Day 15

Yesterday was our day to take the train to the Top of Europe- Jungfraujoch. As usual, we were up bright and early to start- this time we were all lined up for breakfast before it even opened. The train ride was nice, it was foggy so we didn’t see too much until we got to the very top. The top though... was absolutely amazing!!!  There were “snow fun” activities going on – handgliding, tubing, skiing, a few other things but they all cost extra. We decided we could do any of those things another time and decided to spend our time enjoying the mountain. 

We took some pictures outside, visit the “sphinx” (a glass done at the highest point), saw some ice sculptures and did a hike. Hiking through the mountains without any equipment was quite an interesting feat. There were steep inclines and the snow just seemed to go on and on. Matt and I were on a mission to see everything, so we did the climb as quickly as we could (of course making stops to catch our breath at that altitude) and we even ended up passing by a couple of people with proper hiking sticks. The views were amazing! All there was in sight were mountains and snow and occasionally another couple of hiker.  We really made the most of our time, spending a lot of it just staring out in complete amazement.

When we caught the train down, our original plan was going to be to take 2 more trains and a bus in order to check out a nice waterfall. We changed our mind before getting down the hill because of the cost and the time (we wouldn’t have had a lot of time to look at it before the area closed). Instead, we went back to the hostel so I could change my wet socks, got some information from the info booth and ended up catching a ride with someone working in the hostel to the city center. Our original plan was to see a different waterfall closer by, but busses didn’t run very often and we didn’t really want to wait half hour for the next one. Instead we wandered through the town of Grindavald just checking out what the area was like and running into and out of little shops. 

We headed back to the restaurant near the hostel for dinner (it ended up being cheaper than the places in Grindevald) and trying some traditional Swiss dishes- Rostas- which were hashbrowns with cheese and bacon on top, and 2 cheese fondu, served with a few veggies, little potatoes and tons of bread to dip in the hot cheese. It was pretty good!

We got back to the hostel and ended up in the lobby with some of the group.  We were looking through the games the hostel had to offer trying to figure out something to do. There was a set of cards with German words on them, which we spent a few minutes inventing rules to and laughing at, cards that went up to 104 and cards with people and places on them. For another few minutes, we were messing around with those cards. “I’d like to see you top a 78!” “Oh yeah well I have Sri Lanka! Hah!”. When this really wasn’t becoming a game, I grabbed my cards from my room and we had about 10 people playing together and teaching each other games from Canada, Ireland and Australia.  Afterwards was time for showers and sleep.