To the top of Europe!!

The next day it was raining when we left Munich. It was pretty funny seeing 50 people running out to a coach with suitcases trying not to get wet. Our first stop was Liechtenstein, one of the smallest countries in the world!! On the way in our tour manager found out that it was the National Holiday for Liechtenstein. Therefore a lot of things would be closed, but there was a festival going on! We got there and only had an hour free time to organise swiss money and get lunch. Switzerland was the only country aside from the UK where we would need money other than Euros.

At these stops you normally wind up spending the entire time queing for toilets or ATMs and this was no different. We had a quick look at a souveneir shop where I realised Joel wasnt lying when he said switzerland was expensive!!! It was ridiculous. 2 euros for a postcard, the t-shirts ive been collecting from each country were 3 times the price and food and drinks were crazy! At least they had free toilets :)

We got lunch from a stall and went and sat in the street to eat it. While we were sitting there a local guy came up to us, bent right over in our faces and started saying something in German. We asked for english and he was asking "Where are you from??" He was just curious and was asking us about what we were doing in liechtenstein and stuff. It was just funny how in our faces he was!! He couldnt believe we only had an hour, and said we would miss the big 'festival' where they open up the princes palace garden and have free drinks and stuff. He ended up off on his way again... and we went back to the bus. Laura again reminded me of the movie taken where a local invites the tourists to a party in order to kill them... haha.

Our next stop was Lucerne (Luzern). I was really looking forward to it as my boss Lloyd had told me about it and that it was really nice. When we arrived we first went to see the lion monument which was a memorial for the swiss guard who died. Then we were dropped off in the city near the old town bridge and walked up to Harrys watch shop. We were shown all of the watches and swiss army knives which were good to see but I couldnt afford in my lifetime!!

From there it was straight into our Chalet in Switzerland. It was one of the most beautiful stretches of road ive ever seen. We went through little valleys and mountains beside lakes and rivers. On getting closer we had great views of Jungfrau where we would be going the next day. We got to the chalet which was beside a river and waterfall right in the base of the mountain. It was amazing!!

After dinner I was planning on an early night to catch up on sleep. Jungfrau was going to be a big day and I didnt want to be tired or hungover so started getting ready for bed early. Then I went up to Serens room to see her before bed and they were all getting ready to go down to the bar. They twisted my arm and in less than 5 minutes I had gotten changed and had a drink in my hand!! I didnt end up getting back to my room until 2.30am. We had to get up early ready for the train.

We we walked up to the train station where we boarded our first train which took us up to the base of Jungfrau. It was beautiful scenery, there were cows everywhere with little cow bells ringing while they ate. When we stopped at the first stop to change trains we had 20 minutes spare time to take some photos and stretch. Then when the other train arrived it was about an hour and a half to go. It was so steep!! I have only ever really been on the Kuranda train for scenic railways and it was so much steeper!! The last 4 kms was through tunnels and it was freezing. We stopped twice to take photos out of windows in the tunnel and I couldnt believe how high up we had gone. It really did feel like you were on top of the world!

When we got to Jungfrau station everyone split up to go and do their own thing. We went straight to the ice palace which was built underground and had little ice carvings and caves you could go through. It was freezing but so amazing!! Then we got the lift up to the sphinx which is the highest point on the mountain. It was actually not as cold outside. The sun was so bright and there wasnt a cloud at all! The views were probably the best thing ive ever seen in my life. You could see all the way down into the valleys and so far into the distance.

After that we went outside to play in the snow. When we walked out, we had only been there for about 5 minutes when we heard what sounded like thunder. I looked over to the mountain and we saw a huge chunk of snow falling down! At the time I wasnt worried about how dangerous it was, just about how amazing it was that we actually saw an avalanche. Then after it I thought maybe it was a little scary!!

We found ourselves a spot and got set up to make our snowman, in between having a snowball fight or two. There were activities like tubing, skiing and tobogganing you could do. But we were happy just making our snowman. I was only wearing jeans so it wasnt long before I was saturated. I ended up almost lying in the snow but it was so soft I didnt care. With the sun being so bright too it wasnt taking long to dry out.

When Hans, our snowman, was finished we took a heap of photos, then I put my contiki jumper on him for some more pics. When we were almost ready to leave these 2 guys walked over and asked if they could take their picture with Hans. They were going to pay us because in europe you need to pay for everything!!! But because they were cute I thought we would let them for free :) Then a few more people came to take their pictures too. I have put a photo of Hans on here for you to see.

After that we were all really tired so thought we would get back to the camp in plenty of time to get ready for our Swisco Disco party night. It was being held in the bomb shelter at the chalet and there were going to be 3 groups there!!

Everyone was falling asleep on the train and we were all sitting next to strangers. So it became a battle of trying not to fall asleep on the strangers lap. It went a bit quicker coming down the mountain but we seemed to have to stop a fair bit. When we got back down to Lauterbrunnen we stopped at the pub on our way back to our chalet. It was actually a cheap pub with free wifi, so we sat there a little while before going back.

When we got back everyone had dinner and started getting ready for the party and drinking. It was close to 15 days straight of drinking so it was a bit of an effort at first, but didnt take us long to get in the mood!! Almost all of our group dressed up which was good. We always seem to put in a bit of effort for party nights. It was another really big night. I got myself back to bed before being dead to the world, when Laura and all the others came in and started taking photos of them all lying over me. I guess I was very 'tired' as I didnt even stir!! It wasnt until the next morning I realised when I looked back over the photos.