Second time's a charm

For my birthday, my dad gave me a pink Swiss army knife and a pair of Puma flip flops with the Swiss logo on them. Well, the flip flops were about two sizes too big because the lady at the store gave my dad a 7 when he asked for a 5. And after translating the receipt, I found out that I had seven days to exchange them. Since nothing is open here on Sundays, I had no choice but to go back to Interlaken yesterday.

I spent over an hour looking at maps and google trying to figure out where I am and where the main train/tram/bus station is. I figured that while I was there I could at least visit Jungfrau (the tallest mountain in the Alps).

So I managed to get myself to the main station by tram. For CHF 52.00, I got a round trip ticket to Interlaken. I was so sure I would get lost, so I had to ask two different people if I was in the right place. One only spoke German so I just showed him my ticket and he nodded yes - which apparently translated to, you're in the right place.

So when I got there I found the shoe store and exchanged my flops. Then I walked around for a while and asked someone in the train station how I could get to Jungfrau. She said I was too late, that the last car going up was at 14:00. Of course it was 14:15 when I was asking.

So I walked around some more and ate lunch at a restaurant called Des Alpes. I had Swiss mac and cheese and water, no gas. I then decided to head home since things were closing down and I wanted to get to the Coop in Bern to get some wine before they closed.

So I got back at 5:15, and Coop closes at 5:00 here on Saturdays. Boo. So then I tried looking for this Radikal store my dad was talking about that sold bottles of wine for CHF 4. (My kinda prices! They don't even sell wine in the US for this price!) I'm sure it can't be good wine, but it's better than no wine. So I walked a different way home and didn't see it because I missed it by about a block.

As I'm nearing my street, I hear someone clapping. I'm thinking "Oh great, some person is pointing out the American" when I realized it's my dad! He missed his flight because of the GPS system. I felt bad because he had showed up an hour after I left for Interlaken, so he sat around for five hours waiting on me.

But I was so excited not to have to spend a Saturday night watching movies and cleaning and re-cleaning my room. And guess what we did?

Drove back to Interlaken. But this time, we went to a town called Gridenwald. It sits at the base of the Alps and there's a little hotel restaurant called Wetterhorn there. We ate dinner and then walked a trail that took you closer to the mountains. Back there was a bunch of steps you could climb and get an awesome view. I didn't want to do it because there was no one around and thought if something happened, no one would know. Plus it was a terrible climb.

We then tried to take a cable car to a point in the Alps but since it was dinner and you had to have a reservation, we couldn't go. But we did meet some Canadians along the way who spoke English very well and wanted to keep talking. Thank goodness for North Americans!

My dad managed to make his flight this morning, I presume. He hasn't called or driven back so I hope he made it.

Since everything is closed here on Sundays I don't know what to do with myself. I started to rent a movie on iTunes, not realizing it takes about three hours. It's still downloading as we speak.

Then the internet went out.

So I decided to do laundry. It's not fun trying to figure out how to wash clothes in cold water - in German. So I brought my computer down to try and translate it, but of course the internet was still out so I had to play guessing games. I kept opening it to make sure the water was cold. It's also a very tiny little washer and I just kept stuffing clothes in there hoping I wouldn't run out of room.

Only time will tell.

I'm hoping to get some work done on the newsletter this afternoon so I don't feel stupid coming in tomorrow morning with nothing accomplished. Maybe I will go to the river too, since it's warming up and getting stuffy in my flat.

What I learned yesterday/today:
- kalt means cold in German.
- There's a quiet car on the train where you can't speak, and if you do, you'll get stared at.
- The Swiss stare a lot. And are obvious about it.
- iTunes doesn't have every movie you want to watch.
- You better make plans on Sundays or you're going to have nothing to do.


Love,
Jessica