The group all met back in the main square in time to watch the Glockenspiel. Although it was interesting to see this thing I’d always heard about it went on for a really long time and there really wasn’t that much to it. Upon arrival at the youth hostel where we were to be spending the night we were warned that the lock mechanisms on the door were a bit tricky. That was an understatement. I was rooming with Renée and Stacey and thankfully Stacey figured out how to open the door otherwise we would’ve been really stuck. That night we were off to a German beer hall for dinner and what an experience that was. An amazing dinner and a litre of beer made my tummy very happy. We were there with two other contiki groups which really made it a party.
We ended dinner quite early, or at least it felt early because the sun set so late there. On our way back to the hostel we had another party bus and it was a lot more rowdy than the last although we were learning how to be a bit more careful about it. There was a club in the basement of the hostel which was nice because then we didn’t have to worry about transport but we didn’t really get to party with any of the locals. Being just amongst contiki people gave us the opportunity to practice some dance steps we had learnt in Austria, which I hate to admit I have forgotten. Unfortunately the door mechanism doesn’t get easier the more you drink and so I had to sit in the passage outside my room for a few minutes until Stacey came up to open the door.
It wasn’t the latest night on tour but it was definitely the earliest wake up. Add to that the horrible breakfast and Munich was not my favourite accommodation on the tour. Did I mention there was only one tiny lift so we had to climb flights of stairs with our luggage? However it was just one night and we were off on another adventure.
On our way to Switzerland we stopped off in the tiny country of Lichtenstein. We were told to get our passports out as if you wanted you could pay to get the country’s stamp to show you had been there. We were given some time to explore and eat lunch. However the minute we found a restaurant with free wifi the exploring fell to the wayside and lunch was spent trying on our phones.
Next it was off to Lucerne before heading to our stop for the night. When we arrived it was absolutely pouring with rain and while some brave folks elected to get off the bus to go to the lion statue I decided to stay dry. When everyone was back on the bus and the rain had abated for a bit we walked into town across the iconic wooden chapel bridge.
We were taken to some curio shops and given some time to walk around and buy stuff for the “Swiss” theme party the following night. Arriving at our stay over we realised it was also another small mountain town like in Austria. This may seem boring to some people but I was so exhausted and feeling so sick that I needed a really early night and this was the perfect place to do so. Our room was right next to the restaurant where everyone was having drinks and it took serious willpower to not go in there and join them giving in to the FOMO.
The next day was another chilled one as the tour option for the day was go up into the mountain. I elected not to do this as it was cold and expensive. Looking back this was probably my worst days on tour but I don’t think going up the mountain would’ve made it any better. I was so sick that day I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was struggling to breathe and couldn’t stop sneezing, it was horrible. We missed breakfast that morning and so the minute the restaurant opened we went there to get what we were told were the best meat pies. No jokes, they were amazing, although having seen Sweeney Todd I kept wondering what was really in them.
Afterwards some of the others decided to take a walk to the waterfalls and while I would’ve loved to I wasn’t feeling up to it and so decided to stay home and do some washing. Now this was not the first time doing washing in my life, or even on tour, but I really screwed it up. I was using liquid soap this time instead of powder and put way too much in. When I came back to get my washing the whole place was full of soap. The scene belonged in a movie. Me emptying out the bin to fill it with water and rinse down the floor before anyone had seen what I had done. Thankfully it was an outdoor facility otherwise who knows what would’ve happened. I had to put my clothes in for another wash in order to get all the soap off but thankfully I didn’t ruin any of them, I would’ve been so upset. When the others got back we decided to go exploring the little village next door the campsite. It was this literally just the buildings that were on the main road and maybe a few back and it ran right through the mountain valley. It was very pretty.
I finally managed to find a post office to send off some of the postcards I’d written up on the tour so far. It was then that I experienced the best part of my day. We walked into a little coffee shop and there on the menu was Rooibos. Never have I been so glad to see that in my life. Being with a bunch of Aussies they didn’t really understand what I was so excited about so I had to explain how it was a tea from back home and it was the best thing in the world when you are feeling sick. That cup of Rooibos tea really turned my day around.
Before we headed of the party that night, the group that I’d been mainly hanging around with and I all gathered in the boys’ room as it was Brad’s birthday and we needed to finish off our bottle of Absinthe. No easier the second time round. Especially since we’d found some cheap wine to buy and had already been drinking a bit of that. We headed off to the party with the other contiki groups all in our varied red and white clothing. Another underground club but this one was quite small and stuffy and so we kept coming up for air. Eventually we decided to walk into town to this little pub we’d seen earlier. As it turned out the upstairs was almost a club and even though we were the only people there besides the barladies it was quite a vibe. We got to request as many songs as we liked and just had a really awesome night to end off a not so great day.
Luckily the next morning wasn’t too early and so we got to sleep in a bit, relative to other days. We were heading off to another country again. We stopped in Heidelberg for lunch and as it shares the same name as a South African town some of the other Saffas decided to teach the Aussies to speak a bit of Afrikaans. This pretty much immediately went to rude words, which considering we would soon be in Amsterdam where the language is a bit similar wasn’t the greatest idea. Luckily their pronunciation was so bad no one would be able to understand what they were saying anyway.
That night we were staying in the Rhine Valley but on the way we stopped off for dinner and wine tasting. I had eventually given in and decided to take an antibiotic that morning and so just took a sip of each type of wine and then gave the rest to Danny to drink. We were given the wine in cute little shot glasses that they thankfully let us take home otherwise I would’ve had to steal it.
We were also given a talk about the making of steins and I decided to buy a boot as a souvenir, possibly y strangest buy yet. There was no party that night and we were staying in the strangest places ever. It was a like a bed and breakfast I could imagine staying in in some backwards town in the middle of the Freestate. As we were getting ready for bed Renée and I put the TV on only to discover there were no English channels. We had fun watching an episode of CSI in German and I still managed to guess who the murderer was. It was nice to get another early night especially as the next day we were moving on to Holland.
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