Switzerland

Yesterday I arrived back in Siena after a week’s ‘sojourn’ in beautiful Switzerland. It started at 6.20am on Sunday morning when I caught the bus from Siena to Florence. There I connected with the train and after two changes (in Milan & Zurich) I finally arrived in Lausanne – a small city in the French-speaking part of the country. How can I summarise this week? Let’s break it up into Pictionary categories…

PERSON/PLACE/ANIMAL

The person who inspired this trip was my brilliant friend, Sandy. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will recall that she is the Swiss girl I met at my language school when I first arrived in Siena. Before she left (back in June) we planned this week together and it all came together beautifully!

In Lausanne, Sandy and Caroline (also from the school) met me at the station. Lausanne is Caroline’s hometown so she knew exactly where to take us! We ate our dinner as the sun set over Lake Leman and the lights emerged from the town situated on the other side. It was Evian-les-Bains (home of Evian mineral water). Yes, we ate our dinner overlooking France. Welcome to Switzerland!

The next day we headed for Bern; an interesting and notoriously slow city. No one could ever explain to me why Bern has this reputation, but the story was verified by the number of snail-paced pedestrians we impatiently over-took. Bern – not Zurich – is Switzerland’s capital and takes it’s name from the word for bear. I don’t really know the details, but I think it has something to do with the guy who founded the city having hunted and killed a bear in the area. Whatever the reason, Bern has a long-standing tradition of keeping bears in a city enclosure. Sandy informed me that, in the wild, Switzerland has only one or two (let’s say, one-and-a-half) bears. HOW STRANGE. The bears in Bern, however, have recently been given a new enclosure along the Aare River. Coincidently, this river was my favourite on account of its beautiful colour and velocity. Actually, all the rivers I observed in Switzerland seem to be in a great hurry! Maybe it has something to do with their vicinity to the mountains. I’m no natural scientist, but Australia’s rivers seem remarkably lethargic in comparison.

The next stop was Interlaken to conquer Jungfraujoch – Switzerland’s most famous mountain. At the bottom I was wearing a sleeveless top and skirt but by the time we got to the top I had progressively undertaken the metamorphosis into full winter apparel: gloves, beanie, three jackets and thermal socks. There was snow, people. In summer. But the view was stunning… even if I was freezing my Australian butt off.

Two days, and two massages, later we left Interlaken and took in Luzern on our way to Glarus. Luzern was a very cute city and I’m sure that if I’d stayed there longer I would have liked it even more. However, we were en route to Sandy’s hometown in the mountains! Rainy Glarus! They try to defy the weather by holding open-air concerts (like the one we went to on Friday night) and walking to places instead of driving (like we did, to the concert) but the reality comes driving home when you’re umbrella is so soaked that the INSIDE of it has become wet enough to transport the occasional water drop onto your head, and your shoes are so soaked that your socks chafe against the soles of your feet. At least there were tents for shelter at the concert. The music was… (fill in the blank with your choice of lacklustre adjectives)… but the company was great. Sandy’s partner and friends were all lovely people.

For my sister’s sake, we visited “Heidi’s House” where I took some photos and bought her a souvenir! She’s eleven-years-old and has read the book, probably more than once. (I must do all I can to encourage her book-worm tendencies so I have someone to discuss classic novels with when I’m an old lady).

Saturday morning I left Sandy and headed to Basel where I met up with Shadi. I loved Basel! Maybe it was mostly because Shadi was there and I love her to bits, but Basel had something different. To be honest, I found Luzern and Bern more beautiful, however, Basel had character and a bit of alternative charm. For instance, there is a point at the Rhein River (which separates the two sections of Basel) where you find a very unique sight. It’s a king’s face mounted on a building with a mechanical tongue that pokes in and out. Why? Well, on behalf of one side of Basel, he is poking is tongue out at the other side! Moreover, once a year, there is a day when three men get dressed up in traditional costumes, float down the river with their (clothed) butts facing the king’s side and do a little dance to wiggle their bums in his face. When I heard this story,

I. Could. Not. Stop. Laughing.

This is the kind of age-old tradition they uphold in Basel! I want to go back in January just to see that man in a bird costume wiggle his behind down the river! HA! Oh I could write a whole article just on Basel… Maybe I will. Stay tuned for Basel next time. For now I will press on with my closing Pictionary categories.

OBJECT

Chocolate.

Very, very good chocolate.

That is the most important object to report on. The excessive rain in Glarus must give way to boredom at times, and everyone knows that boredom gives rise to the craving for, and ingestion of, chocolate. Perhaps we can therefore thank the rain for the invention of Läderach chocolate; Glarus’ finest creation. There are no words to describe the bliss produced by this Swiss masterpiece.

ACTION

Train Travel.

You sit for hours in a carriage that lulls you to sleep with it’s side-to-side rocking motions and monotonous sounds; you do absolutely nothing; and yet for some reason you are so uncontrollably exhausted by the end of every journey. Why?!

DIFFICULT

Leaving good friends.

The uncool thing about travelling the way I am is that you meet amazing people and inevitably, one of you has to leave for some other place. On the other hand, it means that I am making wonderful friends all around the world! Still, it’s strange to think of all the people I would love to have around me all the time. Like the Swiss girls, my loved ones at home in Melbourne, my cousin and his wife from Brisbane. If only I could create my own little community of awesome people, pack them up, and take them with me wherever I go!

ALL PLAY

Everyone grab your pen and paper. The word we are drawing is: Nanny.

