Youth Challenge 2023 – Pastapläuschler : a fun train ride and greetings from the sunniest corner of Switzerland

An incident and a trip to the south

Diary entry for Pastacorn, Wednesday, 26 July 2023, 9 pm – Youth Hostel Lugano

Today was a rather relaxed day for the first time, but we still saw more of our beautiful Switzerland than in the days before. We have always set ourselves the goal of leaving our train journey to fate, i.e. a throw of the dice. Two dice decided the next platform.

First of all, back to last night: after dinner, the Pastapläuschler doubtless had a good time with Katrina and Dominic – I enjoyed the peace and quiet in the room. Anna and Celina came back at some point. Chiara and Laurin stayed a little longer in the lobby. As always, they only took one room card with them, but on this occasion it was a disaster for my team. Anna and Celina had already put their cell phones away, assuming that the other two would knock on the door. Difficult when the main doors to the building close at 10 pm We would like to take this opportunity to thank Lukas, the hostel manager of Grindelwald and Katrina who came to the rescue.

Selfietime dans le train! ©Pastapläuschler

The next morning, as usual, we enjoyed a tasty youth hostel breakfast before setting off for Interlaken with Dominic and Katrina, where our game started. First up was platform 7 to Spiez as the dice showed 7. The dice chose Visp as our next destination. At that moment, we saw ourselves out in the sticks somewhere. We had to somehow reach our next accommodation in Lugano. We were thrilled when we were able to take the train to Andermatt! In keeping with our motto: “Explore Switzerland,” we sped through beautiful Valais. Katrina and Dominic left us in Brig, it was time for them to go back to work in Zurich. My personal highlight was the funny Moggelmotte rounds (card game). In Andermatt, we decided to take back control of our destiny, as we were expected for dinner in Lugano Youth Hostel. On the way to Lugano, we also had to show our SBB Friends Card for the first time. The youth hostel exceeded all expectations, it even had a pool. Now it was time to bring the evening to a relaxing end with interesting books, games and in-depth conversations. Good night and until tomorrow dear diary.

Stopover in Spiez – I wonder what happens next. ©Pastapläuschler

Switzerland in miniature and (of course) pasta

Diary entry for Pastacorn, Thursday, 27 July 2023, 8.30 pm – by the pool

We stayed true to our motto “Explore Switzerland” today, albeit in miniature format. We took the train to Swissminiature in Melide. I really enjoyed it, even though I was a little disappointed that Canton Lucerne was only represented twice. Together we went on a train tour around Swissminiature. We then had a picnic by the lake, where we unpacked our Rivella merchandise bag for a short photo shoot.

We went home by boat, enjoying the special Ticino scenery. As this is already the last evening of our youth hostel tour, we had to have spaghetti for dinner one more time as Pastapläuschler. Unfortunately, we hardly had time to enjoy the large range of games on offer at the youth hostel. (There was volleyball, boccia and even table tennis on offer.) But the others were set on jumping into the pool. What better way to unwind.

In the Swissminiatur, the Pastapläuschler still discovered the whole of Switzerland at once. ©Pastapläuschler

A relaxed finish and our highlights

Diary entry by Pastacorn, Sunday, 23 July 2023, 8 pm – Burgdorf Castle

I finally unpacked my things. Today all I had to do was go home. We packed our seven things, had breakfast, and then headed home. On the way back, we talked about our experiences on the youth hostel tour. We all enjoyed the trip very much. On the way back, we all said what we liked best: Celina’s highlight was the rail bike, Chiara’s was the indoor rope park, Laurin’s was the beautiful weather on Brienzer Rothorn, Anna liked the train journeys and my favourite part was, as I said, playing Mogelmotte. It was a really great holiday! It was so cool of the Swiss Youth Hostels to make it possible. Goodbye and thank you.