Love the Swiss (Day 90)

Wed 29th
I left the mess that is Milan behind on Wednesday and started a much anticipated train ride to Switzerland. The train from Milan to Interlaken was not that long. A few hours maybe. I knew as soon I looked out my window and saw the valley, the lakes and the snow caped alps I was going to love my 6 days here.

I checked into The Funny Farm hostel where I would be staying just for the one night. I wanted to stay at a hostel that was a little more central to town but it did not have any availability on Wednesday. So I will stay here for tonight then I will switch to the other hostel for the remaining 5 days. The funny Farm has a fantastic pool with a monstrous water slide and jump. You will have to see the pics and videos to understand. The pool also has an outdoor bar and live music. I headed to the pool once I got settled because I wanted to get rid of, once again, the farmers tan I was building. After a little while at the pool hanging out with a few of my roommates I headed off to explore the city a little. It’s not a big town. Easy to get around and doesn’t take long to see it. I was going to go canyoning bright and early at 7:45 in the morning so I called it an early night.

Thursday
Canyoning day. Up at the crack of crack. Luckily the starting point was at the hostel I was already at so I didn’t have to go anywhere. I can’t really tell you what canyoning is. You just have to click on the link and watch the video. But I can say is was really damn fun. I signed up for the longest trip they had. 7 hours. But in actually it’s really about 2 hours in the water. It’s an hour drive there and an hour back. And a 20 minute hike there and 20 minutes back. But the trip I went on advertised for the “more adventurous and not for the faint of heart.” Sweet!!!!! But I was disappointed. I wanted my heart to be pounding and jumping out of my chest. But it wasn’t. ::Sigh:: Oh well. It was still a lot of fun. Just not that extreme in my opinion. But I had talked to a lot of people who did this who were scared shitless. So I guess fear is in the eye of beholder.
Once I got back from canyoning I grabbed my stuff and headed for the new hostel. The Happy Inn. Now, let me say this. The Happy Inn is nice. But I should have stayed The funny Farm. I thought being closer to center of city would be key. But is wasn’t. There is actually no reason to even go the center of town. And the Funny Farm had the pool and the jump and Balmers (which I tell you about later) was right across the street. So even though I was at the Happy Inn now, I spend most of my time walking back over to the Funny Farm and Balmers. Thursday (and the subsequent next few nights) night I never wanted to go Hiroshima and Nagasaki on my roommates so bad in my life. These 4 Japanese girls drove me nuts. They never left the room, they were messy, and they were always up at the break of dawn talking as loud as humanly possible. A-Bomb here I come. Luckily there were gone by Friday.

Friday
Took a train ride for about 2 hours through the alps up to Jungfraujoch. At 11,300 feet, this mountain is in the heart of a glorious glacier world on the very roof of Europe! Superb views extend as far as the summits of the Vosges Mountains in France and the Black Forest in Germany. It always has snow and it still fairly warm. Warm enough that I was in shorts and a t-shirt. You are actually above the cloud line. It was amazing. That night I headed to Balmers which is a hostel but also the most popular place for people to go and drink. There is an outdoor beer garden. But there is also an underground club below the hostel called Metro. It has a 2-1 drink special from 21-22:00. So Friday night was a night of drinking and dancing at the club. Loads of fun.

Sat
Swiss National Day. Kind of like the 4th of July in the US. Of course I headed back to the Funny Farm to enjoy the day by the pool. Gorgeous day. There were lots of people there, music and of course the giant water slide. I met up with Ryan, Lucy, Rob and Illianna there that day and we had a blast. Later that night Rob, Illianna and I went to the city center to watch the fireworks. Ryan and Lucy were suppose to meet us but we could not find one another. After the fireworks were done the lit on fire this massive pyre. So we hung around that for a while and drank and hung out with a bunch of people doing the same thing. Around 1:30 or so everything started going a little pear shaped. Things were not in focus so well. Rob, Lianne and I followed some locals to Johnny’s but as soon I got there I knew I was in no shape to be there. So I left right quick. But instead of going back to my hostel, which would be the smart thing to do, I walked back to the Funny Farm to find Ryan and Lucy. It was all so fuzzy. Somehow I found the two of them in the pool. But I think I said hello and decided I really needed to go home. So I did and I passed out.

Sunday and Monday
I’m skipping these two days because I did absolutely nothing because the weather was crap. I did go to Balmers again on Sunday and had a few drinks and then down at Metro again for while. But it was an early night.

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Part of trip: 2009 Walk of the Earth

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