Switzerland

The trip from India to Switzerland was not a good one. They served us sandwiches on the plane before we went to sleep, and I think mine was slightly off. At any rate, a few hours later I developed food poisoning- every traveler's dream on an extended red-eye flight. Luckily, the man sitting on the aisle also didn't sleep well that night so he was awake to let me out as needed. Needless to say, my first day in Zurich wasn't quite what I expected. I made it to the hostel by 9:00 a.m., but check-in wasn't until 3:00 p.m. I didn't really feel well enough to go outside in the heat, so I hung out in the main room until noon, when the man at the front desk took pity on me and let me check in early. After a three hour nap, I went outside and laid by the lake for a while, then came back for another three hour nap. One more quick walk around to find food for the morning, then off to bed. Not my most exciting July 15th.

I felt much better the next day and had the whole day in Zurich to explore. I started with a free walking tour, where I learned the history of the city. There was a very powerful nunnery in Zurich, and the women controlled politics for two centuries. Eventually the men

figured out what was going on and the trade guilds formed, a power that is still alive in a "good ol' boy" network today. The city revolves around the lake and the river, where people were chatting in the cafes lining the shores. After the tour, I climbed the tower of one of the main churches to take pictures, then strolled around for a few hours. Zurich was a nice, beautiful city, but like most cities in the western world, there's not much to do on a sunny Thursday afternoon except sit in a restaurant or bar. There was shopping, but it was so incredibly expensive that I didn't go further than post cards. To give a perspective, you cannot get a meal at a restaurant (in that part of town) for less than $20. The only cheaper options are the grocery stores and the kebab places. The same was true in most of Switzerland, although this relaxed a bit in the south near Italy. After a late lunch, I went back to the hostel for my bags and was on the 5:30 p.m. train to Chur.

This train ride marked my entrance into the foothills of the Alps. There were not many mountains to see in Zurich, but this train rode through a valley as the hills gradually grew on either side of the train. We passed two large lakes, which were full of locals on the hot afternoon. I wanted to get off the train and jump in with them. I noticed a definitely lack of poverty in the countryside. There were hardly any apartment buildings, even! I started formulating the theory, which was never dis-proven, that the Swiss have fewer problems than any country I've ever visited. They all seem to have a lot of money and be happy with what they have. I was only there a week, but immigration was the only dissension that I sensed. It's not shocking that people want to move there. To all appearances, it is a beautiful, rich, and happy place. I walked to my hostel after I arrived in Chur, then left immediately to catch the last of the sunlight. I wandered around until I found a hill, which I climbed and sat on the

wall of a vineyard for half an hour or so to take in the view. What a picturesque little town! It lies at the end of a long valley, and is surrounded on three sides by tall mountains. I am so happy that I came in the summer to see the mountains when they were green. After taking some pictures, I found dinner and Swiss beer, then headed back to the hostel for bed.

Early the next morning, July 17th, I loaded onto one of my planned train rides, the Bernina Express. This would take me southward down the eastern part of Switzerland to Tirano, Italy, where I would catch a bus to Lugano, a Swiss town on the Italian border. This scenic route goes up and over the Alps, with a peak above 3000 meters (the same as the Tiger's Nest, if you read about Bhutan). It has the added advantage of panoramic train cars, which means that the windows are large and clean enough to take pictures. During this four hour train ride, we saw beautiful green hills turn into green and brown mountains. We also passed by glacier-fed lakes that are the unique color of teal-turquoise only found in mountain lakes. We even passed by a glacier or two! There were rivers and farms and trees and tunnels and bridges, as much as you could want. I also found out that most, if not all, of the same trip can be done on foot, mountain bike, motorcycle, or car. There were hikers and bicyclists on the trails running next to the train, and the roads looked perfect for a sunny motorcycle ride. Now I want to come back and walk it next time! After the train ride, we arrived in Tirano for a quick panini (half price of Switzerland), and transferred onto the bus to Lugano. This bus ran next to Lake Como and Lake Lugano, both surrounded by beautiful villas that I will buy when I'm a billionaire. I sat next to an elderly woman from Austria, who had a little English and loved trying to have a little conversation...between her frequent naps. My hostel was a short walk from the bus station, and I left soon after arriving to explore the town.

