Apparently not all chalets in Switzerland make chicken
I'm in Prague now and it's really starting to hit home that the trip is winding up. Of course, we still have 2 weeks or so left, and that will probably be the size of my longest vacations for years to come, but compared to the size of our 7-week+ marathon, it is starting to seem like we're on the home stretch. Then we think that we still have 2 countries and 4 cities to do (not including day trips) and realize that we've still got a lot of travelling to do! The trip has worn us down a little bit though. We're a little more appreciative of sitting around at a cafe or in a park or whatever for a while after a museum, or walking, or anything that makes us tired. In fact, we've given a name for the sleepiness that has started to overtake us after a little while in a museum (no matter how good, bad, exciting, or boring it is) -- "museum eyes". The only museum that we didn't seem to get museum eyes for was the jewish ghetto museum in Terezin that we went to today. But I don't wanna write about that since it was all sad and what not, still good, but not fodder for a happy toned blog post.
Instead, I'm going to write about Switzerland.
Originally when we were planning, we were going to go from Italy to Vienna. Then I said to Yaron, "hey, it'd be kinda cool to go hiking in the swiss alps", he agreed and so we penciled it in between Italy and Vienna. The trouble came when we did Cinque Terre. I think I posted about how that was a pretty tiring day onthe old muscles, and I had lost group support that another hike was something we really needed. So the plan was ammended so that I would go to Geneva to meet my cousin Steven and Craig and Yaron would go to Interlaken to have fun with (presumably) non-hiking adventures.
So we took the train to Geneva and I arrived at aroun 2:30, Craig and Yaron continued on with something like 5 more travel hours ahead of them. Steven took me to the top of the WHO building and saw a nice view of France (which was only a 20 minute walk from there -- side story: Once in Waterloo Spaghetti, Waffles and I (maybe mark too?) walked to the McDonald's drive thru and ordered. When we got to the front of the window to pick up our food, I arranged us all like we were in car, then when the lady handed me our food, I rolled down the imaginary window, took it and rolled the window back up. The lady was visibly annoyed, and for that matter, so was everybody in the "car". Regardless, I was pretty happy with my little joke and that was all that mattered. I wonder if I could've pulled the same joke with the French customs officials at the "drive thru" border.) and Geneva. Steven was great and playing tour guide as we walked around the city, saying things like, "when they donated the land that is used for the united nations, it was on the condition that there always be 4 peacocks roaming the grounds at all time. Even today those peacocks are there." and "A great part about geneva is that the trains always go exactly according to schedule". We also stopped for yummy chocolate which was...yummy. And in the park we went to they had giant chess boards and giant pieces (think harry potter 1 without the dying thing) and so we played. I had a slight advantage since Steven made a mistake early on, and then he almost had me but made the wrong move, and then I went in for the kill. I guess it's because I'm older :) Or more likely because I'm lucky.
I had ordered new books to read (2 more books in the Ender series that I've been reading on this trip) to Steven's work and as of the day before my books hadn't arrived, so taht could've sucked. But luckily, they got there around the same time as me, so when we stopped by the WHO, my books were there and now I had something to keep my going on trains the rest of the way. Steven didn't understand why I needed the books since when he was travelling for 2.5 weeks in Italy with a friend, he either slept or talked on the trains. I recalled that for the first 2.5 weeks I didn't do any reading either, but spend enough time with the same people and you can't fill all the time with conversation.
Speaking of spending time with the same people, I don't know if either Yaron or I have mentioned it, but Tait went back to Ottawa to watch the Senators compete for the Stanley Cup. On one hand I think, "how could you leave EUROPE to watch hockey?" on the other hand I think, "In 20 years, Europe will still be there, but there is no guarantee that the Senators will make it back to the Stanley Cup in that time", so it's not as crazy as it might've seemed. Though now that they are down 2-0....
I can't believe I just had a paragraph dedicated to hockey.
Anyway, speaking of spending time with the same people, before elaving yaron and craig, I gave them a mission to make 5 new friends in Interlaken. We'll get back to this later.
First I just wanted to cover the food that I tried in Switzerland. On day 1 I had the traditional Fondu. As with the rest of Geneva it was pricey, but really really really good. The cheese was all melty and delicious and then there was the part that got burned on the bottom and the waiter scraped it off for us and we split it. Apparently it is osmething that people fight over but Steven suggested we be more civil than that, so we were. I also had some Geneva wine, which is good but they only let 10% of it be exported, the other 90% stays in Geneva, so it isn't too common to find it outside of the country. The place we got fondu in was really touristy, but htat's why we went -- for the experience. THey had one of those riiiicolllaaaaa horns, and people were all dressed up. It was like a "real" swiss chalet...but without the delicious sauce. I love that sauce.
