Swiss Travel Log

Day 1.

I've finally arrived in Switzerland.  The best part?  Land.  The flight out of Brussels was an unusually harrowing experience.  Not only were we the last flight to leave the airport that night, but there were only twelve of us on the plane, plus the crew.  As night flights go, this one was particularly turbulent.  All in all, I couldn't sleep, I barely ate, and I spent the entire flight wondering whether when we crashed, my body would be found burned up, mangled or not at all.  And how the headlines might read - Swiss Air crashes in the mountains.  Thankfully, only 16 dead - but no survivors.

-----

Quick, quick, must catch the train!  My thoughts after calming down at Basel Euroairport. This place has exits into three countries (Switzerland, France, Germany).  Not sure how they pull that off, but the bus awaits!

-----

Finally at the train station!  The bus driver decided to take a long, candy-fueled break in bus before departure.  Missed the last direct intercity to Bern.  Now what?  No other trains showing Bern as a destination.  I can just imagine some snotty teenager from my childhood calling "ha, ha, burn!".  Oh, and of course all the ticket counters are closed.  Then again, it IS 11:15pm.  Wait, didn't my train ticket mention a stop in-between?  Or was it a change-over?  Wasn't it Olten?  Ah-ha!  A train for Olten!  Hmm.  Guess it SHOULD at least get me closer...

-----

Success!  I'm now only 15 minutes away from being 25 minutes away by train from Bern!  But there's no toilets!  There's paying toilets, but they're closed this late!  Wait, is that a wall in that corner over there?

-----

So... taxis are expensive in Europe.  Really, really expensive.  A ten minute drive (including loading and unloading time) for over fiften swiss francs.  But I'm at the hotel!  And I can look forward to six whole hours of sleep!  Hurray!