I'm supposed to be cleaning my room so that Stephanie can live in it while I'm in Canada over easter. But instead I'm writing a blog to bring up to date all my Switzerland travels. This includes: Interloken / Jungfrau, Lugano / Lake Como, and Zurich.
INTERLOKEN / JUNGFRAUOn a whim, Harold and I booked tickets one Saturday to take a train up to Interloken and then to take a train from Interloken to the top of the Jungfrau - a mountain in the Swiss Alps. The majority of our day was spent on these trains, taking a few hours to get to Interloken then about an hour to get to the top of the mountain (the highest train station in Europe). The train ride to and from Interloken was absolutely breath taking, and the day itself was incredibly clear, sunny, just all around gorgeous. I feel the trip is best explained in photo blog form:
a photo from the train in Interloken. We're already pretty high up because you can see snow. once you get off in Interloken you're already on some pretty good slopes to go skiing. However we contuinued on from here and took a private train up to the top of the mountain.
Inside the Jungfrau there is an ice palace. Its incredibly touristy and Harold and I took full advantage of it.
Harold sliding around the ice palace. PALACE. I like that.
Just incase you forgot what country I'm in... not Sweeden people, not Sweeden.
Oh I'm just like paparazzi.
Harold and I ventured out on this ledge that was barricaded to grab some shots of the glacier. It was absolutely terrifying because of how far down the drop was. I have to say I'm somewhat impressed with myself for standing on it (it was wide, but scary as hell). I don't know if I think I'm brave or an idiot...probably both.
Seeing as how we spent most of our time in the train I'm surpised that this is the only friend we made. Sleepy McSleeps-a-lot. He was entertaining...for obvious reasons.
Our weekend trip to Lugano/Como had a rocky start; well, for myself at least, not so much for Dana. I spent the night at a dance club, Shakers, while Dana slept like most other people would before a weekend trip. I returned home at 5am, showered, woke Dana up,
(actually it should be noted that steph didn't wake me up, i went to her room at 545 because i over slept and had like 10 minutes to get ready, i had asked her to wake me up but with the whole 'i haven't slept brain mush' she forgot and walked right by room, that idiot) she told me I was an idiot and then we were on our way to catch the train at 6:15am. Lucky for me, Lugano was a 6 hour train ride away, so I was pretty much well and awake by the time we had arrived, with no regrets about the night before.
Of course, we did have one "mishap" along the way - even before we arrived in Lugano. What kind of trip would it be if something didn't go wrong? After transferring trains in Zurich, which was the half-way point to Lugano, we realized that somehow we had lost our train tickets. We were terrified and ready to plead guilty to losing our tickets and to beg for forgiveness - especially since we would likely get an 80franc fine on top of having to repurchase our Zurich-Lugano tickets. By some miracle of sorts, when the ticket collector came, we both looked at him with puppy dog eyes and fumbled through saying "We...umm...lost our tickets.....". To our surprise, he pulled out two tickets and asked "Did you come from Geneva?" and both of us said "Yes.." and he handed us our tickets, which he had found somewhere near the door where we had first come in. We were so relieved, and the people in the seats around us all seemed to think that we were pretty lucky.
We continued on our way to Lugano. The scenery was beautiful, especially as we got closer. It looked nothing like the rest of Switzerland, even though it had a mountainy landscape as well.
When we arrived in Lugano, we were ready to explore, but were mostly just interested in finding our hotel and grabbing some lunch. We walked out of the train station and were blown away by the mountains and lake just below. Unfortunately, the day was a bit hazy, so the view was not as clear as the brochure we grabbed along the way had indicated. *Insert jokes about us being nerdy multimedia kids and photoshopping ourselves into brochure images.*
(I think im supposed to insert a joke here for her, or she just got lazy and didn't do one herself. There was much joking around at that point however, about needing to photoshop the background in so it looked as good as it did in the brochure - the picture bellow obviously demonstrates how terrific our photoshop skills are. I mean, we learned a lot in multimedia , its all about creating a seamless fiction my friends. you're jealous by my skills, i know i know)
Yeah. Anyways, we stopped to admire the palm trees, which made us think we were somewhere south, like Mexico. But, chilly Lugano would do. It would be a romantic Valentine's weekend regardless of the weather, we decided.
