The Swiss Experience

Here, if you look in the top left corner, you'll see what looks like a small rise in the valley between mountains. See it? It's just a spec right before the picture ends on the left side. The very top of the valley there... That is a train station: the highest in Europe... and I think maybe the world. It's called the Jungfraujoch, and the mountain you see, is the world-famous Jungfrau.

-We finished our school the 21st of December with a short lecture. Rather unexpected, really, as we usually finish a class with a party of some sort... or at least a cookie for everyone... But, to no avail. We had class.

The next morning, Anna, Corrina and myself went to the train station at 6 am to catch the 6:30 train to Koblenz. I stayed up too late, and found myself awake at 5 am, unpacked. So I quickly packed some clothes and by the time I was finished, it was time to leave. From Koblenz, we took a train to Nuernburg, Germany. The train was not a fun one, as it was a bit of a nicer one, so reservations took reign, and we had none. My two companions took seats in the smoking car, and I, left with no options, took refuge in the refuse. :) Yeah, I sat on the trash bins in the back of the train next to the toilet. It was brilliant. I thought, maybe when the conductor comes by to take tickets, he'd find me a seat... no. "Ticket please." I couldn't believe it! So I basically had to pay full price for the ticket for no seat! Oh well, the rest of the trip was great.

We found Nuernburg a bit cold, but nice enough overall. We toured the Christmas market there, which wasn't a whole lot different than the one here in Trier. We eventually found refuge in the shops and Starbucks Coffee House nearby. I did spoil myself with a coffee, though I was trying to travel on a budget.

We continued on our journey towards Switzerland on a couple of the high-speed ICE trains Germany offers for a higher price. Luckily for us, we had the pass for foreigners, allowing us travel on almost any train in Europe. We made reservations for ourselves, as well, so the trip ended up being quite luxurious. Big seats and a dining car.. It was really something.

We arrived in Interlaken, Switzerland around 2 am. It was quite cold, as the town was under an inversion. We found our ways to the hostel with the help of a drunk girl at a cash machine in the town center. The hostel was a little bare, at least in the room, but we found that it grows on a person, and by the end, we thought we might want to own it.

The hostel itself is the oldest independent hostel in all of Switzerland. It's made entirely of wood and the room I was in was more or less the attic. However, there were some big windows and a small heater. I grabbed an extra blanket, and it became a fairly decent place to sleep. Unfortunately, where the hostel had charm, it lacked in technology. We were under the influence that it was equipped with wireless internet. Now normally, that wouldn't be so much of a problem, but the fact that it was our Christmas, calling home became significantly more difficult without that vital connection. Eventually, I turned to the comfort of international cell phone rates, and although they could never be described as cheap, they did forge a connection between myself and the people I love.

The next day we woke up early for the free breakfast, which consisted of Muesli (oats of sorts with milk), an orange, glass of water, and coffee. Not too bad, being free. We toured the town a bit, and found dinner at... Hooters Interlaken. :D It's a huge tourist town, and the first language spoken is English. At least it was everywhere we were.

Next day, Christmas Eve, we met a couple military guys who were stationed in Germany. I found out later that they were officers, one of whom had graduated from West Point. Nice guys, too. The girls and the other two Americans went skiing, and I stayed behind, and caught up on some sleep, as I had been lacking it. I tooled around the hostel, watched some CNN and played pool with some other American tourists and the front desk clerk. That night we found a Swiss restaurant in a hotel, the only place open in the city. They celebrate the night of the 24th here, and in Switzerland, so everyone was in for the night. The hotel restaurant ended up being really cool, with a manager who we decided must have been crazy, because he danced around singing the entire time. He also showed some tourists how the Swiss properly eat fondue. :) It was quite the spectacle.

Christmas day was actually pretty strange, namely for the fact that I met a guy with whom I went to high school in the line for breakfast. I met his friends, and we decided to go sledding together that afternoon.

