INTERLAKEN!

You live and you learn. This statement has never been more true than it was this past weekend. With that being said, the past three days have been some of the best in my life. Hands down. I'll try to keep this short and sweet, but so much has happened so I'm just going to start typing.

Let's start with this past Friday. We all got back from class around noon and packed up our things for our first weekend trip. We split into a few different groups according to what people wanted to do most- some people went to Milan, some to Munich and 18 of us to Interlaken. We (the 8 of us that went snowboarding) picked up our snowboards and skis at a local ski shop in town and then headed home to pack. We went to the train station with abut 20 minutes to spare, hoping that would be enough time to find our train.

While trying to find our gate, someone suggests looking at our rail pass, so Megan pulls hers out of her bag. Her eyes get huge and we quickly realize that she accidentally packed her boarding pass from our flight last week instead of her rail pass. Without a second thought, she leaves her bags with us and takes off in a sprint back to our room to get her ticket. Note: the time is 12:10. Our train leaves the station at 12:14 and Megan just took off back to the hostel. Freaking out, we grab her bags and get to the gate. Kerry and I realize then that Megan has no way of knowing which gate to go to, so we leave our bags and wait for her in the main terminal tunnel, praying that she will show up in time for us to run to the train. We hear our train pull up and the announcer comes on to say that it has arrived. Kerry and I keep our eyes locked on the end of the tunnel hoping Megan will fly through at any second. Sure enough, right in time, Megan slides from around the corner. Her face is red, her hair is messy and she is ferociously panting. 100 yards from us, we scream at her to run as fast as she can and to follow us. We get on the train and it starts moving about 10 seconds later.

We sit down in our seats, eyes wide, crying laughing because that's all we know to do. We peel off our coats and watch Megan try to catch her breath. Let's just say that about 8 minutes into our ride Megan runs to the bathroom to throw up (5 minute straight sprint up a hill + winding up the swiss alps on a train = the perfect storm for a spew session). I think my abs are more sore right now from laughing at the beginning of that train ride then that are from snowboarding through the alps. The ride through the alps was breathtaking and we couldn't help but look like typical americans and taking pictures out of the windows.

People watching on the train was definitely entertaining, and we found out that other people were having fun watching us too. Our third and last train into Interlaken was pretty packed, but when a guy in his 20's wanted to sit smack in the middle of our group, we just continued on with our conversations assuming that he didn't speak English. 20 minutes later, he jumps into the conversation, surprising us all. Turns out that his english is very good and he lives in the region and was headed home for studying in the city for his finals. We drilled him with questions and laughed about our differences until he got to his stop. He was really nice  He even made Carter try some of his snuff tobacco that was "Christmas flavored" that he said is very popular amongst the other hardcore mountain man. Carter and him became fast friends and he even gave the rest of his tin of stuff to Carter to take with him. We wished we had something to give him in return, but unfortunately we didn't bring any burgers or peanut butter with us.

4 hours and 3 trains after departing, we arrive in Interlaken and check into our hostel, Balmers. Starving, all 18 of us take off to find a place to eat, only to land upon Hooters. We all agree that burgers, wings, and fries sound amazing so sure enough, we walk in and get the entire back bar to ourselves! I was a little disappointed with the size of the wings (let's just say getting chicken wings in Switzerland is like getting a hamburger at a mexican restaurant.. rookie mistake!) but regardless we were all extremely satisfied.

That night, we went to the bar that is located under our hostel and met people from all over the world. Australia, Germany, England, South America, China, Canada... nearly every continent was represented and everyone was more than willing to share traveling stories. It was amazing to hear about some of the lives these people live. We all decided to stick to the local beer Rugen Brau- cheap and good!

The next day, we got up for our free breakfast and then headed to a ski shop a few doors down to pick up our lift tickets. Some people went to town to explore, some went paragliding and some went to watch the alpine ski championship, but Bailey, Jordan, Mitch, Jack, Carter, Michael and I went snowboarding. We had been lugging around our boots and boards on trains all weekend and we were ready to put them to use! (You can imagine how upset I was when I found out that I could have rented my board for even CHEAPER than I did in Lugano right there in the store... but like I said.. living and learning!)

We got our lift tickets and took off on our journey to Grindelwald. We weren't too sure of how to get there, so we just kept asking people and putting our faith in their directions. Luckily, one local skiier witnessed our cluelessness and offered to show us the way to the top of the mountain. Through a series of connecting trains, buses and gondalas, we finally arrived at the top around noon. The sights were by far some of the most beautiful I have ever witnessed and we all just kept expressing how completely amazed we were. The runs were ten times longer and wider than anywhere I've been in the U.S. and the snow was fresh packed powder... aka heaven! We had a blast and headed home around 5 when the slopes closed.

 

When we got home we grabbed dinner at a restaurant next to our hostel and strongly considered taking part in their pizza challenge (eat two large pizzas by yourself and get them for free plus your picture on the wall). Thankfully, we didn't let our hunger completely take over and we vowed for regular sized meals. Then we went home and got ready for the night. We went to the same bar below our hostel again, but this time we stuck to ourselves a lot more. It was really fun to talk to everyone and hear about the adventures people had. It seemed like every single person had the time of their lives that day regardless of what they were doing and their stories reflected it.

Sunday morning we woke up, walked around town a little bit and then packed up and headed to the train station. This time we only had to change trains once and the trains were practically empty so we were able to spread out and nap on the rides home. We got back to Lugano around 5 and even after the amazing weekend we had we were happy to be home.

Back to school work! Can't wait to see what next weekend brings.



Linds