Interlaken

After a short train ride from Bern, we arrived in Interlaken. Interlaken is beautifully situated in a valley between two lakes, and surrounded on all sides by mountains. We didn’t have the clearest days while there (very cloudy by luckily no rain!) so I’m sure we didn’t get the full effect and all the views, but I still loved it. We walked from the train station to our hostel and checked in for the night. We then rented bikes from the hostel and set out towards the eastern lake. One thing I don’t like about renting bikes here—you don’t get helmets. I feel like I’m going to fall off my bike and crack my head open every time I’m on one. When we were almost through town, we stopped to regroup and my chain fell off my bike. Trying to get it back on, my hands (and the hands of the only boy with us, Cas) got covered in black grease. We were stopped in front of a hair salon, and I must have caused quite the commotion, because the owner came out and asked us if we wanted to wash our hands in the salon. I love Swiss people!

We rode out of town and along a quite country road until we reached a river (crossable by a narrow wooden bridge—but sturdy, not scary and swing) and then eventually made it to the lake. On the way back, Cas decided he wanted to try a different route home, so he led us to an off-road path. We rode through the woods, probably somewhere we weren’t supposed to be, with branches smacking us in the face as we rode. Eventually the path dead ended into a stone wall, and we had to carry our bikes over the wall and then ride through a field to get back to the original rode we were on.

That night we had a few happy hour drinks at our hostel, then went down the road for dinner, then partied with our new hostel friends until the wee hours of the morning.