More Switzerland!.. with a side of Swiss slugs :)

Oooooooooh man! Have I got some stories (and finally the time to write them) for you!!!


Where to begin... (Im gonna pull out my journal here... its full of all sorts of goodness!! --Neen, youd be so very proud of me!!)
>>So, I know there will be holes in all of my briefing and story telling, but Im gonna try to feed you the most important (and probably most entertaining) stories! The rest I can fill you in on in person when I get home :) <<



Zürich.. ish
In the mid afternoon (after checkin out a couple of local churches/cathedrals- one with stained glass windows designed by a Surrealist artist, and another with the largest exterior clock in Europe) Jason and I checked out of our hostel, and made our way to a local park (AKA small gravel area alongside the river.. there were benches and trees tho, so it worked!) to read and relax a bit.
---Originally, part of our Zürich plan was to explore some family landmarks, but last-minute research proved this stop to be next to pointless. Nothing to be found. Nada.
So after our short resting period, we decided not to waste our time, and move on to the next "family" city to see what we could find!
p.s. I finally found a Starbucks!!!!! AMAZING! .. but amazingly expensive.. 4.40 Swiss franks for a plain ol tall cup of coffee.. but hey, it was an American size at least! :)

Schöftland, Switzerland
SUCCESS!!!!! Though we were only in Schöftland for a few hours, we managed to stumble across the right people, and found ourselves links to family history! (We even found a grave site where some of our Hauri (today Haury) ancestors were burried) Sweet yo!
Because that town is super small though, there were not only no hostels, but no hotels either.. so we bought yet another train ticket and headed a couple of towns over (which is where one of Switzerlands (or perhaps the worlds) largest Ancestoral Archives is.

***Excuse my lack of "apostrophies".. its buggin me too, but I cant find the darn button on this keyboard, and I dont feel like copy/pasting them all over! ha! ***

Aarua, Switzerland
Upon our arrival to Aarua, Switzerland (landmark city with the archives) we found we were minutes too late to get in.. the office closed at 5pm, and we arrived minutes late. Well, we had the eve to kill and nothing much planned to kill it with (since we knew we had to stick around to check out what we could find in the archives) so we dropped our bags behind a bush... yes, a big bushy bush (note: people in Switzerland are pretty wealthy.. why would they need a backpackers bag?! Yeah, thats what I thought... :) )
We went into the city, found ourselves a pizza kabab cafe (mmmm......), chowed down, and made our way back to decide sleeping plans.
Heres where it gets interesting... ha!

So, we had already been warned that it was supposed to rain that night (we considered "camping" (AKA benching it in a park), but that fact kinda put it out of the question), so we did what we could to find a hostel. After a little effort put forth (to be quite honest), we decided we would camp outside the Archives bldg on benches surrounded by trees, take our chance (it was perfectly clear all day! Not one dark cloud in site!!) and take the cheap route for once. Boy, was that the beginning of a "fantastic" and sleepless night!
Ok, so our bedtime hit at about 9:30pm.. surprisingly I was tired enough to where I actually fell asleep. Suddenly though I woke up from a horrible nightmare (including firecrackers randomly going off nearby) just after midnidght.. which of course broke up my sleep. Well, I had to use the ladies room, but of course... there was none. ha! Yes mom, I did what any camper would do! You ashamed of me??? :) So I swung myself out of my sleeping bag (which by the way has been a lifesaver too many times!), threw my legs over the bench and my feet into my sandles.. sorta. It was dark by now. My sandles felt wet. Morning dew already??? Couldnt be!! hahaha!.. yeah, you guessed it, "goooooood evening Swiss slugs!!!" There were slugs on (and all around) my sandles! I grabbed my Ipod for light, and sure enough, as lush as the grass, so were the slugs! (and to think, we considered sleeping on the ground for comfort sake!)
In short, the slugs went flying, my feet went into the slimy sandles, I did my thing (while probably stepping on too many slugs to count) I came back, regrouped, cleaned my feet tith "Wetones" (good suggestion mom!) and climbed back into my bag.
No more than 30 minutes later, the sky began to flash... loud thunderous roars came about (literally sounded like cannons) and my first thought: STORM!!! Pack! Pack now!!!
So I did...
Apparently storms in Switzerland dont take their sweet time getting going.
In no more than a minute I had all my things bundled in my hands, was getting at Jason to wake up and move, and was under shelter.. already partially soaked. mmmhmmm.... I couldnt help but laugh at this point.
It was about 2am at this time... we settled at the front door of the Archives bldg (yeah, not suspicious at all.. I know) and were there for about an hour "enjoying" the sheer fact that we were in the situation we were in, until a man came up to us from the darkness.
I was kinda scared at first, but turns out hes a very nice and hospitable, musician (John Mark)who just happened to live across the street, and just happened to see us, and just happened to follow the urge and see if he could offer us shelter. I jumped on the offer real quick, and we headed over, where we eventually fell off to sleep on his couches after an hour or so of conversation, and actually got some rest. I think it has been the best sleep Ive gotten this whole darn trip!
After waking at about 8, having some coffee with our new firend and then saying our thanks and good byes, Jaons and I headed across the street, to the archives, and have been here since.
(it is now 3:30pm) I took advantage of the free computer/net/picture upload after a few hours of research on my part... woohoo! -- Jason is the German speaker, so hes done most of the leg work here.. pouring in hours of reading. Finally called it a day tho!

So now, as I begin to close, we are going to regroup, figure out the next few steps, and be on our way to Germany!

We wont be arriving to Jasons friends house until next week apparently, no theres potential for no internet time on my part. Weve been lucky tho thus far, so we shall see!
Til then, Im signin off!

Lovelovelove!!!

Ps. thanks for the texts, posts, prayers and thoughts! I miss you all!!!!


AnnaBanana