Geneva and Interlaken, Switzerland

Last weekend, we were in Switzerland!  I had never been to the country before and really didn't know what to expect, but we had heard so many great things about its beauty, I thought it was well worth a visit.  That was sure correct!  We ended up finding a relatively inexpensive flight to Geneva, Switzerland, then reserved a train ride from Geneva to Interlaken, which was rumored to be one of the most beautiful and picturesque places in the world! Luckily, Dan, Lauren, Ross and I made the arrangements for this trip, while at the same time our two friends, Emily and Callie, were making the same plans.  So even though we were not traveling "together" we eventually ended up in Switzerland all together, which was a blast.  In addition to that, we have a few friends from SLU who are actually studying abroad in Geneva through Webster University in St. Louis, therefore they basically babysat us from the time we got off the plane, until our arrival to the airport on Monday morning!  That was unexpected, but so helpful!

We left Madrid last Thursday afternoon, as usual, however the mood of the group was a little bit angrier than normal.  I do not get out of class until 3:15 PM, while the other three are finished at like 1:45.  Our flight was scheduled to leave around 6:20, so we had decided to be heading toward the airport at no later than 3:45 to avoid any confusion like we encountered in Paris.  Since I had to stay at the university for a bit and print my train tickets, I did not arrive at the apartment until 3:30 and Dan was immediately rushing me to leave!  That pissed me off!  Then, once we met Lauren at the metro station (30 minutes late), she was angry with Dan, since he had not told her we were delayed!  On top of all that, Dan was then mad at Lauren and me for making fun of his unwillingness to attempt to use Spanish - ever!! Regardless of the tension, we arrived to the airport on time, flew through security and found ourselves enjoying a large beer and snacks at the gate, well before departure.  On the flight, Lauren and I ordered a ham and cheese sandwiches, since we were starving, and it was actually pretty good!  When we got into Geneva around 8:00, our friend from SLU, Jen, was there to meet us at the airport and help us get back into the city, since we would be staying at their apartments for the first night in Geneva.  We were hungry, so Jen took us to a nearby burger place, but not before warning us of the exorbitant prices in Switzerland and especially in Geneva.  For one burger, fries and a beer, I paid over 20 CHF (Swiss Franks), which is equivalent to a little more than $20 USD.  Ugh!!  After our burgers, she directed us through the city's incredible public transport system, which consists of high-tech trains, which run on rails and cables and are built right into the streets!!  We arrived to Webster University's campus and made ourselves at home in our friends', Carl and Ben's, tiny apartment.  Ben took us on a walking tour of Geneva, while Carl went back to the airport, this time to fetch Emily and Callie, freshly arrived from Madrid.  The tour was nice, but it was difficult to really see the city at night.  Dan and Ben got into swimsuits and jumped off of a bridge, near their apartment, into a freezing cold river below.  Ben said they do it a lot and Dan couldn't pass it up.  I opted to stay high and dry!  We reunited with the rest of the girls from Madrid and together we went to a Indian place to get Döner Kabobs, I am still not really sure what they are, but Carl and Ben swore they were delicious and about the only thing they could afford to eat in Geneva!  We ate the sandwiches and went to bed shortly after, since our train ride was at 10 AM on Friday.

Ben walked us to the train station on Friday morning, since Carl had already left with Emily and Callie for Interlaken.  We stopped in the station for coffee and Lauren and I picked out the most delicious waffle I have ever had in my life.  It was a sugar waffle, with bits of melted sugar inside, powdered sugar on top and warmed on a griddle.  I would kill for another one!  We boarded the train on time, made our connection an hour later in Bern and were well on our way to Interlaken (only about a 3 hour ride by train from Geneva).  The views from the train were incredible and I even said I would have been content if the train just turned around and my money was spent only on the scenic ride!  We passed mountains, lakes, field, and small Swiss villages, which made for a quick and enjoyable journey!  We arrived at the Interlaken West station and after a brief moment of confusion in locating our hostel and being utterly flabbergasted by the beauty of the surroundings, we made it to the Lazy Falkan Hotel, stored our bags for the day and got some advice from the super nice guy working at the bar.  Since it was a beautiful, rather warm and clear day, he suggested we go up the Harder Mountain for awesome views of the city of Interlaken, the surrounding mountains and the two adjacent lakes.  He suggested we stop at a grocery store for some snacks and beer to have a small picnic atop the mountain - so we did!  We took a funicular, or cable car, called the Harderbhan, to the top of the mountain.  It was a shaky ride straight up!  Lauren was nervous and it didn't help that the railways had been built over 100 years ago and they didn't hesitate bragging about that!!  Once we made it to the top, we were shocked by the beautiful views!  We were taking pictures left and right and walking slowly along the wooded path to a large restaurant, which is the main attraction on the Harder (aside from the views).  Along the way, we heard Dan let out a scream and discovered that his entire, freshly-purchsaed loaf of bread had shaken out of his bag and fell straight down the hillside!! hahaha!  We were laughing so hard, both at how strange it was and also at the fact that we were now 5,000 feet in the air and he had no lunch! We found a shady spot along the trail, prepared our sandwiches, cracked open our several, luke-warm beers and reluctantly shared with the starving Dan.  We returned to the hostel later to regroup and take a little nap.  The walks around the quaint town of Interlaken, seem straight from a movie set or fairy-tale world.  The colors are more intense - the water is so blue that it doesn't look real, the grass is greener, the flowers more red and the homes look like little gingerbread houses.  We couldn't get enough.  We ate dinner at a pizza place, despite the horrible prices for food.  Lauren and I split what we thought to be a delicious, creamy vodka sauce with prawns and turned out to be a thin oily pasta with tiny shrimp.  Nevertheless, I ate all of it, plus Dan and Ross' pizza.  I realized that afternoon that I had forgotten my contact solution in Geneva and no stores were open to buy some.  I had to find a random guy in the hostel to lend me some solution and he ended up being very nice and hug out with us the next night!!

