cowbells and thunderstorms
Yeah, that's a lame title, but oh well.
Have been in Switzerland the past few days, and it is a lovely country (and the rest of the world seems to think so, too, from the number of tourists in some places). The hostel at which I was staying 2 days ago had a little field across the road, in which there were cows with the appropriate cowbells on their collars, so we fell asleep to the sound of bells. Today, it sounsd like we'll have a goat-bell accompaniment. I was in Luzern last night, which was a bit too tourist-crowded (and hostel-crowded) , but I survived. I think I was reaching the limit of Old Towns, though, so am happy to now be in the mountains, which are beautiful.
It has been really warm this week, in the 30-35degree range (that'd be getting up around 90 for y'all Americans), , and really warm. My German Word of the Week (one of the few that I learned in my 'maybe I should brush up on German before travelling' phase): shwull (sorry, forget how to spell it, but it means humid. And it has been. So the slightly cooler, less humid weather today has been a welcome change. Walking up hills with a backpack when it's 35degrees and really humid is not so much fun.
On to World Cup Fever (as if there could be any other topic on this continent these days), I arrived in St Gallen earlier this week moments after Italy won their achtenfinalle match, and there were people everywhere celebrating in the streets - driving up and down, honking, waving flags, etc. Being a law and order country and all, the Swiss police officers were all in place already downtown in preparation for the evening match in which Switzerland was playing. I watched with a bunch of Swiss fans at the hostel (Hopp Schwiiz!), and may never get that Ole, Ole song (the one that the crowd sang the whole freakin match) out of my head ever again. It was so disappointing to see Switzerland loose in a shootout after outplaying the Ukraine for most of the evening, but we all survived, and there was no rioting in the streets or anything. If they had won, they would have played Italy in the next round, which might have caused a bit of civil discontent in multilingual Switzerland...
As I've been walking around/riding trains, etc. the past few days I've thought of all kinds of interesting things to comment on, but of course I can't remember them now. Oh well, time's almost up anyways and I've paid enough for one day, so I'll sign off for now. Tschuss!
Have been in Switzerland the past few days, and it is a lovely country (and the rest of the world seems to think so, too, from the number of tourists in some places). The hostel at which I was staying 2 days ago had a little field across the road, in which there were cows with the appropriate cowbells on their collars, so we fell asleep to the sound of bells. Today, it sounsd like we'll have a goat-bell accompaniment. I was in Luzern last night, which was a bit too tourist-crowded (and hostel-crowded) , but I survived. I think I was reaching the limit of Old Towns, though, so am happy to now be in the mountains, which are beautiful.
It has been really warm this week, in the 30-35degree range (that'd be getting up around 90 for y'all Americans), , and really warm. My German Word of the Week (one of the few that I learned in my 'maybe I should brush up on German before travelling' phase): shwull (sorry, forget how to spell it, but it means humid. And it has been. So the slightly cooler, less humid weather today has been a welcome change. Walking up hills with a backpack when it's 35degrees and really humid is not so much fun.
On to World Cup Fever (as if there could be any other topic on this continent these days), I arrived in St Gallen earlier this week moments after Italy won their achtenfinalle match, and there were people everywhere celebrating in the streets - driving up and down, honking, waving flags, etc. Being a law and order country and all, the Swiss police officers were all in place already downtown in preparation for the evening match in which Switzerland was playing. I watched with a bunch of Swiss fans at the hostel (Hopp Schwiiz!), and may never get that Ole, Ole song (the one that the crowd sang the whole freakin match) out of my head ever again. It was so disappointing to see Switzerland loose in a shootout after outplaying the Ukraine for most of the evening, but we all survived, and there was no rioting in the streets or anything. If they had won, they would have played Italy in the next round, which might have caused a bit of civil discontent in multilingual Switzerland...
As I've been walking around/riding trains, etc. the past few days I've thought of all kinds of interesting things to comment on, but of course I can't remember them now. Oh well, time's almost up anyways and I've paid enough for one day, so I'll sign off for now. Tschuss!
posted by Lisa | 2:01 p.m.
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