Switzerland = Heaven.

Oh my god. I cannot even begin to describe my amazing weekend. Switzerland is, hands-down, my favorite trip so far. Each day we were up at the crack of dawn and did amazing and wonderful things all day long and then fell asleep before 12 at night. Seriously, the most exhilerating experience of my life thus far.

Thursday night we took a sleeper train (from either Germany or somewhere in the Netherlands, I forget) to Switzerland. It was a tiny, tiny room with three bunks on either side, attatched to the wall. We were quite cramped, but we were only there for sleeping. It was fun, sleeping on a train. Then we woke up at 6 am and got on a bunch of other trains until we got to Gyron, where our hostel was. We arrived at around 3 I believe, due to train layovers and such. As soon as we got there we no sooner had put down our backpacks then our host told us to hop the train to get to the Paragliding place.

I had a few misconceptions about paragliding. At first, I got it confused with Hangliding, which is where you dangle beneath a big kite and jump off a cliff. Then I was told this adventure involved Parachutes, so I pictured it being a jump off a cliff, a free-fall, and then you pull the chord and float around. But really, it wasn't that insane. What you do is put on all your gear, strap yourself to a strange man, and you run around with the parachute deployed until it's in the air (like as if you're running trying to get a kite in the air) and then you run towards the edge of the cliff and before you're even close to it the parachute lifts you into the air. It was utterly amazing. So beautiful. I managed to snap a few pictures while I was in the air, before my camera batteries DIED on me. Ugh! For the rest of the trip it worked sporatically, obviously I forgot to pack spare batteries. But yeah, wow. It wasn't scary at all. It felt kind of like I was on a ride at an amusement park or something. Very comfortable, you just sit and float around. The instructor guides the parachute around for you. The only scary part was landing, because you have to swoop back and fourth and ease yourself down. But it was beautiful. An experience of a lifetime.

We didn't even go right back to the hostel. Our host picked us up (transportation was all included in the package) and drove us to the Thermal Baths and Spa. Of course, I'd forgotten my bathing suit, but one of the hostesses was my size and let me borrow hers--how accomodating! We had two and a half hours to explore. It was wonderful. The Thermal baths are these huge outdoor swimming pool type things with warm warm water. There's areas with jets so it's like a hot tub, and this whirlpool like thing in the middle you can float around in circles. Then there's saunas and steam rooms and even a medetation/aroma therapy room. We did it all. Shaunagh, Samantha and I even did the Turkish Bath, where you had to pretty much be naked (no worries, the one we went in was female-only). Truly a bonding experience, haha. It was so relaxing there. It makes me want to go back to the Thermal Baths in Arsen (ten minutes from Well) though I think they're significantly smaller.

When we finally got back to the hostel, Jules cooked us dinner. He didn't go paragliding with us, so he went to the grocery store and bought spaghetti, salad, and French bread to cook us dinner. It's funny, all the girls went to jump off a cliff and the boy stayed back and cooked dinner. Haha! It was so nice to have a home-cooked meal, and really sweet of Jules to make it for us. We ate , got fitted for our ski gear, and then fell right asleep, since we had to wake up at 5 the next morning.

So, 5 am we all roll out of bed, put on our gear, and rush to the van to get good seats. 15 of us packed into one van, plus ski/snowboard gear, with a crazy driver. Not that he was a bad driver, he just went quite fast. Luckily I got one of the seats towards the front. Since it was the pre-season, the nearby mountain didn't have snow on it yet. So, he took us two hours away, to the Matterhorn in Zermatt. The Matterhorn. That mountain on the Tolberone chocolate bars. There's a ride in Disneyland modeled after it. Yeah, that one. I skied in the Swiss alps. I don't think that registered in my brain, that I was about to ski in the SWISS ALPS, until we were at the base of the mountain staring up at the thing. We had to take a lift up to the ski place, then another lift up the mountain, and yet another one to actually ski. Shaunagh and I were beginners, so we waited while Matt (our Australian host) took the experienced skiers to the top of the mountain. We napped in the sun. Aparently, if you ski down one side of the mountain you end up in Italy, which is what Jenna did. It's right on the boarder. Then Matt came back and gave us a little ski lesson since the instructor we had signed up for couldn't make it... saved us some money though since Matt didn't charge us. We only went down the mountain twice, but they were long trails and we were exhausted. I discovered I ski much like I snowboard---very slowly and I never let go of the control. I probably should have risked falling some more, just so I wasn't going at a snail pace, but just the experience of sking in the Swiss Alps was enough for me to be completely satisfied.

Shaunagh, Samantha, and I then trekked back down the mountain and had lunch in the adorable little Swiss town at the bottom. We were excited that the Swiss Franc was 1:1 with the American dollar... however, lunch at McDonalds was 12 Francs for Chicken Nuggets, Salad, French fries, and a coke. Everything was very expensive there, despite the good exchange rate. I limited my souvinir shopping to a few postcards and a shotglass for my collection.

Then we drove the two hours back to the hostel where we ate the leftovers of the yummy dinner Jules made us the night before, and made a campfire outside under the stars. You could see them so clearly there, it was beautiful. Other travellers at the hostel came to the campfire and we all talked about our travels. There was a couple (?) who hung out with us for most of our stay, Andi and Jory. Andi was studying at Cambridge University in England through her school's study abroad program, and Jory was in the military and stationed near there. There were also two Aussie girls, Claire and Amanda, who were also first-time skiers, they had just graduated high school and were backpacking around Europe. Then there was Dire, Camille, and Maria, who were originally from a school in Texas, but were studying abroad in Italy. Their school has a program very similar to Kasteel Well. They live in an old Monestary in a tiny town outside of Florence and have long weekends to travel. It was cool meeting new people and sharing stories. We thought it was sooo late when we ended up going to bed, but it was only 10. We all fell asleep right away.

This morning we woke up again at 5, packed our things, and started the long journey back to the castle. It took us 12 hours to get back, hopping trains each time. We did get some sleep though, which was nice. Now I'm back at the castle, waiting to shower, and finishing up homework.

Switzerland is so beautiful. My favorite trip so far. I will return someday, hopefully again to the Chatlet Martin. I will never forget it.