The rest of the week in Switzerland

View from Mount Säntis

I ended the last blog entry with Corine and I returning to her house at 7.30 in the morning after a night clubbing in Zurich. At 10am we were up again and off! I've learnt on this trip that former exchange students love seeing their old support coordinator lose any remanents of authority by drinking me under the table and then torturing me the following day by making me get up and do things when I feel like death - Corine was no exception!

Appenzell countryside

We drove through part of the Swiss countryside to go to Mount Säntis. Many people say that the countryside here is similar to NZ, but to me there are some really obvious differences. They don't built many fences in Switzerland (or the rest of Europe for that matter) unlike NZ where apart from the mountains, every scrap of land is fenced off. I can't get used to driving along roads that don't have fences bordering them, it just doesn't seem right. The buildings are also really different, even though we were in the countryside, the farmhouses are much closer together, every couple of hundred metres or so, not like NZ where you can drive kilometres between farms, and they seem scattered randomly around the hills, rather than being lined up along roads. Here, like I mentioned in my Austria posts, they keep the animals inside the barns in the winter, and then they move them up into the mountains in the summer, so they don't seem to need a lot of land around the farmhouse and barn itself like I am used too.

The gondala up mount Säntis

Mount Säntis is one of the mountains in the Appenzell Alps in Switzerland, the peak is 2502 metres tall and you can reach it by a cable car/gondala thing. From the top, you can see six countries: Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, Lichenstein and Italy, and they have a weather station and TV/radio recievers. When we arrived, there was a lot of cloud around the base of the mountain, and all I could see was a gondala cable disapearing into this cloud - its a different experience going up a gondala when you can´t see where it ends! The ride was quite cool, even though I was absolutely dying of a hangover (what is it with Europeans and going up tall things when hungover? Just like the Fernsehturm in Berlin). Corine was quite funny, just nonchalantly talking on her phone while we went up. When we reached the top we ate in the restuarant, which actually made me feel worse and like I needed air, so we went out to look at the view. It was freezing cold and extremely windy, but the view was amazing. They also have a information centre and museum and stuff up there, but I wasn't really capable of enjoying much of that. By the time we went down, the cloud had cleared and we had an amazing view of the Swiss countryside.

Appenzell

We went through Appenzell on the way home, the main city in the region of Appenzell, where Mount Säntis is located. Appenzell has a old tradition of Langsmeinden, democratic assembablies in the open town square that all citizins must attend or recieve a big fine. Usually, people dress up formally and often the men carry swords, even the young people, and there is processions of the dignatories and performing bands before the elections. Appenzell has a lot of old buildings, so we walked around to have a look, and I brought one of those Swiss cowbell things. Corine says that people from Appenzell are shorter than most Swiss - I thought this was just one of those generalisations, but really, all the people we saw were really short! I slept for a couple of hours when we got home, and then it was time for fondue! I had to laugh when Corine's mum asked if we were planning on going out that night - I was so dead!

Friedrichshafen

Saturday we headed off on a ferry across Lake Constance to Friedrichshafen. The lake as beautiful, all misty and grey. I was a bit confused when we got to Friedrichshafen, as there were a couple of German flags flying - yes, we´d just ferried across the lake to Germany. Another example of this crazy border hopping that I am not used too! People from Corine's area go over there, or to Constance quite often, as its much cheaper to shop. They even get the tax back on the things they buy because they aren't German citizins, sweet deal.

Constance

We had an enormous coffee at a cafe she likes, and I have to say, after complaining so much about German coffee, this was one of the best lattes Ive had in Europe, and then we went to the Zeppelin Museum. This was quite cool, they have a section of a Zeppelin there that you can climb into and see the rooms and lounges and everything. Made me realise how huge the things are! They used to have smoking rooms in the Zeppelins, crazy considering a Zeppelin is just a huge balloon filled of gas! They had to have a man watching the room at all time to make sure that no one forgot and took a lighter or something outside the room. We also climbed up this tower thing on the shore, we had a sweet view over the lake, although I´d love to come back in the summer and be able to see right across the lake with the mountains behind. We ferried over to Constance and had a late lunch in an irish bar playing the Four Nations games - I always find it weird to watch rugby over here!

