Last night after leaving here i went looking for a
place to eat, and stopped at a bar/restaurant with
outdoor seating. I took one of the outside tables
meant for 4 and ordered my meal. It was a very crowded
place (one of the reasons why i chose it), and they
took quite a long time to make my order. in the
meantime, a couple walked by with a dog, and wanted a
place to sit and relax. They asked me if they could
use two of the empty chairs at my table, and me,
thinking "use" means "borrow and take to another
table", said yes, go ahead! well, "use" meant "use",
and they both sat down right there, at my table, with
the dog and 2 cigarettes!
The waitress came by and asked if they're bothering
me, and i said no.... (what else could i say? they
were sitting right there!) so she took their order as
well... two beers.
The beers came, they drank, smoked, and left my table,
while my dinner still hadn't arrived. Finally it did,
and after I finished, I asked the waitress for the
check. Well, much to my surprise, she said it's
already been paid for! I didn't understand at first,
so I asked again... and again, she said... "it's
already paid. that couple paid for your meal as a
thank you for sharing your table"
i was shocked!!!!! first of all when they sat down,
they WERE a bother, because the cigarette smoke was
coming right into my face. now i find out that they
paid my check... wow! i went back to the hotel
thinking who were those people and why'd they do that
just for my accepting to share the table!!!!
so anyway, that's the funny thing that happened on the
way to the hotel.
that was last night.
this morning another funny thing happened. life is
funny that way -- lot of funny things keep happening!
it was an unexpected blue sky this morning, so right
after breakfast at the hotel i started driving to
interlaken, thinking i'd go to the mountains of
jungfrau, mönch, and eiger. It's an absolutely
beautiful drive all the way down from Luzern...
unfortunately there aren't too many places to pull
over and take pictures. To the locals back home, if
you've been to Mt. Hamilton or Crater Lake in Oregon,
this road is similar to those -- very narrow with a
steep drop-off on the right.... one mistake and down
you go!!!
and on that road were trucks, cars with trailers,
regular cars, tourbuses, and me.
and sometimes, "trucks, me, cars with trailers,
regular cars, and tourbuses."
and other times, "regular cars, trucks, cars with
trailers, me, and tourbuses."
but never "me, trucks, cars with trailers, regular
cars, and tourbuses."
but it was still fun in spite of being stuck behind
someone all the time.
By the time i got to interlaken, (gorgeous
lakes+mountain scenery!) it started to rain slightly.
I caught a glimpse of what I'm assuming to be
Jungfrau, as that's the highest mountain in the
region. There were clouds all around the summit, so i
decided to just keep driving straight ahead.
That's what i did, and after about 2 or 3 more hours
of driving straight ahead and a couple of turns here
and there, i ended up in Geneva.
Drove by the European headquarters of the U.N., and
parked my car near the train station. Rest of the
afternoon was spent in Geneva.
I just roamed around the town .... went on a ferris
wheel next to lake geneva, which was tall enough to
give nice views of the whole city and the surrounding
mountains... then walked around the lake to the
tallest waterfountain in the world -- Jet D'Eau. as
far as i could tell, it's the tallest ANYTHING in
geneva! some interesting statistics on this thing: it
shoots 500 liters/second of water straight up 450 feet
at 200 kmph! I don't remember seeing any buildings in
the city taller than 450 feet!
well, it took me 5 hours to drive from Luzern through
Interlaken and Luasanne and down to Geneva, so I left
the city at 4:30, thinking i should be back in Luzern
by about 8:30 using the faster all-freeway route.
It's 8:30 right now. I've been in Luzern for the last
one and half hours.
So..... i think i'll go have dinner at some other
crowded restaurant and hope someone else wants to
share my table and pay for my food....
bon nuit,
-moi.
(p.s. i'm very nice and kind and i'm bringing back a
swiss cow bell (if i can find it) and chocolates)
Brienzer See: Lake Brienz, on the East side of Interlaken. (The first picture is actually Luzern)
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