Suisse

Last weekend, I visited the land of chocolate, cheese, legos, razor scooters, expensive watches, and now some of my greatest memories. I LOVED Switzerland, but am honestly not completely sure how to describe it. I guess I can start with the fact that it’s insanely beautiful in every aspect, from the alps to the lakes to the people. 4 languages are spoken there, none of which are English or Spanish, but somehow it all worked out. I went with my roommate (and now one of my closest friends) Karlee, who is the perfect adventure partner.

We packed our weekend full of activities because we wanted to see as much as possible, so we visited Geneva, Lausanne, Montreaux, and Chateau de Chillon. My personal highlight of the trip was the Chateau, and it may have topped any view I’ve seen so far- this is a really old castle in the middle of the alps. We got to watch the sunset there overlooking the lake, and I’ll probably have that image in my mind forever. If you go to Switzerland, you have to visit this place!

 

Geneva was also awesome. We rented a boat on Lake Geneva and cruised around for a little bit, and then did some slight seeing in town. It was a very chill environment, with tons of cute little families and puppies and old people walking around. Public transportation in Geneva is completely free, but everything else was crazy expensive. These people are loaded- someone find me a job in Switzerland. I am willing to learn French, German, Italian and Romansch. Besides, this place is beautiful enough to stay forever.

 

Karlee left Monday morning, and I thought I had the whole day to adventure on my own. Feeling spontaneous, I hopped on a train to a ski resort an hour away, which the lady at the tourism office swore was open. After an interesting time trying to navigate the Swiss railway system, I made it to the little town of St. Cerque, where right around zero people spoke English. I spent about 30 minutes hiking up the side of this mountain looking for the ski resort, and it turns out it was closed because the temperatures were too high (we had insanely good weather the whole time we were there.)

 

 So I rented a sled from a random man and played around for a little while. Then eventually I found myself on my butt with my sled stuck in the snow, realized how ridiculous the whole situation was, and just sat there laughing by myself. That’s what God does with my plans, and He was probably laughing too. But in the midst of my mix-up and poor planning He gave me a beautiful and unanticipated adventure of a day, and I got to see a completely new piece of the world.  When I got to the airport a few hours later, I realized my flight had actually been for 7am and not 7pm. Lesson learned, I am still a child and am not capable of traveling alone. This is in writing- please don’t let me.

I have a few more trips planned in the next few weeks, and then my Dad comes to visit! My mom had to cancel her trip because of her health which was a bummer, and I’m sad that she’s missing out on Europe. I’m excited to explore more of it with my Dad, though, and before I know it I’ll be back in my favorite country in the world, the United States! Thanks for reading this, and I will see y’all soon!