Lucerne/Luzern, Switzerland

So I made it to Switzerland! In Dusseldorf, I had a long layover. I was feeling pretty tired. I'd been awake at that point for about 24 hours. When they started boarding for my next flight, we all did the whole shuffle-down-the-long-hallway bit only to be met with stairs at the end. Ok. So I climbed down,and got into a shuttle bus that was waiting. The bussed us all out to the plane, where we then climbed up another staircase into it. The fight to Zurich took about an hour, during which I kept attractively dozing off in my middle seat with my mouth open. From Zurich, I took the train to Lucerne, about an hour away.

Train station in Zurich

Ok guys, Lucerne is gorgeous!!!!! Think of every Swiss postcard you've ever seen and this is it! It has a really cute old part of town, the Swiss Alps off in the distance, and it's on a clear blue lake. I got off my train and began to the trek to my hostel, the Backpackers Lucerne. I'm in a dorm room with four beds. After I dropped off my stuff, I headed back out to the grocery store. Switzerland is crazy expensive. I got a few provisions to get me through my couple of days here. On the way back to the hostel, it started to pour. I was wearing my Toms and they were quickly soaked. Back at the hostel, I felt the jet lag taking over. I went to bed at the grandiose time of 9:30 and slept hard enough to not notice my Australian and Korean roommates who showed up during the night at some time.

My room, with balcony.

This morning I woke up and guess what? I was still raining. And it was cold. This proved to be a dilemma. My Toms were still soaking, and I really wanted them to dry out for the trip to Italy. I didn't want to wear my nicer ballet flats. So, it looked like my only option was my flip flops. I wasn't going to just sit around in the hostel and mope. So I got dressed, put on my hoodie, rain jacket, and flip flops and headed out. I got as far as the massive train station before it became this torrential miserable downpour. So I hung out there for a little bit and looked for coffee.

They have a chain here called Bachmanns that is kind of like a Dunkin Donuts with a big chocolatier included. Perfect! I got the most beautiful vanilla crime donut ever and a little coffee in a pink cup. Damn you Switzerland and your crazy prices! It cost me Fr (Swiss Francs) 5.50, which is about $5.75. I bought two postcards and stamps from the tourism office, and that cost me Fr 6. I quickly realized that I would not be purchasing any souvenirs here! A British couple in my hostel told me they went to Starbucks and that they paid Fr 9 each for that junk.

Fr 10 note plus two Fr 2 coins

Eventually, I was like, I'm tired of sitting in this train station, got my umbrella out, and took off. The rain was letting up, and I was determined to see the sights. I crossed a big modern bridge and headed into the Old Town. It's always funny to see modern stores in the bottoms of super old buildings. But there they were, in the cutest old buildings you've ever seen. However, soon I started to notice something. No one else had on flip flops. NO ONE. I had become that stupid American in flip flops. They were also getting increasingly hard to walk in on old cobblestones. The rain had stopped so I decided enough was enough. I ducked into an H&M and bought some cheap navy blue knock off Keds. My flip flops shall remain in showers!

Dry, shoes!! Dry!!!!!

I saw lots of neat stuff! They have some crazy wooden bridges here from the 1400s. I also went and saw this amazing dying lion monument that Mark Twain once called "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.". The river running through Lucerne is blue and clear, and there lots of bridges to cross it. The buildings are all very old and some have giant paintings on the front of them.

Eventually it started to rain again, so I decided to head back to the hostel. I ducked into the grocery store and picked up some Swiss chocolate bars to send home. Right now, it is STILL raining. I'm hoping to make it out later for a bite to eat but honestly, this weather sucks, and I might just stay in and eat in the little cafe here. Tomorrow morning I have an early train to Milan.

And now a technical note. Or a few, rather. The only pictures that I'll be posting on here will be ones taken with my iPad or found online somewhere. I don't have a way to take them off of my camera, as there's no USB port on this thing, I didn't want the extra weight of the camera attachment. I'm also not very good at HTML, so please forgive any errors in spacing or whatever. I'm just try to give updates! They iPad also likes to autocorrect me on dumb stuff, so forgive any of those that I miss. And a big shout to Marie, so tells me she is an avid reader of the blog, but is having some technical difficulties leaving comments. Hello Marie!

Simple map of Lucerne