A final word...

So I said I would blog about Switzerland and Prague. Seeing as how the computers are going to be packed away for good tomorrow and I won’t have extended access, I should probably do that. When we left Berlin, we went to Prague. The Czech Republic isn’t covered by our Eurail passes (our train passes) so we had to pay a supplement to cover our train from the border to Prague and again on the way back, but it was really okay and worth it because Prague was pretty and a nice place to walk and not spend any money unless you wanted to. Our hostel was a butt because we had changed our reservations the week prior to make up for the time we didn’t spend in Berlin. Our reservation had to change to the night before we were scheduled and we also had one person back out of our travel so we cancelled her reservation altogether. All our scheduling was changed through e-mail and the last message we had received said our confirmation number didn’t change but our reservation would work out the way we needed it to. When we got there, the guy at reception said we needed to have a new confirmation number if we had actually changed our reservation even though we had the e-mail from them saying otherwise. We ended up having to pay for the other person, but we still had a place to stay so we were relieved. Prague like I said was a good place to walk. We spent a lot of time walking and seeing the sights though, most sights had a charge to enter so we didn’t get to actually go in. This was fine with me though because I’m fascinated by the architecture and differences among the cultures. Prague was also fun because we had been so many places and were familiar with so many different cultures. It probably sounds weird to say that one culture was interesting because of others, but let me explain. Everyone’s familiar with the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace in London. We went up the hill in Prague to look at the castle and about three minutes after we got there music started playing and there was a changing of the guard there. Honestly, it was more interesting than the changing of the guard in London because there was music being played live from the open windows in the palace throughout the whole process. It seemed choreographed even, like a dance (probably why I liked it so much). Also, Prague seemed to cash in on their history in the classical music world much like here in Vienna. Prague seemed like they took customs from other successful economies and countries and made those customs their own in an attempt to be successful themselves.
In Switzerland we had the most relaxing and enjoyable time on this trip. We have had to fill out sheets for each of our free travels with our train numbers, hotel/hostel information, and sites we planned on seeing. We literally put on our sheet for Switzerland “relax and do nothing”. That is EXACTLY what we did and it was AMAZING!!! We literally spent two straight days swimming and sun bathing in the Alpine lake. It was the coldest water I’ve felt in my life, but it was worth getting in and being numb in places that should ALWAYS be felt just to say “I went swimming in a Swiss Alpine lake”. We had trouble finding our hostel because the Rick Steves map that we had showed the hostel on the wrong side of the river. We walked around for probably an hour before finding it. When we did though, it was the cutest of our hostels. It was run by this cute old lady who had like a second house right next door to hers. There was a kitchen, two bathrooms, one shower, and two rooms each with a loft. On the loft and on the bottom floor of each room there were little mattresses lined up one right next to the other to make one huge bed for 7 people. All of us on our free travel were put up on one loft. It was SOOOO funny!!! You probably had to be there, but let’s just say we didn’t go to bed until we were 150% tired so we would fall asleep right away and sleep hard so we wouldn’t kick each other. On Sunday, our last full day of free travel, we hiked up to the viewing platform that was behind the waterfall on the mountain. We took lots of pictures and got very wet. When we got down the hill we had a devo. This devo was led by the two guys on the trip, Joe and Richard. It was a great experience because neither one of those guys is Church of Christ OR a “leader” at their respective churches. This devo made them really get out of their comfort zones. Also, communion that day was a great experience. We literally only had bread and water between the five of us and all grocery stores are closed on Sunday in Europe. We “broke bread” in the literal sense of the word and all drank from one water bottle. Except for Joe…he drank from the water fountain that dispensed Alpine water. Not having the “right” stuff for communion was a spiritual experience for me because it wasn’t routine. It was a beautiful experience watching the guys being stretched as well as a beautiful experience being in such a beautiful place.
As for the rest of the trip: I leave for Paris the day after tomorrow. After that I will be home. It’s a surreal thing thinking about coming home. I can’t say I miss it…I can’t say I don’t miss it…I feel like I’ve been in a dream this entire trip and when I wake up it will all be gone. I’m glad I’ve had a camera (by the way…I’ve taken so many pictures that I had to buy a new flash drive today) because if I didn’t have the pictures, I wouldn’t believe this actually happened. It’s been everything it could have been and more.
I miss you all and will be home shortly.
Auf Weidersehen!