It was about 7am German time and I was ready to just get on the plane. The only problem was that the flight was overbooked. I was so mad, we sat there for an hour as they tried to figure out a way for us to finally get on the plane. But there was no such luck. We had to wait until 5pm to finally board the plane, and I was not a happy camper because we couldn’t leave the airport that entire time. It was July 4th and I wanted to be in America on the most American day of the year, but of course when it comes to airports they can pretend their organized with their many signs, rules, and regulations, but in reality airports can feel like the most chaotic places ever. At least that was my perception that day when all I could think of was the firework displays, barbecue, and apple pie that awaited me back in the states.

After awhile I quit complaining even though that really is a rough thing to do for a tired teenager, but I managed. My crew and I made ourselves at home in the airport beings that we were stuck there and we ate at the airport McDonald’s and explored for awhile. We bought a ridiculous amount of European chocolate, which included Bueno, Kinder Eggs, and Happy Hippos. This candy was so good and I knew I would miss it immensely when I got home. Also Kinder Eggs are illegal here. I really don’t understand it. You can but a certain kind, but it has to be the type where the toy is in a separate part of the package rather than encased in the chocolate. You can get fined up to $2,500 per egg. According to the government this is because kids can choke on them. There are about a billion flaws to this because I’ve choked on water before and I don’t see them banning water, also they don’t seem to care about kids that much beings that they are marching for their lives at the moment, but that’s a whole different story. The real problem here is my ability to eat the chocolate that I want.

Eventually we got tired of exploring and sat at our gate. Now in order for you to understand how tired I was, I hate sleeping where people can see me. I don’t sleep on public transportation, I don’t sleep in class, I didn’t even sleep on the seven hour plane ride to Europe and stayed up for almost forty eight hours. This is because I don’t want people to hear me snore, I’m afraid I’ll talk and say something weird, or do some other embarrassing thing that I can’t think of. But the point is I fell asleep on the bench for hours. Out of all the new experiences I have had on that trip I think that was by far the most unexpected for me.

Finally, we boarded the plane and were on our way back to the United States. I was so pumped. But one girl that we were on the trip with continued her snobbery. She never stopped saying how something wasn’t up to par or wasn’t what she wanted so she drove me borderline insane. And when we got on the plane my friends and I were talking about how we might see the Macy’s Day fireworks since we’d be in New York at around that time. And she interrupted our conversation just to start talking about how she hated being in America on American holidays. Now I understand America can be absolutely stupid and narcissistic as a country at times, but still it was the the 4th of July and we were just having a good time and she decided to try and rain on our parade/fireworks. So since Shannon, McKayla, and I were seated together and that girl was directly behind us, we decided the obnoxious thing to do was sing the National Anthem when we landed. It wasn’t loud enough to tick off the other passengers, just her. And her face was priceless, she looked so irritated. I think that was the best way to enter the States, on the Fourth of July, and being petty to a girl by singing our national anthem.

 

So it was sadly our final day of being tourists and I was not happy about it. I did not want to go to the airport the next day. I did not want to see my house or the mundane streets of my hometown. I was a sour person, so in order to combat this I was determined to enjoy every little bit of my last day in Europe. It began in the cute little hotel we were staying at near Koblenz Germany. The people that owned it was this sweet old couple and they loved us. That morning they said that they would have a little party for us at the end of the day, and they were just so excited about it that it was contagious.

Our first activity that day was a riverboat tour on the Rhine River. It really was not that exciting after awhile. But it was cool to see a bunch of random stone castles along the river. It seemed like throughout the time on the boat my group started to miss home. One major American norm that they missed was not having to pay each time you use a public restroom. This custom seemed really odd to me because I didn’t think that I should have to pay in order to perform a human bodily function, but I did have to say their restrooms were extraordinarily clean. My friends also missed cheeseburgers. I do have to say that I really missed cheeseburgers, I was craving them almost the entire trip. They were sold there, but I saw people with them and they just were not up to my American standards. After hearing them talk about this I did sort of miss home, but I’m very stubborn, so I refused to admit it when I was there.

