Vermont On Steroids

What an interesting weekend! I must say, it's pretty grand traveling for four days and going to class for three. Thursday I left for Interlaken early in the morning. When I got there, I bought a CHF 90 ticket (and that's half price) to go up to Junfraujoch - The Top of Europe. That's what they call it. It's the highest train station in Europe and that's because it sits on top of one of the tallest mountains in Europe-- Junfrau, literally, Virgin. It was snowing wildly, so it seemed as if we were chugging through a white abyss. Two and a half hours later we arrive at the "Top of Europe" and you can tell; it's very hard to breathe. Since the snow made it impossible to get that famous view, I decided I'd settle on dog-sledding, only a dream of mine. But when I asked the info woman how to get there, she said they only do that in the summer! So instead I went to the Ice Palace, which is a misnomer. Ice, yes. Palace, not so much. It was...a large igloo. After the large igloo, I asked the info woman again what else I could do when the weather was so bad. She said I could watch a video on Jungfrau. Wow, that's her suggestion? So I left. It was unfortunate that I paid so much, but I learned and I'll just have to go back in the spring when the view is...existent.

Back at sea level the weather was just as bad-- a mix of rain and snow. I found my hostel and, sopping wet, settled in and tried to decide what to do for the next few hours. After looking through Frommer's and a tourist newspaper, I realized that the attractions in Interlaken are all based on good weather: summiting mountains, skydiving, parasailing, lake cruises, etc. I decided to just walk around in the rain and explore the town. Unfortunately, my favorite part of exploring is taking pictures and the rain stopped me from doing any of THAT. I returned to the hostel and met my hostelmates, Jared from Ohio and Brad from California, roadtripping Europe with a rental and a GPS. We ended up just hanging out in the room for the rest of the night, laughing a lot.

The next morning I went to the tourist office and asked what to do when the weather is so bad. The lady told me, "Go to Lucerne." HAHA. The tourist office actually told me to get out of Interlaken! I wasted time until 2pm, when I met Liz Bruner (UVMer!) at the train station. Then I had a partner to walk around in the rain with! For dinner, we had FONDUE! The most amazing...I can't even talk about it. It's normally CHF 22 per person, but for some reason we paid CHF 22 TOTAL! OH man. We had a bowl of bread, a bowl of pears, and a bowl of potatoes. My mouth is watering as I type this. Basically, you stick the carb of your choice into a small pot of boiling Swiss white wine cheese. OH BABY!! After dinner, we bought some Swiss chocolate and went back to the room to eat it with come Swiss wine Liz had brought. We spent the night talking about UVM and how great it is, and by the end we were both school-sick.

The next morning Liz walked me to the station for my train to Lucerne. Her dad and sister were arriving from the States a few hours later to go skiing (the one activity that's great to do when the weather's bad). The train ride from Interlaken to Lucerne was two hours and not enough. When I got on, I wondered why the train had "Golden Express" written on it. I soon found out. This thing, literally the entire two hours, yielded breathtaking views of green, green countryside backed by white and blue Swiss Alps and a lake here or there. And mind you, this is a view from a mountainside. I was constantly snapping pictures. It was amazing! While on the train, I decided on an adequate description of Central Switzerland: Vermont On Steroids.

In Lucerne it was gorgeous out. I found my hostel quickly and then ran back out to take pictures. This city is stunning. Two covered bridges, a castle, small cobblestone walkways, a huge lake and 180 degrees of mountains. Again with the taking pictures every other second. I decided to go to the Glacier Gardens. This museum was awesome; apparently, long, long ago, all of Lucerne was covered in ice. Now, the reminants of that time are huge nature-made holes in rock. I would tell you more, because there was so much more, but it'd sound silly if I tried to describe it. You need to go. Unfortunately (how many times have I used that word?), in the middle of the museum, I started to feel sick to my stomach. It continued to get worse until I was having trouble walking. I hobbled all the way back to the hostel and lay in bed, writhing in pain, from about 4pm-9pm. I have no idea what it was.

The next day (today) I was feeling better, though not great. I decided to walk along the lakeside path that would eventually take me to the Swiss Transport Museum (one of the best museums in Switzerland according to Frommer's). The walk took me about two hours, partially because I was hobbling, partially because I was stopping to take pictures every other minute. At the museum, I bought a combi-ticket for the museum and an IMAX show. I chose one on elephants. The exhibits were fantastic, hands-on and packed with information; reminded me a lot of the Deutches Museum in Munich. After a couple hours (and of course, not enough time), it was time for my IMAX movie. Since the movie was in German, I had a little headset in English. It was funny because the German narrator would always come on first and then my little guy would start talking, and at one point, just for three words at the end of a sentence they coincided-- and I swear they said the EXACT same thing!! It was hilarious; the other guy just had a German accent. The movie was really good; I learned a lot about elephants...

Anyway, back in Fribourg now and finally got my permis de sejour for those of you that were on the edges of your seats. I know!