Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Swiss, French, Italian.

Bonjour a Suisse!

I have finally recovered from my trip to Switzerland, France and Italy.
And what a trip it was! There's a lot to be said for traveling solo but there's one thing I forgot - I have to carry everything by myself! Not to mention the myriad of steps, hills, ramps and mountains (so it seemed) that I had to traverse to get anywhere.
Managing to get to the first leg of the flight initially wasn't bad at all. A friend drove me willingly to the Orlando Airport, let me off at the correct airlines and waved goodbye. I was on my own.
Checked in my bag that was destined for Lausanne, Switzerland and it was ticketed to be at the train station (not Zurich, but Lausanne) when I arrived in that delightful city the next day. And it was. Incredible Rail system in Switzerland. But I digress - Arrived in NYC, JFK airport to be exact and then boarded the plane for Zurich, Switzerland. Arrival time was 7:30am Switzerland time. Or 19:30 in European language.
Zurich was beautiful.
A photo of my first sight of Switzerland early in the morning from the plane, is on the left. The sun is rising...yet it is only 1AM in the USA.

After going through customs I was able to find the train to Lausanne and had a wonderful two hour trip through the city of Zurich, the burbs of Zurich, the outlying more burbs of Zurich and finally...the Alps!

How beautiful this country is. Little Monopoly houses dotting the green and sometimes white - snow - countryside. Arrived in Lausanne, took a deep breath and started to read the directions that Christopher, the friend I was staying with, sent for me to get to the school. Amazingly found the right bus. Even had the right ticket. The last bus stop was at the Lausanne International School. They were expecting me. I could have fallen asleep standing up, but graciously accepted their hospitality and walked like a zombie until finally putting my head down to sleep at the apartment much later that afternoon
The view from my bedroom window of the mountains every morning is on the right.
.

Wonderful school! The kids all speak English although for many of them this is their second language. Swiss French is spoken in this "canton" or district. I was going to practice my French for sure. wow. Except I am really really bad at it...
School did not let out until 3 or so and then we went back to the train station again, picked up my travelling suitcase, and then took a cab to Chris' place. We took the cab because --- we were carrying MY bed in transit. This was one of those blow up things and was I ever glad to put my little head on it after all this moving about from continent to continent, crowds of people, transportation vehicles...zzzzzzzz

Photo on the right is of the workers in the vineyards outside of Lausanne.

1 comment:

  1. This is the first post in a series. If you didn't click on the list to the left and start at the top of that one, then you have actually read all my blogs starting with the most recent. Of course, you COULD do that as they still make sense. But more fun to read as I did them, late late one night when contemplating other things...

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