Moving On

December 19, 2013

09:41 Berlin, Germany

01:41 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

So I went snowboarding at the Jungfrau region. It was so beautiful!!

Amazing views! It’s incredible. But like everywhere else it was just so icy. It was horrible. Again I felt like I was wasting my cash. So I gave it two more chances. I checked out the Kline Schiedegg area. It was huge. But again icy and all covered in shade. With my goggles it made it very hard to see anything. So what did I do? I went and bought some AMAZING goggles. It’s so easy to change the lenses because they are attached on by magnets. But before I got the goggles and went to Kline Schiedegg I went to Jungfraujoch.

It was an extra $80 to take a train to “The Top Of Europe” Europe’s highest railway. It goes to about 3400 meters high. The views from up there were incredible. Then I checked out some of the sightseeing exhibits they had up there and then I was outta there. I want to snowboard. But Kline Schiedegg disappointed again. So I went to bed early and decided I will try again 1 more time. Then head off to LAAX to visit my friend I had made. So the next day I headed over to Schilthorn. The place where they filmed a James Bond movie back in the 80s. There was a spinning or rotating restaurant there too. That was confusing at first. I was going to place my suction cup go pro mount on the window to start a time lapse of the clouds over the mountains but the window kept moving. I was so confused. Then I realized the window wasn’t moving it was me. I didn’t know the restaurant was a rotating one. It was awesome.

Decided I would put the go pro on the table instead and see what kind of shot I could get while putting it on time lapse. I would have to say the view from the Schilthorn was way better then the views from Jungfraujoch. You will soon see. After I was done up there looking around at the James Bond Exhibit, I finally went for a run. There was only one down to the rest of the mountain and it was a black. Boy it was steep but nothing I couldn’t handle. This is considered a blue at Revelstoke. I love Canada. Everything is way better. And the more I’m gone; the more I miss it. Haha!! Kinda crazy! We live in a great country. So I went down this black run and it was so so so icy. I ended up slipping and falling on my but because I couldn’t keep an edge and I didn’t want to straight line it. Once I slipped I didn’t stop slipping I kept sliding down this run until it wasn’t as steep anymore. There was nothing for my board to grab on to, to stop me from sliding. Gosh it was a crazy feeling. After a couple runs on this mountain getting frustrated with how icy, flat and extremely horrible the condition of the mountain was in I finally decided that I’m not going to snowboard in Europe anymore.

I will save my money and use it in Colorado for 2 weeks there instead of 1 week. European snowboarding during the horrible early season is just bringing me down. So let’s switch things around. See places and experience the culture more. I can say I rode the Alps but just not how I wanted to. I will definitely have to come back and experience it during a better time.

Now I’m stuck lugging my board around and another board because I found a great deal and bought an old libtech for 25 francs. Can’t go wrong with that; especially since it’s in good condition. Since I decided I didn’t want to snowboard anymore I had to decide what to do. What is there to do in Europe? I never really looked into it except for snowboarding. Didn’t think I was actually going to sightsee. So I decided I will check out hostel prices and they were very cheap. 17 Euros a night in Berlin. So off to Berlin I went. I spent 14 hours on a train making 5 changes over that time period. Gosh it was so boring and I got a bit too drunk in one of the trains restaurant. I nice old man named Joseph from Munich decided to get me a couple glasses of wine since I’m on vacation. He was very understanding that I couldn’t speak German very well. Sleeping on a train sucked too. I didn’t have a bed reservation so I had to find a seat that wasn’t taken. I had to haul my snowboard to the very very back of the train. Love/ hate relationship with this board I tell you. Finally found one and I basically passed out right away. Everyone in this compartment was pretty much sleeping too. Sleeping on a chair in this train was rough too. So cramped with other people spread out and their seats reclined. I tried my best. It was the longest train ride at 6 hours so I decided I’ll just sleep it off. I woke up and I was worried I missed my stop. I have no clue where I was. Even then I wasn’t super worried. It wouldn’t be hard to get to berlin. It would just take longer. I ended up finding out that I did not miss my stop so that was awesome. On the train to berlin when I finally started to see light again. I noticed a massive wind farm. So cool! There were so many of them. Europe I have noticed has so many ways of using alternative energy. I have seen solar panel fields and lots of people ride bikes everywhere and take public transportation it’s awesome. It’s almost unreasonable to have a vehicle in Europe. The one thing I did see in Switzerland was a nuclear plant for the first time. That was kinda insane. Other than that. Switzerland was awesome at being environmentally friendly. Now I’m here in Berlin just relaxing until my hostel is ready at 14:00. It’s good to just relax for a bit instead of being on the go all the time. I’ll stay in berlin for 3 nights then head to Cologne for Christmas. I bet it will be Beautiful! I can only imagine! After that then I’m off to Amsterdam for a few nights and New Years then I will see if any snow has fallen and maybe make another attempt at boarding if not then I might just go to Paris or maybe Prague. We will see. But Italy and Austria don’t seem to be in the plan anymore. It’s funny how my open pre planned Itinerary did not even happen. Not one part of it was followed. I did go to a couple of the places I had in mind but It was much easier to just go with the flow instead of possibly get disappointed by following a set plan. Can’t wait to Explore Berlin. The train in was just awesome. Seeing all that there is that I could see. Should be great. Stay tuned. Over and Out.