Say "Ja" to Lauterbrunnen

Upon leaving Zurich we planned on heading to Bern and going down to one of the mountain valleys, until one of Yves’ roommates, Bartjan (who is from the region), said no. That was no good. He told us that we needed to exchange our tickets and go from Zurich to Luzern to a place called Lauterbrunnen. He told us that this would give us a much better view of the mountains on the way and then would be the best place to see a lot in the short time we had in the Alps.

So, to Lauterbrunnen we went! And despite being a bit hungover on the train ride (which I don't even know how that happened, we didn't even have that much to drink--besides maybe the flamly) the views were lovely. We stayed in an awesome place called Valley Hostel, the cheapest place in town with a lovely view of the tallest mountain, Jungfrau, and a nice big kitchen, laundry and free wi-fi. The owner, Martha and her son, Stefan are very welcoming, friendly and extremely helpful people willing to point you in the right direction at all times. Martha would not leave for the night until wishing every guest in the common area a good night. If you every want to go to a quaint town in Switzerland either for skiing or hiking, I highly suggest staying at the Valley Hostel in Lauterbrunnen, (however, Bartjan told us that if you are staying for a while, it is best to stay in Interlaken and then take day trips to towns like Kandersteg and Lauterbrunnen up in the mountains).

We picked the best day for hiking on Saturday. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the trails were very scenic. Many of the trails were still closed due to snow, so we didn’t get to a very high altitude, but where we did go was very nice. We stopped in the towns of Murren, Gimmelwald, and Steckelberg on the way and then walked back to Lauterbrunnen. We had a picnic on a little grassy ridge overlooking Jungfrau. It was a full day of hiking and our noses got a little burnt, but it was great to be out in the fresh mountain air all day long.

It took us most of the day to get to Lugano, right near the Italian border. Right now I am sitting on my bunk in the Montarina Hostel in Lugano listening to Cat Power. We’re having our first interactions with Italian language, and got through ordering espressos and gelato pretty well! We got here later in the day, so we have more to see (and write about) tomorrow.