Interlaken

Some missionary friends in Mozambique had told me that if I went to Switzerland, I had to go to Interlaken. They described it as heaven as earth and I was sold and booked the hostels. We needed a place that was "heaven on earth" after our hellish stay in Munich. We needed to see beauty and God's hand after we had witnessed the death and destruction of Dachau and seemingly non-existent hand of God. Munich had been a bit of a let down and I was really hoping the Bowers hadn't built up Interlaken too much. I tend to build things up which typically leads to let downs. For instance, I recently introduced my team to a new burrito place and I said, "The burritos are bigger and better than Chipotle and they will change your life forever." However, the Bowers' description of this city was spot on. It was just as incredible as they described it- one of, if not THEE, most naturally beautiful places I've seen on the planet.

Our journey to Interlaken, Switzerland was laborious to say the least. It involved four different trains through the night and an overnight stay in a German train station. I stayed awake the entire time worried about getting robbed and engrossed in a book while Trent, my brother the protector, did this:

Our stay in this majestic mountain town was strikingly similar to the landscape as it was peppered with insanely incredible high moments (not a drug reference) and a low valley as Trent and I had our infamous "say 'please' fight" which involved an hour of hiking side by side in fuming silence. But I'll get to that later.

We arrived in town early in the morning having slept little (recipe for disaster for us two) but weren't cranky just yet as we surveyed the most beautiful lake I have ever seen. Here are our tired faces:

Unable to check into our hostel at this early hour, we walked through the eerily silent town and found a quiet spot without a soul in sight.

So naturally we took squatting pictures

and then found a bench.

I've often found benches to be holy spots; spots on earth where heaven dips closer and God's whispers are sweetly and softly uttered. This bench was one such place.

I imagine that for hundreds of years wanderers have stopped in this exact spot and heard His whispers as they've marveled at His creation. And so someone built a bench. Because when you find a spot like this on earth, you really must sit for awhile. I tried to nap on this bench but was unsuccessful. How could I close my eyes and enter a dreamland when I was living in the midst of one? So I read and took pictures of Trent sleeping/tanning.

When my tanning brother finally awoke, we still couldn't check in so we went exploring around this stunning lake. We climbed on rocks,

did odd poses in front of rock tunnels,

I took my infamous "flower" pictures that Trent mocked me for taking,

and we took our typical weird faces pictures.

I had never seen water this beautiful so, despite the freezing "melted snow" temperatures and numerous funny looks from local hikers, I got in and floated around,

and then tredded water with arms out of the water to try to get warm.

I've never swam in a more beautiful body of water. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit concerned about what Swiss creatures were lurking in the water.

Once we finally were able to check in, Trent did some smooth talking and got us the best room in the hostel. Not really. The girl assumed we were a couple and offered the honeymoon suite to Trent who chose not to correct her. This was by far thee coolest hostel we stayed at.

We had our own room with bunk beds and a private balcony with this view:

As the sun began to sink behind the mountains, we bought some ice cream cones and enjoyed the view from our balcony.

The town is so small that there are no stores and only one restaurant. On our way to the restaurant, we stopped to enjoyed one of thee most picturesque sunsets I've ever seen:

I don't remember why were laughing. It was most likely because we were both pretty delirious at this point. I was working on 1 hour of sleep and we were finding everything funny. I vaguely remember stopping at a public playground and playing on the jungle gym and swings but that is only a cloudy memory.

When we ate in the tiny restaurant, we stopped to pray beforehand and when we opened our eyes, a local Swiss girl sitting at the adjacent table, was gawking at us. She immediately asked us all about why we pray and what we believe. I don't remember exactly what we said except something along the lines of encouraging her to continue to search for truth. Because when you live in a place so covered in God's fingerprints, it seems His truth should be easy to find if you are sincerely searching.

We walked back to the hostel at around 9, just in time to marvel at this:

and to watch another soccer game in thee prettiest spot of all Europe's soccer-watching locations:

I had only booked one night in this tiny town because there wasn't much to do so the next morning we bought bus tickets into town, bought some Swiss hats and sat on the one bench for the one bus station in the whole town. We had missed the first bus and had to wait an hour so we killed time making faces and playing charades. Have you ever played charades with only 2 people? It's surprisingly fun unless your partner decides to mess with you and purposely not guess the right thing. I have a vague memory of acting out "Beyonce" for a good 10 minutes while Trent laughed and kept guessing wrong answers.

We were both in high spirits after our restful night in our own room and I remember having so much fun just sitting on a bench with my brother, laughing and playing charades and counting our chins.

We feared the next hostel would be a disappointment since we had just stayed in such a fantastic one, but though it was markedly different, this hostel was another one of our favorites. I was pretty jazzed to discover the "hammock room" and spent many hours reading and eating Swiss chocolate while "hanging out" in this room. The major difference in this hostel, however, was that there were no "honeymooning couples" but rather, lots of young Americans. Young, rich, drunk Americans. Maybe the worst type. They annoyed us with their stories of bungee jumping and sky diving and river rafting because we couldn't afford to do any of those. However, we found cheap alternatives that were pretty phenomenal and there was one moment when Trent feared for his life so we got the adrenaline rush as well.

