Sunday, July 26, 2009

4 weeks down! 4 weeks to go!!!

FINALLY found some free internet, and funny enough it's at a camp site.
So I last left off in the Czech region, and I forgot to mention how our tent held up for the first two nights! On the second night it started to poor an outrageous amount. Unfortunatly our 17 dollar tent wasn't made for this type of weather. We quickly learned that the zippers weren't weather proof. So for a bit we sat there with a cloth trying to soak up the water. We eventually gave up and just through a towel there and fell asleep.

Anyway, let's skip the boring 10 hour ride to Zerich.

SO we get to Zerich and quickly realiye how expensive this place is. The Swiss Franc is almost exactly the same as the Canadian dollar so it wasn't to hard to convert anything. (Funny thing, Mcdonalds was 12 dollars for a BigMac meal)
So we headed to City Backpackers and booked two nights. First night there was the first night that Warren and I were in a different room. The rest of the day was mostly spent on a lake cruise on a boat touring around Zurich river. The country side was beautiful. It was all sloped downwards towrads the water so almost everyone within 2 km of the lake had a lakeside view. Once we got back we split up and did our own thing. I ended up walking along side the East side of the lake and just watche dpeople go by. I headed back to the hostel, talked to a guy from Netherlands who has been diong a different city every day ( I couldn't imagin doing that, this is exhausting enough).
The following day (which would be the 19th) we headed up a small mountain (Utilberg) to the highest point in Zurich. Once zou got there, there was a tower that you could climb and see for dozens of km in each direction. We walked a path down the moutain for around 2 hours, and took one of those hanging rides down to the bottom.
We were supposed to go on a river tour and go for a swim, but the water level was too high so we ended up just waiting there for 30 minutes until we actually read the sign. We headed back and met up with another Torontonian and 3 austrians and started drinking! (The beer here was 60 cents for a tall boy!) We tried to go to a few clubs but just ended up going to the East side of the lake and meeting 2 other Canadians (Montrealers) and 2 Americans. After being outside and drinking for a while we decided to head back and crash. SO we gave the 4 extra people sleeping bags and pillows out of generosity since all there accomadations fell through. Little did we know this would cost us 50 francs. We tried to argue this against the guy, but he was being an ass, and said we should have just left them on the street. How nice of him.
Anyway, feeling gross but not unhappy we headed to a campsite. We didn¨t want to stay in a place that wasn't nice enough to let bedless poeple sleep. We (or I should say I) napped once we got to the campsite because they were closed from 12 to 3 (just like everwhere in swityerland for some reason). After checking in we headed to the art musuem and looked around for around an hour. Interesting stuff, but I'm glad that we didn't pay. (We had 3 day travel pass). Everything was closed so we just ate a meal of Rostii (A traditional Swiss meal), got our tickets to Bern, and went back to the campsite.
On our way to the bus station we checked out 3 different churches looking for a demonic dark church, (recomended by the other Torontonian) but we didn't gind it. There was oen church with the largest clockface in Europe, and more amazingly, one wit a HUGE Organ that was beautiful. There was gold winglike figures on each end of the pipes. We were fortunate to acutally here it being played.
Once we got to Bern we headed to a hostel to chuck our bags. Unfortunatly (actually fortunatly because it saved us money) the hostel was full, so we ended walking alongside Aare river down to a campsite. The campsite was right next to the river. So we locked up our tent and went into town, but not the regular way! Aare river was moving so fast we just jumped in and barely had to swim, the current just took us. Don't worry this is a comen thing to do in Bern. There are railings with stairs all down the river. We tried getting out to rest once but it was way more work to get out than to just ride the water. I ended up smashing my toe, and bonking my knee. Stupid thing is though they don't really warn you of the waterfall that's down the river a bit. The sign looks more like a bridge than a waterfall . But we got out safe and sound the second time. We went to check out the 2 main things in Bern we were told to see. First was the bear pits, which was more of just pits. The Bears have been moved due to the death of one last year so they were rebuilding the pits and the area surrounding it. We then went to check out one of the many hundreds of fountains that they have pooring out water constantly. This fountain was special because there was an ogre on top of it eating small children. Mmmm, makes me want to drink the water even more!
The next day was mainly bummin around waiting for our train to leave for Interlaken. We were lucky enough to book a hostel last minute before we left for the Happy Days Inn in INterlaken. We got in late (around 10) so we just ate and went to sleep.
We woke up early and headed straight for a cmapsite right near the water. It was small but suited us perfectly. Only 6 tents at most could fit on this small hillside. We went back into the city to get some groceries and once we got back it started to rain. (Luckily the rain was against the back so we didnt have trouble getting drowned in rain water! There was a Polka concert going on down at the campsite reception are. We didn't check it out but we could hear the polka loud and clear even through the rain. It was really upbeat, and everyone was having a ball. They went on for the best of 3 hours, so it's a shame we never made it down.
Now we're on the 24th. We got up and headed to a self catering BBQ/firepit place to cook our sausages. Unfortunatly I was a doofus and forgot a lighter. and we weren't going to pay 3 dollars for a small dinky one. So we ended up eating them raw :-O. We didn't get sick, don't worry. After that we made the biggest hike of the trip (so far). We went up a 2000 meter mountain. UNfortunatly we ran out of water once we got to the 2060 meter point, so we couldn't make it (well without dehydrating ourselves we couldn't) to the 2300 meter point. The whole trip there and back took us about 4 hours and a bit. We were exhausted and had Jell-o like legs. We made it back to the bus station and found out we missed our last bus by 5 minutes. Great, here comes another 5 km of walking! SO we ate up, got some energy (a little but some) and went for the 5 km walk in the DARK, along a very narrow street. But we made it alive, and passed right out.
Now I'm onto today! We didn't do much (actually nothing at all). We were planning on going Kayaking, but we were too slow. So here I am typing my blog (for free luckily).
Well today marks the 4 week mark. Halfway done!
Hope you are all enjoying the blog!
Taataa

3 comments:

  1. Ewwww. Raw sausages! Gross. Surprised you didn't get sick. Next time, borrow a lighter from someone!
    The river ride sounds fun. Perhaps a little riskier than a mother wants to think about.
    So has the four weeks gone fast?
    Love you!
    Mom

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  2. I feel like eating raw sausages makes you more manly.
    I don't know why, it just does.
    I can't believe it's been 4 weeks already.
    Hope you're having an amazing time!

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  3. Was the Mountain climb more rewarding than the 'Great White Pine'?
    Seems like you and Warren are having a blast..keep it up and enjoy!

    -Jordan

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