You Can't Make This Up...

So I'm back safe and sound from my trip to Switzerland. As you would expect, I absolutely loved it. Going into the mountains and seeing the sights is something that I won't soon forget. The trip didn't go that smoothly though. For starters our plane was delayed for a couple hours in the airport. To make things worse they never even told us it was delayed, the entire airport went on as if our flight never existed, so we just sat there waiting for any news either way as to what was going on. We called the hotel in Zurich and asked them how late that we would be able to check in. They told us that as long as we were there by 2am they would let us check in. We finally board the plane and fly in, just as we are about the land the pilot pulls back up and says the blizzard is too bad and we can't land. Since this was only my 2nd ever flight, I was not doing so good. I tried to act cool, but I was definitely sweating a bit. After we circled the city for a while, we found a new runway and landed. By this point it was really late, and we were in a race to get to our hotel. After a 50 franc cab ride we made it with about 15 minutes to spare. We were all so tired, it didn't take too long to fall asleep.

The next day we woke up and looked at our map, and found that the FIFA headquarters was in Zurich. Since we were all huge soccer fans we decided that that was going to be our first destination. What we failed to realize was that FIFA was located on the top of a mountain. When we started our climb it didn't look TOO bad but in reality it was huge and tiring. I nearly thought that I was going to die. When we finally made it to the top we realized that the FIFA headquarters sucked. It was just an office building with a statue. There were definitely no famous soccer players there greeting us, no autograph sessions, and we didn't even get to hold the world cup trophy. I was not very happy. But since we were already at the top of a mountain we figured that we should take advantage of this by finding a place to look out and try and see over the city. We finally found a place after another hour of searching, but it was well worth it. I was able to take some amazing pictures (they will be up within a day or so). We finally made the trek back down hill and we were so exhausted that we barely made it through dinner awake. It was definitely an early night as we went back to the hotel room and chilled for a little while before we all went to bed.

Saturday was a completely different day though. Megan and I decided to head into the Alps so we got on a train and went to the center of Switzerland to a town called Lucern. It was beautiful. The pictures I was able to take were amazing. It is definitely something that you will have to see for yourself because words really couldn't describe it fairly. When we came back from the city we went out to dinner and that was the start of an amazing night.

After dinner we decided to go out for a couple of drinks. As we were wandering looking for a place to go I looked down this ally way to see a sign that said Aelphi's Bar. I figured why not so I walk down the ally and open the door a crack to here accordions and yodelling. I close the door quickly and grab Jordan. We walk in together and as soon as we walk in to this tiny little pub an old lady greets us by speaking German at us. Niether of us have any idea what she said so we just stare blankly at her. Finally she asks the question that I knew the answer to: "Sprechen Sie Deutsch? We responded with "No, Only English." To that she exicitedly said, "Well then, come on in, take a seat." Megan, Jordan, and I sat down ordered a beer and listened to this band of 50 year olds play their swiss folk music for us. The played for a while and then began to pack up as they had a drink. The bartender (who spoke amazing English told us to go talk to them. They were going to America for the first time this summer and would love to talk to some Americans. We walked over and tried to break the ice. Only one of them spoke English so we talked to her for a while. We asked about them and they said that they were all relatives from Glarus, Switzerland. And that they were in fact coming to America for the first time. They showed us the flyer for their tour and we nearly died when we looked at where they were going to be. Fittingly enough they were coming to New Glarus, Wisconsin. It gets even better. They also have stops in Madison, and Milwaukee. Half of their American tour was in Wisconsin. We got all excited, and the guy in the band got all excited becuase he was really excited to tour the Miller Factory and Harely Davidson in Milwaukee. The only words in English he spoke was Miller and Harley.

We made plans to meet them this summer and come and listen to them perform. They gave us postcards and stickers. They also promised to bring chocolate for us in exchange for some Miller beer. We got a picture taken with them and as they left we asked the bartender if there were any places that she would recommend for us to go. After a couple minutes she asked if we just wanted to go out with her for the night. We of course said yes, and jumped all over the chance to hang out with an actual Swiss person. She finished closing up her bar and we headed out for the night. We followed her around the city for a while and finally we stopped at a place called the Piranha Bar. Its right around this time that our new Swiss friend (who ended up actually being 34 years old) informed us that we were now in the Red Light District. She told us that all the girls were probably prostitutes and not to talk to anyone else becuase they may try to sell us drugs. For everyone's sake I won't go into any more details, but needless to say it didn't take too long for us to realize that we may want to get out of this area. On our way home we joked about how only on a trip like this can your night start out listening to a Swiss Folk Band and end in the Red Light District of a city.

Sunday we walked around the city for a while, toured some churches and packed up for the trip home, which was much smoother than the trip there. It was very exciting that there was traffic on the runways at Heathrow because our plane had to circle London for a few minutes before it could land. It was great to see the city from above where I had been living for 6 weeks now. We were actually able to find our street using landmarks from above, a great experience.

Overall I loved Switzerland, and you all must check out the pictures because my words don't do the beauty of the place justice. I'm off to a play right now though. Three Days of Rain, I hope this one is good. Twelfth Night was amazing so I'm banking on this one being better. we'll see though. Take Care and miss you all.

P.S. Grandma and Grandpa: I got your package thank you very much. I Didn't win on the lottery tickets, but I guess that's OK, not really sure what I'd do with them if I won anyway. Haha.