Day 69 (Friday, July 21) - Interlaken (Again)

With my final weekend of traveling before my parents come to Europe, I decided to repeat the trip I enjoyed the most this summer. Switzerland! Sadly, I'll have to go by myself since most everyone's Eurail pass has expired. My pass hasn't because I didn't go anywhere the first weekend. But it's ok; I'm only planning to go for a day, anyway.

So, the plan is to leave for Interlaken on Friday afternoon, go mountain biking for 6 - 8 hours and catch the last train back to Metz on Saturday. Mountain biking through the Alps has by far been my favorite thing I've done in Europe. I'm excited I get to go again! (even if my mom isn't since I'm by myself) :-)

Friday turned out to be a crazy busy day. I woke up at 8, put together my group's work for homework #8 for information security, practiced my part of the presentation for info sec, made a handout to give to the class for the presentation, went for a 45 minute run, did push-ups and sit-ups, took a shower and was still sweating after I got out from lack of AC, went to networking class and worked on a homework handout the whole time (we were supposed to), then had my 10 minute presentation in info sec, went to lunch, packed my stuff, caught a bus to the train station, and finally got on the train a few minutes before 4. Phew! All the school work made running away to Switzerland all the sweeter.

The train ride was supposed to last a little over 5 hours. But, of course, catastrophe struck. On the first connection, we just stopped at a random station and stayed there for 45 minutes. Turns out there was a fire in a field near the tracks a couple kilometers away. A nice German/French woman translated the announcements for me, I at least I knew what was going on. I got to my connecting train station in Basel a full hour late, and my connection was long gone. By pure heavenly luck, there was a train leaving for Interlaken 10 minutes after I arrived. How awesome was that?

I got on the new train with a South African guy I had met on the last train since he was going to Interlaken, too. Also, I ran into a group of GTL'ers who were going to Interlaken, too (their Eurail passes were still good, too, apparently). The train ride went smoothly, thankfully, and I got to Interlaken right at 10:00pm. I said goodbye to my new South African friend, he told me "cheers", and I got to Balmer's with no problem.

I checked into my 6-person room and met one of my roomates, a South Korean guy named Suwan or Su-wan. I was a bit tired, so I didn't stay up too much later after I got there. But I also met a roomate named Andy from Calgary, Canada, and we talked for a good 30 minutes before going to bed. He was really cool and very talkative. He said he was a mechanical engineer at the University of Calgary, and that their college was set up so that you went to school for 3 years, interned for 1 year, and finished your final year back in Calgary. His internship was in Switzerland (!!!), and he has been traveling on the weekends. Kind of makes me jealous except I'm doing something similar, just on a smaller scale (3 months vs. 1 year).

At any rate, I fell asleep around 11:30.