A little taste of Switzerland..

Last week I went to Switzerland with three of my friends who are also studying at Radboud University in Nijmegen. 

Me, Marika, Kelly and Emily (from left to right)

We flew into Basel, Switzerland on Wednesday evening and immediately hopped on a train to Interlaken where we spent the next few days. We arrived at Interlaken around one in the morning, greeted by some soft snow and a dimly lit, quiet city. Thankfully, Interlaken is small and we managed to find the hostel after only about fifteen minutes of walking. We stayed at Balmers Hostel for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night and I only have positive things to say about our experience. The place was clean, very convenient, affordable, welcoming and (no pun intended) accommodating. I cannot emphasize enough how much we enjoyed our stay.

On Wednesday we woke up to a snowy, cold city. We walked around for most of the day with short visits to coffee shops and cute little stores. We also visited Lake Thun, one of the two lakes surrounding Interlaken. We toured the Schuh chocolate factory on Wednesday -- a must-do because Switzerland is infamous for its chocolate. In general, Switzerland is very expensive so both Thursday and Friday night we bought food at the grocery store and cooked dinner in the hostel. We each paid about 4 Swiss Francs – the exchange rate is similar to the dollar so it was only about $4.50. As a little price comparison, a Big Mac in McDonalds is 11.50 Swiss Francs! Just a Big Mac! No fries or drink… I still don’t think I’ve gotten over how ridiculous that is. I told one of the McDonalds employees that I was shocked by the prices because at home (my accent clearly indicates where my home is) the food is half as expensive. He told me that although the food prices are double, the wages are about triple – a McDonalds employee gets paid the equivalent of about $24 an hour.

Downtown Interlaken

Lake Thun

Lake Thun 

Schuh Chocolate Factory

On Friday we spent some time in the city before going canyon jumping during the afternoon. I was really excited all morning -- not much of a surprise because I’ve always loved similar adrenaline-inducing activities. It cost about $140, but each penny was well spent. We enjoyed the majority of the afternoon in the Swiss Alps and the weather was stunning so we had the pleasure of soaking in absolutely majestic landscapes. After we got back, the four of us took a short trip to the lake opposite Lake Thun, called Lake Brienz. The turquoise lake, bordered by snow-capped mountains and thick green trees, could not have been more beautiful. The pictures we took really do not do the scene justice. Friday night, just as Thursday night, we visited the bar “Metro” which was in the basement of our hostel – again, incredibly convenient.

Ziggy -- greatest guide ever

Ready to go!

Lake Brienz

Saturday morning pleased us with similar beautiful weather and we took another trip to Lake Thun, bought a snack (in the form of a giant piece of cake) at the chocolate factory and shopped for a few souvenirs. Around 3pm, we got on a train to Basel. Outside the train windows, the views were absolutely picturesque.

After getting Kelly and Emily settled at their hostel, the four of us went to meet Joao, who Marika and I were going to stay with. I found Joao on couchsurfing.com, a website dedicated to setting up travelers with hosts. Although it is somewhat of a foreign concept to Americans (no pun intended), couch surfing is common in Europe as well as in other parts of the world. In general, the hosts simply enjoy meeting people and are fellow travelers – they host with no expectation of compensation, including money. Joao could not have been more hospitable. He had clean blankets and sheets for Marika and I, offered us everything in his home, and provided information about Basel which could only come from a local. Upon arriving at his house, he gave all four of us pizza and champagne. He also had a friend over, Martin, who was just as friendly. As is common per initiating conversation in Europe, Martin asked me where I was from. As we continued talking, I was shocked to learn that he graduated from UNC! This was the only point during the night at which I felt mildly uncomfortable because I couldn’t help but wonder if he had Facebook stalked me and in an attempt to be appealing, was making his own story mirror mine. However, he had pictures of UNC on his phone and when I questioned him (with the explanation that I thought he was lying and trying to kidnap me) he listed some of his favorite restaurants and bars (for any TarHeels reading this, his list included Top of the Hill and He's Not). The six of us (Martin, Joao, and our group of four) went to Martin’s friend’s 30th birthday party which turned out to be a large group of Swiss, German and other European adults. I got the chance to ask them questions about living in Switzerland and traveling around Europe. I thought it was very nice to be able to get a real taste of the culture, rather than just visit city bars. However, we did venture to the bars after the party to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Before returning to Joao’s, Marika and I stopped by Martin’s flat where I had the pleasure of seeing his UNC diploma on the wall. What a strange feeling to see something so familiar so very far away from home!

The four of us, Joao and Martin

Sunday morning Marika and I dragged ourselves out of bed and toured the small city of Basel. Although the weather wasn’t great, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves – we got through the day with coffee and a delicious plate of Swiss gnocchi. 

Basel bridge

The four of us met up on the bus to the airport, where we flew back from Basel to Dusseldorf. My flatmate Connor, who was gracious enough to drive us to the airport, also picked us up. I got home and went immediately to the Irish Pub in Nijmegen to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with my friends from ‘home.’ I could only handle about an hour so I went back to my flat fairly quickly to catch some much-needed rest. All in all, Switzerland is an incredible country, and Interlaken is probably the most beautiful place I will ever go.

A few neat things about Switzerland (all of which I learned on my trip):

• The water fountains on the street, which are intricately designed and quite pretty, have a smaller pool at the bottom for dogs to drink
• Swiss money is beautiful – it’s brightly colored and the people on it are famous artists, contrary to many currencies which display politicians (how boring!)
•  If you are caught riding your bike drunk, your drivers license can be revoked
• Past 10pm, in most Swiss cities, there are “quiet hours” until morning. Relatively loud noises can be a legitimate reason for someone to call the cops 
• Switzerland has over 1500 lakes, so at any point in Switzerland you are never more than ten miles from one of them!
• The average Swiss person consumes 23lbs of chocolate per year compared to the 11.7lbs eaten by Americans.