Switzerland here I come =)

7 March 2011

            This weekend, I am going to Basel, Switzerland to visit some family friends.  I am so excited that I can I can hardly contain myself.  My train ticket has been bought, my bag is packed and I am ready for a one-woman, cross-country adventure =)

            As I get on the train in Angers, it is around noon.  I will not arrive in Basel until 7 tonight, but with my IPod in hand, I am ready for the journey.  I get off in Paris.  From there, I must take the metro from one train station in Paris to another to catch my train to Strasbourg.  Being ever savvy of the ways of the NYC subway, I confidently buy my metro ticket at the kiosk nearby and proceed to the entrance.  I swipe my ticket and begin to walk through the gate.  To my horror, as I pass through, the gate closes forcefully on my backpack and I am trapped in the entranceway.  The girl behind me kindly says, “Attends, j’ouvre” (or, “Just wait, I’ll open it for you”).  She does and to my amazement, she also gets stuck.  This unfortunate cat and mouse game continues on for quite awhile.  I would love to stay and watch the fun, but I have to catch another train, so I find my way through the metro and follow the signs to the 4 train.  I find my metro and get on.  Just like in NYC, it is extremely crowded and hot.  I sit down next to some Parisian teenagers and to my delight, I understand every word that they are saying.  With my new-found boost of confidence (if I can understand Parisian teenagers, I can understand anything), I get off at the train station and rush to catch my train to Strasbourg.  Once there, I find my seat near a young woman and her three small children.  They are absolutely adorable and they offer me candy after I help them get their window shade down.  As the SNCF (France train company) worker comes by to check my ticket, I express to him my concern about making my next train.  My train to Strasbourg left 11 minutes late and my original transfer time between trains in Strasbourg is 9 minutes.  Needless to say, I am panicking a bit.  He calmly tells me that I will mostly likely miss my train and that there is not another one until Sunday (Wow, thank you for the kindhearted support Frenchman).  As the train nears the station, the girl next to me expreses that she is also connecting on another train from Strasbourg.  After talking for a few moments, we realize that we are both connecting on the same train.  Luckily for us, as we step off the train in Strasbourg, our connecting train is on the platform right in front of us.  Unfortunately for us, the doors are closing.  As I begin to feel like I will  be hopelessly stuck in Strasbourg for the weekend, I see an old lady banging on the train door with her cane and yelling at the conductor in French (“I paid good money for this ticket and I am NOT responsible for my connecting train being late. Now you let me on this train, young man”).  Fortunately, she scared the conductor enough that he opened the door and we were able to get on.  In the confusion of boarding the train, I lost my new friend and hurried to find a seat.  I found one by a man and his son.  As many French fathers, the man was extremely affectionate towards his son—they played with his toy truck and cuddled the whole train ride.  They were speaking French and as the people filed off the train at each stop, we struck up a conversation.  I learned that the boy, 6 years old, lives with his father in Switzerland, but that they are originally from France.  He informs me that I will have to go through customs at the train station as Switzerland is NOT in the European Union.  I bid them goodbye and hurry though the train station to find my friends.  I locate them and we head home to eat dinner.  It is so nice to hear English for a change (the Tudors are a family of ex-patriots who recently moved to Basel).  That night after dinner, we go to an Irish pub and listen to a jazz band.  They are wonderful, but I am exhausted after my long journey, so we head home around 11:30 and hit the sack: in the morning, we are off to the Swiss Alps =) 

I am awakened at 5:30 in the morning by the youngest Tudor (Ami).  She jumps on my bed and tells me to hurry up and get dressed so that she can go skiing.  I do as she requests and we head off to the alps.  The drive is about 2 and a half hours and with three kids, and four adults (one of the Tudor’s nannies came along with us) in a van, we couldn’t have arrived sooner.  Upon arrival, we checked in and got our lift passes.  Being as how I have only been skiing once in my life, I opted not to re-learn on the Swiss Alps.  Anda (the nanny) is about my age and she doesn’t ski either so we get to spend the day together tubing and exploring the glacier at the top of the mountain.  Anda is from Romania, but she speaks fluent English and we have an absolute blast.  We heard every language being spoken around us as we meandered through the Alps (French, German, Italian, Spanish, English, and many others).  We got lost once, but luckily I found a French family nearby and they were able to guide us back to where the needed to be.  This is the most amazing day of my life.  I am in awe of all that God has created and the beauty of the breathe-taking mountain peaks surrounding me.  It is absolutely freezing (about -11 C at the top) and extremely windy (wind chill of -16 C) but somehow, I don’t mind.  After a long day of traipsing through the snow, we meet back up with the Tudors and head home.  We eat dinner and John (the father) tells Anda and I about his gift of dream interpretation over dinner.  We don’t fully believe him, but it is good for a laugh if nothing else.  After dinner, we head to bed and get some rest—I have another long journey home ahead of me tomorrow. 

            I wake up around 8 and Alexa (the oldest Tudor—13) takes me on a pedestrian tour around the city of Basel.  We visit the local cathedral, the city hall, a toy museum and eat some roasted chestnuts.  I have never tasted anything so strangely delicious in all my life.  Everyone simply MUST try them!  I return to the Tudor home to eat lunch and they take me to the train station.  I will never forget this family and the amazing weekend that we spent together in the Swiss Alps. 

            As I board my final train and take my seat, I find a strange peace come over me as the conductor announces "Angers" as the next stop on the train from Paris.  I manage to sleep a bit and before I know it, the conductor tells us that we have arrived in Angers.  I am overjoyed.  Although I have thoroughly enjoyed my weekend, I feel so at peace upon my arrival at the train station in Angers.  As I walk home from the station, I realize the reason for the tranquility and joy that I am feeling—Angers has truly become my home.  I open the door to my tiny apartment and am completely content to be “home”. 

Anda found a boyfriend at the restaurant on top of the mountain =)

We don't even want to know.

Yum....chestnuts =)

Dear America, this is what's McDonald's in Switzerland.  Please inform corporate IMMEDIATELY that this is what I expect upon my arrival back in the US.