Switzerland was pretty magical. A bunch of the tour members had never been there before, so we spent almost every shred of free time going out and seeing something cool (even in the rain).
The train ride from Linz to Fribourg was the longest travel stretch we have had to take so far, and I was a little worried that the guys would get antsy and go crazy before it was over. Thankfully, the ride was pretty pleasant. Evan knocked himself out with some benadryl for half the journey, Aleksi and Juho played some Finnish card games, Jay stitched some footbags, and I completed Hotline Miami 100% while Anssi watched and gave me moral support as well as reprimand me when I did something stupid. Throw in a background of gorgeous mountain passes speeding by, and I would say I was happy with how it went.
However pleasant, the journey was LONG. It took the better part of eight hours to get to Fribourg, where we were picked up by Flavio and taken to his apartment. Everyone was so tired and goofy by this point so the hay was hit pretty quickly.
The next day, we were led on a casual walking tour around Fribourg by Flavio, before splitting up. Evan, Aleksi and Juho were taken to the city of Bern by Flavio to do a photo shoot, while Jay, Anssi and I toured the town some more. That night, we went to a student party that Flavio organized at a club nearby where we were treated to free beer, amazing deep disco house music, and so. much. dancing. I can safely say that it was the best time I have ever had at a party. Flavio rocks for that. Also, the disco ball was a skull. How badass is that?
The next morning, Flavio arranged for us to have (read: I, tiptoeing over a mass of sleeping bodies in the morning, gave to everyone) a sort of "master pass" for transit in Switzerland. It allowed each of us to take any train, bus, tram, boat, cable car, etc. anywhere in the country for one day. Jay and I used this to see the city of Lausanne before everyone woke up, and then met up with Aleksi in Zurich to do a demo for Gorilla. This involved Aleksi, Jay, and Flavio coaching five young boys in footbag. This was really fun to document, and the kids were enthralled with the guys the whole time. They kept asking to see more and more difficult tricks, which made it difficult for Aleksi and Jay to try saving all their impressive stuff for later. They also couldn't get enough of four square, once they learned the rules. They ended up playing on their own at the end of the session, while Jay tried some crazy tricks in front of the Gorilla van (the fact that there is a Gorilla van at all is also really sweet). All the kids scored some awesome Gorilla swag (including me and Jay, actually. I find the Gorilla sweaters to be way too cool for school), and everyone seemed to have a great time.
We completed our last (and Aleksi's first) school demo at a school nearby. This one was much different from the others, as the school had a much different class schedule. So, instead of doing one or two large group demos, the grade was split up into six small groups, and the demos were run with three rounds of two groups simultaneously in different gyms. It felt a little strange to adjust the plan that we had such a good groove with before, but the team got to interact more closely with the children, and they seemed to really appreciate that and eat up everything and anything the guys said.
For some reason, we were treated as "special guests" at this school, instead of just performers. The whole grade sung a song to us before we started, and the guys did their intro performance on a literal red carpet that they specifically brought out. Is this common? I never experienced this in school. As well, we got to eat lunch in the teachers lounge, where we had easter treats offered to us everywhere we looked. All the staff seemed to be really interested in our tour, and everyone was really happy with us being there.
I guess this school out in the country doesn't get special guests a lot, but before we could pack up, the guys started getting stopped in the hallways by groups of children who wanted their autographs. There ended up being a mini signing-session in the gym just before we left. I was surprised that the kids even wanted MY signature, seeing as all I did was take video, play music, and check up on both demos that were going on. I guess I was wearing the tour shirt, still, and the only female there. Regardless, it was pretty fun to sign binders, and see the kids show their friends excitedly. I thought the whole experience was awesome and hilarious, and was excited to tweet about it until I realized that I was about to upload a large amount of photos of the tour members surrounded by elementary school girls, and felt strange to do at the time. Which is also hilarious.
The end of this school demo was kind of bittersweet. This was our last official "work" day, which was exciting, but it was almost a little sad (for me, at least) to not be doing another school again after all the awesome work we did together. I think it was a pretty sweet experience, overall.
On our last day in Switzerland, we spent the day in Zurich with Rene. The guys did some shred in a subway station, hangouts were had, meals were made, and good times were had. The next morning, we were up bright and early to get to the airport, and we were off to the final destination of this grand footbag eurotour...
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