Thoughts and observations from a Swiss terrace

It’s October and the sun is making its last attempt to warm our skins before going into full on Winter modus. You can see already by the reflection from the sun on the mountains that it isn’t that high anymore like a couple months back, which gives the mountains texture and character. They seem to grow because of the new light angle. I survived another night shift and decide to treat myself for an outside lunch in a way too fancy place down by the water, where I also have a clear view on the hills as well.

I am noticing how many people are by themselves on the terrace. Mostly elderly people enjoying a cup of coffee but most likely also to get out of their lonely house, on the hunt for a brief conversation with a random stranger. It got me thinking on how these people lives must all be. No more daily rhythm and just looking for something to pass the time with, a lot of them living alone. I never understood how some people see retirement as a burden, but when I look at these lonely people, I do. Well, at least they are outside. At this point I decide to stop listening to my Spotify list which today contains mostly the techno beats of Reconcite and Moderate and trade this in for eavesdropping on the random conversations around me.

It’s amazing how people do not realize that potentially other people might speak their language as well,including myself. I had a nice encounter with this a while back myself when I was out dancing with one of my friends. A girl around me was saying in English to a dude that he had ‘such a nice body’ which I had to laugh at and say to my friend in Dutch that she meant ‘you look hot but you are most likely as dumb AF’. We both had to laugh super hard at this, and all of a sudden the girl replied in Dutch to us ‘yeah I understand you, and yeah he is a fool, but I just want to get laid’. Not exactly what you expect at a Swiss music festival that somebody understands your own language.

The majority of the conversations around me are in English. Tourists and expats having their lunch break. The expats are complaining on how their bosses treat them like shit, and the tourists are complaining on how their staff in their daily job is shit. These folks should have a conversation with each other to get some more mutual understanding.

A mother and daughter sit down next to me with a gigantic labrador, which reminds me that I should work on getting a dog myself when getting back to Holland. All of a sudden I see dogs everywhere and it is ridiculous how well behaved they are, except for the one accompanying the old Swiss lady with too much gold around her wrists and neck. She is wearing at least a Bitcoin on her, all in plain sight. She is also snappy towards the staff. How did money make people so rude, and even unwilling to make their dogs listen.

I pay my way too expensive bill and stare at the lake and mountains a couple times more. God Lucerne you are so pretty, it’s just a pity we never got into a good relationship.