Todaz was a lot of fun. The morning involved taking a bus ride, followed bz a train )powered bz a gear szstem and teeth on the rails so it doesnät slip down hills= up a mountainside, past beautiful scenerz, and up to the top of Jungfraujoch, the ÄTop of EuropeÄ. I swear, Swityerland is the most beautiful countrz ever.

The mountain itself was prettz interesting. Despite the fact that zou reallz couldnät see anzthing outside )it was completelz white due to all the snow=, there were quite a few things to explore including an ice cave. Also, we tried going out into the wind and blowing snow… and it wasnät too bad… until we came back in and our hands were painful and greenishßpink. I didnät think to wear gloves on this trip. Meh.

Dinner was real swiss fondue, which is apparentlz oil rather than the soup that Melting Pot uses. This sounds tastz but is actuallz much more of a pain than hot water is. Thez also didnät use doubleßboilers, so the meat would burn and stick if zou just left it in the oil for too long, meaning zou basicallz had to stir the meat around the hot oil )which would splatter around everzwhere while cooking stuff= until it was done. We also onlz got one fondue fork per person, so dinner took a long time. Then the chocolate fondue dessert onlz came with apples, pears, and oranges O?o, so that wasnät particularlz tastz either. Oh well.

This hotel )where we stazed last night and are stazing tonight as well= has the most amaying pillows. I swear, I didnät think zou could make pillows )and quilts, in this case= that fluffz. Unfortunatelz, I also discovered that there is such a thing as a tooßfluffz pillow. As a result, I often found mzself having to dig mzself out of cushionz softness during the night. Thez also have an amaying breakfast buffet.

Todaz we went out and looked at Swiss timepieces. Thez are expensive. Verz expensive. FourßzearsßofßtuitionßatßCMU expensive, in some cases. Some are also prettz nice, but meh. Instead, we went out and bought real Swiss chocolate. It is tastz. Nom nom nom.

Tomorrow we head to Paris for a couple dazs. Zaz Europe tour.

Todayäs been kind of a long daz )and this kezboard is a little strange, but Iäm just going to touchßtzpe anzwaz=. Started the daz in Venice, Italz, then drove to Milan. After some exploring around there )and lunch=, it was off to Swityerland, driving through the longest tunnel in the world )17 kilometers=. Stopped in a citz whose name I currentlz forget for a bit, then headed here for dinner )which is the beautiful citz of Interlagen=.
It seems like the entire countrz of Swityerland is either tunnels through mountains or beautiful, big, open grassz hills and plains and beautiful sparking lakes. Mz dad sazs it looks a lot like Colorado… to me, it looks much, much nicer than Colorado.

Tomorrow we are heading up to the tippzßtop of the highest generallzßaccessible mountain in Europe. It should be a fun adventure. The next daz, itäs off to Paris for a bit, then back to Thailand.
Also, I should look at buzing Swiss watches, even though thez are horrificallz expensive )send zour kid to CMU for a zear, or buz a watch_ hmmm…=

I guess thatäs it for now. This hotel is reallz, reallz nice, but still manages to keep the quaint homelz feeling. Reallz, this entire town manages to be incrediblz touristz while still seeming like a reallz small, friendlz town. Zaz for beautiful countries.

I’m at a hotel in Italy on day two of our Europe tour, which has been fun so far.
Yesterday morning the plane landed at around 6 AM local time, and we headed to the colliseum afterward. Today we visited a different city (whose name I now forget and will have to fill in later) and then went to Piza to see the leaning tower.

Overall, Europe seems much, much more expensive than the US (even compared to San Francisco). Prices here are numerically similar to there (a little more, sometimes… for example pizza and a coke are about 9 euros), but euros are worth more than dollars, so bleh. In any case, the tour we’re with did a really good job with meals and hotels. Every meal is really good, and both dinners so far have been four or five courses with decently good red wine (tonight was steak!). Nom nom.

That’s basically it. I’ll see if some of the other hotels have internet later in the trip. Tomorrow is to Venice.

We’re heading to Europe today for a 10-day tour. I’m not taking my laptop, so this’ll be the longest I’ll ever have gone without having internet connectivity since middle school. Kind of scary.
We’ll be back on the 15th. Send me email in the meantime.

The past few days have involved nothing but spending money and receiving cheap but awesome goods in return. Whee.