When Maple and I were planning the route of our two-month research project, we didn't know that the refugee crisis would explode right in the middle of our journey. When we planned it, there wasn't even a crisis yet. We just knew our boss wanted us to go to certain places, and as providence turned out...those places ended up being along the migrant trail. Which was great for work...but it did add a layer of stress as well.
We did know, however, that we would need a few days of respite in the middle of the two months, and right before we headed to Italy (where work would entail a few long tiring days). Switzerland is perfectly in the middle of the map on the way from Austria to Italy, and as I do love Switzerland, and Maple had never been there before, we decided, way back in the beginning of August, to go there for our few days of retreat.
We didn't know how badly we would need it.
We wanted a comfortable bed. We wanted luxury, if we could have it. We wanted peace and quiet. We wanted the mountains and the lakes and the cool temperatures. We wanted good food and nothing on the to do list.
So we looked at hotels and apartments all around the Interlaken area, and finally decided upon the town of Thun, which is about an hour from Interlaken and right on the lake. It was pricy, but the pictures made it look worth it: a comfy hotel in a sleepy little town on a quiet lake.
It took us nearly all day to get from Salzburg to Thun. We trained from Salzburg to Zurich, Zurich to Bern, Bern to Thun, and then lugged our bags across town to the hotel. While being on a train is usually so relaxing...getting on and off them with a lot of luggage is not. I was zonked by the time we checked into our hotel. After weeks of traveling, spending one of our days of retreat traveling to the retreat sort of defeated the purpose of retreating from travels.
We opened the door to our room and my heart sunk a bit. Unlike the photos on the website, (which showed a whole separate sitting area apart from the bed), this room was the smallest we stayed in during our entire journey. It had about two feet of space around the perimeter of the bed, and a small hall in front of the bathroom. It was so small that I had to put my suitcase under my nightstand (between the bed and the wall) because there was nowhere else to put it. After weeks of being together, in the same room (and in Vienna, no privacy even in the bathroom), we both just wanted some space. This tiny little room where we tripped over one another defeated another purpose of the retreat.
One of the things that was stressful for us during the two month journey was food: deciding daily where to eat, trying to eat healthy along the way, staying within our budget, and deciphering menus in languages we didn't speak. We were so tired by the time we got to the hotel that we thought it would be easiest just to eat at the hotel restaurant. That way we wouldn't have to wander around town any more that evening or make decisions about where to eat. It cut two of the food problems out immediately. So we went downstairs and sat down at a table.
Only to discover that the menu was entirely in German. Fail.
The waitress did her best to translate the menu for us. Maple noticed what the people next to us were eating, pointed, and said, "I'll have that." I, on the other hand, tried to eat healthy. (Remember that eating healthy was one of the food stressors of the trip.) The waitress had said that one of the items was salmon, and it came with a small salad. I was craving vegetables so badly that I ordered an extra side of carrots (that I saw on our neighbor's plate).
I wish we had a photo of my face when the food came out. I ordered salmon and I got salmon. However, I expected a thick chunk of hot salmon and a bowl-sized salad worth the $25 I paid for with my order. Instead, I got a cold thin sliver (like what goes in sushi) with some racket lettuce on top. It was just the right amount of food...for an appetizer. But at those Swiss prices, I just couldn't afford to order more food. I ate my mouthful of cold fish while drooling over Maple's thick sausage and fries.
I was so disappointed I just wanted to go up to our minuscule little room and read my book in peace.
But to my utter dismay, a high school marching band had a concert directly outside our window. I can't even make this stuff up. (And if you've ever wondered, marching bands learn the same songs around the world, apparently, and still hit the same bum notes.)
I went and took a shower to avoid the noise, and just sat on the floor of the shower, letting the water fall on my head, and felt all pitiful. We needed a break, but in that moment I realized...we weren't going to get one. I needed a break from the suitcase, from the hotels, from the eating out every meal, from being in the same room as Maple 24-7 (as great as she is), and not just a break from work. But as we were only a little over halfway done with the trip, there was no such break in sight.
In a land where Schmuck must mean something different than what I'm used to it meaning, (as I saw signs for it everywhere), I felt like a schmuck. A vacation planning schmuck.
I got out of the shower and went to blow dry my hair and well... Switzerland gave me another kick in the face. I'd forgotten that theyhavetobedifferentineverywaypossible they have different plugs than the rest of continental Europe, and thus, my plug adapter wouldn't work. The hotel helped us out though, and so here's my American charger plugged into my European adapter plugged into the Swiss adapter plugged into the wall. When life gives you lemons...
Thun did get better after that, I suppose. We still had noise to deal with the next night as the marching band was gone, but the drunk people never left. Only once the rain came did we get the nice, quiet peaceful room off the tiny square that we'd hoped for. We continued to have food mishaps due to the lack of translations on menus. We continued to long for space. Maple had knock-down drag-out fights with her duvet cover. We went to our complimentary breakfast to discover that you had to boil your own eggs (seriously?!), and the only other options were raw cold cuts, cheese, bread, and cereals. That wasn't worth getting up for in the mornings, in my opinion, so I only went once. And at night while sleeping, I nearly fell off the bed into my suitcase multiple times.
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