Switzerland

Okay. I know. I'm 2.5 months late. But it's been a whirlwind and (not-so-spoiler)alert, I'm back in the States, and am err... already finishing my internship in St. Louis this summer. But alas, as memory is indeed fickle, I have had on the back of my mind the need to wrap up the documenting of my 'ventures. And where I left off, I had just got my plane from Lisbon to Geneva. Initially, I planned on dividing Switzerland into multiple parts due to the massive amounts of locations and things I covered during the trip. But, for the sake of my own sanity and time, I'm going to consolidate. Here goes!

I landed in Geneva early Friday morning, waited about 10 minutes in baggage claim, and reunited with Dylan, who was flying in from London. After tackling transport and finding our hotel to drop off our bags, we immediately started our exploring. Our place was just about a minute's walk away from Lake Geneva, so we got our first view of the remarkable Jet d'Eau (a fountain that jets 130 gallons of water per second to an altitude of 460 feet - leaving the nozzle at a speed of 124 mph).

We continued to wander through the park on the path towards the Botanical Gardens. Now, important disclaimer about our trip to the gardens (and, well, in Switzerland in general). By the end, the total amount of pictures Dylan and I took in Switzerland coincidentally more or less matched the total amount of pictures we took throughout the rest of our 5 months abroad... So, I will choose a few and spare you, but the point here is that Switzerland - all of Switzerland - is the most breathtakingly beautiful place and every corner I turned awakened me to a whole new world of wonder.

During our stroll through the Gardens, we stumbled across the worlds' coolest merry-go-round, some dazzlingly bright flowers, GOATS, a ducky/swan/geese/flamingo pond, and a peacock just wandering around uncaged.

The water is so clean in Switzerland that you can drink from fountains around the city

Fairytale?

After a bit of a break, that evening we wandered into the old town part of Geneva, seeing some of the landmarks. Our favorite was strolling through one of the parks that had 6 or so giant chess boards and a couple checkers boards. So there Dylan and I stayed for the next 2-3 hours, undergoing the most intensely strategic game of checkers (not even chess) game of my life. And how did it end 3 hours later. Complete and utter stalemate. Stubbornness forced us to refuse to yield a single piece if possible, and thus, we tied. It reminded me of how Dylan and I used to play Words with Friends together, but we stopped because it stopped being fun because both of us were too defensive in our playing, never allowing the other to make any fun, high scoring moves. Go figure.

Rainbow across the Jet d'Eau

Classic.

Stalemate!

I'm a flower.

After a nice dinner, we spent a long time just sitting on the lake-side enjoying the nighttime scenery. Not even a full day in, and already we were speechless with thankfulness: for the fresh air, the beauty of the life around us, for the opportunity to make the most of it, and for each other.

The next morning we bought our Swiss Pass, which allows unlimited access to the trains in Switzerland for 4 days, and took our first trip over to Montreux. Montreux, much smaller, is most frequented for the lovely lakeside promenade with flowers lining the river edge, and the Chillon Castle. We walked for a couple hours to the castle and back, and it was just so beautifully calm and peaceful.

This picture doesn't even look real

I'm a tree!

Chillon Castle

I'm sorry, but what do you do when you visit a castle?

Surrounded.

We walked back to the main area of town near our hotel, where there always seems to be stuff going on: concerts, food, and just our luck - a dog show that day! We were pretty happy....

The next day we hopped back in a train, and the very unusual experience of having a Swiss-branded "always on time" train have an engine problem, and delaying our trip by an hour or two. However, considering we were stuck on top of a mountain overlooking the lake pictured generously above, with sacks full of food we'd just bought at the grocery store, and our books in hand, we did not care in the slightest, and enjoyed some good conversation with some Europeans on the train with us.

Train platform fun

But at last, we finally arrived in the wonderful city of Interlaken (now switching over to the German part of Switzerland, versus Geneva and Montreux which were more the French side). Interlaken is an awesome valley bordered by two huge mountains on the north and south sides, and two lakes on the west and east. I would become very familiar with this set up in time.... But for that night, we just enjoyed walking aimlessly around the city for hours (the best way to discover a city in my opinion), and alas, someone managed to once again find goats!

A harp water fountain - oh how I've missed this instrument!

The next morning, Dylan and I got up really early, and found our way 4400 ft up the side of a mountain overlooking Interlaken. And well, we ran down a cliff face... and we jumped.
With a professional paraglider strapped on with us, that is.

Words can't capture how incredible it was to paraglide down into the center of Interlaken, because at the time, honestly, not too many words or thoughts were crossing through my mind. Just utter peace at soaking in the sensation. In that moment, I wanted nothing more to just live in that moment, so just shut out everything else. So later I could look back on it, I slyly held my camera at my belly, but in not wanting to experience this through a camera, I didn't look at what I was filming so, yah. Enjoy if you so please. It's in two parts. I even capture my graceful landing.

Pre-departure

In the air.

Selfie from 4000 feet in the air

Oh hey Interlaken

Part 1

Part 2

My paraglide took off a bit before Dylan's, so I had the pleasure of watching a lot of his journey down.

Dylan!

Graceful landing

After a slow rest of our morning over coffee, we hopped back on a train once more and made our way to Grindelwald. After such an incredible experience that morning, we really just wanted to have a calm, laid-back day continuing to soak in the wonders surrounding us. And we got to do exactly that in Grindelwald. Surrounded by the stunning peaks of Jungfrau and other stunning mountains, we enjoyed an afternoon of quiet reading outside.

Check out those mountains in the background... Insane.

The next day, we once again hopped on a train, this time over to Luzern/Lucerne/whatever. That was a beautiful train ride, passing through golden fields and lakeside views. For the purposes of my current exhaustion in typing all this out, I'm going to breeze through Luzern in picture format.... sorry!

Chapel Bridge

Hofkirche

Lion Statue. After leading ourselves unnecessarily up and down the sides of giant hills, we finally found this right by where we started... 

Scaling the Nine Towers

That evening, we got on yet another train that day and made our way over to Zurich. The next day, we explored Zurich (again, excuse picture format...)

Climbed to the top of one of those steeple-y clock tower churches (give me a break on the names, k, it's been a while....)

Exploring the gardens

That evening, we got back on a plane, bones exhausted but hearts and souls full. Oh, and our pockets, full with chocolate.

Okay folks (or myself, my most loyal blog-reader). I'm exhausted from getting all that out there. But there it is. Before I forget more than I already have. I can't and won't summarize my final thoughts on Switzerland, because the truth is that Switzerland continues to be a part of me today. Not in a literal sense of course, but if you've ever been fortunate enough to have an experience like that, you understand that this sort of thing stays with you by shaping and molding you. And thanks Dylan, for growing there with me.