Now the question every good Pictionary player asks themselves before the little plastic hourglass flips over is, “How can I draw this simply enough to save time but amazingly enough to make my teammates guess the word?” In this case the answer is simple, draw a cute little bambino named Niccolò and me trying to keep him entertained all day. I’ve only spent two days living with this family but they’re great people. I will give the full report after I’ve spent a bit more time here!

And so ends the most gigantic blog I’ve ever written! Ciao!

Plan B… No Wait, May As Well Skip Straight to Plan W

“He would get these far off looks in his eye and he would say, ‘Life doesn’t always turn out the way you planned.’ I just wish I had realised at the time he was talking about my life.”

- Lucy, from While You Were Sleeping

So many times in life we have things meticulously planned out only to be thwarted by some unexpected freak occurrence. My plan, when I got to Europe, looked something like this:

May

- *A week in Rome to take in some sights and catch up with Marcus and Trinh

- *Commence language school in Siena from 17^th May - 6^th August

- *Stay in Siena until the 16^th August to see the Palio with a friend who was coming from London for the event

This plan had already been modified in July when I decided to continue studying at the language school until the 21^st since I was sticking around Siena anyway. This week is therefore my last week at the school and the Palio is in two days. However, the friend that I made the plan with in the first place is no longer coming because the friend that he was going to stay with changed his plans! He is in Spain as I type this! Oh well, it’s no tragedy because I have plenty of friends here in Siena to go to the Palio with; it’s just ironic.

August

- *Finish up in Siena 21^st August and head to Switzerland for a week to see Sandy

- *30^th August arrive in Rome to meet Sal (my best friend) and travel around Europe with her for five weeks, stopping to meet up with her parents and brother (who are also dear friends of mine) for her birthday on 6^th September

It’s funny how all your plans can be turned upside-down with the news transmitted by one simple SMS:

“Hey this is Sal on remote island. Fell down mountain & severely twisted ankle. Please pray big time…”

As it turned out she hadn’t just twisted her ankle, she had shattered to smithereens. Translation: no travelling with Sal for five weeks. No meeting up with her family. Suddenly poor Sal was flown home to Australia for a stint as a hermit and I had a giant hole in my itinerary!

At first it was somewhat stressful and a bit sad because I was really looking forward to chatting with my best friend. It’s been a long time since I sat down and talked with someone who knows me like she does. Not to mention, someone I can speak English with at a normal speed and with relaxingly little attention to the quality of my articulation!

You know how they say, ‘Whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger’? Well sometimes what doesn’t kill you is just a royal pain in the natiche! Nevertheless, there can be some positives in this. I was wanting to stay in Italy longer, and now I have the time to do it.

What I’m going to occupy my time with, I don’t yet know exactly, but there are a few options open to me. I will scope them all out and let you know what I come up with!

Montalcino

First of all I have to say – I am incredibly tired and I hope this blog makes sense.

Second, I must observe that ever since I arrived in Siena, I seem to be cosmically linked to the Swiss! Just as I was mourning the loss of my regular (and coincidentally Swiss) friends at school, I have inherited a fresh contingent of Svizzeri (as they are called in Italian) to hang with.

Leading up to the Palio, the contrada where I live holds a festival – of sorts – for ten days during which there is a party every night! Until this weekend I had heard the ruckus but never attended. Then, on Saturday morning I went to the museum at Palazzo Pubblico with a group from my language school. While there, I got chatting with these Swiss girls, who were quickly becoming my new friends, and they invited me go with them to the “festa” that night.

I thought, since it keeps me up anyway, I might as well see what all the noise is about. The party is held primarily for the local community but entrance is free and anyone can attend. I’ve walked past this particular doorway may times but never realised what was inside. From the street, one enters a foyer and descends several flights of stairs only to arrive in a massive garden! Not an indoor one, a proper outdoor garden. It’s so strange! You would never know from the street that such a thing could exist beyond the entrance.

When we arrived, the music was loud loud loud and the dance floor was packed to overflowing. There were stalls for food and bars for drinks, copious large tables where the community had eaten dinner together a couple of hours earlier and people infesting every nook and cranny of the place. The sense of community is beautiful but other than that, it wasn’t really my scene.

We lost one of the girls who had found an interesting boy to talk to and we waited two hours for her to arrive at the designated meeting spot. We were far from impressed, but found a way to laugh about it while we waited. Actually, laughing comes pretty easy with Shadi around. What a great girl! It also helped that there was a beautiful view for us to examine and comment on. I guess you could call it a wonder of nature; evidence of God’s creative genius… It was the best looking boy I have seen in this country to date! Mamma mia. (No Leo, I didn’t take a photo for you).

When the prodigal girl hath returneth, we left and all got home around 3am. This would have been bearable had we not planned to meet the next morning to visit Montalcino.

Montalcino is a little town in the Tuscan countryside, which is famous for its Brunello wine. It was such a hilarious day! The town was quiet and all of us were incredibly tired. We trekked out to see a certain fountain that was promised by the signage, but when we got there, it was just an empty brick structure with not a drop of flowing water!! We promptly commenced a laughing fit that lasted much of the succeeding hour.

After this trek and consequent hysteria, we were even more exhausted but, nevertheless, headed for the museum.

When we arrived, I spotted some benches and proposed a break before entering. This break turned into an hour long nap for me; an intermittent snooze session for Daniela; and a comical hotchpotch of conversation for Shadi, Madlaina and Adriana, who, when I awoke, were doing their best impersonations of camp men strutting down a catwalk.

We never made it the last three metres to the museum.

Instead, we purchased our second round of gelato and killed time with conversation and people watching until our bus arrived. We were the most ineffective tourists ever to have set foot in Montalcino.

If you want to know what Montalcino really has to offer – don’t ask us.