Saturday in Switzerland

Since we had to change Hostels, we had to get up early. The boys wanted to do some canyoning, but since I still had a few sniffles I decided to stay out of the cold water. They scheduled their time of departure and we made our way to breakfast. We ate at a small place overlooking the field where the hanggliders and paragliders landed. It was nice seeing them all come in. Somehow, the waitress misplaced my order and didnt bring me any food. When she realized her error, she brought it out and it was a great traditional breakfast. Eggs, some almost as good as mom can cook bacon, and bread. Since she replaced my order, she either fogot or left out my order on the final ticket. So we all payed (except me) and went on about our day. That was the first of more good things that were going to happen to me that day.

Went to the orignal hostel, and the lady still had our reservations. It actually turned out to be a really nice, quiet, clean hostel. We met a Welsh guy there named phil who was really cool. Since she screwed us over on the night before, we talked her into giving us free blankets. (Of course I didnt need them) but the guys are wimps and get cold easy.

Burns is not the adventurous type. Since I was not feeling well, he decided to stay with me above water. We headed to the Jungfrau region and decided to hike around. The ride up these train systems to high in these mountains is amazing. We took a train to Keine-Scheidegg(I will check spelling later) and the hiked to Mannlichen, another train stop. Everyone we met along the trail was extremely nice, touists and locals. After getting to the train stop before hiking it got really cold due to weather and our altitude. I changed to pants and my gore-tex jacket. A few minutes into our hike it started raining....so much for me staying out of the water. After arriving in Mannlichen, we took a Gondola down to Wengen. Unfortunately, there were not many views until we got out of the clouds a little bit. (I also kicked a pile of snow in July...way cool)

The town of Wengen was really quite cool. Small, cozy, swiss mountain town. Also, when you cross the border between Italy and Switzerland, it is amazing how the architecture changes. All of these swiss towns were post card perfect little towns and all were neat and clean.
We ate a local pub (I would say very crockett's like). I had Snitzel, and it was great. Followed it up with a pint of Carlsburg...it was actually a really good meal. The one thing I did notice is that people had dogs everywhere. They would come into restaurants, trains, stores, and no one said anything about it. Actually during my time in the country we say many dogs...and I never heard one of them bark, even when there were 5-6 in a store together. That is discipline I like.

Met back up with the guys. They had a blast Canyoning. They wanted to head to a beach volleyball tounament, and we followed along. They got their ass beat in the first two games and we headed to dinner. The game was held at a very popular hostel called the funny farm. Really big dorms, lots to do, but it is not my style. The place was filled with americans, and although there was a lot to do, all that was there were americans. I can drink with americans in Morgantown. It was kinda like a Frat/Sorority party anyway which you all know I love. So I was glad to get out. It was also not the cleanest place in town, you can tell american college students frequent it.

4 of us decided we wanted mexican and went to a place where a guy walked around and sang mexican songs all night long. Really good atmostphere. Something I do not understand in Europe. It takes forever to get a refil on drinks and to get your check at the end of the night. I know we drink a little faster than Europeans, but it takes forever. Also, it took like 20-30 mintues to get the check. I guess they just try and make the meal more of an experience than we do. oh well...

Hunter and the Guys wanted to go to the only Casino in town. So we made our way there. We had to pay a 5Frank cover charge, which I thought was odd. The casio was actually well run, but all they had was Roulette, Blackjack, and Slots. I watched the guys for a while play roulette which I think is a stupid game all the way around. I also watched the boys play some blackjack.
I decided to go get beers for the guys, and went to the bar I ordered 4 beers. The total came to 16 and I gave her a 20 Frank bill. She gave me back 16 franks and walked off. I took the beers to the guys and decided with my luck I should play a few hands of blackjack. I bought in for 100 franks, and in a little over an hour I doubled my money. I gave a tip to the dealer and walked away with 80 franks to the good. (I had a par level of course, but never hit it!)

After the Casio ~1:00 am everyone was tired from hiking and canyoning all day so we headed home. It was a great saturday.

Later...