Me and my swiss family!

This night we had raclette for dinner, like I had at Hauke's place in Mainz, and then went out to a carnival party. Carnivals are huge in Europe, big parades, performances and street parties, and everywhere I've gone I've been told about how awesome Carnival is in that city and how I should have come a week later, or a week earlier to take part in it, but I've missed them all. This was not the actual carnival itself, that was a week later, but a party held beforehand. It was held in by a school raising money and attended by the young people that lived in the area. Corine and I were dressed up as grandmas in hilarious old-fashioned nightgowns that we picked up in Constance. I was wondering why there were so many old people dressed up as heavy metal/punk fans, when the back doors opened and they all paraded through up to the stage playing traditional music. Well, it was more like playing modern songs in a traditional way, it was really impressive. I wish I had a camera to take photos or video of them! We finished the night at a party of Corine's friends and crashed there in the early hours of the morning.

Jumbo on top of Corine

The next morning we headed back to Corine's and I went back to bed while she went off to play floorball (a kind of floor hockey). I was supposed to head of to Geneva for the night, but by the time I was up and organised I was starting to have second thoughts, as I had left it so late that I wouldn't get there until after dark, and had to be off pretty early in the morning, leaving me with little time to actually see the city. So I decided to stay another night in Egnach and leave early the next morning for Marseille instead, and went back to bed! We spent that day just mooching around really, hanging out in the house and playing with the puppy. Jumbo is a sausage dog puggy and extremely hyperactive, and amazingly, she loves me! Dogs usually don't, I don't know why but they usually pay no attention to me at all, whereas from the moment I arrived Jumbo was jumping up and down and following me around, it was really crazy but so cute. We went to bed pretty early, I had a long day the next day travelling to Marseille on the south coast of France and Corine had school.

Fondue

Switzerland photo album on Facebook is here, I might even have a good enough link this time that you don't even need facebook to look at them! Try it.

I am a bit behind on the blog, so all will be revealed later on, but I thought I should mention that I am off to live in Antwerp, Belgium, tomorrow to work as a nanny. I've enjoyed Spain, but its just too hard here, so I've taken an offer in another country. It will be a challenge, as I have never spent that much time around kids, but I am looking forward to it!

My first couple of nights in Switzerland

eating in Bern

After a really long day, with an early morning start to go skiing in Mulhouse in France, I headed into Switzerland to visit Corine, another AFS 2009-2010 exchange student. Its quite a bizarre day really, just casually going skiing in France and then taking the train to Switzerland, its how normal days like these are here that make me love Europe!

I had a funny experience on the train from Mulhouse in France to Basel in Switzerland, 20 minutes away; I got border controlled. Since German customs stamped my passport back in December, I haven't had had any further encounters with customs, when flying between Schengen agreement countries the airline has just glanced at my passport to make sure I am who I say I am, and I've never been checked travelling between countries on the trains, so it was quite strange! A couple of French customs guys got on the train, and I guess because I had my huge bag with me, I was the one they picked to interrogate in that carriage. Interrogation was as follows:


French customs: Can I see your passport please?
French customs: This visa is for Spain
Me: Yes, I am doing a working holiday there
French customs: Do you need a visa for France?
Me: No...
French customs: Do you need a visa for Switzerland?
Me: No...
French customs: Ok, then enjoy your trip

Wow. Pretty sure it should have been that guy's job to know whether or not I needed visas. All of a sudden I have no sympathy for the French complaining about their illegal immigration problems, they should stop hiring muppets to patrol their borders.

