This trip has felt like it has lasted forever, and yet I also can´t believe how fast this trip has gone by. I fly back to the States tomorrow, and I´m both excited to come back and yet I want to stay longer. I will post a big post once I get home, but I just wanted to update you guys once again.
I was supposed to go to Nice after Gimmelwald and then spend 3 nights in Barcelona at the end of my trip. Unfortunately, I put off booking the train too late and all the TGV´s were booked solid. I ended up staying in Gimmelwald for another 3 nights and then taking a night train to Barcelona last night. I spent a total of 10 days in the alps and I don´t regret any of them. I hiked a lot, and I got to spend some time with some awesome people. I have decided that 3 nights in a big city is just not enough. You don´t get enough time to relax, you get burnt out going on trains all the time, and you really do not get to know people enough. I think I will spend about 5 nights in each city for my next trip unless it´s a really small place. Even in smaller cities like Sevilla, I wish I had spent anotehr night or two.
Traveling around Europe has been great. I have met some awesome people and experienced all sorts of things that some people will never see because they won´t make the committment to getting out there and visiting foreign countries. I´m hoping this trip will allow me to help out new members on the boards whenever they have questions about the countries I have visited. I´ll post more tomorrow when I´m home!
I arrived in Barcelona this morning and I´m checked into my hostel. The night train was alright, but I was on the top bunk in a 4 bed cauchette. I had heard it gets hot in the top bunk because of the closed space and the heat rising. Hot doesn´t even describe it. I woke up at 4 am sweating and unable to stand the heat. I hung out in the hallway where it was cooler for about 45 minutes and then I was finally tired enough to brave the furnace again. I think somehow the heat got turned on also, which made things worse. I survived though and actually got decent sleep aside from those 45 minutes.
I will probably go to this free park in a little bit today, but mostly I´m going to relax and prepare for teh flight tomorrow. See everyone soon!
So I’m not sure if any of you guys have talked to my parents or not, but apparently the high speed trains in France fill up pretty fast on weekends. I got down to the train station pretty early, got a ticket and hopped on a train. Unfortunately I looked at my reservation and the train destination said Milano. I realized just in time that Milano is definitely in Italy which is not covered on my railpass. There was absolutely no way I could get a train to either Nice or Barcelona over the weekend, so I called the hostel and snagged one of the last beds for the next 3 nights. I have an overnight train booked for Monday night leaving from here and going to Barcelona. I had to spend extra to get an actual bed as opposed to a reclining seat, but it was the only option.
On the plus side, this is an amazing location, and I would rather be stuck here than somewhere more expensive (food is expensive, but the exchange rate rocks! 400 USD = 389 CHF). I also got to do an amazing rock climbing/hiking thing called the via ferrata today. Basically you have a harness on and a helmet. The harness has two caribiners (spelling?) that you connect to a cable. Some parts of the hike don’t really require this cable, but there are other parts where you are dangling on the side of a cliff, several thousand feet in the air, with only these metal rungs driven into the rock. It is definitely terrifying, but exhilirating at the same time. There are also these “bridges” that you have to cross. Basically the bridges consist of 3 cables. 2 for your caribiners to click on to and one to tightrope across. This was such an awesome experience and I did not really have the time to do it unless I stayed here longer. The via ferrata is brand new this year and if you go on an unguided tour, it only costs 20 swiss francs (sweetest currency ever with giant 5 dollar coins) to rent the gear. The guided tour includes a zip line portion, but it doesn’t look that long and a guided tour costs an additional 75 swiss francs.
I’m pretty much relaxing the rest of the day. I might go for a short hike tomorrow or I might just relax at the hostel. I can’t wait til Bethany Beach though!
I can’t type for too long since my internet time is almost over, but I promise to fill in the gaps once I get back from my trip. I’ve been keeping a journal almost every day just so that I remember everything that goes on.
Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald, Switzerland is amazing. Definitely one of the coolest hostels I’ve stayed in (in addition to Samay Sevilla and the one I stayed in in Derry 2 years ago). I’ve been doing a ton of hiking and relaxing in the free hot tub at night. I’ve really felt at home here and I feel that I will stay in touch with the people I met here for a long time. I wish I could write more, but I will definitely add more later. I’m off to Nice, France tomorrow for 2 nights and then back to Barcelona for 3 nights. I fly home on the 9th which is waaaay too close, but then again, I do miss some of the comforts of home.
Today was the biggest hike that I have attempted so far. Gimmelwald where I’m staying is at about 1400 meters high and the peak of Schilthorn was about 2900 meters high. It was also the location of one of the Bond films (one of the really bad ones apparently. I think it’s called Her Majesty’s Service or something). A group of us from the hostel (Mountain Hostel: www.mountainhostel.com) set out around 9:30. Some parts of the hiking were pretty tough, but being in a big group helped you push on. We eventually got to a really cool lake where we ate lunch. The water was freezing and one of the guys jumped in the water. Then another jumped in. Before too long, everyone had jumped in besides me, so obviously I had to succumb to peer pressure and go in as well. The water was freezing (Bethany Beach water will feel like a sauna compared to this). To put it in perspective, there is some snow going straight up to the water’s edge.
After the lake, it was another 45 minutes to an hour up to the peak. With all of the breaks, it took about 5 hours to get up. We hung around at the top for a bit and then went separate ways. Some guys were camping up at the lake (it’s pouring now, so I’m glad I opted out of that). Some other people took the cable car back down, but one of the guys and I hiked back down in a little more than 3 hours. I’ve got tons of cool pictures that I’ll show everyone once I get back. I gotta get off of the internet now though, but I’ve got one more day tomorrow where I’ll probably relax a bit. Then it’s off to Nice, France for 2 nights and then 3 nights in Barcelona before flying back. I can’t believe I only have a week left of this trip!