Sav: My first foray into independence from Meaghan is going well, except that I almost ended up in Germany instead of Switzerland… I was sleeping on the train and the ticket guy came in a second time and says ‘aren’t you going to Zeurich? You’re in the part of the train that detaches and goes to Munich!’ Oh good.

I blearily rounded up my bags and got to the right end of the train, where I promptly passed out again, checking that yes, I was indeed in the right cart. And yes, I’m a grown woman who don’t need no Meaghan. (Just kidding come back to me please.)

Hours later I got what is probably the most incredible wake up I’ve ever had. The curtain had shaken open a little bit in my cart on the train, all the other passengers had left and I had stretched out over the seats hours earlier. Through the slit in the curtain a soft pink light hit my face, which woke me up at 6:30 AM. I had only been sleeping for a few hours but peered out the window just to see where we were, and I was smack dab in the middle of the Swiss Alps, watching a glorious pink sunrise. I sat there, mouth agape watching the mountains and towns roll by. I barely blinked for the next few hours.

We passed through Zeurich and then Bern, which teased me with glimpses of the mountains some more. 15 hours on the train and finally FINALLY I made it to Geneva, though the view along the way was certainly worth it.

Fun fact. iPods don’t find location for offline maps. At all. If you’ve been following this blog you’ll know I am HORRIBLE with my sense of direction, so I had this immediate panic, before realizing Hey! I’m in Switzerland these people speak French! After stuttering out a few rusty French sentences I was on my way!

I rented a room in an apartment for myself, because hostels are pretty much the same price. Shortly after arriving I was met with an incredibly happy knock on the door: Gordy! Gordy is my friend from university, who lives in Ireland but is now studying here in Geneva and it’s been close to 3 years since we’ve seen each other, so a visit was in order!

He brought pizza with him (hallelujah) and we spent the next few hours catching up on life, laughing and eating. We walked around Geneva for awhile, while Gordy regaled me with his impressive knowledge of the area. We grabbed some burgers at his favourite burger joint, and talked and talked. It feels like we’re picking up right where we left off! I can’t wait for the fun weekend we’ve got planned.

S

Location: Berlin, Germany

*** Over to Berlin

Meag: After having what is apparently a German breakfast with Leberwurst-Brot and coffee, I met up with Tobi today and we went to Dussman, the biggest bookstore in town. Inside the building a French artist had created a vertical garden. Basically, it’s a 20 meter tall, 10 meter wide wall with various kinds of flowers and moss on it and water trickling down: very beautiful. Right at the bottom of the wall there is a little cafe where we met up with Tobi’s friend Patrick for a Cappuccino. It turns out that Patrick is crazy about Canadian sports. When he could name all of the CFL teams, I was so impressed. I tried to stump him by asking the name of the Saskatchewan team, but somehow he got it right. Who on earth outside of Canada knows the Saskatchewan Roughriders?? He speaks Arabic fluently and teaches German to refugees. So, he told me a little bit about the difficulties of communicating with different ethnic and religious groups in his class. We explored the English book section for a while after coffee and I found one by Sarah Anderson with funny drawings in it. I was very tempted to buy it but didn’t want to lug around more stuff. Before we parted ways, we made plans to meet up at an American diner in the south of Berlin.

Taking the train in Berlin is so easy (Love public transportation here!). There are maps with all the train lines on them everywhere, so it’s really hard to get lost despite Sav not being there. At the bar I got to know Jannik, a commercial pilot, and Alex, a lawyer. While playing a card game called Wizard, which is very similar to Push, they told me stories about their jobs. It turns out a pilot’s life isn’t as fabulous as you’d think. Lots of night shifts, little time for sightseeing and being away from home all make it very stressful. Alex is working on a few tough cases for the prosecution. A few drinks in however, he was able to get over a case where the judge hadn’t followed his recommendation of jail time, but imposed a ridiculously low fine. In the end, Tobi won the game, but all of us had lots of fun!

We made plans for watching soccer and playing board games at Jannick’s the next day. Apparently the two best soccer teams play each other tomorrow so it sounds like a must-see.

M