Switzerland Answers All My Questions

The overnight train from Paris to Lauterbrunnen was incredible. I finally managed a few hours of sleep after the three French men in front of me finished their very loud conversation at 2 a.m. (so, maybe some French are a little rude). I was to arrive at my transfer point at 5:47 a.m., so, having never taken the train in Europe before, I was freaking out when we stopped at a station at 5 and were still there at 5:35. Apparently 10 minutes is all you need, and I caught my train for Geneva with no problems, and was immediately greeted with chateaux on a mountain lake. We continued to weave our way through painfully adorable French mountain towns. Finally, the sun peeked over the peaks as we passed a blue-green river dotted with swans. Fields of sunflowers, corn and hay in various stages of baling covered the landscape. When we arrived in Geneva I had 13 minutes to find my next train - with a border crossing in a big station, I was a little nervous. No passport check, no sweat finding my train. I had no idea how to read my French ticket, and I still managed to pick the right train car for my assigned seat. This is getting easy. Just 40 minutes outside of Geneva, vineyards spill down the hillsides into the lake below, while the jagged peaks of the Alps line the opposite shore.

I arrive at my hostel just in time to meet the noon check-in. However, Stefan is the hostile hostel owner, and the only unpleasant person I've met in Switzerland. I filled out the information card, and the last bit was passport number. In my culture, you don't give out that information, and you certainly have the right to ask why someone needs it. So, I asked. He spent the next 5 minutes lecturing me/arguing with me about Americans thinking everyone is out to get them and "if you would just travel outside your country" you would see that not everyone is bad. Well, sir, if you would take the time to talk to me instead of just getting angry with me, you would see that I have traveled to 5 continents and have never been asked for this information. Pardon me for being skeptical.

This was the only unpleasant hostel experience. I got up to my room, and picked the bed with a window overlooking the canyon, jagged snowy peaks, and a gigantic waterfall. A few minutes later, the first of my roommates arrived. Shing-huay is a teacher from Taiwan. We spent the afternoon and evening together eating lunch (I had fondue!), hiking, and talking about joys, pains, pleasures, travels, cultures, religious views, politics - you name it. It was an incredible afternoon, and I feel so blessed to have connected with her. We separated for a little while in the evening, and I felt lonesome for her immediately. Talking with her also helped me work through a lot of unfinished things in my head, for which I am forever grateful.

Later, we met the rest of our roommates. Taylor is from Tempe, Arizona and this is his first time in Europe, chasing adventure and music festivals. Mari is from Sydney, and is sweet with a sharp wit. Martin is from near Munich, and is the funniest, most go-with-the-flow person I may have ever met. Martin had us all in stitches all night, particularily with his story about being picked up by a school bus driver in L.A. and proceeding to tour the city/drive home kindergarteners for the next 4 hours. We were up until o'dark hundred drinking wine and laughing harder than I have in ages.

Yesterday Taylor, Mari and I set off for a nice long hike. The Lauterbrunnen Valley is incredible. It is the largest glacial valley in the world and is ringed with 72 waterfalls. Every 10 steps, you see another snowy mountain or another waterfall. It is unbelievable. All day long, we kept saying things like, "dude, we can't really be here, can we?" "Is this place really real?" Pictures won't do it justice. Seeing waterfalls pouring directly from a mountain glacier is something you just don't see everyday. And there are goats! And cowbells tinkling like windchimes! I even pet two cows! Swiss cows! Holy cow! (Sorry, I had to.) Anyway.... The three of us took the tram up to Grimmelwald, which has the most incredible view of the mountains. It's like you can reach out and touch them. We wound our way up the mountainside to Murren for a delicious lunch and, yes, gorgeous vistas. Everything worked out incredibly well during the day. We had to laugh that every time we had a question (Do they really have bad house fires here? What does edelweiss look like? Do the people with parachutes we keep seeing jump from the top of the mountain or somewhere in the middle?) it was answered somehow within minutes.

It was about a 2 hour walk back to Lauterbrunnen, and we took our chances despite a few sprinkles. A little over halfway, we started hearing big claps of thunder and seeing lightning. Taylor judged the storm was about 9 miles away. I felt a raindrop right then. Being on a highly wooded mountainside, we decided running was a good idea. There is nothing like trying to outrun a thunderstorm by sprinting down the side of an Alpine slope. Hiking shoes, you did good. We made it down in one piece. We were much more soaked than the flowers in windowboxes at a house near our hostel, which were protected with umbrellas.

Last night, we went out with a couple of other Americans, Dan from Ohio and Wes from New Mexico, to the bar in town. It was a cultural lesson to see several young children sitting on the floor (which looked impeccably clean) playing and coloring. We ordered beers (raspberry flavored for the ladies) and chatted the night away with several skydiving instructors from Australia, there base jumping (that re-affirmed that answer). Only in Switzerland.