Food Baby

Tonight, my roommates and I went to The Diner.  It was very fulfilling.   We all got bacon cheeseburgers and we were salivating. It was so good and I never thought I would be able to say I had a burger in Italy.  I saw that the menu had breakfast, bagels (I miss me a bagel), and other great sandwiches, which means I will become a regular at that place.
Another nice thing that will make me go back is the fact that from 4-8 they have happy hour and you can get complimentary mimosas.  Yep.  Im sold.

So, I at this moment I am officially super full.
But that is not going to stop me from eating some tiramisu.  And I made it.
Earlier today, my roommate Catherine and I made tiramisu.  It was such a fun process.  First, we used pound cake, because we couldn't find lady fingers, and placed a row of them at the bottom of a pan.  Next, we mixed mascarpone cheese, Baileys, eggs, and some froth thing.  Once that was mixed, we drizzled it over the pound cake to make a complete layer over the cakes. After that, we did another layer of pound cake and another layer of the liquid mixture.  After that we sprinkled chocolate powder over the whole cake. To top that off, Catherine made a really cool fleur-de-lis symbol in the center with powdered sugar.  She is so creative and I love it.

yum.

So basically it was a great day...with a perfect ending.

Picture Stealer

My friend Kat had some beautiful and great pictures from Switzerland that I wanted to share with everyone.  

There was a tram that took you to the top, but we are champs
and didn't use it! 

Getting ready to ski

Beautiful!

At the top of the mountain

"Table Fart"
The signs were so funny 

Lounging at the top of the mountaim

We reached the lake! 

Most beautiful place I have ever been...

Switzerland.  Yep, it is the most beautiful place I have been. Here are a few reasons why: 

Well, all of those are basically one reason, the scenery.  It was just so beautiful.  The first few pictures are from a hike that I took with Lauren and Kat.  We walked to the trail from our bed and breakfast and it went to the top of a huge mountain and it took about 3 hours to get to the top.  It was the longest, but most beautiful hike I have ever done.  The higher and higher we climbed, the more vast and breath-taking the view got.  When we started at the bottom, there were goats inclosed in a large pen.  It was pretty random, but it was kinda of cool still since they were big horns.  

Once we started back on the trail, we climbed higher and higher on a very steep trail.  We had to stop at some places to take pictures.  The coolest thing about the climb was that you were able to see the two lakes that led into Interlaken as you went further up. Hence, the reason that the town is named this.  

One river that leads into the town 

Me and Kat  

Me and Lauren 

Getting higher up the trail, we were able to see the second river
that leads into Interlaken

We finally got to the top and I took this picture that will probably be one of my all time favorite pictures that I have ever taken.   I loved the contrast of the green pine trees with the snow covered Alps behind them.   

I just still can't believe I was able to witness this.  Plus, I knew I was probably never going to be able to see this again, so I wanted soak it in. 

After the hike, we went down to the bottom and walked back into the center of town.  I was able to get a burger. I never thought I would be so excited about a burger, but after so many pizzas and pasta dishes, I have never craved American food so much.  
After eating my simply delicious burger, we went back to our bed and breakfast and relaxed for awhile.  We went to dinner at a place called The Funny Farm.  The odd thing about this place was that there was nothing really that funny about it.  It was just a regular hotel, but it was the HOT place to be.    Everyone went there for their beers and I guess the basement turned into a night club at night.  I was not able to experience this so called "night club," which I am perfectly content with.  I don't really fancy the idea of a night club in a basement.  Creepy.  
But the dinner was still really good.  I got another burger, I have never loved burgers this much! Also, I had a few drinks.  I am really starting to get used to the fact that I don't get carded or anything here in Europe.  Once I get back to the states, I will only have a couple months until I turn 21. Phew! (laughs) 

