Day 09

Before I get into too much detail about Day 09, here's some more amusing things that have happened to us.

Europe must have the smallest bathrooms in the world. In London, the shower stall was so tiny that we could hardly turn 360 degrees. In Barcelona, the toilet was situated in such a way that it was impossible to sit on it the normal way. It was too close to the wall. You either had to sit on it sideways, or straddle it backwards (like Tyler did).

In Geneva, the floor of the bathroom was raised about half a foot over the room floor, and everytime we tried to get into the bathroom, we tripped and fell in. The first time I entered the bathroom, I tripped and began flying through the air. If it wasn't for the bathroom being so tiny, I would've fallen flat on my face. Instead, the far wall broke my impact. But I didn't feel too embarassed because the same thing happened to Tyler, shortly after he finished laughing at me.

We also had TV at our hotel in Geneva and the only English channel we got was CNN International. We ended up watching a French show called "Incroyable Talent" instead. It's a lot like America's Got Talent, but I think the French version came first.

Another thing that we've noticed in Europe are people making out in random places: in the middle of the street, in a subway, on a stairwell, on a train, in train stations, down escalators, up elevators, in castles, in prisons...everywhere. Every day that we've been here, we've seen two people making out. Thankfully, it was always a guy and a girl, never two guys.  Unfortunately, it was also never two girls.

Day 09 began with us waking up in our hotel in Geneva and heading over to the train station to catch our first train to Gimmelwald, Switzerland. Yes, once again we went through the border into Switzerland, and once again there were no border police present.

The train ride went through some huge mountains and went past some streams, rivers, and lakes that were so clear you could see the bottom. On one of the trains, an older German couple sat opposite us. Whenever the husband talked to the wife, the wife would always reply with one sound: "Mmmmm". I never heard her say one word the entire trip. For example, the husband would ask, "Warum ist das Himmelblau?", and the wife would reply, "MMMMmmmmmmm". Then the husband would say, "Betrachten Sie diesen großen Berg", and the wife would say, "mmmmMMMmmm". Then the husband would remark, "Dieser Zug geht sehr schnell", and the wife would come back with "mmmMMMMMM". Then the husband would ask, "warum sind Sie keine Wörter sagend?", and the wife would reply, "MMMmmmMMMmmmMMMmmmmmmmm". I think you get the picture.

So we finally arrived in Gimmelwald, Switzerland. A little town in the Alps that is only accessible by cable car. It's at an elevation of 4523 feet. We got some amazing pictures there that will be posted shortly. We stayed at the Mountain hostel in a dorm room with 4 other guys. We prefer the private rooms, because we're private people, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. There was one computer with internet and there was a very convoluted lineup to use it. We were only able to get on it at 9 PM, and that's where the Day 08 blog was written.

Soon after we arrived, Tyler and I went for a hike up to the hotel where his parents were going to be staying. I call it a hike because it was up these very steep stairs. By the time we got to the top, Tyler and I were out of breath and sweating profusely. We weren't even carrying our packs and it was hard. His parents hadn't arrived yet, so we made our way back down the stairs.

We next decided to go on a hike, since the stairs had warmed us up. We ended up hiking close to 1000 feet higher to the town of Murren. I'm proud to say that I did it with only 5 granola bars in my stomach. (All the restaurants were closed in Gimmelwald from 10AM to 5PM.) For water, there are troughs in various places with natural mountain water where you can drink out of.

We then went to the cable car station to wait for Tyler's parents to arrive, but they never showed up. We were runnning out of time to go to the top of the mountain, the Schiltorn, and the restaurant located there, the Piz Gloria. The restaurant was built and used in the James Bond film: On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The view up there, 9900 feet high, was breathtaking. Again, the pictures will be posted shortly. We ate in the revolving restaurant and then took the cable car back down the mountain.

On the cable car going down from the Schiltorn, there was a Japanese couple present. Every time the car would dip down a little bit, they would yell, "Whoooooo", because they were scared. Soon, some Swiss tourists were mocking them by yelling out "Whoooooo" with them. It was pretty funny.

We spent the rest of the night playing cards, waiting for our turn on the internet.

And by the way Stephen, Habs won last night 6-1 and the Sens lost. Too bad :(