Next we were on our way to our last castle. It was rougher looking than the Ambras and Neuschwanstein Castles, but it was built as more of a fortress than a place for kings. We were shown cannons that they would use to shoot over the Rhine River at ships sailing by. Then we walked up the dilapidated stone stairs that warped over time to the actual castle. When we walked in Lucas told us that the stairs curved the way that they did to give the castle owners an advantage because the people coming up the stairs would hit a wall when they were trying to swing their swords. Something I found interesting was that when we were led into the bedrooms the beds were freakishly small. Our guide told us that this was because they would sleep sitting up. Next when we were shown the eating room an interesting addition was that they had a toilet right next to the table so that when the residents were hosting dinner they would not have to leave the conversation to go to the bathroom. They really did not understand hygiene and I am so glad it is not like that today.

Finally we were back to the hotel with the sweet old couple. They fed us till we were completely stuffed and constantly kept trying to give us more. Then when they finished trying to fatten us up they turned up some music to party. They even brought out funny costumes like hats, boas, and glasses to put on. We played limbo, did the YMCA, and did all those classic line dances that people do at celebratory events. Then it was time to go to bed and I was dreading leaving.

It was early evening in Cologne and I was putting on a German soccer jersey I had bought earlier that day, face paint, and Germany shaped tattoos on my arms. I was prepped and ready to go to a public viewing of the quarterfinals of the Europameisterschaft (European World Cup). The viewing we were off to was about a mile and a half away, but the owner of the hostel we were staying at offered to drive us in small groups, so he took a group while we were walking and would come back to pick some more of us up. It was so funny to walk to that game because there as we were walking in our ginormous group of teens decked out in their German attire cars would honk at us and cheer out of their windows. It was a feeling of great comradery even though we were all Americans. I didn’t really know much about soccer, but I was so excited to watch something so dear to them in their culture. It was a different sort of atmosphere because everybody seemed to be on the same team, since it was the entire country rather than just a city. 

We finally got to the public viewing and it ended up being in a bowling alley. The bowling alley was huge and projected the game onto a bunch of different screens, so that everyone could see it. The place was jam packed with people who were loud and overflowing with excitement. I had never given soccer a second thought, but you would have thought I had been raised watching German soccer since I was born. This game had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, I was nearly as stressed as finals week. It was just way too close. I was going nuts, and so was then entire bowling alley. I was yelling at the ref and telling him he was blind when I have honestly never really watched soccer before, so I was that person. But the entire bowling alley would be on the same page, so I was obviously right. The game was tied 1-1, and I thought the world would crumble if Germany lost. It ended on penalties. I to this day have no understanding what on earth that means, if anyone knows please comment. All I know is they were taking turns kicking the ball one on one with the goalie and Germany was the one I wanted to get it in the goal. This went on for way too long, I felt as though a heart attack was imminent. The entire bowling alley would quiet when a player got ready to kick, to the point where you could hear a pin drop. Finally it was Jonas Hector’s turn from Germany, and everybody awaited his kick with baited breath praying that after five failed German attempts one would finally make it into the goal. When Hector made that amazing goal the entire bowling alley and Germany in general erupted in cheers. Everybody was jumping up and down, screaming, and hugging. I saw many people shed tears, men, women, and children. It was beautiful.

I was so pumped for my day in Cologne. We were in Europe during the European World Cup and the German team was playing that night in the quarter finals, so the entire city was buzzing. When we first got to the city at about 10:00 am there were already bands playing and people cheering for the team.

Our first stop was the world famous Cologne Cathedral. It is a humongous church at the center of the city. An interesting thing that Lucas told us was that during world war 2 the entire city was demolished, except for this cathedral. This is odd because it is such a large and impressive structure that you think it’d be the first to go, but it remained unscathed. It got to the point that people began using it as a bomb shelter when air raids would happen. Theories for it not being attacked is the allies were using it as a landmark, so they could be sure they were bombing the city, and some people think it was spared simply because it was such a place of God and it was protected. I don’t know what it says about me, but I think the first theory is a little more realistic.

Then it was a girls day in the city because Caleb decided to branch off with other people. We began by trekking through the sea of people on the main strip. I can’t emphasize enough how many people there were, I felt like I was in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. So in order to keep from losing each other we linked arms and swerved around people. It became somewhat of an art form. We went in a bunch of shops and looked for things to wear that night for the soccer game. But then we stumbled along a huge LGBT festival. There were bands playing, food stands, and all kinds of political booths. They even had booths for the upcoming American election, they had very strong opinions about Donald Trump and this was before the primary even took place. I think they paid more attention to American politics than a lot of Americans.

