Okay I know I'm a bit behind so I am going to catch up right now, it's been a crazy week!

Switzerland was absolutely amazing. It was beautiful and perfect and I would move there in a minute if I could. I know I can't even come close to accurately describing how amazing it was but I am going to try!

We arrived in Lucerne after our night train from Nice. The 12 hours flew by and I was actually able to sleep so it went a lot better than I expected! We then only had to take two short trains and we were in Lucerne. Perfect! When we exited the train station our first order of business was to find an ATM because Switzerland doesn't use euros. They use Swiss Francs, which looked almost identical yet were different enough to need to get them, oh well.
We would have waited until we had dropped our packs off at the hostel but we didn't have any money to pay for the bus ticket so we didn't have a choice. No matter, we easily found a bank then made our way back to the bus. We were staying at a Youth Hostel and the name of the stop was youth hostel so that was pretty fool proof. There were even little signs that walked you from the stop to the hostel it was perfect. Oh, and for frame of reference, youth in Europe is younger than 26, not 18, just FYI. We couldn't check in yet but there were lockers for our stuff. There was a bulletin board with tons of things to do and see, so we decided to explore around the hostel to get lunch then go back to the city center and explore there. The restaurant we ate at was right by the hostel, and was so good! We didn't exactly know what we were ordering when we got it but it was good! Meat and spaghetti of some sort, we think pork. It came with an unidentifiable soup that tasted good so I didn't ask. Oh, and just for frame of reference, CHF (Swiss francs) are only worth 1.1 USD so very close, and things are generally priced very similar, except food. It's way more! Like an average meal is like 25CHF. Even a meal at BK is like 19! It's crazy!! Some meals cost more than our hostel did! But oh well that's how it is you gotta eat! We headed back to the train station to make our next night train reservation to Amsterdam, but oh of course in true Carla and Megan fashion something had to be wrong and they only had one seat available that they wouldn't let us share. So we had to instead ride on the one leaving at 3:00 and leave earlier than expected, but hey what you gunna do, we were there during Swiss holiday apparently so everyone was traveling. They had a pamphlet at the hostel that suggested a walking route through the Old Town, and since New Europe had no tour in Lucerne we decided this was our best bet. We attempted to follow and saw some great stuff, including lots of swans and beautiful bridges, got some yummy Swiss chocolate (so great) and continued to wander, until the very end looking for the city wall. After wandering around and stumbling upon other stuff for a while we finally found it and climbed all the towers. It was tall and got very hot but it was so worth it! Being able to see the innerworkings of the old clock and getting a great view of the city! And walking along the top of the wall was pretty cool too. Once we finished that and found our way back to the bus stop it was time to go back to the hostel and actually check in. We were in a room with 20 beds, all female, but the way it was set up you'd never know it. There were little corridor cubby things so you were only by 3 other beds. And each bed had a plug so we could finally charge up some dying batteries. We also now had to make an additional reservation for the night in Amsterdam that we won't be on the train for since we were leaving earlier than expected. The hostel had a poster for a folklore dinner show in town, and said it was a must see so we decided to go. It was quite crowded and because we didn't make a reservation way in advance we were on the side not facing the stage, but there was a large screen so we could see and it was just as good. The show consisted less of folk lore stories and more of folk music traditions like yodeling and those huge horns and cowbells, but it was very entertaining none the less. They randomly selected people in the crowd to participate in playing the instruments or yodeling, etc. neither of us was selected but when they did a huge line dance and pranced around the room of course I participated! The couple we sat next to was from Melbourne, Australia (almost the same thing)! We bonded over being melbournites and they were very friendly. Oh and of course the food, it was great! I had a shank steak and veggies that were so so yummy, and the Melbourne couple shared their fondue with us so we got the whole package!! It was delightful! The show ended at about 9:45 and we were shocked to see that the city had completely shut down. Hardly any lights on or people to be seen. I guess when you're not a huge tourist city you don't have a huge night life, huh? So we took advantage of this to have a full nights sleep.
