From Prague to Interlaken and back, with plenty of ausfahrts in between

“Ausfahrt” means “exit” in German. We laughed about that (in both directions) more times than Dembling lost a ski over the weekend. Mature, I know, but what do you expect from a bunch of 21-year-olds driving from the Czech Republic to Switzerland and back, none of whom know a word of German?

Before we start: Good news: I brought my camera. Bad news: It ran out of batteries almost instantly. Worse news: I forget my charger. Best news: Chris and Dana took plenty of pictures with me included. (Coming soon).

OK, time to begin the adventure, and it was nothing short of that:

At 5:00 p.m. (or 17.00, as they say here in Europa) Thursday, Chris, Dana and I went to go retrieve the rental cars. We were supposed to meet at the Hilton Hotel in Old Town. The guys from ASAP Rentals insisted they were at the only Hilton in Prague. There are two. So we left the cars there until we were ready for our departure. Doug and Austen had class until 9:15, so we waited to leave until after then. When it was time to leave, Dana and Chris got a bit lost (they swear it was the GPS’s fault) getting to our apartment from the Hilton. We were finally on the road at 11:00.

The drive was pretty straightforward, thanks to our GPS systems; amazing inventions. Think about it, we drove from Prague to Interlaken and back with no (accurate) paper directions, not being able to read the road signs. Driving on the autobahn (which is a system of roads in Germany, not just one highway, contrary to popular belief) was pretty cool. I hit 180 km/hr on the way home. I had to. The Germans are serious about their driving. They’ll flash at you if you’re in their way in the left lane, and they’ll scream by you if you’re doing any less than 130 km/hr. Some had to be pushing 200.

The drive took a bit longer than expected, about nine hours on the road. Josh and I couldn’t sleep in the car; that came back to bite us. The sun started to come up as we crossed the Swiss border. The Swiss Alps are a sight to be seen. And below them is a turquoise-colored lake; looks like a painting. After winding through the steep, narrow roads (thank god it wasn’t snowing), we finally made it to Balmers Hostel in Interlaken at about 8:30. We couldn’t check into our 10-person room (me, Dembo, Cohen, Henry, Dana, Chris, Anne, Ellie, Austen and Doug) until 4:00, so we immediately rented our equipment and off we went. On zero sleep.

Contrary to my prior beliefs, Interlaken is not a ski town. You can access good mountains from it, but calling it ski-on-ski-off would be like calling Madison mild in February. Of course we had no idea what we were doing transportation-wise, but we did what we were told. We hopped on the 10:30 bus, two trains later we were at the Kl. Scheidegg peak (one of three mountains accessible from our hostel). It was about noon and Josh and I were irritated and exhausted, but we still had a good day of skiing. The mountain wasn’t terribly challenging and it was spring conditions – heavy to moderately slushy – but we enjoyed the sun – something that Prague certainly lacks – at about 7,000 feet. The views were incredible (coming soon) and we skied until about 4:30. The ride back to Balmers (two trains and a bus) was equally as frustrating, especially having not closed my eyes in 40 hours. Dana (who slept during the entire drive and none of us will ever let her forget it) and Chris tried to cheer Josh and I up. Winning the lottery only could have done so much at that point. We got back just before 7:00. Out cold several minutes later, seconds after head-pillow contact.

After a full night’s sleep, Day 2 was much more enjoyable. Actually, it was one of the most enjoyable days I’ve had in recent memory. There were zero clouds in the sky and it had to be pushing 50 degrees Fahrenheit by mid-day. The highlight of the day came after lunch, when Josh and I skied two runs without our shirts on, screaming as we comfortably zoomed down the mountain. Locals were pointing, laughing in German and taking pictures of us. My goal is to find those photos on some random Swiss blog before I leave Prague. That morning, I took one of the hardest falls I’ve had in years. Double ejection (can’t remember the last time that happened and I had the bindings cranked to nine). One of my skis slid down the subsequent face about 300 yards, so I had to slide on my ass (at a pretty decent speed) down to get it. Good times.

Lunch was an unreal experience. We were tanning at mid-mountain, laid back with the most ridiculous view I’ve ever seen (again, coming soon). Unbelievable day. Not too challenging, but no loss in the fun department.

(Wow, this is going to be longer than most of my Herald columns)

That night was fun. We walked around town for a bit and went to Hooters for dinner. We wanted to get a feel of the Swiss culture, you know? They had the UConn-Notre Dame basketball game on, so I was happy. Balmers has a dance club/bar in the basement, so we took advantage of that for a while post-dinner. I ran into Whitney Gorovitz there, who was on the Bus2Alps trip from Florence. Small world. Still, one more day of skiing.

We decided to drive to the third mountain yesterday. Great decision. It was so much easier to drive than take the buses/trains. We made it to Stechelberg in 20 minutes, took the tram to the top of Gimmelwald peak (again, ridiculous cliffs, views). Unfortunately it was in the 30’s, so everything that had melted Saturday was frozen yesterday. The conditions weren’t ideal (flat light, bulletproof at points), but we were all about the experience. We skied three days in the Swiss Alps; how could we complain?

When we got back to Balmers it was time to head home. We loaded the cars and headed back to Prague. The high(low)light of the adventure back was Austen getting pulled over by a Czech cop because he drove into what was basically a parking lot via a one-way entrance. He kept Austen’s passport and license for at least a half hour before issuing him a bullshit 2,000 crown fine. He’s asking CEA what to do about that today.

So after a nice McDonald’s feast, we made it back to Prague at about 2:00 a.m. This morning I returned the cars, and that was that; eight college kids driving from Prague to Interlaken and back for three days of skiing in the Alps with no major mishaps. Not a bad story.

I’m sure I missed a bunch of details. You can ask me about it later, if you want. Now it’s time to shift gears. After all, I’ve got school for two days before heading to Chamonix Wednesday night.