Are you Falkin' Kidding me? _ Lucerne
Having loved our time in Lausanne/Geneva and needing a pick me up from Cinque Terre, Natalie and I decided to hit up the German side of Switzerland and head to gorgeous Lucerne (a city not on our original agenda).
Immediately after exiting the train from our boring honeymoon, we were greeted once again with Switzerland's immaculate sidewalks, friendly faces, and beautiful mountain landscape- only this time everything was in German, not French.
After exiting the train and sneaking some free wifi at Starbucks by pretending to wait in line, we began walking to our hotel, The hotel Falkin -which we booked based solely on our assumption that it was pronounced "fawk-en" (we later found it is actually pronounced falcon which is not nearly as fun).
I should confess that both Natalie and I, by this point In the trip, have become bag ladies. (Legit bag ladies). Our hygiene has seriously deteriorated and in addition to our backpacks and purses, we each carry giant foreign versions of trader joes bags full of everything from shampoo to train food to the giant bag of penis pasta I demanded we purchase out of boredom in CT. We have also adopted a new (and admittedly more comfortable) way of carrying our day packs (mini backpacks) by wearing them backwards. This new style of carrying makes us not only look like pregnant women with matching baby Bjornes, but also makes us walk like it. Let's just put it this way, we typically get hit on a lot en route from the train station to our hostels.
Hotel Falken was in a primo location, right in the heart of town, and was definitely the nicest accommodations we'd had the whole trip (and the most pricey - Switzerland I love you but seriously you're killing me)
Our room was clean, spacious, and randomly could sleep about 4-5 people comfortably. There were two twin beds that had been pushed together and then a California king steel bunk bed which hovered over them. This set-up, though odd, would actually come to be in our favor later on when I came down with the bubonic plague.
As luck would have it, Natalie and I had happened to arrive to Lucerne on (get this) "Lucerne-Fest" which is basically just as awesome raging party festival that the city puts on for everyone. The streets were filled with 1,000's upon 1,000's of people (rough estimate 50,000), beer vendors, amazing German food, dancing, DJ's, fireworks, and live bands all set up in the city center which straddles new and old Lucerne across the river with the Alps in the background. If there was ever a doubt in our minds about leaving Cinque Terre early, that concern was quickly forgotten.
Two hasty showers and some quick outfit changes and Natalie and I found ourselves with Beers and sausages in hand and surrounded by a sea of beautiful German Swiss folk. Where I had been more popular on the French Swiss side, Natalie was the belle of the German side. Nonetheless, there were more than enough beautiful fair haired, tan, blue/green eyes Swiss to go around.
As the World Cup was on, naturally most of the eligibles were occupied so Natalie and I took this time to enjoy the music and the brews. When we purchased our expensive beers (because this is Switzerland where you pay $12 for travel size deodorant) we were given two green plastic tokens. In broken English the bartender said, "bring back your cups and tokens - get 4 euros back, 2 each".
I would like to take a moment to point out, once again, how brilliant Switzerland is. In order to promote recycling and keep people from littering in the streets, they incentivize recycling. Bring back your cup, get money. It makes all the sense in the world and believe me, people brought back their cups. I'm (embarrassingly) not a big green-thumbed recycling person, but we need to start doing this in the US.
Anyways, back to Lucerne Fest. After the game ended around 10 (which was playing on a flat screen provided by the city the size of a semi truck and posted on a random building for all to see) there were fireworks- yep awesome fireworks. Being from the states and the time passing 10, Natalie and I took the fireworks as a sign the party was over ....but we had forgotten, this was Switzerland and everything here is better.
After the fireworks, a sick euro DJ appeared on the main stage where the family friendly live band had been playing earlier. As the DJ began spinning, a light show appeared on the streets as everyone old and young alike broke out in madness and dancing. Things only (strangely) got crazier when it started POURING rain as people continued to drink and dance the night away until 3am.
