Over the fall break I spent some time in the Villa (mostly watching movies and making another mask), but on Thursday I met up with Matt and his friend Nolan to take a little weekend trip up to Interlaken, Switzerland. I saw pictures of this area during the summer and told my mom "I HAVE to go there". Well, apparently Matt felt the same way! I was happy to plan the trip, but until I got there I had no idea how much of an impact it would really have.
We arrived on Friday morning after a restless night on the train and couldn't check into our hostel until 3 pm. It was rough, but we wanted to make the best of our 2 days. It was foggy and rainy so we couldn't see the mountains really, which made for a very eerie and exciting view actually. It was very spooky to only see the base of these humongous mountains among the almost Caribbean looking aqua blue lakes. We took the day to walk around and get to know the little city. We started out at the grocery store (it sounds weird, but its my favorite thing to do when I go to another country) where we discovered Vermicelles (It's this chestnut paste - sorta like marzipan - shaped like spaghetti on top of a cookie). We then got a great lunch at Steinbach (not sure how its spelled...) where we each got an authentic German/Swiss meal - think Goulash, barley soup, and sausage. It was perfect for a rainy day.
That night when we met up with two other people, Jenny and Aidan, I remember talking about how the houses high up on the mountains look like stars. It really is difficult to describe just how large these mountains are and how overwhelming it is to be, quite literally, surrounded by them.
Saturday morning this feeling really set in. It was the first time we could see the mountains fully. Fortunately it was a beautiful day. We decided to take a bus and then a cable car to get to one of the nearby peaks, the Niederhorn. It was breathtaking to even take the bus ride before got up to the peak.
A couple moments from that afternoon were really special and stick out in my mind. It was amazing to take the cable car up - on one side we couldn't see how high we were going, on the other side we had an increasingly more incredible view of the valley. Suddenly we spotted snow on the ground and we realized just how high we were going. When we got to the peak, we had to take quite a while to soak in the view before we had a delicious bread and cheese picnic lunch (Gruyere and Brie were especially cheap in Switzerland). There were these really funny black birds that surrounded us - and in a way I actually really jealous of them! They're able to fly over these valleys like it's no big deal. Not to sound corny or anything, but this view of the Alps was so beyond breathtaking and inspiring, I really couldn't describe it to anyone. The pictures don't do it justice. It actually made me think a lot about art and the philosophy readings we've been discussing at ADA.
Simply put, the whole place seemed to be out of a fairytale.
View from a Villa in Fiesole where Nolan's study abroad program is
At night
Base of the mountains on the foggy Friday
Rainy but beautiful Interlaken
A view of Interlaken - the Eiger, Jungfrau, and Monich are hidden by fog
Cool tower
See how beautiful the water is?!
Walking along the river on Friday evening
Cool fountain in front of the
Bönigen station
A little less foggy on Saturday morning
That's better!
