry. If you'd like more detail, I'm sure I could talk your ear off about it for quite a while -- it was a fantastic time, but deathly scary. The kicker is that we were seeing little kids doing this sledding so carefree. I'm talking like 5 and 6 year olds were weaving in and out of people (and by people, I mean us). Oh, and it was nice being passed by a father holding what looked like his fetus-esque newborn baby. That really gave us the confidence we lacked in ourselves. So after a long, eventful 3 hours sledding and hiking the Swiss Alps, we finally made it back to Grindelwald, and eventually on the train back to Interlaken for a well-deserved night's sleep.

The next morning we arose quite early because we made plans with about 20 people in the hostel to add one more incredible story in our tales of Switzerland. We were going SKYDIVING. Now for those of you who may not be so aware of this, I am TERRIBLE with heights. I get nervous riding the escalator too long. The first thing I did when I went to the top of the Sears Tower was look for a trashcan to vomit in. I am not good with tall things. Be it buildings, mountains, or people. So the inevitable was to occur; I was going to sign my life away to a random stranger, and PAY HIM to take me into the air for the sole purpose of saying "screw your 300 franc helicopter ride, I want out" and then plummet to the Earth. Sounds fun, right? Well surprisingly, it was. I was eerily unafraid when my name was called to join the other 3 people in the helicopter for my turn at cheating death. The truly uneasy part was having the helicopter lift off the ground and realizing I had 0 training, or any clue for that matter, on what I was supposed to do. I was under the impression that we were given a class or something, maybe even a goddamn pamphlet to read about what to do when, in fact, we jump out of a moving helicopter at 13,000 feet above the Swiss Alps...well, I thought wrong. I didn't know SHIT about what was going to happen. My guide, Roland, pretty much told me to sit on his lap while he strapped me in tight (I swear, I was in Switzerland, NOT San Francisco); and then he proceeded to be silent. Yes, you've been told since elementary school that "silence is golden," but in reality, it's a bunch of bullshit when I am about to free fall for 45 seconds with the only slim chance of life after the fall is a fucking canvas that is strapped to THE OTHER PERSON'S BACK. Oh, needless to say, I made it home alive -- alive enough to write this eloquent letter to the ones I love -- and I now can truly say it is a fear not quite conquered, but perhaps backhanded in the face. I was fortunate enough to be able to take videos of the helicopter ride up, and then when our chute deployed, I was able to grab it out of my nifty jumpsuit, and take video of the glide down into the landing. Others were paying 150 CF (Swiss Francs) to pay for this fucking maniac camera dude to shoot them while skydiving, but I said "no no no fucking maniac sir; I will do it myself." I think it's a hell of a lot better seeing as you get my colorful commentary throughout the duration of the most terrifying moment of my life. If you would like, and promise not to get offended by words I'm sure none of you have ever heard, I will post the videos up on facebook, here, or I can e-mail them to you.

All in all, that's pretty much what's going on so far. If I've left anything out, I'm sure it'll come up in conversation later on when I see you all soon. This has already been the most amazing experience of my life, and I will truly never forget it. I'm going to be staying in Rome this weekend (we have Friday classes this week even though we usually don't, but we have to make-up for the Papal Visit we had last Wednesday) -- I just realized I left that out, so I'll make sure to detail that in the next e-mail or post. So hopefully, I'll be sending these more regular, it's just difficult to balance the time to write all of you with school, traveling, and, of course, eating. Send me love in e-mails so I don't think you've forgotten about me! Or else I'll just stay over here until you do. I love and miss you all very much.

Much love,

Joe D.