The land of Adrenaline: Switzerland May 12 and 13

We took the flight from Nice to Basel, Switzerland and arrived around midnight at the train station. We tried to wander around and find some dinner, but quickly realized that Basel was not exactly full of night life, so we settled on ice cream at mcdonalds. Blech. We had to accept it though because this was going to be our home for the evening. We curled up next to some bums on the benches and tried to get some sleep even though it was pretty stinkin' cold. It was definitely a big change from the temps in the French Riviera.

We took the first train we could catch into Interlaken and tried to get a little more sleep on the train. We arrived at the station and tried our best to follow our directions to the hostel, but it turns out they are absolutely awful and we walked about 3 miles in the wrong direction with our bags. Whoops. Finally, we made it to the hostel (and were greeted by the guard: a huge saint bernard), but along the way, we passed hundreds of punks teens and preteens carrying cases upon cases of beer. We were so confused until we realized there was a HUGE punk rock festival going on the weekend we were there. Luckily, we really had no problems with them the whole time... it was just counter-stereotypical of Switzerland for me.

Even though we had only managed about 4 hours of sleep each, Megan suggested we go canyoning on this first day since we couldn't check into the hostel yet anyways. We were able to sign up and ended up only being in a group with 2 other people. After climbing into 2 layers of wetsuits, wetsuit socks, shoes, and cap (we were going to jump down glacial waterfalls), as well as a helmet and harnass, we were ready to go. We took a van up to the top of this amazing gorge and started our trek. We did everything from jumping off cliffs and waterfalls, wiggling down caves and rock waterslides, and rappelling down mountainsides all while seeing views that very few people will ever get to experience. It was amazing, if not a bit terrifying. They always had one of the guides jump first to make sure we wouldn't be impaled on a rock or something. If they got injured, they would climb back up and try to find a different way to jump so that we would be safe. Really... it was a HUGE rush.

They gave us some munchies and stuff afterwards and Megan and I ditched out to get some famous swiss cheese fondue at a cute local restaurant. Then, it was time to pass out.

In the morning, we found a cheap scooter rental - and even though neither of us had ever ridden - we decided to check them out for 3 hours with intentions to picnic high up in the mountains. Well, we got on and followed a suggested path into a valley that was supposed to be filled with waterfalls, and we got what we expected.... probably a dozen waterfalls over a hundred feet high just feeding into glacial rivers on both sides of the road. It was amazing. Megan and I decided we could wait to eat and instead took a new path up into the mountains and saw the super stereotypical swiss mountain villages with the cute wooden houses at the base of the mountain with fresh water and blue skies all around. We made one final little trek down to the big lakes in hopes to take some cool reflection pics, but there was too much wind so we just got a bit of scenery.

Then, it was back to the hostel for lunch, killing some time walking around the area, and heading back to the train station so we could catch our flight to Turkey. While I think Morocco has some of the best people in the world, I think Switzerland may have taken the trophy for the most beautiful scenery. :o)