Well it has been another eventful day in the life and times of Gareth Cardus. It was an early start this morning, as I had a train to catch to Salzburg at 8:40am. I got up at 6:30am, got ready, had breakfast and checked out. The hotel room in Zurich was not very memorable apart from one stand out thing, the shower!!!
The shower was like something out of close encounters of the third kind. At a first glance it looked normal, but when you turned it on, that's when the show began. The shower head glowed different colours for different temperatures, I shit you not. Everytime I had a shower I thought I was being abducted by aliens!!!!! It was bizarre.
Anyway I got to Zurich train station with plenty of time to spare, and boarded the train. A few days ago I checked with the booking office that I did not have to book a seat, as I had my inter-rail pass. Well, when I boarded the train the first carriage and a half was booked, much to my surprise. However, it was only booked from Landbeck, which is about half-way through the journey, so I thought nothing of it.
Everything was running very smoothly as I sat watching the world go by. A lovely German lady sat next to me and she spoke good English, so we chatted for a bit, everything was well with the world, until.........
Landbeck.
As the train pulled to a stop at Landbeck, a noise that can only me described as an Elephant stampede could be heard above the train announcer. At this point the fun began, as 30 kids on a school trip boarded the train and took over the first carriage and a half, and guess who was in the half with them, me!!!!!
I had never in my life heard of a Sunday school trip, but I had now!!!!
For the first twenty minutes they were on board I really could have done with a crash helmet, as they took my life into their own hands. These kids were about 10-12 and they had no muscles whatsoever and were trying to lift ten ton bags or suitcases full of games and junk for the portable playstation's and Nintendo's onto the racks above the seats, well more importantly the rack above my seat. A couple of times I had to deflect a bag from falling onto my head or catch a bag!!!
Anyway at that point the fun did not stop, for the next two and a half hours I was subjected to singing, shouting and talking in German. Were they shouting at me, who knows, I did not understand a word they were saying. All I know is that I looked at my watch a lot and even vacated my seat ten minutes before Salzburg, in order to get away from the German brats.
When the train stopped in Salzburg I jumped off with a spring in my step, I was free!!!!
I decided to get a taxi to my hotel, as after consulting a map, I found it was up a huge hill again. However, this time it was miles away in the sound of music territory. The hotel was stunning, it even had a swimming pool, and a heated well/sauna that you could use, as long as you gave them 30 minutes notice!!!
I dumped my stuff in my room and decided to head down into town and see some of the sites as it was only 2pm. The leaflets in the reception area said it was an easy ten minute walk into the city. Lying bastards!!!! It was about 45 minutes, but fortunately it was all down hill. I walked along the river sampling the life and taking some photo's, it was stunning, another great place!!!
Then with it being the sound of music territory I just had to climb a hill. I climbed the nearby hill called 'Kapuzinerberg', and arrived at the view point overlooking the city. It was breathtaking, it was absolutely fantastic. Now by this time it was approaching 7pm, so I decided to head down and get a bite to eat. I found a lovely little restaurant and had bruschetta for starter, followed by a chicken pasta dish and then apple strudel with ice-cream for dessert. Fantastic!!!!
After a lovely meal from which I was totally stuffed I then made my first mistake, I decided to walk back up the hill 'Kapuzinerberg' for a look at the city in the night light. Now maybe it was because I had drank a few glasses of wine and was feeling merry, who knows. It was a hard climb, but as I got to the top, puffing and panting the views that came into site were well worth the long slog.
It was at this point I noticed the time, it was 9pm and I had to descend this hill and walk 45 minutes back to the hotel, including a walk through a dark wooded area. My heart started beating faster, oh shit. I reassured myself and tried to convince myself everything would be fine, there would be street lights and all would be fine!!!!
Nothing could be further from the truth!!!!
The first 35 minutes walk back to the hotel was fairly uneventful, and consisted of walking along major well lit roads. However, after this the fun began, as I arrived at the wooded area and low and behold there were no street lights, the road was pitch black, There wasn't even any moon light as the trees blocked out the sky. Oh shit, I thought, I could not even see the road two feet in front of me and it was a further ten minute walk up to the hotel.
I then thought, I know I will use my torch app on my i-phone, what a great idea!!! I switched it on and the road lit up two feet in front of me, I could see. However, I then noticed that my phones battery was on the red and could literally go off any second!!! Shit
Well lets just say for the next ten minutes I walked, stumbled and even jogged slightly as fast as I could without breaking my neck, with the torch app on my phone lighting the way. As I puffed and panted I could see the newspaper headlines for the following day, 'Stupid scouser found dead after walking off the edge of a precipice at the side of a wooded road'. At this point I was convinced that my battery would fail, so I was preparing, at any moment to get on my hands and knees and crawl up the hill. Anyway I did not get the chance, as the battery did not run out. I finally arrived at the hotel drive and headed up to the entrance. The sweat was pouring from my head as I turned the key in the front door and entered into the hotel. I made my way to my room and collapsed into bed. Gareth Cardus never do that again.
With that thought in my head, I fell into a deep sleep. The first day in Salzburg had been good, but very eventful!!!!
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