European Whirl - Day 12

April 21^st

Lauterbrunnen … Camping SCCV Jungfrau

I thought I wouldn’t take many pictures for this day, no architectures. But I was wrong; nature is as beauty as architecture. I took another 100 pictures here ^.^ But it’s good, I could take a rest.

I was in the cookie group for this campsite. The deal for this trip is, everybody has to take part either as cookie (help the meal distribution) or dishie (help washing the dishes) and back packing for the guys. We got a candy as a gift. The first dinner we, the cookie didn’t get the candy. But as soon as I saw Lee Lee got one, I told Gillian, and both of us heading to the kitchen asking for a trial. Gillian was a very good defender … she used her French accent English for the bon-bon (means candy in French). You had to see how the guy gave us a shock looks while she said, “I was so jealous …”, and we quite became more welcomed ever since ^.^

The weather was not as good as the day before. Gillian and I decided not to take the 120 SFR ride to mount Jungfrau (1 Pounds = 2 SFR). There’re some other optional; a 25 minutes helicopter rides for 200 SFR, or a 38 trains journey to the next village plus Trummelbach waterfalls, or 9 SFR only for the Trummelbach waterfalls on foot. We decided to take the 9 SFR one, walked around 45 minutes to reach there. But it’s a good walk since it’s heading to the opposite direction, not to the village that we already walked it the night before after the dinner. On the way, we saw 2 guys parked their car beside the narrow street and watching the cliff in front of them. Gillian asked what they were watching … the little red dot up in the mountain, where people jumping off with parachute. Ah … that’s why I saw some people were folding parachute in the campsite last night. My eyes aren’t as good as hers although mine are doubled, I only saw while the person had already jumped off the cliff. There’s a crazy person that jumped farther away before let the parachute open … the black dot dropped so fast! … Not me!

After we arrived and handed out our tickets, we entered a lift that went inside the mountain … never knew that we could ride a lift in the mountain. But later on I found out that they have any kind of transportation for such a mountainous area; cable cars, train, even trains that take the shape of stairs-steps and go 45 degree! Forgive me for my innocent, but for me it’s a very new thing and cool! ^.^ It’s breath taking to realize how small human and its invention are compare to the grandeur mountain.

They claim the Trummbelbach has 10 waterfalls. Actually it comes from one waterfall that was split on the way down, through weird but beautiful shape of cliff inside the mountain. The water comes from melted glacier on top of the mountain. It’s very cold and wet. We were provided by human made stairs, handrails and lamps … very easy to walk. But Gillian had problem with her knees. Poor her that had to walk in pain … I was very lucky that this time my knees didn’t protest although I walked a lot all those days.

The waterfalls themselves were amazing, especially after being lightening by green lights. The sound of the water was so loud but not as annoying as the music Craig played on the bus (he loves either rock an droll or techno music). It seemed emphasizing how grand nature was. We spent more than an hour there, cold and wet but amazed.

This was the only day for us to be able to make our own schedule, to go back to our campsite anytime we want, for a nap. It began to rain anyway. While we wait for the shop in our campsite to open, an old guy said that it wouldn’t be open until 2. They have 2 hours lunchtime, while we hadn’t had our lunch. The guy came from New Castle and this was his third time staying in Jungfrau campsite. He said he felt in love with Jungfrau. He said his just came back from ski trip 2 with his wife months ago. His son got marriage in Austria, with the ski uniform as their wedding gown, taking pictures under a big snowstorm. His wife and him didn’t attend it though. They held another party while his son went back to England. His daughter just marriage in LA; again he only saw their wedding picture; this time was in a very conventional white wedding gown. His last boy was in Japan now, for maybe 4 months to learn Japanese. The world sounded so small, while at the same time the mountain looked so huge.

It’s already 3 o’clock while I awaken; 2 hours nap. Not bad! I decided to walk to the town by myself, since Gillian was still sleeping, might be because of too hungry. But I need an Internet to write an e-mail to my college who all of sudden send an e-mail a day before, said that he’d arrive at London at April 24, the last day of my trip. The rain stopped falling. Good for taking pictures … but I didn’t bring my camera with me … Silly! I walked to the internet coffee; 5 minutes for 1 SFR *.* It actually was a youth hostel. They put flags outside their window case; surprisingly, I saw Taiwan’s flag among them, but no Indonesia’s. Money talk ^.^

The train station was my next stop. There I saw the train that climbed 45 degree. In each train has a big iron shelf at the very back that later I found out, it’s for ski utensils. Only few shops open due to the Easter Monday. But I decided to keep their 10 SFR as my souvenir from Switzerland, since it has the pictures of Le Corbusier and his works printed on it, although he was a French (according to the Paris traveling book).

The dinner was very nice; a hot melted cheese with a little bit of wine taste was kept boiling, we stabbed bread with a long thin fork and dip it into the jam … if I could call it jam. Main course is chicken paprika with baked potato and salad, and for dessert we got strawberry ice cream, enough to force me to take another night walk before going to bed, and be ready for another long ride on the bus.