{"id":5003,"date":"2013-02-10T10:13:06","date_gmt":"2013-02-10T18:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studyingabroad\/?p=5003"},"modified":"2013-02-10T10:13:06","modified_gmt":"2013-02-10T18:13:06","slug":"kat-1-liechtenstein-owned-in-which-our-protagonist-spends-many-hours-on-many-trains-meets-an-odd-couple-of-characters-and-wears-improper-footwear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/2013\/02\/10\/kat-1-liechtenstein-owned-in-which-our-protagonist-spends-many-hours-on-many-trains-meets-an-odd-couple-of-characters-and-wears-improper-footwear\/","title":{"rendered":"Kat: 1, Liechtenstein: Owned. In which our protagonist spends many hours on many trains, meets an odd couple of characters, and wears improper footwear."},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is Sunday, and I have done nothing except bake, cook, Skype with Paul, and lounge around on my bed, catching up on the Daily Show and Colbert Report episodes from last week.\u00a0 This is in stark contrast to my foray from Greifswald to Feldkirch, Austria, last Sunday.\u00a0 I had packed the night before, so Sunday morning was fairly stress-free, and unhurried.\u00a0 Backpack secured, I took the bus from my apartment at 8:57 to the Hauptbahnhof.\u00a0 An hour later, I boarded my first train.\u00a0 Roughly 5 hours later, I had read the entirety of Brave New World<\/em>, and the first 100 or so pages of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle<\/em>, and stood, shivering, at the train station in Naumburg.\u00a0 There was some confusion among those of us awaiting the next train, since the announcements over the loudspeaker were wholly incomprehensible.\u00a0 The cute young man standing next to me shook his head, and joked about Deutsche Bahn<\/em>.\u00a0 I asked him where he had come from, where he was going.\u00a0 (Halle, Munich.)\u00a0 He was curious about my accent, and we chatted while the wind sent tiny snowflakes to assault any bare, exposed skin.\u00a0 Andreas’ has an American girlfriend, who lives in Philadelphia.\u00a0 We commiserated over this, over long-distance relationships, and having to wait months and months before seeing our respective sweeties, again.\u00a0 When the train finally came, it was too crowded to sit together, so I returned to the struggles of Toru Okada, who, after losing his cat, lost his wife (and I mean ‘lost’, not that they died).\u00a0 Now and then, Andreas and I made faces at each other, expressing annoyance at delays, surprise and amusement at the loud cackling of another passenger, sympathy for how looooong that train ride was.\u00a0 We were delayed enough that the train conductor instructed anyone who wanted to go to Lindau to stay on the train to Munich, instead of transferring at N\u00fcrnberg. <\/em><\/p>\n

18:37.\u00a0 I had finally made it to Munich.\u00a0 I transferred to my third train, going to Lindau.<\/p>\n

22:00.\u00a0 I boarded my fourth and final train, from Lindau to Feldkirch.<\/p>\n

23:15.\u00a0 The lights from the station were thin and weak against the darkness, against the night.\u00a0 Feeling more asleep than awake, I dragged myself down the street.\u00a0 Walking from the Hauptbahnhof to the hostel should take 15-20 minutes, according to the infallible Google Maps.\u00a0 The route looked fairly simple, as well, but just to be sure, I asked every person I met if I was going in the right direction.\u00a0 During the entire walk (and, to be honest, the last four hours), I fretted over whether or not the hostel would actually be open<\/em>.\u00a0 I had a reservation, but I was showing up after hours, and 1 1\/2 hours later than I told them I’d be.\u00a0 One of my fellow Fulbrighters had done me the favor of emailing the hostel to inform them of the train delay, but I couldn’t be sure if anyone had actually read<\/em> the email.\u00a0 What<\/em>, I wondered, would I do if they were closed?\u00a0 Sleep in their doorway like a hobo?\u00a0 Break in through a window?\u00a0 Throw myself on the mercy of the next person I saw?<\/em> There were several hotels in the area, but their windows were dark and forbidding, proclaiming no welcome for stranded travelers.\u00a0 I knocked on the hostel’s door, and held my breath.\u00a0 Someone was inside, I could hear noises!\u00a0 I knocked harder, louder, creating a level of noise that was certainly impolite and indiscreet.\u00a0 Then the door opened, and I was welcomed inside, invited to share in the warmth and light.\u00a0 The lady working that night checked me in quickly, happy to finally see me, so that she could go home.\u00a0 She had indeed received the email.\u00a0 I was saved from the sad fate of becoming a homeless vagabond in Austria.<\/p>\n

