In Interlaken, I easily met up with my friends, even though the connection was, as usual, only about ten minutes. The guys handed me a spare Tageskarte, and I stamped it right away, keeping my previous sad experience in mind.
The thing is, when we were heading up to the Aletsch Glacier, I started from Fiesch, and in the morning I didn't need a Tageskarte. But when we were leaving after the hike, we were in a hurry, and I forgot to stamp it. As a result, at every train stop, I frantically tried to jump out and find a ticket validator, while trying not to get left behind to twiddle my thumbs at the station. I ran back and forth, trying to get out of the exact car that was closest to the validator. Fitness babe champion Anastasia and her friend were riding right next to us, and laughing their heads off at this. As luck would have it, nothing was working out for me. Either the validator was nowhere to be seen, or it was too far of a run, or I'd get scared I wouldn't make it in time and sprinted back inside. It all ended when we arrived in a big city. I jumped out and spotted a ticket inspector on the platform, just as she spotted me. Luckily, at this station, the train paused for a few minutes, and I finally found the validator. I shoved the piece of cardboard into the slot and heard the sharp "zip" of the dot matrix printer inside. Victory at last!
I got back on the train and took my seat with a sense of accomplished duty. And then I noticed that the timestamp on the Tageskarte was two minutes in the future. Would this device glitch really get me in trouble? Literally a minute later, the inspector walked up. She briefly glanced at my card and moved on, paying no attention to the messed-up time or the fact that I had been running out of the train car.
Lucky. But you don't always get this lucky. Judging by friends' stories, and even my own experience, the Swiss often act mindlessly and strictly by the book. In some places, they are simply incapable of stepping outside their rigid artificial framework, even if it makes absolutely no sense. For example, a ticket inspector once promised to help a buddy of ours buy a ticket (the app wasn't working), but when he got on the train, the inspector just went and fined him.
As for us, we successfully arrived in Lauterbrunnen. And discovered that a mountain running marathon was taking place there, and a bunch of streets were blocked off. You'll find out how much that stopped us in the next part. As well as about my personal experience with the rigidity of the locals.
