I booked the trip with Brittany and Taylor through Bus2Alps, which in hindsight wasn't much of a good idea when we later found out it was a bit of a ripoff due to the high cost. But either way, we made the trip worth it in the end.
Around 7:30 PM, us three got to the meeting spot inside Termini with a Bus2Alp guide named King (what an odd name! he was cool though). There was about 15 others too. We all walked to the bus that was parked 5 minutes from the station and it turned out to be a freaking double decker.
We claimed top of course. And found that the seats reclined REALLY far back - which will and have helped us endure the 12+ hour bus ride to Switzerland! So Taylor and I were seat buddies and we reclined our seats back all the way as much as possible to make sure no one sat behind us so we could sleep until we arrived in Interlaken around 7 AM. Bus ride was pretty nice. Taylor and I watched the new Oscar-winning Italian movie "La Grande Bellezza", on his laptop, which was a really weird but somewhat interesting film about a man's third-quarter-life crisis... putting it simply.
I slept on and off. And I should've bought more waterbottles - I was SO thirsty by the time 12 AM rolled around and we still had to pick up kids in Florence who were also coming along for the trip. We finally made a rest stop around 2 AM. We headed out by 3 AM and I fell asleep for good.
I woke up earlier than I intended to around 5:30 AM and I was greeted by this sight:
The Alps! I knew we were in Switzerland right then and I got a little overwhelmed by the fact that I'm seeing this mountain range in person. We were driving along really windy roads and a lot of tunnels, and we also passed by lots of tiny little villages with houses miles apart and goats on the hills. We finally entered Interlaken around 7 and dropped off the first group at their designated hostel and then dropped us off at ours (which we selected during booking): Backpackers Villa Sonnenhof. It's a really contemporary and quiet hostel compared to the other one which was more for partiers.
After a quick breakfast provided by the hostel (the usual cereal bread and jam and cappuccino), Taylor, Brittany and I decided to tour Interlaken while the 3 other girls we were roomed with slept in. We walked around for a while, getting to know the town.
We wanted to hike a mountain but trains are really expensive, so we opted out and walked around even more then stopped for lunch at a place that our hostel recommended. We got cheese fondue for appetizer. And then for the main meal, rosti was really big on the menu so I got paprika rosti (our waitress explained that it's a kind of hashbrown potato). It was pretty good!
We walked past this place that booked rentals and we saw that they were offering bike rentals for really cheap at 15 CHF (almost 17 or 18 USD). So we did it! We rented the bikes and went off. After wobbling on the bikes (more Brittany and Taylor who haven't ridden a bike in years), we set off for Brienzersee (Lake Brienz), which was one of the lakes sandwiching Interlaken. We had a map with no street names so we kinda mostly winged it. We biked across Matten and Interlaken, and got to the highway and figured out a better route mid-way and went down under the highway. It was so exhilarating riding a bike without knowing where to go but figuring it out by winging it is SO rewarding. We crossed over train tracks and parks and down construction hills. Through muddy paths and under the bridges. I got really good at taking pictures while riding the bike. Also, shout out to Pop; thanks for teaching me how to ride a bike way back then! :)
After handing our bikes in at 5:30, we walked around and eventually found a place to eat dinner at. We ate at a place called Cafe Paris. It's expensive but then again, everything in Switzerland is expensive. No meal is under 25 CHF (well, I got a wrap lunch the next day for a miraculous 9.50 CHF).
The next day was paragliding day! Since it was at 12:45, we got up for breakfast then hung around in our room all morning until it was time to go. We went to the meeting spot and got picked up by the paragliding company in a van. There were three other girls along with me, Brittany and Taylor. In the van, we met all the professional paragliders and we went to their stand to get boots on and put our stuff away (not that I had do but the other girls who were there brought giant bags of purses......really?) The van took us up on a mountain, and at first I didn't think we'd go that high- but then the van went higher, and higher, and soon we were above Interlaken.
I was given a "backpack" with a seat and we walked to this muddy cliff edge. My paraglider's name was Kusi and he understood I was deaf and made sure we had signals and stuff so I was pretty glad about that.
On 3, we ran off the cliff and then I was flying!
It last about 15-20 minutes and involved some spirals. But I really liked the view the most.
After paragliding, we walked around and shopped. I got surprises for my family and also an authentic Swiss knife for myself - I gave in and got the more expensive one of two choices I got stuck between simply because it had both a scissor and cork-screw! But it was worth it. We ate dinner at an Irish pub which turned out to be a really good idea. I asked our waitress what was considered a good Swiss beer and I got it (sorry, I forgot what it was called. Started with an "fre"...). It was good! For dinner I got risotto cakes. We watched Scotland pulverize France in rugby on TV.
Sunday we checked out at noon, I got to meet Taylor's uncles who were vacationing in Switzerland (his uncle's husband was Swiss) and they both lived and worked in China. Taylor hadn't seen them in 5 years and I felt honored to meet them briefly. And then we left Switzerland for the 12+ hour ride home. I arrived in Rome by 11 PM (earlier than expected, yay!) and took the bus back to close to my apartment.
I am really glad I got the chance to go to Switzerland!
Tonight I went to a cooking class with Brittany and Christina. We were picked up by a chef at school named Andrea. He took us to his place "Cooking Classes in Rome" to teach us to cook. The meal we cooked Roman style gnocchi, stracceta, cauliflower and nutella pie! It was so interesting and Andrea was REALLY friendly with me especially, he was very touchy-feeling and goofy and kissed my cheeks a lot - he epitomized Italian! An API acquaintance named Robert joked by asking if Andrea gave me his number even though he was married (by the looks of the ring on his ring finger). But I had a GREAT time and the food was so yummy. Andrea will email us the recipe of the stuff we made and I can't wait to make it for my family when I get home!
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The menu for tonight - we made everything!
Andrea, our chef!
Christina, Brittany and I's jobs: making the sauce! I also helped cook the gnocchi.
Andrea put the parsley in my hair and kissed my cheek as if I was a flower girl. Christina took a normal picture of me, but then Andrea noticed and gave me these two huge knives out of nowhere. Perfect.
