His Royal Orangeness Karl Willem, PA/PR Gromit and The Nashman vow to come back and scale the North Face. Itaga mo sa bato. We will return!
PA/PR Gromit woke me up this morning, looked deep into my eyes, and said "Let's go to Liechtenstein!"
"Er, do you realise that we are deep in the heartland of Switzerland?" I replied.
"No worries, with the high speed train system, we can get there in 3 hours." countered PA/PR Gromit and off he went to make some phone calls.
His Royal Orangeness Karl Willem, PA/PR Gromit, and The Nashman had breakfast, thanked the people who took care of us in Grindelwald and took the train to Interlaken. From there, we changed for the panoramic train to Luzern.
We had light lunch and coffee on the north bank of the river Reuss. I wanted to say how nothing's changed since the last time I was here (5 years ago) but sadly, the quayside now has a Starbucks outlet (disgusting!). Ugh, the beautiful view ruined!
I narrated to HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit how C-list celebrities in the Philippines do token 'social immersion' (or pagkukunwari - yung tipong isang Atenista or Assumptionista makikitira sa slums ng 14.5 hours para masabing naranasan nila ang hirap) or hand out fastfood meals at orphanages and shelters to mark their birthday and PA/PR Gromit said this was a good idea. So why not devote some of our time doing social work for the disaffected Swiss youth?
Diba? Para may masabing meron akong kawang-gawa tulad nina whatsthernameiforgot artista. Kung sabagay, last year during my birthday, I joined the French students in solidarity by making-sali sa don't be takot make-baka nila in Paris. Nalibre ligo tuloy ako by the water-cannons ng mga police. May kasama pang hitit ng tear gas.
PA/PR Gromit made another phone call and at 3pm we took a fast train to the Swiss border town of Sargans where we were met by a very dynamic and cheerful social worker from Liechtenstein who was going to be our host for the evening.
We hopped into his car and shortly, we were transported from the squalor and poverty of Switzerland into the small struggling country of Liechtenstein, the fourth smallest in the world whose GDP per capita is quintuple that of five African states combined.(Don't bother looking at lists, they are officially unranked. Yet, their $60,000 GDP per capita is just above Switzerland's paltry $50,000. My beloved Philippines? A trifling $4900.) The money the Swiss don't have, Liechtenstein has.
We changed transport to a hip van in the capital city of Vaduz before crossing the Rhine again into another Swiss border city. (Take note ha, sa sobrang yaman ng Liechtenstein, ang aking kaibigan na Liechtensteiner ay sa Switzerland pa nagka-kawang-gawa kasi nga poorer ang Switzerland compared sa kanila.)
Incidentally, three weeks ago, Switzerland 'mistakenly' invaded Liechtenstein. 170 infantry soldiers crossed the unmarked border before realising their mistake. (Kinda like Britain claiming they were 1km off the Iranian waters. They probably stray into Iran covertly many times and the Iranians got fed up and picked them up for their compulsory vacation. Thankfully, this sordid affair is over and it was revealed that Blair told Bush to back off after suggesting this was a good excuse to pick a fight with Persia.)
Today, I was introduced to a new sport called municycling. Basically, you take a unicycle, go up a mountain, and ride downhill using mountain biking paths. This doesn't sound so scary enought, so why not do it early evening, when light is fading?
I felt so old. There was this 9 year old kid who recently took up the sport. He fell and crashed many times but he seized the challenge like a pro. I think this bravery is something we slowly lose as we age. We're so afraid of falling that we won't even go out of our front door. I was impressed.
As an aside, coming from a poor country like beloved Felepens, I asked my host, in this patch of the world which God has blessed so much, what problems did these kids have, as one by one they were dropped off at the meeting point by their parents driving Mercs. (Pero baka nga poor sila kase yung chedeng nila, lumang 2005 model lamang.) The most common? Stress from the high standards required by their schools, the usual peer pressure to take drugs and alcohol, parents divorcing, and the usual antisocial behaviour of playing rock music too loudly. To take their mind off vices, the youth centre built skate parks, bmx courses, places to chill out, gave away free contraceptives, and told them "Here is a mountain, take your unicycle and and have fun speeding downhill"
Nanibago ako dahil kakaibang youth centre ito dahil ni isa sa mga batang kina-counsel ay marunong manaksak gamit ang ice pick. Nung nilabas ako ng aking ice pick and asked 'Was ist dieses?' (Ano itich?) ang sagot nila eh "Gamit sa fondue?"
HRO Karl Willem, PA/PR Gromit, and The Nashman do some cafe hopping from one town to the the next. This was at Interlaken. Interlaken is a town built for tourists so I can't say anymore about it except that it provides nice views of the Bernese Alps.
Well hello there miss Panatang Makabayan. HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit arrive in Luzern. At this stage, my two year old digital camera decided it was time to go kaput. Hence, we had to do with a disposable camera for the rest of the trip.
PA/PR Gromit assures me that I can cross over to Liechtenstein without a visa.
There was a comics festival in Luzern where all the big names of indie comics studios came to present their groundbreaking works. Hmm, maybe more Filipino comics artists should come to such events. (Gerry Alanguilan's current mindbending work Elmer would easily fit in this sort of crowd.)
HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit just had to walk along the quay and over Chapel bridge....
....before we took the train to a region of Switzerland I have not yet scouted for possible summer hikes....(BTW Luzern Train Station is a very beautiful station.)
HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit doing outreach work with the young kids of Switzerland....
...I wish I had a digital camera! These kids did some crazy stunts at high speed. Amazing!