I went to stay with my cousins the night before my flight from Hethrow to Athens which was at the most ungodly time in the morning around 6am meaning we had to be at the airport at the crack of bloody dawn. After getting turned around a bit to find the dreaded terminal five, we arrived to the airport just in time for me to check in. There was an issue with the self-check in station so they sent me to the help desk where a family of six was being difficult and took 20 minutes to fix their problem, which was literally two minutes too late for me as the gate closed 40 minutes before the flight and it was now 38 minutes...bastards. The guy helping me at the desk took the blame as I shouldn't have had to wait that long and luckily found a spot for me on the next flight out at 8am, which was just fine as I was able to sit and enjoy a bowl of oatmeal and my cupa with my new book. Once I arrived in Athens I had to find my way from the airport to the hotel where my friends were going to pick my up in the middle of the taxi tour we had booked. I couldnt figure out how to use my mobile because the country code had changed so I was on my own. With my knack for a sense of direction I eventually found my way to the hotel and five minutes later the taxi was at the front door waiting. Sadly, I missed the Acropolis, which was the only thing I really wanted to see but at least I could see it from the roof top of my hotel. The next morning we got up bright and early to catch our ferry to the island Ios where the real fun would begin.
Three hours into the boat ride when the ferry never docked we realized that the ride was in fact 5+ hours long... not three which means that we would miss our flight out of Athens when we returned and decided we would have to leave Ios a day early in order to make it....I was not happy about that to say the least because I was greatly looking forward to relaxing on the beach and working on my tan. Once we got to the resort we learned that the room had been booked for two people....not four and I was not willing to sneak in so Denise and I rented a tent (they had camping and hotel rooms at the Far Out Resort) and I ended up spending the night on an inflatable pool floaty with a beach
towel as my blanket. At least I could double it at the pool the next day! For me the following day consisted of lounging by the beach and the pool all day, however, I did manage to squeeze in an intertube session with Taylor and Denise which was a blast. I earned some war scars when my elbows were rubbed raw from the tube because I kept having to pull myself up so I wouldnt fly off...coincidentally I also left a blood trail on the bed sheets throughout all of the hotel rooms we stayed in for the remainder of the trip because it just wouldnt heal up properly! I thought that was pretty amusing. That night was a lot of fun and the main pool turned into a giant dance party (my favorite!) around 6pm where everyone hung around until about 11 or 12 when they'd head up to the village to hit the bars and clubs, which we did. We made friends with Irish Amy and Aussie Amanda (two friends we met on the ferry ride over) and were out with them for the night. I couldn't believe how many bars there were weaved around every little walkway and corned, all of which were tucked up in the hill. Long story short the night was epic. Sadly we had to pack up and leave Ios the next morning without my tan being sufficiently black, but I suppose Ill just have to make up for it when I go to Spain with my parents. Five hours later after a long and extremely rocky ferry ride which nearly caused me to vomit (among other things) we were back in Athens (boooo!)...aka my least favorite city of all time. It all worked out because I got a Souvlaky which is a delicious kabab sandwich and pretty much the only thing we ate the entire time in Greece, although my favorite was the classic Greek salad.The next morning we were off to Rome where we started to play tourist from the second we got there. The next morning we got up early and sadly I had randomly gotten sick...worst timing ever as I had to spend all of the day on my feet touring the city. I fell asleep on the red bus tour. Whatever. I got
to see the colosseum which was great plus the Pantheon and the list goes on... The only thing that kept me going was gelato, lots and lots of gelato. We had a legit italian meal that night with some delicious wine, followed by gelato of course. Sleep. Wake up. Do it all again with the Vatican, which was by far my favorite part of Rome. I cant really describe it, you just have to go see it for yourself. Its the worlds second largest museum with the Louvre in Paris as the first and if you stopped to look at each piece of art for one minute you would be there for something like 13 years straight. The best part of the trip was when we went to the airport and well, we went to the wrong one. Yes, fact. It happened and we were stupid enough to be the ones to pull it off. Somehow we managed to get to the other airport in time to catch our flight, which, by the way, was in fact delayed by at least another hour. Off to Geneva.Most of all I was excited to see Switzerland, rightly so as it turned out to be my favorite place of all. Geneva was beautiful and the city sat around a massive lake that goes all the way to France and Italy. We were lucky enough to be there during the celebration
