Switzerlanddd!

Switzlerand February 2-6^th

Where do I begin with Switzerland? I am going to say aside from arriving in Spain, the Switzerland trip has definitely been the highlight of my trip so far. The group consisted of me, Ben, Robert, Brett, Maggie, Caitlin Tori and Paige. The trip started 4 hours after we returned from Morocco haha we didn’t leave much time between the trips so we’re glad nothing was delayed on the good ‘ol Moroccan trip! We returned from Morocco around 6 I think and then left around 10 for the bus station where we would take a 5 hour bus ride (1:30 am- 6:30 am) to Madrid. Since we were all super tired the plan was to just “sleep on the bus”. Little did we know is that we were about to get on the bus companies oldest bus (or so it seemed) because it had NO leg-room! I am pretty sure I slept a total of 20 minutes on the 5 hour bus ride haha it kinda sucked. We made it to the bus station in Madrid around 6:30 or 7 and had to take the metro to the airport which took another 20 minutes about. Needless to say when we got to the airport we really had no idea where we were going… not to mention none of us had really slept soo we were all pretty confused and tired haha BUT we found where we needed to be!... I think our plane left around 10 or 11, so we had some time to waste. At first we were all sitting talking and that turned into camping out on the floor of the airport and sleeping haha It was kinda weird at first but when we woke up we weren’t the only ones on the floor… so we pretty much started a good trend haha.. Finally, we boarded our plane for Milan, Italy.

When we got to Italy we didn’t realize the train station was in a town about 45 minutes away, so we had to get a bus to the train station. When we got to the train station, we didn’t realize the train would be more expensive than the plane either haha we were all kind of freakin’ out about the price of the train, but we had to do it!... We had to wait around a while for the train in the train station and it was already dark the next day… we had been traveling for about 15 hours at this point and were allll ready to get to Switzerland already. The train took us to Spiez, Switzerland. This turned out to be the joke of the trip haha Maggie asked for a trip to “Spitz” Switzerland and we definitely didn’t let her forget that the rest of the trip! If something went wrong the rest of the trip or we just felt the need we would all say “AH SPITZ” hence the name of my photo album for this trip! Haha After a two and a half hour train ride to Spiez (sp?), we had to get on another half hour train ride to Interlaken! We all desperately wanted to be there already considering we had been now traveling for about 22 hours nonstop. When we arrived it was obviously dark because it was like 11 at night, so it took us a while to find our Hostel. The town was only a town of 6,000 people, so it was a nice change of pace considering we’re used to being in cities about the size of Des Moines.

We got to the hostel and it seemed like a good hostel.. not that I would have really known at the time haha but it ended up being perfect for us! They had a welcome shot ready for us haha (sorry mom and dad). After getting unpacked and everything we were all dead tired but hungry, so we walked around the town looking for a place to eat at 11 at night. Low and behold the only place open was a McDonalds which we hadn’t eaten since we left America. Lets just say.. aside from our meals being about 20 bucks each at a fricken McDonalds…. It was glorious! That night we just pretty much went to sleep.. for some reason after 22 hours of straight traveling we were all tired… haha

The next day we were just planning on hanging out around town and checking it out and everything, but when we woke up (around 10) the day was so nice. There was no way I was about to pass up a day of skiing when the weather was as perfect as it was. Around 11 the guys decided to go skiing that day, and the girls wanted to just shop around the town and everyone was happy haha. The guys took a train to Grindelwald, Switz. Where the skiing was. We had to walk through town to get to the train in Interlaken… we walked along a river and the water was the craziest turquoise color! It was soo clear. Interlaken means between lakes.. there are two lakes surrounding the town… the town itself was so perfect. Everything in the town was so clean, the people were really nice, the weather was perfect, the town was surrounded by mountains on all sides, and the lakes on each side had the bluest water I have ever seen! ( I want to live there haha) After the half hour train ride we got to the rental shop and got all suited up! The lift was a short bus ride away and we were skiing. All I have to say about the skiing is.. Amazing. The best skiing I have ever had probably…. It took Ben and I around 45 minutes to get down the first mountain, which was pretty sweet. I don’t really know what else to say about it. I hope that the pictures speak for themselves because the skiing was awesome. The slopes closed at 430, and we headed back to Interlaken.

We arrived back at Interlaken, and the girls made us spaghetti! It was so awesome! We all ate and drank some wine and whatnot in the kitchen. After dinner we all decided to walk around the town and see what we could find. We ended up at some bar that happened to have live music, so it was pretty fun. Robert made some friends, and after the bar we went to McDonalds again haha and that is where Robert was kidnapped. As he was leaving he told us, “Don’t worry guys… I’m becoming a man” haha We ended up looking and finding him later.. He was drinking with the Swiss army naturally haha This is also where Caitlin insisted on thanking them over and over for there services they do for “our” country. (Im not sure if she realizes she is from the United States and not Switzerland) haha It was pretty funny actually. We ended up callin’ it a night after that, but we left Robert with the Swiss army haha.

The next morning we woke up at like 630 am to head out and go skiing with everyone this time! We skied on a different mountain to switch things up! It was a lot of fun skiing with all of us… It snowed almost the entire time we skied which was pretty cool, and the weather really wasn’t that cold either! On our last run skiing (which took us about an hour and a half to get down because we messed around the entire way) there was a little uphill slope, and since Caitlin was on a snowboard she couldn’t get up.. sooo she grabbed my ski pole as I went by so that she could gain some momentum. It was all working pretty well except I wasn’t really looking and to my left was a River ravine. I managed to find that river ravine pretty quickly and I fell off the path into it hahaha… I just laid in it for a while laughing because there was really deep snow over the river so it wasn’t too big of a deal but it was funny! Finally, we made it back to Grindelwald where we returned all of our stuff and headed back to Interlaken.

We had round two for spaghetti that night and then made our way to another hostel where there was a bar and dance floor and everything. Reid actually came to the same town as us with some other Central people, so it was really fun hanging out with all of them! The next day it was time for us to leave, but the time spent in Switzerland was so much fun! I would recommend to anyone going there for a vacation or anything at all because it was great! Our travels back were very similar to our travels there (sleeping in the airport and all the same trains back). It was really good to get back into Granada where we felt like we were home. We took a weekend off from traveling and now next weekend (Feb 19) I’m heading to Paris to see my girlfriend Taylor for her birthday! I’m soo excited to see her!.. It has been over a month:s Next week I will have another blog up about Paris!