Finally we decided it was time for lunch. We stopped at a little cafe and sat outside. It was a gorgeous day. We were absolutely starving so we each ordered our own individual pizzas with different toppings so we could share them. It was delicious, I think it was the best pizza I ever ate in my whole life and I’m not sure if it’s because I was dying of starvation or it was just that good. But it was nice to be seated outside so that we could people watch. By this time people were drinking for the game that night, so it was pretty easy to distinguish who those people were. They would be wearing their Deutschland jerseys, often have face paint on, and be walking in large groups laughing and cheering for the team. We could also differentiate a few people going to the LGBT fair because they would be dressed in flamboyant party clothes. So it was fun to see all these different people milling about the city. However there was one man who as I was trying to eat my beautiful pizza, walked by in a very short skirt. Now I have no problem with a man wearing a skirt, the only critique I have for his attire was that he could have used some underwear. And with that image, I concluded my day in the city of Cologne.

So finally we were back at out hotel after a long day in the city. We were excited because we were finally staying in an area where we actually saw other people and not just cows so there was a bit of nightlife. Most people set off to go to the 18 and older bar just around the corner and my group decided our time would be better spent at a bowling alley. So we asked for directions and went on our way. It was dark out already and was very quiet. We ended up getting lost. Getting lost in the dark is a lot different than getting lost during the day, it was scary and it was at that moment that I realized I didn’t know the emergency number in Germany. I could call 911 all I wanted and nobody would help. So when we heard a very loud bang we ran like the wind to find the hotel. It was probably nothing, but I was convinced we were going to get murdered. So then we found the bar that everyone else went to and hung out with them. It was really awkward in there. There was nobody else but our tour group and the three men working. And they were very creepy, but scrawny so we could take them if the need arose, but still very weird. For example the one guy kept hip thrusting at us and trying to get involved in some dirty dancing. It made us all very uncomfortable so we kept trying to get them to put on karaoke. They would, but for only a short time before trying to dance with us again.

Finally we went back to the hotel for the night. It was just Shannon and I to a room, but of course it was still an interesting night. It started when she went to go take a shower. I decided that I would put something on tv so I started to look for a tv channel with a music countdown like we had on the other night. But then when I was scrolling through the guide I saw the letters DSNY, so like the innocent person I am I thought “yay foreign Disney!” but I was so WRONG. I was not greeted with a show filled with childhood memories, I was shown a very rated X movie. The second it came on I hear a crash from the shower, so then I’m frantically trying to turn off the channel and yell to make sure Shannon is still alive. So this is three near death experiences for the night. Number one there is a loud noise in a dark foreign street and I am about to die, number two I accidentally turn on porn and have a minor heart attack, and number three Shannon tumbles in the shower taking the entire curtain rod down with her. So now I’m knocking on the door checking to see if she’s okay because she has fallen at least a hundred times on this trip and it was a wonder she wasn’t concussed yet. And she yells back that she’s okay, but needs help with the curtain rod. So then together we had to figure out how to put the curtain rod back up, and while we’re doing that our chaperones come to check that were in for the night. They laughed because they heard the crash from down the hall and helped us fix it. Then we were in for the night and finally relaxed after our traumatizing day.

Today was off to an interesting start because Shannon decided to inform us that she had old family roots in Germany and some of the members of her family were royalty at our next stop. So of course we were all being obnoxious and calling her your royal highness and bowing and what not, so that was a very good time. But when we got to the falls it very pretty with the mist hanging in the air. And I took a lot of pictures of the fish because my brother and dad are very obsessed with fishing, so that was a tool of mine to try and convince them to move to Germany so that I never had to leave. It didn’t work.

Our next stop was another castle that overlooked the river in Heidelberg. It had parts that were intact, but there was a lot of it that was in ruins. Lucas, our tour guide, said that in one of the world wars a bomb had struck it which was the original reason for it being ruined, but then it was rebuilt and not too long after that lightning had struck it so they just gave up. Then we ventured into the castle and it contained something beautiful. And that was the world’s largest wine barrel. It was built way back in 1751 and holds over 58,000 gallons of wine. And the best part is there were stairs to get to the top of it. Next we went outside to take in the view. And on a stone that was on the walkway was a weird footprint. Lucas explained to us that the story of this footprint had to do with a love affair that took place a long time ago. He said the prince of this castle was away a lot due to a war that was taking place at the time and so the princess got lonely. Over time with the prince away so long she and a knight started to fall in love. And one night when they were in bed the prince came home and became livid. He started to chase the knight and then the knight jumped out of the window of the tower leaving only that footprint behind. And it said that if a man’s footprint fits in that imprint then he is as good at shall we say certain activities (wink wink) like the knight.