The next day, we went skiing.  I never thought I would ever be able to ski the Swiss Alps, but I did... somewhat.  First, there was a bus that was supposed to take us up to the mountain with the program we took.  We were supposed to meet out on the curb to go at 8 AM.  We were left behind and no one told us. We were only 10 min late.  Very annoying, but we recouped and walked to the train station right next to the bed and breakfast and figured out the train system.  We had this ticket that the program had given us that we thought would take us to the top of the mountain without any issues.  Well, we were on the way up and someone asked us to see our ticket and we did not have the right ticket.  Frantically, I was able to follow the man to the ticket office and buy a ticket for the ride we had already taken and the one back to Interlaken.  The funniest thing about this was that when I showed the man the ticket, that I thought was sufficient enough, he just said "Well, you better have more." Looking back on it now, it was humorous.  
Next, we finally got to the mountain and found a place to rent our ski supplies.  The people at the place were so nice and helpful.  They got me pants, boots, skis, and a helmet.  80 franks later ($1=.95 franks), I was ready to get my ski lift and start skiing.  I got my ski lift ($65, I was able to pay in dollars).  Everything was so expensive.  And, all I can say about the lift is that the Swiss are super efficient.  
At this point, I was getting extremely nervous.  I had only skied three times before and it was only in Arizona.  Arizona is certainly not any kind of great skiing.   But, we went on one run and I was feeling confident at first, until a very steep drop came into sight.  It was very large and of course I fell going down.  After the first run, I went on another one on the same hill.  During my run, my boot began to bother me and it was hurting my ankle.  So, after I finished this run, I took a break and let Lauren and Kat go without me.  I was perfectly content with this because I found a lodge that had lawn chairs that sat in the snow and looked out onto the beautiful mountains.  I took some amazing pictures.  

After sitting here and getting some tasty lunch, I was willing to give the mountain another try.  It was a different track and it was not as steep at the other one I went on.  It was a lot more enjoyable and I did it a few more times.  It is pretty funny because Kat took a video of me going down and I must have been going the slowest that anyone had ever gone on the Swiss Alps. But hey, I skied the Swiss Alps.  I am really glad that I went because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to experience the views, which was my favorite part by far.
That night we were so tired, so we didn't do anything too exciting.  We did go to dinner at the Runft Cafe, the words in Interlaken were so weird because it was in German.  At the cafe, I got hashbrowns with cheese and tomato.  It was a famous dish supposedly.  Another famous dish was what Kat got, which was toast with layers of things on top of it.  Kat had toast with asparagus, banana, ham, and cheese.  Interesting, but it looked delicious.  

The hashbrown dish was so delicious and the water was picture worthy because I was so thirsty from the long day.  Plus, we had never seen a glass cup with a label for the size of the drink. Easily amazed I guess.  
A few more random things from Switzerland: 

Hooters in Interlaken?

 The mountains, the church, the tiny stream all in one picture

 Funny sign 

 Yum. 

 Perfect little house. Very Switzerland. 

 We walked all the way to one of the lakes that leads into Interlaken 

I still cant believe that I able to see the beautiful views.  I am so glad I went to Switzerland! 

PS: sorry my blog's format decided to change in the middle of my post. Stupid technology. 

Swiss Alps, here I come!

I am going to the Interlaken, Switzerland this weekend.  I leave Thursday night and get back on Sunday.  I have plans to ski, how could I not and then be able to say I skied the Swiss Alps?! I and two other friends booked it with this student trip website, Euroadventures, that offers trips all over Europe for pretty cheap.  So, I can splurge on skiing, which the Euroadventures offers themselves.  They also offer bungee jumping, sky diving, night sledding, paragliding, and even snow shoe treks.  Crazy, huh? Who knows how adventurous I am going to get, but maybe I'll come back with pictures of sky diving over the Swiss Alps! Don't worry mom and dad.
I will post pics when Im back from the Alps! Ciao for now!

All a girl needs is chocolate.

Over the weekend, here in Florence, there was a chocolate festival.  There was tents filled with vendors where all they sold was chocolate. Chocolate fudge, chocolate shaped like shoes and animals, and there was even chocolate alcohol.  I didn't know how to choose the best chocolate, so I settled on two pieces of chocolate fudge with caramel filling, chocolate that that tasted like tiramisu, and chocolate that tasted like champagne.  They were delicious, and of course I already ate them all.  

The tents of the festival

Yum.

So cute!

Too cute to eat, in my opinion

Who knows what is in the middle, but it looks
delicious!

Shoes and chocolate... what else do I need?!

Chocolate Tower??

Chocolate Fondue

He was churning the chocolate for hours!

After being at the chocolate festival for about an hour, the crowd all hurried over to see a parade of people dressed up in medieval clothing carrying flags and playing trumpets.  I am not sure what the parade symbolized, but it was pretty cool!

The rest of my weekend was lots of fun (more lots of delicious meals of course) and I am really starting to feel like this city is my home.  Ciao Ciao!