So it's a {real} thing to sleep in airports....

Easter in Germany was filled with many adventures. To start the four day weekend, I spent my Thursday night sleeping on a bench in the Bonn-Cologne Airport. I was told by many people that this was not legal, and that I should probably think about some other plans on how to get to the airport on time Friday morning for my 6 am flight, but I decided to stick it out and stay at the airport. I was not alone though! Koi stayed with me. I'd say she had a better nights rest than I did though, since I managed to only get about an hour of sleep that night between the construction work and the old man that was cleaning the floors.

Friday morning after checking in and printing off tickets, Koi and I waited for the other six people to show up so that we could all go through security together. At about 5:45 am or so, they rounded the corner in the airport, but was missing one person, Ashley. They told us that she had overslept, and that she was in a taxi on her way to the airport. We all just laughed. Everyone knew deep down that someone was going to be late that morning. We finally made it through security and went to the gate where we would board our plane. From the many things we were told about Switzerland and Zurich, we decided to go ahead and get a couple of things to eat and drink while we were there, the reason being that otherwise we would go broke while there.

Upon our arrival in Zurich, we all found the nearest ATM in order to get some money that we could actually use while there. We bought our transportation passes for the day, and then went to the train that would take us to our hotel. When we got to our stop, we got off, walked down to what we thought was our hotel, and then proceeded to the next door. This too was not our hotel, but another hotel that was in the same building as our hotel. It was the weirdest thing. There were three entrances to one building, but they were three different hotels. We finally found our appropriate entrance, and checked in to the hotel. We were all tired, so we just wanted to put our things down. After getting into one room, we decided to go out and explore a little. The first cafe we went into looked like it would be delicious, but then we saw the prices on the menu. No one wanted to pay 6  francs for one cup of coffee, so we decided to keep walking. We went down a little further, and found a Starbucks. It was still somewhat more expensive than it is normally, but we settled for it, and got something small to eat and drink. Afterwards we kept walking down the streets where we found a fountain with a bottle of liquor sitting in it straight up. Jay's brave self decided to take a sip of it. We then found out that the liquid inside the bottle was not what it was supposed to be. In fact, we still don't know what was in that bottle. Now we know to only drink the water, not the liquids out of bottles in the fountains.

Saturday we woke up early and went to the Rhinefalls. There we saw the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen. It was so amazing! We took lots of pictures and then left to come back to the town. When we got back to town we took a boat cruise along the lake. Later that night a couple of us decided to go out to the local street with the bars where everyone went to drink and hang out. The first bar we tried to go into, three people in our group got turned around because they weren't 21. It was weird to actually have to show my ID to get into a bar in Europe. We then just decided to get drinks at the kiosk and keep walking up and down the street. Right before we all gave up, we went into one bar and stayed for a little bit. After buying one beer for 8 francs, I was ready to leave. We then went back to the hotel and went to bed for the night.

Sunday was our chill day. Everyone slept in for the most part, and we didn't leave the hotel until later in the day. Our adventures for the day included a walk from our hotel to the main city. We managed to walk the whole way down the lake. It was very nice and relaxing. We had a small lunch along the lake at one of the little food places. We sat outside, and then fed the rest of our bread to the ducks in the lake.

Monday we woke up early, got breakfast, checked out of our hotel rooms, and then proceeded to the train station. We caught a train that would take us to a place where they had tin tobogganing. This is where you get to slide down a mountain. This had to be the funnest day out of any day spent in Switzerland. We all got to slide down the mountain two times, the third time we decided to hike down so we could get a better look at the alps. The hike was so beautiful. I did however manage to fall four times on the way down. A note for everyone: "keds do not mix well with snow and mud. There is no grip, so you fall a lot!" After we made it to the bottom, we caught the bus back to the train station where we would catch the train back to the town. We got a nice fancy dinner before we left for the airport.

The flight home was tremendously rough, so that wasn't fun, but we made it safe and sound. All in all, Zurich was a beautiful place, full of expensive things, but nice people and places. Easter was well spent this year.