Notes from Abroad

I’ve only been here for around 18 hours so far, but I already know that I love Switzerland. I think I knew the moment we crossed the border from Italy. It’s absolutely beautiful.

I’m not much of an outdoorsy person – I don’t like bugs or animals, I’m not really all that into white water rafting or rock climbing and I don’t particularly enjoy completely “roughing it,” but I learned in my last few years at Cornell that I really enjoy just throwing on my camera and taking a walk through nature. Not trailblazing or anything like that, but just a slow wander around some trails, through some trees, maybe along the water, just relaxing and getting away from all of the busy-ness of life. I took these walks once a week or so, even in the dead of winter. I ran into deer, I walked through knee-deep snow, and puddle-jumped when it all melted away, but I loved my walks.

It turns out that I’m not a huge fan of cities, something that really surprised me considering that I’m not a nature girl by any stretch of the imagination. I prefer “structured nature” – you know, where all of the trails have been marked, the paths have been carved out, and the scenery still every bit as wonderful.

That’s exactly where I am right now.

The campsite we’re staying in is called Camping Jungfrau. It’s in a town called Lauterbrunnen which is right next to Interlaken. Like Siena and Orvieto in Italy, it’s everything you expect a small Swiss town to be. A sloping, bright green hillside sprinkled with adorable houses with brown roofs, shuttered windows and colorfully-flowered window boxes, backdropped by the most beautiful tree-lined and snow-capped mountains you’ve ever seen. I would move to this little valley in the Swiss Alps in a heartbeat.

In the 18 hours since I arrived, for the entire 10 or so hours where I wasn’t sleeping I’m pretty sure that I looked like a tourist on his or her first visit to NYC – you know the look: camera around the neck, head tilted upwards looking at the skyscrapers, running into things because you’re not looking at what’s in front of you as you walk, just what’s above you. Replace the Empire State Building with some snow-capped mountains and that just about sums up my time here so far.

After dinner in the campsite’s restaurant (I had the Lauterbrunner Rosti, which is a local dish made up of shredded potatoes and onions (like a latke or hashbrowns) with swiss cheese melted on top, bacon on top of that, and a sunny side up egg on top of that.) and then we went to this local pub with some of the BusAbout guides. We were promised Swiss line dancing, but apparently that sort of thing doesn’t happen on Tuesday nights. Drat. I was in bed early and up around 7AM, quite surprisingly. I guess nature can do that to you.

This morning, Renae, one of my roommates and yet another Aussie on the BusAbout circuit and I went for a walk into town to see what we could do about breakfast. I’d already had some bananas and nutella on pseudo-toast (I say pseudo-toast because the heater in our room is so warm that I actually used it to toast my bread. It wasn’t browned, but it was toasted!), but I was still kind of hungry and wanted to see what I would be able to find for dinner later. I also needed to look into getting a pair of proper shoes since all I have with me are tevas and a pair of keen mary janes, neither of which are well-suited for hiking or pretty much anything else you do when you’re hanging out in the Swiss Alps.

I found a nice pair of hiking sneakers in an outdoors shop in town for 99 Swiss Francs. They’re pretty standard hiking sneakers and they get the job done. Another thing to carry, but hey, I wasn’t about to miss out on hiking up to a waterfall just because I didn’t think to pack decent shoes. They ended up being quite comfy after I walked in them for about 10 minutes.

I also procured a good sized bag of muesli and a yogurt for a snack. I’d never really had muesli before but if I can find it when I get home I think it’s going to replace my Just Bunches as my yogurt topping of choice.

ANNNYWAYYY… so back to the campsite to eat. I caught up on blog posts (finally) and then Renae went off to hike Trummelbach Falls with a friend. I wasn’t really up for Trummelbach just yet – partly because I wanted to break my shoes in on something less intense and partly because I wanted to figure out where I’m going after Lauterbrunnen – so instead I hung around and chatted with Natalie online.

I’d heard about a trail near the campsite where you basically hike up the side of the mountain to the waterfall and I thought I’d check that out. I really don’t like hiking with other people for some reason. I’d much rather go at my own pace and not feel guilty about stopping every 5 seconds to take a photo. I strapped my camera on and off I went. I stopped about 1/2 way through the trail to call my mom (I’ve been trying to check in via phone about once a week and thought it would be entertaining to call from the side of the mountain) and then made my way to the top. The trail stopped more suddenly than I was expecting and the wind was blowing the waterfall in the other direction, but it was still a gorgeous walk, and only mildly petrifying. I’m not afraid of heights for the most part, but the rocks were pretty slippery and though they tried to carve some steps into them it wasn’t really all that helpful. I was gripping onto the handrails for dear life, especially on the way down.

Luckily right when I got to the top, a guy and his son also reached the end. Normally I would turn the camera around on myself, but given that I wanted to hold onto the railing and not really move once I was balanced, I handed the camera over to the guy, gestured to the mountain behind me, and smiled. As soon as I can get an internet connection that photo is going to be my new facebook default. It’s not the best photo ever, but I’m proud of the fact that I managed to hike up there by myself without chickening out and come on – it’s the Swiss Alps! (I know I keep saying that, but really, this place is AMAZING).

After that I went back to my room, had lunch with Renae and another Aussie named Simon (yay for MORE Nutella) and then chatted with Simon about geeky things for an hour or so (he used to work for a web dev house in Australia).

A bunch of us got together for dinner and I FINALLY got a salad. This place thankfully has a kitchen so we’ve been able to make “proper” meals. Well, as proper as you can get using only foods that don’t need to be refrigerated. Dinner took a couple of hours between all of the cooking (Simon did most of that), talking, eating, talking, cleaning up, etc. and instead of heading back into our cabins for the night we all decided to hike up to the waterfall (this would be my second time).

Thing is – by this point it’s getting dark out. They don’t turn on the lights in the tunnel that covers one part of the trail and it is DARK. They shine some flood lights up at the waterfall itself which is helpful, but for a while you’re just walking in complete darkness. Normally I would break out my iPhone, fire up the flashlight app and walk through with no problem. But I’m in Europe and my iPhone is basically only useful as an iPod and the occasional alarm clock, so it generally stays in my room. I had to improvise. Luckily I had my camera, which has a decent flash on it. Sweet.

The falls were so different at night. Not only was it falling straight down this time thanks to the lack of wind, but the view was completely different. The mountains I could see earlier in the day were almost fogged over, save for a few bits where the snow was actually orange thanks to the sun setting. The lights in the little towns and villages below were just starting to come on and there was a nice mist from the water slightly clouding our view. Amazing.

We made it out of the tunnel and down the trail.

The one downfall of Switzerland is that the Internet is really expensive in the cafes and at the campsite. Apart from that I don’t see how anyone could NOT like this place. I love it so much I just extended my stay from 3 nights to 5. It’s that great.

Tomorrow, though, will be another adventure entirely. Read on :)

Tags: Adventures, City, Journal, Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland