The Dilapidated Marco Luethy Weblog - Weblog

Published Thursday August 19th, 2004

Really cheesy, touristy photo in.. Evian, France where the Evian bottled water comes from. Next time you drink Evian, how will you be sure that my urine isn't or wasn't at one point in it? Mwah-ha-ha! Er..

Thursday.. So much stuff went on.. Wow. We jut got home and it is 0030. But, thats a long story.. Let's start at the beginning.

We woke up at 0715, or at least i did, reluctantly waking to my alarm clock. at 0806 we were on a bus on our way to Sumiswald from where we got on a train to Burgdorf where we got a train to Bern. On the train from Burgdorf to Bern Tyson discovered that he had lost his rail pass. Fun. So, when we got to Bern Tyson and I rushed to the ticket office and Tyson bought a new rail pass thingo. We later located his rail pass by calling around and asking train stations if they had found it, and they had, so thus Tyson will get the 2nd rail pass refunded. Tyson and I rushed back to the same exact train with two minutes to spare. We reached Lausanne an hour and some many minutes later.

*The rest of this entry was written Friday at between 1300 and 1400*

We got off our train and i had no idea where exactly to go. I wanted to take everyone to a castle, Castle of Chillion, and i had a general idea of where it was, but i was too lazy to get directions the night before. So, opposite to the track we got off the train from was another train heading to Montreux and so i just boarded that train because i knew i wanted to go that direction. Once we reached Montreux I found some ticket sales guy and asked him how to get to Chillion. I asked him in German, but realising that he couldn't speak German very well, and hearing random English words thrown into his German, i just asked him if he spoke English, at which point his directions started to make more sense.

We found a bus which took us towards Chillion. I wasn't really sure where to get off at, although upon seeing Castle Chillion on the lake, i just pressed the "Request Stop" button in the bus, and then the bus driver stopped at the next bus stop which was conveniently right by the castle. Woot.

We spent a good two hours exploring the castle for CHF 10. Well worth it. It's very interesting to walk through the castle and see all the old rooms dating back to the 1200's and 1500's.. Seeing the really old stone walls and towers. It's just really interesting and amazing.

We left the castle at around 1330ish and got a bus back in the direction of Montreux where we got back on a train to Lausanne. When we reached Lausanne we took a underground tram/metro thing down to the lake at Ouchy, Lausanne. Here we waited for 45 minutes or so. Bought sandwiches from this sandwich stand which were very good. They made the sandwiches as we ordered them.

When i used to live in Lausanne, which is-by the way-in the French speaking part of Switzerland, and thus by default they speak French.. Fragment. Let's start over. When i used to live in Lausanne my family and i used to go down to Ouchy, to the lake shore and play around there. We used to rent pedalo boats and go out on the lake. Going back there is always sort of soothing, in some way. I remember things from there, and i feel familiar with my surroundings in some nostalgic, yet not nostalgic way.

Anyway, our boat arrived, and we boarded it. The boat took us over to Evian-le-Bains, France in around 40 minutes. So, now we were in Evian, France.. Where the bottled mineral water comes from. We walked around a bit, went in and out of various shops. Some bought things, if not most. I bought nothing. I'm cheap. We turned-in and sat down in some cafe on the lake where we ordered Eur. $35 in drinks. Raymond and Wes got Pina Coladas. Heh, i did not particularly like their taste. I had a litre of Evian and some apricot juice. Yummy. Heh, Tyson and Mike also ordered litre bottles of Evian. All of which we drank. Ha ha. At 1855 we got back on a boat after some more walking around, and then sitting in grass somewhere along the lake. 40 minutes or so later we were back in Ouchy, Lausanne. We took the metro back up to the train station, bought some food and then our train arrived, and we boarded it. Finally, we got to ride in a double decker. This was the first time our connection happened to be a double decker. Not my first time in one, but first for everyone else. I love riding in them. On the second floor you have a nice view down on everything. The ride is completely smooth and very quiet. It's awesome. Heh. I sat by myself. I had my own table, my own window and my music while i viewed Switzerland. I love riding on these trains, any trains. But most of all, i love it here in Switzerland. Sitting in my seat, big grin on my face as i enjoyed the sighs of the outside, and the sounds of my music. Lovely view, music, and comfortable seating with lots of leg room. I dunno what more i could ask for. I was very, very happy and extremely content and at peace.

Heh, when i first arrived here in Switzerland this year, i thought i would have difficulty staying here for six months.. Though, now i feel the complete opposite. Come December 20th, i am not going to want to leave. I love it here.

We reached Bern at around 2100ish, probably a bit after and by the time we got to Burgdorf it was 2145. We had to wait around a long time because we didn't have any connection. At 2225 we got a train which headed to Langnau. We had to get off before reaching Langnau at Ramsai because we didn't want to go to Langnau. There was no bus at Ramsai, and so we got to wait another 30 minutes until we got a connection in the direction of Hutwill. The connection came, and we got off at Sumiswald.. And again, there was no bus for us. It was too late, around 2315ish. Ha ha. So.. We got to walk 6 km home! With a very fast pace we walked for about 70-80 minutes until we reached home. We walked along the road, and then on the train tracks back into Wasen. I took a short-cut through the forest which left me along because no one else followed me into the dark abyss. It was awesome though. I couldn't see anything at all and i just walked based off on my memory from when we'd walked down the road the day we got soaked by the rain. Once i got out of the forest i found tractor imprints in the wheat field and i walked along those through the field which cut off a lot of walking. So, in complete darkness, light only by the faint moon and stars i walked through wheat fields back until i reached our apartment at around 1215ish. I got home 5-10 minutes before everyone else. Ha ha. It was so much fun. No one even cared about having to walk home through the darkness for 6 km. It was really funny. Heh. We cooked a pizza and between 0100 and 0130 we finally went to bed after a very long day. I was awake from Thursday at 0715 in the morning until Friday at 0130. Ha ha. The day was still very fun, hilariously so. Packed with many, many things, so much that when i think back on it for a second, it is all just a blur, now.

I love driving in the train along Lake Geneva. A beautiful view over the lake with France in the background and the Alps to the east. The side of the hill which the train drives along is covered in grape vines and its just really beautiful. The architecture is different than the architecture from the region of Bern. Its just very beautiful and different from the Bern region.

I like the music stores here in Switzerland. You can pick a CD, bring it to a customer desk where they have CD-players and headphones, and you give them the CD and they play it for you. The entire CD. You can skip through the tracks, listen to just a bit, or all of a song, or all of the CD if you so pleased. It's awesome because this way i can hear what i am about to buy before, as opposed to whats popular in America where you can hear a few seconds, or a clip from a song. Thats stupid.

Well then.. That should be it for now..

Photo time! No specific order to these. The order that a script spit out the HTML is the order they're in here on this page.

Thursday: Lausanne, Switzerland; Evian, France