4 Countries, 3 Monetary Units, 4 Languages, THREE DAYS!

We had another early morning from Venice because we had a full-day of travel ahead of us in order to make it to Switzerland that day (Tuesday). We left our somewhat remote island of Lido at the wretched time of 6:15 a.m. by ferry and made it to the train station by 7:30 to catch our 7:50 train to Milan. We needed to take three trains from Venice to Interlaken, Switzerland: Venice to Milan, Milan to Bern and Bern to Interlaken. Let me just say right away, Switzerland is GORGEOUS! The men kind of smell and everyone wears their hiking apparel everywhere, but Switzerland is awesome and I loved it!

I am really glad that we have been able to travel by train. It is a whole different experience and it's really great to see the country-side of these beautiful countries! I was a bit disapointed to learn that I did, in fact, sleep through much of the train ride from Milan to Bern and I therefore missed the transitional landscape and from what I heard from one of my travelling buddies, Libby, lots of pretty views. I was bummed, but on the train from Bern to Interlaken I was sure to remain awake to witness the Interlaken's surrounding two lakes and the mountains. It is absolutely breathtaking! As I mentioned in my last blog, it was difficult to fathom that we only had such short stays in each of these places. I sufficed it to say that at least these visits allowed me to see somewhere that I know I want to come back to. Venice and Switzerland, I'll be back!

Upon our arrival in Interlaken, we though it would be smart to book our train for Thursday (which was a day and a half a way at the time) for Paris. We had booked a 5:15 p.m. Chunnel train from Paris to London and needed to get to Paris on the 28th to make our Chunnel. However all of the high-speed trains for Thursday were completely booked and the slow trains wouldn't get us to Paris with enough time to catch the Chunnel. This is why we had to cut Switzerland short by one night and we were very lucky to both receive our second night's fare back and to be able to stay with Michelle's family friends in Paris on Wednesday night.

We originally wanted to go to Interlaken, Switzerland to experience an extreme sport. The combination between the cost of doing so and our short time in Interlaken made it impossible to do so. Again, we were bummed, but we were still able to soak up of the beautiful views of the mountains, try a local beer at a bar across from our hostel (Switzerland's motto is "Save milk, drink beer") and run into yet another group of Johnnies in this somewhat remote city in Switzerland. Two Johnnies from the London program were staying just down the street from our hostel (we stayed at Balmers and loved it to all my CSBSJU followers). One of the perks of having to leave Switzerland much too early was that it is awfully expensive. Around dinner time we found it necessary to stop somewhere for food and thinking because we chose a kebab place, which is a popular European type of restaurant and is similar to a burrito, it would be one of the less-expensive options there in Interlaken. Between the three of us and only ordering one kebab, a drink and fries it cost us close to 50 Swiss Francs, woah. So after dinner we went back to our hostel, showered, used the internet and went out for beers. In the morning, we walked around the town, took some pictures to prove that we were in fact in Switzerland and boarded our train to Basal at 12:30. That day we had four trains: Interlaken to Basal, Basal to Mulhouse, France, Mulhouse to Belfort and Belfort to Paris. We arrived in Paris at 8:30 and then used the RER train to get to Michelle's family friends who live about 30 minutes outside of the city centre. It was a jaunt and we got lost for about a half of an hour, but thanks to Michelle's fluency in French a yet another free bed, it was worth it!

Since Sibylle and Fred, Michelle's family friends had to work early in the morning, we too, got up early, joined them for breakfast and then headed back into the city. It was a rather raining day, so we decided it was best to visit a museum that day and we chose the Louvre! It was great! I enjoyed the ancient Egypt exhibits and of course, the Mona Lisa. We ran into the same Johnnies that we saw in Interlaken while viewing the Louvre which was something like our seventh run-in since traveling, how crazy?! After the Louvre we went straight to the train station and eventually boarded our chunnel to London! We were headed to our first English-speaking country in four months and it was great to be able to fully understand the first language spoken on the trains, we did for a while forget that everyone else understood us, too. Look for my third blog about our London trip coming soon!