Burger King tray in different languages, Basel

I had a little under a hour in Switzerland, so I left my bags in a luggage locker and walked out of the train station only to realise that I couldn't really go that far in the time that I had, and so I just ate Burger King and people watched, there were some really cool old trams stopping in from of the station, the oldest I think I've seen since Christchurch. Have to note though, that just getting a burger, not even a combo was 6.50. I can see what everyone in NZ is thinking, 6.50, that's a little steep, you'd probably be able to get a whole combo for 6.50 in NZ, but no, I'm not talking in NZ dollars, I'm talking in Swiss Francs. That burger really cost a little over 9 NZ dollars. Nine. For just a normal burger. Switzerland is not a cheap country, needless to say I did not enter any more food outlets during my time there, nor did I stay within what I thought was a generous budget for the week. It is cool that the Burger King cups and trays and everything has their mottos written in all three of the official languages, German, French and Italian, you can feel here that the linguistic regions of Switzerland are much more united than Belgium was.

Clock in Basel (urinal on side)

But anyway, several hours later and after what had been a really really long day I arrived to the train station in a town called Romanshorn, right up in the German-speaking north-east corner of Switzerland on the edge of Lake Constance. Corine was at a job interview, so all I knew was that her mum was going to pick me up. I stood and waited for awhile, and then a car pulled up and three people got out and started taking photos of me. I thought that even with all of my bags and stuff I couldn't have been that much of a spectacle for strangers to be taking photos of me, so that must have been Corine's family! Her mum, dad and younger sister were very happy to meet me, and we headed out to a pizza resturant. They were quite impressed by the little bit of German I could remember from my time there (somehow I am really good with food names and not too much else, probably from the old Food is one of the two Pillars of our Family Holiday thing, spending so much time in Austrian resturants!) but I was really struggling after such a long day and really wasn't as switched on and conversational as I normally would have been. Corine arrived after a succesful job interview, it was great to see her after so long, and then after she ate too we headed home, with Corine driving me. I have to admit, after Camille's driving Corine seemed like a pro (sorry Camille!), but she has had her license a lot longer. Corine lives in Egnach, the next village along from Romanshorn with a population of around 4500. After a quick tour of her place and introductions to the world's hugest cat and Switzerland's most hyperactive sausage dog puppy, I collapsed into bed.

Cellar-shops in Bern

Thursday we were up relatively early and off to see Switzerland! Her mum had very generously spent some time before I came tracing down one of a limited number of all-day train tickets, so we could visit the cities without paying hundreds of swiss francs, so we headed to the capital of Bern first. I really liked Bern, after Brussels and Paris it felt more like Wellington, a capital that is calm and tranquil and not too big, but still pretty cool. Bern has a river running through it, and a lot of the buildings are built on slopes.We checked out the government buildings walked around for a bit, one of the first things you notice about Switzerland is how many fountains they have! They're everywhere, water is definitely not a hot comodity here! The second thing you notice is the clocks, they're also everywhere, huge ones on the buildings. I also like how in the main street there are all these cellars with big wooden doors on the street and steps leading down to them, like those hurricane shelters you see out in the feilds in american movies, and they have little shops down them, quite cool. And they have a mens urinal on the side of a really nice building with some of those huge clocks on it. I find it quite weird that they just condone peeing on the side of a building like that, with only a half screen up for privacy, but I also find it really unfair that men can pee for free and women can't. Sexist Switzerland, not only did they not let all women vote until 1971, they make women pay to pee but provide free places for men, not cool.

Kindlifresserbrunnen

We saw the capitve bears, the motto of Bern, like many other cities here in Europe, but that was actually a little sad, their enclosure in the centre of Bern is a long way from old Orana Park. In the middle of Bern is a famous fountain, called the Kindlifresserbrunnen, or Child-eater-fountain. This fountain shows a ogre stuffing a naked kid into his mouth, holding a bag of other children at his side. Pretty gruesome really, apparently its an old carnival figure they use to frighten children. We had some Swiss beer and meals, sausage and potatoes, and then jumped on a train to Zurich.

