World Wanderings

I'm finally in Switzerland, after changing plans a month ago and going south instead. But first let.me recap my last day in Italy.

I planned to be here a day earlier than I actually arrived, but that would be due to meeting a fellow traveler at the camping grounds in Venice who had plans to go to Murano. I wasn't sure exactly where I was going to stay in Luzern, so I decided to stay an extra day at the camp and go to Murano with them. For those who don't know, Murano is a small island near Venice well know for it's glass.

So the next day involved a nice 1 hour boat ride around Venice and out to Murano, which luckily helped justify the outragious 6.50 euro ticket each way for the "bus". Of course I feel only turists use them (or pay those prices). But it was a clear sunny day, with clouds bursting over the mountains in the distance. The salty, questionable, water splashed up on the boat occasionally, cooling off my arm and legs.

The island itself was great. It had all of the charm of Venice with it's colorful decaying buildings, bright open sidewalks, and quaint bridges, but without the crowd. There was no crowd to be seen, the most people congregated in one place was at the bus stops. It was great. Many of the streets were completely empty. We spent the day wondering all the small, offbeat paths that we could find, as well as enjoying the great many shops filled with glass art. It was a day well spent, and a fitting end to my time in Italy. For the next day I was off to Switzerland!

My day began unhurriedly, as my train left at 11am. I took my time gettin up and moving for the day. Like many times I've moved from place to place, I didn't have a hostel booked and didn't know when all my connecting trains would leave. But that didn't bother me, I knew I'd get there. Get there I did. After arrivin in Milan, there was one train leaving for Zurich, one which needed a reservation. I only had 10 min, not enough time to wait in the hour long line. I was ready to just give up and wait for another one, when I decided to just go to the zurich train and give it a try. I asked the conductor (who didn't speak any English) and he just waved me on! Alright! Taking initiative works. Every other train from that time was ready and waiting at connections (I had two more). To top it all off, there was plenty of space at the hostel. It was a smooth day of traveling. And a georgious day as well. In Italy the train followed alongside the mountians, but when we started heading north and going into Switzerland, we went into them. It's really as you would picture it, with talls mountains, green valleys, glacier blue water running down the side in waterfalls and rivers, and quaint towns and houses pearched along the sides. I lost count of the number of waterfalls and small churches perched at the edge of towering cliffsides. It was almost 4 hours of visual bliss.

Then I get to Luzern. A town perched on the egde of a lake which laps at the foot of mountains on the distant shore. I think I could grow old here. There's a lovely prominade that winds alongside the lake shore, filled with benches and million dollar views. My days here have been spent less doing than seeing things. I've just been wondering through the old town, along the shore, and on top of the old city walls. As well as taking my time and relaxing. It's been nice.

Although I had my first sticker shock moment. I've grown so used to the euro that when I heard the amount for three nightsy jaw almost hit the floor. Then I remembered it was in Swiss Francs, almost equal with the dollar ( and it's about $1.4 to the euro). So, funny enough I've been converting everything back to euros, because that is what I've become used to. And since everything in Switzerland is about one third more (a mcdonald meal starts at 9CHF), it makes everything seem a bit more reasonable. I found it odd jus how used to euros I had gotten. But I guess it makes sense since I've been using them for the past two months.

Luzern has been great. Also since my hostel doesn't have wifi, it's pretty awesome that they have blanketed thier downtown area in free wifi. If only every city was that awesome.

Well I have one last night here, been trying to catch the sunset every night, as it lights up the nearby mountain range beautifully, so I'm off to do that. Tomorrow I head to Interlaken.