Longest Travel Day of the Entire Trip! :(

6:00am came very early. I made sure to pack everything ready to go last night before I went to bed, so I wouldn’t be stressed or rushed this morning. Caitlin and I went downstairs at 6:30, loaded our bags onto the bus, and went to eat our last set of breakfast leftovers! Haha. At around 7:30, we left Nice and set a course for Innsbruck, Austria. I took a Dramamine with breakfast in hopes of crashing once I got on the coach, but for some reason I wasn’t able to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. I even had a whole two seats on the coach to myself. That’s a big deal to everyone on the coach! I will only get it once on this trip. Fortunately for me, I got the two seats on the longest coach ride of the trip.

Our course took us directly though northern Italy, and we stopped there a few times for rest breaks. So I can now add Italy to my country checklist, although it doesn’t totally count, and I really want to go back to Italy someday in the future.
Once we entered into Austria a few minutes before arriving in Innsbruck, the countryside somehow became dramatically more grand and beautiful. We were driving in between giant mountains complete with steep cliffs, giant rock faces, and greenery everywhere you turned. The weather wasn’t ideal exactly, seeing as there was low hanging clouds and a rain/mist mix, but it still didn’t make the scenery any less lovely.
We arrived at our hotel in Innsbruck. We’re staying at the Hilton, and it is SO NICE! For the first time on this trip, we have FULL SIZE beds! We also have a shower… WITH a shower curtain! Our hotel in Nice had nothing, no glass, door, or curtain. We headed up to our room, changed and went down to the conference room for our presentation from the Innsbruck Tourism Board. We also had the chance to sign up for our extreme sports activities we plan to do tomorrow. I’m going to go canyoning! AHHH!! I’m super excited!... But also SUPER nervous! I didn’t know this until after I signed up, but apparently canyoning is illegal in the United States. Don’t worry though, Mom and Dad, the company here is great, and kids on our trip have been doing this for years! Other people are paragliding, bungee jumping (from the second highest bungee in the WORLD!), white-water rafting, etc. It should definitely be a good time, so tomorrow’s journal entry should be good!
After our meeting, we headed over to a local restaurant and bar for some authentic German/Austrian food. I even had a sip of the beer (which I normally HATE) but it was actually not that bad. I don’t know if I could have drank an entire glass, but everyone else did because we all got a coupon for a free beer from there! I had some German sausage, sauerkraut, and grilled potatoes! It was DELICIOUS! Quite possibly the best meal that I have had thus far on the trip. It’s on par with the pasta dish I got at ASK in London.

After dinner, Laura and I came back to the hotel (it was already past 11pm) and journaled and went to bed. Tomorrow is going be a fun and exciting day!