About a week ago me and two of my Erasmus-friends from South-Tyrol (German speaking part of Italy) did a trip in Switzerland. This time we headed to west and north (Lausanne, Geneva, Bern and Basel) and East Switzerland and Liechtenstein is on our radar in May. We travelled by Supersaver train tickets which means that we had to decide the exact time of travelling in advance to get the tickets at half price. In Finland, we would call this a normal train ticket... We could have also bought different kinds of reduced price train cards to be used when travelling f.ex. Track-7 to travel free after 7 pm. until 5.am or Half-Fare card to travel always at half price. The latter would have been convenient if we didn't have Supersaver tickets, which are limited to every train and consequently not always available. In addition, one possibility was to buy Flexicard tickets from the city of Lugano. There are ten tickets per year for every citizen of Lugano and those tickets are as flexible as possible. With flexicard you can travel anywhere in any train at any time during the day you have chosen to use your flexicard and the price of this card is 35 swiss francs. It´s a bargain, but there are only 20 tickets per each day for every citizen in Lugano and you`d have to know your travel date at least one month before travelling to be able to get the ticket. Unfortunately, we were too late to get a flexicard, but supersaver was good option too.
First stop was easy-going Lausanne. We used Lonely Planet' s tips and Google when we planned places worth a visit in every city. Naturally there were a lot of churches and fancy old buildings recommended to see and eventually some of them we did chose on our list. My favorite sights in Lausanne were Sauvabelin tower and Olympic museum, but the city itself was also pretty nice and I admired the relaxed atmosphere that I quite couldn't catch with my camera.
First stop was easy-going Lausanne. We used Lonely Planet' s tips and Google when we planned places worth a visit in every city. Naturally there were a lot of churches and fancy old buildings recommended to see and eventually some of them we did chose on our list. My favorite sights in Lausanne were Sauvabelin tower and Olympic museum, but the city itself was also pretty nice and I admired the relaxed atmosphere that I quite couldn't catch with my camera.
Sauvabelin Tower is located in Sauvabelin forest and going there from the city center took us about 40 minutes, but we walked slowly and wandering with cameras ready to snap-a-shot, so actual time to walk there is probably less. Weather was nice and warm, but too misty and that's why we didn't see mountains guarding Lausanne, although we did get some nice (or if not nice then many...) pictures of the city.
I anticipated to visit the Olympic museum, because I am a spectacle lover and sports fan of some sort. Ticket was 12 Swiss francs for a student and the museum was very easy to find: we wandered to the lake, wandered a bit more and then saw a big sign and the Olympic park, which was also an experience with the Olympic flame and statues (of naked men missing their precious... never mind ;). The exhibition started from the myth of Herakles (he was the first Olympian ever by doing his labours) and ancient Greeks discovering Olympics. and also presented imaginative outfits and opening ceremonies without forgetting the Olympic athletes and their multiple stories of how to become an Olympian. I never came to think of that even the posters, mascots and torches to carry Olympic flame are thought through each time in detail before presenting them in Olympics. The variety of details in general was exhausting, but impressing. and the execution of the exhibition was thrilling. More than once I got goosebumbs and that kind of funny feeling in my neck, when something big is about to happen. Usually that happens only once in every fourth year...
Olympism is not a system, it is a state of mind.
The most widely divergent approaches can be
accommodated in it , and no race or time
can hold an exclusive monopoly on it.
Pierre de Coubertin , 1918
//
Erasmushan ei ole pelkkää opiskelua, jos joku niin luuli. Itseasiassa se on sitä vain noin 20 prosenttisesti (miinus lapinlisä eli noin 10%). Loput 80 (90) prosenttia ajastaan voi käyttää opiskelemalla elämää ja sen monimuotoisuutta. Toteutin Vain Elämää -kiertueen pari viikkoa takaperin, kun lähdin Sveitsin halki junalla viidessä päivässä -haasteeseen mukaan kahden Italian saksankieliseltä alueelta kotoisin olevan naapurini kanssa. Luulimme, että heidän natiivisaksansa olisi suuri pelastus, kunhan Sveitsin ranskaa puhuvan alueen jälkeen suuntaisimme saksaa puhuvien joukkoon, mutta olimme väärässä. On olemassa saksaa ja saksaa, ja vaikka molemmat edellä mainituista ovat siansaksaa minulle, toinen edellä mainituista on siansaksaa myös saksaa osaaville. Sveitsin saksankieli on kaukana Oxford-saksasta, kuten italiattaret keskenään siunasivat.
Ensimmäinen pysäkki oli harmoninen Lausanne (ja seuraavat Geneve, Bern ja Basel). Kuljailimme pitkin katuja, kirkkoja ja puistoja, kävimme Sauvabelin tornissa ihastelemassa Lausannea yläilmoista ja iltapäivän ratoksi menimme Olympiamuseoon. Jonkinmoisena penkkiurheilijana koin Olympiamuseon atmosfäärin henkeä nostattavana. Videoinstallaatiot olivat huikeita, opin paljon uutta ideasta olympialaisten takana ja sain hyvän perstuntuman siitä, mitä kaikkea olympialaisiin liittyykään, tilbehööristä abstraktioihin. Illan tullen vaapuin (jalassa rakko) kavereiden kanssa Vapianon kautta nukkumaan hostelliin ja aamulla matka jatkui Geneveen.
Erasmushan ei ole pelkkää opiskelua, jos joku niin luuli. Itseasiassa se on sitä vain noin 20 prosenttisesti (miinus lapinlisä eli noin 10%). Loput 80 (90) prosenttia ajastaan voi käyttää opiskelemalla elämää ja sen monimuotoisuutta. Toteutin Vain Elämää -kiertueen pari viikkoa takaperin, kun lähdin Sveitsin halki junalla viidessä päivässä -haasteeseen mukaan kahden Italian saksankieliseltä alueelta kotoisin olevan naapurini kanssa. Luulimme, että heidän natiivisaksansa olisi suuri pelastus, kunhan Sveitsin ranskaa puhuvan alueen jälkeen suuntaisimme saksaa puhuvien joukkoon, mutta olimme väärässä. On olemassa saksaa ja saksaa, ja vaikka molemmat edellä mainituista ovat siansaksaa minulle, toinen edellä mainituista on siansaksaa myös saksaa osaaville. Sveitsin saksankieli on kaukana Oxford-saksasta, kuten italiattaret keskenään siunasivat.
Ensimmäinen pysäkki oli harmoninen Lausanne (ja seuraavat Geneve, Bern ja Basel). Kuljailimme pitkin katuja, kirkkoja ja puistoja, kävimme Sauvabelin tornissa ihastelemassa Lausannea yläilmoista ja iltapäivän ratoksi menimme Olympiamuseoon. Jonkinmoisena penkkiurheilijana koin Olympiamuseon atmosfäärin henkeä nostattavana. Videoinstallaatiot olivat huikeita, opin paljon uutta ideasta olympialaisten takana ja sain hyvän perstuntuman siitä, mitä kaikkea olympialaisiin liittyykään, tilbehööristä abstraktioihin. Illan tullen vaapuin (jalassa rakko) kavereiden kanssa Vapianon kautta nukkumaan hostelliin ja aamulla matka jatkui Geneveen.