Day Eight:

Belluno goes down as one of my favorite places in the world! It was a hard goodbye: 

But just when I thought we were leaving there had to be one more memory that I won't be able to forget about this place. The toilet. Yup. The long drop, piss pot, lu, bathroom, washroom, water closet or whichever way you know it by. It wasn't what you are thinking of I can guarantee that: 

A hole in the ground is what I would like to name this one. And if you are wondering if this is a urinal, it's not.

This was at the restaurant we are at before we got on the train, which is a great segway into my next topic. Food. I know I know ew gross well sorry but im trying to stay as chronological as I can. I ordered a panini and got a BUS instead: 

That is the actually panini next to my hand. 

Ciao Belluno Gratsi! 

Only a two hour train to Venice, where the scenery was completely different: 

More tourist than actual buildings in this case. Ofcourse being in a place where the roads are canals isn't such a bad thing to experience. I've been to Venice before but it was on the opposite end so this is all new to me, but still the same with how many tourist there are.

It got quiter and less crowded the more we walked towards our hotel which is close to the coast. We had 3 helpings of gelato and pizza for dinner. When in Rome... I mean Venice: 

There was a big storm brewing and we got done with dinner before it came. 

We also figured we would catch the sunset but didn't quite make it to the end of the walkway. 

This was the actual colour of the sky before the sun set. The two things that already started to annoy me was the amount of Americans and the amount of Haglers (People trying to sell you stuff). I have nothing against Americans but I didn't come to Italy to talk to the people I live with constantly. Tomorrow we will walk through San Polo and San Marco trying to cover as much as the island as possible. 

Day Seven: (My favorite day)

This was the first morning that Brandon woke me up and I had no idea where I was! I was so tired still and had been in a deep deep sleep. It was amazing. We got some breakfast at the hotel where we bumped into two older ladies from gues where... Colorado! Specifically Universiry of Denver Alumni! What a small world. We then found a tourist center to give us a map of the area, and even though it was 7 km to the base of the mountain we didn't want to walk to it so we called Alberto; our personal taxi driver who was such a nice man! He took us to the trailhead which we had no idea where it was and so our day started: 

Oh I didn't mention this is a graphic image? Woops sorry this was Calvin getting a bug down his pants right before the hike started! Had to take a picture. 

This might have been the least prepared any 3 of us have been for a hike but we were going to make it work. Keep in mind it stormed last night! 

Just up the first 10 minutes there was a house. Little italy as we called it. We started the trail thinking it would be an easy hike.. Boy were we wrong. 

If you think this incline was bad, think again this was the starting point and this was luxurious space compared to what was coming up ahead. 

About a quarter way up the mountain we turned around and kept saying wow picture time. Again and again and again. These two clowns kept me entertained for a while. Yes we had walking sticks that we found right by the base. They saved our lives countless of times. 

A little over halfway up the mountain. We had gone through very tiny switchbacks and basicaly climbed a foot in altitude everytime we took a step because it was that steep. 

Oh you don't see a trail? It's in there trust me underneath knee deep grass and it's only about one foot width wide. 

Believe it or not this is his happy face. 

The summit of the mountain was about 1796meters, and we started at 700meters. I'm not going to do the math so go to google and plug it into feet. Please. I don't think that anything I say is going to do our views today any justice but I will try my best. I RECOMMEND that if you come to Italy, do this hike!! It only took us 2 hours to get to the top. Give or take. The path we took kept getting narrower as we proceeded up the mountain, and at one point we crossed a cliff where there was a wire connected to the rocks so that we can hold on to it and not fall down the cliff. We went through mud, through grass and who knows what other bushes up to our chest, and had about one foot of room on the trail itself. When we got to the top the view was breathtaking and all three of us went into prayer and thanked God for such an amazing opportunity and His beautiful creation. The wind started blowing pretty hard and we wrote our names into the journal up above, while the others did their fare share of push-ups. Workout is key boys and girls. Okay enough talking here is what it looked like: 

Now coming down wasn't too hard, but we didn't have Alberto to come and save us. We started walking from the trailhead and estimated a good 7km walk. Luckily we hitchhiked for part of the walk, but one thing I am sure of. The italian people here in Belluno are so incredibly kind. This family let us fill up our water bottles, another restaurant owner said the store was closed but if we want he would give us bread and snacks for free, and then like I mentioned the hitchiking was very generous. We got to our hotel and showered it was about 6 and we were starving so we wanted Spagheti! The only thing here is that they don't eat dinner till 7:30. They drink a glass of wine and coffee before dinner so only caffe stores were open. 