The second night we had roclette, which is when they give you a whole bunch of boiled potatos, and bring you an unlimited number of plates of melted cheese (shaped like really thick kraft singles, but soooo delicious) and you scoop up the chessew ith your potatos, and when your plate is empty, ask for another one. It was all you can eat. It was faaantastic and I think I like it better than fondu. Apparently they use a special machine to cut the cheese that ends up on your plate, and people buy mini machines to use at home and it is an easy meal that they make locally, so that's kinda neat!
In order to get to Interlaken at an early enough time that we could still do something during the day before heading out at night, I had to take the 6:45 train from Geneva. I was supposed to take it to Bern, then switch trains and head to Interlaken. I got to the platform nice and early at 6:30. To my surprise, the train was already there, so I get on and take a seat and pulled out my notebook and started writing about my Geneva adventures. At 6:36 the train starts rolling, and I look up and I hear Steven's voice in my head, "A great part about geneva is that the trains always go exactly according to schedule."....Uh oh. I peer out the window and confirmt hat I was on the correct platform, but unfortunately, the train I boarded was the one there before my train arrived and I didn't recognize the destination station of this train, and I couldn't find it on my map or in my Eurail book. I was going around the train looking for someone to talk to (it was fairly empty) and eventually find someone who doesn't speak English. I use my incredibly broken French and the universal language of pointing to figure out that this train passes through Laussene, which is a town I had visited the day before and that I knew I could transfer to a train to Bern. In fact, I ended up transferring to the precise train that I wanted to board in Geneva in the first place! I made the rest of my transfers without a hitch and all was well.
Get this! When I got to Interlaken, I waited a bit for Yaron and Craig, and then found out that they had made 5 new friends at the hostel and had plans to go on a hike! It was all coming together! We originally wanted to go ice climbing, but apparently it was teh wrong time of season to do that. So we ended up taking a train to I Forget the Town Name to start the hike up to I Forget the Other Town Name. It was a long hike and it was foggy at the bottom and kinda spitting rain the whole time -- not the best conditions at all, but we hoped by the time we got to the top that it would be ok. About an hour in, 2 of the poeple we brought along from the hostel dropped out and so we were down to 6 -- the three of us, 1 from ottawa, and 2 from australia. I've done a bunch of hiking in Seattle, but this trail was so much more vertical than what I was used to. It just goes up and up and up and up. As we got higher, the clouds started making way for us, and we ended up getting really nice views from the top and then we had fondu and it was delightful.
It's really late and this post took me a really long time to write, so I will abruptly end it and say toodaloo.
Instead, I'm going to write about Switzerland.
Originally when we were planning, we were going to go from Italy to Vienna. Then I said to Yaron, "hey, it'd be kinda cool to go hiking in the swiss alps", he agreed and so we penciled it in between Italy and Vienna. The trouble came when we did Cinque Terre. I think I posted about how that was a pretty tiring day onthe old muscles, and I had lost group support that another hike was something we really needed. So the plan was ammended so that I would go to Geneva to meet my cousin Steven and Craig and Yaron would go to Interlaken to have fun with (presumably) non-hiking adventures.
So we took the train to Geneva and I arrived at aroun 2:30, Craig and Yaron continued on with something like 5 more travel hours ahead of them. Steven took me to the top of the WHO building and saw a nice view of France (which was only a 20 minute walk from there -- side story: Once in Waterloo Spaghetti, Waffles and I (maybe mark too?) walked to the McDonald's drive thru and ordered. When we got to the front of the window to pick up our food, I arranged us all like we were in car, then when the lady handed me our food, I rolled down the imaginary window, took it and rolled the window back up. The lady was visibly annoyed, and for that matter, so was everybody in the "car". Regardless, I was pretty happy with my little joke and that was all that mattered. I wonder if I could've pulled the same joke with the French customs officials at the "drive thru" border.) and Geneva. Steven was great and playing tour guide as we walked around the city, saying things like, "when they donated the land that is used for the united nations, it was on the condition that there always be 4 peacocks roaming the grounds at all time. Even today those peacocks are there." and "A great part about geneva is that the trains always go exactly according to schedule". We also stopped for yummy chocolate which was...yummy. And in the park we went to they had giant chess boards and giant pieces (think harry potter 1 without the dying thing) and so we played. I had a slight advantage since Steven made a mistake early on, and then he almost had me but made the wrong move, and then I went in for the kill. I guess it's because I'm older :) Or more likely because I'm lucky.
I had ordered new books to read (2 more books in the Ender series that I've been reading on this trip) to Steven's work and as of the day before my books hadn't arrived, so taht could've sucked. But luckily, they got there around the same time as me, so when we stopped by the WHO, my books were there and now I had something to keep my going on trains the rest of the way. Steven didn't understand why I needed the books since when he was travelling for 2.5 weeks in Italy with a friend, he either slept or talked on the trains. I recalled that for the first 2.5 weeks I didn't do any reading either, but spend enough time with the same people and you can't fill all the time with conversation.
Speaking of spending time with the same people, I don't know if either Yaron or I have mentioned it, but Tait went back to Ottawa to watch the Senators compete for the Stanley Cup. On one hand I think, "how could you leave EUROPE to watch hockey?" on the other hand I think, "In 20 years, Europe will still be there, but there is no guarantee that the Senators will make it back to the Stanley Cup in that time", so it's not as crazy as it might've seemed. Though now that they are down 2-0....
I can't believe I just had a paragraph dedicated to hockey.
Anyway, speaking of spending time with the same people, before elaving yaron and craig, I gave them a mission to make 5 new friends in Interlaken. We'll get back to this later.
First I just wanted to cover the food that I tried in Switzerland. On day 1 I had the traditional Fondu. As with the rest of Geneva it was pricey, but really really really good. The cheese was all melty and delicious and then there was the part that got burned on the bottom and the waiter scraped it off for us and we split it. Apparently it is osmething that people fight over but Steven suggested we be more civil than that, so we were. I also had some Geneva wine, which is good but they only let 10% of it be exported, the other 90% stays in Geneva, so it isn't too common to find it outside of the country. The place we got fondu in was really touristy, but htat's why we went -- for the experience. THey had one of those riiiicolllaaaaa horns, and people were all dressed up. It was like a "real" swiss chalet...but without the delicious sauce. I love that sauce.
The second night we had roclette, which is when they give you a whole bunch of boiled potatos, and bring you an unlimited number of plates of melted cheese (shaped like really thick kraft singles, but soooo delicious) and you scoop up the chessew ith your potatos, and when your plate is empty, ask for another one. It was all you can eat. It was faaantastic and I think I like it better than fondu. Apparently they use a special machine to cut the cheese that ends up on your plate, and people buy mini machines to use at home and it is an easy meal that they make locally, so that's kinda neat!
In order to get to Interlaken at an early enough time that we could still do something during the day before heading out at night, I had to take the 6:45 train from Geneva. I was supposed to take it to Bern, then switch trains and head to Interlaken. I got to the platform nice and early at 6:30. To my surprise, the train was already there, so I get on and take a seat and pulled out my notebook and started writing about my Geneva adventures. At 6:36 the train starts rolling, and I look up and I hear Steven's voice in my head, "A great part about geneva is that the trains always go exactly according to schedule."....Uh oh. I peer out the window and confirmt hat I was on the correct platform, but unfortunately, the train I boarded was the one there before my train arrived and I didn't recognize the destination station of this train, and I couldn't find it on my map or in my Eurail book. I was going around the train looking for someone to talk to (it was fairly empty) and eventually find someone who doesn't speak English. I use my incredibly broken French and the universal language of pointing to figure out that this train passes through Laussene, which is a town I had visited the day before and that I knew I could transfer to a train to Bern. In fact, I ended up transferring to the precise train that I wanted to board in Geneva in the first place! I made the rest of my transfers without a hitch and all was well.
Get this! When I got to Interlaken, I waited a bit for Yaron and Craig, and then found out that they had made 5 new friends at the hostel and had plans to go on a hike! It was all coming together! We originally wanted to go ice climbing, but apparently it was teh wrong time of season to do that. So we ended up taking a train to I Forget the Town Name to start the hike up to I Forget the Other Town Name. It was a long hike and it was foggy at the bottom and kinda spitting rain the whole time -- not the best conditions at all, but we hoped by the time we got to the top that it would be ok. About an hour in, 2 of the poeple we brought along from the hostel dropped out and so we were down to 6 -- the three of us, 1 from ottawa, and 2 from australia. I've done a bunch of hiking in Seattle, but this trail was so much more vertical than what I was used to. It just goes up and up and up and up. As we got higher, the clouds started making way for us, and we ended up getting really nice views from the top and then we had fondu and it was delightful.
It's really late and this post took me a really long time to write, so I will abruptly end it and say toodaloo.