A blow to the money-groin
I went to Interlaken over the weekend. This was for two reasons: one, because it is, as the Lonely Planet puts it, a "Backpacker's Mecca". It has one of Europe's 10 famous hostels, a group of hostels that are travel destinations unto themselves. It's called Balmer's, and was definitely something else. There must have been close to 200 people staying there. It has several common areas, it's own store, grill, breakfast restaurant, and even a full dance club. It was quite the sight.
The second was because of my memories of the place from the family road trip of '99. I spent one day in Lauterbrunnen (near Interlaken) and it was burned in my memory as the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. Gimmelwald, a short walk from Lauterbrunnen, is also the place in which I remember seeing a Swiss local who looked exactly like a garden gnome. I talked this up a lot when I was there, but alas, I, nor anyone else I talked to, managed to see one. I'm fairly sure some of these real-life gnomes exist though: a girl I met in India lived in Gimmelwald for a month, and said there were several, all named 'Hans'.
In any case, it was medium fun. I was sorely disappointed by the hiking. I expected there to be oodles of trails to do, but -- at least according to the helpful desk at Balmer's -- there were only 2 trails that didn't cost a fortune. I did both. One was hard and boring, and one was the hike I had already done from Lauterbrunnen to Gimmelwald (though I was happy to do it again). Even that hike cost 20 Francs (= CAD $20) for transportation.
The real thing to do in Interlaken is adventure sports. Unsurprisingly, they cost an arm, a leg, and both kidneys. The cheapest activity was rafting for only $100, while the most expensive was skydiving for a whopping $380. I chose to do canyoning for $180, solely on the basis that it's something I couldn't do for half the price back home*. Canyoning involves getting suited up in a wet suit and helmet and making your way down a river canyon with a combination of cliff-jumping and sliding down natural rock slides. It was definitely fun, though barely worth the expense. It was far less of a rush than I expected -- the highest jump we did was about 40 feet, which is not much higher than a 10 m diving board. The only part that got me remotely charged was the two rockslides they left to the end. I don't have pictures**, but they were amazing. One was 60 feet and one was a little less, but much smoother and windier. We supposedly reached about 40 mph on the 60 feet one. Hot damn.
EDIT: Apparently the intarweb has pictures. This is the smaller of the two awesome slides. Pretty fun stuff.
This little experience made me think that I have a frustratingly high bar for excitement. Everybody else I talked to, both in my group and those who went on other days, raved about the excitement and the danger. I didn't. It was only a little exciting, and it wasn't skydiving dangerous (the kind of dangerous where problems are unlikely but disastrous), it was more hockey dangerous (injuries are frequent but rarely life-threatening, and mostly minor). What a stupid, stupid bar.
If you'll forgive the lack of segue, there's one last thing about the trip that was worth mentioning. I did the hard and boring hike with two public school teachers from New York. They were 24/25, so not old, but still teachers. Later that night, I had the pleasure of sitting beside on while he smoked pot and made out with a 19-year-old. Not that weird, I know, but still. Ick.
*Not because they're aren't canyons, but because no insurance provider will cover people for it. How Xtreme!.
**You couldn't bring your own camera for obvious reasons, and the pictures they took cost $45. Interlaken is designed to take your money.