SWITZERLAND
This last weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Switzerland to attend my friend, Mike’s wedding. I met Mike in the summer of 2006 when we both worked as camp counselors in the Christian camp, Mt. Hermon in Santa Cruz, CA. When he found out that I was in Europe, he told me that I needed to check out Switzerland and insisted that I attend his wedding as well. I decided to make it into a long weekend (Thurs, April 30th – Mon, May 4th) and do some touristy things as well.
I first must ask: What are the images that first cross your mind when you think of Switzerland? If they’re anything like the typical cliché things I had associated with the country, I’m guessing that you probably thought of cheese, chocolate, cows with bells, mountains, yodeling, Swiss army knives, or possibly even singing hills (“The hills are alive with the sound of muuuusiiic!”). The funny thing is that I did experience/encounter all of these except for the yodeling and, well, and the singing hills, though I did hum the song while I was there. The majority of cows that I saw had bells, cheese was very tasty, most of the stores had extensive chocolate selections, the mountains were gorgeous, and there were plenty of Swiss army knives being sold.
I flew through Swiss Air (amazing service and very reasonable prices) into Geneva on Thursday morning and immediately caught a train to Lausanne where I had made reservations to stay in a hostel for two nights. I toured the city for maybe an hour and then decided to get away from the crowds and visit a castle that was highly suggested in my Switzerland travel book.
The name of this castle is Château de Chillon and it is on the eastern side of Lake Geneva. This castle is known for its amazingly picturesque surroundings (lake, hills, & mountains) and its interesting medieval history as well. The fact that the castle seems to teeter just above the water makes this popular tourist site incredibly appealing and striking, especially with the towering mountains in the background. I was very fortunate to have had the entire castle to myself since it is usually uncomfortably crowded during tourist season. I arrived to the castle just before they shut the gates and was very lucky to find out that the castle is kept open an hour after closing entry. This allowed me to explore the castle alone for an hour without anyone else entering. It was pretty awesome being the only person in the castle and only hearing my footsteps and the water lapping against the castle walls. There was also a huge bear exhibit, so I thought of you, Dad. :)
On Friday, my second day, I decided to get out of the city again and go on a daytrip to the town of Gruyères, which is known for its cheese and old castle. On the train there, I randomly met a guy from Texas who was in Switzerland on a business trip for Eurovision and since we were both traveling alone, we sort of stuck together. During lunch, he convinced me that it was worth paying a little extra for the famous Gruyères cheese fondue and meringue dessert and I’m glad he did because they were delicious. The castle was beautiful (though I preferred the Chateau de Chillon) and the town very charming. I was just happy to be there for its relaxed feel, green pastures, views of the mountains, and cheese. It was a great relaxing daytrip and wasn’t very crowded at all, which was a relief.
The next morning, I woke up very early to get ready for Isaline and Mike’s wedding and took a 30 minute train ride north of Lausanne to the small town of Romainmôtier (about 300 inhabitants). The wedding was held in the Romainmôtier church, which is said to be the oldest abbey church in Switzerland. The present church was begun at the beginning of the 11th century on the foundations of buildings from the 7th and 8th centuries and the surrounding walkways are all made of cobblestone, which is very hard to walk on with heels. I stayed in an incredibly hospitable bed and breakfast in the neighboring town of Croy, which was only a 20 minute walk along a creek (very picturesque) to Romainmôtier.
The wedding was absolutely amazing. The wedding ceremony and evening party were held in incredibly old buildings and had a very medieval atmosphere. The ceremony and speeches were all in both French and German (two of the three official languages in Switzerland), so Mike’s Cambridge friends and I didn’t really know what was going on most of the time. Despite this, it was such an amazing night. I met people from all around the world (Mike has lived in many different places) and spent most of my time with Mike’s English speaking friends from the UK and Switzerland. The entire celebration lasted nearly 12 hours and was exquisite and incredibly classy. I felt so honored to be there. At the end of the night, around 2 AM, someone drove me back to Croy (my heels wouldn’t have faired well on the rocky path by the creek) and I slept very well.