Natalie and I danced our little hearts out, getting soaked in the process, and having an absolute blast. People danced on their balconies, tables, on their boats passing by sidewalks... Everywhere you looked there were people soaked to the bone, grinning, and bouncing to the beat. A 5-star, $1k a night luxury hotel opened it's doors as 100s of soaking wet drunk 20, 30, 40, 50, and even 60-year olds piled in to dry off and continue drinking their plastic cup drink.
Natalie and I had particular fun when the DJ went from playing Timber and Avicci to playing "Grease Lightening" and "YMCA" - nothing quite like watching those Germans, drunk and soaked to the brim, dancing their hearts out to GREASE.
It was one of those insane nights that you couldn't ever hope to capture again or properly retell, but it was a night neither of us will ever forget.
And yes- when we woke up the next morning, the streets were clean.
There are two subjects I try not to talk about with others and those are of course politics and religion because I hold firm that both politics and religion are based on personal circumstance and beliefs and neither of them do I know enough of to concretely have an opinion of what's right and wrong. That said, this trip has really opened up my eyes quite substantially and I have to say - Switzerland really is the shit.
Yes, Switzerland is pricey but everyone makes high enough wages that they can afford it. Yes they pay astronomically high taxes, but unlike in the states where you're never really quite sure where your money is going - the Swiss pay taxes to have beautiful clean and safe streets, free medicine for everyone, high education (Swiss citizens can get there masters anywhere in Europe for FREE) which leads to a more educated, prosperous, and safer country, AND their city throws them awesome raging parties which are legitimately awesome and fun for everyone to keep their citizens happy and entertained (I would have legit paid to attend Lucerne Fest it was that good). Also, on Sundays in Switzerland, everything shuts down so everyone has a day of rest (seriously everything - stores, cafés, pharmacies, everything). So when it comes to a giant city party like Lucerne-Fest, they can keep the fun and noise going until 3am because everyone has the day off and the city will clean up.
Not to mention, Swiss people get to live in Switzerland which is beautiful.
It makes total sense that Switzerland's citizens are some of the wealthiest folks around AND are the 2nd longest living population in the world.
Anyways, that's the closest I'm going to come to a political rant but I'm just saying maybe we have some things to learn.
So after our phenomenal Lucerne Fest experience, which was cut slightly short after some weirdo tried to lick Natalie's face and creeped us out, we woke up the next morning with me feeling ... Well with a horrible disgusting cold.
My mother, ever the pragmatist, was quick to inform me that it wasn't from the rain but clearly my new found poor hygiene and not washing my hands enough (thanks Mom lol)
Unfortunately I happened to be sick on Sunday which meant no medicine because everything was closed. Natalie, immediately (and understandably) barricaded herself to the top bunk bed to avoid infection as I moaned and groaned and downloaded episodes of The White Queen on my phone.
On Monday I awoke, still feeling shitty. Natalie, my former friend now turned nursemaid, ran to the pharmacy and returned with something in German which looked like insect spray. Like a good American, I took it without question and doused my throat with the poison with wild abandon and without a second thought.
By mid morning on Monday, I felt like a human again (looked like the lock nest monster, but felt human). Natalie and I attempted to go shopping, but found their clothing prices were on the same slant as their deodorants (plus all the clothes looked like banana republic went on a khaki high and stocked every boutique)
In the end, we did find a cute store and got a top for me and a dress for Natalie which was necessary since we've come to vehemently hate everything in our backpacks.
I was bummed at missing out on site seeing more in Lucerne, Natalie and I had even thought about looking into going skydiving which is something both of us have long had on our bucket lists, but unfortunately the plague had called my name.
My only condolence for being bedridden nearly 2 days of this journey was that at least the entire time I was bedridden, it rained (complete with thunder and lightening) the whole time.
I would definitely like to return to Lucerne at some point- perhaps a return to skydive on our 30th birthdays. (Sorry Momma Karen and Momma Lynn!).
I'll keep my bag full of jingling Swiss francs as a reminder.
Until then beautiful Switzerland!