of their independence and they had a massive carnival going on around the end of the lake that included tons and tons of food (the worlds largest fondue pot), rides and events such as water ski jumps and a regatta (woo crew!!). They held a massive fireworks display on the water and it came from four different points out on the water and was right over head. Very impressive. Our friend from Chapman happens to live in Geneva so he came to pick us up and show us around town. He took us to his favorite lebanese restaurant where I had a delicious falafel sandwich and to his house where we passed by the King of Saudi Arabia's property...I cant call it a house because its full of tons of mansion. Fair enough, where would he put all 30 of his wives? Pimp. I loved Geneva especially because of the French influence (their main language) as the rest of Switzerland is often German.The next morning we were off to Interlaken and sadly, it started pouring rain. This put a damper on our trip in more than one way in that not only is there nothing to do in Interlaken when its raining as it is completely outdoor oriented but we had canyoning scheduled for later that afternoon, which coincidentally was canceled. We rescheduled that for the next morning with hopes that the weather would get better even though the report stated otherwise. Because we now had all the free time in the world on our hands we were able to go visit the waterfalls where they took us
up on a lift where we were able to walk through the caves and observe the falls from ten different spots. This is the one thing the rain was good for because the water level had risen so much. We went to bed early that night so we could get up bright and early for a long day ahead of us filled with canyoning and skydiving back to back, sounds like my ideal day...what an adrenaline rush! Luckily the canyoning was still on and once we were suited up in our wetsuits, harnesses and safety gear we began to hike up the mountain and start our journey. Canyoning consists of propelling and jumping off cliffs into the river as well as sliding down natural water slides. The water was cold but we hardly noticed it while we were so distracted with the next rock we were supposed to jump off. Just our luck (I feel like I have to say this a lot) it started to rain just as we finished canyoning which meant that skydiving was to be canceled. The problem with this was that we were supposed to make our way to Zurich later that evening on the train. However, I refused to leave Interlaken without skydiving since i've been waiting for years on end to do it and I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity in Switzerland to do so. We chose to stay and extra night and moved our things the Balmers youth hostel where everyone and their mom stayed; it was the place to be. We made friends with three girls from New Jersey who were in our canyoning group as well as skydiving, which we decided to re-book for the following morning at 8.30am. After a long night and setting up a beer pong table that ended up being the hit of the night. Up bright and early we packed our bags and hopped on the van that drove us 30 minutes out to the jump site. Strangely enough I had absolutely no 
nerves even when we got to the peak summit in the plane. I was the second to jump and ironically enough, Taylor was the first...the one who is actually scared of heights. They flew the door open and Taylor's eyes were as wide as saucers but he had no time to second guess and was tossed out the door before he could turn back and change his mind. The moment my jump partner told me to dangle my feet over the edge I think I may have stopped breathing and we were out in as quick as 1...2...3...GO! I think I started to breathe again after 4 or so seconds went by and it began to feel like I wasn't falling at all. It's difficult to explain but all I know is it was the time of my life. I couldn't stop laughing the entire time and probably didn't stop until 15 minutes after we landed. It went by so fast and we had about a 45 second free fall with a few minutes of chute time, which was fantastic because we could see all the way to the French Alps. I would highly recommend skydiving to everyone even if you don't think you have the guts to do it, I almost guarantee you will love it...even Taylor did! Right after we finished skydiving we went to Zurich and I took a long nap and a long shower got food and gelato and went to bed. Honestly, I cannot tell you what Zurich is like at all. We had to get up at 4am to head to the airport the next morning and were there for less than 24hours so its not completely my fault I suppose. And thats about all folks.Whew.
ttfn,
V