After settling in to our hotel, we left to find our lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant. I'm pretty sure this was the worst customer service we had ever experienced, with the exception of the burnt french onion soup that we had in Paris. Here, they laughed at us when we asked if they served lunch (apparently the word lunch is funny to Italians?), they "forgot" to serve us our 5franc waters, and they never said thank you/goodbye after we had gone up to pay. Sheesh.
Lucky for them, the food was good, so we couldn't complain (with fear that they would just laugh at us "Americans" anyways).
We decided from here that we were going to go to the top of Monte Bre. We took the bus part of the way up, and then walked for another hour or so before we arrived at the cable car station. Unfortunately, our hopes of going to the top diminished there, as the cable car was not in service today or for the rest of the month. While we only got to see 1/4 of the mountain, the view was magnificent nonetheless.
We trekked back down and caught a bus to the shopping district where we grabbed an italian-style thick soup-like hot chocolate. Yup, those exist, and they're like drinking a melted bar of Lindt chocolate, which is pretty much the best thing ever. After that we decided we had had enough of the day and headed back to the hotel for a quick rest, which turned out to be a 2 hour nap. Oops. We woke up at 9pm and decided we should probably get some dinner. We walked along the shoreline looking for a restaurant that was recommended by the hotel, called the Pasta Factory. It was exactly as it sounded, plenty of pasta options. After dinner we called it a night and prepared for our departure in the morning.
The following morning, we checked out of our hotel and walked back to the train station along the shore. We took more photos along the way, of course. We were stopped by a hippie looking guy, who saw us taking photos and offered to take a photo of the two of us - and with his dog - together. We had a good laugh, and continued on our way.
We caught the train to Como and when we arrived (a 30 min journey) we realized that Como looked just like Lugano. Not that we could complain about that, both were quite beautiful. We had no idea what was actually in Como, all we knew was that George Clooney lived here. Well, some of the time, at least. So our mission became to find George Clooney's villa. We headed towards the downtown/lake and stopped at a gelato/pizza bar to grab our lunch. After lunch we thought we'd take a boat tour. I mean, if our friend George could afford a villa here, it would be on the lake, right? So we took the tour and presumed that every villa (there were too many to count) belonged to George.
After the boat tour, we decided we would try to find a working cable car so that we could get a birds eye view of the city. Well, we weren't disappointed this time. We caught a cable car up to the top and headed for the panoramic view that the signs had pointed out.
This was such a great ending to our romantic Switaly weekend. Just WOW. Seriously, these people live here!? They see this every day? Wow. The view was outstanding. It alone made the trip worth it. We stood up there for a good 15-20 minutes before we headed back towards the cable car. We knew that George would have chosen to live up here instead of by the lake, because of the view, of course. We both agreed that this is another one of those places we'll have to return to in the summer.
Photos from trip:
Me trying to wake up the Siwss flag so it could be in a photo with me...
For those confused about Switaly - its the Italian part of Switzerland. Its like saying Bennifer. Or Murich (you know, the offspring of Milan and Zurich)
The future Steph, complete with Leopard print.
Well...it would have been a picture of chocolate soup...but its a picture of finished chocolate soup.
Shore in Lake Como.
So this man came by while I was trying to wake up the Swiss flag and proceeded to take many photos of us..and his dog.
ME (and the fake Jet d'eau)
We made plans to spend the weekend in Zurich, from Saturday to Sunday. We were to get to Zurich relatively early, shop, get my ear pierced, have lunch, go to Johanna's friend's house, have dinner, etc etc.
A good portion of that didn't happen.
This is why:
The next morning we were feeling the effects. I woke up at 8, having gone to bed around 4 or 5, and attempted to wake up Steph. She came to my door and in a perfectly slurred voice, owed by both being awaken out of her slumber and the previous nights vodka intake, declared that she was still drunk. So I showered, trying to kill the pounding headache, went back to her door around 9, and she had effectively transitioned from being drunk to being hungover. So I said, yeah ok, sleep for two hours, we'll meet Gilberto and the others in Zurich in the afternoon. Around 11 I went to go get Steph, who was still sleeping. I asked her to call Gilberto as my cell phone had no money on it. She said 'oh yeah okay' handed me her phone and went back to sleep while I stood in her doorway. I said 'for serious? you call him' and she did. or I did. I don't remember. Pounding headache and all. Either way one of us spoke to Gilberto and discovered that the only people in Zurich was Johanna and Sandra. We, the three stooges had all slept in and were still lulling about the foyer. So we packed ourselves up and finally got our lazy asses on the train. Steph and I slugged around complaining of being tired, struggling to keep our eyes open for the most part. I think we all slept on the way there.
