#fifteenth entry

[sarahseuropeantravelblog]

Tuesday 1.10.13

Sleeping in a cabin in between two massive mountains is amazing and probably one of the best sleeps of my life. At one point I did get up though, 4am - which I only know because the clock in town was going off, and went outside. It was freezing cold but a clear night and the moon was in the middle of the valley and lighting everything up. I just stood there in awe of what I was seeing for at least ten minutes. It was unbelievable. Looking back now I wish I had gotten my camera, though a photo would never have done it justice. If I could see that just once more in my life, I will die a happy woman. 

When I woke up at an acceptable hour, I went to breakfast with the other girls in the room. They were going to do some washing, which I could not be bothered to do today. So I left them to that, and headed to the cafe in town. Had the best coffee, though expensive it was totally worth it. Also bummed off the wifi.

Topdeck had offered optional extras, skydiving - which was cancelled due to weather - and the train to Jungfraujoch. I had gone on the train the previous year, and obviously skydiving wasn't an option. But horse riding was. Its offered by an outside company so Topdeck can't actually tell us about it, but the cafe I was in could. 

My tour leader, D, found me at the cafe and said she wanted to go riding as well, so I gathered up the other girls to see if they wanted to, only three others did. D called the place in Interlaken where we would be doing it and there were places available at 2pm!!

I was so excited, I hadn't been riding in years. Barely being able to contain my excitement I managed to talk the bus driver, Scotty, into coming along with us. He'd never been riding before so this was going to be amazing to witness.

Before 2pm the small group of us got the train down to Interlaken, then a short walk to the stables, which were right in the middle of a suburb. Crazy. On the walk there, two fighter jets kept flying over, doing barrel rolls and whatnot. Goddamn it Switzerland, you were making it hard to love any where else in Europe. 

Back at the stables, I was given the biggest horse, the one that loved to go fast. My perfect horse. He and I were going to get along really well. Off we went, walking through the middle of Interlaken on a horse like it was the most normal thing in the world. We soon got onto a trail that was parallel to the most gorgeous blue river, where our leader, a sixteen year old girl, let us canter. Oh man it was amazing. A bit tricky to hold on with just my legs like I used to do, but I managed. And yeah, my horse and I were soon far out in front of everyone. When we pulled up, the girl made me go to the back, because I was bound to always end up at the front. Scotty was so concerned when this girl said we were allowed to canter, he could barely manage a trot. Our advice, ride the saddle. Stick your ass down in it and grind it. And hey, it worked! He was cantering like a pro. 

We were on this trail, making our way around Interlaken for two hours. At the end of the ride the girl took us to a lake, where all the horses had a massive drink and a cool off. My horse nearly went for a full on swim. So glad he didn't otherwise I would have been freezing. We took the horses back to the stables and made our way slowly back through town to the train. On the way I spotted the most amazing sign I think I have ever seen. In fluorescent lights 'LAST SEX SHOP BEFORE JUNGFRAU'. We all had a really good laugh at that. There was also a sign post that had an arrow in whatever direction and just said 'Europe'. We didn't realise until basically out of breath from laughing at how it was just pointing to europe, that it actually meant the hotel just behind us. The locals must have thought we were nuts. 

When we all walked into the camp like cowboys, the pain was already starting, the rest of the group were back from whatever they had done with their days and were playing drinking games while waiting for the bar/dinner to open. The boys were already pretty trashed, they managed to knock over a couple beers and have them float away down the little creek that was being used to cool said beers. Idiots.

Finally it was time for food, everyone was starving. After being in Europe for nearly two weeks I was finally going to have veggies. YAY. I really didn't think I would have ever missed vegetables as much as I did in those two weeks. Potato rosti is also the most amazing creation on the planet and I am still trying to get my mum to make it. After dinner we all went to the bar and got ridiculously drunk. So much so, that we formed a 'Mouse Brigade'.

Its one of those things that makes no sense to anyone outside of it, and is embarrassing to be apart of. But I wouldn't have had it any other way. So basically at this point there were five mouses (yes I am aware that the plural of mouse is mice, but not for this), the king mouse, two prince mouses and two other mouses. And then me. I was the first female mouse. So I was called Mousette, which would stick for the entire trip. They also talked in funny french accents. Writing this is actually making me cringe by how silly it was, but like I said, I would trade it for anything else and will always make me smile. So it was now, King Mouse, Prince Mouse of Cheesebridge, Prince of Whiskers, House Mouse, Smouse (smooth mouse) and me, Mousette. What a bunch of losers. 

I now had the lovely duty of looking after all the people that were worse off than me, which was one poor girl lying in the mens bathroom. Sigh. I got her up though and managed to put her into bed. 

I had a few well earned drinks after that, then hit the bed after a massive day. 

TEN POINTS TO SWITZERLAND

[an-abra-diary-blog]

Entry 15 (Protect)

Dear Diary Well, thinking back about to my psychic ineptitude, I'm actually not bad at using Protect. Well, I suppose I spent a lot of time practicing with it, and it's surprisingly a very flexible ability. If you have the patience, you can bend and flex it. The more you try and use it, the easier it gets, like it's getting more and more flexible. I can actually make it thinner and thicker, depending on what we need to block. I can actually make a rather good shield, and it doesn't take much energy to do so. I really can do so many things with it, and it's useful for Zar'roc also! Sometimes when we need to get across a gap, I can make a thin Protect platform in the middle of the gap. It can hold his weight easily, and it doesn't leave me feeling dizzy either. I managed to bend it the other way also, and made a little bubble into the air. Got me to thinking if I could maybe hold something inside. I practiced with something small and light first, and I could indeed trap a berry inside. The next thing I tried was lifting and making the bubble bigger. This was surprisingly difficult, but like other things, it got easier with practice. I got get to holding bigger things, but when I got to heavier things, that takes a longer time to get used to, and no matter how much I practice, I get the feeling that it'll always be a trial. My next thought was a...more flexible Protect, like a glove. I...well...I didn't give up on it, but I really had a really hard time with this one in particular. Still, after some...months of effort, I actually managed a protect that's not so solid that it'll negate attacks, but it'll still protect you from anything but blunt force. It's like a really good glove, but it might not really be worth all the time I'd put into it. Now, my next achievement with it is something I'd really very proud of! I found a way to make it even more cost effective by instead of making a large mass of protect, instead making a series of smaller ones and linking them together. I got the idea when I saw a Combee hive. A tightly-knit series of small shapes. I've tried several shapes, but I found the ones I prefer are squares, diamonds, and hexagons. If I make a small series of these, I can block the same impact at a smaller cost, but it takes a little longer to organize. However, these small thin shapes, I can move freely thought the air, even surround someone. I haven't put it in practice, but in theory, this could be really handy. Well, I suppose I shouldn't keep prattling on about this, I'm sure someone else has accomplished this.