Switzerland was beautiful! I still cannot get over the beauty. Unfortunately, we were there while Europe was hit with a massive heat wave. “Oh Andrea, but you’re from Southern California where it’s always sunny and hot”. Why, yes, yes I am and I HATE it when it gets anywhere above 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26 Celsius). It was a whopping 92 (33 Celsius) every day we were there! And although it isn’t as bad as it gets in California, the tiny little detail lies in that we are spoiled in Southern California, you see, we have Air Conditioning in almost every building, every home and every public transportation vehicle.
After Bern, we hopped on the train to go to Interlaken, in the Alps. Now, my heart was melting the deeper and deeper we got into the Swiss alps. With every river, every waterfall and every mountain covered in green grass with the occasional adorable Swiss house decorated with flowers on each window… It was GORGEOUS! Now, Interlaken is described as “the land between two lakes”, which is precisely what it is! Everywhere you turn, you would see mountains towering over the houses and buildings. Interlaken is in between two GIANT lakes which were nice to look at as well. The lakes had the same blueity from the river in Bern.
So we arrive to the station, backpacks and all. At this point I realize that WiFi is not easy to access. I had screen shots of the BnB as well as the instructions. It told us which bus to take and where to get off and that it would be about a 6 minute walk from the bus stop to the apartment. I had pictures of the place and it seemed simple enough so off we went.
We arrived at our stop in this cute little Swiss area when realization smacked me in my face: we have no idea which direction to walk. The instructions said the bus stop was a 6 minute walk, but didn’t say in what direction. It could’ve been in ANY direction. Immediately, Vanessa and I start trying to get onto WiFi to see if we could map it. I found a little grocery store that supposedly had WiFi but it wasn’t working. Vanessa then decides to ask locals if they knew where the said “address” was.
After unsuccessfully connecting to the WiFi, Vanessa calls me over to a nice woman’s house. The kind woman pulled out her phone to search the address for us but then stops half way. She then tells us “that is not an address, that’s the zip code of this place”. Literally, it was a number, and then SWITZERLAND next to it. It’s like putting 90210, California. HOW IN THE WORLD DID I MISS THAT? but then again, WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD THEY PUT JUST THAT?
Here we are after a train ride into the Alps, in the random town with just a zip code. I start praying. I then pull up a picture of the outside of the house and start examining it. I start trying to imagine the surroundings and I show the woman. She takes a few minutes trying to think where this might be. It’s near by no doubt, but where? “Sorry”, she tells us, “I can’t think of where this is”. I can’t blame her though. I don’t know what half of the houses on my street look like and the picture I have is one that was taken during the winter snow.
Right before we decide to walk away and start the search, her face lights up “wait! May I see that picture again?” She stares at the picture then she looks around at the streets. The woman tells us where it might be where she might have seen it before. That’s better than nothing! So we thank her and take off on the direction where she told us to go. Sweaty, hot and exhausted from our bags, we just start to laugh about this. “Yeah, this would happen to us. Adventures in Switzerland, right?” After walking about 8 minutes, I take out my phone and look at the picture again, then look ahead. There it was! I couldn’t believe it but there it was! The same house from the picture but without all the snow!
After settling in, I went into the lake. It was a wonderful 3 days in the Alps full of adventure in nature. Yes, it was hot, but the water in the lake and the water from the water falls were so fresh, it was the best way to freshen up Swiss style.
There you have it! Our craziness in Switzerland. This one wasn’t that big of a deal, more like a funny story. Stay tuned for the next story though; that one happens somewhere in Netherlands and if I had to tell you about the most embarrassing story of the trip, I think that one would take the prize.
Peace!
Releasing Ropes 