The three hour train to Zurich was not enough sleep for us. We spent that Saturday in Zurich (steph and I, at least) trailing behind Johanna and Gilberto talking only to say 'ugh, im so tired' or to count the amount of teens wearing kafeyahs (I think I got to about 33 before stopping, scene kids aren't even scene in Europe, they're standardized and mass produced - the shock and awe wears off pretty fast and pretty soon they just look like a group of annoying kids that seriously need their hair straighteners confiscated and an introduction to neutral colors 101) When we finally made it to the (amazing!) apartment where we would be spending the night, I could hardly believe my luck - couches! television! cheese! Everything necessary to make for a comfortable night in...
I was somehow encouraged off the couch and out of my MTV induced trance - and brought into downtown Zurich where we enjoyed a great dinner. Unfortunately I was branding myself the tired-girl, as I couldn't stop yawming. I stuck it out though, and was quite pleased that the bar we wandered into after dinner had a live band. Live music is certainly lacking in Geneva, especially in the quantities I'm used to. The bar was tiny and crammed but boasted a Jimmy Hendrix tribute band complete with a total 'stuck in the 70's wannabe jimmy hendrix' - followed by another band that did covers songs spanning the 80's - early 90's.
After finally leaving on our way back to Klotten, we were standing around the train station when it was mentioned that there was a night supplement fee you'd have to pay to get on the train. Gilberto, Steph and I shrugged our shoulders at it - the notice was written in German and we had our vois 7 - the after 7 card that lets your ride trains in switzerland fro free from 7pm - 5am. However, once on the train, traveling the four stops it took us to get to Klotten, we were approached by a ticket conductor on a power trip who decided that the couple hundred francs we shelled out for the card wasn't enough. Nope, we were also supposed to pay the night supplement fee - you know, that German sign told us! We should have known! As if anything in Switzerland is actually free, forget what it says on your card or contract, that vois 7 isn't valid if you look like a tourist and can't speak enough German to talk yourself out of a ridiculous fee. Even those sitting beside you who can speak German, yelling at the train conductor for acting like a giant prick won't be able to change the rules for you - nope, give em your name and number kids because apparently you handed over 2 bills for nothing. Don't you know you paid all that money so that you can buy tickets at night just like the rest of them? DIDNT YOU KNOW THAT? Just a fancy shmancy card with your name on it that does you no good if some huge jerk decides that he doesn't like the way you signed the back. Yup that three dollar night supplement that you didn't buy because you were told by the French that your vois 7 was good until 5 am, just cost you 80 francs. The time it took for the idiot conductor to write up our ticket was the same amount of time we were on the train. We didn't pay up front, but apparently he's going to send us a letter. And further more! AND FURTHER MORE! after asking two other conductors - one on a train and one a ticket agent - what the deal was - they told us that it was ludacris that we got charged or ticketed. And then they continued to say that, oh well, you have to pay the fee they send you anyways! WHAT THE HELL.
Here's the thing about Switzerland. Everything has to work on time and precise that customer service DOES NOT EXIST. not on the phone when I called Swiss Com for three days telling them 'no the internet doesn't work over here, we have no dial tone, they have already tried pinging it, we need a technician....ok try again...no it still doesn't work...we've tried two different lines and two different modems - we need a technician!....no there is not a problem with our line' - three days of that! until finally they get ready to send a technician and then, bing bang boom, realize that the problem ISNT us but that their central line has been cut. Or like running for a bus, or even being AT THE BUS, pressing the door button allowing someone with a carriage to get on, and having the door shut in your face because dear god as if the freaking bus can be 10 seconds late! christ! THE SWISS!
Rant over.
Moving on
The next day we went up to a mountain. Because thats what we do in Switzerland, we hang out at the tops of mountains searching for Heidi. The walk up was a bit tiring, despite having a good rest the night before. And you'd think that the short treck up would have somewhat prepared me for walking up 90 degrees to the castle in Heidelburg all the while trailing 100 feet behind a tiny little person who turned out to be none other than Tegan Quin. But more on that in another blog.