Zurich

Zurich is much bigger than Bern, you can just feel it, maybe not quite as friendly or something - I guess its like the difference in ambience between Wellington and Auckland. We checked out the Paradeplatz, where all of the huge banks are, and walked around for a bit doing some shopping and heading through the alleyways in the old town. Despite the prices, I'd actually given myself permission to buy at least one thing in Switzerland, but typically when we both had money to buy stuff we couldn't find anything we wanted, the only thing I picked up was some penis-shaped pasta that someone back in NZ had told me existed over here. I didn't believe here then, but it really does! Europe really amazes me sometimes!

Zurich

That evening we headed to an AFS meeting, where Corine underwent training to become a support coordinator for a Chilean boy. It was really bizarre to sit there and listen to the training in German, but using the same resources that we had in NZ. I had to laugh when they were showing how to file reports on global link, how you have to select a rating for the students, its a funny thing to see getting shown to a student that you used to rate! It is really amazing though and it makes me so proud, to see a student who came to NZ as a 16 year old and grew up and changed so much, became so mature, who is now an adult driving and working and taking responsibility for an exchange student herself. About half of the students I used to look after are now volunteering themselves, it's great. It was also really great to see that everyone in the room was a youngish returnee, I am a big believer in using young people as volunteers.

the postbox in the bar

After the meeting finished we grabbed a late dinner in a really nice (and ridiculously expensive) asian resturant, and then headed out to a club called Hive that Corine's friend had recommended. Even though it was a Thursday, it turned out to be a huge night, the place was packed and had DJs doing live remixes, the music was cool. The drinks were not cheap at all, about 20NZD for a simple vodka and orange, like you'd pay between 4-8NZD for in NZ, which when I think about it probably turned out to be a blessing early the next morning, but I still drunk enough to be buzzing all night. The weird thing was, in NZ you'd pay about twice as much to switch the orange to redbull, whereas here there was barely a difference. As I rarely allow myself to splash out on redbull in NZ, I thought why not here, seeing as it was barely more expensive, but I think it meant I drunk many, many cans of redbull, which is probably not healthy and made me feel very funny the next morning! They had a postbox in the women's bathroom, with free postcards that you could write on and put in the box and the bar would pay the postage for you, quite a novel idea but perhaps not that smart for anyone to actually do considering the level of sobriety most people in the club had. We wrote some ourselves, one to Corine's mum apologising for being out so late on a school night (she wasn't really that happy about it) and one to Hauke in Germany, which have both since arrived, and one to myself in NZ that hasn't.

Me in Zurich

The other funny thing was how friendly everyone was, it was great to be back in a country where being able to speak conversational english is the norm, not the exception, and word seemed to quickly get around that there was a NZer in the club, because everyone seemed to come up to me to meet me, and I got quite a few interesting propositions from various men (and a woman!). We did met a half-German, half-kiwi guy that normally lives in Wanaka, that was quite cool, the only time I've met a pretty-much kiwi over in Europe, and then at the end of the night one of the DJs came up and introduced himself and we had a huge chat about NZ music, I wrote down a lot of artist for him to check out and he invited us to stay for their after-hours staff party and put me on the guestlist for a concert that weekend. We hung around after the place closed for a bit, and then we were off to catch the 5.30am train back to Romanshorn.

Corine with her plans!

I really had to laugh at Corine, turns out Swiss-Germans are closely related to those from Germany when it comes to intense organisation, the whole day she'd been carrying around printouts of maps and all of the train timetables, including our early-morning train back home! This trip was pretty much on par with my memorable journey from Mainz to Wurzburg, thankfully minus the puking, and I was very glad Corine was the one responsible with getting us from A to B. Its a really bizarre position to be in, relying on people who you used to look after, and also letting them see you drunk for the first time! We arrived back at about 7.30am, trying to dodge all of Corine's schoolmates and teachers so that they wouldn't catch her pulling a sickie, and collapsed into bed, although we wouldn't stay there for too long...

Switzerland photo album on Facebook is here, I might even have a good enough link this time that you don't even need facebook to look at them! Try it.