Lauterbrunnen

Posted by Ben on May 7, 2010 in updates | 1 comment

Well I’m back to post another blog – finally.

I apologise for the delay, but my life has taken such a busy turn that I struggle to find the time to keep it as updated as I’d like. I’m actually lying, although I’ve been really busy sorting everything out over here in London, I still manage to find sufficient time to stalk as many facebook pages as I can while you’re sleeping.

So anyway, the morning after that bender in Paris, I woke up at about 8am wondering why my alarm hadn’t gone off. I then realised it was because I had actually set the alarm for 8pm that evening – wishful thinking. I really wasn’t too phased though because I was just stoked I managed to set an alarm at all.

I could tell it was a good night because Donal, Ping and I all woke up in our undies. This is either a funny story, or a downright scary one. Either way, I’m glad I don’t remember the previous night too well. We were too hung over for showers and breakfast and we were running too late for either anyhow, so we got straight onto the bus and began our trip to Lauterbrunnen which is situated in the Swiss Alps.

Nothing much happened on the bus trip into Switzerland which is probably a good thing. You always get a couple of stops between countries, so stock up on food and sleep the whole time – the bus basically becomes a communal bedroom, and it really is the only place you’re going to get some sleep.

Now Lauterbrunnen happened to become my favourite place on tour. It was the most laid back, serene place I’d ever been. It really was picturesque.

The town was tucked away in a cosy valley. It consisted of numerous wooden houses, large open paddocks, fresh flowing streams and four surrounding mountain ledges that were awash with huge trees and waterfalls from the snow capped mountains that were beginning to melt.

I can safely say that I’ll be coming back here, whether it be Winter or Summer. I’m still tossing up if I’d prefer to go here or The Tyrol in Austria when I first hit the European ski slopes later this year. I suggest you take a look at some of the pictures under the ‘photos’ section of my site.

We stayed in log cabins of four. I was lucky enough to be bunked with Donal, Rich and Hunnibell. The room itself was nice; the only problem was that the bathroom happened to be about a hundred meters away. It was painful when I needed to pee at five o clock in the morning and it was below freezing outside. However, the places you stay don’t matter much because you literally get changed and sleep in here, so if you happen to stay at a crap place on tour – don’t stress, just avoid the place and use the time to explore where ever it is you happen to be.

There is only a population of about two and half thousand in the town and only two local pubs. We went up to one of them and had a couple of beers. There isn’t much to tell here except that Hilda behind the bar was hell rude, the local drunks looked at us like we had just landed and the place smelt like a farm – I think it was the drunks. They’re probably all farmers. There really can’t have been that many other occupations here.

I forgot to mention that Switzerland don’t use the Euro, they use the Swiss Franc. It’s weird; the money feels like ‘reflex’ paper and is highly colourful. It really does look like monopoly money. I felt like I got screwed because I would give in a hundred Franc note and receive a fifty and a twenty Franc coin back! So it felt like a thirty dollar item cost me over ninety nine. Am I making any sense at all?

We ended up getting drunk at the other local pub with all the other Topdeck members. The beers here were really, really cheap. Probably about $1.50 Australian and the ones that were out of date were even cheaper. So I bought them.

I can’t say I have any wild or adventurous stories of my own at this place. I was still dying from the previous night. I did well smashing down out of date, dark ale beers before deciding to leave and go and visit the American girls. I just spent the next few hours annoying them with my drunken Australian banter until the early hours of the morning. We swapped stories about back home, argued about which country was better (obviously Australia) and I broke Bre’s new blackberry. Sweet!

I walked into the room to find Donal passed out in his undies again. I made sure I kept my clothes on and zipped my sleeping bag up over my forehead. He wasn’t getting in tonight, and neither was Ping Pong.

That is the end of that night.

Not!

About an hour later Rich and Hunnibell rock up. I wake up to Hunnibell screaming –“YOOOOUUUU SLUTTTTS! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I’VE GOT A PRESENT FOR YOU.” Here I am half asleep when half of Europe’s Jägermeister falls into my lap. He’d stolen it all from the bar and offered it to me to help get rid of the evidence. Oh well, why not?

I still don’t know why I did it; I just woke up with another massive hangover, my mouth tasting like dirt and my eyes looking like they had been branded with a cattle prod. I blame Hunnibell again, I assure you this guy is going to make a few appearances on my blog – he was a bad influence all tour. He’s the bloke who’s made me feel partially comatose for the past six weeks of my life.

Lucky I was in the freshest, most widely open spaced area on the planet. Although we were thousands of feet up, the air was ridiculously fresh and it felt like the oxygen levels were higher than that of sea level. Do you think the farmers up here are fit with all their altitude hay lifting?

That day we walked our hangover off. We went up the mountain on a gondola and went for a huge walk along the mountain top. I definitely suggest doing this, the views are amazing and the snow (although you will probably miss this going into Summer) was better than any Australian snow I’d felt since I began snowboarding. It was stunning white powder. I’d never wanted to go snowboarding more in my life.

I couldn’t resist. I decided to go running down onto a small patch using my ‘slippery’ jacket as a sled. It wasn’t such a good idea, it ended up being an ice patch, my jacket didn’t end up being slippery at all and so I ended up with a couple of shredded hands, a headache and a nice winding. I cut my walk short and caught the gondola back to town.

I used the rest of my day to buy some pastries from the bakery, check out the local area a bit more and see if there was anything worth buying at the shops – not at the prices they were asking! Don’t go shopping here, they hardly have anything and freight alone must add half the wholesale price to the items. I’d definitely suggest going to the bakery though, again the bread is amazing. Try their finger buns.

I do have one thing I forgot to suggest, if you’re going here with Topdeck, do the sky diving. It costs a little bit, but if you aren’t on a tight budget and you get the all clear because of good weather and safety, GO! I really regret not taking my opportunity. I was going to wait until Austria, but weather permitting stopped me from going.

That night was a relaxing night, we had a few more beers, an authentic Swiss/German meal with sausages, cabbage and mash and went outside into the freezing cold and kicked around the soccer ball. Shortly after I went to bed thinking I’d finally get some sleep.

I hadn’t slept in the same room as these boys yet, and with the other previous night in Paris, I didn’t gather a perception on Donal’s sleeping habits either. Let’s just say the room sounded like an orchestra, between the snoring, the squeaking, the farting and the sleep talking – I felt like a conductor. So I did. I conducted a punch into each of the boy’s legs and abdomens until I finally managed to grab sufficient time for me to get to sleep and not wake up until the following day where we’d make our next move to the French Riviera.