I woke up on Saturday morning in Interlaken to a beautiful day. I stepped our on to the balcony of our hostel room to take in the view and almost dies from shock SNOW AND ICE!!!!!!!!!! having never seen snow or ice i was beside myself that upon yonder mountain there it sat. OMG, words can not express how I felt. I think I screamed. I think LC thought i stubbed my toe or something.
Interlaken is beautiful beyond words. It is quite a small town nestled between two lakes high in the swiss alps. Everything here is perfect, everyone has pretty gardens which they take pride in, cute little houses, plenty of fresh air. Things make sense, somebody obviously put some thought into planning. I decided to head out and see a little of what the town had to offer- first I headed over to the 'wildlife park'. Admittedly I was a little disappointed, I think adelaide Zoo's child petting area has more animals. But on the upside these were my first real european animals. and the babies were really cute. I was going to catch the Funicular up to Harder Kulm, the lookout above Interlaken but I had just missed one so I decided to take a stroll. due to the landscape by stroll very quickly turned into an amazing hike. Within a few minutes I was climbing the mountain and it was absolutely wonderful. So much green, so many little wildflowers (I have a whole blog dedicated to my study of swiss flora!). And gasp- the views!!!!
I'd been walking for a while and I decided to head back to get the funicular but as it turns out it was WAY out of my budget so instead I wandered back in to town. I walked past a shop selling swiss army knives and literally could not resist. I used to have one when i was a kid and then rediscovered it in later life to be a very useful item. The best thing is that it has lots of things that I didn't bring with me- a knife, scissors, a can opener, bottle cap opener and corkscrew. Everything a girl could need!
I spent the afternoon down by the lake skipping stones on the blue water. I couldn't help but think my grandparents would like it here. They could get a house by the lake and Ned could build another boat. There is a steam train as well and I think a model train village near by. Grandma would love the pleasant atmosphere of the town and would probably get a kick out of going to Hooters for dinner! An then there is the really good chocolate and coffee that would make them never want to leave. haha. not that this town is for old fogies or anything!
That night LC and I treated ourselves to burgers a Hooters- totally hilarious. After that we headed back to the hostel and hung out with the two guys from Seattle who were in our dorm. They had been paragliding that day and had an amazing time. We ended up going down to the bar for a drink. It was pretty funny and slightly embarrassing to be associated with the loudest americans at the bar. We headed up to bed around 3 so that we could get an early start for what would turn out to be THE BEST DAY EVER- TOP OF EUROPE!!!!!
Someone left their Tuba in the driveway, you can just imagine their mum "Billy, get that damn Tuba out of the driveway before someone reverses over it. that thing is worth a fortune!"
Here are some hilarious photos from our time in Bologna. Even though we didn't get to see it during the day you could still tell it was an amazingly beautiful city. My shitty photos do it no justice. It was definitely a fun night, we met some locals and hung out with the university kids. I remember reading in John Marsden's tomorrow series that the the time of night when people have the most trouble staying awake is between 330 and 430. That was definitely a struggle for me!
We managed to get about 2 hours intermittent sleep on the train to Milan and then about 30 mins in Milan and maybe another 30 mins on the way to Interlaken. We met a lovely Irish woman who was leading a tour. She talked to us about her trip to South America where she ended up staying 10 weeks in Argentina instead of the planed 5 days (or something like that). Our whole carriage was filled with older british people (a wonderful change from the nasaly, loud, obtrusive americans I've become so used to). It was kind of like catching up with your grandma, they were all interested in where we had been and what the hostels were like and what was our favourite thing so far. We arrived in Interlaken in the afternoon, it is such a beautiful place- thankyou Mel for suggesting it! The hardest thing was staying awake once we had got there so we didn't waste our day or end up staying up all night again. Luckily there are lots of lovely walks to do and our dorm had a couple of you australian girls, two girls from Singapore and 2 guys from Seattle who kept me awake with travel talk until it was a decent time to go to sleep.
PS this is a bit gross- in Positano there was no washing machine or launderette so by the time we got to Interlaken ALL of my clothes were dirty. I didn't have a singe pair of knickers left to wear, not one t-shirt, not even my jeans were clean. Such is life when you are a traveller and every situation brings a new experience. So, i had to decide what i was going to wear while i washed all of my clothes. I couldn't stand my own filth- I had to get out of the clothes i had been wearing overnight in Bologna, but i didn't want to have a shower until I had clean clothes to put on. So, i pulled out a singlet i had only worn once or twice, my shiny jacket and my jeans- except i had to go commando. I had never done this before, i have friends that had (Amelia in the shotz days) but it never really tickled my fancy (I'm sure it tickled hers). Anyway it was a new experience to add to my list and while it wasn't horrible I don't think I will be doing it again (at least not by choice). Now i have washed and dried and packed every single item of clothing i should be set for at least another week!
LC and I wanted to go an an island adventure, so while we were on the amalfi coast we took a boat over to Capri! It was very touristy, very expensive and very pretty. As you can see there was also a pirate ship! YAY pirate ship!
We had lunch at an expensive restaurant that had a beautiful view. I had a G&T- it was AMAZING. 
We went down the other side of the island to the Marina and there was a beach. There was a section where you had to swim through a cave to get out to the ocean. it was so blue and salty and perfect. 
