We travel initially to lose ourselves; and we travel next, to find ourselves: Say Jungfraujoch ten times. Interlaken and Jungfraujoch, Switzerland

Four hours later, after a layover in Bern, I had arrived in Interlaken, Switzerland, a haven for any traveling thrill seeker, which is how i would....NOT describe myself. You may ask yourself, Interlaken? Why there? Well, let me tell you...my travel book told me to! Besides the fact that Interlaken is hands down, the most beautiful place I have ever been to. And I don´t use the word beautiful lightly, I think it´s a girly and sappy word. But, Interlaken was indeed beautiful.

Getting to my hotel was considerabley easier than trying to get to my hotel in Geneva. A bus left directly from the train station and dropped me off at the bus stopped, named after my hotel, it was too easy. I checked into my hotel room and was greeted by the biggest bed I have seen in the past four months, not to mention a balcony and the best views of Interlaken.

I settled in and then decided that I should purchase my train tickets for the following day before the station closed. And just my luck, it was a terrential downpour. Let me tell you about my luck that I have had in

Europe within the past four months:

1) every single time I leave Barcelona for a holiday, the sun shines and it is beautiful.

2) every single time I travel to somewhere else, the weather is the most insane it has been within the past 26 years.

3) every single time I return to Barcelona, the weather makes a turn for the worse and the sun seems to magically dissappear.

So as you can guess, I was fully prepared for any type of weather Switzerland tried to throw at me. I hopped on the bus to the train station to purchase my train tickets. Tran tickets to where, you may ask? Jungfraujoch, of course! (If you have completely no idea what Jungfraujoch is, and I don´t blame you, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfraujoch) Along with my trusty travel book, which said that Jungfraujoch is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So, I then thought to myself, "when is the next time I´m going to be in Switzerland?" I purchased my train tickets, picked up some pamphlets and headed to the grocery store. I had noticed a tea pot in my hotel room, and I envisioned a night of sipping tea and starting my new book, The Last Song. I also managed to purchase some swiss chocolate. My dad asked me, "what´s so special about swiss chocolate?" later that night. It´s simple, swiss chocolate is made in Switzerland, and how often does someone have the opportunity to dine on fancy swiss chocolate while in Switzerland? I then headed back to my hotel, put on a pot of tea and crawled into my ginormous bed. After a few chapters, aka one-third of the book, I decided I should be a real person, enjoy my time in Interlaken, and leave the four walls of the hotel for some real food. I had searched online, in my trusty travel book and through ads in my pamphlets. Fifteen minutes later, I found the Goldener Anker.

The food was delicious to say the least. First, FREE bread, which never happens. Second, garlic butter to go with the fresh bread. Third, ketchup, real Heinz ketchup for my fries. I ordered a schnitzel, thinking it would be a sausage, when in fact it wasn´t. Either way, it was delicious.

I retreated back to my hotel and snuggled up into bed with my book and tea in preparation for the following day.

The following day came way too quickly. I set my alarm so early that the sun wasn´t even out. I waddled down to breakfast with every layer of clothing that I had brought with me and was greeted by a giant cat, it was the Lucy of Switzerland. And of course, you can imagine how happy I was. Switzerland Lucy sat by me at breakfast as I petted her, I knew that it was going to be a great day! I left the hotel and my next stop was the top of Europe.

Here is a map from the train:

My first stop was Wilderswil, where I had purchased my ticket the day before. 45 minutes later we had arrived at our next stop, Lauterbrunnen. It quickly became clear how much the swiss love to ski, I was surrounded by people in ski suits with ski booties, not to mention the train even had a special car for just the skis and snowboards. The train ride up was spectacular. Everything was covered in snow, kinda like the highways in France a couple weeks earlier. Anyway, the train ride up was...beautiful.

After changing trains, our next stop was Klein Sheidgg, the last stop for the skiers and the snowboarders before Jungfraujoch. And as you probably guessed, it was beautiful.

30 minutes later, the train arrived and we headed up the mountain, making two stops along the way to look at the glacier.

We finally arrived to the top, two and a half hours after leaving my hotel, to the highest train station in all of Europe. I was so excited to start my day!

I first went to the very top, the Sphynx Observatory. Not only does the Jungfraujoch rail station serve as a tourist attraction, but also a weather/science/really smart people thing. Because I went in the middle of March, the weather wasn´t that great. Normally it is sunny and you can see for miles, but in the winter there is a lot more snow, and since snow was my new friend, I decided to enjoy it. There was an elevator, which was a little freaky as I am deathly afraid of heights, that took me all the way to the top. I then went straight for the outside, where it was -16°F, a little cold to say the least.