I expected something a little different from sledding. I expected to walk up a hill, sled down it, walk back up, repeat. NO. This was a half hour's drive in a van up into the Alps. Then it was another ride further up via cable car. The views were spectacular. The sledding was more like extreme ice sledding, as the snow conditions weren't ideal for "frolic-sledding" but suited my slightly-idiotic, adrenaline and speed fixations just fine. I had a great time. We ended the sledding with free dinner at a Swiss restaurant high in the Alps. I had real fondue and white wine. It was really good, and I met quite a few nice people.

The next day we had to head home, but rather than just take the express back to Trier, we found some scenic routes through Switzerland. They were stunning. From Interlaken to Montreaux, there to Basel, Basel to Lucerne, there to Bern, Bern to Trier. Two of them were specifically scenic routes, and so the cars were luxurious and had lots of big windows. It was just cool.

We finally made it back to Trier around 2 am, and went to sleep immediately.

A glimpse of the Alps. Also visible are the inversion and a car antennae. :D

Swiss houses are just so pretty. They can be new and still retain that "Old Swiss" style. They are nicer to look at than German houses, because they aren't pink on one half and blue on the other...

An example of a Swiss house (though I think this one has been converted into a restaurant).

One last shot of the Alps. They really are something, aren't they?

One with me in it! This is our sledding group minus the leader. On the far right, red coat, is the guy with whom I went to high school. We actually took German together.

From Dylon With Love

Stronger Than You

There only come a few people in life that have the ability to change it. Only a very select few. Over a decade ago, I happened upon one of these rare people. His name is Matt, and he's the first best friend I ever made. That makes him the one I've known longest, and know best. While we have been away for quite some time, there still exists that connection that true buds can't lose, and those memories that are never forgotten... no matter how badly you try...

A decade has past and we remain solid friends. Fart jokes, talking into the night about God-knows-what, and growing up in a new, complex world have shaped the two of us into the men we are now and who we each will become.

We have endured more than I could have imagined. So many memories, and more to come, it is truly a friendship that will never grow old.

Innocence, simplicity of youth. My best friend.

From Dylon With Love

"Quick" Trip to FC Koeln

We decided earlier on that we wanted to return to Cologne to check out a football match (soccer game) in the second league Germany. It was FC Koeln (Cologne) versus FC Kaiserslautern. It was a good game, ended up tied 2-2 (a draw). The stadium was packed--there were 49,500 fans there, in a stadium that held probably 50,000. It was absolutely massive. Awesome. And cheap too. We got good seats, rather high up, but a good view of things.

Unfortunately a little blurry, but it was dark, so it's good enough, right?

50,000 people!!

Well the game ended and we had to get back to the station to catch the train home. Only problem was, the train was a little late and the time table had changed. SO... we got stuck in Koblenz, a German city about an hour and a half from Trier for seven hours in a McDonalds. It was the only place we could find near the train station that was warm. It was actually a lot of fun, drinking a lot of tea and coffee and just generally bonding with the closest friends I've got here. We got back around 9 am. Not really a bad time. Just a little sleepy. :)

From Dylon With Love

Land of the Saar...

While this occurred a while ago, it was still a nice trip that was relatively cheap. We decided to head to Saarbruecken, a couple states over. It was just a Saturday trip, one of the places we can get to for free with a University Trier student ID. So for basically nothing, we tooled around Saarbruecken a bit.

Upon arriving, we just went to the information office and the lady there was quite helpful to us in finding a nice little route about the city and even reccommending a place to eat the local food. Sure, she may have been commissioned to tell us that, but even then, it was good food.

Our tour was a loop--couldn't have been more than 4 miles. We started down the road toward a church of some significance. I wasn't really in the mood to see a church for some reason, but after seeing it, my mind was quickly changed. It was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. In mostly white, it was so pretty. The outside misled to what was inside.

The altar was quite large and just gorgeous. Above the altar was the choir area and the grand organ. I bought a book from the caretaker of the church and it said there that the church was almost totally demolished in world war two, and so it is quite contemporary on the inside. Whatever the case may be, it is quite the exquisite little catholic church--even more impressive than the grand looming cathedrals of gothic Europe.

