Hahnenkamm

I finally got to see my first World Cup race!!!  This is something that has been on my bucket list for awhile now, but I just have never made it happen.  As soon as Craig signed in Innsbruck I checked the schedule and was pumped to see that 4  races were in driving distance.

There is one race that is infamous for its craziness on and off the race course and that is the Hahnenkamm Downhill in Kitzbuel.  I highly reccomend youtubing "Hahnenkamm Crashes."  I didnt realize just how chaotic it was going to be till I actually was in route.  I was really surprised that my train car was empty for most of the trip...until we stopped about 20 minutes from Kitzbuhel.  The train platform was absolutely packed...I am talking thousands of people trying to get on this one train, with cases of beer in hand.  I had an oh shit moment.  Next thing I knew we were all packed like sardines...and the madness began.  Beer cans were being thrown out the window, people were crawling over seats, and I could barely hear the music on my ipod it was so loud.  I sound like a debbie downer...but I just wasnt expecting it to be so rowdy especially at 9 in the morning, I was still waking up.

I couldnt believe how many people where there!  Cheering, dancing, drinking, and singing.  It actually reminded me of UNH Homecoming tailgating...just add about 45,000 more people. 

  There was so much Austrian pride.  Everybody had a flag drawn on their face, and a lot of them were dressed up from head to toe.  These guys were by far my favorite.




On to the race...it was so exhilarating.  It was the first time in years that I actually missed ski racing.  Part of me just wanted to strap on the boards and give it a go.  And then they showed how fast they were going and a couple crashes and that fantasy quickly died.  The Govenator was there Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I spent a lot of time with my large zoom lens trying to find him in the crowd.  I failed but I did see him a couple times on the Jumbotron.

When they started lighting things on fire it was definitely time to go.   I dont know what it was but I was having a really hard time keeping my personal space from some of the drunken spectators.  As I was making my way down through the crowd people were grabbing my camera from around my neck asking me to take their picture.  I had my hat taken off my head and as I was leaving a guy  grabbed the arm of my coat and almost ripped me to the ground, and told ME that I was not fun haha. Obviously people were just having a good time and they meant no harm at all but its hard when you dont speak the language and they are slurring in your face.  All in all it was a great experience and I am really glad that I went...next time I will definitely go with someone!!!

                          

Martha...

On Sunday the guys were away so I had Meg over for some Chicken Parmesan. It was my first time making it so the pressure was on...plus the stores are closed on Sunday so if I messed up there was no second chance.   We both had second helpings so I thought it was pretty good.  I saved some for Critical Craig and he said that it wasnt crispy enough. 

But this is coming from the guy who barely puts any tomato sauce and no cheese on his so 

 And then I got on this cleanse/detox kick.  I have never fully done one before but I have read all the hoopla about them.  Good for your liver, get rid of toxins, clear skin, optimizing your enzymatic system etc etc.  I thought I would try it out.  I decided that I wasnt going to go with one particular one because I would get bored of drinking the same thing over and over again.  So I made up 4 of my own.
1. Lemon, Ginger, Cayenne, honey
2. Mint tea
3. Ginger tea
4. Lemon, Stevia, water

I was doing pretty well I last about 32 hours and then Meg and I went to hot yoga and I was starving afterwards so we went out to eat and  I had some chicken and veggies, and  then we went to her house for some hot chocolate, and then I came home and had some toast with peanut butter (I figured I had already ruined the night why not eat some more).  So I cheated...one meal in 4 days.

ONE HOUR INTO MY “DIET”

                    

and then Craig caught me and I was like....

I am almost to 48 hours now...plus the 32 so thats 70 hours of detox and I think that's pretty good! 

Craig has Friday through Monday and has planned a romantic Ski and Wellness getaway in Switzerland. We both have never been so were really excited!!!  Have a great weekend!

"A Single Day Lived Well"

I really tried to improve on my packing skills...but Pintrest really put a damper on that! 

Quote taken at the Colosseum

It was actually 5 days well lived...a trip of a lifetime with the best company anyone could ask for my parents!  It was "Trains, Planes, & Automobiles" meets "Eat, Pray, Love"  with a boat, a bus, and an extra EAT...better make that an extra EATS: 

I dont even really know where to start...I took over 700 photos and about 45 minutes worth of video.    Everything we saw was worth capturing!  I guess I will start at the beginning   

SORRENTO 

The train ride from Innsbruck was a piece of cake...the whole thing took about 10 hours.  The only sketchy part was the train from Naples to Sorrento, but I just made sure that I tied all my bags onto my body in case I feel asleep.  Mom (Lisa) and Dad (Gary) were already waiting for me on the train platform...it was nice to know that my Dad had made it...without his luggage of course!  We headed back to the hotel to relax and catch up!

