Interlaken

Well, we’ve had a stressful couple of days in Interlaken but it’s stunningly beautiful here, so it’s hard to complain too much.

First off our train to Interlaken was a bit confused. After going for about half an hour on the train, we stopped and everyone gets off except for us. Finally a lady comes around saying we had to get on a bus to go around the construction, but we didn’t know because they didn’t announce it in English! The bus ride was really bad, so we took some gravel thinking we were bussing the rest of the way, then we got off again and onto a new train! Crazy. I fell asleep and mom continued to look at the beautiful scenery outside the train. Huge snowy mountains, lakes, green hills, cute little Swiss houses, it was perfect. Mom almost cried. Then, mom shakes me awake and we were in Interlaken. I go to put my pack on and walk towards the door of the train when my knee pops out. I fell back onto a seat and my knee stayed popped out for a good 5 minutes. 5 minutes of me screaming and yelling, mom trying to find help who spoke English, me hyperventilating, etc. Finally a young family came over who spoke English and they called for a doctor. I was in so much pain - my knee has never stayed out to the point where I’m sitting there looking at it out. It was SICK. Like most traumatic experience. So I moved my leg a bit and it finally went back in. Then we scrambled to find a bag or something because I felt like throwing up, which I didn’t. Then I felt faint, so the guy helped me out of the train, and my knee didn’t even hurt! Then I sat next to my pack outside and felt woozy and delirious. That was the closest I’ve ever been to fainting. Then all of a sudden my stomach starts hurting like crazy, and after a few minutes it stopped and my throat felt like it was closing. Weirdest thing. Then my knee started hurting like it usually does after I pop it out so I think I was in a bit of shock? Not fun anyways. The doctor never came, and I hobbled over to the taxis and we got a taxi to our hotel. We stayed in that night! Was not a fun day, after everything else seemed to go wrong as well. Ef!

Yesterday we got up, had breakfast, and set out to look at Interlaken. The knee was ok, and I popped an Ibuprofen to help with the rest of the day. The town here is super cute, and they were having an old car show so that was cool.


We got some groceries and beer and went hiking in a little town only 10 minutes from Interlaken.

It was cool, but kind of not what we expected. I think we have to go higher to see anything below us, but the mountains around us were gorgeous. It was cold, but we had about 5 layers on on top and leggings under our pants, so we were ok. It was sunny out too, so that was good. After that we had the fun task of figuring out what we’re doing next! We were checking out the next day with no train or hostels planned. Homeless, one could call it! Every train out was expensive, and we figured out it was going to cost us a lot to get from here to Spain, so we booked a train to Milan and a plane from Milan to Barcelona. Unfortunately, that means skipping southern France, but what can you do? We think we’ll get more time in Portugal this way. Anyways, it’s done now and we’re staying in Interlaken for 2 more nights. Today we’re going to go walking, and possibly up to the top of Jungfrau mountain, and tomorrow we’re going canyoning! If you You Tube ‘canyoning’ the videos that come up are here in Interlaken. Everyone we’ve talked to has done it and loved it, so mom’s going to get her courage up and we’re doing it tomorrow! Fun! Home in 2 weeks today; coming way to fast in some ways, and not fast enough in others!