Hey Everybody,
I have spent the last three nights in a mid-size city in the heart of Switzerland. I was supposed to stay four nights, but Italy had a transit strike the day I was supposed to leave from Nice, so instead of 10 hours of trains to get to Luzerne, I had to spend 15 hours and 7 trains going through France to Geneva, and by the time I got to Zurich it was around 1am, and all trains had stopped.
The good news was that I had my own shower, and a whole room to myself. One doesnt understand the luxury of having your own room after spending 3 and a half weeks in rooms that have upwards of 16 people in them. I also got to watch late night Swiss television. Swiss people speak German and French, so every channel was a new delight. One channel was some type of American Idol, but they were singing the worst English I had ever heard. Also, channels 60 through 80 were showing the same exact movie. From what I understood, it was some type of Swiss Bonnie and Clyde type movie. Ridiculous.
The next day I got to my final destination, Luzerne. Luzerne is famous for a few things. There is a huge stone carving of a dying lion, a really old bridge that burned down, and a really sweet lake. After i dropped my bags at the hostel I went directly to the lion because it was in my area. It is huge, and was set back aganist a stone wall of sorts. Pretty cool.
As I was walking to the lake, I noticed all of these signs for the 10th of July. That was the day I first arrived in Luzerne. After quickly realizing that they werent celebrating the coming of Zac Gorman, I asked a security guard outside the building what the posters were for. Through gestures and broken English I found out that it was the 10 year anniversary of the KKL, in other words an arts and cultural center that is in Luzerne. This celebration meant that there were free shows all night. What a treat! Free Swiss bands... my favorite.
I decided that I would hit the center up later. I wanted to take a tour of the lake. The deal was that you could get off somewhere and then wait an hour for the next boat to take you to the next stop. I got off the boat, and decided that I wanted to hike back to Luzerne. I ended up finding an old castle, and asked a man and his little girl what the castle was. I thought that these people might have lived nearby, and were tending to their farm. They explained that someone important had lived there, and now its used as a wedding reception venue. As I continued on my hike through fields and farms, I decided to try to find the next stop so I could hop back on the boat. Due to a miscommunication, I wasnt allowed to continue on the tour, but I did see the man and his little girl. They were tourists, not farmers... Oh well.
Later that night I went to the free festival. I can honestly say that I have a new favorite accordian based band. I also had the luxury of watching a Swiss Accapella group singing "Wonderwall" (If you dont know it, youve heard it... I can promise you that). After "Wonderwall", they broke out into the semi-mega 80s hit "Walk Like an Egyptian"... Life was complete. After this show I had to leave, because there is a point of ridiculousness that one can handle before they cant control their laughter. I was there.
Once I got back to the hostel, I met a Peter from California. We decided to do Mt. Pilatus the next day.
Mt. Pilatus is one of the bigger mountains in the region. There is a world famous cog train there that is (at points) on a 48* gradiant. We decided to take the gondola up to the second station of three. We then did an hour hike down to the first station and rode the gondola to the top. At the top we explored 3 of the 4 major peaks, and then we took the cog train down. It was then a 20 minute train ride back to Luzerne. If you look at my facebook, I posted a few of the pictures from the top of the mountain. I also was able to get service from the top of the mountain. Verizon is awesome.
That night was the World Cup final. My next blog post will be about all the aspects of being in Europe during the World Cup.
Yesterday was my last full day in Luzerne. I saw the bridge, I walked around a bunch, I ended up in a bookstore and read a full book. In other words, the city is pretty boring when you cant spend lots of money. On a side note, apparently the minimum wage in Switzerland is 20 Francs an hour. Thats about 18 or 18.50 US an hour. The dollar menu at Mcdonalds is 2.50 Francs here... haha.
I ended up at a casino, and won 100 francs (blackjack is awesome). They had this bet where if it was a perfect pair, meaning that two of the same number came out, you could win up to 25 times your bet. I ended up with a perfect pair, and I got 6 times my original bet... WOO HOO... I can now buy a happy meal.
Some other notes;
I have been able to tell who is American by seeing how much they play with their cellphones. Even in Europe, Americans are addicted to their gadgets and cell phones.
Switzerland is beautiful and a great country. I just have an issue with the fact that it is unbelivably expensive. But, once I have my billions I will laugh at how I used to think that the country was expensive.
Today, I am heading to Munich.
Cheers,
Zac
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