The next morning (Sunday), I had a wonderful breakfast provided by my host and a great conversation with the couple that was staying there as well, who had also come for the wedding. In the early afternoon I took a train to Geneva where I spent my last night. Though Geneva is one of the most influential cities in Switzerland and is the home to a huge number of international organizations, there isn’t much interesting to see in the city as a tourist. After checking into my hostel, I rushed over to the Red Cross Museum to catch the last 40 minutes of it being open and practically sprinted through the exhibits. My Switzerland book dubbed the museum “one of the best museums in Europe”, and I can see why. It is very creatively laid out with many hands on exhibits and visuals. The exhibits in this small museum are packed with interesting information and great interviews, provoking much thought and emotion. The entirety of it all really gave me a sense of the brokenness of the world that we live in and the sad realities that people face every day in war-stricken and third world countries.
If I had arrived earlier and gotten the audio tour, I am sure that it would have been an even more meaningful experience. So, I would suggest setting aside at least an hour and a half to two hours if you want to fully digest all of the video, audio, and visual information. Other than this, I saw the United Nations from outside the gates, two gardens, the Lake Geneva waterfront, the famous fountain, and old city. I did all of this within almost an hour and a half and then decided to get a quick early dinner and go to the hostel for the movie night. Haha, I found it quite funny that I watched “Bend it Like Beckham” while traveling in Switzerland. My night ended with my two hostel roommates and I talking for about an hour about our travels, studies, and Barcelona. The next morning, the three of us woke up and were out of the hostel by 4:30 AM in order to catch the first train to the airport. The two girls went on their way to Brussels (Belgium) and I left for my European home base, Barcelona.
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This Week and MY PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR!!
This week has been great so far. We had a small family birthday celebration for the little boy that I take care of. He just turned three. I’ve been thinking a lot more lately about what it is going to be like when I leave Barcelona, my host family, and the kids. Just the thought of it makes me very sad because I’ve really become attached to this family and grown to love these two children. I feel like such a mom saying this, but when I’m on vacation, I miss the kids. It is going to be very hard leaving them. Luckily we have Skype, so I will still be able to keep in touch and see them.
Some other great news is that I got accepted into the “Cultural Ambassadors” program in Spain that asks its applicants help teach English in public schools (elementary through high school) and official language schools. I was originally a bit disappointed with my placement because it wasn’t in any of the regions I had requested, which were incidentally all coastal regions (Andalucia, Cantabria, & Asturias), however, after some research and talking with a few people, I’m actually getting pretty excited about my location. I was placed in Castella y León, which is one of the largest autonomous communities (aut. comm. is basically like a state) in terms of actual square kilometers (around 94,223 km², or 36,380 mi²), but is one of the least densely packed in terms of population (2.5 million). To give you some perspective on the density of Castella y León, the Seattle metropolitan area is considered to be around 8,186 sq mi with a population of around 3,263,497 (2007, source: Wikipedia, “Seattle”). The largest cities in Castella y León are Salamanca (155,740 inhab.), León (204,212), Valladolid (the capital. 319,943), and Burgos (177.879). Salamanca is a university city, so I would much prefer to be placed there. Anyways, I just have some more waiting to do and then try to renew my visa here in Barcelona, which I’m hoping won’t be too complicated.
So, it looks as though there’s an 80% chance that I’ll be living in Spain for one more year. It will be a different experience for sure because I will have quite a bit more free time, more independence, bills to pay, and food to buy. It will also be different because unlike Barcelona, in whatever city or town I will work, it will be much smaller and less international. Also, I’ve heard that some of the “purest” Spanish (Castellano) is spoken in this region, which will be great for my studies of the language.
So, that’s where I’m at right now. I’m trying to figure out the cheapest way to fly back home to Seattle for a month and a half this summer, so if any of you are experts in this area, let me know.
I hope all is amazing with all of you and I’m counting down the days until I’m back home to Seattle.
Besitos y abrazos from Barcelona,
Linnell
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