Day 8: Swiss Alps to Innsbruck

---

---

First of all...where was the time going? I realized what a strange sensation it was to have every day so full and seem to drag on forever, but to have the time passing at a rate much too quick for my liking.

I woke up this morning and ate some more bread and jam. Mmm. We ate quickly, and when we were finished, we went to our respective rooms and packed up. I took the easy way down - the lift! There was no way I had the energy to drag my suitcase down the stairs, though I have to say, I don't know how it got so much heavier...I hadn't bought THAT much. Strange. Anyway, I dropped off my bag and boarded the coach. I sat with Sara today, which was great. We talked shop for about an hour and a half - the coming together of the actors and techies...very nice.

Our first stop of the day was in the tiny country of Liechtenstein - famous for its production of calculators and dentures?!? Bizarre. I loved the fact that we were stopping in a place whose name I loved to say. There's something so satisfying in saying Liechtenstein. Alright, enough of my weirdness. Pom Pom had recommended the schnitzel sandwich for lunch, but I didn't know that I was hungry enough for a whole sandwich (it was still fairly early in the day). Sara and I browsed around the two touristy shops in town and I picked up a few souvenirs...how can you be in Liechtenstein and not buy something? I'm starting to notice I have a bit of a strange love affair with this tiny place. It's just my size, or something. In any case, not a whole lot to do in Vaduz (the capital). Sara wrote some postcards and I bought some chocolate. We left as quickly as we'd arrived. Damian brought the coach around, I sank back into my seat, and off we went to the Austrian border. As we crossed over into Austria, Pom Pom put on some theme music again, and this time I knew what was coming...The Sound of Music!!! It was kind of surreal. I sang along shamelessly, not missing a word. After almost the whole soundtrack had played, Pom Pom gave us a quick rundown on Austria and Innsbruck, and then asked if we'd like to play a trivia game. We said yes, of course, and they were mostly "what movie is this song from" kind of questions. My team did badly, but it was fun. It passed the time before we arrived at the site for white water rafting.

When we arrived, I'll admit, I felt a little intimidated, but not completely terrified like some people on the coach seemed to be. The guides had laid out wetsuits, helmets, booties, windbreakers and lifevests for us, and so we picked them up and changed. When everyone was dressed and looking completely ridiculous, we had a few group pictures taken, and then separated into our rafting teams. I chose a good one. Sara, Jeff, Matt and I pared up with the Texans. We also had a great guide. His name was Hugh, he was from Wales and he was not hard on the eyes, and had a great accent. Oh boys. I snapped myself out of it. This was not the time to get distracted! We jumped on the raft and were given a few simple instructions, which we practiced a few times. We picked the raft up and carried it to the water (actually, I didn't have to do much when everyone put the raft on their heads to carry it. I could barely reach it with my arms held over my head). Hugh told us to get in the water to cool off, and since I'd been roasting under the hot sun, I was happy to, but the water was FREAKING COLD. That's what you get for dunking yourself in glacial runoff!

The view from the river Inn was lovely, but I wasn't really concentrating on that. I was listening intently to our trusty guide...last thing I wanted was to be thrown overboard in the rapids. We started slowly down the river, with our guide asking us questions about our tour so far. We were all in agreement that we were having THE most incredible time. Before we knew it we were approaching our first rapids. It wasn't intense, but we were still having to work through them pretty hard. When we hit the next smooth part of the ride, he told us what to do if the person sitting across from you fell in, and then he made us practice by falling into the water and having the other person drag you out. The water, again...frigid. The whole ride was a LOT of fun, even when we went through the tricky section where a riptide was sucking at the boat, and no matter how hard we paddled we weren't going anywhere. At the end of our rafting adventure we all piled into the back of the raft and Hugh tipped the front of it up so it was sticking almost vertically up in the air. We were screaming like girls. At the end of our trip down the River Inn, we all jumped out and carried the raft up a hill, which wasn't easy considering how tired we all were. All was well though when we were presented with our first taste of Austrian schnapps - to toast our survival, I think. Go team.