We continued to the old city hall, also destroyed in the war. It is made up of three parts, a classical part, a baroque part, and a modern part. The modern part is made of metal and glass and the other two are wings and look exactly the same on the outside. Only problem was there was an event of some sort and we weren't permitted to tour the facility. Oh well, we just walked around the gardens a bit and saw some other neat things there. I found a little hole in the wall (literally) and I think it was a crypt. In the hole was just a really old stairwell out of stone that led down and down. Kind of neat.

What's in there?!

We finished up the day with a traditional Saar lunch. I had some weird potato dish with beer. It was good, but definitely a bit strange. All in all, for the money (the price of the book plus lunch) it was a nice trip with friends.

View of Saarbrucken from a bridge. The old part.

View of the newer part of Saarbrucken. I think the last two pictures were taken from the same bridge, just facing the other directions. Neat how Europe can be so old and so new at the same time!

From Dylon With Love

The South Moves Us

I know, it's been quite some time since I've put anything up here. Not because I haven't done anything, but because my camera was relieved of me somehow in Spain, which I'm writing about now. I got a new one thanks to Dad!

SO... Spain.

A big group of us decided that it would be nice to escape the rainy weather of Trier for one of our long weekends. We found a flight with RyanAir for about 50 Euros that would take us to Barcelona, Spain for a short trip around the famous Catalon region. We had to take a night bus to the airport, as our flight was one of the first to leave the next morning. We stayed the night in the airport. Most of the clan fell asleep somewhere, but Paul and I stayed up all night playing billiards, darts, and sticking nickels in the electric slot machines. It was a nice evening!


We flew into Girona, about an hour outside of Barcelona and took another bus into town. We had a short nap and found our ways around the city with the help of Danielle's Irish friend, Gary, who was living there as a bartender.

We saw lots and lots, but unfortunately, got into a bit of trouble, as well. We went to a strip of clubs, there were about 15 right in a row. This place is cool, but has an infestation of thieves. The first night, Paul and I were out, everyone else had gone home, and he got his wallet stolen. But we knew who had done it, so we put a little pressure on them, and sure enough, there was the wallet! Criminals are stupid. He lost maybe 10 Euros, so it wasn't too bad, no missing Visa card or something... The next night, some little 16 year old tried to take mine, but I caught him and... well... he didn't get mine. :) That same night, my friend Paz got in trouble too, so although it was nice, maybe it was a good idea not to go out the last night.

Barcelona is right on the edge of the Mediterranean, so the last day, Klaus, Danielle and myself went for a short walk to find the beach. We didn't end up finding it, but we did find a nice place to sit and look at the water. It was on a bridge, where we were sitting, and that bridge was a drawbridge. But it didn't draw upwards. Rather, it drew outwards, like the doors to a saloon. Pretty cool. Also there were lots of street vendors. Among them are also home/jobless dudes walking around with a six pack of cheap beer asking if you'd like to buy any. Rather strange, but hey, don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes, right? There were also a lot of drug dealers and prostitutes! So if you're ever in Barcelona, stay off the Ramblas (the main streets) after 2 am. : )

We saw a lot of neat things though. The famous architecht, Gaudi, is very prominent in Barcelona, and many of his things can be seen there.







Definitely some weird stuff, Gaudi did... Cool enough, though.

















A statue dedicated to Christopher Columbus. It's really tall and you can actually go up to the top of it and look out over Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea. Too bad it was closed when we got there...













Here's some more of Gaudi. Actually, it's not all his. Only part of it's his design. It's a church that has been in the process of being built for some 100 years or so. More than that, even. It's still a construction site, but has limited funding, so it's a slow process. Maybe someday, we'll see it done.








We also saw a movie while we were there, in English. We saw the Illusionist. Quite good. Also, there are more Irish Pubs in Barcelona than anywhere I've seen. More Irish ones than there are Spanish ones... Neat atmosphere!

So, no more month-long gaps from blog.


From Dylon With Love