Thursday, August 19th -- Interlaken, Switzerland
Upon arriving in Bern, I immediately switched trains for Interlaken. I met a girl from Chicago named Karen on the train. When we got to Interlaken, we checked in at Balmer's youth hostel and went out for pizza. Back at the hostel, I was trying to find my bunk, but it was dark. I bumped into a guy and as I apologized we looked at each other and exclaimed "No way!" It was Kevin, the guy from Dallas who I'd run into twice already. Now we'd made it three chance meetings in three separate countries!I realized that I'd left my toiletry bag in Munich, so I had to replace everything at Swiss prices. Ack! That night I slept in a room with 37 other guys -- hell. The bunks were like double beds and you ended up next to some strange guy for the night. I ended up with a rather large guy who made noises in his sleep like nothing I'd ever heard before. Needless to say, I got very little sleep.
The next morning, Karen and I went white water rafting. There were eight of us on the boat with one Kiwi at the helm as our guide. We wore wetsuits and waterproof shoes. Not long into the ride we hit a large rock and I was almost thrown from the boat. I barely managed to keep my foot under a safety strap. As I was trying to get back in I saw the entire raft tipping over toward me so I bailed out. We all ended up rushing quickly down the cold river.
They had spotters along the most problematic spots of the river to help
us if we tipped. Unfortunately, the didn't expect us to tip at this part
of the river, so nobody was around to help. I was swept down the river,
getting my feet bounce violently off the bottom -- once hard enough to
knock off one of my shoes. Every once in a while my head would go under
and I'd come back up gasping for air. Karen and another girl were floating
near me and each of them grabbed on to one of my arms. I wasn't particularly
happy about the situation before, and now that I had someone dragging me
down by each arm I was even less pleased. We finally managed to get to
shore. Karen was all right, but the other girl was hysterical. We calmed
her down and went to find the others. One girl was missing and everyone
was quite worried about her. After about 15 minutes she showed up -- she'd
gotten quickly to shore and it had taken her a while to make her way downstream
to where the rest of us had floated. We then promptly got back in the raft
and went down the rest of the way without further mishaps. I crashed in
a hammock for the afternoon, hung out and chatted with people during the
evening, and went to bed around 10.
The next morning I went hiking with Kevin and a girl named Heather from Washington DC. I felt badly because I couldn't find Karen to say goodbye and I knew she'd be gone by the time I got back. We decided we'd walk to Grindelwald and see the ice caves. We started walking, and soon realized that the roads were not designed with pedestrian traffic in mind. We were walking on the side of the narrow road, constantly dodging traffic. Just when we thought we had to be almost there (we'd been walking for almost two hours) we found out that we still had 11km to go. We gave up and decided to hitch. I had no luck getting anyone to stop, so Karen gave it a try. She got the next car to stop. Never underestimate the utility of an attractive woman when you are hitchhiking.
The guy that picked us up had grown up in the area and now worked for a
helicopter company that did airlifts and rescues. He said that they averaged
about two rescue flights a day. He dropped us off in Grindelwald and we
hiked up to the ice caves. We met a guy from the States on the way and
he came along with us. The ice caves were less than impressive. 
They weren't natural caves, but rather had been carved out of the side
of the glacier. Still, it was kind of neat (and cold) to be inside of a
glacier. They had some cheesy ice sculptures inside for tourists to get
their pictures taken with. The view from the mountain was incredible. The
valley looked almost like a painted backdrop. We had learned our lesson
on the way up, so we took a train back to Interlaken. I hung out with Heather
for the evening.
More coasters 
Friday, August 20th -- Gimmelwald, Switzerland
I got
up at 6:00 the next morning to walk Heather and a friend of hers to the
train station. I did some laundry and then Kevin, Todd (who was indeed
one of the Todds from Munich -- I keep meeting people I've met before)
and I hopped a train to Lauterbrunnen. We then took the funicular up the
mountain and then another train to a town called Murren. From there, we
had a half mile hike to the town of Gimmelwald. Gimmelwald is a great little
place. It is a farming village nestled in the Alps with nothing but a hostel
and a tiny hotel. It is located in an avalanche zone, so larger-scale construction
is not allowed. The result is that the town exists just as it has for centuries.
The hostel is a nice, wooden building on the side of the mountain. I paid
less that $5/night for a bunk next to a window with a sweeping mountain
view.
