Wasserfälle über Wasserfälle

This is Schweizer Deutsch.

Hey dudes or should I say Grüezi-Moin, because Schweizer Deutsch, amirite? So I just returned from a short jaunt to that lovely little trilingual country to the south. The Eurrail passes that Hannah and I had bought for our Italian adventure still had a few days left on them, so we decided to head to Interlaken, Switzerland, being pretty close to us (only about 5 hours on trains). And it was German-speaking (in the loosest sense of the term–Schweizer Deutsch is crazy), which is always a perk. 

To start, Interlaken is a bit of a tourist trap located between two lakes (hence the name, I guess). People go there to do any number of outdoorsy activities, but seeing as it's April and the end of the winter season and the slow start of the summer season, it's pretty much off season there. The weather is really hit or miss for site-seeing (ie taking cable cars to the tops of really tall mountains). In addition, it's also super expensive, because, well, Switzerland. So we were glad to be there, but also glad that we weren't there for a terribly long time, because going broke sucks. 


Anyways, we arrived in the early afternoon on Friday to gorgeous weather. The forecast said either clouds or rain and luckily we only got passing clouds. So after putting our stuff in our wonderful and adorably Swiss hostel, Balmers Herberge, we wandered around the city center. The city center consists of an array of different types of restaurants (there was so much Thai food!), tourist shops, mountaineering gear shops, and expensive brand-name stores (think Prada stores). It didn't take us long to wander through the center, as it is quite small. But during this walk, we found/did some important things. First, we exchanged money. Swiss money is the coolest currency I have ever seen. So many colors. Second, and more importantly, we found a Mexican restaurant. Now, everywhere that I have been in Europe, I have yet to see an actual proper Mexican restaurant. I'm not talking a burrito stand. Those are everywhere. This place was a restaurant, and due to our 8 months of being enchilada-deprived, we decided to go there. So after wandering through town, we went to the grocery store, a place called COOP, got food for sandwiches for the next day's hike, some cheese, chocolate, and beer. After putting that in the hostel, we went back to the Mexican restaurant. 


My God, was that the best decision ever. The wait staff was incredibly friendly. The amused us when we spoke to them in German (me) and Spanish (Hannah)–albeit they were quite confused with the simultaneous two different languages. We got margaritas and enchiladas (both of which absolutely kicked ass and we were so happy). After we finished eating, our waiter came up to us and after I asked for the check (auf Deutsch), he asked "where are you guys from?" I assume the question because he had probably heard us speaking English to each other and then the German and Spanish to him. We told him the States, and then he said he was from Florida and in the same breath not to believe anything he says. After that the manager (or at least I think he was the manager) came up to us, and I asked, in German, if we could pay separately. His response to my question was "it's really weird going up to someone and expecting them to speak to you in one language, and then them speaking to you in another." Afterwards, he chatted with Hannah in Spanish about her time in Chile and ended the entire conversation saying that we spoke good German (to me) and good Spanish (to Hannah). I'll call it a meal of accomplishments. 


After that, we went back to the hostel and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with people from hostel (a guy who was born in New Jersey, grew up in Hong Kong, went to boarding school in Scotland, and university in Washington state, and three American girls who had been studying in Oxford for something that they called the Hilary semester or something along those lines). We ate cheese and chocolate, and drank beer and it was definitely a great Swiss evening. 

The next day we woke up early. One of the guys in our room (an older gentleman who had been coming to Interlaken, to our exact hostel, in fact, every year since 1973; his name is Jim) recommended a hike for us to do that didn't involve much elevation. It was far too foggy to go much further than 700m above sea level. He told us of some waterfalls somewhere along the Brienzersee (the large lake east of Interlaken). We asked the reception about it, and they pointed us towards the commuter boat that took us to a place called Giessbachsee. So we went into town and then hiked a little further along the boat route because we had an hour or two until the boat left its first spot. We made it to Böningen, its second stop, with 40 minutes before the boat came, so we hung out at the beach until the boat picked us up. 

After the boat picked us up, it was another 30 minutes until Giessbach because the boat made zig-zags across the lake at various stops, but we didn't mind. I mean, seriously, a lake in the middle of the mountains. You can just relax and enjoy the scenery. 

When we first got to Giessbach, it didn't look like really anything. The boat drops you off at the entrance to a cable car, which takes you up to a hotel and costs 6€ one way. We weren't really sure where to go until we found some trail signs. After that, we just started our way up the hill alongside the cable car, which is infinitely better than taking the lazy way up. The entire place is one gigantic waterfall that you can just climb up forever. Dreams do come true. We got up to the top of the cable car route which leads to a hotel, which I believe is closed until the summer and therefore looks super haunted. We checked out both the waterfall and the lakeside scenery, which is also just incredible. Gah, Switzerland. We walked up the waterfall path for a little while, but ended up heading over to the next town, Brienz, which the lake is named for (probably because it's at the very end of the lake, not because it's big or anything. Basically all that seems to be there is timber). Anyways, we started on our way. For a while it was normal hiking trail, but that quickly became road, and we felt like we were hitch-hiking. Along the way, we met some sort-of nice cow creatures that had super intimidating horns. We befriended in the only way that one can befriend a beautiful cow creature with gigantic horns–incredibly timidly.  

It took a while, but we eventually got to Brienz, where we ate sandwiches and I put my blistered feet in the water. Instead of taking the boat back, we decided to take the train, and once back in Interlaken, we went to COOP to get some pasta-making things for dinner, went back to the hostel, showered, and took a nap. Jim woke us up, and then we decided to go to the Irish pub next door to have a happy hour beer before starting to make dinner. Then there was dinner–Hannah's delicious brie, carrot, and onion gnocchi creation, the rest of our grocery store beer, and bad German television (some sort of talk show where people had to do any number of ridiculous challenges; oh and Cameron Diaz was there). Afterwards, we went to bed early, because of early-morning train wake-up (well early morning by my standards). 

Then today, we got up and took the train back to Tübingen without any hitches. Gotta love the Deutsche Bahn miracles. In other news, first official day of class tomorrow, but my first class isn't until Tuesday. Also I am pretty convinced that summer has come to Tübingen. It was probably 65ºF/18ºC when I got back today. Be jealous, America, be very jealous. So that's about what I've got for right now. But it is t-minus two weeks until Osterferien (Easter break) and the start of Frühlingsfest (time to break out the ol' dirndl), so wild times are a-comin'. Prepare yourself. In the meantime, bis später, gang.