Our first day we found a "ropes course" place where you can zip line through super tall trees. It was one of the most fun adventures we had in all of Europe. Trent and I knew nothing about ropes or zip lining and we got a 5 minute instruction session and then were told to have fun. This might not seem strange but we were climbing rather high and zipping rather fast through these trees to have no supervision. Plus, we're both a little too proud and when there was an option to take the easy, medium, or hard route, of course we chose the hardest one though we didn't really know what we were doing. Trent would regret this decision later.

So we slipped on our harnesses that would supposedly save our lives if we fell,

climbed some insanely high and quite wobbly ladders,

clipped ourselves onto the ropes, prayed we had paid close enough attention, and went flying through the air.

We saw maybe 4 other people the entire time we were zipping through the air and were a bit dumbfounded as to why it wasn't busier. This was one of the coolest things we had ever done. We were flying through the Swiss Alps at some crazy heights and speeds, and it was pretty much just the two of us.

I would have taken more pictures but at one point I dropped my camera which turned out to be quite durable. I wish, however, that I could have captured the moment when Trent thought he was going to die. I don't remember all the particulars but it was a section of the course where you had to take a bit of a leap of faith and if you leaped wrong, you could fall hundreds of feet. Trent leaped wrong. But he caught himself and hung precariously from a rope while I watched, secretly laughing quite hard because I didn't realize he was actually in danger. He then showed me how to leap so I wouldn't be in the same predicament and we laughed long and hard about his near-death experience. Since I don't have that picture, here is a picture of his nastified beard that was collecting lint from his gloves:

Sweating hard but laughing and smiling harder, we finished the course on an adrenaline high and walked back to our hostel. Other Americans were washing up for a night out and fine dining, but Trent and I walked to a local grocery store and bought rice, beans and tortillas. We enjoyed our cheap/delicious homemade burritos, read in the hammocks, and played some ping pong while the rest of the hostel was out on pub crawls. This was one of my favorite days in all of Europe. It was filled with laughter and beauty and adventure and chocolate.

The next day we found another alternative to expensive extreme sports and took a train to a mountain where we embarked on the most beautiful hike I've ever been on. We passed insane waterfalls in the distance

and right as we began, Trent found two giant walking sticks which came in very handy as the mountain got steeper and steeper.

And then we fought.

I don't remember all the particulars but I do remember Trent being rude and telling me I had to say "please" when I asked if he wanted to take a picture. (He was mocking me for earlier telling him to be more polite and say please) He continued to push my buttons and I continued to fume until one point we stopped to rest and I just left him and kept going. I came back about half hour later and he was sitting there smirking and we continued on. I pounded that walking stick into the ground hard and walked faster than I normally would and we basically speed walked up the mountain- me fuming, Trent smirking.

However, when we got to the top, I looked around and felt my anger dissipate. How could I be angry when I was engulfed by such beauty? Sometimes it feels good to be mad. Sometimes I don't want to let go of my anger because I'm right and have a right to be mad. But I didn't want to be mad here. It didn't feel right. My anger felt silly and foolish and completely out of place in the midst of such raw beauty; in the midst of God's so evident hand.

So I laid down my pride and we took some timer pictures. And I said, "please." Because I could not live with the regret of getting to such a marvelous place in God's creation and missing the beauty and wonder of it because of my pride and irritation. I fear I sometimes miss out on beauty and wonder in this world because I get wrapped up in my own issues. This picture is my favorite from our whole trip. It serves as a reminder to me that I am continually surrounded by God's glory and I can choose to look around and marvel at it, or I can keep my head down, pound the walking stick into the ground, furrow my brow and be upset because life doesn't always go exactly as I want it to. This picture reminds me of God's beauty, but even more, it reminds me to lay down my pride and look around.

The hike down the mountain was much more enjoyable. We laughed about our silly fight and I noticed things I hadn't noticed while I was fuming like these wild flowers:

I wonder what else in life, what other "wild flowers," I've missed because I've kept my head down and silently fumed.

When we got back to the hostel, we rested, ate some more chocolate and read in the hammock room, and then we cooked dinner for ourselves again. While the others were out drinking, we went out exploring. We were annoyed by our rowdy and entitled fellow tourists so we searched for the locals. We found them at parks and school yards playing random games that we didn't understand but we stopped to watch. We walked through their neighborhoods and fields and stumbled upon cows like these:

Indeed, Interlaken proved to meet all our expectations of "heaven on earth." God proved to be marvelous and big and creative beyond measure. It seemed odd that so many tourists didn't seem to notice Him. It was sad really to watch them experience this beautiful spot of heaven on earth and think only of beer and sky diving- like horses trotting about wearing blinders, ignorant of the wonders and truth surrounding them. However, I too fell prey to the enemy's traps. For a moment, for a long, steep and painful hike, I too wore blinders and lost sight of the beauty around me. Truthfully, it will probably happen again. I'll probably lose sight of God's hand today, or this week. I hope I realize it soon enough so I don't miss out on what He has for me, so I don't miss out on the wild flowers and the cows and the wonders I can't even imagine.