Be Still

If you've ever had so much as a 10-minute conversation with me you know that I love the mountains more than almost anything in this world. I love the quote from John Muir, "The mountains are calling, and I must go," because there are some days that I would literally give anything to just sit under the Aspens and stare at the Rockies in the perfect mountain air. I live in a constant countdown from one trip to Colorado to the next. That's why I'm moving to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. 

We decided on Switzerland on Monday, booked our hostel that night, and our night train on Tuesday morning. I left Thursday evening with Nate, Jacob, and Taylor. We splurged for the "couchettes" which were comfy (or, at least horizontal) and actually let us get a full night's sleep. 

We arrived in Interlaken around 9 on Friday morning and took one more train up to Lauterbrunnen. The train conductor on our last ride was less than thrilled when we a) didn't have tickets except our Eurail passes which are apparently not valid here, b) only had Euros to pay for a ticket, and c) Nate paid him with €50 for 5CHF. Didn't go over well. 

But we made it to our hostel where we dropped off our backpacks and headed into town to find some food. We had some delicious-albeit expensive-sandwiches, cashed in on the wifi, and enjoyed this incredible view.

After lunch we took a super short hike up to one of the 72 waterfalls in Lauterbrunnen, Staubbach Falls.

From the bottom we walked back to the train station and hopped a train then a cable car then another train up to Mürren. I would've been perfectly happy to just stare at this view from the top the rest of the day.

But, we started the hike back down into Lauterbrunnen, which was a little rough on the knees and left me with a bruised tailbone, leg, and pride after a little tumble down. Some people bring home magnets from every country they visit, I'm bringing home bruises. My legs look like they got run over by a train. I couldn't have cared less, though, because here's what I got to look at all the way down.

It's impossible not to feel the Lord's presence with this creation all around. So many times today I would feel the breeze and just hear the words "Be Still" run through my mind as I looked out at His majestic mountains. I think if I had to pick a theme for this weekend, that would be it. We had very few things actually planned, it was mostly just about enjoying each other's company in the midst of this beautiful setting. Being still. 

We got back to the hostel after our hike to check in. We had a cute little 4-bed private room, which was perfect. My 3 travel companions napped while I took a little walk around and enjoyed getting to be "cold" while I knew my family was at home in 107 degree temps. I fit in a short nap before showers (which cost 1/2CHF per 5 minutes of hot water. God bless America) and dinner. We had some pricy pizza (but it was SO worth it) while we talked about all the things we miss about America. Top of the list: Cheddar's and Chick-fil-A. But, again, who cares about any of that when you're sitting in the valley of such incredible mountains. 

We paid for some wifi at our restaurant before heading back to our hostel to rest up for our adventurous day on Saturday. 

So on Saturday, this happened:

Up until about 7:30pm, this day was incredible. We all had separate activities/times, so we spent the day going in several different directions. Jacob went paragliding first, then T and I took a train into Interlaken to meet our guides, mine for paragliding and hers for hang gliding. 

I signed my waiver and they loaded us into a van to take us up to our departure point. There were 8 other people flying with me- a mom and her 2 sons from Russia (one of whom was roughly 10 and had already paraglided before. In Monte Negro. Not a big deal.), a girl from South Korea who was studying abroad in Poland, a German couple, and 2 German guys. My guide's name was Domi, an Interlaken native who not only asked me where in Texas I was from but which PART of Dallas. He knew what Flower Mound was...I'm not even entirely confident I know where Flower Mound is. 

So good conversation, at the least. Domi got me all hooked into my harness and we took off! We jogged a couple feet down the hill and lifted into the air. 

If you ever want to learn a lesson about faith, I would highly recommend paragliding. Literally the wind was the only thing supporting me, 3500 feet in the air. It was the most incredible feeling. Again we're back to my fear of heights. But I can honestly say that I wasn't nervous the whole time we were in the air. There's no way for me to possibly describe the beauty you can see from that perspective. I would do it again, without a doubt, if only to see that view again. 

I love my SLR camera, but today I would've given anything to have a point and shoot just to have a picture to show where we took off. It was a 360 view of mountains with a lake  (hence, "Interlaken") on either side. I've never been so in awe.

I landed around 2:15 and had an hour to waste before Taylor finished. I found a tree in the park where we had landed and ate my lunch with this view:

Then a Swiss marching band came up the sidewalk in these classy get-ups. Normal. 

I could've spent the whole day there, I was so completely content. I walked back to the train station to find Nate waiting for his bungee jumping crew to pick him up. Taylor showed up just as he was leaving so we wished him luck and headed back into town to wait for him to finish. 

We ended up at the top of the Metrole Hotel where we had ice cream, took some pictures of the view, and talked for a few hours.

