Spring Break begins!

Well, this morning I started in France, flew with a Spanish airline, and landed on the German side of Switzerland. Needless to say, it’s been a linguistically confusing day. I’m writing this firmly planted on the inter-city train, which will take me to my connection on my way to Zermatt, to post when I arrive at my hostel. It meant taking one more transfer, but when she told me the train was at the platform and the next one wouldn’t be for an hour, I ran for it. Unfortunately, EVERYTHING is printed in German, including the entirety of my train ticket, so it took a brief moment of panic and double checking with the friendly train staff (who all speak English, thank God) but I safely got on my way.

This, of course, is only the culmination in a very, very long adventure to get here. I’ve been piecing this trip together incrementally over the last month, buying the tickets and making reservations as I could afford them. Of course, this means that instead of a nice, neatly made travel package of round trip flights and trains, I had two flights with the same company, but made with two different bookers, and therefore with different ways of checking in and printing tickets. It also meant that I had to wait to get my train tickets from Zürich to Zermatt until the last minute. This was a fact that was reminded to me yesterday morning, as I was getting the rest of my tickets in order.

I decided since I was going to be going to the office to print out the other tickets, I should just book and print my train tickets at the same time. So I went to the Swiss Rail site that I had been checking prices on for the last month, and put in my stops. When I put in my age, however, the price suddenly doubled. It turns out the 59.50 CHF (just under 65 USD) price they had been showing was a reduced faire for youth under 16. The full-fare each way was 119 CHF, double the price they were showing! There was no way I could afford the 200 EUR (260 USD) round trip anymore...

I remembered that there was a pass available, good for a round trip to and from an airport, for 130 CHF, so again I fired up the web browser, figuring I could print the pass out, just like an airline ticket. Imagine my surprise when they required a shipping address and 2-3 weeks for delivery! More than surprised, I was frustrated. This wasn’t the first time European trains had gotten the best of me (remember this?) and costing me a heck of a lot more money than they should have. I began frantically searching for different ways to get where I was going, but to no avail. There was nothing that was going to get me from Zürich to Zermatt and back for less than 200 EUR.

So how did I fix it, and why am I on the train now? I didn’t. I did the reckless, irresponsible thing and went anyway. I’ll find a way back to my flight in Zürich, but I needed to make this trip. Who knows with my knees and my luck when I’ll ever get the chance to ski in Switzerland again, let a lone the Matterhorn. I needed to go while my knees could take the mountain and my life could take the adventure.

And if worst comes to worst, I’ve always wanted to hitchhike, too...