The Swiss Experience

Well, once again I must apologize for my lack of update, but here it
is, so all you complainers, and people worried about me no longer have
need to lose sleep.

My last update came from the Swiss city of Lucerne, very pleasent and
low key. (You will soon notice that saying it was pleasent is almost
pointless due to the fact that the entirity of Switzerland is
pleasent.)

After Lucerne I took 3 days in Interlaken, it was a good bit of fun. I
met up with some Americans the first night I was there and continued
to have some dinner with them, from there my tree of contacts spread
out and I was never at a loss of someone to play chess with or even
talk to back at the Hostel. On the second day I went sledding with a
guy named Ross. It was really rather entertaining since we got to the
top of a really rather large mountain (it's the alps mind you) and
pretty much didn't know where to go. We talkin to some other Swiss
sledders and then decided to take the ski runs. I'm not much of a
skiier and didn't quite realize that the red and black runs in
Switzerland are the more challenging routes. Anywho I found my self
speeding down a rather steep mountain on a rail sled with very little
controll, going quite a bit faster then I have ever gone before
without aid of a motor and wheels. So yean it was a blast, I believe
the best part was that when you bailed, you did not lose speed but
just kept sliding in a rather hopeless route as you attempt to stay on
the correct side of a cliff. I took a day break in Interlaken after
that mainly to let all my sleding gear dry out.

I made it to a little mountain villiage called Gryon. Absolute,y tiny,
maybe a pop of 500. There I spent my time playing Monopoly with some
Canadians, readin under the alps, and making bread. I was there for a
total of 4 nights, but it was a very nice break from the daily travel
patterns I had become so used to.

From Gryon I headed to the Swiss capital of Bern. By this time
Switzerland had become my favorite country that I've seen and Bern
took the cookie for my favorite City. Just walking around you see a
number of little satues and other things that just make you want to
live there. While in Bern I took a day trip to Geneve and wandered
around in the pounding rain as it tool me 2 hours to find the UN.
After the photo op I looked at some of Geneve's free Museums and
headed back to the capital. During the time here I decided to see how
long I could go without purcahsing food. And thanks to the hostels
free food shelf I made my entire stay in Bern a cheap one. I may have
been eating things that didn't quite represent pancakes, but it was
good.

After the stint in Bern I headed over to the greater Zurich area to
meet up with some Swiss girls I met in Paris over almost 2 months
before, Lara and Natacsha. They were more then happy to let me stay
and I can not even begin to express how much I appriciated it. After a
day there another of the Paris gang, Julian showed up. (The same one
that I ran into in Granda, and lives in Oregon.) So we had a proper
crowd about to hangout with and do some fun things. One of the nights
we ended up in downtown Zurich, when the two girls decided to bind my
legs and wrist with the duct tape the aquired from my book bag. Anywho
after a bit of me wondering the the hell they were doing they stood me
up and I started hoping around town. A good portion of passersby
didn't seem to have too much concern with me, until Julian advised I
hop along about a block ahead of them. So there I am, hands and legs
bound hoping down a rather central street, taking break every few
yards or so. I can hear laughter about 20 yards behind me, when I see
the orange strips of a Swiss police car. As they pulled over I leaned
against the wall and waited. Not knowing what exactly was going to
happen I decided to play the stupid tourist (Hard to do with that much
duct tape all over) Finally Julian and the girls showed up explaining
to the Police it was just a joke, for some reason the po-po didn't
find it nearly as fun as it really was. The next day was actually my
birthday, sobeing in Switzerland with people I actually knew was
actually slightly planned for the event, and it was well worth it.
After the standard of a day the four of us took a walk around for a
bit before settling down next to a lake to roast some good ol' Swiss
'wurst over a raging fire. As the night proceeded the girls
reccomended we go look for a barn of hay to sleep in. Me and Julian
being the Americans we are found this only slightly strage and
suggested we head over into the Zurich city center to celebrate the
rest of my B-day. The girls weren't too sold on our idea and insisted
on the barn. Julian, and I agreed to at least look for a hay filled
barn, thinking that would end the discussion. I found myself laying on
an 8 foot stack of hay bales with Lara, Natascha and Julian, wondering
why I was there, and extremely thankful for the sleeping bag, that
could only keep two of us warm. At 5 we decided it was time to see
when my train to Frieborg Germany was going to leave, so we slowly
mosied in that direction, smelling like hay, hungry, and far from
rested. All and all it was probably the best birthday I've had for
some time, I really couldn't have made it any better.

So now here I am in Frieborg, it feels like I've been here for a few
days noe but really it's only been a day and a half. The weather was
worse then shitty Oregon weather at its best so I spent the majority
of the time inside, packing a package to send back towards home.
Tomorrow I leave, not completely sure where to, but with weather
permitting I'll be thumbing it.

Well thats been the lat two weeks for you, I'm still attempting to
figure out where I'll be durnign the next few weeks, and feel like
it's more then likely it will all be by the seat of my pants, but then
again there has never been anything wrong with that.

=Logan, Germany

P.S. Thank you to all of you that sent my birthday wishes, there were
so many of you this is easier then respnding to each personally, which
I really would love to do if I wasn't under such time constraints.