You only live once: Interlaken

Okay, sorry it has been a while since my last post, but I just haven't had a decent wireless connection. So I need to catch up, I'm going to run through Switzerland with these next three or four posts.

After we (sadly) had to leave Geneva, we began our journey east to Interlaken. In and of itself, Interlaken is a small town that's wildly popular with the younger crowd in particular both during the winter and summer for its sports and bars. Nonetheless, it is still a very picturesque Swiss town, unbelievably beautiful, tranquil by day and loud by night.

Interlaken is in a part that speaks Swiss-German, so while I knew a handful of words in French that helped in Geneva, I was especially S.O.L. in Interlaken as I haven't a clue of any German. Naturally, this wasn't a problem as it is still Switzerland and everyone and their grandmother speaks English as if they were raised in California.

Those were two pretty pictures in front of signs that say "Interlaken" in case you missed that.

To be honest, the picture below I'm not sure what everything quite is in the background. All I know is that we were walking down a street and were stopped dead in our tracks by how beautiful the scene was.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. As I mentioned, Interlaken is great in the winter as it sits at the base of the Jungfrau, the tallest mountain in Europe if I'm not mistaken, and boasts some of the best skiing mountains. Avid skiiers would say the best skiing mountains in the world. Who am I to judge? I figured I just wanted to learn how to ski, and what better place to learn than in the Swiss Alps? To my cousin Sam, I wish you were here for this.

Lessons were cheap, a very nice English lady named Sue had me carving the slopes within two hours. After my time with her was done, I took to the green circle hills by myself. I did a good job not sticking out, as in Switzerland the green circle slopes are reserved primarily for first-timer two- and three-year-olds, as well as the occasional quadraplegic. So, being a six-foot-one American I blended right in with the locals, and was talking about how I'd be doing triple black diamonds by the time I get to the bottom of this "plebeian green slope."

Here is some evidence:

(Below) Still alive!

As a matter of fact, my rapid progression in skiing attracted a lot of attention of some Swiss regulars (former Olympic medalists, even) and by the end of the day people wanted to chant "USA!" with me as I went down the slopes. This random girl even wanted to be in a picture with me:

I hate when Natalya is better at things than I am (which happened... once... and it was skiing) but I'd say within a day or two I'll catch up... maybe. Sam: let's get a house in Switzerland and go skiing, like, a lot.

At this point in time, I need to change gears on you guys. I must now focus my attention on my Friday, February 13, 2009. I'm not trying to sound conceited or like a prick or anything when I say this, but quite frankly, my Friday the 13th was better than yours. In fact, I'm going to dedicate a whole separate post to it.