Having loved our time in Lausanne/Geneva and needing a pick me up from Cinque Terre, Natalie and I decided to hit up the German side of Switzerland and head to gorgeous Lucerne (a city not on our original agenda).
Immediately after exiting the train from our boring honeymoon, we were greeted once again with Switzerland's immaculate sidewalks, friendly faces, and beautiful mountain landscape- only this time everything was in German, not French.
After exiting the train and sneaking some free wifi at Starbucks by pretending to wait in line, we began walking to our hotel, The hotel Falkin -which we booked based solely on our assumption that it was pronounced "fawk-en" (we later found it is actually pronounced falcon which is not nearly as fun).
I should confess that both Natalie and I, by this point In the trip, have become bag ladies. (Legit bag ladies). Our hygiene has seriously deteriorated and in addition to our backpacks and purses, we each carry giant foreign versions of trader joes bags full of everything from shampoo to train food to the giant bag of penis pasta I demanded we purchase out of boredom in CT. We have also adopted a new (and admittedly more comfortable) way of carrying our day packs (mini backpacks) by wearing them backwards. This new style of carrying makes us not only look like pregnant women with matching baby Bjornes, but also makes us walk like it. Let's just put it this way, we typically get hit on a lot en route from the train station to our hostels.
Hotel Falken was in a primo location, right in the heart of town, and was definitely the nicest accommodations we'd had the whole trip (and the most pricey - Switzerland I love you but seriously you're killing me)
Our room was clean, spacious, and randomly could sleep about 4-5 people comfortably. There were two twin beds that had been pushed together and then a California king steel bunk bed which hovered over them. This set-up, though odd, would actually come to be in our favor later on when I came down with the bubonic plague.
As luck would have it, Natalie and I had happened to arrive to Lucerne on (get this) "Lucerne-Fest" which is basically just as awesome raging party festival that the city puts on for everyone. The streets were filled with 1,000's upon 1,000's of people (rough estimate 50,000), beer vendors, amazing German food, dancing, DJ's, fireworks, and live bands all set up in the city center which straddles new and old Lucerne across the river with the Alps in the background. If there was ever a doubt in our minds about leaving Cinque Terre early, that concern was quickly forgotten.
Two hasty showers and some quick outfit changes and Natalie and I found ourselves with Beers and sausages in hand and surrounded by a sea of beautiful German Swiss folk. Where I had been more popular on the French Swiss side, Natalie was the belle of the German side. Nonetheless, there were more than enough beautiful fair haired, tan, blue/green eyes Swiss to go around.
(Us at Lucerne...thrilled)
As the World Cup was on, naturally most of the eligibles were occupied so Natalie and I took this time to enjoy the music and the brews. When we purchased our expensive beers (because this is Switzerland where you pay $12 for travel size deodorant) we were given two green plastic tokens. In broken English the bartender said, "bring back your cups and tokens - get 4 euros back, 2 each".
I would like to take a moment to point out, once again, how brilliant Switzerland is. In order to promote recycling and keep people from littering in the streets, they incentivize recycling. Bring back your cup, get money. It makes all the sense in the world and believe me, people brought back their cups. I'm (embarrassingly) not a big green-thumbed recycling person, but we need to start doing this in the US.
Anyways, back to Lucerne Fest. After the game ended around 10 (which was playing on a flat screen provided by the city the size of a semi truck and posted on a random building for all to see) there were fireworks- yep awesome fireworks. Being from the states and the time passing 10, Natalie and I took the fireworks as a sign the party was over ....but we had forgotten, this was Switzerland and everything here is better.
(Fireworks in US = Party's Over; Fireworks in Switzerland = Party's just beginning)
After the fireworks, a sick euro DJ appeared on the main stage where the family friendly live band had been playing earlier. As the DJ began spinning, a light show appeared on the streets as everyone old and young alike broke out in madness and dancing. Things only (strangely) got crazier when it started POURING rain as people continued to drink and dance the night away until 3am.
