Wow. Where to begin. This trip was amazing, but started a little rocky…okay A LOT rocky, but it ended in bliss.
I originally planned to go on this trip with Euroadventures and Patric, who is studying in Sevilla, Spain. Patric flew into Barcelona from Seville to go on the trip. Well, we found out around 11:30 Wednesday night that the trip that should have left Thursday evening, was cancelled. We were determined to make it to Switzerland so we frantically scoured the Internet for transportation and accomodations. I finally found a decent flight on Easyjet, and when I clicked “book it” a popup said “This flight is less than 24 hours from now. Are you sure you want to book?” I had to laugh, I have never booked international travel this late. The flight went into Basel, where we would take a 2 hour train to our destination of Interlaken. Then we found a great hostel that was only $25 a night. I finally got to bed around 3 am, to wake up at 8am and get homework done before class at noon. Everything worked out…so far.
Patric arrived in Barcelona, our flight to Basel was on time, everything seemed to be going great. Once in Basel we took a quick bus to the train station, but we were confused when we didn’t see a train to Interlaken leaving at 23:30 like we had been told. After checking all of the boards we found out it actually left at 22:00. It was 23:15. After a short freak out moment, we found two police officers in the empty train station. They said we could take a train to Zurich, then to Bern, then to Interlaken. Sure, Switzerland isn’t huge, but this would be a cross country trek. After realizing we had no choice we went to purchase tickets and found that each ticket would be around $70 (times 3 different trains)=$210. We decided we would find a hostel for the night and take the first train to Interlaken in the morning.
Well hostels are not the norm in Switzerland, at least not in Basel. We asked a young girl and she said she had seen one about a year ago and gave us directions. After some walking we found it. We also found it does not allow check-ins after 23:00. It was now 00:05 (midnight). At this point I got a little worried. We were also starving and saw that McDonalds had just turned its lights off. We ran to the walk-up window and asked if they were open. The man said “No, all I have is a cheeseburger and a few nuggets”. “WE”LL TAKE IT!” I screamed. Well, I should have looked at the price. The burger, 9 nuggets and a water cost 14 Swiss Franks (roughly $13). There were a few fancy hotels around so we asked the price for the night….it was $240. We decided that 5 hours of sleep in a hotel was not worth it. We wondered for another hour in the dark, 1 degree Celsius town hoping to find another hostel. It was unsuccessful. So around 1 am we decided we had no choice but to try to sleep, or at least sit, in the deserted, outdoor train station until the first train left at 5am. I want to know who’s idea it was to put an outdoor train station in Switzerland. It was freezing, we put on several more layers of clothes and watched “The Hangover” on Patric’s iPod. It was my first experience as a homeless woman, and I do not plan to repeat it. It’s funny now, but not so enjoyable at the moment. I only slept about half an hour, but slowly the 5 hours passed and we boarded the train. At 7 am we were checking into the Lazy Falken Backpackers Hostel. Thankfully the man who checked us in was extremely nice. He couldn’t believe our night and refunded us for the first night since we didn’t make it.
We tried to take a nap, but being so excited to finally be in Interlaken we showered and went to town! (For those of you not keeping track I have about 5 hours of sleep in 48 hours at this point). Interlaken is such a cute city. It is positioned between two beautiful blue lakes and a river. I couldn’t believe the color of the water. After wondering through town for a bit we took a train to Grindelwald, a smaller town higher in the mountains. It was snowing there so we decided we needed coffee to warm up and wake up. This was our first taste of overpriced Switzerland. We got up and left when we realized a cup of black coffee was going to cost 8 franks. Eventually we found a small cup for 3 franks. Grindelwald was such a cute town with huge mountains and adorable Chalets, but it was ridiculously overpriced.
Day two was time to hit the slopes! Our hostel set us up with a rental company that provided everything. I rented snow pants, a jacket, goggles, gloves, boots and board. All of this including a lift ticket and train ticket was 180 Franks ($173). Considering it costs around $90 to ski in Vail, I thought this was a pretty good deal. The day was a little socked in and snowy, but the snow was AMAZING! The area is huge, collectively it is called the Jungfrau Region, and we got on the lift in Grindelwald. The snow was some of the best I’ve ever snowboarded on; there was probably 2 feet of fresh power. The beginning of the day was socked in, with blowing snow, luckily I wore every item of clothing I packed 🙂 In the afternoon the sun peeked out and it was gorgeous. The Swiss Alps do not disappoint.
That night was our hostel’s 3rd birthday party! We stopped by for free wine and snacks and to hear the band. Still hungry we were determined to find Swiss Fondue! We found a place that falsely advertised Cheese fondue for 16.50 and chocolate for 11. Once inside, with a drink, we realized the prices outside were in Euros, not Franks. What a scam! We stayed anyways and it was delicious! Cheese fondue with bread and chocolate-nut fondue with all kinds of fruit and marshmallows.
Sunday we spent a little more time wondering around Interlaken, taking pictures and stopping in touristy stores to buy our souvenirs. We wanted to leave plenty of time to catch the train to Basel and the airport. No troubles this time around 🙂
It was a great weekend, Switzerland is a must see place. It is so beautiful, I would love to go back in the summer. Now, back in Barcelona, as I sit here typing, there is a blizzard. I’m really confused. I thought I left Switzerland. It RARELY snows in Barcelona, I asked my 31-year-old professor how often it snows and he said he’s only seen it twice. It’s not a few glistening flakes either–it is a full on, white out blizzard. Should be an interesting walk to class. I should have kept my Interlaken ski jacket rental….
I’m waiting for a lot of pictures from Patric’s camera, but for my camera click here! 🙂
Mackenzie en España 