So I learned a few things in this short trip: 1. I love the
Swiss Alps. 2. I hate rappelling down cliffs. 3. I know a lot less Swiss German
than I thought.
Ok, but really, Interlaken is the best. On the train here,
we could literally smell the mountain air (and feel the cooler air…I was
shivering by the time we got here) as we were getting closer. No joke…I can’t
make stuff like that up. And then we step out of the train station and see
this:
We wake up the next day and decide to go on a hike—and
realized we knew nothing about hiking when we asked the lady at the desk if we
were supposed to start the hike at the top or the bottom. (“Depends on if you
like hiking up or down.”) Oops. Anyway, we set off in our Nike Frees and
Vans…little did we know those shoes were not made for this kind of a hike. Took
a little train to the base of the mountain:
We had been planning on taking some of the little
chairlift-type thingys part of the way, but then arrived at the base of the
mountain and realized we didn’t have with us the billion dollars those things
cost. So we decided to just hike it all…which turned out to be like 6 hours. It
was not the easiest of hikes, but it was amazing and I’m glad we didn’t take the
lift…a combination of pavement at the start, rocky uphills, dirt paths, and
rolling hills. Literally there were random cows grazing on the way up.
Seriously?
When we were finally getting near the top, we found some
snow too so Justin decided to make some snowballs…it is not warm up there near
the top. Luckily I wasn’t completely clueless and brought a long-sleeved…although
all the other hikers we passed were decked out in heavy-gear hiking shoes,
windbreakers, and those little stakes. (Not to mention calling greetings at us
in languages I’ve never heard of.)
And then we finally get to our destination: some lakes at
the top. It might be the best hike ever…granted, I haven’t done a lot of hikes
in my lifetime per se and am kind of clueless when it comes to hiking, but I
can’t imagine a much better view than this.
Day 2 we go canyoning…basically a combination of rappelling,
jumping, and sliding down cliffs in a canyon. The rappelling part was the
worst…I mean, trusting some crazed guide you just met who is probably
half-drunk to hold onto your rope as he lowers you down some cliff into shallow
water? Yikes. The best part though was wearing these helmets that had names on
them (which the guides called you the whole trip). Anyway, Justin’s was “Miss
Piggy,” so when he was rappelling down and trying to grasp onto the guide’s
rope, the guide was like (super seriously), “Miss Piggy, let go of my rope.”
Ha. He should’ve picked a better name like me (“Gangsta”). But besides the
rappel, the jumps and slides were great! Unfortunately, no pictures, because I
didn’t want to pay the billion dollars extra for the video.
All in all, hiking and canyoning, combined with some Swiss
chocolate and a bunch of crazy people from the crazy hostel, definitely made
this place my favorite so far. Funny because we almost skipped Switzerland
altogether—or thought about just stopping in Zurich for a day or two—until we
met some couple in Venice who were like, “No, you have to go to Interlaken.” So
we were like, “Okay,” and booked two nights—and then added another night when
we liked it so much. That’s one good thing about having nothing planned
beforehand.
So as much as I would’ve liked to have spent 2…3…15 more
days here, we decided we had to leave when we realized that not only is Switzerland
the most beautiful place ever, but, as I’ve alluded to, also the most
expensive. For example: we thought we’d stop for a quick, cheap bite in Burger
King, and found that one measly hamburger meal was 16 franc…which is like 18
dollars or something crazy. So that’s when we figured we better high-tail it
out of here before Switzerland completely destroyed our already shaky budget.
Now to Munich (where I just booked us 3 nights in a huge tent hostel for 10
euro a night to try to make up for our Burger King spending spree…we’ll see how
this goes).
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