A day to replay

On Monday morning we have met in Luzern and after a short walk around the city, we continued our way by train towards Brienzersee. It started to rain, but we didn’t care. Enjoying the views out of the window and discussing what has already happened to us before we got together, made our time on the train even more pleasant than we thought it could be. Both, having some plans in mind, we knew we are going to separate on the next train station in Spiez. My idea was to walk around the village to the castle and have a swim in the lake and my new yoalin buddy wanted to continue her way towards France from there. When we arrived to Spiez, we took a dip in the lake and as soon as we got in, it started raining. Oh well, we were wet anyways, so we continued our swimming. We became hungry soon, so we improvised with lunch and ate curd, carrots, cucumbers, bread and all the things we have found in our backpacks combined. What a funny scene to observe. I started reading her travel guide, as I never travel with one (I prefer to carry less and ask the locals if they could give me some recommendations, when I need them). I noticed there is a Jazz festival in Montreaux going on, right on our travel day, so I decided to make a stop in the city to check it out. My travel buddy found this idea very interesting, worth postponing her French adventure for a day. Montreaux it is! A very vivid city on the shore of Lac du Leman, where we were cooking a simple but delicious dinner and deciding where we can leave our luggage before joining the festival, we were for sure not aware, that the upcoming night is going to be one of the best on our journey. Walking around the lake, we passed a youth hostel and entered, just for fun, to ask for the cost of one night. Not surprised by the answer, we continued our walk for a few never ending kilometers, talked and finally made a stop on the shore under a nice looking castle. All sweaty, we wanted to jump in the lake and swim around, watching sunset, but a swan came to us, hissing and grunting, not wanting to leave us alone. After few minutes I got tired of this angry animal and started to sprinkle him with water, so he swam away. A quick jump in the lake was the refreshment we needed, to make us ready for the next step: the jazz festival. We got ready in our finest clothes (in language of backpackers read: not so dirty) and walked that infinite number of kilometers back to the city centre. Soon we reached it and tried to find some jazz music, but to our very surprise we couldn’t find it. At the very end of the city centre, in the park, there were bands playing and as it was for free, we decided to stay. After a few minutes we realized, this is not even jazz, but just people pushing you around, listening to earsplitting music not even similar to jazz. We soon knew what to do and tired from the day returned to our spleeping spot, but this time with a train. No more infinite kilometers for that day! Arriving back, we got ready to spend a night under the stars in a crowded city, worrying someone will see us and charge us a high fine. I don’t remember having a longer night in my life, that this one was. When morning had finally arrived, we somehow noticed my bread was half gone and we questioned, how was it even possible not noticing the thief while having eyes wide open almost the entire night. Because of what we learned in previous that, we blamed the swan and started laughing while realizing what we have just observed. What a day it was!

Klara and Anja