We walked around and saw some great views with the sunset and the finally drumroll........ I got my first glass of wine in Italy and my Italian meal: 

Absolutely phenomenal day to say the least! Now off to Venezia tomorrow🇮🇹

Day Six:

Wow. Where to begin. Waking up at 7 after going to bed at 1 wasn't all that great of a feeling but then again neither is not being able to catch an earlier train at that time. We ended up catching our normal train at 11 which have us some time to say goodbye to Alex and enjoy breakfast. We knew there was a park nearby so we walked there to take a short nap before the big journey down to Italy. I finally got to hammock in Europe: 

After our power nap we suddenly had so much energy and Calvin ended up getting an extra amount of strength: 

As we caught our train and settled into our reserved seats we started our 9 hour train journey switching trains twice. We headed towards Padova, Italy: 

Exhausted. 

The funny thing is I had my book and so did the other guys but none of us read them because there were so many distractions along the way. These mountains called the Alps or something got in our way of the corn fields or empty lands we wanted to see. Weird right? Just kidding it was unbelievable going through... You know what I think it's better to just show you: 

If the view wasn't enough we also met this girl who was from Germany but had quite the story to tell:

Her name was Naïma, born in Germany. Went to school in New Zealand. Is busy finishing up her med school in England. She's a sponsored road and mountain bike rider. She also did dance professionally and wanted to pursue musical acting. She has already done some of the Alps races twice. Oh and just if you're wondering her place she's living now is in one of these pictures. 

We all felt unaccomplished and not talented at all. But good for her. She gets it I guess right? 

As for us three lads we stopped at Conegliano, Italy:

We got some pizza (ofcourse) and sat in the middle of the square where this guy named Davidian approached us. Now judging off his appearance I thought he was going to try and pick pocket us but ashamed now I realized he was waiting for people and just wanted to have a conversation. He was busy studying philosophy and history! 

See now the real fun begins: 

I had to make this a second section on it's own and I apologize but I don't have pictures for this one. We got to Belluno at 20:30 at night, and there were no taxi's in sight. The place we booked for ourselves was about 6 or 7 km away so we weren't going to walk. We asked the 3 people that were at the train station if they could call us a cab. They didn't speak much english but were very helpful. The cab showed up at 21:30 and we had 30 minutes to check into our hotel. It starts raining buckets! And I mean buckets it was so hard! We get to the hotel only to realize that the hotel doesn't exist anymore! The cab driver Ronaldo doesn't speak a word of English but decides to stop the meter and charges us €20 which was a bargain. Now we were stuck in the middle of the Alps, no internet to contact anyone, and it was pouring rain. Ronaldo says one word, "hotel", and we all just say yes. This kind saint of a man drives us to two other hotels and finally gets us to one where it isn't closed. He gets out of the car doesn't say anything but shakes our hands and says Ciao! No charge....As if this wasn't a gift from above, the hotel we are at looks like a 4 star and we thought we would be spending so much for a night. After trying to talk italian, combined with Spanish and English the guy says it's €35 a night which is only €10 more than what we would have paid and breakfast is included! Our room has a balcony, garden and TV(not that we need it). Seriously God has worked wonders for us. 

Day Five

Getting up early and grabbing some buns with jam and cheese on them for free is a great feeling when you are trying to save while spending money! All four of us rented some bikes and took off into the crowded city dodging trains cars and mostly people. We got out of the main city of Munich and headed into a park where we saw people surfing. Yes you heard me correctly SURFING in Germany. They used the river to create a swell high enough to surf on it:

Whe continued riding for many many kilometers and saw the worlds second biggest beergarden. As you can imagine after riding around for a long time we were starving. Well the true question would be when am I not hungry? We came back to the main part of town and I saw a sign that had my mum's work on it:

It was a flea market with a bunch of shops with fruits and vegetables but also some cheap restaurants with Snitchel and Bratwurst. And afcourse a mini beer garden: 

We continued to explore by parking our bikes and walking to let the food and beer digest. 

Our first stop was St. Peter's cathedral which we only saw from outside yesterday, and wow did it blow our mind when we went in. The ceiling was so high and there was so much detail to every sculpture and painting:

Our second stop was at the main plaza where there was a restaurant in the middle of a cathedral and we could go up the tower for €2.50. Sounded expensive at the time but it did provide me with this view from atop of Munich:

This above is St. Peter's from the outside 

The cathedrals weren't the only good views when we stumbled upon this BMW i8:

We had already seen the main city so we got our bikes and headed in the "general" direction of places on the map. We finally got to St. Paul's cathedral and it looked like this: 

We also got to see where they were setting up for Oktoberfest and saw this ginormous statue right next to the venue:

As night time came around we wanted to check out the famous beergarden in the main plaza but didn't end up getting a seat because it was so packed! When we walked back outside I heard two guys talking Afrikaans and then ended up staying and talking with them for a bit. They weren't all that great to be honest. 37 year old men who smoke cigarettes. But no complaints about talking afrikaans again. That's the biggest downfall to Europe is that EVERYONE smokes! 

Germany was a lot of fun but now we've reached our halfway mark of our trip and next up is Italy!