Day 11: 22/04/06 Luzern/Interlaken

Our room!

Along the Golden Pass Railway

Interlaken: looks familiar? So typically Swiss...

Our 5 days in Switzerland were very hectic: basically, we stayed at a different place every day and there definitely would be at least 1 train ride per day. It was really tiring towards the end and this ended only when we finally reached Vienna.

We bought cereal and milk from the hostel and ate breakfast there. Yj displayed his heroism once again: he didn't want to eat breakfast as he insisted that he was not hungry. Well, if I did that during my family's overseas trips, I would definitely suffer as my family won't stop for food just because one person wanted to act hero during normal meal times.

The day was warm, so I just wore my windbreaker and left my thick coat together with my backpack in the train station. It turned out to be a grave mistake: the wind was freezing as I was on the boat when we cruised the lake! My windbreaker was completely useless, and the sun did not help much. Tk lent me one of his layers to ease my suffering and I was really grateful towards that.

The cruise was around 2 hours and we had to change a boat at Weggis. There were numerous resort towns surrouding the lake bordered by the Alps. The combination of mountains and the lake was beautiful, and I saw for the first time Alpine pastures, where there were patches of grassland at the foothills of the mountains bordered by trees. That was one of my favourite things throughout the journey.

After the cruise we were to take the Golden Pass line, another listed scenic route, to Interlaken, a city in the middle of the Alps. As we bought lunch, Yj's insistance on uniqueness almost caused us to miss the train. (Yj's Story No.2)

We reached the train station rather late and we had no choice but to buy food to eat on the train. There was a MacDonald's nearby and we decided to settle for that. Tk bought 2 burgers and I got myself a meal (which cost Fr10.90!). Yj bought 1 burger only. When we reached the train station, it was only around 7 minutes to the train's departure. However, Yj said that he needed to buy another sandwich from the sandwich stall (apparently his burger was not enough as he didn't eat breakfast as well). Before we could stop him, he had rushed to the stall and started to queue behind 3/4 persons!

As it was not possible to stop him from buying we told him that we would wait for him at the platform. As we were waiting, we got more and more restless and Tk was almost fuming. He couldn't believe that he still had to not buy enough at Macs and join the queue at the stall when we were in such a hurry. We considered all sorts of options, including one where we just board the train and leave him to wait for the next one. At 2 minutes before departure, Yj appeared on the platform, WALKING towards us in a seemingly RELAXED manner. It was simply unbelievable.

We were on our way to Interlaken anyway. As the train entered the mountains, the scenery got more and more astounding. From lowland the trained climbed up to cross a mountain pass, and on the way we had views of emerald lakes, majestic mountains, green Alpine pastures and farms, cattle and horses, etc.; it was just like those we saw in postcards. The stretch near Interlaken along Brienzersee was the most beautiful. The train ride was something that should not be missed if you were in Switzerland.

At Interlaken Yj led the way to the hostel using his crude map printed from the Internet. He was never a good navigator, which the following incident proved it vividly: (Yj's story No.3）

On our way to the hostel we came to this cross-junction where a sign pointed towards the hostel. It was not exactly clear, as if you stand beneath it to check it pointed into a house instead of a road. I saw from the direction we were coming from that it pointed into a particular road. Yj, who was the leader, insisted that it pointed at another road which he claimed 'the map said so'. I knew that from the general direction we walked it was nost likely wrong but after some useless persuation and insistance I gave in since he was the leader. Tk said it pointed into the house which I agreed; anyway, we both followed Yj.

Facts proved me right: the road Yj took led to the road which goes to the train station. I couldn't take it anymore; I took the map from him and asked him to follow me. And soon we were at the hostel.

After we settled down we were supposed to go and take a funicular up some mountain top so that we could see the whole Interlaken. By the way, as the name suggested, Interlaken was between 2 lakes, Brienzersee and Thunsee, and was surrounded 360 degrees by the Alps. However as we started walking we decided not to get to the funicular and we went onto a small hill nearby for a walk.

As we were walking we kept making fun of Yj. He had already accumulated enough incidents for us to legitimately make fun of him. I purposely taught him how to navigate as part of that, and I didn't know how much he learnt. And of course, we kept pestering him to treat cheese fondue for the night (which we had ordered through the hostel reception). Anyway, he kept insisting that it wasn't his fault that he took the wrong road and it was actually due to a 'difference in perception'. He just had a 'different' perception, not a 'wrong' perception. I never accepted that; I never accept excuses from people who refuses to admit mistakes. All these typical Yj's acts would lead to even more interesting stories later in the trip. (Yj's Story Nos. 4, 5, 6....)

The hill was a disappointment: we was not able to see Interlaken holistically as it was all tree covered. There was one point, though, we were able to see quite a bit of Thunsee, and this was when we saw rainclouds rolling over the Alps coming towards us. We left the hill immediately, and fortunately enough the rain did not get heavy. As the rain started, it lasted: except for one or two days, all our subsequent days rained until we were in Budapest.

At night we ate cheese fondue at the hostel; it was not as nice as we imagined. The wine in the cheese steamboat was too strong. And we made a mistake by ordering 3 perons' worth of fondue: it was really very filling and got rather boring after a while. However, when the liquid cheese were all gone, the crust left behind was delicious. We didn't make Yj treat of course.

There was a table tennis table at the dining area and Tk was excited to see it: I think he has not picked up a bet since his DHS days. We played for a while before dinner, and continued after the fondue and beer. A kid from god-knows-where came in and we played with him; he seemed to be playing with anyone that was at the table.

The hostel was alright but there was a serious problem with the common bathrooms' doors: they can't be locked! When we use it we have to pull the door towards us tight to prevent any intruders. Luckily the showers didn't have that problem.