En Suisse

After an amazing long week of winter break I am back from vacation and in the swing of classes yet again. Here's a little re-cap of my past week's adventures...

The first stop on the way to Zermatt was Geneva, Switzerland where we stayed one night in a hostel. We unfortunately arrived a bit too late to tour the UN but we walked around the perimeter and witnessed a big strike going on outside for peace in Iran. In scouting out for a good place to eat dinner, we quickly realized that Geneva is an extremely expensive city and the cheapest meal we could find were burgers for $14 Swiss Francs (approx $12.50). Although Geneva was a really pretty city but we were glad to leave because we could see our money quickly disappearing...

Several train rides later, the next day we arrived in Zermatt! Our last train was called the Matterhorn Express and had huge glass windows making for an incredible ascent up into the Alps. It was lightly snowing and everything was like a beautiful winter wonderland. It didn't take me long to fall in love with the mountains...We stayed that night with our first couch surfing couple and right when we walked in the door we knew it was going to be a great stay. Claudia is Swiss and she lives with her Italian boyfriend Marco and their cat Mia. They let us stay in their spare room and provided us with bedding and Claudia even graciously let me borrow her snowboard. We were prepared to heat up some soup we'd bought for dinner but upon arrival they immediately ushered us into the kitchen and served us this fantastic Italian feast that Marco had cooked. At the train station in Visp about to head to Zermatt.

The lovely Chalet Arnica we stayed in the first two nights...

The next day it was a beautiful sunny day so we set off for the slopes. I had never snowboarded but through trial and error and help from my friend Maddie, I started to get the hang of it faster than I thought I would. Snowboarding is not very popular in Switzerland so I felt a bit silly falling all over the place, especially since even the young kids seem to be expert skiers. They grow up on skis so even kids who were probably half my height were tearing up the mountain! It was a bit intimidating...Regardless I was having a great time until I took one particularly big fall backwards onto my wrist. I knew right away that I'd probably seriously hurt it since I couldn't move my fingers, so as fast as I could I took my board off and walked down the rest of the slope...

Finding someone who spoke English and could help us find the medical center on the mountain was the next challenge. The trails in Switzerland are not clearly marked and there are no ski patrols like in the US, so we were relieved when a ski instructor who spoke English led us to where we needed to go. The doctor on duty was very nice but spoke only German and was rattling off sentence after sentence to us seemingly assuming we knew what he was talking about. It was quite comedic...He managed to get the words "broken" and "another doctor" through to us, so after he temporarily splinted my arm, we were off to the next doctor in town who fortunately spoke English. The doctor was really efficient and we were probably in and out of there in less than an hour. It turns out I did fracture my wrist but luckily it's only hairline so I only have to be in a brace for a month. It was actually a great experience and I'm glad I got to experience European healthcare. I'd never broken a bone and I figure since I want to go into sports medicine this was a very valuable experience for me.

The next few days we enjoyed vacation in the true sense and spent the time relaxing and being tourists. Zermatt is the cutest town and although I'm bummed I didn't get to experience other winter sports I wanted to try I am so grateful I got a little taste of mountain life. One of the best things had to be apres ski which is when skiers hit the bars at 5pm straight after the mountain closes. People go to the bars in their full ski gear; boots, helmets and all. Everyone is in the greatest mood and watching people dance in ski boots is hilarious...

Matterhorns made of Swiss chocolate!

Since they don't allow cars in Zermatt, if you need transportation these electric taxis take people around. I had to ride one from the mountain to the doctor. An "authentic" Vancouver 2010 Olympic bobsled! The beautiful Matterhorn called Mount Cervino to the locals.

The restaurants on the slopes have incredible views, not to mention some pretty good cheese! The next couch surfing experience was less than ideal as they had us sleeping on the floor, and with my broken wrist that wasn't going well for me, so we ended up leaving Zermatt a day early and exploring two neighboring towns of Tasch and Visp. All the towns in the Alps are so quaint and while Maddie went cross-country skiing I enjoyed exploring around and getting a taste of the local flavor. The last night we spent in Visp in an old convent that's still run by nuns. It was quite an experience, definitely relaxing and we were able to recharge for the next day in which we had to take 5 different trains to get home. It was a great vacation and I really do miss the mountains already. We did a great job at budget traveling and while all our other friends came home from the break completely broke, we're ready to plan our next trip! Couch surfing was really a fun way to make connections with locals and we'll definitely continue to do it throughout our travels in Europe. Speaking of upcoming travels, tomorrow I'm off to London! My dad is there on business and my roomate and I are going to go visit for a long weekend...ahh the life of studying abroad...I wish it could last forever!! Catch ya on the other side of the pond!