May 26 – Tourism class trip to Engelberg
Why don’t we do class trips in Toronto? They are the best way to learn things and see how theory is applied in real life, plus they’re just so much fun! I went on a 2-day trip to Engelberg, Switzerland with my tourism class. Actually, this was one of the reasons that I chose to take this class.
At first, we had mini-lectures from the regional tourism director and the tourism director for Engelberg. This was followed by a (ripoff) lunch at the golf course and a talk from the (arrogant/asshole/idiot/sexist) director of the golf course. We did see a “celebrity” (in Swiss standards): a former soccer coach for the Bayern-Munich team. The TV stations actually sometimes come to the golf course to get clips of him playing. I guess it’s a little bit more than the equivalent of seeing Pat Quinn???
The coolest part of this day was that we got a short golf lesson by a professional golf instructor, who explained a little bit about the clubs and hit a few balls to show us. I’ve actually never seen someone who was really good at golf play in person before and it was really cool. The whole class got to try on the driving range, although I didn’t because I was standing in front of the left-handed pad and I’m 90% sure that I’m right-handed. But now, I really want to go to a driving range in Toronto!
We went for “Tex-Mex” food at night with the whole class. I was really excited that we were going for ethnic food and I had already planned to get enchiladas. I was a little irritated when I found out that the most “Mexican” things that they had were: nachos, fajitas, & quesadillas. The rest of the menu wasn’t even worth mentioning, just regular restaurant fare, like pasta. Bah!!! I’m going to go to Bandidos in Toronto, wear a bejeweled sombrero, eat enchiladas, socialize with the super-friendly Mexican owners, and drink Mexican fruit drinks =P.
Oh, but it still surprises me how many things Europeans in general haven’t experienced when it comes to food. I just think that they’re missing out on so much, but that’s my opinion because I really like to eat different foods and we’re really lucky regarding food in Toronto. Some of them didn’t know what the shredded, orange-coloured pieces were on their plates. Any guesses? If you said “cheddar cheese,” then you’re a winner! I was SO happy to have it at the restaurant, because they don’t have it here in grocery stores. I don’t eat so much cheddar cheese at home, but it’s just something you have to have with certain foods and I’ve missed it.
We stayed at the crappiest hotel in a 10-kilometre radius – maybe even more than that. This “hotel” had been suggested to us by one of the tourism directors as an example of a “problem” hotel that hadn’t reinvested any money in 30 years or something. It’s going to be torn down in a few months, so I’ll bet that we were probably the last guests. All the décor seemed to be out of the 60s – grey, dark, cold, and ugly. I just can’t communicate how ugly it was without pictures, which I didn’t take. It was generally clean, but it looked dirty because everything was so old. No matter how many times you clean a carpet, it’ll look old if it’s old. The shower head was loose. They didn’t provide you with sheets – you had to pay extra if you wanted linen. There was one chair in a room for 4 people. It desperately needed to be reupholstered – to the point where no one wanted to even touch it. The doors on our closet had fallen off or been torn off at some point. And, someone please tell me, what’s the use of sheer curtains? I didn’t sleep so well, for some reason haha
The next day, we had a talk from the CEO of the Engelberg-Titlis Rotair cable car company (www.titlis.ch). We took a special rail car up to Gerschnialp, where we got a technical tour about cable cars and gondolas, which was pretty interesting too. They gave us these rugged scooters to get down the hill on (see pics!) and these were pretty fun hehe. It was my first time even seeing this type of scooter and going “Xtreme downhill scootering” haha!
We went up Brunni (www.brunni.ch), the mountain on the other side of the valley, and had a picnic lunch up top with a great view of the Alps. I really want to go paragliding in Interlaken in a few weeks, and there were paragliders jumping off from everywhere on Brunni. There was also a petting zoo with llamas, which was unexpected haha.
After lunch, everyone expected that we’d have another guest lecture in the restaurant at the top. Instead, we took a chairlift even higher and found mountain climbing equipment set out for us there. Looking around, there was nowhere to climb except up the rocky mountain. I was so scared, but so excited! I ended up being in the second group to go with the mountaineers to climb, so I had a guided hike first. The guide told us about flora and geological features, which was actually pretty intriguing since we were actually there to see it and not reading about it in a textbook. It was so funny how he said, “wery, wery” instead of “very, very” all the time, just like Elmer Fudd!
Finally, it was our turn to go climbing. It was a certain style of climbing called “via ferrata,” if any of you are familiar with these terms. The day before this, I had seen a crazy picture of a bridge made out of wire and strung between two rocks. I said that I really wanted to try it, and I couldn’t believe that I actually got to the next day! The actual climb lasted for about ½ an hour or so, I’m not sure. I’m just estimating because I was really concentrating, so I don’t know how much time passed. It was so amazing. Previously, I’d only gone indoor wall climbing once. This climb wasn’t as difficult as some of the indoor ones, because it was usually not too hard to see where your next move would be, but it was so cool to do it on real rocks and in such awesome surroundings. The scariest part for me was when there were no hand holds at all, and so we had to hang off of the side of a wall with the fixed wire and shuffle our feet across. I was so disappointed when we got to the top because it was over! I really want to try a different climb before I leave!
I also experienced another first today: my first sun burn. I wasn’t expecting to be out in the sun for the whole afternoon at 1800m a.s.l., so I didn’t put on any sunscreen. Even when I don’t wear sunscreen, I can go out all day in the sun in Toronto and not have a problem. I guess it was the altitude. Sun burns suck and I don’t ever want to get another one again, even though my roomie said mine is pretty mild. I always wondered what a sun burn felt like, and now I freaking know.