In honor of the Stewart family (who, by the way, we owe most of this trip to- thank you for your recommendations and your beautiful pictures that led us here in the first place!)

Aaaaand here's where everything went downhill. Nate was bungee jumping off a cable car into a lake. Insane. We planned to meet back at the train station at 8:00, 4 hours after he had left. Plenty of time. Nope. 

T and I showed up at the station at 7:30 to meet Jacob, who had been there since 7:00. 8:00 came and went...followed by 9:00 (we went to get burgers at this point, which the restaurant made especially for us after I explained to the waiter that we were Americans and could we please have the cheeseburger we were craving so badly)...then 10:00. We had joked all day about what if something happened, but when he was 2 hours late we got concerned.

Cheeseburgers: the redeeming factor of the entire evening

A few expensive phone calls, one chat with the police, and one confused hostel owner later, we found Nate. At the hostel. Unsure of what emotion we were supposed to have toward him at this point, we got on one of the last buses out of Interlaken back to Lauterbrunnen and made it back to our hostel to find him laying in our room. 

Never underestimate the beauty of cell phones. You never know what you have till it's gone. Like the ability to communicate. Golden. 

We got ready for bed and started packing. That was when I realized my wallet hadn't made it home. I remembered having paid for my bus fare, putting the ticket in my wallet, and setting it _____ . Jacob and Taylor retraced our steps with me all the way back to where the bus had dropped us off and back to the hostel with no luck. 

The main accomplishment of our little 1:30am venture was time for me to come to terms with having to replace everything in it- credit card, debit card, passport, driver's license (a cause for celebration), paragliding pictures, bus card, Baylor ID, Maastricht ID. You know, just every important document I possess. 

I woke up at 5:45 to meet the first bus in town. I wasn't panicked, but waking up and walking out the door to this didn't hurt:

The bus arrived at 6:25, and luckily the driver spoke English, blessing #1, and was so so kind, if only because of my desperation and shambly 6am appearance (note that it takes at least 1/2CHF to shower and I had no wallet), blessing #2. He let me ride the bus for free to the main station with him to check. He literally walked through all the parked buses in the station with me and looked under all the seats. We didn't find it, but he took down my name and number so he could ask the driver of the bus from the night before. 

Going back to the Be Still theme, I kept hearing those words in my head throughout this little adventure. It's hard to drive through mountains and not feel at peace, even under the suckiest of circumstances. I will be forever grateful for the bus driver angel who went so out of his way to try to help. 

So when that plan produced no results, my next priority was to find a printer to print off a copy of my passport so I could at least get back to Maastricht to sort everything out. I took a quick shower with a borrowed 1/2CHF and went to the front desk of the hostel to explain the situation. As soon as I said I had lost my wallet the lady asked me what it looked like. I described it and she told me someone had turned it in when they found it at the train station. I didn't go so far as to hug the woman, but I could've. All my cash and coins were gone, but I didn't have to spend the entire day making international calls to cancel and get everything back so I was more than okay. I might even get myself a new driver's license to celebrate. 

We packed up our room, found some decent chocolate milk at the grocery store, filled up on Nutella bagels and wifi at the cafe, and caught our train to Interlaken then Bern. There had been a music festival going on in Interlaken, so the train was PACKED. The boys very sweetly gave us the only available seats which put them with the fragrant rock fans in the hallway between cars. They described it as a "sauna full of BO, smoke, and weed." Yum. 

We didn't have much of a plan for our time in Bern, so we just wandered until we found this famous clock tower (Zytglogge clock tower) and Einstein's House, thanks to the boys' flawless German and excellent sense of direction.

Zytglogge Clock Tower

Einstein's living room in his Bern home, the city where he discovered the Theory of Relativity

We started our long train ride back at 1pm which, without reservations, means a lot of musical chairs as people bump you out of their reserved seats.

There were parts of this weekend that I absolutely hated, but all of them are overshadowed by the beautiful scenery and great company. It was certainly hard to leave this beautiful place, as it always is to leave the mountains, but I know this is one place I'll make sure to come back to in the future. 

P.S.- here's the updated city count: 

1. Maastricht, the Netherlands

2. Koblenz

3. Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

4. Würzburg, Germany

5. Ottobeuren, Germany

6. Lindau, Germany

7. Liechtenstein

8. Montreux, Switzerland

9. Schaffhausen, Switzerland 

10. Freiburg, Germany

11. Cologne, Germany

12. Munich, Germany

13. Pfronten, Germany

14. Liege, Belgium

15. Porto, Portugal

16. Lisbon, Portugal

17. Madrid, Spain

18. Barcelona, Spain 

19. Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland 

20. Interlaken, Switzerland

21. Bern, Switzerland