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Published: March 16th 2010
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Hi everyone,
Wow, what a crazy 6 days. I arrived safely in Luzern, Switzerland at 3pm on Wednesday 10th March after over 25 hours travelling. I didn’t have any jet lag as I got a good 8.5 hrs sleep from Bangkok to Zurich. The temperature in Luzern was -3 degrees. My friend Sylvie picked me up from Luzern station and took me to her parents apartment about 5-10 min drive away from the station where I am currently staying while I’m in Switzerland. I met Sylvie’s mum, Rosemary. Sylvie and I then went on the boat around Luzern Lake. The weather was cloudy and cold so I couldn’t see the mountains clearly but what I did see was amazing. We then came back for dinner where I met Sylvie’s dad, Kurt and boyfriend, Marcus. They are all lovely people and all speak English. Left Australia 6pm on Tuesday and went to bed at 10.40pm on Wednesday in Switzerland - about 28 hours.
Thursday - woke up to it snowing outside. Took some photos of the room I’m staying in which has a view of Mount Pilatus - but couldn’t see because it was still so cloudy and misty. Went
to bakery and got some bread for breakfast with Kurt. He showed me all his photos of Switzerland and lots of other bits and pieces. Had lunch and then went snow trekking with Sylvie while it was snowing so I could test out the clothes they lent me for the weekend in Engelberg. We didn’t go far but still reached 1000m above see level and it looked like we were in Narnia from The lion the witch and the wardrobe - snow and ice everywhere. I had cheese fondue for dinner with cherry schnapps - very swiss.
Friday - up at 6.45am to go to the ‘fitness’ (gym) with Kurt. Did a quick work out and then went swimming in the gym’s outdoor heated pool. It was great, it was -2 degrees and we were swimming outside with snow everywhere - very different experience. Then we went into a jet massage ‘basin’ (pool), then a 45 degree eucalyptus steam bath, then a 90 degree sauna, then an ice cold plunge pool and finally walked around on stones in 30cm of ice cold water - my feet were the coldest they have ever been. We then went and laid on
deck chairs to relax, haha, strange, but very relaxing and an unreal experience - I wish I could do that after every cross fit session. Kurt then showed me quickly around Luzern city. I saw the lion, the 2 wooden foot bridges and 2 churches. It was a really quick tour because we had to get back for lunch and I didn’t have my camera, so I will definitely be going back to take photos and to absorb more of it. In the arvo I bought 20 swiss francs worth of chocolate and packed for the weekend trip to Engelberg (Angel Mountain). Sylvie, her friends and I caught the train to Engelberg which took 1hr. Her friends are great and can all speak English. We stayed in her friend’s grandparent’s old, rustic, wooden swiss cabin which only had wood ‘ovens’ (fires) for heating. It was so traditional. We had a few beers with dinner when we arrived and tea with cherry schnapps, while listening to international RnB on a swiss radio station. At about 11pm we went out to the local club and danced until 2.30am - a lot of the music was stuff that we listen/dance to in Australia.
In bed at 3am thinking, wow, how lucky am I to be experiencing this…have a look at the photos of the cabin and the view.
Saturday - feeling a bit tired from the night before but tiredness completely disappeared when I looked out of my bedroom window - clear blue skies, sun shining and clear view of Titlis mountain - see photos. I spent half an hour just in a daze staring at the view and taking photos. Had some traditional hot swiss bread that was very soft with some not so traditional nutella…delicious. Sylvie and Marcus took me to the mountain closes to our cabin and taught me how to snowboard for the first few hours on Saturday - it took a while to get the hang of it because the timing of the movements are a bit different form skateboarding and surfing. I fell so many times and had a very sore bottom that night. I contributed a lot more to the sore bottom by going off piste (off track) and trying to do jumps, haha - see photo of me in air before landing on bum, haha. That night was spent in doors having cheese fondue
and cherry schnapps with my new friends - see photos.
Sunday - Hot and sunny again - remember, when I say hot I mean hot for the mountains at 2000 metres above sea level, so 2-3 degrees is hot for up there. Had hot bread with nutella for breaky again and then went up to Titlis mountain. The view was amazing at 3020 metres above sea level - we were above the clouds and the sun was shining but it was still very cold. Again, snowboarding all day except for a quick stop for lunch at the self serve restaurant on the mountain. It took a bit of time to get back into the proper technique of snowboarding but it didn’t take long before I was trying to go off piste again. At the end of the day at about 4.30pm we snowboarded all the way to the bottom of Titlis mountain and the others were very impressed at my efforts and ability to snowboard on only my second day. We got back to the cabin, had a few snacks and cleaned. Some of Sylvie’s friends are from Zurich and have offered me a place to stay when I
go there which is great. What a massive, crazy, fun weekend. We caught the train back to Luzern, said our goodbyes and went back to Sylvie’s place where Rosemary had prepared a nice chicken dinner for us. I unpacked, had a shower and hit the hay at about 10pm so I could get enough sleep for the massive Monday that Kurt and Rosemary had planned for me…
Monday - up at 6.20am, bus with Kurt and Rosemary at 6.45am, train at 7.15am - 2.5 hrs on the train to Tahsin, Locarno (south Switzerland), on the other side of the swiss alps, close to Italy. They speak Italian there and the weather was much warmer than in the north, it was about 10-15 degrees and sunny. We went trekking up through the mountains and through the old villages where some houses were still in the original structure of stone and wood. We stopped at the top for a picnic where we had swiss cheese and bread and a drop of red. We ended up trekking for 6.5 hrs including about 50 mins for the picnic and a few other drink stops. My feet, ankles and adductors were already sore from
snowboarding, so you can imagine how I was feeling by the end of the walk. We had an authentic gelati before getting on the train and travelling another 2.5hrs back to Luzern. None of us felt like dinner and Rosemary was too tired to cook anyway so when we got back I had a bath and went straight to bed at 9.30pm. I was too tired to even eat…yes, me, too tired to eat, haha.
Tuesday - woke at 10am after 12.5 hrs of well needed sleep. Lazying around the apartment now and typing this up… hope you enjoyed the read…I think I’m going to make the next entries a lot briefer with more photos.
I miss you all despite the non-stop activity and wish you were here enjoying this amazing experience with me.
Take care,
Tim
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gullo
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Tahsin looks like the place from 'Hostel'. Better watch out noxy