The next day Lisa was our personal tour guide all around Sorrento.  The weather was raining on and off but that didn't stop us.   We first strolled through town... cobble stone streets lined with restaurants, shops, and apartments.  We grabbed some clothes for Gary!

Downtown 

Famous for their inlaid wood work

There were orange and lemon trees everywhere

We headed down to the water...which was absolutely gorgeous.  I am probably going to say that about everywhere we went...but I dont know how else to described these places.  

Mount Vesuvius

I swear there were more cats then people...they were lounging everywhere.  Lisa had a minor "holy shit" moment when one jumped out of a trash can at her.  

We walked back up through the Old City Center to see the ruins aka Valley of the Mills.   These date back to the early 900's and are in a deep gorge right in the middle of the main street. 

Gary was jetlagged so he went back to the hotel for a Cat Nap (hehe).  My mom took me with her to the Sant' Anna Institute where she has to finish up some work.     

I didnt get any pictures...but all the classrooms had ocean views!!! Made me almost want to go back to college...almost....

We had a fancy schamcy dinner downtown.  The meal was delish and we had infinite rounds of complimentary Limoncello.

                               

AMALFI COAST

The next day we were off exploring the Amalfi Coast.  I decided that we were going to rent a car instead of taking bus that way we could stop whenever we wanted to, and I figured it would be a smooth drive since I am now a master of the stick shift.  It was a 2 hour white knuckle, hairpin, 2nd gear drive.  The fact that we had a little ford shit box with a worn out clutch didnt help at all.  The thing was beaten to hell too dents all over the place and had probably been side swiped a handful of times.   I should have taken that as a sign!!

Biker ahead...

Our first stop was Positano.  It was hands down the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. It was picture perfect, jaw dropping, take your breath away etc etc.

I TOLD YOU!!!!! And I am still learning how to work my camera...in person it was twice as nice.  We stopped for lunch and to take a stroll on the beach.  I could have stayed there all day.

Right after this picture was taken drop my camera and barely got the words "run" out...the waves were huge.  Unfortunately I was a little to late...Gary got soaked but the picture was worth it.

MY TURN!!!!

RAVELLO

or as we liked to call it Ravioli .  We actually had to drive past our hotel and up an even steeper mountain side to get to this place.  As if I didnt have big enough sweat stains from the previous hour. But it was well worth it and we made it just before sunset.  

We stayed oceanside in Amalfi...my room was huge for one person.

Wakey Wakey...I woke my parents up at 8 am fully dressed and ready to go...to only find out they were still snoozing.  

We only had a short time in Amalfi...after breakfast we walked along the boardwalk.  Took it in...snapped some photos and it was back to Sorrento to drop off the car and catch a boat to Capri!

                                                

CAPRI

Here comes the boat part...

I literally drove as fast as I could (about 30 mph max) to make that freakin boat!   The weather was definitely not "lets go explore an island"  it was more like lets watch The Hills reruns on netflix all day and order some pizza...

Crazy story that shows you just how small the world really is (back up to first night in Sorrento)... so on Thursday after my mom was done with her work we went back to the hotel to see if there was any progress on the luggage so we were waiting in the hotel lobby when a young man came out of his room and asked the concierge where he should go to dinner tonight...my mom tried to chime in and I nudged her because I figured the concierge would know better then her.  Sooooo, we got off the boat in Capri and I noticed that same guy walking ahead of me with a Roots backpack  on....so I stalked them down and ask if they were from Canada and the conversation went exactly like this: 

"Yes, we live in BC"

" Oh no way my boyfriend is from Peachland" me

"What does he do in Peachland?  I worked there for summer" him

"Oh, well he actually lives in Innbruck right now playing hockey" me

"OMG...is your boyfriend Craig Switzer" her

"I use to play hockey with him, and she use to date him" him

YAAAAAAAAAAA! CRAZY!!! I was dying laughing...  Small Small world!

It was down pooring the entire time we were in Capri, and to see Capri you need to be on foot so that really wasnt a possibility.  We were able to see a recommended museum that Villa San Michele.  Ill let you google the history on it...my fingers are starting to hurt from writing so much.   It was actually pretty interesting. 

                         

The Gardens of the Villa were the best part...until I decided to try some of the fruit and my whole mouth went numb for about an hour.

