Part Ten: Zurich, Innsbruck!

Hello! I have had a fabulous past few days and can't wait to share some of it here with y'all. First, after a good chunk of time writing this thing, I feel compelled to say thanks to everyone who has been following along. Whether you've read one post or all of them, it is really fun for me to hear comments and to just think about people reading this thing. I'm still not sure if I understand this whole blogging concept, or what a blog should be, but this has been super fun for me and I really enjoy writing it.

Now, on to the travels. I left Bern last Monday to head out to Zurich for one night only. It was a very short train ride and I slept for most of it because the clouds and fog were thick so I couldn't see much out of the window. I arrived around 10 a.m. and had a nice easy walk to my hostel, which was located in the old town area. The hostel was pretty good. The location was great, right near the canal and in a fun old district. The only drawback, hope I don't sound spoiled here, was that they didn't offer a lot of the usual things that nearly every hostel I've stayed at has included: free linens, free breakfast. But it was still a nice place.

After I checked in, I headed out or a walk. The weather was alright. The clouds were settled in pretty thick and it was drizzling rain for part of the time but no big deal. The sun really wanted to come out, but it just didn't make it. I even made up a song to try and coax it from the clouds. Wanna hear? It is pretty embarrassing but it goes like this, "Chase away the clouds, bring on the sun, it's a Monday morning in Zurich and I wanna have some fun." Nice, right? When you travel alone there is a lot of space in your head to fill with silly forms of self-entertainment.

But alas, I did still get my fun. I took a long walk along one shore of the lake that had a bunch of little parks along it and all sorts of motor boats and sail boats which I always enjoy. I even saw a solar powered motor boat! It was so cool. It had a roof that was all solar panels and I presume that is what powered it. Not to mention it was a catamaran and those are cool boats no matter what. Aside from boats, the lake in Zurich had an amazing amount of water birds. All sorts of funny looking ducks and other birds covered the shore line. They had a big board of what they all are but it was in Latin and German so I do not recall the proper names. But they were fun to look at. There was one really strange one that made the most distinct clicking sound. The bird almost sounded like it had lost its voice or something. Bird watching family members, do any of you know what this was?

So I wandered along a little longer, filling my head with other silly songs and just admiring the lake. Again, I renewed my loving relationship with all things water and as content just being by the lake. Somehow, it made me miss Squam Lake in New Hampshire, where my family has a house and I've been going all my life. I guess just the fact that it was a lake was enough.

So I walked back the other way and up through the old town a bit. I grabbed a delicious sandwich, though there was quite a bit of sauce on it which really didn't work out so well with my beard (more on my beard later). I spent the next several minutes profusely wiping my face hoping there was nothing still there. The old town area itself was really pretty. It didn't have quite the cohesiveness of Bern but it still fit together really well and I loved the streets and the buildings. I particularly enjoyed the several large clock tower type buildings.

Side note, I have a strange fascination with slight differences from place to place. This includes funny things like different styles of light switches, mechanisms for flushing toilets, and a whole host of other weird things that I am always noticing. One particularly cool thing I liked about Zurich (wow, I am sounding like a really boring, nerdy person here) was the way their street lights worked. Rather than having them on lamp posts, they were strung on cables between the buildings. I think it is a much more practical type of lighting.

Anyway, on to more exciting things. After a lot of wandering through the town, I headed up the hill on the opposite shore of the lake. There I saw some amazing houses. Old style, really beautiful and big houses. I also got to see down into the valley between the edge of the lake and the mountains to one side, and towards the lake on the other side. It was quite nice, though the fog still had not lifted most. More walking led me back along the lake and by then the drizzling rain was getting a little tiresome. I decided to head back to the hostel where I spent a bit of time sorting through my pictures (I'm up to 2,379! Be careful before you commit to a slide show).

Back in the room, I met up with a girl named Polly who I'd met earlier that day and after I was done with my pictures, we went off to meet this other two people who she had been introduced to. There, I met Johnny from London, one of the more confusing characters I've met along the way. Later, I would meet his traveling partner Erin who only made me more confused about the both of them. I'll get into that in a second.

We decided to go out for a drink; though, much to our dismay, we were introduced to the prices of Zurich. Let me tell you it was not cheap. Johnny had this really embarrassing, at least in my view, habit of going in bars, asking how much a beer was and then asking where the cheapest bar was. I sort of shied away. Of course, the bartender was not going to tell him where a cheaper bar was! It did elicit the fine suggestion from one bartender of , "the supermarket." After a few more tries, most of which I stayed outside for, we ended up taking that suggestion and buying some beer for about 5 times less at a grocery store.

As Johnny and I waited for Polly to get what she needed (the lines were long!), I started to get bits and pieces of his life which made me really confused. Apparently, he was nearing thirty and had previously owned his own development company in London. When things started getting bad, he decided to travel and rent out his "really nice apartment" as he put it and try and live off of that money. Apparently, that isn't too hard because he is cruising around Europe in a Porsche 911 (what does that cost? I think like $100,000 U.S. dollars), the biggest downfall of which was having to pay bribes on the Croatian border. Not much sympathy here. He is planning on being gone for 3 years and it all seemed a bit shady to me. He was nice enough though, so I didn't really mind. I was just confused.

