the land of chocolate, fondue and 17 dollar happy meals ;)

Super late to writing this but still wanted to share how my last little trip abroad went!! Most everyone in my program left on Sunday and since my family wasn't getting to Amsterdam until Wednesday I decided to take one more little trip while waiting for them to arrive!!! And after searching many different flight websites to see where I could get the best deal for the trip I decided to head to Switzerland for the weekend! My aunt had actually spent a lot of time over there so I called her to get some tips for the trip! She gave me loads of good advice and some must dos for my times there (thanks Aunt Kathleen!!) so I felt pretty set with my game plan before I left!!

I said bye to all my friends at Amsterdam central on Saturday evening and made my way to the airport for my flight! I had some free time while I was waiting at the gate to catch up with my family and we chattered excitedly about what we'd do the next week when they got there! It was nice to have a mintue to just catch up with them!

I arrived at the Zurich airport and loaded up google maps to get the train info I needed to get to my hostel and started heading to the trains! I got to the ticket counter only to realized that the ticket machines were only in another language and to also realize I had no idea what they speak in Switzerland. off to a solid start I know. After politely begging an old man at the station to help me buy my ticket I boarded my train to head to the hostel. (I'm actually 83% sure he got the wrong ticket due to the fact he went too show me which platform to get on and then went "oh no! ahhh you should be fine!!" before walking away). I quickly googled on the train to figure out what I needed to set my google translate on while I was here and if figured out they mostly spoke German in the area of Switzerland I was in. After a long trek up hill after getting off the train I made it to the hostel and settled in for the night.

Then next morning I ate breakfast in the hostel and decided to walk the hour long walk to the train station to meet up with a friend. I jammed to the sound of music while I was walking and resisted the urge to breakout into song and run up a hill the while walk (they escaped into Switzerland to don't try and tell me it was applicable).

Before finding everyone I the train station I had to find my way to the currency exchange because me being me withdrawal euros to be my food budget for the weekend, nit knowing that Switzerland uses Swiss Francs. You live and you learn! After getting money that actually worked I found my people at the train station and we boarded our train to take us to Rhine Falls.

the falls were so beautiful!! we spent some time just exploring them before settling in for lunch. After lunch we explored a little more before hopping back on the train to the city. Train rides in Switzerland are truly something else. The landscape is breathtaking all over the country, and trains are truly one of the best ways to see it all. I was actually really tried after all the traveling so after exploring the lake around my train station I headed back to my hostel for the night. The World Cup ended up being on when I got home so I watched a little in the lobby before heading up. #go #france #i #guess #i #wanted #croatia

The next morning I got up really early grabbed a tram card and headed to meet my tour across town. We drove through the Swiss alps and made stops in the towns of Lucerne and Intterlaken. This bus ride doesn't even seem really looking back. We passed small towns built around turquoise lakes surrounded by mountains capped in snow. It was absolutely breathtaking. We eventually arrived at the train station at the base of the mountain where we would begin our ascent. The journey up doesn't even seem real looking back the windows were rolled down and if you listened close enough you could here cow bells from all the cows that roamed the hills! The two hours I spent on the top of this mountain are definitely someone of the coolest of life. It was a complete winter wonderland and for a girl who has only ever seen Texas snow it was an out of this world experience.

My last day in Switzerland I decided to have a major splurged day and bought a ticket to go paragliding in Innterlaken. The best part of today was that I got to hop on a train again and watch as the scenery blurred by in the window. After meeting up with the guides we piled in a van and started are accent to the top of the mountain. When we reached the peak we hiked out to the edge where another group was already in action people were flying off the peak one after another and the sky was dotted with the bright colors of the sails. It was a little bit terrifying jumping off the edge of that mountain but the view was something I'll never forget. Definitely the coolest way to end an amazing summer.