EuroTrip - Day 83

Snow fall and Swiss Cowbells

I am a jiddi. My mom would not disagree. Hero Puck Turbo, Philips audio system, those numerous clothes, accessories, watches, my decision to go to Bangalore, and to goa and what not! There is a long list of things that I have done that will remind her of my jid. Baring few I will agree to most of the things in this list. I have been jiddi all my life. So last week when I had planned to visit Switzerland once more in the last leg of our EuroTrip, I was more or less sure that I was going to come here. PooCh had his own doubts on my intentions (I still wonder why?) but still I somehow convinced him that we were going to Swiss bhumi once more.

SNCF tried its best to stop us. We found some way nonetheless. A long train journey was the last thing on our wishlist for this last leg of 'EuroTrip 2009'. But when you have got to do it, you have to do it. For most part of the morning and early noon we played the dreaded train-train game to reach Lucerne. Paris - Metz - Strasbourg - Basel - Lucerne - 5 cities, 4 trains and lots of sleep. I recall only the last leg from Basel to Lucern phase as we saw fresh snow outside our window. Damn! you could not open the windows of the Regional trains.

We were to spend very little time in Lucerne before starting the most important train journey of the day - the Golden Pass Line between Lucerne and Interlaken. I had my plans ready. First the visit to Tourist Information(TI) office and then to McDonalds to eat their McVeggi burger. Now even before you imagine me trying to ask some directions in the TI, let me clarify that I had gone there to buy a souvenir that had caught my attention during the last trip to this city. I somehow did not buy it last time and had repented all this while about it. Today, I washed off that sin from the past.

Golden Pass Line was the attraction of the day or for that matter of this EuroTrip. Lucerne to Interlaken - 2 hours of ultimate bliss. Fresh snow fall has changed the swiss landscape. Lush meadows, old houses, small railway stations, tunnels, snowy mountains, blue lakes - imagine nature's beauty and you will find it here. With a childlike curiosity, we jumped from one seat to other so as to not miss the magic of the snow on either side on the train route. It was cold outside, but that did not deter us from opening the window (Thank god! they did not seal windows of this train). We got so amazed that we just did not realize that it was getting really cold inside. I forgive the old lady who reminded us of this and asked us to close the windows. The view from behind the glass window was not bad either. Alas, it was getting dark and we had to drop the idea of getting down at some random station and spend some time playing with snow.

A little drizzle welcomed us in Interlaken. It is a small town in the overlooking three very prominent ranges in Swiss Alpes. Backpackers was my next jid when I had planned this trip. We had to stay in this very famous hostel. Thank god that our goofups during reservation of hostel bed did not cost us this experience. The window in our room gives an amazing view of one of the mountain close by. There are two Australians guys in the room who are on their way to Italy and have stopped here just to take rest. There are two Korean girls who seem to be the usual touristic types and then there is a third girl whom I have seen only once. Interestingly all of us are EuRail pass travelers. Nice coincidence, I must say.

Six o'clock is too early to lock oneself in the hostel. The cute girl at the reception suggested us to take a walk in the old town as there was nothing much to do in this town in nnight except the usual visit to some bar/pub/casino. A quick look at the map and we were out in the snow fields. It takes a map like this to tell that the snow field that we are seeing in front of our hostel is actually a beautiful garden. It had snowed a lot in last couple of days in Interlaken and there is almost 6-8 inch everywhere in the town.

The road linking Interlaken Ost to Interlaken Est station is one of the major tourist hub in this town that is otherwise famous for the variety of adventure sports opportunities it offers. There are loads of souvenir shops (interstingly, most of them run by Chinese) and some beautifully designed restaurants offering the world famous cheese fondue. Old town is close to the Ost station and offers a close look at the traditional swiss architecture. Did I tell you they use so much wood to make those large mansions? Beautiful houses, like those dream mansions that we plan to build when are kid. Wooden carving at its best. Some of them have been standing there for more than 2-3 centuries telling stories about the glorious past that they have seen.

Back in the hostel, everybody seem to going out for dinner and then party, so we were left on our own. A quick look at the bookshelf and I found the lone book in English. It was on some series that is aired on Nickelodeon. Horror, school romance, fun, thriller - all in one. I could not have asked for more. So I made myself comfortable on the cozy sofa and read it in one go. It was nice to read after so long. The hot chocolate made it even more refreshing and fun.

Our room is heated very well and the bed is really confy. I have taken the lower bunker this time giving the upper on to the kid amongst us. We have no fixed plan for tomorrow so we can sleep peacefully. No alarm clock needed for a change.

So that was day 83 of this Eurotrip. It's been a long day full with loads of excitement. We are two of traveling together still there has been loads of silence. I don't mind it as long as there is no specific purpose of the silence. We have talked a lot with each other in last three months anyways.