We awoke in the morning and had to promptly check out before doing anything, because when we booked hostels none had both nights available so we had to book two separate ones. There was breakfast at the hostel so that was nice, finally had the yogurt I'd been craving (withdrawals I guess) and then we headed out. The night before I tried looking up walking tours and I found one that said it left from the big arch out front of the train station every day at 10:00, so we got there 9:45 and waited, and waited, and waited. No one showed up. No one around us was also waiting for the tour, nothing. It had a full website, but didn't exist? Who knows. We were a little annoyed so we went into the tourist info booth in the train station to see if they have any tours, and of course the one they have left at 9:45, but it was €16 and stuff we had already seen so we opted out anyway. It was a sign that we were meant to start our hiking early (and thank goodness we did!). Megan forgot her train pass so we had to run back to the hostel to get it out of the locker, then back to the main train station which was also the main bus and boat station, to get on a ferry (covered with the Eurail, woo!) to bring us to the mountains. It was a beautiful hour spent on Lake Lucerne passing cute towns and lovely landscapes. We also met a nice older couple from Switzerland and a young guy from Australia on our way and really enjoyed chatting with them about home towns and other small talk. We arrived in the town of Vitznau where we then took a trolley train thing to the top of Mount Rigi, Queen of the Mountains, which we would then hike down. We picked a route that was supposed to resemble that of Mark Twain, and we were told it would take 5 hours. Well, little did we know that the trails aren't as clearly marked as people say they are, nor do all paths lead anywhere. We followed a pretty straightforward path from the top to a train stop about halfway down were all the trails diverge, because we were told our Mark Twain route didn't start until there, it took us about two hours to get there (maybe a little more, we stopped a lot for pictures). But once we got to that halfway point, that's where the real fun began. We stop by tourist information to see which direction we should be walking, and the woman told us towards Weggis, another town. So, we follow the signs marked Weggis, and they immediately lead us to an elevator and our only option is to get on a cable car to ride down, which is obviously not what we want. So we go back to the girl, and she says oh no, you should have gone left (an unmarked trail) and make sure you keep left! Okay, we follow it, the train diverges, we stay left. No problem. The slope is very steep and is killing my bum knee, so I can't wait until it flattens out. Well, right where it flattens out, it diverges again, but this time, both paths are blocked off so we can't go down them. Perfect. Well there's no way I can climb back up to get to the rightward option, and we notice up ahead some people coming up from one of the roped off directions, so we decide to just go there anyways, it was just a little pole in our way. Wow, what a dumb mistake that was. There were cows roaming free in the enclosure, which was fine, but there was one super close to the path, and he kept staring at us. There was no real way to go around him on the other side of the path because there was a cliff-like steep slope we couldn't go up or down. The people coming the opposite way walked right past him with no problem, we can too, right? Well because of the way we walked we had to make eye contact to walk past, and that's a no no. As we walked past we heard his darn traditional Swiss cowbell start ringin and we were convinced he was going to charge us, especially because when I walked past I looked back and I saw him doing his little foot kick in the dirt act and I definitely thought we were done for. We ran away as inconspicuously as we could. We're still here to tell the tale so clearly the cow didn't end up chasing us, but it could have! I wouldn't have been scared if it weren't for its little horns that made identifying gender difficult (udders and horns, what?). Anyway, we get past the scary cows that were going to eat us, pass through another wire to get us what we think is back on track, and follow the trail markers and signs. Well at this point we have completely lost sight of any people. We walk and walk through woods and past waterfalls and weird paintings of gnomes and trolls, then we encounter a sign with a picture of a wolf and words we don't know, except danke, or thank you. I'm guessing it said don't feel the wolves? But we don't know. We took it as a warning of wolves in the area and began to freak out, but there was no way to go but onward. We pass a few of these signs, along with passive caves that I'm terrified contained these sleeping wolves, luckily it was still day time (thank goodness for not doing a tour and starting early!). As we continue on we get brief spurts of people, as we pass hotels or restaurants or things of the like on the mountain. We can tell were making progress because Lake Lucerne is getting closer, but still not close enough quick enough at this point. To make matters worse, we each roll our ankle three separate times and my knee is in such pain I wish there were an escalator to take to the bottom. We just keep walking in random woods for what feels like forever, seeing more cows and thinking we're going to die. Then we get to some roads and some cute houses, and a sign that says only 10 minutes away! Yay!!! I pause to take a picture of one particularly quaint house, when all of a sudden a large dog darts out and starts chasing and barking at me! Luckily I think he had an electric fence because he wasn't on a chain but he didn't get me, but lord was that scary! We then get to an actual neighborhood that appears to have stairs all the way down to the water, which is where we need to go. We start walking down the stairs and some elderly man starts yelling at us, I'm guessing that we were trespassing (it wasn't in English) so I tell him where we are headed and he points back up the stairs to continue that path. Well, I don't know if that precious sign lied or if we got lost, because the next marker we found said we were 40 minutes away, and at that point I was convinced we were just never going to make it. But we follow the signs through more woods and more neighborhoods, and we FINALLY make it to the city of Weggis! We follow the signs to the boat dock, and of course just our luck one boat had just left 10 minutes prior, and the next one wasn't for over an hour. It was okay though because we were starving and had passed a bratwurst cart that smelt amazing! So we went back and grabbed some. They were heavenly. We just ate and looked at the water and waited for the boat. We finally arrived back to Lucerne about 8 1/2 hours after our journey began, and still had to go check into our new hostel. We go back to the old one, grab our bags, I google the directions, and we are on our way. Google makes it seem like there are no easy ways to get there via bus so we decide to walk the 27 minutes. With our packs. After hiking all day. Bad idea. We follow the directions exactly, but when we arrive, there's nothing there! We were so confused, we finally found a cute young couple who tried to help us. He searched it on his phone, and it said we were a minute away only, but he insisted that there are no hotels or hostels in the area. He asked me to see the full address, and upon seeing that it is the BellPark Hostel, he knew that it had to be on the other side of the city, in the neighborhood of BellPark, on a street with the same exact name!! How annoying is that? They were really helpful and got us on the series of busses we needed to get there and we were on our merry way. When we arrived, we were in for a little surprise. Our hostel was Asian themed, and basically everyone staying there was from Asia, except us. It was a little odd but clean enough so we went to bed after our long long day. We got there so late and had some things to do that we were up for a while, we felt bad because our roommates were trying to sleep. We were as respectful as we could be then went to bed. We woke up in the morning, really excited for free breakfast and tea, but were we in for a little surprise. This Asian themed hostel served FRIED RICE for breakfast with an egg! You can't make this stuff up, who does that?? It was really yummy though despite how odd it was to be eating fried rice for breakfast in the middle of Switzerland, but no matter. We had to check out of our hostel, but unlike every other place we have stayed so far, they didn't have 24 hour reception and therefore no where to store our bags. We had to check out by 10 and our train didn't leave til 2:30, so our only option was to carry our sacs. It wasn't too bad, we were just a little sore from the hike, but we made do. We wandered around the old town one last time, shopping around, having lunch and eating Swiss chocolate. We found some neat little areas like a cool park and neat sculptures and stuff, but then it was time to board the train. Only about 9 hours lie between us and Amsterdam.
Switzerland, you were amazing and I want to move there right now, hope you're willing to take me back in the near future!