At approximately 4:10 in the morning, I headed to Heathrow Airport with a group of three to catch an early flight to Zurich. We were headed to Interlaken, Switzerland, a place I had never heard of before.
Our flight to Zurich was smooth, however, upon arriving, my stomach was bothering me, making the long hike to the train station rather unpleasant. While on our way to the train, we stopped at a cafe called Juicery 21 and I ordered an acai bowl. It was very delicious and had me wishing London Town would open up a cafe of the sort.
After finishing our food, we continued our trek to the train station, making sure to take in all the sights of Zurich. From what I observed, it was a quiet city with young people making up the vast majority of the population. Small children everywhere were dressed up in cute bundles of sherpa clothing, and small lap dogs were dressed to impress as well.
Our trip required us to take two trains in order to get to Interlaken; the first being to Bern and then a train from there to Interlaken. Accidentally, we missed the first train from Zurich to Bern, forcing us to wait another hour to catch the next one. It was quite confusing figuring out what track our train was on as the station was enormous with many levels and every sign of direction was in the native tongue, Swiss. Upon arriving in Bern, we had six minutes to get to our next train. Luckily, it was just a track over!
The second train was on the most scenic route; the further we got to our destination the views became more and more surreal. I felt as if I was heading to Hogwarts on the Jacobite.
When we finally arrived at Interlaken, it was at least 10 degrees chillier. Our hostel, Interlaken Marco Hostel, was a three-minute walk from the station, which made our ventures around town easily accessible.
Anyway, we spent our night at the hostel, eating pizza, and watching the new Fyre Festival documentary.
The next morning, we woke up to the most stunning view outside of our window: rows of evergreen trees aligned on the mountains peaks. We started our day getting breakfast at Ruft, a small breakfast place where I got a hazelnut croissant and pretzel sandwich. The meal was interesting; I was not much of a fan but was willing to try all foods native to Switzerland.
After breakfast, we headed to Outdoor Interlaken, a place that experts in adventure and outdoor activities. The boys, Nick and Peyton, rented skies while Megan and I decided to just explore Lake Brienz. The scenery was dreamy, full of neverending mountains with thick layers of snow coating them. The lake was so clear that the mountains reflected off of the water, making the scenery even more unreal. One cannot just admire and appreciate the beauty off of a picture, but rather has to be there to fully experience the unimaginable. The picturesque view is too fascinating to put into words. One must see it in person to believe it!
Once our hike concluded, Megan and I set off to find a Migros, a Swiss grocery store chain, to recharge with pretzels, tortilla chips, and sparkling water.
At about six in the evening, we met up with the boys and got dinner at McDonald's. Thinking we would be saving money, we were completely wrong. I have never in my life been to a more expensive McDonald's! A cheeseburger was almost five franks, which would be unheard of in the United States, and even in London.
We headed back to the hostel and called it an early night as we had to board our train at six in the morning. Our trip was complete!
All in all, I would give our trip a rating of 7.5/10, only because of the problems we had leading up to arriving in Interlaken (missing our train, etc.). Other than that, I feel like I have broadened my horizons visiting a place I probably never would have if it wasn't for my friends pushing me to go. And finally, I feel like my intolerance to uncertainty has been enhanced. I found my group and I were stuck in situations in which things did not always go as planned. However, deep down, I know these situations will help me learn to cope with uncertainties in my everyday life.
