An Incredible Fahrt

So I'm posting twice from Salzburg because of the stupid internet in Switzerland. Here's the music:



6/28/08 1:34pm- I'm sitting at the Interlaken Ost Station waiting for the train to Lauterbrunnen, where I'll stay the next two nights. The train ride here, as you can tell from the title of this post, was fantastic. We went along Lake Geneva, up through Valais and across to Spiez. I got out in Spiez for lunch at the local Migros and this was the view from my seat:



The photo doesn't even do it justice, it was incredible. The train from Spiez to Interlaken was equally impressive. the music was chosen because it conjures up thoughts of grandeur and amazement. I wouldn't be surprised to see a T-Rex come around the corner any second now, or Julie Andrews, although I'm not sure which would scare me more.

6/29/08 5:55pm- The good fahrts just keep on coming. I arrived at the Jungfrau camping hostel, located almost directly under a waterfall (Ben, I'm sure you know) at about 2:30 yesterday. I checked in and got my own little cabin, which is probably about 7 feet by 10 feet, perfect. The wireless internet isn't working here, so I'll have to post this from Salzburg. I headed out right away and went to Trummelbach falls. Here's some photos from the valley floor (cue Jurassic Park music):







Here's the Jungfrau:



The Jungfrau- Forbidding, aloof, terrifying. The mountain with the... if you dont know the joke already, then continuing would just make it awkward.

And of Trummelbach falls:




You didn't think that just because I'm by myself, I'd pass up golden opportunities like this one, did you?

After that, I hiked up to a cable car that took me to Gimmelwald, as shown here:



From there, I hiked up to Mürren, where I was originally going to stay. The day could not have been more beautiful. I found a restaurant that overlooked the valley and ate some sausage and rosti:



Then I took cable cars back down to the valley floor and walked home. I was basically smiling the entire time, I just couldn't get over it. It's like Saint Peter's Basilica, in that you just have to be there to understand how big and impressive it is. Any testimony that I lacked in a divine creator from my many drives across Nevada has been compensated for by the beauty of this valley.

This morning, I woke up at 6:30 and took a train back down to Interlaken, where I met the canyoning tour. I met a guy from the University of Florida and two girls from SDSU and we kinda stuck together. I must say I dig canyoning. For me, it's just the way I live my life. I grip it and I rip it. I live it with a lot of flair. I live it on the edge, where I gotta be.

I've always felt that if you can take a picture of something, it's not extreme enough, so I dont have any. Well, they had a guy taking some but you had to pay 48 francs for them...and I never look good wearing a helmet, so I passed. The two girls bought pics, so if I'm in one of theirs, I assume I'll be tagged on Facebook, we'll see.

It was so fun though. You can see in the video below what we did, it was basically that. My favorite was the one where you jump out to the side, land on a rock, and slide down. We also got to hang out at this one rock and do flips and stuff off of it. The slides were cool too, it was amazing how everything was natural. The water was freezing, obviously, but the day was warm and it felt great.

UPDATE- When I took a shower that night (dont worry, this will be the only time I talk about my showers, i hope), I noticed a large bruise on my hip, but other than that, no injuries so that's good considering they get 'a lot of dislocated shoulders' and my shoulder is prone to that.