Now we were down in the center of the city. Heidelberg is actually a college town, but it was kind of hard to tell because they don’t have their college buildings in a small area like we do here, instead they are very spread out. Also there were a lot of tourists, so it was difficult to notice the student demographic. But my most important mission now was to find spaghetti ice. Now Spaghetti ice is ice cream that is put through some kind of machine to make it look like noodles. Then it’s traditionally topped with strawberry topping to look like tomato sauce and then sprinkled with white chocolate shavings to resemble parmesan cheese. I heard about this in german class and wanted to try it so bad, but so far on this trip I couldn’t find a single place that had it and I was getting worried that I wouldn’t find it. But my mom was doing some reconnaissance at home using google to try and find a place that sold it. And she found me three places in Heidelberg that sold it. I was determined to get it. We searched forever, I asked in random cafes in my very best german if they carried it, and it took awhile but eventually I found it. I was so pumped, I was like a small child. It was so good and gimmicky, I loved it.

After being on top of Mount Pilatus we came all the way back down to the city. My crew decided to split off so Shannon, Mckayla, and Bri went to go shopping, and I went with Caleb and one of Savkovas daughters, Jana, to explore the city. We didn’t really have a plan on where to go so we just wandered everywhere. We did stumble into a church that began construction in the 1100’s. I don’t remember the name of it, but people were still there praying, so I’m pretty sure it’s still in use today. It was a bit creepy because when we walked in there were a few old ladies towards the front, on their knees chanting ominously. I was lowkey terrified. There were also a bunch of Illuminati symbols hidden in the artwork if you looked carefully, in a way it was like a hidden Mickey and we were in Disney.

When we had our fill of the creepy church we continued to meander around the city. Then we stumbled across another old looking building, so we decided to enter. The doors were open, so it was no big deal, but then when we were walking around we saw classrooms. And I could read some german so when I saw “Naturwissenschaft” I knew it was a science classroom and I could see that some were “Biologie” and a bunch more. But then when we realised that we didn’t think we were supposed to be in there so we left. But it was cool that I technically visited a university in Switzerland.

We weren’t really sure what to do next, but then we saw some people feeding the swans. We double checked that bread was okay for swans and saw that it was okay if not in large quantities and if it was fresh so we sought out a bakery. We bought the swans their freshly baked bread and went off to feed them. They were very pushy. There were two that would stumble over each other to try and get at the food. We sat there awhile and got them to eat out of our hands and they were not very shy about it.

Finally we went back to our cute little hotel in the alps for dinner. They served the best food. The first night was roast pork and mashed potatoes. I ate way too much of that, but I was seriously craving mashed potatoes. And then the second night was chicken and gravy with peppers and tater tots. It was a small family run hostel and the people were so friendly and would just keep filling your plate, it was dangerous with those tater tots. Also they decided to teach us how to use the Alp horn. In case you aren’t picturing it, its that huge tube that you tend to see Swiss people play in a lederhosen at the top of a mountain. I didn’t get to play it, but other people in the tour group did and they struggled deeply. But our tour guide Lucas got up and played it like a boss. We gave him thunderous applause and the guy at the hotel looked impressed.

I’m going to start the post by giving a brief introduction of who I was with on this trip, so that you get a better understanding of who I’m talking about, probably should’ve done this at the start of the semester. Whoops! So to start off with there’s Shannon. She is an absolute klutz and was constantly falling down on this trip, it was hysterical. Also whenever we came across a dog Shannon took a picture of it which earned us plenty of disgusted looks from the owners. Next is Mckayla. She loved to shop everywhere and was a sucker for the crepe stands that we saw in every city we visited. Then there’s Bri. She was also a shopper, and I never met her before the trip, so it was really cool that we got so close over just two weeks. And then there’s Caleb. He was the only guy in our little group and was a great sport when we dragged him into girly clothing stores, and he goes here to Penn State, so when we were there he would wear a Penn State hat occasionally. More than once people would come up and ask if he went there and then they’d have conversations about it. Finally there’s Savkova, the teacher that took us on the trip. She is an eccentric woman that wanted us to have the best experience possible. She also took her twenty some year old daughters as chaperones and one of her lifelong friends named Ben who could make his eyes look like they could bulge out of his head. It was terrifying and he did it way to often.

