Switzerland

We had a twenty minute walk to our hostel when we got to Switzerland; Interlaken to be exact. It is pitch black. Is it safe? This guy told us the only people out at this time are all the tourists; otherwise it is a really quite town. Pretty little walk and I can’t wait for the morning to see the Alps!! We literally can’t see anything, but I had a pretty good bet that the Alps are sleeping right in our face.  

We found our hostel around 11pm, walked into our room and smelled the worst combination of BO and cigarettes that I’ve ever smelt. Yuck!! We needed food and excuse to leave. We had brought two bags of pasta and sauce with us from Italy. Best decision ever! We had one bag of pasta and one jar of sauce for dinner that night costing us 50 cents each. The hostel had comfortable beds, so a good night sleep was in order.  I woke up the next morning and opened the curtain to look out the window. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Such beautiful mountains just staring at me! I couldn’t believe how I couldn’t see anything last night, and now they are just giant right there. 

This is the picture I took from our hostel room. 

We were most literally in the Alps. A town in between some mountains. Just great. We had our second pasta meal for breakfast (haha) mostly because we didn’t have Franks to use (their currency) and didn’t know when we were going to have a kitchen again. We just set off walking. Just being outside and seeing these huge mountains was enough for me. Our wandering around ran us into a random path.  Hmmm. Where does it lead? We don’t know, but want to find out. At this point it starts raining. I was a little concerned going on a hiking trip in the Alps with my boot and crutch, but you are only in the Alps once, right? With Sophie being my trust fall in the back and Jess in the front, we hiked. Oh the outdoors. It felt so nice. Especially the smell of the freshest air.

After a while the rain started picking up, and I was getting a little nervous about mud/rock/downhill combo with my boot/crutch situation. So we headed back down and ran into a little grocery store. It was an interesting experience to say the least. They wouldn’t accept any credit cards or debit cards… lucky they accepted euros. It was an expensive little trip. But the most important part was that we got our cheese and chocolate! Baguette and some real Switzerland cheese.. that’s lunch for ya! After lunch the sun came out, even more beautiful. I wish that I had more words, but I just don’t. We walked around some more, got lost, and saw to many paths saying do not trespass. That was a bummer.  We didn't have enough time in Switzerland to do crazy activities (sky diving, cliff jumping, bungee jumping, etc).. I had wanted to really bad. Maybe I will just have to go back someday. Ha! But enjoying the day and taking it easy was a nice change from all the stuff we had done in Italy. 

We needed to head back to the hostel to grab our bags and start heading to the train station.  I try to open the door to the hostel and for some odd reason I turned it too many times that it had ended up in my hand and not attached to the door any longer. Oops! How did that happen! Sophie screws it back on or something like that and we get inside. Good, on the right track.. Ok, so we had our backpacks stored in these lockers and these don't fit smoothly. We had to give our bags a little push and some nudging to get them in, so we also had to do a little pulling to get them out. I am pulling mine out when the whole stack of lockers start tipping and fall on me! I let out (apparently the weirdest, most hopeless cry/yelp for help) when Sophie runs to the rescue (again) and Jessica right behind. What is  wrong with me?! Don't worry, I wasn't completely smashed. Good thing too. Short people with one limb to stand on don't fare well with falling lockers. 

Off to the train station we go. After we had just sat down Sophie feels something wet. Where is it coming from?? Turns out that Sophie's water bottle had opened in her hand bag and has completely soaked everything inside including notebook (with all of our train information), planner, glassed, ipod, postcards, maps, etc, etc.. We literally had to dump the water out of her bag. Water was all over our little area of the train. Then to top it all off Jess kicks over her water bottle soaking some more items and at this point I am about on the ground we are all laughing so hard. 

We arrived in Zurich where we were supposed to get on our overnight train to Budapest. We have some time to spare. Should we sit in Burger King, McDonalds, or find a pub... decisions decisions. I had a weird feeling that the station looked a little different than before when we were in it. We keep looking around, and this all seems so different or new.  We look up.... see a weird station name.. WE ARE NOT IN ZURICH--WRONG STATION! WE GOT OFF TOO EARLY... holy shit... panic, panic, panic.. where are we??!? What train can we get on to get us to Zurich?? If we miss our over night train to Budapest where will we stay the night?? Would we be able to find a place that could take in 3 people?? Oh boy.... We need to find a help desk or information center. Everything is closed. We find the next best thing... a police man. He looks at us weird as we are trying to ask where we are and what train will take us to Zurich... when he breaks the news to us that we are in Zurich (and he is probably thinking holy insane girls). 

The station name was just different than we thought it was going to be, and we forgot about having to switch trains elsewhere on the way to Interlaken and not in Zurich. Anyway, you could maybe imagine that sinking feeling of got to figure this mess out as fast you can when people are speaking every which language. Those panics are always fun!! When are we going to learn how to double check stops?? We still aren't very good backpackers at this point. 

We settled for McDonalds where we had an important conversation that we had yet to have. I would title it "Logan, IA (SMALL TOWN)" It all started because Jessica didn't realize that we didn't have a McDonalds. "Wait... you don't have a MCDONALDS in your town?!?" No, we don't have any fast food. "But McDonalds is everywhere." Yea.... not Logan. Population 1500. At that point I decided to draw a little map of Logan with our 3 gas stations and main street bars.  

Oh Logan. I'll be happy to see you in a few months. 

Now, for this 12 hour train ride.