Yo!
Got off time finally to write one more trip I had last weekend. Last trip… sigh! But then, it was very much worth it!
We had always wanted to go with a student trip to some country, and finally the day came- it was Switzerland, also known in latin as Confederatio Helvetica. Apparently, the font Helvetica was designed by a Swiss guy named Max Meidinger and he named it after his home country!
So, coming back. We had gone with student euro trips to Interlaken and Bern. We ( I, Karthik and Sudeep) started on Saturday early morning from the Munich Hbf. Winding through the hills, and gazing at the lakes, we reached the town of Interlaken. The town was beautiful and picturesque: it’s the perfect setting for a movie shooting.
Now here, the cuppers (insti lingo: people who screw up) who were organizing the trip dropped us at the center of the town, and tells us we can go wherever we want. But wait, we wanted to go to the two lakes around the town, but here we were, at the center of the town. How do we go? We are thinking, when this lady comes upto us and asks if she could join us. Well, what’s wrong with more people? (BTW, she’s an Indian). So Vahini didi joins our gumbal(tam: group of people) to proceed to the lake. We roam around, find a river/stream, but no lake. Cursing the trip, we come back to the bus, to find no one managed to go to the lake. What can we do? Lol.
We then proceed to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. We land at the UNESCO heritage area, and decide we need to see some proper places. So we decide we will first go to Einstein-haus: his house when he was staying at Bern.
We roam around, have a look at the Govt. building with some fountains for kids to take bath, and then go around the bazaar to Einstein’s house. The entrance fee was 4.5 Francs, but it was simply worth it. The place, the atmosphere, the books- wow! It was very much inspiring. We also saw a movie there showcasing Einstein’s story.
After spending a lot of time there, we go out, and are approached by one of our co-travellers asking where the “bears” are. I guess I did not mention this: Bern was named after ‘Bears’, as the people who discovered the city named it after the first animal they found. Lol. But yeah, we were enthused at the prospect of having a look at Bears! :) . We ask a girl sitting near us the way to the Bear park, and very much enthusiastically, she goes into the history of the place and all (btw, that was pretty much the case with most Swiss). We thank her and move ahead to the place, which is a river-side area with enclosures for the bears.
The river was simply stunning. Much cold water, and people rafting, swimming on the river- it was just wow. No other words. We sit there with our feet under water, and discussing about life, philosophy and JEE.
Slowly as time flows, we find we need to pack up, and go back to our bus. As the bus goes back to Munich through Austria,we are left unsure whether our hearts are with us, or left behind, in the scenic wilderness.
P.S: Forgot to add. I am quite pissed Pokemon Go wasn’t released for Windows phone- as if we are like foster brothers. And people putting status like “OMG!!! Caught this…. blah blah…“. This made me photoshop a picture of the river Aare in Bern, and throw in a Lugia. People were shocked, but later realized it was fake. I just wanted to see how much observe on before commenting- proved to be a nice experiment.
Nevertheless, I did love the reaction from people. And it got some 4.1K views in 12 hrs on Quora!