I went to Interlaken... or Australia. I'm not sure which.

So let's head all the way back to June 4th, the second day of midterms. We were all pretty stressed and tired from studying all week, and in desperate need of a break. Granted, exams went better than I thought they were going to, so that was good - but still, a pretty rough week for everyone. Bleh.

So the fun part of this story starts at the Milan train station, where we were supposed to catch our train to a little place in Switzerland called Brig. That's all it says on the ticket, besides the time... Brig. So after looking at the board for a while, we find a train to a place called Genova Brig that was leaving at the same time. So clearly that was the same train, right? Oh wait, VERY INCORRECT. Even as the train was moving, we all were pretty sure we were going the right way... we were headed toward some hills, which, granted, didn't really look like the Alps, but still. A few hours later, we arrive in this so-called Genova Brig, and try to catch a train to what was supposed to be the next stop, called Spiez. Before we get on though, one of the girls notices that the train we almost boarded was called La Spezia... not totally different from Spiez, but enough to question. So she went and asked the conductor, who said "No! Wrong! This not Spiez. What is this Interlaken?" Well, clearly when the train conductor has never heard of the city we are supposed to be headed to, we are in the wrong place. So we talked to the ticket dude, who told us we had to go all the way back to Milan and catch another train from there... fantastic.


Erin fell asleep on the train, thus leaving herself vulnerable for me to take pictures of her looking like this. Some call it evil, I call it opportunistic. Also, this is part of a series I'm creating called "People sleeping while traveling," and it's looking like an award winning collection. Get excited.

So we finally get back to Milan around 10:00 PM... nobody has really had dinner, and there are definitely not any more trains headed out until the next morning at 7:20 AM. Needless to say, a few of the people that we were with were less than happy, but the rest of us just figured that we couldn't do anything about it, and we all enjoyed each other's company enough for it not to be a problem. We got some food at a restaurant outside of Milan, and just hung out before heading back into the train station to "sleep." Also, I would just like to send a shout-out to the Milan McDonald's for letting me use it's bathroom at whatever time in the late night I had to pee... my choices were my pants and that McDonald's, seeing as the train bathrooms had closed. So anyways, we were looking for a place to settle down for the night, and thought we found an awesome corner... until we all noticed the delightful smell of urine emanating from the homeless dude in the other corner that we hadn't seen at first. So then we moved up by the waiting room, before finally making one more move to the outside of the Train Police Station, where we felt the safest. That said, a few of us wanted to stay up the whole night to make sure that nothing happened to anyone, so... we did. I give props to Kaitlin for being the girl who lasted the longest, making it to around 5 before she started mumbling and drooling a little bit on herself (kidding... kind of). I felt like I was in the episode of Pete and Pete where they have the contest to see who can go without sleep the longest, and then it results in insanity and general mayhem, and everyone learns the importance of sleep. Anyways, Jeremy, Mike, and I stayed up for pretty much the whole night playing cards, telling riddles, and basically reenacting Scout Camp for 7 hours. And despite being stuck in a train station and losing a full night of sleep, I had a pretty good time. You always hear people say that "attitude is everything," and when you're in a bad mood the first response is generally "Suck it," but... you know what, it's true. Fancy that.


A few of us having positive attitudes in Milan, part deux.


Sleeping beauties that we protected with our ever-vigilant watchful eyes.

The other phrase I've learned the truth of (not that I ever doubted you, Mom), is that "Things work out." I've said it a lot this trip, even when I haven't believe it... and I've gotta say, it served me pretty well. We ended up getting on our train in the morning, We got to Interlaken around 10:45, so really not that much later than if we had slept in a little bit had we gotten there the night before. Our main objective was to book our extreme sports activities, and we ended up finding the place pretty quickly. We had heard from the group that took the right train that everything was booked up, but that ended up not being the case. The friendly Australians that worked at the Alpin Raft desk helped us book everything we wanted to, and because the weather was so much better than expected, we could actually do everything without delay. Literally an hour after booking, Jackie, Hillary, Jeremy and I were on a bus up a mountain on our way to PARAGLIDE. Because, you know, that's something that normal people do on a regular basis. My tandem person was named Stefan, and he wasn't as "cool" as some of the other guides, but he was very friendly... and gave me the video of me for free! Also, when we were in the air, he let me fly the paraglider for a little bit, which nobody else got to do (suckers). And I won't belabor the point, but paragliding was one of the best experiences of my life. To look down and see a helicopter flying BELOW me was ridiculous and incredible. Because weather conditions were perfect, I got to stay in the air for a full 30 minutes... double the amount of time promised. All of us that did it had an incredible time, as you can hopefully tell from the pictures.


