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Switzerland
Switzerland was a really nice break from all of the cities. We visited Interlaken first and it was absolutely gorgeous. We got in too early to check into our hostel by about 20 minutes so we sat along the river that ran through Interlaken and enjoyed the beautiful view of the Swiss Alps! After we checked in and got our stuff settled we took off to explore the city, which isn’t saying much because Interlaken is quite small. I had the brilliant idea to just walk to the mountains but that’s kind of impossible for some reason, they are much further away then you would expect...So we went back downtown and walked through there. We found a huge area of grass that was roped off for paragliding but then also seemed to be the central area for everyone to come and sit and hang out. We sat and tanned for a little awhile until we decided it was an appropriate time to eat and found a grocery store so we could cook up some pasta! We were the first group of people in the kitchen so we managed to get all of our cooking done before the rush but we found out we made way too much pasta but had no way to store it so we had to eat it all. Afterwards Jess and Emmy taught me to play Rummy a card game and we came up with the brilliant idea to play Rummy 1 million. So far Jess is blazing ahead and I am in dead last but that’s okay! My favourite part of our hostel was that we had a view of Jungfrau which is the tallest mountain in Europe and they call it the Top of Europe. I didn’t make it to the top of Europe but we did take a hike in the Alps! We got up the next morning and we weren’t really sure what to do so we asked the receptionist at the hostel and he said if we took the bus up to a village a little further up the mountain there was a walking trail that led straight to Interlaken. We didn’t exactly have proper walking shoes or clothing but we were determined to get to the Alps so we ventured by bus up the mountain. It took us a little bit to figure out that the trail began on the actual road we were standing on and then you just had to follow the pink posts with the walking man on them to know where you were supposed to go. We were amazed by the snow because it was April so we made snowmen. Mine apparently wasn’t good enough so it got made fun of the rest of the trip but I can take a joke The trail eventually led us into the forest where it was icy, snowy, muddy, and lovely! There were waterfalls and creeks everywhere. The road was a little treacherous and sometimes we were walking right along a ravine with a straight drop down. I fell twice! I probably had the worst shoes out of everyone because mine were only 3 pounds from Primarck and had literally no traction on the problem but I’m alive so it’s okay! The trail took us in and out of the forest and gave us the chance to see some genuine Swiss homes and families, not just the tourists in Interlaken. We finished the trail and made our way back into Interlaken. I had realized that morning that I had lost my journal, post cards, and make up in a plastic bag so we went to the train station to see if I had left it there. Unfortunately it wasn’t and I never did find that stuff but who needs material possessions anyway? Afterwards we looked at our map of Interlaken and found out there was supposedly a castle in Interlaken just off the square. We searched for awhile and the only thing we found was something that looked like a church so we decided that was the castle and took pictures of it. After that we were starving so we grabbed some lunch from the grocery store and tanned out on the green watching all of the people parasail. We turned in to the hostel early that night because we had to catch an 8:00 train to Bern. The train to Bern was only about a 1 ½ long so we were there at around 9:30 in the morning. It was too early to check in to our hostel but they let us put our bags in the office and then we met up with our friend Catherine who had gotten there the night before. There were so many clothing stores in Bern and everything is so cheap because Switzerland uses their own money called the Swiss Frank and it’s not as good as the pound or the dollar which was nice! I couldn’t do any shopping though because I had no room in my suit case and I didn’t need any more clothes :s Jess had been there previously with her family so she had some things that she wanted to see again but we found that those did not take too long. Our first stop was the Bear Pit. The symbol of Bern is a Bear, all the Swiss cities have their own animal symbol, Interlaken’s was a goat, so in the middle of the city there is a pit that they always keep one or two bears on display to show off their symbol. We got their pretty early in the morning so only one bear was out and all he/she did was wander around the edge of the pit in a circle but it was still kind of cool. Next we walked down a street that had the flags of all the cities hanging in it and it led to the clock tower. Everyday at noon the clock tower goes off and it’s like a giant cuckoo clock. The clock is very old but the design is very fairytale like. The whole time I was in Switzerland I kept thinking of Shrek, there was even a hotel in Interlaken called Hotel Du Lac and also an ogre eating babies statue in Bern (it was weird lol). Bern also has this really cool open air market that sells all kinds of stuff from food, to purses, clothing, and of course jewellery. There were stands that sold rings for like 5 Swiss francs so I bought one for myself as my souvenir and also some tea that had been homemade...its pretty delicious There was one last stop we needed to make before the day ended. There is a church in Bern whose front doors are designed to depict heaven and hell. The heaven side is beautiful but the hell side is a little graphic but still very cool. On the way over to the church we passed a store front that was selling wedding dresses and we took pictures of them because they were so gorgeous. That ended our trip in Bern and we were off to our final stop over spring break, Austria!
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