Wanderweg

Sorry, research project, I got distracted by the Swiss Alps.

In Zurich, there is no free internet. I've been spending hours trying to find a library, bookstore, coffee shop, or something that will let me get online for free. So far, nothing has been fruitful. Even my hostel charges for internet, which is a pain. I'm morally opposed to paying for wireless internet access, and I'm sure there is somewhere in this city where I can get online for free, I just haven't found it yet. I've gotten all of your emails, and I apologize for not responding to them, I just haven't been able to. The best I've been able to find in McDonald's, which lets you online for 30 minutes during the day for free, so I will do my best to update the blog in that short time. Plus, I haven't been able to find a place to put more money on my phone, so sorry mom and dad for not getting in touch with you, but I will when I can. You can read the blog as a substitute for talking to me.

Wanderweg means "walking trail" in German, which has nothing to do with soccer, but everything to do with fun and adventure. Allow me to explain.

So when I was planning this trip and booking rooms, I came across a two-day period where there were just no rooms in the big cities in Switzerland, which is where I was hoping to be. I emailed around and still had no luck. So finally I decided that I would either go to Italy for a few days, since they were playing a big match on one of those days (probably the reason I couldn't get a room), or I would go to a small-town Swiss Alps village and spend a few days hiking. It didn't take much persuading from my parents and girlfriend that the latter was probably the more fun option. I could even make it project-related by talking to people there about what I'm doing (okay, that's probably a stretch, but I got a few notes from it). Besides, I would have wasted most of my time just trying to get to and from Italy, and that's not a good use of time or energy.

So Wednesday afternoon I booked a room in Grindelwald (no relation to the dark wizard that Dumbledore is famous for defeating), a small town in the heart of the Jungfrau region of Switzerland. That's in the middle of the country. It's named that Jungfrau region because it's dominated by Jungfrau, one of the Alps' tallest mountains. In the winter the town turns into a massive ski resort. In the summer, it's kind of a dead one-horse town except for lost souls like myself looking for some good hiking trails. The hillsides are dominated by abandoned ski lifts and clear cut mountainsides that look like they would be fun to ski if there was only snow.

The night before I left I was playing cards and watching soccer with other random travelers when into my life walks Sally, a Clemson student with one semester left who had just finished studying abroad in Spain and is taking some time to wander Europe. Sally had no idea where she was heading the next day, and when I said I was going to the Alps she thought that sounded fun and decided to accompany me to the wilds of Grindelwald. While I'm sure that some solo hiking would probably have been meditative and good soul-searching, I don't think that's what I was after. After more than a month of solo travel, it is nice to have someone tag along and to talk to. Its probably safer, too, given that I was planning on hiking mountains, which is probably something you shouldn't do by yourself.

So Thursday morning we took a train from Zurich to Bern (yay, back in Bern for the third time) and then from Bern to Interlaken, which is the backpacking and extreme sports capital of Europe, apparently. It's big for bungee jumping and ski diving, which I can imagine would be pretty cool in the Swiss alps. Interlaken is a weird place, though. It's gorgeous, as it is set in an Alpine valley between two lakes, but the people in Interlaked were a weird crowd, which is probably an explanation that deserves to be told in person, not via the web. Looking around the train station it seemed as if every group of people that had given up on life gathered in Interlaken. We trekked around the city for a few hours before catching a train up into the mountains to Grindelwald.

As the train wound its way up, the mountains just kept getting bigger. Out the window we could see glaciers and waterfalls and swiftly flowing mountain rivers. I don't think I've ever been so overwhelmed by a landscape before. Every direction from the center of Grindelwald is up. And really far up. I'll try to put some pictures on here, but pictures never do landscapes like these justice.

The hostel in Grindelwald was amazing, mostly because the views out the windows of the room and the kitchen were incredible. Plus, there was only one other person in the room besides Sally and I, which definitely made for better sleeping.



Day one of hiking tried to take us up the hardest trail of Eiger (because honestly, how can you go and take the easy route), but our Australian hostel manager informed us that the Eiger trail was closed due to the risk of falling rocks. I agreed with him that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to head that way. So we took the second best route up the same mountain. It took us winding up through cattle and goat pastures and up beyond the tree line and into snow. We ate lunch about halfway up, and the meal might have been one of the best all trip. You see, in Europe they don't really do breakfast. You might have toast and jam, or cereal and yogurt, but you never come across eggs or bacon or hash browns, or any of the things that make breakfast good. But I came across them in Alpiglen. After a huge pile of hash browns, fried eggs and ham, and paying way too much (it probably wasn't worth it, because it was really expensive, but it was really good), we headed back out into the cold and trails. By the time we reached the highest point we were being bombarded by sleet, and I was regretting the decision to wear shorts. But the views were incredible, and the sense of accomplishment of reaching 2,061 meters was quite a rush. Being quite tired and cold, and seeing that the sun was going down, we made our way to the train to take that down.

The next morning I thought I'd have to make my way to the train station, but I was talked into pushing that back and squeezing in one more day of hiking, because honestly, how often are you in the Swiss Alps.

Day two of hiking began by going the wrong direction (honestly, would anything else have fit this trip?), which ran Sally and I into Ian, a recent graduate of Indiana University who is trekking Europe for three months by himself, and was trying to find the trail from Grindelwald to First, the same path were were searching for. First is on the other side of Grindelwald from the mountains we hiked the day before, and provided an incredible opportunity to see these massive mountains from a new perspective. Glad to have company we made out for First together, which was a much steeper climb, though it might have only seemed that was after a day of hiking (As I sit here typing this, I can't help but feel a twinge in muscles I have forgotten about over the years). As we neared the top and began getting hungry and grumpy, we noticed a small trail/staircase that broke off from the main trail. Thinking that it would cut down on our time until lunch and make for a cooler story, we took the road less traveled. We were at First probably half an hour quicker than if we had taken the long road.


After a lunch that was again too expensive, Ian parted ways with Sally and I and made his way to an alpine lake. We bid our fond farewells and headed in different directions, Sally and I off along a ridge taking us back to the valley's other side. I wish I could have gone to the lake, but I didn't feel like I had time, seeing as how I had to get to Zurich that night, since I had already booked my room there. The trip to Grosse Scheidegg (our final destination) was fraught with snow crossings, a sleet storm, and increasingly cold weather. It also produced some of the coolest views, and an inescapable opportunity to slide down a giant pile of snow, which was both exhilarating and very wet and cold.


From Grosse Scheidegg, we caught a bus down the mountain back to Grindelwald because I needed to get back to Zurich, eventually.

Realizing that it was getting late and that trains would soon stop running, I parted ways with Sally who decided to stay one more night in the mountains to make me jealous, and made my way back to the Grindelwald station where I ran into, out of all people, Ian, who was staying in Interlaken and also needed to get to his bed. We waited for the train and rode that down together. We got to Interlaken just in time for me to catch the train to Bern, and go there just in time to catch the train to Zurich. I rolled into Zurich around 11 p.m., where I promptly rolled into bed.