Follow Me Around the World

Today was my last day in Switzerland.  I woke up at around 830AM and packed up all of my stuff.  Since I had been here for several days now all of my stuff was sprawled out throughout my room.  I also had to balance the weight between my large backpack and my very small one to make sure I was under the weight allowed by Easyjet of 20 kilograms.

Linda decided that the gang, including Danny would head to Berne, the capital of Switzerland and then I would take the train from there to the Geneve airport.  The ride from Sugiez to Berne was about 45 minutes.  Once we got there we parked and walked into the train station in the center of the city.  Our first stop was at a restaurant in the train station for a bite to eat.  It was expensive.

From the restaurant we continued to walk through this very old city.  I think it was founded in the 1200’s.  Most of the buildings are old, cobblestone streets and plenty of shops mixed in.  Anyway we stopped at Switzerland’s parliament to say hello and then continued along.  We then stopped at several points along the wall that Berne was built behind.  Then we went to see the Berne bears.  There has been a Berne bear pit for hundreds of years.  When Napolean made his rein through Berne he raided the treasury and even took the Berne bears!

Then it was on to this tourist center where we watched a very inspirational movie about Berne.  For 3 francs we were able to watch a fifteen minute or so movie that was pretty good and worth it if you want to learn about Berne, its history and what the city has to offer.  After the movie and the tourist center we walked to get some food and then it was time to head back to the train station.  I got my ticket, the four of us walked around and then it was time to say goodbye.

I was sad to see them go.  I continue to have great times in Switzerland and with Linda and Sarah.  I should be seeing Sarah in October as her family comes to New York to visit.  I got on the 204PM train to head to Geneve airport.  The ride to the airport would take about 2 hours.  Once I got to the airport I found the Easyjet check in and started the process.  Boy was this a pain in the ass.  I first went to the check in counter and they told me that since I was checking baggage and had not paid yet for it I would have to go to the sales desk and pay for my baggage.  When I got to the sales area the line was packed.  There was a huge group of people taking up one of the people working and then the others just seemed to be working so slow.  I ended up waiting at least 40 minutes to pay for my bags.  Luckily when I returned back to the check in counter the lady allowed me to go to the front of the queue to pick up my boarding pass.

I then proceed through security and waited for my flight.  The flight took about 1 hour and 20 minutes into Barcelona.  When I arrived into Barcelona it was like 8PM and I went to get my luggage.  After waiting a half an hour for my luggage I then went to get the bus to the city center.  I only had enough money for the bus and not for the subsequent cab I would then need to take to Jenny’s apartment.  After I got off the bus I looked for an ATM to get money.  Of course there weren’t any for a few blocks, but then by the time I got money for the cab there were no cabs!  This was not my day.  I was in a rush as Jenny was probably waiting for me to arrive.  I had not checked my email today to see if something was going on or if I had to be there by a certain time.

Finally I got to Jenny’s apartment like 930ish and Jenny said “hello, how was your flight?  We are kind of in a rush?”  Since I had not checked my email today I did not know that tonight was Mal’s birthday dinner.  I told her that I would be ready to go asap and jumped into the shower, changed, did my hair, put on cologne and was ready to rumble.  So Jenny, her two other roommates and myself jumped on the Metro to head towards the restaurant.  Once we got off on La Rambla it was only a few minutes to the restaurant called Rita Blue.  It was a Mexican/Mediterranean food and was really good.  I had a mojito to wash down my food.

From the restaurant the gang headed to one of her friend’s apartments.  It was the same two guys that we met in Stockholm for a drink last week.  After a few drinks, it was 210am and time to head to the club.  Apparently since people eat so late in Barcelona, people also go out to the clubs late.  Jenny and I ended up getting home at 430AM and I had to wake up at 630AM for my flight back to New York.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.