Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Interlaken

Interlaken

I am the definition of LAZY. I can't bring myself to blog. But I'm waiting at London Heathrow to board my plane home and I have many many hours to kill, including a 5 hour layover in Houston. 

I'm going to try to shorten my posts to appease the requests of readers. (Sorry about that...)

Interlaken - We left that morning from Rome, fairly early, grabbed some cappuccinos and boarded the train. A series of complications with trains occurred, which caused us to need to change trains several times in random cities, such as Spiez. However, during the chaos we spotted large backpacks attached to confused, worried twenty-somethings. "Balmer's?" we asked. Each backpack-wearer nodded their head. We formed a kind of loose alliance. We stuck together and navigated through the transfers. When we arrived the directions to the hostel were fairly simple. Before starting the trek, we satiated our unbearable hunger at a kebab place along the way. We soon realized after grabbing food that we were utterly lost (nothing new to us). The rest of the group carried on without getting food so Britt, Jess, and I stayed with our new friend Chris. Eventually we made it to Balmer's, checked in, got ready and headed down to Metro, the bar/club downstairs, which apparently is the most happening place in that area of Interlaken. It was a bit of a slow night but we stayed and chatted it up with the boys we met earlier in the common room. We called it an early night because Day 2 was going to be intense. 

Day 2 - One word... Canyoning. 8 hour trip. Expensive, thrilling, adventurous, fear-defying, and SO MUCH FUN. We went with a wonderful group of people. But anyway, it's hard to explain. Best way is to Google: "Outdoor Interlaken Canyoning"... Also I bought my own video. It was a great keepsake. We popped open out bottle of prosecco at the end and then headed back in the van. During or adventures Britt perforated her eardrum and got an inner ear infection. I felt so bad because her eyes were welling up with tears and she was wreathing in pain. She ended up taking a taxi to the ER. Jess and I kept our phones on us to make sure everything was okay but in the meantime we walked 10 minutes down the road to the tent city where the hot tub was. So relaxing after a long day. After all the chaos we took naps and prepared our bodies for the "Beach Party" that night at Metro. We cooked our own dinner, ravioli with wine, and enjoyed a few drinks at happy hour. We spent time with the great people who we canyoned with. The party was fun. We danced all night. 

Day 3 - We slept in. Finally pulled ourselves out of bed and ran into Jason and Alex, aka Precious and Bush, the twins from our canyoning group. They told us about the "hammock room" aka the hangover room, where we spent a solid 3 or 4 hours relaxing, reading, journaling and sleeping. It was absolutely lovely. We made it out a few times for chocolate and groceries, but it was mostly a relaxed day. We spent another night at Metro, hung out with some of our Outdoor Adventure guides, and other friends that we made and then eventually made it to bed for our morning train to Munich. 

All in all Interlaken was hands down the most gorgeous landscape of any city. Rolling green hills, snow-capped Swiss Alps, and crystal-clear turquoise lakes that reflected mirror images of the mountains. Just beautiful. Also, we missed Jodelfest by one day.... Disappointment. But, found brand new pair of Ray Bans on the sidewalk... Anti-disappointment 

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