I guess the Greek team were getting pretty p.f.’d during their last match? Well, I found this image on 9gag and thought it pretty much a good description of the match, not from the German side naturally. That side included balloons and singing and cake. Lots of cake.
A lot planned for this day, starting with an excursion up the mountain, aptly named after the dragon that “protects” it, Pilates. Everywhere around the cabel carts we saw the red image of a dragon, and at first I stupidly wondered why the place was Asian-themed. Silly me. It was cool going up, kinda exiting really, because of the hights. I sat with two brothers from Chilé and a kiwi guy (from New-Zealand, for those of you who didn’t get the fruit reference). They were quite nice, and I was glad to have some company, since all the other girls on the trip are either a part of the Auzzie, Asian or American group. Which is fine, they are really a nice bunch of girls, but it just means they have a hard time understanding my form of english, and also too little patience to try. My roommate’s really nice though, and she’s Auzzie; she’s also the baby of the group (only 18), so we have to take care of her, metaphorically. Anyway, back to the mountain. Like I said, it was rather a cool experience, especially when we came to the top and saw the magnificant views. I was quite dissapointed in my camera, because it still cannot focus on anything unless I zoom in completely. I know my dad will be dissapointed, but my camera has stabbed me in the back.When I get the chance I’ll try to have it fixed, but for now all my pics are really strange. Or artsy, depending on how you look at it. So I tried taking cool pics of the views, but in the end I relied more on the peeps around for their cool pics. That’s what facebook is there for!
After we got to the top, we headed back down to the halfway base, got sleads and went down the slopes. I was dissapointed along with everyone else who took the “easy” route, because we ended up pulling our sleades most of the way. The times that I actually got to slead it was exhilirating though, so don’t get me wrong.
We got together at the bottom and then some in the group who had signed up for it, like me, followed our group leader to a restaurant where we had cheese faundu and a wonderful würst with potato. It was lovely.
The whole town was buzzing, because its Carnival and so we got to see many people walking around in their costumes, doing casual shopping, waitrerring, whatever. It was really cool. Lucerne is a pretty place, really old buildings, built in a style that seems familiar to me in that it reminds one of our buildings in Windhoek. It was very nice to walk up and down the tint little streets with their shops and cafés, with everywhere around us places selling watches. Switzerland is of course the watch central of the universe, so it wasn’t a surprize to see so many places advertising Rolex and Omega, etc. A few stalls were already set up and I bought a HUGE pretzel and a cup of Gluvine. It was rather good weather, so us four (three guys and I) sat alongside the lake, staring at the ducks and the swan that wouldn’t eat the candy I threw at it. Stupid swan.
When we got home there was a lovely dinner waiting for us. I was a little full from the pretzel, and it does seem as if they are really taking good care of us on this trip in terms of the food. I am never hungry! (And when I am, I can always dip into my little stash of Biltong that I smuggled in).
In town the festivities were getting hot, so we got ready to go back down again. At first I planned not to go; I wanted an early night, just a shower and some bed time, but then I remembered my New Years’ resolution, which was to do what it was that I was trying to convince myself not to do. And with no time to spare, I rushed upstairs, painted cats’ whiskars on my cheeks and was back out in a flash. I cannot begin to describe how crazy the place was when we got back down into town. At first it was just along the main road that we were standing, so that we could watch the procession going past, with all the people weaing their crazy outfits and masks. When we started moving along the river it got more squashed. There were apparently more than ten thousand people here tonight. And everyone was dressed up. The vibe was absolutely amazing. We were dancing in the street. That’s the other cool thing: because its carnival, there are no rules on not drinking in public, so everyone was really in a good mood from their alcohol consumption. Our lot from the tour had saved a lot of cash from rather buying our drinks at the super-market this afternoon instead of trying to shove our way to the bar and paying out of our ears.
I’m back now. My theory is leave when its still good, so you’ll end the night on a high note. My New-Zealander friend and I took a taxi home, and I’m actually glad I got him back here, not only because I wouldn’t have wanted to drive back solo, but also because when we got in it became apparent to me that he was past the fun drunk stage and nearer to the really tired stage. Its probably time for me to go kiep as well. See y’all in the morn. Hope you had as fun an evening as we all did. Gutennacht!
Everyone was a little hung-over this morning. It made it hard to pack the suitcases, I guess. I had a mild head-ache, which has made me come to the conclusion that European spirits must be stonger than their African counterparts. And I aint here refering to moonshine, obviously. Heard my roommate come in late last night; shame, poor thing was hit squarely between the ears by a few too many shots of what I can only image must have been pretty strong liquor. I woke up from her coming in, she and another girl, Ally. Ally was helping her get into bed, which is really nice of her, I thought. I didn’t mind the wake up, it is Contiki after all. What can you expect. Roomie says she had a great time last night, and I’m actually a little sad that I missed out, but I felt more sorry for her this morning as she was really in a tough state. Anyway, this brings me to my next point, which is that I have realized this morning I have FOMO… Yes, you guessed it: fear of missing out. After all the fun stories I’ve heard about the Moulin Rouge and afterwards, I am quite sad that I didn’t go. So, for the rest of the trip I’ve signed up for everything. The Contiki team offer us so much to do, though, so its not like it was hard for me to want to do it. A lot of the offers are like for walking tours, dinners, and gondola rides, etc.
Reeking of hang-overs, the bus was loaded and we were on our way out of France. Its actually quite nice to travel by coach, because now we can view the landscape and get an idea of what the country looks like. Not much, I can tell you that. But to be fair, it was winter last still, and the air is still very cold, so the poor veggies and others cannot be as green as they usually are. As we got closer to the Swiss border things started changing: I actually saw snow! Very little, but still! Through the border (which was hardly a bump in the road, we just cruised through) and around us we viewed quaint little towns, with one church in the middle of course. It started to get more and more grey, and at last, as the sky was following suit, the landscape became dotted with white. And then more white.
We arrived at our hotel after sunset, so I have no idea what the view looks like in the day, but right now it is spectacular. Outside my window the city/town lights sparkle across the horison. I’ve just come up from dinner, where I sat with two of my new Japanese friends and a pair of brothers from Chilé. It was a lot of fun having them all at the table. We talked about rugby, trying to explain the sport to the girls was fun, but then we also chatted about kareoke, which I love, and Chinori (from Japan) loves as well. Chinori is the sweetest girl; she laughs at all my jokes and says I’m sweet, too! We were having a ton of fun, all of us, enacting strange electro moves, which involved head movements too technical for most. We tried to lighten up the dance floor in the bar, but I guess everyone is still a little pooped, so maybe tomorrow we can show them how its really done. The hotel staff are really friendly too, and they are truly making me feel welcome. Right now, though, I wanna go sleep. The bus didn’t offer enough of it, as I was way too exited to drop off.
NINA IN EUROPE 