Yeah, that's me and my bff Stefan just hanging out thousands of feet above sea level. No big.


The view. Holy crapola.


A random Asian that I though was Hilary, so I looked creepy whilst photographing her. Hey Asian!


Me in the air again!

The video wasn't working, but I'll try it again when I post more canyoning pictures.

After that, we had about an hour and a half break, all 8 of us headed over to the main Alpin Raft center and got ready for canyoning. We had to put on these wet suit deals that were probably the tightest pieces of clothing I've ever worn. I understand the purpose of them, and I was glad to have it on once I was in the water, but talk about difficult. Anyways, the eight of us got to be our own group without having to deal with anyone else, and it was another one of the best times in my life so far. With canyoning, you basically are put in a rocky river type place, and just go down it any way the guides tell you to, whether it is rappelling, climbing, ziplining, or just plain sliding. It was a really cool experience, and I'm pretty confident in my analysis that we all had a kickass time. Side note, everyone's helmet had a different name on it, and we got to choose. I, knowing that pictures would be taken and shown to family members and the other strangers who read my blog, chose the relatively tame but still awesome and relevant (thanks to Kanye West) name of Robocop. I cannot speak for some of the other members of our group, who you can form your own judgments about.


I was ready for this one.


Jeremy coming out of a waterfall. Funny choice of name, friend.


The group doing our "Interlaken" hand pose.

I'll try to post more once I rotate them in my computer...

That night, we went to Balmers, which is basically the only place that every young person in Interlaken goes to at night. It's also one of the most popular hostels to stay at, but for whatever reason we ended up booking a hostel that was about a 40 minute walk out of town. It really wasn't that bad though, and despite being in a 21 person room, there were only two other people that actually stayed there with us. They were two guys from LSU, and they were our age and really nice. We didn't hang out with them outside of being in the room, but they were cool to talk to for a little bit, and it's always nice to meet some other Americans (even though that isn't really an issue in Interlaken). But back to Balmers - we went there both nights, and it was a lot of fun. I left early the first night, which ended up being a mistake... all I'll say is, our hostel needs to better identify it's fire alarms that are located next to every door and look suspiciously like doorbells. Stupid hostel.

Anyways, the next day we had rafting at noon, and again, all eight of us were participating. It wasn't as cool as the other two activities I did, but I think that was just because I'd done it before. That said, it was still an amazing time. The weather was drizzly, but that wasn't a big deal... just going down that river being surrounded by the Alps was an amazing, amazing experience. Awesome.

After that, we split up again so that three of the others who didn't go paragliding could go Bungee Jumping. The rest of us hadn't had lunch yet, so we went to the one place that everyone told us we had to go... Hooters. Apparently it's the most famous restaurant in Interlaken? Interesting. That said, I did get an incredibly delicious hamburger, and got to watch the women's final of the French Open, and was severely disappointed with Safina's loss to Kuznetsova. Seriously? Kuznetsova blows. Just google image her. Here, if you're lazy, I did it for you: http://www.espn.go.com/photo/2007/0703/ten_a_kuznetsova_262.jpg
You see my point?

So that night, we went and picked up some food from the grocery store and headed back to Balmers. Unfortunately, the three bungee jumpers took too long at dinner and couldn't get into Balmers by the time they got there, so they didn't make it in. The rest of us got there early enough, and ended up hanging out with some other people from the Verona program that we hadn't really talked to up until then. So around midnight, a few of decided we were starving and needed food... and thus, my second trip to Hooters in the same day. I mixed it up and got a hot dog this time, and I will give Hooters credit - they know how to make American food pretty well. But anyways.


Hooters! Me, Helen, Kaitlin, and Erin underneath the sign.

So that next morning, we got up and walked around for a little bit, just looking in stores and whatnot. I got a Balmers t-shirt, even though I didn't stay there... I figured that being there two nights in a row and having friends who stayed there was enough to not look like a poser, right? Well, that's what I'll choose to believe. Moral of the story, we ended up catching the right train this time, and were on our way back home. I really enjoyed everyone that I was with (Kaitlin, Mike, Ryan, Jackie, Erin, Hilary, and Jeremy), and the activities and feel of the town was really cool too. Everyone there was just so friendly and welcoming, and on top of that, everybody spoke near perfect English... I appreciate the beauty of other languages, but it's wonderful to hear words that make sense in my head and am able to respond to.

Next time: Killers Concert in the Verona Arena, and Cinque Terre. If I were you, I'd be jealous of me right now too. Thanks for reading!