Mountains of potential and familiar faces

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As I write this final installment of ‘European With Paul’, I am not in some exotic place drinking fine wine and eating local cheese. No no, instead I am sitting in my living room in Idaho Falls with debilitating jetlag and post European sadness disorder. I suppose it’s for the better since I am practically broke and I haven’t done laundry since I last wrote (two weeks, two pairs of underwear: you do the math). A lot has happened in two weeks, so I’m sorry if this is too long for your attention span (if you’ve even made it this far).

When Jason and I left Lana, Italy we went to a town called Brixen to do some hiking in the Dolomites. It turned out to be a very cloudy and cold day, but we were happy to get even the tiniest glimpse of these fantastic mountains. If nothing else, I can at least say that I hiked and fought a bull in the Dolomites. Later in the day we made our way to Innsbruck, Austria where we had set up a couchsurfing appointment with a 20 year old college student named Christoph in his dorm room. We may have been sleeping on his floor, but his hospitality was unparalleled. He cooked us several traditional Bavarian meals, and took us clubbing and rock climbing. Aside from another cloudy hike, we couldn't have had a better time in Innsbruck.

After Innsbruck, we really didn't have any set itinerary so we decided to go to Switzerland. As we entered the Swiss Alps, we soon realized that it may have been the best decision of the trip. As suggested by Rick Steve's, we decided to camp in a small town called Interlaken before heading up the valley to Gimmelwald. After we got our tent all set up, we took a leisurely stroll through the town only to randomly ran into a friend of mine from Idaho Falls! Think of the odds of us being at the same place and at the same time! We both couldn't believe it, but we had a good laugh over it.

We then stayed two nights in a hostel in Gimmelwald waiting for the clouds to break, which didn't actually happen until the day that we left, but we had a pretty epic hike nonetheless. And when I say epic, I really mean that we took he wrong trail, hiked several more miles than necessary, and trekked through two miles of snow. Most normal people would have turned back once they hit snow, but I thought to myself: What would Grizzly Adams do? So we pressed on. Our feet were soaked and cold when we entered a complete whiteout at the top of the mountain. Not only was there endless snow, but there was also a complete cloud cover, which made it impossible to see the cliff that was in front of us. We tried to wait it out, but then I asked myself: What would my mom do? So eventually we decided to turn back for safety reasons, but not before getting wicked sunburns on our faces. Although we were defeated, the next day we took the easy way up (the tram) and were able to see our footsteps only a half mile away! It was so frustrating, but our only consolation was that we could hear other tourists saying: "Are those footprints down there? Those people are bad asses!" (OK, maybe a slight exaggeration) Then on the tram ride back down I ran into two other friends that I met in California! I couldn't believe it; two huge coincidences in three days! Such a small world.

After Switzerland, we headed to Strasbourg, France and right across the border to Baden Baden, Germany where my friend Tim is living currently. Then we met up with an acquaintance of Jason's in Pforzheim for two nights. I truly love staying with random cool people, but it was nice to stay with familiar company especially when they feed you delicious German food and beer (I am now on a detox diet). We then did a long train ride to Amsterdam where we stayed for two nights. Despite any moral issues you might have with Amsterdam, it is a very beautiful and fascinating city. I got to witness the canals, the architecture and of course the famous red light district (Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light).


This whole trip has been a crazy wonderful adventure.
To put it in a nut shell: 3 months, 10 countries, 2 pairs of underwear, 3,500 dollars, 5 farms, 8 couch surfers, 7 hostels, 7 illegal camp sights, countless pastries, cheese, wine, pizza and gelato,
0 breakdowns.

Thanks so much for reading (or at least looking at the pictures). It has been a pleasure to write down my adventures, and hopefully it provided a little entertainment. I'm sure I will be writing again soon, I'm just not sure to what capacity.
Peace and Love

Paul.

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Photos

Bullfighting
I had a staring contest with a cow in the Dolomites. Not many people can say that.

alone
looking into the cloudy abyss

skiing
Jason wanted to be able to say that he skied in the Dolomites. mission accomplished.

Cows
These cows have the best place to chill. I envy them.

Ready to charge
This cow was giving me some gruff, but when he saw the crazy look in my eye, he backed down.

somewhere
I can't remember where this is... maybe Innsbruck?

Hardcore
Our couchsurfing host Christoph was a badass climber and he took us to the local gym.

Jessica and I
Crazy coincidence to run into her in the tiny town of Interlaken.

Comments

[John Rice]

welcome home
Welcome home Paul, Thanks for sharing your adventure with everyone, I know Carla and I enjoyed every minute of it! Hope to see you soon and talk about your trip. John and Carla

[Fred]

Three months in Europe
I have traveled all over the USA and have not had a better trip than what your blog provided, Paul! Itlay is my first love, but you made the other places you visited real for me and I will certainly (we will certainly) visit many of those places over the next few years! Before your trip and the fantastic descriptions you provided of your trip, I had not considered any other countries (then Italy) except perhpas Croatia...since your bloggin I am looking forward to Switzerland, Holland, france and even perhaps, England and the British Isles...Thanks for the engrossing expressions and impressions...