We changed quickly, had something to eat and then, before we went back on the coach, I went to a little patch of grass and stretched a bit, trying to prevent sore muscles the next day. I think I made a fool of myself, writhing around like I was, but it helped in the end, so no worries. Back on the coach and into Innsbruck. When we got there, Pom Pom walked us through a lovely little park where he told us someone on one of his tours once had proposed. Cute. We walked through the cobblestone streets until we arrived at the Golden Roof. The funny thing was, we were all looking in the other direction, taking pictures of the pretty street until he told us to turn around and pointed out the roof. Most of us were slightly underwhelmed, I think. It was more of a gold awning - that I would have probably missed had no one pointed it out.

Then Pom Pom did something very bad.

He took us to the Swarovski Crystal shop. The store was absolutely gorgeous, and many of us girls took very nicely to the pretty, sparkly things. I picked up some beautiful things for myself, and a gift for my mom, and spent a lot of money, but I hadn't bought myself anything other than trinkets up until this point in the trip, so I figured I was ready for a splurge. We spent a lot of time in there. Pom Pom had gone away to do paperwork and came back and said "You're still here?" Can't rush a girl when she's buying jewelry, Pom Pom. You should know that by now 😉

After the crystal shop Sara and I headed over to the little shnapps store that Pom Pom had pointed out on the way. There were jugs upon jugs of colourful liquids sitting there, just waiting to be tasted. And taste we did. I tried about 5 different kinds and finally decided on a big bottle of cappuccino and a small bottle of peach schnapps, which weren't all that expensive. As we walked out of the store with our purchases, we spotted a gelato stand next to us and decided to indulge in a little one Euro scoop. Mmm. Gelato = good (and it would only get better from here on in). We wandered around town and killed a bit of time before meeting up with the rest of the group. Pom Pom was carrying around an I <3 McDonalds balloon for some strange reason, and proceeded to stick it down my back and laugh at me. It was awesome. Takes confidence for a girl to wear a balloon around town. Back on the coach, we drove about for ten mintues to our hotel. I picked up our room key, dragged my suitcase up the stairs and hopped in the shower quickly to get the last little bit of River water off of me, and then went downstairs for dinner. I was starving, so the soup, schnitzel and mousse disappeared from my plate quickly.

After we ate I invited Matt and Jeff over to my and Rachel's room to share some of my schnapps before we headed downstairs to the hotel bar. We had devised a system (they were our neighbours that night) of knocking on the wall once we were ready to go downstairs, but we quickly realized that the walls were concrete, so I told them just to come the hell over when they were all prettied up. We drank the schnapps out of plastic bathroom cups - CLASSY! - and then went downstairs. There wasn't a whole lot going on. Damian was watching a soccer game on the TV, LOTS of people were doing sperm shots and sitting around hanging out, Pom Pom was squealing after getting his nipples pinched by the bartender, who kept feeding him drinks and overall it seemed to be a nice, fun, low-key time. I got some beer, skipped on the sperm shots (I told some people why later on...again...I'm a classy lady...yeah right :P). I hung out and bounced from table to table, like the good little floater I am, and had a pretty nice night chatting, laughing and hanging out in the bar and on the patio. I called it an early night though. I think I was back upstairs and in bed by about 11, iPod in my ears, reflecting on the great day I'd just had.

---

Photos

Liechtenstein
Yup. Tiny little country.

Good morning
Sun shining on the castle in Vaduz

Innsbruck
Yup, that's a golden roof

Emerald city
One of the gorgeous displays in the Swarovski store in Innsbruck

Boys and schapps
I think they'd been "sampling" a little at this point ;)

A boy and his balloon
Pom Pom looking at the ugly pink building in Innsbruck

A girl and her balloon
Thanks Pom Pom, I feel super sexy with this balloon stuck in my back. :P

A toast. To us.
Schnapptacular times in Innsbruck

There's no way to make this sound better:
The girls getting ready to swallow their sperm shots

Glued to the TV
Huddled around, watching the game in the hotel bar.