Travelling around Europe this summer, my friend and I were met with a wide range of advice. Good advice came from the Australians that we met who pointed us ‘malnourished Poms’ in the direction of an all-you-can-eat restaurant. Bad advice, although well intended, came from the two English girls we met on a Czech train who told us ‘Oh no, this isn’t the station you want’. To our cost, we discovered that in fact it was, leaving us in a tiny train station with no Czech Crowns and only a few beggars for company.
Neither good nor bad, however, was the sensible advice we received about a place called Interlaken in Switzerland. It seemed every backpacker had come from or was heading there, giving the place the sort of legendary status usually reserved for Leo Di Caprio’s beach in Thailand. Over and over again, they raved about the tranquillity and peace of Interlaken, the hostel they had found there with the free spa and the beauty and innate stillness they had felt at the sight of Jungfraujoch, the mountain otherwise known as ‘the top of Europe’. After weeks of trekking round cities, it was just what we needed.
So as I prepared to throw myself off a mountain considerably smaller, but not so much unlike Jungfraujoch, in a paraglider, I did have to wonder at the quality of advice given by these people. However, after a rather shaky take-off (which included my instructor screaming a foreign word in my ear, it could possibly have been ‘Run!’ in German, a part of the procedure I forgot to initiate) I realised that perhaps there could have been a small amount of truth in their words. The town of Interlaken stretched perfect and surreal beneath my feet, and the lakes that surrounded it were completely still, like huge mirrors on the valley floor. Before I could begin to ponder just how small I was on our vast earth, my instructor thought I would enjoy a spot of loop-di-loop, spoiling both my breakfast and any further groundbreaking philosophical thoughts I may have had. Paragliding cost us £60 with Paragliding Interlaken (www.paragliding-interlaken.ch), one of the cheaper companies operating in the area.
On our return to the hostel, in search of peace and that free spa we had heard so much about, we were somehow persuaded to go canyoning by Carson, an American boy with a mouth full of metal, and as we were to find out, a masochistic sense of humour, ‘You two just soooo have to come! You are soooo gonna regret it!’ Canyoning, for those fortunate enough not to know, is the art of throwing yourself down a water-filled canyon by means of abseiling, sliding and jumping heights of up to 10 metres. It’s fair to say there is some amount death involved. ‘We’ll think about it’, I replied, but my friend had already put us down on the list.
Perhaps this willingness to die was in part due to the excessive amounts of alcohol in the hostel bar. Rather than the Jacuzzis and steam rooms I had expected, our hostel, Balmer’s Herberge, the oldest youth hostel in Switzerland and winner of multiple hostel awards, had a permanent party atmosphere; there were boys doing shots through their eyes for goodness sake. This constant inebriation led to well-balanced and sensible people penning their signatures on pieces of paper with titles such as ‘Skydiving!’, ‘White Water Rafting!’, and ‘Legal Disclaimer’. Balmer’s Herberge (www.balmers.com) has often been described as having a ‘spring break’ and ‘summer camp’ feel; a description that simultaneously attracts and repels Interlaken’s visitors. My only advice is: don’t take the parents. Prices start at £12.04 for a bed in a dorm room and the fourth night of your stay is free.
Canyoning, however, was well worth being drunk over. The canyon in Interlaken, according to our reggae-loving instructors from New Zealand, is one of the best for canyoning in the world. With slide after jump after abseil after slide, it is easy to agree with them. Canyoning is definitely not for the faint-hearted; it is obvious that many people only go through with it since, once you start going down, there is no way out. Oh, that and peer pressure. Many people are put off by the price (£80 with the company Outdoor Interlaken, www.outdoorinterlaken.ch) but, personally, this was the highlight of my trip.
Although Interlaken draws extreme sports fanatics to it like bees to honey, there is plenty to do and see that does not need the highest category of travel insurance. A day’s hiking through the Lauterbrunnen valley is highly recommended, as is catching the funicular railway up to Grindelwald, Interlaken’s largest ski resort, and then mountain biking down (bikes can be hired from Balmer’s Herberge). It is also worthwhile to pay the 10 Swiss Franc entry fee to visit the Trummelbach Falls (www.trummelbach.ch), an impressive set of terrifyingly powerful waterfalls inside a mountain. It is simply breathtaking.
Therefore, it was with some sadness, several canyon injuries and empty purses that we finally bid Balmer’s Herberge and Interlaken farewell. Out loud I cursed the people who had told us to visit and the subsequent sleep depravation their advice had caused. Secretly, however I was glad I had listened to them, however misguided the advice may have been.