Ross, Dan, Lauren, Jen and I in Geneva

Overlooking the rivers of Interlaken

Interlaken with a view of Jungfrau Mountain in the distance

Interlaken from Harder Mountain

On Saturday, the weather was a little worse in the morning, kind of cold and rainy, so we ate the free breakfast at the hostel and then, again per the recommendation of the hostel employee, we boarded a train to Lauterbrunnen.  This is a city located higher up in the mountains with busses connecting to the town of Trümmelbach and it's famous waterfalls.  These waterfalls collect the runoff of the three largest mountains around the towns and the water has, over time, bored falls deep into the rock.  Now, there are tunnels, stairs and lighting inside the mountains to observe the waterfalls from the inside.  It was incredible!! Very loud and wet!  Plus, from the waterfalls, we had great views of the land outside and the improving weather.  Upon leaving the waterfalls, we took the bus and train back to Interlaken, then boarded a super nice train (which was heading to Frankfurt, Germany!).  This train dropped us at Interlaken West, where we could walk home and grab some ingredients for more sandwiches and more beer for dinner!  After eating, we ended up reuniting with Brad, the contact solution guy, who was traveling alone and had met a couple other travelers from Canada.  They were all heading to a big party that evening at Balmer's Tent Village, which is a huge hostel type place for visitors to Interlaken, and is right where our friends, Emily, Callie and Carl, were staying.  We all made the 30 minute walk to Balmer's together and had a great time at the party there.  It was celebrating both the closing of the tent village for the season, as well as the beginning of the famous Oktoberfest in Germany.  We ended up running into more people from SLU and meeting some interesting characters from Australia.  Lauren enjoyed herself so much that she even got to spend a night in the tent village in our friends' tent!! hahaha!

Dan, Lauren, Ross and I at Trümmelbach Falls

Refrigerator...

Emily, Dan, Callie, Ross and Lauren at Balmer's Tent Vila

Carl, Lauren and I 

Sunday was our last day in Interlaken, but since we booked a train ticket back to Geneva for 9:00 PM we virtually had the entire day to enjoy the city.  We decided to rent bikes and tour the surrounding towns and lakes for.  After eating the free breakfast and collecting Lauren from the tent village, we went to a bike rental shop and the super-nice employee rented bikes to us for just 9 Franks (around $9) and told us to just keep them for three or four hours, despite the two hour time limit.  We grabbed a map and headed north from Interlaken to a neighboring town,  There, we explore an old ruined castle and biked through the small, residential streets.  Next, we continued along the river, across a covered bridge and eventually made our way to Böning, where the western lake of Interlaken is located.  We parked our bikes and sat by the lake eating some left over bread, taking pictures and watching some horrible boaters try to get their 19 foot Bayliner onto the trailer and out of the water.  What a joke!  Eventually, they asked us to help them rock the boat so that it would fall into place on the trailer! haha!  We continued riding along the lakeside, stopping for a big German hotdog and beer at a food stand near the marina and then made our way back to Interlaken to return the bikes.  There, we got more beer (Desperado's) and sat by the picturesque river enjoying our final few hours in paradise.  We decided to spend the remainder of our Swiss Franks on a traditional Swiss dinner at a nearby restaurant.  We ordered cheese fondue, which is hugely popular there, especially in the winter, and I got a delicious schnitzel with mushroom gravy and buttered noodles!

The Jungfrau by night

As usual, our luck began to sour as the trip came to an end.  We returned to the hostel to get our bags, only to find that the bar where they were stored was locked and closed for the night.  We were panicking because all of our things should have been locked inside.  It turns out, they had moved them outside the door for us, but we didn't see them initially because it was so freaking dark!!  We just barely dodged that bullet!  We got on our first train around 9 PM,  transferred trains at Bern and then boarded the second train to return to Geneva.  On that train, Lauren discovered that she had lost her purse somewhere along the line.  Luckily she had her passport and tickets with her, but her credit cards, cash, keys, camera and phone were inside the misplaced purse.  Again we were in panic mode, Dan was running around the train trying to find a "conductor-man" he kept saying, and in the meantime Lauren and I decided to try to call her phone.  I did it right away and nearly passed out when someone creepily answered!  The man said that he and his girlfriend had found the purse and that he would happily mail it to Lauren in Madrid, no problem.  Thank god!  However, this is still unfinished business and I really do not know if Lauren has heard from him again or not.  Once back to Geneva, we met up with Callie and Emily and decided to simply go straight to the airport, since it was already after midnight and we could just get comfy in the terminal and rest until boarding around 6 AM.  As it turns out, since it was Sunday, the airport was closed for the night and would not reopen until 4 in the morning.  So, we were stranded outside the airport for about an hour until we saw people just going inside through the cracked doors.  We followed suit and made ourselves makeshift beds on the uncomfortable chairs for a few hours until security opened.  The next jab would come when we woke and found that our Easy Jet flight which was scheduled to depart at 7:05 AM had been delayed for three hours (due to technical issues) and would not leave until after 10 AM.  This was terribly depressing and we could not bear the thought of spending any more time in the stupid airport, but with no other options, we went back to sleep on the chairs, spent too many Franks on an overprices croissant and coffee and caught the 10 AM flight back to Madrid.  With virtually no time to spare, we returned home gathered our things and went directly to class, beginning another week of school to recuperate from the excitement of Switzerland!