We checked in to the hostel and then went for a hike. We started to climb
up along a stream that was more like a waterfall because the hill was so
steep. I was wearing my Tivas, so I gave up after a bit and walked further
up the valley. I found a nice, shady bed of moss and crashed out for a
while. I went back to the hostel and hung out chatting with people on the
front porch. I took a picture of the sunset over the alps from the window
I was paying so little to sleep next to it. I took another picture that
included the window frame to prove that this was the case. We made a bunch
of pasta in the hostel kitchen for dinner and then hung out on the balcony
while some guys staying in the hostel played guitar. The night was clear
and pitch black and the stars were incredible. The dark silhouette of the
mountains against the starry sky was amazing.
I slept in the next morning to try to combat the cold that had been with me since Munich (getting tossed into a cold river and hanging out in ice caves hadn't helped any). I decided to take it easy for the day and just hang out in the sun on the porch. I met two girls, Karen and Angela, from New England. We hiked up to Murren with an Australian guy to get groceries (there is no grocery store in Gimmelwald). Karen has appointed herself my private physician and is supplying me with cold medication. The girls and I went up to Walter's (the little hotel) for Heidis (hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps). The hotel bar opens for only a couple of hours each night, so wandering up the hill from the hostel and then back down again is a nightly ritual at the hostel.
Sunday, August 22nd -- Gimmelwald, Switzerland
I got up at 8:30 this morning and the girls had already left to take a gondola up to the peak of Schilthorn (the mountain from the James Bond movie "In her majesty's secret service) for champagne brunch. When they got back, the three of us hiked up to a glacier about an hour and a half from the hostel. Nice hike -- not too strenuous but not too easy either. We saw an avalanche on the way up and I got a before/after picture. Some time after the avalanche occurred, we felt a wave of cold air come whipping down the valley. The area isn't designated as an avalanche zone for nothing. Earlier I'd met a guy who had been camping in this area. He'd had a pretty scary night. He'd heard noises and it turned out that an avalanche had occurred. His tent was far enough away that he didn't have any snow fall on him, but a wave of wind, water, and ice came sweeping down the valley, shaking his tent. It happened a second time a while later, and this time he ran out of his tent and took shelter. The shock wave flattened his tent. 
An avalanche -- before and during 
We found a waterfall that cascaded down into a small pool and we kicked back there for a while. I had a strange little blue butterfly hanging out by me the whole time. It landing on my hand and every time I shook it off it would fly back again. Later in the day, we hiked up to Murren and went swimming the a spa center and hung out in a jacuzzi with a great view of the alps. I had my first hot shower in days.
It was Sunday, so all the stores were closed and I couldn't get any food. Karen and Ange shared their pasta dinner with me and the friendship was cemented with food and wine.
Wednesday, August 25th -- Chamonix, France
I'm back in France, having been sidetracked by the Gimmelwald Girls. Monday morning in Gimmelwald was foggy. I walked up to Murren with Kevin and some others. Karen and Ange said they would be along later. It turned out that they took to gondola up -- Karen's knee was bothering her. We got groceries for dinner -- potatoes, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, red peppers, and a couple of bottles of wine. We weren't sure what we were going to do with it. We ended up throwing it all in a pot for an hour or so. It turned out beautifully (or maybe that was just the amount of wine we'd already consumed talking).They were going to Chamonix, France the next day and asked me to go with them. I told them that I was planning on going to Italy next. They kept asking me all night. "One day!" they said, "two nights -- what can it hurt?" I remained unconvinced. The next morning we exchanged addresses. At this point they were pretty much certain that I wasn't going to come with them. I wasn't looking forward to a night train ride to Venice, so I gave in and decided to go to Chamonix.
We took the gondola down from Gimmelwald in the fog. It was really cool
looking back up and seeing the next gondola coming down out of the fog.
We took a bunch of trains through Switzerland, including one hilarious
narrated ride through The Chamonix valley. A woman in some sort of traditional
outfit wandered through the train with a microphone giving a spiel in French
and very bad English. Her English was so bad that I think I understood
more of the French version (and my French isn't very good). We got into
Chamonix early in the evening and found accommodation in a hostel about
twenty minutes from the center of town. It was a really nice place and
is apparently a ski chalet during the winter season. We walked in the rain
from the hostel back into town, stopping to watch the locals playing petanc.
The next morning we took a train up to Mer de Glace (sea of ice). It was
a really neat glacier coming down a mountain valley. We checked out some
ice caves that were much like the ones I saw in Grindelwald. We hiked all
the way back down the mountain -- quite the hike. The last strech of the
hike passed by the top of a cement luge run, so we all luged down the rest
of the way. We went into town and had a few beers in a bar and then dinner.
The next morning, we breakfasted on wonderful crepes and went back to the luge run because Karen wanted to go down it again. Then I accompanied them to the station where they caught a train for Paris. I'm sure I'll see them again. I'll go to Boston to visit Karen and then sample Ange's mothers Italian cooking in New Haven.
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