Jungfrau, maybe not for this gal

Jungfrau is a mountain in Switzerland. It’s not the highest peak in Europe but it’s pretty damn high.

You can visit it’s peak via a train ride to the highest train station in Europe and then catch a ride on another train through a mountain to the top. The ride takes you upward through the dark with peeks out, in what are basically large holes burrowed through the side of the mountain. How long does this ride take? What’s the ride like? Where the views out of the side cool? Honestly, I’m not sure…what I am sure of is that a lowcountry gal doesn’t fare well 2 miles above sea level.

First off, the train ride up to Kleine Scheidegg ( the aforementioned highest train station in Europe-or so they claim, I didn’t actually fact check this mostly due to the fact that I left half my brain cells up on that mountain) is absolutely stunningly beautiful. Switzerland in general is simply breathtaking and everywhere you look is an instagramable moment.

Once you arrive at the train station, you have little time to check it out because you have to get your fanny on this other train to take you to the top. Why the rush? Well, you have to book a reserved time because it’s so popular, you have to have a time stamped ticket.

So, we get off one train, get on another, and away we go!

I knew I was in trouble, when, about 20 minutes into the ride I stood up to put my jacket on. Now, I’m not the fittest of gals, but the simple act of standing doesn’t typically leave me short of breath and tachycardic, so this concerned me just a smidge. Just standing up and putting on my jacket made my heart POUND out of my chest. The hubs was sitting across from me and I didn’t want to worry him so I just sat down panting, acting as chill as possible (read: not chill at all, I’m not a chill person in the least bit).

*A little sidebar- last year whilst in the same region of Switzerland and then in Dolomites in Italy, I had a low grade headache and some trouble hiking so this year, knowing we might go to Jungfrau and would be in Italy for longer, I wanted to be prepared. So I went to the doc and got some altitude sickness meds for the trip. So, all of what was about to transpire would have likely been worse without them…

So, we arrive at the station along with everyone else and shuffle through the tunnels and it’s like I’m there but it’s also like I’m dreaming this. The hubs is trying to wrangle me in the right direction and my head has literally popped off my body and was floating somewhere up in the stratosphere along with all my brain cells and ability to make decisions and think clearly.

*Another sidebar-when we purchased the tickets for this little adventure which weren’t cheap, the ticket agent told us we should book at least 3 hours at the top because there was so much to see…thankfully we know better than that, so our window at the top was two hours…thank god!

Anyhoo, through the tunnels and past the CURRY BUFFET…who puts a curry buffet at 11,000 feet? And finally into the sun and boy, what a stunner!!

Once we were outside, I was momentarily cleared as the adrenaline kicked in for a few, but then it was back to actively dying of hypoxia. The altitude didn’t seem to bother the Italian, but his people are Alpini so his DNA is made for this…mine, not so much.

I felt absolutely awful. Like, I’ve been more sick in my lifetime, but I’ve never felt worse. I felt bad, like real bad. I can’t even describe it to you felt so bad, that’s how bad I felt. Did I mention I felt bad? I’d read I swear at least 100 blogs about Jungfrau and not one of them mentioned dying from altitude sickness and I didn’t know if I should have been comforted or horrified by the 2 medivac helios just outside the tunnels.

And, we haven’t even gotten to the “Sphinx” yet, which is the tippity top of this god forsaken mountain. There is also a restaurant which is like a thirty minute walk from the tunnel, but like hell I was going to make that. I faked not dying for all the cute photos and then the hubs is like, should we go to the top? And, it was at this point I looked at him and said, “I don’t know, I can’t think clearly or make any decisions, I’m not doing well”.

As the nurse of the family, it’s not customary for me to “not be doing well”…you count on nurses, right? We are always ok because how can we take care of others if we aren’t ok? Ever looked at a nurse and been like, “is everything ok?” And they are like, “no” and then your heart sinks into your stomach? Well, that was the look that the hubs had on his adorable face, or what I vaguely remember his face looking like as my brain cells continued to pop like popcorn in my head, dying very dramatically as one might expect of my brain cells. So, it’s VERY unlike me to be like, I’m dying you go on without me, remarry soon and often, god speed, I’m Audi 5000.

But this was the day, and I still had about an hour and a half before we can make our decent. The hubs decides to do what we call in our relationship, “look at the birdy”. He deploys the “create a diversion” tactic to try and make me forget that we were at the equivalent of Everest Base camp and this lowcountry gal ain’t gonna make it. So, what’s the thing to do. Head up to the Sphinx of course!

Up we go, along with 1000 other people to the elevator to the top, and again, I’m momentarily clear as the last bit of adrenaline reserves kick in. The view from the Sphinx is insane.

We took our obligatory selfies along with everyone else and get the hell outta there. My head was swimming and my heart was pounding, I couldn’t wait to get the feck out of there. But at the same time I wanted to soak in this once in a lifetime experience. I’ll never see this view again, I’ll never go to this train station again. This is the only time I’ll ever be here and even in my hypoxic brain injured state, this was not lost on me.

We exited out the gift shop as per, and back to the train station we go with more than a half hour to spare. The hubs was making DAMN sure we got on that train. Off to Kleine Scheidegg ( say that 3 times fast with hypoxia) we go.

By the time we reached Kleine Scheidegg, my head found itself reattached to my body and I was feeling back to my typical clear headed, decision making ability self and just in time for dinner at my fav spot in Switzerland. But more on that later.

Ciao y’all.