Day 08

with contributions by Tyler
red writing exclusively from him

Before this blog, here's a funny story I forgot to tell about one of our days in Paris (*DISCLAIMER: you may not find this funny, but we find it hysterical). Again, the French girls (heretofore called Martha 1 and Martha 2 *some names have been changed) we were with only spoke French, Polish, and a little bit of English. Sometimes, when myself and Tyler were having "private" conversations in English, they would all of a sudden burst out laughing. For example, it started to rain and Martha 1 went to get an umbrella from her apartment. Martha 2 said in polish French, "You brought one for me?" "No", says Martha 1 in a polish English. "Oh well," says Jim in English, "I'll use my coat." Then Tyler chimes in, also in English, "I'll just use my hat." Because he was wearing his tuque at the time. Instantly, after hearing the word "hat", Martha 1 and 2 spontaneously combust in laughter.  We have no idea why.

This reminds me about another funny thing that happened, on Day 06 at 2200 hours GMT+1. If you remember, that day we had many problems with the trains, and now we'd finally arrived in Barcelona and were on our way to our hostel. On the final subway before our destination, as the subway slows, Tyler lifts his bag to take it off the train, and thats when it all falls apart. It was the perfect situation, the right combination of tallness, wind velocity, inertia, gravity, physical force and heavy bag syndrome. Anyway, he ended up in a Spaniard's lap. I guess it's Tyler's way of getting to know the locals. He did make an attempt at apologizing, however it came out as a "Achou" in the innocent man's general direction.

Now, Day 08. Most of our day was on the trains taking us to Geneva, Switzerland. Most of it was uneventful, except for a Swiss girl who was spying on us while we were "sleeping". I was resting my eyes, enjoying the soft and slow music playing in my ears. Every now and then glacing out the window to see if there was something interesting. It was one of these moments when I first spotted her, and it was then I knew.... At least she kept us entertained (and awake).

The above story does not end there, although my other narrative voice would like you to think so. Where was I.... yes... it was then I knew, that she was playing peek-a-boo. I caught her, ducking her little blonde head blues eyes behind the seat. So I decide to play along, at first just a raised eyebrow, then a friendly smile... I decided to change it up and go on the offensive, this time I would dodge to the right and come back hard to the left with a little "RAR". Little did I know this would result in a slight gleeful scream... And then her parents got worried... So I stopped playing and pretended to be sleeping, and it worked she left me alone. I hate when 4-year-olds get me into trouble.

So we finally arrived in Geneva, Switzerland, only to find out that our hotel was in Ferney, France. A stone's throw from Geneva airport. This meant that when we arrived, we went through French customs, then Swiss customs, then French customs, then Swiss customs. Then to get to our hotel, we went through the France border on our taxi, but there were no border police there (if only it were like that in Canada/US). Then when we left our hotel the next morning, we once again blew through the Swiss border with our contraband, and once again it was unmanned.

That night we started getting hungry and began to look for a place to eat. Out in the distance, we heard the sorrowful/beautiful tones of country music. It was coming from a place called "Buffalo Grill". Immediately we were drawn to the comfort of the West, the wild west, and its corn laden salads and its popcorn appetizers. We were greated and waited upon by a friendly cowgirl she spoke no english, but assured us that the steak was a piece of meat. Jimmy was not deceived he ordered the Buffalo Grill burger, I though ordered the steak special. After devouring our small corny salads, our main order finally came, Jimmy had a some what typical looking burger, large tomato, pickle, lettuce, buns, no mayo. Mine however, looked to be lower end model of the buffalo burger, no large tomato, no pickle, no lettuce, no buns, and yes, no mayo. I dubbed it the steak au ground beef and ate it with its imitation of the west, pepper sauce. It was meat nonetheless, so I eat it and was satisfied.

More stories to follow, hopefully tomorrow. T-Out

Day 09 blog will come tomorrow, but we're here in Gimmelwald and it's very, very beautiful. Pictures will also be uploaded.