Natalie and I danced our little hearts out, getting soaked in the process, and having an absolute blast. People danced on their balconies, tables, on their boats passing by sidewalks... Everywhere you looked there were people soaked to the bone, grinning, and bouncing to the beat. A 5-star, $1k a night luxury hotel opened it's doors as 100s of soaking wet drunk 20, 30, 40, 50, and even 60-year olds piled in to dry off and continue drinking their plastic cup drink.
Natalie and I had particular fun when the DJ went from playing Timber and Avicci to playing "Grease Lightening" and "YMCA" - nothing quite like watching those Germans, drunk and soaked to the brim, dancing their hearts out to GREASE.
(Dancing in the rain)
It was one of those insane nights that you couldn't ever hope to capture again or properly retell, but it was a night neither of us will ever forget.
(Getting our rain party on)
And yes- when we woke up the next morning, the streets were clean.
There are two subjects I try not to talk about with others and those are of course politics and religion because I hold firm that both politics and religion are based on personal circumstance and beliefs and neither of them do I know enough of to concretely have an opinion of what's right and wrong. That said, this trip has really opened up my eyes quite substantially and I have to say - Switzerland really is the shit.
Yes, Switzerland is pricey but everyone makes high enough wages that they can afford it. Yes they pay astronomically high taxes, but unlike in the states where you're never really quite sure where your money is going - the Swiss pay taxes to have beautiful clean and safe streets, free medicine for everyone, high education (Swiss citizens can get there masters anywhere in Europe for FREE) which leads to a more educated, prosperous, and safer country, AND their city throws them awesome raging parties which are legitimately awesome and fun for everyone to keep their citizens happy and entertained (I would have legit paid to attend Lucerne Fest it was that good). Also, on Sundays in Switzerland, everything shuts down so everyone has a day of rest (seriously everything - stores, cafés, pharmacies, everything). So when it comes to a giant city party like Lucerne-Fest, they can keep the fun and noise going until 3am because everyone has the day off and the city will clean up.
Not to mention, Swiss people get to live in Switzerland which is beautiful.
It makes total sense that Switzerland's citizens are some of the wealthiest folks around AND are the 2nd longest living population in the world.
Anyways, that's the closest I'm going to come to a political rant but I'm just saying maybe we have some things to learn.
So after our phenomenal Lucerne Fest experience, which was cut slightly short after some weirdo tried to lick Natalie's face and creeped us out, we woke up the next morning with me feeling ... Well with a horrible disgusting cold.
My mother, ever the pragmatist, was quick to inform me that it wasn't from the rain but clearly my new found poor hygiene and not washing my hands enough (thanks Mom lol)
Unfortunately I happened to be sick on Sunday which meant no medicine because everything was closed. Natalie, immediately (and understandably) barricaded herself to the top bunk bed to avoid infection as I moaned and groaned and downloaded episodes of The White Queen on my phone.
On Monday I awoke, still feeling shitty. Natalie, my former friend now turned nursemaid, ran to the pharmacy and returned with something in German which looked like insect spray. Like a good American, I took it without question and doused my throat with the poison with wild abandon and without a second thought.
By mid morning on Monday, I felt like a human again (looked like the lock nest monster, but felt human). Natalie and I attempted to go shopping, but found their clothing prices were on the same slant as their deodorants (plus all the clothes looked like banana republic went on a khaki high and stocked every boutique)
In the end, we did find a cute store and got a top for me and a dress for Natalie which was necessary since we've come to vehemently hate everything in our backpacks.
I was bummed at missing out on site seeing more in Lucerne, Natalie and I had even thought about looking into going skydiving which is something both of us have long had on our bucket lists, but unfortunately the plague had called my name.
My only condolence for being bedridden nearly 2 days of this journey was that at least the entire time I was bedridden, it rained (complete with thunder and lightening) the whole time.
I would definitely like to return to Lucerne at some point- perhaps a return to skydive on our 30th birthdays. (Sorry Momma Karen and Momma Lynn!).
I'll keep my bag full of jingling Swiss francs as a reminder.
Until then beautiful Switzerland!
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