The True Beggining

Ok, so I said good bye to Christian and his beautiful, but expensive country, and hopped on the trains to Switzerland; An even more beautiful and expensive country. I know people warned me about the cost of Western Europe, but it never really sunk until now. Everything really does cost something, even to go to the washroom. Which, I bet most people knew, but I didn't.

The train rides from Copenhagen to Zurich, Switzerland was great. It was a long 20 hour Journey, but I stopped and looked around a bit in Germany and slept mostly on the night train. I only had a seat on the train, but later on I managed to sneak to back and find empty sleeping cabin.

I met up with Simon in Zurich and we drove an hour and a half to his home town. I was truly in awww for much of the drive, because the landscape was incredible with its green grass and its many valleys. The small village where Simon is from has so many farms and it definitely reminded me of home and of, actually, Pioneer Camp .... If only I had a horse to ride the trails on ... Oh man!

English in Switzerland is known and spoken much less then in Denmark. They mostly speak German here (or I guess "Swiss German"), and not many know much English. The odd case they might be able to understand a bit of English, but do not really speak it. It wasn't too much of a problem though, because Simon translated everything, he made it easy. It was awesome to go have him here to show me his home because I really got to experience the true culture and traditions of Switzerland. As you problem know Switzerland is big on their cheeses. They have this special meal called "Raclette", which is kind of like fondue but with much more cheese and more of a meal.

Besides the high prices and the big language barrier, Switzerland is definitely the most beautiful and the nicest place I've seen so far. If you come to Europe, you must come here, and you must see the country side ... the true Switzerland.

After the 4 days spent in Watwill, Switzerland (Simon's home village) and experiencing the culture from a local perspective, Simon and I hopped on the Train to Prague, Czech Republic. A 15 hour ride where we became equals: we were both tourists in unfamiliar place within an unfamiliar culture. This really felt like the start to the "Euro-trip", as it was the first time planning became essential; the first time in a European hostel and the first time asking the locals to point out the way.
 
We arrived in Prague in the morning and we were not too tired because we somehow managed to get a fair bit of sleep in the awkward style train seats. The second we stepped foot onto the arrival platform at the train station, we were approached by a slick-haired Czech sales men who made numerous attempts to try to get us to stay at his hostel for the night. Although he made some attracting offers to us, we decided to stick with our original plan and stayed in this other hostel we found in your guide book. After checking in we spent the rest of that day and a part of the next day checking out the city. We saw the Old Royal Castle and a couple of the huge Cathedrals, and also checked out this one famous building called the Dancing House. It is one of Prague's more modern architectural master pieces' that was designed by a Canadian architecture (it was quite Unique). We also saw the city at a few high points, and the view was pretty spectacular. It made for some great photos. Besides the scenery, another thing Simon and I enjoyed the most was the people here. Even though there was a big language barrier the people were very easy to talk to and converse with. Life seemed less busy and more laid back here than it did in Switzerland and in Denmark.

We left Prague last night and are now headed to Greece where we are going to spend a good deal of our time. With 3o hour trip on 3 different trains, it's certainly going to be a crazy journey.

I've been travelling for over two weeks now, yet it feels like it is just starting.