The tail end of the journey

So our last day in Switzerland we borrowed the Glaser's car and drove to the alps to go bobsledding! I never knew the joys of bobsledding before! We drove just over 2 hours to basically the other side of the country! Our lunch (as is apparently typical) was just bread, meat and cheese (a sort of sandwich). It was really good! Mark and I had to borrow boots (which were barely too small) and we rode a bus up to about 1800 m (5400 feet) and hiked in the snow to the top of a mountain about 8000ft dragging bobsleds the whole way. We got to the top at 4:00, but our plan had been to be there 2 hours earlier. We didn't care.

At the tip top of the mountain was a bench that you could see the whole alps from. It was amazingly beautiful! I didn't have my camera (too fragile for such an adventure) so mark took pictures, and we ate at a restraunt up there (the building had been there nearly 200 years) then started down the mountain at about 5:00. I never thought I would go bobsledding like calvin & hobbes, but this was 20x better! We bombed down the mountain! It was amazing! However, since this winter there hasn't been too much snow, we had to walk down over 2 hours to the car. We finally made it to the car at about 8:30 but it was really fun!

Driving on the Swiss roads at night are way more scary than driving on the swiss autobahn. The speed limits in the country are 50kph in the villages, 80kph not in the villages and 120kph on the autobahn unless otherwise noted. So their signs say like 90 then not 90. It's odd, but luckily i had it explained to me. I got the hang of it.

We left early Saturday morning; Peter drove us and samuel came. We said goodbye and hopped on our train to frankfurt. Everything went smoothly until we made it to chicago where my flight got cancelled along with half the flights from chicago last night. They were handing out cots, but they said there were 300 cots, blankets and pillows, but by the time we got to that part of the airport, the line was clearly longer than 300 people. We just went to mark's morning flight and slept by the gate using our backpacks as pillows (nicer than the waterbottle i used in Vanuatu).

About 5:30 am Mark woke up to hear that his gate changed to the other side of the airport. We walked there and got in a line that apparently had noone helping anyone, but it was by mark's flight so I was goign to try to get on the waiting list. I made it on the list...but i was #17 on the list. Somehow by God's grace, I was able to get on the flight! The night before I waited on my phone in a line for 1 hour 2 minutes and somehow my phone cut out and we had been comparing times in line (how many minutes we had been on hold) I was winning, but the girl behind me with about 10 minutes less than me somehow got through and after she was done, handed me the phone! However the soonest flight I could get a confirmation for was monday night. So to make it on the standby list was amazing! I am now at home unpacking all my souveniers and about to do laundry. It is nice to type on a keyboard where the keys don't change, and i look forward to showering in my shower.

Mark and I were talking on the way back from the airport and it turns out this was full of firsts for me. It was my first time ever:
1) going to europe
2) riding a train
3) riding a subway
4) staying in a hostel
5) traveling to a non-english speaking country
6) traveling without plans when i arrived
i'm sure there are others, but i have been traveling for close to 40 hours and i'm not with the "program".

Now my life will be full of catching up on my work, hopefully starting studying for the CPA exam and more outdoor stuff prepping my physical endurance for the next adventures to come. Thanks for your messages and prayers.

Joel