Well I'm back from another weekend adventure! This time it was Interlaken, Switzerland, and it was a beautiful (but cold) winter wonderland! We left on Thursday night again around 7:30pm and arrived around 3:30am at the Funny Farm Hostel. This hostel wasn't quite like our fusion hostel in Prague...think musty, old-fashioned, medieval, outdated hotel and you'll get the Funny Farm. There was nothing really too funny about it at all. We checked into our room which had two twin beds side by side and a bunk bed and we went straight to bed. Of course, I got the bottom bunk and all we had to sleep with was a tiny little blanket that was faded and gross. It was what my family and I might call, "rude." And I am proud to say that term was used a lot this weekend by the four of us. I showed them how rude can be used to describe much more than just impoliteness but it can be used to describe your greasy face after sitting on a bus for 8 hours, or the crusty blanket you're given at a hostel called the funny farm. I think I'm converting them. Anyways, we woke up at 8am to get ready for a full day of skiing. We went to the rental place to get snowpants, jackets, gloves, helmets, goggles, skis, and poles. All that for under 200 dollars and that included our lift ticket, not too bad. Then we took a bus to a train station where we literally took 3 more trains before we finally reached the mountain called Grindelwald. It was around noon when we finally hit the slopes. Now, picture this: one expert skier, 2 decent skiers, and one who has never skied before in the Swiss alps unable to read any confusing maps and signs. That was us. It was quite the adventure, but after many falls down some hills that were definitely not for beginners, Mikey mastered the pizza plow and we were very impressed! Colleen probably was bored on some of the hills since she's been downhill skiing since she was like 5, but we didn't want to separate for fear that we'd never find eachother again. Here are some pics from our day:
After an exhausting day, we headed back to the hotel starving since we had not had time to get lunch because we wanted to have maximum time on the mountain. We went to dinner at a place in town called Brasserie 17 where we enjoyed an entire pitcher of local beer and then ordered wings, soups, and salads. We were so happy to be inside and warm for the first time all day. That night, we crashed and went to bed early.
Day 2, Saturday: Day Trip to Bern
We woke up around 8:30, got coffee and then met our tour leader in the lobby of the hostel. We then took a bus at 10am to the capital of Switzerland, Bern for the day. Bern was a really cool, medieval city. When we got there, the first thing we did was go to a museum called the Kunst Art Museum where we saw artwork by Picasso and Salvador Dali. Them we went and had lunch at this tiny little restaurant where we enjoyed eggplant, parmesan, and arugula paninis. After lunch we went on our most important mission: to get Colleen chocolate. We went to this chocolate shop that would let you sample slabs of so many different flavored chocolates. Colleen got almost 25 dollars worth of chocolate for sure. I also got the best pistachio truffle I've had in my life...it had like pistachio flavored marzipan inside and was so creamy and delicious. Then we went to the Albert Einstein Museum which was actually inside Einstein's actual apartment from when he and his first wife first moved to Bern. It was cool to learn all about his life in both Europe and the US. After the Einstein haus, we got back on the bus to head back to Interlaken.
That night, we had the front desk make us a reservation at a restaurant that was supposed to have really good Swiss food. It was called the Goldener Anker. I wouldn't say it was amazing, but I also was sick the whole weekend and couldn't taste anything but my french onion soup still felt really good on my throat! Dana got some sort of pan fried chicken, and Colleen and Mikey got a chicken stew with mangoes....not sure this was really Swiss food but it was good!
So we weren't scheduled to leave on our bus home until 2pm on Sunday so we decided we would do something until then. We had heard of this beautiful lake nearby and so we asked for the directions. We were told to just follow the river all the way until we found the lake. But I think people failed to mention how long this would take....we were literally trudging through snow not even sure if we were going the right way for almost an hour. But, I tried to suck it up and not complain too much and it was so worth it when we got there and saw the breathtaking views.
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| The long walk |
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| The beautiful view! |
So that was Interlaken! It was this adorable little ski town and although it was cold, it was worth it and so beautiful in so many ways! Can't believe I have already been gone a month...time is flying by!! Later this week I will update you on all my culinary adventures:) I am so excited to stay in Florence this weekend and looking forward to seeing my best friend Alex who is coming to visit me from Rome. And then after that, our next adventure will be Brussels, Belgium!! Bring on the waffles....
xoxoxo
Alli
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