Brussels->Basel->Bern->Interlaken->Geneva

Today definitely seemed to reiterate the phrase: "it's the journey, not the destination..." In fact, the more random and sporadic the journey, the better the destination.

We left Anna's around 650 am this morning, managing to stumble out of bed before the hours of daylight and Terry was so nice to drive us to teh station. Our train to Basel actually was a direct route that passes through France, which is not allowed on our select pass of `Germany, Belgium and Switzerlnd so Steph and I were very nervous for our journey. Well the French customs checked us twice, yet said nothing on either occassion. wheeew. We passed through the French countryside- Strasbourg included, which was very scenic, and was a nice backdrop for some journal writing, sleeping and conversation. I find train rides to be very peaceful actually, because my thoughts are usually running through my head at the speed of a train- perhaps they seem to balance eachother out somehow along the way. The morning passed by so quickly, as we arrived in Basel at 130. We originally thought that Basel was at the southern tip of Germany, but we realized very shortly after arriving that we were, in fact, in Switzerland... We thought we'd take a nice route to Geneva- thought it might be a good idea to do the golden route from Luzern to Interlaken to Montreaux but we decided to save that for another day. Instead we took a train to Interlaken, which means in between 2 lakes because that is literally what it is and as soon as i stepped out of the train i felt myself out of balance with the huge overwhelming mountains in the background- it was literally like stepping off onto a mountain. It was just such an incredibly unstabilizing but very cool experience. In fact, these we just baby hills in comparison to the rest of the mountains.... wow.. And the fresh air was like nothing i've ever breathed- so crisp and clean, I can't even begin to describe...

On the way to Bern, whcih was on the way to Interlaken, excuse my lack of organization, it is 2am, but on route to Bern we met a very interesting older man named Martin in the dining car. He had basically started up development projects for mining all over the world, Australia, Siberia... etc. and speaks 10 languages, 6 fluently, and has citizensip in 4 countries..wow... he was very nice to chat with over lunch- steph and I ddecided to splurge a little on a light lunch and a beer. The scenery just completely enriched the whole experience.

We did eventualy make it to Geneva- en route we were in a car with 5 obnoxiously loud teenagers and a screaming and crying baby, and the train to Geneva was so crowded (rush hour i presume). Nevertheless, we made it alright to my cousin Robyn's place, and having a great time. It is so nice to see her considering that she used to live in the states so we never really saw eachother too often. I'm not so sure what will happen these next few days, but then again, the more spontaneous, the better.