We finally got back to the hostel and sat and drank and talked a while when Erin showed up. I am still unsure of her relationship with ole Johnny from England (she is from Canada), but it seemed as though there was not any romantic involvement, a little to Johnny's dismay. We had a good time hanging out and talking and they talked a lot about "the Porsche" and crazy parties in London and a house in Southern France, all of which Polly responded to with a hilarious way of mocking them that, while I would not do it myself, made for a pretty hilarious dynamic.

They cooked us up some good food, and we sat and talked some more. After a while, we decided we needed to get out of the hostel. We met this guy Daniel, from Germany, who tagged along with us. We got a tip about the cheapest place to drink wine in Zurich that provided a pretty strange place. Basically, it was a room with a small bar, barely any chairs, and boxes of wine scattered about. We were the only ones there. It was weird enough as is, but around the walls they had a bunch of photographs. I asked about them and the bartender told me that every month they have a different erotic art exhibition. O.K., I understand erotic art. But this was something else. Seriously, all the picture were of the quality of a kodak diposable camera and looked like pictures someone had taken at an adult film conention or something. The whole thing was really weird. We didn't stay long.

It was off to bed after that. I awoke early and headed out to the train station. I was bound for Innsbruck, a city in western Austria known for its skiing and for hosting the olympic games a while back. I'd heard good things about it so I was excited.

I had the first hour or so on the train in a little cabin all to myself. After that, a few people came in and sat with me. The ride was beautiful! So much snow. On each of the rooftops there was about 5 feet. It also snowed the entire ride. After a few minutes of silence, this older man next to me started talking and we struck up a conversation. Then, the two girls across from us joined in and soon enough we were having a full on conversation, in english, about Germany, Austria, language, the economy, all sorts of stuff. It was really fun and a nice way to spend a train ride. Soon enough, the man and one of the other girls got off and it was just me and a girl named Vanessa who was on the train to Innsbruck as well.

She was super nice and told me a lot about Innsbruck. When she wasn't napping, we had some good talks. She also informed me that it was Carnival that day. I had no idea! For some reason, she didn't make it sound like it would be anything special. But she did say that she would be working outside at a bar and I should stop by if I wanted to. We parted ways and I wandered right into the middle of the Carnival parade. It was so fun!

Now, when I think Carnival the first thing I see is Brazil and bright costumes and sun. Here I was, in western Austria all bundled up with snow coming down! It was a strange experience. I sat and watched the parade and I must say I have no idea what was going on. It started with a band of children. Then a really bad marching band. Then came all sorts of strange acts. There was a guy dressed as a bear in chains being pulled by some other people. There were people dressed as Asian men (in the most stereotypical and slightly insensitive fashion) in made of wood that clicked when they danced. Really, it was a lot like halloween.

The best part of the parade was the floats. Pulled by tractors or trucks, they mostly took on the form of large, extravagently decorated sheds. They were blasting music and these guys would come down, throw flour at someone and then take them inside the shed/float thing where there appeared to be quite the party going on. I have no idea what it was all about but everyone in the streets was loving it.

After more floats, vikings, people dressed as penguins and rabbits and a whole host of other things, I decided I need to check into the hostel and get rid of my bag. Online, my hostel had gotten horrible reviews and I feared the worst. People talked about bed bugs and uncleanliness but when I arrived it turned out to be really nice. I was glad I took the gamble because it was way cheaper than anything else in town.

I headed back down to the Alstadt (Old Town) where all the festivities were happening. There was a stage, music, beer tents, food, everything! All the floats were parked to one side hosting parties and shaking the sheds so much they appeared as though they would fall right of the trailers. Everyone was in costume and it was all very crazy. I must say, there were a few costumes on the offensive side of things, including people dressed up as suicide bombers. I was so not prepared for that type of thing, but no one else seemed to think anything of it.

I decided there was only one plan of action: join in and eat, drink, and have a good time. I grabbed some bratwurst which was delicious and then moved on to a stand selling what I believe is a traditional pastry in Innsbruck because it was everywhere. It was sort of like the lightest donut ever, filled with an orange marmalade. So good! I had a beer as well which topped it all off and had me feeling pretty good about this whole carnival thing.

I spent the next little while just wandering and people watching. There was a lot to look at. I think one guy thought I had a fake beard as my costume because he asked to take a picture of me. I don't know whether to be complimented or offended. I'll go with complimented.

