More misadventures for Julia in Europe

I arrived in Bern, Switzerland yesterday and met up with the brother of a girl I know from Vancouver. His name is Joel and his roommates are Simon and Timon. (They are all good fun.) The plan for today was to go river rafting in the Alps with their volleyball club. This meant that last night we had to travel to Igis where they all are from.

These three boys like to cut things close. I`ve run to catch the bus or train more times in the last 24 hours than ever in my entire life.

Before we left for Igis, Joel showed me around Bern. It started to rain a little, but we were alright with walking home. Then it rained harder. Then it became a full out thunderstorm. I had to tuck my camera and purse under my jacket. By the time we got back Simon and Timon had made dinner. However, we had to catch the tram to the train station so we quickly got all our stuff together and headed out.

This was no easy tram to catch. Joel and I ran while Timon and Simon rode their bikes. We literally ran alongside the tram for three or four blocks. Once it stopped, I jumped on only to have the doors shut behind me leaving Simon and Timon outside and me never paying for my ticket. We tried to open the doors, but to no avail.

I sat down while Joel had a lengthy conversation in Swiss-German with the ticket taker man. (No one seems to know what his actual title is.) Meanwhile the tram started moving and Simon and Timon had to follow us full speed on their bikes and in the pouring rain. I had no idea what Joel and the ticket man were discussing until we got to the next stop. The doors opened and Timon grabbed a ticket out of his mouth that he had been holding the whole ride and handed it to Joel who handed it to the ticket man. The ticket man looked at it, made a tear in it, handed the ticket to me and walked away.

We all eventually met up at the train station where we again ran to make the train to Zurich and on to Bern.

Now what was all the fuss about? It turns out that in the excitement of running for the tram I had jumped on thinking that we just needed to make it stop and then I could buy a ticket. The ticket man had another idea. He wanted to charge Joel and me 86 Swiss Francs (about 80 US) for not having tickets. Joel was able to show that he had a pass allowing him to ride for free. He had to explain that I was from America and had made a mistake, BUT the ticket was on its way. Which is where Timon and Simon saved the day and delivered the ticket saving me 80 bucks!

It`s exhausting making sure you get everything right in another country. It`s much worse when you are out of breath and your shoes are soaked through with water.

Speaking of soaked, I did go rafting today in the Alps and it was excellent. Cold, but excellent.

Tomorrow I go over the Alps into Italy to spend three days on the west coast taking in some sunshine (I hope).