At first, we had mini-lectures from the regional tourism director and the tourism director for Engelberg. This was followed by a (ripoff) lunch at the golf course and a talk from the (arrogant/asshole/idiot/sexist) director of the golf course. We did see a “celebrity” (in Swiss standards): a former soccer coach for the Bayern-Munich team. The TV stations actually sometimes come to the golf course to get clips of him playing. I guess it’s a little bit more than the equivalent of seeing Pat Quinn???
The coolest part of this day was that we got a short golf lesson by a professional golf instructor, who explained a little bit about the clubs and hit a few balls to show us. I’ve actually never seen someone who was really good at golf play in person before and it was really cool. The whole class got to try on the driving range, although I didn’t because I was standing in front of the left-handed pad and I’m 90% sure that I’m right-handed. But now, I really want to go to a driving range in Toronto!
We went for “Tex-Mex” food at night with the whole class. I was really excited that we were going for ethnic food and I had already planned to get enchiladas. I was a little irritated when I found out that the most “Mexican” things that they had were: nachos, fajitas, & quesadillas. The rest of the menu wasn’t even worth mentioning, just regular restaurant fare, like pasta. Bah!!! I’m going to go to Bandidos in Toronto, wear a bejeweled sombrero, eat enchiladas, socialize with the super-friendly Mexican owners, and drink Mexican fruit drinks =P.
Oh, but it still surprises me how many things Europeans in general haven’t experienced when it comes to food. I just think that they’re missing out on so much, but that’s my opinion because I really like to eat different foods and we’re really lucky regarding food in Toronto. Some of them didn’t know what the shredded, orange-coloured pieces were on their plates. Any guesses? If you said “cheddar cheese,” then you’re a winner! I was SO happy to have it at the restaurant, because they don’t have it here in grocery stores. I don’t eat so much cheddar cheese at home, but it’s just something you have to have with certain foods and I’ve missed it.
We stayed at the crappiest hotel in a 10-kilometre radius – maybe even more than that. This “hotel” had been suggested to us by one of the tourism directors as an example of a “problem” hotel that hadn’t reinvested any money in 30 years or something. It’s going to be torn down in a few months, so I’ll bet that we were probably the last guests. All the décor seemed to be out of the 60s – grey, dark, cold, and ugly. I just can’t communicate how ugly it was without pictures, which I didn’t take. It was generally clean, but it looked dirty because everything was so old. No matter how many times you clean a carpet, it’ll look old if it’s old. The shower head was loose. They didn’t provide you with sheets – you had to pay extra if you wanted linen. There was one chair in a room for 4 people. It desperately needed to be reupholstered – to the point where no one wanted to even touch it. The doors on our closet had fallen off or been torn off at some point. And, someone please tell me, what’s the use of sheer curtains? I didn’t sleep so well, for some reason haha
The next day, we had a talk from the CEO of the Engelberg-Titlis Rotair cable car company (www.titlis.ch). We took a special rail car up to Gerschnialp, where we got a technical tour about cable cars and gondolas, which was pretty interesting too. They gave us these rugged scooters to get down the hill on (see pics!) and these were pretty fun hehe. It was my first time even seeing this type of scooter and going “Xtreme downhill scootering” haha!
We went up Brunni (www.brunni.ch), the mountain on the other side of the valley, and had a picnic lunch up top with a great view of the Alps. I really want to go paragliding in Interlaken in a few weeks, and there were paragliders jumping off from everywhere on Brunni. There was also a petting zoo with llamas, which was unexpected haha.
After lunch, everyone expected that we’d have another guest lecture in the restaurant at the top. Instead, we took a chairlift even higher and found mountain climbing equipment set out for us there. Looking around, there was nowhere to climb except up the rocky mountain. I was so scared, but so excited! I ended up being in the second group to go with the mountaineers to climb, so I had a guided hike first. The guide told us about flora and geological features, which was actually pretty intriguing since we were actually there to see it and not reading about it in a textbook. It was so funny how he said, “wery, wery” instead of “very, very” all the time, just like Elmer Fudd!
Finally, it was our turn to go climbing. It was a certain style of climbing called “via ferrata,” if any of you are familiar with these terms. The day before this, I had seen a crazy picture of a bridge made out of wire and strung between two rocks. I said that I really wanted to try it, and I couldn’t believe that I actually got to the next day! The actual climb lasted for about ½ an hour or so, I’m not sure. I’m just estimating because I was really concentrating, so I don’t know how much time passed. It was so amazing. Previously, I’d only gone indoor wall climbing once. This climb wasn’t as difficult as some of the indoor ones, because it was usually not too hard to see where your next move would be, but it was so cool to do it on real rocks and in such awesome surroundings. The scariest part for me was when there were no hand holds at all, and so we had to hang off of the side of a wall with the fixed wire and shuffle our feet across. I was so disappointed when we got to the top because it was over! I really want to try a different climb before I leave!
I also experienced another first today: my first sun burn. I wasn’t expecting to be out in the sun for the whole afternoon at 1800m a.s.l., so I didn’t put on any sunscreen. Even when I don’t wear sunscreen, I can go out all day in the sun in Toronto and not have a problem. I guess it was the altitude. Sun burns suck and I don’t ever want to get another one again, even though my roomie said mine is pretty mild. I always wondered what a sun burn felt like, and now I freaking know.
posted by lilswtamy at 8:27 p.m.
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