Lugano is a beautiful town on a large lake, and is nestled between two mountains- Mount Bré and Mount San Salvadore. The hostel was on a hill and I had to walk downwards for 10 minutes in order to reach the lake. When I got there, I found myself in the middle of the Long Lake Festival, Lugano's annual city celebration. This meant that there were all kinds of street performers each night, and the people stayed out late to socialize and observe. Arriving around 7 or 8, I found a carnival in process in the central square of the city. The show was much like a carnival you would see under the Big Top in the US, but the clowns are more deranged and weird than funny. It's kind of like the circus at Halloween. I stood watching and clapping along with the

crowd for about an hour. This is where I experienced my only pickpocketing of the trip. When the carnival was over, I checked my purse and found that almost all of my money had been taken. I had a small cross-body bag, but I was clapping along to the music instead of holding it, and someone took the opportunity to take my cash. It seemed strange to me that I could make it through all the very poor Asian counties without a problem- but have this happen in Switzerland, of all places. On the bright side, they were a kind pickpocket. They left me a few smaller bills, my camera, all my cards, and my passport. After reconciling myself to this reality, I got more money out of the ATM, went to dinner, then walked around the lake, watching the street performers and eating gelato. This seemed to be a national pastime in southern Switzerland- everyone was eating gelato all the time.

The next morning, I was awoken early by several people in my dorm room who were getting ready to go out. I found out that they were three grad students from the US, who were doing a summer internship in Geneva with the UN. It turned out that we had a common goal for the day- hike one of the two mountains around the lake to get the view, and I ended up joining their group to climb Mount Brè. We set off around 9 or 10, starting the ascent at 10:30 a.m. or so. The next two hours held a very long, stair-filled, sweaty climb to the restaurant at the top of the mountain. The last piece of the climb was a long, long staircase that reminded me of the Lord of the Rings. When we finally got to the top, the view was very nice- you could see mountains in all directions, and the little towns and lakes off Lake Lugano. I think I was less impressed at the time (my thoughts were focused on a shower), but in hindsight I think it was worth it. We took the tram down and stopped at a grocery store for a focaccia sandwich, which was excellent after the climb. After the climb back up to the hostel, we collapsed into the pool (a hostel with a pool!!) for the next three hours. It's was a funny feeling- traveling by myself for so long and then transitioning back into group decision making. I did not realize that I had gotten so used to being in charge. However, I didn't really care what we did, as long as we ate at some point, so it was nice to sit back and let someone else make the decisions. Pretty soon, we headed down in search of food, and each of us devoured a medium-sized pizza on our own. It had started to rain, so we searched for a dry bench, and eventually found one right by the lake with an excellent view. Here we sat for an hour or two, drinking a coupe bottles of wine talking about public policy, their careers, and their work with the UN. After that, we walked by some street performers and they headed up to bed. I stayed out for another hour or so, watching the performers and walking the lake.

The next day, Sunday July 19th, I needed to travel across Switzerland from Lugano in the south to Montreux (near Geneva) in the west. I said goodbye to my new friends, and packed up for the train. I had originally planned a one stop route through Milan, but was informed by the ticket lady that it was sold out. She then went above and beyond to price out various options for me, drawing out maps of stations and explaining transfers. I ended up needing to take four trains to get there, but it was easy thanks to her kindness. I was all for taking the scenic route, so I took off on my 5 hour adventure. At first it was mostly valley farmland, surrounded by mountains. The third train, however, was a very beautiful route through mountains going from south-central Switzerland into Italy. I kicked myself the whole time for choosing the right side of the train, as the view was off the left, but I had no other complaint. One more train, and you could see the mountains smoothing slightly as we travelled back into Switzerland and reached Lake Geneva, the largest lake in Europe. Montreux is situated on the far east side of the lake, and is much like

Lugano in that it has mountains surrounding the water. The town is very beautiful, and I spent the afternoon walking up and down the lake. There were people swimming and jumping in, as in the rest of Switzerland. There were also families of all ethnicities and backgrounds. It was interesting to watch this change as I crossed the country. There was less diversity in Zurich (mostly Germanic), but in Lugano I saw more mixed couples and some darker skin tones mixed in with the Italian-looking majority. In Montreux and Geneva, the diversity magnified to include a very visible Muslim population, a large black contingent, and mixed couples of every shape and size. Maybe I overestimated this diversity after so much time in Asia, where the population is nearly homogeneous, but it was striking at

the time. Anyway, I found dinner and people-watched as I waited for sunset. I even met a local car mechanic with some English, who told me a little about his life before I turned in for the night.

