Day One - "This is better than any movie"

We woke up at 7:30, and I maybe got enough sleep. I had some Special-K-like ceral; the box said something about a bikini. Then we had to rush out to catch our bus. We each brought a backpack and also brought a cooler and briefcase. I had packed the night before-clothes, iPod, notebook, camera, etc. My backpack was sort of heavy. We got on the bus, already with a few people. Zach and I sat on those fold-able seats in the wheel-chair section. Our parents were just behind us, sitting on the normal seats. But then this woman with a baby stroller came on the bus and my mom wanted Zach to give up the seat for her. Eventually he did get up, but this other woman sat down. I listened to my iPod on the bus. Some of the new songs I found on that site. It was cool. So then we got to the Gare Cornavin and bought train tickets.

Then our feet were pounding gently up the stairs and we got on the train. This ride was going to be about 2 in a half hours. I was sort of tired but didn't sleep. There weren't a lot of seats open but I did get a window seat. My dad was sitting across from me, talking about stuff. I did listen but then listened to my iPod a little. A Swiss/French couple, looking around grandpa/grandma age, got on the train and hovered near our seats. Then we realized they were supposed to sit where we were. So we had to move. Zach could stay but I think he moved. I then sat with my parents a little farther up, again getting the window seat. So I basically just sat there listening to music. I have a...habit, persay, to lip synch lyrics. It's like an instinct. I have pretty much all of the Beatles songs memorized, and lots others. But I didn't want to look like an odd teenager with a mouth-spazzing disease so I didn't. I did do it occasionally when I just couldn't resist the song, but I had to cover up my mouth with my hand. Anyway.

So we got off that train after a few hours and arrived in this Swiss town. They spoke German there. We got on another train, which was smaller I think and louder. I didn't even get to sit down on one of the normal seats. I sat down next to Zach on one of those fold-able seats. Listened to more iPod. We only rode 3 stops and then immediately got on a cable car up a mountain. The scenery majorly changed. Instead of Mont Blanc, we could see other snow-topped mountains. There was the Matterhorn here and stuff.

The first cable car had a dog in it. They were also bringing up supplies in it. My ears popped as I looked out the window. After that one we got on another cable car. This one had a bench so I sat down. Next to these two little girls. And I bet you can guess what they did, too. Sigh. One of them did stare a little, but then sort of stopped. Thank goodness. That is one of my major pet-peeves. So anyway. This one also had some dogs and supplies.

After being dragged up a mountain in rectangular prism-shaped pieces of metal, we arrived in our town. It was called Bettmeralp. Their slogan was: "Bettmeralp...the better alp." I could have thought that one up. But anyway. They translated almost everything in German, French, English and Italian. And the welcome sign also had some Asian language on it. So then we walked down the street, trying to find our mountain chalet. I saw lots of tourist-looking houses and stores but not a lot of people. There was even a co-op. I guess you can't go anywhere in Switzerland without seeing one of those.

Our mountain chalet was called Garni Slalom. It was pretty big. The receptionist person knew like 4 languages. Pretty much everyone here did that worked somewhere. She told us our room would be ready at around 2. It was like 1. So we had lunch outside, with a great view of the mountains. Yogurt, bread, cheese, crackers and peanut butter. I hadn't had peanut butter for a while. It was so good. It reminded me of when we did that peanut butter quality rating unit in math in 7th grade. That was fun. Sort of.

After chewing various foodly items and swallowing, we checked in to our room. It was number 31, the very last one. We had to climb up 3 staircases which weren't that bad. The room was sort of smallish. The first door on the right was the bathroom, then it was me and Zach's room. We had separate beds and a TV. Then our parent's room also had a TV. It was cool. Then there was also a small deck. Small as in: could fit our whole family, but that's pretty much it. It was cool. There were some Olympics on; soccer with Brazil and Germany. We watched a little and then took a small hike. The trail was well-paved and several small trucks passed us. Some other people were also walking.

We passed lots of restaurants, mountain chalets, and had a great view. We were going to do this loop-route which would take "a few hours," says my dad. He says that for pretty much any hike, so it meant nothing. But yeah so it was fun. There were a few more people farther down the trail. It switched to a more grassy and mountain-y kind of trail. We got a great whiff of some cow cologne. Made me put my nose under my shirt and say ew a few times. My sweat smelled better, amazingly.

Anyway. So we just continued hiking, passing cows and people and a golf course. Then, something exciting happened. A couple was coming down the trail and we were going up it. So we got to the side to let them pass, and it worked. But then my mom was like really close to the woman, trying to move out of the way. But her camera case came off her shoulder and rolled down the small hill towards the golf course. It rolled for a few feet, but my mom just stood there watching it. We all sort of just watched. The couple we passed stopped and stared too. It rolled all the way down into the golf course. It was only like 10 feet down. Then Zach went down to get it. And later my mom checked it and the camera still worked. It was like a 500 dollar camera, but the case was terrible.

I took a video of part of that and will probably upload it to facebook. Anyway. It was funny, sort of. We kept hiking. Passed a group of like school kids on a field trip or something. They reminded me of some of the people back at Slauson sort of. At this point, we could see part of Europe's largest glacier. The real hike for that was tomorrow. I was looking forward to it, I guess. But back to this one, Zach really wanted to go on a cable car but my mom felt strongly about him not. So there was a huge argument, and my mom just blew up. Perhaps I shouldn't mention this, but she used very colorful language. She said one word about 10 times in the span of about 5 minutes. Then she walked ahead of us and avoided us for pretty much the rest of the hike. Sucked.

We got back to our town, passing this lake that was really cold but still had some people in it. My dad, brother and I went to this place to get a drink. I got a coke, which was just gorgeous. We got sort of lost trying to find our mountain chalet but found it somehow. I was super hungry. And tired. We met up with my mom and tried to find a restaurant. The first one was closed, the other one too expensive, and then we found one that had pizza, pasta and crepes. The guy spoke some English too, but he mixed some French when talking.

My stomach felt so empty, the grumbles feeling like little inpatient pokes. We ordered, me getting salad and this pasta dish that I hadn't had before. I finished a plate of salad in about a minute, everything tasting good. I also had a piece of bread and drank lots of water. Eventually our food came, hot and ready to be digested. My dish was like a bowl of lasagna with spinach, cheese and something that tasted like potato. It was sooo goooosd. I just kept eating, my teeth happily biting down and throat swallowing with glee. It all just tasted so goosd, and I cleaned that bowl clean. All that was left was a little bit of tomato sauce on the edges. I was tired, getting hypnotized easily. I got some ice cream for dessert and my stomach still didn't have that feeling of complete, utter fullness. But that was good.

After we all finished, we stepped outside and started walking home. Outside was a perfect blue, the air coolish and warm. Calm. We could see some stars, not much. We walked over to this church on a hill and watched the moon rise. We had missed the sunset, but this was almost better. The white-yellow coin in the sky floated up quite fast, while we watched on a bench. We were all silent, appreciating this awesome moment. I said out loud after a bit, "This is better than any movie," Something clicked then. I realized something, had something then. I discovered something but I don't know what.

I felt contentment, happiness when I got back. We had to take off our boots before we went inside the mountain chalet and could put on slippers. I didn't though. At our room, I had fun brushing my teeth and went to bed. This was a good trip.