It’s the most Monday of Mondays I’ve had in awhile. I’m sick, I didn’t do my homework that was due, and I still can’t wear makeup because I’m still on antibiotic drops for whatever was wrong with my eye. The past few days have been a rollercoaster of emotions intermixed with very little rest and a fair amount of tissues, which means I was totally not feeling the double block of physiology we had first thing in the morning. It was very obvious that pretty much everyone in the room was exhausted and utterly done with the semester.
BUT we all pulled through and had a very productive week. We got started on the booklet to give enmodes of our projects and plans, and started hardcore studying for our impending exams and finals. Our final pharmacology quiz was Thursday and next week is our third physiology exam and final, so it really was crunch time. I spent most of the week focusing on getting some rest and healing. I booked a last minute trip back to Switzerland for the coming weekend and I wanted to be able to have a good time hiking in the mountains without stopping to blow my nose every 5 minutes.
I did finally start to feel better about halfway through the week, just in time for some world class weather in Bonn. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and the skies were clear. My willpower to sit inside and study for exams was basically none, and I ended up cramming hard for pharmacology and working for two days straight at the “Old AIB” to learn all the material for our third physiology exam. Old AIB has the most beautiful garden in its backyard, so studying there felt like a good compromise of being a responsible student while still enjoying the spring weather.
The pharmacology quiz went well, and Friday night I grabbed my 5 pages of notes for physiology and my friends and I took off on a midnight train going anywhere. Actually, we were going to Lucerne, but I’ve never been on a midnight train before and had to make the joke. Let me tell you: don’t ever take a midnight train. I thought after surviving and actually sleeping on a night bus that a night train would be a similar — if not better — experience. I was mistaken. The seats are much less comfortable, people are boarding and leaving every half hour, and the announcements for every single stop were twice as loud as a regional train and dashed any hope of getting through a complete REM cycle.
We got to Lucerne around 8am and checked into our hostel. It was really hard not to just lay down and sleep after we made our beds, but we only had two days to go hiking in the mountains and check out one of the most beautiful cities in Switzerland, so we shook ourselves awake and made our way to the mountain behind the hostel: Mount Pilatus.
Nothing could ever beat Sao Miguel as the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen, but Lucerne was a close second. We lucked out really hard with the weather and trekked with sunny skies and 75 degrees. I still wasn’t totally well, but I made it up the first third of the hike with minimal stops. The hike was so much more intense than any of the hikes around the Seven Hills or even on Sao Miguel. The guys had seemingly endless amounts of energy, but Lexie, Ibk, and I decided at the first rest stop that we would rather take it easy and ride a cable car up the rest of the mountain. We’d only climbed 1500 feet and there was still 4000 feet UP to go. Naturally, the guys wanted to climb the whole mountain, so we split up.
The guys started their crazy ascent and we the girls rode a fun little toboggan and ate lunch in a treehouse that we later found out was a closed ropes course. Accidental trespassing is apparently my new hobby. We got an amazing panoramic view of Lake Lucerne and the Swiss Alps once we made it to the top of the mountain. Since we were so high there was also a bunch of snow still up there! We had a great time throwing snow at each other and taking pictures with snowcapped mountains in the back. We caught the last cable car down the mountain and decided to head back to the hostel to cook dinner for the boys whenever they made it back down. (Note: they made a few wrong turns and almost died multiple times, but they finally got back around 10:30pm.)
The next day we decided to leave the expert level hiking trails alone and explore the city. Lucerne is absolute beautiful and we spent the morning walking long the river and explored an old clock tower that gave us excellent views of the mountain we conquered the day before. We raced down a track and had gelato for lunch and zigzagged across the river that ran through the city. The blue water, beautiful buildings along the river, and mountains backed by a brilliant blue sky made for an absolutely stunning view and great scene to relax on our last traveling weekend in Europe.
My favorite part of this day was our paddleboat adventure! We peddled out to the middle of Lake Lucerne, the most gorgeous lake I have ever seen in my life. The water was clear blue-green, and the snowcapped mountains, lush green hills, and painted city made it even more picturesque. And, after 4 months of not being able to swim, we jumped in and nearly froze to death. It was awesome. The water had to be around 45 or 50 degrees, cold enough to where I couldn’t take a full breath because I was so cold. I stayed in for about 3 minutes while egging the guys on to join me, and by the time I got out I couldn’t feel my feet. So once I warmed up a bit in the sun I jumped back in. #NoRagrets
Sunday was also Ibk’s birthday!! So we meandered a little bit more through the city before returning to the hostel, packing up our stuff, and going out to dinner to celebrate. Around 9pm we hopped on our other night train to get back to Bonn. Feel free to reread my previous night train experience to know how I felt about this one. We got back around 6am Monday morning. I went home to shower and get some actual good sleep before heading to AIB to take my third physiology exam. And that’s how this week went.
**pics to come later when I have more time**
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