Anyways while at the top there was a steal structure where you could get a 360 view of...well mountains and valleys and a river...because thats what you see in Switzerland. Gilberto and I walked up together, but about three quarters of the way to the top the wind had gotten so strong that I became terrified for my life. I thought I was going to be pushed down the stairs and well...I'm scared of heights, so lets not go there. Gilberto is scared of heights too, so we went back down together, tail between our legs while the others pushed their way through the wind. The bunch of us then went and had desert and hot chocolate / coffee at a restaurant...who charged me 4 francs for tap water. But of course, its Switzerland, don't you know, tap water is alp water. Use that excuse, you can get away with anything here...price wise of course.
Umm..then we went home. Nothing exciting happened on the train ride back - other than collective motion sickness...but yes, that my friends was Zurich.
Quite possibly the strangest thing you will come upon in Geneva and surrounding areas, is the toothpaste-like mustard and mayonaise holders. Actually, toothpaste tubes are used to hold a lot of sauces and condiments here. At first its quite disconcerting to see. I mean, it looks rather industrial almost, and I was in fear of contamination. But, then you become in desperate need for a tuna sandwich or mustard on your hot dog and well...you get used to it, I guess.
Now I know that this doesn't look at all appealing...but I was speaking of hot dogs. And street meat, while costing about 5 francs (thats like, 5 dollars at home, the dollar and franc are practically on par) and while looking strange, taste quite great. Anyways, how they do street meat is interesting: Take a baguette, drill a hole in it, squirt ketchup in the bottom, put over sized hot dog inside - eat.
I suppose Easter is a big deal around here. No not because christ has died, christ has risen, christ will come again. Because of the sheer amount of Chocolate the Swiss get to make. Now see, before I left for Canada for my triumphant return home (for ten days) Steph and I went to Manor so I could pick up some presents (cough cough - chocolate presents). And on our way out we decided to get chocolate soup (remember, the melted chocolate bar that Europeans try to pass off as hot chocolate). Well while waiting in line at the chocolate counter (yes, that exists in a department store) I turn around to see Steph staring at a giant chocolate bunny - BIGGER THAN HER. She was in awe. I mean, she had spent quite a bit of time ping-ponging back and forth between little chocolate ducks with egg hats and chocolate roosters "oooh look at this, ooh lets get this! I want to eat that!", but nothing quite grabbed her attention and held her still like this GIANT EASTER BUNNY. I had to call to her about three times before she was shook out of her daze (note: none of this has been an exaggeration, NONE) That girl found a home here, she certainly loves her chocolate as much as they do!
Speaking of snacks, let us take a moment to appreciate the best snack in North America: Oreo cookies. Oh yes, how I love those chocolate cookies that are brought together in perfect harmony with unknown white stuff. I love them oh so dear. Just not enough to spend 14.55 CHF on them. YA HEARD ME. 14.55 for a package of DOUBLE STUFF. I know those things are good, but seriously?!?! 14.55? Now mind you, this was found in the "American Store" - a store that sells American foods and treats at ridiculous prices (like cans of rootbeer for 3CHF or chef boyardi for like a million francs). The prices are probably due to them shipping the food regular styles and not like, bulk styles. But for serious...its ROBBERY I TELLS YOU! Who knows how much these things are now with inflation. Sheesh!
Now not all food in Geneva and surrounding areas is remarkably overpriced. Why, for just under or around 10CHF you can get a whole plate of food! Delicious meatballs with jam and fries and dessert and refillable drinks! All you have to do is take a half hour train to the nearest Ikea!
Now here's a tip for you all when you're traveling to French euro countries. If you want a diet coke, don't order a diet coke - order a coca-light. Yes thats right. Now I don't know if its a lost in translation thing, but they just don't say diet coke or whatever the French translation is on the bottles we get at home. No they call it coca-cola light, and pepsi-light. However, if you are ordering or purchasing or even just talking about said soft drink, you don't call it coca-cola light, just call it coca-light. They know what you're talking about when you say it. When you say diet coke they just stare at you blankly. Kind of like how you would stare at me if I said 'coca-light'. Kind of like that, yeah.
Chocolate. Cheese. Hazelnut. Marzipan. These are what make up Swiss desserts / snacks. Such as this pretty awesome marzipan elephant that Jean picked up at a little shop in February.
