The thing I didn't realize is that Interlaken is about 4 hours from where I am staying in Huemoz and it costs about 110 swiss francs, including transportation via train, amounting to about 250 total per person. That's a lot of money....but I was willing to make sacrifices...
I didn't want to go alone, so I asked Bethany, my dear friend, to come with me. Since we get Thursdays off, we thought it perfect to leave on Wednesday night, stay the night in Lausanne, and then take the train the next morning to Interlaken...It was a great plan...but, of course, very few things went according to the "plan." Thus the adventure begins...
8:30 pm we pack up our things and head out saying our goodbyes, perhaps forever, to friends of L'abri. Canyoning is supposively rather dangerous as it requires jumping, sliding, and repelling down waterfalls...scary. I have a meager backpack and Bethany grabs this old mountain woman backpacking backpack, in which we put our meals for the entire next day.
We had two rules.
Rule 1.) NEVER, never can you ever turn around...until canyoning is complete.
Rule 2.) Spend as little money as possible...except for the fees of the actual "canyoning adventure."
So, we sit at this bus stop waiting for a hitch hike at about 8:45...no one comes for thirty minutes...we got kind of nervous...regardless, we finally get a hitch down to Aigle, where the train station is. While in Aigle, we decide to go and get internet at the Saxo bar, a good 1/4 mile away from the train station. That night we were going to stay with some friends in Lausanne that we had met at L'abri. I lost their telephone number and was thus banking on them receiving my email telling them we were still coming. We didn't have their address or any contact information before we got to Aigle. But remember, NEVER turn around. The short end of the story is that...well, they couldn't take us for the night anymore...we thought to ourselves...hmmm...well we are for sure not paying for a hostel...this should be interesting...we'll see what happens...
Our train was supposed to leave at 10:30. We left the Saxo bar at, oh, 10:26. We literally RAN to the train station, across the tracks, about 30 seconds before the train pulled up. It may have been a little dangerous, but we couldn't have missed the train because it was the last one of the evening that was headed to Lausanne.
I won't go into detail about the course of events while on the train. But I will say that bathrooms are quite small and humid if you sit in them for the forty minute ride to Lausanne, while carrying two heavy backpacks.
We get to Lausanne. It's about 11:30 and we are homeless. Completely homeless. We go to this Internet Cafe and start looking up couch surfers. These are people that give up their couches for free. The key is, you have to give up yours in return if ever there be a need. (Sorry Mom.) So there's this single man, Pascal Martin, who lives within the area. We call him three times...to no avail...
How did we get a phone you ask...well, Bethany asked the man who owned the cafe....which was quite funny...We used a french mans phone and could NOT figure out what words meant, like how to hang up the phone. Rule number 3 should be that Bethany and Emily are NEVER allowed to travel together...alone.
It's breaching midnight and we are still homeless...hmm...We refused to pay for a hostel. So, we started walking, asking people along the way how far away Lake Geneva was from the train station.
It was a 30 minute walk down. Far down. We had to stop along the way to eat some chocolate.
Upon arrival at the lake, we realize that it's more of a boat harbor than a beach...so we keep walking around the small part of the lake that was accessible. There was this rock that jettied out from the path, and it looked rather comfortable....
Keep in mind: we have no sleeping bag, no tent, no blanket, no flashlight. We have nothing, but our backpacks and bodies. In our backpacks was simply bathing suits, food, and chocolate. We were trying to live simply, especially under the original notion that we had a place to stay in Lausanne.
So, we lay down on this rock. Well, at night, lakes get pretty cold. The only reason we chose the lake was because it seemed like the safest part of town. Hmm. I see the flaw in this thinking. Hinds sight is 20/20. It's getting cold and Bethany and I are cuddling, extreme cuddling. I, of course, fall asleep after having watched the beautiful heat lightening in the distance. Bethany woke me up, curled in a ball, saying, "Em....can we move...I'm freezing...." I couldn't resist helping a friend...so I lead us to the boat harbor. She said, "Those boats look so nice and warm." To which I responded, "Ok," and found us a boat that was easy to hop in...(later we would find out that this was a police rescue boat....not a good idea....)
We both threw our backpacks on this boat that had a canopy covering over most of the parts. We found this corner, a literal corner, to stuff our bodies in, making sure we could keep warm. And we did...
Until the heat lightening actually turned into a chinese torture thunderstorm. Our response not being to get out of the boat, but just to scoot further down until we could rest under the canopy.
May sound like a bad idea...but at the time, in a daze of false sleep, it was the only valid option. There was NOTHING else we could have done....this was the ONLY option and the most logical as well. The next morning was rather interesting.
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