Emily's Adventures

we had a very empty bus on the way to switzerland. the scenery was amazing, so beautiful. we turned off to lauterbrunnen and wow!! i cant even find enough adjectives to capture just how stunning the landscape is. we stayed at camping jungfrau in a cute camp with little huts and a nice restaurant and chillout area. the camp ground is in a valley surrounded by steep cliffs with waterfalls, and mountains. there are alpine rivers running past the camp. we got into lauterbrunnen at tea time so went to the camp shop and got pasta, spinich and beans for tea. it got so cold in the evening. we hung out with busabout people in the common room. i went to bed earlier than the others as i wanst feeling well with a terribly sore throat, what else could i possibly catch! the next morning i was up first and went to go to the toilet, you open the cabin door and forget where you are and the view takes your breath away.  the sun was just coming up over the hills so i decided to walk around the camp and take photos whilst still in my pjs. it was so enjoyable listening to the sound of the waterfalls and rivers and enjoying the majestic mountains. there is something about being up in an alpine town in the crisp morning while the sun is slowly making its way up that reminds me of autumn mornings in tekapo, and it makes me feel good, i just cant help but smile. when the others got up we sat in our cabin and had breakfast together. my throat had blistery things on it so i had a doctors appointment for 4.45 in the afternoon. so we packed our bags and headed up towards the trummelbach falls. the walk was so peaceful and everyone is so friendly, something we have missed by being in the big cities.as  we were walking along people are base jumping off the surrounding hills. you suddenly hear the clap of the parachute opening just before they reach the ground. they are insane!! there are also a lot of people paragliding. the weather was so hot and no wind nor clouds- a perfect day to be out in nature. we went to the trummelbach falls which is a waterfall that is inside caves which you walk up through to 10 different viewing platforms. it was very cool, but extremely cold inside the caves. we took a lot of photos. after the waterfall we sat on the grass in the sun and had our packed lunch. it was so nice to sit on the grass and not have to worry that we are going to be told off. after lunch we walked beside the river towards stechelburg to get the cablecar up to grimmelwald. the cable car just goes straight up, so you are hanging hundreds of meters above the ground for some of it. quite frightening expecially when it starts rocking back and forth as it goes over the wheels in the cable, but we had an amazing 360 degree view. grimmlewald is a tiny little village at the top of this cable car- there are cable cars everywhere along the hills, and the village is silent, the only sound is the ding of bells from the cattle. we sat and looked out at the mountains. unfortuantely we had to leave so i could get to the doctors, otherwise we would have walked up to the next village. we got the bus into lauterbrunnen, steph came with me and jess and katene went to have a rest before tea. the doctor was really nice and i had a swab of my throat taken, never had that done before, and wasnt expecting it. had to pull away in the end cos i thought i was going to choke. i didnt have strep throat, yay, just got given some antibiotics, so now it has come right. that evening we went to the camp restaurant for tea. we sat outside and they give you blankets. we all got the local dish of potato rosti with swiss cheese, bacon, onion and fried egg on top. it was very yummy and such a big meal. we hung out with our friends in the common room and had a great laugh then went to bed. the next morning we went with a nz couple we had met a few cities ago to seilpark. seilpark is a ropes course in interlaken with ziplines, bridges and obstacles that you make your way around. it was the jungfrau marathon, i think it was its 20th anniversary and the course went past the canp ground. to get to the train we had to walk in the opposite direction to them. the atmosphere was amazing. people ringing the big cow bells, traditional bands playing and people yelling out what sounded like pop pop, which i thing meant go go. they are such lively people and the whole town comes out to support, so much energy, it was really cool to watch. we caught the train to interlaken, was a very slow train but the scenery is amazing so it didnt matter. we walked into the bush to the seilpark and had a bite to eat before beginning. we got harnessed up and given gloves and a little training session before we were left to it. you dont even get given a helmet and it is up to you to make sure you clip your carabenas on each time you move around the course. we started off with a course that was 4m off the ground, it was a challenging course and some of the obstacles required a lot of upperbody strength as your feet were on very unbalanced pieces of wood. after that we did the 11m course. this was quite high, but a lot easier obstacles. and lastly we did the zipline course which was 18m high. the ladder to get up there was quite frightening it took steph two attempts to get to the top, but she did it. i think the most nerve wraking thing was actually trusting that your carabenas and pully thing was on correctly before heading down the line. it was fun. after two zip lines you had to go up another few ladders and then zip lined to the next platform. from then the all got lower and lower. steph was a bit overwhelmed by it but she did it. one thing about these courses is that once you start and complete the fist obstacle, the only way to get on the ground is to finish it. me jess and steph went into town after that to get our souvineers and katene jo and andrew did the 20m obstacle, that they said was really hard and terrifying, they said it was worse than skydiving. us girls went to a chocolate shop and the others got a hot chocolate made with chocolate and i got a truffle cake, yum yum. we then met up with the others and got the train home. the walk from the train station was wonderful as the mountains we so clear because the sun was behind us. we got back to the camp and made sweet and sour chicken for tea. the camp was having a folklore evening, so a lot of the towns people had come down to watch the local entertainment including the alphorn, the big bells and drums. the evening was cool. they had a cheese stall that had two big wheels of cheese which they put under a hot element and the top of the cheese goes all bubbly then they scrape off the top layer and put it on the bread. it was really yummy. the next morning we had to leave :( so sad. we only had 12 people on the bus and dropped people off in lake como so by the time we got to nice there was only 8 left. we got into nice at 5.30 and walked into the old town to have a look around. tomorrow we have a long bus ride to barcelona.