Okay, before I get to this, let me comment on couple of things things. First, Switzerland’s prices of things are nuts. They are not nuts if you live and work there, but if you visit, they are just “whatever you say, bro” kind of thing. And this is not a complaint, I had an awesome time and it was all very low budget (on local standards), but in general, shit is pretty wild over there. And I would like to note that I consider myself an individual that is not poor and that makes reasonable money for what I do and where I operate. Switzerland is just a different beast. What surprised me, tho, is that you can get your hands on relatively reasonable housing (way less crazy than I would have expected and somewhat comparable to rents in Prague) and their social system, which seems pretty fucking amazing to me. Apparently, people who either can’t find a job for some time or choose to take a while off for whatever reason (soul searching, traveling, making fucking music) can easily spend months on very generous state support. I had encountered this before and this trip only confirmed it. Like, being a person in their 20s or 30s, not working for extended periods of time and being perfectly fine is the closest thing I’ve seen to universal basic income so far. And it actually does happen. It is totally unthinkable in vast majority of countries and I’m genuinely happy for the Swiss. That’s how things should be. And then there’s train. Swiss train system is praised all over the world and rightfully so. Trains are modern, silent and punctual. And also expensive as fuck. You wanna spend 10 minutes on a train going to this little village? That would be 10 EUR. Bus tickets from Brno to the Prague Airport (about 3 hour journey) are often cheaper than that. They have this thing when if you book your tickets slightly in advance, you can get them cheaper (we did a lot of that) and they also favor residents who can obtain a yearly 50% discount card and some additional passes that make it a bit more human. However, if you’re not Swiss, you don’t deal with it in advance and you just show up at the station with an intention of traveling longer distance, get ready for some crazy numbers. And the fucked up part it, they rarely check. I spent hours of train, invested substantial amount of money in tickets and wasn’t checked once. It makes not getting tickets at all pretty tempting. However, I’ve also been told that when they actually do catch you, they don’t fuck around. And then you got the Murphy’s Law and shit. But I often felt like screaming: “Somebody better check my fucking ticket this time!” Just out of principle.
But yeah, everything about the trip was great and I’m super happy I got to do that. I met loads and loads of new amazing people and I’m grateful for all their hospitality. I’m grateful for them adjusting to my veganism, for welcoming me to theirs homes and circles, for showing me around, talking shit with me… All that. I did couple of days in Lausanne and then we did Fribourg for the last two days. It’s been some city exploring, some lake swimming, some nature hiking, some partying and a whole lot of socializing. At points, it felt a bit overwhelming but in the most positive way. Resumed social drinking for couple of days but I’m happy to jump back into my long-term sobriety mode. And again, major shout out to everybody out there. It’s all love.
We caught a flight back to The Netherlands Sunday early morning, had some lunch, took a nap and after I finalize this chapter, I might go out. Possibly to immerse myself in the sea. Hope you guys are well, hope y’all safe and sound and all is going just the way you want it to. Keep you head head up, keep it positive and don’t entertain bullshit. Shout out to all my vegans and all my readers. One!
Highlights:
- Switzerland
- Lakes
- This Friday club visit. No DJ, just some idiots playing random songs and people in the crowd guessing their names. Pretty weird activity for a pub quiz, absolutely insane activity for a club. Never seen anything like that before.
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