When Travel Plans Go Totally Wrong

A most adventurous and eventful day. Let me recall the highlights of today:

Zermatt (postponed)
- Mis-read train times, so misjudged the travel time required from Lausanne to Zermatt - How on earth did I get so careless?!
- Therefore also missed the train by 1min
- Next fateful train stalled in between 2 stations, 40min into the ride
- Someone jumped in front of the oncoming train! Driver traumatised, train damaged. We were stuck for 2hr!
- Befriended a young lovely vivacious Swiss girl, only 17 years old and totally mature. She translated everything for me, and offered me her mobile in case I needed anything else later. Still waiting for a replacement train, we chatted and took silly pictures. Her eyes lit up when I said I would post them on facebook. Ahh, I felt less of a dinosaur....
- Decided not to wait for train. Hopped off train and hitchhiked our way to the next station at Sion. Hitchhiking! My first! Like a scene from the movies - 2 girls standing by the roadside, flagging a piece of paper that had our destination, arms stretched, hoping a helpful driver would pull over. 10min later, help came in the form of 3 big-sized men in a jeep, playing rock music and smoking. Gentle giants. We hopped on.

Montreux (impromptu)
- Too late to continue the 3hr journey to Zermatt, so I bought a ticket back to Lausanne
- Hopped off at Montreux, a scenic town
- Walked along lake to an old castle - Chillon Castle
- Helpful ticket seller charged me student rate instead of adult, cheaper :)
- Wonderful walking tour of the huge castle, like exploring a maze

Lausanne (unplanned)
- Wanted to see the Olympic Museum, but did not know the way nor have a map
- Had only 40min to spare before Museum closed, took a risk and blindly jumped onto the first bus that came along
- Helpful bus driver gave directions for a transfer that went direct to Museum
- Ran to the reception to buy ticket, but lady did not want to sell - 15min to spare before closing time, she said it was not worth paying to enter
- Desperately, I told her I was flying off the next day and really wanted to see the museum
- To my utter surprise, she offered me free entrance into one section instead! I chose the sports section. It was an emotional moment when I stood in the middle of the exhibits, staring at the bicycles and shoes the Olympic champions used.

I thought my day would be spoilt by the train accident. I guess being very flexible and adaptive helped to turn it into an awesome day. The 3 generous and helpful locals I met made it a beautiful day in the end. :)