But now actually on day two of Lucerne. It began with our trip to Mount Pilatus. We first took a gondola about halfway up, so then we could go on a toboggan ride. I was kind of terrified because it looked a little rickety to me and it was all too possible to run into somebody or to fall off of the toboggan. I knew I wanted Shannon in front of me because she was the most accident prone and at least if she was in front of me I could stop. But when I did go down it was so much fun! It was kind of foggy, so you couldn’t really see where you were going, but that kind of make it more exciting. Then there was a speedometer and I was hitting over thirty miles an hour. Technically we were only supposed to get one ride each, but one of Savkova’s daughters talked to a very cute Swiss boy and we got ourselves another ride. She was very proud of that.

Then we went on another gondola to the peak of Mount Pilatus. Like I said earlier it was very foggy, so it was hard to see the view. But our tour guide, Lucas, did tell us some stories about Mount Pilatus. One of them was about Pontius Pilate from the biblical stories. He was the one washed his hands of sin after he allowed Jesus to die on the cross. Then when he died he was thrown into a river and its said that wherever his body was it would bring horrible storms and destruction. So eventually they found his body and moved him to a lake at the base of mount Pilatus. So then the storms continued there and of course it drove the people who lived there absolutely nuts. So then they decided to go to the lake and stone it. When they did this it is said that the ghost of Pontius Pilate appeared and then went away and all the storms stopped. I’ve looked up the story to this and have found varied ones, this is the version that Lucas told us. Then another legend is that dragons flew to the top of Mount Pilatus and now souls of dragons live there. And occasionally when it’s foggy tourists can hear the noise of a dragons wings. I didn’t hear a dragon, but that fog was pretty thick, so perhaps there were some hiding around.

Then we took the stairs to the top. It was quite a hike. The peak is at almost 7,000 feet, so we were pretty high up. When we were at the top there was a railing and beyond the railing there was a ledge that jutted off the mountain and then a smaller ledge off of that one. So since there were no adults around to yell at us we hopped the railing and went onto the peak. Caleb was the only one to go onto the smaller one that branched off. I am still so sour about it, he went out while I was taking pictures with the girls, so when we were done I wanted to go onto the peak, go big or go home, no? And they wouldn’t let me! I was told that I would fall, so at least they were concerned about me living, but I still want to go back and walk onto the ledge.

After another lengthy bus ride we made it to Lucerne Switzerland. Our first stop there was the famous lion monument. It is a gorgeous rock carving of a weeping lion that has been shot. It was created in memorial to Swiss mercenary soldiers that lost their lives during the French Revolution. Our tour guide, Lucas, told us that the artist was mad about how much he was getting paid so if you look closely the border around the lion resembles a pig.

Then we made our way to downtown Lucerne. When we got there Lucas gave us another one of his very informative walking tours. Something he said that I found interesting was that in Switzerland there is such a low crime rate that some of their prisons have been turned into hotels. One day I want to stay in one, it’s an odd concept, but I’d love to experience it. The buildings in Lucerne were unique. They were made frescos which means the plaster was painted with watercolor, so then when it dried the colors would become fixed in the plaster.

Eventually when we were released to be on our own in Lucerne we did the tourist thing to do and found a shop that sold Swiss Army knives. We were worried about getting these because of airport security being strict and kind of terrifying. But when we asked Lucas he said we could fill an entire suitcase with them as long as it was the checked one, so we were good to go. When we were done with our souvenir buying we decided to really explore. We walked around down by the river that runs through the entire city and looked at the markets and cafes. Then while we were walking we found a wall. We did not understand the wall at all, all we knew is there were more steps. On this trip I think I climbed Mount Everest in stairs, with all the church steeples we went in, the castles, and all the other random things we climbed. So I was not too excited to climb some more, there had to be plenty of stuff on this level of the city I thought. The girls were all on the same page as me, but Caleb really wanted to go, so then I thought about how many very girly clothing stores we dragged him in and decided to go with and then Shannon decided to come too. It was a really good decision. Writing about this trip I keep saying “it was an incredible view” and it’s really repetitive, but all those stairs really got me some great pictures.

