We reached Gare
de Toulouse – Matabiau in the shuttle bus. The environment was a bit gloomy,
like never before. Being a student city, normally people went away to their
homes during vacations.There were not many to be seen around. I personally
never find winters great to be outdoors. Actually the cold weather discourages
me, depresses me. Also there was a lack of merry that normally used to be on
our faces, we were too tired perhaps, or there was some discontent amongst few
of us for not being able to travel with others they with whom they wanted to. But I was still hopeful that journey will bridge
the gaps and it’s all going to end on a happy
note.We still had a few hours before our train left. Like always, we waited at the station’s waiting lounge itself. I decided to take a stroll around, knowing well that it could be the last one of the station as we were going to leave for India very soon after we came back. We had spent quite a part of our time here, waiting for trains, booking our tickets, for various journeys around in France during previous months. All the memories were flashing through my mind.
“Tan tan taaaarant”, rang the SNCF jingle, and the speakers announced the arrival of our train. We picked the bags to go to our platform. The train was going to take us to Geneva. We settled ourselves inside the train and went to sleep soon, to wake up into a dreamy morning.As soon as we got off at Geneva Cornavin Railway station, all felt so fresh. We were in Switzerland, the paradise on Earth. The city is famous worldwide, as a symbol of peace, centre to UN’s many agencies, HQ to Red Cross Organization, the famous scientific wonder- the Large Hadron Collider of CERN. But we had not planned a stop here and very soon we took our train to the city of Interlaken, a small city surrounded all over with lakes.
We knew that Switzerland was a place that bloomed in months of September and October. December conceals its beauty in a white sheet of snow, taking away all its colors. But still we couldn’t have lost this chance, whatsoever. Surely it was well decided. We were in total awe during the whole journey up to Interlaken. The Swiss Alps, the snow covered meadows, the calm glistening lakes and a foggy sun in the sky, the experience was otherworldly.After lodging into our beautiful rooms and throwing away our bags, we set off to wander out, forgetting everything for a while. The temperature was below zero, but we were free souls, and nothing could now stop us from living the moment.
We had planned to go to Jungfraujoch-top of the Europe, a tourist resort near Interlaken. It’s one of the highest peaks of Bernese Alps at a height of 4158 m above sea. But the temperature was as low as -29 C up there. We were not used to such low temperatures, and decided better not to venture to this danger. We rather chose to go to Beaten berg, a local municipality and a tourist sight. The mercury read -12 C there; we could hardly bear it, so we were forced to take the first bus back. I shudder to imagine what would have happened had it been to Jungfrau.It was getting colder, so we decided to retire to our room. Late night I heard some voices. I opened my eyes, and to my surprise, found Swetabh, Avinash and Telang pouncing around. I could see Isha smiling, our group had grown bigger. :)
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