I took a million pictures that day, so I reccommend you look at the Flickr album, the address can be found at the bottom of this post.

Since I was by myself, I decided to just sit, inside, and listen to music and enjoy the view I had. Luckily, I found some tourists, speaking English (bonus!), who I asked to take my picture. After a couple minutes of chatting, the dad of the family told me he grew up in Culpepper, Va. This world can´t get smaller than it already is. This was an instant in, which then led to more photos.

My next stop was the ice palace...yeah, that´s right, ice palace. Neeless to say, it was everything I hoped and dreamed of, minus Mario saving me at the end. Anyway, there were ice sculptures everywhere, kind of like the asians. Before I say what I´m going to say next is important: I am in no way racist, I have lots of friends that come from different cultures than my own, I am just simply...observant. Now, if I see one more asain, I´m going to flip. It was like Chinatown, but no dead chickens hanging upside down. I thought I was going to die because I a) don´t speak a word of mandarin, chinese, whatever language they speak and b) I have ZERO patience for these people, they wiggle their way to the front of lines that I have been waiting in, they step infront of my pictures and they take 45 minutes to take ONE picture. I don´t know what it is, but asians travel more than any other race, maybe it´s because they are a little bit more destinctive than us white folks, but still, don´t they have jobs? children to raise? rice to eat? I am fed up with them. Or at least I was until I ask them to take a picture of me at the ice palace and one of them called me "beautiful." He was probably just kissing ass, speaking the only word of English he knew, whatever it may be, but it definitely redeemed him and his endless amount of asian friends.

After the ice palace, I decided I was hungry and since I didn´t have any fancy swiss chocolate, I sprung for a real meal. I decided that while I was in Switzerland, since everything was priced quadrupled the normal price, I would only pay for one meal a day, breakfast was provided by my hotel. I figured, go big or go home, which I did. I ate at the Crystal Restaurant which looked directly at the glacier. It was great. I was next to the window, got free bread, and then the most expensive dish of noodles that man has ever created.

You may be thinking to yourself, that´s a small portion, no more than 20 francs (which is about $19). Oh, no, no, my friends. This fine place of pasta set me back 31 francs, plus the 6 franc bottle of tap water.

After lunch, there really wasn´t much else to do. The plateau was closed because of the snow, which I was a little thankful for. I really didn´t feel like spending more than .45 seconds outside in the -16°F, and this was a perfect excuse. So, I headed to the gift shop, where else?, to purchase some gift cards. I read, somewhere, that postage from Jungfraujoch is like gold to stamp collectors, so I graced my parents and godparents with some gold.

I decided it was too early for me to head back down the mountain, so I headed back up to the Sphynx to listen to some more music and enjoy the view. I was deep in thought, jamming out to my music and thinking how lucky I was to be at the top of Europe. Which then, got old quickly, thanks to my asian friends, NOT. I was sitting on a bench, and all of a sudden this grandpa puts this eight year old kid, who is either dead or the deepest sleeper in the world, lying down, next to me, on the bench. Let me also tell you, that there were other benches, which had no people sitting on them! Why?!? Why?!? Why me?!? It was possibly one of the most awkward moments in my life because they then all, meaning the grandparents, parents, cousins, everyone, left the kid, dead asleep alone with me, on the bench, while they went outside. I then quickly decided that I had about had enough of this asian invasion and was on the next train down the mountain.

The ride down was equally beautiful. We went through Grindewald this time, which was where the majority of the skiers were. It was nice to see people that were more tired than I was!

The train dropped me off at Wilderswil and 30 seconds later I was on the bus headed for the hotel. I snuggled up in bed, reading my book, eating fancy swiss chocolate and watching the FC Barcelona vs. Arsenal Champions League Match. Unfortunately, the game ended in a tie, which my cousin Jack, the biggest Arsenal fan I know, was probably upset that Arsenal didn´t win (less than 2 weeks later, the second game of the Champions League was played in Barcelona and FC Barca won 4-1. Sorry, Jack). I was up until 2am reading/laughing/crying while finishing my SECOND book of Spring Break.

Thursday started out bright an early on the 7:30am train to Bern to catch my train to Milan.

Fortunately, I was going by train and not by car because a minor snow storm had started. Why is the snow always trying to put a stop to my plans? All-in-all, Interlaken was second best trip, so far. You can´t really beat Dublin for St. Patrick´s day...