Brittany’s
alarm went off god-awful early this morning in order for her to make it to her
sky dive this morning… although it was only 7am, but after last night, no one
was looking forward to it. I tossed and turned some more, and dozed a little, until
our alarms went off at 8am. We got up, ate breakfast (a hot breakfast for
once!) and gathered our belongings for our mountain adventure!
We met Zoe at the entrance to the campground who
handed out our tickets and walked us to the train station to start our journey.
I sat with the boys (Philip, Jordan, and David) whom I subsequently spent the
day with, and Rhianna who was like a lost puppy clinging to Jordan (a desperate
attempt for love I guess?)… We changed trains at Klein Schreigerhagen, or
Schleiderhofen, or Schuberwofen, or Schuberboogerhof… (or giving up now), to
head up to Jungfraujoch Station (the highest train station in Europe!). The
views on the first train were great, and the second was primarily through a
tunnel, so I used Jordan as a pillow rest through most of it. Philip kept
getting mad at us and commenting on how we shouldn’t be sleeping this early in
the morning, etc. You wait Phil, your time is coming!
When we got to the top, first thing I did was to buy
some Swiss mittens (I forgot my Canada ones at home!) and Jordan bought the
matching toque (no, it is not a beanie. It’s a toque… yes. There was a
subsequent argument), so we got a couple photos together. Good thing I bought
mitts (I’m Canadian – who needs a toque when it’s only around 0°C?) but I
shared the mittens when others hands were getting too cold… Initially, we hung
out with some of the others in our group for a little (mainly Satvinder,
Anthea, Megan, Hollie, etc) and when trying to reach one of the observation
decks, we somehow crammed 6 people into the tiny little handicap elevator to
reach the deck (although we didn’t need to). We got a few photos with the
group, before the boys and I branched off.
We managed to follow the ‘tour’ seeing all the
observatory platforms, trails, etc. and went outside in the the wind, and I (of
course! What good Canadian wouldn’t?) started a small snowball fight (at least
I threw one at (and hit) everyone) before finding a spot on the trail to get
naked.
See… Topdeck has this small competition to see who can
get the most points through their photo challenges… many stops will be a
challenge with a subsequent points amount for getting the required photo
(correct). In Switzerland, the goal was to see who would get naked at the top
of the mountain! Philip was the first one – for a Scot in -5°C weather, that
was huge! Haha. I followed by getting topless and doing a snow angel in the
snow. David followed me by getting completely naked. Jordan bowed out as the
voice of reason/photographer (gotta have the proof after all). Although, when
re-dressing, Philip had a run-in with no shoes on at this point, with the Snow
Cat and had to run to not get run over.
Although it was only -5°C, lightly snowing, and windy,
I still survived up the mountain with only a tank top and hoodie on – it
actually felt quite warm considering.
We continued looking around and got some group photos,
skated our way through the ice palace and ate our Topdeck provided picnic lunch
(sandwich, apple, juice, and the mandatory Swiss chocolate Toblerone bar). Or
everyone else at lunch at the time except Philip who ate his on the ride up the
mountain. We got our ‘Jungfrau Passports’ stamped, and decided to head down the
hill.
Overall, it was a fun and good thing to see, but was
quite cloudy and wintery, so not overly great for photos. At this point, I was
still tossed up over whether I was sad I didn’t take the chance to sky dive in
Switzerland… We headed down the mountain where Philip was trying to show Jordan
the trick of running your hand up someone’s leg saying “It’s the fire truck”
and have them say “red light/green light”… Trick being that fire trucks don’t
stop for red lights.. Although, the trick was actually on Philip who kept
asking Jordan to say red light, but Jordan wouldn’t and Philip got high enough
up Jordan’s leg to creep himself out a lot…
Everyone dozed a little on the way down, Jordan had a
bad headache, so he slept most of the way, and I picked on Philip for sleeping,
and played with Jordans (apparently soon-to-be-Beiber-like hair). Philip got
frustrated with me and used me as a pillow before turning around to hide behind
me.
The second train down everyone was a little more alive
– Jordan’s headache was a little better, and the views were significantly
better than the first train… and we even had way more room!
Upon returning to Lauterbrunnen, the boys went to the
co-op, I mailed Sofia’s now 3 postcards (finally!), and then found Thomas at
the Swiss Army Knife store. We both picked up the coveted green knife (the
colour you can only purchase in Switzerland), before going for coffee to access
the free WiFi. Jordan walked down the road and ended up visiting with us for a
bit before we all headed back to the cabins and to pay the front desk for our
lovely mountain adventure.
Dinner tonight, also in the site tent, was a
traditional Cheese Fondue! There was quite a bit of kissing going on though, as
the tradition says if you drop your bread in the pot, you have to kiss the
person on your left. Tess managed to convince a complete stranger (some poor
female soul) from another tour to receive her kiss… on the lips! After that we
had roasted potatoes, veggies, pork roast and corn! Yum!
After dinner, I sat around with Alex, Adam, Trent,
Hannah D, Jennifer, Angie, Amanda, Hollie, Megan,
and Anthea for drinks before retreating to our room to chill – today is going
to be an early night! We Reminisced about the previous night ie. Thomas having
the alarm going off for 13 minutes while Trent slept through it all before
Thomas turned it off himself; Trent not remembering from 9pm on last night;
Alex getting a random bottle ring stuck on his finger after ‘Single Ladies’
came on; Adam waking up with a random guy from another tour sleeping in his top
bunk (even though there was a spare bed in their room), etc.
Oh, the entertaining life of being on a tour for two
months… :)
