Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe!

This is my longest entry.. and no photos because my phone ran out of batteries this day.. but it has DEFINITELY been my FAVORITE experience thus far. 

:D

We stayed at Happy Inn Lodge last night in Interlaken and woke up really early this morning to see the sunrise!  We got up at 6:30 am, put on all our clothes (not lying, I literally wore all my clothes Hah!) and headed out to walk toward the east lake. Well, it was a much colder and longer walk than we expected, and we got lost and went the wrong way a few times, but made it in just the nic of time! The sunrise it was beautiful. The water was that greenish blue glacier color, and the mountains surrounding the lake were stunning. When the sun started getting higher I got to see the mountains on my left start to light up and the trees really begin to show their color change!  I got to see a little bit of fall after all! The reflections of thw mountains on the water were amazing too. We stayed there for quite a bit just thinking and enjoying, then started heading back into town, for Jungfraujoch!

Next, we headed up to the TOP OF EUROPE!  The trains were AWESOME!  A very steep ride up. On the last train up, I sat across from this couple from California!  They were incredibly awesome. The conversation never stopped and they seemed to really support all that I was doing with travelling. I was intereated in them, they were interested in me, we were all just so interested in each other! It was nice:)

We were in the mountain for about 30 minutes on the last train up. And when we finally got there, we had to walk through some mountain tunnels, to get to where we wanted to go, it was pretty cool. There was an ice cave, a 360° movie, a little Switzerland, lookout points, and a plateau for us when we got there.

We started by taking the elevator up to the lookout. It was soo funny, we were in the glass elevator, which was surrounded by walls on the outside, so we couldn't see anything, when all of a sudden, all around us, a view of snowy mountains appeared!  Hahhahaa funny thing, the entire elevator gasped in Awe. It was great. I laughed pretty dang hard.

It was beautiful, very majestic, and caused a lot of adrenaline in me! 

There was a lookout area at the top, where we could go outside, look out, take photos, or just enjoy. So we did!  On one side it was all snowy and mountainous. The sky was blue that day so the colors were soo vivid and beautiful!  When I looked in the other direction, there was a lot less glaciers and snow on the mountains, so they had a blueish color to them. Sooooooo beautiful!  The sky really enhanced their color too, and were insanely gorgeous!  On one side of the metal holed platform there was no wind, but as soon as I stepped toward the snowy mountain side, my hat almost flew off!  It was soo cold!  Soo beautiful, but soo cold!  It's a good thing I like winter!  Leslie had to go in to warm up for a bit, but I wasn't that cold, so I stayed out for as long as I could. Probably because in used to it being that cold with boarding.. plus there were mountains all around me, so I had to take it in naturally for as long as I possibly could, before returning the warmth inside.

We ate our lunch inside on a bench facing the view on the other side of the lookout building.. I don't think I will ever get a better lunchtime view for the rest of my life...After taking as long as we possibly could to finish our lunches, we headed to the other things Jungfrau had to offer (none of which we expected.. I thought we were just going up the mountain and seeing the view from the lookout on top of the mountain.. but nope! There's more!)

We started walking toward the ice cave! And we ran into a little Switzerland area inside the mountain! It was kinda fun, there was a big snow globe, a wooden train conductor, a dude sitting on a bench, a cow standing up giving a thumbs up lol, and a little boy with 2 goats.. all of which, if you know me at all you'll know,  I clearly got photos with them!  Next we saw the highest cave in a mountain. Not sure if this is just in Europe or compared to all the mountains on the world. Then were got to the ice palace!!  The walls and floors were completely covered in ice!  Totally cool, AND I didn't slip at all!  Though I was kind of hoping to, cuz it would've been fun:) It was pretty cool, though other kind of seemed like it was something they just added as just a little something extra. That's OK though, we just had a little mini photo shoot in there!

Next...
My favorite part of the day..
No,
of the week..
No,
probably of my whole trip so far...

We got to walk outside and on top of the mountain. It's probably one of the coolest things I've ever done, EVER!

I had gloves on, I had leggings on underneath my pants, I was also wearing 9 shirts and my winter boarding hat!

And yes it was cold, very very cold.
And no I did not have boots or waterproof shoes on by any means..

...but I didn't care.
I was on top of a mountain!! 

And not just any mountain..  the highest mountain in Europe! 

The top of Europe!!!

So did my shoes get wet? Yes. Was I cold? Most definitely. Did I care? Absolutely not. I was on top of Europe.

It's crazy, because I was not expecting it at all. At the beginning of the day I just thought I was taking a train and cable car to the top of a really high mountain that would be really pretty and where they'd have a gift shop and a lookout area.. and now I'm walking on it!? It was surreal.

After we were don't hanging out on the top of Europe, we headed down toward Grindelwald. That was a beautiful little Swiss town in itself!  And can you believe it!?  I barely could...  Swiss houses really do look like the ones we think they'd look like. The houses/apts at the end of my street back home.. just like those!  Long of like chalets. All of them in Grindelwald looked like this.

After Grindelwald, we headed all the way back down to Interlaken. Next stop, Zurich!

"Take it in but don't look doowwwn!
Cuz I'm on top of the world hey! I'm on top of the world. Been waiting on this for awhile now, paying my dues to the dirt. I've been waiting to smile hey! But holding it in for awhile. Take it with me if I can, been dreaming of this since a child..
I'm on top of the world!!!"
     -Imagine Dragons

<3 M

Ps - Ok, I'll add one photo... but the quality is bad, because I took a  picture of the picture that was on my camera screen.