Eventually I spotted the beer tent/outdoor bar thing that Vanessa was working at and went and said hello. She introduced me to her boyfriend, well maybe not I couldn't really tell but there was something going on there, who in turn introduced me to all his friends. It was so great and they were super nice to me. They bought me all sorts of drinks and were really generous. For a long while, as the night got darker, we stood and drank beer and gluwhein (a warm wine that was pretty much only good for its warmth) in the falling snow in the middle of the Alstadt. They had a cover band on stage that played mostly American music and when they were not on there was a dj. We danced a bit and it was so great.

I think one of the funniest things about it was the fact that apparently Austrians, atleast in Innsbruck, love the John Denver song, "Country Roads, Take Me Home" You know, the one that goes, "Country roads, take me home, to the place, where I belong, West Virgina, mountain mama, take me home." I have no idea how it has gotten so popular there; I think I heard no less than 4 versions of it, ranging from the original to techno dance versions. I asked one guy, Joggi (pronounced Yogi), about it and he said he didn't know why it was so popular but that he had been singing it all his life. What a funny trend.

A few other funny things happened, one of which involved my beard again! A guy near us kept saying something to me in German that I did not understand so I asked one of the other gys ho told me the guy wanted to know if my beard was real or if it was my costume. Of course it is real! For those of you who have not seen me recently, it has grown quite a bit and is looking a lttle untamed. Then he reached out to touch it. There I was in the middle of the square with some weird drunk Austrian guy stroking my beard. Oh well, it was Carnival!

We ended the night by heading to a few bars and then a dance club where I grew very tired and had to bid my friendly interpid partiers goodnight. I got back to the hostel, opened the door to the dorm, and sitting there to greet me was an old man wearing nothing but his boxers, drinking a beer. What a sight, one I never need to see again. All the lights were off and I was slightl taken aback. Immediately, he started talking to me in a thick English accent, very loudly. It was clear that everyone else in the room was sleeping and I was really embarrassed. I gave short answers and climbed into bed, pretending to be asleep as he countinued to babble on and on. I did manage to sleep a bit, though awoke throughout the night to him snoring like a freight train and yelling in his sleep. He was so bizarre. Luckily, he only stayed one night.

When I awoke the next day, the snow had finally stopped! Yay. This was a major bonus because it meant that the sun was out and I could see the entire, amazing, gorgeous mountains and valley. The view was truly stunning, one of the most beautiful places I've been. I decided that it would be a walking day and set out in the sun. I took a cable car to one outlook. Normally, I would have just hiked but the cable cars were so cool!

From there, I set out for some walking. I ended up on some good, hard packed trails in the woods that were easy to walk on. The forest was beautiful. Snow everywhere, the light shining throgh the trees. I loved the air. It was so refreshing, especially after a stuffy hostel room and aforementioned mostly naked man. I just walked and walked and walked, staring at the mountins and taking in the snow. It was like a grown-up snow day for me, and instead of the small hill behind my house I had the Austrian Alps to play in! I loved it. I passed all sorts of people walking and hiking along the way who smile and waved. One old mn asked me, in very broken English, to take his picture "With flash" because it is "very good for him. For a beautiful man." He was a funny guy.

I ended p doing most o my walking around a tiny mountain road that sort of went around the valley. I got up to the one end and headed down just as the peaks behind me were coming out from the clouds. Then, I was completely surrounded by amazing mountains everywhere. Near, far, wherever you are. All mountains. The view was spectacular. As an added bonus, with the sun out and my slightly exhaustive hiking I was able to walk around in a sweater. No jacket! Like Spain but with snow! Well, sort of. On my way back I walked through old little villages of houses looked like every one you've ever seen in a photo of the alps. I also walked up this steep hill to a church called the Kalvarienberg on the map, though I haven't been able to find any informaton on it, that was really cool. It had a great view of the entire valley.

After about 5 hours of walking I needed a break and got myself some food which I ate at the hostel. Then I set out to find a cafe to hang out and just relax in. I was pointed in the direction of the Treibhaus which turned out to be a funky place with a ton of people in it. It also had free wireless which was a bonus. I spent most of the rest of my day there just hanging out, drinking hot chocolate. I even applied to an internship! Sort of a big deal for me after working on my resume and stuff all this time.

I headed home, where I packed up all my stuff and had a great conversation with a Brazilian man who was staying in the room. We talked about a whole host of things and he gave me some tips on where to go in Brazil if I do travel there and what to look out for. He was really nice and it was a good day to relax after lots and lots of walking.

So yeah, Zurich was great and Innsbruck was amazing! I really loved Innsbruck. Carnival was a blast and it was so fun to meet people in such a random way. I knew when I set out for this trip that I would meet people in hostels but this was totally different. Just a random occurance on the train. Many thanks to Lucas, Joggi, Simon, Vanessa, and Sabrina for showing me a fabulous time in Innsbruck and being so gracious with showing me around and sharing stories and help with the language. Truly, one of the best time I have had on this trip and one of the most beautiul, interesting cities I have been in.

Now I am in Vienna staying with my good friends Oz (see the Prague post) and Luke who are studying here. It is great to see good friends and I predict nothing short of a good time.

Hope all is well with everyone. More soon!