I found that I could not sleep, though, at least not right away.\u00a0 I had reached that point of tiredness when you are too<\/em> tired to sleep.\u00a0 I decided that a cup of tea was in order (I strongly believe that a hot cup of tea will make anything and everything better).\u00a0 I grabbed one of the little yellow plastic packages I had stashed in my backpack, and headed downstairs.\u00a0 In the common room, I came across a young man perusing the internets via his small iPad.\u00a0 I greeted him in German, and he responded in kind.\u00a0 During the course of our conversation, I learned that he hails from Puyallup<\/em>, of all places.\u00a0 PUYALLUP.\u00a0 I now I meet him here, in a little Austrian town (population 30k).\u00a0 Encounters like this give meaning to the phrase “it’s a small world”.\u00a0 When he mentioned something about tea, I was reminded of my purpose, of my quest for a cup and hot water.\u00a0 “Speaking of tea,” I said, holding my precious tea bag, still encased in its plastic sleeve, up.\u00a0 “Do you know where I could make tea?”\u00a0 He had such a strange look on his face, I could not comprehend it.\u00a0 Don’t people from Puyallup know what tea is?<\/p>\n

Then he confided that, for a moment, he thought I was holding out a condom.\u00a0 Um.\u00a0 AWKWARD.\u00a0 SO AWKWARD.\u00a0 What does it say about him, that his brain jumped to that<\/em>, entirely wrong<\/em> conclusion, so quickly?\u00a0 And what does it say about his opinion of me<\/em>?\u00a0 Well, I guess we have known each other for less than an hour.\u00a0 But, still.\u00a0 AWKWARD.\u00a0 I was just totally taken aback by this.\u00a0 However, the next thing he did was lead me downstairs to the guest kitchen, and the electric tea kettle, so I (mostly) forgave him for that exchange.\u00a0 Boy From Puyallup wanted to know why I was in Feldkirch, of all places, in February, of all times.\u00a0 I explained my quest, my plan to trek across Liechtenstein by foot.\u00a0 He nodded, as if this was the most sensible thing to do, and declared that he would come with me.\u00a0 (When I told this story to my roommates, they decided that all Americans are totally crazy.)<\/p>\n

Monday morning, I awoke still tired, but determined to caffeinate any sleepiness out of my body.\u00a0 I was packed, fed, and ready to leave by 10:30, but there was no sign of Boy From Puyallup.\u00a0 I decided not to ditch him, and went hunting through the hostel.\u00a0 It didn’t take very long, since the hostel is quite small.\u00a0 “Hey, Puyallup,” I called into his room.\u00a0 “You still coming?”\u00a0 I interpreted the series of grunts I got in response to mean yes, I’ll be ready in 20-30 minutes<\/em>.\u00a0 About 40 minutes later, we were on our way.\u00a0 Feldkirch is only close<\/em> to the border, not actually at<\/em> it, and it would have taken 60-90 minutes to walk from the hostel to the Austrian-Swiss border.\u00a0 Fortunately, Puyallup (as I thought of him) knew a bus we could take to the edge.\u00a0 It saved us a lot of time.\u00a0 We hopped off the bus at the last stop before the border, and began walking.\u00a0 Although the ground had been relatively dry on Sunday, overnight 8 inches of snow had fallen, making our trek considerably more difficult.\u00a0 Some of the places we walked had no sidewalks, and 8 inches of snow comes up relatively high on one’s pants.\u00a0 It didn’t help that I was wearing improper footwear.\u00a0 They were comfortable enough, but absolutely lacking in water-resistance.\u00a0 They were like a sponge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We had been walking over an hour before we remembered we didn’t know each other’s names.\u00a0 I just thought of him as “Puyallup”.\u00a0 I wonder if he had a nickname for me?\u00a0 If so, he never used it.\u00a0 His real name is Christopher.\u00a0 I secretly want to call him “Kit”, because I think it would be hilarious to say, Kit and Kat <\/em>in a sentence.\u00a0 For example, today, Kit and Kat walked across Liechtenstein<\/em>.\u00a0 See?\u00a0 Uproariously funny.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Walking across Liechtenstein, from Feldkirch to Buchs, took us only 2 1\/2 hours.\u00a0 I think we were both quite relieved to have company, especially given the miserable weather.\u00a0 When we finally crossed the river dividing Switzerland and Liechtenstein, we were in high spirits.\u00a0 It is not everyday one walks across a country, and, as an American, I find the entire notion slightly mind-boggling.\u00a0 It would take me longer to walk across most states<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Sunday, and I have done nothing except bake, cook, Skype with Paul, and lounge around on my bed, catching up on the Daily Show and Colbert Report episodes from last week.\u00a0 This is in stark contrast to my … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kat-schmidt-12-germany"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}