Svitz

Svitz is one of the strange countries that Cecil talks about visiting as he backpacked across 'Europe' during his college years in "A Memory of Europe". It is never any time but the middle of the night there.

It's described as "A land of low rolling hills and off-key tones heard on the breeze" and "is perfect for the visitor with a strong constitution, and a low tendency for hallucination."

History

Cecil's Trip

Cecil stayed in Svitz with a mysterious male traveling partner in a two-bed hostel, situated in a plywood shack on a steep hillside. The shack was on a steep incline, presumably the building itself at a strange angle that caused Cecil's traveling partner to keep rolling into him in the night. The two of them keep rolling out of the shack and tumbling down the hill into a ravine of thorns and "intoxicatingly" fragrant, deep blue flowers. Apparently both of them found the whole thing very funny and would walk back up to the shack laughing, only for it to happen all over again.

Cecil has no memory of having a traveling partner before Svitz or who his partner even was. He mentions it being something he just accepted as normal at the time. He also doesn't know how long he stayed in Svitz or how many times he went up and down that hill, but he guesses at it being "no more than a decade or so".

Cecil was eventually knocked out on one of the falls down the hill, and when he awoke, it was in a different country and he had aged by years. No one he talked to knew where the country of Svitz was, or even had heard of it. 

"Anyway, it was a lovely place, and I would say it’s a must-see for any European traveler that can find it."

As of May 2016, Svitz will be served by direct flights from Randy Newman Memorial Night Vale Airport.

Svitz Franchia Standoff of 1967

In 1967, Svitz and Franchia had a standoff of some kind. The details are unknown, as it was only mentioned briefly by Cecil in "If He Had Lived".

Enslavement

In "Josefina", Old Woman Josie mentions an opera where the people of Svitz, enslaved by Napoleon, are freed from slavery by the general of the Italian Army (who is also a singer). It is unknown if the people of Svitz were actually enslaved by Napoleon, or if this was just fiction.

Mentions

• Episode 21 "A Memory of Europe"
• Episode 29 "Subway"
• Episode 63 "There Is No Part 1: Part 2"
• Episode 78 "Cooking Stuff: Thanksgiving Special"
• Episode 87 "The Trial of Hiram McDaniels"
• Episode 92 "If He Had Lived"
• Episode 97 "Josefina"
• Episode 146 "The Birthday of Lee Marvin"