Lucerne - Day 1

Ok I forgot to put this is yesterday's journal and I will add it in later, but I just wanted to write about yesterday at the checkout line at H&M. So like I said it was super crowded so when I got up to the checkout line I asked the lady working, "Hi how are you?" with a smile. She looked at me really funny and just said "fine." So I thought she was just unfrienldy and knew not to say anything else. Well in the middle of her swiping my card she stopped and looked at me and said, "I have been working here for 3 years and you are the first customer who has asked how I am doing and I really appreciate it. Thanks." I was shocked that she had never received a "how are you" while working. I mean it felt good to know that I made her day better, but it just really shows how Europeans are definitely more cold and not as friendly as Americans. I know that was random, but I just wanted to include that to show the major cultural differences between America and here.

So today was our travel day to Lucerne. On our way to Lucerne, we stopped at King Ludwig's castle a.k.a the castle which the Disney castle is based off of. It is the most visited catle in Germany and it was sooo crowded! Dr. Mac didnt left out though how far of a walk it was from the drop off point to the castle itself. We got there around 10:30 am and were allowed to walk around and eat before our tour at 12:20 pm. We decided to start walking up there first since it was early, and man it was a trek! It was worth going up, but Im pretty sure I will be sore tomorrow because it was steep uphill walking for like 20 minutes. When we got up there we ate and looked at really pretty viewpoints of the castle and the landscape. I really liked our tour also and all of the rooms walls looked very fairy taleish in nature. The view from the castle was amazing! I would love to wake up to mountains with greenery and a lake every morning. After our tour, we walked back down the hill and hung out for a little while and loaded back up on the bus. Oh and by the way Europeans dont know how to build bathrooms either. Out of the whole park there were only one set of public restrooms that I saw and there were two stalls for girls and two for boys. Like really? The line was so long so I along with others went into the mens restroom since they were enclosed because we would have been there all day if we didnt. That was a side note too, I just get distracted easily.

From there, we got to Lucerne around 7:30 pm. The drive from Germany to Switzerland was beautiful and I saw all land forms from hills to mountians to lakes to rivers. I intentionally stayed awake to be able to see the pretty scenery. We had our last orientation meeting and group presentations from Johnson and Johnson, Lucerne, and Bucherer. Our meeting lasted a long time because we had to plan out transportation for going to Mount Titlis tomorrow. So we didnt get out until like 9:30 pm. By that time I was past starving, so some girls and I went to Burger King for dinner and my meal was 12.90 francs! Yes I know ridiculous, but everything here is really expensive. I thought since the dollar was worth more than the franc I would be getting more for my money, but I soon realized at Burger King that I was wrong. We are all exhausted so we just came back to the hotel and am writing our journals before bed. I cant wait for sledding tomorrow!