Part II

Things you should know about me:
1. I love mountains.
2. I love Fall.
3. I have wanted to go to Switzerland since I read the book Heidi (a long time ago)
4. When I like something I cannot stop saying how much I like it.

Now that you know these things about me, you can imagine how annoyed John must have been after a long drive through Switzerland in the fall with me as the only passenger. I am pretty sure I said- “Wow this is beautiful!!!” or “OMG I love this place!!! about every five minutes. Haha :) We finally arrived at Zurich and it was (Using John’s third favorite word) quaint. We walked around for a few hours and of course I took a lot of pictures. I also fell into a rose bush while taking a picture of a rose. Ouch.

Later we drove to a small town near Zurich and met our host for the night. Her name is Kathrin and she was pretty awesome as well. She spent a year as a foreign exchange student in Texas so her English was pretty good. We watched Friends and a British movie and she gave us some Swiss chocolate. Her apartment was pretty awesome so I took some pictures of it. :) Don’t judge my inability to stop taking pictures.

The next morning we woke up to rainy day and then began our 7-hour drive (that ended up taking more than 8hrs) to our next host’s home in a small town called Aviano near Venice. We had to get gas in a small town in Switzerland, we did not want to take money out of an ATM because we were not going to be Switzerland for much longer so we went inside and asked (in a combination of English and Spanish) if they took Visa (John was holding up the card for the lady to see). The lady looked at us with blank eyes, shook her head and said “NO”. So we put some gas in but not enough to fill it up since everything was significantly more expensive in Switzerland. I walked over to the ATM and realized there I had to take out a minimum of 40 Swiss Franks. So there we were with 15 Franks left over. We decided to put more gas in the car but then accidentally put 2 franks more than we had. John went inside and asked if he could give them 15 Franks and 2 euros (Euros are worth more than Franks), the lady said “NO” but said he could put it all on his card. Hmmmm… WHAT?!?!?! This could have all been avoided if she would have taken the card in the first place. GRRRRR! This was all quite frustrating but we made the best out of the situation and bought some sandwiches and pretzels with the left over Franks.

It continued to rain the entire drive. Did I mention John had been feeling bad since we arrived in Milan? Well this day was probably the worst day for his health and he was wearing shorts. I think he might have had a fever while driving. Poor Guy. :(

As you may or may not know- I watch too many Horror films and I cannot help but to be paranoid of certain things. On our way to Aviano not only were we running out of Gas but my mind was all ready going crazy creating a horrible plot for a low budget Horror film. Don’t get me wrong- Aviano is a cute town (in daylight) but it is in the middle of nowhere Italy and we arrived when it was pitch dark and rainy. Luckily we made it to our destination safely but not before being mislead by Lola (again this is what I named the GPS). When she said “Arriving at Destination on Left” we were not actually at our destination. Instead we were outside a black gate with a “Beware of Dog” sign. I got out of the car (expecting something to jump out at me: a dog or a ghost) to check the name on the doorbell but it was not the name we were looking for. We looked at the names on the building to our right and those were also not the right name. John flagged down some cars and attempted to ask people if they knew were Apartment 29 was or if they knew were Sarah Martin lived. One guy told us it was further back on that same street. We slowly reversed and then found a number 29 with a little note taped to the door that said “JOHN ring the door bell”.

Sarah and her husband Will were awesome people but my mind was set on Horror film and I was sleeping in a large room without a door so I did not sleep much that night. Actually- I spent the entire night thinking I was going to wake up to a Ghost standing in the door less doorway. Yes, I know I should stop watching horror films!

Also- at Sarah and Will’s we were not couch surfing. They are just super friendly people (Sarah knows John’s older sister) who let us spend two nights at their place.