Fasnacht!

Feb. 20th, 2009 at 10:33 pm

Tuesday, 17 February
So it took three trains to get to Luzern- Venice to Milan, Milan to somewhere in Switzerland, then a quick train to Luzern. It was snowing at the last station and on the last train, and Haider couldn't get over the snow. He kept asking me if it was surreal or what, so I just smiled so as not to rain on his parade that really, I'm kind of used to snow.

From Milan to Switzerland, we all got a bit stir-crazy. Haider, Kev and Hilary were all listening to the same song and dancing, and Caitlin ended up getting caged in by suitcases, and I really did NOT want to study. There's a lovely series of photos featuring varying stages of maths hair, and Caitlin in a cage. (When Vanessa moved a water bottle that was 'barricading' her in: "Give me my cage back, bitch!")

We also had an interesting moment upon arrival, trying to buy bus tickets from the machine, when we'd all just got 100's out. Then there was a miscount with the tickets, so I got to sprint back (since I had the least luggage) and buy another one and sprint back to the bus before it left. We also got very vague directions to our hostel- 'Go down the hill, up the hill then down, if you hit the lake you've gone too far.' We ended up running into two girls on their way back to the hostel who walked us the rest of the way there, which was good, because it was dark, cold, and wet snow.

Also, the machine at the hostel ate my internet money. Not cool.

Wednesday, 18 February
Vanessa and I got up early, and she went to the train station with me so I could put my stuff in a locker and figure out what time I needed to catch a train and how to get to Bastel's airport once I got off said train.

We met up with everyone else (and Kevin's friend Katie, who met up with us at the hostel) in the train station, where a walking tour left a bit before ten. It was very, very cold. My toes were not happy with me, even with a double layer of socks. Apparently, they thought I should've tripled up.

We saw most of the big stuff in Luzern on the tour, including a Jesuit Church, Chapel Bridge, and the medieval village. Kev pointed out that it got to be a bit like the National Gallery by the end- a lot of the same stuff over again, and our guide felt like discussing all of it in detail even though we were all obviously quite happy with the sparknotes. She kept asking me about saints's names and whatnot when she found out I go to a Jesuit university. I suppose since Jesuits are outlawed in Switzerland, she didn't understand that a Jesuit education =/> full theological knowledge. Haider was also a bit confused about Jesuits, he thought there were just a few of them and asked where they went after they got kicked out of Switzerland, not realizing that they could've easily dispersed to almost anywhere. The woman also made me a bit upset when she told me I was silly for leaving before their Carnival started the next morning, and not going skiing, but Hilary came to the rescue and explained I was meant to stay on but then had an exam scheduled.

Things I learned: women couldn't vote until 1971. The Swiss constitution is essentially a copy of ours, but the president only is in office for one year and has almost no power. Their Carnival sounds fun- I guess some dude parades in and throws oranges at people. Hilary later described it as "a drunken debauchery fest with ridiculous costumes. Not pretty like Venice... more like Halloween on crack."

After the tour, we ate. It was really delicious, and Caitlin and Hilary were stellar and let me order the last plate of this yummy pork and potatoes meal. I <3 them.

Then we went and found the Sleeping Lion (a memorial to the military, I think). It was very pretty, and we went up a side path and found an inscription in French on the side of a cliff. While we were translating it, a guy came up with a giant mask, and we all started talking, asking about the scaffolding by the Lion (I guess some people thought that it would be fun to throw paintballs at it). Then Haider kept asking him questions, and Hilary found out he plays trombone in a (not very good) band, and told him she plays the trumpet. When the guy went to go through this door, Haider asked if he was Batman. So the guy invited us in to this secret World War II bunker that his band practices in, and showed us some costumes from previous Carnivals. It was badass.

After he threw us out of the bunker (we really, really weren't supposed to be in there), we went into a church for a few minutes. Then we found a shop that we had vouchers to get free chocolate from (yuuum, I bought two candy bars and am still working on one of them). We backtracked our tour route a bit to go to this Crepe place for Crepes and hot chocolate. Swiss hot cocoa is, unsurprisingly, amazing.

We traipsed over to the Jesuit's home, which is now the Foreign Offices, and went up a few flights of stairs (no one stopped us or greeted us or anything, it was totally open) and checked out this snazzy series of paintings called 'Dance of Death' from like the 16 or 1700's. I know, I'm good at these specifics.

After that, we went to the train station so my friends could see me off. The train ride was pretty gorgeous- it was sunset, and we wound through the mountains a bit.