Sledging + Dissapointing + Inspiring

It’s always a toss up on trains, what to do. The last few rides I’ve had a great book (called “white tiger” it is amazing you should read it), other times its just been too crowded to anything but keep my elbows tucked in and my feet held firmly on the floor to not kick or bother anyone and just stare out the window.

Right now though, its blog time.

OK so a little confession incase you haven’t noticed already, I am pretty behind in these! But I still want to share as much as possible with you guys so please bare with me.

After Germany Jamie and I caught the train to Switzerland. Now I have heard a fair bit of gossip about Switzerland since I’ve been in Europe, those who travel there are of two minds. The first is that it is completely worth it because there is beauty beyond imagining, but that always seems to always be drowned out by their follow up of “but…it’s really expensive”. Now when other Europeans are saying that Switzerland is expensive, you know you’re in for big bucks quickly disappearing from your bank account. So our plan was to hop in, see what we absolutely wanted to see, then get the heck out of there before we had to call our parents for financial backup.

Absolutely on my list for Switzerland was Lucerne, the humble town of the Lucerne lion. I read about this statue briefly when I was looking into where I would go, and this lion basically cemented my need to go to Switzerland. We were only in Lucerne for one full day so that was first on our list to do. Lucerne is a town of absolute amazing beauty, it is split between a large lake and connected through bridges as most well structured towns are... It is home to the famous water tower that you see on all the postcards and pictures of Switzerland. This particular day we were In Lucerne was one of incredible beauty, it was a nice crisp (though not freezing cold) morning and the sun had just come up and the lake made everything seem fresh. As the sun rose and it became lighter, gradually all around us appeared these incredible snow capped mountains. They felt so close like if you just went out the perimeters of Lucerne you would touch the base of them. Surrounded by such beauty we headed towards the lion. Following a map we made our way to the tiny lion signs in no time at all, but of course nothing can be this simple to find so of course we got sidetracked by the most common of all side trackers….

A slippery dip.

This slippery dip, curling in all its majesty from the top of a large courtyard, to where we were standing a little way down the hill. It wasn’t long but I swear it was put there because the locals get sick of walking up and down the steps all day. Once we had a go on it each however, we quickly forgot which direction was the right one, so just wandered off. Then after realizing the streets we were in were not marked on the tourist standard map, we wove our way back to where we started and eventually came to the spot I had come to Switzerland for. Mark Twain wrote that the lion “is the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.” It is a memorial for the Swiss guards that were massacred in 1792 during the French revolution. It was bigger than I imagined, and there were of course details that you don’t get from a photo. What struck me the most was that the lion was larger than life-size but it’s exactly what I imaged Aslan from Naria to be like. Mark Twain best describes it best though, so I will attach his words at the end of this blog for those who would like to read it…

From Lucerne we got the train to Interlaken where we didn’t have any particular plans for what we were going to do, it’s the extreme sport capital of Switzerland, but neither of us are particularly extreme sports types…The train ride through the alps just to get to Interlaken was worth it in itself. WOW. Breathtaking beauty of the alps and the Swiss countryside. I shouldn’t have started taking pictures, because once I started I couldn’t stop snapping!

We reached Interlaken at nighttime so we didn’t get to see what was surrounding us, but this place was a lot more snowy and cold than Lucerne was. We got to the hostel and upon checking in we were issued with hostel tokens that were, in my opinion, better than gold. These tokens would get us- FREE LAUNDRY. Yes folks, for the first time in 4 months my clothes were treated to the gentle wash of an automatic washing machine. Of course they would have been a little more comfortable if we hadn’t filled the machine to full capacity (and then some) trying to save our tokens by putting both our clothes in one load. Oh well, I got some extra coffee with the leftover tokens.

So…we were in the capital of extreme sports and needed to chose one, one within our price range and one that wouldn’t send our mothers into a tizzy….hmmmmmmmmmm..

Sledging!

Now this isn’t like tobogganing, as we discovered while heading up in the cable car towards the top of this alp which is popular for skiers and snowboarders. First of all this slope is not just one single hill, but rather a collection of slopes that create one big marathon slope designed for those serious about their sledging (or more commonly skiing…). The run weaves in and out of the ski track which, while crossing these areas while dodging skiers and snowboarders, is where I think the extreme part of the sport comes into it. Partly because we are cheap, and partly because we didn’t think it would be THAT much fun, we only got one sledge. This was a mistake at first cause really; neither of us knew how to do it right so it was more like we were pulling the sledge for the first part. Then once one of us worked out how to correctly use this contraption (I’ll leave you to decide who it was) we took turns, one would slide down parts of the hill, swerving along the track, while the other would run behind that person and try and not get too far behind. Then we decided to up the ante and both get on together. Without giving much thought to our area choice we both sat on and kicked off. Nothing happened. In that particular snowy patch we were too heavy together to float lightly along the top….but we tried a new area, pushed off and BAM we were off! It was ridiculous fun, we got ridiculed by some snowboarders in the open cable cars above us at one section of our journey, because obviously there is a hierarchy on the slopes and we were at the bottom of it so that was their prerogative. That day I was the coldest I have been this trip, my fingers were frozen my toes were numb, I was speaking funny cause my cheeks had become so numb with cold and my butt was both wet and icy, but it was seriously good fun. And the fact that it was that night that we had scheduled our laundry day, this soon became one of the best days on the trip! Happy.

