I guess there could be worse places to be stranded…

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!

Posted by offhegoes03 on 07-05-2008 at 01:07 pm
Posted in Switzerland with 6 Comments

To the top of Schilthorn

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! 

Posted by offhegoes03 on 07-02-2008 at 08:07 pm
Posted in Switzerland with 5 Comments

Switzerland at last

So I just got to Switzerland yesterday evening, and I definitely did not build it up too much for myself.  The views are amazing and I will definitely do a bit of hiking this week.  I can’t write a lot now because some people are waiting to use the computer, but everything is great so far.  Gotta get some food and hike a bit today.  No skiing for me as most of the snow is melted.  It was in the 70’s or so when I got here yesterday. 

Posted by offhegoes03 on 06-28-2008 at 06:06 am
Posted in Switzerland with 8 Comments