Interlaken VIDEO!!!

Walken Interlaken

Interlaken is exactly as I expected it to be, meaning that it’s so different from anything we’ve experienced thus far. We’re staying in our first hostel here; Balmer’s, named after Erich Balmer who was here and I saw and said, “I think that’s Erich Balmer.” We’re staying in a room with three other people. The first night there were only two others, a girl and a guy both late twenties, who were really nice and gave us some suggestions on what to do. For the last couple of nights we have had all guys, who smell terrible, and fart in the bunk above you loud enough to wake you up. Balmer’s is actually a pretty fun place though, there are obviously a lot of youth here and they have movie nights and a club and ping-pong and foosball (dominating).

There aren’t really any historical sights or monuments to see so every activity involves nature somehow, unfortunately everything (train rides, cable cars, ice climbing, rafting, food, EVERYTHING) is super expensive. Yesterday we went on a hike, which was the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. It was over six hours and we climbed and descended probably around 5,500 feet. We took the train up to the trail head but decided we would just hike all the way back down. We walked along the top of a ridge with the lakes of Interlaken on one side and the Alps on the other. We climbed up to the top of a rock formation to have our lunch and had a 360 view of the area. We finished the loop at the top of the mountain and started the trek back down the mountain. The hike was strange because it took you through peoples backyards and fields. We would unhook the gates to the pens and walk in with their cows and horses, and I would be thinking, “this can’t be right how can it just be okay to walk in these people pastures and be a foot from their cows?” Then a while later you would find a trail marker and signs and still be on the right path. And then you walk for a while in the wrong direction and you realize…I think we’re on the wrong trail. It takes a few extra hours to get to the bottom of the mountain and you come out of the forest farther from your hostel than you should be and you’re rescued by a man in a car. Sort of. We totally took a wrong turn somewhere, and it took a long time to get down and we came out farther than we should have been from Interlaken. We passed a restaurant and in the garage there was a guy doing some carpentry work and I asked him how long it would take to walk to Interlaken, he said it would be around 20 minutes…which I was excited to here it was short, but we had been hiking for around six and half hours now and were pretty tired. We left the man and continued down the road for a few minutes then a car pulls up next to me and its him, he said he just happens to be driving that way anyway and asks if we would like a ride…yes, was the response. Did he really have things to do in Interlaken that he remembered just a couple minutes after I talked to him? I don’t know but people in Switzerland are generally nice and quite helpful (unlike the Italians we met). He took us back to Balmer’s and the night ended on a note of kindness.