The thing I bit

our make shift movie theatre

NAPLES

A lot of people say that Naples is a little rough around the edges and it is but it also has it beautiful parts.  We rented an apartment which was perfect because we were going to be there for 3 nights.  This place was as locked down as Buckingham Palace.   There were 4 different keys to 4 different doors that all locked behind you before you actually got to the apartment door.  So we dropped off our luggage and headed to lunch.

our balcony

fried lil critter

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Best lunch we had on our entire trip!  We all had seafood something or other and it was fresh and delicious.   We even had our own entertainment...he came right up to our table and tried to get Lisa to sing!   After a couple bottles of wine...

 the weather was still not on our side for the so we did another Museum.  We thought we were going to one about Pompeii, but it actually turned out to be the Naples National Archaeology Museum.

That's how I felt when I found out 

                                   

you lookin at me?

These were  original calves from the Hercules Statue

After we headed to the Naples Cathedral...

 A must if you are visiting Naples is Pizzeria Starita.  My mouth is watering just thinking about this place.  The Pizza was incomparable to anything I have ever had before.   It's family own and get this they have opened one in NYC too!  Because of the weather and us deciding to do Rome in a day I really didnt get to experience all that Naples had to offer...but it was still definitely worth seeing!

When in Rome

Ahhhh I fell in love with Rome.  I really wish I planned the trip with a spending at least a night there.    We caught the 8 am train which gave us about 7 hours there...not nearly enough time to see everything.  We had done some research about these open double decker bus tours that take you to the different sightseeing  areas in Rome...sounded a little too touristy for me but since we had such a short amount of time it seem logical.  We probably walked around the train terminal for about an hour searching for these buses and just when we almost had given up standing there hopeless a tour guide found us!  

I highly recommend doing these tours.  They are about 20 euro a person for 18 hours.  They give you a map that shows the stops and  ear plugs which  gives you a history lesson as you cruise through the city.  The bus stops at every place you could want to see.  You get off at the stop that you want...explore...and there will be another bus ready to pick you back up every 20 minutes.
                          
First stop was the Colosseum.   It was hard to wrap your mind around the fact that 1. this arena is still standing 2. that it was built by the hands of prisoners

Colossal : )

We took a brief walk through the Roman Ruins afterwards.

Piazza Venezia

Not so fast Lisa

St. Peter's Basilica is the most breath taking piece of architecture  I have ever seen in my life.  It's actually the most beautiful thing I have ever seen period.   I was fascinated with the ceilings..by the time we walked out of there my neck was about to fall off.   

Its a tradition to rub, kiss, or touch the right foot on the Statue of Saint Peter and pray to him because he hold the keys to the gates of Heaven...the toes are so worn that it now is just a smooth slab of bronze from so many visitors. The left foot looked completely normal. 

The Baldacchino is almost 100 feet tall and stands in the front center of the church over the alter. 

Michelangelo's Dome

As morbid as this sounds...you really cant die without seeing this Church...words can even describe it!

The Vatican Museum

We were seriously running out of time but I refused to leave without seeing the Sistine Chapel.  So we ran from the Basilica to the museum...bought tickets and ran our butts all the way to the chapel exhibit.  The Museum is kind of like Ikea in the way that you go in for one thing yet you have to pass by 1000 things just to get to the thing you want.  It was a huge maze and if you had the time you could have easily spent a half of a day there but we had a train to catch.  I got my wish though!  Cameras and voices over a whisper are NOT aloud inside the chapel.  They have security dressed in general public clothes to bust people trying to break the rules.  A guy sitting next to me attempted to snap some pictures and he had to stuff his camera into his wifes purse and was aggressively reprimanded.   So I was really sneaky with my iphone...

We did get to see most of the other historic sights while we were on the bus!  I really want to go back with Craig even though he doesnt like the "tourist" things in Europe...Rome is really incredible.  Everything is so massive and you could stop and stare for hours.  It's by far the top place of my list of places I have seen so far.  

Teaching Lisa how to play Words with Friends on the Train

I always thought once you got to Europe that it was really cheap to travel and sight see...its the opposite.  There are some really good deals on some sites but for the most part its expensive. Just my train ticket to Naples was more then any flight within the US.  Plus all the costs of the Museums and the food that you will want to try!  So Save your pennies and at least get yourself to Rome.  You have to see this place!!!!!  

Grazie! Grazie!  Thank you Mom and Dad for making this trip happen...the memories will definitely last a lifetime!!!

All the things we saw wrapped into one video....I think I am going to make a Youtube channel so you can see all the videos in good quality. 

                                              

This was me after my train in bologna was cancelled.  It went from a 9 hour trip home to 14 hours. 

I am heading to Kitzbuhel tomorrow my first World Cup race...it should be amazing!!!  Have a great weekend!!