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It was now 7pm. I was exhausted following the ten-hour hitch and getting a bit desperate as car after car passed me, despite the placard I held which read 'FRANCE: £10?' Just as the streetlights began to buzz a van screeched to a halt a couple of hundred metres down the road, I grabbed my impossibly heavy rucksack and lurched after them. "Ten Quid?" he asked, before opening the door of their small van. I was to share the back with several crates of beer that they'd just bought in the duty free...

European Tales: Switzerland 1996, a lengthy tale

Joseph Tame
2006-06-30 17:53:26

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of our lunchtime guests. We now looked forward to work: it wasn't the drag that it always used to be.

I now felt a great deal more freedom than at any point in my life beforehand. As a result of this I began the process of discarding cares of what others thought of me. My sense of humour shone through, and so it was that I gained my rightful reputation of being an absolute nutter - this combined with my further attempts to speak Portuguese ensured that I was truly accepted into the community.

The snow continued to fall. No longer able to resist the attraction of the slopes we soon equipped ourselves with either skis or snowboards. This was after the New Year, which was an absolute nightmare as we were totally understaffed. It was at that time that I decided to leave, as I felt I could no longer cope with the strain of living so high up in the Alps, but skiing soon changed my mind. We all took part in the 'Kleine Scheidegg Personnel Ski Race 1997', and had a great time. There were fourteen teams of four; our two teams finished thirteenth and fourteenth! However, I was second best out of our lot, only falling over and losing a ski once, oh, and almost flattening the race photographer. At least I didn't miss nine gates as NeNe did.

We rarely ventured out to the local discos or bars. This was mainly due to having nowhere to stay down in the villages. On one of the two occasions when we did go out, I found myself trying to lead Alf and the German secretary, Katrin, down to Grindelwald by sledge in the pitch black one night. It had been a spur of the moment decision, and the last train had gone several hours previously. We got rather lost despite my wonderful navigation and found ourselves soaking wet when we finally reached our destination. It had taken us ninety minutes - I was a little surprised being more accustomed to completing the run in a third of the time! The night turned out to be a bit of a disaster for ...