Lucerne

April 15, 2010

Hilary really wanted to go to Ballenberg which is an outdoor museum that shows original buildings and the way of life of people in Switzerland during the 1800s. It was on our way to Interlaken and she was really excited about it so I went with the flow. It was a little expensive but we didn't end up canyoning or going to Jungfrau so luckily I didn't spend as much money as I thought I was going to in Switzerland. The museum was different and there were a couple interesting things about it, but I could have d0ne without in the end. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

We then took a train to Lucerne from Interlaken in the morning and met our new host, Renzo. The meet up was pretty easy and we headed back to his place which was less than a 10 minute walk away from the train stations. Everything is so close in Europe, especially Switzerland. Lucerne is supposed to be one of the bigger cities in Switzerland but it's population is still only 80,000.

Renzo is a rugby player for the local team and to say he is rugby obsessed is an understatement. I walked in wearing my Springboks jacket I got in South Africa and he immediately told me to take it off. Apparently he is not a fan of their team - whoops. Nothing like starting off a CS stay with upsetting your host, haha. Once we put all our stuff down and figured out where we were sleeping we noticed Renzo had a half done puzzle on the floor. Children at heart Hilary and I ran over to it and started working away. The puzzle was started over four months ago and Renzo had given up after about a month so from there on out he had left it for couchsurfers to work on. He didn't expect it to get done anytime soon, but he wasn't expecting Hilary to show up. I thought I liked puzzles, but she was determined to finish it. Whenever we were at Renzo's place the next day and a half she was working away on it. I joined in from time to time but would usually get distracted with something else and leave her to do most of it. Damn my ADD. It also doesn't help that I'm blind and had to put on my glasses to actually see the puzzle pieces. Anyways, by the end of day two we had finished the puzzle. Yay for random accomplishments.

Renzo made us dinner and then had to leave for Russian class. He is moving to New Zealand to live and work for a few years but first is stopping in Scandinavia for a few months, then to Russia for a few months and is making his way south to New Zealand. He is taking Russian classes for his stay in Russia since they don't really speak much English or any of the other languages he speaks -- everyone here really does speak multiple languages. The stereotype Americans have for only knowing English is extremely legit. It feels like I have yet to meet a European who didn't know at least 3 languages.

We hung out working on the puzzle then went out to meet up with Renzo after his Russian class to go for a beer at his favorite pub. The name if it was Gracie Kelly (pronounced Grace). It was an Irish bar which had a realy cool vibe to it. It was Thursday which is their live music night. It is more of an open jam session where anyone who wants to play just comes and sits around a table and they all play together. It was really fun to listen to. We met up with one of Renzo's 'rugby mates' who's mom also happened to work at the bar. His name was David, and he was interesting to say the least. He was a huge flirt and always had a smile on and a wink for any girl who looked at him. Hilary struck his eye though and it was pretty entertaining to watch her squirm all night trying to figure out how to get him to lay off. "I have a boyfriend" didn't enter her mind as a solution though for some reason. Either way, I liked being on the other end of the situation and getting to watch it all happen.

Everything is really expensive in Switzerland including the beer at $9 a pint so we only had one beer and then headed out. David had come from Rugby practice so he had his ball with him and the boys started to throw it around outside of the bar. Hilary and I wanted to join in so we had a half hour lesson on how to throw a rugby ball. I picked up on it a little faster than Hilary did, apparently I'm a natural rugby thrower, haha. It was really fun throwing it around in the alley way though. Somehow I never learned to throw an American football growing. It's weird knowing how to throw a rugby ball and not a football. I'll have to get someone to teach me how to do that when I get back and see what I'm better at. I'm thinking it's going to be rugby though. Underhand seems easy than overhand.