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My last two days in Switzerland (tear!) would be spent in Interlaken, a small town about one hour from Bern. On the train into Interlaken, we drove (do trains drive?) past Lake Thun. The water here is such a beautiful blue colour - not like the blue tinge the Bjelke-Peterson dam in Kingaroy gets after an algal bloom - but a beautiful ´straight-from-an-Evian-water-commercial´ blue. I can´t get over it. You may be aware that I don´t like swimming anywhere where I can´t see my feet in the water. Well, Switzerland is my paradise. The fish in these lakes must be the happiest fish on earth.
My five roommates at the Happy Inn Hostel were all from Korea. They were all very lovely, and we had great fun sharing foods and comparing cultures. They then gave me some Korean noodles and sweet and spicy hot paste to try. Very yummy! As soon as he heard that I liked them, one of the Korean boys proceeded to unload is stash of Korean food onto me - I now have enough noodles and rice to feed me for about a week! In return, I gave them a taste of some of my Vegemite, and I´m happy to report that they liked it a lot! It really bums me out when I give it to international students/couchsurfers and they don´t like it. So thumbs up to the Koreans! I later found out that the reason the Korean boy was giving me all of his food was that (according to one of the girls) he was ´stuck on me´ and thought I was ´very beautiful´. Awwww, shucks! Or maybe it was all of my freshly washed underwear that I had drying all over our room...
The next day I made a day trip to Lauterbrunnen, where I saw the amazing Trummelbach falls. The valley that the little town of Lauterbrunnen lies in is just too picturesque. There are these enormous rock faces on either side of the town, with dozens of waterfalls spilling off the edge of the cliffs causing lots of small creeks and rivers to run through the town. There was also snow on one of the higher mountains! My first glimpse of European snow! It was a pleasant 45 minutes walk from the Lauterbrunnen train station to the entrance of the Trummelbach falls. On my way I walked past numerous quaint little alpine cottages, and I wondered; what would the rental market be like in places like this? Would the majority of people own their cottages? If so, what´s the going price (sign me up!). Would there be any demand from locals wanting to rent alpine cottages? The things you think about when you´re alone with your thoughts for hours on end... Anyway...
Trummelbach falls are these giant glacier waterfalls inside the mountain that have been made acessible by tunnel lift and are all illuminated. The Trummelbach alone drains the glaciers of Eiger (3970m), Monk (4099m) and Jungfrau (4158m) and carries 20,200 tonnes of boulder detrius per year. Its drainage are is 24km square, half of it overed by snow and glacier. Up to 20,000 litres of water per second comes gushing down these falls! The only glacier waterfalls in Europe that are inside a mountain and still accessible.
It was a bit difficult to photograph exactly how huge and thunderous they were, hopefully you can see in the pictures. On the way home on the train I met my first Aussie in Europe! His name was Jason, from Sydney, and I could tell he was Australian from his typical Aussie male ensemble - Havvies, Stubbies, a Hurley shirt and matted bed hair. You can pick them out anywhere.
Something that is beginning to bug me about Europe is their bizarre store trading hours. On a Saturday afternoon and on Sundays it is very difficult to find anywhere to eat - even in major cities. Most supermarkets and bakeries are closed. Also, It is not uncommon for shops to close for around two hours over lunch! The Swiss certainly ´work to live´, not the other way round...
Last night one of my new Korean friends and I saw a play about the Swiss hero, William Tell. It was really great! As they perform it every year from June to August, the set they use is purpose built and permanent. It is set outside amongst the trees (the mountains providing a stunning backdrop) with real cottages and houses, and the audience sits in an open-ended auditorium. There were at least 15 horses, 10 cows, 10 goats and 1 donkey used throughout the performance! Very impressive. As I only know a little German, I could only understand very small parts of what they were saying e.g. ¨Das ist meine house!¨ ¨Hallo Vater!¨ As Interlaken is a relatively small town, I wondered if all of the actors were derived from Interlaken, or whether they were drawn from other Swiss towns as well. I also wondered - if you played the role of William Tell one year, do you automatically get first dibbs on the role next year? And if you re-audition for the role, and don´t get it, wouldn´t that be a bit disheartening, as they´re basically saying you did a bad job, and they´ve found someone younger and better? I started to think back to all the silly politics that can be found in Kingaroy´s Musical Comedy Society...
So now I am in Basel (which, for the record, is a very dull city), waiting to catch a plane to Barcelona where I will stay for ten days. I´m looking forward to the warmth of Spain, as the last few days in Switzerland have been nothing reminiscent of summer. I´m also looking forward to the notorious La Tomatina, a massive tomato throwing fight held in the small town of Bunol outside Valencia. Should be grand!
Talk to you soon!
Love Hayley xxx
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