The next day we were scheduled to leave for Geneva (our last destination in Switzerland) but before that we had scheduled in a number of hours to explore the town of Interlaken itself (because the slopes were about 45 mins by train outside of it). When we asked the lady at the reception if she had a good route for us to take to explore the city for the day, she laughed at us. We soon realized that allowing half and hour was enough time to explore Interlaken, there was no way we would need all day. So we checked it out, though what little there was, was charming, then hopped on the next train to Geneva.

Now Geneva. It’s one of the places everyone knows the name of but doesn’t necessarily know what is located there. That would be me before anyway. The only things I knew about Geneva was that that is where the Geneva Agreement gets its name and it was home to the UN. And that was enough for me! Once we checked into the most youth hostel-y youth hostel I have been in so far (when first entering it feels like a public swimming pool because it had light blue walls, concrete walls and the smell of chlorine) we went out to get dinner. That dinner almost sent us home bankrupt. The prices of food were absolutely ridiculous! Even McDonalds was hardly affordable, a simple Big Mac meal was about $17!! The next day we went to explore the actual town of Geneva and find out why it is that here is the place chosen to house the International Red Cross as well as the UN. Well for a start they claim to be the inventers of the humble watch, which I suppose is a good enough reason to sell watches in every shop right along with the Swiss army knives. They also have a large garden clock which was pretty cool (once we found it after walking right past it, but on the other side). They are also famous for a water fountain that sprays up like a sail, but of course we were there wanting to see it, so it had to be switched off. Home to the most confusing city it took us a number of hours to find the old city which is actually rather lovely with its cobbled streets, coat of arms on every building and charming little cafes in the alleyways. We went to the wall of remembrance which is a dedication to the leaders of the protestant revolution and depicts the likes of John Calvin in giant size.  The park that leads to this wall is home to a number of giant chess boards with giant chess pieces with giant boys smoking cigars while playing their games like they’re serious professionals playing for each other’s house deeds. Very amusing to watch.

We kept the best for last when we went to the UN on the last day we were in Geneva. We caught the train to the stop “nations” and got off to be greeted by the UN gate with flags lining the large entrance area and a huge chair monument across the road. 

Warning: biggest disappointment of my trip so far happens next....

After making sure that we arrived with plenty of time to catch the 10 o’clock tour of the inside of the building, we wandered around looking for the meeting point. We wandered, asked someone, then wandered some more. Finally (at 10:15) we found another entrance by following delegates and official looking people with lanyards with official badges, we got to a security checkpoint where people have to show their passport, and acting like I belonged there (which I most obviously didn’t, dressed in what I was wearing) I went to go through security and was told that the tours weren’t running until Jan 11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you didn’t catch my exclamation…

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I was at the united nations building, the reason we had come to Geneva, and was being told now by a lady who clearly doesn’t realise what she is doing to me, telling us the tours aren’t happening. We were directed by this other official looking guy to this area, they have to have tours here, he said they would so why aren’t we being let in? and why aren’t there any other tourists…and why didn’t that lady at the tourist office tell me about this sooner…why did they need to be sorting out important international stuff today….why couldn’t they just wait until I had seen inside…..................can we come back on the 11^th Jamie? No.

I left extremely disappointed and unimpressed, while Jamie just sympathized and tried to keep a straight face at all my incredible overreaction and lead me away before I started abusing the UN security force.

Geneva made up for it however, when I was brought to the doors of the International Red Cross. This museum was so incredibly inspiring and educational, an absolute highlight of my trip. We spent about 3 hours in the fairly small museum pondering over the prisoner of war files that are all held there (there were no Graetz’s) and were gathered by the Red Cross back in the day. Over 4 million files. They had a very inspiring section on the Red Cross' work during the second world war, which after Dachau was particularly moving. While the concentration camps were around, the Red Cross wanted to send in care packages to the people in the camps and have people visit the prisoners, as they do in other jails. Surprisingly, the Nazis agreed. However although they could send some people in, they made a stipulation that those who went in would need to stay there for the entire duration that the camp exists. 10 people voluntarily went into a concentration camp to help others in whatever way they could. How incredible are those people, I’m almost sure they didn’t know the extent of the suffering in there, but they wouldn’t have been stupidly ignorant either… Anyway, a special museum that I am so happy we visited! How could we not when we got 50% off…:P

Anyway, this is becoming way too long and I have the habit of rambling on terribly in these things don’t I?

I hope you are all doing splendidly, only 1 and a half months left! UGHR! Where did all that time go?!

All my love xoxox

Mark Twains bit about the lion:
“The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff — for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.

Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion — and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is.

– Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, 1880”