So after waking up and waiting for the train to arrive, we stopped at Roma Tiburtina Station. It was not what I was expecting at all for the capital city of Italy. The train station had several homeless inhabitants, and smelt a bit funky. My plan had been to walk to Roma Termini Station to meet Rachael about an hour later, but there was no signage as to what direction anything was.
FRIDAY So the trip to Oktoberfest started with a long train ride from Zürich to München. It went fairly quickly but, as someone brought cards, so we played a Canadian variation of Presidents and Assholes.
At the train station it was clear that we had arrived at Oktoberfest, as people were walking around in Lederhosen and Dirndl and there was massive Pretzels for sale everywhere. Also a big clue was the fact that many people were staggering around and one guy (who looked to be in his 40’s) even fell over when he got on an escalator and only just managed to stand up again before the top.
Today I went to Zürich with Anthony to make my own pocketknife at the Landesmuseum, but when we got there they told us they were totally booked up for the whole day, so we couldn’t :(
So we walked around the city in the rain for a bit, but nothing too exciting. There really isn’t too much to see in Zürich in comparison to some of the other places around. And especially when it’s raining.
I went to the Australian Outback Bar in Zürich tonight for the IAESTE weekly Meeting. It was both cool and disappointing. Cool in that they didn’t just have Fosters, they had Bundy Rum, VB and Coopers. Not cool that it was like 8sFr for a VB and 15sFr for a Rum and Coke. Also their menu had prawns listed as shrimp …
There was XXXX signs as well, but they didn’t sell it, which is false advertising I reckon.
Last night we went to Germany for some drinks for Steven’s birthday and also because some people are going home soon. The bar in Waldshut that Steven and I found is even better than we first thought. Not only are beers only 2€, but if you start singing happy birthday then the bartender will come over with some free Jägermeister shots. Oh and rather than stealing the beer glass, Steven ASKED if he could keep it, and they even got him a clean one to take home.
The hiking weekend began with the steepest bus ride in Europe. It really was quite steep in places, made the bus ride up to the Remarkables in New Zealand tame in comparison. Because it was only one lane the bus driver was constantly hitting the horn to let cars know we were coming round the corner. The swiss post buses have a REALLY loud and long horn tune.
And then began the hiking.
I have been very busy lately with assignments, German lessons and traveling, so haven’t had time to update this in a while. On the weekend before last, I went to the Jura region, which is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
First up, we went to the underground mills in Le Locle. They were used in the 1800s to make flour, and used the water that flowed through the cave to turn the mill.
Was kind of like a custard slice, but cheese. Quarkkuchen I think it was called
At the shops in Germany….
Drinking a Czech beer at the Rhein
13 Euro for 24 bottles = $18.58 AUD And they are usually 5% alcohol or more
Meat for the grill…
This was a Czech beer that Petr had brought, was quite nice.
Yesterday (Saturday) I went to Basel for the day and met up with some IAESTE buddies, and we explored the city.
First up was the Rathaus, which was a beautiful building with lots of murals and statues.
Next up, we went to the Basel Münster, where there was a church organ performance. We only got to hear the last song but it sounded really good. The church was very nice, although not as nice as the one in Bern.
Saturday I got the train to Visp to begin the IAESTE Zermatt Weekend, which very unusally for a swiss train arrived about 5 mins late. From Visp we went on a cog train up to Zermatt, which was a lovely town at the foot of the Matterhorn.
We got a cable car up to the top of the Klein Matterhorn which must be an epic ski resort in winter because they had runs open in the middle of Summer and there was a fair few people up there skiing.
