Date: 2008-03-13
To: Laussane
Miles today: 0.0

Bonjour,Still in a French speaking place:Thanks to Dan Hansen for his tremondous update great to hear from such people, I love the Bogong High Plains like you Dan, but I am in a small town on lake Geneva in Switzerland that has mountains towering over 2000metres on the other side of the lake, covered in snow, and I mean covered. From everwhere you look in town these mountains dominate the skyline, it is so spectacular and so foreign to an Australian.Thanks to Paula for her comments, great to hear from you.Thanks to Chris Jarman and his little woman...hehehe, I am glad you guys are following my adventures.Thanks to Brenda for her comments,and of course cant forget to mention Mick Stevens.I feel like it is Rompa room and the lady at the end who use to look through the round mirror thing and say a whole lot of kids names at the end of the show, every now and again she would sy Benjamin and I would be amased, how did she know I was watching.What i am basically saying is thanks for everyones comments.Been travelling the Nick P. method of late, dont book anything in advance, just take it as it comes. When Nick insisted this is the way we should travel I would always get a bit nervous, but have since adopted this novel aproach. It is good because you can see your accomodation before you book it, as opposed to doing it online, and usualy you get a great deal, as you are filling up what would other wise be empty beds.Last night things did not work out so well, at about 8pm my TGV train pulled up to the station, I should mention that the train travelled over 300kmhr, and it was so smooth, we really cant do public transport at home, you have to see how great the trains are here. I get off at Geneva and then thought I am in the wrong place, the train station is right in the middle of town but surrounded by huge palacial hotels. THe first one wanted 205 Franks, I started laughing, and she said we are booked up anyway. I went from hotel to hotel, all booked, turns out their is a motor show on, and the whole town is booked out, not a bed left.I am an experienced travellor now, so I sat down and cried, and then thought, just travel to the next town. Got back on the trains and headed for the next closest town on my way to Zurich, so I paid 20 francs and ended up in Laussane. Only problem was as I wandered from hotel to hotel, you guessed it all booked, by this stage it is pushing 10pm, there is lost of parks in this town, but it is bloody cold. I grabbed a map and a travel guide and I noticed that on the edge of town their was a backpackers with 312 beds, so after more than an hour of walking at just past 11pm I arrived. It was a reasonable price, super expensive by our standards but by Swiss it was dirt cheap, and rather nice.TOday I wandered around lake Geneva, it is surrounded by snow cap mountains that go straight down plunging into the lake, very similar to Zurich, but there are far more mountains. It is a rather small town, and I am preferring the small towns over the big metropolisis. It is also home to the Olympic Committee and I went and checked out the museum, it was superb. Watched Carl Lewis win the 100m in Los Angeles. Had a walk around the old town, and has a huge cathedral, must say Nick P it is even more stunning than the ones we saw in Zurich, more Catholic in influence so not so austere. It is a fascinating place, and is so beautiful. They are obsessed by trains in this country and supposedly have more trains per capita and more train line than any other country, it is such a great place. But after travelling through the chaos of southern Europe, I must say it is a tad boring, but still gorgeous. It still amases me how close the countires I have travelled to are in goegraphical distance, but how far apart they are culturally, politically and socially.By the way Mick, dont worrry about which one of us is going to become more right wing the quickest after leaving university, Jarman will always be far to the right of us, particularly now that he is a millionaire living it up in WA. I really do make myself laugh sometimes. Now that I know you are reading this journal Chris, I had to include you in my comments. Great to see you exercising Dan, you would love it over here, but I must admitt even I am starting to tire of the travelling, definitely lookig forward to the hiking, and it is only now 10 days before I fly to Atlanta. Tomorrow I am going to go pick up my bag from Nick and Nicoles in Zurich, and then get on a plane in the early hours and head to London. I will sure miss continental Europe, it is defintely an amasing place and full of many mysterious, it has something for everyone. The biggest cultural shock was defintely italy, but I soon adjusted, the one thing I miss in this country is you cant go people watching like you could in Rome. My favourite thing was sliding down the slopes of Zermatt whilst gazing away at the Matterhorn. Love to return in the summer and do some hiking, maybe I could drag Dan along for the ride. Well thanks for reading everyone, it has been reassuring to know so many people out there are tuning in, but dont forget the main event is yet to come. The mighty AT, I am starting to think how am I going to manage to hike 3500kms and still remain sane. It is going to be a big challenge, almost as hard as passing GIS.Au RevoirThat is FrenchLook how how wordly I have become.Oh yes, no need to worry everyone I gave the Giles a call, and he is doing fine, upto his usual tricks and shananigans