ee some famous mountains, I was thinking that would be a really cool thing to take pictures of. Little did I know we were going to climb up them! The first day of hiking we did a short two hour hike up a mountain near the camp ground. Once we were to the spot we had lunch and took pictures with all the cows and goats that were there, must have been some sort of farm or something. I had gone hiking in my oh-so-famous wrecked puma's and the next day we were planning on going on a much longer, harder hike so my host family offered to buy me some hiking boots! Note to self: never again buy a pair of hiking boots and go hiking for 6 hours without breaking them in first. What an adventure! We looked at the map 
of where we wanted to go and started off on our adventure, we were on a path surrounded by trees and before we knew it.. there were no more trees and no more path. We could see a slight path near the river so we decided to try and follow it. After a few hours of climbing around a river and crazy trees I was pretty convinced that we were on the path less travelled. Finally... people!!! Only a hundred meters up though... We climbed a massive hill to finally make it to the spot where the path was supposed to be. We made it to the point we were looking for and then discovered that the building was closed! Good thing we brought some nice German sandwiches with us to eat :). We stayed at the top of that mountain for a while until deciding to go back down. Thank God this time we decided to follow the path!! I must be the work hiker in the entire world or something but I was always at the back of our line and I could always hear people gaining up from behind me then just doddle off on the rocks. I suppose for a first-timer I did pretty well but a note to anyone who ever wants to go hiking with me: it might take about double the time it will take YOU!The next amazing thing that I got to do was to go to Venice!! Never in my right mind would I be able to say 'oh hey, let's go on vacation.. maybe we'll stop in Venice for a day or so'. Pretty cool! There was one thing about it that really amazed me though, the size, it was tiny! For being such an advertised an
d talked about place I thought it would be really huge. We parked in the parking lot (which was an adventure in itself with some guy telling my host parents to leave their keys in the car..?) then we got out and got the map of the city. I took a peek at it and just thought, 'where's the rest of it?!' Regardless of the size of course it was really great. We started at one end and walked all the way through to the other side. Everywhere I looked there was another little shop selling nic-nacs and silly stuff. I did get to buy a very cool 'I <3 Italia". There were also TONS of guys on boats wearing tight pants and funny hats! It was pretty hot there that day, and due to the condition of my ankles and heels after hiking I had worn my flip flops and I'm very glad I did! It was also extremely humid, Germany is one place to talk about humid, but in Venice it was much worse! I am super happy I was able to go there and so easily too, I wouldn't take it back for anything. I also had my 18th birthday the day after we got back. Pretty sweet to be able to say I went to Italy on vacation, then went back home to Germany to celebrate my 18th birthday. Don't worry if you're jealous :), I would be too!!
