Jungfraubahnen Region, Switzerland

Hey EVERYONE!

Its me and its the first time ive written a blog from a country other than England; how impressed are you. I figured since Ive keep myself VERY busy with this trip I should write about it in two installments hahaha - thus you have installment #1!

Ive been here for 2 full days and they have been jam packed... and suprisingly even though this is my first lone trip today has been the first day where ive actually been ALONE. I arrived here late late Tuesday night and after sending some quick emails to let everyone know i survived I went straight to bed. However the next morning at breakfast is where I met Lisa; and austrialian who I spent the most of wednesday and thrusday adventuring with. Wednesday we headed to Lauterbrunnen a town with over 70 natural waterfalls - the home of Trummelbach Falls, a waterfall where the 3 largest mountains water runs threw. We were able to climb to nearly the top of the waterfall and see it running threw the entire mountain. It was beautiful, however sadly enough on the 22nd of May a 12 year old boy went missing because he leant over the bridge and fell in! (a little piece of information we learnt AFTER we had gone) From there we roamed around the town by foot and ended up at Stechelberg: this is the spot where the worlds highest running ariel cable car begins at 922m and it runs through 4 other stops ended at Schilthorn at 2971m high (the spot where 007 was filmed back in the day)... so we got tickets and made our stops at Gimmelwald (1409m), Murren (1634m) and Birg (doesnt say) and ended at the top to have a nice lunch in a revolving resturant where you get a full view of the ice capt mountains. It was amazing you actually pass over the clouds and are standing amongst them! DID I MENTIONS IM LOVING THIS TRIP - we headed back down to Lauterbrunnen to catch a train to Wengen (1274m) a traffic free town (except for the tourist resorts cars) - we had a nice dinner there in pure peace. All of these town are so remote and peaceful with such gorgous views its very hard to explain and even the picture cant do it justice (however i will post picture when i return to England tomorrow). On our way home by train we met two more Aussies: Chris and Matt who had been living in Lautenbrunnen for a week and were just doing some hiking, they were heading into Interlaken for drinks and we joined them for a fun night out.

Thursday I met Lisa early in the morning again at breakfast, she was suppost to be heading to Paris Thrusday but had her flight delayed to today so we could do some more sight seeing. We headed over to Fun Rentals and rented Mopeds - it was sweet for 3.5hrs it only cost us 40 CHF almost equal to Canadian dollars and that included our insurance! It was a great but freaking scary experiences, because we had huge trucks passing us on our mopeds that would only go max. 55, up and up and up and round bends to get us to Grindelwald (1034m) - a tourist town close by. It took us about 30mins to get there passing by cows, rivers and beautiful green mountains that disappear into the clouds and come out over top covered in snow! We travelled high pass the tourist part of town and found a nice spot to part the scooters and found a path that led us to a beautiful waterfall, and we just sat there and took in the view, and decided to head home. Once back in Interlaken we decided to cease the moment and go paragliding! I was going to spend that money to go to Jungfaujoch the "Top of Europe"; its the highest point the rail system goes in Europe but its about 1000m higher than Schilthorn and I wanted to do something completely difference since I was very satisfied with Schilthorn - and im sooooo glad I did! My instructor was named Robi and he has been flying for 17 years... he was very friendly. We had to run attached to him off a cliff and althought the cliff came to a drastic slop down we had to keep running until he told me to stop, that was the scarest part and once that was over the view was amazing! Overlooking towns, and lakes and passing over mountains - the ride was about 15 - 20mins long and he even let me fly it once we were clear of the mountains of course. I got to do 360's and steer it, I was able to bring my camera and while I took picture of the view below us he took pictures with a special camera of us (which I will also put up). And then before we were going to land he took control again and did all sort of crazy tricks with it to make us spin really fast... and go basically upside down for a bit, SOOOOO WORTH IT!

Now its 11am on Thrusday and I have spent my morning doing some sovenior shopping and getting medicine because my allergies have NEVER been this bad... I had to buy eye drops and tablets, after having so many nice people in my hostel give me there medicine last night. Can I just say that his trip has renewed my faith in people: I was nervous to be alone travelling but there are so many difference and cool people who are doing the same thing alone or with someone and everyone has there own story. Last night I just hung out on the deck of our hostel and was joined quickly by 8 others from all over the world and as we sat watching the sunset in the mountain we just enjoyed each others company sharing our individual stories.

Anyways, Im out might head back to Lauterbrunnen because its a beautiful spot to just hang out and spend some quaility me time before I have to say goodbye tomorrow.

Im safe and having a blast!
Love you ALL!
xx

(here is a map: copy and paste it in a new window if you want an idea of where ive been!)

http://www.interlaken.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/bilder_cams_karten/ortsplaene/pano_jr_so-800.jpg