Another early morning on Monday, and I was headed out on the Chocolate Train! This was another feature train ride of my trip. Traditional Pullman train cars takes you over the mountain pass behind Montreux to the Callier chocolate factory, then to the old town of Gruyere and to a dairy where the cheese is made. When I boarded the train, I found that I would be sharing my car with a happy group of older German tourists. They were a nice group of grandmas and grandpas, who obviously enjoyed the old-fashioned train ride. One of the grandmas and I had a competition to see who could take more and better pictures of the lake as we climbed the mountains behind Montreux. I kept up with her for a while, but soon found that I had met my match as she leaned her entire torso out the window to get the right angle. We passed through a long tunnel into the mountains and valleys behind Montreux, which was truly beautiful country. The hills were all a lush green, and were dotted with fields and cows and little farm houses. They were missing some of the magnificence of the tall mountains I had traversed with the Bernina Express, but I thought they more than compensated with the sense of life and fertility that they gave off, at least in summer. The view from the second half of this train trip was my favorite in

Switzerland. We soon arrived in the town of Broc, which houses the Callier chocolate factory. This was a very well-done tourist attraction, which included a journey through the history of chocolate, starting with the Aztec empire and ending with a demonstration of Callier chocolate making. Each of us had our own audio guide, which was fortunate given the number of languages spoken by people on the train. The pamphlet for the chocolate train has at least six! At the end of the tour comes the tasting, where they have around 10 varieties to sample... Not a bad end to the tour! From there we emptied into the gift shop, where I bought enough to ensure that I would need a second carry-on for the trip home.

After the chocolate factory, they dropped us off in the ancient town of Gruyere, home of the cheese. This town is topped by the Gruyere Castle, which is set up as a museum. I started by getting a traditional Swiss dish called a rosti which is basically hash browns mixed with

ham and Gruyere and topped with a fried egg. It was very hearty and a little smelly, although it tasted pretty good. I think it would be very good in winter, especially if you had a slight cold. After lunch, I wandered up to the castle and spent an hour looking through the exhibits. Again, I thought they had done a good job of setting it up, and it was interesting to see the rooms as they would have been in the past. Better than the castle, however, was the view from the castle. This valley surrounded by mountains was my favorite viewpoint from the European part of my trip. After the tour, they took us down to a local factory that makes Gruyere where we tasted three samples aged 3, 6, and 9 months. The 9 month sample was the only kind that I thought was worth more than one bite. From here, it was back to the train and along the same tracks down to the Montreux.

I left right from the station for Geneva, which is an hour away. After

checking into my hostel (a private room, which was a huge luxury), I walked around to get my bearings and found my way down to the waterfront. Geneva stands on the extreme western point of Lake Geneva where it empties into the Rhone River. Like all the lakes and rivers I saw in Switzerland, the water was so clear that it seemed almost like drinking water. Looking over the bridge you could see all the way to the bottom of the river- such a change after Asia! I wandered into Old Town, where I stumbled upon St Peter's cathedral and a couple old-looking buildings. I eventually came back down the hill to find some sort of festival on the lake. There were food and bar stands set up and a rap/ rock band playing Latino music. It was a welcome change to hear Spanish after being surrounded by languages

I don't understand at all. During the past few days, people had spoken to me in German, Italian, and French, at which I just smiled and shook my head. After about an hour, I made my way back to the hostel and went to bed.

July 21st, the last full day of this trip, began with a visit to the Red Cross Museum in Geneva. After figuring out the bus system, I arrived around 10:00 to the museum. I learned something about the history of the Red Cross and some of the services that they provide during wartime. I also learned that they are also known as the Red Crescent, especially in the Middle East, where the cross can be seen as offensive or aggressive. I thought the most interesting part was learning how they connect prisoners of war with their families. They negotiate access to the prisoners, then bring in letters/ video chat from family members abroad. They also receive prisoner records from POW

camps, and family members have access to this information to see if a son/ husband has been reported as a POW. After the museum, I stopped by the UN headquarters to take a few pictures of the flags and the fountains. Finally, I wandered around until I found a restaurant that I liked the look of, and was defeated in battle by a calzone the size of my torso. I tried to walk it off by going down to the river, but it was so nice that I wound up drinking a beer by the water. From there, I went back to my room to chill and start packing. A few hours later, I went on a last walk around Geneva, exploring up and down the river and finding a nice park on the opposite side of the river from my hostel. Even though it was a Tuesday night, the park was full of locals there was hardly a patch of open grass to be had. I had pasta for my last meal, leaving the restaurant with only three Francs to my name. I walked back along the water and went back to my room to finish packing.

The next morning, I had a quick Skype session with my parents to organize my Mom picking me up in Seattle in 24 hours. It was a good thing that we chatted- she was off by a day! I checked out and took the train to the airport, eventually boarding my noon flight to Montreal. From there, I had to go through Canadian customs (for some reason), before continuing on to Toronto and eventually to Seattle. At 10:30 p.m. I arrived and my Mom picked me up to spend the night with an Aunt in Seattle before driving home. And so the adventure ended the same way it started- with a trip across the Cascades!