After climbing all of these stairs we got pretty hungry, so we met back up with the other two girls and went to find a cafe. We went to one of the ones on the waterfront and ordered a banana split to split. It was really good, but kind of weird at the same time. There was green stuff on it and I still have no idea what it was. And there were these yellowish things that I thought were cherry tomatoes, but Shannon ate one, made a grossed out face and said that definitely wasn’t a tomato. When we were sitting there eating I discovered how vicious swans were. I had always thought these were peaceful creatures, but after hearing them squawk and attack each other I know better. Then we went to see our hotel.

When we got there there was yet another view. This one had mountains, a river, and it had just rained so a rainbow too. Bre, Shannon, McKayla, and I got the best hotel room again. Ours was huge and had sofas and outside we could see cattle. They were really cute and you could hear their cowbells ringing. We stayed up late just chatting and listening to what we think was a German music countdown. I got familiar with some German music, which really helped as I was taking German at the time, so it was nice to get some practice in. And eventually we decided to get to bed and when Shannon sat on hers it broke. We were all dying of laughter because of course it’s her bed that breaks, she was already so accident prone on this trip. If you looked at her funny she’d probably end up on the ground. Eventually we got the broken plank to sit in one spot and went to bed ready for the next day’s adventure.

Today we were off to see the world famous Neuschwanstein Castle. The castle began construction in 1869 and was never finished because King Ludwig, who it was built for, died in mysterious circumstances. It is widely speculated that he was murdered because rather than running the country, King Ludwig seemed much more interested in the opera, theater, and the construction of this castle. To get to the castle we had to walk a mile up a very steep hill. It was about 90 degrees that day, so as you can imagine it was a rough climb. But it was totally worth it, because the view was breathtaking. You could see the Alps, a beautiful lake, and the castle King Ludwig grew up in as a child. On our tour we were led all around the castle. We saw his throne room, which had an ornate mosaic floor. That was incredibly weird to walk on because you could tell people had worked on this meticulously, it was literally stepping on artwork. It just felt wrong. Then we were taken to his bedroom which had beautiful woodwork. And there was also a room that was built just like a cave. This was because King Ludwig dedicated each room to a specific opera written by Richard Wagner.

Our next stop was Ambras Castle. What we saw was more of a museum of “oddities.” It was interesting because at the time things like sharks and pineapples were considered odd because they were so hard to transport. But eventually my group got tired of looking in a museum, so we went outside to track down one of the peacocks that lived there. But then we found a path into the woods. We decided to follow that and we found a cave, I knew it was silly, but as a child I watched to much TV, so I still had a small concern that we’d see a bear in it and get mauled. Thankfully that was only my over active imagination and that did not happen. We kept walking and saw some waterfalls and a bridge that looked pretty beat up.Then we returned to where we were supposed to be and found the peacock. He was so pretty, with all of his vivid colors and let us come very close. One girl on the trip, Jane the girl that dropped a moldy peach on my plate in Munich, irritated me again. She started running up to the peacock and startled it to the point where it started making noises and running away. She did not have a knack for subtlety. 

Finally we made it to Innsbruck where our hotel was. It was at the top of the Alps, so it was a treacherous journey up the mountain side. Luckily our driver Heinrich was able to maneuver our huge blue bus up roads that cars can barely do. But when we got up there the view was spectacular. You could see the city of Innsbruck below and then the forests surrounding it. We went in and had an amazing meal of pork and mashed potatoes. When we eventually went in our room I was so excited. It had a huge deck so we could sit out and look at the view. It was so peaceful. We sat out there the majority of the night and stared at the stars. The sky was so clear we could see satellites. I was totally content until the bats came. I have a deathly fear of bats. I don’t care that they eat bugs and they are good for the environment, they swarmed me when I was little and fishing on a boat, so now I hate them. They are the embodiment of all evil. So of course when I felt more peaceful than I thought possible one decided to start flying at us. I of course would grab onto Shannon as if she could help and scream. Now I am much better when it comes to bats, but I still think they are vermin and totally agree with Ace Ventura in this clip. The only regret I have about this trip is that we could not stay at this hotel another night because it was a scene out of a fairy tale (other than the bats).